Prayers today: Christ our King is coming, the Lamb whom John proclaimed.

All-powerful God, renew us by the coming feast of your Son and free us from our slavery to sin. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, …


Blessed Anthony Grassi (1592-1671)

Anthony’s father died when his son was only 10 years old, but the young lad inherited his father’s devotion to Our Lady of Loreto. As a schoolboy he frequented the local church of the Oratorian Fathers, joining the religious order when he was 17. Already a fine student, he soon gained a reputation in his religious community as a "walking dictionary" who quickly grasped Scripture and theology. For some time he was tormented by scruples, but they reportedly left him at the very hour he celebrated his first Mass. From that day, serenity penetrated his very being. In 1621, at age 29, Anthony was struck by lightning while praying in the church of the Holy House at Loreto. He was carried paralysed from the church, expecting to die. When he recovered in a few days he realized that he had been cured of acute indigestion. His scorched clothes were donated to the Loreto church as an offering of thanks for his new gift of life. More important, Anthony now felt that his life belonged entirely to God. Each year thereafter he made a pilgrimage to Loreto to express his thanks. He also began hearing confessions, and came to be regarded as an outstanding confessor. Simple and direct, he listened carefully to penitents, said a few words and gave a penance and absolution, frequently drawing on his gift of reading consciences. In 1635 he was elected superior of the Fermo Oratory. He was so well regarded that he was re-elected every three years until his death. He was a quiet person and a gentle superior who did not know how to be severe. At the same time he kept the Oratorian constitutions literally, encouraging the community to do likewise. He refused social or civic commitments and instead would go out day or night to visit the sick or dying or anyone else needing his services. As he grew older, he had a God-given awareness of the future, a gift which he frequently used to warn or to console. But age brought its challenges as well. He suffered the humility of having to give up his physical faculties one by one. First was his preaching, necessitated after he lost his teeth. Then he could no longer hear confessions. Finally, after a fall, he was confined to his room. The archbishop himself came each day to give him holy Communion. One of Anthony’s final acts was to reconcile two fiercely quarrelling brothers.
Nothing provides a better reason for reassessing a life than a brush with death. Anthony’s life already seemed to be on track when he was struck by lightning; he was a brilliant priest blessed, at last, with serenity. But his experience softened him. He became a loving counsellor and a wise mediator. The same might be said of us if we put our hearts to it. We needn’t wait to be struck by lightning.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 1.18-24)

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel — which means, "God with us."
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.


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

This is a precious passage because in it Matthew reports what God revealed to Joseph about Jesus after his conception and prior to his birth. We must assume that the ultimate source of this information was the Virgin Mary, who, of course, would have been told it by Joseph himself. The setting is Joseph’s great perplexity as to the course to follow, having discovered his betrothed to be already with child. He was a most saintly man, and he could have had no doubt as to the sanctity of Mary his betrothed. But what was to be made of her pregnancy? The only course that occurred to him was quietly to bring the betrothal to an end in a way that would avoid all obvious embarrassment to her. This plan forming in his mind, suddenly an angel of the Lord spoke to him in a dream informing him of the true situation. Inasmuch as it is Gabriel who spoke to Mary and Zechariah in the Gospel of St Luke, we may presume it is Gabriel who speaks to Joseph in the Gospel of St Matthew. Joseph is addressed by the angel as “Joseph son of David” and he is the one who is to name the unborn child. That is to say, Joseph by the plan of God is here given the mission to act and serve as his father, and thus the child too will be the son of David. This child is the gift of God, for it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that he has been conceived of the Virgin. In this striking fashion, the child is shown as having been sent from God — not, say, at the moment of a prophetic call, but from the first instant of his conception. Notably, Joseph is informed of the name he is to confer on the child and he is informed of the child’s mission. The child is to be named “Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Now, there are a few things to be noticed about this annunciation of the mission of the child. Let us observe that in Luke’s account of the annunciation to the Virgin Mary by the angel Gabriel, it is made abundantly clear that it is the Messiah who will be born of her and that the Messiah will be none other than the Son of God. His kingdom will be eternal.

No doubt Mary immediately divined that the child’s messianic mission would be to redeem his people from their sins, but this is not specifically stated by the angel. It is formally stated, though, in the angel’s words to Joseph. It is as if a further revelation is being given as to the precise focus of the child’s messianic work, and what the angel said to each would have been shared one with the other. Joseph is to name the child Jesus (meaning, God saves) because he is to save his people from their sins. Now, notice something further. The saviours of the past (Moses, the judges such as Samson, David, certain valiant leaders such as the Maccabees) saved their people from, we might say, the sins of their enemies. Moses saved his people — at God’s direction — from the Pharaoh, and led them to the promised land. Samson saved his people from the surrounding enemies and the Maccabees saved their people from godless oppression. The Messiah was expected to save his people from all such oppression and give to his people an enduring and absolute peace. The angel reveals to Joseph that this messianic child will save his people from their sins. It is from the bind and the thrall of sin which the Messiah was coming to set his people free. Moreover, it was primarily from their own sins that he was going to liberate them, and not simply from the sins and oppression of their enemies. He was not coming to lead a political liberation but a spiritual one, one directed at the heart of each member of “his people”. The true oppression was coming from within the heart and soul of each of his own, and this liberation from sin was to be his mission — a liberation to be brought to all who chose to count themselves among “his people”. There is perhaps here not only the clear indication of the proper mission of the Messiah, but a hint as to the “people” of the Messiah. They are those who receive the redemption from sin that he would bring. Joseph was being told before the birth of the child what John the Baptist would announce publicly decades later: Here is he who takes away the sin of the world.

