5th Sunday of Easter Year C 2019

5^th. Sunday of Easter (C)

(Acts 14:21-27; Rev. 21:1-5; John 13:31-35)

The subject of our readings this week is summed up in the following words you heard from the book of Revelation:

He Who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things   new.”

How is God making everything new?   Beginning with Jesus Himself.

At the Last Supper, after Judas had left the room, Jesus, knowing that the sequence of events leading to His crucifixion had just been set in motion, said:

Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him

Jesus understood well enough what would await Him once the Romans were manoeuvred into putting Him to death: the pain, the agony, of that experience would be hard to endure even for the Son of Man.  And so He went on:

If God is glorified in Him God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.

That is, the Son of Man, having triumphed over His sufferings and glorified God on the Cross, would be raised from the dead and would once more assume His rightful place as Son at the right hand of His Father in glory.  For this, His human nature -- abidingly and uniquely His -- would be totally transfigured: having formerly befitted the humble figure of Jesus of Nazareth, it would now become a truly glorious Temple for the heavenly Son of God, made Man.

God's work of making all things new began in that way with Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God.

The Son shared with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the original creation when God made all things in the Son by the Spirit; that is why -- now that all things are being made new -- Jesus, raised by the Father in the power of the Spirit, appeared as Risen Lord to the Apostles and breathed His Spirit on them, locked as they were in the upper Room for fear of the Jews.   His breathing upon them was precisely the sign of a new creation being made; for just as God had breathed on the original creation to give it life:

The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7),

so now Jesus, appearing in the midst of His disciples and after having shown them the wounds in His hands and His side, said to them:

Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”   (John 20:19-22)

God is making all things new.  Jesus, the Risen Lord, shares in this work by breathing His most Holy Spirit on the Apostles, thereby making them a new creation where sin – conquered by the Lord of Life rising from the tomb -- is cast out of them by the cleansing and empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.  A new creation indeed: Mother Church, the work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

However, that work needs to develop and spread so as to be able to embrace the whole of mankind, because, as we heard in the first reading:

            God has (now) opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

And so, In the book of Revelation we heard the seer declare:

I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.   Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea.  Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

That is how the new creation appeared to the seer in the book of Revelation, like a bride, beautifully dressed, prepared and preparing, for the coming of her husband.  The husband for whom the beautiful bride is prepared and preparing is the Son of Man Who will return in heavenly glory to usher in, on earth, God's ultimate kingdom, where sin and suffering will be totally obliterated; that beautiful bride is Mother Church in her perfection.   She is the beautiful bride preparing herself by gathering together, nourishing and forming, all those called to Jesus by the Father; and she forms them in Jesus by her teaching, her sacraments, her fellowship and, above all, by her gift of the Spirit; and thus God's work of making all things new continues even now, in us and in our world of today.   Her sacraments have been instituted by Jesus; her teaching is her remembrance of Jesus and is guaranteed as such by the Spirit; but her life and fellowship depends very much on all of us, her children on earth, walking faithfully and humbly under the guidance and power of the Spirit along the ways of Jesus towards the Father.  God the Father began the work by raising the Son of Man from the dead.  The Risen Lord, the Son, from His seat at the right hand of His Father in heavenly glory, furthers the development of that new creation by endowing His disciples, His Church, with His Gift of the Holy Spirit; and Mother Church in His Name, has continued that work of Jesus for some 2000 years, as she still does now, in and through us, as we proclaim Jesus by our endeavours to live in all things according to her proclamation of  His Good News, and the leading of His Gift, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus willed to help us in this by giving us a new commandment, one that is new not because it is novel, but because it sums up all that He had taught us:

I give you a new commandment: love one another.

Notice just how we are to love one another if you would learn why we are to love one another:

            As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

Jesus commands us to love one another as He loved us, and He does this in order that His love, His divine love, might be present in the world, in the Church, today.  Notice that, People of God, it is not just human love – a love which is too often nothing more than emotion, or what is much worse, sentimentality – but Jesus’ love, a divine and saving love, that we are called to show one another; and we can learn of that love because Jesus Himself told His Father how He had loved us whilst He was among us when He said:

I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and the glory which You gave Me I have given them (that glory is the gift of the Holy Spirit). (John 17:6-7, 12, 22)

Notice, dear People of God, there is no mention of emotional affection.  Because He was truly and fully human Jesus did indeed have such love: for example, He wept at the death of Lazarus, and He wept over the fate of Jerusalem.  Nevertheless, the truest love He showed us was not emotional and most certainly not sentimental: His deepest and truest love, was shown by His revealing the Father to us; by giving His Church the words He Himself had received from the Father; by freeing His disciples from the power of sin, and endowing them with the gift of the Holy Spirit that they might become their true selves in Jesus, and for God become their Father.  That is divine, holy, love; and that is the way we too should try to love one another.  Earthly, emotional love can be good, but it is merely human, it is not enough; because we are called to a higher and divine way of living, humanity needs to exercise a saving, salvation, love -- which used to be called charity – and which alone can fit us for the new creation.  

Notice, People of God, who it is that loves us in that way best of all: Mother Church.  She reveals to us the Father and gives us God's word; she warns us of evil threatening us, though she is so often reviled for doing so; and she alone bestows upon us the gift of God's Holy Spirit.  She it is who loves us best, after Jesus, and that is why we call her Mother Church. 

And so, loving one another in such a way -- which neither disregards or denies our human love but rather sublimates it -- the work of Jesus is able to continue effective among us, His New Creation, even though He has gone away.  He enables us to love in that, His way, through His Eucharistic Presence whereby He continually refreshes us by the constant renewal of His Holy Spirit's presence, promise, and power in our lives:

The Holy City, the new Jerusalem prepares (herself) as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.

