24th of August

St. Bartholomew, patron saint of Armenia, pray for us

Along with his fellow apostle Jude Thaddeus, Bartholomew is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century. Thus, both saints are considered the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

He is said to have been martyred in Albanopolis in Armenia. According to one account, he was beheaded, but a more popular tradition holds that he was flayed alive and crucified, head downward. He is said to have converted Polymius, the king of Armenia, to Christianity. Astyages, Polymius' brother, consequently ordered Bartholomew's execution

Pope Francis was in Armenia in 2016

‘In a largely Orthodox land where Catholics are a minority, Armenians seemed genuinely honoured to welcome a pope who has long championed the Armenian cause from his time as an archbishop in Argentina and now as leader of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church.’

In his initial remarks in the ornate Armenian Apostolic Church in Etchmiadzin, Francis didn't use the politically charged term "genocide" but instead spoke of the "holy sign of martyrdom" of Armenians who died at the hands of Ottoman Turks starting in 1915.

With the Apostolic patriarch Karekin II by his side, Francis praised Armenia for becoming the first nation to declare Christianity the state religion in 301 and for keeping alive the "light of faith" even in its darkest times.

"For Armenia, faith in Christ has not been like a garment to be donned or doffed as circumstances or convenience dictate, but an essential part of its identity, a gift of immense significance, to be accepted with joy, preserved with great effort and strength, even at the cost of life itself," he said.

The Vatican has long cheered the Armenian cause, holding up the poor nation of 3 million mostly Orthodox Christians as a bastion of faith and martyrdom in a largely Muslim region.

Reflections on the Gospel

We have found the one Moses spoke of

He is Jesus, son of Joseph, form, Nazareth

Nazareth, Can any good come out of Nazareth? Bartholomew asks.

'How do you know me?' Bartholomew asks Jesus.

Jesus replies 'I saw you under the fig tree.'

'Rabbi, you are the son of God, the King of Israel'

This interesting and curious dialogue is the dialogue if every person:

How do you know me?

Jesu knew us before we came to know Him.

In the prophet Jeremiah, we read: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you’. This applies not just to Jeremiah, or Bartholomew, but all of born and unborn.

What dignity we all have! And how it is discarded in today’s mind-set.

The Lord is introduced to Bartholomew by Philip who has already come to know Jesus simply in terms of parentage and geography. Philip is the great ‘human relations’ apostle who would also introduce the little boy with five loaves and two fish to Jesus.

But Bartholomew comes to faith in huge strides: Jesus is his teacher, Bartholomew his disciple, his follower and believer in Jesus’ divinity; and subject to His Kingdom, all at once, with his exclamation: 'Rabbi, you are the son of God, the King of Israel'.

And Jesus tells him he will see greater things than that, including heaven’s doors thrown up and the Son of Man in glory!

Tuesday 23rd of August

In the first reading today we read that the first Christians in Thessalonica were given to speculating about the imminent Second Coming. St Paul has to address their concerns and urges them to stand firm in faith and hope and strength for each day.

Given the state of the world, and in the face of precipitous moral decline, random acts of appalling terrorism, the seeming unsolvable refugee crisis, corruption in public life, moral compromises on all fronts, there is no shortage of doomsayers today.

There has always been the temptation to allow ourselves to be 'caught up' and distracted from duty by idle speculation of all kinds. Usually they lead nowhere and events turn out quite differently anyway from what we had foreseen. How much news time is taken up with journalists interviewing each other with questions like ‘what if', ‘what are the possibilities?' ‘What are the likely scenarios?'

It is important to plan ahead of course but at some point we have to respond to the evils of this generation by doing what our own duty requires, speaking up in the media and being of influence and example too but ultimately we have to leave things to God. We are not in control, but we have free will to make the right decisions. Nothing is set in stone. But we must also avoid the temptation of the first century Christians convinced of Christ’s imminent Second Coming who chose to do nothing - to live in idleness and passivity and as interfering nuisances.

The other temptation that leads us to stray off the point is in the wrong direction is the trivial and issues of lesser importance of we have not the key issues right in upright living, especially conversion and ongoing repentance and ensuring that we are concerned primarily with ‘justice, mercy, good faith’ (Matthew 23:24), and by ridding ourselves of vices of sloth, injustice, intemperance.

We must set about to busy ourselves with cleaning ourselves from the inside out rather than – like the Pharisees – being obsessed with tiny details and minutiae from the outside.

