18/6/2024

The psalm this morning is our plea for forgiveness. "My offences, truly I know them, my sin is always before me, against you only have I sinned, what is evil in your sight I have done". As I write these words each day, I am aware that the most important subjective element has to be sincerity. Nobody can fool God.

The story of Ahab and Jezebel portrays a fierce and vengeful God. The Jews of the Old Testament knew that God was all powerful and interpreted all worldly events, natural and manmade as resulting from their relationship with God. They anticipated that Ahab and his wife would receive immediate punishment that would match the wickedness of their crimes. 

The Old Testament not only revealed God's power and justice but also the mercy that would be his answer to our repentance. The Incarnate Word, Jesus, completes the revelation. He not only expounds the moral law but teaches us about the nature of God himself, the reason why we should aim for holiness. He is the Son of the Father and their Love is the Holy Spirit; three persons but one God. 

Three thousand years have passed since the days of Ahab. All existence is in the Providence of God, but all human beings are free to choose how to act. Ahab chose to listen to the advice of Jezebel. She chose to oppose IAMIAM. 

Every moment of history originates from human choice.That is why Our Crucified Lord prayed for his executioners to be forgiven. God really does know everything and we have to live always aware of that. I have to treat all others as I would have them treat me for if I cannot forgive my brother how can God forgive me?

Dear Lord, let my heart be always open to your grace. Let me share in the prayers of Mary and all the saints. Forgive me for all past sins and help me to live this day aware that your Holy Spirit is always the unseen presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirt within our world which we do not hate but try to keep in its proper place. Its norms must be denied whenever they oppose your will. We must oppose without hate. We can do so with the help of your grace.

17/06/2024

Today's psalm pleads "Give heed to my groaning O Lord". I understand that "my groanings" could be the unspecified dissatisfaction that I often feel when I come out of sleep but before I get on with the "jobs" that I have to do. But mine is an easy life. I am comfortable with being an octogenarian who is still the same inside as the child I was 80 years ago.

It is "not so" for many others in our world today and has never been so for all of humanity. In Jesus' day there were many young and old who were infirm or handicapped and the lucky ones were cured by Jesus' miracles. Many of us have died of famine or have  been slaughtered in wars that have resulted, all of them, from greed that has dominated persons of power. Politics is greed that is the sin of an individual which is approved and shared by others.

Any ancient king was used to having his own way in his kingdom. Ahab is no exception and his greed is approved and implemented by Jezebel. An accusation is contrived and Naboth loses both vineyard and his life. The difference between this, all too familiar plot, and Jesus is that those who plotted against Our Lord did not want to gain anything from him except his very life.

Our God does work in mysterious ways for he is the Ever-Greater, he is beyond all understanding and tells us to look at his revelations and live our lives accordingly to what he wills for us. Jezebel and Ahab were not doing the will of God. They fulfilled their own greed and added to the sin that has filled our world ever since Adam/Eve first disobeyed.

Our Church founded on Peter has never been totally convinced that Jesus really did mean his declaration before Pilate. "My KIngdom is not of this world" and has never shown itself  at all inclined to obey this morning's "Offer the wicked man no resistance". The wealth of the world has grown immeasurably in my lifetime and Mammon has taken the place of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as our reason for living.

The truth is that the "groanings" of the psalmist and  my own are much more than "morning woes" but are our unhappiness at the state of our world which is a result of the millions of sins still committed in defiance of all that has been revealed in the scriptures.   I have been guilty of many of the sins detested by God but know that they can all be forgiven by sincerely pleading for the mercy that never fails to respond to a truly penitent heart.

Dear Lord, may my prayers be heard. Help me to recognise your grace and to give thanks for all the blessings that I have received throughout my life. Help me to finish off my life in union with your will and thus become the being you have cared for since my generation. Help me to know, love and serve in this life and to know that vision of your Glory and become part of your new creation that Jesus' second coming will be for all his friends. Amen

 16/06/2024

It is very easy when we read  texts like this morning's readings to understand how easy it is to become as self-satisfied as was the Pharisee who thanked God that he was not as other men. He fulfilled the Law and was a Jew. 

He accepted his place among the chosen people but interpreted all of God's Providence as his due, his birth-right.

Ezekiel, as always, projects the power of IAMIAM in images that have become part of European cultural heritage. The lyrical psalm matches the clarity any of the products of ancient or modern literature and here IAMIAM is the "Loving Father" revealed by the Son.

