REFLECTION FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

The world, today, more than ever, is concerned with peace. In an era of fast transport and communications, powerful and dangerous weapons, and major religious and political conflicts, the question has become more urgent than ever. At the same time, we realise that there is more to peace than just an absence of war. If the issues that lead to war are not solved, there is a very real danger that peace may not be lasting. This happened in Europe in 1919 – the unsolved issues of the First World War led to and even more disastrous Second World War a mere thirty years later.

That is why the Catholic Church is concerned with Justice and Peace. As long as people perceive that they suffer injustice, they will fight to change their situation, whether it is individuals, organisations or countries. Simply put, just as Alcoholics Anonymous says that achieve sobriety, one must deal with the problems that drive one to drink, so, to achieve peace, the problems that lead to war must be dealt with.

But there is far more to it than this. As long as there is sin in people’s hearts, as long as we are motivated by wrongdoing and disordered desires, will human beings ever be able to achieve justice and peace? Is it not, ultimately, the human heart that must be changed if true and lasting peace is to be achieved. In John’s gospel, this is exactly what Jesus is saying when he speaks these words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” Jesus’ peace is something quite different to that which world leaders or the United Nations propose.

In the language that Jesus spoke, words often have more than related meaning. It is true of the two words “justice” and “peace”. “Peace” can also mean “perfection,” and “justice” can also mean “righteousness,” or just-ness. Peace and justice are matters outside the human heart. But perfection and righteousness/justness are very much internal matters. If there is sin in the human heart, there will never be true peace in the world; sin will always lead to war. And if a human does not have a just, or righteous, heart, how can that person be an instrument of justice?

Jesus understood this only too well. He died, taking our sins on his shoulders, to take away sin from human hearts. And as the Lamb of God, he was the only one who could possibly do this. In other words, the only way to true peace, and therefore true justice, in the world is through the freedom from sin that Jesus offers. In the Psalms, when David prays, “A pure heart create for me, O God…o wash me, I shall be whiter than snow,” he is longing for that purity of heart which the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross alone can give. And when Jesus says, in his Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers…” he means just this kind of peace. It is significant that, amongst the same blessings he speaks on that occasion, comes “Blessed are the pure in heart…”

More than two thousand years ago Jesus spoke these words and made them real through his death and resurrection. For two thousand years the world has ignored them to its cost. Who is to bear witness to his word, if not us? We are his witnesses. We have to become pure in heart. We have to offer to the world the peace that the world cannot give. If we really take this message seriously, small as we might think we are, as we can make a difference.

Fr Phillip

SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL & THE UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE

The Allen organ belonging to the University of the Free State's Odeon School of Music is within the next month to be moved to the Cathedral. This will extend the already growing  relationship between the University and the Oratory. The instrument will be used for lessons and recitals. Organ students will practice and play their examinations a the Cathedral. Foreign organists visiting South Africa will also play recitals here. The presence of two large organs, the Allen and the Cathedral's pipe organ, will extend the range of music which can be performed at the cathedral. The choral music at the cathedral will also be considerably extended by this development. We look forward to a long and happy relationship with the UFS for the development of liturgical and organ music in South Africa.

The cathedral's three organists, Prof. Nicol Viljoen, Dr Martina Viljoen and Prof Ian Drenan, are all academics at the UFS.

REFLECTION FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Perhaps no human person knew Jesus as well as John the Beloved Disciple. His Gospel reveals depths of knowledge as to who Jesus is found nowhere else. More than any other New Testament writer, John seems to reveal Jesus’ inner motivations. His gospel is very different to the other three in a number of ways.

John records conversations Jesus has with individuals when the other disciples were not present; Nicodemus, for example, and the woman by the well in Samaria. It seems that Jesus kept John present at these times, and the gospel accounts are the result. In the other gospels, Jesus seems only to have come to Jerusalem towards the end of his life; much of John seems to happen there. If Jesus went up to Jerusalem privately, and took John with him as a travelling companion, that would explain why only John tells stories such as that of the lame man by the Pool of Bethesda or that of the man born blind.

Most significantly, only John records the many words spoken by Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper. In addition to earlier teachings such as “I am the Light of the World” and “I am the Resurrection and the life,” comes this profound teaching: “I give you a new commandment; love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another. A man has no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. What I command you is to love one another.”

