Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelLuke 6:27-38 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I say
to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those
who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the
cheek, offer the other also; and from one who takes away your cloak do not
withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you; and from one
who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others
would do to you, do so to them.
‘If you love those who love you, what benefit is
that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to
those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that
to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love
your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your
reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to
the ungrateful and the evil.
‘Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be
condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to
you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put
into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.’
Love your enemies, Jesus tells us twice in today's Gospel, which concludes with his words Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. These words of Jesus are perhaps the most difficult of all to follow.
Fifty years ago I was chaplain in a third-level school in the Philippines run by religious sisters. One day the Directress asked me to go to the station of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) in the city. One of the male students was filing a case against another. The two had been close friends but had had a serious disagreement. I went to the station with some reluctance. It was during the early years of martial law in the Philippines and the PC was deeply involved in this. They were the national police force at the time and part of the military. (In 1991 the civilian National Police Force replaced the PC.) I saw the PC as part of 'the enemy of the people'.
I was pleasantly surprised when I met the officer on duty, a major as far as I can recall. He was speaking to the young man filing the charge when I arrived and was trying unsuccessfully to persuade him not to go ahead with this move. The other student was also present.
The officer gave me a warm and courteous welcome. When I told him why I was there he suggested that I speak to the student filing the charge and brought us to a room where we could have some privacy.
As it happened, this young man had attended a weekend retreat for male students in the college that I had given only a week or two before in the local seminary. I had remembered how well he had participated and told him that. We spoke about the retreat and how it had challenged all of us. And I reminded him that all the participants had availed of the chance to go to confession.
I could see that he was reflecting on all of this as I brought up the question of his filing a charge against a man who had been his best friend. I gently encouraged him to drop the case. I could see in his physical behaviour the inner struggle he was going through. His whole body had tightened up. The tension within him was great and very obvious. After a long struggle he agreed to withdraw the charge.
We went back to the officer on duty and the student told him that he was dropping the charge. The other student was there and very relieved to hear this. The officer encouraged them to shake hands, which they did, though the student dropping the charge didn't do so with great enthusiasm.
However, he had done something very difficult: he had decided to forgive the man who had been his friend. He still had strong and painful feelings. But forgiveness is a decision, not a feeling. It is a decision made with God's grace. In some situations it can be like major surgery. The surgery heals but physical pain still remains and takes time to disappear naturally. A scar that usually doesn't bother us may remain. In some instances there may be a permanent mark such as lameness after an operation on the back, for example. But healing has taken place.
And our feelings in a situation like this need time to subside, depending on the gravity of the situation.
For my own part, I was very grateful for the kindness, thoughtfulness and wisdom of the PC officer. He had acted entirely as a friend in this situation, not as an 'enemy of the people'. I had to take that on board and not condemn everyone in the PC out of hand. Some years later, in another place, I celebrated the funeral Mass of a PC officer who had been murdered. His daughter was a student of mine at the time.
I do not know if the former friendship between the two young men in the story was rekindled. Perhaps I should have followed up. I was then a young, inexperienced priest. They would now be in their late 60s and the PC officer probably in his late 80s. This week I have been praying for the three of them.
The ongoing grace for me from that incident is the awareness that forgiveness can be very difficult but, with God's grace, not impossible. The young man who withdrew his charge against his friend was the bearer of that grace from God for me, just as the PC officer and I were the bearers of God's grace to him enabling him to make the decision to forgive.
The source of grace to be able to forgive is Jesus himself who said on the Cross:Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).
And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience (Luke 8:15; Gospel) .
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit (Jeremiah 17:8; First Reading).
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither (Psalm 1:3; Responsorial Psalm).
Readings(Jerusalem
Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)
Readings(English
Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)
GospelLuke 6:17, 20-26 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
At that time: Jesus came down with the Twelve and stood on a
level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of
people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon. And he
lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you
shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed
are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and
spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and
leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers
did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your
consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you
who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak
well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.’
About 45 years ago when I was in charge of a small formation house for young men preparing for the diocesan priesthood in Mindanao, Philippines, I came to know a young girl named Patricia. She had just turned ten when we first met. I learned that her father had died when she was an infant. She 'adopted' me and called me Tatay, Dad, as she still does. She is now a widow and a grandmother.
The first time I visited her home, a small wooden structure built on stilts, I thought that it might fall over. Patricia's family, like most of the families around them, were poor, though not destitute. They struggled from day to day and managed to get by.
Very often after class in the public elementary school Patricia would drop by the formation house for a chat. One day when we were talking in the dining room upstairs we heard the 'clump-clump-clump' of somebody coming up the stairs wearing heavy boots and carrying a staff. It was a man named William Smith, probably the poorest person I have ever met. It was believed that his father had been an American soldier. William was tall and thin, never looked healthy, had very poor sight and had no home of his own. Sometimes children would tease him in a disrespectful way. He would go from parish to parish and the priests, at the time mostly Columbans, would give him a place to sleep, food, clothes, shoes and some money. After a few days he would head off to another parish. Poor William went to his reward when struck by a truck one day. May he rest in peace.
