Sunday Reflections, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 4 October 2028

 

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

Abel Grimmer [Web Gallery of Level]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India).

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 21:33-43 (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:

“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence round it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than at first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord's doing,
    and it is marvellous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The young Fr Edward Galvin in China

About 116 years ago the young Fr Edward Galvin of the Diocese of Cork, Ireland, was sent by his bishop to work for some years in the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, because he had no place to put him. This was common at the time and many young Irish diocesan priests spent their early years on loan to English-speaking dioceses in other countries. While in Brooklyn Father Galvin found himself answering God's call to go to China. This was to lead eventually to the formal founding of the Missionary Society of St Columban, to which I belong, in 1918 with Fr Galvin and Fr John Blowick, another young Irish diocesan priest, as the co-founders. Later Fr Galvin became Bishop of Hanyang, China, and was expelled by the Communist authorities.

When I was growing up in Ireland people who were critical of the Church, sometimes with good reason, often used the term 'priest-ridden' to describe the country. Today there are many parishes without priests. The parish in Dublin where I grew up then had five priests. Today there is only one, a priest from Romania who also serves as chaplain to the Romanian Catholics in the archdiocese. The average age of priests, according to reports, is now around 70. In twenty years or so it could well happen that priests will be a relative rarity in the country.

When I was young almost every Catholic in Ireland went to Sunday Mass and the seminaries were full. Today only a minority take part in Sunday Mass, and all but two of the seminaries have closed and only a handful of young men are preparing for ordination, though these numbers have been growing slowly in recent years.  More and more young people are choosing not to get married, to have fewer children and not to have them baptised.

In 1961, the year I entered the seminary, Ireland celebrated the 1,500th anniversary of the death of St Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. Very few could have foreseen the falling away, not only from the Church, but from the Christian faith, within two generations.

St Paul tells us in the Second Reading today: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 

I sometimes get disheartened at the situation of the Church in my native land and in other Western countries. The First Reading and the Gospel remind us that many have rejected God's love, God's gift, especially the gift of faith. Through the Prophet Isaiah God poignantly asks, What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

St Andrew Kim Tae-gon

Myeongdong Cathedral, Seoul [Wikipedia]

But in the readings the Lord is really asking us to see what he has given us, to treasure it and to pass it on. In his homily at the beatification of 124 martyrs in Korea on 16 August 2014 Pope Francis said: The victory of the martyrs, their witness to the power of God’s love, continues to bear fruit today in Korea, in the Church which received growth from their sacrifice. Our celebration of Blessed Paul and Companions provides us with the opportunity to return to the first moments, the infancy as it were, of the Church in Korea. It invites you, the Catholics of Korea, to remember the great things which God has wrought in this land and to treasure the legacy of faith and charity entrusted to you by your forebears.

The following day in the opening sentence in his homily at the concluding Mass of Asian Youth Day Pope Francis said, The glory of the martyrs shines upon you! These words – a part of the theme of the Sixth Asian Youth Day – console and strengthen us all. Young people of Asia: you are the heirs of a great testimony, a precious witness to Christ. 

The Pope was reminding the young people, and all of us, of the legacy of the Christian faith that we have received.

Beatifications, Seoul, 16 August 2014 

[Wikipedia]

Pope Francis touched on this again on 21 September 2014 when he celebrated Mass in Mother Teresa Square, Tirana, very conscious of the persecution that had ended in 1991. He concluded his homily with these stirring words: To the Church which is alive in this land of Albania, I say 'thank you' for the example of fidelity to the Gospel. Do not forget the nest, your long history, or your trials. Do not forget the wounds, but also do not be vengeful. Go forward to work with hope for a great future. So many of the sons and daughters of Albania have suffered, even to the point of sacrificing their lives. May their witness sustain your steps today and tomorrow as you journey along the way of love, of freedom, of justice and, above all, of peace. So may it be.

