09/01/2024

More than two and a half thousand years have passed since Hannah's prayers were answered. Millions of us have lived and died since then. It could be possible that today there are more of us still living than have already lived and died. Whatever the truth of those numbers, we can be sure that God knows everything about each one of us. He knows and His Holy Spirit unifies us as his beloved children and He still teaches us His ways.

Many of us try to respond to the Glory of God. We try to see his face. I am sometimes captivated by the books of Theologians who have been gifted with intellects capable of holding their prayerful thoughts  about God and expressing them clearly in words that can be understood by anybody. At other times I contrast the words that they are writing about God with the actions of the Church of their life-times.

There is certainly a mismatch between the prayers and teaching of the Church Fathers of  Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria and the structures and deeds that developed to become the Orthodox Church led from Constantinople. At the time St Thomas Aquinas was praying, teaching and writing, the Catholic Church was instigating the mass slaughter of "heretics" in France and in Italy.

There is a huge contrast between the sincerity of modern theologians and the Church of our times. It is impossible to read Ratzinger or Balthasar without being touched by their love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Church. My own life has overlapped theirs. 

I grew up in a religious family for whom nothing was more important than going to mass. I retained that love for the faith throughout even the most sinful periods of my life. By the grace of God I was called back to the Church but soon found that the institution was crumbling away. 

Since the time that the Authority, heard in the voice and presence of Jesus of Nazareth in the Synagogue at Capernaum, was institutionalised into a Kingdom of this World, the faith of believers has been undermined by those who have been called to be "Good Shepherds".

 Herod's slaughter of the Innocents has been continued throughout the ages by Christians who have been misled into the World that is, with the Devil and the Flesh the sworn enemy of humanity and thus turned its back on Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our Father is not at all responsible for the misuse of freedom that is the sinful human pride that has brought this about. It is only mankind that brings sin into our lives. Jesus has won the battle for us, but we have to say "Yes"  to his Victory by Loving, Honouring and Obeying the Word that Is Life and Love.

Dear Lord, Let me be one with  Hannah and the slaughtered "poor ones" who suffered unjustly during their lives on Earth. The sinless authority of Jesus has been clouded by the many failures of the men who were tasked by you with building up your body on earth. Let the Holy Spirit overcome the egotistical bullying that characterizes many clergy. Let me become part of the unseen body that is your presence on earth and is in communion with and supported by Mary and the Saints in Heaven where can be found only holy joy, unclouded by regrets.