St Paul, himself a Pharisee, in this mornings letter to the Judeo/Christian Church at Corinth, faces the conceptual problem investigated by Greek Philosophy and still debated today as the " mind body problem". Paul's mission, however, is to preach the total Truth that is revealed by the Unseen God, Jesus Christ. There is no reason to debate "Truth".

Paul has seen the "Resurrection" and when he preaches he is not debating. He Is teaching the Truth that has been finally revealed during his lifetime. Just as Christ did, we will live on Earth in our bodies. Our bodies will die, even if they are deep frozen, but our Souls will be welcomed or not by our Saviour. We make the choice.

Mark explains to us that Jesus spoke in parables because his listeners were not up to facing the bare bones of his message which is breathtakingly simple. We are living to fulfill the will of Father,Son and Holy Spirit. We have an immortal soul which has to direct our bodies. We are completely free and have to become converted by God's revelation in both the Old and New Testaments to fulfill the Will which has created us to choose to become Holy as he is Holy.

There are no secrets of Salvation hidden within God. Sometimes words are not needed to know, love and serve. Those are the best days, when my heart is truly open.

Dear Lord, I am not lost searching for you. You are always with your people, billions of us and I can find you in Scripture, Liturgy, and most of all in the prayer I unite with Mary and all your saints. We have all been saved by Jesus and it is from this gift of Salvation that I can grow in hope that I will be able to come to the end of life in the love that is my faith that will keep me from sin.

 15/06/2024

During my lifetime I have sometimes wondered what it would be like to hear, actually hear, the voice of God, "to hear him calling in the night". I have never felt that I have a "vocation" calling me to do special work for God. I have, however, been placed by God's providence into a generation which has largely discarded God and come to believe that mankind is the "Supreme Being". I am totally out of sync both with the "world" for which vice has become virtue and a "Church" which has for much of its existence been corrupted by Mammon.

I have no doubt that in more than one lab somewhere in the world experiments are being done with the ultimate aim of cloning entire humans. As I use this software programme I am sometimes interrupted by a form of Artificial Intelligence that offers to complete my sentence for me. In junior school I was taught that a grammatical sentence should be a complete thought. Does that collection of on/off know what goes on inside my brain?

Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the One God who has created the Universe. Vast beyond all imagining in his being, he is the Ever-Greater who is the source of all that we can know on Earth. Yet, this unimaginable vastness knows me as the person I am in greater detail than I know myself. 

The prophets of the Old Testament knew without a doubt that they had to make God's will known to the World. There was no shilly-shallying for them. I have often thought about how the Apostles could down tools/nets and just follow the stranger who called them to be "fishers of men".The call for Elisha in the first reading for today's mass is even more dramatic.

Jesus' teaching by discourse or parable is the call of God to all of us. "Know that I am Love and my Love is the source of your life." Today he tells us that piling up words is never a sign of sincerity. The Truth is a laser light to which we say "Yes" or "No". Everyday the time I think about the mass-readings is my "Yes" to God and he returns my "Yes" plus the grace without which I cannot even begin to listen to his Word.

Dear Lord Open my heart to be joyful in your Love. Let me lose any doubts. Let my faith be confident in the Great "YES" shouted by the Cross and Resurrection. Let me be guided by your grace to listen for your "yes" to all my prayers and let me know that I am getting closer to the being you have created me to be. May my prayers and the prayers of all the world be heard today let them be a "No" to sin and a "Yes" to You, Father,SonHoly Spirit.

 14/06/2024

 I want to be honest about today's readings and confess again that I am not familiar enough with the Old Testament. 

I have heard this passage from Elijah many times. I am, of course, impressed with the imagery but am pressed to find a connection between it and Israel's relationship with IAMIAM. There was not a lot of "gentleness" amidst the slaughtering in Palestine then as there is still not today.

We only know about ten percent of Jesus' life on earth. He reveals to us that the IAMIAM of the Old Testament is a Trinity of Persons but the  unity of perfect Being. The relationship between the Persons is the Creative Love which enables us to say "Our Father" as we begin to pray. 

Jesus grew up exactly the same way as we do except for sin. His "I"  had humbled himself by renouncing his divinity to become man as we are. Which means that he did experience the human family relationships which we all "enjoy" so much. It was his family that wanted to "put him away" in their shame at his first public display in the Synagogue.

New family relationships begin with the agreement of man and woman to join their lives together. The Holy Family was always in the direct presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. St Joseph accepted Mary as his wife even though he knew Jesus was not his own son. All married people agree to live together "till death us do part".

