1st Sunday of Lent (A) 2014

1^st Sunday of Lent (A)

I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ.    (2 Corinthians 11:3) 

‘Sincere and pure commitment’: the basic meaning of the Greek original words -- confirmed by New Vulgate -- is ‘simplicity, simple’; and that was indeed the attitude shown by Our Blessed Lord when tempted by the devil after His forty day fast in the desert.  However, in order to appreciate Jesus’ demeanour better let us turn to our first reading and study Eve’s attitude when she met with temptation.

The devil questioned the woman, not the man; obviously he did that for the surer success of his own plans.  What were the weaknesses that drew his special attention to Eve: was it the fact that she was wilful, even rebellious; or that curiosity, perhaps even a tendency to overweening conceit and personal vanity, was prominent in her make-up?  Most certainly she wanted to ‘know for herself about things’; above all, that is, to be able to form her own judgement concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil of which Adam had spoken to her.   Such a wilful desire for independence and self-determination seems to have made it impossible for Eve to recognize the devil, even when showing himself to her and -- in his very first words -- manifesting himself to be what he is essentially and eternally: namely, a liar and an implacable and deadly enemy of all who allow him to draw near and find a niche for himself in their lives.  How ironical it is that Eve, who was about to show herself to be so wilful before the Lord, could be so very, very, SIMPLE before the devil!

Hear again his devilish words, and recognize his endeavours to portray himself as siding with Eve against God in a pretended confrontation he himself was trying his very best to concoct, stir up, and promote:

          Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?

He knew full well that God had not given any such command: the couple were living in God’s garden and eating its good fruit, the devil’s words were simply a ruse to de-stabilize Eve and find out precisely what had gone on between God and the couple still walking innocently and unashamedly in His garden before His eyes.

The very fact that Eve responded so readily to the devil was amazing; for, after all, he was evil itself!   Dolled-up, disguised, or whatever word you may like to think, he was nevertheless, himself, and lying as he always does.  And yet Eve apparently sensed nothing at all untoward, she just talked with him freely and listened to him carefully!!  In doing so, she revealed both her ambitious nature aspiring far beyond what God had arranged for Adam and herself, and her deep dis-satisfaction with a life of simplicity and obedience before God.

Adam, on the other hand, found himself caught up in an already somewhat developed relationship between Eve -- secretly alienating herself from God in her heart-of-hearts -- and the devil, with whom Eve was now in open discussion.  It was a situation of which he was until the last moment apparently unaware; and surprised -- perhaps alarmed -- he behaved like a wimp who simply wanted to go along with his wife rather than actually take upon himself the responsibility of seeing that God’s solemn warning and express command concerning the tree in the centre of the garden -- a command originally given to himself before his help-mate was fashioned -- was acknowledged and complied with; as was, indeed, his most solemn duty both out of reverence for God and love for Eve:

The LORD God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.”  

The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”    (Genesis 2:16-18)

Nevertheless, no matter what God had commanded Adam, Eve wanted to know for herself, to be able to form her own judgement concerning, that intriguing and most attractive tree, bearing fruit giving knowledge of good and evil. 

Such, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, was the situation which allowed sin and death to enter into our lives.

Jesus, however, the most Beloved Son of God and the supreme culmination and sublime fulfilment of mankind, in His confrontation with and tempting by the devil, was not interested in being able to form His own human appreciation of, or Personal confirmation of, His relationship with His Father; and He was most certainly not going to prove anything before the Devil’s tribunal. He did not need  to test, and convince Himself of, His divine power by changing stones into bread, even though it would have immediately satisfied His gnawing hunger;  nor would He -- by a farcically theatrical display of outrageous presumption -- descend(!) to demonstrating the validity and reality of the Scriptures’ attestation of His own Personal dignity and the eternal significance of His mission as Son of Man to the devil, who was himself seeking, most ludicrously and desperately, to sow but the smallest seed of doubt and mistrust in Jesus’ mind. 

