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).
GospelMark 9:30-37(English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Jesus and his disciples went on from there and passed through
Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know,for he
was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The
Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill
him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”But they did not understand the saying, and
were afraid to ask him.
And they came to Capernaum. And when
he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?”But they
kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was
the greatest.And
he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”And he took a child and put him in the midst
of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them,“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,
and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
Bishop Perry is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
In most parts of the world since March 2020 people have not been able to take part in Mass in church on Sunday or on weekdays. Parish priests have been celebrating Mass in empty churches. Funeral Masses here in Ireland were open only to the immediate families of the deceased during the strict lockdown periods. As I write this, churches in the Republic of Ireland may now be filled to 50 per cent of their capacity. More recently, under 'less restrictive' regulations, fifty persons were allowed to attend religious services, no matter how large or small the building was.
Many have become used to online Masses. These have been a great comfort to people. But have we come to see this as a normal way of participating in the Holy Sacrifice?
Families have been communicating by Zoom, Facebook and the like, and these have been truly a blessing in the situation we have all been going through. But this is not the same as meeting in person.
In the video above Bishop Perry is talking about Sunday Mass in the context of the family. A number of times he says husbands and fathers or husband and father emphasising that in God's plan a man is meant to be a husband before he becomes a father. The same holds for a woman. She is meant to be a wife before she becomes a mother. Marriage is the primary vocation of a couple. They are first called by God to be spouses. As spouses they are then, in most cases, called to be parents. The Church honours St Joseph above all as the Husband of Mary. It was as such that in a very real sense he fulfilled the role of being a father to Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary.
Bishop Perry speaks of the importance of the husband/father leading the family by taking part in Sunday Mass. Though I have memories of my mother taking me to Mass when I was a young child, my abiding memories are of my father taking me to Sunday Mass and seeing him attend Mass every weekday morning before preparing my mother's breakfast and then going off to work.
We want to be Christ's witnesses here. Words of Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe of Mosul. He belongs to the Syrian Catholic Church, one of the Eastern churches in full communion with Rome.
Mass had been celebrated in Qaraqosh without break since the early days of Christianity until ISIS drove out its Christians - the majority in the town - in 2014. ISIS gave Christians three coptions: pay a tax, convert to Islam or be executed.
When churches were closed because of the pandemic none of us were faced with those choices.
Pope Francis visited Qaraqosh this year on 7 March. Here is
part of his address to the people there in the Church of the Immaculate
Conception.
Our gathering here
today shows that terrorism and death never have the last word. The last word
belongs to God and to his Son, the conqueror of sin and death. Even amid the
ravages of terrorism and war, we can see, with the eyes of faith, the triumph
of life over death. You have before you the example of your fathers and mothers
in faith, who worshipped and praised God in this place. They persevered with
unwavering hope along their earthly journey, trusting in God who never
disappoints and who constantly sustains us by his grace.
As we slowly return to a form of normality, maybe we can reflect on what it means to us to take part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, particularly in Sunday Mass, whether we attend it on Saturday evening or on Sunday itself. We have before us the example of our fathers and mothers in faith. In the words of Bishop Perry, Sunday is the day when husbands and fathers can lead their families to the Lord.
Visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, 5-8 March 2021
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 9-19-2021 if necessary).
But the Pharisees hearing that he
had silenced the Sadducees, came together:And one of them, a doctor of the law, asking him, tempting him:Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? (Matthew 22:34-36).
Authentic Beauty
Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.
Gospel John 2:13-25 (English
Standard Version Anglicised: India)
The Passover of the Jews was
at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those
who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting
there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple,
with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and
overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take
these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” His
disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will
consume me.”
So the Jews said to
him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus
answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken
forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But
he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised
from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they
believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Now when he was
in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they
saw the signs that he was doing.But Jesus on his part did not entrust
himself to them, because he knew all peopleand needed no one to bear witness about
man, for he himself knew what was in man.
Written by Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphaël Cardinal Sako
Lord our God, grant Pope Francis health and safety to carry out
successfully this eagerly awaited visit. Bless his effort to promote dialogue,
enhance fraternal reconciliation, build confidence, consolidate peace values
and human dignity, especially for us Iraqis who have been through painful ‘events’
that affected our lives.
