ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY 2016

The Scriptures have much to tell of the Mother of Jesus, and indeed, much more to tell us when we study her very few words to us and the events surrounding her life.

The angel tells her, “Hail, full of grace”. This literally means “You who are already filled with grace,” for the Greek perfect tense in which it is expressed implies a present situation arising from something that has happened in the past. If Mary is “filled with grace,” there is no room for any sin within her. Mary’s flesh is already sinless when Jesus is conceived, so that he might truly be “One like us in all things but sin.”

From this follows the teaching that Mary never bore another child but Jesus. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time claimed membership of God’s holy chosen people by virtue of their genetic descent. John the Baptist tells them that this means nothing, that “God can raise up sons of Abraham from these very stones.” Our only claim to a relationship with Jesus is through baptism, by which we are reborn as adopted sons and daughters of God.

Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth her cousin, six months pregnant with John the Baptist, has a profound message to us as well. When Mary arrives and greets Elizabeth, Elizabeth says, “The moment I heard your voice, the child in my womb leapt for joy. How blessed am I to receive a visit from the mother of my Saviour!” The unborn John the Baptist recognises the presence of the barely conceived Saviour, Jesus. This should certainly make clear to us the preciousness of human life, and the evil of abortion.

Finally, there are Mary’s words to the angel and at the wedding at Cana. “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let what you have said be done to me.” An engaged fourteen-year-old girl accepting a pregnancy by no human agency; who would believe her? And facing a penalty of death by stoning? What faith to accept God’s call in the face of such a situation! Yet she did, and placed her faith, her life and her future completely in God’s hands.

The other, at the wedding at Cana, when Jesus turns water into wine, applies these words to our own lives. What an embarrassing situation at a Jewish wedding; to run out of wine! Mary knows that Jesus will act despite his reluctance, and tells the steward, “Do whatever he tells you!” — “…whatever he tells you!” A strong command, but one which saves the honour of the groom and allows the guests to continue to rejoice.

How often do we complain that God doesn’t help us, that he seems to leave us high and dry? But do we do whatever he tells us? Or only something of it, just in case God messes up and we have to take things into our own hands? Mary placed her all in God’s hands, and as a result her words “All generations shall call me blessed!” have become true in a way she could never have imagined. Like Mary, doing whatever God tells us might lead us to things we might never have imagined. And like Mary, we, too, will be blessed in ways beyond our imagination if only we would do “whatever he tells us.”

Fr. Phillip

REFLECTION FOR THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Have you ever heard someone say “I’ll follow, God, but when I am ready to do so,” or words to that effect? Plainly put, if we say this, we are saying that we have important things to do, and God will just have to wait until our business is sorted out. In the language of modern youngsters, it assumes the form “God is there for us.” Both of these ways of speaking are contrary to the way God works. When God calls, he moves on past us, and if we are not quick to follow him, we may never be given another chance. We follow God when He calls us, not the other way round. And it is we who are “there” for him, not the reverse. In the words of Elijah the prophet, “O rest in the Lord; wait patiently for him.” It is we who wait for his call, not he who waits for our response.

Scripture is filled with examples of people who have responded immediately and unconditionally to his call, from the boy Samuel’s words, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening” to the response of the apostles when Jesus says, “Follow me.” We are told that “at once they left everything and followed him.”

In today’s First Reading we are told of the consequences of Abraham’s response to God’s call. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, when God first calls Abraham, the whole story is framed with these words: “God said to Abraham, ‘Go!’…and Abraham went.” His response is an immediate and unqualified “Yes!” Similarly, when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is to bear Jesus, the Son of God, Mary’s answer is “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” Another unqualified “Yes!”

In the case of both Abraham and Mary, there are enormous difficulties and dangers. Each of them has to take a bold step into the unknown, a leap of faith, as it were. Both have questions. Neither can see how it is to happen, Abraham to father a child by a ninety-year-old wife, Mary to bear a son without a human father. But both accept God’s call in faith, for, as Gabriel says to Mary, “nothing is impossible to God.” To both, God makes promises of the blessings that will ensue. Neither accepts because of the blessings promised, but because of their implicit trust in the God who calls them.

