Monthly Archives: June 2016

ARE YOU READY FOR THE JOURNEY?
the small Wesleyan Chapel notice asks

Today’s Sunday Gospel begins with: “As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem.”  This passage marks the beginning of the central section of Luke’s Gospel (chapters  9:51 – 19:27), recounting the journey which culminated in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Today, as the word of God is being addressed to us, let us ponder that opening question: “Are you ready for the journey?”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, ‘Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, death seems like the normal end of life.  That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives:  remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfilment (CCC 1007).  Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the Divine Plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny’  (CCC 1013).  It then continues: ‘The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death’ (CCC 1014).

Guided by the Spirit, let us walk resolutely, steadfastly, uncompromisingly, the Christian path God has marked out for us since the moment of our baptism. c.f. St Paul’s letter to the Galatians – our second reading: “If you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is in opposition to the Spirit.”

                                                                                                   Fr. Philip Sainter

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TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

One day when Jesus was praying alone in the presence of his disciples he put this question to them, ‘Who do the crowds say I am? (Lk 9:18)

From their response it was clear that the so-called ‘democratic’ general opinion got it wrong! This strongly suggests that truth isn’t determined by popular opinion!

So, who is Jesus for us?
For the unnamed woman of last Sunday, Jesus was the Redeemer, the one who set her free, the giver of life.
Last weekend we learnt that for Paul, Jesus was his raison-d’être for living: ‘I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me’.
For the Psalmist in today’s Responsorial Psalm, Jesus/God is the one for whom he pines, the one he clings to with his right hand.
Today we also discover that for Peter, Jesus is the Christ of God.

And for you and me? Who is Jesus for you and me?
Let us seek an answer to that question by looking carefully at the Calvary Scene above the tabernacle on the High Altar, for therein lies your answer.

Fr Philip Sainter

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ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Bernard Lonergan, a remarkable and highly respected Jesuit philosopher and theologian, famously wrote:  ‘man achieves authenticity in self-transcendence’.  This process of self-transcendence lies at the heart of Paul’s writings in our second reading today. For Paul, the perfection of Christian life and Christian living involves not only ‘living for God’ (v.19b) but wanting and allowing God to reshape every aspect of our lives.  Thus he writes, ‘and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.’ (v.20)  Living in this way is a natural consequence of us choosing Christ and being baptised and Lonergan would add that our vocation now, as baptised Christians, is to be (human) beings being in LOVE – freely and deliberately wanting to be intimately (ontologically) united to Christ, with Christ living in us!

Now we can understand more completely the full significance of “the woman’s” actions in today’s Gospel reading.  With intimacy, love and faith, repentance and sorrow, she united herself to Christ and allowed God’s saving love to heal her and give her peace. (See the hymn by St Alphonsus Liguori, trans E Vaughan no 662 v. 2, “I live, no ’tis not I that live; God gives me life, God lives in me”.

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This weekend this country and the Commonwealth are celebrating the Queen’s 90^th birthday.  Let us congratulate her and wish her peace and God’s Blessing.

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The Compassion of God gives us life and restores us to life!

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An extract from the sermon given by Pope Francis on 6^th June 2013

Our readings reveal the meaning of the biblical term compassion. Compassion is a sign of the Kingdom of God breaking forth. It reveals the character of God.
The first reading at Mass (1 Kings 17:17-24) records the resurrection of the son of the widow of Zarephath, of Sidon. That resurrection was worked by God, working through his Prophet Elijah. It was done out of compassion.

The Gospel account (Luke 7:11-17) of the resurrection of the only son of the widow of Nain reveals heavenly compassion working in and through the Incarnate Son of God. When Jesus saw the funeral procession and encountered the tears of a mother, he was moved with compassion.

A more accurate translation of the original Greek text is not captured by the English translation – “sorrow/pity”. It is better rendered by the translation – compassion: ‘the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her… And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”  And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother.’

What is revealed in this encounter is what the compassion of God really looks like in the flesh … it also reveals our own vocation as a Christian, no matter who we are – or what state in life or vocation we are living.

The Latin root from which we derive the English word ‘compassion’ actually means to enter into the suffering of another. It is about much more than sorrow/pity. It is a response, an action rooted in love. This kind of response is meant to characterize those who bear the name ‘Christian’.  Christians live differently because we live now in Jesus Christ. We love differently because we love in Jesus Christ.  We can truly become different, at the deepest level, when we cooperate with grace and allow the character of Christ to be formed in us, and to be manifest to others.

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