14/01/2023

So much of what I have understood of Church teaching during my life until 2023 was very quickly established in the very first years of the Apostles' acceptance of Jesus' command to "go out to the whole world and spread the Good News". The Apostles did not sit at home pondering and recording. 

They did of course ponder. How could they do otherwise having lived with the Son of God and witnessed the greatest event in history? They had listened to the "Word" and had been called to become the double-edged sword of the first century, the laser-beam of our more technically advanced twenty-first, to teach the whole world how to separate our souls from the attractions of physical being so that hearing the Word that is Jesus we might do the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The idea of priesthood is under a lot of pressure these days. I don't know of any instances of priestly failure recorded in the Acts of the Apostles but of course, in the Gospels we already have the squabbling behind Jesus' back of the very human disciples seeking rank and favour, of mothers seeking to influence the careers of their sons, misunderstanding, "Get thee behind me Satan" and downright denial by Peter. Judas was present in the upper room and received the command "Do this in memory of me" he had partaken of the first Eucharist and been chosen in the same way as the others.

There are many sincere readers of the Scriptures who deny that Jesus had the intention of forming a priesthood and a Church to safeguard his Eucharistic Body. They are sincere but wrong. We have to face the real problem of corrupt clergy by the transparency of the broken naked body of  God suffering in and for our humanity on the cross and by remembering that "It is not the healthy that need a doctor". "Where two or three are gathered in my Name, there am I in their midst."

Dear Lord all your creation is known to you. I am a grievous sinner who knows that your forgiveness is part of the way the truth and the life and knowing this say the right words but am unsure in my heart that I am knowing, loving and serving with  every breath of my being. Your Mother Mary is the only perfect human in whose being there is no trace of sin. May she with all the saints pray that we all may come to the holiness that is honest "the fear of the Lord".

 13/01/2023

The Rabbi who is writing the Letter to the Hebrews is still devoted to the Father who lead his people out of slavery in Egypt. The Old Testament is still his Scripture and he seems to know it like the back of his hand. He has also seen the risen Lord and knows that God's revelation is available to all although he is writing to a Church that is composed of the descendants of the Israelites, whom he is using as examples of God working through humanity. 

For the Israelites God's "place of rest" was the reality of Judah, Israel, Samaria the Roman province of Palestine. The Old Testament which has not seen the Resurrection is vague about our beings after death. Sheol is a shadowy place which contains both the "Bosom of Abraham" and the pain of the Dives, the rich man. For St Paul "the place of rest" comes about through Faith and should be the main object throughout our lives.

Jesus too emphasises Faith as the greatest virtue that we need to have if we are to be cured. In the first place, we have to know that no matter how heavily they weigh on our consciences and how evil we know them to be, our sins can be forgiven. Jesus is God and in oneness  with Father and Holy Spirit he is Evergreater than we can possibly imagine. Here he is a living man watching the stretcher being lowered through the roof of the house in Capernaum.( I wonder what the householder felt about the damage to his property). He has been truly dead as are all of our ancestors and he is still living as the first -born of our new humanity as Head of the Church.

The Greatness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is our place of rest. We cannot imagine or visualise this Greatness now but it is the reality that is promised to all humanity if we have faith in our hearts and righteousness as our goal in living.

Dear Lord let me be true to you as were your mother and your first friends who, although humans the same as we are, by witnessing your life and pondering your words came to believe in the promise made originally to their forebears. May Mary and all the saints worshiping  you in Eternity implore guidance for all your Church and forgiveness  for all of the souls who are misusing our freedom on Earth or atoning for that in Purgatory

 12/01/2022

The leper was cured by Jesus who is always ready, "Of course I want to ", to respond to our cries for help. We all of us know of personal instances when this does not seem to happen and in the Gospel there were many who were not cured as Jesus was not there for them "Jesus stayed in places where nobody lived". 