Let us take our stand with the humble yet valiant Joseph and listen with him to what the angel says of the child soon to be born. Jesus is the one who saves “his people,” and the redemption he will bring is the redemption “from their sins.” So, two things matter. Firstly we must acknowledge, accept and love our Saviour. Secondly, we must recognize and renounce the sins from which he, our Saviour, has liberated us. Let us then renew the promises of our baptism and renounce sin, professing all the while our faith in Christ our Lord, our Saviour and our God.

Prayers today: Lord, you are near, and all your commandments are just; long have I known that you decreed them for ever. Psalm 118: 151-152

Lord, our sins bring us unhappiness. Hear our prayer for courage and strength. May the coming of your Son bring us the joy of salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,...


Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary

Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, the brother of Martha and Mary, was the one of whom the Jews said, "See how much he loved him." In their sight Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. Legends abound about the life of Lazarus after the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is supposed to have left a written account of what he saw in the next world before he was called back to life. Some say he followed Peter into Syria. Another story is that despite being put into a leaking boat by the Jews at Jaffa, he, his sisters and others landed safely in Cyprus. There he died peacefully after serving as bishop for 30 years. A church was built in his honour in Constantinople and some of his reputed relics were transferred there in 890. A Western legend has the oarless boat arriving in Gaul. There he was bishop of Marseilles, was martyred after making a number of converts and was buried in a cave. His relics were transferred to the new cathedral in Autun in 1146.

Whatever of the legends, it is certain there was early devotion to the saint. Around the year 390, the pilgrim lady Etheria talks of the procession that took place on the Saturday before Palm Sunday at the tomb where Lazarus had been raised from the dead. In the West, Passion Sunday was called Dominica de Lazaro, and Augustine tells us that in Africa the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus was read at the office of Palm Sunday.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (7.24-30)

But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ I tell you, among those born of women there is no‑one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. All the people, even the tax collectors, who heard him, acknowledged God’s plan as right by accepting John’s baptism. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.


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

At the end of our Gospel passage today our Lord tells us that “all the people, even the tax collectors” accepted baptism from John. Earlier in this same Gospel, St Luke tells us that “crowds” went out to be baptized by him (3:7). For his part, Matthew tells us that “there went out to him Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins” (3:5-6). St Luke tells us that John was blunt with the crowds that came to him: “O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (3:7). He was a prophet who preached fire and brimstone, we might say, and demanded that they repent. Our Lord informs us that the people accepted John’s baptism. They responded to his call and their response was signified by their being baptized by him. But the “Pharisees and experts in the law” did not. Let us consider these two classes of persons, those who received John’s baptism, and those who did not, remembering that the foremost person who accepted John’s baptism was Jesus Christ himself. Initially John would not baptize Jesus because of his profound sense of Christ’s holiness. He knew Jesus had no sin, whereas he himself was a sinner and he said that Jesus ought be the one baptizing him. By himself submitting to baptism our Lord was bearing witness to the sin of the world and to its need to repent. Man must repent. Christ’s first disciples had been trained by John: Simon and his brother Andrew, and James and John. Throughout his public ministry we see our Lord associating Peter, James and John in a special way with himself, and St Paul refers to these three as the pillars of the infant Church. They had come straight from the hand of John the Baptist. There is no doubt that the way had been prepared for our Lord by John and the burst of missionary life in the Church after Pentecost had its roots in the prophetic ministry of John. The early Church constantly refers to his ministry. His preaching of repentance and his baptism asking God’s forgiveness laid the foundation for the centrality of conversion in the Christian religion.

By contrast, our Lord tells us that the Pharisees and the lawyers did not accept the baptism of John. It seems that they held aloof. More than this, our Lord indicates in other passages of the Gospels that they positively rejected John. Coming down from the mountain after his transfiguration, our Lord told Peter, James and John — who had been disciples of John — that the leaders had treated John as they pleased. In the same chapter from which our Gospel today is drawn, our Lord tells us that John came neither eating nor drinking and they called him a devil. They were proud and unyielding before the preaching of John, despite the example of the common people who accepted him as a prophet and his baptism as God’s will for them. This refusal set the pace for their confrontation with Jesus. The conflict grew in tempo and became implacable. The more our Lord’s holiness and power became manifest, the more resolute they became to destroy him. At root was their refusal to repent. The call to repent had come from John, and they refused. This call to repent was renewed with greater force by Christ, and they refused. Pilate saw that it was because of envy and jealousy that the leaders had handed Jesus over to him. Their hearts hardened and became sunk in sin. Let us gaze upon these spiritual phenomena as illustrated by the two groups our Lord chooses to contrast. On the one hand there is the readiness to repent and on the other, the refusal to do so. Everything depends on the upshot of this choice, and we see it being played out in the public ministry and passion of Christ. There Christ hangs on the cross and before him are the leaders of the Jews, jeering at him. They are the ones who refused to repent at John’s preaching and at Christ’s preaching. Nearby stands a small group, among whom is John his beloved disciple and others of his disciples. They chose conversion and the following of him. Repentance is the door to life with Christ, while the refusal to repent is the door to death in sin.

