St. Athanasius Bible Institute

2010-05-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: In baptism we have died with Christ, and we have risen to new life in him, because we believed in the power of God who raised him from the dead, alleluia. (Col 2: 12)

Loving Father, through our rebirth in baptism you give us your life and promise immortality. By your unceasing care, guide our steps toward the life of glory. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end, Amen. Alleluia.

St. Peter of Tarentaise (c. 1102-1174)

There are two men named St. Peter of Tarentaise who lived one century apart. The man we honour today is the younger Peter, born in France in the early part of the 12th century. (The other man with the same name became Pope Innocent the Fifth.) The Peter we’re focusing on became a Cistercian monk and eventually served as abbot. In 1142 he was named archbishop of Tarentaise, replacing a bishop who had been deposed because of corruption. Peter tackled his new assignment with vigour. He brought reform into his diocese, replaced lax clergy and reached out to the poor. He visited all parts of his mountainous diocese on a regular basis. After about a decade as bishop Peter “disappeared” for a year and lived quietly as a lay brother at an abbey in Switzerland. When he was “found out,” the reluctant bishop was persuaded to return to his post. He again focused many of his energies on the poor. Peter died in 1175 on his way home from an unsuccessful papal assignment to reconcile the kings of France and England.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (15.18~21)

Jesus said to His disciples, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than His Master.' If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent Me."

Suffering
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

Years ago an Australian politician remarked that “life was not meant to be easy.” Strangely, that observation drew down upon him the ridicule of sections of the press, as if what he said was itself strange. He was simply saying that life inevitably brings many difficulties. One of the difficulties of life is the opposition and criticism of others, and most people receive at least a certain share of this. This opposition and criticism can be fully justified, and it can be unjustified. Usually it is a mixture of both because however well-meaning and enlightened we may be, we are faulty and limited human beings. Those faults and limitations evoke our neighbour’s criticism and opposition, and those criticisms can cause suffering. There is often a dose of injustice in that opposition too, because while we may be faulty, our neighbour is also faulty. His faults and sins often drive his criticisms of our efforts and of our persons. In fact, sin can be and often is the major cause of the suffering inflicted on others. All this is to say that a large portion of the suffering that is man’s lot arises because of sin ― the sin within the suffering person and the sin within the one inflicting the suffering. A common human problem is bitterness, and I am convinced that the appreciation of our common fallen condition can help us forgive. Those who hurt us are also subject to a sinful condition, as are we. But now, while life was not meant to be easy, it is to be noticed that often in history it is particularly difficult for the one who is eminent in goodness. Personal faults and sins often cannot be regarded as the principal reason for the suffering inflicted on him by others. The paradigmatic instance of this is Jesus Christ, the sinless One. He was without sin, without fault because he was divine. Yet he was hated by those who mattered, and ignored and spurned by many others. He ended his short life ― all according to the divine plan, of course ― utterly rejected and nailed to a cross. It set a mysterious pattern, that those who follow him seriously, and in general the Church he founded, would share in his sufferings.

Of course, those who follow Jesus Christ are also faulty and limited human beings, and their faults, sins and limitations will attract the opposition and criticism of others. Just as Jesus Christ suffered, so will they. However, in their case personal sin will have a part to play in bringing down this suffering, in a way that was in no way the case of Jesus Christ. But that is not the whole story, for Christ’s sufferings do set a special pattern that must be expected to recur in the history of the Church. The Church will be made to suffer in a special sense, and in ways well beyond what is warranted. Saints will suffer greatly, and it will be due to the sinfulness and faults of those who inflict the suffering, just as was the case with Jesus Christ. Let us listen to what our Lord has to say on this. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me” (John 15:18-21). Just as the sinless Christ was accused and condemned for wrongdoing, eminent and holy members of his Church will be accused and condemned for wrongdoing. There will often be just enough of fault and limitation in these great disciples of Jesus Christ to convince their accusers that they are doing a good deed in condemning them, and to cloud their perception of the enormity of their unjust actions. They will think they are doing a meritorious deed, whereas they are perpetrating calumnies and harm to society and the Church. But the disciple of Jesus Christ suffers as Christ suffered, and his sufferings sanctify him and bring sanctification to the Church and to the world. Thus are the sufferings of Jesus Christ continued, and the work of redemption advances.

When, for instance, an outstanding and holy Pope is attacked repeatedly by the secular media and confusion and misinformation is spread as a result, the suffering he endures unites him to the crucified Christ. Just as Christ’s sufferings redeemed the world and brought the gift of sanctity to those who accept him, so the sufferings of his close disciple increases the reservoirs of grace. Christ suffers in him, and in the process sanctifies him and the Church. Let us not be dismayed at immense opposition, criticism and sufferings being at times heaped upon the Church and upon the Church’s chosen representatives. They walk in the footsteps of the Lord. It must be expected.

Second reflection Acts 16:1-10; John 15: 18-21

Listening to the Holy Spirit
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

At times in life we wonder why God allowed certain circumstances to have occurred in our life, circumstances that prevented us from doing the good we felt we should have been permitted to do. Perhaps those with authority over us prevented us from doing obvious good. As we look back on so many frustrations, we might ask, Why did not God allow us to achieve more good?

But consider how our Lord himself was frustrated in the course of his ministry. His heavenly Father permitted all kinds of opposition to stand in his way, right to Calvary. This seeming frustration was according to the plan of God. Or again, the Gospel describes how our Lord invited certain people to follow him ― physically. He allowed others to follow him uninvited, such as Bar Timaeus, the blind man whom he cured. But consider the man in the land of the Gerasenes whom he cured of devil-possession. The cured demoniac pleaded with our Lord to allow him to follow him, but our Lord would not permit him. He told him he was to return to his people and tell them all that God had done for him ― which he dutifully did. So our Lord prevented that man from doing what seemed to be the best thing (i.e., following him), and ordered him to do something different. We notice in the Acts of the Apostles 16:1-10, that when Paul and his companions travelled through Phrygia and Galatia they were "told by the Holy Spirit not to preach the word in Asia." Why did the Holy Spirit forbid them to do this very good thing? We are not told. Again, in the next sentence, "When they reached the frontier of Mysia they thought to cross it into Bithynia, but as the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them, they went through Mysia and came down to Troas." God may not want us to do what we think would be the better thing. But he does plan that we do good, and in the same passage in Acts, Paul has the vision of the Macedonian appealing to him to come. So as Luke says, "we lost no time in arranging a passage to Macedonia, convinced that God had called us to bring them the Good News."

Let us do the good which God in his providence means us to do, not the good we would like to do, even though it may seem to be much the better. The key is to learn to do what Paul and his companions did. They listened to the Holy Spirit.

Character

Get rid of those useless thoughts which are at best a waste of time.

(The Way, no. 13)

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MEDIATOR DEI

5. The majestic ceremonies of the sacrifice of the altar became better known, understood and appreciated. With more widespread and more frequent reception of the sacraments, with the beauty of the liturgical prayers more fully savored, the worship of the Eucharist came to be regarded for what it really is: the fountain-head of genuine Christian devotion. Bolder relief was given likewise to the fact that all the faithful make up a single and very compact body with Christ for its Head, and that the Christian community is in duty bound to participate in the liturgical rites according to their station.

2010-04-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: By your blood, O Lord, you have redeemed us from every tribe and tongue, from every nation and people: you have made us into the kingdom of God, alleluia. (Rv 5:9-10)

Father of our freedom and salvation, hear the prayers of those redeemed by your Son’s suffering. Through you may we have life; with you may we have eternal joy. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

St. Pius V (1504-1572)

This is the pope whose job was to implement the historic Council of Trent. If we think popes had difficulties in implementing Vatican Council II, Pius V had even greater problems after that historic council more than four centuries ago. During his papacy (1566-1572), Pius V was faced with the almost overwhelming responsibility of getting a shattered and scattered Church back on its feet. The family of God had been shaken by corruption, by the Reformation, by the constant threat of Turkish invasion and by the bloody bickering of the young nation-states. In 1545 a previous pope convened the Council of Trent in an attempt to deal with all these pressing problems. Off and on over 18 years, the Church Fathers discussed, condemned, affirmed and decided upon a course of action. The Council closed in 1563. Pius V was elected in 1566 and was charged with the task of implementing the sweeping reforms called for by the Council. He ordered the founding of seminaries for the proper training of priests. He published a new missal, a new breviary, a new catechism and established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) classes for the young. Pius zealously enforced legislation against abuses in the Church. He patiently served the sick and the poor by building hospitals, providing food for the hungry and giving money customarily used for the papal banquets to poor Roman converts. His decision to keep wearing his Dominican habit led to the custom of the pope wearing a white cassock. In striving to reform both Church and state, Pius encountered vehement opposition from England's Queen Elizabeth and the Roman Emperor Maximilian II. Problems in France and in the Netherlands also hindered Pius's hopes for a Europe united against the Turks. Only at the last minute was he able to organize a fleet which won a decisive victory in the Gulf of Lepanto, off Greece, on October 7, 1571. Pius's ceaseless papal quest for a renewal of the Church was grounded in his personal life as a Dominican friar. He spent long hours with his God in prayer, fasted rigorously, deprived himself of many customary papal luxuries and faithfully observed the spirit of the Dominican Rule that he had professed.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (14.1~6)

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:1-6)

The only way One of the greatest acquisitions of Western thought and culture has been the recognition of human rights. Power over others must not be regarded as simply a prize for the strongest, but as a gift to be put to the service of human beings who have rights. Our Lord said to Pontius Pilate that he would have no power over him at all, had it not been given to him from above. Power is a responsibility to be exercised in the service of man’s rights, and these are grounded in his dignity as a human being. “That is why,” our Lord continued, “the ones who handed me over to you bear the greater guilt.” A fundamental human right — indeed the most fundamental of all — is the right to seek and serve God according to one’s lights, provided the legitimate rights of others are not thereby disregarded. This recognition of the right to freedom of religious inquiry and practice has brought with it, though, a philosophical pitfall that is widespread in Western culture. It is the tendency to think that there is no religious error, or rather, that there is no objective truth in religion. While we readily grant the right of others to think and live as they please in religion, typically we take the next step of thinking that religious belief is purely subjective. It involves little grasp of objective reality, but is, rather, a reflection of personal preference or religious and cultural conditioning. This means that though the right to think as one pleases in religion is allowed, paradoxically the right to think that there is objective truth and error in religion is not allowed. This is deemed to be intolerant, and so it is considered intolerable. The positive gain of respect for human rights has in fact brought with it the tendency to think that objective truth in religion is a phantom or a matter of indifference. But of course, this position is irreconcilable with Christianity which makes firm claims about truth and error.

In his religions, man aims for contact with the Beyond, with the powers above who can help him. He aims at communion with what we might call the Ultimate — however this is imagined or conceived among the peoples. It would be impossible to enumerate or catalogue in their entirety the religions of man — although in the last century or more we have gone a long way in that direction. But what would the student of religions say of the claim of one of them that it is the only way to the Ultimate? When faced with the plethora of sincere attempts to seek God or the gods, the claim would seem to be preposterous and scarcely to be taken seriously. In fact, such a claim is rare because it is so obviously unreasonable. If anything, the tendency of the detached observer is, as mentioned above, to think that none of the religions of man attain the final reality of things. They satisfy and express his longings, and that is all. But ah! there is one great exception. In our Gospel today, Jesus of Nazareth makes a breathtaking claim about the religion of man. Christianity claims to have the means of attaining the Ultimate reality — and indeed, it is the only means. That means is Christ. It is extraordinary and seemingly preposterous, but so it is. In our Gospel today, our Lord calmly says that he is going to prepare us a place in his own Father’s House. He continues, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:1-6). He, Jesus Christ, is the way to the Father; he is the truth of the Father and he is the life of the Father. Seeing him, one sees the Father. Moreover, he is the only way, for no-one comes to the Father except through him. No one can reach God in truth and in fact but by means of Jesus Christ. So if the Buddhist, the Muslim, the man of traditional religion, or the atheist, attain to heaven, in fact this has only been through Jesus Christ. Christ has got him there.

This is a hard saying for the modern ear. But it in no way is disrespectful of other religions, nor does it set aside their great value. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. Through him all things were made. Therefore he is present in all of creation, be it interior or exterior to man. Even if a person fails to learn specifically of Jesus Christ or has little opportunity of taking him seriously, Christ’s presence in creation as the Word will afford him the means of a form of contact with him who is the way to the Father. Cardinal Newman called the conscience of man the “aboriginal vicar of Christ,” and there is a long tradition in English thought that considers nature to be the voice of God. There is a sense in which there is a universal revelation, but it will be more difficult. All of this is a further matter. Our point today is the unique character and role of Jesus Christ for all of mankind. In absolute terms, he is the only way to the Father. Let us choose him, then!

Second reflection for Friday of the fourth week of Eastertide (John 14:1-6)

Peace in trouble One of the widespread problems of our time is that of depression, even among the young, who are traditionally noted for their optimism and idealism. There are reports of a sharp increase among the young in the use of antidepressants. It is possible that people too readily allow themselves to sink into depression and emotional trouble. It is notable how often our Lord tells his disciples not to be troubled, not to be afraid. His directive is in the manner of a command. Inasmuch as he himself was at times troubled, and profoundly so, he obviously means that we are not to allow ourselves to be troubled as one who has nothing secure to rely on. Our Lord's peace and indomitable strength in the midst of trouble came from the thought of his Father and his Father's will.

At the Last Supper our Lord says to his disciples: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me" (John 14:1). So, even if we are depressed and are unable to overcome it, even if we cannot cope despite our genuine efforts, we are to trust in God still, and in Jesus. Jesus is our stay in times of trouble, Jesus and our homeland that is ahead of us. "I am going to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am, you may be too." Our final port is always in sight, because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We reach the Father through him (John 14:1-6). If we stay with him, we shall most certainly arrive.

Character

Let obstacles only make you bigger.The grace of our Lord will not be lacking: "inter medium monium pertransibunt aquae!" ~ "through the very midst of the mountains the waters shall pass."

What does it matter that you have to curtail your activity for the moment, if later, like a spring which has been compressed, you'll advance much farther than you ever dreamed?

(The Way, no. 12)

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MEDIATOR DEI
4. You are of course familiar with the fact, Venerable Brethren, that a remarkably widespread revival of scholarly interest in the sacred liturgy took place towards the end of the last century and has continued through the early years of this one. The movement owed its rise to commendable private initiative and more particularly to the zealous and persistent labor of several monasteries within the distinguished Order of Saint Benedict. Thus there developed in this field among many European nations, and in lands beyond the seas as well, a rivalry as welcome as it was productive of results. Indeed, the salutary fruits of this rivalry among the scholars were plain for all to see, both in the sphere of the sacred sciences, where the liturgical rites of the Western and Eastern Church were made the object of extensive research and profound study, and in the spiritual life of considerable numbers of individual Christians.

2010-04-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord; by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia. (Psalm 32: 5-6)

Almighty and ever-living God, give us new strength from the courage of Christ our shepherd, and lead us to join the saints in heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Pedro de San José Betancur (1626-1667)

Known as the "St. Francis of the Americas," Pedro de Betancur is the first saint to have worked and died in Guatemala. Pedro very much wanted to become a priest, but God had other plans for the young man born into a poor family on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Pedro was a shepherd until age 24, when he began to make his way to Guatemala, hoping to connect with a relative engaged in government service there. By the time he reached Havana, he was out of money. After working there to earn more, he got to Guatemala City the following year. When he arrived he was so destitute that he joined the bread line which the Franciscans had established. Soon, Pedro enrolled in the local Jesuit college in hopes of studying for the priesthood. No matter how hard he tried, however, he could not master the material; he withdrew from school. In 1655 he joined the Secular Franciscan Order. Three years later he opened a hospital for the convalescent poor; a shelter for the homeless and a school for the poor soon followed. Not wanting to neglect the rich of Guatemala City, Pedro began walking through their part of town ringing a bell and inviting them to repent. Other men came to share in Pedro's work. Out of this group came the Bethlehemite Congregation, which won papal approval after Pedro's death. A Bethlehemite sisters' community, similarly founded after Pedro's death, was inspired by his life of prayer and compassion. He is sometimes credited with originating the Christmas Eve posadas procession in which people representing Mary and Joseph seek a night's lodging from their neighbours. The custom soon spread to Mexico and other Central American countries. Pedro was beatified in 1980.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (10.27~30)

Jesus said to the Jews, "My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are One."

After the Fall
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

One of the most notable developments of the very recent period has been the rise of a world-wide concern for the environment. The nations have realized that man has spoiled much of the world’s natural habitat, and that his future resources and the beauty of his abode is under serious threat. This concern cannot but be good, and it is an excellent thing that we are now far more concerned to protect the world than merely to exploit it. Such a concern, though, ought be consistent, and should include a concern for deeper areas of destruction. I am referring to the deterioration of man’s moral environment which goes on from generation to generation in the life of society and in individuals. This is, strangely, of little concern for many persons. The natural world is real and concrete for them, and it is appalling to them that its beauty and its resources are being so profoundly spoiled. The moral world, though, is not very real and concrete because it is not visible and tactile. What is real is what is tangible. This is an assumption which has been developing for the last few centuries such that now it is a great philosophical question whether there is, for instance, a supernatural at all. The assumption just mentioned also affects our perception of the moral dimension of man. Our tendency is to regard it as secondary and somewhat subjective, whereas in fact it is primary, fundamental and absolutely objective. It is the moral life of man that affects everything for good or for ill, including the way he cherishes or despoils his physical environment. I make this observation to introduce the calamity that occurred right at the first appearance in history of man. He did something which had horrific effects, not on his physical environment but on his entire moral world. He was the child of God, coming from God’s hand and placed by him in what the inspired Scriptures call “a garden in Eden.” There “he placed the man he had formed,” together with “the woman.” But they rebelled. It was an earthquake of the moral world and left man’s moral life in ruins. His power to be good had gone.

The world has had experiences of earthquakes at the base of the sea that cause tidal waves that engulf populations. The first man and woman broke off their communion with God in which they had been placed, and chose a total rebellion. They wished to be gods in the sense of being independent of the one and only God, their Father. It brought on a vast tsunami of sin that inundated the moral world of all their descendants, affecting the physical world as well. But God did not abandon man to the power of death. Rather, he foretold in a mysterious way (Genesis 3:15) that evil would be conquered and that man would be lifted up after his fall. There was, at the beginning, a first proclamation of the Messiah and Redeemer. The future would see the salvation of God by the hand of the Messiah. So great would this salvation be that the original fall of man would be, in a sense, a “happy fault” because — as the Church sings in the Liturgy of the Easter Vigil — it gained for us so great a Redeemer. This is the context of our Gospel passage today in which Jesus Christ, the one and only Redeemer of man, speaks of saving his sheep. “Jesus said to the Jews, My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10: 27-30). He knows each of us. While Christ was preparing in the desert for his public ministry, Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the world “in a moment of time.” If the devil could do this, how easy it would have been for Christ to have seen before him, in numerous other “moments of time,” you and I. He knew each of us then, and knows us now. No-one can snatch us out of his hand, for he and the Father are one, the one and only God. Jesus Christ is the one who can clean up and restore the ruins of the moral world into which we are all born. The restoration begins at our baptism when we are born again in him. It is completed with our sanctification in him.

Let us often think of that from which we have been saved, while remembering that sin is still at the door, and, indeed, has a certain entrance. The battle is joined, but we are now with Christ and he has delivered the victory for those who choose never to leave his side. If we depart from him, who is there to save us? No one else would even claim to — except those who deny that sin is of much importance or reality anyway, and that the visible, the tactile, the concrete is all that really matters. But what really matters is the conquest of sin and the acquisition of holiness. Jesus Christ is the one who turns the tide. It is he, and he only, who can make us free. To him, then!

Character

Never reprimand anyone while you feel provoked over a fault that has been committed. Wait until the next day, or even longer. Then make your remonstrance calmly and with a purified intention. You'll gain more an affectionate word than you ever would from three hours of quarreling. Control your temper.

(The Way, no. 10)

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MEDIATOR DEI

2. But what is more, the Divine Redeemer has so willed it that the priestly life begun with the supplication and sacrifice of His mortal body should continue without intermission down the ages in His Mystical Body which is the Church. That is why He established a visible priesthood to offer everywhere the clean oblation (Cf. Mal.1:11) which would enable men from East to West, freed from the shackles of sin, to offer God that unconstrained and voluntary homage which their conscience dictates.

2010-04-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: In baptism we have died with Christ, and we have risen to new life in him, because we believed in the power of God who raised him from the dead, alleluia. (Col 2:12)

God our Father, by the waters of baptism you give new life to the faithful. May we not succumb to the influence of evil but remain true to your gift of life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen (1577-1622)

If a poor man needed some clothing, Fidelis would often give the man the clothes right off his back. Complete generosity to others characterized this saint's life. Born in 1577, Mark Rey (Fidelis was his religious name) became a lawyer who constantly upheld the causes of the poor and oppressed people. Nicknamed "the poor man's lawyer," Fidelis soon grew disgusted with the corruption and injustice he saw among his colleagues. He left his law career to become a priest, joining his brother George as a member of the Capuchin Order. His wealth was divided between needy seminarians and the poor. As a follower of Francis, Fidelis continued his devotion to the weak and needy. Once, during a severe epidemic in a city where he was guardian of a friary, Fidelis cared for and cured many sick soldiers. He was appointed head of a group of Capuchins sent to preach against the Calvinists and Zwinglians in Switzerland. Almost certain violence threatened. Those who observed the mission felt that success was more attributable to the prayer of Fidelis during the night than to his sermons and instructions. He was accused of opposing the peasants' national aspirations for independence from Austria. While he was preaching at Seewis, to which he had gone against the advice of his friends, a gun was fired at him, but he escaped unharmed. A Protestant offered to shelter Fidelis, but he declined, saying his life was in God's hands. On the road back, he was set upon by a group of armed men and killed. He was canonized in 1746. Fifteen years later, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, which was established in 1622, recognized him as its first martyr.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 6.60~69)

On hearing Jesus’ teaching, many of His disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray Him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no-one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled him." From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God."

The Word of Life
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

The Christian, and in particular the Catholic, precisely because of his gift of supernatural faith from his baptism, could have difficulty appreciating the impact of Christ’s singular teaching on his hearers at the time. We accept Christ as being not merely the greatest of the prophets, not merely the Prophet and Messiah foretold by the Scriptures, but the very Son of God, God from God who has become man. This fundamental wonder validates all other wonders announced by him. So we take in our stride, as it were, the various mysteries of our Faith — the danger being that we can fail to live our life in a manner truly based on these mysteries. It is worth the trouble to place ourselves in the scenes of the Gospels and imagine Jesus Christ setting forth his teaching. It was “bad enough,” as we might express it, for the Pharisees and religious leaders to have heard Jesus speaking of God as his own Father in a way that placed him on a par with God; it was “bad enough” to have heard him say repeatedly that he had actually come down from heaven where he was before; it was “bad enough” to have heard and seen him flouting their traditions and rulings on such matters as the manner of Sabbath observance; it was “bad enough” to have heard him state that he and the Father are one, and that before Moses ever was, I am — here in the Synagogue, though, he had the temerity to proclaim that his own flesh must be eaten and his own blood be drunk if people were to have life. This unprecedented teaching with nothing of its like in the prophets before him, divided his very disciples. Many left and returned to their homes, saying that Jesus of Nazareth was, in effect, impossible. We get the impression that there was a majority walk-out and Jesus was left with the Twelve — and, of course — many others. As a result of the proclamation of the doctrine of the Eucharist our Lord was left with a considerably diminished constituency, as some might say nowadays. It was, pundits would have called it, a political and marketing gaffe, and that he was finished from then on.

Our Lord saw this — for it is obvious from the Gospels that in intelligence he transcended all parties. The Eucharist was part of an ensemble of teachings about his own person which Christ gave, the acceptance of which was to be part and parcel of the following of him. He would give his own flesh to be eaten and his own blood to be drunk, and this would be the means whereby people would receive life eternal. To speak of the separation of the body and blood should have evoked in the mind of an observer the thought of a victim sacrificed. His words having this allusion, clearly he himself would be the victim. Did his hearers catch anything of this evocation, this allusion, this point? We are not informed. By eating of the sacrificed victim, a person shared in the effect of the sacrifice which was reconciliation and communion with God. A great sacrifice was coming, and Jesus would be the sacrifice. Clearly, too, only he could be the Priest. With it there would be a great communion in this sacrifice — and by participating in it they would share in his life, life eternal. Thus would the sin of the world be taken away and its blessings brought to those who believed in him and accepted his word. It was a breathtaking revelation and the only basis for accepting it could be that he, Jesus, had uttered it. But many of his disciples thought it was too much — it was “over the top,” impossible. But he had said it, and without any qualification, so if they were to continue following him this doctrine would be “all part of the package,” as one might say. So they left him — and so it has been in crisis moments in the history of the Church ever since. The doctrine of the Eucharist is the mystery of our faith and is one of the fundamental tests of belief and discipleship. Seeing so many of his disciples leave, our Lord turns to the Twelve and asks if they too planned to go. Peter — significantly for the future of the Church and Peter’s successors, answers. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:60-69).

I myself date the true turning away of Judas from this point. We do not know how well or poorly Judas had been growing in discipleship following his personal call. None of the disciples had been perfect in their discipleship, and Judas remains in the shadows as do others of the Twelve. But it is at this point, immediately after Simon Peter’s magnificent profession of faith and acceptance of Christ’s doctrine, that Christ refers to Judas as a devil. I suspect that Judas, in his heart, rejected the doctrine he had just heard, but chose to remain in our Lord’s company. His motives became profoundly compromised. Satan had a clear foothold among the Twelve, and in Judas had one of his own. How important is total acceptance of this doctrine!

Character

What you have just said, say it in another tone, without anger, and what you say will have more force...and above all, you won't offend God.

(The Way, no. 9)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MEDIATOR DEI

ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII
ON THE SACRED LITURGY
TO THE VENERABLE BRETHREN, THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES,
ARCHBISHOPS, BISHIOPS, AND OTHER ORDINARIES
IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE

Venerable Brethren,
Health and Apostolic Benediction.

Mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2.5) and High Priest who has gone before us into

heaven, Jesus the Son of God (Heb. 4.14) quite clearly had one aim in view when He undertook the mission of mercy which was to endow mankind with the rich blessings of supernatural grace. Sin had disturbed the right relationship between man and his Creator; the Son of God would restore it. The children of Adam were wretched heirs to the infection of original sin; He would bring them back to their heavenly Father, the primal source and final destiny of all things. For this reason He was not content, while He dwelt with us on earth, merely to give notice that redemption had begun, and to proclaim the long-awaited Kingdom of God, but gave Himself besides in prayer and sacrifice to the task of saving souls, even to the point of offering Himself, as He hung from the cross, a Victim unspotted unto God, to purify our conscience of dead works, to serve the living God. (Heb. 9.14) Thus happily were all men summoned back from the byways leading them down to ruin and disaster, to be set squarely once again upon the path that leads to God. Thanks to the shedding of the blood of the Immaculate Lamb, now each might set about the personal task of achieving his own sanctification, so rendering to God the glory due to Him.

2010-04-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: The Lamb who was slain is worthy to receive strength and divinity, wisdom and power and honour, alleluia. (Rv 5:12)

Father, by the love of your Spirit, may we who have experienced the grace of the Lord’s resurrection rise to the newness of life in joy. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

St. George

If Mary Magdalene was the victim of misunderstanding, George is the object of a vast amount of imagination. There is every reason to believe that he was a real martyr who suffered at Lydda in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. The Church adheres to his memory, but not to the legends surrounding his life. That he was willing to pay the supreme price to follow Christ is what the Church believes. And it is enough. The story of George's slaying the dragon, rescuing the king's daughter and converting Libya is a twelfth-century Italian fable. George was a favourite patron saint of crusaders, as well as of Eastern soldiers in earlier times. He is a patron saint of England, Portugal, Germany, Aragon, Catalonia, Genoa and Venice.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (6.52~59)

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is real food and My Blood is real drink. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood remains in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live for ever." He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

The Eucharist
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

The Oxford Movement of the third decade of nineteenth century England strove to defend intellectually the dogmatic character of Christianity against a growing liberalism that eschewed revealed dogma as rationally unsustainable. It insisted on the inviolable character of revealed dogma, and on the uniqueness of revealed religion. Revealed religion could not be reduced to what might be called the Natural Religion which is evidenced across the sweep of human history and society. However, this was not to say that the only form of divine revelation was the Judaeo-Christian Revelation — as recorded in the inspired Old and New Testaments. John Henry Newman firmly taught that there was a universal revelation, which is to say that the religions of man contained — together with their errors — certain tenets which in one way or another God had been revealing to the peoples. This universal revelation was not authenticated, but its presence could be judged by the yardstick of Judaeo-Christian Revelation which was authenticated. From the Christian perspective, this point could be granted in respect to, say, certain teachings of Islam on the One God and his absolute transcendence. There is no god but the One God of Abraham. I refer to this teaching, perfectly true as far as it goes, as an introduction to our Gospel today. There is no other god but the Lord and he dwells in light inaccessible. He is beyond. But if this is all that is said about God’s relationship with man and the world, then it stops far short of the fullness of his revelation. In fact it is open to the admission of numerous errors about him. For as it turns out, God is not simply beyond, above, high and utterly other. He is also unbelievably near and at one with us. He is God-with-us. He chose a people so as to prepare to make a home with both them and the world. And, breathtaking surprise! God the Son became one of us so as to be with us as our Brother. More still! The God who is our Brother bore on his shoulders the sins of each of us and died to set us free from them. He rose, returned to the right hand of his heavenly Father, and by their joint gift of the Spirit, brought each of us who are baptized into union with the three divine Persons.

God is thus revealed as a God who loves and serves. He kneels before his friends as represented in the Twelve, and washes their feet, going on from there to die for them. But especially amazing is his ongoing gift which is revealed in our Gospel passage today. “Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” Let us remember that our Lord’s unique words on this are uttered publicly. Were we to have had only the first three gospels (called the “synoptics” because of their likeness to one another), we may have thought that it was only in the privacy of the Last Supper that our Lord revealed the stunning gift of the Eucharist. But not so. It was revealed in the full light of day, publicly, in a synagogue — the synagogue of Capernaum. Our Lord did not even “tone it down” by explaining that the gift of his flesh as food would be in a sacramental mode. It was the starkest of statements. If they were to live, they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. The one who eats his flesh will be raised up by him at the last day. He is not speaking metaphorically, he insists. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink (John 6:52-59). Nothing like this had ever been said before, let alone publicly for it to be reported everywhere — and perhaps distorted and used by his enemies. It was a daring and unprecedented announcement and was, in fact, a fundamental teaching of the new revelation by Jesus Christ. God — the God of light inaccessible — was pouring himself out for man as their very food. He was not only before them as their Brother, but he was becoming much nearer still. He was, as their Brother and their God, making himself their very sustenance. They were to feed on him, and in this way they would live forever. It is an ultimate revelation of the love of God. God is utter love. How beautiful is God!

The Holy Eucharist, coming to us in the life and the ministry of the Church which is the mystical body of Christ, is our principal means of union with the God of all heights. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” Together with the doctrines of the triune God and the Incarnation, the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist is the most remarkable religious doctrine in the history of all religions. It is the mystery of faith, and it is, in the celebration of Holy Mass, the ongoing revelation of the love of God for man.

