07/03/2024

Trick questions are usually asked of Jesus by those who felt threatened by his words and deeds. Those present at today's curing of the dumb man know that they had witnessed a miracle. As they try to make sense of what their eyes had seen and their ears had heard an opinion arose that it is through the power of Beelzebub that Jesus is able to command "devils" to obey him.

None of us can deny the logic of Jesus' rejoinder to the murmuring . For us, 2000 years later, it is a very small step for us to take from this to look at the state of the Institutional Church as she has been over the centuries since Jesus told us that "the kingdom of God has overtaken you". 

 In the very first days in Jerusalem arguments arose among the brothers. The apostles had quarrelled about personal power even when they walked behind Jesus on the final ascent to Jerusalem. Six hundred years before the Incarnation, Jeremiah had delivered God's message to the "nation that will not listen to the voice of its Lord their God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths." We all still need to listen to that message today.

Jesus broke the power of the "strong man" but we have found him again in the depths of our being and have given him back his power by continuing to say "yes" to the Devil, the World and the Flesh by saying "no" to God. Each one of us has to be and can be perfect in our human freedom "even as your Father who art in heaven is perfect" and it is only by each one of us turning back to Father, Son and Holy Spirit that the face of the Earth will be renewed and we will reach the never ending holiness of God who art in Heaven.

Dear Lord, let me overcome all the sinfulness of which I am capable. Let me come near to you and let the Body of Christ on Earth be in the sincere spiritual community that can be found also within the corruption that has always disfigured your own Earthly foundation. May Our Lady who as carrier of your growing embryo can be considered the Church's prefoundation in your humanity continue to lead the heavenly body of which you are the head in praise and pleading for the second coming which will complete your will for material creation. Maranatha. Lord Jesus come. Amen

 06/03/2024

We the peoples who have heard the words of the Law from Moses and those who have tried to access the Grace manifest by the Incarnation have fallen far short of the of what Our Father wants for all his human creatures. We do not show in either our institutions or personal lives the behaviours that would inspire "No other people is as wise and prudent as this great nation!"

The Jews have certainly followed Moses "Do not forget the what your eyes have seen nor let them slip from your heart, all the days of your life rather tell them to your children and to your children's children". The descendants of Moses have certainly done this. The occupation of Palestine is a deliberate attempt to steal land and possessions by force of arms and accumulated wealth from the rightful owners. The continued slaughter in Gaza is as great a sin as the Gas Chambers of Auschwitz  and ensures that strife will continue and evil flourish in this our material world.

The Institution that Jesus founded on Peter has over the course of two thousand years acquired vast wealth and possessions and claimed to be the one source on Earth for the grace that enables its followers to follow the Law as completed by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Can, however, the institution that, during its growth in this world, has perpetrated evil and crimes in the Pharisaical Hypocrisy condemned by the Son of God be said to be the completion of the Law for righteous living revealed through Moses?

Jews, as are all other humans, have always been "of this world" and inconsistent in their history as the "chosen people". It was their humanity, however,  in the person of Mary that God chose to carry his only begotten son. It was a Jew's arms that were spread out and nailed to the cross for them to be able to enclose all humanity in his love. At his trial he told us all, disciples, scribes, priests and Caesar "My kingdom is not of this world". 

The Kingdom of God is not located in any institution or building but in "every word that comes from God" which finds its place in human hearts and is revealed in this world by their deeds.

 We all have been given the freedom of will to choose and to build "the Kingdom" in  the depths of our being. This is the purpose of my every breath.

Dear Lord, you know my shame and failure to live up to the standards that you have revealed to us all. Help me to know your grace and use it to serve you and learn how to love you in service to others. May Mary who knew Gaza in her worldly life and who as she witnessed your torture and crucifixion can never forget how we have always inflicted pain upon each other, pray that each human being who is about to inflict pain and death on a fellow human has a vision of his own death and resist the evil that he is able to avoid. May we all on earth and  in purgatory receive Mercy and completely forgive all others who are harming or have ever harmed us.

 05/03/2024

Today's first reading is not historically accurate. In fact it was written many centuries after the event it depicts. The Gospel reading similarly took on the form it has for us today more than 300 years after the events which completed God's revelation to his people on Earth.

Why then am I reading and pondering on myself alive in the world today in the light of these deeds recorded as words, that can be disputed by scholars, from long ago? I do believe in God. I do believe that he knows me. I do believe that everything in this world passes away into nothingness except for the reciprocal Love between God and his people.