In the Epistle we read of  how God appeared to be in much of the Old Testament, angry and to be feared. Moses who had seen the very being of the "Existing Nameless one" was even kept out of the homeland which was entered by the children of the backsliders and moaners he had guided through the desert and kept  from their sin.

St Paul to whom the Letter to the Hebrews is usually attributed, was typical of the first Christians in that he was a Jew who had been dragged out of the womb of the "Chosen People", kicking and screaming into the reality of the Resurrection. He had been reborn and knew that the revelation on the road to Damascus was the truth that he must preach to all the nations and which we all must never abandon."Keep encouraging one another " for we will be with Father, Son and Holy Spirit "only if we keep "our first confidence to the end".

I still don't understand why Jesus seemed to hide from those seeking a cure. There is much in God's revelation of his will for me and for all of mankind that I cannot understand. I can only bow my head and say "Thy will be done".

Dear Lord help me this today to grow my trust in you and avoid anything that separates me from your Love "knowing You" can never mean understanding for that is unimaginably limited by what  I am. May Mary who is the example of the perfect "knowing, loving and serving" that you created our humanity to be, continue to lead all your Saints in the their never ending praise of You and support for the needy on earth and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

 11/01/2022

It is clear from today's first reading that the Apostles and early Christians had quickly come to an understanding of the huge significance of the recent events that they had witnessed. The eternal Son had become truly flesh and blood. He was completely human even though it is entirely possible that he could have had a totally spiritual being as an angel but chose to be a human, a fellow Jew descended from Abraham. 

The first Church was not just good fellowship and charismatic gatherings but was also a careful listening to the Holy Spirit. Mary's pondering in her heart became the norm for the first Christians. The Acts of the Apostles recalls the exuberance of the first years; the rapidity of conversions but the letters of Paul reveal the depths of thought and the fight against false teachers. 

The theology of the Church was not at first a collection of books understood by a few scholars. That is the "letter of the Law" that the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had become and condemned by Jesus. "Theology" was the proclamation of the Resurrection by eyewitnesses and their disciples. Jews were the only opponents for they knew Father Son and Holy Spirit in the person of the Father. All the other gods were supported by local rites and mysteries but without, at that time, a codified underlying structure as was the Old Testament, although they did attempt to develop systems in response to Christian thought.

Jesus cured the sick and drove out devils and thus by the grace of God attracted the Apostles Simon, Andrew, James and John. They witnessed the first public words and deeds of Jesus on earth; they were destined to also witness the last and thus with Mary bring the way, the truth and the life to all subsequent generations and to us.

Dear Lord help me to pray with my whole being . Let me follow Jesus into the lonely place that is my room and there in my heart do what I can to know, love and obey. May Mary continue to lead the Saints in the eternal worship of heaven and pray for the grace that if our hearts are open can fill the whole world with your love.

 10/01/2023

The Letter to the Hebrews reveals how the first Christians were always interpreting what they had witnessed in the three years that Jesus had walked the earth There were many who had seen the Lord alive and preaching and many of them had seen the tragedy of Calvary and the result of the complete shock of the Resurrection. 

It is amazing but true that eyewitnesses do not always recall the same event identically as each other so in the first centuries there were as many versions of the Good News as there were witnesses. The versions of Scripture we now know as the New Testament were not codified until the middle of the fourth century. Prior to that the recollections of the Apostles and disciples were fragmented throughout the Roman Christianised world. Not only were the deeds of the witnesses recalled differently but the lessons, the revelation by the Holy Spirit for us to learn, were interpreted differently too.

The letter to the Hebrews is a very early attempt to tell us what Jesus is and as such it is part of the basis of billions of words written since then that have also attempted to understand how it could be that the carpenter's son from Nazareth had been crucified buried in his tomb and then risen from death in what was  seemingly the same body ( St Thomas even checked for us the wounds not only by sight but also  by touch) that had been buried in the  Tomb.

