12 November 2014

I thought that I was running out of steam; that my wish to bear witness to the Truth was fading under the inescapable tide of information overpowering my ability to cope with or process it.

"Cope" above takes me to Abbot. Where oh where is Abbot Soper. The Benedictines seem to have done a better job than the Mafia in hiding him. He skipped bail in 2011 (I think) and nothing has been heard since. The latest mention of him that I can find on the internet is in 2012. How can that Order, knowing this, continue to administer the Sacraments and study the Word of God without cringing in fear of what is surely to come either in this world or the next. They are mutually responsible for the actions of each other; they are brothers. Even the Dominicans did not attempt to avoid the scandal provided by Father Timothy Gardner and they have the other Timothy "skipty malloo" Ratcliffe scampering round the world promising heaven to all who smile as sweetly as he does and ignore the reality of the Gospel and St Paul.

This morning, I heard the news about the "Masters of the Universe" receiving no punishment and retaining their gains for the Libor/ Forex scandal. My local drug addicts who loose themselves in mindless violence because of the truly hopeless nature of the life choices facing them, are all first "asboed" then imprisoned and always pilloried in the press. The rich boys antics are seen as normal in the world of stewardship that Our Lord warned us about in one of last week's Gospel readings.

I read recently that we should consider that there were really 2 Vatican IIs. The real one which happened and the other "virtual" one that we read about in the media. The media was mainly read in those days ( although I do remember the TW3 team dressed as Cardinals singing Arivederci Roma at the close of the council). I continued this thought and came to the conclusion that it applies to everything we say and do. There is the real Jesus and the Jesus in the Gospels. There are the real Gospels and everything else that has been written about  them. How much of Biblical Scholarship is spent seeking to correct or support what has been done with the Gospels over the 2000 years.?

Is there also a real church in addition to  the church of the building and the church of  the Hierarchy and the Orders? And, of course, this is too much for me as my typing fingers are flying ahead of any thoughts that may be worth having. I think that I have to say that in my world there is only one reality; that is the reality of the Blessed Sacrament. There we do, maybe only for a moment, but we do truly find The Lord who promised to be with us to the end of time.

Men everywhere thirst for justice and peace. Peace without justice is bound to fail. Everywhere we can see that this is not  a platitude but is a simple statement of fact. Our Church  knows this; all human beings know this too. Our family without justice cannot be at peace. In our family, justice is that we know the others have the right to everything that we want for ourselves; in the family there is no place for me to indulge my own wants and desires to the detriment of anyone else. How then can I break one family to claim that my new one is the place where my life bears witness to the justice that in human behaviour brings peace. I have done wrong; I am at fault so why do I need my Church to condone that which is false and unjust? The mercy of God is unending as is his forgiveness; but I must surrender myself to his will and plead for the mercy and forgiveness which will be truly mine as a result of repentance. I want to live in a new family as if there were no old one and I want to be considered by the Church to be in a state of grace. How many lies are piled onto each other?

Our church leaders spend much time working to achieve justice in the world. Our English Hierarchy spent most of the early part of the 20th  century squabbling with each other and the lay leaders of our  Faith about how to achieve a just settlement to the vexed question of Catholic Schools. Was there ever a just settlement to that question and can there ever be when the children of the "Lay Leaders continue to be educated at the schools which educated their fathers and which co-exist with their non-catholic counterparts as a source of injustice in this England? As long as there is a Religious Order ready to educate the children of the "worthy" who cares that the children of the poor, whose pence built the parochial schools, now receive their Catholic education in something called a "Faith School"? All of which is not really important. Let us pray that our Bishops and even our priests never lose sight that they are working and living to lead souls to heaven; that is the mission that was entrusted to Peter by Our Lord and please remember that dinner engagements/receptions and even cocktails even with the most delightful of company are not really of the stuff of eternity.

31st October 2014

As I think more about the then and now of evangelisation, the less can I feel content with the way things are today. Is there any leader of our church who could write to us in the UK thanking God for us as St Paul and Timothy could do to the church of the Philppians? Are we in any way examples of the perseverance in the faith as are the Philippians in Paul's eyes. Our Pope frequently applauds and encourages joy in the variety and numbers of believers that exist throughout the world; but has anyone looked at us the Catholic Church in England and been able to praise and thank God for us.