So the two distracting temptations that are quite real and of ongoing concern are idle speculation and superficiality. Both tempt us away from the heart of Christianity – a right relationship with Jesus Christ. We must respond by standing firm to traditional morality in the face of moral corruption and by practising the virtue of hope in the face of despair and seeming meaninglessness.

Monday August 22nd

Our Lady Queen and Mother, 22nd of August

As we celebrate today the 'happily ever after' of Mary, the Gospel of today is that of the familiar Annunciation scene - where it all began for Mary - her 'once upon a time'.

The narrative of the Annunciation has much to teach us - every day. As Mary lived out her 'Yes' to God every day that followed, so too we are called today to live out again the initial 'yes' of our own vocation, be it priesthood, religious life, married life, widowhood, the single life, the cross of separation, divorce or widowhood. We renew the 'yes' of conscious deliberate acceptance according to our state of life.

The Annunciation scene can help us in the following ways to provide a template for our prayer and renewal each morning:

(i) We invoke our guardian angel to come into our house (our room, our heart) as Gabriel entered Mary's house

(ii) We take the time to 'listen' as the angel invited Mary

(iii) We listen to the words 'Be not afraid' as we bring before God our concerns, worries, anxieties, fears - as Mary was disturbed so we find ourselves disturbed in the events and changes of life. (there are 366 references to 'Be not afraid' in the Bible.

(iv)We ask 'how' rather than 'why'. We ask the Lord through the angel and Mary's intercession - 'how can this come about'? as it applies to the plan God may have for me as it unfolds . Today, this week, this month, this year, there are and will be new dimensions and implications that are revealed to me arising from that initial 'yes' I made to God.

(v) We hear the words: 'Nothing is impossible to God' and reflect on how those words throw light on my/our situation

(vi) ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ - we invoke the Holy Spirit to renew us this day

(vi) We make a conscious verbal acceptance - 'Be it done unto me according to your word', or another similar phrase such as 'thy will be done' or ’Jesus I trust in you' which we repeat throughout the day, and a prayer of openness, adaptability and surrender of our will to God as we take up our daily tasks.

(vii) ‘The angel left her'. Our prayer time concludes and we note and attend to the words and inspirations through the promptings of the Spirit we have received and the inspirations of the angel.

(viii) We ‘go with haste’ where are inspired to go through the daily events we hear about and which are called to mind in prayer - just as Mary heard of Elizabeth's pregnancy and went with haste to her, and brought Jesus to her, so we are prompted to bring the mercy of Jesus to others as we carry out acts of charity and mercy to our neighbour in their needs.

The Olympics and us

I wonder if the glory of heaven can’t be compared to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games.

There - in parade - are all the nations of the planet. Where else, apart from the United Nations, do we see representatives and flags of all the countries of the earth?

I think the ceremonies are joyful and glorious, the smiling happy youthful faces of the fastest people of every country carrying their flag and proudly wearing their countries symbolic colours is a wonderful spectacle.

All athletes in procession represent different fields of discipline, and thus likewise in heaven the saints and others who follow represent the best from among us down the centuries from all walks of life: priests, religious, lay people, single, married, children, educators, pastors, preachers, philosophers and theologians, mystics, saints noted for works of mercy, founders of religious orders, missionaries, hermits, Popes, Bishops, martyrs, children, and so on. The medal winners, each having being raised to the podium publicly by the judges and scrutineers and timekeepers – the gold, silver and bronze and the other participants - represent the fittest and finest of each country. I wonder can the canonised Saints in heaven be compared to the gold medallists, the Blessed as the silver medallists, the bronze as the Venerable, each having being raised to the podium publicly by the Church, their cause for canonisation having been thoroughly scrutinised, evaluated and approved, and the others following as the Servants of God or those whose cause for canonisation been introduced.

The crowds looking on either in the stadium or at home are the rest of us being urged on by their example and their glory – we also are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, by examples of faith. As the ceremonies open there is the passing on of the Olympic flame and the dramatic lighting ceremony, while at the closing the flame is extinguished, and another venue in four years, seemingly an eternity away if we live to see it, is promised, where the flame will be passed on among the nations until the culmination of its lighting again at a new ceremony. We are called to persevere in ‘the race that we have started’ for ‘a wreath that will not wither’, and to keep the flame of Faith alive that we have received in baptism, never to be extinguished.  May we go out to meet Him when He comes!  

