07/08/2021

This first commandment from Moses  is the daily first thought of all his devout followers. The sign of the cross marks all devout Christians. The operative word in these two sentences, of course, is "devout". "Piety" is not an important part of the life of our times; yet knowing, loving and serving are the only reason for our existence.

It seems to many that God shouldn't be the way that he is and immediately try to interpret what we all experience in the vastness of our "being". We can be sure that we have a freedom to know or not to know God; a freedom to love or not love God; a freedom to serve or not to serve. We don't have a freedom "to be or not to be". Nobody knows what will be  the "bodkin" way's result  but Hamlet's stark choice between the experienced life and the unknown death is what we all have to face. Life is what we all have in the Now of today.

God's revelations of the immeasurable extent of his own freedom saved the Sons of Israel from the oppression of Egyptian man-made gods. His love for his creation touches human history in the Incarnation. The horror of the Crucifixion teaches that Sin can be overcome; the Resurrection is the perfection of Human Being within the totality of God; the Ascension is the way to heaven. 

Many say that this is not the "way" of a "Supreme Being" and use human thoughts to justify themselves. Even devout Christians are inclined to brush off inconveniences. "How can a birth be asexual? Can Mary become a mother and remain a Virgin? The scriptures and the Church are with us to support our Piety they show us the road to holiness and holiness is Eternal Life.

Dear Lord, this is another day for me to "listen". You are one God a Trinity of Persons and I a minuscule of sin and impiety ask your forgiveness for all my sins.

 06/08/2021

Daniel's vision of God is not easy to recreate in my mind. I am not seeing anything directly but words that cannot possibly do justice to Divine Glory. If the seer had seen the Lord's Heaven directly he would not have been able to take in so much detail. I am seeing the world now but the reality is that I cannot see anything that is not before me; my desktop, my keyboard my printer. Films show us magnificent panoramas but they only fit into our minds. Can I hope that when I die  I will see the whole of heaven? Is the reality of God small enough to be  present in my mind? 

On Mount Tabor Peter, James and John were able to see the glorious beauty that is God. They also saw two men whom they knew to be Elijah and Moses. What they saw was not a vision in the their minds but a true revelation of Jesus the Son of God. The other two figures identified as Elijah and Moses are part of God's mystery still present in his revelation. The only humans we can be sure that are present in their human form in heaven are Jesus and his mother with Elijah. Moses tomb is present with us and thus the knowledge that his flesh has turned to dust. Abraham welcomed three figures under the oak at Mamre. 

The Trinity that is God was not known to the first apostles. How were they sure that the figures were Moses and Elijah.? There were three of them.

Dear Lord, you are the Truth, the Beauty and the Good which are made known to us through the scriptural record of your revelation, may I this day seek to follow your teachings and aim for Holiness of Faith Hope and Charity that can bring me closer to you.

 05/08/2021

Today the Church commemorates the great basilica dedicated to Our Lady. It is a magnificent work of human hands; awe-inspiring in its grandeur. It is as nothing compared to the new Jerusalem seen iin St John's vision. These great churches in Rome are a direct contact with the Roman Empire where Jesus walked and St Paul claimed its privileges. They were not standing at that time but the Buildings of the Roman Empire have been used as quarries by all subsequent generations.

The building is still to be seen but the Feast of the Church is about the Mother of God. She was chosen before the beginning of time to be the Carrier of God in the incarnation of the Son. It is through her that we are shown the mystery of the Trinity which is not some "human thinking", it is what God wants us to know about himself and to contemplate. 

The veneration of Mary is misunderstood by many theologians. How can we forget the "womb that bore the embryo which is the unimaginable humility of our God" and the body which was the source of nourishment for our spiritual food,  his flesh and blood? Peter is the foundation stone of the Church but Mary is the Chosen Source not only of the humanity of the Son but also of our Church. "Be it done to me according thy Word" can equally be seen as the acceptance, at the foot of the cross, via St John  of the Motherhood of humanity bestowed on her through the power of the Holy Spirit by her Son who was face to face with death.

Dear Lord I know that your mother Mary is able to plead for me with you in heaven; please accept my prayers and hers as I  start this day.

