ASH WEDNESDAY MASS TIMES - 1ST MARCH, 2017

Ash Wednesday Mass times are as follows:

St Joseph's, Bloemfontein:
            6.30am

Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bloemfontein:
            9am (Archbishop celebrates)
            5.30pm

ORATORIAN COMMUNITY IN FORMATION: EIGHTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 2017

The world loves to speak of love. We all know the old cliché “It’s love that makes the world go round”. But by “love,” the modern world really means “sex” and all the short-lived, superficial passions that accompany it. This certainly does not mean that sex is bad, or superficial, or undesirable. To the contrary, it is part of the order in this world created by God, and of everything that he created, “God saw that it was good…and indeed, it was very good.” But the modern world has divorced sex from the God who created it, and in doing so has separated it from the elevated and profound purpose which God destined as its end. In cutting mankind off from God who is love and the source of all our love, modern secular society has come to equate sex with love.

                You do not have to look very far to see this. Switch on your TV in the evening, or glance briefly at the magazine covers in the local supermarket. You could also try the Divorce Court rolls in the newspapers. The high rate of divorce on the grounds of infidelity proves that a large proportion of human beings still believes in mutual fidelity, but that lifelong mutual fidelity isn’t working. Why? Because we are no longer able to rely upon the enduring Love of God, we have been forced to make do with that feeble emotion we humans call love. Christians need to ponder the limitless mystery of God’s love, for it is the very reason why we were created, why we continue to exist, and why there is still hope for us all, and a reason for us to soldier on despite the negativity we see around us every day.

If you ever wondered what was wrong with the world, think of that figure on the cross, selfless, dying to set us free, giving us a love that rescues us from our ugliness and hatefulness – yes, even the young, beautiful and rich – and makes us beautiful and lovable. Think of that image; and then look at the world around you. God never meant us to live like this – struggling to survive on our own shallow passions. He always willed us to live in his love, and he wills us to do so still.

Do you think there is even a choice as to what sort of love, human or divine, the world needs? what sort of love is our only hope? For it is the one hope to which we might cling, the only certainty which will never fail. Let us choose that hope today. Let us welcome into our lives the everlasting hope and salvation offered only by the Love of God. In a word, let us submit our lives, our hope our all, to the God of Love.

Fr Phillip

ORATORIAN COMMUNITY IN FORMATION: PROF. JOHAN ROUSSOUW ADDRESSES THE NEWMAN ASSOCIATION

The Bloemfontein Newman Association held its opening meeting on Tuesday, 14th January, 2017. Our first speaker for the year was Prof. Johan Roussouw of the University of the Free State, a member of the Orthodox Church, who delivered a moving lecture on Orthodox Spirituality. This is one of Prof. Roussouw's many areas of expertise. He clarified a number of areas of misunderstanding that are held about the Orthodox Church, and proceeded to explain its deep and rich traditions of prayer and meditation, as well as the central importance of its Liturgy in that tradition. The almost forty people who attended were deeply impressed by what they heard, and many questions were asked at the end, all superbly fielded and answered. Fr George, the Orthodox priest in Bloemfontein, was happily present on this occasion.

The Newman Association meets again on 14th March, when Dennis Molyneaux, attorney-at-law, will be speaking on the death penalty. Those wishing to attend are welcome. Please call Mrs Paddy Huygen, the Cathedral Secretary, at 051-447-2827 in order to have your name added to March's guest list.

Below are a few photographs of last Tuesday's Newman Association meeting.

Dinner draws to an end, and the guests move through to the lecture venue.

From left to right: Prof. Roussouw, Fr Johnson,

Fr George (Orthodox Church) and Mary Paine.

Prof Roussouw addresses the Newman Association.

Some of the people who attended the Newman Association on 14th February. A cell-phone camera is, frustratingly, never quite wide-angled enough to take in the entire scene!

ORATORIAN COMMUNITY IN FORMATION: SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - 2017

Last Sunday our attention was focussed on the Jewish Law in the Old Testament reading. Law in itself, we learned, is not enough to keep us close to God. We need something outside the Law to make it work. That is why the New Law which the prophets foretold, the Law of Jesus Christ, is “written on our hearts” (Jeremiah 31,31). In the Old Testament this extra something is called the Law of Holiness: “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

The journey to God is centred upon this: the Quest for Holiness. It is the most important quest of our life. To be holy, to be without sin, like Jesus, is what makes us fit to live with God for all eternity. We cannot do this by ourselves; it has to be done by God, through the death and Resurrection of his Son, the Lord Jesus. When we turn to God and ask him to forgive our sins, he answers through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts.