A second reflection for Friday of the third week of Eastertide (Acts 9.1~20)

Our Precious Vocation
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

Chesterton was a famous English lay convert of the early decades of the 20th century who became a great apologist for Catholicism. One of his written sayings was "How odd of God to choose the Jews." Apart from pointing to the special election by God of the Jews as his chosen people with a world mission, Chesterton's remark may be thought of as applicable to every vocation. Why me, and not others? Each of us is chosen by God in Christ “to be holy and full of love in his sight.” for reasons we do not know. Our vocation is precious and it is mysterious.

Consider the mysteriousness and the uniqueness of St Paul's vocation, as narrated in Acts 9:1-20. The Lord Jesus told Ananias that 'this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.' What sort of background did Paul have for this extraordinary calling? A seemingly poor one indeed, and scarcely to be compared with that of the Twelve. Yet he was Christ's chosen instrument. Why him? There is a great mystery here manifesting the inscrutable mercy of God and his loving power.

Each of us has a vocation, a calling that has its origins in eternity, before the world began. Each of us is the object of God's inscrutable mercy, his loving choice. Our vocation, whatever it be, is precious. Let us not squander it. Live it to the full, daily. Let us meditate at length on the calling of St Paul.

Character

Serenity. Why lose your temper if by losing it you offend God, you trouble your neighbour, you give yourself a bad time...and in the end you have to set things aright anyway?

(The Way, no 8)

2010-04-22T04:34:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Let us sing to the Lord, he has covered himself in glory! The Lord is my strength, and I praise him: he is the Saviour of my life, alleluia. (Ex 15. 1~2)

Father, in this holy season we come to know the full depth of your love. You have freed us from the darkness of error and sin. Help us to cling to your truths with fidelity. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Adalbert of Prague (956-97)

Opposition to the Good News of Jesus did not discourage Adalbert, who is now remembered with great honour in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Germany. Born to a noble family in Bohemia, he received part of his education from St. Adalbert of Magdeburg. At the age of 27 he was chosen as bishop of Prague. Those who resisted his program of clerical reform forced him into exile eight years later. In time, the people of Prague requested his return as their bishop. Within a short time, however, he was exiled again after excommunicating those who violated the right of sanctuary by dragging a woman accused of adultery from a church and murdering her. After a short ministry in Hungary, he went to preach the Good News to people living near the Baltic Sea. He and two companions were martyred by pagan priests in that region. Adalbert's body was immediately ransomed and buried in Gniezno cathedral (Poland). In the mid-11th century his relics were moved to St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (6.44~51)

Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise Him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me. No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. This bread is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

His Flesh
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

Our Lord had said prior to our passage today that the one who comes to him will never hunger, and the one who believes in him will never thirst. He has come from heaven as the One sent by the Father in order to give everlasting life to all who believe in him (John 6: 35-40). He is the One to whom they ought come in order to have life. They object to his exalted claims — they know him and they knew his parents. How can he say that he has come down from heaven? In his answer our Lord warns that they will not be able to come to him — no one will have the power to do so (oudeis dunatai elthein) — unless the Father should draw him. That is to say, a special grace is required to be able to come to Jesus and believe in him. The implication is that their murmuring at our Lord’s teaching is a sign that they are not sufficiently in a state of divine grace. We remember how the Angel Gabriel when coming into the presence of the Virgin Mary addressed her as being “full of grace.” The Lord was with her — meaning that the Father was with her. Now, what was the upshot of her union with God? It showed itself in her faith. Once she understood what was being asked of her, her reply was immediate: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word.” She was full of grace; the Lord was with her, and her response was one of obedient faith. She may be looked to as the pattern of what our Lord speaks of in our passage today: “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.” If we are looking to God; if we are listening to him with an obedient faith; if we are subject to the action and grace of God, we shall come to Jesus. A prior disposition of heart, an existing relationship with God, is therefore required if a person is to come to Jesus and receive from him the life eternal which is his gift. The niggardly and grumbling response to our Lord’s teaching about himself is a sign that they are not listening to the Father in their lives. Their negative response to the word of Jesus was a sign that they lacked true religion.

It soon becomes more evident that belief requires a grace and a disposition beyond the natural, because the revelation which now begins to be given is astonishing and absolutely unprecedented. Our Lord has spoken of himself as having been sent by the Father and as having come down from heaven. That he gave the impression of meaning this literally is shown by their response that this could not be, because they knew where he came from and also who his parents were. He compares himself with the manna that God had sent to give them food and life while in the desert. So our Lord repeats what he has said: “I am the bread of life.” Moreover, while their fathers had the manna to eat in the desert, they all died. The bread from heaven that is our Lord himself will bring life everlasting. “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever.” Whatever of the manna in the desert, this is magnificent bread, the bread of life indeed, an extraordinary gift from God. But there is more, for to refer to himself as “the bread of life” with an evocation of the memory of the manna in the desert is to use a slightly vague expression. Christ’s being “the bread of life” could have meant his teaching; it could have meant his never-to-be-forgotten example; or it could have meant his life-giving friendship. But no — it was all of these things of course, but over and above them all it meant something far more striking and, indeed, startling. The “bread” which had come down from heaven and which was the person of Jesus himself was his very flesh. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:44-51). So while their forefathers ate the manna in the desert and yet eventually died, from now on eternal life will be offered with the food that is Christ. That food is his flesh.

Nothing like this had ever been said by any prophet before him. It was utterly new — but of course with distant types of it and pointers to it in the religion, beliefs, and ritual of the Old Testament. No other prophet had claimed to be the bread from heaven that would give eternal life to the world, and that this bread would be his own flesh. Our Lord’s words must have been a sensation, and must have caused a tremendous stir. It was the mystery of mysteries connected with his person. In all of his mounting witness to his own person and teaching, this act of witness is perhaps the most signal. The true bread of heaven would be the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth. What on earth did he mean? His uncompromising explanation would follow.

Character

Don't have a "small town" outlook. Enlarge your heart until it becomes universal~"catholic."

Don't fly like a barnyard hen when you can soar like an eagle.
(The Way, no. 7)

2010-04-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Fill me with your praise and I will sing your glory; songs of joy will be on my lips, alleluia. (Ps 70:8, 23)

Merciful Lord, hear the prayers of your people. May we who have received your gift of faith share for ever in the new life of Christ. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Anselm (1033-1109)

Indifferent toward religion as a young man, Anselm became one of the Church's greatest theologians and leaders. He received the title "Father of Scholasticism" for his attempt to analyse and illumine the truths of faith through the aid of reason. At 15, Anselm wanted to enter a monastery, but was refused acceptance because of his father's opposition. Twelve years later, after careless disinterest in religion and years of worldly living, he finally fulfilled his desire to be a monk. He entered the monastery of Bec in Normandy, three years later was elected prior and 15 years later was unanimously chosen abbot. Considered an original and independent thinker, Anselm was admired for his patience, gentleness and teaching skill. Under his leadership, the abbey of Bec became a monastic school, influential in philosophical and theological studies. During these years, at the community's request, Anselm began publishing his theological works, comparable to those of St. Augustine. His best-known work is the book Cur Deus Homo ("Why God Became Man"). At 60, against his will, Anselm was appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 1093. His appointment was opposed at first by England's King William Rufus and later accepted. Rufus persistently refused to cooperate with efforts to reform the Church. Anselm finally went into voluntary exile until Rufus died in 1100. He was then recalled to England by Rufus's brother and successor, Henry I. Disagreeing fearlessly with Henry over the king's insistence on investing England's bishops, Anselm spent another three years in exile in Rome. His care and concern extended to the very poorest people; he opposed the slave trade. Anselm obtained from the national council at Westminster the passage of a resolution prohibiting the sale of human beings.
"No one will have any other desire in heaven than what God wills; and the desire of one will be the desire of all; and the desire of all and of each one will also be the desire of God" (St. Anselm, Letter 112).

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (6.35~40)

Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that 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 that 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 him up at the last day.

Come to Him!
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

The world seems to be marked by unending vicissitudes. Wars break out and reach their conclusion, civil strife erupts, earthquakes bring incalculable damage to life and property, numerous banks begin to fail as debtors across a nation default en masse, famine and disease strikes this or that country, and so the sorry tale goes on. In his great Apologia pro Vita Sua, written in 1864, John Henry Newman writes, “I look out of myself into the world of men, and there I see a sight which fills me with unspeakable distress. .... The sight of the world is nothing else than the prophet’s scroll, full of ‘lamentation, and mourning, and woe.’” Newman writes of the “aimless courses .... the greatness and littleness of man... the curtain hung over his futurity, the disappointments of life, the defeat of good, the success of evil, physical pain, mental anguish, the prevalence and intensity of sin, the pervading idolatries, the corruptions, the dreary hopeless irreligion, that condition of the whole race.. all this is a vision to dizzy and appal” (ch. V). It is, we might say, an unending struggle to keep “head above water.” There is just no simple solution to the suffering and evil of the world. There is no one key, no single formula that will “fix it” for man. Now this entire phenomena of a broken world constantly being sucked towards death and all that leads to death is but the manifestation and fruit of the deeper catastrophe of sin. We know the cause of the world’s broken condition because it has been revealed to us. It is due to sin, the sin of man at the very beginning. The flawed character of so much of human history merely shows the enormity of sin which is its original and ongoing cause. If the evils of the world are so extensive as to defy man’s efforts at a solution, what could possibly be said of a remedy being found for its very source which is sin? Ah! the Remedy has come, and whatever be the complexity of evil and suffering, together with the prospects for individuals and all of humanity together, in a very real sense the Remedy is remarkably simple. God has given the Remedy.

There is one thing which every man and woman is called to do in order to deal in ultimate terms with his or her condition and prospects. The ultimate answer is to come to Jesus in faith. At times a thought might come to us that it would have been so much easier to have seen Jesus and to have come to him in a directly physical sense. Now we cannot see him. We have to come to him in faith. But notice what our Lord says in our passage today, that “as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.” There were many who saw him and who did not believe. There was one who was called to live with him, to be with him constantly, to be his companion, to share actively in his mission, to receive some of his powers such as that of healing, and yet he not only left him but positively betrayed him. Having had the inestimable opportunity of seeing the Incarnate Son of God did not assure that a person would gain faith. The ultimate answer to man’s dubious situation so fraught with threat and sin is to come to Jesus in faith. The answer is simple, though very demanding in its consequences: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” The one who comes to Jesus in faith has received the grace to belong to Jesus, for our Lord says that “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” We are the Father’s gift to Jesus, and he will receive us into his friendship. Moreover, the divine plan is to care for us and to raise us to eternal life with him forever. “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 that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” Christ is determined not to lose any of us but to save us from all that could do us ultimate harm. He wishes each of us to live forever in him. “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 him up at the last day” (John 6:35-40).

As opposed to the tangle and mystery of the problems of life and the world, there is a simple Remedy. It is simple in its direction, but immense in its consequences. The way ahead, the Remedy to be applied, is to come to Jesus in faith and to give oneself to him. It is to act on the grace of faith and to resolve to belong to him. If we belong to Jesus and live out our lives according to this self-donation, then Jesus will care for us. He will not lose us. He will raise us up to be with him forever. The way ahead is clear — so let us take it, then

Second reflection for Wednesday of the third week of Eastertide

Trust in God
(Homily by Fr. E,J. Tyler)

In today’s gospel passage our Lord declares that it is the Father's will that he should lose nothing of what the Father had given to him (John 6: 39). This should be the source of a great sense of security: no circumstances need destroy or weaken that all-important relationship which we have been given with Christ. We see an instance of this played out in the first reading (Acts of the Apostles 8: 1-8). With Stephen stoned to death, Saul began a furious persecution of the infant Church, scattering the Christians from Jerusalem. But what was the upshot of this? The fleeing disciples went from place to place preaching the Good News. The persecution was the direct cause of more and more coming to know the Lord. Perhaps the greatest sequel of all was the conversion of Saul himself. In the midst of great tribulation the hand of the Lord was upon the Church. As Paul would write in one of his Letters, nothing can come between us and the love of God in Christ. So we should face adversity with trust in the power of God, determined to use the adversity to further the plan of God in our regard. As Pope John Paul II used repeatedly to say, Be not afraid!

Character

Turn your back on the deceiver when he whispers in your ear, "Why complicate your life?"

(The Way, no. 6)

2010-04-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: All you who fear God, both the great and the small, give praise to him! For his salvation and strength have come, the power of Christ, alleluia. (Rv 19:5; 12:10)

Father, you open the kingdom of heaven to those born again by water and the Spirit. Increase your gift of love in us. May all who have been freed from sins in baptism receive all that you have promised. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Conrad of Parzham (1818-1894)

Conrad spent most of his life as porter in Altoetting, Bavaria, letting people into the friary and indirectly encouraging them to let God into their lives. His parents, Bartholomew and Gertrude Birndorfer, lived near Parzham, Bavaria. In those days this region was recovering from the Napoleonic wars. A lover of solitary prayer and a peacemaker as a young man, Conrad joined the Capuchins as a brother. He made his profession in 1852 and was assigned to the friary in Altoetting. That city’s shrine to Mary was very popular; at the nearby Capuchin friary there was a lot of work for the porter, a job Conrad held for 41 years. At first some of the other friars were jealous that such a young friar held this important job. Conrad’s patience and holy life overcame their doubts. As porter he dealt with many people, obtaining many of the friary supplies and generously providing for the poor who came to the door. He treated them all with the courtesy Francis expected of his followers. Conrad’s helpfulness was sometimes unnerving. Once Father Vincent, seeking quiet to prepare a sermon, went up the belltower of the church. Conrad tracked him down when someone wanting to go to confession specifically requested Father Vincent. Conrad also developed a special rapport with the children of the area. He enthusiastically promoted the Seraphic Work of Charity, which aided neglected children. Conrad spent hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. He regularly asked the Blessed Mother to intercede for him and for the many people he included in his prayers. The ever-patient Conrad was canonized in 1934.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (6.30~35)
So they asked Jesus, "What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and He who believes in Me will never be thirsty."

The True Bread
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

If there is one thing which is obvious from a reading of the Old Testament it is the defining character of the Exodus events. The departure from Egypt, the years in the wilderness, and the entry into the Promised Land, profoundly shaped the religious outlook of the children of Israel. So marked is this memory as evidenced in the Old Testament Scriptures, that one cannot but be a little sceptical of the weight given by many to the current lack of archaeological evidence for the great events referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures. Where is the archaeological evidence, it is urged, for the event of the departure from Egypt, the long sojourn in the wilderness, the mass invasion by Israel of the land of Canaan — and for other supposed facts such as the career of David, Solomon, and so forth? While there is a present lack of that kind of evidence, there is the fact of the great memory by the chosen people, so manifest in their Scriptures. The nation was shaped by this memory, and our Lord himself, true God and true man, refers explicitly to these past historical events. In our very passage today he refers to Moses and to the manna he gave from heaven. I make these points simply to stress how much the Exodus events were a criterion of religious truth for the children of Israel. Our Gospel scene today (John 6:30-35) opens with the crowds making a demand of Jesus. He had told them that the work that God asked of them was to believe in him. To this they responded, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” In the desert, Moses fed the people with manna from heaven for their entire sojourn. You, Jesus of Nazareth, have multiplied the loaves and the fish, could you not do what Moses did, and feed us continually with bread from heaven? What sign will you do that we may see and believe you? Our Lord replies by pointing prophetically to what will be the true bread from heaven — his own person.

Though the manna which Israel received in the desert came from God in answer to the prayer of Moses, it was not heavenly food. It was earthly and served to sustain life on earth. It was a material substance which modern scholars have even attempted to identify. Some suggest it was the resin from the Tamarisk tree, others a form of plant lice, or the thalli of certain lichens, or Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, or a kosher species of locust, or the sap of certain succulent plants. The manna in the desert had the powers of material food — it was God’s miraculous gift of earthly food. Our Lord says that the true bread of God is heavenly. It does indeed come down from heaven and give life to the world. It is heavenly bread which gives life forever and to all mankind. The manna in the desert had none of these powers. This is a remarkable announcement which those who are fully familiar with the doctrine of the Eucharist may take too much for granted. Our Lord is heralding an extraordinary food for the journey. He is acting as a new Moses for the children of Israel, and for all of mankind. A new sustenance is coming for all. As Moses, by God’s power, provided earthly food for the journey of the children of Israel, so Jesus Christ will provide heavenly food for the journey of the whole world. It will be the true bread from heaven, the bread that manna prefigured. Manna was merely a pointer to the true bread from heaven that would take all of humanity to life in God and heaven. What is this heavenly food? “Sir, they said, from now on give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:30-35). Our Lord calmly and publicly makes a breathtaking claim which had no precedent in all of the Scriptures, and which placed himself far above all. He himself is the bread of life that God has sent from heaven. It is he himself who gives life to the whole world. He is the answer to true hunger and true thirst. If a person lives on him, his true hunger will be satisfied.

Our Lord is placing himself at the very centre of revealed religion. Never before had certain things been said that Jesus Christ was now saying. He is himself the heart and soul of true religion, and a person who lives on him and in him will possess a heavenly life that is far more than this terrestrial life. In order to live, in order to survive the journey through the wilderness of life, we must go to Jesus. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. He is the source of life, life here and life everlasting. He is speaking as God would speak. Let us then look on Jesus Christ as our all. If we truly possess him by our love and our faith, by our devout hearing of his word from the Church, and by our sincere reception of him in the Sacraments, life will be ours forever.

Character

Get used to saying No.

(The Way, no. 5)

2010-04-19T05:51:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: The Good Shepherd is risen! He who laid down his life for his sheep, who died for his flock, he is risen, alleluia.

God our Father, your light of truth guides us to the way of Christ. May all who follow him reject what is contrary’ to the gospel. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

Blessed Luchesio and Buonadonna (d.1260)

Luchesio and his wife Buonadonna wanted to follow St. Francis as a married couple. Thus they set in motion the Secular Franciscan Order.

Luchesio and Buonadonna lived in Poggibonzi where he was a greedy merchant. Meeting Francis—probably in 1213—changed his life. He began to perform many works of charity.

At first Buonadonna was not as enthusiastic about giving so much away as Luchesio was. One day after complaining that he was giving everything to strangers, Buonadonna answered the door only to find someone else needing help. Luchesio asked her to give the poor man some bread. She frowned but went to the pantry anyway. There she discovered more bread than had been there the last time she looked. She soon became as zealous for a poor and simple life as Luchesio was. They sold the business, farmed enough land to provide for their needs and distributed the rest to the poor.

In the 13th century some couples, by mutual consent and with the Church’s permission, separated so that the husband could join a monastery (or a group such as Francis began) and his wife could go to a cloister. Conrad of Piacenza and his wife did just that. This choice existed for childless couples or for those whose children had already grown up. Luchesio and Buonadonna wanted another alternative, a way of sharing in religious life, but outside the cloister.

To meet this desire, Francis set up the Secular Franciscan Order. Francis wrote a simple Rule for the Third Order (Secular Franciscans) at first; Pope Honorius III approved a more formally worded Rule in 1221.

The charity of Luchesio drew the poor to him, and, like many other saints, he and Buonadonna seemed never to lack the resources to help these people.

One day Luchesio was carrying a crippled man he had found on the road. A frivolous young man came up and asked, "What poor devil is that you are carrying there on your back?" "I am carrying my Lord Jesus Christ," responded Luchesio. The young man immediately begged Luchesio’s pardon.

Luchesio and Buonadonna both died on April 28, 1260. He was beatified in 1273. Local tradition referred to Buonadonna as "blessed" though the title was not given officially.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (6.22~29)

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realised that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with His disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realised that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval." Then they asked Him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent."

The Work of Works
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

One of the notable features of the modern university is its abundance and variety of degree programs. There is scarcely a field of human activity that cannot be studied at a university. It was not alway so. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century there was at Oxford, for instance, an overwhelming stress on Mathematics and the Greek and Latin Classics. An indicator of the change that was coming was the foundation of the professorship of political economy at Oxford in 1825, with Nassau William Senior being elected to fill the chair. At present, one of the most dominant disciplines at tertiary level is Economics, and this stands to reason because Economics is one of the most dominant interests of Western culture. Consider the space given to economic and commercial matters in the printed press and in television and radio news. This of itself is not to be regretted because of the fundamental importance of the material dimension to life. Man must live off his material resources, and so it is of immense importance that his material resources be harvested and adequately organized — and this is what Economics is all about. Famine, disease and material deprivation rage in various parts of the world, and the world has a responsibility to provide economic security for the family of man. We must get our economics right and for this reason the Church has an extensive theological teaching on the economic life of society. That having been said, our special danger is to look to economic security and wellbeing as the key to true security and happiness. If only we are economically healthy and secure, all will be well. If we are not, then whatever else we might have, it is all flawed. This viewpoint has always been the danger for man and society, but in the past it has not endangered the acceptance of religion. Societies have pursued economic progress, but have also endeavoured to be in favour with the gods — or God. Now in a secular culture, though, we tend to dispense with God and place our hopes in material and economic progress alone. We aspire for food that will not last.

This has always been a danger, and our Lord refers to it directly in our Gospel today. The day before he had worked a spectacular miracle, a “sign” of what was coming. He had fed thousands with a mere handful of food and had gathered up many baskets of the fragments remaining. He had shown that he could provide sustenance for the multitudes, but it was meant by him as a sign of the special heavenly sustenance he would bestow on the world. That food from heaven would be his own Self, his body given for the life of the world. All that the multitude took from it, though, was a great sign of coming material security. They would scarcely need to work, with Christ in their midst! The day had ended with their eating to their full, with delicious bread and fish (for we remember the delicious wine, changed from water at the wedding feast of Cana). But the next day they discovered that Jesus had gone and they hastened back to Capernaum and discovered him there. How did you get here, they asked him? Our Lord did not bother with an answer to that question. The only reason why they were looking for him, he replied, was because they had been satisfied materially. They had had their fill, and they wanted more of the same. Their following of him, their seeking after him, was for material purposes. They were not seeking the salvation of their souls. They were concerned only with the food that cannot last. “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” But then comes the central question of the passage: “Then they asked him, What must we do to do the works God requires?” That is to say, what is the central work that God asks of us? What is it that humanity must achieve most of all? It is not just to be religious — for, after all, most of humanity in its long history has been “religious.” What humanity must do more than anything is believe in the one whom God has sent. “Jesus answered, The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:22-29).

Just before he ascended into heaven, our Lord gave to his disciples — which is to say, to the Church — a solemn charge. It was to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the nations. This is the work of the Church, to believe in Jesus Christ and to bring mankind to that belief. This is the work par excellence of man, to believe in Jesus Christ. The religion of Jesus Christ is not just one religion among many — all of them representing man’s aspiration for the divine. Jesus Christ is the one sent by God to save fallen man and to bring him into union with the One for whom he longs. Our work in life is to be united in faith with Jesus Christ. Our fulfilment will be attained in this. All other activity — all other work we do — must be understood and pursued in the context of this primary work. So then, now I begin!

Character

Don't say, "That's the way I am - it's my character." It's your lack of character. Esto vir! - Be a man!

(The Way, no. 4)

2010-04-18T03:15:00.000-07:00

Prayers for today: Let all the earth cry out to God with joy; praise the glory of his name; proclaim his glorious praise, alleluia. (Psalm 65: 1-2)

God our Father, may we look forward with hope to our resurrection, for you have made us your sons and daughters, and restored the joy of our youth. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.

Blessed James Oldo (1364-1404)

James of Oldo was born in 1364, into a well-to-do family near Milan. He married a woman who, like him, appreciated the comforts that came with wealth. But an outbreak of plague drove James, his wife and their three children out of their home and into the countryside. Despite those precautions, two of his daughters died from the plague, James determined to use whatever time he had left to build up treasures in heaven and to build God’s realm on earth. He and his wife became Secular Franciscans. James gave up his old lifestyle and did penance for his sins. He cared for a sick priest, who taught him Latin. Upon the death of his wife, James himself became a priest. His house was transformed into a chapel where small groups of people, many of them fellow Secular Franciscans, came for prayer and support. James focused on caring for the sick and for prisoners of war. He died in 1404 after contracting a disease from one of his patients. James Oldo was beatified in 1933.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (21.1~19)
Afterwards Jesus appeared again to His disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?" "No," they answered. He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. Then they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught." Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask Him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to His disciples after He was raised from the dead. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love Me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time He said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then He said to him, "Follow me!"

The Resurrection
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

The Oxford Movement in the third decade of nineteenth century England was, among other things, an attempt to restore the authority and spiritual life of the Anglican Church. This was understood by its leaders as requiring a recovery of the Catholic ethos of the early Church, as interpreted theologically by the Caroline divines of the seventeenth century. All acknowledge that John Henry Newman was its driving intellectual leader, and the elements of his thought continue to be the object of widespread research. Now, Newman saw clearly that the foe of Christian faith in his time was Rationalism. The rationalism that Newman opposed insisted that the validity of Faith and its tenets must be judged by the requirements of so-called “Reason.” In effect, “Reason” meant the formal requirements of logic and demonstration, such that if the believer could not demonstrate his case according to the canons of scientific proof, his case could not stand. Newman opposed this notion of the reasonable as being unreal. It was not how human beings arrived at valid convictions. The human being becomes convinced of something not just because it can be “demonstrated,” but because of a host of factors that are usually impossible to put into syllogistic form. Perhaps the most important factor (among others) leading a person to be convinced of the truth of something is antecedent probability. A formal “demonstration” of the existence of God, which might satisfy the demands of formal logic, of itself and alone will not usually lead to personal conviction of its truth. Rather, what will be decisive will be the convergence of factors which, while in logic might be probabilities, amount in his judgment (i.e., according to his “reason”) to a certainty. Newman also said that in matters moral and religious, what a person perceives to be true will depend in large measure on his own moral state — the state of his heart, of his will. This in turn depends on his fidelity to duty. What I am highlighting in this reference to Newman here is the importance of antecedent probability in arriving at religious truth, and of the state of a person’s heart in what he expects to be the truth.

We have a beautiful Gospel scene before us today John 21:1-19, the scene of the risen Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. There he is as dawn is breaking, a lone figure whom the disciples see from their boat. He is soon recognized by the beloved disciple, but this recognition followed on their encounter with the risen Jesus back in Jerusalem on the day of his resurrection. Our scene today invites us to recall the frame of mind of our Lord’s closest disciples, his Apostles no less, following his terrible death and hasty burial on the Friday afternoon. A great gloom enveloped them and during the entire Sabbath day that followed, a great darkness covered their souls. It was well represented by the two forlorn disciples leaving Jerusalem for Emmaus on the Sunday morning. They were joined by the risen Jesus, but failed to recognize him. The striking thing about the entire group of disciples — with the exception, we may be sure, of Christ’s own mother — was their conviction that his death was the end. They did not have the slightest sense of the probability of his rising from the dead. He had spoken of this explicitly. He had foretold his rejection, his condemnation, his passion, his death — and had even foretold how he would die. It would be by crucifixion. But he had repeatedly said he would also rise — and had specified that it would be on the third day. Nevertheless, they had no sense even of its probability, let alone of its certainty. They utterly lacked what Newman says is the principal factor leading to conviction in matters of real life; a sense of its antecedent probability. Not only did they not expect it, but they expected the opposite. Because of this they did not accept the various reports coming from reliable witnesses on the day of his resurrection. They regarded it as overwhelmingly improbable, despite all they had seen and known of Jesus Christ and of what he had predicted. Thomas even refused to accept the joint witness of the other Apostles. Why did they regard it as so improbable? Our Lord made it clear to them that it was due to the hardness of their hearts.

As I mentioned earlier, Newman also taught that in matters moral and religious, what a person accepts as likely will depend on his moral state. Religious conviction — or faith — does not just depend on so-called “Reason.” It depends on the state of our hearts, for this will shape what we consider to be probable. In turn, our sense of what is probable will shape our response to those many things that point to the truth of something. It was because of the state of their hearts that the Apostles did not accept the news of the resurrection — in other words, the good news of the Gospel. They regarded it as totally improbable. It was only when the Fact of it was presented before their eyes that they became convinced. Let us ask our Lord to pour his grace into our hearts and make of them good soil for the great truth of the resurrection.

Character

Maturity. Stop making faces and acting like a child! Your bearing ought to reflect the peace and order in your soul.

(The Way, no. 3)

2010-04-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: You are a people God claims as his own, to praise him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light, alleluia. (1 Pet 2:9)

God our Father, look upon us with love, you redeem us and make us your children in Christ. Give us true freedom and bring us to the inheritance you promised. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Benedict Joseph Labre (d. 1783)

Benedict Joseph Labre was truly eccentric, one of God's special little ones. Born in France and the eldest of 18 children, he studied under his uncle, a parish priest. Because of poor health and a lack of suitable academic preparation he was unsuccessful in his attempts to enter the religious life. Then, at 16 years of age, a profound change took place. Benedict lost his desire to study and gave up all thoughts of the priesthood, much to the consternation of his relatives. He became a pilgrim, travelling from one great shrine to another, living off alms. He wore the rags of a beggar and shared his food with the poor. Filled with the love of God and neighbour, Benedict had special devotion to the Blessed Mother and to the Blessed Sacrament. In Rome, where he lived in the Colosseum for a time, he was called "the poor man of the Forty Hours Devotion" and "the beggar of Rome." The people accepted his ragged appearance better than he did. His excuse to himself was that "our comfort is not in this world." On the last day of his life, April 16, 1783, Benedict Joseph dragged himself to a church in Rome and prayed there for two hours before he collapsed, dying peacefully in a nearby house. Immediately after his death the people proclaimed him a saint. He was officially proclaimed a saint by Pope Leo XIII at canonization ceremonies in 1883.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (6.16~21)

When evening came the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, got into a boat and went across for Capharnaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come back to them. A strong wind blew and the sea began to stir. They had rowed some twenty five or thirty furlongs when they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching the boat. They were afraid, but He said to them: "It is I. Do not fear." Then they took Him on board willingly enough and very soon the boat reached the shore to which they were going.

The New Moses
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

Our passage today is from the Gospel of St John, and one of the many connections this Gospel makes is that between Jesus Christ and Moses. At the outset of the Gospel, in its very prologue, Christ is compared with two prophets before him: John the Baptist and Moses. John the Baptist “was not the Light; he was sent to bear witness to the Light.” It is Jesus Christ who “is the true Light” (1:8-9). Through Moses “the law was given to us; through Jesus Christ grace came to us, and truth” (1:17). The hint is that Jesus Christ is a new and much greater Moses. In the sixth chapter of the Gospel, Christ gives a great “sign” that led the people present to identify him as “the Prophet who is to come into the world.” The Scriptures had pronounced that there had never been a prophet equal to Moses, and Moses himself had spoken of the Prophet who would come. They were to listen to him — suggesting that he would be a greater Prophet than Moses. The “sign” (6:14) that Christ had given of feeding the multitudes on the other side of the Sea of Tiberius away from their homes (perhaps suggesting “the wilderness”), surely conjured up the memory of Moses at the head of his people in the wilderness. Moses had appealed to God and God had sent manna from heaven. Here was a new Moses — “the Prophet,” no less. This “sign” given, our Lord presumably directs his disciples to make their way back across the Lake to Capernaum, which they proceeded to do. Evening had come, and perhaps our Lord was busy still in the ministry of the day or had withdrawn to pray. He indicated to them that he would follow, which they interpreted to mean that he would follow them in one of the other boats. So they set off across the water, and “it was already dark, but Jesus had not come to them” (6:17). Imagine the scene — “the sea was rising, because a strong wind was blowing” (6:18). Long before, the children of Israel had passed across the Red Sea with Moses at their head. The disciples are in difficulty and there before them is Jesus “walking on the sea, and drawing near to the boat” (6:19).

