14/03/2023

The Old Testament is the account of God's revelation of himself to his chosen people. It is not an exclusion of other humanity from the Love that is witnessed in the whole of creation. The Book of  Daniel is not "historical", a record of events witnessed by the participants, as is the whole of the New Testament. It is a vision of the Glory of God given to its author. 

The author is a devout Jew who has pondered the works of the Lord in his heart which, filled with the Holy Spirit, is inspired to understand that the Temple sacrifices, so important to him and his people, are in reality nothing to God who already has everything. The prayer of Azariah begins by witnessing that God cannot deny himself and so the sincere contrition, humility and obedience of our human souls is much more important than the animals that they offer and burn on his altar. God cannot deny himself . He is gentle and merciful. Two centuries after Daniel was written this gentleness and mercy walked and talked throughout the promised land.

Peter is not satisfied by "as we forgive those who trespass against us". He knows that people who are forgiven do not necessarily refrain from doing harm again. Jesus responds with the familiar parable which is not only part of the bedrock of Christianity but  also illustrates a familiar part of  human nature. 

Jesus again teaches that Father, Son and Holy Spirit have to be witnessed by humanity with total integrity. It is useless to try to keep a little bit of ourselves hidden from God. When we confess it is fundamentally flawed if we try to hide as did Adam and Eve in the Garden. I am worried in these times by the revealed duplicity of many of our Priests and Prelates and am afraid that the damage that is being done to the Church is beyond repair.

Dear Lord, let thy Holy Spirit reinforce the Love that is the heart of the Church. Send us Holy Priests whose integrity can shine forth scattering those who are not true to the example of Christ. May Mary's radical obedience be the standard of holiness for which we all can strive and may her prayers and all the saints in heaven continue to support the penitence of sinners on earth and in purgatory.

 13/03/2023

Jesus was not a stranger to the people of Nazareth. He was known to some of them by name as the son of Joseph a woodworker. Some had heard of his staying behind in Jerusalem and how worried his mother had been at that time. That had been years ago.

In today's Gospel Jesus is commenting on the story from the Old Testament which is the first reading at today's mass and he has obviously been faced by some annoyance among the congregation. It is not unknown in these days for parishioners to be annoyed when a new person arrives in a parish and starts to "take-over" and is supported by the priest.

In Nazareth the annoyance was directed against one of their own who had got "too big for his boots".  Who does he think he is, this carpenter son of Joseph, to tell us our religion.? We can all become petulant when somebody disturbs our unthinking complacency.

Jesus is still with us. Each day he calls us to open up our hearts; to feed, the hungry; to give up all our wealth; to follow him by accepting our cross. We are all known by Father, Son and Holy Spirit who always offers to us the Love that is the Being of God. Do we respond by smothering out the Grace in the mass of experience that is our daily busyness just as the congregation tried to silence the Word by throwing him off a cliff.? Or do we welcome him into our hearts?

Dear Lord you know that I do not come near to your example of perfect holiness. A few prayers and thoughts seem to be the best that I can offer. I think that it is not enough just know you in my mind and soul. Show me the way to actions that are truly good deeds. May the support of Mary and all the saints be always with me and all sinners on earth and with the Holy Souls in purgatory.

 12/03/2023

To know why I am hunched over my keyboard this miserable March Sunday morning I have to abandon the "I" and open my being to the Holy Spirit who is also Father and Son. God never turns down a contrite soul and knows the most hidden depths of myself which I cannot know by myself alone. 

The Samaritan woman knew that her total being was an open book to the Jew she met at Jacob's Well. She was instantly aware that this meeting was an event in her life like no other she had ever experienced. Jesus was such a spiritual force that she could only believe the  "Messiah!"and immediately ran to announce this to her neighbours. John tells us that these too were were convinced by Jesus' words and presence. I wonder whether this immediate faith stayed with them. 

St Paul tells that we can be sure that our faith is true even though we know ourselves to be sinners . Jesus suffered and died for the very reason that worldly man is sinful and without any hope of winning by himself alone, the Glory of Heaven.

The free gift of God's Grace is available to us all even though it seems locked into stone as was the water at Massah in the desert. The Church founded on Christ's rock, Peter is the one sure source on earth of the living water of God's mercy. We have to knock hard at the doors of this institution. Knock hard and knock again to knock some sense into our Institutional Church. 

Dear Lord we are all in your hands. Please renew your Church so that priests and prelates can shine out in their holiness and not be the tripping stones of doubt they are for me and many others. May Mary and and all the Saints of heaven protect your clergy from Satan and all sinfulness. May all struggling on earth open their hearts to your Love and thus become the beings that you created to be your own image and likeness.

 11/03/2023

The readings today are a complete summary of the teachings found in the Old and New Testaments, the  revelations God has made of Himself to the Human Race.

The response to the psalm "The Lord is compassion and Love" tell us directly what our being in its freedom has to strive for here on Earth. Father Son and Holy Spirit delight in showing mercy and we also can find no greater delight, in this world, than when we sincerely hold fast to that compassion for us and share it with all our neighbours.

God is infinity of love. He does not dole  it out sparingly. He does not give out ration books from which we have our ticket stamped every time we draw on his Mercy. He is the Ever-greater who knows every thing and wants only good for all his children. 

The father's non-conditional love displayed in this morning's familiar parable was too much for the eldest son to instantly accept as being just. We are all able to take our place in Our Father's love for granted and get on with our lives in complacency. We can forget that our Creator also has rights and that he can do good things for whom he pleases. He went through the tortures of Holy Week to provide on earth a visible source of his Loving Mercy. 

