Sunday October 4th. to Saturday October 10th.
Sunday October 4th. to Saturday October 10th. Reflections on the Readings at Daily Mass.
Sunday October 4th. Twenty Seventh Sunday in Year One.
Readings
Isaiah 5/1-7
: Paul’s Letter to the
Philippians 2/1-11 : Matthew 21/28-32
Today’s Gospel reading is again a story that
Jesus tells about a vineyard and the first reading from the prophet Isaiah
reminds us that the vineyard was a common way of speaking about Israel, God’s
own vineyard.
The reading from the prophet Isaiah is a love
poem about God’s relationship with his own people. The friend, who is the
subject of the song is, of course, God and he has taken a great deal of care to
make sure that everything is perfect for an abundant harvest of grapes. In
other words God has taken such care of his people that they might yield a
harvest of good works and love. The watchtower set in the middle of the
vineyard may refer to the Law or to the great Jerusalem Temple.
In spite of such love and care there is no
abundant harvest and God’s love turns to bitter regret.
Through the prophet God says that he will take
away the protective wall and the hedge so that the vineyard will be destroyed.
This seems a revengeful attitude but we must realise that it is the failure of
the people to live lives according to God’s Law that has made them vulnerable
to the attacks of enemies and the exiles that they have to endure. God expected
justice from his people and he found only bloodshed. Among them there was no
integrity, only distress This is the sad tale of Israel’s constant infidelity
and its failure to live in righteousness and integrity.
In the Gospel reading Jesus pushes this parable
of Isaiah further. It is not only the failure of the vineyard to yield its
expected harvest. ‘When the vintage time drew near’ indicates that this parable
is about the coming of the Kingdom, the Reign of God. Though Jesus quotes the
passage from Isaiah that we have read, he turns the story into an allegory
whose meaning depends on his death and resurrection. The quotation from psalm
118, verses 22-23 which follows on from the parable was seen by the first
followers of Jesus as bearing witness to the meaning of the resurrection. This
quotation makes clear that Jesus is the rejected stone and, after the
resurrection he will become the head of the corner stone on which the whole
building depends.
Matthew makes it clear in the verses which
follow our reading (Matthew 21/45) that this parable is not directed against
Israel as a whole but against its leaders. The crowds who are listening to
Jesus still regard him as a prophet though they do not know yet where to place
him in this story of the vineyard, since he is, obviously, the Son. The dogged
persistence of the landowner in claiming what is his due from the vineyard
shows the perseverance of God with his people. The servants who are sent to the
vineyard are the prophets, perhaps even including John the Baptist. The Son is
Jesus who will be killed outside the city as the son in the parable was killed
outside the vineyard. The landowner is God and the final threat in the parable
points towards the final judgement and, perhaps, the fall of Jerusalem in the
year 70 C.E. The ‘other tenants’ in the parable
and the ‘people who will bear fruit’ may refer to non-Jews but more
likely, given it is Matthew’s Gospel, these words refer to a new generation of
faithful leaders Within Israel, Christian Jews like those who make up the most
part of the community for whom Matthew is writing his Gospel.
There are problems, about tracing this parable
back to Jesus himself, not least the foreknowledge of Jesus’ death and the
possible reference to the destruction of Jerusalem. Scholars think that
something like this parable did originate from Jesus’ teaching and was
developed and expanded within the early Christian communities until it was
taken over by Mark for his Gospel from where Matthew has drawn it.
The meaning for us is obvious. If we are like
the Scribes and the Pharisees and, in spite of all that Jesus has taught us and
the prophets before him, we make the mistake of believing that what matters is
the observance of religious practice and not the good fruits that this should
bring forth, then we are rejecting Jesus and his message.
We might develop the parable for ourselves by
recognising that what is wanted of us, the Church, is not to look beautiful
like a wonderful harvest of grapes with all our fine ceremonies, beautiful
churches and devotions because this would be to yield ‘sour grapes’ which are
all show on the outside and not good to eat. The fruits that we must yield are
justice, mercy and love. Our first task is to proclaim the coming Reign of God
by what we are both as communities and as individuals. Our second task is to be
out there whenever and wherever we can, helping build up that Reign of Love
with all those who are of good will.
Our devotions and our celebrating Mass are only
of value if they inspire us in that task of both being a sign of the Kingdom
and working to bring that Kingdom about.
In the reading from the Letter to the
Philippians today the writer once again gives us excellent advice for our
communities. ‘Fill your minds’ the writer says ‘with everything that is true,
everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we
love and honour and everything that can be thought virtuous and worthy of
praise’. That is a programme both for each of us individually and for our
communities too. It ought to define our way of life both as individuals and as
communities.