Moses had been the great liberator raised up by God to bring the children of Israel out of slavery to the Promised Land. He had been the redeemer of the people from the thraldom of Egypt. He had led them across the Red Sea into the wilderness, and there, as a result of his prayer to God, the people had been fed daily with manna from heaven. Thus they eventually passed through the desert into the land given by God to their forefathers and promised to them through the mouth of Moses. A new and much greater Moses has now come. There is no difficulty he cannot save us from. Whatever be the storms that beat about our craft — the craft of our own individual lives, or the craft of the Church — our Moses is always near at hand. Many times in the course of history the Church has been subjected to appalling vicissitudes. Let us think of the three centuries — three centuries! — following the death and resurrection of Christ and his command to make disciples of all the nations. There were centuries of repeated and ruthless persecutions. Then finally a springtime arrived, and it was shown that Christ had been with them on the turbulent Sea. He had been repeating to them all along, Do not be afraid. It is I! I am with you. These words of Christ to his disciples are themselves very evocative. They mirror the words of Yahweh God speaking to Moses from the Burning Bush. Moses had asked for his name so as to tell the people which God (among the various gods) had sent him. The answer was given: I am — I am who I am! Let us remember that Jesus Christ was and is the Word made flesh. Those stunning words had come from the one God, who would be revealed to be triune. That is to say, they had come from the Word, who now was flesh. Here on the turbulent water he utters them again to his disciples and through them to his Church down through the ages in the midst of their recurring vicissitudes. I am, and I am with you in the midst of everything, come what may. Significantly, when the disciples heard him they willingly received him on board, and “soon” they reached the shore.

Not only does God’s chosen people have a new liberator, a new Moses, but all of mankind does. God has sent his Son to lead his people across the sea of life and sin into the Promised Land of life in God. The new Moses is Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and now with his people as they bring this good news to all the nations. The nations have a new vocation: it is to be disciples of Jesus Christ, through whom have come grace and truth. He is always near, and he is our Saviour. Let us always hear his words, uttered once to Moses, repeated to his disciples, and passed on to us: “It is I! Do not be afraid!” (John 6:16-21)

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Character

May your behaviour and your conversation be such that everyone who sees or hears you can say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ.
(The Way, no. 2)

2010-04-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: By your blood, O Lord, you have redeemed us from every tribe and tongue, from every nation and people: you have made us into the kingdom of God, alleluia. (Rv 5:9-10)

Father, in your plan of salvation your Son Jesus Christ accepted the cross and freed us from the power of the enemy. May we come to share the glory of his resurrection, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879)

Bernadette Soubirous was born in 1844, the first child of an extremely poor miller in the town of Lourdes in southern France. The family was living in the basement of a dilapidated building when on February 11,1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette in a cave above the banks of the Gave River near Lourdes. Bernadette, 14 years old, was known as a virtuous girl though a dull student who had not even made her first Holy Communion. In poor health, she had suffered from asthma from an early age. There were 18 appearances in all, the final one occurring on the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, July 16. Although Bernadette's initial reports provoked skepticism, her daily visions of "the Lady" brought great crowds of the curious. The Lady, Bernadette explained, had instructed her to have a chapel built on the spot of the visions. There the people were to come to wash in and drink of the water of the spring that had welled up from the very spot where Bernadette had been instructed to dig. According to Bernadette, the Lady of her visions was a girl of 16 or 17 who wore a white robe with a blue sash. Yellow roses covered her feet, a large rosary was on her right arm. In the vision on March 25 she told Bernadette, "I am the Immaculate Conception." It was only when the words were explained to her that Bernadette came to realize who the Lady was. Few visions have ever undergone the scrutiny that these appearances of the Immaculate Virgin were subject to. Lourdes became one of the most popular Marian shrines in the world, attracting millions of visitors. Miracles were reported at the shrine and in the waters of the spring. After thorough investigation Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862. During her life Bernadette suffered much. She was hounded by the public as well as by civic officials until at last she was protected in a convent of nuns. Five years later she petitioned to enter the sisters of Notre Dame. After a period of illness she was able to make the journey from Lourdes and enter the novitiate. But within four months of her arrival she was given the last rites of the Church and allowed to profess her vows. She recovered enough to become infirmarian and then sacristan, but chronic health problems persisted. She died on April 16, 1879, at the age of 35. She was canonized in 1933.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ accoprding to Saint John (6.1~15)

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming towards him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a little! Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many? Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, He said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.

The Loaves
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

In the Gospel of St John our Lord is presented as going back and forth between Galilee and Jerusalem in Judea. He comes from Galilee to Judea for the baptism of John and to begin his public ministry. He returns to Galilee where he changes the water into wine at Cana. Then “after not many days” at Capernaum, he “went up to Jerusalem.” There he cleanses the Temple, gives his discourse to Nicodemus and sojourns in the environs in Judea. Then he leaves for Galilee, passing through Samaria where he converts the woman at Sychar, together with many of her townspeople. Back again in Galilee where he cured the nobleman’s son, he returns to Jerusalem for “a feast of the Jews.” Then we notice — in the chapter from which our passage today is drawn — that he is back in Galilee again, where he works the miracle of the loaves for the five thousand men. Despite the danger, he returns to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles and teaches in the temple. There he encounters his enemies, disputes with them, teaching and healing. An attempt is even made to stone him. It is mentioned that he is in Jerusalem for the Feast of the Dedication — so possibly he has stayed from the Feast of Tabernacles to the Feast of the Dedication. He escapes an attempt to arrest him, going “beyond Jordan.” Then he returns to Bethany where he raises Lazarus, and then enters the City for his final redemptive act. Of course, no one would maintain that St John is meaning to present this sequence of events as exactly reflecting all historical details. It is a broad picture made up of significant “signs” and teachings. The feature I am drawing attention to here is the frequent reference to Jerusalem, its feasts and its Temple. These made up the centre of the religion of the chosen people and our Lord is portrayed as acknowledging this by his actions. The point is, I suggest, that many of the “signs” Christ works show that all of this will be transformed in the new dispensation. There will be a new centre, a new temple, new feasts, a new sacrifice and Jesus Christ himself will be its heart and soul.

We are surely alerted to this in our Lord’s first public intervention in Jerusalem, as presented by St John. It occurs in the second chapter, “and the Passover of the Jews was near at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” Christ cleanses the Temple and points to himself — to his body — as the new Temple. After the Temple — his body — is destroyed, he will raise it up in three days. Inasmuch as this announcement occurs near the feast of the Passover, and inasmuch as Christ’s death itself would be a new Passover, we are reminded not only of the new Temple but also of the new Passover of his death that is coming. There will not only be a new Temple, but a new Passover, because there will be a new liberation from slavery. All of this brings us to our Gospel passage today. We notice that just as this first public manifestation of Christ in the Temple (John 2:13-25) was introduced by the circumstance that “the Passover of the Jews was at hand,” so the event portrayed in today’s Gospel (John 6:1-15) is also introduced by the same circumstance, expressed even in a very similar Greek wording. The Passover of the Jews was near at hand. Our Gospel event today then, also points to a coming transformation of the meaning of the Passover. Christ proceeds to feed the multitudes with a mere handful of food — just as the feast of the Passover is nigh. We remember the children of Israel being led out of slavery into the wilderness on their sojourn to the Promised Land. On the way they were fed from Heaven with manna sent by God. A new liberation is now coming, a new Passover, a new departure from the land of slavery in sin to the Promised Land of life in God. For the journey a new manna would be given, the true bread from heaven. That heavenly Bread is the body of Christ. He is our life. In the former event, the new Temple will be the body of Christ, risen from the dead. In the present event, the new manna will be the body of Christ, risen from the dead. Christ is destined to be man’s true life, his all, his means of life in God and his means of contact with God. The new religion revealed by God consists in union with Christ who is our Temple and our means of communion with the Father.

The miracle done, the people recognized that Christ was the promised Prophet, and the promised King — the Messiah. But they had entirely mistaken notions of the Prophet and the Messiah. They thought he would bring a new temporal liberation, of the same order only greater than that delivered by Moses. But no. Jesus Christ the Son of God had come to liberate the world from sin. He would do this by the sacrifice of his body as a victim on the Cross. The sacrificed Jesus is the ever-present sacrifice of the new people. He is its new Temple, and is its new and constant heavenly food for the journey to the Promised Land. We are speaking of the Holy Eucharist, the summit and source of revealed religion and of our entire Christian life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Character

Don't let your life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and of your love.

With your apostolic life wipe out the slimy and filthy mark left by the impure sowers of hatred. And light up all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ that you carry in your heart.

(The Way,1)

2010-04-15T05:28:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: When you walked at the head of your people, O God, and lived with them on their journey, the earth shook at your presence, and the skies poured forth their rain, alleluia. (See Ps 67:8-9, 20)

God of mercy, may the Easter mystery we celebrate be effective throughout our lives. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

Blessed Caesar de Bus (1544-1607)

Like so many of us, Caesar de Bus struggled with the decision about what to do with his life. After completing his Jesuit education he had difficulty settling between a military and a literary career. He wrote some plays but ultimately settled for life in the army and at court. For a time life was going rather smoothly for the engaging, well-to-do young Frenchman. He was confident he had made the right choice. That was until he saw firsthand the realities of battle, including the St. Bartholomew's Day massacres of French Protestants in 1572. He fell seriously ill and found himself reviewing his priorities, including his spiritual life. By the time he had recovered Caesar had resolved to become a priest. Following his ordination in 1582, he undertook special pastoral work: teaching the catechism to ordinary people living in neglected, rural, out-of-the-way places. His efforts were badly needed and well received. Working with his cousin, Caesar developed a program of family catechesis. The goal — to ward off heresy among the people — met the approval of local bishops. Out of these efforts grew a new religious congregation: the Fathers of Christian Doctrine. One of Caesar's works, Instructions for the Family on the Four Parts of the Roman Catechism, was published 60 years after his death. He was beatified in 1975.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John(3.31~36)

The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no-one accepts his testimony. The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.

Wrath
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

During the third decade of the nineteenth century in England, the Oxford Movement was rapidly developing. It was spearheaded by a small group of Oxford dons at the centre of which was John Henry Newman — but he was one of a tight group of high-minded friends. From their pens flowed published tracts, books, sermons and reviews. They aimed at a spiritual renewal of the Anglican Church, understood by them as involving a revival of the catholic ethos of the Caroline divines of the seventeenth century — which itself referred back to the Church of the Fathers. It was a catholic revival, and its final upshot was the passing over of its leader and certain others to communion with the Church of Rome. At one point in the Movement — it was during the 1830s — Newman received a visit from some members of Cambridge University, and the subject of the liberalism of certain Cambridge men came up. He observed that what they needed in their religion was a lot more fear. They needed to be more fearful of God. The fear of God was a theme which Newman returned to at various times in his famous sermons. He claimed that modern man too often looks on God as absolutely benevolent, even in respect to sin. The modern image of God is such that we do not fear him, and in fact we take little notice of him. There is a corollary to this. It is that modern man shows relatively little concern for personal and public “sin,” and yet he becomes profoundly incensed at personal and public immorality. Consider the proportion of space given to news of unethical, immoral behaviour of individuals and institutions, and to ethical failures in government or public persons. Such failures are roundly condemned (as often they should be), illustrating the objective reality of the moral realm. People fear being exposed as immoral for this will involve the wrath of society. But they have few apprehensions in respect to “sin,” because this involves merely the supposed wrath of God. The modern media will not accuse a person of being “sinful,” only immoral or unethical. What is behind this is the absence of God. While the wrath of society is feared, the wrath of God is not.

This is to say that one of the most obviously counter-cultural aspects of revealed religion in the modern day is the revelation of the wrath of God in respect to sin. God revealed himself as pure love, as is shown in the person of Jesus Christ, and as is summed up in the terse definition of St John in one of his Letters — that God is love. But modern secular man, for whom God is absent from daily life, has little difficulty with the notion that God is love. This is because he imagines the love of God as a benign acceptance of everything. God is just a benevolent backdrop to life and reality. There are, he deems, intolerable evils in the world and this discounts the proposition that there is an infinite and holy God active in the world. But to the extent that the thought of God is admitted by him at all, he takes it to be a thought of mere benevolence. In fact, this is a facet of the relegation of God beyond the margins of the world of daily life. But it has been revealed that God’s love is a holy love, a mighty love for all that is good. It is a love that will not bear sin. God will not accept the slightest sin and this non-acceptance of sin is what the inspired Scriptures call his wrath. Sin will ultimately be completely rejected by the all-holy God, and this rejection will be a manifestation of divine wrath. Wrath is the converse of a love that is holy. There is a parallel in the indignation of modern man and media towards unethical practices because of the harm it inflicts on others. So too with God in respect to sin. While society is alert to morality and ignores “sin,” God sees every sin and, because of his love for the sinner, hates his sin. All this is to say that we need to recover a sense of the wrath of our loving God. His wrath is his judgment on sin. In our Gospel passage today, St John refers to the sin of rejecting the Son of God. It will incur the wrath of God. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him” (John 3: 31-36).

The person who has little fear of God is a foolish person. The Scriptures are replete with references to the wrath of God on sin. Compare the teaching of our Lord as it is presented in the four Gospels with that of any of the prophets. Christ’s references and warnings of the judgment of God and of the punishment of Hell are far more telling than anything in the Old Testament. In an age that ignores the living God, we ought give special thought to the divine judgment. It will help us turn away from sin and believe the Good News of God’s infinite love for all.

2010-04-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Let us shout out our joy and happiness, and give glory to God, the Lord of all, because he is our King, alleluia. (Rv 19:7, 6)

All-powerful God, help us to proclaim the power of the Lord’s resurrection. May we who accept this sign of the love of Christ come to share the eternal life he reveals, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Martin I (d. 655)

When Martin I became pope in 649, Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine empire and the patriarch of Constantinople was the most influential Church leader in the eastern Christian world. The struggles that existed within the Church at that time were magnified by the close cooperation of emperor and patriarch. A teaching, strongly supported in the East, held that Christ had no human will. Twice emperors had officially favoured this position, Heraclius by publishing a formula of faith and Constans II by silencing the issue of one or two wills in Christ. Shortly after assuming the office of the papacy (which he did without first being confirmed by the emperor), Martin held a council at the Lateran in which the imperial documents were censured, and in which the patriarch of Constantinople and two of his predecessors were condemned. Constans II, in response, tried first to turn bishops and people against the pope. Failing in this and in an attempt to kill the pope, the emperor sent troops to Rome to seize Martin and to bring him back to Constantinople. Martin, already in poor health, offered no resistance, returned with the exarch Calliopas and was then submitted to various imprisonments, tortures and hardships. Although condemned to death and with some of the torture imposed already carried out, Martin was saved from execution by the pleas of a repentant Paul, patriarch of Constantinople, who was himself gravely ill. Martin died shortly thereafter, tortures and cruel treatment having taken their toll. He is the last of the early popes to be venerated as a martyr. The breviary of the Orthodox Church pays tribute to Martin: “Glorious definer of the Orthodox Faith...sacred chief of divine dogmas, unstained by error...true reprover of heresy...foundation of bishops, pillar of the Orthodox faith, teacher of religion.... Thou didst adorn the divine see of Peter, and since from this divine Rock, thou didst immovably defend the Church, so now thou art glorified with him.”

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (3.7b~15)

Jesus said to Nicodemus, "(Do not wonder that I told you,) 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven— the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life."

Faith
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

In our Gospel passage today, Nicodemus is in wonderment at Christ’s statement that in order to enter the Kingdom of God a man must be born again. The Christian is so accustomed to this teaching that he has probably lost the sense of its radical newness. It is evident from Nicodemus’s difficulty that Christ gave every impression that he meant literally and exactly what he said. A new birth was required. Our Lord did not “tone down” his language, but spoke plainly. We are reminded of our Lord’s teaching in the Synagogue (chapter 6 of the same Gospel) in which he announced the doctrine of the Eucharist. He stated that unless people ate his flesh and drank his blood, they would have no life in them. Why could he not have toned down his language and couched it in less startling terms? It would not have been so divisive. He would have retained his disciples. But no. So important was it for salvation that our Lord, who had demonstrated his almighty power and his truthfulness, judged it necessary to reveal so amazing a doctrine clearly and publicly. His hearers could not understand how such a thing could be done, for all they could think in terms of was the eating and drinking of their everyday experience. So they gave up on Jesus Christ. They could not understand, so they refused to believe. It would seem that the same temptation faced Nicodemus when he heard the doctrine from the lips of Christ of the rebirth that was necessary to see the Kingdom of God. He could not understand, because all he could think of was the normal experience of a person’s birth to life. How could a person possibly be “born again”? I cannot see how it can be, so I cannot see how I can believe. That is the temptation facing the one who hears the proclamation of revealed religion. There are so many things we cannot possibly understand in revealed religion. We cannot understand Christ’s being God and Man. We cannot understand his being one of three divine persons in the one God. We cannot understand the Eucharist. We cannot understand — though we can apprehend — the rebirth by water and the Spirit.

It brings us to the fundamental importance of faith in revealed religion. By means of faith in the word of Jesus Christ we come to know things which we cannot understand. But as our Lord points out to Nicodemus, the reasonableness of this faith is itself not beyond our understanding. By that I mean that it is not hard to understand that we can come to know things which we do not understand, and on the word of one who knows. For instance, there are many things in our ordinary everyday experience which we do not understand, but which we have no doubt exist and occur — on the word of those who know. “Do not wonder that I told you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Our Lord refers to the wind — a natural process many may not understand, certainly in the time of our Lord. No one might understand why it is that polyps causing terminal cancer in a person’s bowel are continuing to appear, but the patient believes — and knows — on the word of the doctor that steps must now be taken. Our Lord is saying that matters of ordinary life show that faith in the word of the one who knows is perfectly reasonable, even if one cannot understand such matters. Faith in matters supernatural is perfectly reasonable, then. Our Lord tells Nicodemus that he and his own know these things — “we speak of what we know,” our Lord states. Perhaps the plural pronoun is an allusion to our Lord’s communion with his disciples and an allusion to the future Church that will speak in his name, and of which he is the head. “I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.” Ultimately our authority is divine. We believe on the word of Jesus Christ who is the Son of God. “No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven— the Son of Man.”

Further, and most importantly, this belief is the doorway to life eternal. Faith is the foundation of true religion, and most importantly, of revealed religion. It is the foundation of the Christian life and it takes us to our heavenly homeland. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:7b-15). Nicodemus was a man who tended to rely on what he could understand rather than on the word of Jesus Christ. He overcame his temptation and became a true disciple. Let us follow his example and make faith in the word of our Lord the basis of our whole life.

2010-04-11T02:36:00.000-07:00

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 prayer intention for March is: "That the world economy may be managed according to the principles of justice and equity, taking account of the real needs of peoples, especially the poorest".

His mission intention is: "That the Churches in Africa may be signs and instruments of reconciliation and justice in every part of that continent"..

Prayers this week: Rejoice to the full in the glory that is yours, and give thanks to God who called you to his kingdom, alleluia. (4 Ezr 2: 36-37)

God of mercy, you wash away our sins in water, you give us new birth in the Spirit, and redeem us in the blood of Christ. As we celebrate Christ's resurrection increase our awareness of these blessings and renew your gift of life within us. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.

St. Stanislaus (1030-1079)

Anyone who reads the history of Eastern Europe cannot help but chance on the name of Stanislaus, the saintly but tragic bishop of Kraków, patron of Poland. He is remembered with Saints Thomas More and Thomas Becket for vigorous opposition to the evils of an unjust government. Born in Szczepanow near Kraków on July 26, 1030, he was ordained a priest after being educated in the cathedral schools of Gniezno, then capital of Poland, and at Paris. He was appointed preacher and archdeacon to the bishop of Kraków, where his eloquence and example brought about real conversion in many of his penitents, both clergy and laity. He became bishop of Kraków in 1072. During an expedition against the Grand Duchy of Kiev, Stanislaus became involved in the political situation of Poland. Known for his outspokenness, he aimed his attacks at the evils of the peasantry and the king, especially the unjust wars and immoral acts of King Boleslaus II.. The king first excused himself, then made a show of penance, then relapsed into his old ways. Stanislaus continued his open opposition in spite of charges of treason and threats of death, finally excommunicating the king. The latter, enraged, ordered soldiers to kill the bishop. When they refused, the king killed him with his own hands. Forced to flee to Hungary, Boleslaus supposedly spent the rest of his life as a penitent in the Benedictine abbey in Osiak.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (20.19~31)

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you." And with that He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told Him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it." A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.

Mercy and sin
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There have been numerous philosophers in the history of human thought, and some of them have been great. More rarely, there have been those claiming a direct contact with the divine and then the personal authority to speak on behalf of the divine. That is to say, they have claimed to be prophets. Mahomet made this claim, and there have been others as well. The one who accepts the Judaeo-Christian revelation would probably have no trouble in allowing that in a certain sense there have been “prophets” outside the pale of this revelation, in that God can speak to whom he wills. In a certain sense, the Magi from the East, being led by a heavenly star, were the recipients of a kind of revelation and were spokesmen of it. They told the inhabitants of Jerusalem that a heavenly star was leading them to the infant King. They were “prophets” of the arrival of the Messiah. As is obvious, being a prophet was not unique to Jesus Christ, even though the Christian will count him as the greatest of the prophets and much more than a prophet. There are, however, several things about Jesus Christ that are unique to him. None of the Old Testament prophets claimed to be divine — of course. Mahomet never claimed to be divine. Nor did Buddha (who may have been agnostic in respect to the divine, anyway), nor did Zoroaster. Jesus Christ claimed to be divine, and this was perhaps the principal reason why he was condemned to death by the religious leaders of the people. Intimately connected with this divine claim was another — with its related practice — which distinguished Jesus Christ. I refer to his ready practice of the forgiveness of sins. No other prophet before him claimed the personal authority to forgive sins. Moses never said to anyone, nor had Abraham, Isaac or Jacob before him, nor did any prophet after him, say to anyone, “I forgive you your sins.” There were ceremonies and rituals of various kinds designed to symbolize man’s appeal for forgiveness and the pardon of God as a result. But no man claimed the power to forgive sins — except Jesus Christ. It is no surprise to read in the Gospels that this caused a sensation among the religious leaders.

It meant, of course, that any sinner could go to a particular man — Jesus of Nazareth — and ask to be forgiven for sins against God. At a word and on his own authority, he could pardon any man his sins. If Jesus indeed had this authority, it would be an extraordinary benefit for sinners. They would have a clear and certain access to the forgiveness of sins — and this is the fundamental problem for every man and woman. How can I obtain the forgiveness of my sins? Of course, the appreciation of this blessing is contingent on the appreciation of the tragedy and the curse of sin. If there is little or no sense of the evil of sin, there will be little or no sense of the magnificence of the blessing of forgiveness. Our Lord forgave the sinful woman after she had entered the house of the Pharisee where Jesus was dining. Your sins are forgiven you, he said to her in the presence of his hosts. It was a great blessing for her. But now, did any of the scribes and Pharisees, observing this display of divine authority, consider asking Christ for forgiveness of their sins? Obviously not, and the reason was that, apart from lacking faith in the person and authority of Christ, they lacked the sense of personal sin. They were not burdened with a sense that they were great sinners — which our Lord shows elsewhere that they were — and anxious to find some way of obtaining forgiveness. In a sense, this is the modern problem. We too lack a sense of personal sin. We may allow that Jesus Christ is the son of God, but our minds and hearts are all too readily clouded with indifference. We lack a concern for sin — at least for deliberate venial sin. As a result, we lack an appreciation for the gift of divine mercy as expressed in the ready pardon of our sins. This divine pardon for sin as constantly present in the person of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, has been handed on by him to his ordained representatives. The result is that now this blessing is even more available than it was when our Lord himself walked the earth.

On the evening of the day our Lord rose from the dead he appeared to the Apostolic band. Having rebuked them for their failure to believe the announcement of his resurrection, he conferred on them his power to forgive sins (John 20: 19-31). It was an extraordinary blessing of divine mercy, and unprecedented in religion. Men were now invested with the power to forgive sins. It means that the divine mercy is readily available wherever those invested men go. They were to go all over the world bringing the forgiveness of sins to all the nations. It is a principal reason for entering the Church which Christ founded on the rock of Peter. Let us have a deep appreciation of the tragedy of personal sin and of the blessing of divine pardon so readily available to all.

2010-04-10T06:17:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: The Lord led his people to freedom and they shouted with joy and gladness, alleluia.
(Ps 104:43)

Father of love, by the outpouring of your grace you increase the number of those who believe in you. Watch over your chosen family. Give undying life to all who have been born again in baptism. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, whom liveth and reigneth world without end, Amen. Alleulia,

St. Magdalen of Canossa (1774-1835)

Wealth and privilege did nothing to prevent today’s saint from following her calling to serve Christ in the poor. Nor did the protests of her relatives, concerned that such work was beneath her. Born in northern Italy in 1774, Magdalen knew her mind—and spoke it. At age 15 she announced she wished to become a nun. After trying out her vocation with the cloistered Carmelites, she realized her desire was to serve the needy without restriction. For years she worked among the poor and sick in hospitals and in their homes and among delinquent and abandoned girls. In her mid-twenties Magdalen began offering lodging to poor girls in her own home. In time she opened a school, which offered practical training and religious instruction. As other women joined her in the work, the new Congregation of the Daughters of Charity emerged. Over time, houses were opened throughout Italy. Members of the new religious congregation focused on the educational and spiritual needs of women. Magdalen also founded a smaller congregation for priests and brothers. Both groups continue to this day. She died in 1835. Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1988.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark (16.9~15)

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen Him, they did not believe it. Afterwards Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; He rebuked them for their lack of faith and their hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."

The Heart of Man
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

At the time of writing this, there had recently been an interview with Richard Dawkins the self-professed atheist from Oxford, conducted by a journalist of the Australian Dateline television programme. The journalist repeatedly told Dawkins that he was entirely unusual in his positive atheism (which was correct), but it soon became evident that the journalist himself agreed with much of what Dawkins stood for. They were agreed that religion is the source of great harm and violence in the world, and that this is how it has always been. Now, any sensible religious person would agree that great numbers of religious people have been the source of violence and harm. But this is not to say that “religion” has necessarily been the source of their violence. A person who is an adherent of a religion that inculcates love and justice will, for other reasons, be violent and unjust. He may spectacularly sin against the tenets of his religion. Of course, there may be religions that do indeed incline their adherents to violence. On the other hand, many who profess not to be religious have also been violent and harmful. Did Hitler profess or have any religion, or did Lenin and Stalin? Were the leaders of the French Revolution, and in particular its Terror, religious? The idea is absurd. Napoleon Bonaparte, who brought fire and sword to Europe, at best was a deist, but he was scarcely religious in an active sense. He became a little more so as his days drew to their close on the far-flung island of St Helena. There is no doubt, though, that for modern secular man the profession of religion has been discredited by the crimes of many of its professors. However, all ought understand, including the atheist typified by Richard Dawkins, that the mere fact that a person professes religion and engages in religious practices does not mean that his heart is properly moral and religious. His bad actions exclude him as a representative of true religion. As our Lord said, by their fruits you will know them. Religion is a matter of the heart. That said, the question arises, what are some of the features of the heart that are necessary for true religion?

In our Gospel today, our Lord’s disciples failed in a fundamental requisite for revealed religion. They failed in faith. Specifically, they did not believe the reports by direct eye-witnesses that he had risen from the dead. Inasmuch as the Christian religion depends on the acceptance of certain propositions as being historical facts, this failure in belief was a fundamental failure. For instance, if a person does not believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross and on the third day rose from the dead — and Islam does not accept either — then it is impossible for him to be counted as a Christian. We read that Mary Magdalene “went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Afterwards Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either." A dispassionate observer might claim that there was nothing wrong with the state of heart of Christ’s disciples in their unbelief. It was just that they lacked, in their view, sufficient evidence. They were not intellectually satisfied by the claims that he had been seen in the flesh. But as a matter of fact, we have it on the word of Christ that what was wrong and what accounted for their lack of belief was the state of their hearts. We read that “Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen.” This alone shows how religion is very much a matter of the heart. This applies most especially to revealed religion which involves a revelation that is beyond the mere natural. In the nature of the case the heart of man must be properly disposed. If the heart of man is not right, not only will he not practise his religion as he should — and perhaps bring disgrace on revealed religion as a result — but his heart will not even be able to believe. His heart will be too “hard.”

As it turns out, we need the grace of God to properly dispose our hearts to accept the religion he has revealed in his Son Jesus Christ. We need a heart that is not “hard,” a heart that is inclined to believe the testimony of the Gospel. Our Lord said to his Apostles that on his rising from the dead, while they loved him, their hearts were too hard. They failed to believe not because of lack of evidence, but because of a deeper failure. His risen presence before them changed that, and with that they received the mission to make disciples of all the nations. Let us pray that the grace of God will create in us all a new heart, a heart disposed to accept wholeheartedly the Gospel.

2010-04-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: The Lord led his people out of slavery. He drowned their enemies in the sea, alleluia. (Ps 77:53)

Eternal Father, you gave us the Easter mystery as our covenant of reconciliation. May the new birth we celebrate show its effects in the way we live. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

St. Casilda (11th century)

Some saints’ names are far more familiar to us than others, but even the lives of obscure holy persons teach us something. And so it is with St. Casilda, the daughter of a Muslim leader in Toledo, Spain, in the 10th century. Casilda was herself raised as a Muslim and showed special kindness to Christian prisoners. She became ill as a young woman but was not convinced that any of the local Arab doctors could cure her. So, she made a pilgrimage to the shrine of San Vicenzo in northern Spain. Like so many other people who made their way there—many of them suffering from haemorrhages—Casilda sought the healing waters of the shrine. We’re uncertain what brought her to the shrine, but we do know that she left it relieved of illness. In response, she became a Christian and lived a life of solitude and penance not far from the miraculous spring. It’s said that she lived to be 100 years old. Her death likely occurred around the year 1050. Tensions between Muslims and Christians have often existed throughout history, sometimes resulting in bloody conflict. Through her quiet, simple life Casilda served her Creator—first in one faith, then another.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (21.1~14)

Afterwards Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. I'm going out to fish, Simon Peter told them, and they said, We'll go with you. So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. He called out to them, Friends, have you caught anything? No, they answered. He said, Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord! As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, It is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught. Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Simon Peter
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

One of the positive results of Scriptural studies and analysis during the recent period of Christian scholarship has been the appreciation of the distinctive approach and teaching of the different Gospels. Each has its own approach with its special emphasis in the presentation of the Gospel. It has always been seen that the Fourth Gospel in many ways is on its own. It is distinct from the other three — different as they are, too, from one another. Luke is very different from Mark, and Matthew is different from both, but the three of them have very many similarities. Accordingly, they are termed the “synoptic” Gospels. The Gospel of John, though, is on its own. One of the things that we immediately notice in the Johannine Gospel’s presentation of the Resurrection is that the last chapter (ch.21) seems to be an important postscript. The conclusion of chapter 20 (verses 30-31) seems to indicate this, as does the conclusion of chapter 21 (verses 23-25). Inspired as it is, the final chapter may have been added by disciples of the school of John — with his approval, or even after his demise, yet containing his teaching, his emphasis and his clear and detailed recollections. Our Gospel today is the commencement of this chapter and is a sequel to the account in the previous chapter of the appearances of the risen Christ on the day of his resurrection and a week later, both in Jerusalem. In the Gospel of St Mark — which is generally considered to present Simon Peter’s account — the angel announces to the women at the empty tomb that the risen Jesus will see the “disciples and Peter” in Galilee. Our chapter 21 of the Gospel of St John gives us an account of “the third time” Jesus appeared to his Apostles as a group, the first two occurring in Jerusalem, as narrated in chapter 20. This “third time” was in Galilee. Now, there is a distinctive emphasis in the presentation of this third appearance to the body of the Apostles. It is that Simon Peter is well to the fore in both discipleship and in his appointed role in the mission of the risen Jesus. We may even say that the chapter consists of two parts, the first made up of our verses today, and the second being the rest of the chapter in which Simon’s office as pastor of Christ’s sheep is confirmed.