Such preparation is not always easy; indeed, recognizing, resisting, and driving out the devil is very hard work at times: that is why Paul and Barnabas, as we were told in the first reading, went about strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith, with the words:

            We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of  God.

While not an easy task, however, it is always a glorious and supremely fulfilling calling to share in this divine work.  Let us, therefore, strive hard to walk in the way of Jesus as children of Mother Church and let us look forward with ever more joyful and confident hope for the glory that will be ours when God's Kingdom is finally ushered in at the return of the glorious Son of Man; for, in that heavenly Kingdom, we will shine as the children of the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit, as the prophet Isaiah foretold:

You shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.   (62:3)                           

            

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4th Sunday of Easter Year C 2019

    4^th Sunday of Eastertide (C)

                                      (Acts 13:14, 43-52; Rev. 7:9, 14-17; John 10:27-30)

After Jesus had risen from the dead and poured out His Most Holy Spirit upon His disciples, there were men and women to be found -- even here on earth -- already participating in the eternal life of heaven; and our readings today celebrate that gift of eternal life which even now begins to take hold of, and shape the lives of Jesus' true disciples.  From the book of Revelation we heard:

I John had a vision of a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.  They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches.

That puzzled John the seer, and he was told:

These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

That was in accordance with Jesus' own words to Nicodemus:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)

Multiform cleansing is one of the main purposes to which we dedicate our use of water.  Those, however, who come out of the great tribulation of which the seer speaks, have washed their robes with the only cleansing agent able to wash away the stains of human sin, that is, the Blood of the Lamb; for it is that Precious Blood, poured out for us, which alone gives the power for supernatural cleansing to the baptismal waters of the Church.  As Jesus said:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

People of God: it is a fact of Catholic spiritual awareness that the sacraments of Mother Church are to be regarded as the fruit of the outpouring of Jesus' Blood, and that such a precious outpouring should never be rendered vain by thoughtless irreverence, let alone by downright disdain.  Today, however, far too many parents, with only tenuous catholic connections, think they will have their child baptized merely to satisfy their own parents, or, perhaps, to gratify their own pseudo-conscience ("I would like to have my kids done … then I will feel I have done my best for them"), without having any real intention of bringing up their child in the ways of Jesus according to Mother Church's teaching.  They understand baptism only as ceremonial, where mere water is poured over the child's head, whilst a few words are said, and then all is over and done with.  They have little or no reverence for the sacrament; no awareness that the water poured out is holy water; water empowered by the shedding of Jesus' blood, water which -- as the seer tells us -- enables those dedicated to Jesus to: 

Wash their (souls) and make them spotless in the blood of the Lamb. 

Such water, and indeed the grace of all the other sacraments, can only be used, poured out, or received, in Spirit and in Truth; that is, in a sincere love of and reverence for Christ in His Church, showing itself as a desire both to obey His teaching and to follow the guidance of His Spirit.

But let us leave the behaviour of doubtful Catholics behind this Eastertide; let us now look forward and upward that we may hopefully come to better appreciate and fulfil our calling as disciples of the risen Christ; let us try to learn more about this new life He has won for us and so become more adept at living it by delighting in God and serving our neighbour.

They stand before God’s throne and worship Him day and night in His temple.  The One Who sits on the throne will shelter them.

The Lamb Who is in the centre of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water.   And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 

Those before the throne of God serve Him day and night in His Temple; that is, they delight in Him, praise, worship, and glorify Him with whole-hearted commitment and joy.

To understand something of this, just think, my dear people, of a spontaneous "Oh!" and outburst of clapping or, something far more astounding, an almost imperceptible, common, intake of breath followed by a deep silence of hovering life, which can take place when some gathering of people is astonished by the sheer beauty, majesty, power, wisdom or skill, of someone or something heard or seen.  Now those who are before the throne of God catch glimpses of His infinite beauty, wisdom, and holiness; His awesome majesty and power; His unimaginable goodness and humility: they see God.  And because God is infinite, just as when travelling by car through some country or woodland guided only by the stars above and the full beam of your car's headlamps, you catch ever- fresh glimpses of beautiful trees, flowers, streams, cottages, lit up by your  headlights and all following one another in continuous flow as you go on your journey through the night, so it is for those before the throne of God: those thus blessed can never weary of praising and delighting in Him, because He is endlessly new and totally beautiful, admirable, and good; He fills to overflowing each and every human desire and capacity for joy and fulfilment.

He Who sits on the throne, we are told, will spread His tent over the blessed; they will never have anything to fear for their treasure and well-being is secure, nor can their love ever be dimmed or threatened; eternal peace and security overarch -- so to speak -- and protect the fullness of their sublime blessings.

The Lamb at the centre of the throne will be Shepherd of those He has brought into the Father’s presence and He will lead them to springs of living water: yes, Jesus, Our Lord, will be there -- with us and for us -- as Our Shepherd, our Leader, our Glory; and He will lead us along the heavenly paths of eternal life, so that, with Him, all that is truly human in us, far from being smothered or denied, will be glorified as He, our Lord and our Brother, is most fully and beautifully glorified in His sacred humanity.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Who can fittingly speak of the intimacy and tenderness of God the Father's relationship with each and every one of His children redeemed by the blood of His Only Begotten and most Beloved Son?  All lingering hurts and humiliations, all accumulated anxieties and fears, will be gently wiped away by the all-knowing, fully-understanding, and ever-watchful, love of our Father in heaven.