There ought to be among us and in our lives
individually a search for truth, an effort to avoid all dishonesty such as
putting up a front of piety while remaining unloving and unkind underneath that
mask. We are simple and ordinary people but we are called to have that nobility
which springs from honesty and right living. We must be concerned for what is
good and pure, that is straightforward in our thinking and in our actions. Our
lives should be filled with the awareness of what it is that is most important
to us, what we love and honour, what we know to be at the very heart of
everything, the love of God, the God who is love.
Though we ought not to seek praise, our lives
ought to be lived in such a way that others will praise us for our simple
goodness and honesty. What a programme this is but it is what the world needs
to see among us together with that peace which springs from living in this way.
And, of course, the challenge is so often that
those who are outside the Church or any particular religious faith do so much
better than we do at producing the fruits of justice, peace and love.
Today is also the feast of Saint Francis who is
such an example of all that Paul is saying and in his day, tried to call the
Church to living in this way.
Francis’ day brings us to the end of the
‘Season of Creation’ that Pope Francis called for when we consider the world in which we live and
our responsibility for its survival.
Maybe we haven’t done very much about this but
it is not too late to start, maybe be reading Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter,
‘Laudato si’ which is easily available if you haven’t yet read it.
Monday October 5th. Monday in Week Twenty Seven in Year Two.
Readings
Letter to the Galatians 1/6-12 :
Luke 10/25-37
For the next ten days we shall be reading
extracts from the Letter to the Galatians. This Letter was most probably
written from Ephesus between 54 and 55 C.E. though some scholars would place it
in 57 C.E. in which case it would have been written from Macedonia.
The Letter is addressed to the churches around
Ancyra in the north-central part of the Province of Galatia in Asia Minor where
Paul had proclaimed the Gospel to non-Jews in 50 or 54 C.E.
It would seem that Paul had not told these
first converts to the Christian way very much about the Jewish background to
the Christian faith or about the Jewish Law and its observance.
After Paul had left Galatia, Christians of
Jewish origin had come, probably from Jerusalem, preaching what seemed to be a
different Gospel. Although these Jewish Christians accepted what God had done
in Christ and placed their faith in him, they believed themselves still obliged
to keep the Jewish Law and to preserve the great heritage of Judaism with all
its ethical guidance. Included in this was, of course, the insistence on
circumcision for men and the observance of the great Jewish festivals. While
they were willing to accept non-Jews into the Christian movement, they believed
that for them to be fully integrated they should keep the Law and all that that
involved.
The Galatian Christians had accepted this
version of the Gospel and it would appear that they had embraced the teaching
that had come from the Jewish emissaries from Jerusalem. In some way, they
seemed to feel that Paul had sold them short in not giving them the whole
picture.
It is against this background that Paul wrote
this Letter to the Galatian Christians.
In the first verses of the Letter which, for
some reason we don’t read, Paul greets the Galatian Christians and asserts his
authority as an Apostle in no uncertain terms. In the extract which we read
today following on immediately from his greeting, Paul says with biting tone,
how astonished and disappointed he is that the Galatian Christians had turned
away from what he had taught them to adopt a different version of the Good
News. He tells them, with some force, that there is only one Gospel and it is
the one that he had preached to them. Those who preach anything different, he
says, are accursed. Finally, Paul reminds the Galatian Christians that although
he was not one of the Twelve, he had received the Gospel through a direct
revelation from Christ himself.
The Gospel reading today is the story of the
Good Samaritan. In a sense this story does relate very much to the dispute
among the Galatian Christians.
The lawyer who was questioning Jesus asks what
he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replies by asking him what is
written in the Law. To this the lawyer replies with a summary of the Ten Commandments
which is found in the books of the Law (Deuteronomy 6/5 and Leviticus 19/18.)To
this Jesus replies that he has answered well but the lawyer asks, as if to
justify himself, who his neighbour might be. It is then that Jesus tells the
story of the Samaritan and so explains to him that his neighbour is anyone in
need of his love and his care, in other words, everyone is his neighbour.
In the dispute among the Galatian Christians
with which Paul is dealing in his letter, we find the same distinction being
made. Faith in Jesus saves but only if the Law, say the Christians from
Jerusalem, is observed in its fulness. Jesus explains that the whole of the Law
and the commandments are contained in the simple commandment to love one
another. In Jesus’ story the priest and the Levite kept the Law. This may well
have been the reason why they didn’t cross the road to see what had happened to
the poor traveller. If he were dead they would have incurred ritual impurity
and so, if they were on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem they would have
been unable to join in the worship. However, they failed in the essential of
the Law which was to love the brother who had been attacked by robbers. That is
why the Law is no longer binding on the Galatian Christians converts so long as
they observe the universal law of love which is what the old Law is all about.
