11/11/2023

The first reading of today's mass commemorating St Martin de Tours reminds me that I know so little of the Scriptures and am prone to mistakes out of my ignorance. I was very quick, yesterday to pick up on St Paul for not being willing to preach to those who had been converted by other than himself. I did not realise then that this letter was to the congregation in Rome that had been already founded by Peter.

We have to try to grasp the whole meaning of all the Scriptures if we are going to live according to God's revelation. If we took only the "hard sayings" of Jesus as the basis for our lives we would become not other Christs but loveless caricatures of the mankind created by God to do his will on Earth by knowing, loving and serving.

Jesus reminds me that I have not always been "faithful in little things". I have pilfered much from the things that were not mine and discounted that dishonesty by "never mind, everybody does that". There is so much shame in a life lived not true to God.

It is knowledge of my personal shame that makes it so hard for me to accept the Church's teaching that the Priest's role in confecting the Eucharist has to be that of "doing the deed" alone. Jesus did not cast out devils by using the power of Satan. He was there on the Cross as a totally human but personally sinless body carrying for us sinners the totality of the pain created by our sinfulness. Only God could do this but became man to do so.

We, however, are the  mystical body of Christ on Earth. There can be no hope of heaven without recognising Christ the head of this body as our Saviour. Did Jesus make promises to the Apostles as functionaries of an Institution or to us through them as individual souls united in the Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

Dear Lord I am ashamed of all my sins and pray for the mercy that is the only way for them to be forgiven. I hope that my devotion to you brings me into the fold that includes Mary and all the saints of heaven and sinners on Earth and in Purgatory, sheep and goats. St Martin shows that looking after our brothers and sisters is the way we can do the deeds of Love for which you are the supreme example. Forgive me my sins and let the mass killings that is war be ended . Please do it for us as we are as much failures in doing your will on Earth today as were the Jews at the time of your Incarnation.