That is some slight idea, and I hope, some glad anticipation, of the life of heaven.  Now, that life -- Mother Church teaches -- begins here on earth for Jesus' true disciples, but its heavenly fulfilment can only be attained by those who have passed through tribulations of varying degrees chosen by God in His Fatherly goodness to cement their union with Jesus in sincerity, depth, and trust.

These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

What are these tribulations?  Let us recall our second reading:

On the following Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.  When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said. 

Today, many who are turned from God and seeking worldly power and fulfilment, behave like the jealous Jews of Paul's time: they reject the Gospel themselves and seek to prevent others hearing and obeying it.  The young are – by social and peer pressures -- challenged to try out, indulge in, sex and drugs, urged to be seen to have and to enjoy as much of the world as everyone one else.  Others have friends or acquaintances who, not trusting God themselves, constantly incite them to worry about the past, present, and what might imaginably happen in the future, especially with concerns about money, health, or others’ opinion of them.  For young Christians these are modern equivalents to the persecutions endured by Paul and the early Church; less violent trials indeed, but more insidious temptations awaiting those still immature in the love and discipline of the Lord.

The Gentiles were delighted, and glorified the word of the Lord (proclaimed to them).   All who were destined for eternal life came to believe.

There are many Catholics who had once been gladdened to hear the word of God and experience the grace of God in their lives before such trials and temptations sullied the purity, peace, and joy, of their faith:

The Jews incited the women of prominence who were worshipers and the leading men of the city stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their territory.

Many, when friends and family oppose them – like those devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city – allow themselves to fall by the wayside.  They may not always fall away from Church, but certainly, joy in Jesus no longer fills their heart; and like their longing, so too their searching, for Him dries up; they settle for life on earth and no longer think of, or aspire to, that heavenly life which, after its beginning in baptism, should develop through a life of discipleship and reception of the sacraments, into its full flowering in heaven.

My sheep hear My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, they shall never perish; no one can take them out of My hand. 

Dear People of God, you have been called into Jesus' flock; listen, then, to His voice, trust Him and follow Him alone.  Do not yield to siren voices whose worldly attitudes and aspirations only serve to stir up tensions and antagonisms, worries and anxieties, in your hearts and lives.  In Jesus alone are true joy and peace, true fulfilment and strength, to be found.  Keep close to Him and you will never perish, for none can snatch you from Jesus' hand, from His sure and loving care; follow closely in His traces and He will lead you to eternal life, for such was the commission given Him by His Father, and to do His Father’s will most perfectly He lived, died, and rose again.   

Third Sunday of Easter Year C 2019

3^rd Sunday of Eastertide (C)

(Acts 5:27-32, 40-41; Rev. 5:11-14; John 21:1-19)

These Eastertide appearances gave great joy to the Apostles and disciples of Jesus and so they have continued to rejoice Christian souls throughout the ages even to this very day, when, in our Gospel reading we heard of the Apostles on Lake Tiberias/Galilee, busily fishing all night without success, and then catching sight of the Risen Lord walking on the shore line and guiding them to make a remarkable catch of fish.  Thereupon, He invited them to share with Him a meal He had already prepared:

As soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread,

and Jesus was urging them to:

            Bring some of the fish you have just caught.

You will recall that, at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus had promised His Apostles that He would make them into fishers of men: here, they are being taught the very nature and dignity of that mission and ministry to which He was calling them.

They were to be co-operators with Jesus, as shown by the great catch of fish they -- at His prompting -- had just caught and brought ashore to join the fish Jesus already had cooking for them.  Subsequently, they would indeed bring large numbers of men to Jesus to receive the salvation that only He can give … as signified by the fact that only He had brought bread, not merely in remembrance of the manna given by God to sustain Israel in her desert wanderings, but the true bread from heaven that Jesus’ own Father would give, the only real bread of eternal salvation.   Indeed, their future Apostolic ministry would not only make them chosen co-operators in the world-wide work of Jesus, but such oneness with their Lord would also be for their own supremely personal fulfilment and joy while serving as the crowning testimony to and authorization of their unique witness to Him in His nascent Church:

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.  Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.  And we are His witnesses to these things (Acts 5:30-32); witnesses chosen by God … who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead (Acts 10:41).

Jesus’ food had always been to do His Father’s will, as He Himself said, and now the Apostles of His choosing would learn to follow their Lord by themselves seeking to do the will of Jesus in building up His Church on earth.

In view of what was about to happen here on the shore of Galilee, Jesus had food ready: He had prepared a meal He willed to share with the Apostles to show them that, as His specially chosen disciples -- chosen to co-operate with Him and share His mission -- they would need to share in His strength, and indeed, ultimately, to share in His Spirit in order to able to fulfil the mission He was entrusting to them.

Let us, therefore, have a closer look at how those Apostles actually carried out the mission given them by Jesus; let us see them furthering -- in the power of His Spirit -- His Church towards its world-wide fulfilment.

Notice first of all, People of God, that the Apostolic proclamation was not a message about themselves, saying: "Come and join us; see how much we love Jesus and share the joy we find in serving Him".  Indeed, the Apostolic proclamation was not, first of all, even a message about Jesus' love for us: "Come to Jesus, Jesus loves you!"   The first, the most important, the absolutely essential content of the Apostles' preaching was what God, the Father, had done with, in, and for Jesus:

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus Whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.   Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour.

And why, did the Apostles say, God had done this for Jesus, done this in and through, Jesus? 