In all and above all, though, Jesus would not entertain any wish other than that, in all things, His Father’s will, exclusively, might be done in Him and for Him: 

My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me, and to finish His work.   

To do your will, O my God, is my delight. (John 4:34) (Psalm 40:9)

At the beginning of the season of Lent, dear People of God, it behoves us to learn from the tragic failure of faithless Eve and feckless Adam as we, disciples of Jesus, seek to walk more faithfully with Him for the praise and glory of His and our heavenly Father; and Mother Church has given us, in our second reading, a text of Saint Paul that can help to interpret the whole situation for us:

Just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.

With regard to his own converts in Corinth, Saint Paul said that he feared for them lest their thoughts might be, or have become, corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ, and the corruption he feared was, basically, a lack of simplicity in their bearing as disciples of Jesus, a lack most strikingly exemplified for us both in the behaviour of Eve, ambitious and conceited, wanting to know for herself and decide for herself, and of Adam, indolent and – out of pseudo- consideration for his wife – fearing, or not caring, to take hold of the reins, so to speak, as was his duty before God.  

As we turn directly to Jesus for guidance, we see that -- as distinct from the spineless and accommodating Adam – He took hold of the reins most firmly when the devil offered Him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence if He would but prostrate Himself and worship him.  Up to that moment Jesus, facing questions about His own power, and His position in the Scriptures, had been dismissive of the devil, answering him with but a few chosen and correctly interpreted words of Scripture.  However, as soon as the devil sought to invade His Father’s realm by seeking worship for himself, Jesus immediately revealed the devil’s personal identity and his evil essence by the irresistible power of His own authoritative command:  

          Get away Satan!  It is written: ‘The Lord your God shall you worship’.

In a like manner He gives us guidance with regard to self-assertive Eve’s evil example and baleful legacy by His own selfless and total commitment to the honour and glory of His Father, the God of Whom Eve gladly heard the devil speak most disrespectfully:

You certainly will not die!   No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.

Of course, Eve listened gladly because the devil’s words expressed what she wanted to hear… he didn’t so much deceive her, as approve and proclaim her secret thoughts in order to promote and prosper her rebellious inclinations.

I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ.

 

Dear People of God, the New Testament bears repeated witness to Jesus’ preferred understanding of our eternal fulfilment as our becoming, in Himself, children of God; and His whole life gives us constant inspiration, guidance, and spiritual power towards the fulfilment of that purpose.  And so it is, that in our readings today Mother Church also chooses to give us further insight into the authentic make-up of a true child of God, by showing us how Adam and Eve both failed in that respect.

Saint Paul calls to our minds the threat and danger of a corrupted, insincere, commitment to Christ, which consists, he tells us, in a lack of simplicity in our relationship before God our Father and with Jesus our Saviour; and we have seen such a lack of simplicity and transparency at the root of the behavior of both Adam and Eve, in her self-centered and ambitious conniving and his spineless acquiescence. 

 

People of God, only simplicity before God allows God’s Gift, the Spirit of Jesus, to work freely in us and form us in the likeness of Jesus for the Father … and it takes both firm and constant courage, true and persevering humility, if such a reign of the Spirit is to become a decisive feature of our lives.  For simplicity embraces what is essential and most beautiful in the Christian life: it springs from deep trust and sure hope; it enfolds calm patience and long-sufferance; it requires a pure gaze of self-surrendering love fixed most devoutly on the Lord Himself in all His beauty,  and on His mysterious but unfailing goodness to mankind, indeed -- most mysteriously of all -- on His goodness to and love for each one of us personally, if we are but able and willing to advert to it comforting and calling us throughout the course of, and right to the final dénouement of, our lives before Him.

Let us, therefore, aspire to, love and pray for, such a humble but beautiful virtue; unappreciated and unacknowledged for the most part by men, but recognized and treasured by St. Paul as he constantly contemplated, and most ardently aspired to full maturity in, Christ Jesus his Lord and Saviour, both for himself and for us.

