St. Gertrude (1256?-1302)

Gertrude, a Benedictine nun in Helfta (Saxony), was one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher St. Mechtild, she practiced a spirituality called "nuptial mysticism," that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ. Her spiritual life was a deeply personal union with Jesus and his Sacred Heart, leading her into the very life of the Trinity. But this was no individualistic piety. Gertrude lived the rhythm of the liturgy, where she found Christ. In the liturgy and Scripture, she found the themes and images to enrich and express her piety. There was no clash between her personal prayer life and the liturgy.

"Lord, you have granted me your secret friendship by opening the sacred ark of your divinity, your deified heart, to me in so many ways as to be the source of all my happiness; sometimes imparting it freely, sometimes as a special mark of our mutual friendship. You have so often melted my soul with your loving caresses that, if I did not know the abyss of your overflowing condescensions, I should be amazed were I told that even your Blessed Mother had been chosen to receive such extraordinary marks of tenderness and affection" (Adapted from The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude). (AmericanCatholic.org)


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (18.1-8)

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


Prayer of Petition
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

From time immemorial man has engaged with the unseen powers who are understood to control, to a greater or lesser extent, the course of the world. For thousands of years the Australian Aborigines performed ceremonies invoking mythic beings, and by this means gained access to the spiritual powers of the Dreaming. The ceremonies enabled participants to enter into the ongoing renewal of the Dreaming on which life and the world depended. So it has been across the teeming ocean of human life. Prayer and ritual is characteristically a feature of human society. Man has been convinced that the course of the world depended on higher powers and that these same powers could be brought over to his side. They could be placated and made friendly by the ceremonies - though often they were friendly in the first place. The secular student typically regards this image of the deity as a mere projection by religious man of his inner desires or experience of life. But it could be viewed more profoundly as a dim perception by man of something of the real and objective Other. When he addressed the Australian Aborigines at Alice Springs in 1986, Pope John Paul II said that “for thousands of years” they had fashioned their culture, and that “during all this time, the Spirit of God has been with you.” The Pope said that “Your "Dreaming", which influences your lives so strongly that, no matter what happens, you remain for ever people of your culture, is your own way of touching the mystery of God’s Spirit in you and in creation. You must keep your striving for God and hold on to it in your lives.” The point here is that man is a being of prayer and religion, even though this can deform and degenerate into magic and religious manipulation. Now, God, who created man with a religious instinct for him, has intervened in history and revealed his plan for man. What does he - made man in Christ - say to us about our prayer? Our Gospel today is very clear about one point.

Our Lord encourages us to pray for all that we need. Apart from anything, this sets a divine seal on the fact that in all places and at all times man has prayed. Christ in effect says, it is very good that you have prayed. It is what you ought be doing. But of course God has now revealed himself in person, and so we have all the more reason to pray with all our heart. We can pray with real light, all the while following divine instructions. In our Gospel passage today, our Lord tells us another thing about prayer. It is that we should pray persistently for what we need. Our Lord gives an illustration drawn from everyday life. It is the picture of the unjust judge who is badgered by the poor widow to grant her rights. She wore him down, and he granted her request. Even if a person is not loving and thoughtful, even if he is unjust, sheer persistence will make him get up and grant a petition - if only to be rid of the importunate petitioner. We see ongoing prayer in human societies and in fallen man - well then, how much more ought we pray in ongoing fashion to our loving and all-powerful Father in heaven! Our Lord is inviting us to be importunate with God. “And the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18: 1-8). The teaching of Christ about the prayer of petition as expressed in this passage is that we should persist in asking for what we need. But all too often we simply lack the faith to persist in prayer. We give up on God because he delays or seems not to be answering our prayer. We think he does not care, or that he cannot give what we are asking for, or it may even become clear that we doubt the reality of God anyway. If we truly believe that God is God, then we shall believe that the one to whom we are praying is all-loving, all-powerful and all-wise. If our prayer is not answered in the precise way we wish, it must be because God is answering it in a better way. We must not give up on God.