The pain of humanity is not an unknown quantity to our God and the Grace of the Sacraments was purchased by pain that is unimaginable in Son, Jesus the Christ emptied and abandoned, "Eli, Eli lama Sabachthani," on Calvary.

How can we repay such a gift?

Dear Lord, keep me from the envy that makes me jealous of your gifts to others. I am responsible for my own soul and must follow you into loving all. I have to wish good for all the World that each and every soul might know your loving mercy as did the "Prodigal" and I too on all the occasions, vaguely remembered by me, but known absolutely by you. May Mary who held the corpse of Jesus continue with all the souls in heaven to implore the mercy of God for the struggling ones on earth and for the penitents forgiven but still paying the just amount of penance in Purgatory.

 10/03/2023

The Bible is filled with characters that have great personal charisma. They are the ones chosen by God. The powers that ruled the pagan Middle East were also filled with leaders of great charisma. The world is still ruled by leaders who have great charisma. Our children throughout much of the World are captivated by the "stars" who have great personal charisma.

Charisma arises out of the self confidence that is displayed to the world and is close to the self-love that is the Pride that precedes a Fall. In the history of mankind there has been one man whose Charisma is the reality of his Being. All the preceding Prophets, Princes and Patriarchs were not fit to buckle his shoe and this was realised in the same way as Joseph's brothers recognised  their brother's Charisma. Jesus' contemporary Priests and Pharisees realised that they were as nothing if this Galilean remined on this earth.

God walked the earth so that the weak, the poor and the pitiful might know that even though we do not display any gifts that might single us out, Father, Son and Holy Spirit knows and loves each one  of us. It is not necessary to be given "a coat with long sleeves", or even "of many colours" to know that we are loved by God. Jesus teaches us that he has chosen "the humble to shame the proud". There has never been anything more poor and pitiful than the corpse abandoned on the Cross.  Blessed are we not in riches or Charisma but in the sincere humility that allows us to accept the unsurpassable gift of life and use it to return God's love. The love shown by the Marys and John at the foot of the Cross is the reason our  Institutional Church can survive all her scandals and failures in her worldly leadership.

Dear Lord may we let our lives be guided by humility. We need to have your self-sacrifice as our guiding light and abandon the self that is captivated by the lures offered by Satan even to the "little ones of  this world" May Mary and all the Saints for whom there is now no time plead for our souls and those of the suffering in Purgatory. Send your Holy Spirit to return the quest for Holiness to the heart of the Church you built on Peter.

 09/03/2023

My heart, my very being is known by God. I respond by prayer and my will. I try to maintain my approximate holiness. God knows that there is nothing more devious that my being which is always aware of its place in the world and even when I set out to pray can be taken up with worldly trivialities.

The people of the Old Testament were well aware of the importance of water for life. Some of them had spent a lifetime wandering from well to well in Sinai. I too have been a wanderer in that my life has not maintained the constancy of holiness for which God has created us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit warn us through Jeremiah that we should not have faith in what we are achieving in this world. No matter how great Man's mastery of creation shows itself to be, it will not last.

The psalm continues the contrast between those whose beings are always focussed on God and follow his path and those who have been misled  by Satan and their own egos to place all their trust in the created things of this world and ignore the Creator.

Jesus is the last of the Old Testament. The owner's son has come to the vineyard. Abraham warns Richman that the tenants will never give up self-centred Pride even if someone should return to life from death. Jesus' people of the Covenant are still with us and still in denial not only of Jesus but even of their own revealed knowledge of God. They control the Promised Land  by killing more than they are killed. 

The History of the Jews continues in our times very much as it did in the Old Testament but now most of them deny the existence of the God who has always loved them.

Dear Lord you have always chastised those whom you love whenever there is a need. Let me not only be aware of You but always live without sin striving to accept the perfection of soul that you have won for me. May, Mary who on earth was the perfection we should all strive for, in her heavenly perfection now lead all the Saints and Angel in imploring your Mercy for all the sinners on earth and in Purgatory.

 08/03/2023

God was never far away from the Jews of the Old Testament. As for them, they were certainly no better than we are. Backsliding was commonplace and stubbornness in resisting Good and embracing Evil seems to have been their main characteristic.

The mother of Zebedee's sons knew God whose deeds were recorded in the Scrolls and whose Temple dominated the Promised Land. She knew the deeds of the prophets and the messages they had proclaimed. For her, Jesus was another prophet but this time a greater one who would establish a Jewish, Kingdom of God, on earth.

The other ten Apostles were outraged by James and John. In their eyes the two brothers had sent their mother sneakily  to curry favourable treatment when the Kingdom was established. At this point in the New Testament nobody had really understood the Mission that Jesus was carrying out everyday in his human life on Earth. The ten who felt that they had to protest also expected some sort of high ranking postition and felt the competitive spirit that the prospect of promotion always inspires.

Our understanding of God is always far, far away from the infinite reality that he is. Jesus is true man, but a man who is true God. We can ponder that mystery but our understanding which is highly capable of manipulating matter cannot rise to the heights that is the Evergreater Being, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

In prayer the perfect man on earth was always one with the Father and so knew what he had to face in Jerusalem. It is just not possible that even Mary could anticipate the Resurrection. The Apostles are not super human their squabble in today's Gospel is just a normal human misunderstanding of their Rabbi's role on earth.

Dear Lord, stop me from babbling self-consciously and let my prayer be a heart and mind open to thee that my soul may grow in love and obedience. May Mary and all the Saints pray that we who still struggle on earth can accept your grace and thus follow your will for us.