18/11/2021

Jesus weeping over Jerusalem has become a random thoughtless semi-blasphemy in my country. Similar to the now used abbreviation OMG it is only a noise that comes out of a mouth or flashes on a screen to express great surprise. I try to give more value to words and always seek to find meaning. God's Word is Jesus and all that the creation and the incarnation gives to us. "And the word was made flesh and dwells among us". Jesus the Word is totally God and so knows eternity. Jesus the man is like us impressed by the world and the works of man; so his knowledge of everything includes our futures which are not predetermined for they result from our use of our freedom. 

Our future that Jesus sees does not happen because the The Father, Son and Holy Spirit will it to but it will be as the billions and billions of choices made by us interact with each other and creation. The only predetermined act is the attonement made on our behalf by God and of course we cannot really understand that God knowingly became human so that he would die not just an ordinary death but ignominiously, tortured on a cross.

God has willed that this creation will pass away and that we are able to see his Glory. All of this is known by God who as the Almighty shares his Being of  Father, Son and Holy Spirit out of love for us and his world. We have to know him, love and serve him in time-driven now so that we will be welcomed into the eternal Now; the All in All.

Dear Lord, help me to understand to the limits of my abilities the meaning of so much that is difficult in scripture and in your Church. Let my soul be what you intend it to be and let my will recognise how to be true to your Love.

 17/11/2021

The story of the Maccabees' resistance to the attempted Helenisation of  King Antiochus continues in today's reading. We too have to resist the apparantly systematic destruction of all things Christian by our Liberal/Libertine society. We are humans created man and woman. Our sexes are part of God's creation but the vanity of science has filled our minds to such an extent that there is an assumption that because we understand how something works we can do what we want with it. Many of us are brilliant and capable of sending men to the moon; messages can be sent around the world and back in the twinkling of an eye. Great buildings are built in cities and surging rivers tamed. All is done in God's Creation for there is nothing that is done in this world that is not done without the  material which God created.

The Law of the Lord is far more important than the manipulation of matter. Jesus knows that we are part of human society which has developed out of his creation. He knows that even as we walk with him especially, towards Jerusalem, thoughts of prestige and power begin to take over our minds. So he tells the story/parable of the talents.The message seems to be that  punishment will come to us if we do not make good use of what we have in this world and total destruction will be the reward of enemies of the king. But I have never ever been comfortable with this parable and still it is so today. A quick glance at Wikipedia shows me that I am not really alone in the difficulties to be found in this parable even Milton has his own slant which seems to have in it some sort of contradiction "They also serve who only stand and wait" to the servant who made nothing of his talent.

Dear 

 16/11/2021

The resilience to brute force showed by Eleazar is somethig that I do not to have to try to emulate. Not only was it brute force that he resisted but there was also the mental pressure of his contempories who had chosen to obey although they had tried to disguise their apostasy in the way out that they suggested to him.

We have been told that when we are persecuted for Christ's sake the words to defend ourselves will be given to us; and so it was with Eleazar whose elequence inspired the remnant who revolted against the edicts of the King. There are places in the world where Christians are subjected to legal pressure and persecution. We  have to have questions about the treatment of our Church in China where something is not quite right about the Vatican's diplomatic efforts.

The man in the sycamore tree is an easily remembered image but do we always remember the social pressure that was put upon Jesus as a result of accepting an invitation to eat at the house of a sinner. All organised religion has its human social conventions but in the Israel of Jesus' day not only were there strict dietary laws but the law restricted whom you could eat with. Those dietary laws abolished by our Saviour still exist in Islam and Judaism.

The social pressure that Jesus was always under is as nothing to the torture he was to undergo on Calvary. All of us who feel socially isolated because  of our beliefs must take heart from Jesus' words when he tells us "that he comes to seek out and save what was lost". We must also pray that what we believe about our isolation is truly the Word of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and that we are also known to the Mother of God and all the saints in Eternity.

Dear Lord the Communion of the Saints is the Holy Spirit feeding us with the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May my soul always be open to that Love and may I learn to also share it with all peoples on earth. May your Holy Mother and Saints reach out to support those who are in desperate straits.

 15/11/2021

The persecution of people because they believe what they have is the truth has been part of human society since we started to have an understanding of what it is to be human. This understanding of human nature has grown as has the number of people in the world for each of us although sharing a common nature/being are obviously different from our mothers and the millions of individuals who make up the rest of humanity. God in the Old Testament treated Israel as a Person . The community was well-loved as a favoured son and there was for his people a common justification. In his revelation God chose prophets to speak for him revealing his pleasure or dissatisfaction.

