Sunday August 2nd. to Saturday August 8th.
Sunday August 2nd. to Saturday August 8th. Reflections on the Readings at Daily Mass.
Sunday August 2nd. Eighteenth Sunday in Year One.
Readings
Isaiah 55/1-3 :
Paul’s Letter to the Romans 8/35, 37-39 :
Matthew 14/13-21
Matthew’s account of the feeding of the five
thousand in today’s Gospel reading mirrors closely the account in Mark’s Gospel
(Mark 6/35-44) though the story finds a place in all four of the Gospels.
Whereas in Mark’s account the disciples misunderstand much of what takes place,
in Matthew’s version the disciples show more understanding and function more
clearly as Jesus’ assistants.
This story in Matthew’s Gospel is preceded by
two reminders of how the establishment of the Kingdom or Reign of God still
faces great opposition. Jesus is rejected at Nazareth as we saw in Matthew
13/35-48 and John the Baptist is beheaded in prison (Matthew 14/1-12). As Jesus
warned in his parables, the Evil One is still at work in the field (Matthew
13/36-43).
The fact that in Matthew’s account of this
event, it is preceded by the beheading of John the Baptist which took place
during a banquet is striking. At Herod’s banquet there is pride, arrogance,
scheming and even murder and it takes place in a royal court. Jesus’ banquet
happens in a ‘deserted’ place, like the place where ancient Israel was fed with
Manna and there is there healing, trust and sharing.
Another connection which has to be made is that
the Biblical model for Jesus’ feeding the hungry crowds is in 2 Kings 4/42-44 where the prophet Elisha
orders his servant to set twenty loaves of barley and some fresh ears of
grain before a hundred men. The servant
resists at first but then follows the prophet’s order and the men ‘ate and had
some left, according to the word of the Lord’. The parallels are obvious, the
small amount of food available, the scepticism and protests of the servant and
Jesus’ disciples, the successful feeding of the large crowd and the surprising
amount of food left over. The fact that in Jesus’ case the numbers are much
larger would indicate a certain superiority on Jesus’ part.
Though Matthew’s account looks back to the
prophet Elisha, it also looks forward to the Last Supper and to the Christian
celebration of the Eucharist. This is clearest in Matthew 14/19 where Jesus
‘took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the
blessing’. This prepares us for the Last Supper in Matthew 26/26 where ‘Jesus
took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to his disciples’ but, quite
probably, it would have been familiar to those for whom Matthew was writing his
Gospel from their Eucharistic celebrations.
We must note that ‘saying the Blessing’ or
‘blessed’ does not mean what we normally understand by these words when we
bless something. Here the meaning is that of the Jewish way of giving thanks
when the prayer began always with ‘We bless you Father etc.’
This miracle story acts out the parables that
we have seen previously. The fish and
the loaves are like the mustard seed and a little food turns into an
overwhelming feast. They are like the leaven hidden in the loaves. The
disciples fail to see the food hiding almost secretly in the crowd if, as many
commentators understand this story, the generosity of those who gave the loaves
and the fish moved everyone to share what they had, so that there was enough
and to spare for everyone.
The disciples who were the ‘insiders’ and who
ought to have understood fail to know the mystery of the Kingdom of heaven,
that in the providence of God Jesus can take little and make it into much.
Jesus then calls the disciples to their responsibility, ‘you give them
something to eat’ and through their service he acts.
Jesus’ compassion for the crowds is shown in
two ways, he feeds them and he heals them (Matthew 14/14).
The feeding of all these people foreshadows the
Eucharist. Jesus ‘blesses’ the bread, that is, he give thanks to God for the
gift of the bread and the fish just as he will do at the Last Supper. At our
celebrations Jesus also takes our little and makes much of it, enough to share
himself with everyone. It is a pity that the whole symbolism of the ‘one loaf’
is lost in the use of thin wafers that are nothing like bread and individual
small ones for each person receiving. It would seem absolutely necessary if we
are to regain the full meaning of the Eucharist that we begin to use a large
loaf which we break for all to share. Of course, it takes time and can be a bit
messy but we have become over obsessed with ‘crumbs’ and in so doing have lost
the powerful significance of the one loaf which we all share and which makes us
one, as Paul says.
Needless to say, the use of unleavened bread is
quite optional and all the great Eastern churches have always used ordinary
leavened bread. We must drop the sort of superstitious way of thinking which
makes us question ‘would it work with ordinary bread?’
Of course, the story of the feeding of the five
thousand and its connection with the Eucharist reminds us that the Eucharist
itself is a sign of the coming of the Kingdom. It foreshadows that time when
there will be enough for all because all will be willing to share and that at
every level, individually and nationally. The present pandemic has made us
acutely aware that we cannot think in terms of countries and nations, we are
all one, the virus attacks everyone indiscriminately. We cannot share in the
Lord’s Table without being aware that the Lord sends us out to work and strive
for that time when there will be over and enough for everyone to share in the
good things of this world. There is no real shortage, it is just that some of
us are greedy and have more than we need and like the crowds around Jesus, we
must open our haversacks and share with those who are less fortunate. The
Eucharist is a powerful political statement that we who follow Jesus must be
instrumental in making a better world.