If there is something important to pray for, and if in the presence of God we genuinely think our asking for it would not displease him, then we ought pray for it. If it continues to seem to be the will of God that we ask him for this favour, then we ought continue to ask for it. We ought humbly persist. If nothing results, we ought persist in faith, unless it becomes manifest that it is not according to the will of God that we pray for it. We ought pray persistently and not lose heart. If in the event the favour is not granted, we may be sure that it is in our best interest that we not receive that favour, and that God will answer our prayer in a much better way.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin (1850-1917)

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

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


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (17.26-37)

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


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

I am not sure whether there has ever been an international study of the effect of the installation of road cameras on reducing speeding on the roads. In Australia the fines are hefty and after a few infringements the license is lost for a period. This can lead to immense inconvenience and even to the loss of a person’s job - if his job depends on his having his license. Being caught by the camera can be plain unlucky. A person can be distracted from watching his speedometer for just a few seconds and then quickly recover his attention, but by then it could be too late. His foot has relaxed down a little on his accelerator, his car has exceeded the limit, and he has been caught. For all the camera knows he was caught speeding over a distance, whereas his speeding was but momentary. All of that said, I am sure that for lots of good and careful drivers, the threat of fines and loss of license makes them doubly careful. Perhaps they choose to take the one route to their workplace so as to be entirely familiar with all road cameras to be encountered. The point is that penalties change behaviour, and the whole of life, from childhood to the grave, illustrates this. There is the constant prospect of reward or punishment ahead, depending on our behaviour now. This pattern in life ought prompt man to expect that, if there be an Afterlife ahead, the nature of it will depend on his behaviour now. As it has turned out, this is one of the most prominent features of revealed religion. God has revealed that following death there is a divine judgment, and following that, there will be either Heaven or Hell. What it is to be for each individual will depend on his behaviour - his thoughts, his words and his actions - now. God will reward and he will punish. The revelation of God’s judgment became clearer and more fulsome as divine revelation unfolded in the course of sacred history. That is to say, what Christ reveals of the judgment of God on virtue and on sin far exceeds what was revealed before him. Our Lord is very clear. Remember Lot’s wife! She was engulfed because she disobeyed.

Just as it is foolish to disregard the sanctions imposed on those who exceed the speed limit, so it is foolish to disregard the divine sanctions on our actions. In our Gospel today, our Lord is obviously referring to the final coming of the Son of Man when he will judge the living and the dead. “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no-one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no-one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife!” (Luke 17: 26-37). Every man and woman will see that day and will be caught up in it for good or ill. The principal thing, in the last analysis, will be this divine Judgment. Man’s ultimate happiness will depend on how he is judged by God, and God is a moral Judge. He judges according to the goodness or evil of our deeds. The secular man, who lives as if God did not exist, is living far from the true reality of things. Every one of us is a heart-beat away from the most awful thing of all, the all-searching judgment of God. Notice how, when a person is caught having committed a grave crime, his apprehension mounts as the date of his trial approaches? Yet every moment of our lives we inexorably approach the judgment of God. It is unavoidable, for time is carrying us along. We cannot stop, we cannot turn back. The destination is getting nearer and nearer. We shall all most certainly arrive, and when that moment comes it will be all over. Then, nothing further can be done. The books will be opened and everything laid bare. Then the sentence will be pronounced: it will be, Come! or it will be, Go!

St John Fisher was Bishop of Rochester in the time of King Henry VIII and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, to which university post he was re-elected annually for ten years and then appointed for life. He was martyred by Henry VIII for his defence of the Church and her teachings. He kept a human skull before him as he worked - it reminded him of the judgment of God. What must sinful man do? He should acknowledge his sinfulness and repeatedly ask pardon of God in the ways taught to us by Christ and his Church. That said and done, he should trust in the mercy and goodness of God. With this thought in mind, let us take our stand with Jesus, trusting in his love and his sacrifice for our sins. That is the way to prepare for God’s judgment.

Saint Josaphat, bishop and martyr (1580?-1623)