What is God calling us to do? It may be something big; it may be something very small. But to each of us, whether the task is great or small, he still says “Follow me.” Do we have the courage or faith to follow him? Are we prepared to lay aside everything to carry out the task to which he has called us? Do we allow ourselves to be daunted by the seeming impossibility of the task, or the cost to ourselves which may be involved? We must always remember a few important things. First, that whatever God asks us to do, is the best thing that can possibly happen to us. Second, that it is impossible for us to give more to God than he gives to us. Third, that all that we have which is good, is given to us by God in order to use in our service of him. And finally, and most importantly, the reassurance that the angel gives to Mary at the Annunciation, that “nothing is impossible to God” is as true for us as it was for her. If we really have faith in God and respond freely, generously and promptly to his call, then whatever he asks us to do, no matter how daunting it may seem, must succeed.

Fr Phillip.

REFLECTION FOR THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Much of Jesus’ teaching is in the form of parables, stories with a message. He did this for one simple reason; it was a way of teaching a sometimes difficult or complex message in a way that is easily understandable and simple. Try summarising the message of any of his parables in one sentence and you will soon see quite how difficult it is.

We often miss the point of Jesus’ parables, because we try simply to extract a moral message from them, instead of seeing the full picture of what Jesus is teaching us. For example, in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, where those who have worked only one hour are paid the same wage as those who have worked a full day, is often interpreted as meaning no more than “we must not grumble or be envious.” If we extract no more than a superficial human message from Jesus’ parables, then we missed the point completely. In understanding Jesus’ parables, we must always remember that each parable has a double message. It tells us something about God, and in doing this, it also tells us something about ourselves. We need to recognise the God-figure and the “us”-figure in every parable.

In today’s Gospel, for example, there is far more to the story than “be kind to your neighbour” or “don’t be a hypocrite.” We too often look no further than the behaviour of the Samaritan as compared with that of the Priest and the Levite. The first thing to recognise is that, in the actions of the Samaritan, we see God. A Samaritan and a Jew were deadly enemies, yet in the story it is the Samaritan who shows compassion towards the injured, even dying, Jew. In real life, we are sinners, and sin place us in a state of enmity towards God. Sin has wounded us, and because of it we are in danger of losing our eternal life. God is the one who, out of compassion for us, saves us from eternal death by sending his Son to die in our place and rise from the dead to bring us to eternal life, in the words of Paul, while we were yet his enemies.”

What does this parable tell us about ourselves? As we have already seen, that we are doomed to eternal death unless God himself comes to our aid. We, wounded and dying spiritually because of sin, can do nothing to save ourselves. Salvation can come from God alone.

Secondly, and finally, it tells us that God’s compassion and mercy is given to us, not for ourselves, but so that we may be his ministers to all who need it. So often, those who need it most are those whom, under everyday circumstances, we might avoid. But God’s love and mercy is for all, not only those whom we find congenial. In the introduction to the parable the Scribe asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus turns the question on its head: “Whose neighbour are YOU?” The parable answers that question by showing that anyone who is in need of God’s compassion and mercy is our neighbour. This parable, then speaks of God’s mercy and compassion towards each one of us, so that we might in turn be his agents of that mercy and compassion in his work to “lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of thy mercy.”

Fr Phillip.

REFLECTION FOR THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written during a momentous era in the story of the Christian Church. Jesus had risen from the dead, and had ascended to his Father; the Holy Spirit had descended. The Church, under the leadership of the Apostles, appointed by Jesus, had been founded, and was preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ: He is risen, he is Lord, he has ascended, he will come again, repent and believe in the Good News. Such was the force and conviction of the Apostles’ preaching, under the power of the Holy Spirit, that converts could be numbered in thousands at a time.

Yet Christianity had still one great step to take. Up until now, it had been a small but growing branch of Judaism, consisting largely of Jews who had become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah; Jews who nevertheless kept the Old Covenant, the Jewish Law, and who believed that one had first to be a Jew in order to become a follower of Jesus Christ. This was the position of Peter and the Apostles in the beginning. Jesus’ great commission, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News…” barely begun to be preached to the Gentiles in any significant numbers.

It was at this point that God chose the most single-minded, narrow of Pharisees to become his Apostle to the Gentiles, the man who believed that the Jewish Law could make him perfect, to proclaim that, since salvation in Jesus Christ is sufficient, it has swallowed up the Jewish Law, which no longer applied.