In our passage today (John 21:1-14), Simon’s love for Jesus is set forth and is the foundation for what will follow. Simon is presented as with a group of the disciples and it at the sea of Tiberius. He is with “Thomas,” — who featured in the previous chapter — “and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee,” — James and John — “and two other of his disciples.” So there were six of the Eleven, enough to consider the appearance that followed as an appearance to the Apostolic group. Simon Peter is the leader — he leads the others to fish for the night, and come morning there was Jesus standing on the shore. We may imagine the scene. The dawn is breaking. The moon has provided light for the night’s work which has come to nothing. All is still, with the sound of gentle tide lapping against the boat, large enough for the six men and their fishing equipment. The sky is clear, all is still with the sound of the occasional sea-bird crying as the sun begins to rise. They were only about a hundred yards from land and there on the shore they noticed a solitary figure. He was standing there, observing. Then they hear his voice, clear and penetrating across the surface of the Lake. “Have you caught anything?” No, they answered. “Throw your net to the right, and you will.” The authority with which this was said led them immediately to do as requested, and lo! The net heaved with a sudden force, a force they could not manage. In an instant it was filled with fish, so many as to be beyond their ability to haul in. Immediately “the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord!” We notice that it is not he who immediately acts, but Simon Peter. Simon in an instant puts on his main garment — for he was stripped for his work — and bounds into the water, making his way to land on foot. The slowness of the vessel would not do for him — he forges ahead in his love for his risen Master, heart pounding, mind aflame and breathless with ardent love. The Master! The Lord! The Love of his life! His throat filled with knotted emotion, thinking of nothing else, he outstrips the others in his race to be with the supreme Person of his life. Our passage shows us the love of a disciple.

Simon Peter had his flaws, and they came to the fore when the crunch came during the Passion of our Lord. He had buckled and denied knowing Jesus Christ. The glance of Christ towards him immediately following this, reminding him of Christ’s prediction that he would deny him, nearly broke his heart. He loved Jesus, loved him dearly, but he was weak. Now, on the shore, Jesus was there awaiting him. Peter forged ahead in the water, with great and strong strides, his whole frame facing the Lord of his life whom he so loved. He arrives on the shore and stands before his loving Lord and hears his words. Peter in our passage today is a picture of the loving disciple of Jesus Christ. Let us contemplate him, and resolve to love Jesus Christ in our turn as Peter did.

2010-04-08T03:58:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Your people praised your great victory, O Lord. Wisdom opened the mouth that was dumb, and made the tongues of babies speak, alleluia (Wis 10:20-21)

Father, you gather the nations to praise your name. May all who are reborn in baptism be one in faith and love. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

St.Julia Billiart (1751-1816)

From a family of well-to-do farmers, young Marie Rose Julia Billiart showed an early interest in religion and in helping the sick and poor. Though the first years of her life were relatively peaceful and uncomplicated, Julie had to take up manual work as a young teen when her family lost its money. However, she spent her spare time teaching catechism to young people and to the farm labourers. A mysterious illness overtook her when she was about 30. Witnessing an attempt to wound or even kill her father, Julie was paralysed and became a complete invalid. For the next two decades she continued to teach catechism lessons from her bed, offered spiritual advice and attracted visitors who had heard of her holiness. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, revolutionary forces became aware of her allegiance to fugitive priests. With the help of friends she was smuggled out of Cuvilly in a haycart; she spent several years hiding in Compiegne, being moved from house to house despite her growing physical pain. She even lost the power of speech for a time. But this period also proved to be a fruitful spiritual time for Julie. It was at this time she had a vision in which she saw Calvary surrounded by women in religious habits and heard a voice saying, "Behold these spiritual daughters whom I give you in an Institute marked by the cross." As time passed and Julie continued her mobile life, she made the acquaintance of an aristocratic woman, Francoise Blin de Bourdon, who shared Julie's interest in teaching the faith. In 1803 the two women began the Institute of Notre Dame, which was dedicated to the education of the poor as well as young Christian girls and the training of catechists. The following year the first Sisters of Notre Dame made their vows. That was the same year that Julie recovered from the illness: She was able to walk for the first time in 22 years. Though Julie had always been attentive to the special needs of the poor and that always remained her priority, she also became aware that other classes in society needed Christian instruction. From the founding of the Sisters of Notre Dame until her death, Julie was on the road, opening a variety of schools in France and Belgium that served the poor and the wealthy, vocational groups, teachers. Ultimately, Julie and Francoise moved the motherhouse to Namur, Belgium. Julie died there in 1816. She was canonized in 1969.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (24.35~48)

Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when He broke the bread. While they were still talking about this, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, He asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate it in their presence. He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: 'The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His Name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

A realization
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

At the time of my writing this, abortion laws are being passed in Spain — a country where the majority of citizens are at least nominally Catholic. It is said that the rate of abortion is much the same in Catholic countries as in others. The Catholic Church is the largest in body among the Christian denominations, and theoretically ought be a giant in influence. But it is a sleeping giant in terms of its grassroots membership. The fact is that the majority of Catholics do not go to Mass each Sunday, and it is misleading to quote the number of baptized Catholics because it can give the impression that that number represents the number of believing, convinced Catholics. The same can be said and with even greater emphasis about the number of Christians in the world. England and Australia could be called Christian countries in the sense that most of their citizens regard themselves as in some sense Christian. But for all the influence the Christian element has on society, those two countries would be better termed secular societies. What is lacking? Of course, the answers to that question are multiple, but one thing that is lacking is simply a realization of the truth of the doctrines of the Christian faith. Cardinal Newman often drew a distinction between a notion and a realization. A person may have a notion of, say, Christ or the Church, while another may have a realization of Christ or the Church. For the former, Christ is just a notion, an image, a thought. He is not a living fact. His reality may not be positively denied, but it is not positively apprehended. He is a figure of the past and the past is gone. For the latter, Christ is a real person and the Church is truly his body, the locale and means of his living presence. Christ is not just a figure of the past, for he lives now in his full humanity and divinity. He is accepted as being truly alive. This is a realization. The former is a mere notion. Religion will never be a real force in our lives as long as it is a mere notion. The Christian must truly realize that Jesus Christ suffered, died and truly rose. He lives now and is with us.

Our Gospel today (Luke 24:35-48) records, let us say, the transformation in the Apostles of their notion or memory of Christ into a realization of his living reality. He had gone from this world under terrible circumstances, and his body lay in the tomb. His life was over and finished, and with it so were the hopes and dreams of his loyal disciples. All they now had was a memory — recent, devastating, appalling, and crippling — but a memory nevertheless. All they could look forward to was a receding memory of the Master. In due course, perhaps they could pick up again and live according to his teaching and his memory, and spread his teaching as they knew it. More disciples would follow — as had been the case with John the Baptist. The Baptist had gone, and his disciples had recovered his body from Herod’s precincts and had buried it. Years later there would be many disciples of John scattered here and there and the infant Church would come across them. It could have been supposed that the legacy of Jesus of Nazareth would live on in a similar manner. His teaching about God and the way to him would be preserved and perhaps put into writing as had the teaching of many of the ancient prophets. But he would become a memory — we might almost say, a notion. But no, this is not what happened and the reason for it was that they saw him, met him, spoke with him and even felt him in his physical reality after he had risen from the dead. He was apprehended as a living reality. No holy man had raised him from the dead — as he had raised others from the dead during his public ministry. He raised himself from the dead. I freely lay down my life, he had told them, and I shall freely take it up again. This he did. He took up life again, but it was a new and glorious life and they saw him in the flesh. Our Gospel gives us the account of their meeting with him. They saw and spoke with him as a group, despite their complete scepticism about the reports they had received during that first day. They gathered around him and watched him even eat. They were filled with a profound realization of the living Jesus, risen now from the dead and glorious.

What we, each of us must do is strive to realize the living fact of Jesus Christ. We do not see him but he is real, he lives and he is always near. He is our Saviour and we ought strive to be filled with the realization that he, our Friend, Brother, Saviour and God, is more real than we ourselves. Our entire reality depends on him because it is through him that all things exist. On this basis we can proceed to shape our lives according to Christ’s teaching. Indeed, as Cardinal Newman used to say, this world is a mere veil when compared with the unseen, and in the first instance that unseen reality behind the veil is Jesus Christ. Let us be real, and not nominal, Christians then, with a lively faith that is made up not of mere notions but of realizations.

From a family of well-to-do farmers, young Marie Rose Julia Billiart showed an early interest in religion and in helping the sick and poor. Though the first years of her life were relatively peaceful and uncomplicated, Julie had to take up manual work as a young teen when her family lost its money. However, she spent her spare time teaching catechism to young people and to the farm labourers. A mysterious illness overtook her when she was about 30. Witnessing an attempt to wound or even kill her father, Julie was paralysed and became a complete invalid. For the next two decades she continued to teach catechism lessons from her bed, offered spiritual advice and attracted visitors who had heard of her holiness. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, revolutionary forces became aware of her allegiance to fugitive priests. With the help of friends she was smuggled out of Cuvilly in a haycart; she spent several years hiding in Compiegne, being moved from house to house despite her growing physical pain. She even lost the power of speech for a time. But this period also proved to be a fruitful spiritual time for Julie. It was at this time she had a vision in which she saw Calvary surrounded by women in religious habits and heard a voice saying, "Behold these spiritual daughters whom I give you in an Institute marked by the cross." As time passed and Julie continued her mobile life, she made the acquaintance of an aristocratic woman, Francoise Blin de Bourdon, who shared Julie's interest in teaching the faith. In 1803 the two women began the Institute of Notre Dame, which was dedicated to the education of the poor as well as young Christian girls and the training of catechists. The following year the first Sisters of Notre Dame made their vows. That was the same year that Julie recovered from the illness: She was able to walk for the first time in 22 years. Though Julie had always been attentive to the special needs of the poor and that always remained her priority, she also became aware that other classes in society needed Christian instruction. From the founding of the Sisters of Notre Dame until her death, Julie was on the road, opening a variety of schools in France and Belgium that served the poor and the wealthy, vocational groups, teachers. Ultimately, Julie and Francoise moved the motherhouse to Namur, Belgium. Julie died there in 1816. She was canonized in 1969. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today: Acts 3:11-26; Psalm 8:2ab and 5-9; Luke 24:35-48

Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, Do you have anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. He said to them, This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:35-48)

A realization At the time of my writing this, abortion laws are being passed in Spain — a country where the majority of citizens are at least nominally Catholic. It is said that the rate of abortion is much the same in Catholic countries as in others. The Catholic Church is the largest in body among the Christian denominations, and theoretically ought be a giant in influence. But it is a sleeping giant in terms of its grassroots membership. The fact is that the majority of Catholics do not go to Mass each Sunday, and it is misleading to quote the number of baptized Catholics because it can give the impression that that number represents the number of believing, convinced Catholics. The same can be said and with even greater emphasis about the number of Christians in the world. England and Australia could be called Christian countries in the sense that most of their citizens regard themselves as in some sense Christian. But for all the influence the Christian element has on society, those two countries would be better termed secular societies. What is lacking? Of course, the answers to that question are multiple, but one thing that is lacking is simply a realization of the truth of the doctrines of the Christian faith. Cardinal Newman often drew a distinction between a notion and a realization. A person may have a notion of, say, Christ or the Church, while another may have a realization of Christ or the Church. For the former, Christ is just a notion, an image, a thought. He is not a living fact. His reality may not be positively denied, but it is not positively apprehended. He is a figure of the past and the past is gone. For the latter, Christ is a real person and the Church is truly his body, the locale and means of his living presence. Christ is not just a figure of the past, for he lives now in his full humanity and divinity. He is accepted as being truly alive. This is a realization. The former is a mere notion. Religion will never be a real force in our lives as long as it is a mere notion. The Christian must truly realize that Jesus Christ suffered, died and truly rose. He lives now and is with us.

Our Gospel today (Luke 24:35-48) records, let us say, the transformation in the Apostles of their notion or memory of Christ into a realization of his living reality. He had gone from this world under terrible circumstances, and his body lay in the tomb. His life was over and finished, and with it so were the hopes and dreams of his loyal disciples. All they now had was a memory — recent, devastating, appalling, and crippling — but a memory nevertheless. All they could look forward to was a receding memory of the Master. In due course, perhaps they could pick up again and live according to his teaching and his memory, and spread his teaching as they knew it. More disciples would follow — as had been the case with John the Baptist. The Baptist had gone, and his disciples had recovered his body from Herod’s precincts and had buried it. Years later there would be many disciples of John scattered here and there and the infant Church would come across them. It could have been supposed that the legacy of Jesus of Nazareth would live on in a similar manner. His teaching about God and the way to him would be preserved and perhaps put into writing as had the teaching of many of the ancient prophets. But he would become a memory — we might almost say, a notion. But no, this is not what happened and the reason for it was that they saw him, met him, spoke with him and even felt him in his physical reality after he had risen from the dead. He was apprehended as a living reality. No holy man had raised him from the dead — as he had raised others from the dead during his public ministry. He raised himself from the dead. I freely lay down my life, he had told them, and I shall freely take it up again. This he did. He took up life again, but it was a new and glorious life and they saw him in the flesh. Our Gospel gives us the account of their meeting with him. They saw and spoke with him as a group, despite their complete scepticism about the reports they had received during that first day. They gathered around him and watched him even eat. They were filled with a profound realization of the living Jesus, risen now from the dead and glorious.

What we, each of us must do is strive to realize the living fact of Jesus Christ. We do not see him but he is real, he lives and he is always near. He is our Saviour and we ought strive to be filled with the realization that he, our Friend, Brother, Saviour and God, is more real than we ourselves. Our entire reality depends on him because it is through him that all things exist. On this basis we can proceed to shape our lives according to Christ’s teaching. Indeed, as Cardinal Newman used to say, this world is a mere veil when compared with the unseen, and in the first instance that unseen reality behind the veil is Jesus Christ. Let us be real, and not nominal, Christians then, with a lively faith that is made up not of mere notions but of realizations.

2010-04-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Come, you whom my father has blessed; inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world, alleluia. (Mt 25:34)

God our Father, on this solemn feast you give us the joy of recalling the rising of Christ to new life. May the joy of our annual celebration bring us to the joy of eternal life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.

St. John Baptist de la Salle (1651-1719)

Complete dedication to what he saw as God's will for him dominated the life of John Baptist de la Salle. In 1950, Pope Pius XII named him patron of schoolteachers for his efforts in upgrading school instruction. As a young seventeenth-century Frenchman, John had everything going for him: scholarly bent, good looks, noble family background, money, refined upbringing. At the early age of 11, he received the tonsure and started preparation for the priesthood, to which he was ordained at 27. He seemed assured then of a life of dignified ease and a high position in the Church. But God had other plans for John, which were gradually revealed to him in the next several years. During a chance meeting with M. Nyel of Raven, he became interested in the creation of schools for poor boys in Raven, where he was stationed. Though the work was extremely distasteful to him at first, he became more involved in working with the deprived youths. Once convinced that this was his divinely appointed mission, John threw himself wholeheartedly into the work, left home and family, abandoned his position as canon at Rheims, gave away his fortune and reduced himself to the level of the poor to whom he devoted his entire life. The remainder of his life was closely entwined with the community of religious men he founded, the Brothers of the Christian School (Christian Brothers, or De La Salle Brothers). This community grew rapidly and was successful in educating boys of poor families using methods designed by John, preparing teachers in the first training college for teachers and also setting up homes and schools for young delinquents of wealthy families. The motivating element in all these endeavours was the desire to become a good Christian. Yet even in his success, John did not escape experiencing many trials: heartrending disappointment and defections among his disciples, bitter opposition from the secular schoolmasters who resented his new and fruitful methods, and persistent opposition from the Jansenists of his time, whose moral rigidity and pessimism abut the human condition John resisted vehemently all his life. Afflicted with asthma and rheumatism in his last years, he died on Good Friday at 68 and was canonized in 1900.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (24.13~35)

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognising him. He asked them, What are you discussing together as you walk along? They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days? What things? he asked. About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see. He said to them, How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going further. But they urged him strongly, Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us? They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread.

Our Companion
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

The scene is just outside Jerusalem, and it is the first day of the new week, with the great Sabbath now over. All is quiet and the weather is marked by a sombre peace. The occasional cry of a bird is heard, but apart from that, there is just the subdued voice of two companions walking on the lonely road leading away from the City. We might even say that the quiet of the morning has a touch of the eerie to it, and that this has been so ever since the Friday afternoon two days before. A great prophet had suddenly met a terrible end, orchestrated and achieved by the religious leaders, no less. This wonderful man had traversed the country and filled it with his person, his teaching and his miraculous deeds. A little over a week before, he had spectacularly raised a person from the dead after four days in the tomb, just outside the City itself. He had entered the City, cleansed the Temple of its markets and set up teaching in its precincts. For his disciples he was the hope of the nation. He, they thought, would be the one to set Israel free, for there was no limit to his goodness and his power. A great shock had enveloped his friends and disciples, for the light of their life had been snuffed out. At the moment of his terrible demise, the very earth had rocked. He was now gone. The two lonely walkers continued along the road for the village of Emmaus, their voices subdued, their feelings profoundly depressed. They were lost in their brooding thoughts as they noticed a little distance behind them another solitary walker heading along the road in the same direction as they. They slowed and allowed him to join them as their fitful discussion paused. He quietly reached them, and perhaps they allowed him to walk between them, with one on either side. They were absolutely downcast. What were you discussing, he courteously asked? They stood, distressed, and asked him in wonderment — how could you ask this? Are you a visitor, and do you not know what has just happened here?

The scene is so real, so vivid, so full of factual detail (Luke 24:13-35). There is nothing of the mere “story” to it. It is not a tale, a myth, something of a fable. It is the report of facts that had happened years before the writing of the account. A remarkable thing was occurring in this simple, historical scene. Jesus of Nazareth, who had been mercilessly bundled to his terrible death by ruthless religious leaders, was alive in the flesh and walking on the road with his two companions. There was absolutely nothing like it in all the annals of history. This extraordinary circumstance was unfolding in the midst of the most simple ordinariness. The two depressed and perplexed companions had between them the risen Jesus. They saw him, they heard him, and his physical presence was just as palpable as had been the presence of each of them one to the other. They did not recognize him as yet — perhaps because his fulness of risen life gave to him a special newness, and also because there was simply no expectation in them of their ever seeing him again. But, as they would soon learn, it was the same Jesus and he was joining them in their ordinary life. He was not coming to them in thunder and glory — just as he had not come in thunder and glory to Mary Magdalene a few hours before. He came, risen and victorious, but as one of them. They were still his brothers and he was taking the time, as it were, to be with two ordinary disciples. Why was it that he spent so long a time with two relatively obscure disciples (one being Cleopas)? We have no idea, but it tells us that the risen Jesus joins us in our daily life just as he joined them. As we walk along the road of life towards our goal, we are often depressed with the perplexities of our calling. He, the risen Jesus, is walking with us in all those perplexities of our ordinary and everyday life. He wants to know what is in our minds, and he wants us to let him cast his light on us. There can never be such a companion as Jesus Christ for our journey!

The same risen Jesus joins us in so many ways in everyday life. He resides in his body the Church as its Head. We are the Church’s members, and therefore members of Jesus Christ. We are the branches, he is the Vine. He comes to us in the preaching and teaching of the Church. He comes to us above all in the Sacraments, and in particular — on a regular basis — in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance. Let us pause every day to let him join us and enliven our hearts with his words and his grace. In those two disciples are exemplified each of us. Let Christ be our companion as we journey along the way to our true homeland.

2010-04-06T03:15:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: If men desire wisdom, she will give them the water of knowledge to drink. They will never waver from the truth; they will stand firm for ever, alleluia. (Sir 15:3-4)

Father, by this Easter mystery you touch our lives with the healing power of your love. You have given us the freedom of the sons of God. May we who now celebrate your gift find joy in it for ever in heaven. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end, Amen.

St. Crescentia Hoess (1682-1744)

Crescentia was born in 1682 in a little town near Augsburg, the daughter of a poor weaver. She spent play time praying in the parish church, assisted those even poorer than herself and had so mastered the truths of her religion that she was permitted to make her holy Communion at the then unusually early age of seven. In the town she was called "the little angel."
As she grew older she desired to enter the convent of the Tertiaries of St. Francis. But the convent was poor and, because Crescentia had no dowry, the superiors refused her admission. Her case was then pleaded by the Protestant mayor of the town to whom the convent owed a favor. The community felt it was forced into receiving her, and her new life was made miserable. She was considered a burden and assigned nothing other than menial tasks. Even her cheerful spirit was misinterpreted as flattery or hypocrisy. Conditions improved four years later when a new superior was elected who realized her virtue. Crescentia herself was appointed mistress of novices. She so won the love and respect of the sisters that, upon the death of the superior, Crescentia herself was unanimously elected to that position. Under her the financial state of the convent improved and her reputation in spiritual matters spread. She was soon being consulted by princes and princesses as well as by bishops and cardinals seeking her advice. And yet, a true daughter of Francis, she remained ever humble. Bodily afflictions and pain were always with her. First it was headaches and toothaches. Then she lost the ability to walk, her hands and feet gradually becoming so crippled that her body curled up into a fetal position. In the spirit of Francis she cried out, "Oh, you bodily members, praise God that he has given you the capacity to suffer." Despite her sufferings she was filled with peace and joy as she died on Easter Sunday in 1744. She was beatified in 1900 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (20.11~18)

Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. They asked her, Woman, why are you weeping? They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they have put him. At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus. Woman, he said, why are you weeping? Who is it you are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and cried out in Hebrew, Rabboni! (which means Teacher). Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: I have seen the Lord! And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Christ’s choice
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

At times — not often, it must be said — one hears the complaint that it is not fair that women are not called to the ministerial priesthood. In a sense it is to be expected that some women would have thoughts of attraction to the ordained priesthood, for the simple reason that the priesthood is a wonderful thing. I think I remember reading somewhere that St Therese of Lisieux as a child felt attracted to the priesthood. The Church has formally declared, of course, that this is impossible in God’s plan, but what can be behind this desire is the notion that an ordained office is more important than, say, intimacy with Christ as his disciple. What is of paramount importance is not office, but loving discipleship. Who were the ones who entered into the deepest intimacy with Jesus Christ during his life here on earth? They were, as we may call them, two “lay persons” who had no office in God’s people. I am referring to the mother and the foster-father of our Lord. Mary and Joseph lived in a wonderfully intimate friendship with our Lord for thirty of the thirty-three years of his mortal life. Manifestly no other person attained such a friendship with him. Consider the scenes of the infancy of our Lord — the nativity scenes and those associated with them, the scene of the presentation in the Temple, with Simeon and Anna gazing with veneration on the face of the Child Jesus — these were ordinary members of God’s chosen people. They had a privileged relationship with the Saviour. During our Lord’s public life we read in more than one Gospel that Martha, Mary and Lazarus were special friends of our Lord. He loved them in a special way. We read that certain women followed Jesus and the apostolic band, and ministered to them with their assistance and resources. At the last, it was certain women with Mary his mother, who stood at the cross of Jesus as he died. There was only one of the Twelve there. It was certain women who were the first to arrive at the tomb early on the Sunday morning. On Easter Sunday, the longest conversation which the risen Jesus had was with two disciples who were not of the Twelve. The principal thing is discipleship.

What I am saying is that while those with a special office in Christ’s Church by ordination are called to an intimate friendship with Jesus Christ, the vocation to a special friendship with him is not exclusive to those with this special office. The most important thing for any disciple is precisely this calling to friendship with Jesus, and then by his grace actually attaining this friendship and living according to it. Who was the most blessed of all God’s creatures? It was not any one of the Twelve, nor any of those who received a special apostolic mission from Christ, such as St Paul. It was, according to the inspired utterance of Elizabeth, the Virgin Mary. She was blessed among women. All generations will call her blessed, and it was her faith and her fidelity to grace — her being full of grace — that was the reason for this. She occupied no ordained office in the Church, although as Christ’s mother, she was mother and model of the Church his body. Let all this be an introduction to our Gospel passage today (John 20: 11-18), in which, according to St John, the risen Jesus shows himself for the first recorded time to his disciples. We may piously assume that, though it is not recorded, Christ appeared first to his most holy mother. Beyond that, we have it before us that he appeared first of all, not to Simon Peter nor to the beloved disciple, but to Mary Magdalene. It may have been something of a reward for her coming so early to the tomb, and waiting when the tomb was discovered to be empty. She was granted a most lovely meeting with the risen Jesus, and before any of the Apostles. Consider the scene. I like to think of our Lord acting somewhat playfully and full of joy in his victory. He asks Mary Magdalene, “Woman, why are you weeping?” — though, of course, he knew why she was weeping. Then came his surprise for her: “Mary!” He addressed her by name, and joy beyond description flooded her soul. “ Do not hold on to me,” he continued. “I have not yet returned to the Father.” It is a symbol of the special dealings of Jesus Christ with every one of the baptized.

According to the Gospel of St John, it was Mary Magdalene who announced to the Apostles the fact of the Resurrection. According to the other Gospels, it was the women. It is surely a symbol of the richness of the vocation of all the baptized. All are called to holiness, that holiness which consists in a loving discipleship and a share in Christ’s mission of bringing the Gospel to others. Each person’s friendship with Jesus and share in his redemptive mission will depend on vocation and circumstances, but each possesses the great dignity of being in Jesus Christ. This is the basic and most important thing in the life of the Church. Jesus addresses each and all of us by name. It is the expression of his personal choice. Let us cherish this choice as the foundation of life.

2010-04-05T03:13:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: The Lord brought you to a land flowing with milk and honey, so that his law would always be given honour among you, alleluia. (See Ex 13:5, 9)

Father, you give your Church constant growth by adding new members to your family. Help us put into action in our lives the baptism we have received with faith. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth, world without end, Amen.

St. Vincent Ferrer (1350?-1419)

The polarization in the Church today is a mild breeze compared with the tornado that ripped the Church apart during the lifetime of this saint. If any saint is a patron of reconciliation, Vincent Ferrer is. Despite parental opposition, he entered the Dominican Order in his native Spain at 19. After brilliant studies, he was ordained a priest by Cardinal Peter de Luna—who would figure tragically in his life. Of a very ardent nature, Vincent practiced the austerities of his Order with great energy. He was chosen prior of the Dominican house in Valencia shortly after his ordination. The Western Schism divided Christianity first between two, then three, popes. Clement VII lived at Avignon in France, Urban VI in Rome. Vincent was convinced the election of Urban was invalid (though Catherine of Siena was just as devoted a supporter of the Roman pope). In the service of Cardinal de Luna, he worked to persuade Spaniards to follow Clement. When Clement died, Cardinal de Luna was elected at Avignon and became Benedict XIII. Vincent worked for him as apostolic penitentiary and Master of the Sacred Palace. But the new pope did not resign as all candidates in the conclave had sworn to do. He remained stubborn despite being deserted by the French king and nearly all of the cardinals. Vincent became disillusioned and very ill, but finally took up the work of simply "going through the world preaching Christ," though he felt that any renewal in the Church depended on healing the schism. An eloquent and fiery preacher, he spent the last 20 years of his life spreading the Good News in Spain, France, Switzerland, the Low Countries and Lombardy, stressing the need of repentance and the fear of coming judgment. (He became known as the "Angel of the Judgment.") He tried, unsuccessfully, in 1408 and 1415, to persuade his former friend to resign. He finally concluded that Benedict was not the true pope. Though very ill, he mounted the pulpit before an assembly over which Benedict himself was presiding and thundered his denunciation of the man who had ordained him a priest. Benedict fled for his life, abandoned by those who had formerly supported him. Strangely, Vincent had no part in the Council of Constance, which ended the schism.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (28.8~15)

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. Greetings, he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me. While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

God our Brother
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There is a detail in our Resurrection scene which we ought consider with great appreciation. The women have discovered the empty tomb and have been told by the angel that Jesus their Lord has risen from the dead. Matthew’s description of the angel is of one who inspires heavenly awe. The angel has “descended from heaven.” His “countenance was like lightning, and His raiment white as snow” — reminding us of our Lord’s own Transfiguration prior to His Passion. He tells the women not to fear, and tells the women to see where the Lord had lain. They were now to go quickly and tell his disciples that he had risen from the dead and that he would be going ahead of them to Galilee, just as he said he would. They would see him there. In fact, we learn from other Gospels, especially the Gospels of Luke and John, that our Lord appeared to his disciples that very day and in the days immediately following, there in Jerusalem. They met Him further in Galilee. Now Jesus was risen from the dead in the flesh, but in glory. His divinity, previously veiled by his humanity, was now being revealed in his humanity. His risen manhood displayed the glory of his divinity. Let us never underestimate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was not simply a return of Jesus Christ from the dead, taking up in life from where he left off prior to his Passion. It was a passing from this life into death and then from death to glory, and all this in his human nature — that same humanity which had suffered and died. His humanity now was the means of manifesting his divine glory, and in seeing the risen Jesus, the disciples gazed on the glorious Son of God. Instead of being a veil of the divinity, the humanity of Jesus Christ now revealed the divinity. For this reason we read that the women, when met by Jesus and greeted by him, prostrated in worship before him. They “held him by the feet.” Jesus was now showing forth the glory of one whose place was at the right hand of the Father, above every other name.

But there is a wonderful detail. Our Lord told the women to go and tell his “brothers” that they were to go to Galilee (Matthew 28:8-15). God the Son made man, now glorious and triumphant over death, sharing the throne of his heavenly Father, refers to his disciples as his “brothers.” God the Son regards himself as our “brother.” This is no new thing, for our Lord loved his own while on the earth, and he loved them to the end. But here we are talking of him in his triumph, as the Victor over all, as the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth had been given, as the Lord of all lords and the King of all kings. This supreme person regards himself as our brother. On one occasion during his public ministry he was speaking to a crowd and word came to him that his mother and his brethren wished to speak to him. He said in reply, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Then looking around at his disciples, he said “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my Father, that person is my mother and my sister and my brother.” God wished to draw us into his family life and make us his children. He sent his own divine Son to become one of us, to become our brother, and to share the divine life with each and all who accept him. To all who accepted him, St John wrote, he gave the power to become children of God. In our Resurrection account the triumphant Jesus refers to his disciples as his brothers. He looks on each of us who believe in him, who love him and who follow him, as his brothers. In Jesus Christ, God has become my brother. How great is the dignity of every person, then! Christ has died for all, and since his Resurrection, mankind can be divided into two groups. There are those who are his brothers by faith and baptism, and there are those who are called to be his brothers by faith and baptism. In either case, each person is endowed with an immense dignity. By uniting himself to every man and woman in his humanity, he confers on each and all a resounding dignity which all others must respect. It will be a defining element in the final judgment.

