21/07/2021

The record of God's support for the Sons of Israel continues. The people are pretty well fed up that they have come this far to have to face the deprivation of hunger. The writer feels that this is a deliberate testing of them prepared by God. God certainly answers them and the phrase "Bread of Haven" makes its appearance into our Christian vocabulary. 

Angels don't eat as they dwell always as they were created  to be  themselves in the presence of the Lord; they share in the totality of being that is God.

 God saves his people Israel. God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, knows each person and offers us freedom of choice to accept or reject his support  in this life. Jesus speaks to us in parables and some he explains and some he leaves it up to us to interpret. 

Each of us is  the ground where the seed is sown. We are sometimes like the well trodden path and let the "birds" take the seed. Sometimes we are the rocks and our lack of substance cannot support growth; sometimes the thorns choke our God-centred growth What we all have is the deep soil of being that was created in God's image and likeness . God help me to find that deep soil and to cultivate it well so that the seed can grow and proliferate.

Dear Lord let me grow in your Love; sustain me in my Faith and let my Hope for a regrowth of holiness in your Church be realised.

 20/07/2021

I believe the teaching of the Church based on her promised, by Jesus, infallibility . Credo. Moses believes in the "I am" that issued from the bush on Horeb. So do I.. His encounter is recorded in scriptures approved by the Church . The Bearer of God was kept pure by the Holy Spirit even though God having completely emptied himself grew as a normal  human embryo in the womb of his Mother.. Moses who was borne up by God stretched out his arms and the natural forces in the Cloud and Fire controlled the waters of the Sea. 

Moses is at the beginning of the Law and Jesus is  its completion. God's revelation of himself is here with us now.. Here and now!  Humanity has forever grown in strength and capability but God is always the same voice in the fiery bush the same strength to control the natural forces of our world. God is always the Ever Greater. Those who receive Jesus' personal revelation of himself as God and as Man are his family in this "here and now" and will be welcomed by him when their they have completed their allotted span.

Each of us is known and loved by the Father. The Son emptied himself  and joined us in human form to atone for the sins that I choose.  The Holy Spirit is our source of the fire of God's Love. The Church is the guardian of all that has been revealed.  As for me? I  must keep faith  and live the Way, the Life and the Truth as God intended for me; for I too am the recipient of God's Ever Greater abundance.

Dear Lord protect me this day from all sins and let me grew more and more aware of your presence in this "here and now".

 The parting of the Red Sea is an image that is part of our cultural heritage. It is not a Christian event; it is centuries before John the Baptist and it is very much an Old Testament event which shows how much God in his freedom, favours the Sons of Israel . What a panic must the Egyptian charioteers, Pharaoh's special forces,  have felt at the command to follow the Israelites into the sea bed exposed at that moment but soon to swamp and wipe them out. Our Old Testament is a Jewish text and battles won are always reported by the victors. "We won !! It is obvious that God was on our side. We won!!" Today's psalm is a masterpiece of triumphalism; it is hard not to be affected by its capturing of the victor's emotions.

We are Christians and have to find a way to accept that the Old Testament is also God's Word.; the Word that walked the world of the Old Testament but showed us the new life of the Resurrection . The Old Testament is very much alive in the men Jesus encounters with his teaching. The men that Jesus instructs to turn the other cheek are the same to whom God is real because of  his destruction of their enemies. Jesus has to keep repeating that his "Kingdom is not of this world" precisely because no other sort than a kingly Messiah had been awaited for centuries. What could be meant by the "Sign of Jonah". Jesus explains but until it happens no-one can understand.

Dear Lord let my faith in You remain at the forefront of my consciousness as I set about my daily tasks. Show me the way to overcome any temptation.

 18/07/2020

Jesus teaches that if a brother is at fault we must point it out to him. Ignoring sin only builds up Satan and allows our brother to continue to follow the "primrose path". Jesus also teaches that before we confront a brother with his sin we must be sure that we "take the plank out". Today many priests will be reading the same readings at mass. Given the state of Christ's Church in these Isles one cannot but wonder what they think these scriptures mean to them. 

Each of us can judge himself by the standards set out for us by the "Good Shepherd". And his standards are the Father's and ours too by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls us to holiness; a holiness that guided by the Holy Spirit is the same as His and the Father's.