But we cannot become holy by worshipping God on our own; there is no such thing as a private Christianity. God calls us to be part of his community, the Church. Of course we must pray and read the scriptures privately. But we also pray with our families. And we worship God with the whole Church community on the Lord’s Day, and receive, from the hands of his ministers, his Body and Blood, which the priest has made present upon his altar. We confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness through the absolution of his priest. We take part in the life of the Church, and through our generosity assist and engage in its many ministries and outreaches.

To become holy, we must also bear witness to Jesus Christ our Saviour to the unbelieving world around us. We can do this by word and good action. But we can also do harm to Jesus’ mission by bad example and behaviour. We can harm both ourselves and the Church’s mission by denying our faith in Jesus Christ when we most need to affirm it before other humans.

Loving and serving Jesus is our path to holiness. He is the Law of the Lord which makes us holy. “For there is no other name in heaven or on earth by which we can be saved,” as Peter himself puts it (Acts 2). It is through loving and worshipping Him, through serving Him in his Church, through bearing witness to him in the world, especially amongst those who are in most need of our help, that we are made fit to live eternally with God. The path to God lies open before us. Let us set out upon it without delay.

Fr Phillip.

ORATORIAN COMMUNITY IN FORMATION: SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - 2017

We have all, in one way or another, had something to do with the law. Especially in civil law, where the penalties are money or property, matters generally boil down to a simple issue; what is the minimum I can get away with? Whether it be maintenance in a marriage case or compensation for damages, the defendant will try to argue down the amount due, using all the evidence at his or her disposal. Watch one episode of Judge Judy and this will become abundantly clear.

Law is aimed at regulating just relationships between people. It is a necessary part of a well-ordered, functioning society. But it has two serious shortcomings; it sets the terms for the minimum required, and it does nothing to promote reconciliation and love; rather, it tends to accentuate differences and even increase bitterness. Law requires something outside itself to achieve true healing between those involved in its process.

When God gave Israel its Law, he intended it to be a means of regulating relationship between Israel and Himself. With it came a very special requirement that was to govern all the Law’s other commandments; the Law of Holiness. “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” But ultimately, a Law written on tablets of stone seemed to produce hearts of stone (Ezekiel 36). Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah (31,31) foresaw a new law written in the very heart of man. This law was an living, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which fulfils and exceeds all other laws. It is the perfect fulfilment of the Great Commandment: “Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your might…and your neighbour as yourself.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes the provisions of the old Law and overtrumps them one by one. What were written Laws to be followed to the letter, as was the case in the religion of his day, he transforms into attitudes and the condition of the heart. The observance of the Law by the teachers of his day was minimal. Of them he says to his disciples, that if their observance of God’s Law is no deeper, “you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” He restores the demand to “love the Lord your God with all your heart.” With ALL your heart. Jesus has given his all for us; he wants us, if we really want him for all eternity, to give our all to him.

ARE we giving our all to him? Or are we doing what we hope is the basic minimum to get into heaven? With Jesus, it is all or nothing. Let us rededicate ourselves to him today, and give him the All which he asks of us.

Fr Phillip.

WE HAVE BEEN OFF THE AIR FOR A WEEK DUE TO COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS. WE APOLOGISE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. EVERYTHING IS ONCE AGAIN FUNCTIONING.

ORATORIAN COMMUNITY IN FORMATION - ERECTION OF SECURITY FENCES

This week, security fences were erected around the area abutting the Cathedral. Apart from the security of the house itself, one of the many other functions they will serve is to curb the Wanderlust of certain dogs!

Work on the main fence nears completion. The Cathedral is in the background.

Lilian, the Cathedral housekeeper, and Isabella the Jack Russell look on with varying degrees of interest.

