Fr Peter's newsletter notes - February 2005

Ash Wednesday 2005

Over the last week there must have been countless prayers offered to God for the recovery of the Pope. I hope his intentions have been in our prayers as well. All we can do is to pray for his recovery and accept whatever God brings. The remarkable resilience of the Pope in the face of his illnesses can give courage to all who suffer, whether Christian or not. His personal witness, like so many others who have suffered long and debilitating illnesses, is of the dignity of the human person, whose spirit can overcome even the most adverse circumstances. This is yet another aspect of the Pope's witness to absolute truth in the modern world. It is part of the same witness to truth that assisted in the defeat of communism in Eastern Europe, and that has led to a revival in so many unexpected quarters of the Church.

The power of witness has always been an essential part of the Church's message, and is one of her many charisms. The human witness to Christ is the believer who, to use the jargon of moral theology, has brought together in his or her own life both the objective pole of morality, the inviolability of the natural and revealed law, and the subjective pole, the inner voice of conscience with its summons to action. This reveals in the individual life of the witness a strict connection between faith and morality, and calls for a consistent life and a lifelong commitment to seek perfection.

This unity of faith and morality is intimately connected to the believer's human dignity, and so the believer freely accepts that certain actions, forbidden by the Ten Commandments, are always wrong whatever the circumstances. The witness who holds onto this truth whatever the personal cost, and the martyr is the one who has given up his life for the truth. Jesus Christ is the one every martyr imitates, as He freely gave up His life for the truth about Himself and the dignity of the human person. The Cross demonstrates the ultimate unity between the freedom to choose, and the absolute value of truth.

This witness to the Gospel is simultaneously external and internal. The believer is both a 'city on a hilltop' (this Sunday's Gospel) and 'one who acts in secret' (Gospel for Ash Wednesday). To reject either is to denude the power inherent in Christian witness. This unity helps to understand the Church's approach of 'being hard on sin but soft on the sinner', of the uncompromising preaching of the truth, and the ubiquity of forgiveness. The Pope is frequently portrayed by those inside and outside of the Church as being ultra-conservative, but such thinkers forget that one of his first Encylicals was entitled, 'Rich in mercy'. The mercy of God has been a constant theme in his writings. It is the mercy that allows the believer to strive for perfection, because it gives grace to overcome failure, and allows God to bring good out of wrong situations.

The Lenten period and its practices may therefore be seen as both an internal and an external journey, enabling the believer to become a better witness to the truth in the world. The shadow of the Cross, and the light of the Resurrection, should make us see both the cost and the life giving qualities of the connection between freedom and truth. The internal journey is towards recognition that the Lord's way is the right way, and the external journey the daily resistance to wrongdoing. They are difficult and require the love and mercy of God, but God never asks the impossible and gives the grace necessary to achieve the goal.

1st Week of Lent - Sunday 13th February 2005

The Octave of Christian Unity must have passed most of us by without a thought, not out of any sense of antagonism towards other Christians, but rather in recognition that its main work has been completed, and that most Christians no longer feel antithetical to each other. The ecumenical conversation has moved beyond the Christian orbit and changed now into inter-religious dialogue especially with Islam. The reasons for not being Catholic, the normative form of being Christian, now begin to look somewhat irrelevant when confronted by the secularism of modern Europe or the fundamentalism of Islam.

Perhaps it is time to institute a new octave to capture the catholic imagination, that of 'the octave of love and friendship', the eight days that follow St Valentine's Day. At the very least it would reduce the cost of dining-out or buying flowers and chocolates on the 14th as consumer demand could be spread over a longer period, and a greater choice prevail.

This is not a serious suggestion on my part, although I did read that in Terni, a small Italian city half way between Rome and Florence, a whole month of activities have been organised around the saint's day. This is the hometown of St. Valentine, who was a Bishop there in the third century. The Roman Emperor, Valerius, had decreed that young men should not marry prior to military service, as young married men made poor soldiers. The Bishop obviously thought that marriage was part of God's plan, and thus began a clandestine ministry to young lovers. His fame spread throughout the region, and his counsel so valued that each year he dedicated one day to the blessing of married couples. His fame came to the attention of the Emperor, who demanded that he worship the pagan gods of the state, which the Bishop refused to do. This 'friend of lovers' was then stoned and beheaded on 14th February 273. It is good to celebrate love with a clear conscience, with girlfriend, boyfriend, husband and wife. However the serious side of such an 'octave' would be a recognition of the particular qualities of the love between husband and wife that should lie at the heart of every family. This love is both emotional and physical, and sacrificial and long-lasting. When the focus is exclusively on the first pair of qualities, then the relationship is not able to cope successfully with the difficulties of life in a fallen world. The exclusive focus on the second pair misses something vital from the Gospel, and the love shown to us by Jesus Christ. The two divine qualities of the love revealed by Jesus are its power and individual focus. He never once mentioned to those He healed the cost to Himself that such a ministry would entail. They were the providential recipients of a divine love that would ultimately transform the world, through the conquest of sin and death. Instead He told us, his followers, about the cost so that we could consciously imitate Him in this way of loving whilst understanding the personal sacrifice.

