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The Transfiguration – what to make of it?

This Sunday 6^th August is the Feast of The Transfiguration of the Lord but when you think about it, it can sound a bit ‘magical’, ‘fairytale-ish’ even. We are told that Jesus goes up onto a mountain and His clothes become dazzlingly white. Prophets appear and talk to Him. And then it is all over and Jesus tells His friends to say nothing. But why?

We should hold on to the absurdity of the incident. For there is simply no reason for all this to have happened. In particular, there is no reason to put it into a Gospel – the evangelist, Matthew, makes no capital out of it. It doesn’t help his message. It’s simply just there!

And this is the strength of the Transfiguration as an historical incident. There is no reason for anyone to have invented it. It is not central to the Christian case. It is not used to win arguments. There is only one reason to put it into the Gospel, and that is because it happened. It is one of those cases of the writer putting things down without knowing why they are important but just because they happened, and their very puzzlement is what makes the story so convincing.

Why, then, did it happen? Surely so that we could see and understand that Jesus is at once the one with the message and the one foretold by the prophets of God and that He is one with God, and lives for all eternity in a blaze of dazzling and unapproachable light. What Peter had blurted out, in his usual impetuous way, that Jesus was the Christ of God, is here on the mountain confirmed in unimaginable clarity.

And so too, in the Transfiguration, Jesus is empowered to continue His journey and mission to save all who will trust in Him, knowing that regardless of what lies ahead, His Father remains with Him, guiding His steps and making His mission bear fruit for all humanity.

In the end, as we reflect on the mystery of the Transfiguration, we are reminded that the death of Jesus was not an accident of fate or some expression of Divine wrath, but an act of love, freely accepted and offered for the sake of those who are “least” in the Kingdom of Heaven—for you and for me and all who would call Him Lord.

Let’s heed the words of Wisdom then, spoken to us from on high: Suddenly the voice of the Father resounds proclaiming Jesus to be His most beloved Son, saying ‘listen to him.’ These words are important! Our Father said this to these Apostles and says it to us as well: ‘listen to Jesus, because He is my beloved Son.’

This week let us keep these words in our minds and in our hearts: ‘listen to Jesus! God the Father says it to everyone: to me, to you, to everyone, all people! Here is the aid for our journey of life. ‘Listen to Jesus!’ Listen to Him as you read your Bibles. Listen to Him during the Mass. Listen to Him in your special moments in prayer.  Don’t forget, HE LOVES YOU!

Fr David Jones OLW

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St John Marie Vianney

This Friday 4^th August, the Church celebrates the feast of one of its greatest priests – St John Marie Vianney (1786-1859). He is the Patron Saint of Parish Priests and is also known as the Curé d’Ars which means the Parish Priest of Ars.

He was born in the French town of Dardilly, near Lyons into a very devout Catholic family and was one of six children. It was a very turbulent time for the Church in France because of the French Revolution. Churches, monasteries and convents were either confiscated or destroyed, and priests and religious had to go into hiding for fear of their lives. Masses and the Sacraments had to be celebrated secretly in houses, in barns, in cellars and sometimes in the middle of the night. The Vianneys would often travel long distances to attend Mass, and John at thirteen years old made his First Holy Communion in a neighbour’s kitchen. The Vianney family hid many priests in their own home and John came to love their company and to really admire the sacrifice they made. Through these extraordinary circumstances he came to see these priests as heroes for Christ.

John always wanted to be a priest, but struggled with his studies, and it seemed he would never be ordained. But a kindly priest took him in hand and he overcame the obstacles. He was finally ordained a priest on 12^th August 1815 and celebrated his first Mass the following day. He was appointed assistant to his great friend and mentor Abbé Balley, and then three years later, despite the difficult times, he was appointed Parish Priest of Ars where he would spend the rest of his life.

Ars was a small town of around 230 people not far from Lyons, and due to the Revolution almost all the people there had stopped practising the Faith and were totally indifferent to their religion. There had been no priest there for years. Blasphemy, cursing, profanation of Sundays, gatherings and dances at taverns with immodest songs and conversation were commonplace, and so he wasn’t well received. These things would be the subject of Fr Vianney’s sermons and he never held back. But he fasted, did severe penances, went without sleep and used the discipline. He took only one meal a day which consisted of one or two boiled potatoes and water. He performed all these penances and mortifications for the welfare of his people and to convert them. However, we must note that he was only able to do these things because he was given a special gift by God. Don’t try and do these extreme penances yourselves!

After ten years of preaching and visiting his parishioners regularly he had converted and transformed the little town of Ars, and people were flocking there in their thousands from all over France to see this holy priest and to make their confession to him. Some of the other priests became jealous of Fr Vianney and forbade their own parishioners from going to see him. They even wrote letters to the Bishop saying he was too ignorant to be a Parish Priest and should certainly not hear Confessions. So they got a petition going to have him removed. The petition mistakenly came to Fr Vianney, and when he saw the signatures of so many priests, he signed it himself and sent it to the Bishop! His great humility moved the priest who had started the petition to great remorse and they became good friends.

