07/04/2023

Today it is finished! God's revealed intention for the chosen ones has become complete. The story that begins in Eden and follows the chosen people in the Old Testament has ended in the Tomb.

We can only imagine how great was the grief of all the disciples at that moment. In our own minds we know what the outcome will be but for those first disciples there was only emptiness and sorrow. Even Mary who held the wounded and bloody corpse of her son disfigured in death had no idea what would happen the day after the Sabbath.

In his inspired memoir John makes it clear that he remembers the Crucifixion as happening on the day before the Passover. Judas is present among the arresting soldiers but the kiss to identify the Lord is not mentioned. The halfhearted resistance has the corroborating name of the wounded man whose relative is to confirm, later that morning, Jesus' prediction of Peter's denials.

Isaiah's Suffering Servant has fulfilled the Scriptures. The Father, Son and Holy Spirt has been guiding his people to this point and we too, even after 2000 years have to take breath and gasp for at this moment where is Jesus, our God on Earth?

Dear Lord, let me live out the rest of this day in the awe with which I have begun it. You know that I am not just going through the motions. I have tried to hide myself in the past and can only be grateful to the people who were your instruments in bringing me to the Hope, Faith and Love and for the wonder of your Glory on Calvary. May Mary and all the Saints who have completed their earthly lives in righteousness implore  that your saving grace  falls like the "shower of roses" of St Therese, to become our shield against all evil and source of our love.

 06/04/2023

Today we remember in thanks the Mystery of Faith, the Eternal Sacrament of Forgiveness, the Body and Blood, the fortifier of our souls, the ever greater Sacrament  bestowed on humanity by the Ever Greater Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the eternal significance of the events that begin in the Upper Room and conclude in the tomb.

St Peter as the foundation Rock of the Church which is to be the Guardian of the Way, Truth and Life appointed  by Jesus, plays a prominent part in John's memoir of the "get together", the "team dinner" that the twelve ate with Jesus in the upper room. Judas is the only other one mentioned.

We only know St Peter from his "cameo appearances" in the Gospels. We know that he was married and had a mother-in-law. He was the owner or part-owner of a boat and fished in lake Gennesaret to support his family. He was neither rich nor poor as he was able to drop his work and follow the Lord instantly and neither was he held back by his wealth.

His interactions with Jesus, however, present a character that is consistently as impetuous as was his first reaction to the Lord. He is always the same, bluff and straight forward. He is the "Yorkie" of the gospels."Where shall we go?" Let me build three tents" and today's "In that case wash the lot of me"always make me laugh in appreciation of our common humanity. There is also human hope for us all in his refusal to accept Jesus' warning of his straightforward triple denial that is only hours away.

I too know that I am sometimes truly overwhelmed by the Love of God and cannot believe that I will ever deny Our Lord again. Here again I am warned that there is too much "I" in my reflections but that God knows my heart better than I know it myself. May Mary who is not mentioned in any of the accounts of this last meal but who was to be there to the end on Calvary (Was she there as all first century women to prepare food and wait on the menfolk?), lead all the saints in prayer for we sinners on earth and in purgatory as they too await the second coming of Jesus when God will be All in All. Marantha!

 05/04/2023

Each day I feel that I search out the readings of the day with a "disciple's" ear. The "tongue" that writes  these reflections/prayers is my own but prayerfully aware of the Holy Spirit. 

One of the textual problems that the Gospels bring to all generations since the first is the discrepancies between the nature of the Last Supper in St John and in the others. Is it the Jewish Passover meal that Jesus' tells the disciples to prepare for or is it a preparation for the New Passover that is to be sealed in his own blood to be shed on Calvary? 

God  knows everything. He knows that I am resisting the thought that always questions how it is possible after Good Friday for Satan to still have such evil power in my life and in the life of the world and even in the life of the Church.

God is unknowable so I cannot understand what is His will for Evil. As a human I would prefer it if Father, Son and Holy Spirit would annihilate Evil now.