In 1967, newspaper photos of Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries. In 1595, when today’s saint was a boy, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk (famous in World War I) in Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. John Kunsevich (Josaphat became his name in religious life) was to dedicate his life and die for the same cause. Born in what was then Poland, he went to work in Wilno and was influenced by clergy adhering to the Union of Brest (1596). He became a Basilian monk, then a priest, and soon was well known as a preacher and as an ascetic. He became bishop of Vitebsk (now in Russia) at a relatively young age, and faced a difficult situation. Most monks, fearing interference in liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. By synods, catechetical instruction, reform of the clergy and personal example, however, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox in that area to the union. But the next year a dissident hierarchy was set up, and his opposite number spread the accusation that Josaphat had "gone Latin" and that all his people would have to do the same. He was not enthusiastically supported by the Latin bishops of Poland. Despite warnings, he went to Vitebsk, still a hotbed of trouble. Attempts were made to foment trouble and drive him from the diocese: A priest was sent to shout insults to him from his own courtyard. When Josaphat had him removed and shut up in his house, the opposition rang the town hall bell, and a mob assembled. The priest was released, but members of the mob broke into the bishop’s home. He was struck with a halberd, then shot and his body thrown into the river. It was later recovered and is now buried in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome. His death brought a movement toward Catholicism and unity, but the controversy continued, and the dissidents, too, had their martyr. After the partition of Poland, the Russians forced most Ruthenians to join the Russian Orthodox Church.

The seeds of separation were sown in the fourth century when the Roman Empire was divided into East and West. The actual split came over relatively unimportant customs (unleavened bread, Saturday fasting, celibacy). No doubt the political involvement of religious leaders on both sides was a large factor, and doctrinal disagreement was present. But no reason was enough to justify the present tragic division in Christendom, which is 64 percent Roman Catholic, 13 percent Eastern Churches (mostly Orthodox) and 23 percent Protestant, and this when the 71 percent of the world that is not Christian should be experiencing unity and Christ-like charity from Christians!


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke(17.20-25)

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you. Then he said to his disciples, The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.


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


I remember the exultation of his followers when Francois Mitterrand won the Presidency of France. A new period in French life was about to start! But somehow the lustre began to fade. Time and again there is great excitement all over a nation when a party captures Government. The same thing can be seen even when a dictatorial party wins a democratic election and slowly manipulates the processes so as to entrench its power for long years ahead. Its followers can be filled with enthusiasm for the utopia that is promised. Enormous atrocities can be perpetrated for the sake of a utopia, imagined as a regime of material and political prosperity. The French Revolution exploded on the scene with the promise of liberty, equality and fraternity for all in a nation in which all were to be citizens equally. Citoyens! What in fact took shape was a terrible ogre, a monster with blood and flesh dripping from its vast mouth. Terror was in every neighbourhood and the guillotine became a famed household word. Out of its jaws came the thunder of Bonaparte, and Europe was filled with carnage, fire and sword. It began with the dream of a utopia for this world. A century later another utopia was imposed: that of the Russian Revolution with its millions of dead strewn in its wake. Long, long before, God himself had promised a Kingdom. At the dawn of human history, God had promised that the descendant of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. Abraham was promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. The prophets saw it coming, - a little here, a little there, and gradually the picture formed. A Messiah was coming, one who would fulfil what God had promised for the people and for the world. But how was this interpreted? All too often it was understood as an earthly utopia. Indeed, there are still those who, accepting the revelation that preceded Christ, take the divine promises to mean a world of peace and prosperity here and now. The notion of a Messiah, dead on the cross and calling on all to follow in his footsteps, is a foolishness to them.

In our Gospel today our Lord is asked - by the Pharisees - when the Kingdom of God would come. They knew it would come and the acceptance of historical revelation involves accepting this hope. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness calling on all to repent, and to prepare the way for the Lord, for he was coming. He pointed to Jesus as God’s Man, his Anointed one, the Messiah. Then John’s star was removed from sight and Christ stood forth as the light that had suddenly arrived. He called on all to repent, for the Kingdom of God was at hand. When, then, the Pharisees asked, would it come? The problem with the Pharisees as with so many, was their very notion of the Kingdom of God. Our Lord said to them that it is not as you think it to be. “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you.” The Kingdom of God is within you! What would the Pharisees have made of this? We read in the Gospel of St John of one of the Pharisees who came to Jesus by night to be instructed by him. He was Nicodemus, a secret but faithful disciple, and to him our Lord spoke of the Kingdom of God (John 3). You have to be born again, our Lord said, otherwise you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. It will mean being born of water and the Holy Spirit. Importantly, our Lord went on to tell him that he himself must be lifted up, that those who believe in him may not perish but have life everlasting (John 3: 14). In our Gospel today, having replied to the Pharisees, our Lord speaks to his disciples. Before his glory, the Son of man “must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17: 20-25). The Kingdom of God is not a utopian kingdom of this world. It involves crucifixion. A person will enter the Kingdom or Rule of God when he follows Christ along that road for love of him. The Rule or Reign of God is found and embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, and one enters this Kingdom by entering into union with him. It is this Kingdom which will triumph.