To give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

God exalted Jesus ‘to give repentance to Israel’, and then, after such repentance has been acknowledge and embraced, ‘to give forgiveness of sins’.  Consequently, the first aim of the Apostolic proclamation of the Gospel and its ultimate purpose was to proclaim, above all, the glory of God ‘Who raised up Jesus’, while declaring the indisputable fact of human sinfulness shown in all its horror by the crucifixion of the Son of God and Lord of Life; then, by highlighting the forgiveness of sins, to once again take up the paean of praise for the fact that in Jesus we are no longer subject to the power of sin,  we are now FREE to henceforth live, love, and work with Jesus, by His Spirit, for the glory His and our Father and for the salvation and better-being of our and His brethren here on earth; in all things we are called to fight with Him, by His Spirit, against the devil and our former sinfulness, knowing that we can overcome such trials and learn to love and live by the Cross of Life.

We are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.

No matter what violence was threatened or used against them:

The Apostles day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. 

Such, People of God, was the way the Apostles, under the guidance of the Spirit of Holiness and Truth given them by Jesus, preached the Good News.  That was how Peter, restored and confirmed as the Prince of Apostles, carried out the commission given him when Jesus said:

            Feed My lambs; take care of, feed, My sheep.

Notice too, this time from our second reading, that, in heaven -- as seen by John whilst banished to the isle of Patmos -- the song is the same as the Apostles' proclamation, namely, a song, a celebration, of Jesus as the slain Lamb, raised and glorified by God:

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honour and glory and power be to Him Who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!"

Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour and glory and blessing! 

  And why?

For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:9-10)

People of God, notice, LEARN, and take courage.  The Catholic Church proclaims truth, God's truth, to the whole world.  She does not say, "Look at us Catholics: how holy we are, how happy we are.  Come and join us, become holy like us, share in our happiness".  No!  Mother Church has a message for all who are aware of sin in their lives and who long to be freed from their bondage to sin; and to them her message is: "This is what God has done for Jesus and what He wants to do for all who will believe in Him: believe the Gospel,  confess your sins, embrace the new life of baptism, and open -- Oh yes open! -- your mind and heart to the Holy Spirit Whom God is offering to you and all mankind in Jesus.”

Of course, Mother Church can point to many signs that help to confirm her message: her own enduring of hatred and oppression throughout the ages; the holiness of so many of her children's lives; the wonderful way in which her truth understands, answers, transforms and fulfils, our human condition; the miracles which have, throughout the ages, transfigured the envelope of humble creation.

However, since all these are dependent on and secondary to the fundamental message contained in Mother Church’s Apostolic proclamation of the glory of God and the salvation to be found in Jesus through repentance and faith, we, children of Mother Church and disciples of the Risen Lord Jesus, should never, ever, be ashamed or embarrassed, to proclaim the Apostolic, Catholic, truth about Jesus.  Let no one disturb, or frighten you with words such as, "Look at you!"  or, "Who are you to talk?"; for when we proclaim Jesus as Saviour we are acknowledging ourselves as sinners: we should be better, we want to be better, we will seek and strive to be better, but we will never be found among those who proclaim themselves, rather than Jesus.   Jesus came to call sinners, and that is precisely why we hope in Him, because He came to call and to save us and all other sinners.  His message, the proclamation of Mother Church, is not for those who deny the reality of sin for, until they become aware of the sin which is corroding their own lives, society, and indeed the world around us, and until they conceive a fear of the consequences of and punishment awaiting, sin, then they are, and will remain, deaf both to the saving truth proclaimed by Mother Church and the call of Jesus to eternal life.

People of God, join in the heavenly choir; join, in all sincerity, your voice to theirs as they cry with a loud voice:

Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour and glory and blessing! 

For, by so joining your voice to that of the heavenly throng, the final words of the prophet will be brought closer to their eternal fulfilment:

I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, cry out: “To the One Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour, glory and might, forever and ever.”

                                                               

Second Sunday of Easter Year C 2019

 2^nd. Sunday of Easter (C)

(Acts 5:12-16; Revelation 1:9-19; John 20:19-31)

On thinking about today’s Gospel reading it might seem strange that the risen Jesus should go to such lengths to prove to the apostle Thomas that He was no ghost, that He was a real man of flesh and bones, and with blood coursing through His veins.  He was glorified indeed -- had He had not just entered the room although the doors were closed? -- but He was nevertheless still recognizably real and objectively present to and with His apostles in the room:

Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see My hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into My side.  Stop doubting and believe.

After doing so much for Thomas, why does Jesus today refrain from doing anything similar for modern people to prove that He is really with us?  We have to accept the truth about the reality of Jesus’ resurrection and presence to us, for us and with us, by faith ... how come that Thomas got so much proof?

First of all, notice that Thomas did indeed have faith.  A scientist seeing what Thomas saw might simply say, ‘There is something here I cannot understand, but science will be able to explain it later.  Indeed, if I could scientifically study this over a period of time I myself could probably explain it.  For the present, however, I will just have to suspend judgement.’  That was not the attitude of Thomas: straightway he leapt from fact to faith: after touching the wounds ... fact ... he immediately declared his faith with those momentous words:

My Lord and my God!

Thomas’ sense of touch only confirmed what his eyes saw; and with those earthly eyes he did but see the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side, he did not, could not, see God.  It was the light of faith alone which enabled him to recognize the divine truth about Jesus and proclaim, My Lord and my God.