I believe that the "Last Day" is not the day of my death. Jesus was put lifeless into the tomb. His "last day" devastated the Disciples but he was to be the "First-Fruits of the New Life". "The Last Day" is the day when God is ready to be "All in All" . We humans have been created to be the chosen witnesses and our souls and resurrected bodies will be part of the great choir of Angels and Saints led by Mary welcoming the Second Coming.

There is nothing cheap about the grace that is won for us by the Sinless One. He gives it to us willingly if we open our beings to receive it. I would like to be free from awareness of evil in myself, the world and the Church. Jesus as usual shows us the way. In the Garden, he prays to be relieved of the torture he has chosen to accept for the the forgiveness of my sins but "Thy will be done" is the acceptance of God we all have to follow.

Dear Lord, strengthen the frailty that is my soul. I would like to be without weakness and truly live without pride and selfishness the life for which I always forget to thank you. May Mary and all the Saints continue to worship you and plead for the grace that we on Earth and in Purgatory have so great a need. Let us never forget our Saviour guiltless yet full of our self-generated  sins pleading to be released from this torment prostrate in the Olive grove.

 

 04/04/2023

The promise of the Lord revealed by Isaiah is fulfilled in Jesus. The Great Nation, however, is not of this world. It is not yet a material Kingdom it is the  Spiritual Body of Christ which links the souls of all believers in the unity of of the Word. The Word is God. Jesus is God and Man and we are God's creation in his own image and likeness.

In poor Judas we see our corruption. He has been pilfering from the common funds of Jesus and his Apostles. As we all can be, he has been habitually sinful for some time although he has successfully covered it up. The Father does not force righteousness on any of us. Jesus, too,knows that Judas is less than honest but allows him to exercise his freedom for the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit has to be willingly returned to be effective.

"Satan" enters into Judas at the moment he is offered bread by Jesus to partake of the meal. Could this mean that he sealed his fate at this moment. It takes only a moment to sin but its effects can be life-shattering not only for the sinner but  also for many. We all have to be free from Mortal sin to share the Sacrificial Meal that is the Eucharist, if not, Satan can enter into us and grasps tight hold of this chance we give him in our freedom.The Father of Lies never refuses an opportunity and what was a moment can easily become a wasted life that refuses Love and chooses Death.

Judas is not the only sinner at table in the Upper Room. The rock on which Jesus is to build his church is also there and he refuses to bear witness to God, not once but three times during the action of that Thursday and Friday night. That first Church is our hope and our Faith. Jesus and his mother Mary were the only sinless ones. The rest are just like us a mixed bunch of humanity whose only strength comes from the seemingly weakness of the Cross and the Glory of the Resurrection.

The gates of the Kingdom are always open to us but God will accept only free choice for we are made in his image and likeness and have been given total freedom within the norms that are the Ten Commandments. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Dear Lord, may I learn how to pray in the peace that comes from you. I cannot do anything without your support. May I grow in Love to be able to know the grace that comes to all whose consciences are kept free from self love and thus have cleared the way to receive your free gift of Faith, Hope and Charity. May your people receive the grace that comes to us via the prayers of Mary and All the Saints and may the Institution that is your Mystical Body on earth live up to her mission and dig up and discard the stumbling stones she litters on our way to you on Calvary and so to the Promised Land.

 03/04/2023

I am always embarrassed by the image of Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha, using her hair as a towel. There is a physical intimacy about the scene that I cannot avoid each time I read it. I always have to shake that thought out of my mind and concentrate on how St John reveals the hypocrisy of Judas who bewails the waste of money. The poor will always be with us and also the hypocrites. I know that for sure as I know that I have never lived up to the promises to avoid sin that I continue to make and break.

The Apostles and early disciples of whom the family at Bethany are among the few that are named  were well versed in the Prophets.They were not of the Temple elite. They had however spent three years in the company of Jesus and prayed with  and been taught by him. Their Bible was the scrolls of the Old Testament and when in the time after the Resurrection they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to make a coherent account of what they had witnessed they could find in the Prophets and Psalms the texts that pointed to the three years of Jesus' public mission.