Twenty-First Sunday of the Year

Heaven can’t wait!

Jesus warns us today that there is a difference between association and intimacy, between being a colleague and being a friend, between being a relative and having a relationship. There is a difference between lip service and follow through, between lips and hearts, between words and deeds.

Spiritual sloth and indifference – classically referred to as ‘acedia’ - are real temptations because the Lord seems to be taking His time!  Jesus challenges his hearers today who have a false sense of security, those who commit the sin of presumption, like an athlete who feels certain of a medal but who is beaten by an underdog who comes out of nowhere and defies the pundits. Jesus warns us against complacency! The narrow door is the door of entry into the Kingdom of Heaven and how few find it!

This might lead us to speculate like the disciples with the question ‘will only a few be saved?’ I like the retort of the priest in the USA who answered the same question in to a phone in show on EWTN when he said ‘I’m into sales, not management!’

The image changes from the narrow door to the locked door, from ‘time is short’ and tight space to ‘time’s up’!  There are a lot of phrases that are very final and on which there is no going back on them. ‘Sale agreed’, ‘site sold’, ‘concert tickets sold out’, final whistle’, ‘all aboard’, ‘time is up’, ‘flight full’, ‘gate closed’, ‘no vacancies’,  etc. And how we hate to be caught out, to have dallied and our delay is costly. A wasted opportunity, a huge potential saving, or a real bargain fell through our fingers and right before our eyes!

Our problem, like that of Jesus’ hearers, is that we have too much presumption and not enough urgency.  We cannot say we weren’t warned, or that we didn’t have enough time to answer the question as is an exam. Instead of apportioning blame we must assume responsibility.

We can all identify with the concept of bouncers and security who scrutinise the would-be entrants to a night club or concert with checks for valid ID, passes, with appropriate attire and sobriety and ‘not likely to cause trouble’ as opposed to those who are inappropriately dressed, drunk and disorderly who are excluded. It is not enough for those in line to say ‘I know the owner’, or 'I am related'. The door is shut and a conversation behind a closed door is strained at best, but it is too late. There is no heavenly entry based on ‘who you know’.  Nothing can replace personal effort. To have been associated or related is no guarantee at all. 

With all the talk of disqualification at the moment or even of athletes being stripped of their medals from previous Olympics, it might be worth pondering what we are doing to qualify for heaven!

**********************************************************************************

The opening ceremony of the Olympics is always exciting because there is so much colour and excitement associated with seeing all the proud youthful smiling fit athletes representing their country.  At the ceremony everyone’s a winner, or a potential winner, and while notable athletes are identified you never really sure who will take home the gold or any other medal for that matter.

All nations are represented, and indeed it is a good analogy for heaven – we are told in the readings that people from all nations will be represented in the finals as it were – in the final selection of athletes representing each country there were those who were not fit or failed to qualify, or those who sent home. A final selection had to be made based on fitness and performance in the also four years.  All sorts of criteria of fitness apply, and this may be the only or last Olympics for some.

We should be concerned about our qualification for heaven rather than idly speculating how many get there at all.  

On the walls of heaven and hell will be the words ‘SOLD OUT’.

In heaven it will refer to places ‘sold out’ by those who purchased a place there by the holiness of their lives. In hell it will refer to the occupants too –but the words on the wall will be ‘these are the people who sold out’.

Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady

Children love to be told the same story over and over. They cuddle up to the words 'Once upon a time and sigh with staisfaction with 'happily ever after'. They might even come up with new comments and questions about the familiar story.

Even a toddler can point at familiar pictures, trying to sound them out as he or she turns the pages, without any understanding of the concept of sequence.

It is why we love the story of Mary : her 'once upon a time' : The angel of the Lord was sent to virgin in Nazareth and the virgin's name was Mary..

God and Israel is the great love story of the Bible, and despite many betrayals God remains faithful to His covenantal (spousal, marriage) promises. Mary is the true daughter of Israel, faithful, pure and true. She represents the Church, the new Israel, called to everlasting love in the Marriage of the Lamb in heaven. Happily Ever After. Mary is the Queen, and we are all royalty through baptism and made regal in heaven.

'And she lived happily ever after' - at least acording to the Book of Revelation -  she is in heaven with a crown of 12 stars in her head - assumed and crowned queen of heaven, and she interecedes for us.