Man’s best happiness here consists in union with Jesus Christ. He is the key and the meaning of the universe. He is the grand linchpin, and we reach the heart of reality by entering into an undying friendship with him, whatever be the cost. The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected in order to enter his glory. The Glory and the Utopia will come, but only through union with him. What he asks is that, for love of him, we renounce ourselves and take up our cross every day and follow in his footsteps. Then comes the Glory. That is what the Kingdom is, and it is found in the person of Jesus, who himself is found in his Church. Go to him, then!

Saint Martin of Tours, bishop (316?-397)

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


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (17.11-19)

Now on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When He saw them, He said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests. " And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked Him— and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no-one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then He said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well. "


God is very personal
(Homily by Fr. E.J.Tyler)

Throughout the history of Western thought there have been numerous variants of the argument that posits a First Cause of our changing, contingent, varied and ordered world. From Plato and Aristotle to Plotinus to Avicenna and on to Aquinas the argument has been worked and reworked. It was Aristotle who gave the discussion a special early impetus, but as Newman remarks in an important sermon of April 1830 (‘The Influence of Natural and Revealed Religion’) the philosophical notion of the First Cause held by the ancients was of a divine Principle rather than of a living Agent. It tended to be an abstraction rather than a concrete person. This observation reminds us of the difficulty inherent in a religion that depends on creation alone for its inspiration. There are so many good things man finds himself blessed with, but these good things alone will probably leave him with but a shadowy impression of the unseen Donor. By intervening in history and entering into a dialogue with specific persons, God has projected himself into our lives and on to our minds in a very personal way. He, the Author of all that is, has presented himself to man as a living Being with his own personal identity. He is not just the Principle of things. Indeed, he even became man. As Pope Benedict XVI put it, Jesus Christ is his face. From that point, there has never been anything of remoteness about God in his relations with us. He deals with us in a very personal way, and invites a personal response on our part to what he does for us. It is not as if, finding ourselves blessed with good things we feel grateful as a result, but, because the great Donor seems virtually anonymous, we carry on regardless. There is nothing anonymous about the Donor of all that we have received. He is Yahweh God, the one who is, who has become man in the person of Jesus Christ. He has been touched, heard and seen. Now, observe how Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, bestowed good things - beyond what could be expected of mere nature, on those who needed them. He made it all very personal.

What do I mean by this? Notice what happened in our Gospel passage today. Our Lord was travelling along the border between Samaria and Galilee and he was accosted by a band of lepers. From the distance which they were required to maintain, they appealed to him for pity, for mercy. Immediately he told them to go and present themselves to the priest, at which they departed and in the process were healed. We notice the pure liberality of Jesus. He gives on request, unless there is a positive reason for not doing so. But he gives not as if he were a mere Principle or Source of things, in the way one might go to the tap and turn it on for the water that is needed. He is not just some impersonal Cause of good things, access to which one might be lucky enough through circumstances to possess. He is a real, living person who chooses to give what persons have need of and ask for. Moreover, he expects, as would any living person, some appropriate response to him who is the giver. He expects appreciation and acknowledgment. He expects us to recognize that he is the source of the good things we have been given. He expects us to thank him, and indeed, to praise him. He wants us to come to him and ask for what we need. In fact, he wants to be our Friend. He does not want us to carry on in life as if whatever good things have come our way have come from some impersonal Force beyond, a Force or Cause which is shadowy and which can hardly be expected to make much difference to the way things are in fact found to be. So it is that, while all it took was a word from Christ to effect the complete physical transformation of the condition of twelve lepers, our Lord expected them to be grateful. God is a living, real, and profoundly interested Person. Jesus is the image of the unseen God, and his response to the Samaritan leper reveals the attitude of the infinite God. “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no-one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then He said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17: 11-19).

The Christian religion is a very personal matter between us, considered individually and as a people, and the living triune God. God is not just the benevolent Ultimate, the Absolute, the Principle of all things. He has a face, and that face is Jesus. He smiles, he laughs, he listens, he watches, he actually laid down his own life for each of us. He freely died that we might live forever. He wants a personal relationship with each of us. He calls us not servants, but his friends. The Creator of the universe is my Friend, indeed my Father and my Brother. Let us resolve to cultivate a deep friendship with God by knowing, loving and serving Jesus Christ.