The Old Testament readings for Holy Week are all part of what would have been read by the first congregations in the Upper Room and Portico of Solomon.They and the recollections of the Evangelists bring the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit into the hearts of all who are ready to listen and welcome him.

Dear Lord you know that I am a tiny atom of humanity. You know that being human can be joyful and also bitter hopelessness. Your way is our only way so let me shout out with you in human compassion and weakness for I too know that "Thy will be done" is the complete knowing, loving and serving that I am capable of thanks to the"being for us"of your life on earth. May the worship of  Mary and all the Saints who are now secure in their place with you continue to bring guidance to all human souls still living in bodily reality  and Mercy to those in the agony of regret that is Purgatory.

 02/04/2023

Our Gospels are records of Historical events. Now that I have stopped reading the Gospel for today it is  still in my mind but not verbatim or complete. So it was for the eye-witnesses of the events themselves.

After the Resurrection the cluster of Apostles and Disciples together with the Marys and other women who remained in Jerusalem began to understand what had happened and talked, I imagine incessantly, about the events they had witnessed since they we were first called by Jesus. There was no need to make a record for these were the witnesses and they had crystal clear memories.

I have said before that the Evangelists were not journalists embedded within the disciples. Each one of them wrote their Gospels many years after the events. They recorded what had become the less than now crystal clear, group recollection of the passion, death and Resurrection of their Rabbi, Jesus, the Son of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and as Jews they were inspired to show how the events were "according to the Scriptures", which they continued to pray everyday.

St John has pondered within his heart and been also inspired to offer his thoughts about how God was with their Rabbi, not only with but was in truth both man and God, Jesus. The masses of my youth always ended with what the Church sees as the beginning of all faith for before all time began. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

Tradition tells us that Mary received the filial care of John after the resurrection and the tragic destruction of Jerusalem . John's inspiration was the Holy Spirit but his example for living and prayer was not only our Saviour but also the Most Holy Mother of God who was taken out of his care directly into the Eternal Love of Heaven.

Dear Lord help me continue to live in Hope for holiness, in sincerity of Faith in total acceptance of the Love poured out in forgiveness for our sins on Calvary. May our Church listen to the Word and have hearts open to receive the grace that is the eternal Hosanna of Mary, Angels and Saints of Heaven and may the peace of God overwhelm the evil that is flourishing in hearts of violent men everywhere on Earth.

 01/04/2023

The Old Testament is the record of the revelations made by God to the first humans after Adam. Adam and Eve had misused the freedom that is essential to our humanity and chosen the deception that was supposed to make them gods and thus added by their own choice original sin to God's initial concept of a person, a being who would be capable of knowing loving and serving in freedom without the programming that all of God's other creatures require to be what they are.

God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit has always in his mercy corrected his peoples' failures. Ezekiel was one of the very special Jews who had been able to retain his devotion to the Lord and had thus been granted revelations/warnings to share with the Chosen People. Each of us who hears this mornings readings at mass are still familiar with God. He is not for us a word uttered in exclamation or worse still  initials proclaiming surprise in a text-message.

I am always aware when reading St John's Gospel of what the word "Jew" signifies in my awareness of the history of  humanity. Scholars of today tell us that he is referring to the "religious authorities"and not to all of the "chosen people"who are also Jews as is Mary and all of the Apostles. We are told that God "does not have favourites" but the "Chosen People" have again reoccupied the Holy Land and are clearing it of Gentiles as did their forefathers three millennia ago.

Dear Lord you looked on your creation and you saw that it was good. You know the sins that continue even though you have been,in the begotten not made Jesus, the perfect sacrifice of atonement made for us. Your Church that is visible is sorely lacking and I am often weak in faith. May Mary and  the Saints implore your Grace so that all the Church may return to the joy of the Resurrection and may I avoid sin for this day. Maranatha.