The short reading from the prophet Isaiah also
looks forward to the coming of God’s Reign where there will be enough and to
spare for everyone. As we come to the
Lord’s Table to be fed and nourished by the Lord himself we are reminded of all
those who ‘are thirsty’ for their daily food and drink. The prophet’s words
alert us to the fact that we ‘spend money on what is not bread’ and our ‘wages
fail to satisfy’ when we spend vast amounts of money on nuclear weapons which
are claimed to make our world a safer place and the wages we earn from the sale
of arms to various unsavoury regimes obviously fail to satisfy because this is
blood money. As Jesus’ followers we cannot remain silent about these things. We
must raise our voices against the misuse of our resources and the injustices of
our world. And all this springs from the Lord’s Table where God shares his Son
with us that we may go out and continue his work of proclaiming the Kingdom of
justice and peace for all.
Though the reading from Paul’s letter to the
Christians of Rome does not relate directly to the two other readings it does state what is at
the heart of all our Christian understanding. ‘Nothing can ever come between us
and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus the Lord’. That is at the very heart of Jesus’ message
and in him we have seen the love of God shown in flesh and blood like our own.
Though we cannot begin to understand God, in Jesus we have seen in a way that
we can grasp, what love is and, as John says, ‘God is love’. Paul, in spite of
all that he has been through, remains firmly convinced that nothing can ever
separate him from the love of God.
That must be at the very heart of our Christian
life and our following of Jesus. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of
God and it is that love that we are called to share in our own Christian
community and with the world around us. It is that love that we will find in
the world if we open our eyes to see it and it is with that love that we must
co-operate to build up the coming Reign of God’s love in the world, the Kingdom
which is coming and is to come.
Monday August 3rd. Monday in Week Eighteen in Year Two.
Readings
Jeremiah 28/1-17 :
Matthew 14/22-36
Today’s reading from the prophet Jeremiah is
very interesting in that it sets one prophet against another. The date of this
event seems to have been in 594-3 B.C.E. and it is stated with some precision
that it was in the fifth month. It would seem to be biographical and takes
place at Gibeon, a few miles north-west of Jerusalem. The core of Hananiah’s
message is absolutely contrary to what Jeremiah has been saying and prophesies
that the yoke of Babylon will be broken and Jehoiachin will return as king. Jeremiah’s
answer is yet another attempt to establish a clear distinction between the true
and the false prophets. The constant message of the false prophets is one of
peace and so they are opposed to the true prophets who so often proclaimed
oracles of doom. Jeremiah then sets up another condition for authenticity, a
prophecy has to be fulfilled. Hananiah then with great confidence, performs a
counter-prophetic action in order to render powerless that of Jeremiah and he
breaks the yoke worn by Jeremiah as a symbol of submission to Nebuchadnezzar,
meaning that victory and freedom will replace Jeremiah’s threat. This sudden
action seems to have left Jeremiah speechless but after a certain time the
answer comes. The true prophets were not dreamers or victims of auto-suggestion
for they depended entirely on God’s inspiration. Through the prophet Jeremiah
God tells Hananiah that although he might have broken a wooden yoke, this will
be replaced with iron yokes. Hananiah had been calling for revolt which would
eventually lead to complete subjection to Nebuchadnezzar but now Hananiah gets
his own sentence because he has spoken without a mandate from God. Hananiah
dies which authenticates Jeremiah’s mission.
What does this say to us today? Certainly,
beware of false prophets and there are plenty of them around. The prophets of
which we ought most to beware are those who like the false prophets of
Jeremiah’s time, promise all sorts of good things. Whether it be our health,
our appearance, our prosperity or even our human relationships, there are
always those who will tempt us with their empty promises and it is, often, very
easy to succumb to them so that we ought always to be on our guard. Anything
that is worthwhile always demands effort and sacrifice on our part and, in our
heart we know that to be true. The old saying that there is no such thing as a
free dinner, like many sayings, is remarkably true so beware of false prophets.
It has to be said that this is also true in the realm of faith. These days
there are all sorts of so-called ‘spiritual’ remedies being offered to heal or cure
our present problems. Whether it be the dedication of England to Our Lady or
the saying of a prayer to end the Corona pandemic, Jesus is quite specific
about what we have to do. We must love our neighbours and trust in God our
Father. There is no spiritual short cut either.
The Gospel reading is not that normally read
today because we read it last Sunday in this year of Matthew’s Gospel,. The
alternative which is read is about Peter and his walking on the waters. In
Matthew’s Gospel Peter serves often as a prototype of Christians in Matthew’s
own time. While, in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus often accuses the disciples of lack of
understanding or faith, Matthew has apparently coined a term that he uses more
often ‘You of little faith’.
Little faith is not faith that starts off in
doubt. Peter starts off faithfully, ‘If it is you, tell me to come to you
across the water’ he says. Little faith is not half doubt, little faith starts
in trust and disappears in fear. Jesus calls Peter’s faith ‘little faith’ only
after he has ‘taken fright’ and when he rebukes Peter, what he asks literally
is not ‘Why did you doubt?’ as we have it in our translation but ‘Why did you
hesitate?’
The phrase ‘the boat … was battling with a
heavy sea’ is better translated by ‘the boat was being tormented by the waves’
so that the text begins to move into allegory. Waves do not literally ‘torment’
boats but faithful people are tormented by hardship, persecution and loss. So
here Matthew is speaking to those who will read his Gospel and who are being
‘tormented’ by the hardships that befell these first Christian communities.