 04/08/2021

I can never remember thinking about the "land flowing with milk and honey" without being upset by the fate of the occupiers who had to be evicted to make way for the Chosen People. The modern reoccupation of the land  by their "descendants" doesn't make sense to me either. Any History records what happened and if it did really happen it must be accounted as evidence of God's providence. The atheistic State of Israel seems to be a refutation of God's will and lives a life no different from the rest of the world. 

The Will of God throughout historical time is not to be found in the kingdoms of the world or in the stored wealth to be used by future generations. God's will is in the "sparrow" who is not noticed by the world  but looks for the Kingdom of God. The poor man who does not seek "success" but who is a "Human Soul" seeking not scraps but the full nourishment that comes from doing the will of the Father and accepting the true "Bread of Heaven".

God's "History" is his loving  knowledge of the least of us and of our deeds, all of which are ever present in the timeless reality that is God.

Dear Lord, again I start the day with considering your  words of  scripture; let my thoughts prove to be sincere and let me always recognise the danger of hypocrisy.

 Moses is different. Others receive the messages of God and are granted visions. They receive "riddles" but Moses sees the "form of God". Do we have any real idea of what this can mean? As usual when thinking about the mass readings I come face to face with a total unknowing and this is today's. I can understand Aaron and Miriam's jealousy. Their "Why him and why not me?" is a pretty familiar feeling for me especially about graces. But God's gifts are exactly what they are said to be. I am lacking in my knowledge of the Old Testament so I hope that we are to hear God's response to Moses' plea for mercy for his sister. All this happened such a long time ago and so many people have lived and died in this world but God still is and everything is a "now "for him.

Jesus is still living in Palestine and is walking on the Lake. So many wonders are to be performed before his arrest and trial that it is hard to believe that anybody could shout for his Crucifixion but we did. And we continue in our sinful ways. I am alone and so speak for myself in my banality. God knows me and he knows that I am a sinner who as a created free ego to Eternal Being ; face to face implore that a share in the grace of the Holy Spirit eternally present with the Father and the Son be truly accepted by me and all others to whom it is so freely offered.  

Dear Lord let me do better this day than I did yesterday and let my penitence be as acceptable as the pleadings of Moses.                  

 02/08/2021

At first I  thought that Moses was addressing the Lord as a father is addressed by a supplicant child, But no- he is a favoured servant; one who knows that the boss is willing to be, just a bit, bullied into doing what he was certain to do all along. This relationship between God and the Sons of Israel is that of the eternal God touching his creation and showing that he has not just wound up his clockwork universe and let it go on its own. We are the product of Love; we are free to move as we wish but God is always aware of us ( that is why we continue to be) and continues to reveal his purpose to us. But we have to respond. 

Jesus, who is God's eternal presence now with us but is also truly man, had a human reaction to the news of his cousin's death and preferred to be alone. But the peoples' joy at being with such a striking figure ( possibly a new prophet) was not to be denied and they followed along the shoreline and cornered him. He had pity on them and repeated the Father's care for his chosen people. He fed them not with quail and manna but with an everlasting 5 loaves and 2 fish and in so doing gave a hint of his whole purpose of being there with them as he is with us now in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

Dear Lord forgive me my sins and let me not put off going to confession and so return to your sacraments which you create with so much suffering.

Today's passage from Exodus was used only a few weeks ago. God fed the Sons of Israel in the desert and this is interpreted as a test of their resolve to follow the laws given to Moses; to support the Covenant. 

St Paul speaks directly to the point. He knows that the newly converted are not going to change overnight. They have followed the way of life of their fathers; the culture of Hellenism is part of their being although the Jews among them had followed the Law given to Moses. What a mixture of peoples there  must have been in Ephesus; not only of peoples but also of religions and philosophy.

 The beginnings of the Church there was indeed a "mustard seed". A mustard seed deeply resented by the religious professionals to be found there. Today St Paul would recognise the same Pagan Way of Life as the dominant aimless culture of most of the peoples of all our world and not just of the megacities which have replaced those of the Roman world that he knew and travelled on his missionary journeys.

St John, our Theologian, has Jesus, probably the only true realist the world has seen, first he tells  the crowd the direct truth about themselves; then he tells the truth about  himself . He is the very being of God. Nothing more  is necessary in our lives than to recognise Jesus for what he is and to share in this "isness". Thus we will be able to live lives ordered to the "the Way the Truth and the Life" and eventually see and be overcome by the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.