8th Sunday of Year A

 8th. SUNDAY (A)

(Isaiah 49:14-15; 1^st. Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34)

No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.  Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

Today’s Gospel reading is of supreme importance for our personal well-being, for two of the greatest plagues of modern times, the greatest obstacles to us living our human and our Christian lives to the full, are distractions -- leading directly to superficiality -- and, derivatively, ‘cares of the world’ -- worrying over what is past, self-solicitude for the present, and anxiety about what the future might hold – all of which, together, make effective self-commitment to God and His purposes impossible, as can be found in the lives of so many nominal Catholics and Christians today.

Our modern world, of course, becoming ever more at variance with the Lord, boasts about its ability to provide endless distractions (and thereby generate endless money!), whilst denying, indeed, mocking the very suggestion, that there is or can be any institutional contributing cause for the sickness and pain of indecisiveness and anxiety in the lives of so many.
 

Jesus is quite clear and decisive in His teaching:

Your heavenly Father knows (all your needs); seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

However, those words ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness’ take a degree of commitment and selflessness which – though God gives fully and freely what we, in faith and good-will, can only want and begin to attempt – are precisely what our modern society would deprive us of.

Today, young children and, indeed, even infants, are – through the media which delights to detail, dramatize, and magnify -- made aware of and excited by what is going on around them long before they are able to recognize, understand, and rightly appreciate what is going on within themselves.  How few children are fortunate enough to be guided by their mothers – uniquely naturally endowed and also spiritually empowered to respond to and guide their child’s first, most sensitive and tentative, experiences of human life -- to an awareness and appreciation of the deep and calming influence of what is both lovely and ordinary, as well as to a humbling experience of joy, admiration, and awe before the exuberance of what is wonderful in nature and her seasons!  Again, how few children have a mother or father who is willing and able to introduce them into an awareness of the sublime yet fragile glory of human relationships which form the fabric of daily human living and, indeed, offer -- on the basis of a concomitant responsibility, itself both beautiful and formative – what is life’s great experience of natural and spiritual fulfilment?    How many are blessed to find themselves in a family where a truly Catholic appreciation and love of Jesus’ Person and teaching is a light and joy, a guide for the understanding of what is beautiful and true, a strength and support in all difficulties and trials, and a banner evoking gratitude and love, loyalty and self-sacrifice?

We find, alas, so many are wrapped up, mixed up, enmeshed and embroiled, in internet activities, secretly or even publicly, acerbic and disturbing; or else fixated on the television which -- frequently and unashamedly -- stirs up with seductive and violent emphasis what most young people cannot deal with aright because they have not become able, perhaps never had the opportunity, to gradually discover and learn what it is to be in tune, and at home, with their own personal self and individual make-up.  So many are ill-at-ease with themselves, needing endless ‘things to do’, to occupy their thoughts and temporarily distract their imagination, lest the ever-threatening background danger of self-preoccupation with its kaleidoscope of vague, unrecognizable fears, might raise its head against them.  As a result they are strongly tempted to taste and seek to enjoy some of the many passing satisfactions, irresponsible pleasures, and fleeting consolations, being touted and displayed in a continuous stream on the screen before them and in the late night, back-street, society around them; all of which bring nothing more than a multiplicity of shallow satisfactions and passing moments of pseudo-exaltation, before ebbing away and leaving behind, as wages of sin or worldly inheritance, a numbing sense of frustration, emptiness, and disenchantment.

Today Jesus seeks to protect us from, or invites us to face up to, such situations.   Life is not meant to be a warren with dark corridors leading hither and thither into ever further darkness and threat.  He speaks to us as Lord and Master with words that are sure and true:

No man can serve two masters; he will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth.

