26/11/2022

On reading today's reading from the Apocalypse, one thing that is clear for me is that heaven, Eternal Life with the Lord, is not going to be anything like my life today. Get up, stagger about, come downstairs make tea and start the computer to read the mass readings for today. A very ordinary, humdrum life at a dismal time of the year. However, in all honesty I can say that I am happy to be human and to know that I and millions like me are known in our insignificance to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who knows us all down to every hair on our heads.

St John who is known to be Jesus' favourite disciple is also known as the Theologian for his writings help us to know God not only by his deeds in Palestine, but also to gain insight into the awesomeness of his  being. Jesus is the Word that is with God, the Creator. (John is the guardian of Mary whose body became the source of his humanity). The Spirit is the Unity in Love that keeps us living in hope . Our Church although founded on Peter has to be also seen as beginning in the silent love of Mary, she pondered these things in her heart, as she stood with the other Marys and John at the foot of the Cross.

This has got to be my hope for I cannot see how the "thou art Peter" can get back to the purity of its foundation. At least in the west, it is bogged down by solving two-fold problems that cannot be avoided by any one of us. The wealth of centuries has created within the church of Peter a mindset where dealing with the economic World takes precedence over the "cure of souls" that is its foundation "feed my sheep". Only Faith as lived by St Francis will save our Church now in the hands of Pope Francis. The other problem shared by the Church with all peoples is an acceptance of the fudged by society, morality involved in sexual sin. Many of our priests deal with the very few confessions they hear by condoning rather than condemning sin that the penitent knows in his heart to be an affront to God.

Dear Lord let me still live on in your grace in the hope that even without the Institution there is Church in the Holy Spirit that begot Jesus and in the sinless love that is The Mother who is the only bodily human being with you other than her son Jesus. Let my soul be part of that Church in the faithful hope I will one day be able to glimpse your Glory and so become part of eternity. May Mary continue in her prayers and let the grace she implores drive out the sinfulness that so harms your Church and your world.