(The words do not forget the nest refer to the Pope's mentioning earlier in the homily the eagle on Albania's flag and his saying, The eagle does not forget its nest, but flies into the heights.)

The Lord is calling each of us today to look back with gratitude for the gift of faith we have received individually and as community so that we can live that faith fully in the present as we move in hope and love into the future.

But the readings also remind us of the reality that the precious gift of the Christian faith has been lost, not only by individuals but in large areas of the world such as North Africa not that long after the time of such giants as St Augustine.

However, there are signs of a living Church, of a missionary Church, here in Ireland. After I came back to Ireland from the Philippines in 2017 I came to know a group of actively Catholic families with young children in one of the local parishes. From time to time on Sunday afternoons they held a family Holy Hour in one of the parish churches. The families have included parents from India, France, China, Australia and other places, including Ireland, of course. The children are mostly Irish-born. Sometimes the priest who led the Holy Hour was a Nigerian. And on one occasion when I was there, before the Holy Hour there was a period for the children to learn about our faith. The one leading the class was a husband/father from Kerala, India, where St Thomas the Apostle is believed to have brought the faith to the people. These are families focused on Jesus Christ. 

This family Holy Hour was revived for a while after Covid but some families then moved to other places. The spouses/parents in these families know that our Catholic Christian faith is the 'vineyard' that God has given us, and which He wants each generation to cultivate and to pass on to the next.

St Paul expresses this in the closing words of the Second Reading: What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practise these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Pope Benedict XVI in his Angelus talk on this Sunday in 2011 said, Firmly anchored in faith to the cornerstone which is Christ, let us abide in him, like the branch that can bear no fruit unless it remains attached to the vine. The Church, the People of the New Covenant, is built only in him, for him and with him.

Let us pray that the words of Pope Benedict will prevail in the lives of all of us: The Church, the People of the New Covenant, is built only in him, for him and with him.

Traditional Latin Mass

Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-04-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: Ephesians 4:23-28. Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14.

St Paul at his Writing-desk

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Level]

Put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24; Epistle).

Sunday Reflections, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 23 August 2026

St Peter

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

'You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it' (Matthew 16:18; Gospel). 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)  

Gospel Matthew 16:13-20 (English Standard Version Anglicised)

At that time: When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Benedict XVI in 2010

[Wikipedia; photo]

This week I'm using what I've used before, with some slight editing. Again I fall back on Pope Benedict XVI. This is the Angelus talk on today's gospel that he gave on 24 August 2008 in Castel Gandolfo. I have highlighted parts of it, something I found difficult to do as it is so deep and rich - and yet so clear and simple.

Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday's liturgy addresses to us Christians but also at the same time to every man and every woman the double question that one day Jesus put to his disciples. He first asked them: ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’ They answered him saying that some of the people said John the Baptist restored to life, others Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. The Lord then directly questioned the Twelve: ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter spoke enthusiastically and authoritatively on behalf of them all: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. This solemn profession of faith the Church continues to repeat since then. Today too, we long to proclaim with an innermost conviction: ‘Yes, Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ Let us do so in the awareness that Christ is the true ‘treasure’ for whom it is worth sacrificing everything; he is the friend who never abandons us for he knows the most intimate expectations of our hearts. Jesus is the ‘Son of the living God’, the promised Messiah who came down to earth to offer humanity salvation and to satisfy the thirst for life and love that dwells in every human being. What an advantage humanity would have in welcoming this proclamation which brings with it joy and peace!

‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus answers Peter's inspired profession of faith: ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven’. This is the first time that Jesus speaks of the Church, whose mission is the actuation of God's great design to gather the whole of humanity into a single family in Christ. Peter's mission, and that of his Successors, is precisely to serve this unity of the one Church of God formed of Jews and pagans of all peoples; his indispensable ministry is to ensure that she is never identified with a single nation, with a single culture, but is the Church of all peoples - to make present among men and women, scarred by innumerable divisions and conflicts, God's peace and the renewing power of his love. This, then, is the special mission of the Pope, Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter: to serve the inner unity that comes from God's peace, the unity of those who have become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

In the face of the enormous responsibility of this task, I am increasingly aware of the commitment and importance of the service to the Church and the world that the Lord has entrusted to me. I therefore ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to support me with your prayers so that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. May Mary, whom we invoke with trust as Mother of the Church and Star of Evangelization, obtain this grace for us.