Jesus lived and died with the words of Israel’s psalms in His heart and on His lips, and often in the Gospels He seeks to pass on to us, wants to share with us, some of the blessings He Himself had gained from living those words to the full.  Today’s is one such psalm:

Only in God be at rest, my soul, for from Him comes my hope.  He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold.   I shall not be disturbed. 

Notice those final words: ‘I shall not be disturbed’; they indicate a deliberately willed purpose, not an expected, automatic, or merely hoped-for, result; and if we look at Jesus we can see how He Himself followed the psalmist’s lead, and we may, perhaps, even glimpse thereby something of His Personal relationship with His Father in Heaven:

Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

He must have often seen and thought upon what He saw when the birds were fluttering above and around Him, and as He observed them His thoughts would  turn to His Father, their habitual resting place … ‘they do not sow but My heavenly Father feeds them’.

Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.  They do not work or spin.  But not even Solomon in all his splendour was clothed … as God has clothed them, the grass of the field.

Again, He must frequently have admired the simple beauty of Israel’s flowers,  and always His thoughts would turn in gratitude to, and rest confidently with, His Father …. ‘I shall not be disturbed’.

Jesus’ love for His Father was total and unremitting … He saw what was beautiful or good and immediately His life’s compass swung to His Father in admiration and praise; and when He looked upon what was evil He would compassionate His Father:

            Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.

Ultimately, love is the only guarantee that we will never be subject … despite our sinfulness and inherent weakness … to the domination and dichotomy of two masters.  It is love alone which can give us the initial strength and courage to take on what we might possibly admire but could never undertake.  But such love we have to work at … ‘I shall not be disturbed’ … and when we wish to work at it, we must be absolutely sure that we are, indeed, working for the love of it, not for the wanting of it … we must be working for that total love for God, not the peace of soul and strength of character such an acquisition might hopefully bring to us ourselves.

If we now turn to St. Paul we will see, and wonder at, of his oneness with Jesus’ teaching … for we are all surely aware of our human sensitivity to the opinion of others, and even more especially might that have been felt by Paul, since his work did not involve objective skills, tangible powers, but was totally concerned and involved with people, affecting them and indeed changing them through his proclamation of the Good News … would not his ability, success, and effectiveness as an Apostle be inextricably linked with his personal charm and popularity?

But in blunt contradiction with any such thoughts or suppositions, Paul tells us:

It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or by any human tribunal.

Paul was in no way subject to human opinion!  Indeed, in that respect one can say that he was dead to men.  He served but one Master apparently.  And yet, I say ‘apparently’ because there is still another, hidden, tribunal by which he might be affected and influenced and diverted, even corrupted, in his discipleship … but he goes on immediately to totally repel any such thought:

I do not even pass judgement on myself; but I do not thereby stand acquitted; the One who judges me is the Lord.

Paul was sublimely simple: no reflecting on himself, his success or his failings.  He was indeed, a most wonderful disciple of Jesus His Lord … one dead to the world and even to himself for love of Jesus:

I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ    (Philippians 3:8)

Jesus would say at the height of His torments and dereliction:

            Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

St. Paul, as a supreme disciple, would likewise say:

I know the One in Whom I have put my trust, and I am sure He is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to Him. (2 Timothy 1:12)

Such examples do most surely inspire us, but the only way for us to respond is the way of love.  Parents, lead, guide, encourage, your children to recognize, appreciate, respond to, what is beautiful, good, and true in life.  As they grow up and need rules for guidance and strength show them the truth, love, and the beauty behind and above such rules.  Obedience, to be sure, is at times absolutely necessary as our ultimate defence and surest guide, but its deepest authority and power should be based on love and should express love. 

(Brothers and sisters in Christ) whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.   (Philippians 4:8)

And so, my dear People of God, may Jesus’ final words in today’s Gospel inspire us to go out from Holy Mass today with loving purpose, firm hope, and most joyful confidence, to advance more surely on our life-long endeavour to:

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness;  and

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and your neighbour - Jesus Christ your Saviour - as yourself.