Daniel tells us that God has always had a special love for the descendants of Noah. He does not tell us that he cares nothing about other humans who are often portrayed in the Old Testament as sinners whose idolatry should be driven from the face of the Earth. The chosen people similarly fall into the quick fix for their longing for God by sacrifice to a Golden Calf rather than the long but sure way to righteousness that God reveals to them through his prophets.

St Peter asks Jesus about how we can live righteously in a world filled as it is with other human beings whom we cannot know with the intimacy that we know ourselves and try to know Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The first link of the golden chain that binds us all in the mystical Body of Christ is forgiveness. Our God knows everything and forgives everything. God does not want to punish anyone. My childish sins are forgiven as is the Godless inhumanity of today in Gaza and the graver sins of my adulthood.

My God calls out to me from his Old Testament and from his Incarnate words and life in the New. Sometimes the weight of the guilt of our personal sins seems to overwhelm us but Jesus tells us by his words, death and resurrection that  "forgiveness" is real and begins with us who are forgiven in ourselves in as much as we forgive others. God has created us as free beings who are responsible for the way we live out our time on Earth. Thanks be to God.

Dear Lord, help me to retain the sense of being known to you throughout this today and let my anger be controlled so that I can forgive but not forget that we can all implore your mercy not only for ourselves but for all, friend and foe alike. May Mary who only knows sin as the pains of the  passion that Jesus accepted to generate forgiveness for all mankind continue to lead the Angels and Saints in their praise of you and in pleas of Mercy for sinners on Earth and in Purgatory. God forgive us our trespasses and let our forgiveness of others become as complete as your own. Amen

 04/03/2024

I can think of no other examples of  "a prophet is never accepted in his own country" except from the Bible. In our world national support for politicians is often the greatest in what is their hometown power base. 

Prophets however are sent by God and much of what is their message is unpalatable to us the receivers. Father, Son and Holy Spirit only want for us to follow the right path on Earth and avoid the pitfalls and traps of the material world that can soon captivate us to the extent of forgetting that eternal life depends on us using our God-given freedom to follow him.

In the Arab world Christians are often known as "Nazrani" which is ironical as it was the people of Nazareth who, in today's Gospel, first threatened the human violence which Jesus was to accept as the end of his life on Earth.

Some moments I feel an immeasurable distance from God. I suppose that this is the reality for all mankind. We are so miniscule in relation to the Evergreaterness of God that we accept any of the vast gifts of creation which we can understand, and use them to fill our beings with known goods even though we do know that they are fleeting. We thus block ourselves off from the Eternal Grace which really matters. God is perpetual creative love and has created us to understand this as much as we are able so that our response is the reciprocated love of joyful hearts.

I have to thank God that even in depths of my sinfulness he has never lost touch with me and has never withheld his grace. He is indeed "My Lord and my God", the light of my life, the supreme source of all that is Good and the Saviour of all mankind.

Dear Lord, I thank you that I am able to accept your grace. I thank you that I can be open to receive your Love. May your Love be irresistible to all of us here on Earth that each one of us can resist the personal sins that create the evil that sullies your beloved creation. May Mary, the only one who has never been separated from your Love, lead all of your spiritual creation unseen by us in the prayers that are the only way to save your people from the way of destruction on Earth and the Eternal unhappiness that is created by disobedience in life.

 03/03/2024

As I wait for the words I need to begin this day, to form in my head I know that God has direct access to my being and that he wishes only good for me. It is so for all the human beings alive. God knows us all and he has for each of us only good will. He helps us in our response to his will by the guidance he has been revealing consistently since the beginning of time.

All of mankind however has always tried to "improve" on what is shown to us in his creation. Adam and Eve knew better than God and they discovered that they were naked so tried to cover themselves with fig-leaves. The purity of God's creation was blemished and to this day all of us have to combat the tendency to sin, to deny God, that is the origin of all evil in this world.

The ten commandments given to Moses are the basis for righteous living. Jesus adds a lot more to this life plan. He tells us that all sins can be forgiven if we turn the attention of our being to  Himself, the Father and Holy Spirit and creates the Sacraments to help us.

God knows that it is impossible for creatures to understand their maker. Man-made and coded machines can never understand or become the freedom of "God's image and likeness". 

