29/11/2023

Jesus today gives warning to his disciples that they are going to face great difficulties in their lives as their commitment to Father, Son and Holy Spirit will force them to live lives in public opposition to the World. They will be attacked by their closest friends and families, by the religious authorities and by the state. 

There is no need for them to prepare "press handouts" nor have PR consultants, for, when they face public ordeals the Holy Spirit will give them inspiration to speak the truth that comes from God. They must not be afraid for God will not let them be reduced to Belshazzar's knee trembling panic as narrated in this morning's episode from the Book of Daniel and unfortunately repeated in our own lifetimes by witnesses appearing before the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in London.

The writers of "Daniel"are not recording an eye witness account. The hand was not greeted by a thousand mobiles recording videos of what they were seeing. They are writing an account of what was for them the Glory of God acting in human time to shape what they knew as the historical events of hundreds' of years previous to them.

The texts of our New Testament were not finalized as historical documents until the fourth century but they are historical documents recording the words and deeds of Jesus remembered and preached first in Galilee  then in Jerusalem and finally to the whole world,.

The Evangelists were either eye-witnesses or knew them personally. Peter and James' first Church began the interpretation of their experiences with Jesus. Paul had been blinded by the Resurrection and proclaimed the objective reality of that event built on the Faith he had in IAMIAM, a Faith which was becoming aware of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Today 29/11/2023 I am praying that I can pray in Faith Hope and Charity with an integrity that is trust in Creation, in Truth and in Loving Inspiration.

Dear Lord you have left us in your Creation which is becoming a more and more an overpowering World  devoted to the Mammon of materialism. Help us by Grace to remember that "the writing on the wall" has returned to dust long ago but your Word still stands and that the Grace won on Calvary is forever available directly from you and by the intervention of your mother and all the saints. May my prayers become with theirs the "faith that can move mountains" and let them together shower the world with the rose petals that brought relief to St Therese in the pains of her death. Amen