Jesus is speaking on the threshold of his suffering and death for our sake. What he did, he did because he loves us unconditionally and to the very depths of his being. To be prepared to die for someone else is the ultimate expression of love. And he demands the same of his disciples. The word “friends” is used to contrast the disciples’ new status as honoured guests with that of servants, who merely work in a house and do their master’s bidding. But this new status is dependent upon the disciples loving one another even to laying down their lives for one another.

It is significant that Jesus calls this a new Commandment. The Commandments, or Law, were the foundation of the Jewish religion. Without them there can be no Jewish religion, because they form the basis of Israel’s relationship with God. Jesus swallows them up into this new Commandment: “Love one another; just as I have loved you, so you must love one another.” He converts the commandments from being regulations governing Israel’s behaviour into a dynamic personal relationship; followers of Jesus are bound to each other, to Jesus and through Jesus, to the Father, through love. A total, unconditional love which refuses nothing to the loved one, not even one’s own life; a love which transforms us, making us like the Lord who loves us.

Are we capable of such love? Yes, because Jesus has first loved us, and has poured that love into our hearts. Because he has loved us so, we can love one another so. In Jesus, the command of God in Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel; the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” has become a powerful reality. In us, it must become the same reality.

Fr Phillip

THE NEWMAN ASSOCIATION IS ESTABLISHED IN BLOEMFONTEIN

The Bloemfontein Oratory-in-formation's first Newman Association meeting took place on Tuesday 12th April. 

The speaker was Fr Phillip, who delivered the first of three addresses on Dante's Divine Comedy. 42 people attended. A pasta dinner was followed by the address, after which a number of people stayed in order to continue the discussion. 

We look forward to our next meeting in May.

Below, we have supplied extracts of a booklet of Dorothy Sayers's illustrations on the Inferno:

To see the full program, click here.

REFLECTION ON THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Some years ago I was invited to spend a week-end in Riversdal on the family farm of a friend. Just outside my room was a little encampment of new-born lambs which were too small and weak to survive in the main flock. The farmer’s two daughters were looking after them, and had given them all names. When one of the daughters called a name, there was a little bleat from the lamb of that name. When I tried, they would not respond; they only answered to the voices they knew.

We so often do not realise how literal Scripture can be in small things. When we miss these small things, we can miss the power of Jesus’ message. Today’s gospel reading is a case in point. How familiar are we not with those words of Jesus, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”? Jesus is not merely creating a metaphor using sheep; he is relaying a reality familiar to every one of his hearers. This is a literal fact about sheep, and Jesus was using it to communicate a truth about himself and his followers.

It is a fact that the tough shepherds of Jesus’ day took the same flocks out, day after day. The sheep became used to their shepherd, knew his voice, and followed and trusted him. It is true that they would flee a stranger. So they would follow the shepherd as he led them out to pasture, to places where there was good grass and water for them to eat and drink.

The shepherd was accountable for every one of the sheep; he had to count them when going out in the morning, and when he returned in the evening. It was his task to find those who had strayed from the flock. He was expected to fight off predators who wanted to steal or kill the sheep. If a sheep was killed by a predator, he had to bring to his employer the forelegs as proof of this.

All this would have been familiar knowledge to Jesus’ listeners, the hard facts of daily life. It is good that we understand this, too, because it reveals quite how profoundly Jesus is committed to protect and sustain the lives of those who know and love him, who “listen to his voice.” It is also a warning to those who would try and mislead his followers; that those who really know and love him will simply not listen to false religious leaders and teachers. This has been proved over and over during the two-thousand-year history of our Church.

As we reflect back on the saving events of Jesus’ death which we celebrated just a few weeks ago during Holy Week and Easter, another phrase from Jesus’ address on the Good Shepherd should come to mind: “I am the Good Shepherd…I lay down my life for my sheep.” He suffered, died and rose from the dead to bring us safely into his Father’s kingdom. We should also remember Peter’s words about Jesus in the very first Christian sermon on Pentecost day: “There is no other name in heaven or on earth by which we can be saved.” He is our Good Shepherd, and we should listen to his voice and no other. If eternal joy with the Father is what we really want, then that is what we must do.

Fr Phillip.

REFLECTION ON THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

One of the striking facts about those very first days of the Church’s existence, immediately after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, is the supreme assurance of the Twelve in the teeth of opposition from the leaders of Israel. For the leaders, the threat posed by Jesus had passed with his death, and life could get on as usual. Yes, the followers of Jesus, with their claim that He had risen from the dead, were annoying, but they were, so the leaders of Israel thought, a small and powerless group, insignificant and easily dealt with.