Lord and Creator, enlighten our hearts with Your light, to
recognize goodness and peace, and to realize them.
Mother Mary, we entrust Pope Francis’ visit to your maternal
care so that the Lord may grant us the grace of living in full national
communion, and to cooperate fraternally to build a better future for our
country and our citizens. Amen.
Pope Benedict's Angelus Talk, 7 March 2011
Last week I focused on the life and death of
Shahbaz Bhatti assassinated in Pakistan on 2 March 2011. I want to do the same this week as I think that
this man exemplifies what being a follower of Jesus is.
Here are two quotations from the same person. The
first:
I have been asked to put an end to my battle, but I
have always refused, even at the risk of my own life. My response has always
been the same. I do not want popularity, I do not want positions of power.
I only want a place at the feet of Jesus. I want my life, my character, my
actions to speak of me and say that I am following Jesus Christ.
The second:
I, as a humble servant of Jesus Christ, will
continue to serve the suffering, victimised and persecuted communities, and am
ready to even sacrifice my life to defend the principles of religious freedom,
human equality and the rights of minorities.
These quotations are from a
politician who was a Catholic and the only Christian in the cabinet of the
national government in Pakistan. Not long after he spoke those latter words he
was assassinated, ten years ago last Tuesday, 2 March 2011. His name was Clement Shahbaz
Bhatti. He was 42.
The first quotation is from a
testament published a few days after his death in La Civiltà Cattolica,
the weekly magazine published in the Vatican, and also here. The second is what he said to the media after being re-appointed to the cabinet as Minister for Minorities’Affairs on 11 February 2011, less that two weeks before his death.
Today’s First Reading from the
Book of Exodus is the proclamation of the Ten Commandments, beginning with I
am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.
The first three commandments have
to do with our relationship with God, the other seven with our relationships to
one another. Shahbaz Bhatti’s vision embraced both kinds of relationships. In
his testimony he wrote: My name is Shahbaz Bhatti. I was born into a
Catholic family. My father, a retired teacher, and my mother, a housewife,
raised me according to Christian values and the teachings of the Bible, which
influenced my childhood. Since I was a child, I was accustomed to going to
church and finding profound inspiration in the teachings, the sacrifice, and
the crucifixion of Jesus. It was his love that led me to offer my service to
the Church. The frightening conditions into which the Christians of Pakistan
had fallen disturbed me. I remember one Good Friday when I was just thirteen
years old: I heard a homily on the sacrifice of Jesus for our redemption and
for the salvation of the world. And I thought of responding to his love by
giving love to my brothers and sisters, placing myself at the service of
Christians, especially of the poor, the needy, and the persecuted who live in
this Islamic country.
Shahbaz Bhatti had a profound
sense of vocation as a follower of Jesus Christ serving the poorest. Jesus was
at the heart of his life. I only want a place at the feet of Jesus. He
uses this image again in the last paragraph of his testimony: I believe that
the needy, the poor, the orphans, whatever their religion, must be considered
above all as human beings. I think that these persons are part of my body in
Christ, that they are the persecuted and needy part of the body of Christ. If
we bring this mission to its conclusion, then we will have won a place at the
feet of Jesus, and I will be able to look at him without feeling shame.
That evokes the words of Jesus
to St Martha after she asked him to rebuke her sister Mary: It is Mary who has chosen the good portion, which will not to be taken
from her.
It also expresses a deep sense of the Mystical
Body of Christ, as does the previous paragraph of his testimony: I say that, as long as I am alive, until the
last breath, I will continue to serve Jesus and this poor, suffering humanity,
the Christians, the needy, the poor. I believe that the Christians of the world
who have reached out to the Muslims hit by the tragedy of the earthquake of
2005 have built bridges of solidarity, of love, of comprehension, and of
tolerance between the two religions.
Shahbaz Bhatti lived out the
Ten Commandments as a follower of Jesus in the mission our Saviour proclaimed
at the beginning of his public life:The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,because he has anointed meto proclaim good news to
the poor.He
has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captivesand recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favour.
