Thirty-second Sunday of the Year - 2023

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.  When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,  but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.  As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.  But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the other young women came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. POINTS FROM A SERMON BY ST. AUGUSTINE ·         This parable relates to the whole Church – ten virgins are all members. ·         Such souls have the Catholic faith and have carried out good works in the Church              of God. ·         Number five relates to the body’s five senses. ·         The ten are called virgins because they have not sinned through the five senses. ·         They have lamps, by reason of their good works. ·         The oil for lamps signifies the virtue of  Charity – true love in the heart. ·         The ten virgins know the Groom is coming and are seeking his second coming. ·         The Bridegroom delays – to allow the fulness of time to unfold. ·         The virgin’s sleeping is their natural death in the body. ·         Midnight is the unknown hour for the day of judgement. ·         The trumpet calls all to rise from their graves. ·         The five wise virgins carry the oil of Charity in the vessels of their hearts. ·         The five foolish virgin’s hearts are only filled with pride. ·         The oil of the foolish virgins is the praise of others, people of rank, sellers of                       flattery. ·         Now in death the foolish virgins have no one to peddle them praise. ·         The five wise virgins are of good conscience with hearts of Charity, yet they do not              presume to judge themselves. ·         The time for mercy is now – a time to repent before Bridegroom comes. ·         Then comes the time for judgement – too late for repentance – meaningless empty            lamps. ·         Thus did the Gospel close; Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour. But if         we are all to sleep, how shall we watch? Watch with the heart, watch with faith,              watch with hope, watch with charity, watch with good works; and then, when you          shall sleep in your body, the time will come that you shall rise. And when you shall        have risen, make ready the lamps. Then shall they go out no more, then shall they            be  renewed with the inner oil of conscience; then shall that Bridegroom fold you in        His spiritual embrace, then shall He bring you into His House where you shall                never  sleep, where your lamp can never be extinguished. But at present we are in           labour, and our lamps flicker amid the winds and temptations of this life; but only           let  our flame burn strongly, that the wind of temptation may increase the fire, rather       than put it out. Full text of St. Augustine's Sermon [ . . . LINK . . . ]

November and all the Saints

November is commonly thought of as the month of the dead. Many cultures around the world observe various rituals honouring the dead. November itself with the dying off of all the beautiful summer plants, the shorter days and longer nights, the many animals migrating away or hibernating out of sight all have a certain resemblance to death. The Church also uses November as a month to reflect on death but with a radical different perspective. What began in the Easter season with its focus on resurrection and new life is now in November viewed not as being lost but rather as being fulfilled. Of all the things that we face in life death is the most haunting - but not for the believer. Death as a destroyer has itself been destroyed by the Prince of Life. The transformed mind of the believer sees death not as a grave but as a door, as door through which one passes to gain even more life, the fulness of life. As you listen to the voices of the saints you hear them speak of a kind of longing for death. Some people see this as being a sign of some kind of mental distortion in the saints thinking. What these critics do not see is what the saints do see – life and more life, life without end. As our faith deepens, we too will be able to speak of death, not in a morbid, fearful way but as that threshold, that stairway, that open doorway in which we see these open arms of so many beckoning us. Saint Bernard, abbot speaks so convincingly of this in a sermon which the Church sets before us as the second reading in the Office of Readings for the Solemnity of All Saints. From a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot "Let us make haste to our brethren who are awaiting us." Why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the saints? What do they care about earthly honors when their heavenly Father honors them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation mean to them? The saints have no need of honor from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning. Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble company of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be united in happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change. The Church of all the first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them. Come, brothers, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again with Christ; we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. Let us long for those who are longing for us, hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask those who look for our coming to intercede for us. We should not only want to be with the saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness. While we desire to be in their company, we must also earnestly seek to share in their glory. Do not imagine that there is anything harmful in such an ambition as this; there is no danger in setting our hearts on such glory. When we commemorate the saints, we are inflamed with another yearning: that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory. Until then we see him, not as he is, but as he became for our sake. He is our head, crowned, not with glory, but with the thorns of our sins. As members of that head, crowned with thorns, we should be ashamed to live in luxury; his purple robes are a mockery rather than an honor. When Christ comes again, his death shall no longer be proclaimed, and we shall know that we also have died, and that our life is hidden with him. The glorious head of the Church will appear, and his glorified members will shine in splendor with him, when he forms this lowly body anew into such glory as belongs to himself, its head. Therefore, we should aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted and prudent desire. That we may rightly hope and strive for such blessedness, we must above all seek the prayers of the saints. Thus, what is beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their intercession.

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Thirtieth Sunday of the Year - 2023

This month our Gospel readings are taken from chapter 22 of Matthew’s gospel account. In it, Jesus is being challenged by his three main opponents. They are the Herodians, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. We began reading this chapter two weeks ago. It begins with Jesus crafting the parable about a King’s grand wedding feast for his son, but the King is stiffed by all the invited guest. The King in turn rejects them and invites whoever will accept. The three antagonists arguing with Jesus come to realize that Jesus meant this parable to be about them; that they are the rejected by God; they will be excluded from God’s Kingdom. Normally these parties are fighting among themselves, but now they are collaborating in a united effort to discredit Jesus. First the Herodians challenge Jesus. These are the political sellouts among the Jews. They are aligned with King Herod, who is helping the Romans occupy and control the population, and collect a census tax from the people. They try trapping Jesus with a political question about whether the people should pay the tax or not. Next the Sadducees have a go at Jesus. They are the Temple people, the priestly class, scholars of Law of Moses. They accept only the first five books of the Old Testament, demanding that they be followed scrupulously and to the letter. They reject the belief in the resurrection i.e. as prophesied by the prophet Ezekiel. They construct an argument around a law of Moses that declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. They create an argument around seven brothers, all marrying the same wife after each brother had died. “In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For all of them were married to her.” Finally, the Pharisees take their turn, raising a disputed question of the day about which of the 613 commandments of the law is the most important or are all of equal importance. The Problem in all of this is not that questions do arise and look for answers, the problem is that ridged factions form around the questions, and instead of being open to discovering the best answers to the questions they are used to divide and separate people. These factions are more intent on dominating the others rather than getting to the truth. We are all familiar with the saying, “divide and conquer”. Jesus knows well that this is Satan’s strategy against the gospel message which he is announcing and it will continue on as the life of the Church begins to unfold. St. Paul describes it in 1 Cor. 12; “What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Paul goes on in chapter 12 to use the analogy of the human body with its many parts all working in harmony to describe how the Church and its many members are to unify. Then in chapter 13, he gives that beautiful teaching on the unifying principal of love – which flows from Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel, the primacy of Love, the greatest Commandment. Just look around our society today. Have we ever seen such division, contentedness, animosity and argument among people? We must not let ourselves to be drawn into it. As Christians formed in the gospel, our calling is to bring the healing and unifying message of the Gospel of Love to a divide world.

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Twenty-ninth Sunday of the Year - 2023

"For this Sunday we are looking at not a parable of Jesus, but a riddle of Jesus.  You could call this the riddle of Caesar and the coin.  It's the famous story of the coin that Jesus is presented with, and he is asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not, and then gives his response.  So for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time for Year A, we are going to be looking at Mt. 22:15-22:". . LINK

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