The Letter to the Galatians is of great
importance to us today. In the Church today we hear much less about our
obligation to love our sisters and brothers, the refuges, the homeless, the
victims of war and so on than we hear
about religious practices and observances. We hear so much about going to
Confession, saying the Rosary, spending time before the Blessed Sacrament
exposed and so on. All these are good, of course, but only if they help us love
our neighbours more and, indeed, they are all optional extras and not an
obligation
Tuesday October 6th. Tuesday Week Twenty Seven Year One. Memory of Bruno (c.1030-1101).
Readings
Letter to the Galatians 1/13-24 :
Luke 10/38-42
In the reading from Paul’s letter to the
Galatians today, Paul defends himself and the Gospel which he had proclaimed.
After telling them, as we read yesterday, that the Gospel he preaches comes
from a divine revelation and not from any human being, he now relates the story
of his conversion on the road to Damascus and his subsequent preaching. He
tells them that it did not depend on what he might have heard from the other
Apostles. He then relates how he finally went up to Jerusalem and met both
Peter and James and how they accepted the way in which he was preaching the
Gospel. Those who had come from Jerusalem to the Galatian Christians and who insisted on the observance of the
Jewish law were misleading them, he says, since the Jewish Christian
authorities were already well aware of what he was preaching and they had
approved of it.
In today’s Gospel reading we have the story of
Martha and Mary. Here we find Jesus the prophet received with hospitality by
the two sisters. These women represent the proper response to a prophet by receiving him into their home. Jesus makes
clear, however, that the one thing necessary for true hospitality is attention
to the guest rather than domestic performance.
Martha’s pre-occupation and her resentment are
understandable enough but they lead her to break the rules of hospitality far
more than her sister since she asks Jesus to intervene in a family dispute. Jesus
was not worried about the food and other preparations for his visit. What he
wants is for people to listen to him.
Maybe we should ask ourselves whether we are so
fussed about religious observances that we forget to listen to Jesus and to
hear him saying that all that matters is that we love one another. In our
everyday encounters with others, do we truly listen to them or do we half hear
what they are saying while we are thinking about what we have to do next?
We remember the Anglican Sisters of Bethany in
Southsea today. Their patron saints are Mary, Martha and Lazarus their brother
and they try to make their house open and welcoming to all who come to them and
so imitate the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
Memory of Bruno, founder of the Carthusian
monks and nuns. (c.1030-1101)
Bruno was born in Cologne and became a
well-known teacher at the Cathedral School of Rheims. He became so renowned
that by the age of thirty we was head of the school and he stayed there for
some thirty years. Already a priest, Bruno felt the call to solitude
increasingly and he left his position in Rheims to live as a hermit, ending up
near Grenoble under the protection of its bishop, Hugh. Bruno was soon joined
by others who also wished to live in solitude.
In spite of his wishes, Bruno was called to
Rome by Pope Urban IInd. who was one of his former students, to help him in the reform of the Church.
Bruno still hankered after the solitary life and Urban gave him permission to
build a monastery at La Torre in Calabria where he could resume his former life
of seclusion. It was there that Bruno spent the last ten years of his life and
from there he was still able to advise the Pope when necessary and to form his
Order for the future with a Rule which he wrote for them. Bruno died on this
day in 1101.
Although they have never become numerous,
Bruno’s monks have had enormous influence in the Western Church and from their
house in London came the first martyrs under Henry VIIIth.
There is a Carthusian monastery in this
country, a Charterhouse as it is called, at West Grinstead in Sussex founded at
the time of the expulsion of the Religious Orders from France at the end of the
nineteenth century and large enough to hold the community from their mother
house, the Grande Chartreuse near Grenoble. When the community returned to
France a smaller community remained and has been there ever since. There are
also Carthusian Nuns though there are
very few monasteries left now.
We pray today for Carthusian men and women
throughout the world and we pray too for a greater love of solitude and
silence in our own lives in order that
we may time to be alone with God. We
might also pray for a great love of silence and solitude in our frenzied world
and this might be something which our church could encourage and facilitate.
There are proper readings for Bruno but since
this is only an ‘optional’ memorial it is unlikely that they will be used.