Jesus is the Incarnation, not too long after the apostacy relived in Maccabees, of the Word, the Eternal Being, walking as an individual man and speaking to his listeners one to one. Those men, women and children, sinners, mockers blasphemers and listeners too saw and heard God not as a beloved people but as a beloved person.

We all have a conscience and the ability to know right from wrong. Jesus leads us all out of blind sinfulness and reveals to each of us  the light of his truth. His Church founded on Peter has so many, dead and alive, of us in it that, using our human freedom, there appears to be many ways truth and light. But the truth is always in us guided by the Carpenter of Nazareth. We must not excuse ouselves.We must not sin. We must not allow the potential for sin to refuse the Word of God, lead us into the stupidity of any sin for sin is not only evil but also the way to Total Death where the totality of being is to weep and gnash our teeth.

Dear Lord, let me be aware of your Mercy as I live through this day. Guide me through the morass that holds me back and let the Glory of your Being, Father Son and holy Spirit lead me to everlasting life.

 14/11/2021

Jesus tells us that the endtimes will be revealed by certain signs and that "this generation will not have passed away" before he will have returned. Of course this was a great problem to the Apostles and first converts who had accepted Jesus', the Resurrection, with an urgency begotten by fear of an imminent end. 

Today we have two thousand years to look back on and we too are waiting of the Parousia. We are and have been Jesu's "this generation"for a long earthly time but, of course, God's Eternity has no such thing as time and the Infinite Intelligence contains all knowledge including knowledge of me. He has created me to have a purpose in this world. He has a purpose for creation. He has a mission for each and every one of us.

He has not left us alone and brought out of humanity qualities that reflect on his greatness and power. If creatures can build on from his creation in such a spectacular way what must be the infinite possibilities for our God who has humbled himself in atonement for our sins to the extent of accepting on the cross the annihilation that is death?

Our mission is to bear witness to God's Being by accepting his revelations and acknowledging our sins which still continue despite the gruesome sacrifice of Calvary. Our mission is to build up the mystical being that is Christ's body on Earth so that in it we may find the holiness that is available for us, in our created freedom. The Sacrifice of Calvary is repeated in a human version of eternity here on earth and in the Eternal Presence it is always there.God send us holy priests.!

We are still the first generation . Maranatha

Dear Lord you know that I am still struggling with myself over the Church which seems to have lost sight of your promise to be with her always even to the end of time. Help us all to to find in her the Love shown to us by your mother and the few who did not desert you both in the garden and on Calvary.

 13/11/2021

Today's Gospel gives us an enigmatic text that is surely aimed at all who have followed but not seen. It tells us that the  Lord knows we have had a long wait; that we must not lose faith and he will undoubtedly  return to earth, into human time; his feet on the earth yet reaching to the skies. Our Lord will then be looking for faith.

The answer to the engima is with us. Our human lives must be modelled on his and that before all we must put  God by whom we have all been created out of nothing for the dust to which we shall all return was not anything before the Word was spoken.

The people of God have been saved from the power of Pharoah and the materialism that worshipped idols of wood and stone. But that worship of idols has not been eradicated. Our Church's concern for its reputation and its wealth and its ignoring of the pain of clerical sin, which is felt by us all, has put the human structure of Christ's Body on earth before God. Where is the Faith in that?

Dear Lord, my prayer is, as always, that I may truthfully know love and serve you and that these moments of prayerful concentration stay with me throughout this day and that your loving care be with me and my family and all of your people.

 12/11/2021

The Gospels and the preaching of Paul are obviously inspired by the one whose words are recorded in John. Although the first Christians were filled with an anticipation for the imminent return of the Lord, Jesus himself speaks to us believers of the much later times and he asks us to think of this.

 The Father and He are One. It has been God's purpose for all eternity that we his people should witness the unity of God and take on that unity of purpose to be together. Together but still persons who individually have been called by God to not only follow the Way, the Truth and the Light but also to return our own gifts of talents with interest.

I have to ask myself how do I measure up. St Paul always knows that he is doing the Lord's will so following his example I have to say that I do try; but could it be a lot more? All of us are the objects of Our Lord's prayer to our Father "may they be one". We are all called to know the Love that comes from God; it is the Holy  Spirit working within us at all times and we need to repeat that Love first to Father, Son and Holy Spirit and then to our neighbours and ourselves

The body in which we are to find the unity that we all long for is now the Church, which although it is mishmash of egos each of whom has a different vision, is unified by the one Sacrament that should be protected and exhalted by the priesthood, which has the privilege and sacred duty of guiding us along the right paths to the wholeness with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is holiness.

Dear Lord you know that sometimes I feel the joy of pondering your law but to maintain that delight I need the unity of your Church with the oneness of your Mother and Saints who have  maturity with the fullness of Christ.