Each of us can say that God is my Father, and in Jesus Christ, he is my Brother. How great is the love, the humility, the goodness of God! There is no other religion which has such a breathtaking understanding of the infinite, transcendent God. The God of all heights has taken his place by our side and chosen to accompany us along our way to his eternal home, as our brother and our friend. There is nothing more we could ask for. Let us appreciate our blessings — that every heavenly blessing has been given to us in our Brother of all brothers, Jesus Christ our Lord.

2010-04-03T05:56:00.000-07:00

St. Benedict the African (1526-1589)

Benedict held important posts in the Franciscan Order and gracefully adjusted to other work when his terms of office were up. His parents were slaves brought from Africa to Messina, Sicily. Freed at 18, Benedict did farm work for a wage and soon saved enough to buy a pair of oxen. He was very proud of those animals. In time he joined a group of hermits around Palermo and was eventually recognized as their leader. Because these hermits followed the Rule of St. Francis, Pope Pius IV ordered them to join the First Order. Benedict was eventually novice master and then guardian of the friars in Palermo— positions rarely held in those days by a brother. In fact, Benedict was forced to accept his election as guardian. And when his term ended he happily returned to his work in the friary kitchen. Benedict corrected the friars with humility and charity. Once he corrected a novice and assigned him a penance only to learn that the novice was not the guilty party. Benedict immediately knelt down before the novice and asked his pardon. In later life Benedict was not possessive of the few things he used. He never referred to them as "mine" but always called them "ours." His gifts for prayer and the guidance of souls earned him throughout Sicily a reputation for holiness. Following the example of St. Francis, Benedict kept seven 40-day fasts throughout the year; he also slept only a few hours each night. After Benedict’s death, King Philip III of Spain paid for a special tomb for this holy friar. Canonized in 1807, he is honoured as a patron saint by African-Americans.

For Holy Saturday morning, let us consider The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (19.38~42), the account of the Burial of Jesus

(After Jesus had died) Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no-one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was near by, they laid Jesus there.

Christ in death
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

This day, the day following the death of Jesus Christ, was the Sabbath, a great day of rest. Christ died on the Friday afternoon, just as the Vigil of the Sabbath was approaching. His body lay in the tomb during the whole of the Sabbath rest and he rose soon after that Sabbath day had ended — in the early hours of the first day of the new week. He died towards the end of the first day, lay in the tomb during the whole of the second day and rose very early on the third day. In his account, St John tells us that on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene arrived while it was still dark — obviously arriving as soon as she could with the Sabbath Day now over — and the stone had been removed. Christ had already risen. So it is especially on the Saturday, the Sabbath day of repose, that we celebrate the period in death of Jesus Christ. He remained in the abode of the dead. It is surely a great mystery, this repose in death of God the Son made man. He shared mankind’s descent into the state of death, which of course, as with every other human being did not involve extinction but a passing in his spirit from the scene of this earthly life. In his humanity he continued to live in his spirit, of course, but in what we might call a Limbo, where the other just souls awaited the opening of the gates of heaven. Consider who were there, and who received him. Moses and Elijah had spoken to him when he was transfigured in glory on the Mount not long before his Passion. They would have received him. So would Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the patriarchs and prophets, David and those good kings who succeeded him, and others such as Simeon and Anna the prophetess who had hailed his arrival as an infant over three decades before. John the Baptist awaited him. His beloved foster-father Joseph, the husband of his most holy mother, received him. So did Anna and Joachim, traditionally considered the parents of Mary. Imagine his meeting with the holy Joseph! He had daily lived and worked with Joseph during all those years at Nazareth. He had been at Joseph’s death in their house at Nazareth, and he and his mother had accompanied the body of Joseph to its burial outside the village of Nazareth.

There would surely have been others among the just in the abode of the dead, others beyond the pale of the chosen people of God. We read of upright men and women among the peoples. For instance, we may think of those good and conscientious Wise Men from the East who had come to honour the infant King. They had been led by a heavenly star — some form of natural revelation — from their own culture and wisdom to an encounter with the King of kings. Were they not representative of very many others of various nations whom God in his goodness led in diverse ways along the path of a good life? Surely so. There were those who conscientiously did good work for mankind, even if they failed in this or that respect along the road of moral goodness. Let us think of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle — may we not think of them as having sought the light and in some measure attained it, endeavouring in the process to be virtuous? We cannot tell how God judged them, but we may be sure that God was working for the salvation of all his children, and that in the event he was a God of mercy and compassion. Let us imagine the acclaim and joy that flooded the place of Limbo to which Christ in death descended on that Sabbath day following his death at Calvary. The field had been won. All that now remained was for him to rise from death and ascend into heaven, and they too would rise with him and ascend to heaven in their spirits. Their Champion had won. The bonds of sin had been broken, and Satan had been left confounded. Imagine Christ in the abode of the dead, among the good and holy souls from God’s chosen people and beyond, who by the aid of God had not died in deliberate, unrepented mortal sin. May we not imagine this day, the day of Christ in death, as the day of joy in Limbo when those there had the privilege of personal contact in their spirits with their divine Brother and Redeemer? We are speculating, but Christ did descend to the dead, and what awaited him there? Obviously, those who also were in the abode of the dead, but who lived in God, awaiting the work of the Redeemer to be accomplished. To them the good news was announced.

On this side of the grave, all was quiet and in gloom for the disciples of Christ. Except for his holy mother, they all seemed to have completely forgotten his solemn predictions that he would rise from the dead on the third day. It was a day of gloom and inactivity. The Light of the world had been snuffed out, and Life was now lifeless. It seemed that Death had had the final say, and that sin had conquered. But no. All was quiet, but a mighty unseen fount of life was preparing to burst forth, a Fount that would never cease to bring life to all. Let us marvel at the mystery of our Redemption, and understand that in Christ is to be found every heavenly blessing.

2010-04-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

The Crucifixion Of Jesus

A medical explanation of what Jesus endured on the day He died
by Dr. C. Truman Davis*

Several years ago I became interested in the physical aspects of the passion, or suffering, of Jesus Christ when I read an account of the crucifixion in Jim Bishop's book, The Day Christ Died. I suddenly realized that I had taken the crucifixion more or less for granted all these years - that I had grown callous to its horror by a too-easy familiarity with the grim details. It finally occurred to me that, as a physician, I did not even know the actual immediate cause of Christ's death. The gospel writers do not help much on this point. Since crucifixion and scourging were so common during their lifetimes, they undoubtedly considered a detailed description superfluous. For that reason we have only the concise words of the evangelists: "Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to them to be crucified ... and they crucified Him."

Despite the gospel accounts silence on the details of Christ's crucifixion, many have looked into this subject in the past. In my personal study of the event from a medical viewpoint, I am indebted especially to Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who did exhaustive historical and experimental research and wrote extensively on the topic.

An attempt to examine the infinite psychic and spiritual suffering of the Incarnate1 God in atonement for the sins of fallen man is beyond the scope of this article. However, the physiological and anatomical aspects of our Lord's passion we can examine in some detail. What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture?

Gethsemane

The physical passion of Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of His initial suffering, the one which is of particular physiological interest is the bloody sweat. Interestingly enough, the physician, St. Luke, is the only evangelist to mention this occurrence. He says, "And being in an agony, he prayed the longer. And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground" (Luke 22:44).

Every attempt imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away the phenomenon of bloody sweat, apparently under the mistaken impression that it simply does not occur. A great deal of effort could be saved by consulting the medical literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great emotional stress, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process alone could have produced marked weakness and possible shock.

Although Jesus' betrayal and arrest are important portions of the passion story, the next event in the account which is significant from a medical perspective is His trial before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High Priest. Here the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiaphas. The palace guards then blindfolded Him, mockingly taunted Him to identify them as each passed by, spat on Him, and struck Him in the face.

Before Pilate

In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and worn out from a sleepless night, Jesus was taken across Jerusalem to the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. We are familiar with Pilate's action in attempting to shift responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was returned to Pilate. It was then, in response to the outcry of the mob, that Pilate ordered Barabbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.

Preparations for Jesus' scourging were carried out at Caesar's orders. The prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. The Roman legionnaire stepped forward with the flagrum, or flagellum, in his hand. This was a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip was brought down with full force again and again across Jesus' shoulders, back, and legs. At first the weighted thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continued, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.

The small balls of lead first produced large deep bruises that were broken open by subsequent blows. Finally, the skin of the back was hanging in long ribbons, and the entire area was an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it was determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner was near death, the beating was finally stopped.

Mockery

The half-fainting Jesus was then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with his own blood. The Roman soldiers saw a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be a king. They threw a robe across His shoulders and placed a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still needed a crown to make their travesty complete. Small flexible branches covered with long thorns, commonly used for kindling fires in the charcoal braziers in the courtyard, were plaited into the shape of a crude crown. The crown was pressed into his scalp and again there was copious bleeding as the thorns pierced the very vascular tissue. After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers took the stick from His hand and struck Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tired of their sadistic sport and tore the robe from His back. The robe had already become adherent to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, and its removal, just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, caused excruciating pain. The wounds again began to bleed.

Calvary

In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans apparently returned His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross was tied across His shoulders. The procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion began its slow journey along the route which we know today as the Via Dolorosa.

In spite of Jesus' efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious loss of blood, was too much. He stumbled and fell. The rough wood of the beam gouged into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tried to rise, but human muscles had been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to proceed with the crucifixion, selected a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus followed, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock. The 650-yard journey from the Fortress Antonia to Golgotha was finally completed. The prisoner was again stripped of His clothing except for a loin cloth which was allowed the Jews.

The crucifixion began. Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic, pain-reliving mixture. He refused the drink. Simon was ordered to place the patibulum on the ground, and Jesus was quickly thrown backward, with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire felt for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drove a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moved to the other side and repeated the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum was then lifted into place at the top of the stipes, and the titulus reading "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" was nailed into place.

The left foot was pressed backward against the right foot. With both feet extended, toes down, a nail was driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The victim was now crucified.

On the Cross

As Jesus slowly sagged down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. The nails in the wrists were putting pressure on the median nerve, large nerve trunks which traverse the mid-wrist and hand. As He pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He placed His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there was searing agony as the nail tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of this feet.

At this point, another phenomenon occurred. As the arms fatigued, great waves of cramps swept over the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps came the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by the arm, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, were paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, were unable to act. Air could be drawn into the lungs, but could not be exhaled. Jesus fought to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, the carbon dioxide level increased in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided.

The Last Words

Spasmodically, He was able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences that are recorded.

The first - looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice6 for His seamless garment: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do."

The second - to the penitent thief: "Today, thou shalt be with me in Paradise."

The third - looking down at Mary His mother, He said: "Woman, behold your son." Then turning to the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John , the beloved apostle, He said: "Behold your mother."

The fourth cry is from the beginning of Psalm 22: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

He suffered hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, and searing pain as tissue was torn from His lacerated back from His movement up and down against the rough timbers of the cross. Then another agony began: a deep crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart, slowly filled with serum and began to compress the heart.

The prophecy in Psalm 22:14 was being fulfilled: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."

The end was rapidly approaching. The loss of tissue fluids had reached a critical level; the compressed heart was struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood to the tissues, and the tortured lungs were making a frantic effort to inhale small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues sent their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasped His fifth cry: "I thirst." Again we read in the prophetic psalm: "My strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death" (Psalm 22:15).

A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine that was the staple drink of the Roman legionnaires, was lifted to Jesus' lips. His body was now in extremis, and He could feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brought forth His sixth word, possibly little more than a tortured whisper: "It is finished." His mission of atonement had been completed. Finally, He could allow His body to die. With one last surge of strength, He once again pressed His torn feet against the nail, straightened His legs, took a deeper breath, and uttered His seventh and last cry: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit."

Death

The common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the leg. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; the tension could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest, and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers approached Jesus, they saw that this was unnecessary.

Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. John 19:34 states, "And immediately there came out blood and water." Thus there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and the blood of the interior of the heart. This is rather conclusive post-mortem evidence that Jesus died, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.

“Consummatum Est.”

2010-04-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Lord, by shedding his blood for us, your Son, Jesus Christ, established the paschal mystery. In your goodness, make us holy and watch over us always. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
or
Lord, by the suffering of Christ your Son you have saved us all from the death we inherited from sinful Adam. By the law of nature we have borne the likeness of his manhood. May the sanctifying power of grace help us to put on the likeness of our Lord in heaven, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (18.1~19.42)

Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself, he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews." Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews'." Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." (John 19:15-22)

The King
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

Crucifixion was in use among the Persians, Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. Alexander the Great is reputed to have crucified 2000 survivors from his siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre. Can we imagine what might have happened to the course of history had Alexander been captured during one of his numerous battles, and subsequently crucified? The thought of Alexander the Great being crucified almost boggles the historical imagination because of his greatness as a general. His potential greatness would have immediately come to nothing. Let us take a second hypothesis. Julius Caesar was captured on two occasions by pirates, and on the second occasion his captors were the feared Cilicians. He was subsequently released on a ransom. He then returned, defeated and captured them, and proceeded to crucify them. Imagine if the pirates had crucified Caesar instead, while he was their captive? Not only would it have been the abrupt end of a most distinguished career, but it would have been one of history’s most resounding humiliations. Alexander the Great, and then Julius Caesar, both crucified by their enemies — the thought is almost preposterous. In our Gospel passage today we have the cold, hard fact of the Lord of lords and King of kings being led out of the Holy City of Jerusalem to the Rock called the Skull. He carried on his shoulders the beam to which he would be nailed. So weak was he that at one point a passer-by was commandeered to carry the wood by his side to the place of crucifixion. There he was crucified between two other criminals. A sign was nailed to the head of the cross, written in the three languages of that part of the world — Latin, Greek and Hebrew, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” It was death in disgrace, a total rejection, and at that point it seemed to be the utter end of everything. But no. It is perhaps the most amazing phenomenon in history and in religion that this Crucified One would within a few days be acknowledged as the Lord of lords, and King of kings. Alexander and Caesar, for all their earthly glory, remain but dust and ashes, and who is to say where they stand now, on the other side of the grave! Not so, Jesus the Crucified One.

Let us place ourselves in that forlorn scene outside the City (John 19:15-22). We stand with a small and heartbroken group. His holy, strong and all-suffering mother, his beloved disciple, and a few other ardent disciples among the women, all are watching. The stark and bare rock stands before us as we hear the thud of the nails and the wood being hoisted to its position. Alexander, Caesar, and so many others of history had their moments of victory and greatness. The greatest of them all is before us, now hanging on the Cross. He is plunged in unheard-of suffering and disgrace. He is engaged in the most decisive of all battles, one on which the prospects of the whole world hangs. He is struggling with titanic forces, for all of hell is beating down upon him, and all of this world’s sin. In the jeers of the religious leaders who see their supposed rival sinking to a terrible death, is heard the laughter of Satan doing all he can to drown Christ in suffering. The Messiah is being done to death. As this most admirable of men — whom the very centurion would soon call a son of God — descended into the darkest depths, a great light was appearing on the distant horizon of the gloom of the world. The field was being won, and the sword of victory was obedience amid humiliation and suffering. Mankind’s champion was himself making up for all the sins of mankind. He stood in the middle of the field, as it were, as the storm bellowed above. He opened wide his powerful arms and asked his loving Father that the sin of the world strike him instead. That it did, and like a powerful bolt of lightning the sin of the world struck him with a force that cannot be measured. It hit him and he received its force with a full and loving heart, and with that the lightning was spent. It had done its work in putting to death the Messiah, so that all of his brothers might live now and forever. The Messiah lay dead, having promised that very soon, indeed on the third day, he would rise again with a new life that he would share with us all. He expiated for the sin of the world, the greatest of victories.

Let us all our lives contemplate the King of kings and Lord of lords hanging on the Cross. In that great event the world was saved, and man was given the lesson of all lessons. If we want to know the secret to being victorious in life, we must look not to the Alexanders and to the Caesars, but to one man, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews and the Lord of the world. Let us aim in life to know, love and serve Jesus Christ our Lord and God, and in this way come to see and enjoy him forever in heaven. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the image of the unseen God, the only way to the Father, the only name by which man can be saved. His throne is the Cross. Let us take our stand with him there, on Calvary, next to this one and only throne.

2010-04-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

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 prayer intention for April is: "That every tendency to fundamentalism and extremism may be countered by constant respect, by tolerance and by dialogue among all believers".

His mission intention for April is: "That Christians persecuted for the sake of the Gospel may persevere, sustained by the Holy Spirit, in faithfully witnessing to the love of God for the entire human race".

Prayers today: We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection; through him we are saved and made free. (See Gal 6:14)

God our Father, we are gathered here to share in the supper which your only Son left to his Church to reveal his love. He gave it to us when he was about to die and commanded us to celebrate it as the new and eternal sacrifice. We pray that in this eucharist we may find the fullness of love and life. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.

St. Hugh of Grenoble (1052-1132)

Today’s saint could be a patron for those of us who feel so overwhelmed by all the problems in the world that we don’t know where to begin. Hugh, who served as a bishop in France for 52 years, had his work cut out for him from the start. Corruption seemed to loom in every direction: the buying and selling of Church offices, violations of clerical celibacy, lay control of Church property, religious indifference and/or ignorance. After serving as bishop for two years, he’d had his fill. He tried disappearing to a monastery, but the pope called him back to continue the work of reform. Ironically, Hugh was reasonably effective in the role of reformer—surely because of his devotion to the Church but also because of his strong character. In conflicts between Church and state he was an unflinching defender of the Church. He fearlessly supported the papacy. He was eloquent as a preacher. He restored his own cathedral, made civic improvements in the town and weathered a brief exile. Hugh may be best known as patron and benefactor of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order. Hugh died in 1132. He was canonized only two years later.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (13.1~15)

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied, You do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then, Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well! Jesus answered, A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you. For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. Do you understand what I have done for you? he asked them. You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord', and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

The Divine Servant
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

In ancient civilizations where sandals were the footwear and dust and dirt a feature of roads, a host commonly offered to provide water for a guest to wash his feet. An example of this is given us when Abraham received the three men by the terebinth of Mamre (Genesis 18: 4). Alternatively, a servant might wash the feet of the guest, and we read in 1 Samuel 25: 41 how Abigail, referring to herself as David’s “handmaid,” says she “would become a slave to wash the feet of my Lord’s servants.” On one occasion our Lord accepted the invitation of a Pharisee to dine with him. The Pharisee omitted the courtesy of offering our Lord water to wash his feet, but during the meal a woman entered the house — a woman with a poor reputation in the town — and proceeded to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. She then anointed his feet with her perfumed oil. She was showing him signal love and honour. Our Lord accepted her courtesy and sent her away with her sins forgiven. We remember how after our Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, a dinner was held in his honour in the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. When all were reclining at table, Mary came in with a pint of pure nard to the value of nearly a year’s wages, and poured it over the feet of Jesus. She was, as a host, washing the feet of Jesus not just with water but with a most valuable substance. The aroma filled the entire house, as she wiped the feet of Jesus not just with a towel, but with her hair. By her hair, she was, as it were, taking the place of the towel that wiped his feet. She was humbly bestowing the highest honour on our Lord that was within her power. The gesture of washing the feet was a mark of genuine humility by the host and of high honour to the guest. In our Gospel today, our Lord, whom the disciples addressed as Master and Lord — and “rightly so, for that is what I am” — knelt before each of his disciples and proceeded to wash their feet. It symbolized Christ being a servant, a slave. It was too much for Simon Peter. “Lord, you shall never wash my feet,” he said.

Ponder the scene (John 13: 1-15), and contemplate what it tells us of the one and only God. It is extraordinary enough, wondrous beyond words, that God is in the midst of this group as a Man. This Man whom they addressed as Master and Lord, with whom Peter felt he could expostulate, was the living God, the God of all things visible and invisible. Through him all things were made, and in him was life, the source of life for all living things. There he stood, there he sat, there he conversed, in his humanity. The great God, so high a God as to transcend all things in every respect, had taken to himself a human nature and thus made himself our brother. But lo! He rises from the table and “wrapped a towel round his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him.” The gesture was unmistakable in its significance. God was acting as a humble servant would act towards an honoured guest. That is the attitude of God towards the living work of his hands. The highest and most exalted Reality of all, is humble and loving. This, Reality at its most exalted, is humble and serving. Our Lord was revealing to his disciples what it is to be like God. Simon Peter refused, for it was, he thought, demeaning to the one whom he so loved and venerated. He could not accept that his very feet be washed by his Master and his Lord. But he had to accept it, if Jesus was to be his Master and Lord at all, for Jesus the Master was the predicted Suffering Servant who would take away the sins of mankind. “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then, Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well! Jesus answered, A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean.” Our Lord had come to wash the feet of mankind, making himself the Servant of all men, making them clean all over. That was his grand mission, to make humanity clean of sin and endowed with a share in his own life. His disciples, with Simon Peter at their head, would have the mission of bringing Jesus Christ to the world so that in him the world would be made new.

Let us understand well what it means to be like God. It means to be like Jesus Christ who put aside the divine glory that had been his to become as men are, and humbler still, even to death on a cross. He became the Servant of all, and his final gesture at the Last Supper, washing the feet of his disciples — and just imagine our Lord’s emotion as he washed the feet of Judas Iscariot — showed forth who he really was and what he had come to do. He was the God of all love, and he had come to make mankind clean. Let us take our stand with him and strive to do as he did.

2010-03-31T04:24:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: At the name of Jesus every knee must bend, in heaven, on earth and under the earth; Christ became obedient for us even to death, dying on the cross. Therefore, to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord. (Phil 2:10, 8, 11)

Father, in your plan of salvation your Son Jesus Christ accepted the cross and freed us from the power of the enemy. May we come to share the glory of his resurrection, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Stephen of Mar Saba (d. 794)

A "do not disturb" sign helped today's saint find holiness and peace. Stephen of Mar Saba was the nephew of St. John Damascene, who introduced the young boy to monastic life beginning at age 10. When he reached 24, Stephen served the community in a variety of ways, including guest master. After some time he asked permission to live a hermit's life. The answer from the abbot was yes and no: Stephen could follow his preferred lifestyle during the week, but on weekends he was to offer his skills as a counsellor. Stephen placed a note on the door of his cell: "Forgive me, Fathers, in the name of the Lord, but please do not disturb me except on Saturdays and Sundays." Despite his calling to prayer and quiet, Stephen displayed uncanny skills with people and was a valued spiritual guide. His biographer and disciple wrote about Stephen: "Whatever help, spiritual or material, he was asked to give, he gave. He received and honored all with the same kindness. He possessed nothing and lacked nothing. In total poverty he possessed all things." Stephen died in 794.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (26.14~25)

One of the Twelve — the one called Judas Iscariot — went to the chief priests and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand Him over. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.'" So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, He said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray Me." They were very sad and began to say to Him one after the other, "Surely not I, Lord?" Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with Me will betray Me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born." Then Judas, the one who would betray Him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you."

Secret sin
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

In their accounts of the Last Supper, each of the four Gospels narrates how our Lord sorrowfully announced that one of his own would betray him. They all agree that Judas was there in their midst during this dramatic announcement that astonished the body of the disciples. Now, there is a textual detail that suggests how memorable this was in the minds of the disciples. Our Gospel passage today is Matthew’s account of this declaration of Jesus, which occurs early in the Supper (26:20-21). In Matthew, our Lord’s words are (in the Greek) “eis ex humon paradosei me” (one of you will betray me). In John’s account of the Supper, Christ tells the news after he has washed the feet of his disciples, which would have included Judas. The words as quoted by John (13: 21) are the same, “eis ex humon paradosei me.” In the Gospel of St Mark, which scholars generally agree is Mark’s writing of Peter’s account of the Gospel, the wording is the same: “eis ex humon paradosei me” (14:18) with the addition of “ho esthion met emou” (the one eating with me). That is to say, we have identical versions of the very words of Christ in the recollections of three of the Apostles who were at the Supper. With all three, the Greek rendering of the original Aramaic (or Hebrew) is the same. John and Peter were on either side of our Lord, and perhaps Matthew was reclining not far from them at the repast. Luke, who was not at the Supper and who reports the result of his careful enquiries, has our Lord say this: “behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me at the table” (22:21). He, not an eye-witness, differs in wording from the other three, although our Lord may have said what Luke reports as well. The point I am making here is that it looks as if our Lord’s devastating news was so memorable that the very words he used burned into the minds of those who were present. It was overwhelming and there had been no preparation for it. They had not the slightest inkling that such a thing would come to pass. The Apostles were in complete confusion, and all the while Judas kept his terrible secret. He was buried in secret, mortal sin — hidden, as he hoped, even from the knowledge of Christ.

Yes, Judas in his heart of hearts was profoundly isolated, and this is how he wanted it to be. He studiously fitted in with the others. They had no suspicion of where he stood. In our Gospel passage today from Matthew (Matthew 26: 14-25), various of the Apostles in turn asked our Lord if it were they who would betray him — presumably they meant inadvertently, or in some other inexplicable manner. Matthew reports that Judas also asked our Lord the same question — and perhaps Matthew remembered seeing Judas ask this. This fact immediately suggests that, apart from fitting in very well in the Apostolic group, even in his expressions of friendship towards our Lord Judas had seemed no different from the others. The point is that Judas was sunk in hidden sin. His descent from venial to mortal sin had been a solitary and hidden process, in which in his heart he had gradually striven to hide himself from the Saviour. We remember the first man and woman who, after they had sinned, hid from the Lord God. Judas became clouded in self-deception, thinking that what he was doing was “okay” after all. He had approached the chief priests, and perhaps his dark and terrible dealings with them gave legitimacy to his course, in his own mind. Satan was befuddling him in self-deceit and at each step, Judas deliberately chose his course. All of this was luminously clear to the all-knowing Christ. He could see the advancing tragedy of his chosen friend — his friend! He would address him as such in the Garden: Friend, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? In our passage today, Judas thinks that Christ knows nothing of the direction of his heart and of his relations with his mortal enemies. He is seated near enough to our Lord, because in John’s Gospel our Lord reaches to him, offering the gift of a morsel. Hiding himself from the gaze of Goodness itself, he asks, Surely not I, Rabbi? Our Lord whispered plainly to him that, yes, it was he indeed. The tragedy of Judas was that he was not open with our Lord. Had he only admitted to our Lord his temptations and his secret falls!

The immortal story of Judas Iscariot surely tells us that we must bring our temptations and our sins before Jesus Christ for his light, his grace, his pardon and his direction. We must develop a hatred of hidden, secret sins. We must examine our consciences, and bring all sins to the light of the divine gaze, asking Jesus our Redeemer for his grace, his light and his pardon. Judas needed the spiritual direction of Jesus Christ, and he refused it. He needed his pardon, and he refused it. He went down the path of Satan, and reached a point where all he then did was despair. Let this be the lesson of lessons. Flee all secret sin! Bring all sin before Jesus Christ!

2010-03-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: False witnesses have stood up against me, and my enemies threaten violence; Lord, do not surrender me into their power! (Ps 26:12)

Father, may we receive your forgiveness and mercy as we celebrate the passion and death of the Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

St. Peter Regalado (1390-1456)

Peter lived at a very busy time. The Great Western Schism (1378-1417) was settled at the Council of Constance (1414-1418). France and England were fighting the Hundred Years’ War, and in 1453 the Byzantine Empire was completely wiped out by the loss of Constantinople to the Turks. At Peter’s death the age of printing had just begun in Germany, and Columbus's arrival in the New World was less than 40 years away. Peter came from a wealthy and pious family in Valladolid, Spain. At the age of 13, he was allowed to enter the Conventual Franciscans. Shortly after his ordination, he was made superior of the friary in Aguilar. He became part of a group of friars who wanted to lead a life of greater poverty and penance. In 1442 he was appointed head of all the Spanish Franciscans in his reform group. Peter led the friars by his example. A special love of the poor and the sick characterized Peter. Miraculous stories are told about his charity to the poor. For example, the bread never seemed to run out as long as Peter had hungry people to feed. Throughout most of his life, Peter went hungry; he lived only on bread and water. Immediately after his death on March 31, 1456, his grave became a place of pilgrimage. Peter was canonized in 1746.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (13.21~33.36~38)

After He had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray Me." His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them He meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to Him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask Him which one He means." Leaning back against Jesus, "He asked Him, Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish. Then, dipping the piece of bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into Him. "What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, but no-one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night. When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will glorify the Son in Himself, and will glorify Him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for Me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come." Simon Peter asked Him, "Lord, where are you going? Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later." Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You." Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for Me? I tell you the truth, before the cock crows, you will disown me three times!

The gaze of Christ
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

On March 15 (the Ides of March), 44 BC, Caesar was assassinated by some Roman senators, including Marcus Junius Brutus, Caesar's close friend. Caesar's last words are not known with certainty. Those most famously attributed to him are “Et tu, Brute?”, placed in his mouth by Shakespeare in his drama, Julius Caesar. Some understand Caesar’s final words as expressing shock at his betrayal, others see in them a curse and a threat. In any case, the great Caesar knew nothing of the conspiracy and, surprised at the last, went to his death at the hand of a friend. The words, “Et tu, Brute?” have come to signify betrayal by a friend. A little less than seventy years after Caesar, there was a far more heinous betrayal in a corner of the Empire. In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord addressed his betrayer as his friend. “Friend,” he said to Judas, “would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” Our Lord had personally chosen Judas from among his disciples to be one of the Twelve, a patriarch of his Church, to be with him as his special companion and to be sent out with a special share in his mission. It was an extraordinary vocation to friendship with Christ, a unique choice, and Judas could have been a great saint like the rest of the Twelve. As such he would have been celebrated with his own feast day in the life of the Church till the end of time. He could have died a martyr for Christ and reigned forever with Christ in heaven. But what do we notice? In chapter six of St John’s Gospel, after our Lord made his stunning announcement of the doctrine of the Eucharist in the Synagogue of Capernaum, many of his disciples left him. Turning to the Twelve, he asked if they too were intending to go, for there was no turning back from what he had just revealed. No indeed, Simon Peter answered, for he, Jesus, had the words of life. “Have I not chosen you Twelve?” our Lord replied. “Yet one of you is a devil.” Caesar knew nothing of his betrayal, but our Lord knew his betrayer exactly.