Those provided are :
Letter to the Philippians 3/8-14
which refers to Bruno’s leaving everything to
live the eremitical life and which has
the memorable line ‘All I want to know is Christ’ which, of course, sums up the
Christian life for us. To know him and to follow him is our calling too.
Luke
9/57-62
which also refers to Bruno’s leaving everything
to follow Jesus. We may not be able to do this as Bruno did but we are still
called to follow him day by day and to not look back!
Wednesday October 7th. Wednesday Week Twenty Seven Year Two. Our Lady of the Rosary.
The feast of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin
Mary began as a simple celebration for groups dedicated to the recitation of
the Rosary but, after the battle of Lepanto on this date in 1671, when the
Christian navies overcame the Turkish fleet, Pope Pius Vth. extended the feast
to the whole of the Western Church. In time the whole month of October came to
be dedicated to the Rosary and it was ordered to be recited publicly every day
of that month.
The origins of the Rosary are difficult to
determine and, although tradition attributes it to Saint Dominic who was said
to have used it as a weapon against the Albigensian heresy, it would seem to
have developed gradually amongst both Dominican Friars and Cistercian monks.
In its entirety the Rosary consists of one
hundred and fifty ‘Hail Marys’ grouped in tens or decades interspersed with the
Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of each decade and the ‘Glory be’ at the end of
each. Each decade was devoted to reflection on some particular ‘mystery’ or
episode in the story of Jesus or Mary, five were known as the Joyful mysteries,
five as the sorrowful and five as the glorious. Thus the entire Rosary was
divided into three parts of five decades each.
In mediaeval times when most people could not
join in the daily Prayer of the Church because of its complexity and the fact
that it was celebrated in Latin, since it involved the recitation of the one
hundred and fifty psalms each week it was, in some sense mirrored by the one
hundred and fifty ‘Hail Marys’ of the Rosary.
The Rosary was never intended to be a public
prayer and nothing can be so dreadful or unconducive to prayer as its public
recitation which usually becomes a hopeless gabble and offers little
possibility of reflection on anything.
The Rosary was, it has to be said, the prayer
that was known to most Roman Catholics until the changes in the official
worship of the Mass and the Daily Prayer of the Church. From then on it became
possible for everyone to join in in their own language because they could
understand it.
Over the centuries the Rosary was commended by
Popes and Bishops as something which was both pleasing to and desired by the
Mother of God and this has again been happening more recently so that it has
become, once again, a sort of universal cure-all for every situation.
Many have found the Rosary difficult if not
impossible to use but have found it difficult to admit this because it was so
highly commended by Church authorities. We have to admit though that the Rosary
is a device invented to help with prayer which has its origins in the Middle
Ages and there is no sound evidence for its being anything else. Though Mary is
said to have asked for the recitation of the Rosary in many of her alleged
apparitions over the past two centuries, we are not bound to believe in the
reality of these apparitions nor in the assertion that Mary wishes the Rosaryto
be used. We should, therefore, feel no
guilt if we fail to find it a form of prayer that is helpful. If, of course, we
do then by all means we should use it but not make the sort of claims that we
so often hear being made for its use.
Finally, given the strange circumstances for
the institution of this feast after the Battle of Lepanto when it was believed
that Mary had a hand in the defeat of the Turkish forces and the prevention of
the spread of Islam all over Europe it would seem appropriate today to pray for
reconciliation between Christians and Muslims
and, perhaps, to resolve to get to know our Muslim neighbours and to try
to dialogue with them. They certainly have the folk memory of the dreadful
things that were done in the name of Christ during the Crusades and, no doubt,
for the Turkish people there is also the memory of the dreadful battle of
Lepanto and the destruction of their forces with enormous human loss. Terrible
things have been done by Muslims and Christians and we must put all that behind
us and seek now to understand and to love on another.
There are special readings for today but most
probably those of the week day will be used as follows.
Readings
Letter to the Galatians 2/1-2, 7-14 :
Luke 11/1-4
In today’s reading from the Letter to the
Galatians Paul relates how he had gone up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus
to meet the leaders of the Jerusalem Christian community. He tells how they had
accepted that it was his special task to proclaim the Gospel to those who were
not Jews and Peter’s to proclaim it to the Jews. But when Peter had come to Antioch
later, Paul explains how he had opposed him
openly and criticised his behaviour
in observing the Jewish law just to keep the Jewish Christians happy. He
tells how he had told Peter that he had no right to impose the Jewish law on
those who were not Jews when he only observed the Law when it suited him to do
so.