Repentance is not just a one-off action. Conversion is not something we do on one day, or during some very significant moment, and that is all. Repentance is a daily feature of the life of the religious and Christian person. John’s call to repent, a call renewed by Christ, is a call we must hear every day. It is only on the basis of continuing repentance and turning away from sin that we can hope to follow Christ genuinely. Let us resolve to repent, to convert, and to do so every day.

Prayers today: The Lord is coming and will not delay; he will bring every hidden thing to light and reveal himself to every nation. Habakuk 2: 3; 1 Cor 4: 5

Father, may the coming celebration of the birth of your Son bring us your saving help and prepare us for eternal life. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.


Blessed Honoratus Kozminski (1825-1916)

He was born in Biala Podlaska (Siedlce, Poland) and studied architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. When Wenceslaus was almost sixteen, his father died. Suspected of participating in a rebellious conspiracy, the young man was imprisoned from April 1846 until the following March. In 1848 he received the Capuchin habit and a new name. Four years later he was ordained. In 1855 he helped Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska establish the Felician Sisters. Honoratus served as guardian in a Warsaw friary already in 1860. He dedicated his energies to preaching, to giving spiritual direction and to hearing confessions. He worked tirelessly with the Secular Franciscan Order. The failed 1864 revolt against Czar Alexander III led to the suppression of all religious Orders in Poland. The Capuchins were expelled from Warsaw and forced to live in Zakroczym, where Honoratus continued his ministry and began founding twenty-six male and female religious congregations, whose members took vows but wore no religious habit and did not live in community. They operated much as today’s secular institutes do. Seventeen of these groups still exist as religious congregations. The writings of Father Honoratus are extensive: forty-two volumes of sermons, 21 volumes of letters as well as 52 printed works on ascetical theology, Marian devotion, historical writings, pastoral writings — not counting his many writings for the religious congregations he founded. In 1906, various bishops sought the reorganization of these groups under their authority; Honoratus defended their independence but was removed from their direction in 1908. He promptly urged the members of these congregations to obey the Church’s decisions regarding their future. He “always walked with God,” said a contemporary. In 1895 he was appointed Commissary General of the Capuchins in Poland. Three years before he had come to Nowe Miasto, where he died and was buried. He was beatified in 1988.

The story is told that Francis and Brother Leo, his secretary, were once on a journey and Francis volunteered to tell Leo what perfect joy is. Francis began by saying what it was not: news that the kings of France, England, as well as all the world’s bishops and many university professors had decided to become friars, news that the friars had received the gift of tongues and miracles, or news that the friars had converted all the non-Christians in the world. No, perfect joy for them would be to arrive cold and hungry at St. Mary of the Angels, Francis’ headquarters outside Assisi, and be mistaken by the porter for thieves and beaten by the same porter and driven back into the cold and rain. Francis said that if, for the love of God, he and Leo could endure such treatment without losing their patience and charity, that would be perfect joy (cited in Regis Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., and Ignatius Brady, O.F.M., Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, pages 165-166).

Honoratus worked very zealously to serve the Church, partly by establishing a great variety of religious congregations adapted to the special circumstances of Poland in those years. He could have retreated into bitterness and self-pity when the direction of those congregations was taken away from him; that was certainly a “perfect joy” experience. He urged the members of these groups to obey willingly and gladly, placing their gifts at the service of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

When the Church removed Honoratus from the direction of his religious congregations and changed their character, he wrote: “Christ’s Vicar himself has revealed God’s will to us, and I carry out this order with greatest faith.... Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that you are being given the opportunity to show heroic obedience to the holy Church.”


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 7.19-23)

John sent two of his disciples to the Lord to ask, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? When the men came to Jesus, they said, John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.


Christ is the Key
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

Immediately after this passage of the Gospel we read how our Lord pronounced the highest praise for John. He is — and our Lord is speaking of him as in the present — he is a true prophet “and something more, I tell you, than a prophet. This is the man of whom it is written, Behold, I am sending before thee that angel of mine who is to prepare thy way for thy coming”. John is the fulfilment of this prophecy of Malachi (3:1). Our Lord emphasizes his point again: “I tell you, there is no greater than John the Baptist among all the sons of women” (Luke 7: 26-28). So then, Christ states that John was a great prophet. John had proclaimed that the Messiah was at hand and he had identified him as Jesus of Nazareth. He had summarized the essence of his Messianic mission, to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16), and he himself was unworthy to undo his sandal straps. When our Lord presented himself for baptism John demurred: Jesus ought be baptizing him, he said. He had witnessed a divine confirmation in the voice from heaven following Christ’s baptism (Luke 3:22). But notice how our Gospel passage today suggests that John himself had misapprehensions about the saving plan of God. Having pointed to Jesus and having passed the prophetic mantle on to him as to one far greater than himself, John from his prison cell was puzzled and troubled. Jesus did not seem to be acting as the Messiah. He did not seem to be purging the threshing-floor clean and consuming the chaff with fire that can never be quenched (Luke 3:17). It looks as if John imagined the Messiah as a man of might, exalting the good and putting down the wicked with a conquering flourish and invincible power. Of course, the Messiah would be all of this, but in the fullness of time at the end. His public ministry was other than what John expected. Rather, it was in accord with the real character of God who is a God rich in mercy and compassion. What this means is that, in effect, John needed the teaching of Christ to interpret properly and fully his own prophecy about him.