It was inevitable that Paul’s teaching should come into conflict with Peter’s. In any other human situation, in the face of such a dispute, the new religion could have been torn apart. In this case, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the initial conflict transformed Christianity into what it has become today; a world-wide, universal faith embracing all the peoples, races and cultures of the earth. The outcome of the dispute was the very first Church council, the Council of Jerusalem. The Apostles, meeting together much as their successors did in Rome in the 1960’s, considered the issue of Gentile Christians which confronted the Church, and, in union with Peter as head, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, came to a conclusion regarding the Gentiles. With a few conditions, Paul’s position was vindicated, and Christianity was opened to all of us in the Church today.

Paul’s conviction was grounded in the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ death as a blasphemer, a cursed death to a Jew, was to Paul the Pharisee a terrible stumbling block. But to the convert Paul, it was the only possible way to salvation for us. Look at his strong language: “The only thing I can boast about is the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” Jesus’ cross colours everything, redeems everything, gives everything meaning. The cross, for Paul, is everything; without it we are nothing. The world crucified Jesus, and through the crucifixion was saved; Paul wants to conform himself to Jesus Christ in every respect, especially in his suffering and death.

The cross of Jesus Christ unites us, too. We are all sinners, standing before God in equal need of redemption. Paul recognised this as the most important fact in human history. It is salvation through the death and Resurrection of Jesus and not the Law, which brings us together as one, which gives meaning to our existence. Peter agreed, and so have all the Church’s councils ever since. Without Paul we might not even be Christian, for we are the Gentiles to whom he preached faith in Jesus Christ. It is our task to believe implicitly in the faith he taught us, to live it, and to hand it down faithfully to the next generation. May God bless and strengthen us in this task, and may he make each one of us faithful witnesses to his Word and work in the world.

Fr Phillip.

REFLECTION FOR THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

In one of the well-loved stories from Mark’s gospel, we see Jesus on his way to raise up a little girl who “is not dead but sleeping.” The narrative of his journey is interrupted by another miracle, the healing of the “flow of blood” from a woman in the crowd surrounding him. The story sounds very graphic; whoever is recounting it saw what happened before his eyes, and remembers it vividly.

Yet all said, there is more to this story than meets the eye. The synagogue official is desperate about the fate of his sick little girl. But Jesus seems calm, collected and not at all in a hurry. When a messenger rushes on to the scene to tell the synagogue official that his daughter has died, Jesus’ only comment is the apparently inappropriate, “Do not fear, only believe.” When Jesus remarks, without even seeing the child, “she is not dead but sleeping”, he is laughed at. But by the words “Talitha, kumi” he raises her up and restores her to her without doubt thankful and joyful parents.

The word “kumi” is a Hebrew command which means “Arise!” It is the link with Jesus’ command to the synagogue official, “Do not fear, only believe.” It is the prelude to a conversion of heart, followed by the command “Shuv!” which means “Turn around!”, a 180º turn which takes us back in the direction from which we came. When the Prodigal son returns to his father from pig-keeping in a gentile country (the lowest to which a Jewish man of Jesus’ time could sink), he says to himself, “I will arise and go to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you’!” Arise and go; kum and shuv. He has turned back from sin towards his father, as we are called to turn away from sin towards Our Father in heaven. When Jesus calls on the synagogue official saying, “Do not fear, only believe,” he is calling upon the man to believe in him. In the midst of the storms of life, Jesus brings calm. It is no doubt because the others scoffed that Jesus would not let them into the house. He required of them that they have faith in him because of whom he is, not merely because of the miracles he performs.

And yet, they already have an example in front of them before he even reaches the synagogue official’s house. The woman with the flow of blood does have faith in him, that he can heal her, that “If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.” Jesus, being whom he is, is aware of the healing that has just taken place; the whole crowd must have been pressing in against him, yet her touch is different because of her faith. In fact, his response to her is, “Your faith has made you well.” Yet despite seeing this sign and hearing his response about faith in their very presence, they scoff at his power to “wake up” the little girl. But even here, we must remember that to “fall asleep” is often a euphemism for death, which in turn tells us something about Jesus’ attitude towards death, to be destroyed by his Resurrection.

Jesus calls us, too, to believe in him, not because of miracles or even the “gospel values” (that dreadful term!) he teaches, but because of whom he is. We are called to have faith in him as a person, to turn away from our sins and to be converted back to him. Today’s stories abound with this message of faith and conversion. May they also become our own story, that his words may resound in our hearts: “Do not fear, only believe!”