When William arrived at the top of the stairs Patricia went over to him, took him by the hand, sat him down at a table and brought him something to eat and to drink. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
I asked Patricia some years later if she remembered this incident. She had no recollection whatever of it.
St Matthew's first beatitude reads, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The New English Bible translation of this is, How blest are those who know their need of God; the kingdom of heaven is theirs. I find that latter translation very helpful.
St Luke's version has a different emphasis. He shows us Jesus speaking about those who are economically poor. Jesus is also, I think, giving a message of hope pointing towards eternal life where the injustice that is the cause of so much economic poverty will no longer have any force, where God's will reigns. The words of Jesus also call us to work for a world in the here and now where economic poverty caused by greed and injustice no longer exists. Jesus has very harsh words for those whose focus is only on the present life and the ultimately shallow 'rewards' so much of it offers: But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. God reveals himself as Love in so many 'insignificant' moments. What I saw that day 45 years ago was an expression of God's pure love: a child who was poor serving an adult who had absolutely nothing of his own. Patricia was blessed by God in serving William and he was blessed by God in being served by a child. I have been blessed by this little incident ever since. The kingdom of God broke through that afternoon. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Antiphona
ad Communionem
Communion
Antiphon (Cf Psalm 77 [78]:29-30).
Manducaverunt,
et saturaviti sunt nimis,et
desiderium eorum attulit eis Dominus, non sunt
fraudati a desiderio suo.
They ate and had their fill, and what they craved the Lord gave them; they were not disappointed in what they craved.
Traditional Latin Mass
Septuagesima Sunday
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-16-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 10:1-5. Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16.
I first posted this two years ago and included material I used on 12 February 2009.
The core of the stories about St Valentine is that this young Roman priest, who was what we would now call a diocesan priest, was martyred for officiating at weddings when Emperor Claudius II, ‘the Cruel’, forbade them because he was engaged in so many wars and needed the young men to fight in them.
In the Philippines (where I was based most of the time from 1971 to 2017) St Valentine’s Day is almost always referred to as ‘Valentine’s Day’. Indeed the ‘St’ is left out in most English-speaking countries. For many young people it is simply a day to express innocent friendship. For many married couples it is a day for renewing their love for one another. But for many unmarried young adults it is, quite frankly, a day for fornicating. This would be the case in many other countries, as would adultery.
Marriage is more and more under attack in the West. I can think of no better patron saint for priests and married couples involved in strengthening marriage than St Valentine.
And I also think that the Church should put more emphasis on marriage than on the family, since the sacrament of matrimony is the foundation of the family and the vocation to be a spouse is more fundamental than the vocation to be a parent. In God’s plan, parenthood is meant to be a consequence of the two, husband and wife, becoming one.
Above is in the shrine of St Valentine in the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, known to everyone in my native city, Dublin, as Whitefriar Street Church. It belongs to the Carmelite Friars (OCarm).
The website of the friars contains a number of photos of the shrine along with a history of how the relics of St Valentine came to be there. It also includes this beautiful prayer.
Prayer to St Valentine
Saint Valentine, true servant who shed his blood in defence of the sacraments and faith in Jesus Christ, intercede for us today, we pray.
Gain for us the strength to be steadfast like you in witnessing to the true faith to the end of our days, and help us never to lose hope in the Lord who is always near us.
Intercede for those men and women who are preparing for marriage: help them to know one another and the true meaning of the sacramental bond they are preparing to enter.
Intercede for those who are joined together in the sacrament of marriage, that they may never give up when trials come their way but may remain faithful to each other, and to the Lord who blessed their union.
May your love for the Lord be an inspiration for our love for each other, for the love between husband and wife, and for the love and charity we extend to all whom we meet. Amen.
Though the feast of St Valentine is no longer on the general calendar of the Church that came into effect late in 1969 when the 'New Mass' was introduced by Pope St Paul VI, it is still on the calendar where the Traditional Latin Mass is celebrated, using the Roman Missal of 1962 approved by Pope St John XXIII.
There are many churches named after St Valentine, particularly in the Region of Trentino-South Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige in Italian). Below is that in Malé in that region.
GospelLuke 5:1-11 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
At that time: The crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the
word of God. He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by
the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a
little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And
when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let
down your nets for a catch.’ And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night
and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.’ And when they had
done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.
They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And
they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon
Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a
sinful man, O Lord.’ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the
catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of
Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be
afraid; from now on you will be catching men.’ And when they had brought their
boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
The painter Raphael in his Miraculous Draught of Fishes above captures something of the awe of St Peter when he saw how much fish he and his companions had caught, despite their misgivings as experienced fishermen in following the advice of someone they knew to be a carpenter from the mountains of Galilee. St Peter, who had a long way to go in his formation as a follower of Jesus, recognised the utter generosity of God's providence.
The late Columban Fr John Griffin, a New Zealander who worked for many years both in the Philippines and Chile, tells a story about St Alberto Hurtado SJ (1901 - 1952) and his trust in God's providence in A priest, I bless you - Alberto.