He was like no other confessor, and thousands of people, including the nobility, would queue for three days to see him. Towards the end of his life, around one hundred thousand people were coming to Ars every year. He could spend up to eighteen hours in the confessional every day! If people withheld certain sins he would admonish them, and often, to their astonishment would tell them what their sins were.  

He also suffered violent personal attacks from the devil. On the night before a really big sinner was going to come for Confession, the attacks would become more ferocious and the holy Curé would say, “There’s a really big fish coming tomorrow.” He would hear howling noises, shouting and evil singing. On other occasions the devil would curse him, and on one occasion pulled him out of bed and set it on fire.  The devil at one point even admitted to him, “If there were three priests such as you, my kingdom would be ruined.”

After forty years, life had taken its toll on his physical and spiritual health and there were various times when he wanted to run away from the parish to prepare for his own death. He was never successful in this and he died on 4^th August 1859. The Bishop presided over his funeral with three hundred priests and more than six thousand people in attendance. His body is preserved incorrupt above an altar in the Parish Church of Ars.

St John Vianney is both a shining and challenging example for us priests.  The job description for the priest is very simple – to save and to sanctify souls.  So please continue praying for all priests that we will both look to and be inspired by the example of St John Vianney.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Why is there evil in the world?

One of the most common questions people ask about God is, “If God is all good, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?” This is a very good question. However, God didn’t create evil. Evil comes into the world through the free choice of man. War, famine, disease, selfishness and abuse are all the result of man using his free will to rebel against God’s plan for mankind. But why does He allow it all to continue? The answer is that if He were to eliminate the consequences of our free choices, He would be depriving us of our free will.  So God allows our choices to play out.

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 13:24-43), JESUS is clear that in the Church and the world there are both wheat and darnel, that is both good and evil. There are many holy people in the Church today doing wonderful things and allowing God’s grace to work in them. But everywhere we look evil is also present, even in the Church. But this doesn’t mean that Our Lord is unaware of the evil, or that He’s not going to do something about it. All of it will be sorted out, but only on the Last Day at the Final Judgement.

So in the Parable of the Wheat and the Darnel (weeds), Our Lord tells the workers to allow the wheat and the darnel to grow together until the end of the world. The righteous will go into the kingdom of Heaven, which is described here as the barn, whereas the wicked will go into the blazing furnace, which is eternal separation from God which we call Hell. Before the Final Judgement, the Church and the world, is always going to consist of both good and evil alike; and in His Providence God allows those to remain side by side until the end. Why? So that sinners may repent, because God wants to give everyone the opportunity to save their soul.

St Therese of Lisieux, (1873-97) when she was a young girl became very distressed at the thought that some people might reject God and lose their soul. So she began praying fervently for the conversion of sinners. And when she was fifteen, she saw a newspaper story about a convicted murderer named Pranzini, who had been found guilty and was facing the death penalty, but refused to repent of his crimes.  When she read about it she was really excited, because here now was her chance to pray and sacrifice for a particular sinner!  So she asked God through the merits of the Passion of JESUS to give Pranzini the grace of conversion, and she said many prayers and made many sacrifices for him. But she also asked God to give her a sign if he repented. When Thérèse read the newspaper account of Pranzini’s execution, she was delighted to read that although he had previously ignored all attempts of the prison chaplain to help him convert, suddenly he asked the priest to hold up a crucifix, which he kissed three times before being executed.

So prayer and sacrifice is powerful, and like St Thérèse, we also have the opportunity to change darnel into wheat. In our times with so much war, terrorism and crime, it would be a really Christian thing not only to pray for the victims of these crimes, but also to pray and sacrifice for the conversion of the perpetrators.

We pray also for those we know who may be living less than Christian lives. Our prayers and sacrifices, and perhaps even fasting for that person can often bring about a breakthrough of grace. Perhaps God is asking each of us now to focus our prayers on one particular person in need of them. And then imagine, when hopefully one day we get to Heaven, every conversion in which we played a part will bring about an eternal friendship and will be a cause of unending joy.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the Brown Scapular

Were today not the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we would be celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Particularly associated with this feast is the Brown Scapular which is one of the great ‘sacramentals’ of the Church and it is sometimes called ‘Our Lady’s uniform’. The Brown Scapular consists of two pieces of brown wool tied together with a cord which is worn over the shoulders. Our Lady gave the Brown Scapular to St Simon Stock in 1251, who was a Carmelite Friar at Aylesford in Kent. St Simon Stock was the Superior of the Carmelites in England at the time. He complained to Our Lady that his order was being persecuted and falling apart and so he begged for her protection. She appeared to him on 16^th July 1251 and presented him with the Brown Scapular saying, “Son, receive this Scapular as a sign of the privilege which I have obtained for you and the children of Mount Carmel. Whosoever shall die clothed with this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.” The Church extended this privilege to the laity who are enrolled in and wear the Brown Scapular, so you don’t need to be a Carmelite to wear it.