They are already suffering persecution from those who have refused the message
of Jesus and they have lost the security of their being part of the local
Synagogue.
Jesus’ peculiar power is affirmed in two ways.
First when he speaks to the fearful disciples, he says ’Courage! It is I’. Matthew’s intention must surely be to make
the reader recall the words from Exodus 3/14 and Isaiah 43/3. ‘I am’ is God’s
self-designation and readers will remember the God who revealed himself to
Moses and who brought Israel through the waters (see Psalm 77/19).
Secondly, the disciples ‘bowed down before
‘Jesus and said ‘Truly, you are the Son of God!’ This is the claim that Peter
will himself repeat and enrich in Matthew 16/16 just before he sinks again into
being of ‘little faith’.
Matthew’s Gospel is not so much a Gospel of
progressive insight as a Gospel of fits and starts, now the disciples get it,
now they don’t. Now they are brave, now they are afraid.
How well this fits us in our day to day lives,.
Sometimes our faith seems strong and at other moments it almost disappears. What
we must always keep in mind is that Jesus is close by in the power of his
Spirit and he will not let us sink in spite of our little faith.
Perhaps today is once again the day to make our
own the simple prayer ‘Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!’
This episode in the Gospel ends with Jesus and
his disciples reaching the shore and people from all around bringing their sick
to be healed. Even to touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment brings healing and
Jesus is seen once again as the One who heals. The ‘fringe of his cloak’ is a
reference to the fringes that devout Jews wore and, thus, Matthew reminds his
readers that Jesus was a devout and practising Jew. For us, who read this
however, it is reminder that we touch the fringe of Jesus’ garments when we
reach out to touch others in their need. As often as we touch them we touch
him!
Tuesday August 4th. Memory of Jean-Marie Vianney, parish priest
(1786-1859)
Jean-Marie was born in 1786 of peasant farmers
at Dardilly, near Lyons in France. It was the time of the Revolution when the
wealthy and the powerful were being executed and with them, many priests
because they were seen, often quite unjustly, as being on the side of the rich.
As a result of this, when peace and order were restored there was a great
shortage of priests and Jean-Marie decided that he wanted to be one. He had to
wait until he was twenty to gain his parents’ permission and he also had to do
his military service. Like many others, though, he deserted and continued his
studies in secret, rejoining the Seminary when an amnesty for deserters was
declared in 1810. Jean-Marie had great difficulty with his studies, especially
with Latin, but he was ordained priest in 1815, not for his knowledge but
because he was recognised by everyone as a devout and holy young man. After a couple of years as an assistant
priest he was sent to be parish priest of the small village of Ars-en-Dombes
with a population of some 230 people. His regime was austere and he lived
mostly on potatoes. He was vigourously opposed to dancing and all forms of what
he saw as immodesty and, in fact, the inns had to close for lack of custom,
such was his influence!
In his later years Jean-Marie mellowed but his
greatest gift was his insight in dealing with people and his ability to help
those who came to him to make their confession. He became so famous for this gift that
people would come from far and wide to seek his help and he would spend as much
as sixteen hours a day in the confessional. A special ticket office had to be
opened in the railway station for trains to Ars!
Worn out by his austere life and the constant
stream of visitors, about 20,000 a year it is reckoned, he died at the age of
73. He was canonised in 1925 and declared, the patron saint of parish priests,
rather inappropriately since few would be able or wish to live as he did.
We ought to pray for all those who serve
parishes often several parishes these days, and often overstretched because of
the unwillingness by those in authority to allow those who are not ordained to
exercise all sorts of ministries which, because of that, fall on the shoulders
of the parish priest.
It might be a good day to reflect on the whole
area of confession to a priest. It is a practice that only began many centuries
after the spread of the Christian faith and now, in spite of all the efforts to
encourage and cajole people to return to making their private confession, is
used more and more rarely. We need to find other ways and means of expressing
our sorrow for our faults and our failings. One easy way to do this would be to
make much more use of the time at the beginning of each Mass when we are
invited to reflect on our failings but rarely given time to do so. A better
place for this, as some bishops suggested after the Second Vatican Council,
might be after the homily before we celebrate
the Eucharist together.
Readings
Jeremiah 30/1-2, 12-15, 18-22 :
Matthew 15/1-2, 10-14
Jeremiah speaks in today’s reading of the
sufferings of the Jewish people which are all the result of their sinfulness
and, most of all, because they have been unfaithful to God. In spite of their
apparently hopeless situation, however, God promises them restoration and an
end to their sufferings. More than that, they will have a prince who will be
one of their own and not a foreign tyrant.
This prince will come close to God and the people will be, once again,
God’s people and he will be their God.
For us, we see in these words the promise of the coming Messiah who will
be truly ‘one of our own’, a human being like ourselves who knows us through
and through and yet will be the God who loves us and shares with us our
humanity.
The Gospel reading follows on from that which
we read yesterday and, again, is an alternative to that appointed because of
our reading of that passage yesterday.
Here we find Jesus again in dispute with the
Pharisees and the Scribes because he and his disciples do not observe the ritual
washings involved with eating and drinking according to the Jewish Law. In the
verses that we omit, Jesus reproaches his questioners with their failure of
observe the spirit of the commandment to love their parents and then, as we
read on, he explains that it is not what goes into the mouth that makes one
‘unclean’ or ritually impure but what comes out of the mouth, that is all the
sins we commit with our speech, unkindness, scandal, gossip, untruthfulness and
so on.