7th Sunday of Year (A) 2014

7^th. Sunday (A)

(Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48)

Today’s Gospel reading is indeed, to say the very least, most striking; but who could put it into practice?   Is it practical?  How did Our Blessed Lord intend it to be understood and be of most benefit to His disciples?

Obviously, I don’t pretend to answer such questions definitively, but I will -- indeed I should -- offer some suggestions, some observations, to be borne in mind when thinking, and above all when praying, about these and other like words of Our Lord.

It is not to be expected that Mother Church should always and at any given time have a clear and full understanding of everything Our Lord said and did.  She infallibly teaches and spiritually endows her children that they might live to the full all the essentials of Christian life; but the broad extent and wondrous beauty of the gifts bestowed on her by the Spirit of Jesus abiding with her and in her is beyond measure.  Moreover, she lives by the Spirit and is ever developing in the service and understanding of her Lord; with the result that there is much in her treasure-house that we – little children of Mother Church and sincere, though still fragile, disciples of Jesus – can only gradually become truly aware of and learn to love aright, through a developing experience of discipleship in this world, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Who, precisely, is God’s Gift to the Church that He might lead her into all truth, as He lovingly recalls to our minds for her appreciation all that Jesus said and did.

Let us, therefore, try to recall other teaching and examples given by Our Lord, other truths of Holy Scripture, other examples of God’s saints and doctors; and as we do so, let us prayerfully invoke the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

We can first briefly recall an episode from 1^st. Book of Maccabees (1:41, 43), where a problem, such as occupies us at present, weighed heavily on patriotic and faithful Israelites subject, at that time, to an alien, pagan, power attempting to force them to abandon theirHH

 faith and their traditional practices:

The king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, each abandoning his particular customs. All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king, and many Israelites were in favour of his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath.  

There, under the Old Covenant, the People of God decided that they must defend themselves and their religion thus threatened with extinction; indeed, later they would again feel obliged to defend themselves by fighting, if and when necessary, even on the Sabbath.

However, that took place, as I said, under the old covenant, and is not directly relevant to us who are disciples of Jesus not followers of Moses.

In the Gospel of St. John (18:22s.), however, we have something much more pertinent:

When Jesus said this (to the High Priest), one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, ’Is that how you answer the High Priest?’  Jesus answered him, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike Me?’

Now that was a perfect opportunity for Our Lord to exemplify the literal observance of His own words:

            If anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well;

but, as you have heard, He did not do so.

St. Paul, in his first letter to the Christian community he had founded at Corinth, says in two places (11:1 and 4:16):

            Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

 I urge you, be imitators of me.

Again, in his first letter to the Thessalonians (1:5-6) he writes:

You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.  And you became imitators of us and of the Lord. 

What kind of man, then, was Paul who set out to instruct the first Christian communities not only by his teaching but also, and quite explicitly, by his personal example?

We can, first of all, turn to St. Luke’s account concerning Paul in the Acts of the Apostles (23:2-3):

The High Priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by Paul to strike him on the mouth.  Then Paul said to him, ‘God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall!  Are you sitting to judge one according to the Law, and yet, contrary to the Law, you order me to be struck!’

Again, there was a remarkable opportunity for the literal fulfilment of Our Lord’s advice or command, but St. Paul did not subscribe to such a literal interpretation it would seem.

On another occasion, he even made – or wanted to make – provision for the deciding of grievances between brethren within the community at Corinth (1 Corinthians 6:1, 5), so as to avoid the scandal of brethren choosing to sue each other before pagan judges:

When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?   Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood? 

And so, it would seem that, in the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord was indicating – but not necessarily illustrating -- what sort of spirit should animate the children of God’s kingdom.  And it is, consequently, quite possible that we are wrong to look for precise instructions as regards our own personal behaviour in particular cases: if someone strikes you on the cheek, do this; or, if another seeks to take your tunic, do this; or again, if someone were to order you to go one mile with him, do this.