There is more to it, however, than that.  Something happened to the apostles when Thomas was absent, as we heard in the Gospel reading:

Jesus came and stood in the midst of the Apostles and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.’  And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’

Until then the Eleven had been a group of individuals, united indeed by their love of Jesus, but still a more or less somewhat disparate group of people capable of breaking up and each going their own way, as they in fact did when Jesus was apprehended.  However, when the Risen Jesus appeared to them -- in Thomas’ absence -- He gave them a distinctive and exclusive mission:

As the Father has sent Me, so I send you,

after which He bestowed on them the Gift of His own most Holy Spirit with power to forgive and retain sins, as you have just heard.   From that moment on, those ten apostles in the room with Jesus were no longer ten individuals devoted to the memory of Jesus as they had experienced Him previously; now they had been re-formed into a unity looking towards a common future and common endeavour for Jesus, an enduring unity of unique significance and universal consequence for mankind’s salvation: the CHURCH.

When Thomas originally refused to believe -- despite what his fellow Apostles and Mary  Magdalen had said -- until he himself also had seen the form, heard the voice, and indeed touched the very wounds of Jesus, he knew nothing about any Church ... he only knew a familiar group of friends and disciples of Jesus, each with their own hopes and fears, sorrows and longings, each with their very personal and at times quite obvious limitations and failings.  That is why Thomas needed -- and was given by his Lord and God -- that extra help that we today are not offered, because we have something much better, we have the witness of that universal Church established by Jesus; and, in her we are become members of His very own Body, personally empowered and ennobled by His most Holy Spirit, Who has washed away the sins that would prevent us from recognizing the truth about Jesus and overcoming the faults and failings that would impede us from humbly loving and faithfully serving Him.

The Church, God’s Chosen People, is, as I have said, the Body of Christ, the  Temple where Jesus has promised to be -- for our finding -- until the end of time; she is the Spouse He will never desert, and the loving Mother of all God’s children born in baptism, through faith in Jesus as sent by the heavenly Father and by the gift of His most Holy Spirit.  Her sacraments give us the food of life, while the word of Jesus -- alive in her -- is for a light to the nations and the glory of all God’s children.

Thomas, on being told of the first apparition of Jesus to the assembled disciples was only

an individual human being ... we, on the other hand, are much more blessed: being

members of the Church and having her witness to the truth, we are aware of and are able

to appreciate the abiding presence of Jesus her Head in our midst, with her sacraments

channelling for us and accomodating to us, His Own Personal presence and the abiding

power of His Spirit.  At that moment, Thomas’ refusal -- truly his confession of need –

was blunt and absolute, a veritable expression of his personal character; nevertheless,

when subsequently on his own, he had the time and opportunity to think things over, he

must have become deeply conscious of the separation between himself and his hitherto

mutually committed friends and companions, and how he must have longed to be able to

share their new found peace and strength drawn from this so-called Risen Lord Whom he

himself could not, as yet, fully embrace.  This longing was indeed God’s prompting that

would prepare him to embrace his second opportunity when Jesus once again appeared

to all Eleven of His apostles ... an opportunity for which Thomas had been humbly seeking

in his heart and mind.  This ‘opportunity’ became the most decisive moment of his whole

life: when his touching of Jesus’ wounds, and Jesus’ own words, prompted and

encouraged him to make a total personal commitment of faith in the Risen Lord he had

long loved.

For faith is -- as the Compendium of our Catechism teaches -- a supernatural virtue which is necessary for salvation; it is, indeed, a free gift of God accessible to all who humbly seek it.  The act of faith is a truly human act, an act of profound human understanding, by a person who -- prompted and encouraged by God’s grace -- joyously assents to divine truth revealed by God and proclaimed by Mother Church.  Faith is certain and works through charity.  It is, even now, a foretaste of the joys of heaven; and how this very occasion of today’s celebration evokes such joy for us, because one called, at times, ‘doubting Thomas’ could so manifestly provoke and lead us to such great appreciation of and joy in the Catholic and Apostolic Faith as is ours today!!  Pope Saint Gregory the Great was undoubtedly the one most famously and most deeply grateful to God for Thomas’ doubts which – as he said -- have won for us such blessings of joy and peace in our appreciation of the true Faith.

Yes, we Catholics rejoice in Mother Church and our Faith, two supremely wonderful and complementary gifts of God.  Our faith is indeed a joy because it is SURE when so much in life is belittled, betrayed, and riddled by insecurity ... life-long love and enduring commitment and fidelity between man and wife is hardly expected today and, indeed, frequently mocked in so many presentations of modern life in society where personal gain and pleasure, public approval or even mere acceptance or tolerance, are more than enough to tip the scales against any prospective possibility of sacrifice.   For intellectual, or even religiously-inclined people, Catholic faith can be deemed impossible because the world and our knowledge of it are changing ever so rapidly that no one can know what time may bring.  One former learned Christian acquaintance of mine, thus afflicted, could not say, when I asked him concerning the divinity of Jesus, what he might ‘believe’ in ten years’ time.  Consequently, for so many, instead of the sure light of faith guiding towards the fulfillment of our human destiny and the abiding promise of a God-given future, there is only an individual, or at best shared, opinion; available, not indeed to guide onwards, but merely to hopefully justify personal past and future choices.  There is no love in-and-through life, just adventitious adaptations to whatever might seem the best available personal option at the moment in question.

Catholic Faith, because it is founded on the Word of God, is both sure and certain: it is essential for salvation because it alone can respond fittingly to the great Goodness of God and the sublimity of His promises made to mankind in Jesus.  Even though, for example, one can still read past issues of national and international papers recounting the wonders witnessed by thousands at Fatima and Lourdes, even though pilgrims still today experience startling cures at those and similar shrines, nevertheless every new generation wants to experience for itself so much that, without such corroborating personal experience, the reports of others gradually lose compelling attention and are, inevitably forgotten or simply no longer taken into account.  Faith alone can respond to and overcome such depradations of our human character by time and cupidity.