In response to the question of the two disciples of John as to whether in fact he was the Messiah, our Lord replied, Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. (Luke 7: 19-23). Our Lord is pointing to the great prophecy of Isaiah, in which God is spoken of as coming to save his people. “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened,” the prophet had written (Isaiah 35:5), “and the ears of the deaf shall be cleared. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb shall be free.” The two disciples of John would have returned to their master giving him full assurance and directing him as well to the prophecy which our Lord was fulfilling in its very detail. The point here, though, is that Christ is not only the fulfilment of the Scriptures and the prophecies, but he is the light that enables the Scriptures to be understood. We have in John an example of a great prophet who not only prophesied the imminent arrival of the Messiah but who clarified his mission and identified his person. As with other great prophets, his teaching is incorporated into the inspired Scriptures — in his case, into the New Testament. However, our Gospel passage today shows that he too had to be enlightened by Christ as to the precise bearing of his own prediction. It is an instance of the principle that Christ is the key to the meaning of the Scriptures and the prophecies. The person and teaching of Christ is foretold with varying degrees of clarity by the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, but they themselves — as did John himself — receive clarifying light from the person and teaching of Christ. Isaiah pointed to the Messiah, but the Messiah helps Isaiah, we might say, to understand his own prophecy. That is to say, we must use the Old Testament — and we may regard John as its epitome — to understand Christ all the more, and we must regard Christ as the light and the key in our reading of the Old Testament.

Jesus Christ is the treasure and the jewel of the world and he is the heart and the soul of all the inspired writings. There is a marvellous unity to all of revelation and to all of its written expression in the Scriptures. That unity, that single thread which holds the entire structure together in one mighty and beautiful robe is the person and teaching of Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man. To have him and to live in his friendship by faith is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field which we must sell everything to gain. As St Paul wrote, to live is Christ. Let us take our stand with him and live in his friendship, whatever be the cost.

Prayers today: See, the Lord is coming and with him all his saints. Then there will be endless day. Zec 14: 5, 7

Father of love, you made a new creation through Jesus Christ your Son. May his coming free us from sin and renew his life within us, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.


Blessed Mary Frances Schervier (1819-1876)

This woman who once wanted to become a Trappistine nun was instead led by God to establish a community of sisters who care for the sick and aged in the United States and throughout the world. Born into a distinguished family in Aachen (then ruled by Prussia but formerly Aix-la-Chapelle, France), Frances ran the household after her mother’s death and established a reputation for generosity to the poor. In 1844 she became a Secular Franciscan. The next year she and four companions established a religious community devoted to caring for the poor. In 1851 the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis (a variant of the original name) were approved by the local bishop; the community soon spread. The first U.S. foundation was made in 1858. Mother Frances visited the United States in 1863 and helped her sisters nurse soldiers wounded in the Civil War. She visited the United States again in 1868. When Philip Hoever was establishing the Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis, she encouraged him. When Mother Frances died, there were 2,500 members of her community worldwide. The number has kept growing. They are still engaged in operating hospitals and homes for the aged. Mother Mary Frances was beatified in 1974.
The sick, the poor and the aged are constantly in danger of being considered "useless" members of society and therefore ignored — or worse. Women and men motivated by the ideals of Mother Frances are needed if the God-given dignity and destiny of all people are to be respected.
In 1868, Mother Frances wrote to all her sisters, reminding them of Jesus’ words: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.... I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another” (John 15:14,17). She continued: “If we do this faithfully and zealously, we will experience the truth of the words of our father St. Francis who says that love lightens all difficulties and sweetens all bitterness. We will likewise partake of the blessing which St. Francis promised to all his children, both present and future, after having admonished them to love one another even as he had loved them and continues to love them.”


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (21.28-32)

Jesus said, What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted? The first, they answered. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.


Continual Repentance
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

One of the many obvious differences between Islam and Christianity is the denial by Islam of an inherited Original Sin. Man is not born into an inherited condition of sin. Rather he must choose to resist sin and by nature he is indeed able to resist it. In the early Church, the priest Pelagius insisted that man by nature is able to live a good and holy life — and so he too denied the inherited fallen condition of man. Man can choose to live a holy life and can do this by force of his God-given nature. This doctrine was, as is well known, combated by St Augustine who insisted on the Fall and the power and the necessity of grace. Now, the Protestant Reformers following Luther and Calvin made this a central issue of their Reform, and, filled with a sense of the helplessness of man before the call of holiness, insisted on the utter depravity of the human heart. It is God’s sovereign power which is his only hope. Ever since these positions were nailed to the mast there has been hard controversy between the Catholic insistence that man’s effort and choice also have a part to play and the Protestant insistence that faith alone avails. It is quite possible that there is no ultimate disagreement on this particular issue, despite the anathemas that arose as a result. Be all this as it may, it surely serves to introduce the great point of our Lord’s parable in today’s Gospel passage. His point is that we must choose to convert. There is the man who religiously promises to do God’s will, but in the event does not. In both personal inclination and external appearance he is religious and there is often on his lips and in his heart the promise to God that he will do his will. He does not entertain the thought of a life of sin or of general neglect of God. He is, let us say, a religious man as most would understand that to be. But in his heart he chooses to displease God. Secretly he fails to follow God’s law when it involves inconvenience. He gives very little indeed to the poor. In his heart of hearts all his life he refuses to forgive. His imagination is cluttered with images that are offensive to God. That is to say, he chooses not to obey God.

