21/01/2023

It was pretty cold last night as befits St Agnes' eve, but I read the mass readings for today as I wanted to stay with the thread of To the Hebrews. 

The writer is living and learning his faith. He is simultaneously teaching and understanding. The concept that Jesus had become the perfect sacrifice in continuation of the liturgical worship that had begun under the leadership of Moses and Aaron in the days of the nomad people continually moving on to feed their flocks and to collect manna, was not the immediate proclamation of the Apostles after the Resurrection. For them the Resurrection itself was the "Good News" that God had given to them.

We do not know much about Jesus' childhood. We do know that he grew up in Nazareth and that he was subject to Mary and Joseph, who was seen to be his father. We have a pious notion of the "Holy Family" which is a typical nuclear family of the Western experience. The hints that Scripture gives about Jesus' family, in fact, tell us otherwise. Jesus the child, youth and young man must have grown up in the typical sprawling extended family of his day and in such a group there is always in addition to the "black sheep"one "nutcase" an outsider who is still part of the family but noted for his eccentricities.

The family had tolerated Jesus for the qualities that were recognised by the scholars in the temple but when he started to expect them to feed the throng of sinners, sick and beggars who had soon attached themselves to him, that stretched their toleration to breaking point. Jesus their brother and uncle was mad. there was no doubting it, he must be put away, cast off. Is this why the " The Son of Man had nowhere to rest his head"?

Dear Lord in your lifetime on earth you were always surrounded by people whom you loved. Sometimes your Father called and you prayed in the perfect Love we know as Father Son and Holy Spirit. We as mankind need to be in a community. I feel cut off from family, who do not believe and from the institution that your body on earth has become today. Let the prayers of Mary who  must have had such difficulties in domestic life especially after the death of St Joseph be answered that my family and my Church know that it is only in this life that we can be prepared by openness to your Grace for the Eternity which is the Joy you have prepared for all of us.

 20/01/2023

St Paul can seamlessly flow from  the inspiration that he is recording in his letter to the Hebrews to the recorded testimony that he studied as he grew up and under the tutelage of Gamliel. The Holy Spirit confirms that Jesus is indeed the the New Covenant replacing the Old as was revealed to Jeremiah. God reveals that the Chosen People, the ones gifted with the revelation made to the prophets, have abandoned that grace and chosen new paths for themselves.

The psalm is a song of joyful praise. It is pure happiness. Mercy and faithfulness have met and become united as one. We can be faithful in our merciful response to divine justice. We can know the Father Son and Holy Spirit as Jesus the human son of Mary and the Incarnation of the total being of God he is as Word.

St Paul proclaims that we have a High Priest who is Truth and unimaginable Glory. The psalm thanks God for this and in the Gospel we witness Jesus choosing disciples to become Apostles, the first priests ( "do this in memory of me" ) of the New Covenant. This simple group called by God to be his witnesses to the Life, Death and Resurrection has grown into the tangled institution that we call the Church today.

We are all responsible for each other. The teaching of the first century is still the only way for us to live our lives. It is much more than human teaching; it is the revelation by God of his Love. I know that, although "Now anything old grows more antiquated until in the end it disappears" could be applied to me, the Church as the Body of Christ will last until the end of time.

Dear Lord we your people on earth are in need of Sacraments the outward signs of your Grace confected to be the sustenance for our souls. You have chosen your priests today just as you did your Apostles. You protected your Apostles from themselves and it seems that only one was lost. Only you can know that, for your perfect Justice, which is far beyond comparing with our own, is tempered by your perfect Mercy. Hear the prayers of Mary and your Saints that clergy and all your people can at this moment become united enemies of sin and lovers of your Evergreater perfections.

 19/01/2023

The first thing that I try to do as soon as I open this machine is read the Mass Readings on Universalis. Then I have to open Blogger to begin straight away my thoughts and prayers. Often, in the split seconds that this takes, my mind is snatched from the Word by the trivialities that spring up unsummoned on the screen in front of me.

This morning "My God I delight in your law in the depth of my heart" from the Psalm struck an immediate chord with me and I was filled with empathy for the psalmist's words. I saw with joy the reading from "Hebrews" as bedrock for the faith which has been taught by the Apostles and the Church from the first days after the Resurrection before there were any Scriptures of the Good News.

The Old Testament's Covenant was renewed in the Temple. The writer of Hebrews knows our New Covenant is Jesus. He is priest, victim, sacrifice and temple for is man as we are and eternal Eucharistic presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in his Church.

I can understand why St. Antony took himself into the desert away from the distractions of Alexandria. I can understand for my mind is always so ready to chase trivialities that even as I read the Gospel this morning, the thought came into my mind that although Jesus told those he had cured to keep it to themselves he knew that that was a forlorn hope, so he made ready to get into the boat to avoid the crush on the shore.

Dear Lord you know that I am happy to be alive. Job taught us that we must accept everything that comes to us in life as your will. You know the sinful messes that I have created by myself and that at this moment of human happiness all of the dangers you have pulled me from are forgotten by me. May Mary and all the Saints help me to atone for the evil of my sinfulness and to never forget that the Crucifixion had to precede the joy of the Resurrection.

 18/01/2023

There is not a lot that we can know about Melchizedek. He was a priest who blessed Abraham in the Promised Land. He was a priest before the arrival of Abraham at Salem. Abraham recognised his priesthood and donated to him the first recorded tithes. 