"Changing my mind" is not an option for a promise made before God. We create sin anew  when we chose to break God's Commandments, our Part of the Covenant, or Sacramental Vows.It is from sin that Jesus accepted the total humiliation of non-being for us to be brought back to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, let my heart and mind be open to the Holy Spirit. We can respond to you by listening to Scripture and understanding that The Bible is not just a collection of Historical texts and moral maxims but the complete guide book as to how to develop the most important relationship that each one of us has in life. You are the total "Other" to whom each"I" has the chance to respond prayerfully in the only "real time" that we can know in creation. If we choose to find your "code" and follow it we are not limiting ourselves to your preprograming. There is nothing "artificial" about our being or intelligence.  We are free  to chose between life or the horror of being aware of eternal non-being. Jesus wants us all to accept the Love that he pours out on the whole of creation so that ultimately we can see and be seen in the total Glory that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, our father and our mother. Amen

 13/06/2024

I know that I try each day to get closer to God. I know that I am not being prideful and "clever". I know that I can become empty inside and lose all contact with the thoughts and reactions prompted by the readings chosen for the day's liturgy. 

The events in my own life are enough to fill my time. The world in which I live is more than enough for me to process in my mind. But I also  know that it will all pass away and then what will become of me?

I have to make an act of will to turn my thoughts, my being to God. In the Old Testament IAMIAM reveals himself to both to individuals and to their nation. Today, Elijah and his king Ahab, but long before then, God had trusted Moses to reveal to the descendants of Abraham, trapped in slavery to the "Wonderful World"  of those days, how to be rescued and taken to the "promised land" where freedom could flourish.

Those people in Egypt thousands of years ago were all, as we are today, individual beings aware of their bodies and their minds were aware, as is mine, of their souls, the individual being which is present in all creation. They, as do we, did not take long to want more than God gave and Moses revealed to them.

We are all free beings. We are created in the "image and likeness" of Our God who is the all powerful freedom who chose to create the world to witness to the Love which is the Spiritual bond of his triune being.

For creation to be successful God has revealed himself to all men. Not only has he revealed himself but he has also walked the earth to teach us that he trusts us to know his being and to use our freedom to become as he is, holy, but not with an earthly hypocritical holiness of external show, the Pharisees in this morning's Gospel, but with hearts of love that unite each one of us in compassion that does no harm to anyone but is a true reflection of the "substance" of Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord you know how I can miss my way and let my ego intrude into awareness even when I am trying to raise my mind to you. You know how I have so often failed to align my will with yours and been dominated by my own selfishness which refused your grace that is always offered to every soul still living here on earth. May Mary and all the Saints support all we sinners in need of forgiveness both in the treachery of life and in the penitential safety of Purgatory. Amen

 12/06/2024

In today's Gospel Jesus emphasises the continuity of his revelation of himself to mankind; not to all mankind, but to the Jews to whom had been given the promised land. The exclusivity of this revelation is for me a stumbling block. I have to ask "Why? Why did God favour only one part of humanity? Many others have been faced by this quite obvious question.

In the earliest records of Christianity the difference between Jew and Gentile were solved but in the solving many Jews were lost by the Apostles. The early Church did not completely solve this problem but saw in the conversion of pagans the growing success of their Mission to go out and teach all nations. 

The world at that time, however, contained not only many more civilised nations than those conquered by Alexander and now ruled from Rome but also there were unknown continents over the horizon. Millions of human beings have lived without ever being made aware of God's revelation. 

In today's Gospel Jesus tells us that those who break the commandments and teach others to do the same will be considered to be the least in the kingdom of heaven but the man who keeps them and teaches others to do the same will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.

Our God is unseen but Evergreater. We can witness his words and deeds but we can never know fully the perfect Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God looked on his creation and saw that it was good. He is "well-pleased" with his "Only Begotten Son". The Holy Spirit is the surety of his trust in us. 

God entered into his own creation as the Incarnation. We are created to become able to enter the kingdom of heaven as the souls that will become part of the New Creation. Today, Jesus sees us as "least" and "great" but he excludes no one from the kingdom of heaven.

Dear Lord, help me to understand that your revelation excludes no-one and that you give us all the grace to be the human beings that can resist the self-love that enables us to sin. Let these morning thoughts of mine be sincere searching for your Truth and an opening up to the Holy Spirit. The holiness that you offer to us is not confined to any body, Institution or Church but is a cloud of love from which we can all feed our faith as from the sacraments that are so dishonoured by corrupt clergy. May Mary and all the saints, the great of the kingdom of heaven, continue in their prayers for us the outsiders on Earth or in Purgatory and may all created souls remain in your love even as the least in your Kingdom.