People of God, there has been so much truth and beauty brought to our attention today, and I have not even mentioned the wonderful promptings of God spoken of in the Catechism, promptings that speak directly to individual hearts and minds, that relate to individual and secret needs and aspirations!  However, the order of the day – so to speak -- is heart-felt gratitude to the God of our Faith for Thomas’ ‘blunt’ confession, and for the enduring apostolic proclamation of Mother Church, which afford us so much comfort and peace while, nevertheless, inspiring us with an ever-deeper longing for and delight in Jesus Christ our Risen Lord and Saviour.

Easter Sunday 2019

 Easter Sunday (2019)

(Acts of the Apostles 10:34, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9)

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, on this glorious day let us look at one verse in our Gospel passage which speaks volumes about our Risen Lord.  You heard that both John and Peter ran to the tomb; John, being the younger, arrived first and:

Stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in.

Peter, coming next, characteristically went straight into the empty tomb where:

He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around (Jesus’) head not lying with the linen cloths but folded together in a place by itself.

Now, just recently, St. John told us about Jesus miraculously bringing Lazarus back from the dead and out of the tomb:

Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"  And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.   (11:43-44)

There, Lazarus came out of the tomb at Jesus’ command, but he appeared:

bound hand and foot with grave-clothes and his face wrapped with a cloth.

The fact that he was still bound in his grave clothes signified that he was not totally free from death; he would needs face death again.  For the present time, however, Jesus said to those around:

Loose him, and let him go.

As you can see there was a big difference between Lazarus’ being raised and Jesus’ Resurrection, for when Jesus rose He left the linen cloths behind:

Simon Peter saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.

Jesus rose totally from the bonds of death, never again would He be subject to them.  Lazarus, on the other hand, had come out of the tomb “bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth”. 

Let us consider further the linen cloths left behind in Jesus’ otherwise empty tomb, and, in order to help us, let us recall how Jesus later appeared to His disciples for the first time:

(That) same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." (John 20:19)

The doors were locked, and they remained locked, just as if no one had entered.  However, Jesus had been able to enter the room, because closed -- even locked -- doors presented no obstacle to His Risen Body.  It was like that with the burial cloths and the kerchief: though Jesus had risen, the burial clothes remained as whole as they had been when wrapping His body, save that now they enclosed, wrapped nothing; the head-cloth, however, the kerchief which had been round His head, was now neatly folded and separate from the body cloths.

The message of the grave-clothes, as with that of the closed and locked door in the upper room, was that the Risen Lord was now glorified.   Lazarus had been called back to ordinary earthly life; Jesus had risen to a new and glorious life not destructive of this creation – witness the burial cloths that had wrapped His body -- but partaking of, sharing in, that heavenly Kingdom which He had proclaimed to be close at hand.

And if we now pay yet closer attention to the kerchief we find that it might have its own particular message for us.  The kerchief, which was generally used to cover, protect, one’s head and also for carrying money, was used in funerals to wrap the head in such a way that the jaw bone was prevented from falling open, thus preserving the dignity of the dead person.  The special mention of the kerchief being separately placed and neatly folded can be understood and appreciated as a preservation of Jesus’ Messianic dignity, a sign that Jesus’ proclamation of the Good News of salvation was eternally valid and would never be silenced: the fruit of His labour and the fullness of His teaching needing only to be wisely matured and faithfully handed down through the ages by the Church He had established on the rock-witness of Peter and the testimony of His chosen Apostles under the guidance of His own final and supreme Gift, His most Holy Spirit.

It is now time, therefore, to turn our attention to the supreme Christian mystery, that of the most Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; three divine Persons, one God.  How are we to think of this?

God the Father, to be Father, must have a Child -- His Son, the Bible says.  God the eternal Father, therefore, eternally begets His only beloved Son, Who is like Him and equal to Him in all respects, save that the Father is the Person Who begets whereas the Son is the Person begotten.  Thus, the Father and His only-begotten Son are eternally One in the power of that begetting -- that uniting power of their mutual Love -- which is the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is called God’s Gift, for in and through Him the Father and the Son give themselves to each other in total knowledge, understanding, appreciation, and love; and that is why, when God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- determined that the Son should become man in the Incarnation, He was sent -- as Son -- by the Father and conceived as a human being in the Virgin’s womb by the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, when His earthly life had run its course, we are told in the letter to the Hebrews, of the Holy Spirit uniting the Son to His Father in Jesus’ very act of dying:

Christ, through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, (to) cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God! (9:14)

Therefore, when the Son, after His Passion and Death, was raised to new and eternally glorious life, the Scriptures tell us that both the Father and the Spirit raised Him.  We read Paul preaching the Gospel to the Jews at Perga (Acts 13:32-33):

We declare to you glad tidings -- that promise which was made to the fathers.  God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.'   

Yet when writing his letter to the Romans (1:1-4) the same Paul also says:

Jesus Christ our Lord … was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

St. Peter likewise mentions the Spirit:

Christ also suffered once for sins … being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)

Through His Passion and Death, as the letter to the Hebrews tells us, Jesus had been brought to perfect Sonship in His humanity:

Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered; and having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. (5:8-9)

And now, the Risen Jesus, having being raised by the Father and glorified in His human flesh by the Spirit -- perfect man and perfect God -- has become the perfect channel through Whom we are able to receive the divine Spirit into our poor, sinful, lives.  For Jesus, Son of the Father and Giver of God’s Gift, comes to us now in the Eucharist so that we, who are of earthly flesh and blood might, by receiving His glorious Flesh and Blood, be able to share in His Holy Spirit; whereupon, that Spirit of holiness -- the bond of love and power uniting Father and Son -- begins to form us, in the likeness of Jesus for the Father.