Our Gospel today (John 13: 21-33.36-38) opens with our Lord’s expression of heartfelt disappointment, which undoubtedly was an oblique appeal to the soul of his chosen companion. “Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.” An absorbing feature of this scene is that the entire body of disciples had not the slightest suspicion of the apostasy of the heart of Judas. They had no idea that one among them had given up on Jesus, let alone had entered into relations with his very enemies. Judas had been with them for the best part of three years, living with them, going out on missions with them, associating with our Lord freely and constantly. It must have been a community life of the first order with our Lord as its heart and soul. If there is one good way of getting to know a person, live with him. They lived with Judas, and yet over this period of constant association they suspected nothing. They would have known various of his faults just as they would have known various of the faults of one another. But nothing of seriousness was suspected. We read that when our Lord made his startling announcement, “His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, Ask him which one he means. Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, Lord, who is it?” Simon Peter had no idea, nor did John the beloved disciple. Our Lord had associated Peter, James and John with him in special ways, but nothing whatever was divulged to them. The complete disaffection by Judas was one of Christ’s most serious burdens. Judas attempted to disguise himself even from Christ. But his heart was in full view to our Lord’s loving and sorrowful gaze. Our Lord did not unmask him, nor expel him, nor take him to task. Undoubtedly by all sorts of discreet ways our Lord attempted to shield and dissuade him from the approaches of Satan. But Satan won, and at the Last Supper, entered him.

The story of Judas is, among other things, the story of a heart that became more and more sunk in serious sin, but which was constantly open to the gaze of Jesus Christ. Let us think of that divine gaze. No one, not even Satan, can plumb the depths of our hearts and see what is happening at bottom. Not even do we see to the very depths. But one assuredly does, and he is our brother and our God, Jesus Christ. He knows our heart through and through, and its very first starting points are laid bare before him. Let us ask him to give us a heart which right to the very foundation is good soil for the word of God, a heart that will produce a harvest with the aid of God’s grace. In a word, let us live before the gaze of Jesus Christ, always trying to please him.

2010-03-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Prayers this week: Six days before the solemn Passover the Lord came to Jerusalem, and children waving palm branches ran out to welcome him. They loudly praised the Lord: Hosanna in the highest. Blessed are you who have come to us so rich in love and mercy.

Almighty and ever living God, you have given the human race Jesus Christ our Saviour as a model of humility. He fulfilled your will by becoming man and giving his life on the cross. Help us to bear witness to you by following his example of suffering and make us worthy to share in his resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Hesychius of Jerusalem (c. 450)

Not only is the name of today's saint a bit hard to pronounce and spell. It's also difficult to learn about such a modest and gentle man who lived in the fourth and fifth century and who is better known in the Russian Orthodox Church. The birth date of Hesychius (pronounced HESH-us) is unclear, but we know that he was a priest and monk who wrote a history of the Church, unfortunately lost. He also wrote about many of the burning issues of his day. These included the heresy of Nestorianism, which held that there were two separate persons in Jesus—one human, one divine—and the heresy of Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. Some of his commentaries on the books of the Bible as well, along with meditations on the prophets and homilies on the Blessed Virgin Mary, still survive. It's believed Hesychius delivered Easter homilies in the basilica in Jerusalem thought to be the place of the crucifixion. His words on the Eucharist, written centuries ago, speak to us today: "Keep yourselves free from sin so that every day you may share in the mystic meal; by doing so our bodies become the body of Christ."
Hesychius died around the year 450.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (22.14~23.56)

Luke 19: 28-40 (The Entry into Jerusalem) After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no-one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.' Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, Why are you untying the colt? They replied, The Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples! I tell you, he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.

The work of works
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There are those who consider the wars flowing from the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte as being the first world war — and this was over a century prior to World War I. Ultimately it became a war between Bonaparte and his principal enemy, the British. Napoleon came to see that because of the mastery of the sea by the British, it would be impossible for him to invade England. So he launched into a continental blockade which attempted to destroy Britain’s ability to trade. The whole of the European continent, including even Russia, was to be shut off from English goods. It involved immense effort, was never fully implemented, went on for nearly eight years, and broke down at the seams. It was a tremendous project involving enormous effort internationally. For instance, England’s response to it seriously affected its relations with the United States. On the other hand, the blockade facilitated Wellington’s entry into Europe via the rebellious Spanish Peninsular, and this contributed greatly to Bonaparte’s final defeat. Ultimately it caused more harm to the Grand Empire than to England. I mention this as one example of so many spectacular projects in the history of mankind. Kingdoms and rulers have risen and fallen; lives have been lost; blood, sweat and tears have been expended, and one might be forgiven for wondering, all to what avail. George Bernard Shaw once publicly joked that it would have been better for mankind if Napoleon had never been born. Let that be the backdrop, and let the scene of history now change to the one portrayed in our Gospel passage today. It occurred on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, at the gates of Jerusalem. A man was proceeding on a colt, humbly, with no pretensions in his regal face. He was no temporal ruler, no holder of great civil power. There he slowly rode with crowds surrounding him, front and behind. They were acclaiming him as the Messiah who had come. A man in his prime, his face exuded holiness and an indefinable dignity. His eyes gazed ahead of him to the holy city which would soon be the scene of a unique drama affecting all of history to come.

Let us imagine all the projects of the world and the efforts that they have required of man — and I referred to but one of them earlier. What would any of these, or all of them together, amount to when compared with the project which this Man now entering Jerusalem had set himself? He had set himself the task, and had been sent from above for the purpose, of making up for the sin of the world. He was about to bare his shoulders to suffer for all the sins of mankind. Can anyone think of a more mammoth task? Consider the sins of one solitary individual, even, let us suppose, an individual blessed with never having committed a mortal sin of either thought, word or deed. Consider his numerous, nay countless, venial offences against God. Even if all of mankind were never to have committed a single mortal sin, consider the unending sea of venial sins perpetrated daily by mankind, sins of the heart, sins of the mind, sins of the tongue, sins of deed. Imagine being burdened with the venial sins of all mankind. But in fact we must imagine the sin of the world as involving mortal sin indeed. From the very dawn of history mortal sin has appeared on the scene, dark, hateful, rebellious, deadly. Our first parents sinned mortally, wishing to be gods in independence of the one God. If you eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will be like God, knowing (i.e., determining for yourself) good and evil. That was the temptation, and they chose it. It reflected the sin of the demons in heaven long before. Ever since the terrible beginning at the dawn of history, sin has inundated the world, and it has been deadly sin as well as venial sin. The problem of the world has been sin. Sin entered the world through one man and with sin came death, and death has spread to the whole human race. The problem the Messiah had been sent to fix was man’s separation from God. There he was, now entering Jerusalem, and by the end of that week the work would be done. It was achieved not by armies, not by trumpets, not by the fanfare of the great, but by his own absolute obedience amid unparalleled personal suffering.

The greatest thing ever done for man and the world was done by Jesus Christ. It entailed simple steps: witnessing to the truth of his person and teaching, and accepting the will of his heavenly Father that he suffer indescribably for the sin of the world as a result. He carried his cross from Pilate’s building across to the raised rock outside the city and there was crucified. It was an occurrence that veiled a profound cosmic shift, a shift from bondage to sin to a share in the life of God. If we, nobodies though we might be, follow in the footsteps of Jesus, then we shall also contribute mightily to the good of man. Let us get our priorities right, then! Ah yes, to the work!

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A second reflection for Palm Sunday:

"As he was approaching the downward slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole group of disciples joyfully began to praise God at the top of their voices for all the miracles they had seen".

I remember watching a television interview with a prominent Australian philosopher who was asked if he believed in God. He said he did not because of all the evil and suffering there is in the world. If there were a God, he said, he would have arranged things differently. It was not clear whether the philosopher (Peter Singer) was asking for a world free of evil and suffering, but the good news is that God has sent his Son to deal with evil and suffering, and by uniting ourselves with Jesus, we too deal with it — in God’s way — in our own lives.

On Palm Sunday we celebrate our Lord entering Jerusalem for the holiest week of his life, the week during which he would deal definitively with suffering and sin. He dealt with sin by accepting — indeed embracing — and then bearing to the end the suffering which came to him as a result of his witnessing to the truth. Our Lord dreaded his hour of suffering, and in the Garden he sweated blood at the prospect. But at the same time he looked to it with longing, setting his face towards it like flint. He advanced towards it with firm decision because he intended to give it its new meaning. By means of his suffering he would take away the sin of the world. In the first reading we read of the suffering Servant of Yahweh, the harbinger of Christ in meekly submitting to the violence inflicted upon him. St Paul writes that God made the sinless Christ to be sin, as it were, in order to take away our sins.

There is another aspect of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. He entered Jerusalem to bear witness to the truth about his own person before the leaders of the Jews and before Pilate, which is to say before the chosen people and before the world. Before the chief priests he testified that he was the Son of the Most High, that he would be seated at his right hand, and therefore that he was equal to God. Before Pilate he said that he was born to bear witness to the truth, and in his passion he bore witness to this truth. We are called to share in his work of bearing witness to the truth about Jesus. The word martyr means witness, and martyrs are referred to as receiving the palm of martyrdom. On Palm Sunday we all receive palms above all to symbolize our resolve to bear witness to our faith in Jesus our king. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Let us resolve to bear witness to Jesus every day in every aspect of our lives, in all our thoughts, words, joys and sufferings. For if we are not ashamed of bearing witness to Jesus here on earth he will bear witness to us before our Father in heaven. Christ has shown that the suffering in the world is now the path to glory. Let us take that path.

Christ humbled himself to share our nature even to death, and because of his obedience God raised him on high. If we unite our sufferings with those of Christ in a spirit of obedience and in witness to him who is the truth, those sufferings will lead us to glory. They will sanctify us. This is the grace to seek this week and today, uniting ourselves in spirit with Jesus as he enters Jerusalem to suffer for us.
(E.J.Tyler)

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A third reflection on Palm Sunday

Scripture today: Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 21; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56

"As he was approaching the downward slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole group of disciples joyfully began to praise God at the top of their voices for all the miracles they had seen". (Luke 19:28-40)

Today we think of our Lord entering Jerusalem to undergo unimaginable sufferings for the salvation of the world. Due to our Lord’s sufferings, human suffering has a purpose, and we must recover this sense of purpose. Suffering takes many forms. For instance, it can take the form of failure. If one were to ask, from a worldly point of view, whether Christ at the time of his death was a success or a failure, what would some have said? They would have said — especially the religious leaders would — that he was a failure. The people en masse did not really believe in him, and in fact the leaders killed him. His own closest associates ran away. In fact, if there is one person in history who presents the problem of evil and suffering, it is Jesus Christ. The ancient Greeks were fatalists. Even their gods were depicted as being in the hands of fate. In our day what is the reaction to suffering? It is to do anything, anything, even the grossest evil, to avoid it. We even kill the unborn to avoid suffering. I suppose there are two main reasons why an abortion is proposed. One is the difficulty and great inconvenience entailed in the pregnancy, birth and upbringing of the child. A second reason is often that, due to scientific techniques, it is discovered that the child will have serious disabilities. The child, it is said, would have no quality of life and the quality of life for the mother too will be seriously impaired. There will be too much suffering and inconvenience. Suffering is deemed to have no purpose, and the response to it is to do anything to avoid it, even to put an end to the life in question.

Once on the ABC TV 7.30 Report, presenter Kerry O’Brien interviewed the scientist who many years ago discovered DNA, the genetic material that determines the character traits and constitution of the unborn child. Because of this discovery all sorts of genetic information is now available, enabling the parents to know what will be the physical health and constitution of the child. With this knowledge many decide to abort children who have very serious disabilities. The scientist who discovered DNA unambiguously stated that the unborn child has no rights as such, and that if it is discovered that the child will have serious disabilities, it is up to the parent to decide whether the child should live or not. That was his response to suffering. Suffering has no purpose at all. Immediately after that segment, Kerry O’Brien introduced another segment which showed a seriously disabled woman in her wheelchair. She was shown deriving great joy from her painting. Then it was explained that her disease progressively makes her a complete prisoner in her own body, and will probably eventually kill her. But she radiated happiness and joy. Moreover, she had formed a group of young women friends who had established a foundation to raise funds for research into the disease she was suffering from. They had already raised $200,000 for this purpose, and had brought out a scientist to Australia to begin the research. One of the group explained that even if this woman dies from the disease without the cure, the research will go on. But most impressive of all was the happiness, the vitality and the joy of this disabled woman. Significantly, she said that she was convinced that her disability was given to her for a reason. Her suffering had and would have a purpose.

That woman was living proof from her joyful attitude that life was indeed worth living despite her deadly disability. Further, she was establishing a foundation to find a cure for the disability from which she herself was suffering. She was bringing quality of life to others. When the cross comes, we must resolve to believe that all is in the hands of God and that he is allowing this, or even sending it, as a sign of his love. We must try to thank him for the good things as well as the bad, knowing that he gives and he takes away for our best interests. We must trust him, and unite ourselves to the Cross of Christ, asking Jesus to use our sufferings just as the Father used his to redeem the world.

2010-03-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Lord, do not stay away; come quickly to help me! I am a worm and no man: men scorn me, people despise me. (Ps 21:20, 7)

God our Father, you always work to save us, and now we rejoice in the great love you give to your chosen people. Protect all who are about to become your children, and continue to bless those who are already baptized. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

Blessed Francis Faà di Bruno (1825-1888)

Francis, the last of 12 children, was born in northern Italy into an aristocratic family. He lived at a particularly turbulent time in history, when anti-Catholic and anti-papal sentiments were especially strong. After being trained as a military officer, Francis was spotted by King Victor Emmanuel II, who was impressed with the young man's character and learning. Invited by the king to tutor his two young sons, Francis agreed and prepared himself with additional studies. But with the role of the Church in education being a sticking point for many, the king was forced to withdraw his offer to the openly Catholic Francis and, instead, find a tutor more suitable to the secular state. Francis soon left army life behind and pursued doctoral studies in Paris in mathematics and astronomy; he also showed a special interest in religion and asceticism. Despite his commitment to the scholarly life, Francis put much of his energy into charitable activities. He founded the Society of St. Zita for maids and domestic servants, later expanding it to include unmarried mothers, among others. He helped establish hostels for the elderly and poor. He even oversaw the construction of a church in Turin that was dedicated to the memory of Italian soldiers who had lost their lives in the struggle over the unification of Italy. Wishing to broaden and deepen his commitment to the poor, Francis, then well into adulthood, studied for the priesthood. But first he had to obtain the support of Pope Pius IX to counteract the opposition to his own archbishop's difficulty with late vocations. Francis was ordained at the age of 51. As a priest, he continued his good works, sharing his inheritance as well as his energy. He established yet another hostel, this time for prostitutes. He died in Turin on March 27, 1888, and was beatified 100 years later.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (11.45~56)

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. What are we accomplishing? they asked. Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, You know nothing at all! You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life. Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple area they asked one another, What do you think? Isn't he coming to the Feast at all?

Trust in God
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

It is interesting to notice that in the Gospel of St John we are given detailed reports of the discussions about Jesus within the meetings of the Sanhedrin, including his trial. We also know the details of the discussion between Pilate and the priests. It suggests that the author of the Gospel had some special access to the Sanhedrin and ready contacts with the members of it. Putting it all together, some scholars opine that John the Evangelist’s family — Zebedee of Galilee being John’s father — was a priestly family. Be that as it may, in John’s account today the Sanhedrin, gathered in session, is shown as profoundly perplexed as to how to dominate the person of Jesus and his ministry. “What are we accomplishing? they asked. Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” Their fear of the action of the Romans was a pretext they hypocritically used to justify their angry discomfort. That there was no basis for this was shown in Pilate’s own lack of concern about Jesus when he was confronted by him. But then we have the words of Caiaphas, serving as high priest that year, who rises to put their confusion to an end. He purports to resolve their moral dilemma with this principle: “You know nothing at all! You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” It was utilitarianism at its worst, doing away with the prophet for the benefit of avoiding a supposed catastrophic intervention by the Romans. But then the inspired author makes the profound point that God was the Master of history, and Caiaphas, unworthy though he was, was speaking prophetically. He did not know it, but the very principle he was setting forth would be marvellously vindicated in the event. It was indeed better that Jesus Christ die for the nation and for all of God’s children everywhere and in every time. Had Christ not died for our sins, the upshot for us would be death, for the wages of sin are death.

The words of Caiaphas and John’s comment on them (John 11:45-56) are a powerful reminder of the might of God’s providence. God bestows on man his gift of freedom. He can choose good or evil, and terrible evils have been perpetrated in the world as a result of man’s free choice. Sin and crime have proliferated from the beginning, and yet the Creator of all attains his ends. Good is drawn out of evil and that good is far greater than the evil from which it was drawn. An archetypal instance of this is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it ought provide hope and inspiration for all who are burdened with the mystery of suffering and evil. If any question were justified, it would surely have been (at the time) the perennial one. Why did God allow this to happen to Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in word and deed, whom many had hoped would bring to Israel their liberation? Why did he himself allow this to happen to him, when he had shown time and again that he could elude the machinations of his enemies? But it was not to be. The prince of this world was on his way, and the net, ever encircling, suddenly entrapped the prey. Christ was apprehended, hastily condemned and put to a shocking death. There he lay, noble beyond description in his terrible death, the expression of a king on his incomparable though lifeless face. It was a sudden and terrible end and it seemed that God had been defeated. But ah! Ah, no! God was Master of history, and to Satan’s chagrin all had been according to the divine plan. It had been better for the people that the Messiah and Son die, than that the people perish. It was necessary that the Son of Man suffer and die in order to enter into his glory, and take with him all of God’s children. The supposed breakthrough offered by Caiaphas to the confused Sanhedrin was indeed mankind’s breakthrough, but in a sense transcending all that the corrupt high priest had supposed. Without the death of Christ, men would have died without any hope of eternal life. The mighty providence of God had drawn unparalleled good out of unparalleled evil.

Let us in all our difficulties and disappointments, all our perplexities at the seeming futility of life’s efforts, gaze on the figure of the Crucified One. Let us but resolve to do God’s will as it seems to present itself before us, and trust in the power and wisdom of God. He has a reason, a very good reason, for permitting whatever he does. We must do our best for what is good — as did Jesus Christ — and then trust in the providence of God. On the tomb of Mary MacKillop in Sydney is that holy woman’s advice: Trust in God! That is what we must do, in everything.

2010-03-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

Blessed Didacus of Cadiz (d. 1801)

Born in Cadiz, Spain, and christened Joseph Francis, the youth spent much of his free time around the Capuchin friars and their church. But his desire to enter the Franciscan Order was delayed because of the difficulty he had with his studies. Finally he was admitted to the novitiate of the Capuchins in Seville as Brother Didacus. He later was ordained a priest and sent out to preach. His gift of preaching was soon evident. He journeyed tirelessly through the territory of Andalusia of Spain, speaking in small towns and crowded cities. His words were able to touch the minds and hearts of young and old, rich and poor, students and professors. His work in the confessional completed the conversions his words began. This unlearned man was called "the apostle of the Holy Trinity" because of his devotion to the Trinity and the ease with which he preached about this sublime mystery. One day a child gave away his secret, crying out: "Mother, mother, see the dove resting on the shoulder of Father Didacus! I could preach like that too if a dove told me all that I should say." Didacus was that close to God, spending nights in prayer and preparing for his sermons by severe penances. His reply to those who criticized him: "My sins and the sins of the people compel me to do it. Those who have been charged with the conversions of sinners must remember that the Lord has imposed on them the sins of all their clients." It is said that sometimes when he preached on the love of God he would be elevated above the pulpit. Crowds in village and town squares were entranced by his words and would attempt to tear off pieces of his habit as he passed by. He died in 1801 at age 58, a holy and revered man. He was beatified in 1894.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (10.31~42)

The Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?" "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, but for blasphemy, because You, a man, claim to be God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? If He called them 'gods', to whom the word of God came — and the Scripture cannot be broken — what about the One whom the Father set apart as His very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse Me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? Do not believe Me unless I do what My Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe Me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." Again they tried to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp. Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptising in the early days. Here He stayed and many people came to Him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." And in that place many believed in Jesus.

Christ is God
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

One of the most fascinating movements within Anglican history was the Oxford Movement, which had its origins in the late 1820s at Oxford University, and formally beginning in 1833. Its principal purpose was the restoration in Anglicanism of orthodox Christian belief and of the authority of the Church. In the late 1820s — before the Movement formally began — there arrived at Oxford University a man by the name of Joseph Blanco White, and Newman and he became fast friends. Blanco White was a Spaniard by birth, and had been ordained a Catholic priest in Spain. He had gradually abandoned the Catholic Faith and fled to England during the Napoleonic war in Spain. By the time of his arrival in England he was virtually an atheist, but he came to embrace the Anglican Faith and was ordained an Anglican clergyman. He arrived in Oxford after many years in England and was granted a degree by the University for his publications attacking the Catholic religion. During the years 1827 to about 1830 Newman and he were close friends at the University, although soon differences in religious belief began to be evident. My point in mentioning Blanco White is that he illustrates the centrality of the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ. He gradually came to look on Jesus Christ as no more than an eminent religious man, an outstanding leader of religion. He ended his days a Unitarian, and his lengthy posthumous biography was edited and published by the Unitarian minister, John Hamilton Thom. In it the story of his journey from Catholic belief to Unitarianism, which denies the divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, is traced. Newman saw Blanco White’s life as a tragedy of the loss of orthodox Christian belief. At its heart was the loss of belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Newman himself went on to be England’s outstanding intellectual champion of credal Christianity, at the heart of which is the divinity of Jesus Christ.

One of the distinguishing features of the Gospel of St John is its presentation of the divinity of Jesus Christ and of the claims of Jesus Christ to be divine. I suspect that one of the purposes of John’s writing of his Gospel was to give a more fulsome emphasis to this central doctrine as present in the other three (synoptic) Gospels. There are two defining features of the Christian religion that mark it off from Judaism. The first is that Jesus is the promised Messiah, and the second is far more notable: that Jesus the Messiah is the Son of God, consubstantial with the Father. If a Christian begins to doubt this — as did Blanco White — he is on the path to the abandonment of Christianity. That Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God is manifest in the Gospel of St John, and our passage today (John 10: 31-42) is one of the several that could be cited to show this. We read that “The Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? We are not stoning you for any of these, replied the Jews, but for blasphemy, because you, a man, claim to be God.” One of the distinctive features of the religion of the Hebrews was the prophetic tradition. It was a religion of prophets. Several had been called by God to speak on his behalf, and they claimed to be prophets. They knew they had been called by God to speak his word to the people, and they denounced false prophets in the process. Our Lord in his preaching referred often to the prophets before him — and to the false prophets, too. When our Lord appeared on the scene — after receiving the formal backing of John the Baptist — he was counted a prophet by the people. A great prophet has risen among us, they said, even one of the old prophets brought back to life. But Jesus Christ did not claim to be just one more prophet. His claim was utterly unique. He claimed to be God’s very own Son. This was meant in a special sense, and the leaders understood it immediately. He was God’s Son in the sense that he was divine. He was equal to God. It was for this that he died.

Let us never get used to the thought that the man Jesus Christ is God. The Christian religion is therefore like no other. Who is God? God is Jesus Christ — and he is the Father, and he is the Holy Spirit. So we adore and love Jesus Christ as the centre and heart of man’s religion. For this reason the vocation of man is to know, love and serve Jesus Christ with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and in him to love and serve our neighbour. This is what the Christian religion entails. Let us then strive every day to be true Christians!

2010-03-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510)

Going to confession one day was the turning point of Catherine’s life. When Catherine was born, many Italian nobles were supporting Renaissance artists and writers. The needs of the poor and the sick were often overshadowed by a hunger for luxury and self-indulgence. Catherine’s parents were members of the nobility in Genoa. At 13 she attempted to become a nun but failed because of her age. At 16 she married Julian, a nobleman who turned out to be selfish and unfaithful. For a while she tried to numb her disappointment by a life of selfish pleasure. One day in confession she had a new sense of her own sins and how much God loved her. She reformed her life and gave good example to Julian, who soon turned from his self-cantered life of distraction. Julian’s spending, however, had ruined them financially. He and Catherine decided to live in the Pammatone, a large hospital in Genoa, and to dedicate themselves to works of charity there. After Julian’s death in 1497, Catherine took over management of the hospital. She wrote about purgatory which, she said, begins on earth for souls open to God. Life with God in heaven is a continuation and perfection of the life with God begun on earth. Exhausted by her life of self-sacrifice, she died September 15, 1510, and was canonized in 1737. Shortly before Catherine’s death she told her goddaughter: "Tomasina! Jesus in your heart! Eternity in your mind! The will of God in all your actions! But above all, love, God’s love, entire love!" (Marion A. Habig, The Franciscan Book of Saints, p. 212).

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (8.31~42)

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered him, We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it for ever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father. Abraham is our father, they answered. If you were Abraham's children, said Jesus, then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does. We are not illegitimate children, they protested. The only Father we have is God himself. Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.

Christ and His Teaching
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

It is possible to hold to the importance of Christ, while in effect discounting somewhat the practice of his teaching. In a so-called “Christian country” where the Christian religion is the one accepted by the majority of the population, there is little open opposition to the person of Jesus Christ. To begin with, open opposition would immediately draw the fire of convinced Christians. While this does not eliminate the formal expression of anti-Christian opinion (in the way anti-Islamic opinion would be eliminated in a Muslim country), it usually results in it being expressed respectfully. In a “Christian country” Christ is respected and most people would describe themselves as Christian. But what does this mean? It very often does not mean the acceptance of and holding to the teaching of Jesus Christ. Christ is allowed and a person may count himself a Christian. But he unhesitatingly makes up his own mind as to what teachings he holds to be those of Jesus Christ, and even dismisses those that he recognizes to be of Christ but which happen to be very inconvenient. It is one result of the modern authority of private judgment. In previous eras, cultures accepted authority easily. Now, we make up our own mind — and this approach we apply to religion. In the face of all this, let us notice how our Lord describes the Christian — which is to say, the disciple of Jesus Christ. In our Gospel passage today, our Lord says, “ If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” So to be a Christian, it is absolutely critical that one truly hold to the teaching of Jesus Christ, and a holding to that teaching does not merely mean a vague intellectual acceptance — but a practical living of it. We cannot say that we hold to something if despite this we act in a way that is contrary to it. If we hold to the teaching of Christ, then as Cardinal Newman often pointed out, we must fear lest we be mistaken about it. But not many have this fear. They make up their own minds, with little apprehension lest they not be holding at all to the teaching of Jesus Christ. They do not care.

There are further implications of this, and our Lord draws them out in our passage today. To begin with, our Lord says that his teaching is the truth. If we hold to his teaching, we shall know the truth: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Our Lord is referring to an inner freedom of mind and heart at the very roots of our being. There are, then, two things which affect us at the foundations of our spirit: accepting the truth that comes from Christ, and refusing to accept it. The denial of Christ’s truth will ensnare us in sin, and by this denial we shall be enslaved. “They answered him, We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it for ever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” One of the great gains of modern culture and thought is its emphasis on freedom, but co-terminus with this gain is a serious loss. It is the disassociation of freedom from truth. Freedom is considered to be the freedom to do what one likes, whereas true freedom is the capacity to do what is right — which is to say what is in accord with the truth. It takes a great deal of inner and spiritual freedom to do what is right, especially when there are great internal and external pressures to do what is wrong. For example, one’s long-standing memories may constitute a great pressure to be unforgiving. It could be extremely difficult to forgive if we remain in our memories. It takes a great deal of inner freedom to forgive when such memories crowd in upon the imagination. Our Lord tells us that truly holding to his teaching is the way forward to the truth and to freedom. This applies to hatred, bitterness, to lust, to sloth and to all the capital sins leading man to slavery and to death. If we wish to be free, we must hold to the truth of Jesus Christ, which is, as our Lord insists, what is involved in truly being his disciple.

Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the touchstone of true religion and of a true relationship with God. Our Lord tells those who claim to have God for their Father while rejecting him, that “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me” (John 8: 31-42). This is very serious for the person who actually rejects Christ’s teaching, therefore rejecting Christ Himself. It is something that each Christian must bring to the secular world of his everyday life.

2010-03-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

St. Turibius of Mogrovejo (1538-1606)

Together with Rose of Lima, Turibius is the first known saint of the New World, serving the Lord in Peru, South America, for 26 years. Born in Spain and educated for the law, he became so brilliant a scholar that he was made professor of law at the University of Salamanca and eventually became chief judge of the Inquisition at Granada. He succeeded too well. But he was not sharp enough a lawyer to prevent a surprising sequence of events. When the archdiocese of Lima in Peru required a new leader, Turibius was chosen to fill the post: He was the one person with the strength of character and holiness of spirit to heal the scandals that had infected that area. He cited all the canons that forbade giving laymen ecclesiastical dignities, but he was overruled. He was ordained priest and bishop and sent to Peru, where he found colonialism at its worst. The Spanish conquerors were guilty of every sort of oppression of the native population. Abuses among the clergy were flagrant, and he devoted his energies (and suffering) to this area first. He began the long and arduous visitation of an immense archdiocese, studying the language, staying two or three days in each place, often with neither bed nor food. He confessed every morning to his chaplain, and celebrated Mass with intense fervour. Among those to whom he gave the Sacrament of Confirmation was St. Rose of Lima, and possibly St. Martin de Porres. After 1590 he had the help of another great missionary, St. Francis Solanus. His people, though very poor, were sensitive, dreading to accept public charity from others. Turibius solved the problem by helping them anonymously.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (8.21~30)

Once more Jesus said to them, "I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come." This made the Jews ask, "Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, 'Where I go, you cannot come'?" But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am, you will indeed die in your sins." "Who are you?" they asked. "Just what I have been claiming all along," Jesus replied. "I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him I tell the world." They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.

The key to life
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

Occasionally one comes across those who do not seem to care in thinking of physical death as the absolute end of everything for a person. One fairly elderly person said to me that as far as he was concerned, death for him would be the same as it is for any animal. It would be the end, with nothing beyond it. Now, this belief is most uncharacteristic of human thought. In the main, man is and always has been religious, and religion almost always includes belief in an Afterlife. Man expects to continue in some form after death, although the views and images of the Afterlife have been legion. There is an immense difference between the Afterlife of Judaeo-Christian revelation and that of Buddhism, for instance. We all know that death must come, but this thought is assuaged by the prospect of an Afterlife — which is to say, we believe that after death, life will continue. The thought of death in an absolute sense is a shocking prospect. All this is to say that life is one of our most precious possessions, even though we usually take it somewhat for granted. If there is any threat to our life, our whole being is roused in fear and apprehension — and even animals respond in similar fashion. If a loved one embarks on a course which may mean the loss of life — as in some military campaign — then his family and friends become immensely concerned. They dread the day they might receive notice that he has lost his life. Clearly, one of the principal goals of a society is to ensure the preservation the lives of its citizens. A culture that undervalues life and allows its destruction for reasons of convenience or for trivial misdemeanours is to that extent closer to barbarism. Now, we may ask, if life is one of our greatest possessions, is there any key to its secure possession? We try to eat properly, maintain good health, and avoid unnecessary dangers such as driving recklessly on the roads. Life is a truly precious gift, and in all sorts of ways our conviction of this, and the conviction of society about this, is manifest. But we cannot hang on to our physical life indefinitely. What, then, is the key?

