Newsletter for Sundays 24 and 31 December 2017

22 Dec

VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST

Over the Christmas period you will see these Latin words in red on the cloth on the High Altar – “Verbum caro factum est” which means, “The Word was made flesh.” It comes from the Gospel of Christmas Day where St John tells us that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” This means God truly became one of us. God is not just some force holding things together or a mere idea. He is a personal God Who has become visible to us in JESUS. JESUS is the human face of God which means we can now see Him, hear Him and touch Him. Pope Benedict XVI once said, “We still have wars. We still get sick. People still suffer. We still die. So what did JESUS bring?” His answer? “JESUS brings us God.”

This little baby lying in the manger at Bethlehem is God stretching down His hand from Heaven to rescue our fallen human race. And that same little voice crying there in the manger is the same Eternal “Word” who called everything into existence out of nothing. We cannot even begin to comprehend the magnitude of this. There is a thought provoking text we sometimes use in the Mass of Our Lady which says, “He Whom the whole world cannot hold enclosed Himself in your womb, and became man.” How can He Whom the Heavens cannot contain and Who created everything out of nothing enter the womb of Our Lady? How can the Infinite enter the finite? This is one of the great mysteries of our Faith and we can only kneel in silent adoration and wonder before it. Do take a few minutes over the next week to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation, of God becoming man.

Finally, on behalf of Deacon David, Fr Simon and myself, I wish you all a very blessed and peaceful Christmas. May the love of the Christ Child shine on you and all your family in this holy season.

Fr Paul Gillham IC

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Newsletter for Sunday 17 December 2017

15 Dec

JESUS is the True Messiah

As I wrote last week, in the Liturgy during Advent we hear a lot from the prophets about the One who is to come. Some of these prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Malachi and finally the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist from whom we hear again in this week’s Gospel. And when we read through these prophecies we realise that for over a thousand years before His coming, the prophets were able to foretell the actual events of Our Lord’s life with such accuracy and precision, so that when He finally came we would be able to recognise JESUS as the One sent by God.

So Our Lord’s coming was pre-announced. The prophets were able to foretell these future events simply because God had revealed it to them by the Holy Spirit. And I think it’s very good for us to reflect upon the fact that this fulfilment of messianic prophecy is something which is totally unique to Christianity. History is full of people who claimed they were sent by God or who said they had a special message from God, but without a jot of evidence to back it up. But God gave the world all the evidence it needed to recognise the True Messiah. The true prophets all point to our Lord JESUS Christ – the one true Lord and Saviour of the world. In Him alone are all the prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament brought to fulfilment. JESUS is the promised One who would come to save us from our sins. There is salvation under no other name. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Fr Paul Gillham IC

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Newsletter for Sunday 10 December 2017

8 Dec

We Need a Saviour

One of the great things about Advent is that it reminds us of our need of a Saviour – but a Saviour from what? Today’s readings remind us we are sinners, but that God is coming to do something about it. He is coming to save us from sin. This is the Good News! Throughout the Old Testament, God promised through the great prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Malachi, not just a Messiah, but a Saviour who would come to make of Himself a perfect and eternal sacrifice, so as to free us forever from the power of sin and death. And this Messiah would not just be an ordinary human being – He would be the God Man – God Himself clothed in our human flesh. Hence St John the Baptist points out Jesus as the promised One saying, “I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of His sandal.”  He is the Saviour, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

So if He is the Saviour, to be saved we must admit our sinfulness and our fallen state. Our fallen human nature means we suffer from things like pride, lust, envy, greed, laziness and so on. We can be unforgiving, mean and petty, we fail to repent, and so sin can destroy us. When we realise this, Christmas, the birth of the Saviour, takes on a new and wonderful meaning. As the Angel told the shepherds on that first Christmas night, “Behold I bring you tidings of great joy: for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”

So a good Advent means acknowledging our need of a Saviour so as we can have a really joyful Christmas. And that joy comes from knowing that God loves us so much, that He became man, suffered the most terrible death on the cross and rose again from the dead, so as YOU could enter Paradise which had been lost due to Original Sin. This is why He is our Saviour. The fruits of His saving death and resurrection are transmitted to us through the sacraments. We should never deny the reality of sin, because if we do we deny the need of a Saviour. If we deny the need of a Saviour and the need for salvation, then Christmas and the cross have no meaning. So if it is a long time since you made use of the sacrament of Penance, why not ask God to help you do so this Advent?

Fr. Paul Gillham IC

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Newsletter for Sunday 3 December 2017

1 Dec

Be Prepared! You do not Know the Day or the Hour

Today is the First Sunday of Advent and the beginning of the new liturgical year during which we will be reading the Gospel of Mark. The word “advent” comes from the Latin advenio meaning “to come to,” and refers to the coming of Christ. There are two advents of Christ which the Church asks us to prepare for during this season: the first is obviously preparation for His coming at Christmas, while the second is preparation for His Second Coming in glory at the end of time, when the Final Judgement will take place, and we heard about that in last week’s Gospel (Matthew 25:31-46). This is the coming which is referred to again in today’s reading from the Gospel of St Mark (13:33-37).

Our Lord stresses that we do not know when He will return and therefore we must be vigilant, watch and pray. But we might ask, why didn’t He tell us when He would return? Surely it would be better for us to know? We must realise if God chooses not to reveal something to us it is always for our benefit. St Thomas Aquinas points out that if we did know, we would be careless and be tempted to put off our conversion to the end. But such an attitude would be very dangerous since we cannot guarantee to reform our lives in the last moments: we would likely be steeped in sin and therefore conversion will never take place. And neither can we guarantee the opportunity. Death, as St Paul tells us, can come unexpectedly, “like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). We will also be happier in this life if we strive for virtue and to live according to God’s Law. 

Therefore Advent, like Lent is a time of conversion and penance, although perhaps less rigorous than Lent. The penitential aspect is reflected by the omission of the Gloria during Mass and the use of violet vestments. So it’s a time when we should strive ever more to do God’s will. This always begins with avoiding sin and going to confession when we fail. It also means using our talents in the service of others – performing the works of mercy for example. And then we have privileged knowledge. Many today do not know about Christ and His Kingdom and so it’s up to us to tell them. Like Noah, we want to get as many as possible inside the Ark of the Church, so that when the final day does come they won’t get caught in the flood!

Fr Paul Gillham IC

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