It is interesting to see how, even though Peter
is obviously the leader of the Twelve, Paul opposes him ‘to his face’ and tells
him he is wrong. This would seem to be the approach that Pope Francis wants
when he says that he wants to be a bishop among the bishops and not someone who
lords it over them.
Today is a good day to pray that the bishops
may listen to Francis, co-operate with him and have the courage to speak up
when they think he is wrong.
The Gospel reading today gives us Luke’s
version of what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. It is given in response to the
request from one of the disciples that Jesus teach them how to pray. It is a
briefer and more succinct version than that found in the other Gospels and
reveals very clearly Jesus’ relationship with the Father.
In the opening words, after calling God
‘Father’ which makes this the prayer of Jesus himself, it goes one to honour
the name of God. This is very Jewish and recognises the utter otherness of God
who is absolutely different from all that is.
Then follows the petition that the Rule of God
may be brought about in the world, something for which we pray but also
something for which we must work
In Luke’s version of the prayer ‘Your will be
done’ does not appear and, in fact, it effectively repeats the former clause.
In some manuscripts, however, a prayer to the Holy Spirit is inserted here.
‘Give us today the bread we need’ seems to be
the best translation of the next phrase and includes, obviously, not only bread
but all our daily needs.
The prayer continues by asking for the
forgiveness of our sins which means our offences against God but it parallels
this with our own forgiveness of those who are in debt to us, not saying ‘we
forgive’ but rather ‘we forego what is owed to us’.
The final phrase indicates a belief that God
controls all human events and asks that we be not ‘tested’, that is to say that
be ‘not tried beyond our strength’.
Reading these words today must make us resolve
to treat them with greater reverence and to use them with care and meaning
since familiarity so often does breed, if not contempt then, at least,
carelessness.
The proper readings for the celebration of Our
Lady of the Rosary are the following, though will probably not be used. They
are :
Acts of the Apostles 1/12-14
In which we see Mary with the first Jerusalem
Christian community, waiting together for the coming of the Holy Spirit on
Pentecost Day and joining in continuous prayer. This has nothing to do with the
Rosary, of course, but it reminds us that we, the Church, united in Christ,
always pray with Mary, the first member of his Mystical Body, the Church.
Luke 1/26-38
gives us the account of the Annunciation when
Mary is made aware that she is to become the mother of the Messiah. In the
story the angel greets her with the words that begin for us
the best known of all prayers after the Lord’s
Prayer opening, as they do, the ‘Hail Mary’.
Whatever we think of the Rosary, it is good to
greet the Mother of God in these Scriptural words and to recognise that she is
one with us in prayer in the communion of her Son’s Church.
Thursday October 8th. Thursday in Week twenty Seven in Year Two.
Readings
Letter to the Galatians 3/1-15 :
Luke 11/5-13
In today’s reading from the Letter to the
Galatians, Paul argues with them. He reminds them that when he had preached
Christ crucified to them they had received the Spirit without accepting to
observe any of the demands of the Jewish law. How then could observance of that
Law be necessary, he asks. Are they going to be foolish enough, he asks, to forget
what was proclaimed to them in favour of adopting all the rules of the Jewish
Law. They have received the Spirit because they have believed what he had
proclaimed to them, namely Jesus himself. What Paul is saying, in effect, is
‘by their fruits you shall know them’ and they have already borne abundant
fruit without the Law so why should they want now to take on this new burden?
In the Gospel reading Jesus paints a vivid
picture of a neighbour begging his friend for help, even in the middle of the
night and getting what he wants only through perseverance. Jesus goes on to say that, like children
trust their parents we can trust God. God will not answer our prayers through
malice any more than our parents would answer our requests. But Jesus does not
promise that we will receive that for which we are asking. What he does say is
that we will be given the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who gives
us life and who will make sense for us of our lives. What more could we ask or
want?
So today Paul encourages to have faith in
Christ and in him crucified and Jesus tells us that we must have faith in the
God who loves us even if we don’t always get the answer to our prayers for
which we were hoping. The Holy Spirit is always here to help us.
Friday October 9th. Feast of Saint John Henry Newman.
John Henry Newman was born in 1801 and was
brought up as a member of the Church of England on the Evangelical wing. He
entered Trinity College, oxford when he was only seventeen and became a Fellow
of Oriel College in 1822 when he was only 21! In 1824 he was made a Deacon and
a year later he was ordained priest. The next year he was appointed
Vice-Principal of Alban Hall and in 1828
he was appointed Vicar of the University Church of Saint Mary.