When the disciples report back to Jesus that
the Pharisees and the Scribes are shocked by what he has said, he replies that
they will not survive because what they say and teach is not of God. He ends by
saying what has become a well-known saying, ‘If the blind lead the blind, both
will fall into the ditch’. In other words, beware of false teachers as of false
prophets, who will lead you astray.
Wednesday August 5th. Wednesday in Week Eighteen Year Two. Dedication of St.Mary Major
Readings
Jeremiah 31/1-7 :
Matthew 15/21-28
In today’s
reading Jeremiah continues yesterday’s theme. Through him God promises
forgiveness and restoration to the people of Israel. God summons all the tribes
and assures them of peace and joy with words such as ‘I have loved you with an
everlasting love’ and ‘I am constant in my affection for you’. This, of course,
is the God whom Jesus will proclaim as the God, not just of Israel but of all
humankind. Once again, Israel is presented as the beloved bride of God and the
whole passage is full of joy.
The Gospel reading presents us with a challenge
since Jesus is, apparently, reluctant to help the Canaanite woman who is
pleading with him on behalf of her daughter who seems to be tormented ‘by a
devil’. The story reflects yet again the situation of those Christians for whom
Matthew was writing his Gospel. They would have been, for the most part, Jews
and Jews believed that the God of Israel could only be approached through
Israel itself. Here the pagan woman approaches Jesus the Jewish prophet and,
although he reminds his disciples who want to get rid of the woman, that he has
been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he does, eventually,
engage with the woman.
In fact, this woman becomes a model of faith as
she refuses to accept Jesus’ words that it is not fair to give the children’s
food to dogs. She compares herself to the dogs who gather up the crumbs from
under the table and Jesus congratulates her on her faith and her daughter is
restored to health.
This whole episode would have illustrated to
Matthew’s, mostly Jewish, community how Jews and non-Jews might live together
in one community because both have placed their faith in Jesus’ power and not in
the Law, even though some might still be observing it.
The whole story reminds us too that our faith
has come to us through the faith of Israel. We are spiritually Jewish and every
effort ought to be made by us and by the whole Church to be reconciled with our
Jewish sisters and brothers, not to convert them but to recognise our oneness
with them, both in our faith in the one true God and in the inspiration we find
in the Hebrew Scriptures.
This is something which the bishops at the
Second Vatican Council discovered and taught so powerfully, something that we,
the Church, still forget and which has led to the terrible way in which
Christians have treated their Jewish sisters and brothers in the past.
We ask forgiveness for that persecution of the
Jewish people for which our Church is, in part, responsible. One way in which
we might begin to repair the damage of the past is by joining the Council for
Christians and Jews. You can Google it to find out more about it and it does
have an excellent magazine which it publishes regularly.
Memory of the Dedication of the Basilica of
Saint Mary Major in Rome.
There had been a church on the Esquiline hill
in Rome for many years as is explained below but after the Council of Ephesus
in 431, Pope Sixtus IIIrd. decided to build a new church in honour of the
Mother of God. The Council of Ephesus had been called together by the Emperor
Theodosius IInd with the hope of settling the Nestorian controversy. Nestorius
had become a well-known teacher and in 428 he had been appointed Bishop of
Constantinople by the Emperor. Nestorius taught that in Jesus there were two
separate persons, the human and the divine,which was, of course, contrary to
what had been the traditional belief that Jesus was one unique person, both
divine and human. At the Council of Ephesus Nestorius’ teaching had been
condemned but the controversy still continued. The word which summed up the
Council’s decision was ‘theotokos’ used of Mary to indicate that she was the
‘Godbearer’ or as it became translated into Latin ‘the mother of God’ which is
a much less felicitous title and open to much misunderstanding. This word
summed up the teaching of the Council that the child that Mary bore was both
truly divine and fully human.
It was as a result of this that Pope Sixtus
decided to build a new church in honour of Mary, the ‘Theotokos.
This church is known as a Basilica because it
was built in a style common to all the great Roman churches of the time, like a
basilica which was a public meeting place ‘fit for royalty’. It was this style
that governed the construction of churches in the West for many centuries with
the West end in the semi-circular form of an apse where the Officials of the
church would sit with their bishop in their midst and the Lord’s Table in front
of them so that the Bishop or priest in his absence, when he presided at the
Eucharist would face the people across the Lord’s Table and, in fact, face
East. In doing this he would face the rising Sun which would be seen through
the great doors at the West end of the building. All the great ancient churches
of Rome were built in this way and the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, has always
faced the people across the Lord’s Table so that to think this is recent
novelty is, of course, nonsense. This style prevailed all over Europe for many
centuries and, in fact, has recently been restored in Norwich Cathedral to make
it again as it originally was.
This basilica is called ‘major’ because it was
the largest church in honour of Mary in the West and the first church to be
dedicated to her.