Perhaps Our Lord – being in a position to use but a very few human words to indicate and promote the spirit that should motivate all His followers throughout the world and throughout all time – was really preparing them to learn how, under the leading of His Spirit, to rightly decide for themselves how and when to act in all the various circumstances of life as true disciples of, and faithful witnesses to, Himself.   In other words, He was preparing them to gradually acquire the ability to recognize surely and respond appropriately, sponte sua, to whatever guidance His Spirit might give them in order that they should both bear true witness to their Lord and Master, and attain thereby, fully and perfectly, the end eternally planned for them.

For such an interpretation of Our Lord’s words we can again turn to St. Paul when, speaking elsewhere (1 Corinthians 7:40) about himself, he did not hesitate to say:

            I think that I have the Spirit of God.

In his letter to the Romans (12:17-21), Paul thus interprets Our Lord:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.   If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.  Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”   Rather, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”  Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.

There we have, I believe, the essential point of Jesus’ teaching given us in the Gospel for today --- but that does not mean that a literal interpretation is totally excluded; indeed, it may be that, as we follow the Spirit, He might lead us -- if we have become sufficiently docile to His call and responsive to His influence -- into a literal understanding and fulfilment of Our Lord’s words, and thus literally turn the other cheek, give to all who ask, more than comply with the unjust demands made on us.  Such would seem to have been St. Paul’s attitude when, after making arrangements, so to speak, for lawsuits between Christians to be judged within the community, he went on to say:

It is, in any case, a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?   (1 Corinthians 6:7)

However, until we are at the desired level of union with God, Jesus’ literal words can, and perhaps should, be understood more broadly while, nonetheless, still engendering and expressing the essential spirit of Christ and His Kingdom.  Thus -- far from possibly crushing the broken reed – they will advantageously establish us on a sure basis of humility that alone can open up and solidly support a future full of hope and God-given possibilities.

For a final, and perhaps a more truly comprehensive appreciation of Our Blessed Lord’s intentions, let us turn back to the Gospel reading again, for there He gave what was most certainly His supreme teaching and desire for us:

            Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect!

And such perfection He said was to be found and expressed in:

            Loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you.

All those other gestures -- offering no resistance, turning the other cheek, handing over not only one’s tunic but also one’s cloak – are only pleasing and acceptable to God in so far as they are pure expressions of Christian love.  At times, and under suitable circumstances, they could, indeed, be supremely authentic expressions of Jesus’ guiding Spirit in our life; at other times however -- times, that is, of our own choosing -- they could be nothing more than human gestures betraying spiritual ambition and self-exaltation.

A true mother will always be prepared to sacrifice herself for her child’s good; but at other times she might be quite strict and unyielding, as was once the case with me in my childhood.  It seems I was insistent on wanting to put pepper on my dinner myself.  My mother explained that she had already put enough on for me; but, nevertheless, I wanted to shake the pepper out myself.  She finally gave way to my insistence and indulged me.  I shook out pepper with gusto and then, of course, did not like the result.  Then my mother showed her true love for me by insisting that I ate what was before me!!  I don’t think I ever made the same mistake again!

And so, the psalmist said today:

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Dear People of God, Our Lord is the font of all goodness, beauty, and truth for us; His sublime words, however, can only be truly appreciated in the context of Mother Church’s living tradition and teaching, and only carried into effect under the Holy Spirit’s discerning wisdom and sustaining power.  Let us, therefore, give heartfelt thanks to God for Mother Church; and -- humbling our native pride and forgetting our self-solicitude – let us, with her, open up our hearts and minds and commit our very selves to the guiding Spirit of Jesus ever interceding on our behalf before the heavenly Father Who, in His great mercy and loving kindness, calls and draws us by His Spirit and wills to ultimately crown us in His Son with a filial share in their triune glory and eternal beatitude.isol