One of Shahbaz Bhatti’s closest friends, a
Muslim and a member of the same political party, was assassinated on 4 January
2011, Governor Salman Taseer of Punjab, murdered by his own bodyguard. These
two politicians and friends opposed the blasphemy laws and asked for the
release of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman falsely accused of breaking the
blasphemy laws and sentenced to death. Her long ordeal ended only last year
when she was allowed to go to Canada.
St Paul tells us in the
Second Reading: For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we
preach Christ crucified. In a video interview with the BBC four months
before his death, to be broadcast in the event of his death, Shahbaz Bhatti
said: I want to share that I believe in Jesus Christ who has given his own
life for us. I know what is the meaning of [the] Cross and I am following of the
Cross and I am ready to die for a cause. I’m living for my community and
suffering people and I will die to defend their rights.
The possibility of his being
assassinated was something he spoke about a number of times. But he was ready
to accept it because of his deep faith in Jesus Christ who suffered and died
for us on the Cross.
In the Gospel today Jesus drives
the people engaged in commerce out of the Temple telling them: Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade. The whole
thrust of Shahbaz Bhatti’s life from his student days was to resist and oppose false
values that held people in servitude in Pakistan. This was his ways of making
a whip out of cords and driving them all out of the temple. He
did this with a deep sense of vocation, awakened in him by his parents and
especially by the Good Friday homily he heard when he was 13. The sacrifice of
Jesus was perhaps the deepest formative influence in his life.
The Gospel today also speaks of
the Resurrection: Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up . . . and when therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he
had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had sapoken.
The response to today’s Psalm is You, Lord, have the message of eternal life.
Shahbaz Bhatti lived out of his faith in the Resurrection: I only want a
place at the feet of Jesus . . . If we bring this mission to its conclusion,
then we will have won a place at the feet of Jesus, and I will be able to look
at him without feeling shame.
Fr Raymond de Souza, a Canadian
priest, said in a homily in Ottawa a few days after the killing of ShahbazBhatti: In the face of death the Christian proclaims
the truth of the Risen Christ. The Risen Christ was not an abstraction, or mere
theological doctrine, to Shahbaz Bhatti. He knew that the Lord Jesus was at
work in his life. He had a personal relationship with Him. He believed that his
life was proceeding under the Lord’s Providence. He knew that the Risen Christ
is the Lord of History. He knew that the time of his departure was close at
hand; he knew that he had fought the good fight; he knew that his race was
almost finished.
This sense that our true home
is in heaven, when we will have won a place at the
feet of Jesus, has become
obscured and forgotten to a large degree today. Shahbaz Bhatti was probably not
familiar with the 8th Sermon of St Columban, the great Irish missionary saint
(c.540 - 625), but understood what he said there: 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.
His Blood Cries Out
In Memory of Shahbaz Bhatti
by Ooberfuse
You will find the lyrics and the background to the song written for the first anniversary of the death of Shahbaz Bhatti here.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
Third Sunday in Lent
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 3-7-2021 if necessary).
Authentic
beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire
to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.
‘If another member of the church sins
against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If
the member listens to you, you have regained that one.But if you are not listened to, take one or two
others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of
two or three witnesses.If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it
to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let
such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will
be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth
about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am
there among them.’
Today's gospel looks at forgiveness,
mainly from the point of view of helping someone to acknowledge a wrongdoing
and thereby asking for and receiving forgiveness. I often think about a Christian Brother who taught me in Dublin and one incident
involving him that I witnessed and another I heard about years later. I'll
simply copy froma previous post,
with one or two slight changes.
During my primary school years I came
to know an exceptional person, Brother Mícheál. S. Ó Flaitile, known as
‘Pancho’ from the sidekick of the Cisco Kid, a syndicated comic-strip [above]
that we used to read in The
Irish Press, an Irish daily newspaper that no longer exists. Our 'Pancho', like
the Cisco Kid's friend, was on the pudgy side, though minus the hair and
moustache. He organized an Irish-speaking club during my primary school years and arranged for me to be
secretary. I don’t think I was too happy at the time to get that job but I
realized later that he had spotted my ability to write. Other teachers had
encouraged me in this too.