This feast used to be called ‘our Lady of the
Snows’ because of a legend that when Liberius was pope (352-356 C.E.) a Roman
Patrician by the name of John together with his wife , because they were
childless, had decided to give their inheritance to the Mother of God. They
asked that she would indicate to them what she would have them do with their
fortune and, on the fifth of August at the hottest time of the year in Rome,
part of the Esquiline Hill was covered with snow during the night. At the same
time, the devout couple dreamt that Mary asked them to build a church in her
honour at the place indicated by the snow fall. They consulted Pope Liberius
and found that he had had the same dream and after going to see the place where
the snow had fallen, they decided that this was the place where the church should
be built. So it was constructed and remained there until it was replaced by the
new church built by Pope Sixtus. Though, almost certainly quite untrue, it is a
lovely legend!
We remember today all those who go to Rome on
pilgrimage and visit this and the other great Roman churches and we pray for
the Bishop of Rome, Francis, who needs all our support at this time in the face
of his many detractors.
There are special readings for today which may
be used, they are :
Revelation 21/1-5 :
Luke 11/27-28
These readings are obviously chosen in
reference to Mary though they also speak to us of the Church.
The reading from Revelation is a beautiful
vision of the new world that God, in Jesus, will eventually bring about to
replace the mess that our sinful choices have created. ‘A new heaven and a new earth’ are promised.
But the ‘new Jerusalem’ ‘like a bride adorned for her husband’ is also a vision
of the Church. We are the Body of Christ, the community of those who try to
follow him and whose task it is to reveal him to the world. The idea of the God
who dwells among us and makes his home with us is also a way of speaking of the
Church and, of course, Mary is the ikon or image of the Church here. She it was
who bore him in her womb, the ‘theotokos’ who brought him into our world and
this too is the role of the Church. We are called to be both the community in
which the Lord dwells and the community that reveals him to the world around
us. ‘See, I am making all things new’ says the Lord and that is our role too,
to take our part in the constant renewal of all things under the guidance of
the Spirit, something particularly relevant at this moment in our history.
The Gospel reading is again about both Mary and
the Church. She is blessed because she is the ‘theotokos’ the one who bore the
Word of God in her womb and so too are we, the Church, because we also bear him
among us for the world. But Jesus reminds the woman who cried out in this way
that his mother was even more blessed because she heard Word of God and obeyed
it. So too are we even more blessed than if we had had that privilege which was
Mary’s to bear the Word in her womb. We are blessed in the measure that we
follow Mary’s example and hear the Word of God, hear it with our whole being as
Mary did so that it takes over our whole life. Then, hearing that Word and
allowing it to sink in and be absorbed into our hearts and minds, we are able
to obey it. That is the real blessing because obeying the Word of God in our
hearts will make us fully human like Mary, like Jesus because that word is
Love!
Thursday August 6th. The Feast of the Transfiguration of the
Lord.
This feast was kept very early in the Eastern
churches and by the year 1,000 C.E. it had become widely adopted. Strangely, it
did not appear in the Western church until much later and it only became a
feast for general observance under Pope Callistus IIIrd. in 1457 as a
commemoration of the victory over the Turks at Belgrade on August 6th.,
1456. It is, obviously then, a day to
pray for greater understanding between Muslims and Christians.
It is sad that an event of such great
importance in the life of Jesus only came to be celebrated in this way in the
Western Church and it is surprising that it is only a Feast and not a Solemnity
though it does take precedence over Sunday should it fall on a Sunday.
This feast commemorates an event which is
recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels and is alluded to in the Second Letter of
Peter. In the vision recorded, Jesus is transfigured with Moses and Elijah in
the presence of Peter, James and John and it is described as an historic event
with striking agreement in the main outline
and understandable differences in
the details which the three Gospel writers record.
Tradition locates this event on Mount Thabor
but many scholars prefer Mount Hermon and some have even suggested the Mount of
Olives. It is significant in that it
shows the testimony of the Jewish Law and the Prophets to the Messiahship of
Jesus in the presence of Moses and Elijah and it gives a further Divine
proclamation of the Lord’s Sonship and
foreshadows his future glory.
However we may interpret this event it seems
certain that it records something very important and meaningful which happened
in the presence of the three chosen Apostles. It also has meaning for us as the
readings appointed for today show.
Readings
Daniel 7/0-10, 13-14 : Second Letter of Peter 1/16-19 :
Matthew 17/1-9
The reading from the book Daniel is the account
of a vision to encourage the Jews of the Second Century B.C.E. Antiochus
Epiphanes was attempting to destroy their nation and their religion. It is a vision of God ‘the Ancient of Days’
into whose presence comes one like a ‘Son of Man’. In this person, Christians
will see Jesus himself receiving sovereignty over all peoples and nations and
the title ‘Son of Man’ is one that Jesus will himself use.
The reading from the Second Letter of Peter,
though almost certainly not written by Peter himself, speaks of the event that
we are celebrating. It had been fixed in the memory of Peter, James and John
and had, obviously, been passed on to the author of this Letter which is
ascribed to Peter.
This year we read the account from Matthew’s
Gospel which, except in small details is almost identical with that in the
other Synoptic Gospels. Peter, James and John form, as we have seen before, an
inner circle among the Twelve. They were among the first disciples that Jesus
had called to follow him. The fact that this took place on a ‘high mountain’ is
normal since mountains are the usual place for revelations and manifestations
of the Divinity in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Jesus is transfigured before the three Apostles
and the Greek word used indicates that the form of Jesus was, in some way,
changed. The three Apostles receive a preview of the glory that will belong to
Jesus at the end of time and in the fullness of God’s Reign. Matthew adds the
detail that Jesus’ face shone which seems to be an allusion to the
transformation of Moses’ face in the presence of God. For Matthew, Jesus is the
new Moses and the whole episode has features reminiscent of the revelation of
God on Mount Sinai. There is also an apocalyptic element in the account and in
this type of vision the seer is granted a vision of what goes on in the heavens
or of what will happen in the future.
