'The riches of a virtuous, pure heart will bear eternal profit.' Sunday Reflections, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Tacloban City, Philippines after Typhoon Hayan/Yolanda

[Wikipedia; photo]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 12:38-44 (shorter form: 12:41-44) (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

[In his teaching Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the market-places and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”]

And Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Pope Francis with victims of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda

Palo, Leyte, 17 January 2015 

[Wikipedia; photo]

Typhoon Hayan, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, made landfall in the country on the night of 7 November 2013. As it passed over the country it killed more than 6,000 and affected 11 million people. I was living in Bacolod City at the time where we got heavy rains and strong winds but it wasn't catastrophic, though it did some damage on the island of Negros where Bacolod City is located.

The Wikipedia entry on the storm gives details of the assistance sent by many countries to the Philippines. However, one is missing: Guinea-Bissau, a small country in west Africa that is less than half the size of Ireland or of Mindanao, with a population of around 2,100,000. It declared its independence of Portugal on 24 September 1973. This was recognised on 10 September 1974. About 11 per cent of the population are Catholics. The country has two dioceses.

An Agenzia Fides report dated 9 December 2013 reads: In the spirit of the liturgical season of Advent, the Bishops of the dioceses in Guinea Bissau and Bafata , His Exc. Mgr. Pedro Zilli and His Exc. Mgr. José Camnate na Bissign have invited all the diocesan communities to a 'Day of fasting and prayer for peace in the world, in Africa and in Guinea-Bissau' to be held on December 13. Further on the report states: In tune with the wave of international solidarity in favor of the Philippines, a nation deeply wounded by Typhoon Haiyan, the Bishops recommend to all parish communities that 'the fruit of fasting has to be destined to the victims of this natural disaster'. Furthermore, the Catholic Church promotes a fundraiser for the Filipino people until Sunday, December 22.

I remember being deeply touched by this report. I sent the link to a local newspaper but it wasn't interested.

Typical Scenery, Guinea-Bissau

[Wikipedia; photo]

This story of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau sending aid to the Philippines is similar to that of the Choctaw people in the USA  who had been dispossessed of their traditional homeland. In 1847 they raised money to help the people of Ireland who were starving because of the failure of the potato crop over a number of years. In 1840 Ireland had a population of about 8,000,000. By 1850 a million had died and another million had emigrated to North America, Britain and other places, man dying on the way. (The population of Ireland kept decreasing through emigration till 1950 and today there are fewer people in the country than there were in 1840.) An enduring bond has lasted between the Choctaw people and the Irish to this day.

Flag of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

[Wikipedia; photo]

On the Sundays in Ordinary Time the First Reading and the Gospel have a common theme. I have been praying with these readings during the week and the generosity of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau to the people of the Philippines and that of the Choctaw people to the Irish kept coming to mind. They reminded me of the generosity and faith of the widow who gave the prophet Elijah water to drink and bread to eat even though she had really nothing. They reminded me of the widow giving her two small coins to the Temple treasury in Jerusalem, totally unaware of Who noticed this. Neither widow is given a name. 

I doubt if any of the people in Ireland dying of hunger in the 1840s had ever heard of the Choctaw People of if the latter had ever heard of Ireland until someone told them of the plight of the people there, similar to their own plight. I doubt if the majority of Filipinos know where Guinea-Bissau is or if the people of that country know much about the Philippines. There are no historical links between the two no more than there were between the Choctaws and the Irish in the 1840s, though there are now.

The widow who looked after Elijah in his hunger and thirst and the widow to whom Jesus drew the attention of his followers have been giving to the Church for 2,ooo years. Their generosity continues to be a channel of God's grace to the Church and to the whole world.

The amount given by the two widows seems like nothing. The amount the Choctaw people sent to Ireland and that the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world, sent to the Philippines were minimal compared to that sent by other nations and groups. But it was far greater in that it was sent by people with pure and generous hearts and by people of faith. In the case of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau that faith was their Catholic faith. And every donation given by individual Choctaws and by individual Bissau-Guinean Catholics was a 'widow's mite'.