After touring southern Europe in 1822-3 he had
become involved in what became known as the Oxford Movement of which he was a
leading spirit. This movement which had
begun in 1833 aimed at restoring the high church ideals of the seventeenth
century. Its main purpose was to show that the Church of England was a Divine
institution, its bishops within the succession of bishops from the Apostles and
its doctrines, as contained in the Book of Common Prayer, fully Catholic.
Newman’s sermons at Saint Mary’s from 1834 to
1842 had a profound influence not only in Oxford but on the whole country.
Newman’s spirituality was based on his intense study of the Fathers of the
early Church. His main thesis was that the Church of England provided a ‘via
media’ or ‘middle way’ between, on the one hand the excesses of modern Roman
Catholicism and on the other those of modern Protestantism.
Because of the reaction from some quarters
about his teaching, Newman began to have doubts about the claims he made for
the Church of England. He retired from his position as Vicar of Saint Mary’s to
Littlemore outside of Oxford where he lived a quasi-monastic life with a few
friends. His doubts increasing he resigned on September 15th.,
1843 and was received into the Roman
Catholic Church on this day in 1845 by the Italian Passionist, Dominic Barberi.
It was almost immediately after this that he published his most famous work,
his ‘Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine’ in defence of his joining
the Roman Catholic Church.
After spending some time in Rome where he was ordained priest in the Roman
Catholic Church, inspired by the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, he returned to
establish an Oratory in Birmingham in 1849.
Newman’s life in the Roman Catholic Church was
not without its difficulties but his publication of his ‘Apologia pro vita
sua’ by its frankness and delicacy, won
him the sympathy both of Roman Catholics and others. In 1865 he wrote the
‘Dream of Gerontius’ which depicts the journey of the soul to God at the hour
of death and was set to music by Edward Elgar.
Apart from many other works, in 1870 Newman
published his ‘Grammar of Assent’ which contains his most mature thought and in
which he defends the role of the individual conscience.
In 1877 Newman was made a Fellow Trinity
College, Oxford and in 1879 he was made a Cardinal of the Roman Church by Pope
Leo XIIIth. He died in 1890 on 11th., August.
Although Newman was not appreciated during his
life time, his thought has come to have enormous influence both in the Anglican
Communion and in the Roman Catholic Church where it was most felt at the Second
Vatican Council
John Henry Newman was beatified by Pope
Benedict XVIth. During his visit to this country in 2010 and he was canonised
by Pope Francis on October 13th., 2019.
Sadly it was decided that Newman should be
celebrated not on the date of his death as is normally the case but on the date
on which he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. This is a slight to
the Anglican Communion and a failure in Ecumenical understanding and would
have, surely, saddened Newman.
Interestingly, when Newman’s tomb was opened so
that his relics might be placed in a suitable shrine in the Birmingham Oratory,
nothing was found in his coffin except a few morsels of his cardinal’s hat, it
seems. This would surely have rejoiced Neman’s heart since he would have had
little time for the veneration of his relics!
This year the English Bishops have succeeded in
raising Newman’s day to the rank of a feast day so that there are special
readings for the Mass.
Readings
First Letter to the Corinthians 2/10-16 :
Matthew 13/47-52
The extract from the Letter to the Corinthians
speaks at length of the work of the Holy Spirit and having the mind of Christ.
Newman was someone who spent his whole life in studying and reflecting upon
Christ and his teaching and who tried to live as one who had the mind of
Christ.
He taught, as the reading says ‘in the way that
the Spirit teaches us’ guided by the Spirit of God. But the reading also refers
to the guidance of the |Spirit for the ‘spiritual person’ which wemight see as
a reference to Newman’s insistence on the primacy of the human conscience. As
-11-
he is
reputed to have said when invited to respond to a dinner toast to the Pope,
that he would drink to the Pope but to conscience first. The spiritual person
is not necessarily a Christian or even a person of faith but one who responds
to the spirit at work in their conscience and helping them think and do what is
right.
The Gospel reading refers to the Kingdom of God
in which all sorts of people of every faith and none may be ‘hauled in’ but it
also refers to Newman since he was like the scribe who becomes disciple of the
Kingdom of heaven. Newman drew not only from what was new but, above all from
his vast understanding of the ancient writers of the Church so that his teaching
was built upon solid foundations and, of course, he speaks of what is new in
his teaching on the development of Christian doctrine, teaching which had great
influence at the second Vatican Council.
We pray today especially for the Anglican
Communion and our greater understanding one of another and co-operation
together.
Saturday October 10th. Saturday Week Twenty Seven Year two. Denis and John Leonardi.