As of old, the Ark of the Covenant had tabernacled God’s Law for His chosen People, so, when He Who had been long-promised came, it was Mary who housed and nourished Jesus in her womb.  Today Mother Church is the treasure-house where Jesus is ever-present to His people by His Word and in the Holy Eucharist, and it is Mother Church who, by the Gift of His Spirit and according to the model set for her by Mary, now

treasures and ponders in her heart

all that Jesus taught and did (Luke 2:19, 51).  All who live by faith in Mother Church’s proclamation of Jesus receive, through her, the Gift of His Spirit, so that they might be formed into a true likeness of Our Lord and Saviour, and as adopted sons and daughters of the heavenly Father.

People of God, wonderful things have been done for us this Easter: through oneness with Jesus our Saviour and by the power of His most Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Strength, we -- in all our daily endeavours to walk along the way of Jesus -- are offered union with the Father as St. Paul said:

You (have been) raised with Christ, (so) seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Your (real) life is hidden with Christ in God, (and) when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Let us therefore strengthen our faith, as, with deepened understanding in our minds and renewed joy in our hearts, we proclaim our own Easter hymn of praise and thanksgiving, saying: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, in holy mother Church for ever and ever.  Amen.

Good Friday 2019

 Good Friday 2019.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today we are called to consider an absolutely essential aspect of our Catholic -- which means universal -- Christian faith.  We should not, and indeed cannot, identify Christian values with those currently prevalent in our Western part of the world, because our present, secularized, Western culture is most seriously wrong, for example, in the exaggerated emphasis and value it puts on living long to experience and enjoy all that life has to offer.  Because of this fixation on satisfying our human capacity for pleasure and fulfilment Western society has come to regard death as the end of everything that is desirable, and consequently views death, with all its concomitant forms of suffering, as something to be avoided above all else.  It is time, therefore, for modern, secular, self-satisfied and non-believing, Westerners to learn from the attitude of other great cultures, in this case of Japan and Islam – yes, even from some former world-war and some present world-turmoil opponents – who believed and believe that  death can be regarded as a possible gateway to future glory, and who can, therefore, gladly embrace death for what they consider to be a worthwhile cause.

Now, although we Catholics and Christians could never accept the idea of political convictions being a worthy cause for deliberate self destruction, and while the manner in which certain  former adversaries deliberately chose to kill themselves and die along with  their opponents alarmed and amazed us; and although the notion of heavenly glory so frequently imagined by simple ISIS enthusiasts and proclaimed by manipulative leaders, is both degrading and earthly, nevertheless, the willingness of members of those two great cultures – Japan and Islam -- to sacrifice themselves for what they – rightly or wrongly -- saw or see as an ideal or belief, is something both truly human and worthy of admiration.

We Catholics can never resort to self-inflicted death, to self-destruction, as a direct means to express our hatred or promote our cause, because death cannot be of our free and deliberate choosing;  nevertheless, as Christians, we are called to become so freed from the fear of death, to be inspired with such love for what is divinely beautiful and true, that we can wholeheartedly embrace death when it is encountered for witnessing to Christ and expressing love for God or neighbour.  Today, however, our secularized Western societies are smothering Christians aspirations and dragging down believers into fearing death above all, something to be feared and avoided or at least delayed, at whatever cost; while saving life – except of course the lives of aborted infants – justifies almost anything.

Today, we Catholics and Christians need very much to remember that we celebrate GOOD FRIDAY, the day when Jesus, our Redeemer, Lord and Saviour, embraced death for love of His Father and sinful mankind.

Yes, People of God, today we Catholics celebrate Jesus’ death; and we must never allow ourselves to be led astray into mourning Jesus’ death.  We embrace, rejoice in, Jesus’ death, Jesus’ way of dying, Jesus’ use of death, for us; we lament, we mourn, we weep, for mankind’s (including individuals like you and me) killing of, hatred for, self-centred disregard of, Jesus, His truth and His love.  Jesus’ death we love and celebrate; it is our -- and mankind’s -- killing of Him and His that we both loath and mourn.

Our modern society in this much-changed country once known as Great Britain has come to admire mourning: many people today seem to think it good to say they cannot forget; forget what?  Of course, they cannot forget nor could anyone ever ask them to forget their loved ones whose memory deserves to be cherished.  However, what they should learn to forget, to put behind them, is their loss, which too many mourn, year after year after year!  In that mourning there can indeed be sincere heart-break; but also, there is far too much self-love; and such mourning is not for our Christian remembrance and celebration of Good Friday, for it does not proclaim any good.

Today, I say, we Catholics and Christians are called to celebrate Jesus’ dying, Jesus’ embrace of death, for us.  As for mourning, we mourn most certainly our own sinfulness, so like, indeed so one-with, that of those who actually killed Jesus two-thousand years ago; BUT our mourning compels us to tackle our sinfulness; we can hope and must aspire to overcome our sinfulness and thereby transfigure our mourning, by God’s grace.