Saint Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church

With apparent strong conviction of the importance of the Bishop of Rome in the Church, and of the Church as the ongoing sign of Christ’s presence in the world, Leo the Great displayed endless dedication as pope. Elected in 440, he worked tirelessly as "Peter’s successor," guiding his fellow bishops as "equals in the episcopacy and infirmities." Leo is known as one of the best administrative popes of the ancient Church. His work branched into four main areas, indicative of his notion of the pope’s total responsibility for the flock of Christ. He worked at length to control the heresies of Pelagianism, Manichaeism and others, placing demands on their followers so as to secure true Christian beliefs. A second major area of his concern was doctrinal controversy in the Church in the East, to which he responded with a classic letter setting down the Church’s teaching on the two natures of Christ. With strong faith, he also led the defence of Rome against barbarian attack, taking the role of peacemaker. In these three areas, Leo’s work has been highly regarded. His growth to sainthood has its basis in the spiritual depth with which he approached the pastoral care of his people, which was the fourth focus of his work. He is known for his spiritually profound sermons. An instrument of the call to holiness, well-versed in Scripture and ecclesiastical awareness, Leo had the ability to reach the everyday needs and interests of his people. One of his sermons is used in the Office of Readings on Christmas. It is said of Leo that his true significance rests in his doctrinal insistence on the mysteries of Christ and the Church and in the supernatural charisms of the spiritual life given to humanity in Christ and in his Body, the Church. Thus Leo held firmly that everything he did and said as pope for the administration of the Church represented Christ, the head of the Mystical Body, and St. Peter, in whose place Leo acted.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (Luke 17.7-10)

Jesus said, Suppose one of you had a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'


Duty
(By Fr. E. J. Tyler)

At various times I have come across persons who regret that they have the religious duties that are theirs. They envy those with fewer and less demanding duties. Such a person may be, say, a Catholic. He knows that as a Catholic he has various duties to fulfil, and he observes that many non-Catholics do not see themselves as having as many religious duties as he. The non-Catholic may not feel himself required to attend worship every Sunday. He may see himself as having less demanding requirements in certain other spheres of life. This person who envies the other with fewer duties is reluctant about duty, he wishes to be rid of it, and cannot be said to love it. Duty is not for him a friend. Now, it is well to ponder often on the sheer phenomenon of duty in our daily experience. From our earliest years of conscious and reflective thought, we sense duty. I do not refer simply to external impositions which, if they are not respected, bring sanctions. After all, a school bully may demand of others that they do this or that, and he may get compliance because of the threats he makes. But none of those who comply would regard their compliance as a duty. It is merely expedient. The demand coming from other sources may, however, be perceived precisely as a duty - such as the demand by school authorities that there be no bullying. The sanctions which bullying attracts may result in compliance for reasons primarily of expedience, but all know that this compliance cannot be reduced to expedience. This is because the demand in this case is also seen as representing a duty. Duty cannot be reduced to expedience, even though we may recognize that the fulfilment of our duty is also expedient for our happiness. There is something ultimate about the quality of duty because there is something ultimate about the dignity of the one to whom one has the duties - be that person God, or one’s fellows. There is this, too. Duty is not like an unpleasant acquaintance or even an enemy. It is a true friend, and while love for it is not just a matter of utility, still, as with any good friend, love for it will lead to our real happiness.

Deep within his soul man senses duty. It abides within, and abides constantly. It does not glare menacingly at man, but while being severe it smiles with the promise of brightness ahead. More, man senses a greater Presence within duty. This Presence summons him to love precisely through his obedience to duty. That is to say, in the dictate of the conscience, the prudent man senses the echo of the voice of God. Our sense of duty is our most natural step to God, and, if we respect the demands of duty - not with a weary reluctance or as a mere expedient, but for love - it will take us higher and higher. In our Gospel today, our Lord surely suggests these ultimate rewards of doing one’s duty. “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty'” (Luke 17:7-10). Our Lord’s words intimate that the fulfilling of one’s duty for love of the God who summons in the duty, will bring happiness aplenty. Such a person will not need further rewards for his happiness. All this is to say that a life of obedience to God in the fulfilment of one’s duties of state will bring a profound happiness in itself. A girl marries early and leaves the home of her happy childhood to embark on her life’s work, being wife and mother. She lives out her long life in the one small locality, bearing up with her difficult husband and disappointing children. She humbly and consistently lives a life of duty, happy withal. She prays daily, she is cheerful, she makes allowances for the unreasonable thoughtlessness of many around her - in a word, she strives to fulfill her duty in life. She does all this because she wants to love and serve God. Her duty brings her peace and a great heart. She finally reaches her end and is buried with her relatives, her grave hardly distinguished. But she became a great soul and was recognized as such. She had done no more than her duty, and her duty had led her to happiness and to sanctity, humble, hidden but real. Duty is our best friend. It is the touch of God’s finger bringing light for the journey ahead and constituting our natural stairway to heaven.