The Gospel reading recalls Jesus the living man, a devout Jew who, following the Law of Moses, was keeping his Sabbath holy by joining the congregation in Capernaum. He not only joined the Synagogue but took a prominent part and as he read from the scrolls the charisma that had called the fishermen to follow the stranger from Nazareth was felt by all present as authority

God's creation is far greater than his revelation to us. There are other beings whom we know as Spirits, Angels or Devils and it was one of the later seeing the God he had revolted from who screamed out in fearful recognition. God chose to redeem our world lost by the sin of Adam by becoming human as were Adam and Eve and in this humanity become the sanctifier of our corrupted nature.

God the Evergreater Trinity cannot been explained by all the Theologians, saintly or otherwise, for he is truly beyond comprehension.  He is, however, always knowable as his grace enables us to reflect on the Love which has been lavished on us by so great a saviour and to return that Love by loving conformity to the will of God. Our Faith is in the Father our Hope is in the Son and our Love is the Holy Spirit "thrice blessed three in one."

Dear Lord, help me to return your Love and avoid sin and the occasions of sin. Let me become selfless in my being and learn to live always in your grace praying for all those who wilfully deny you. May Mary whose bearing of you from the first moment of conception cannot be forgotten and who knows you in the humility of your complete humanity and the Glory you now have, help us all this day on earth to live in grace and praise of you our Creator God.

 09/01/2023

The Church has now concluded the festivities of Christmas although in the pre-Vatican 2 calendar they continue until the feast of the Purification. The first  readers of the Letter to the Hebrews were all Jews as were the majority of the first Christians. They accepted what they had seen in Jesus', life, death and resurrection as a continuation of the revelation of God's care for them which was recorded in their scriptures and continued to follow the Law that they had inherited from their fathers.

Jesus' call to Simon Andrew John and James was from one Jew to an other. It always amazes me that it happened in an instant and his call was immediately answered. God's call is to all men but we avoid the simplicity of the positive answer that God, who never forces, has created us to respond. We think that we are too tangled up in cares of the modern world but those first disciples, who were literally tangled up in the tools of their trade, instantly dropped their ropes and their nets and walked after Jesus.

For the first Christians their faith in Jesus was not a novelty but a simple continuation of their worship that was part of their daily lives starting with "Hear O Israel". It is no wonder that there were disputes in Jerusalem about circumcision and other self-definers of God's favour practised by the chosen-people. For the "God-fearers" and pure pagans the Proclamation of the Resurrection and the preaching that became our Gospels was entirely new so it is not surprising that it was in Antioch, a Greek city, that our fore-bearers first referred to themselves with a new name for a new beginning, Christians.

Dear Father in heaven let my faith, hope and love grow as did that of the disciples who knew your Son Jesus on earth and may the Holy Spirit fill your Church with love so that there is no space for the human sin that defaces it. May Mary and all your saints share with all sinners both us and the Holy Souls the grace of the Glory that is theirs out of your bounty, in the never ending joy of Heaven.

 08/01/2023

Again our Church presents the revelation that has come from God over the centuries. Isaiah is truly inspired and God for whom everything that comes to us is an Eternal now guides him to proclaim that what is treated by men as the exclusive possession of their nation will become the way for all men to know, love and serve their Creator God.

In the Gospel Jesus openly asks to be Baptised. John knows that he is the Son long promised to bring salvation and so does not want to comply. Jesus insists because all men should accept and follow the rituals of righteousness which are earthly signs that we recognize Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is the "dove" and the "voice". 

St Peter makes it clear that prior to the resurrection he was a Jew and did not even consider that Jesus was to be the Saviour of all humanity. What he reveals to Cornelius' household is also news to him and the beginning of the mission to the whole world.

We have all received the fruits of this commission. We know the history of salvation. "I am the way, the truth and the life". We have to believe this in our hearts and confess it with our lips (or computer keyboard) for without Jesus, where would we find the message of eternal life?

Dear Lord let me this day accept your grace and grow in thankfulness. May Mary and all the saints add their prayers to mine and those of the whole church here on earth and of the Holy Souls in Purgatory.