My class was blessed to have had Brother Ó Flaitile in our last two years in
secondary school, 1959 to 1961, when we were preparing for our all-important
Leaving Certificate examination. He taught us Irish and Latin. He probably
should have been teaching at university level. What I remember most of all
about him was his character. Everyone described him as ‘fear uasal’,
the Irish for 'a noble man' – as distinct from 'a nobleman’. A stare from him
made you feel humbled, but not humiliated. He had the kind of authority that
Jesus had, that we read about in the gospels.
I remember one event in our last year. ‘Pancho’ used to take the A and B
sections for religion class together during the last period before lunch every day. One day he scolded a student in the B section for something or other that was trivial and the student himself and the rest of us took it in our
stride and forgot about it. We were nearly 70 boys aged between 16 and 18.
'Pancho' was probably around 60 then. The next day Brother Ó Flaitile
apologized to the boy in question and to the rest of us because he had
discovered that the student hadn’t done what he had accused him of. Whatever it
was, it had been very insignificant. But ‘Pancho’s apology was for me a
formative moment. I mentioned it to him many years later when he was in his
80s. He told me he didn’t remember the incident, but he smiled. He died in the
late 1980s.
Some years ago a classmate told me about an incident between himself and
Brother Ó Flaitile in 1959 when we were on a summer school/holiday in an
Irish-speaking part of County Galway. If my friend had told me the story at the
time I would not have believed him. He got angry with ‘Pancho’ over something
or other and used a four-letter word that nobody would ever express to an
adult, least of all to a religious brother and teacher whom we revered. The lad
stormed back to the house where he was staying and almost immediately felt
remorse. He went back to ‘Pancho’ and apologized. The Brother accepted this
totally and unconditionally and never referred to the incident again.
After my father, I don't think that anyone else influenced me more for good
when I was young than 'Pancho'.
Looking back on the first incident I
figure that the student in question must have gone to 'Pancho' afterwards and
explained to him what had really happened. Brother Ó Flaitile was the kind
of authority figure whom you felt free to approach in such a situation. If that
is what happened, and I believe it was, then the opening words of today's
gospel were what we all experienced in class the following day: If
another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the
fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have
regained that one.
Brother Ó Flaitile's asking for
forgiveness that day was all the more powerful because he was more than three
times our age, an authority figure, a religious brother and a truly revered
person. What he did showed why he was revered, as did the 'four-letter word
incident' with my classmate.
For me 'Pancho' exemplified the
Christian leadership that Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche and,
with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, co-founder of Faith and Light, talks
about in the video below. He knew and called each of us by name and loved each
of us, especially when we were 'the enemy', wrongdoing or perceived to be such,
and led us by example, most powerfully of all when he asked our forgiveness for
having judged one of us wrongly.
+++
Schola
Bellarmina, Brussels, Belgium
Antiphona
ad introitum Entrance
Antiphon Ps
118[119]:137, 124
Iustus es, Domine et rectum
iudicium tuum;
You are just, O Lord, and your
judgement is right;
fac cum servo tuo secundum misericordiam
tuam.
treat your servant in accord with
your merciful love.
Ps 118[119]:1.Beati immaculati in via: qui
ambulant in lege Domini.
Happy are those whose way is
blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui
Sancto, sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum,
Amen!
Glory be to the Father, and
to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be, world without end, Amen!
Iustus es, Domine et rectum
iudicium tuum;
You are just, O Lord, and your
judgement is right;
fac cum servo tuo secundum misericordiam
tuam.
treat your servant in accord with
your merciful love.
[The text in bold is what is in
the Ordinary Form of the Mass. The fuller text is used in the Ordinary Form
when it is sung.]
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he
must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and
chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be
raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God
forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to
Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are
setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let
them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who
want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake
will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world
but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his
Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. But for Wales? [3:36 - 4:15]
For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? (Matthew 16:26, RSVCE)
Complaining
Pharisee