We are unworthy servants. We have done no more than our duty. The greatest saints have had that to say, and if anyone at the end of life is able to say this, that person has reached his term. John Henry Newman was prepared to go a long way in accepting Darwin’s theory of evolution, but he drew the line at duty. The human being is distinguished by his conscience, by his sense of duty. Let us resolve to do our duty, the duties of every day which God has pleased to give us, knowing that our happiness and flourishing, here and hereafter, will come from their loving fulfilment.

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

Most Catholics think of St. Peter’s as the pope’s main church, but this is not so. St. John Lateran is the pope’s church, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome where the Bishop of Rome presides. The first basilica on the site was built in the fourth century when Constantine donated land he had received from the wealthy Lateran family. That structure and its successors suffered fire, earthquake and the ravages of war, but the Lateran remained the church where popes were consecrated until the popes returned from Avignon in the 14th century to find the church and the adjoining palace in ruins. Pope Innocent X commissioned the present structure in 1646. One of Rome’s most imposing churches, the Lateran’s towering facade is crowned with 15 colossal statues of Christ, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and 12 doctors of the Church. Beneath its high altar rest the remains of the small wooden table on which tradition holds St. Peter himself celebrated Mass.

Unlike the commemorations of other Roman churches (St. Mary Major, August 5; Sts. Peter and Paul, November 18), this anniversary is a feast. The dedication of a church is a feast for all its parishioners. In a sense, St. John Lateran is the parish church of all Catholics, because it is the pope's cathedral. This church is the spiritual home of the people who are the Church.

"What was done here, as these walls were rising, is reproduced when we bring together those who believe in Christ. For, by believing they are hewn out, as it were, from mountains and forests, like stones and timber; but by catechizing, baptism and instruction they are, as it were, shaped, squared and planed by the hands of the workers and artisans. Nevertheless, they do not make a house for the Lord until they are fitted together through love" (St. Augustine, Sermon 36).


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (2.13-22)

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


God-with-us
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

Among the most interesting and popular of series on television are programs portraying archaeological digs. Every so often there is a new find in the pyramids of Egypt. Archaeologists are constantly discovering new sites in the British Isles. In Australia, Aboriginal carvings and remains come to light, putting further back the eras of Aboriginal settlement on the continent. It is taken for granted by those following the discipline that the researchers will presume the importance of religion, which is to say, ritual and religious myth. If something cannot be easily categorized (as, say, a weapon, or an ornament, or some implement of everyday use) then it will be presumed to have a religious significance. From primal man up to the most advanced societies (in archaeological terms) a religious perspective is assumed even by the atheistic or agnostic archaeologist to be fundamental. Perhaps the most characteristic feature of human societies is the temple, the shrine, the religious site or locale of the presence of the deity. It is the means whereby the deity - whether minor or major - can in some sense be encountered. Thus does man typically think. He thinks of his gods, and he wants to be on good relations with them. The testimony of history and the human sciences is that the spirit of man yearns for the divine, and hopes that the divine will come to him. I suggest it is in this context that we ought understand the Judaeo-Christian revelation. God has made man to long for him, a longing which has been deeply frustrated by the original Fall, but which remains nevertheless. He longs for God, and prays repeatedly for his assistance. The remarkable thing is that out of history has come the testimony that God has intervened and chosen to stay with man. He has spoken to certain chosen ones, and has abided with a chosen people. He spoke to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. He promised to be with them and to regard their descendants as his own people. He spoke to Moses and the prophets, and promised to abide with his people as would a Husband with his spouse.