Matthew also goes out of his way to make the
Apostles’ reactions similar to those of Daniel (Daniel 8/17-18, 10/7-9) and by
calling this a vision also relates it to Daniel’s ‘vision’. A further detail in
which Matthew’s account differs from that in the other two Gospels is that
Peter calls Jesus ‘Lord’ and not ‘Rabbi’ all of which points to Matthew’s
overall plan which is to show Jesus as the fulfiller of the Law and the
Prophets and as the ‘Lord’ ,as the voice from heaven confirms.
Finally, it is important to remember that this
vision is situated by Matthew as the disciples make their way up to Jerusalem
with Jesus. As they journey towards Jerusalem the disciples are given a vision of
who Jesus really is and what will be the coming Reign of God. The vision
balances the prediction of Jesus’ sufferings that have gone before and the call
to follow him in those sufferings. And, above all, it provides a preview of the
resurrection.
For us the celebration of this mysterious event
comes at a time of the year when we need to remember that Jesus is the
fulfilment of all that has gone before in the story of the Jewish people and
that, in him, we see our own destiny. We are to be like him, our humanity
transformed by love, the love of the Spirit.
It is also important to remember that whatever
this experience may have been for the three Apostles, it was a moment that
imprinted itself on their memories for ever as a moment of encounter with the
divine, present in Jesus. We have moments of encounter when we are conscious of
being in the presence of something greater than ourselves. It may be a sudden
glimpse of the beauty of nature in a sunset or a breath-taking landscape or,
maybe, a moment in listening to some piece of music when we are lifted out of
ourselves by the sheer beauty of it. Or, maybe, it might be a simple thing like
a mother suckling her child or a young father collecting his child from school
and one could go on, but these moments are shot through with the presence and
the glory of God. So let us be alert and ready for them and never lose our
sense of wonder and awe.
Sadly, today is the day when we remember
another moment of dazzling brightness when the first atomic bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima and thousands of innocent people were destroyed in a few seconds,
leaving a legacy of sickness and suffering which is still a reality for some
survivors today so long afterwards.
Today then we must pray for the abolition of
all nuclear weapons and that our own government will have the courage not to
renew the folly of Trident submarines.
The brightness of that blaze of glory which
springs from the transfigured Jesus must overcome the blazing wickedness which
is the atomic weapon and its threat.
Friday August 7th. Friday in Week
Eighteen in Year Two. Memory of Sixtus
and of Cajetan.
Readings
Nahum 2/1, 3?1-3, 6-7 :
Matthew 16/24-28
Today we read a few verses from the prophet
Nahum. About Nahum we know nothing but his name. The book begins with a vivid
psalm on the wrath of the Lord (Nahum 1/1-8) and then a short interchange about
the unexpected delivery of Judah (Nahum 1/9-2/11). These precede the main
subject of the prophecy which is a pitiless exultation at the destruction of
Nineveh (Nahum 2/2-3/19). This vengeful poem shows the violent hatred felt for
Nineveh, the capital of Assyria which had sacked Samaria in 721 B.C.E. It was,
in turn, sacked by the Babylonians in 612 B.C.E.
The verses we read today are, at once, a
celebration of the peace that has returned to Judah but at the same time a
violent denunciation of Nineveh.
It is difficult to read into these verses
anything of use to ourselves except to remember that they recall the situation
in so many places in our world today where warfare has destroyed whole cities
and laid waste whole territories, leaving behind a death toll of thousands and
vast camps full of children, women and men who have no homeland to which they
may return and who are abandoned in frightening conditions.
These are our sisters and brothers and we
cannot remain unmoved by their situation or just sit back and do nothing. The
least we can do is to support those agencies who try to bring aid and succour
to the millions who are in need. Can I be more generous?
The Gospel reading is short but powerful. It
follows on from the episode which we did not read yesterday because of the
Feast (Matthew 16/13-23) in which Peter both confesses Jesus to be the Christ,
the Son of the living God and then shows how he has misunderstood what it might
mean for Jesus to be the Messiah as he expresses his horror at the thought of
him suffering and dying. It would be good to read yesterday’s Gospel reading
before we read today’s because it shows us why Peter may have rejected Jesus’
prediction of his suffering and death. In today’s reading Jesus makes clear
that this suffering will be shared by those who are his followers. Peter has
protested, not only for Jesus’ sake but also for his own, his little faith is
hampered not by doubt but by fear.
This whole passage makes it clear that for
Matthew the Gospel is both Good News and hard news. Although we can interpret
Jesus’ words, and correctly, that to live the way of the cross, the way of
self-giving and love, is to find fullness of life,here Matthew is also speaking
of the End when to gain fullness of life here and now is to hold on to life at
the judgement day which will come.
The assurance of the coming in glory of the Son
of Man is, no doubt, to strengthen those Christians for whom Matthew was
writing his Gospel and who were already suffering for their faith in and
commitment to Jesus. Of course, these words which Matthew puts into Jesus’
mouth about the coming of the Kingdom were not and have not been fulfilled.