By contrast there is the person who for many years neglects God and everyone can see that. He does not live the faith he has received at his Baptism and in which he was raised by his dutiful parents. He hears that he must obey God to be saved and that Christ is the only Saviour, but he is interested in other things. This world is what he wants and to give his heart to Jesus Christ he regards as a waste and a mistake. So his life is godless and very secular. He does well in the world because worldly success is the focus of his life. But then he undergoes adverse experiences. He falls sick with a life-threatening condition from which he recovers but in the process he has come to see the ephemeral character of purely worldly attainments. After all, what can he take with him when his time finally comes? At the end of his allotted span, what will he really have to show? Such are the thoughts that gradually come — thoughts that are perhaps confirmed by a bereavement. His wife or child dies and he is absolutely devastated. What is it that makes life worthwhile? And so he comes to change. He gradually turns to God. Though his characteristic response to the call of faith and religion used to be “I will not,” now it is very different. Now he says in his heart, “I will.” He goes from strength to strength in his new direction, still sinning but now continually converting. His conversion was not a one-off event, but the beginning of a pattern. He is continually endeavouring to convert. Every day he reviews briefly the course of his service of God during the day and he resolves yet again to change. He will change in the areas he sees require a change. His goal now is to repent constantly not only of serious sin but above all of venial sin, the smaller sins of every day. This, then, is the secret of the sanctity that is growing in him due to the action of grace. He does not consider any sin, even the lightest and most venial, to be acceptable. He knows that all sin is odious to God, so he will recognize it and resolve to avoid it. The secret to his spiritual progress is that he is repenting daily of deliberate venial sins.

Let us resolve to be like the first son in our Lord’s parable who, though he refused to go to the vineyard as his father asked, repented and then went (Matthew 21: 28-32). This is what we should be doing not just once but every day of our lives. Though we fail to obey in this or that aspect of God’s law, we must repent and then by the power of grace, resolve to do better. The more faithful to the grace of God we are, the more will grace be given to us. The secret to spiritual progress is ongoing repentance from venial sin. Let us repent then, repenting every day, all the while relying on the powerful grace of God.

Prayers: Nations, hear the message of the Lord, and make it known to the ends of the earth: Our Saviour is coming. Have no more fear. Jer 31:10; Is 35: 4

Lord, hear our voices raised in prayer. Let the light of the coming of your Son free us from the darkness of sin. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,...


St. John of the Cross (1541-1591)

John is a saint because his life was a heroic effort to live up to his name: “of the Cross.” The folly of the cross came to full realization in time. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34b) is the story of John’s life. The Paschal Mystery — through death to life — strongly marks John as reformer, mystic-poet and theologian-priest. Ordained a Carmelite priest at 25 (1567), John met Teresa of Jesus (Avila) and like her vowed himself to the primitive Rule of the Carmelites. As partner with Teresa and in his own right, John engaged in the work of reform, and came to experience the price of reform: increasing opposition, misunderstanding, persecution, imprisonment. He came to know the cross acutely—to experience the dying of Jesus—as he sat month after month in his dark, damp, narrow cell with only his God! Yet, the paradox! In this dying of imprisonment John came to life, uttering poetry. In the darkness of the dungeon, John’s spirit came into the Light. There are many mystics, many poets; John is unique as mystic-poet, expressing in his prison-cross the ecstasy of mystical union with God in the Spiritual Canticle. But as agony leads to ecstasy, so John had his Ascent to Mt. Carmel, as he named it in his prose masterpiece. As man-Christian-Carmelite, he experienced in himself this purifying ascent; as spiritual director, he sensed it in others; as psychologist-theologian, he described and analysed it in his prose writings. His prose works are outstanding in underscoring the cost of discipleship, the path of union with God: rigorous discipline, abandonment, purification. Uniquely and strongly John underlines the gospel paradox: The cross leads to resurrection, agony to ecstasy, darkness to light, abandonment to possession, denial to self to union with God. If you want to save your life, you must lose it. John is truly “of the Cross.” He died at 49 — a life short, but full.

John in his life and writings has a crucial word for us today. We tend to be rich, soft, comfortable. We shrink even from words like self-denial, mortification, purification, asceticism, discipline. We run from the cross. John’s message — like the gospel — is loud and clear: Don’t — if you really want to live!

Thomas Merton said of John: "Just as we can never separate asceticism from mysticism, so in St. John of the Cross we find darkness and light, suffering and joy, sacrifice and love united together so closely that they seem at times to be identified."
In John's words:

"Never was fount so clear,
undimmed and bright;
From it alone, I know proceeds all light
although 'tis night."