Paul was probably in Rome when writing this, maybe actually in chains in prison. The evangelist Luke is said to be the founder of the Philippian church. Paul had previously worked there. Their closeness in time  to the Good News is undisputable. The "recent events in Jerusalem"had happened only 30 or so years before this letter of Paul. These people so well praised by Paul were close the time of the Lord and were, probably expecting the "end  of time" sooner than later. And yet here we can see an attempt to begin an intellectual understanding of Christ. Jesus is not just the man known to the apostles and disciple in Palestine but is treated as an understandable part of God's plan for mankind. To be truly human we need to see Christ as Paul portrayed him and to truly put our worship before all earthly things.

Sometimes I think it is easier for the first evangelists for they had the closeness to the living Christ both before and after the resurrection whereas we have to fill the 2 millennia between then and now with thought and teachings that can lead us away from the Gospel into a wonderland of thought and knowledge, which because it is knowable,  becomes more important than the essential teachings of Christ. And then when I read:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Words included in a  letter written about 1985 to translate the time-gap between it and Our Lord's time, into 2014 terms and I see that even then teachers of the church were ready to explore the depths and expound the heights of Christ's words in a way that has continued ever since. Oh that today to increase knowledge of Christ was foremost in the minds and actions of our prelates and not confused by a pandering to the needs of our  modern generation which is concerned with image and style but oblivious to that which was obvious to the Apostles and the disciples.

Taken in Philippi

27 October2014

Fiddling around on the computer I came across an illustration and article on the Human Genome. And everything there was tiny and in millions that I could not   grasp and I realised that  those who tell us  that it is blind faith and somehow stupidity that leads to a belief in God and the Truth that he has revealed to us, should ask themselves what  is it that enables them to believe these things that are not seen and numbers that  can only be held in the artificial memory of a machine. How can the   enormous scale of the tiny genome be witnessed without some sort of awe and doubt that such a thing could be the ultimate result of a random Big Bang.The question word "where" applied to the Big Bang does not seem to be answerable without resource to imaginative concepts such as Parallel Universes, Worm Holes and other constructs not far removed from the  Schoolmen's  "angels dancing on the end of pin". Where was/is/will it be that the Big Bang happened/ is happening /will happen?

Thank God for The Pope Emeritus . His words to the at the Pontifical Urban University remind us that   the early Christians those who knew our Lord were faced with all the enemies of belief that we face to day. They knew the fear of opening their hearts to strangers; they knew the scorn of the unbelievers; but they knew the "Truth" and everything they did as missionaries was to bear witness to the Truth and to spread the Good News that God had visited his people and purchased for us the reward of Eternal Life. We are not confined to a space created by a Mythic Big Bang but we are the product of the Infinite  Love of our infinite God.

This is the Truth and it is this that all evangelist whether new or old have to spread. Everything that is preached or read has to be measured by this yardstick of Truth. Distributing Holy Communion to those who are not under the proper dispositions is not an act of charity but a dismal disavowal of the Truth of the Sacrament.

Claiming that the Sacrament of Marriage can be imposed on each other by same-sex couples is a falsehood and if not recognised as such can only result in the loss of the chance of eternal life by those involved. At today's mass St Paul preached this Truth for today and always.

First reading

Ephesians 4:32-5:8

Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.

    Try, then, to imitate God as children of his that he loves and follow Christ loving as he loved you, giving himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. Among you there must be not even a mention of fornication or impurity in any of its forms, or promiscuity: this would hardly become the saints! There must be no coarseness, or salacious talk and jokes-all this is wrong for you; raise your voices in thanksgiving instead. For you can be quite certain that nobody who actually indulges in fornication or impurity or promiscuity-which is worshipping a false god-can inherit anything of the kingdom of God. Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is for this loose living that God’s anger comes down on those who rebel against him. Make sure that you are not included with them. You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light.

23rd October 2014

Today St Luke's gospel gives us " Do you suppose that I am here to ........". And the reply guaranteed to wake the sleepiest listeners provokes mixed responses over the centuries. Of those collected in the Catena Aurea St Cyril's seems to be the only one questioning the Lord of Peace .

 What say you, O Lord? Did you not come to give peace, Who art made peace for us? making peace by your cross with things in earth and things in heaven; Who said, My peace I give to you. But it is plain that peace is indeed a good, but sometimes hurtful, and separating us from the love of God, that is, when by it we unite with those who keep away from God. And for this reason we e teach the faithful to avoid earthly bonds. Hence it follows, For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, &c.