At the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima on 13^th October 1917, the occasion of the famous Miracle of the Sun, she appeared to the three seers Jacinta, Francesco and Lucia as Our Lady of Mount Carmel and held out the Brown Scapular to them. Lucia some years later when asked why, she replied that Our Lady wants everyone to wear it. Once a person is enrolled, it ought to be worn all the time in order to obtain the spiritual benefits. It reminds us to ask our Heavenly Mother’s help to keep us out of sin throughout the day, and by wearing it we tell her we love her and trust her.

Our Lady also promised St Simon Stock that those who fulfil certain conditions and wear the Scapular, she will free from Purgatory shortly after their death and particularly on Saturdays which is Our Lady’s day. This is known as the ‘Sabbatine Privilege’. The conditions are:

• to wear the Brown Scapular faithfully,
• to observe chastity according to one’s state in life,
• to recite five decades of the Rosary every day.

This is not asking much when one considers the privileges. There are many wonderful stories of miracles of salvation brought about by the Scapular. On the same day Our Lady gave St Simon the Scapular, he was called to the bedside of a dying and unrepentant man. He placed his own large Scapular over the dying man and immediately the man repented and died as a friend of God. Later that day the man appeared to his family and told them he had been saved by “the most powerful Queen and by the Brown Scapular of that man as a shield of protection.”

Pope St John Paul II (1920-2005), often spoke of how he had worn the Scapular all his life. When he was shot in St Peter’s Square by a Turkish assassin on 13^th May 1981, as he was being taken into the operating theatre, he asked them not to remove his Scapular.

Although miracles are attributed to it, it is not a lucky charm. We have to wear it with devotion and strive to lead a good Christian life. We should not presume to be saved just because we wear it. As the priest enrols you he says, “Receive this blessed Scapular and ask the Most Holy Virgin that, by her merits, it may be worn with no stain of sin and may protect you from all harm and bring you into everlasting life.”

If you are not already enrolled and would like to be please let me know. I have a good supply of them. It would not be sinful if you were to stop wearing it after enrolment, but you would lose the spiritual benefits attached.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Saved by the Precious Blood of JESUS

As June was the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of JESUS, so July is dedicated to His Precious Blood. JESUS gave His life for us, and this is symbolised by the shedding of His Precious Blood. So the Precious Blood of JESUS is the price of the world.

On Calvary Our Lord’s side was pierced by a lance and out flowed blood and water (John 19:34) which represents Baptism and the other Sacraments which bring life. St Augustine (354-430) says that Christ’s flesh was the veil around the tabernacle of His Heart, and when on the Cross that veil was torn in two, the tabernacle was opened, and out came Baptism and Holy Communion. Also the waters of the flood in the Old Testament washed the earth and cleansed it (Genesis 7), so now the Blood of Christ covers the earth and sanctifies it and makes it holy. In the time of Noah, those who went inside the ark were saved. And we now go mystically into the side of Christ pierced by the lance, where we find His Sacred Heart and the Church, and thus we are saved. Noah and those in the ark were saved by the wood of the ark, but we are saved by the wood of the Cross. There is a rich symbolism here. So every time we see a crucifix, a tabernacle, the colour red or water, we are reminded of these events which really happened and which are all connected. Such is the richness and the depth of our faith.

But why is the Blood of Christ able to save us? It saves us because Christ is God. He is fully God and fully man. Therefore every act of JESUS, the God man is of an infinite value because of whose Body, whose Blood and whose human Soul it is. We read in the Letter to the Hebrews, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (9:22). And “it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Yes, the Blood of Christ is human blood, but it is also the Blood of God, and so the tiniest drop of His Blood, being of an infinite value, would have been enough to atone for every sin ever committed, and to redeem an infinite number of people and an infinite number of universes, so precious is the Blood of Christ.

Both during Mass and outside of Mass we can offer the Precious Blood of JESUS to the Father. The Blood of JESUS is so powerful that we can obtain many graces by doing so. In a vision, St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi (1566-1607) saw many saints before the Throne of God, interceding for sinners, but their petitions remained unanswered. Then the Guardian Angels of these poor sinners approached and their petitions were not heard either. Next came the multitudes of the blessed and they made intercession for these souls, but at the same time they offered to God the Father the Precious Blood, and their petitions were granted. So it is a good practice to offer to God the Father the Precious Blood of JESUS many times throughout the day. Our Lord taught St Gertrude (1256-1302) to say the following prayer:

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, JESUS, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family.”

Precious Blood of JESUS, price of our salvation, save us!

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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