Fr. Phillip

REFLECTION FOR THE TWELFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

In our everyday experience, there is on some occasions a very great difference between truth and falsehood; so great that we are easily able to tell the difference. But there are other situations where truth and falsehood sound so similar that one has to look very carefully to see exactly where falsehood deviates from the truth. With religious truth, as with any other, this can be the case; for falsehood is a twisting of the truths of God, and as with a clever liar in a murder trial, untruths about God stick as closely as they can to the truth, deviating only where it is necessary so as to present an appearance of truth or innocence. One of the areas in which this occurs is discrimination.

In today’s world, there is a great concern with discrimination, be it against race, gender, religion, age or any number of other issues. We are powerfully opposed to and kind of discrimination. So, it is clear, is Paul in today’s reading from the letter to the Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.” All three pairs of examples were opposing groups in the world of Paul’s day. Paul is denying that they oppose one another. This sentence sounds, in some ways, like much of what is spoken by opponents of discrimination. And yet…

…and yet, how different this statement becomes if we include the phrase which follows it: “…for you are all one in Christ.” The whole meaning is turned on its head. For according to Paul, equality does not depend upon any human philosophy or theory, but upon Divine Revelation. It is because we are made one in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to destroy sin and thus to end our enmities with one other, that we can be made one in him, that the true and permanent end to all discrimination lies. Through salvation in Jesus Christ, we are all made one as nothing else can make us one.

Does this mean that before Jesus came, this divine equality did not exist, that peace and unity between us was not a reality or a possibility? By no means! In the same Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we are told that God “...chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world…his plan is to unite all things in Christ.” God’s plan, before he even created us, is that we should live together in unity, love and peace. He never intended us to discriminate against each other on any grounds at all. But his plan to unite us all is “in Christ.” There is no other basis on which it can happen, for there is no other way that we can be freed from the sin that sets us apart.

What does this say about the resentments we harbour in our hearts against other peoples; the discriminatory statements made by politicians and others based upon past history and events? How can we, who were destined to be one before ever we were created, hold on to such ideas? To “be one” is what God calls us to; in our Cathedral, in our Church, in our country, in the world. And if we are to be one as Jesus commands, then we must really let go of the past. But we can only do this if we have a more powerful future: and our future, as Pope Benedict XVI told the young people of Germany, “is Christ.” Every single one of us needs to relinquish the past and all its resentments, and boldly to enter the future with the Lord Jesus. He is our only hope, and strong in his power, and in that power alone, will we be able to “love one another as he has loved us.”

Fr Phillip.

REFLECTION ON THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is one of the most powerful testimonies in the New Testament to the centrality of Jesus Christ in our salvation. In a word, he is to us: everything.

Paul was a Jewish rabbi. To him, the Jewish law was everything. He would have obeyed every one of its commands. To use the familiar Jewish idiom, “Even to a rabbi he was a rabbi.” He pursued Christians to distant cities because he believed that they were blasphemers who deserved to be stoned to death. He could not conceive a life of holiness without obeying every tiny regulation of the Law. Yet here he is now saying that “By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.” By justified he means being freed from all sin, made righteous in the sight of God. What could have made him take such a U-turn in his life?

Paul, after his tremendous conversion experience on the road to Damascus, realised how all-embracing the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was, how totally sufficient it was for our salvation. If we still need the Law, he reckons, then the death and resurrection of Jesus is not sufficient. But, he says, this patently absurd. Jesus, to quote John, is “the Lamb of God who takes away (all) the sins of the world.” Paul may not have used those words, he may in fact not ever have read them, since they were probably written down after his martyrdom, but he would heartily have endorsed them, for Paul is saying the very same thing in his own way. Paul expresses himself in an extreme way in his letter to the Church at Philippi: “For Jesus Christ I have accepted the loss of everything, and I count all else as rubbish if I only can have Christ.” Where we read “rubbish” Paul actually uses the word “dung”. That is how uniquely Paul sees the role of the Lord Jesus in our salvation.

What does this mean for the Church in our time and place? A great deal. Modern people are so often caught up in “issues” such as “a green earth” or “justice and peace” or “a nurturing environment” that we no longer give preference to the Word of God. We try to hi-jack Jesus to our point-of-view, often by asking the question “What would Jesus have done/said?” after which we put our own opinions into his mouth. We no longer search earnestly after his truth in scripture and prayer. We seek out scriptures which confirm our prejudices; we use prayer to tell him what he should be doing. We do not ask him what he expects of us; we tell him what we expect of him. We say, with increasing frequency, “I can’t believe in a God who…” as though it is we who determine what God is, rather than discovering through faith who he is.