There is another possibility and that is that
this text refers to the Transfiguration which we celebrated yesterday and to
which Matthew will turn next in chapter 17 but which we will not be reading
again.
For us, however, we must take these words as
referring to our own lives and how, if we would find fullness of life we must
take up our cross. This means trying to live the way of the cross which is
about self-denial and service of others. We know, and it has been amply
illustrated over these past weeks, that it is in giving oneself for others that
true fulfilment is found and fullness of life is achieved.
Today then let us take up our cross once again
and commit ourselves to following Jesus in the way of self-denial and love in
the service of others.
Memory of Sixtus IInd. and his companions,
martyrs (+258)
Sixtus became bishop of Rome in 257 at a time
when the controversy about whether Baptism conferred by heretics was valid had
become acute. Sixtus, like his predecessors, maintained what has become the
traditional teaching of the Church, that Baptism is valid no matter who confers
it but he did it in such a way as to avoid giving offence to those who believed
otherwise. Cyprian of Carthage was one
of these and Sixtus’ predecessors had broken off relations with him but by his
gentle approach Sixtus was able to restore communion with him.
In spite of their different opinions on this
matter a strong bond developed between Sixtus and Cyprian and it is due to Cyprian’s account that we
have details of Sixtus’ martyrdom. Sixtus suffered under the second Edict of
the Emperor Valerian in August 258 and, with his companions, he was buried in
the Catacomb of Saint Callistus in Rome. It is remarkable to reflect on how
this bond of friendship could have developed between the Bishop of Rome and the
Bishop of Carthage in North Africa and this without all the advantages of
communication that we now enjoy!
Sixtus was one of the most highly venerated of
all the early martyrs and his name is found already in the Roman Calendar of
the fourth century. He is also one of the saints mentioned in the Roman Canon
of the Mass which has become our First Eucharistic Prayer. Sixtus died with two of his deacons and the
deacon Laurence who we celebrate on August 10th., died a few days
later.
We pray today for the city of Rome and Sixtus’
successor, Francis and we remember all those who are suffering for their faith
or convictions in the world today.
Memory of Cajetan (1480-1547)
We also remember today Cajetan who was born in
Vicenza in Italy in 1480. He studied Law and Theology at Padua University and
could have had a brilliant career but at the age of 36 he changed direction and
was made a priest. With the help of Cardinal Pietro Carrafa, Cajetan formed
groups of lay people and priests in Rome, Vicenza and Venice to care for the
sick and the poor and in 1523 he founded a Congregation of priests with the aim
of restoring true apostolic life among the clergy who had become notoriously
corrupt. The proper title of his
Congregation is the Clerks Regular of Divine Providence but they became known
as Theatines because Pietro Carrafa became Bishop of Chieti or Theate and he had played a large role in their
establishment. Carrafa subsequently became Pope Paul IVth and was renowned for
his fanatical intransigeance !
The Congregation were noted for their austerity
but they insisted on serious study of the Scriptures and Theology for their
members and the restoration of the dignity of worship. They gave themselves
wholeheartedly to the care of the sick and the poor, preaching and pastoral
care. Cajetan was also responsible for the creation of ‘pawn shops’ which
became known as ‘Monts de piete’ and were designed to help those who used them
rather than exploiting them as was later the case with such institutions.
Cajetan remained Superior of the Congregation
for some years and it spread and became the spearhead of the Church though it
was somewhat overshadowed by the growth of the Jesuits. It also suffered some
unpopularity, no doubt because of its association with the unpopular Pope Paul
IVth.
An interesting historical detail is that Thomas
Goldwell, an Englishman, joined the Theatines in 1547 and was made bishop of Saint
Asaph’s under Queen Mary from 1555 to 1559.
We pray today for the Theatine Congregation and
for all those who work to help the poor and the needy, especially in our society
today.
Saturday Augut 8th. Memory
of Dominic, priest and founder of the Dominicans (1170-1221)
Dominic was born of prosperous parents and
educated by his uncle, becoming a member of the Canons of Osma Cathedral who
followed the Rule of Saint Augustine and he lived there in community until
1204. During that time he was devoted to
the worship of the Cathedral to study and to the care of the poor. In 1201 a
new bishop, Diego, was appointed and he asked Dominic to accompany him to
Denmark to arrange the marriage of the King’s son. Although the journey was a
failure and the intended bride became a nun, during his travels Dominic met for
the first time the Albigensians. These were so called because they originated
in Albi in the south of France in the eleventh century though in other parts of
Europe they were known as Cathars. The Albigensians believed in two eternal
principles of good and evil, spirit being created by the good principle and
matter by the bad. Those who adhered to
this sect were known as ‘Cathari’ or ‘the pure’ because they tried to live
perfect lives of great austerity. It was for this reason that they were
favoured by ordinary people who compared their lives to the lives of the clergy
who were often lax and luxury-loving.
Dominic set up a community of women at Prouille
in France in 1206 to live a life as austere as that of the Cathars and to pray
for those who would seek to convert them.
This was the beginning of the Dominican Order
and in 1215 Dominic established the Order for men who would live a monastic
life and would equip themselves by study and prayer to go out and preach the
Gospel with the hope of winning back the heretics who had strayed away from the
Church.