Young Jew as Christ

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Pope Benedict's short reflection touches on so many fundamental things. Our faith as Christians is in the Person of Jesus Christ, God who became Man. Jesus calls us into a personal relationship with him, not in an exclusive 'You and I only' sense but in an intimate 'You, I and all of us' sense as members of the Church with a common mission given by Jesus to the Church.

As members of the Church we share in the mission given us by Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict says, I therefore ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to support me with your prayers so that, faithful to Christ, we may proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. 

Our common mission is to proclaim and bear witness together to his presence in our time. That means that Jesus calls each of us to realise that every person we meet is meant to meet Jesus in us - in every aspect of our lives, private and public. 

Yet so many politicians, for example, who announce to the world that they are faithful Catholics promote the evils of abortion and the genital mutilation of confused minors who think they want to be the opposite sex. Many voters who see themselves as faithful Catholics support them in this. This, in effect, is saying that Jesus Christ our Saviour promotes the killing of unborn children and the physical/sexual abuse of minors. 

Pope Benedict by addressing us as Dear brothers and sisters, reminds us of our deepest identity: we are sons and daughters of God the Father through our baptism. We are brothers and sisters of Jesus through our baptism. As such, we are brothers and sisters of one another through baptism.

Our baptism, through which we have received our Christian faith, is pure gift from God. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. We are called by baptism to proclaim the presence of Jesus in the world so that others may come to know Him. Pope Benedict doesn't mention baptism specifically but everything he says makes sense only in the context of our having been baptised.

Jesus through his Church does not identify himself with any particular nation or with any particular ethnic group. Yet he speaks to each nation, to each group, to each individual within their own culture. Some years ago in the Philippines when celebrating Sunday Mass in a home for girls most of whom had been abused before going there, I showed during my homily a very poor black-and-white reproduction of Rembrandt's painting above. One girl, aged about 14, asked me if she could have the picture. (I later had a proper copy made and framed for her). I asked her what had attracted her in the painting. He is so human, she said. This painting done in Amsterdam nearly 400 years before spoke to her heart. Rembrandt, through his painting in which he had a Jewish refugee from Spain as a model, was able to proclaim and bear witness to the presence of Jesus in our time to a young girl in the Philippines in the 21st century who had suffered greatly.

These are some random thoughts. Pope Benedict's Angelus message has so much in it and can be a source of prayer and contemplation in trying to answer the question Jesus puts before us today: But who do you say that I am?

Collect from the Mass for the Pope

O God, who in your providential design 

willed that your Church be built 

upon blessed Peter, whom you set over the other Apostles, look with favour, we pray, on Francis our Pope 

and grant that he, whom you have made Peter's successor, may be for your people a visible source and foundation 

of unity in faith and of communion.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Tu es Petrus

Setting by Palestrina

Sung by Yonsei University Concert Choir, South Korea

conducted by Hae Ock Eunice Kim Bang        

Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversum eam. Et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum.

You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:18-19; today's gospel). 

Traditional Latin Mass

Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 08-23-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 3:16-22. Gospel: Luke 17:11-19.

Codex Aureus of Echternach

German Miniaturist [Web Gallery of Art]

The lowest panel depicts the Gospel, the healing of the ten lepers.