We need to find our way back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who reveals himself to us in and through the person of the Lord Jesus, who died and rose from the dead that we might be freed from sin and death. If what he has done for us is really sufficient, then we should have no hesitations in following his mother’s advice to “do whatever he tells us.”  It is he who will give purpose, meaning and effectiveness to all the issues that confront us, not vice-versa. All these issues are thorns in the flesh that we suffer constantly in daily life. But in this especially we should follow Paul: “…there was given me a thorn in the flesh to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

His grace is sufficient for us. We will never resolve the world’s problems by own unaided efforts. But by his grace, and by it alone, will lasting, not to say eternal, solutions be found.

Fr. Phillip

REFLECTION FOR THE TENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Some of the most colourful stories in the Old Testament revolve around the prophet Elijah and his relationship with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. We tend to read the stories in isolation, and do not always see how they hang together.

Jezebel was what Israel considered a foreign bride. She was from Tyre, in modern Lebanon, and worshipped the pagan God Ba’al. Ahab was a weak king, and allowed her to make Ba’al worship the official religion of Israel. This met with very stiff resistance, for the God of Israel is, for the Jews, the only and only God. Ba’al was God of fertility, of rain and new birth. God therefore challenges Ba’al at his strength, and through Elijah prophesies a three-and-a-half-year drought.

The story ends with Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al contesting on the top of Mount Carmel to end the drought through their sacrifices. The prophets of Ba’al dance and chant and gash themselves all day around their altar, but nothing happens. Then Elijah rebuilds the broken-down altar of God, places wood and the sacrificed bull upon it and has water poured over it as a sign of his prayer for rain. He then offers a quiet, simple prayer, upon which lightning from heaven strikes and consumes everything on the altar. The people of Israel are convinced by this that God is the true god, and chant “Elijah! Elijah!” over and over – which means “The Lord is my God!” The drought is broken; rain pours from the heavens. Elijah, the true and faithful prophet, has been God’s instrument in breaking it.

Today’s First Reading, in which Elijah raises back to life the dead son of the widow who has been looking after him, is part of this cycle of stories. Ironically, the widow is of the same nation as Queen Jezebel, whose promotion of Ba’al worship has led to the drought in the first place.

There are two vital lessons in these stories for us. The first is that God is the only true God, and that we who have been privileged by his call to serve and worship him must, like Elijah, be faithful to him with all that is within us. God gave Elijah all that he needed to carry out his task against a cruel and brutal king and queen. In the same way, whatever he calls us to do, he will always provide what we need for the task, even if it seems daunting and impossible. In the words of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, “All things are possible to God.”

The second is that, if we are not prepared to carry out the mission to which God calls us, then he will allow others to do what we should be doing, as he did with the foreign widow who cared for Elijah. It was not the Catholic Church that brought the thugs of uptown New York to Christ, but a solitary evangelical preacher called David Wilkerson, whose story is related in The Cross and the Switchblade. There are many other examples. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, it is true, did similar work, hauling out the unwanted poor from gutters and behind dustbins and giving them life, hope and dignity.

But what are we doing to witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ? All around us are people hungry for God, longing to hear his word. In the everyday world in which we live, what are we doing to bring them closer to God? God calls us to this, and we must respond if we are not to become less and less relevant to God’s mission for us to win the world for Jesus Christ. These are deep and important matters. We need to ponder them, and then to engage fully in the mission which God has given each one of us. 

Fr Phillip

REFLECTION ON THE SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI

From our earliest days as Catholics, whether from the cradle or as adult converts, we have been taught that the Body and Blood of Christ which we receive from the altar are but shadows and sign of the heavenly reality that we one day hope to experience. The Eucharist is without doubt the most powerful of all realities for a devout Catholic. But how closely in fact do we relate our faith in the Real Presence with the actual person of Jesus?

The Eucharist brings us face to face in an encounter with a living person; the person of Jesus Christ. He once walked the earth amongst us. He taught with authority. He healed. He drove out demons from the possessed. He showed power and authority over nature when he multiplied the loaves and fishes or calmed the storm at sea. He even, incredibly, had the power to raise people from the dead. Most wonderfully of all, he, the Son of almighty God, was able to empty himself of all his power and authority, become a humble human being like ourselves. He was able to place himself in our power, to suffer at our hands and die on our behalf and to rise from the dead, breaking the power of the one thing that humans fear above all and cannot avoid; the inescapable power of death over us, which before him was the one certainty of our human existence.