Pope Francis reflected this year:

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary “is a great mystery that concerns each one of us; it concerns our future,”

“Mary, in fact, precedes us on the way on which all those go that, through Baptism, have bound their life to Jesus, as Mary bound her life to Him,” the Pope told the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
“She was the first to believe in the Son of God, and she is the first to be assumed into heaven in soul and body,” he said. “First, she received Jesus and took Him in her arms when He was still a baby, and she is the first to be received by His arms to be introduced into the Eternal Kingdom of the Father.”
And what's best of all about the story?

It is real.

It is true.

It actually happened and we are caught up in the drama of salvation ourselves.

It is our story too.

Where she has gone, we hope to follow.

Twentieth Sunday of the Year

Twentieth Sunday of the year

‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already’

Fire has many properties - positive ones like exuding warmth and light – giving us heat, drying clothes, cooking and so on. Fire is a powerful force for purification in a kiln or furnace by burning off impurities - for purifying metals and the hardening of clay pottery. Fire - even a tiny spark – is required for the combustion of gases, and setting off a chain reaction in any fireplace. A fire causes our faces to glow as it warms us. If we are near a fire we redden in appearance.

Fire also has destructive properties such as in the seasonal forest fires we are seeing in California and Portugal. In Scripture fire is seen as destructive in the case of the fire and brimstone (sulphur) that punished Sodom and Gomorrah for their awful sins.

Fire however is also a light in the darkness to the people of Israel – a ‘pillar of fire’ by night and a cloud by day guides the people of Israel to the Promised Land.

Love and zeal are the marks of a true disciple who does not rest until the Lord calls him or her home. There is no rear view mirror in their field of vision – onwards and upwards, and liked St Ignatius of Loyola, always seeking the ‘magis’, the better, the greater, striving ahead. If someone is in love we can see it in their face, their complexion exudes peace and certainty. It infectious – we want some of that! It is so attractive – it draws others to want to know the secret!

Jesus wants a blaze and John The Baptist predicted that Jesus would bring fire– but it is the Holy Spirit of God’s love with which He wants to set the fire to the world i.e.,  the love of God to enkindle and spread all over the earth. He is pointing to Pentecost and the tongues of fire that descends from heaven on Our Lady and the disciples at Pentecost. It gives the energy inspiration and drive and impetus to the mission of the Church – and continues to do so punctuated by much prayer. So it is through Spirit-filled disciples that the mission of the Church to preach the Gospel is accomplished in word and deed, fuelled by much prayer and docility to the promptings of the Spirit.

So the fire I question is not the destructive fire of Sodom or hellfire and brimstone sermonising but is a purifying fore that we experience ourselves and enlightening others in the truth and an inflaming fire of God’s intense passionate love which is transmitted in us and through us depending on our devotion and prayer. Let us ask Our Lady to fill us with the Holy Spirit – her spouse.  

Nineteenth Sunday of the Year

Why are we waiting?

Waiting can have a number of implications

It can increase excitement and anticipation at the prospect of someone’s arrival, like a bride at a wedding

It can heighten nervous tension such as waiting a dental surgery or waiting in a doctor’s surgery or increase trepidation while anticipating the results of treatment or an examination

It can increase impatience

It can lead to boredom, idleness, frustration and vexation

It can lead to laziness

It can lead to squandering the time given and confers a false sense of security

It gives time to perform duties, tasks and acts of service

When the wait is over there is relief, emotion, and release, and accountability for the time spent waiting

Life is like one long wait – think of the longest wait you ever had at an airport –– a 5-hour wait on the tarmac for example, or a long traffic crawl due to an accident on the road  - in such situations things are out of your control.

We do not like to be kept waiting due to an inexplicable delay.

What the Lord wants of us is vigilance, not to be caught out, to be always at the ready to give an account of ourselves, no to fall asleep on the job. How different a shop floor is when the manager/owner is around!

Waiting is not wallowing carelessly, indifferently, lazily– it is like being a ‘waiter’ at a restaurant – being attentive, watchful, helpful, attending – serving! Using the talents we have been given.

The Lord is saying ‘I will see you soon!’ but the time moves on and nothing seems to be happening, what’s keeping Him?!

Being vigilant means keeping watch over our own actions!

In the school where I taught there was always a lookout who would cry out ‘sketch!’ at the appearance of the teacher down the corridor – all would return to their seats and stop the messing and the noise would stop abruptly. There was nothing worse than to be caught ‘red-handed’ when the teacher came unexpectedly!