ORATORIAN COMMUNITY IN FORMATION - FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 2017

Some years ago now there was a well-known British actor, who seemed to have everything: fame, looks, popularity, publicity, wealth, friends and charm. Yet to everyone’s shock, he one day, quite unexpectedly, committed suicide. His reason? As he put it in his suicide note: “I was so bored.” What does it mean, to be so bored that life is not worth living? To have the world at one’s feet, and to find it bland and tasteless? This curious and rather sad story has a link with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel. “You are the salt of the earth.” That is part of the essence of Jesus’ message. Yet what a wealth of meaning and profundity is contained in this apparently simple phrase.

Consider first what salt means in our lives. Anyone who has been put on a low-salt diet will understand precisely the implications of this question. Salt, literally, brings flavour and thus variety to food. Now consider what would happen if salt were suddenly to lose its flavour. What use would it be to us? Its one great purpose is in bringing out the flavour of food; if it could no longer do that, it would be less than useless to us, in the words of Jesus, “fit only to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” The disciple of Jesus has the same function in the world as salt has in food; to bring out the fullness of its meaning. The world was created by God, and human beings can only really learn to understand, to love, to care for the world, if we become aware of the meaning and purpose with which God has invested it. When we grasp God’s plan for his creation, it ceases to be a bland or indifferent place, and comes alive with colour, meaning and excitement. In the words of Gerald Manley Hopkins, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

This is at the heart of Jesus’ message, “You are the salt of the earth.” It is God’s plan to reveal the purpose and destiny of his creation through the person of Jesus Christ. And in founding his Church and calling us to be members, Jesus is calling us to be members of his very own Body. In other words, we are to be his presence in the world, through which he reveals God’s presence to mankind. God wants us to be the means by which all men to see the glory, his glory, which shines out through creation, leading us beyond that which we see to the Creator himself.

Do you see yourself as one through whom the “grandeur of God” is revealed to the world? If we are to be the “salt of the earth,” we must fulfil our God-given task of communicating the “grandeur of God” to those around us. In following the path that God has chosen for us, then, let it be our purpose to become a people who bring light, life and meaning to the world, a people through whom it blazes forth as “charged with the grandeur of God”? May God bless each one of us, and may he truly make us, in word and deed, the “salt of the earth,” so that all men, in the words of the Psalmist, might “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Amen.

ORATORIAN COMMUNITY IN FORMATION - ARCHDIOCESAN INDUCTION OF CATECHISTS, 5TH FEBRUARY, 2017

Today, during the 9am Mass celebrated by Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo, newly trained Catechists for the Archiocese were inducted. Here are two photographs of the occasion.

ORATORIAN COMMUNITY IN FORMATION - FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 2017

In the prophet Habakkuk, God's answer to a cry against injustice is "The just man will live by his faithfulness."  In our experience, questions about justice invariably begin with someone asking why someone else is being unjust. But when God is questioned about matters of social justice, his reply has always to do with faith – our faith.

Faith means living in utter dependence upon God, who has called us and shown himself to us. It is in such faith that the just man lives. This is a difficult point for many modern Christians. In days gone by, when we were less able to take care of our material needs, much more the victims of weather, disease and wars, we were more aware of our dependence upon God. Since then, modern technology has changed our lives. As we have learned to look after a lot of matters we formerly thought beyond our control, we have started to think differently. We have become less willing to allow God a role in our lives, because more and more we have begun to think we can do it all ourselves. Today, some people even think that they can do without God, and explain everything through science.

For someone of Habakkuk's day, who was much closer to God than modern human beings, it was very easy to understand that the sin of the human heart was responsible for the injustice that befalls the world. Before our time, justice was understood as a quality of a human being, not a situation in society. It is when a man is made just by faith that his sin cleansed from him. When he abandons to the mercy of the living God, he lives according to the will of God. The great social advances in England during the Nineteenth Century were made by Christians who lived like this, who expended themselves in service of the suffering of society. Such people were the only ones who really and disinterestedly fought for the poor and oppressed. The power of God at work in them changed the lives of millions dramatically for the better.

It is in the state of the human heart, not in the structures of society, that sin and evil lie. Because justice is directed towards God, it is the state of our heart that determines true justice, for true justice resides within the human heart. Habakkuk learned it from the very lips of God. If the world is to be made just, we must become just men and women. For it is only when the righteousness of God is alive in our hearts, that we will be able to change the world as so many great Christians have done.

Fr Phillip.