All this was done by someone to whom we could reach out, whom we could touch as surely as we could reach out and touch the person sitting beside us in this church; someone with whom we could speak, whom we could know and love as surely as we can know and love anyone on this earth. But how can we encounter someone who lived so long ago, who as a being of flesh and blood has so long passed from our existence, beyond our knowing him as his contemporaries know him? That is the question to which Corpus Christi supplies an answer.

When Jesus passed through death and was raised in the Spirit, he passed beyond mere mortal existence. He moved into a realm of eternity which we can scarcely grasp. His glorified risen body was no longer bound by time and space so that, through the same Spirit who raised him from the dead, he is able to make himself present to us, to live amongst us, at any time and at any place in the reality of our existence. He is always near to us, wherever we are and whenever.

One of the ways in which he comes to us is in the Eucharist. In it, he gives himself to us as he gave himself to his disciples at the Last Supper. In the Eucharist, we sit at table with him as surely as the Twelve did in Jerusalem two millennia ago. That event is as alive to us now as it was then; and it is made possible because his risen, glorious body is no longer bound by time and space. In our hearts we understand this when we receive Holy Communion at Mass.

But the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus are not ends in themselves. We worship a person, a living Lord. And it is he for whom we must earnestly search, whom we must discern in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a living link that brings us face to face with Jesus, and encounter between us and the living Lord who has destroyed for us death, the greatest of all our enemies, and who makes us fit for eternal life with God. He is waiting for us in that encounter. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” he says. “If anyone opens to me, I will enter and sit down to table with him.” That is exactly he wants to do in the Eucharist. And the door that we must open is that of our hearts. Let us welcome him thus into our lives; today and henceforth.

Fr Phillip

REFLECTION FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

Every year, just after the end of Easter, we come to the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. And year after year, as the meaning of the term Trinity is explained to us, we become more rather than less confused. What is the Holy Trinity, and why is it so important?

There are two simple facts that are both very familiar to us. The first is that “We believe in one God.” This is straightforward and simple. God is God; there is none other. God is all-powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing. But there is a second vital fact, even closer to our experience. It is that we encounter God as Father, Son and Spirit.

These are not just three different masks worn by God, so to speak. We experience God as three distinct persons. And we do not see these persons as superior or inferior to one other. We sense that they are equal yet different. When I pray to Jesus I am praying to a distinct individual, as I am when praying to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Each of them has his own character, and each plays a different role in my life.

As long as I keep these two facts distinct, that I believe in one God, but encounter Him as three distinct persons, there is no conflict. It is when I try to fit them together that I become confused. Imagine a man riding a one-wheeled bike along a tight-rope stretched over the Niagara Falls, juggling three small balls in one hand and one big one in the other. As long as he looks forward and keeps juggling and balancing, he will be fine. Let him drop one ball or try to bring them together, and he is lost. It is a fine balance, but as long as we keep our minds fixed on these few simple facts about God, it is not difficult at all.

Cardinal Newman had a beautiful illustration of the Holy Trinity. He pointed out that we can, using a prism, split white light into the seven colours of the spectrum. But if we try to combine these seven colours to produce white light, all we seem able to produce is a dirty, smudgy white. It is the same, he suggests, with the Holy Trinity. We believe in one God whom we worship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But as soon as we try to combine these three Persons, we run into trouble. And as we have already reflected, he says it is better not to try. Believe in one God; acknowledge him as Father, Son and Spirit; and leave it at that.

Perhaps Paul the Apostle expressed it the best of all: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Or the words of the Creed, where we confess that there is “the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth” and “Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son” and “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,” but above all, in the opening words of the Creed, we “believe in One God.” That should suffice for us all.

Fr. Phillip

REFLECTION FOR PENTECOST

Have you ever wondered about the shape of the bishop’s mitre? Why should he wear such an odd headdress when he leads us in worship? This, and many other things, go to making up and reflecting the meaning of the Solemnity we celebrate today. When the Holy Spirit descended, two tongues of flames descended upon the head of each Apostle. The two points and red lining of the mitre remind us of this. They also remind us (and the bishops!) that they are the successors of the Apostles, tasked in the world with being first and foremost, witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in all times and places.