Our Lord in today’s Gospel (John 8: 21-30) gives us the key to attaining, holding on to, and flourishing in the gift of life. He tells us what is the ultimate threat to life. It is sin. The average person in a secular culture assumes that the ultimate threats to life are those he sees as destroying physical life. Life is threatened ultimately, he thinks, by hunger, disease, neglect, imprudence in health, and so forth. But Christ has revealed that the ultimate threat to life is sin and its consequent separation from God. St Paul writes that sin entered the world through one man and with sin came death, and death has spread to the whole human race. In our Gospel passage today, our Lord tells his hearers that they will die in their sins. This is the ultimate tragedy, to die in one’s sins, for this will bring the ultimate death — not a death that is extinction, but a dying forever, as it were. It will be an eternal separation from God. Horrible thought! It is the ultimate fate of the demons, and such is the lot of the one who does not die in God but in his sins. So what does our Lord provide as the key to the possession of life? The key to life is belief in him and in his word. “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” He was going to his Father, to life forever at the right hand of God, and he was telling his hearers that the course they were presently pursuing would lead them to death in their sins. “You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am, you will indeed die in your sins.” The one way to avoid ultimate death is to believe in the One whom God had sent. Significantly, our Lord alludes to his divinity and to belief in this fundamental doctrine. “If you do not believe that I am, you will indeed die in your sins” — the “I am” is a clear reference to the name that Yahweh God had pronounced before Moses as being his own. On a different occasion, just before he raised Lazarus from the dead, our Lord had said to Martha that the one who believes in him will live, even though he die. The key is faith in Jesus.

On a separate occasion again, our Lord was visiting the home of Mary and Martha. He said to Martha that Mary her sister had chosen the better part in sitting before him and listening to his word. The most important thing in life is to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Saviour, and to live according to his word. This belief constitutes the key to life. By means of this, death is overcome in its ultimate sense, and we live now and forever in God. Let us then take our stand with Jesus, knowing that being with him is the one thing necessary.

2010-03-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

St. Nicholas Owen (d. 1606)

Nicholas, familiarly known as "Little John," was small in stature but big in the esteem of his fellow Jesuits. Born at Oxford, this humble artisan saved the lives of many priests and laypersons in England during the penal times (1559-1829), when a series of statutes punished Catholics for the practice of their faith. Over a period of about 20 years he used his skills to build secret hiding places for priests throughout the country. His work, which he did completely by himself as both architect and builder, was so good that time and time again priests in hiding were undetected by raiding parties. He was a genius at finding, and creating, places of safety: subterranean passages, small spaces between walls, impenetrable recesses. At one point he was even able to mastermind the escape of two Jesuits from the Tower of London. Whenever Nicholas set out to design such hiding places, he began by receiving the Holy Eucharist, and he would turn to God in prayer throughout the long, dangerous construction process. After many years at his unusual task, he entered the Society of Jesus and served as a lay brother, although—for very good reasons—his connection with the Jesuits was kept secret. After a number of narrow escapes, he himself was finally caught in 1594. Despite protracted torture, he refused to disclose the names of other Catholics. After being released following the payment of a ransom, "Little John" went back to his work. He was arrested again in 1606. This time he was subjected to horrible tortures, suffering an agonizing death. The jailers tried suggesting that he had confessed and committed suicide, but his heroism and sufferings soon were widely known. He was canonized in 1970 as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (8.12~20)

When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." The Pharisees challenged Him, "Here You are, appearing as Your own witness; Your testimony is not valid." Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on My own behalf, My testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no-one. But if I do judge, My decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent Me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. I am one who testifies for Myself; My other witness is the Father, who sent Me." Then they asked Him, "Where is your father?" "You do not know Me or My Father," Jesus replied. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also." He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no-one seized Him, because His time had not yet come.

The claims of Christ
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

One of the more notorious of modern forensic inventions is the lie detector. The basis of its assumed validity would seem to be an analysis of the recorded emotions and physical reactions of the one who is speaking, reactions that are deemed to be beyond the easy control of the mind. The analysis can take different forms and can employ different kinds of data to judge the reactions of the subject. Despite margins of error, such methods are admissible in some courts of, for instance, the United States. Whatever be the extent of the usefulness of such devices, there is no doubt that in ordinary life we instinctively form impressions of the truthfulness of a person’s account by the physical manner in which he gives it. He appears calmly objective and balanced or not as the case may be, although we also take into account our prior knowledge of him and the opinion of others about him. A skilled and experienced person may well be able to form a pretty good idea of how truthful a person is, by observing carefully his manner in telling his story. His judgment that a person is likely to be truthful or lying can carry true weight. We all do this to some extent, as we must — even though we are aware that a good “con-man” (as we call him) may deceive his hearers and observers. Many issues are so unimportant that it does not matter to anyone whether the person is truthful or not, as in say, some “true story” a person tells to entertain others in conversation. But other matters are of maximum importance. The pre-eminent case of the critical importance of truth is a claim to have received a divine revelation. There have been so many such claims, and so very many of them have won the allegiance of great numbers right into the modern era. The Baha’i religion was founded by an alleged prophet, as was the Seventh Day Adventist religion. By and large the ordinary person acts and judges on instinct, on a degree of education and on common sense to determine the truth or otherwise of such claims. He is most fortunate if, by the providence of God, he is in fact raised in the truth that has been truly and objectively revealed.

This is not the moment to consider the ways a “prophet” is vindicated in his claims. Rather, with the above remarks as an introduction, I would like to draw attention to the transcendent claims of Jesus Christ and to the spiritual majesty with which he uttered them. St Jerome once wrote that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Jesus Christ. However such a statement is to be understood — and we could hardly exclude the numerous illiterates from the saving knowledge of Christ — there is no doubt that the long use of the Scriptures gives to the believer a profound conviction of the absolute persuasiveness of Jesus Christ. In particular, the daily reading and contemplation of the Gospels will convince the Christian that Jesus Christ is what he claimed to be. It is very much like growing in a long-standing friendship. In such an acquaintance, the person comes to be known. By immersing ourselves in the Gospels, we contemplate Jesus Christ and we come to know him for what he claims to be. In our Gospel today, our Lord makes a claim that I am not aware was made by any other serious and weighty individual in history. He says — and he calmly says it to the religious leaders who regarded themselves as the light of the nation — that “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12-20). No other individual in all of the inspired Scriptures, and indeed — I think I can say — no one else of consequence in human history, had the temerity to say such a thing. But Jesus Christ said this with sovereign and imperturbable assurance, all the while uttering a unique teaching backed up with incomparable holiness of life and miracles. He is the Light of the nations. This Light that is his very person bestows abundant life on the world. If man wishes to have life in abundance, eternal life, he must live in the Light that is Jesus Christ. There is so much darkness in human history! Jesus Christ has told us that He is the light that dispels the darkness. He comes from the Father; He stands with the Father; the Father is always His witness.

Let us draw near to Jesus who is the treasure and the light of mankind. He stands unique among the prophets and utterly transcends them, be they the prophets of the inspired Scriptures, or those taken to be prophets by the peoples. He is the Prophet par excellence, and far more than a prophet could be because he is none other — O marvellous a fact! — than the Lord God Himself. He, this man among men, is literally and truly God. How extraordinary a thing that the created, material universe contains such a Phenomenon. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to be the Light of the world. By walking according to this Light, life everlasting will be ours.

2010-03-21T05:13:00.000-07:00

Prayers this week: Give me justice, O God, and defend my cause against the wicked; rescue me from deceitful and unjust men. You, O God, are my refuge. (Psalm 42: 1-2)

Father, help us to be like Christ your Son, who loved the world and died for our salvation. Inspire us by his love and guide us by his example. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessed John of Parma (1209-1289)

The seventh general minister of the Franciscan Order, John was known for his attempts to bring back the earlier spirit of the Order after the death of St. Francis of Assisi. He was born in Parma, Italy, in 1209. It was when he was a young philosophy professor known for his piety and learning that God called him to bid good-bye to the world he was used to and enter the new world of the Franciscan Order. After his profession John was sent to Paris to complete his theological studies. Ordained to the priesthood, he was appointed to teach theology at Bologna, then Naples and finally Rome. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV called a general council in the city of Lyons, France. Crescentius, the Franciscan minister general at the time, was ailing and unable to attend. In his place he sent Father John, who made a deep impression on the Church leaders gathered there. Two years later, when the same pope presided at the election of a minister general of the Franciscans, he remembered Father John well and held him up as the man best qualified for the office. And so, in 1247, John of Parma was elected to be minister general. The surviving disciples of St. Francis rejoiced in his election, expecting a return to the spirit of poverty and humility of the early days of the Order. And they were not disappointed. As general of the Order John travelled on foot, accompanied by one or two companions, to practically all of the Franciscan convents in existence. Sometimes he would arrive and not be recognized, remaining there for a number of days to test the true spirit of the brothers. The pope called on John to serve as legate to Constantinople, where he was most successful in winning back the schismatic Greeks. Upon his return he asked that someone else take his place to govern the Order. St. Bonaventure, at John's urging, was chosen to succeed him. John took up a life of prayer in the hermitage at Greccio. Many years later, John learned that the Greeks, who had been reconciled with the Church for a time, had relapsed into schism. Though 80 years old by then, John received permission from Pope Nicholas IV to return to the East in an effort to restore unity once again. On his way, John fell sick and died. He was beatified in 1781.

In the 13th century, people in their 30s were middle-aged; hardly anyone lived to the ripe old age of 80. John did, but he didn’t ease into retirement. Instead he was on his way to try to heal a schism in the Church when he died. Our society today boasts a lot of folks in their later decades. Like John, many of them lead active lives. But some aren’t so fortunate. Weakness or ill health keeps them confined and lonely—waiting to hear from us.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (8.1~11)

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn He appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered round Him, and He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His Finger. When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let Him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?" "No-one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin.

The Law and the Sixth Commandment
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

Our Gospel passage today provides us with yet another instance of the conflict between Christ and the religious leaders — specifically, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. This conflict would culminate in our Lord’s death, by which he would redeem the world from sin. The accusations by which Jesus was condemned to death included his acting against the temple in Jerusalem, his acting against faith in the one God because he proclaimed himself to be the Son of God, and in general for his acting against the Law. Such accusations were groundless, but in our Gospel today the leaders confront our Lord with a prescription of the Law of Moses. “Teacher,” they said, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were intent on showing up Christ’s opposition to the Law of Moses. Now, elsewhere our Lord stated quite clearly that he did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to complete and fulfill them. Time and again he referred lovingly to the prophets. He insisted on the fulfilment of what the Law truly required, and we remember how at his Transfiguration, Moses representing the Law and Elijah representing the prophets, appeared with him in glory. They were conversing with him about his death which he would accomplish in Jerusalem. Jesus did not abolish the Law given by God to Moses on Sinai, but rather he fulfilled it by giving to it its definitive interpretation. The issue was indeed one of interpretation. We remember how he was challenged over the matter of divorce, which Moses allowed. Christ thereupon gave his authoritative interpretation of this Mosaic permission. The allowance of divorce by Moses was merely, our Lord said, a practical regulation of the hardness of heart of the people. They would not observe the law of God as revealed in the original creation of man and woman with the vocation to be “one body,” as husband and wife. Moses regulated this sad refusal for the sake of social order. In his person, in his teaching and in his practice, Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law and gave to it its true interpretation.

The case in point in our Gospel today (John 8: 1-11) was the ancient Mosaic directive to stone those guilty of adultery (as in, say, Deuteronomy 22:22 and Leviticus 20:10). Rather than dwelling further on our Lord’s teaching on the status of this prescription, let us consider its deeper significance. It shows the seriousness of the sixth commandment, You shall not commit adultery, which in ancient times it was meant to protect. At the end of the incident described in today’s Gospel, with our Lord having rid the scene of the woman’s accusers, he told her: Go, and sin no more. He set aside the stoning, but reaffirmed the sixth commandment. Although the biblical text of the sixth commandment simply reads “you shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14), the Tradition of the Church comprehensively follows the teachings of the entire Scriptures, and considers the sixth commandment as encompassing all sins against chastity. Grave sins against chastity go well beyond adultery and include the various expressions of the vice of lust — such as the reading and use of pornography, homosexual acts, fornication, masturbation, and the social decadence that tends to undermine a culture of chastity. Very importantly, our Lord himself extended the scope of the sixth commandment and condemned adultery in the human heart. That is to say, not only must a person be chaste in deed, but also in mind and heart. This, indeed, is the foundation. Chastity is a moral virtue, a gift of God, a grace, and a fruit of the Holy Spirit to be resolutely lived and guarded. It embraces a whole life of chastity, in keeping with each person’s particular state of life, and is part and parcel of a life lived in imitation of Christ our Saviour and model. There is a further point of great importance. The Christian laity are called to evangelize the world. The world must be brought to accept Christ and his teaching. This includes bearing witness to chastity in culture and society. It means spreading everywhere the conviction that the dignity of the person requires protections for chastity in the culture and civil law of society.

One of the most notable changes in society over the last century has been the vast proliferation of media and entertainment. This has meant the spread and influence of a range of models of what it means to be human and happy. All too often these types and models have been of persons who disregard and violate a life of chastity. The battle is largely a cultural one, and the challenge is to evangelize our culture. Let us take up the work, then, and pursue it daily by word and deed.

A second reflection for the fifth Sunday of Lent

"He looked up and said, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir' she replied. 'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus 'go away and don't sin any more.'"

Sin and grace
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

In the Gospel scene today, the Church presents us with the scene of the sinful woman and her accusers standing before our Lord. Then she is left before him, her accusers gone, herself a sinner nevertheless. Our Lord says to her, I extend my mercy and pardon to you. Go and do not sin any more. Let this scene be an image of what should be going on during Lent in our own hearts. Cardinal Newman once wrote that the foundation of authentic religion is the sense of sin. With this lively sense we more easily turn to Christ asking for his forgiveness. Let us imagine our sins being like those scribes and Pharisees, accusing us before our divine Lord, and demanding that he punish us. In fact that is just what Satan does. He tempts us to sin, gains the victory, and then becomes our accuser, our adversary before God. For that reason our Lord described the Holy Spirit as our Advocate, pleading our cause from within the very heart of God. He is the love of God himself consoling us sinners. And so we ought stand before Jesus during Lent with our sins. Our sins will accuse us, if we have a lively conscience. But if we come before Jesus admitting our sins and asking his pardon, and not simply remain with our conscience alone, we shall hear those consoling words of Jesus, “Neither do I condemn you.” All of this we are able to do and experience in every genuine act of contrition, and whenever we go to Confession.

We shall also hear him say, go and sin no more. This too should distinguish the weeks of Lent: namely, a new impulse in our quest for holiness of life. The years will pass quickly for each of us, and the question will be, how well have I used my life for the purpose for which it was given to me? Its purpose is to reach the fullest degree of love and service of God possible for me. In the second reading, St Paul says that the supreme value in his life was to know Christ and to live in him. By comparison with this all else was rubbish, he said. He sought perfection in this. There are many things we try to excel in during life: perhaps in our possessions, in our professional standing, our job, or whatever. But the one thing necessary is, St Paul writes, to know Christ and the power of his risen life in our lives, which is to say the power of grace. Saint Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises presents the retreatant with his greatest colloquy, in which God’s love and grace are prayed for. The one thing we should be praying for day by day which is absolutely and in every sense necessary, is the love and the grace of Christ. Neither life nor death, great possessions or few, health or sickness, important though these things may be in certain real respects, compare with knowing Christ as his genuine, intimate and faithful friend, and following him in his sufferings so as to share in his resurrection. St Paul says, ‘Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus.’

Let us resolve during Lent to confess our sins, obtain Christ’s pardon, and to set out anew in a vigorous way towards holiness, which is nothing other than the love and the obedient service of Jesus in our everyday life. A great psychiatrist, Victor Frankl, once said that human happiness depends on a person’s having a sense of the meaning of life and living in view of it. The true meaning of life, the one revealed to us by God, is to know, love and serve Jesus as perfectly as possible. Let this Lent involve a profound renewal of our sense of the true meaning of life, which is to belong totally to Jesus.

2010-03-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

Solemnity of St. Joseph

“He was chosen by the eternal Father as the trustworthy guardian and protector of his greatest treasures, namely, his divine Son and Mary, Joseph’s wife. He carried out this vocation with complete fidelity until at last God called him, saying: ‘Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord’” (St. Bernardine of Siena).

Everything we know about the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus comes from Scripture and that has seemed too little for those who made up legends about him.

We know he was a carpenter, a working man, for the skeptical Nazarenes ask about Jesus, "Is this not the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55). He wasn't rich for when he took Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and Mary to be purified he offered the sacrifice of two turtledoves or a pair of pigeons, allowed only for those who could not afford a lamb (Luke 2:24).

Despite his humble work and means, Joseph came from a royal lineage. Luke and Matthew disagree some about the details of Joseph's genealogy but they both mark his descent from David, the greatest king of Israel (Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38). Indeed the angel who first tells Joseph about Jesus greets him as "son of David," a royal title used also for Jesus.

We know Joseph was a compassionate, caring man. When he discovered Mary was pregnant after they had been betrothed, he knew the child was not his but was as yet unaware that she was carrying the Son of God. He planned to divorce Mary according to the law but he was concerned for her suffering and safety. He knew that women accused to adultery could be stoned to death, so he decided to divorce her quietly and not expose her to shame or cruelty (Matthew 1:19-25).

We know Joseph was man of faith, obedient to whatever God asked of him without knowing the outcome. When the angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him the truth about the child Mary was carrying, Joseph immediately and without question or concern for gossip, took Mary as his wife. When the angel came again to tell him that his family was in danger, he immediately left everything he owned, all his family and friends, and fled to a strange country with his young wife and the baby. He waited in Egypt without question until the angel told him it was safe to go back (Matthew 2:13-23).

We know Joseph loved Jesus. His one concern was for the safety of this child entrusted to him. Not only did he leave his home to protect Jesus, but upon his return settled in the obscure town of Nazareth out of fear for his life. When Jesus stayed in the Temple we are told Joseph (along with Mary) searched with great anxiety for three days for him (Luke 2:48). We also know that Joseph treated Jesus as his own son for over and over the people of Nazareth say of Jesus, "Is this not the son of Joseph?" (Luke 4:22)

We know Joseph respected God. He followed God's commands in handling the situation with Mary and going to Jerusalem to have Jesus circumcised and Mary purified after Jesus' birth. We are told that he took his family to Jerusalem every year for Passover, something that could not have been easy for a working man.

Since Joseph does not appear in Jesus' public life, at his death, or resurrection, many historians believe Joseph probably had died before Jesus entered public ministry.

Joseph is the patron of the dying because, assuming he died before Jesus' public life, he died with Jesus and Mary close to him, the way we all would like to leave this earth.

Joseph is also patron of the universal Church, fathers, carpenters, and social justice.

We celebrate two feast days for Joseph: March 19 for Joseph the Husband of Mary and May 1 for Joseph the Worker.

There is much we wish we could know about Joseph -- where and when he was born, how he spent his days, when and how he died. But Scripture has left us with the most important knowledge: who he was -- "a righteous man" (Matthew 1:18).

In His Footsteps:
Joseph was foster father to Jesus. There are many children separated from families and parents who need foster parents. Please consider contacting your local Catholic Charities or Division of Family Services about becoming a foster parent.

Prayer:
Saint Joseph, patron of the universal Church, watch over the Church as carefully as you watched over Jesus, help protect it and guide it as you did with your adopted son. Amen

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (7.1~2,10, 25~30)

Jesus moved around in Galilee; he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him. The Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. When his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret. Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, "Is he not the one they are trying to kill? And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ? But we know where he is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from." So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, "You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me." So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come. (John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30)

Man and God One thing about our Lord is plain in the passage before us today. His person and background is well known. He is one of the people. He is a brother Hebrew to them. There is mention of “his brothers” who went up to the feast before him. They were, of course, his kinsmen presumably from Nazareth and its environs. There is a tradition that the parents of Mary had resided in the nearby cosmopolitan city of Zephoris, so some of our Lord’s relatives may even have lived there. Whatever of that, the point is that our Lord was deeply rooted in certain places and in a family network. He was very well known. That was up in Galilee, in the locality of Nazareth. Let us observe the specimen of the talk about him in Jerusalem, provided by our passage. Our Lord went up to the feast quietly and then was discovered to be teaching in the Temple. We read that “Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, "Is he not the one they are trying to kill? And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ? But we know where he is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from." The drift of it is that Jesus was one of the people, and that this was a problem. He was but an ordinary Hebrew, an artisan from Galilee — all knew who Jesus of Nazareth was and where he was from. He lacked the mystery that would be associated with the Messiah. In his origin and person the Messiah would be far, far larger than life, a figure the like of which the world had never seen. All of this was perfectly true in its way, and did reflect the general impression projected by the Scriptures. But other predictions were missed that located the Messiah as coming from the people. What these reactions and remarks illustrate was the truth that Jesus Christ was truly and absolutely a man like us. In all his human characteristics there was an individuality with the limitations which this necessarily involved. He was of a certain height, with certain features, a certain timbre of voice, a certain manner of walking, speaking, smiling. The Messiah was very much a man of a certain lineage, time and culture.

All this our Lord openly and readily acknowledges. “Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, "You know me and also know where I am from.” That is to say, I am a man just as are others, and you know me as such. But then he alludes to the tremendous mystery that is his nevertheless. “Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me." Our Lord speaks in a way that transcends the language of the prophets, though he is in the line of them. He repeatedly insists that he came from God. The prophets spoke of having been called by God for a special mission, and of having received his word which they then proclaimed to the people, despite much opposition. Not uncommonly they would refer to their place of origin and their occupation prior to their calling. But Jesus Christ speaks of himself as coming not simply from Nazareth, but directly from God. He states time and again that while many of his hearers did not know God, he knew him. Our Lord separates himself from the rest in his incomparable knowledge of God, a knowledge that he has directly because he came directly from him. “I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” Our Lord is claiming a unique relationship with God, a uniquely authoritative mission, and a unique knowledge. This singular authority was what the religious leaders could not bear, and we read that after our Lord said this, “they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come” (John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30). It all constitutes yet another allusion — so frequent especially in the Gospel of St John — to his divinity. This is the wondrous thing about Jesus Christ, and it is what makes the Christian religion so striking, provided it is truly understood. This man, truly man — one whom they knew so well as almost to disqualify Jesus Christ from being the Messiah, in their mind — is the living God. We simply must not “get used” to this proposition. There is nothing like it on earth.

Let us in our mind’s eye, in spirit as it were, place ourselves among the hearers and gaze at Jesus Christ as he speaks. Observe his features, so noble, so filled with spiritual majesty, so expressive of divine love and strength. He is every bit a man as any man, indeed far more so because there is no sin in him to sully his humanity. He is, in this sense, perfectly man, perfectly human. But in the first instance he is divine. He is a divine person who has come from the Father as one sent by him. This same Jesus Christ is with us continually in his Church, in the word and Sacraments of the Church. Let us live in him then, and never be separated from him.

2010-03-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Let hearts rejoice who search for the lord. Seek the Lord and his strength. seek always the face of the Lord. (Ps 104:3-4)

Merciful Father, may the penance of our Lenten observance make us your obedient people. May the love within us be seen in what we do and lead us to the joy of Easter. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (315?-386)

The crises that the Church faces today may seem minor when compared with the threat posed by the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ and almost overcame Christianity in the fourth century. Cyril was to be caught up in the controversy, accused (later) of Arianism by St. Jerome, and ultimately vindicated both by the men of his own time and by being declared a Doctor of the Church in 1822. Raised in Jerusalem, well-educated, especially in the Scriptures, he was ordained a priest by the bishop of Jerusalem and given the task of catechizing during Lent those preparing for Baptism and during the Easter season the newly baptized. His Catecheses remain valuable as examples of the ritual and theology of the Church in the mid-fourth century.

There are conflicting reports about the circumstances of his becoming bishop of Jerusalem. It is certain that he was validly consecrated by bishops of the province. Since one of them was an Arian, Acacius, it may have been expected that his “cooperation” would follow. Conflict soon rose between Cyril and Acacius, bishop of the rival nearby see of Caesarea. Cyril was summoned to a council, accused of insubordination and of selling Church property to relieve the poor. Probably, however, a theological difference was also involved. He was condemned, driven from Jerusalem, and later vindicated, not without some association and help of Semi-Arians. Half his episcopate was spent in exile (his first experience was repeated twice). He finally returned to find Jerusalem torn with heresy, schism and strife, and wracked with crime. Even St. Gregory of Nyssa, sent to help, left in despair. They both went to the (second ecumenical) Council of Constantinople, where the amended form of the Nicene Creed was promulgated. Cyril accepted the word consubstantial (that is, of Christ and the Father). Some said it was an act of repentance, but the bishops of the Council praised him as a champion of orthodoxy against the Arians. Though not friendly with the greatest defender of orthodoxy against the Arians, Cyril may be counted among those whom Athanasius called “brothers, who mean what we mean, and differ only about the word [consubstantial].”

“It is not only among us, who are marked with the name of Christ, that the dignity of faith is great; all the business of the world, even of those outside the Church, is accomplished by faith. By faith, marriage laws join in union persons who were strangers to one another. By faith, agriculture is sustained; for a man does not endure the toil involved unless he believes he will reap a harvest. By faith, seafaring men, entrusting themselves to a tiny wooden craft, exchange the solid element of the land for the unstable motion of the waves. Not only among us does this hold true but also, as I have said, among those outside the fold. For though they do not accept the Scriptures but advance certain doctrines of their own, yet even these they receive on faith” (Catechesis V).

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (5.31~47)

Jesus said, "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favour, and I know that his testimony about Me is valid. You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given Me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form, nor does His word dwell in you, for you do not believe the One He sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in My Father's Name, and you do not accept Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But since you do not believe what He wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?

He has seen the Father
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

When St Paul visited Athens he saw a shrine to the “unknown God.” He made use of this in his address to the Areopagus, but in the event his efforts to convince were of little avail. He made a point, though, that is full of interest even though I do not wish to explicate its implications here. Rather, I suggest that we dwell on the inability of man to see and know God directly. We take it for granted — as, in a sense, we must — that for all that we see and know directly, we cannot see and know directly the overwhelmingly important and prominent Being who sustains our vast universe. We see the myriads of insects and the range of bird and animal life. We observe the composition and the movements of earth and stars. The study of man and nature as represented in the libraries and literature of the world is so vast as to be far beyond synthesis. This we see. But the One who sustains everything we do not see. We know something of this great Being from the visible creation, but our knowledge is fitful and there is little firm agreement among the peoples and religions as to the lineaments of his nature. Yet the religions and literature of man testify to the fact that we long to see and communicate with the One on whom everything depends. More than this, we long for a revelation from the great Being whom we constantly need. Indeed, it is typical for the religions of man to claim that this revelation has occurred. Mahomet claimed it and others have too, and sadly human history has numerous instances of one religion attempting by force to put down another because of such competing claims. But they all bear testimony to the need for a direct contact with God. Typically man reveres the one who claims to have had this contact, at least if he makes such a claim persuasively. The seers and the prophets — whatever they be called — are honoured unless they conflict with others who claim this position. This religious Fact shows how great a boon man would consider having a person who has seen and known God directly. Such a man would give us what we truly need to know.

This is the reason why the Christian religion offers such good news to the world — this and much more. In our Gospel today (John 5: 31-47), our Lord speaks with sovereign assurance of how totally qualified he is to speak of God. He is more qualified than any other. Take any of the prophets — take John, John the Baptist, for instance. What is to be said of Jesus Christ when set next to John? “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. I have testimony weightier than that of John.” Whatever reason one might have for accepting the testimony of the greatest of the prophets, the testimony Jesus Christ has is much the greater. Look at his work! Not only do his miracles testify to his authority to speak of God — and who in the history of the world has worked the miracles that Jesus Christ worked, in terms of number and quality? But his work is above all the work of redemption from sin. Now, who in the history of the world has attempted to take away the sin of the world? This is a breathtaking proposition, and as a mission it has scarcely occurred to anyone anywhere. But this was the mission of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said of him that he is the one who takes away the sin of the world. Further, what is the means of doing this? If we were to have asked the greatest of the ancient philosophers — say, Socrates, or Plato, or Aristotle — how the sin of the world could be taken away, what would be the response? I suspect they would have been nonplussed, even if they had understood the terms of the question. But that was Christ’s grand mission, and the way to attain it was by his Passion and Death. He is unique in his claims and in the support for his claims. But most of all, he has seen the living God. “You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,” our Lord says to his enemies. He, Jesus of Nazareth, “heard his voice” continually, and continually saw “his form,” the “form” of the Father.

Let us recognize the authority of Jesus Christ. It is supreme. He comes from God, with whom he dwelt from all eternity. He is the Father’s only-begotten Son, and mankind has the inestimable blessing of having as a brother man One who is God himself. There is in our midst the One who knows all things and has opened for us the way to God by his Passion and Death. Let us regard him as our Light, then! He the Light of the world, without which we are in the dark.

2010-03-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

Prayers for Wednesday of the fourth week in Lent: I pray to you, O God, for the time of your favour. Lord, in your great love, answer me. (See Ps 68:14)

Lord, you reward virtue and forgive the repentant sinner. Grant us your forgiveness as we come before you confessing our guilt. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.

St. Patrick (415?-493?)

Legends about Patrick abound; but truth is best served by our seeing two solid qualities in him: He was humble and he was courageous. The determination to accept suffering and success with equal indifference guided the life of God’s instrument for winning most of Ireland for Christ. Details of his life are uncertain. Current research places his dates of birth and death a little later than earlier accounts. Patrick may have been born in Dunbarton, Scotland, Cumberland, England, or in northern Wales. He called himself both a Roman and a Briton. At 16, he and a large number of his father’s slaves and vassals were captured by Irish raiders and sold as slaves in Ireland. Forced to work as a shepherd, he suffered greatly from hunger and cold. After six years, Patrick escaped, probably to France, and later returned to Britain at the age of 22. His captivity had meant spiritual conversion. He may have studied at Lerins, off the French coast; he spent years at Auxerre, France, and was consecrated bishop at the age of 43. His great desire was to proclaim the Good News to the Irish. In a dream vision it seemed “all the children of Ireland from their mothers’ wombs were stretching out their hands” to him. He understood the vision to be a call to do mission work in pagan Ireland. Despite opposition from those who felt his education had been defective, he was sent to carry out the task. He went to the west and north, where the faith had never been preached, obtained the protection of local kings and made numerous converts.

Because of the island’s pagan background, Patrick was emphatic in encouraging widows to remain chaste and young women to consecrate their virginity to Christ. He ordained many priests, divided the country into dioceses, held Church councils, founded several monasteries and continually urged his people to greater holiness in Christ. He suffered much opposition from pagan druids, and was criticized in both England and Ireland for the way he conducted his mission. In a relatively short time the island had experienced deeply the Christian spirit, and was prepared to send out missionaries whose efforts were greatly responsible for Christianizing Europe. Patrick was a man of action, with little inclination toward learning. He had a rocklike belief in his vocation, in the cause he had espoused. One of the few certainly authentic writings is his Confessio, above all an act of homage to God for having called Patrick, unworthy sinner, to the apostolate. There is hope rather than irony in the fact that his burial place is said to be in strife-torn Ulster, in County Down.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (10.1~12)

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Apostolic friendship
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

In Nazareth there are, of course, well-known Christian churches that honour the Incarnation. There is the large Catholic basilica of the Annunciation with its House of Mary underneath, commemorating the conception of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary. There is impressive archaeological work associated with that church. There is the associated church of St Joseph, commemorating the dwelling of the Holy Family. There is also the Greek Orthodox church of what is called the Spring of Mary, commemorating the spring where Mary would have come to draw water. The Greek Orthodox take the Annunciation to have occurred while Mary was at that spring of water. In the same large city of Nazareth — now grown far beyond its size at the time of Christ — there are mosques, and in particular the White Mosque. I have visited that mosque and I could not but be impressed by the religious practice of the Moslems attending that famous mosque. The menfolk entered, prayed and left in a reverent manner. I was instinctively led to compare in my own mind the two religions that are represented so strikingly in the city of Christ’s childhood, youth and manhood. Islam honours the one and only God as it conceives and imagines him. Allah is high, transcendent, holy, merciful. Above all, Allah is very high and very great — indeed, even distant. He is a strong counterweight against the polytheism of the religions of man. There is no other God but he, and Islam characteristically interprets the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity as denying the oneness of Allah. How different is the Christian religion! Of course the Christian rejoices that Islam has profited so directly by the absolute monotheism of the Judaeo-Christian revelation. But the God of Abraham, Moses, the prophets, draws very near to his chosen people, speaking of himself as a Husband to the people of his choice. This nearness is surpassed and brought to its ultimate term in Jesus Christ. God has actually become man. God the Son, truly God and truly man, trod a chosen land and associated freely and easily with us his brothers. In speaking familiarly with him, people were speaking familiarly with the great God himself. The all-high God made himself wondrously near to us. In Jesus Christ, God became our brother and our friend.