This was the meaning of that great institution, the Temple of Jerusalem. It was the heart of the nation because therein, in some altogether special way, abode the God of Israel. How Jesus Christ must have loved the Temple of Jerusalem! It was the house of his heavenly Father. In our Gospel passage today we see him making a whip of cords and physically driving all the buyers and sellers from the Temple precincts (John 2:13-22). It was his Father’s house! His action reinforces a signal testimony to the world offered by the revealed religion of Israel, that the great God had come to abide personally among men. The longings of the human heart as evidenced in the cultures and societies of the world, were in this way answered. God had come and had chosen to stay. But our passage tells us of a presence of God among us that was more wondrous still. We read that “the Jews demanded of him, What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this? Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. The Jews replied, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days? But the temple he had spoken of was his body.” The physical person of Jesus was the temple of God. Let us consider the marvel of this. If we look to the heavens with any understanding of the findings of astronomy, we cannot but take our breath away at the thought that this is the work of one only God. One almighty Being holds this ever-so-vast universe in his hands. He is, as he revealed to Moses at the Burning Bush, the one who is. He is pure, pure Being without any qualification or limitation. The mystery of mysteries is that he, the great God, became man. Jesus Christ, a definite and therefore limited man, was the unlimited God incarnate. The second divine person, retaining his divine nature, took to himself a limited human nature. And so there walked the earth one who was God, and he it was who cleansed the Temple on this occasion. He himself was the Temple par excellence, and he had come to stay.

This same Jesus in all his human and divine reality abides now in the Church his body. Those who believe in him may encounter him in the life of the Church, especially in her preaching, teaching and her Sacraments. The greatest presence of God among men is the person of Jesus Christ, and the greatest presence of Jesus Christ among men is in the Eucharist. When we think of Jesus we ought think of the Eucharist, because Jesus here on earth is especially the Eucharistic Jesus. The Eucharistic Jesus abides in our churches, and there our hearts have their true object. On the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of John Lateran, let us renew our love for the Eucharistic Jesus, and for our churches where the Eucharistic Jesus constantly awaits us.

Prayers this week: Let my prayer come before you, Lord; listen, and answer me. (Psalm 87:3)

God of power and mercy, protect us from all harm. Give us freedom of spirit and health in mind and body to do your work on earth. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Blessed John Duns Scotus (c. 1266-1308)

A humble man, John Duns Scotus has been one of the most influential Franciscans through the centuries. Born at Duns in the county of Berwick, Scotland, John was descended from a wealthy farming family. In later years he was identified as John Duns Scotus to indicate the land of his birth; Scotia is the Latin name for Scotland. John received the habit of the Friars Minor at Dumfries, where his uncle Elias Duns was superior. After novitiate John studied at Oxford and Paris and was ordained in 1291. More studies in Paris followed until 1297, when he returned to lecture at Oxford and Cambridge. Four years later he returned to Paris to teach and complete the requirements for the doctorate. In an age when many people adopted whole systems of thought without qualification, John pointed out the richness of the Augustinian-Franciscan tradition, appreciated the wisdom of Aquinas, Aristotle and the Muslim philosophers—and still managed to be an independent thinker. That quality was proven in 1303 when King Philip the Fair tried to enlist the University of Paris on his side in a dispute with Pope Boniface VIII. John Duns Scotus dissented and was given three days to leave France. In Scotus’s time, some philosophers held that people are basically determined by forces outside themselves. Free will is an illusion, they argued. An ever practical man, Scotus said that if he started beating someone who denied free will, the person would immediately tell him to stop. But if Scotus didn’t really have a free will, how could he stop? John had a knack for finding illustrations his students could remember! After a short stay in Oxford he returned to Paris, where he received the doctorate in 1305. He continued teaching there and in 1307 so ably defended the Immaculate Conception of Mary that the university officially adopted his position. That same year the minister general assigned him to the Franciscan school in Cologne where John died in 1308. He is buried in the Franciscan church near the famous Cologne cathedral. Drawing on the work of John Duns Scotus, Pope Pius IX solemnly defined the Immaculate Conception of Mary in 1854. John Duns Scotus, the "Subtle Doctor," was beatified in 1993.