Throughout the world up to the first century God had done wonders for the Jews who, as St Paul tells us still asked for miracles even after the Resurrection preached by him and all the Apostles. The Sophisticated Minds of the Greeks pursued ideas with which to frame the awareness that they had of existence. "Resurrection" was to them just a word as it had been similarly without meaning to the Apostles when Jesus first used it.

It seems to me that we have only got part of God's revelation and that the "Second Coming"  which was the longed for hope of the first Christians has got lots more to teach us about Our Father and the New Heaven and New Earth that Jesus will bring at the end of Time. Marantha Lord Jesus, Please come soon!!

Dear Lord let the way, truth and life brought to the world in Palestine be open for all peoples of the world so that we all can strive to do your will. I know that even though I am a sinner you care for me as much as did Mary care for you when you were a baby and infant. May her prayers and the prayers of all the saints flood the world with grace so that each one of us can live without sin to praise your Name and do your Will. Please come soon.

 02/03/2024

Dear Lord, you know the turmoil that is filling me this morning. The turmoil that drives out the peace with which I am usually able to turn my heart and mind to you. My brain is messed up still by the medicines I take. Too many always leave my brain and  body not as you created me to be, but that will soon pass.

Most of all, however, is the fundamental problem that makes me despise myself by my lack of self-control. The Prodigal returned from his lifetime debauchery to the open arms of his father who welcomed him with the love that had never wavered, but confrontation in my world between human beings often takes on dimensions of hate that cannot be overcome.

The elder son was made bitter with jealousy. He viewed his Father with "eyes of Justice" . "It is not right that my father does not recognise my worth to him but makes such a show of joyful support for him who has wasted his share of our family wealth but been welcomed home by a huge  party."

I can understand and empathise with the elder son whereas the younger son leaves me cold. It is not that I haven't received mercy. My "eyes of justice" tell me that I have never deserved the forgiveness of Our Father, but there is always something that comes out of the centre of my being that is really fond of myself and has nothing to do with love or justice. 

Dear Lord me help to overcome this secret presence in my heart that is an open book to you. Help me to overcome this "devil" that is now sniggering at the success it has had in putting my soul in danger of again failing you. You are not the father of the prodigal son. That father did not treat his children equally and thus broke your law of mercy ( love your neighbour as yourself) which, as does the rain, falls equally on sinners and on just. May Mary and the Saints pray that you seek out all sinners such as me and help us to overcome the self love that still creates evil even when I know your loving presence and recognise the torments I continue to create for Jesus to endure on my behalf. 

 01/03/2024

St Paul certainly did not hide his light under a bushel. His letters all tell us that he never rested on his laurels. He continued in his mission right until the end even getting his dream of an untimely death in this world at the hands of this world as did his beloved master.

In his letters he never mentions his need of money. He never appeals for a "building fund". In fact the only "church" that he mentions is the "Body of Christ" although he does contribute to the poor in Jerusalem. His only concern in life is to build up what began for him on the road to Damascus. He saw the Glory that is the Resurrection and heard the voice of the Holy Spirit and from that moment onwards obeyed the Father and shared throughout the Empire, the joy that is a life lived in the Light of Father, Son and Holy Spirit .

Jesus tells us all that we have to shine out in this world. He tells me that it is only by my deeds that the effects of the salt of eternity can be seen. My reflections on the meaning of the Gospel readings are all very well and help me to see my sins but they are personal and my living days are not much better than they have ever been.

Salt preserves meat. It keeps it from decay. Our Lord warns us that even salt can lose its power but the light of his grace never fades.  At the worldly time the Incarnation was made manifest, the salt that is the "Law" as practised by the descendants of Abraham had lost its savour and the body of Israel had become corrupt.

The Light of the World walked and talked with us for three years. He taught us by word and deed and his Apostles walked in his footsteps. Can I truthfully say that I have ever reflected the Grace that supports every second of my life.? When has the institution that is the Church ever shone with the Glory that is the Light of God, the pure source of all being and the only way to Eternal Holiness.

Dear Lord, these thoughts with which I begin each day are important to me and I am grateful that my life did not end in the Red Sea, tangled up in that abandoned net, without the free gift of these years for atonement. Help me to hold onto the control, grace, that comes from you into my being so that I can continue to seek out your Mercy for me and for all sinners on Earth and for the Holy Souls who now know how they went wrong during their lives and deeply regret it.  May the triumphant Church of Mary and all the Saints share the grace of Heaven bringing sinners on Earth to repentance and let me stay part of the Christ preached and defended by St Paul throughout the Empire and in Wales by his successor, Dawi Sant.