 

     

Sunday Reflections, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 5 July 2026

 

First Holy Communion

Holy Family Home for Girls, Bacolod City, Philippines

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) 

Gospel Matthew 11:25-30 (English Standard Version)

At that time Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

 

The Census at Bethlehem (detail)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder [Web Gallery of Art]

The Rule of St Francis states that brothers are forbidden to ride on horseback, unless compelled by manifest necessity or infirmity. Many years ago I asked a Capuchin Franciscan friar about this, thinking that it had something to do with the kindness to animals that we associate with St Francis. He explained to me that the horse was the 'Mercedes of the day' in the time of St Francis. So it was a matter of poverty, humility and simplicity for the Franciscan friars not to ride a horse.

Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem

Giotto di Bondone [Web Gallery of Art]

Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9, First Reading).

The gospels tell us that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday, as the Prophet Zechariah foretells in today's First Reading. Peter Bruegel the Elder in his wonderful painting The Census at Bethlehem shows our Blessed Mother, heavily pregnant with her Son, riding on a donkey led by St Joseph. Many paintings of the Flight into Egypt, such as that of Melchior Broederlam below, show Mary carrying the Infant Jesus on a donkey.

The Flight into Egypt

Melchior Broederlam [Web Gallery of Art]

In today's gospel Jesus says to the Father: you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. One of many experiences I had of this was in the spring of 1969 north of New York City. A fellow Columban priest had introduced me to a large Italian-American family whose house had that 'well lived-in' look about it. They invited me to the First Holy Communion of their youngest daughter, Betsy. I wasn't able to attend the Mass but joined the family with the other priest for dinner that evening. 

Here in Ireland it is the custom for children on their First Holy Communion day to visit their relatives and family friends who give them some money. We have an expression for someone who is tight-fisted (kuripot in the Philippines): 'He still has his First Communion money'. I discovered that at least in the New York area they have a similar custom. During the evening at Betsy's house I learned that she had received $100 that day, an enormous sum for her. Her mother told her that we two priests were missionaries and that missionaries depended on the money that people gave them.

When Betsy heard this she immediately wanted to give us her $100. We were both embarrassed and made an excuse that we didn't need the money right there and then. But the real gift that Betsy gave me, a gift I still have, though not as something hoarded but something living and to be shared, was her pure act of love on the day of her First Holy Communion. Like the widow in the gospels of St Mark and St Luke, she wanted to give everything she had. You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. 

The photo at the top was taken maybe 16 years ago on Pentecost Sunday when I baptised and confirmed some of the girls in Holy Family Home for Girls, Bacolod City, run by the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family. Most of the girls there come from a background of poverty and the majority have experienced being abused before they were referred to the home by social workers. None of them owned the white dresses they were wearing that day. They were focused on receiving the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion. They knew they would be receiving Jesus Christ the Risen Lord himself, 'Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity', not a symbolic piece of bread. And what greater humility can God show than to come to us in the form of bread?

I was involved with Holy Family Home for Girls from the end of 2002 until June 2017 and I would say that that involvement was the biggest blessing from God in my life as a priest. So often I experienced there the truth of the words of Jesus today: You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. 

Again, that is an ongoing blessing from God, as is the blessing I received from God through Betsy 57 years ago. I met her some years after that and reminded her about the incident. She didn't remember it. But, with God's grace, I do. So often God reveals himself through persons, usually of 'no standing', who have no idea of how powerfully and profoundly they are sharing His love.

The Nativity

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Going back to the words of Zechariah in the First Reading, Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, we also find a humble donkey present at the birth of Jesus. El Greco in the painting above has the animal in the shadows just to the left of our Blessed Mother.

Antiphona ad introitum   Entrance Antiphon  Cf Ps 47:10-11

Suscepimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam in medio templi tui.

Your merciful love, O God, we have received in the midst of your temple.

Secundum nomen tuum, Deus, ita et laus tua in fines terrae; iustitia plena est dextera tua.

Your praise, O God, like your name, reaches the ends if the earth; your right hand is filled with saving justice.

Traditional Latin Mass

Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-05-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 6:3-11. Gospel: Mark 8:1-9.

Baptism of Christ

Murillo [Web Gallery of Art]

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4; Epistle).