Readings
Letter to the Galatians 3/22-29 :
Luke 11/27-28
Since we missed yesterday’s readings because of
the feast of Saint John Henry Newman, it would be good to read yesterday’s
extract from the Letter to the Galatians first (Galatians 3/7-14). In that Paul
explains why those who were trying to impose the Jewish law on those who were
not Jews were wrong. Those who had come to the Galatian Christians after Paul
had proclaimed the Good News to them were insisting that the men must be
circumcised quoting Genesis (Genesis 17/10-14).
Paul quotes to them God’s promise to Abraham, that in him all nations
would be blessed (Genesis12/3) a promise that was made without any requirement for
circumcision. In giving the Holy Spirit to the uncircumcised non-Jews through
their faith, Paul says, God is fulfilling the promise made to Abraham, a man
whose faith was reckoned as righteousness, or, in other words, whose faith was
sufficient to put him at rights with God.
Paul’s language is very strong as he condemns
those who insist on the observance of the Jewish Law. He reminds the Galatian
Christians that the Law is, in some sense, a curse since its observance cannot
put one right with God, only faith in God can do that. In a strange quoting of the Scriptures, Paul
reminds the Galatian Christians that Christ has freed them from the curse of
the Law by becoming accursed himself, since Scriptures says ‘Cursed be the one
who is hanged on a tree’ (Deuteronomy 21/23). This participation of Jesus in
our humanity has assured the whole human race of the blessing promised to
Abraham and their sharing in God’s Spirit.
This passage is obscure but put simply, it
reminds us that God is best served not by the observance of rules and
regulations, whether they be the old Law or the man-made rules of the Church.
God is served when we have faith in him and live in his life of love.
It is interesting that the whole argument
centres on circumcision, something which affected only men. Women don’t get
mentioned. This is, of course, a reflection of the world in which Paul lived
but sadly it is also a reflection of the world in which, to some extent, the
institutional Church still lives where women are still second-class citizens.
In the passage from the Letter to the Galatians
set for today, Paul continues his argument with those who would impose the
Jewish Law on the non-Jewish converts to the Christian movement. The Law, Paul
reminds them, came four hundred and thirty years after the promises made to
Abraham so can the fulfilment of those promises depend on the observance of the
Law he asks. The Law was meant to be a
help to tide them over until the coming of Christ. Now the time has come, Paul
says, the Galatians Christians have no need to worry about the Law and they can
enjoy the freedom of God’s children (not ‘sons’!) They are all baptised into
Christ and so they have clothed themselves in him. All distinctions have been
abolished, he says, not only between Jew and non-Jew but also between slave and
free and between male and female.
Paul doesn’t follow that up but he states very
clearly that there is no distinction between men and women. This must make us
think about the role of women in the Church. If there is no distinction then
why cannot women be ordained to the Church’s ministry? The Pontifical Biblical
Commission, which is the highest authority on Scripture in our church, has said
that there is nothing in Sacred Scripture which might be used as an argument
against the ordination of women. Pope John Paul forbade the discussion of this
matter in an extraordinary display of Papal dictatorship but one cannot forbid
discussion and this must be discussed openly. Pope Francis has, to some extent,
taken up a position on the fence!
Paul also says that by belonging to Christ we
are all children of Abraham. This is a claim made by both Jews and Muslims and
so today would be a good day to pray that we of these three great world faiths
might draw closer together and recognise how much we have in common and how it
is incumbent upon us to work together to make our world the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel reading which we missed yesterday
(Luke 11/15-26) follows on from a verse which, for some reason, we don’t read
in which Jesus heals a deaf man. The crowd are astonished. Some accuse him of
working miracles with the help of Beelzebul, a name derived from a Canaanite
god, but here simply meaning the devil or the evil one. Others, however, ask
Jesus for a sign. In Luke’s Gospel a sign can also be seen as a work of the
devil as we saw in Luke’s account of the temptations of Jesus (Luke 4/2).In
fact Jesus had already given them many signs but they were blind to these signs
of the Kingdom.
Luke reminds us that Jesus is a prophet and so,
like every true prophet, he knew what people were thinking. Luke sees things
very much as a battle between Jesus and Satan. Jesus says that it is obvious
that the Kingdom of God has arrived because he has defeated the servants of the
Evil One through his own servants, the disciples. It is not possible, Jesus
says, for the Evil One to be fighting against himself and defeating his own servants
since that would bring about a complete defeat. If it is ‘by the finger of God’
Jesus says, that he casts out devils, in other words, heals the sick, the
crippled, the blind and the deaf, then this is a sign that the Kingdom of God
has arrived. The term ‘the finger of God’ occurs only once in the Jewish
Scriptures and it refers to Aaron and Moses (Exodus 9/19) so that its use
reminds us that as God sent Moses and Moses sent Aaron, so God sent Jesus and
Jesus sent out his seventy disciples to do his work.