The events of Pentecost also bring to mind those of the Tower of Babel. There, human beings tried to climb to heaven without God. They were so affected, that each group or tribe spoke a different language and could not understand the others. They scattered over the earth in order to avoid warring against each other. This great parable from Genesis reminds us in unequivocal terms that without God as the centre of all things, there can never be unity or peace amongst men. Pentecost, when all those present heard the Apostles as though they were speaking their own language (with Galilean accents!) is a reversal of Babel. By destroying sin and restoring life, Jesus destroys the separation of Babylon and restores that peace and unity – something that He alone can do.

The Preface for Pentecost, which we hear at Mass today, expresses it like this: “…you bestowed the Holy Spirit today on those you made your adopted children by uniting them to your Only Begotten Son. This same Spirit, as the Church came to birth, opened to all peoples the knowledge of God and brought together the many languages of the earth in profession of the one faith.” Could it be any clearer that real unity comes through the work of the Holy Trinity, not that of the United Nations or the scattering of modern secular “peacemakers.”

But perhaps the most miraculous event of Pentecost was the crowds themselves, who listened to Peter. They were Jews from every corner of the Roman Empire, who had come to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. For many of them, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Passover was a celebration that lasted “a week of weeks” or fifty days. This was, literally, the last day of the feast, and no doubt many who heard Peter’s sermon were having a last look around at all the famous sights of Jerusalem. If you were to draw arrows on a map from Jerusalem to the places from which they came, those arrows would point away in every direction. And we are told that on that day, two thousand were added to the number of Christians, mostly people who would be returning to their widespread, far-flung homes.

Two thousand baptised Christians moving out into the known world in every direction, within twenty-four hours of the coming of the Holy Spirit, many of whom had seen the death of the Saviour!  One cannot but think of Jesus’ words to his apostles, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News…” and of the words of the prophet Malachi, that “…in every time and in every place, incense may be offered up unto my Name, says the Lord.” The proclamation of the Good News by Peter, and thus by those two thousand converts, that “He is risen…He is Lord…He has ascended…He will return…repent and be baptised,” is still Jesus’ commission to us today. It is through us that Jesus must be made known. As the Holy Spirit sent those first converts and Apostles out in every direction, so may he send us out today to proclaim the same Good News “to the whole world.”

Fr Phillip

REFLECTION FOR THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION

Two major themes dominate the seven weeks of the Easter Season: The Resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The two are very closely linked. We can conceive them as two successive missions. Jesus has come amongst us for a number of significant purposes: that we might know the Father through knowing Him; that He might die for us, taking our sins upon his shoulders, freeing us from sin and death and giving us eternal life; and that He might found a Church which would proclaim the Good News of his death and resurrection “to the ends of the earth.” Having accomplished this, his mission is over, and He ascends, returning to the Father.

As Jesus explains in John’s gospel, this is essential; his mission has to conclude before the next one, that of the Holy Spirit, can begin. As God-made-man, Jesus is bound by the laws of time and space; He lived in the Middle-East two thousand-odd years ago. For knowledge of Him to be spread throughout the world, an agent is required who is not bound by time and space, someone to make Jesus present at all times, in all places, that we might “see” Him, and in seeing Him, as Jesus explains to Philip, might “see the Father”.

So it is that, as Easter progresses, the theme of Resurrection slowly yields to that of the Holy Spirit. On the last day of the Easter season, the Day of Pentecost, we will see how the great event in which the Church is founded, happens. For now, it is important to note how Jesus prepares his disciples for the coming events in which they are to play so key a role. He confers upon them a number of powers: to baptise; to preach; to forgive sins; to proclaim with absolute certainty the truth about God who reveals himself to us; to interpret with certainty the teachings and meaning of Scripture. The forty days Jesus spends with his disciples after his resurrection from the dead are days of preparation and waiting; waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells his disciples to do nothing but wait for the coming of the Spirit, to remain in Jerusalem for the Spirit to descend, after which “…you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.”

As he had a plan for his disciples, so Jesus has a plan for each one of us. Each of us has a particular task that God wants us, and us alone, to accomplish. Blessed John Henry Newman put it beautifully in these words: God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.

The disciples of Jesus waited patiently for the coming of the Holy Spirit. When He descended, they understood God’s calling, and went down that path, to quote GK Chesterton, like a thunderbolt, never pausing or hesitating, no matter to what God called them. We, too, must “wait patiently for him,” trusting and believing that he has a task for us. And when that call comes, in the words of the old hymn, “let us, like them, without a word, rise up and follow Him.”

Fr. Phillip

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.