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew (21.23-27)

Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. By what authority are you doing these things? they asked. And who gave you this authority? Jesus replied, I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism— where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men? They discussed it among themselves and said, If we say, ‘From heaven’, he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’— we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, We don’t know. Then he said, Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.


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

In our Gospel today a critical issue is raised: the authority of Jesus Christ. Our Lord enters the temple courts and begins to teach the people who were there awaiting him or who quickly gathered before him. The people accounted him a prophet and a great teacher, and for his part our Lord constantly displayed a sense of supreme personal authority in all the things of God. He pronounced decisively on matters in dispute among the religious experts. He took it upon himself to cleanse the temple of its commercial activity. He disregarded the cumbersome restrictions insisted upon in respect to the observance of the Sabbath, stating that he was no less than the Lord of the Sabbath. He even forgave sins on his own authority and proved his authority to do this by miracles. In every respect he exuded religious authority. But what gave to him his assurance? What was the source of his authority? And so the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him and asked him, By what authority are you doing these things? In response to the question as it appears in our Gospel text today, our Lord points to the prophet they all knew, John the Baptist. What was the source of his ministry — was he commissioned by heaven or by some human authority? That is to say, was he a true prophet or not? Perhaps the priests and elders had interrupted our Lord during his very teaching. As a result the people may have been in the presence of these authorities when our Lord counterposed his own question to them. If they denied that John was a prophet the people would have reacted with condemnation, and the leaders feared the people. But if they said he was, it meant that his testimony to Jesus as being the promised One would have to be accepted. Our Lord in effect is saying that his authority comes from his heavenly Father who sent him. His authority is supported by the witness of John. Indeed, our Lord stresses — especially with his disciples — that the entire prophetic tradition bore witness to him.

The Christian is profoundly convinced of the supreme authority of Jesus Christ. He is not just one of many religious authorities. One of the many benefits of studying the religions of man, especially the great world religions, is that it shows the religious yearnings of mankind. Man aspires to friendship with God to the extent that this is possible, and he wishes to live in such a way that God will not be displeased. Such a study will also show the distinctiveness of Christ. He claimed unique and full authority to teach man the way to union with God and how to live according to his will. He supported his claim by pointing to the witness of the prophets, to his miraculous activity which by its very character supported the revelation he was making, and by his incomparable teaching. Having risen from the dead and about to ascend to his heavenly Father, he told his disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him. He is the supreme authority in all that pertains to salvation and man’s relationship with God. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the Lord of all mankind and of every nation, including those who know little of him or who have repulsed him. There are countries whose governments are still communist, particularly in Asia and parts of Africa. They characteristically do not like religion and they particularly dislike Christianity. Christ is their Lord, though they do not know it. Because Christ is the universal King, he has entrusted his Church and her members with a universal mission: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. It is the will of God that Jesus Christ be recognized as having all authority in heaven and on earth, and that his teaching govern all of human life. The question of authority which the chief priests and the scribes raise in our Gospel today (Matthew 21: 23-27) is central to the person and mission of Jesus Christ. Christ has this authority, but he will not impose it. He invites all to accept it, for our salvation depends on its acceptance.

That foremost religious mind of the nineteenth century, Cardinal Newman, once wrote that religion is essentially a matter of authority and obedience. He did not mean to imply that a religion devoid of love was authentic religion, of course, but he was laying the stress on the recognition and acceptance of God’s authority, which the Christian knows is present in the person of Jesus Christ. We must accept the supreme authority of Christ and live our lives in obedience to him. Let us do this then, and let us by our witness manifest the lordship of Jesus Christ to the world.

Prayers today: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near. Phil 4: 4, 5

Lord God, may we, your people, who look forward to the birthday of Christ, experience the joy of salvation and celebrate that feast with love and thanksgiving. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,.

or

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever faithful to your promises and ever close to your Church: the earth rejoices in hope of the Saviour's coming and looks forward with longing to his return at the end of time. Prepare our hearts and remove the sadness that hinders us from feeling the joy and hope which his presence will bestow, for he is Lord for ever and ever.


Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr (d. 304)

Every little girl named Lucy must bite her tongue in disappointment when she first tries to find out what there is to know about her patron saint. The older books will have a lengthy paragraph detailing a small number of traditions. Newer books will have a lengthy paragraph showing that there is little basis in history for these traditions. The single fact survives that a disappointed suitor accused Lucy of being a Christian and she was executed in Syracuse (Sicily) in the year 304. But it is also true that her name is mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer, geographical places are named after her, a popular song has her name as its title and down through the centuries many thousands of little girls have been proud of the name Lucy. One can easily imagine what a young Christian woman had to contend with in pagan Sicily in the year 300. If you have trouble imagining, just glance at today’s pleasure-at-all-costs world and the barriers it presents against leading a good Christian life. Her friends must have wondered aloud about this hero of Lucy’s, an obscure itinerant preacher in a far-off captive nation that had been destroyed more than 200 years before. Once a carpenter, he had been crucified by the Roman soldiers after his own people turned him over to the Roman authorities. Lucy believed with her whole soul that this man had risen from the dead. Heaven had put a stamp on all he said and did. To give witness to her faith she had made a vow of virginity. What a hubbub this caused among her pagan friends! The kindlier ones just thought her a little strange. To be pure before marriage was an ancient Roman ideal, rarely found but not to be condemned. To exclude marriage altogether, however, was too much. She must have something sinister to hide, the tongues wagged. Lucy knew of the heroism of earlier virgin martyrs. She remained faithful to their example and to the example of the carpenter, whom she knew to be the Son of God. She is the patroness of eyesight.