Father Charles Balic, O.F.M., the foremost 20th-century authority on Scotus, has written: "The whole of Scotus's theology is dominated by the notion of love. The characteristic note of this love is its absolute freedom. As love becomes more perfect and intense, freedom becomes more noble and integral both in God and in man" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1105). Intelligence hardly guarantees holiness. But John Duns Scotus was not only brilliant, he was also humble and prayerful—the exact combination St. Francis wanted in any friar who studied. In a day when French nationalism threatened the rights of the pope, Scotus sided with the papacy and paid the price. He also defended human freedom against those who would compromise it by determinism. Ideas are important. John Duns Scotus placed his best thinking at the service of the human family and of the Church.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12.38-44)

As he taught, Jesus said, Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the market-places, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely. Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything— all she had to live on.


Loving the poor
(Holmily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

Sir David Attenborough, the famous producer of natural history documentaries, once declared himself to be an agnostic. He did not know if there is a God. When asked why his profound familiarity with the wonderful world of nature did not lead him to the Author of nature, he pointed to the cruelty he saw everywhere in nature. The helpless are attacked and devoured. There is ruthless cruelty by the strong over the weak. Nature does not reflect mercy to the needy - which is what we expect of God. Now, setting aside the question of how that pattern in nature is to be interpreted, we would surely have to allow that a similar impression could be gained from the human scene. While there have been wonderful exceptions, is not neglect and oppression of the needy and the poor an ingrained feature of much of human history?

Prescinding from the dictates of Judaeo-Christian revelation, consider a few examples. India is arguably the most religious nation in the world. The religious imagination pervades that vast and teeming people, illustrating the claim that man is, above all, a religious being by nature. He yearns for the Transcendent, the Ultimate, and wishes to be one with it. But look at India’s abominable caste system and the abiding treatment of its Untouchables! The elimination of this despicable attitude to the poorest has proved to be an enormous challenge. All through history the afflicted have been neglected. For long centuries, slavery - accompanied by great cruelty to slaves - has marred civilization and it has been tolerated by religious societies, including even Christian. In the modern era, millions of the most helpless are routinely snuffed out of their struggle for life by abortion, and this cruelty is sanctioned by legislation. The list could go on and on. The point I am making here is that while man may be instinctively religious, he can be instinctively cruel and neglectful of the poor. If man does not check himself by reference to his higher moral instincts, he will not love the poor but rather will be deeply irritated by them. Further, he will even tend to exploit the poor.

Man’s religious life tends to proceed on a sphere distinct from concern for the poor. By nature man longs for the God who is beyond, while tending to neglect the poor man who is right here. In revealed religion, this absolutely will not do. When Cain killed his brother Abel, he incurred the wrath of God. When Moses received the Ten Commandments on Sinai, it was discovered that the first three governed our relations with God, while the remaining seven, our relations with man. The prophets inveighed against a religion of splendid ritual and sacrifices in the midst of a blithe oppression of the poor. I hate such sacrifices, Yahweh God said. To be religious, one had also to be deeply concerned for the poor. Jesus Christ, the image of the unseen God, showed that God identifies with the poor. In his ministry our Lord loved the poor, understanding by this term the person in genuine need. He was profoundly merciful. He saw the widow of Nain and, feeling profoundly sorry for her, raised her son to life. He responded to need everywhere, pointing withal to the greatest misery of all, the misery of sin. It was this pitiable condition which he had come to do away with. Christ showed the unlimited love of God for the one who is poor. In our Gospel today (Mark 12: 38-44) our Lord condemns the experts in the law for, among other things, their lack of concern for the poor. “They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” He notices with a special love the poor and suffering individual. He stopped in the crowd when the poor woman touched his cloak for a healing. He wanted to have contact with her. In our Gospel today he sees the poor widow putting in to the Treasury all she had to live on. He holds her up for imitation. Christ loved the poor, and he requires of his disciples that they love the poor. At the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:40) he will say to every man and woman that whatever we have done to the least person, has been done to him.

Love for the poor must distinguish the Christian life, and the saints have been shining examples of this Christian spirit. The very phrase, “being very Christian,” has come to mean being very concerned for the needy. Love for the poor is manifested on a variety of fronts, in the struggle against material poverty and also against the many forms of cultural, moral and religious poverty. The spiritual and corporal works of mercy and the numerous charitable institutions of the centuries all show the preferential love for the poor which characterizes the spirit of Christ and his disciples. Let us then pray for the grace to love the poor and to show God’s mercy towards them.