This blog is for the use of the whole parish; please let me know if you'd like to contribute.
Chris (email link at the bottom of each page)
"Come to me, all you who are weary . . ."
14-07-2022, 07:07burden, Christ, peace, rest, yokePermalinkMatthew • 11:28-30 JULY 145
Life can be burdensome, what with illnesses, the stress of modern living, mortgage repayments, family troubles . . . the list is endless. It's part of the human condition to experience being weary and burdened by life at times. Jesus shows us the remedy, and we would do well to digest each word he says carefully.
The key and central idea is, 'Come to me': Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest' (v.28);...anyone who comes to me I will never drive away' (John 6:37); "The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" (Rev. 22:17). In this express command we see that he isthe One to whom we should go to for comfort, consolation and to find peace.
But where are we to find him? In truth, we find him whenever we turn to him in prayer and whenever we read or listen to his Word. However, We come into the presence of Jesus himself in a unique way when we receive the Eucharist or kneel before him in adoration.
The peace of Christ is not a cheap, shallow or superficial peace, but is rooted in taking on the yoke of discipleship. A disciple is essentially someone who recognises that they need to learn from a master, someone who is – and wants to be – under discipline. What is it that we're to learn as disciples of Christ? We're to learn to walk in the way of the Holy Spirit. We're to learn to live the Beatitudes – the way of the Sermon of the Mount (Matt. 5:1-12). We're to learn to understand., as St Augustine did, that, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." Peace, rest, solace and comfort are not found by refusing God's will but by embracing it. St Paul of the Cross put it well when he wrote, “I desire rest, but I don't spurn toil. Your will be done.”
Lord Jesus, I turn to you because you are the only One who offers truth, freedom and lasting peace. You are the Lord and Master of my life. I throw myself upon your love and mercy.
Chris
Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 • Psalm 101(102):13-21 • Matthew 11:28-30
The Church in its Beginning
18-04-2022, 06:44Christ, evangelical, faith, hope, Messiah, resurrection, WitnessPermalinkMatthew: 28:8–15
Today we begin an exciting adventure, a quest, an odyssey, through the masterpiece we know as the Acts of the Apostles. Essentially, it takes us into the early years of the Church's growth and expansion. It's not called 'Acts' for nothing!
Luke's narrative is action-packed, a thrilling, white-knuckle ride, a front row seat to the nascent Church's fight to establish itself and proclaim the Gospel. We hope that over the coming weeks we may all grow in our love, appreciation and understanding of the incredible challenges and opportunities the first believers faced. The saints whose stories are told here were the true pioneers of our faith; we stand on their shoulders, we sit at their feet.
So, a little background. The Hebrew word 'Messiah' and the Greek word Christ' both mean 'anointed'. The term originally referred to the king of Israel as God's Anointed'. When the Davidic kingdom was destroyed, the Jews expected God to restore it through a descendant of David, one anointed, as he was, by God's Spirit. For Luke, Jesus was the Lord's Anointed: the Messiah, the Christ.
Fresh from his experience of being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter preaches boldly, explaining how Jesus` Passion and death fulfilled Joel's prophecy (Joel 2:28-32). While the Jewish people believed Psalm 16:8-1l referred to David, Peter reinterprets it in the light of Jesus' resurrection: “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You..will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (NIV).
Jesus is Lord; the Messiah and Victor who conquered sin and death. This is the Gospel's message. In this Year of Faith, we can recover a new sense of excitement and conviction that Jesus is Lord and appreciate that we couldn't proclaim, believe and embrace this wonderful truth without the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, please give me a fresh sense of the urgency to witness to my faith and be an evangelist.
Acts 2:14, 22–33 • Psalm 15(16):1–2, 5, 7-11 • Matthew 28:8–15
The Sign of Jonah and Repentance
11-10-2021, 06:53Christ, faith, God, repentancePermalinkhttp://www.ingodsimage.com/2016/04/the-sign-of-the-prophet-jonah/
Luke 11:29–32
On several occasions the Jews demanded miraculous signs (see Matt. 12:38; Mark 8:11), but Jesus rejected these requests because their motives were wrong. In today’s passage Jesus says that those who demand a sign would indeed be given one – but only the sign of Jonah (v.29). Jonah spent three days and three nights buried in the belly of a whale, just as Jesus would spend three days and three nights buried in the belly of the earth.
Jesus goes on to say that if the Queen of Sheba had responded positively to the teaching of Solomon and the people of Nineveh to the preaching of Jonah, how much more should the Jews respond to his ministry, as he is infinitely greater than either Solomon or the Queen of Sheba? How did the people of Nineveh respond to the teaching of Jonah? The repented. Repentance is the only correct response when we come to embrace and accept God’s Word. We need to cultivate an “incarnational awe” or an “incarnational adoration”, whereby, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we can grasp more clearly who is Jesus.
Jesus was and is God’s revelation of himself. Pope St John Paul II reflected, “The whole of Christ’s life was a continual teaching: his silences, his miracles, his gestures, his prayer, his love for his people, his special attention for the title and the poor, his acceptance of the total sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of the world and his resurrection are the actualisation of the word and the fulfilment of revelation.”
In the same way that a Roman coin would have displayed different images for the Emperor Caesar and then his son and successor, so in Christ we meet the living Scriptures – the Word made flesh. Fidel Castro once said: “I’ve always considered Christ to be one of the greatest revolutionaries in the history of humanity.” He was right, but in fact Jesus was so much more than a revolutionary, so much more than a king of a prophet – because Jesus is God.
“Although Christ was God, he took flesh; and having been made man, he remained what he was, God.” (Origen)
Romans 1:1–7 • Psalm 97(98) 1–4 • Luke 11:29–32
Who do you say that I am?