If you are a little girl named Lucy, you need not bite your tongue in disappointment. Your patron is a genuine, authentic heroine, first class, an abiding inspiration for you and for all Christians. The moral courage of the young Sicilian martyr shines forth as a guiding light, just as bright for today’s youth as it was in A.D. 304.

“The Gospel tells us of all that Jesus suffered, of the insults that fell upon him. But, from Bethlehem to Calvary, the brilliance that radiates from his divine purity spread more and more and won over the crowds. So great was the austerity and the enchantment of his conduct....
“So may it be with you, beloved daughters. Blessed be the discretion, the mortifications and the renouncements with which you seek to render this virtue more brilliant.... May your conduct prove to all that chastity is not only a possible virtue but a social virtue, which must be strongly defended through prayer, vigilance and the mortification of the senses” (Pope John XXIII, Letter to Women Religious).


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (3.10-18)

When the people asked John, “What should we do?” he answered, The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same. Tax collectors also came to be baptised. Teacher, they asked, what should we do? Don't collect any more than you are required to, he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, And what should we do? He replied, Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely— be content with your pay. The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, I baptise you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.


Thy Will Be Done
(Homily by Fr. E.J. Tyler)

Let us reflect on that question put to John in our Gospel today: “What should we do?” There are several things which distinguish the human being, if viewed in the context of the sweep of history. Obviously, one is religion. Characteristically, man is religious. The anthropologist and archaeologist will take it for granted that religion has marked the society and culture of the people he is studying. Another characteristic is that man is rational. He attains new knowledge not just by gazing at new things, but also by going from known to unknown by the power of reason. Another is that he works, and the better the person he is, the better he tries to work. What is “work”? This is not the moment for a philosophical discussion, but obviously it cannot simply mean the expenditure of energy on some activity. A machine expends energy, but we do not normally speak of the machine as doing a work, except by analogy and extension. “Work” is something proper to human beings. We must “work” in order to live (unless we are living off the work of another), and we must also “work” in order to be happy. Moreover, the more we strive to do really good work, the happier we shall be. If a person does very little work, he gradually crumbles. If he does work that is poor when he could have done good work, he gradually crumbles. Ordinary human experience of personhood and its need to work and work well, ought suggest to us things about God the Creator. His work is before us constantly, the work that is the universe. Our Lord once said to the leaders of the Jews who criticized him for healing on the Sabbath that, inasmuch as his heavenly Father was working, he too would work. God is hard at work, and it is inconceivable that God would not do excellent work. What is to be said, then, of the miserable sights we see in man and nature, when both are the work of God’s hands? We can only say what the owner of the harvest said of the weeds, in our Lord’s parable, “An enemy has done this!” Now - and this brings us to the point of this reference to work, especially the work of God - what is it that God intends in all his work? Putting it differently, what is the will of God in all he does?

Ordinary human reflection would suggest to us that a good God wills not only to sustain things in existence, but to ensure that his creation greatly flourishes. Imagine a disease striking the fruit on an orchard farm. Who would suspect the owner of the farm to have introduced the disease into the fruit of his farm, or knowingly permitted it? The idea would be preposterous. Rather, the will of the farmer is that his fruit flourish. He discovers the disease and then works night and day to eradicate it, and at great cost he succeeds. So too, precisely as creator, God means to do good work. His will is to bring life and not death. If we take as a basic assumption that God is good, we would expect that the disease of sin and death could not be his work. We would expect, instead, that he would be working to overcome sin and death as being a terrible blight on his work. Now, all of this philosophical expectation is confirmed by Revelation. God has “made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ” (Ephesians 1:9-11). As St John says in his Gospel (3:17), God did not send his son to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. The will of our heavenly Father is that “all men be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4). It was for this that Jesus came, to fulfill perfectly the saving will of his heavenly Father. This is the will of God, man’s salvation and sanctification. This is his work, and in Christ the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once and for all. We pray to God our Father to unite our will to that of his Son, after the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. We ourselves are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him. Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven! We ask that his loving plan be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven. Let us pray that we may discern what is the will of God (Romans 12:2) and have the steadfastness to do it (Hebrews 10:36).

There are many joys in life, though the world be a broken world. One of those joys is the doing of good work. The best work that we can do, is to do as well as we can the will of God. This is what John instructed those who asked him, “What should we do?” (Luke 3: 10-18). Christ did the will of his Father, and he did it perfectly even though so many rejected his work. If we do the will of God, Christ will give us a share in his joy. Even if the circumstances surrounding our work may be unfavourable and even crumble before us - as it did, in certain respects in the life of our Lord - the joy of doing good work will be ours, for we shall have done the will of God.