My moslem friends have always been good at quoting this passage to show that our gospels cannot be authentic for it is peace that is the main desire of the people of God and the main gift of God to man. And if I am to point out that our Gospels and Our Lord do not shirk from confronting reality; and do not produce words from God whenever a situation faced in the reality of 7th century Mecca/ Medina is inconvenient to Mohammad the man, words that will resolve it in his favour. "Be careful Mr John ; be careful", say they then and wag their finger;  the peace of the tomb is easily granted to those who speak against the prophet and his god.

The Catholic Bloggers that I read are very much taken up with the results/nonresults of the Synod and none of this discussion helps me in my quandry as to what it is makes a new evangelist. What am I to do if I am to respond to our Lord's final command.

But the Church is still the Church regardless of the faults we find in her especially in Rome; and it is in Rome that we find our Pope Emeritus who talks as straight as anyone could wish and is still a German but not of the friendly ghost variety.

"The question of truth, which at the beginning of Christianity moved Christians more than anything else, in this mode of thinking is placed within parentheses. It presupposes that the authentic truth about God, in the last analysis, is unobtainable, and that at best one can make present what is ineffable only with a variety of symbols. This renunciation of truth seems convincing and useful for peace among the religions of the world.

This is, however, lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding character and seriousness, if everything is reduced to symbols that are at the end interchangeable, capable of referring only from afar to the inaccessible mystery of the divine."

Of course we all used to know that we were members of the one true faith that comes from God and that the obligation placed on us was to ensure that we never departed from this faith and never gave up one iota of the teaching that comes from God. I pray that our leaders take note of these words of Pope Benedict and divest themselves of meaningless ecumenical forays and dialogues with those of other religions. What good can come of dialogue with a man who is certain that the Pope is the Antichrist or that belief in the Trinity constitutes polytheism.

The real 21 October 2014

How can it be true that we should expect nothing from a Pope? Is the Pope Christ's vicar on earth or is he not? Why is he the leader of our church? Is it because the connivers or contrivers, the Cardinals wished it so or is he really selected through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost? Are our Pope's morning homilies really full of barbs without any merit? Are we to believe that our Church is nothing more substantial than Quixotic Giants twisting and turning at the mercy of whichever wind of change or otherwise is blowing at the moment?

Not so; not so. All around there is permanent change. Ever since the sixties education has been run according to the Maoist principal of permanent revolution; we've all been affected by technology which used to be a word to suggest something less than science, but is now the driving force  and the results of our economy. But God is with us never changing; God is guarding his Church, Christ's Body on this earth; the Holy Ghost's inspiration can been seen and felt in our churches and the lessons from God are themselves changeless. And this is difficult for us as everyday does seem the same in our lack of inner growth and outward reach to the agnostics and atheists who self-confidently follow the primrose path that is now paved with diamonds to the end of their lives.

The world is full of good things and those who have them have had their reward. And we too, for in comparison to the possessions of 1st Century man we are indeed rich. Short life expectancy, fear from disease, hunger are far away from most of us. And where there is hunger disease and poverty we can by a little magic with paypal or a credit card close our minds to the suffering that is still the lot of many of our brothers and sisters. 

How did St Paul and the others spread the message so far in so short a time; 30 years after the resurrection the basic structure of our mass had been established and in another 30 years the basic structure that allowed the apostolic succession to happen was already in place.

The Holy Spirit came down on  all gathered in the upper room with Mary and the Church still in the care of Mary can turn us all to seek the Holy Spirit. I can do nothing but if the Church turns to the spirit of prayer and contemplation then we too have a chance to grow in the way of evangelization.

I earlier mentioned "barbs without teaching"  words used by a prominent Catholic blogger about Pope Francis' morning homilies. Here is an example from earlier this month---I can feel the teaching but the barbs have flown over my head; Thank God.

VATICAN CITY, October 08, 2014 (Zenit.org) - If we want to give glory to God, we must remember all He has done for us. But that also means remembering our sins. It means being honest with ourselves, said Pope Francis as he reflected on the Readings of the Day during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta.

The Lord "chose his people and accompanied them during their journey in the wilderness, throughout their lives", said Pope Francis commenting on the first reading in which St. Paul recalls his past life, without hiding his sins.

What "God did with His people - the Pope said - he has done and continues to do which each of us".  The Pope then asked "where we were chosen because Christian, and not that person over there, far away who has never even heard of Jesus Christ?". "It 'a grace," was the Pope’s answer: "A grace of love".