24-09-2021, 09:59Christ, faith, Messiah, question, revelationPermalinkHaggai 1:15–2:9 • Psalm 42(43):1–4 • Luke 9:18–22
A Chinese proverb says that a person who asks a question is a fool for five minutes, but one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. There are a number of key questions in life which we ignore at our peril. What is the purpose of life on earth? What happens after I die? Is death the end or is there an afterlife?
In today's Gospel reading we encounter another important question, the answer to which sheds light on each one of these existential questions. It s the question that Jesus put to his disciples and continues to put to every man and woman on the face of the earth. He asks you and he asks me: “Who do you say that I am?" (v. 20). The answer to this question is the gateway to unravelling the meaning of life and to solving the mystery of what happens after we die. The answer to this question is crucial for our lives on earth and our eternal destiny.
When Peter uttered his famous declaration that Jesus is 'the Christ of God', Jesus realised that a Watershed had been reached in the disciples' understanding of who he is. It was recognition that Jesus is more than a prophet; he is more than a great teacher: he is the Son of God. What revelation has made known is that Jesus Christ was God made man. The very Lord, Creator and King humbled himself by becoming a human being: he was made one of us, became one of us, and lived like one of us.
To be able to grasp this truth and allow it to shape our lives requires a grace of revelation – mere flesh and blood, the power of our own reasoning, cannot grasp this most sacred and profound of Christian truths. The following words were spoken by St Augustine many centuries ago, but they still have a tremendous impact today: “[Jesus] was created of a mother whom he created. He was carried by hands that he had formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, he the Word without whom all human eloquence is mute.”
Jesus assumed our humanity that we might become God. (St Athanasius)
Occupy your mind with good thoughts
09-10-2020, 07:24Christ, cross, evil, goodPermalinkSt John Henry Newman (Feast)
2 Timothy 1:1–5 • Psalm 95 (96) • John 15:9–17
There are two extremes into which people fall when it comes to their attitude to evil and the devil. At one end of the spectrum is to believe in the devil and evil excessively, and at the other not to believe in evil or the devil at all — with plenty of people fitting somewhere in-between! This is as true in our age as any other, and we have ample evidence of excessive belief in innumerable blockbuster films and books and even weekend courses on the occult and demons.
We, for our part, are guided and governed by the Scriptures and the wisdom of the Church passed down through the ages. The Church has always affirmed that the devil and his realm is a reality (see, e. g. Catechism of the Catholic Church 407) which we ignore at our peril. Jesus is the strong man who by his death and resurrection has redeemed the world. By his cross, in his name and through his blood we who have received the grace of baptism are protected and kept safe, but we need to call upon this shield of God’s grace.
We are invited to enter into the spiritual battle which is waged every day. This notion of spiritual conflict or engaging the enemy can seem rather obscure or remote, especially when the daily struggle to deal with the problems of this world is hard enough. Perhaps the great saint and martyr Thomas More shed some light on' this when he said: “Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones; unoccupied they cannot be.” Being passive and undisciplined in our thinking and in our behaviour can open us up to the devil and his ways. The devil delights in an idleness of mind and a passivity which does not actively take up the good fight of faith.
A mind filled with God’s truth and God’s thoughts is a mind which is bolstering and protecting itself against the snares and attacks of the Evil One. God created us with the gift of free Will, and the greatest challenge we face every day is to choose God and reject the devil, to choose the good and repel evil, and to stand firm in faith.
Lord Jesus, protect us from the snares, wiles and schemes of the Evil One. I call upon the power of your name, cross and blood, that I may live more and more in your presence.
Chris
Who is Jesus?
25-09-2020, 09:30Christ, faith, Jesus, Peter, WitnessPermalinkEcclesiastes 3:1-11 • Psalm 143(144) 1–4 • Luke 9:18-22
It is sometimes difficult to express simply and clearly what we believe. For some, it may stem from a lack of confidence or a fear of being rejected. For others, it might be that they don’t even have the words.
Take those suffering with dementia, for example. There are in the UK 700,000 people suffering from dementia, and that number is steadily increasing. Being diagnosed with dementia is distressing for the individual concerned and for their family and friends. As someone’s ability to relate to the world around them is diminished, they become more isolated. Communication becomes increasingly difficult – they might not be able to talk or to communicate in other ways.
Jesus asked Peter, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ (v 20). Peter knew exactly who Jesus was, just as God knows exactly who we are. He knows the number of hairs on our head (Luke 12:7). Whatever happens to our mental functions, we remain spiritual beings. The Catechism fo the Cat/90hr Church states that ‘The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God’ (para. 1700).
Peter recognised Jesus as the Christ (v. 20). Do we look for and recognise God in those with dementia? The decline in someone’s mental faculties does not end their personal journey of faith or diminish their full human integrity. They continue on their pilgrimage, usually aware of the continuing importance of their deeply held spirituality, and often finding comfort in familiar prayers and rituals. God is there in their loneliness to give them comfort.
Would Peter have openly stated his faith if he hadn’t been directly challenged byJesus? He might not have made such a declaration without prompting, but he knew what he thought and felt. He had faith. For those witnessing the mental decline of their loved ones, faith becomes all the more important too. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear…” (Ps. 46:1-2).
Loving Father you are close to the broken-hearted. Look with compassion on those whose lost memories have robbed them of home and belonging. Comfort and strengthen those who care for them. May they make their home in you. This we ask through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Chris
Graphic from: https://slmnallotey.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/jesus-the-word-of-god/
Christ the High Priest (Feast of the Lord)
04-06-2020, 07:49Christ, God-man, Jesus, The CrossPermalinkKnowing the Father
16-07-2019, 06:29Christ, FatherPermalink(from Bible Alive)
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