Prayers today: Come, Lord, from your cherubim throne; let us see your face, and we shall be saved. Psalm 79: 4, 2

Lord, let your glory dawn to take away our darkness. May we be revealed as the children of light at the coming of your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.


Our Lady of Guadalupe

The feast in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the sixteenth century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story. A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honour of Our Lady. He was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared and within it a young Native American maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared. Eventually the bishop told Juan Diego to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan Diego’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Diego to try to avoid the lady. The lady found Diego, nevertheless, assured him that his uncle would recover and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or tilma. When Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground and the bishop sank to his knees. On Juan Diego’s tilma appeared an image of Mary as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac. It was December 12, 1531.

Mary's appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary and the God who sent her accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for Native Americans. While a number of them had converted before this incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so much about God's preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God's love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.

Mary to Juan Diego: “My dearest son, I am the eternal Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God, Author of Life, Creator of all and Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth...and it is my desire that a church be built here in this place for me, where, as your most merciful Mother and that of all your people, I may show my loving clemency and the compassion that I bear to the Indians, and to those who love and seek me...” (from an ancient chronicle).


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 17.10-13)

The disciples asked Jesus, Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first? Jesus replied, To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognise him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.


The Great Pattern
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There are many magnificent people who are the protagonists of what the Christian calls the Old Testament. There is a magnificence about Abraham and his faith in God. We read how he understood God to have ordered him to sacrifice his son Isaac, which he thereupon prepared to do. In the event, God intervened to prevent the deed but Abraham’s obedient faith had been manifested. We could go on to cite — as does the Letter to the Hebrews — example after example of outstanding faith exhibited by the Patriarchs, by Moses, the prophets and certain of the kings and priests. Particularly intrepid was the great Elijah and we remember how he withstood the four hundred prophets of Baal. In one great demonstration of faith he vindicated the truth of Yahweh and dealt a tremendous blow to the worship of Baal. In some mysterious sense it was prophesied that Elijah would return to prepare the way of the Lord. We read in the Gospel of St John (Ch.1) that priests and Levites from Jerusalem had asked John the Baptist if he were the Elijah who was to come. John said with humility that he was not, but in our Gospel passage today our Lord declares that he was. Years later when Luke wrote his Gospel, he included the prediction of the angel Gabriel to Zechariah — presumably the source being the Virgin Mary — that his son John would be great in the sight of the Lord and would act in the spirit and power of Elijah. John was the gift of the Lord to his chosen people to prepare “for the Lord a people fit to receive him” (Luke 1:17), and as such was the fulfilment of the prophecy of Malachi (4:6). In John the Baptist, kinsman of our Lord himself, “Elijah has already come.” But, sadly, “they did not recognise him, but have done to him everything they wished.” The power of evil had been very great. There is in the Old Testament a pattern of moral magnificence and moral squalor, the two in conflict, and the latter all too often overcoming the former.

In the third book of Kings, Elijah has his victorious showdown with the prophets of Baal (ch.18), and then he flees from the wrath of Jezebel and arrives at the Mountain of God, Horeb. We remember the gripping story in Exodus of the meeting between Yahweh God and Moses on this same Mountain centuries before. At Horeb Elijah has his famous conversation with Yahweh, and the theophany is very different in his case. The Lord speaks within the gentle breeze, and he instructs Elijah to anoint Elisha the son of Saphat to be his successor (ch.19). Now anointed, Elisha becomes his disciple and his successor-in-waiting. Finally in the fourth book of Kings (ch.2) Elijah is taken up to heaven in the chariot and the whirlwind while Elisha, now having a double portion of his spirit, takes up the mantle and begins his own magnificent ministry. We can surely see in this a prefiguring of the prophetic mantle passing from John the Baptist to Jesus Christ, for Christ confirms that John was the Elijah to come. Elijah met with tremendous opposition, and John too, our Lord points out, was treated as they pleased. But Christ surpasses all in every respect. His miracles were far greater and more numerous, his teaching had a loftiness without parallel, and his holiness surpassed all before him. The scale of his rejection and his sufferings also far exceeded the suffering prophets who had preceded him, and this is what our Lord alludes to in his conversation with his disciples today. “In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands” (Matthew 17: 10-13). And so it is that the patterns we perceive in the Old Testament illustrate the patterns we see in our Lord’s life and ministry. Above all, as pointed out earlier we see the pattern of moral magnificence and moral squalor, the two in conflict with the latter all too often overcoming the former. But ah! The good is not overcome. Precisely through sufferings, precisely through persecutions, the good prevails. Mysteriously, the Messiah has to suffer in order to enter his glory. He must suffer rejection at the hands of those who are evil if the world is to be redeemed. Just as John suffered, so too must the Messiah to whom was passed the prophetic mantle.

What this means is that the mystery of evil and suffering becomes a source of life and goodness. The pattern present all through the scriptures and present in the prophetic ministry of, for instance, Elijah and John, is supremely present in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Death leads to life, if we die in God. It is the great revelation which God has given to a broken world. The Messiah by his life and death has lit up the meaning of the Scriptures which themselves point to him. By his life he lights up the meaning of suffering and death, if we suffer and die with him. Let us take up the mantle, then, as did Elisha from Elijah, and as did Christ from John. Our mantle is that of Jesus Christ.