Calon Lân (A Pure Heart)

While I was praying in one of our small chapels during the week the Welsh hymn above, which I've used here before, kept coming into my mind and I listened to it a number of time from my mobile phone through my hearing aids. Calon is the Welsh for 'heart' and Lân the word for 'pure' or 'clean'. The Welsh have a great choral tradition, largely due to the rise of Methodism in the late 1700s and 1800s. Part of that tradition is that hymns are sung before international rugby matches. The above video was made before a match between Wales and Scotland in 2014.

Calon Lân contains the lines, None but a pure heart can sing, Sing in the day and sing in the night. Further on we find, The riches of a virtuous, pure heart will bear eternal profit.

I have no doubt that the two widows in this Sunday's readings are singing in the eternal day of heaven, bearing eternal profit because of their virtuous, pure hearts. May each of us pray for a virtuous, pure heart.

Traditional Latin Mass 

Resumed Fifth Sunday After Epiphany 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-10-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17.  Gospel: Matthew 8: 23-27.

Reading the Bible

Gerrit Dou [Web Gallery of Art]

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom (Colossians 3:16; Epistle).

'The last word belongs to God and to his Son, the conqueror of sin and death.' Sunday Reflections, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Steps (after Millet)

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me. (Mark 30:37; today's gospel).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 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.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Bishop Joseph Nathanel Perry on Men and Mass

Bishop Perry is an auxiliary bishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

From March 2020 people in most parts of the world were not able to take part in Mass in church on Sundays or weekdays while the Covid pandemic lasted. Parish priests were 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. 

Many became used to online Masses, which were a great comfort to people and still are for many who cannot attend Mass in person because of illness or age. But have we come to see this as a normal way of participating in the Holy Sacrifice?

Families were communicating by Zoom, Facebook and the like, and these were truly a blessing in the situation we were going through. But this is not the same as meeting in person. (I recently heard of a priest who quipped that in the days of lockdown it was all 'gloom and Zoom'!)

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 - my mother would be taking care of my baby brother and went to a later Mass - and seeing him attend Mass every weekday morning before preparing my mother's breakfast and then going off to work.

Archbishop Youhanna Boutros Moshe celebrates First Mass in freed Qaraqosh, Iraq, 30 October 2016

Archbishop Moshe is now the Archbishop Emeritus of  the Syrian Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul.

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 options: 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 on 7 March 2021. 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.

Now that we have returned to 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 

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-22-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8.  Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8.

Christ Healing the Paralytic

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini [Web Gallery of Art]

'But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins'—he then said to the paralytic—'Rise, take up your bed and go home' (Matthew 9:6; Gospel).

'The glory of the martyrs shines upon you!' Sunday Reflections, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

Abel Grimmer [Web Gallery of Level]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 21:33:43 (English Standard Version Anglicised, 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 110 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 are two, the parish priest and 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, the seminaries have nearly all closed and only a handful of young men are preparing for ordination in the only seminary that still remains open. 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 has been revived after Covid and is held on the first Sunday of each month.  Another Columban priest and I alternate in taking part.

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.

As the Synod on Synodality is taking place in the Vatican most of this month 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 10-08-2023 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).

'God chose what is low and despised in the world . . .' Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

Jesus gives the Beatitudes

from The Chosen

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 5:1-12a [or 4:12-17] (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

 

The Beatitudes

L’Arche, Bognor Regis, England

Down Syndrome Abortion Rate

A study of abortions in the United States from 1995-2011 found that 67% of women who were told their baby would have Down syndrome decided to abort. This number is much higher in other countries. BBC reports that 90% of women in England whose babies are diagnosed with Down syndrome choose to abort . . . We see that trend in other countries as well. For instance, the Life Institute reports that in Iceland, nearly 100% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted. And in Germany, more than 90% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted.

Pope Francis

Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away” (Laudato Si’, No 120).

Lala with Jordan

L'Arche, Cainta, near Manila. I have known both for many years.

Second Reading. 1Corinthians 1:26-31

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Lala and Hachiko, each looking more content than the other!

Sadly, this beautiful dog died not long afterwards, choking on a chicken bone.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 1-29-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 13:8-10. Gospel: Matthew 8:23-27.

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]