17/07/2022

Anyone who has lived in a family is familiar with the quarrels that break out among the children. Arguments about who did what to whom and about not doing what he should do are as familiar as breathing and usually end with an appeal to familial authority. " Oh mam, tell him/her!". Mary ,today, is seriously annoyed with her sister as so many guests have descended on them to witness the revivifed Lazarus and  "she" is just sitting and looking.

Jesus accepts her complaint but chides her, for sitting with God is always the "better part". Since the time of St Paul the institution that is still Church has tried to implement the words of Christ in a world that has grown too busy for its own good. Working and studying, doing good are all necessary and legitimate human concerns but even in the Church they have taken up an increasing amount of human time with a consequent forgetting of the "better part". The other great consumer of human time and effort is the attempt to contradict God's message and justify sinful behaviour.

We can be sure that Abraham was under the shade of the Oak because the heat of the day was pretty hot. (Today begins our "heatwave"). The three visitors are treated as a sign of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit a mystery which "was hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to the saints". Christ is Father, Son and Holy Spirit with us now. He is here for all  seekers after truth and holiness. Each one of us has only  to open our hearts and the Almighty Love of our Creator, Teacher and Guardian will come flooding in and the "Mystery" of life will become known to us.

Dear Lord help me to be pleasing to you this day and let the sins of my youth and the present time be forgiven. The punishment is yours to judge. This morning's revelations are the foundations of my conscious being. Let me never forget them. May Mary who cared for the child Jesus growing up with his relations know that our family quarrels are soothed only with love, lead the prayers of all the saints to plead for the Love of God to consume our time on earth and thus avoid the sins that resulted in the torture of Calvary.