But for the Twelve, everything had changed; creation had spun about, and sinful mankind, which had been rushing away from God, was now rushing back towards Him. All the Twelve’s timidity and fear; all their lack of understanding and perception, which seemed so to frustrate even Jesus at times; all of these had been transformed, and from Peter’s first sermon on Pentecost Sunday, they were assured and confident, all their fear of the authorities having evaporated. They were “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for The Name.” (That is, the name of Jesus – which meant receiving the 39 lashes which were allowed according to the Jewish Law.)

What had brought about the enormous change? It was the Resurrection of Jesus. They had seen Him die, and they had seen him after he had risen from the dead. They knew that he was alive, and that He was therefore Lord over both life and death, and consequently Lord of all Creation. This Risen Lord had instructed them to “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News.” They were doing just that when they proclaimed: “He is risen…He is Lord…He has ascended…He will come again…repent and be baptised.” When the religious leaders of Israel, its highest authority, told them to stop proclaiming this, they responded by saying, “We must obey God rather than man.”

Any human authority that contradicted the message that Jesus had revealed to them, especially those who conspired to kill him, was simply not to be obeyed. Jesus was the Sovereign Lord, and nothing on earth was more important than whom He was and what He had said and done. He was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and as today’s Second Reading tells us, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever.”

The Twelve were without doubt that the presence of the Risen Lord overshadowed everything, changed everything. Are we as convinced of this today? Do we believe that there is no-one more important that the Risen Lord Jesus? Do we believe that when there is a conflict, it is He who is to be obeyed rather than any earthly power? He still towers over the world, even if the world increasingly does not acknowledge his Lordship. And how is the world to recognise Him, to acknowledge Him, if we do not bear witness to Him? Like those first Apostles, we need to show the world that we “obey God rather than man.” Perhaps, if the world saw that we really believed in something, or rather Someone, it might be convinced to believe in Him, too. The early Apostles regarded it as an honour to suffer for Jesus’ name. If we could see this, too, and live it, how different the world might be!

Fr Phillip.

REFLECTION FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

Some years ago now, Pope St John Paul II designated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday. But do we really have an inkling of what the mercy of God is, how deep and limitless his power to forgive? Perhaps no-one has put it as well as Paul in his letter to the Romans. As you read these verses, ponder on what your own response is to people who have wounded or offended you: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom 5,6-8)

“While we were yet sinners…” How different this is from our human experience today. In the modern world it is highly fashionable to demand apologies on the slightest whim, sometimes for events that happened hundreds of years ago. We say we will forgive someone “if they show they are truly sorry for what they have done to us,” or “if they make the first move.” We say we can “forgive but not forget,” in stark contrast to God for whom forgiving and forgetting are the same thing. We love to place conditions, frequently in the most sanctimonious or self-righteous tones. But the God whom we worship died for us unconditionally “while we were yet sinners…”

If there is one quality of God with which scripture resounds, it is his mercy. From Genesis to Revelation, it the outstanding quality of his Being. The Psalms include these moving words: “The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy; he does not treat us according to our faults, nor repay us according to our sins…for his merciful kindness is evermore…” In his encyclical letter Dives in misericordiae (Rich in mercy), Pope St John Paul II holds up to us the father of the Prodigal Son as a merciful father, looking out and longing for the return of his son, even as that son is living a life of wild and luxurious abandon and spending half of his father’s estate on wine, women and song. In the prophet Isaiah God says, “I will turn my face from their iniquities, and never call their sins to mind.” Jesus himself tells us, through Peter, not to forgive those who have offended us “seven times, but seventy times seven.” And from the cross, Jesus not only prays “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” but he tells a condemned murderer and robber dying with him, “today you will be in Paradise with me.”

How unfathomably deep and broad is the measureless, unconditional love of God! And how narrow and mean-spirited that of the world in which we live, including ourselves. We have just celebrated Easter, in which Jesus the Lord laid down his divine life for us “while we were yet sinners.” If these celebrations have meant anything to us, we have no choice but to go out and to forgive those who have offended us; unconditionally. Not only has Jesus given us an example to follow; he has won for us, on the cross, the power to forgive one another, to love one another as he has loved us. We have only to take that first step; from our unconditional forgiveness, all else follows, and we will be sustained by the grace of his Spirit. Let us take that first step today, that his Divine Mercy may become a living reality in the hearts of each one of us.

Fr Phillip.