Looking now, on this Good Friday, at the crucified Jesus, we recognize that, for Him, death was not the end but rather the climax of His life; it was not the loss of all that He had loved, but rather the sublime moment when He was at last able to give supreme expression to the love which had filled His life.  Jesus said, “It is finished”: that is, first of all, He was aware and content that He had completed the task His Father had given Him when sending Him into this world.  What was it that was finished?  Not simply the work of our redemption, because the full fruit of that has still to be gathered in over the ages by His disciples working in the power of His Spirit in the Church and in the world.  What then was already fully and finally finished as Jesus breathed His last?

It was Jesus’ constant and ever-more-consuming desire to give Himself entirely to the Father in His earthly life; to give true and full expression -- as much as the limits of His human body would allow Him -- to the consuming love He had for His Father (Luke 12:50):

            I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! 

Our Good Friday Jesus was finally able to say, “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit” with ineffable peace and joy, before He then deliberately breathing His last.  Life did not just slip listlessly out of His grasp: He wholeheartedly gave over His life in total trust to His Father.  This final and total gift of Himself to the Father was, in that way, the fullest expression He had ever been able to give of the love that filled Him.

For us Catholics and Christians therefore, death may even be supremely desirable, and can and should, most certainly, be hopefully reverenced and humbly embraced, because it offers us also a supreme opportunity to express our love for the Father, our trust in Jesus, our hope in the Spirit.

Palm Sunday Year C 2019

       Palm Sunday (C)                                        (Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14 – 23:56)

We are gathered together here in solemn preparation for the Easter Passover of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, and, on hearing St. Luke’s account of our Lord’s Passion and Death we have been struck by the horror of His sufferings and by His wondrously patient endurance.  Embracing the Cross, on the left hand by His total commitment to us and, on the right hand by His absolute trust in and love for His Father, He was, ultimately Himself, resting in the peace and joy of total fulfilment as our Redeemer and as the only-begotten Son of the Father.

Now, having listened reverently to that Gospel reading, let us turn our attention from the Lord to ourselves, His disciples; and, searching our self-awareness as honestly and dispassionately as we can, did we perhaps find that reading at times rather long and perhaps a little wearisome?   If so, that can be a humbling and somewhat depressing acknowledgement, in so far as we tend to think that if we were proper Catholics, if we were true disciples, we would not just hear of that holy event and find such hearing long and taxing, but rather would we experience it with hearts filled with deep sorrow and ardent longing.  And, inevitably, we vaguely fear that our lack of emotional involvement betrays some hidden fault or even serious failings on our part.

Let us, therefore, take a closer look at such unwanted weariness which can obtrude itself upon us at times when we would much prefer to experience fervent devotion.

First of all, we should be clear in our minds that we are here, above all, not to get emotional rewards for ourselves but to give ourselves, through devotion, whole-heartedly to God: those wretched words, ‘I don't seem to be getting anything out of it’, should never be part our thinking.

To that end, we need to be clear in our minds about the difference between emotion and devotion for they are not the same, nor are they necessarily found together.  Emotions express and affect our natural feelings, whereas devotion is the sign and measure of our supernatural commitment; moreover, our emotions are largely instinctive and self-centred whereas devotion is subject to our will and centred on God.  Devotion can, most certainly, benefit greatly when backed-up by the appropriate power of emotions; however, devotion is not necessarily diminished by the absence of emotions; indeed, devotion can be at its greatest when deprived of them.  Emotion, alone, is of no worth, its function is to assist what is more worthy than itself; devotion, on the other hand, is always solely and supremely commendable before God

Dear People of God, it is essential for us to recognize that we are sinners and that God alone is holy.  All the good we have, all that we can have, is His gift to us.  Therefore, we must never be surprised at our own weariness, dryness, or lack of emotional feelings on occasions like today, for that is a true, indeed the truest picture of us, for we are, of ourselves, barren and fruitless.

As Christians, however, our attention and expectation are centred on God.  He is good, and He has given His own Son to save us from our sinfulness.  What we have to try to do is what the Suffering Servant, in the first reading, shows us:

Each morning (he woke) to listen like a disciple to the Lord, making no resistance nor turning away.

Jesus woke like that, immediately; He was always immediately and most lovingly in His Father’s presence, listening, watching, and waiting.  We, however, can hope to grow in such wonderfully Filial dispositions by learning from the Scriptures and putting ourselves into the presence of God, obtruding ourselves on Jesus, as did, first of all, the blind beggar Bartimaeus (Luke 18) who so humbly and courageously drew Jesus’ attention to himself, a nobody, despite the hostility of the crowd; or, as did  Zacchaeus (Luke 19), an important civic figure in this case who, because he was short of stature, humbled himself -- despite the hostile mockery of onlookers – by resorting to climb a roadside tree that he might at least catch a glimpse of Jesus passing by on the road beneath.

And that, indeed, is what we are, in fact, doing here today: we have put ourselves in Jesus’ way, waiting and listening in case He might turn His gaze, see us, and speak to us as He did to blind Bartimaeus, or even come to dwell a little with us as He did in the case of Zacchaeus.  If He does neither of those things, we should have no complaint, it is His will and we have no claims on Him: whatever He does, we know that He does it for our true good and that He is right.  If, on the other hand, He does turn His glance our way, then we should gratefully accept those ardent emotions by using them as a spur to our devotion, endeavouring thereby to give ourselves back, in Jesus, to God our Father more completely and more wholeheartedly than ever before. 

Dear People of God, never let feelings engross you who seek to be true disciples of Jesus; for ultimately, it is only the straight and sure path of true devotion that follows Jesus heavenward; our emotions, on the other hand, can sometimes be like flowers bordering that path and rejoicing our hearts; or, at other times -- and perhaps more frequently – they can be like stones that would hinder us by cluttering the way or upsetting our balance.