Yes, for the one who by divine grace has discerned the divinity of Jesus Christ — for his humanity is evident — and who by baptism is in Christ, God the Son is his brother. Further, for that same person who by baptism is in Jesus Christ, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ is his Father — and all this by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has crossed the distance and become our best of friends. For Islam, this is no way to speak of God, for the one God is our exalted Master and Lord. The pivotal element in the Christian religion is personal friendship with Jesus Christ, living, risen, unseen. By means of friendship with Jesus, established by the Sacraments and nourished by his word and personal prayer, we live in God who is our brother and our father. But there is a distinctive character to this friendship with Jesus Christ — and this brings us to our Gospel today (Luke 10: 1-12). Friendship with Jesus is not just a matter of being with Jesus in, we might even say, a sedentary sense. We are not, as Christians, simply sitting in a room with Jesus for the whole of our Christian life. By that I mean that our grasp of the outstretched hand of Jesus our Saviour does not end there. Yes, he extends his hand to us to take away our sins and to share his divine life with us. But very importantly, he also wishes to draw us into his mission. As our brother and our friend he wants us to join with him in his work. He wants his friends to help bring him and his grace to the world. He wants us to bear fruit, fruit that will last. Life for the Christian is life in union with our divine brother, saviour and friend, a life that is very much a “working” life. It is a life of immersion in the work of Jesus Christ our brother. We are all called to collaborate with Christ in bringing salvation in him to the world. And so it is that we read in our Gospel today that our Lord “appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go!” We must work and pray for it.

For this reason many decades ago the Venerable Pope Pius XII taught that an essential element of the Christian life is that it be apostolic. This teaching was repeated with insistence by the Second Vatican Council and developed by subsequent popes. No matter what our calling in life, if we aspire to friendship with the living Jesus — and sanctity consists of this — we must aspire to be one with Jesus in his mission. This is part and parcel of putting on the mind of Christ, as St Paul chooses to express it. Today is the feast of St Patrick, outstanding missionary. Christ calls us to an apostolic friendship with him, and the character and shape of this will vary from calling to calling and circumstance to circumstance. Let us then strive to grow in the desire to bring others to Jesus Christ, for He is the life of man.

2010-03-16T04:25:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Come to the waters, all who thirst; though you have no money, come and drink with joy. (See Is 55:1)

Father, may our Lenten observance prepare us to embrace the paschal mystery and to proclaim your salvation with joyful praise. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, . .

St. Clement Mary Hofbauer (1751-1820)

Clement might be called the second founder of the Redemptorists, as it was he who carried the congregation of St. Alphonsus Liguori to the people north of the Alps. John, the name given him at Baptism, was born in Moravia into a poor family, the ninth of 12 children. Although he longed to be a priest there was no money for studies, and he was apprenticed to a baker. But God guided the young man's fortunes. He found work in the bakery of a monastery where he was allowed to attend classes in its Latin school. After the abbot there died, John tried the life of a hermit but when Emperor Joseph II abolished hermitages, John again returned to Vienna and to baking. One day after serving Mass at the cathedral of St. Stephen, he called a carriage for two ladies waiting there in the rain. In their conversation they learned that he could not pursue his priestly studies because of a lack of funds. They generously offered to support both him and his friend, Thaddeus, in their seminary studies. The two went to Rome, where they were drawn to St. Alphonsus' vision of religious life and to the Redemptorists. The two young men were ordained together in 1785. Newly professed at age 34, Clement Mary, as he was now called, and Thaddeus were sent back to Vienna. But the religious difficulties there caused them to leave and continue north to Warsaw, Poland. There they encountered numerous German-speaking Catholics who had been left priestless by the suppression of the Jesuits. At first they had to live in great poverty and preached outdoor sermons. They were given the church of St. Benno, and for the next nine years they preached five sermons a day, two in German and three in Polish, converting many to the faith. They were active in social work among the poor, founding an orphanage and then a school for boys. Drawing candidates to the congregation, they were able to send missionaries to Poland, Germany and Switzerland. All of these foundations had eventually to be abandoned because of the political and religious tensions of the times. After 20 years of difficult work Clement himself was imprisoned and expelled from the country. Only after another arrest was he able to reach Vienna, where he was to live and work the final 12 years of his life. He quickly became "the apostle of Vienna," hearing the confessions of the rich and poor, visiting the sick, acting as a counsellor to the powerful, sharing his holiness with all in the city. His crowning work was the establishment of a Catholic college in his beloved city. Persecution followed him, and there were those in authority who were able for a while to stop him from preaching. An attempt was made at the highest levels to have him banished. But his holiness and fame protected him and the growth of the Redemptorists. Due to his efforts, the congregation, upon his death in 1820, was firmly established north of the Alps. He was canonized in 1909.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (5.1~16)

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie— the blind, the lame, the paralysed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat. But he replied, The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' So they asked him, Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Him.

Jesus Christ
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

One gets the impression that on the occasion of this miracle our Lord was in Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews in a somewhat private capacity, without publicity. There is no mention of crowds thronging around him, no mention of his publicly teaching in the Temple, although he undoubtedly had some of his disciples with him — such as John who reports the incident. Our Lord may have been visiting for the Feast in this incognito manner to avoid the mounting hostility of the religious leaders, while being able to visit the House of his beloved Father in heaven. So let us observe him quietly mingling with the crowd, his dress similar to the rest, with a cloth headpiece protective against the weather hanging down and perhaps serving also to disguise his features. He is accompanied by John, perhaps Simon Peter, James and some others. Gaze on this Man of the ages! There he stands, there he moves forward, filled with love and peace, the Light of the world! He sees the truth, and he is the Truth. He is intent on entering the House of his dear Father, his Abba. My Father! he whispers to himself. My dear Father! How I long to see you glorified! Father, dear Father, is the refrain that sings in his heart. This Man has come from the Father himself. His Person was with the Father from age to age. From all eternity the two had been together, united in a third Person, the one who leads him now — the Spirit! The Spirit fills his heart and prompts his powerful and loving prayer that unceasingly rises to the highest heavens and captivates the Father of all, the Origin of origins. There he is, moving ahead. Oh, how marvellous is this Man we watch! We follow him with John and the others. We see his figure, calm, powerful, so utterly good, so very beautiful in his entire being. He is the heart and the head of the whole world, the entire universe. He is the King, the Lord, the One long promised. Is it not a staggering and wondrous thought that this Man who now stops and gazes on an invalid is the very Son of God? We behold in him no mere magnificent prophet, no singular and even unique religious teacher and leader. We are gazing on the living God.

He stops. Perhaps it is a disciple who mentions to him this particular invalid. This incapacitated man has lain there a long time — his presence at the Bethesda pool began before Jesus was born. He had been there at the pool during those years when the adolescent Jesus accompanied his parents to Jerusalem for the annual Feast. Ah! Think of the adolescent Jesus! What a boy he was! The boy who was God made man! So great in nature and grace, growing in his marvellous humanity, preparing for the titanic work ahead in which he would take away the sin of the world, bring the Spirit to all who asked for it, and found his Church whereby he, the Saviour, would reach the ends of the earth and every person. A titanic work indeed, and here he is now, the Man. Pilate would say to the enemies of Christ, Behold the Man! Let us continue to behold him as he stops now and speaks to the invalid. “He asked him, Do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (John 5: 1-16). It seems that that was all that happened, and Jesus moved on, mingling unknown amid the crowd, on his way to the Temple. The man who had been healed had no idea who it was who had healed him, so effective was our Lord’s obscurity during these moments. Our Lord stopped, healed, moved on. Now, let us remember that though our Lord is not visible, he is very much with us. Moreover, he sees all our difficulties. Why did he not heal this paralytic long before? We do not know. Thirty-eight years! But the moment finally came — and someone mentioned the invalid. Let us never give up on Jesus Christ for all our needs, and for the needs of others! The same Man said, ask and you will receive, seek and your will find. The one who asks always receives. Let us keep in his presence then, and never forget who it is to whom we are praying!

Let us never take Jesus Christ for granted, in effect forgetting who he is. He is the Man of men, the unique person of human history. He is truly man, man in every way except that he had no sin, no tendency to sin, no moral fault of any kind because he was literally and truly God. Man though he is, in the first instance he is God, for he is one of the three divine Persons. He took to himself a human nature, and in his humanity suffered and died for us, taking away the sin of the world. Let us love and follow him then! There is no one like him.

2010-03-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Lord, I put my trust in you; I shall be glad and rejoice in your mercy, because you have seen my affliction. (Ps 30:7-8)

Father, creator, you give the world new life by your sacraments. May we, your Church, grow in your life and continue to receive your help on earth. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns world without end through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen.

St. Louise de Marillac (d. 1660)

Louise, born near Meux, France, lost her mother when she was still a child, her beloved father when she was but 15. Her desire to become a nun was discouraged by her confessor, and a marriage was arranged. One son was born of this union. But she soon found herself nursing her beloved husband through a long illness that finally led to his death. Louise was fortunate to have a wise and sympathetic counsellor, St. Francis de Sales, and then his friend, the Bishop of Belley, France. Both of these men were available to her only periodically. But from an interior illumination she understood that she was to undertake a great work under the guidance of another person she had not yet met. This was the holy priest M. Vincent, later to be known as St. Vincent de Paul. At first he was reluctant to be her confessor, busy as he was with his "Confraternities of Charity." Members were aristocratic ladies of charity who were helping him nurse the poor and look after neglected children, a real need of the day. But the ladies were busy with many of their own concerns and duties. His work needed many more helpers, especially ones who were peasants themselves and therefore close to the poor and could win their hearts. He also needed someone who could teach them and organize them. Only over a long period of time, as Vincent de Paul became more acquainted with Louise, did he come to realize that she was the answer to his prayers. She was intelligent, self-effacing and had physical strength and endurance that belied her continuing feeble health. The missions he sent her on eventually led to four simple young women joining her. Her rented home in Paris became the training centre for those accepted for the service of the sick and poor. Growth was rapid and soon there was need of a so-called rule of life, which Louise herself, under the guidance of Vincent, drew up for the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (though he preferred "Daughters" of Charity). He had always been slow and prudent in his dealings with Louise and the new group. He said that he had never had any idea of starting a new community, that it was God who did everything. "Your convent," he said, "will be the house of the sick; your cell, a hired room; your chapel, the parish church; your cloister, the streets of the city or the wards of the hospital." Their dress was to be that of the peasant women. It was not until years later that Vincent de Paul would finally permit four of the women to take annual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. It was still more years before the company would be formally approved by Rome and placed under the direction of Vincent's own congregation of priests. Many of the young women were illiterate and it was with reluctance that the new community undertook the care of neglected children. Louise was busy helping wherever needed despite her poor health. She travelled throughout France, establishing her community members in hospitals, orphanages and other institutions. At her death on March 15, 1660, the congregation had more than 40 houses in France. Six months later St. Vincent de Paul followed her in death. Louise de Marillac was canonized in 1934 and declared patroness of social workers in 1960.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (4.43~54)

After the two days Jesus left for Galilee. (Now Jesus Himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country.) When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him. They had seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there. Once more He visited Cana in Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to Him and begged Him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe." The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at His word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he enquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour. Then the father realised that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and all his household believed. This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.

God, Saviour of all
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There is a detail in our Gospel passage today which could prompt thoughts about the saving plan of God for the whole world. I refer to the departure of our Lord from Samaria and his return to Galilee. John, the author of the account, mentions that the event he is about to describe, occurred in “Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.” This mention by John of specific locations and what happened twice at this particular location reminds us of the historical and geographical character of revealed religion. Revealed religion is an historical religion rooted in facts that, of course, occurred in precise places. God had drawn very near to man in precise locations which are with us today. In Jesus Christ he had personally come to dwell among a particular people as one of them, in a particular part of the world at a particular time. Places are specifically mentioned and the number of occurrences are specified. Cana is with us today, and it has a beautiful church to commemorate our Lord’s visit and two miracles there. Some archaeological work done there can be viewed. But let us expand our vision a little, beyond the scene of our Gospel. The passage mentions that “a royal official” — a “nobleman” as Knox chooses to translate the Greek — approached our Lord with his request for a healing of his son at Capernaum. Was the royal official a Hebrew, an adherent of the Jewish religion? We may presume so, but it may not have been the case. In any event, those to whom he was attached in his work may not have been. We are reminded by this event of the centurion who asked our Lord to come and heal his servant. The centurion had faith that evoked the high praise of Christ. Presumably the centurion was not an adherent of the religion of the Hebrews, even though he was friendly to it. He had built the synagogue, we read. Our Lord’s personal mission was to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, but he constantly bore in mind the pagan world, for it was all around him. He had grown up in a village that was very near the cosmopolitan city of Zephoris, and had perhaps regularly worked there with Joseph on all the construction continually going on.

Jesus our Lord visited Cana and worked two spectacular miracles there. God was present in person there. But let us try to imagine the saving work of God among the nations. God was not neglecting his children, the vast majority of whom were beyond the confines of his chosen people. In this respect, let us remember a detail from the infancy narratives of the Gospel of St Matthew. The Magi from the east — presumably Zoroastrians — received the guidance of a star. God was intervening in a circle of professional adherents of that venerable natural religion to set them on the path to Christ. The path he drew them along led directly to Christ, but the notable thing here is that he was granting them a form of revelation prior to their journey to Christ. We may surely presume that God was, in diverse ways, attempting to draw the peoples along paths that were not unrelated to that which leads to Jesus Christ, the one and only Redeemer of the world. Some of the early Fathers of the Church spoke of the “seeds of the Word” in the philosophies and religions of the world. Cardinal Newman spoke often of a universal revelation. This universal revelation, while in no way serving as a substitute for the Revelation that is Christ who is the only way to the Father, drew the peoples closer to the Father of all and prepared them for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this extended sense we may accept the terminology of various religions which speak of their founders as “prophets.” To an extent, they may have been directly assisted by God in their perception of certain great truths that subsequently guided countless souls after them in the pursuit of the good life. The fact that these great truths — say, of one only God, and of his holy character — were mixed up with many untruths that led subsequently to certain evils, need not gainsay the fact of a certain revelation by God. Newman allowed the same point to be made of the work of certain great philosophers. Indeed, the point may be even more applicable to those great philosophers, for Augustine understood Christianity to be the successor of the best of philosophy rather than of religion.

As we think of Christ visiting Cana of Galilee for the second time and working yet another miracle there, let us also think of God’s action across the mighty span of mankind. His Gift of gifts that absolutely opened the gates of heaven was Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son. By entering into communion with Jesus Christ and living according to the demands of that communion, we shall be saved. But God is and has always been reaching out to all of his scattered children of every age and place. He is constantly endeavouring to lead them to him and along the path of good and towards the person of the Saviour. How good the great God is!

2010-03-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

Prayers today: Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her you who mourned for her, and you will find contentment at her consoling breasts. (Isaiah 66: 10-11)

Father of peace, we are joyful in your Word, your Son Jesus Christ, who reconciles us to you. Let us hasten toward Easter with the eagerness of faith and love. We ask this through Christ our Lord

St. Maximilian (d. 295)

We have an early, precious, almost unembellished account of the martyrdom of St. Maximilian in modern-day Algeria. Brought before the proconsul Dion, Maximilian refused enlistment in the Roman army saying, "I cannot serve, I cannot do evil. I am a Christian."

Dion replied: "You must serve or die."

Maximilian: "I will never serve. You can cut off my head, but I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ. My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight for this world. I tell you I am a Christian."

Dion: "There are Christian soldiers serving our rulers Diocletian and Maximian, Constantius and Galerius."

Maximilian: "That is their business. I also am a Christian, and I cannot serve."

Dion: "But what harm do soldiers do?"

Maximilian: "You know well enough."

Dion: "If you will not do your service I shall condemn you to death for contempt of the army."

Maximilian: "I shall not die. If I go from this earth my soul will live with Christ my Lord."

Maximilian was 21 years old when he gladly offered his life to God. His father went home from the execution site joyful, thanking God that he had been able to offer heaven such a gift.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (15.1~3.11~32)

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear Him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law murmured, "This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no-one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I have been serving you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"

Conversion and repentance
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

It is clear from the context of this long passage that our Lord’s principal point is that God is very different from what the Pharisees and teachers of the Law imagined him to be. They murmured at our Lord welcoming sinners and eating with them. Jesus, they insinuated, was unlike the all-Holy God who hates sin. God, they thought, does not allow sinners to draw near to Him, and He condemns and punishes sinners. So our Lord proceeds to explain himself by means of a parable. The principal figure of the parable is the indulgent and loving father who warmly welcomes his wayward son back to the family home. God does not shun the sinner — provided the sinner acknowledges his sin and returns to him repentant. Now, while our Lord provides us with a remarkable surprise as to the nature of the all-holy God — that he is love and compassion — his parable also tells us about man. While it tells us about God our Father, it also divides his children into two types. There is the son who is full of the awareness that he has sinned against heaven and against his loving father. There is also the older son who can only think of the fact that “All these years I have been serving you and never disobeyed your orders.” The younger son has a profound sense of his sin. Because of the pain his sins have brought upon himself he is repentant, even if his repentance is not especially noble-minded. He has not been led back by the thought of the offence to his father that his life has been, but by the experience of suffering it brought upon himself. So his life has been wayward and his repentance less than perfect. How like the sinners and tax collectors they were, who gathered about our Lord! Despite their sins they experienced what the younger son in the parable experienced, a loving welcome from Jesus Christ who, as St Paul writes, is the image of the unseen God. By contrast, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were like the older son who could only think of his faithful service. He begrudged the special welcome the younger son was receiving, and was angry with his forgiving father.

So we are reminded by our Lord’s parable not only of the boundless love of God for man despite his sin, but of the critical importance of a sense of sin in every man and woman. According to the teaching of the Church, only two human beings have been absolutely free of sin in every sense. Firstly of course, Jesus Christ was entirely free of sin because, though having assumed a human nature, he is divine in his person. He could never sin, even though as man he was open to temptations coming from without, and the Gospels record some of the temptations Satan presented to him. The other human being who, the Church teaches, was sinless, was the Virgin Mary his mother. Creature of God that she was, by the power of the Holy Spirit she was conceived free of sin, and remained sinless throughout her life. This she did by the power of God’s grace and her cooperation with that grace. All men, St Paul writes, are under the power of sin due to the original Fall, and were it not for the special grace of God, the all-holy Virgin Mary would have been too. But due to the merits of her divine Son, she was preserved from the inherited condition of sin. All this is to say that the response of the older son in the parable was utterly inappropriate, considered as a type of man’s response to God. We cannot say to God that we have been “all these years serving you” and having “never disobeyed your orders.” We are sinners all, even if to a greater or lesser extent. We should place ourselves in the camp of the younger son who returned repentant to the embrace of his loving father. What must distinguish our lives is repentance from sin and confidence in the love of God our Father. Our Lord holds up for our contemplation the loving mercy of God and the repentance of the younger son who trusted in his father. The older son, by his self-righteous attitude and hostility to both his younger brother and to his loving father, refused to come inside to join in the celebrations. How like the Pharisee! Christ’s call to conversion must continue to resound in our lives. Conversion is a continuing and life-long obligation for each of us and for the whole Church.

Our Lord’s essential point in the parable of this Sunday is that God is boundlessly merciful to the sinner who returns to him in repentance. The one who does not thus return, excludes himself from the friendship of God. The grace of God is our hope, and it enables us to respond to the merciful love of God by sorrow for sin and a firm purpose of amendment. We express this in acts of contrition and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The same grace of God enables us to continue to trust in God, and to live a life of penance in prayer, fasting and almsgiving. There are two recurring times when the Church invites us to practise this penance in a special way: Lent and each Friday. Let us then aim at true conversion, and be duly warned against the spirit of the older son in today’s parable.

A second reflection on today’s Gospel

Sin
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

Today’s Gospel passage is famous in world literature. In it our Lord tells the story of the prodigal son, a sinner who contritely admits what he has done: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’ But let us remember why our Lord told the parable: it was to explain his own actions. We read that the tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So in response to this objection that what he was doing was ungodly, our Lord told the parable explaining why he, sinless as he was, welcomed sinners and ate with them. The prodigal son welcomed by the father is the tax collector and the sinner. The older brother who complains at his father’s behaviour is the scribe and the Pharisee complaining at our Lord’s behaviour. But more than anything, the father in the parable is Christ’s image of God. It describes what God is like if we come to him, acknowledging that we are sinners. Like the father of the prodigal son, God our Father is extravagantly forgiving, provided we return to him with contrition. A principal purpose of Lent is to realize the love of God and to turn back to him seeking his forgiveness, especially in the Sacrament of Penance. In the second reading St Paul says, in Christ’s name we appeal to you, be reconciled to God. God is all-forgiving. During Lent let us strive to understand what God is like, and that we are sinners in profound need of his love. One of the most serious and yet common mistakes we can make in life is to think that little sins, as they are called, do not matter much. The moment we fall into any sin through weakness — and here I am referring especially to venial sin — we should make an act of contrition, of sorrow for sin, and ask God’s forgiveness.

Our ambition ought be to avoid deliberate venial sin, precisely and above all because it is an offence against God. If we take venial sin lightly we shall not only never reach holiness. Deliberate and unrepented venial sin is the path that leads to mortal sin. Of course, if the sin is mortal, whether it be a sin of thought or word or deed, we must endeavour to make an act of perfect contrition, that is to say, an act of sorrow inspired primarily by the thought that I have seriously offended the good God. Then we ought approach the Sacrament of Penance as soon as possible. Indeed, the most concentrated and effective way of receiving God’s pardon, whether it be for mortal or venial sin, is through the Sacrament of Penance. The Church recommends regular and frequent confession of venial sins. When it comes to any mortal sin, we are absolutely bound to seek God’s forgiveness for that sin in the Sacrament of Penance, and we should do so as quickly as possible. We certainly must do so before receiving Holy Communion. A great benefit of being a Catholic is that by means of Confession we can always regain the state of grace through this sacrament, and grow in it. We are bound by Church law to confess any grave sins, at least once a year in order to receive Holy Communion during the Easter season. Our Lord gave us the Sacrament of Penance after his resurrection, when he said to his apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them.” St John Chrysostom reminds us that this authority to forgive is not even given to archangels, nor is it given to our Lady herself. Yet it is given to every priest, and this is done for our benefit, to keep us in the state of grace. So let’s use it.

A third reflection on the Gospel of the fourth Sunday of Lent

Love and sin
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

By the fourth Sunday we are well and truly into Lent, the season of repentance from sin. We are invited by Christ and the Church to be conscious of sin and to turn from it back to our loving Father. In our Lord’s parable, the Prodigal Son came to realise that he was a sinner. “I have sinned,” he said to his loving father, “against God and against you.” He offers no excuses. He knew he had sinned and he understood what sin had led to. He confessed his sin and he was received back into his father’s friendship. Now, it is important to understand the purpose of this story. The parable is above all about God our Father, and about Jesus who is the image of the Father. He who sees me sees the Father, he said at the Last Supper. The Pharisees despised sinners, but Jesus sought them out and showed them love and offered them his company. In response, sinners sought him out. The parable is about God awaiting the return of the sinner whom he greatly loves, and whom he is always ready to forgive, if the sinner is willing to renounce his sins and return to him. So, as we read the parable we ought think first of God our loving Father, and of Jesus who reveals him. He loves sinners. All through the parable the Father is portrayed as lovingly indulgent. The younger of the two sons said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of property that falls to me”. The father did not object, rather he simply divided his living between them. If anything, the father was excessively indulgent. God will be our Judge, but that does not take away from the fact that he is indulgent with us, especially while we have the chance in this life of repenting. So the younger son went off and squandered his property in loose living. Then in the depths of distress and depression he returned home seeking work in his father’s house. He realised that his father loved him, and so he felt sufficiently confident to return to ask for employment. But what happened? The story tells us that ‘while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.’ And so they began to celebrate.

This is the image we should have of God receiving any soul who turns away from sin and comes back to friendship with him. Just before our Lord tells this particular parable, he says that there will be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. St John in one of his letters tells us that God is love. One of the things we ought be working on during Lent is a correct image of God, and the picture of the indulgent father in today’s parable can help us. But the parable also tells us about sin. It ruined the younger son. Sin is not only a profound offence against God and his most holy nature. It is also the great destroyer of creation and of man. God, while loving us with a boundless love, hates sin. For this reason he sent his son, to take away the sin of the world. So while we think of God’s love for us, we should also think of what sin does to us and of how hateful it is to God. Again, the parable of our Gospel text helps us appreciate sin and its destructive power. The younger son squandered all his property in loose living, and when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country and he began to be in want. So he ended up serving the swine, and the swine were better off than he, in terms of food. No one gave him anything to eat. That is what he had come to. Let that be an image of the wages of sin, which St Paul tells us is death. Let us think of sin with the help of this famous parable, and let us endeavour to recover a sense of sin, and of how it is the greatest evil in the world. God hates sin and wants to see it entirely overcome and eliminated, precisely because he loves us. The younger son experienced the dregs of suffering because of his sins, and Christ stepped into the place of the younger son and bore on his shoulders the consequences of the sin of all mankind. He expiated for the sin of the world. If we wish to gain a true idea of the hatefulness of sin and of its consequences for mankind, look on our Lord hanging on the cross. It was sin, our sins, the sins of each person, that put him there.

It is imperative that we recognise the presence and nature of sin in our lives. God hates sin which is the gravest affront to him. But he loves us, who commit the sin that he hates. Every time we commit a sin — even a venial sin but most of all if it is a mortal sin — we must make a sincere act of contrition, one that is as perfect an expression of love for God as we can. We should go to Confession regularly and frequently, and each time we go we should make it as good a Confession as possible. We should examine our consciences daily. At the beginning of every Mass we confess our sinfulness, thinking of the times we have sinned. In each of these ways, let us make Lent a time when we recover a sense of sin and renounce it profoundly.

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St. Leander of Seville (c. 550-600)

The next time you recite the Nicene Creed at Mass, think of today’s saint. For it was Leander of Seville who, as bishop, introduced the practice in the sixth century. He saw it as a way to help reinforce the faith of his people and as an antidote against the heresy of Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. By the end of his life, Leander had helped Christianity flourish in Spain at a time of political and religious upheaval. Leander’s own family was heavily influenced by Arianism, but he himself grew up to be a fervent Christian. He entered a monastery as a young man and spent three years in prayer and study. At the end of that tranquil period he was made a bishop. For the rest of his life he worked strenuously to fight against heresy. The death of the anti-Christian king in 586 helped Leander’s cause. He and the new king worked hand in hand to restore orthodoxy and a renewed sense of morality. Leander succeeded in persuading many Arian bishops to change their loyalties.

Leander died around 600. In Spain he is honoured as a Doctor of the Church.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (18.9~14)

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men— robbers, evildoers, adulterers— or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke: 18: 9-14)

Authentic religion
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There are some fundamental human activities which all men and women find themselves engaged in. Man must work in order to eat and to pursue his interests. Of course, he finds himself reflecting on things, and making choices — some of which are momentous and have far-reaching consequences. So the list could go on. Man also finds himself being religious, or tending to be religious, or taking to religion when it is presented to him as he grows. He is drawn into the religious life of his family and his community. As a result of his power of reflection and choice he may abandon the religion of his upbringing and forego religion or adopt another. I think we could say that, looking at the matter anthropologically and sociologically, religion is one of the most common of human activities. So pervasive is it in traditional societies that, as has often been observed when setting man in the context of other living and conscious beings, man could be described as a religious being. Yes, of course he works in order to eat and do other things. Of course he reflects and chooses. But equally notable is the abundant manifestations of his religious life. But what is the essential activity of religion? What is it to be religious, authentically religious, and indeed profoundly religious? Of course, all understand that the religious person is the one who acknowledges God as the living Master of his life, however God may be conceived and imagined. A person who through ignorance, neglect or deliberate choice did not recognize God (or the gods) in this way, would never be described as religious, except in some analogous sense. That having been granted, could we make this more explicit and identify an inner attitude, informing one’s recognition of God, which marks the authentically religious person? Putting it slightly differently, is there something the religious person, the one who recognizes God as Master, should especially attempt to develop in his attitude before God? In our Lord’s day (as in every day) there were persons who were professionally religious and who led the people in their religion. But many of them were not especially religious at all.

It is very fortunate that our Lord’s teaching was commonly given in images rather than in, as with Aristotle, abstract discourse. Our Lord’s teaching was meant for the world — including all the Aristotles — and so he spoke in the pictorial language of mankind. In our Gospel today (Luke: 18: 9-14) our Lord tells his well-known parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and he turns firstly to the Pharisee. The Pharisee was the religious person — in the view of society. Our Lord did not discount the role of the scribes and the Pharisees, and on one occasion he directed that his hearers do what they say while avoiding their example. They occupied the chair of Moses. They were legitimate religious teachers and they sustained to a greater or lesser extent the religious life of the nation. So, in his parable our Lord describes the Pharisee — and he is devastating in his description of the inner character of their religion. The prayer of the Pharisee was thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men— robbers, evildoers, adulterers— or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” Essentially, he exalted himself. The properly religious person exalts God, but the Pharisee in the parable exalted himself, before God and before others. So there we have from the lips of our Lord himself one thing which the religious person absolutely must not do. He must avoid self-exaltation like the plague. This self-exaltation can even be very secret, seen by God himself. By contrast, the Tax Collector stood far back, perhaps in the shadows of the Temple where he would be scarcely be seen. He had nothing to show before the gaze of men. But, most especially, he had nothing to show before the gaze of God, and he knew it. “He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'” Now, Cardinal John Henry Newman, a leading religious mind of the nineteenth century, claimed that this expressed the essence of authentic religion. The plain and manifest fact is that we are sinners, and he, Newman, maintained that even natural, fallen man knows or should know this. We are sinners and our most authentic act in religion is to acknowledge our sinfulness before God and to ask his forgiveness.

Our Lord’s sums up the effect of each prayer, and states that the Pharisee was left separated from God and still in sin, whereas the sinful Tax Collector was left reconciled with God. “ I tell you that this man,” our Lord concludes, “rather than the other, went home justified before God.” What we must do, whether we are called to occupy a lowly and hidden place in the world or a prominent place that draws the esteem of others, is to be like the Tax Collector in our inner religion. Our heart must be steeped in humility and contrition before God. This is what it means to be authentically religious. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”