For the rest of his life Dominic travelled
around Europe visiting his communities. By his death in 1221 there were
provinces established in Spain, France, Lombardy and Rome and houses in six
other countries including England. Although the Dominicans did not succeed in
converting the Cathars, they were to have a great influence in Mediaeval Europe
and further afield, first of all in Asia and then later in Latin America.
Although their proper title is the Order of Preachers, they rapidly became
known as the Dominicans and in this country the Black Friars due to the colour
of the cloak they wore over their white habit. We see traces of their presence
in many places, not least in London at Blackfriars.
We pray today for the Dominican Friars and Nuns
and for the many other Congregations and ordinary people affiliated to them. Their
motto has always been ‘Veritas’ or ‘Truth’ and we pray for a greater love of
truth in the Church and in society and for us an ongoing search for the truth
rather than just accepting things as they are without questioning or
reflection.
Readings
Habakkuk 1/12-2/4 :
Matthew 17/14-20
Today we read an extract from the prophet
Habakkuk. The book itself tells us no more than the prophet’s name and the fact
that he was a ‘nabi’ or ‘prophet’. The main clue to the date of the book is its
reference to the Chaldeans, a people from south Mesopotamia who, with their
centre at Babylon, replaced the Assyrians as the masters of the ancient Near
East in the 7th. or early 6th. centuries B.C.E. Scholars
go further, due to the content of the book, to place it between the beginning
of Assyria’s decline after 626 B.C.E. and the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E.
The book makes an important and original
contribution to the sum of Israel’s reflection on the nature of God and his
ways with Israel. The book starts with a question which the prophet dares to
address to God raising doubts about divine justice and God’s treatment of the
wicked.
This represents a first step in attempting to
deal with the breakdown of order and justice, a situation of which God seems to
approve by his silence and apparent inaction. But despite the doubts he
expresses the prophet shows an underlying attitude of faith and trust. Later in
the book in Habakkuk chapter 3 there is a ringing affirmation of God’s absolute
power over creation and history which places the disturbing events of chapters
1 and 2 in the wider context of God’s saving designs. The key sentence in the
book is the last sentence in our reading today which counsels confidence and
trust in God’s faithfulness.
The extract which we read today, the only one
that we shall read, contains the complaint of Habakkuk and the Lord’s response.
Although set in very different time and place, the passage is relevant for us
as we see our world in such turmoil. God’s answer is ‘if it comes slowly, wait,
for come it will, without fail…. The upright will live by faithfulness’. We
must be patient and believe that God is at work in the hearts and minds of his
children though we are often unable to see this. The Reign of God’s love will
come and we must never lose faith.
Although this is true, of course, it does not
absolve us from taking our part in the bringing about of the Reign of Love here
and now in our world and for this we must work with people of every creed and
none who are of good faith since the Spirit is at work everywhere.
We resume our reading of Matthew’s Gospel after
his account of the Transfiguration which, fortuitously we celebrated only two
days ago.
Jesus and his three companions come down from
the mountainside and are brought back to earth by the reality of a parent’s
anguish over the desperate state of his child. The condition is most probably
epilepsy but in Jesus’ time this would have been associated with demonic
possession. Matthew’s account of this event scales down the details we find in
Mark’s Gospel to place the focus on faith. The problem here is not whether
Jesus can heal the child, he obviously can, but rather why were his disciples
not able to do so. Jesus explains that their inability was due to their having
‘little faith’ or better, due to the ‘littleness of their faith’. In the time
that is coming, that is our time, Jesus will not be with them physically as,
indeed, he had not been with them during the time that he was on the mountain
with the three, but he and the divine power that he has will be ‘with them’
(Matthew 1/23, 28/20) so long as they have faith. Faith is the necessary
channel through which God’s presence and power become effective in the world.
We must be clear here that faith here does not
mean faith in dogmas and teachings. Here faith is ‘trust in God’. Here we are
back with Habakkuk who, speaking as from God, has also told us
that we must trust in him, even though it (the
Kingdom) may be slow in coming, come it will!
Today would seem then to be a day to pray that we and the whole Church
may have that faith, that trust in God and not in modern methods, new-fangled
ideas or wonderful visions and revelations.
We must be faithful to the Gospel in all its
radical simplicity with a childlike trust in the God who is our loving Father.
We must proclaim the Gospel in our lives and in our communities in simple faith
and trust. It is in the measure that the world around us sees the simplicity
and the honesty of our lives that it will begin, if it does not already, to
sense what it is that makes life truly human and what brings true fulfilment.
And a final word on Dominic’s day, we must be
truthful, always seeking the truth and trying to live the truth in a world
where prevarication and dishonesty are so often the norm.
There are proper readings for Saint Dominic
although, almost certainly those of the day will be used. Those for Dominic are
:
Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians
2/1-10 : Luke 9/57-62
Paul, writing to the Corinthian Christians
tells them that his message to them is not some complicated philosophy but the
mystery revealed in Jesus who has shown us the reality of a God who is love.
Dominic might well have taken this passage as the inspiration for his work and
that of the Dominican Friars that he founded.
The Gospel reading alludes to the itinerant
nature of Dominican life and their having left all to follow Jesus. Although we
may not be able to follow Christ in the manner that the disciples and later the
Dominicans were able, nevertheless we have to accept that if we are to be his
true followers this will entail sacrifice. Am I ready for that?
.
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