The short parable about the ‘strong man’ is
again a reminder that Luke sees this as a battle .The ‘strong man’ is heavily
armed and he relies on material things but, in the final instance, these are of
no avail. We too must rely not on wealth, possessions, prestige and so on, we
must rely only on God.
The final saying, though it is intended to make
people laugh, is also a warning. It makes the important point that just being
good and doing nothing too bad is not enough. We may feel that we have got rid
of the bad elements in our life but that leaves an empty space to be filled.
The only thing that can fill that space is love, love for all who come our way,
love that is generous and available to all.
The short Gospel reading for today is not just
a tribute to Mary, the one who bore Jesus in her womb and suckled him at her
breast. The woman in the crowd gives Jesus the opportunity to point out that it
is not enough just to be his mother. What is necessary, he says, is to hear the
Word of God and to keep it and be true to it.
This, of course, is exactly what Mary did. She
bore the Word of God in her womb and she kept that word in her life by her
loving and by her living.
For us, the only way to serve God fully is not
only to receive the Word as we do in Holy Communion or to hear the Word as we
do when we read the Scriptures. It is by living that Word day by day in our
lives, living our daily life as Mary did, loving and serving others generously
and without reserve. We ask Mary to be our inspiration and our guide in all
this.
Memory of Denis and his companions, martyrs
(+c.250)
Denis and his companions used to be remembered
on October 9th. but because of the feast of John Henry Newman, this
memory has been moved to today.
According to Gregory of Tours (539-594) Denis
was born in Italy and sent to convert the people of Gaul with five other
bishops. He reached Paris and preached
with great success, establishing a Christian centre on an island in the Seine.
In one of the persecutions, Denis was beheaded with his companions, Rusticus, a
priest and Eleutherius, a deacon around the year 250. Their bodies were recovered from where they
had been thrown into the Seine and buried. Over their tomb the great abbey of
Saint Denis was built later and this became the burial place of French Kings.
In the ninth century Denis’ popularity grew and
he was wrongly identified with the Dionysius who had been converted by Paul’s
speech on the Areopagus in Athens and who became Paul’s disciple. A further
complication was that this Dionysius had been confused with another Dionysius
of the fifth century who had been an influential Christian writer. None of these legends are true and we know
nothing more than we have said about Denis of Paris.
Denis the patron saint of Paris and one of the
patrons of France and so today we pray
especially for the people and the churches of France and for the diocese of
Paris and the newer diocese of Saint Denis whose cathedral is the great abbey
church. We pray too for right decisions to be made about the rebuilding of the
Cathedral Church of Paris, Notre Dame.
There are proper readings for Denis and his
companions but, almost certainly, those for the day will be used. Those for
Denis and his companions are :
Paul’s Second Latter to the Corinthians 6/4-10
which speaks of the hardships that those who
proclaim the Word of God have to endure and how their lives prove the validity
of their message as did those of Denis and his companions..
Matthew 5/13-16
in which Jesus tells his followers that they
must be salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Memory of John Leonardi, priest and founder (1542-1609)
Unusually, there is also a second memory today,
that of John Leonardi who was born in Lucca in Italy about the year 1542.
After becoming an apothecary, John studied for
the ministry and was ordained priest about 1572. For some time he had been concerned for the
people and their lack of education in their faith. After founding a society for
the teaching of Christian doctrine in 1574 he founded the Congregation of the
Clerks Regular of the Mother of God who were to devote themselves to the much
needed reform of the Roman clergy. He also shared in the foundation of the
Roman College which became the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith or
Propaganda and he was involved in the reform of several monastic communities.
He died on this day in 1609 while nursing the victims of the plague.
We pray for John’s Congregation little known
outside Italy and for the ongoing reform and renewal of the ministry which is even
more necessary in our day.
Again there are proper readings for John
Leonardi though, almost certainly, those of the day will be used. Those for
John Leonardi are:
Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians 4/1-2,
5-7
where the writer says that their preaching is
only Christ and that they, despite all their weaknesses hold this treasure and
must be like lights shining out in the darkness as John certainly was.
Luke 5/1-11
where Simon Peter and his companions draw in a
great catch and Jesus assures them that in future they will be catching not
fish but people, drawing them into the Kingdom of God.
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