13/10/2023

On this feast day of St Edward the Confessor it could be said that the way in which we live out our lives today does not bear witness to God. 

The entrance Antiphon could be interpreted as saying that it is impossible to be alive without doing the will of God. This is not true for in life there is always sin created by the misuse of the freedom within us. 

The grand arrogance and cynical violence in the service of Mammon displayed at this moment  by the successors to the chosen ones of God and their opponents in Palestine is an obvious denial of "Within your will, O Lord, all things are established and there is none who can resist your will".

We are all confronted with the problem of evil when we become victims of violence, natural or man-made. Why me? Why does God allow floods, earthquakes and the man-made violence of war to litter this world with the dead and dying?

Jesus teaches us that the "Golden Rule" is the only way to live the Holy Life, the way to the eternal moment of heaven that his life and resurrection reveal to us. The sages of the Old Testament knew this but their religion became too wrapped up in its own accoutrements and became not the Word of God but some "man-made thing".

The Apostles had ample warning from Jesus that the Kingdom was not of this world, but very soon the Popes and Patriarchs were acting in the image of Caesar. Today the Church celebrates the holiness of the last Saxon King of England. His life was holy. He lived to serve God even though he was a King.

The rulers of the Church, contemporary with Edward, were so corrupt in Rome that the name Pornocracy has been coined to describe the baseness to which the successors of St Peter had fallen. This disgrace was not achieved by fulfilling the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit but by the free perversity of mankind. We can all stop it by living without being corrupted or corrupting by individual sin which is the source of all evil. We and the angels are the only ones of God's creation who can sin.

"Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from our own created evil." Amen

Dear Lord,  Help us to alleviate the suffering that seems to be inevitable for all the Arab nations. I am sorry for forgetting that you know the truth and integrity of every individual soul. Let me pray only for myself to be able to accept the grace that is offered by you "Our Father" and to everyone as the individuals you know each one of us to be.