Only a killjoy would want to take the fun, romance and intimacy out of love while only fool would want to keep love on this surface level alone. Something more solid and long lasting must lie beneath that fits our human nature as a unity of body and soul. This is most certainly true for marriage, or for a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. These qualities of willpower, though, should mark every friendship. The unfortunate overuse of the word 'friend' to embrace nearly everyone except one's enemies, has blinded us to those necessary qualities of steadfastness, confidentiality and wisdom. As the author of Ecclesiasticus writes, 'A faithful friend is a true shelter, whoever finds one has found a rare treasure....Whoever fears the Lord makes true friends, for as a man is, so is his friend'. (Eccl 6:14-17).

I do not suppose for one minute that such an octave of 'love and friendship' would ever be instituted, but we as Christians do have something to say and celebrate about their true nature.

2nd Week of Lent - Sunday 13th February 2005

The virtue of hope might be considered the Cinderella of the three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity. Charity is an obvious virtue, even if it is talked about more than practised. The virtue of Faith can be shared with others, not necessarily Christian or Catholic. Hope, on the other hand has a much more ethereal quality, and one seemingly without focus or end. Today hope has been reduced to a vague sentimental notion about the future with the inference that everything will naturally just get better.

The question as to how faith in Christ and hope in Christ differ is a difficult one to answer. The Catechism gives a number of explanations of hope. First, hope is the 'virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises' and, secondly, that 'the virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man'. The qualities of hope are later described as 'keeping a man from discouragement, sustaining him in times of abandonment, and opening the heart in expectation of eternal beatitude' (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1817-1818).

The original question can be answered by saying that the virtue of faith has as its object Christ Himself while hope has its object the promises of Christ. The promises of Christ only really mean something to those who believe Christ is the Son of God. A weak faith collapses the promises of Christ into one's own personal self-advancement, while a timid faith cannot grasp the grandeur of the hope promised by Jesus Christ.

The account of the Transfiguration of Jesus, the subject of Sunday's Gospel, is the key moment of hope on the road to Jerusalem, and comes soon after His first prediction of His own Passion. Peter, along with the others, does not understand why the Christ should suffer, and Jesus castigates him for his obtuseness in failing to understand God's way. Jesus does not answer directly as to why He has to suffer. Instead He allows Peter, James and John to witness his Transfiguration, a passing moment of future glory.

The purpose of this tangible moment of hope is both to confirm the legitimacy of Jesus in relation to the past, as revealed in his dialogue with Moses and Elijah, and to focus on the road ahead. The voice from heaven emphasises the need to listen to Him (Jesus) as He will now explain the true cost of discipleship. This is neither the deliberate searching out of suffering, nor the avoidance of whatever suffering might befall them. True discipleship, i.e. following Christ in the way of the cross, will not take place by remaining 'on the mountain' but in the real world with all its sorrows and away from the peaks of spiritual and emotional highs.

The three disciples needed hope to continue on their journey, and so do we today. This explains why the Church places this Gospel reading at the beginning of Lent. It used to strike me as slightly odd to hear about the Transfiguration so soon after taking up one's Lenten practises. At first sight they seem contradictory, but they really need each other.

Every believer should always treasure his/her personal experiences of hope, however fleeting they may have been, because they give an insight into the grandeur and love of God. They give the courage to continue the search for meaning and sanctity. They make it possible for us to take up our Lenten practises because we know they are but a prelude to something far greater than can be comprehended. The power of hope can also make clear that so much of what constitutes human life is ultimately transitory in nature, and hence not necessary for our salvation. Hope can reinforce our recognition for the need for prayer, abstinence and almsgiving as well.

3rd Week of Lent - Sunday 27th February 2005

The Sermon on the Mount - Ash Wednesday 2005

The Sermon on the Mount is the first of five blocks of teaching given by Jesus that occur at different moments throughout His public life. This, the first, contains the heart of Jesus' moral teaching, and reinforces the strict connection between faith and morality. The opening Beatitude, 'Blessed are the poor in Spirit' sets the context for every believer who, by recognising his or her poverty of spirit, simultaneously recognises their need for, and acceptance of, God's grace. This Beatitude issues forth in a particular way of life, as described in the other Beatitudes (last Sunday's Gospel). Such a way of life will, by necessity, be a form of witness in a fallen world (this Sunday's Gospel). After describing these general rules for the believer, Jesus then speaks about the need to seek to perfect relations with one's neighbour. Their practice requires the purity of heart requested in the Beatitudes.