The Middle East of Abraham's days was a territory that was sandwiched between the Empires ruled from the North and East by the ever changing power of Hittites, Medes Persians Assyrians etc. and the permanence of the power that was Egypt ever waxing and waning to the South. All the rulers attributed their success to the favour of one of the gods of their pantheon of deities but in some localities one temple became the centre of a cult devoted to a particular idol and became famous. Such a cultic leader was Melchizedek. There was no religion with a codified system of belief as we know it today although the Egyptians had developed rituals the hymns of which have influenced parts of the Old Testament and its foundational Monotheism.

The Tent of Meeting and the Ark of the Lord were finally brought to rest in the Land of Melchizedek and the Sons of Aron became heredity priests. The History of the Jews and the Law of Moses became the Holy Scriptures and grew into the religion we can recognise as God's revelation of himself to the whole world so that all mankind can be redeemed.

Jesus makes it clear that over scrupulous devotion to detail is not what is required of a priest. His priests have to be good shepherds who will literally and figuratively lay down their lives for their sheep. He is nowhere more the Good Shepherd than when he suffers and dies on the mountain where Melchizedek of old had been a priest. 

Our priests are presented with exactly the same difficulties as we all are in facing up to the temptations that the comforts, pleasures and ease of modern life bring about but they are supported by the special grace that being called by Father, Son and Holy Spirit gives to them. They are not called to pride, privilege or power but to poverty of person in sincere imitation of Our Lord.

Dear Lord you know how many years that I have now completed on earth. You know the disobedience in which I have lived. Let this first day of my new year be completed without adding new sins so that I may know the grace which you pour out on the whole earth. May Mary and all the saints continue to reinforce the faith of  the descendants in priesthood of Jesus, our God and High Priest, so that they may serve Father, Son and Holy Spirit by fulfilling their duty of care for their flock and call to personal holiness.

 17/01/2023

God cannot deceive us. That is an impossibility for God. Nothing in God's creation can lie. A lion is always a lion and cannot claim to be an Elephant. My body cannot deceive me I am a man or I am a woman. My DNA never changes. 

We humans can deceive each other and affirm our intention to speak truthfully by an oath. God's promise to Abraham was confirmed by an oath solely for the benefit of Abraham and his descendants. The new covenant reveals more about God than did the old. Father, Son and Holy Spirit were made known at the Annunciation and the security of this last revelation in which we live was confirmed by something much greater than mere words. The Word through "whom all that was made was made"sealed on the cross the guarantee of our redemption as Jesus the incarnate, true man and true God.

Jesus chose to do the will of his Father. He cannot lie. He showed on the cross the mystery of death. He breathed out his spirit and the world was without the living presence of the Son of God. But he had already instituted the Eucharist and prepared his Apostles (including Judas) to be priests of the new covenant.

The Apostles had the rest of their lifetimes to reflect and understand what Jesus had done at the table in the upper room  for their tears of despair at the failure of their hopes in their "Messiah"became shouts of joy and amazement as the Good News of the Resurrection spread throughout Jerusalem.

Dear Lord strengthen the resolve of thy priests that they may by their holiness of life continue to confirm the Truth you revealed to the world in Jerusalem. May we all remember the pouring out of your mercy which took place on Calvary and may we join the three Marys and John at the foot of the cross in sorrowful "awesome wonder" for this is what you have willed to do for us even in our sinfulness. I rely on your Mother and saints to support my prayers that I can win the battle against my sinful weaknesses and that I may turn my whole being to you as did St Antony and the other hermits of his century.

 16/01/2023

I am really trying to keep pride out of this record of prayer. Yesterday I was pretty impressed with what I was writing and lost it in cyberspace never to be recovered. Today I have been truly impressed with the passage from Hebrews and want to keep it that way. Let reading the words inspired by the Holy Spirit be my prayer and my reflections take second place for Father Son and Holy Spirit know what is happening in my head and the only benefit of my fingers on keyboard is for me to stop everything and put God first for a few minutes each day.

I was vaguely aware that the Letter to the Hebrews was an important source of God's revelation. I am beginning to recognise why this is so. The knowing part of know, love and serve  God is to be found revealed in the Scriptures directly through Moses and the prophets and into our New Testament

The first years of our Christian Church was an obedience on the part of the Apostles to preach to the whole world and simultaneously a growth in understanding of what had been totally different about the three years that they had been with Jesus. Mary is the only human to have known and loved the Incarnation for the nine months she was literally Theotokos and the thirty three years of Jesus' human life.

Jesus faced many questions during his preaching days. Some were genuine enquiries by those who were perplexed in their Jewishness and wanted to put him into some human category that they could understand. We have many examples of the poor Pharisees trying to catch him out but there were some genuine seekers of enlightenment and it is those souls open to God who "go out to the whole world". We receive their message but it is the priests "for ever" who have to perpetuate the  inconceivable "sin offering"that comes out of the very being of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord let your Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your priests and help them to find the courage to shout out your love for all mankind by denying the lies with which "the Father of Lies"captures the stupidity that is the wisdom of mankind. Let your Mother's prayers be heard and let us know the tenderness with which she cared for the perfection of your childhood and  the awe with which she and all the saints are in the presence of your resurrected being.

 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".