Fr Griffin wrote: Fr Hurtado though now canonised, is still known in Chile as Padré Hurtado - just as we still call St Pius of Pietrelcina 'Padre Pio' and St Teresa of Kolkata 'Mother Teresa' - is best known and remembered throughout Chile for his ‘Hogar de Cristo’ (Christ’s Home) Foundation. The seed for this was sown late one night when he was on his way home to San Ignacio. He met a man who was in poor health, had eaten nothing all day and had nowhere to go.
This was the priest’s first encounter with such poverty and it moved him greatly. He did what he could for the man and then asked: ‘What are our Catholics doing for those who have no roof over their heads?’ He began asking this question during his retreats and so was born the idea of ‘Hogar de Cristo’. He formed a board of directors from people eager to help – six men and 30 women. Land was available alongside the Jesuit parish of Jesus the Worker and the first night-shelters were built and an appeal for funds began. By 1945 there were five shelters that had been able to house 12,000 poor men.
Now it was time to do something for the numerous ‘street kids’ who spent their nights under the many bridges over the Mapocho River which runs for miles through Santiago. These youngsters needed educations as well as shelter and land was donated for this purpose a few miles to the north of the city near Colina railway station and a children’s home was built.
It was immediately obvious that such youngsters needed some sort of a trade to make their future secure, so different workshops were built. Fr Hurtado was confronted by another question: ‘How many such homes and workshops are needed up and down Chile to tackle the problem of child vagrancy?’ Something, he said, that should be of concern to all Chileans.
Fr Griffins article continued with a story that for me resembles the experience of St Peter and his companions and their trust in Jesus:
Providence was always on his side. At a meeting one night his board of directors was unwilling, for lack of funds, to approve a new project. In the midst of discussions there was an unexpected call for Fr Hurtado to attend to someone at his front door. He had a brief conversation with the caller who said she wanted to leave a gift to help the great work he was doing.
He gratefully put her envelope in his pocket, wished her a good evening and returned to his meeting. He looked at the contents of the envelope as he sat down. Then he tossed a check onto the table saying, ‘There you are, ye of little faith!’ It was for one million pesos – worth about US$30,000 at that time. I'm sure he spoke to his board with a smile on his face.
Ronnie
Columban Fr Chris Saenz is an American Columban who worked in Chile for many years, initially for two years as a seminarian on First Mission Assignment. On two occasions during that period while assigned to a parish he threw a chronic alcoholic named Ronnie out of the church - Fr Chris is very tall and strong - because he was disrupting Mass. Some years later, now a priest, he visited that parish one Sunday and was astonished to see the same Ronnie as reader at the Mass. In Interview with Ronnie he allows this man to tell the story of the extraordinary change in his life and the part Padré Hurtado played in that.
He was found in a gutter, blind drunk, and taken to a nearby hospital where another Columban priest, Fr Michael Howe, anointed him. The doctor told him that if he took one more drink he would die. Ronnie had a devotion to Padré Hurtado and entrusted himself to God through the saintly Jesuit who had died in 1952 at the age of 51 from pancreatic cancer. Ronnie, whose life since childhood had been one of suffering, never drank again and became involved in his parish and with Hogar de Cristo. Both Fr Hurtado and Ronnie had lost their fathers at a young age.
Ronnie experienced God's providence in being able to attend the canonization of this remarkable saint in 2005. Ronnie told Father Chris: There was a national lottery for Hogar de Cristo to send 36 persons from around the country. There were seven spots for volunteers/workers of Hogar de Cristo and 29 for those who, like me, received aid. Different names were submitted from around the country, including mine and a few others from the Ninth Region. When the first ticket was drawn at the lottery my name was on it. I knew than it was Padré Hurtado’s hand again. In fact, I was the only one from our Region to go.
The party flew to Rome on a military plane with the President of Chile on board.
When San Alberto met a homeless man on his way home one night it changed his life. The homeless man was the expression of God's providence, not only for himself but for Padré Hurtado and for the countless poor people still being served more than 70 years after the saint's death through El Hogar de Cristo. It was God's providence that took Ronnie from the gutters to attending the canonisation of Padré Hurtado in Rome.
It was God's providence in the great catch of fish that changed the lives of Peter and his companions for ever. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.’ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Benedict XVI canonized San Alberto on 23 October 2005
'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart.... You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Mt 22: 37, 39). This was the programme of life of St Alberto Hurtado, who wished to identify himself with the Lord and to love the poor with this same love. The formation received in the Society of Jesus, strengthened by prayer and adoration of the Eucharist, allowed him to be won over by Christ, being a true contemplative in action. In love and in the total gift of self to God's will, he found strength for the apostolate.
He founded El Hogar de Cristo for the most needy and the homeless, offering them a family atmosphere full of human warmth. In his priestly ministry he was distinguished for his simplicity and availability towards others, being a living image of the Teacher, 'meek and humble of heart'. In his last days, amid the strong pains caused by illness, he still had the strength to repeat: 'I am content, Lord', thus expressing the joy with which he always lived.
San Alberto Hurtado SJ
(1901 - 1952) [Photo from Wikipedia]
Traditional Latin Mass
Fifth Sunday After Epiphany
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-09-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17. Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30.
Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:30; Gospel).