St. Paul’s  "concrete memory of this reality, is what makes Paul", who confesses to having ferociously persecuted the church.  Paul does not say "I am good, I am the son of this [family], I have a certain nobility ... ". No, Paul says, "I was a persecutor, I've been bad".  Pope Francis said that Paul remembers his journey, and he remembers it from the very beginning".

"This habit of remembering our life is not very common practice. We forget things, we live in the moment and then forget the past. And each of us has a story: a story of grace, a story of sin, a story of journey, so many things ... It is a good thing to pray with our history. [A prayer like] the one Paul does, where he tells a piece of his story, but in general says: 'He has chosen me! He called me! He saved me! He was my companion on the journey ... '.

Pope Francis continued : "[The act of ] remembering our own lives is to give glory to God. Remembering on our sins, by which the Lord has saved us, is to give glory to God”.  "Paul says that he has only two things: his sins, and the grace of the Crucified Lord, His grace”. Paul "remembered his sins, and boasted about them: 'I was a sinner, but Christ Crucified saved me' and he boasted about Christ. This was Paul’s memory. This is act of remembering that Jesus himself invites us to do ":

"When Jesus says to Martha: 'You are worried and troubled about many things, but you only need one thing. Mary has chosen the better part. 'What does he mean? [He means] Listening to the Lord and remembering. You cannot pray every day as if we did not have a story. Each of us has his or her own. And with this story in our heart we approach prayer, like Mary. Often we are distracted, like Martha, by work, by the day’s events, by those things that we have to do, and we forget this story".

Pope Francis said that our relationship with God, “does not begin on the day of Baptism: it is sealed there". [Our relationship] begins "when God, from eternity, looked upon us and chose us. It all begins in God’s heart:

"Remembering that we were chosen, chosen by God. Remembering our journey of covenant. Hve we respected this covenant, or not? No, we are sinners and we remember this, and we remember God’s promise to us which never disappoints, which is our hope. This is the true prayer”.

Pope Francis concluded his homily with an invitation to pray with Psalm 138: " LORD, you have probed me, you know me: you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar". “This is to pray, to pray is to remember in God's presence because our story is the story of His love for us".

21 October 2014

 A new evangelist has got to be surer that he is inspired by the Holy Spirit  and not by  pride in his own witticisms and display of archanish knowledge. Our priests and other clergy who fill their spare time with keeping up with diocesan gossip etc. do a great disservice to their flocks who do expect that the clergy can demonstrate a better way of life than their own. It is fair to expect those who have chosen /have been chosen for a life consecrated to the service of God and to their neighbour make all efforts to be seen to be earnestly striving towards holiness.

I am afraid that Father Tom, Dick or Harry may in his sweater and short sleeves appear to be "one of us" but there are already many of "us" and our priests have to stand out from the community that they serve;  they have to provide leadership in the faith. They, even if they can find well argued and well reasoned rejections of   this assertion, are the first glimpse of the faith that the world sees .

The world of the first evangelists saw Jews, who were not all unlettered fishermen of Galilee, who had devoutly followed and in some cases deeply explored the Law and knew the scriptures who had themselves been converted to seek a holiness that did not come from the Law but from the Living Lord. These first evangelists had witnessed Christ's death on the blood stained wood of the cross and had spoken to the Risen Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit were able to transmit this Spirit to those who would accept it.

We have been taught by our Church; we know more or less the historic Christ; the Christ of the Gospels and we know the lives of the Saints; we have been taught to pray and we have a vast resource of Christian writing and scholarship that is now available for us all Clergy or Laity to read and study. Everyday the Gospels and Readings chosen for the liturgy are read and in some cases pondered. We have a lot of paper and talk and thoughts and initiatives and meetings, but where are our holy men and women? Where are those who have seen the Lord?  Our first step as potential new evangelists is to convert our selves to the holiness that God demands; prayer and piety are not something to be shamefacedly admitted but to be shown and witnessed in our daily lives. And leading us the Lord has chosen priests who must be holy; please fathers put your prayers before anything; please pray first and then answer your e-mails; let your congregations see you praying privately in our churches and we too will learn that the Lord our God is indeed Holy.

First reading

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the crimes and the sins in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

    This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

First reading

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the crimes and the sins in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

    This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

First reading

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the crimes and the sins in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

    This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.