Being vigilant means

-driving below or at the speed limit when the speed van is there and when it isn’t; is when the boss is around and when he isn’t; is always being ready for inspection, but more importantly being ready for action

Being vigilant means being aware of and wary when temptation comes our way, it means knowing out proneness to temptation, be it anger, impatience, gluttony, gossip, lying, laziness. It means being ahead of ourselves – of being prepared, pf pre-empting the power of the Evil One when he might strike – he is the burglar, the one who wants to steal our joy. It means fortifying ourselves with prayer, penance, and works of mercy.

Be ready for the Master’s return for you know neither the day nor the hour!

Eighteenth Sunday of the Year

From time to time in a moment of frustration or tiredness, we might ask ourselves this question: ‘what is it all for?’ or ‘what is life all about?’

 ‘All is vanity’, the First Reading bleakly tells us. It is a sombre and depressing thought that for all our work and toil, we will one day be replaced in our job, and someone else will live in our home. It is however a reading that is a challenging reminder to us not to get so caught up in work and wealth for its own sake.

The First Reading is meant to be instructive rather than to be one that stands alone to leave us in despair. Of course work has value, not only to provide for ourselves, but to provide a service to others, even if there is profit, and to apply our God-given talents, to partake in the creativity that the Creator has given us, to use our ingenuity, such as it is, to lighten the burden of others and to build up the world around us. And we have a right to housing and possessions, but we also have responsibilities.

It is good for us to sit back once in a while to ask ourselves the ‘why’ of what we do, and not remain so focussed on ‘what’ we do. People may often ask us ‘what do you do?’ as a conversation opener, but thankfully never ask us why we do it although from time to time people might comment ‘I could never do that’. We must also be careful that our role in work does not define us as persons, and that we are so caught up in our work that we forget life’s real purpose – to get to heaven.

 The man in the parable got what he wanted, and still wanted more, and then he got what he deserved!

It is one of the few parables about a man on his own and wanting to enjoy life and property and riches without reference to anyone else. There was no relationship, of family, no children, no relations, no concern for sharing with those in need, it was accumulation for its own sake, and therefore greed. He had a talent for accumulating wealth but he was spiritually poor. He tried to have a paradise without God. There was no heavenly wisdom in his actions.

For some people the answer to the question of the meaning of life is: ‘Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die'. ‘It’s all about having and about enjoying yourself, because time is short and you won’t be around forever so make the best of it.’ But living a life without consequences, to believe that you can have who and whatever you want is however to live a life of hedonism which is ultimately shallow and fails to satisfy for very long. We see in some celebrities vain attempts at immortality, careerism, profit, prestige, fame, notoriety, power, of appearances, of glamour (through cosmetic surgery), of being talked about in the tabloids. And yet their autobiographies are full of sadness and attempts at escapism through abuse of food, drink, drugs, scandal and infidelity.

How often, like the rich man, have we heard of heart breaking stories of money invested and gone, or projects completed and a person does in the stress of the effort? I remember there was a publican who spent over £200,000 (punts) in extending his pub, and he died soon afterwards, how the best laid plans in retirement fall through, how people sadly do not see their worldly dreams fulfilled, and die before enjoying retirement.

Such anecdotes make us stop and think about the shortness of our own lives and to question our priorities in life as well as who will follow after us.

The expression ‘you can’t take it with you’ is well captured in the story of the Irish-born self-made millionaire in America who stipulated that he buried in the land of his birth. On the crate carrying him home were stamped the words: ‘of no commercial value’. The other expression there is no trailer after a hearse reminds us of the stark reality of the saying ‘you can’t take it with you’. So there is the question of creativity certainly but also of stewardship, of the relative value of everything and the value to our relatives!

Desires, even disordered ones, all point to a sense of incompleteness, of longing for completion, for fulfilment, for satisfaction, point to our restlessness, of never seeming to have enough, of not being satisfied.

May we learn from the fictional character in the Gospel today to re-evaluate our philosophy of life, what drives us, and what do we ultimately desire.

May the parable invite us to look at our possessions as to whether they possess us, to ask ourselves if we can say in all honesty: ‘I am happy with what I have’ and that I can give to others readily.

May we ask ourselves, like in the first reading: ‘what is it all for?’ and know that there is a positive answer that involves us but that life is not all about us!

The way to heaven is summed up in the Beatitudes: the way of peace, purity, poverty (detachment), persecution, mournfulness, meekness, mercy, and hunger for what is right.