There is hope for us in the Church as Jesus is more aware than we are of the failings of the institution he founded on Peter. Our hope is in the promise of Christ. "I will be with you always even to the end of time" We do not need anything more than this as no matter how weak the tenants of the sheepfold are, the owner loves and supports each one of us sheep.

Dear Lord may I this day put all my trust in you and in the prayers of Our Lady and of all the saints aware that the institution is faltering but the Word is standing for ever.

 17/07//2021

The Israelites, descendants of Abraham , were not the only ones to leave Egypt in the Exodus. We are not told anything about them. They are grouped together  as peoples of "various sorts" .and could be the source of the backsliding and "golden calf" that greeted Moses when he descended from his encounter with the revelation of the Lord. "The chosen people" have many instances of backsliding recorded against them without the assistance of foreigners. The owner of the vineyard  sends many messengers to his tenants and they refuse them all with violence even to the extent of the Crucifixion of the Son 

Today's psalm is a beautiful praising of the Lord and of all his deeds. It also contains "The first-born of the Egyptians he smote" followed by the response. "His love is everlasting". Again we are faced with one of life's realities God cares for us but pain happens. Everlasting Love is more than a counterpoint to the pain of this world. This world is a temporary place it is not the Truth of  the  Kingdom of eternal Life  to which The Son shows us the Way.

Matthew quotes Isaiah. The disciples and Jesus were descendants of the Exodus and the the first church is a development of the synagogue and included Temple worship, the ritual slaughter of animals as offerings to God. They even met in the the Portico of Solomon. We must accept that everything in the Old Testament results in John the Baptist and that that break with the past was not instantly realised with the Resurrection.

Dear Lord I do not always understand the workings of your providence.  Let me accept the promptings of Your Holy Spirit so that the Way the truth and the  Life become intrinsic to my being.

 16/07/2021

Today Moses and Aaron are rejected by Pharaoh and then receive instructions from the Lord . Again we are faced with a quandary as the Lord is very explicit that he will destroy the heirs to the power of the Egyptians. The favouritism shown to the descendants of Noah and Abraham always has its reverse side in the treatment of the nations.. Today hundreds have been swept away by floods in Northern Europe. Always throughout history death has occurred  randomly and we cannot understand the workings of divine  Providence. We know that  God does not wish harm for any Human. We know that he is free to work his Providence how he will. We are free to question and deny or pray for acceptance of the divine will. 

Jesus  ( God's eternal mercy ) walking through a corn field is brought to task for not reprimanding his followers for breaking  the Sabbath. The scruples of the Pharisees are shown up for what they are. Jesus does not tolerate this nonsense and he points out that David in the past and the priests in the present continue to break the rules of the Sabbath. The spirit of the law is what God requires of us not tithes of mint.

We do have a problem with accepting the Providence of God. our riches and comfort are always most welcome, but pain too and illness are equally parts of the life we have received as human beings. We can be sure that the salvation known from all eternity is far greater than any suffering we know or witness in our present life. 

What were the Pharisees doing walking with Jesus on the Sabbath?

Dear Lord I need your support in everything that I try to do. Let me live as if each day were my last.

 15/07/2021

The record of God's intervention into the history of his People Israel continues with Moses' being instructed about what he must do as a vehicle for God's Providence. We must not do a "pick and mix" with the Bible for it is a divinely inspired record of God's revelation of himself. It tells us that God is pure "Being" and we must know that God gifts of this Being and that we are because of the Will of God and we are his Humans but God is still "ever-greater" no matter who goes to the edge of space and returns alive. Moses is filled with the Holy Spirit and the Word of the Father and although the message for the Egyptians is severe, it is God's Will that Moses must deliver.

Today Jesus does offer peace to his followers in contrast to the pain to be delivered to the Egyptians if they do not comply with the message delivered by Moses. Sometimes the words of scripture do become a "heavy burden" for our humanity to bear. Nothing in our relationship with God is made easy. We must cooperate with all our being and avoid the nonsense that the World offers us about the essence of our being; "male and female" he created us. Humanity is a wonderful thing but only if it continues as St Bonaventure did to give the Glory to God.

Dear Lord you know how I am and that I desire to do your Will. Help me to be more aware of your Holiness as I go about my tasks this day. Let me see your Glory even in the garden pests I must do battle with today.