Jesus now moves to the heart of the sermon, the believer's relationship with God. This section consists of three parts that correspond to the classical Jewish devotional practices of almsgiving, prayer and fasting. (The Gospel on Ash Wednesday). Placed amongst these counsels is the Our Father, the perfect form of prayer for the disciple. Jesus deliberately gives them this prayer, so that the content of their prayer will correspond to the way they are invited to live, and will divinely assist their efforts to do so.

The Sermon continues with further teachings about relations with others as well as some general conclusions. What is obvious from this highly structured sermon (parts of which are read throughout Lent) is that at the heart, and what gives the rest meaning, is our relationship with God. The demand by Jesus for secrecy in almsgiving, prayer and fasting, is not to hide any Christian identity from the world, but to emphasise the interior dimension of such a relationship, and the need to experience more deeply one's conscience as a summons from God which, for the believer, is achieved through the imitation of Jesus Christ.

The Lord's Prayer. Tuesday Week 1 Lent.

The Lord's Prayer represents the way of prayer necessary for the new community founded on the Beatitudes. The 'poor in spirit' are able to pray to God in confidence knowing that He is omniscient, and that He will listen to their requests. The emphasis now turns towards the cleansing of the mind and the purifying of the heart in order for the believer to align his or her will with that of God.

The key is the first stanza, 'Our Father, who art in heaven'. The use of 'Father' for God is not new to Christians, as this expression was used to describe God's relationship with His chosen people. Jesus however, embodies this relationship in Himself, and the Christian, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, is able to do the same. The distinct nature of the Church will be reflected in the particular quality of the Catholic moral, liturgical and spiritual life.

This opening verse is followed by three imperatives, 'hallowed by thy name', 'thy kingdom come' and 'thy will be done'. Each one calls for divine action, and the believer recognises that they have been accomplished by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one 'who comes in the name of the Lord'. Jesus proclaimed that the 'kingdom of God has come'. He 'learnt to obey through suffering'. The Christian is identifying with a divine plan in Jesus that has yet to be fully completed, but to which the whole of time is directed.

The prayer now moves to the believer, in both the present moment and in the future. The 'daily bread' is the Eucharist, 'the bread of life' with its three-part concept of time: the once and for all death and resurrection of Jesus; the continual nourishment of the believer; the messianic banquet at the end of time. The petition to be forgiven and to forgive others arew only possible because Jesus has revealed that the Father is the ultimate source of both forgiveness and mercy. The Father's imminent return adds a sense of urgency to our need to forgive. It should encourage us not to give way to daily temptation, and not to forget that God alone saves. Hence we seek His protection from the devil, even though Jesus has broken his power.

The Parable of the wicked husbandmen Lent Friday Week 2

The last week of Jesus' life begins with His procession into the city of destiny, Jerusalem. He is hailed by the crowds as the Messiah, 'the one who is to come'. Later that day, or on the following day, Jesus will cleanse the Temple in an act of purification prior to its replacement by His own body, as the true place to worship God. The Temple authorities question Jesus as to His authority for such an action, and He replies with a counter question as to the validity of the baptism of John. As a result of their indecision, Jesus interjects with three parables concerning repentance and good works, the second of which is that of the wicked husbandmen.

The parable itself is like a mini history of salvation, and the heart of this history is the action of God. He established the vineyard, an image first of Israel, but also by extension to all creation. He leased it to tenants, the chosen people and, by extension, to all peoples. At every stage in His dealings with the tenants, He respects their liberty, even to accepting their maltreatment of his emissaries. The greed to seize the vineyard makes them lose sight of their status of tenants, and turns to murderous intent when confronted with the Son of the landowner. The desire to possess has quickly smothered any traces either of conscience or of the natural law. It has opened the way, as history has demonstrated all too often, to murder and violence. The parable emphasises that the drawing near of God in His Son should elicit a proper response in his listeners, but this can only come about through repentance and an acceptance of our status as tenants in a cosmos not of our making.

The coming of the Son should stimulate a sense of urgency in this process of change, a fact that is not lost on the Pharisees who grasp in a moment of insight that even if they should do away with Jesus, God could realise His plans through this apparent failure. The power of God is never forced upon us, but that does not make it any less forceful. This is the Good News. When confronted with the utter holiness of God we stand there as sinners, not wallowing in self-pity, but as ones who know that God in Christ is reconciling us back to Him.