'Cor ad cor loquitur - Heart speaks to heart.' Sunday Reflections, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Moses, Michelangelo [Web Gallery of Art]

(First Reading, Exodus 17:8-13)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

Gospel Luke 18:1-8 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)  

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Luke 8:1-8 in Filipino Sign Language

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Sir John Everett Millais [Wikipedia]

The Opening Prayer in today’s Mass starts with these words: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart . . .

This prayer is a synopsis, a summary of what the Christian life is: following Jesus and, with him, submitting our own will to the will of the Father., as Jesus himself did. In John 6:38 Jesus tells us: I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

We receive the gift of faith through baptism and God nourishes that faith through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments. We cooperate with God when we pray.

The First Reading and the Gospel today are specifically about prayer. Moses prays for the Hebrew soldiers as they battle with the Amalekites. He holds his arms outstretched as he prays, Aaron and Hur supporting them. Jesus in the gospel invites us to continually pray for our needs and assures us that God will hear us and respond: Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? (18:7).

St John Henry Newman's Coat of Arms [Wikipedia]

Our baptism and our prayer bring us into relationship with a loving God. Last Sunday Pope Francis canonised St John Henry Newman whose motto as a cardinal was Cor ad cor loquitur – Heart speaks to heart. This goes right to the heart of the Christian life in every sense. Pope Benedict spoke beautifully about this at the Mass during which Cardinal Newman was beatified in Birmingham on 19 September 2010: 

Cardinal Newman’s motto, Cor ad cor loquitur, or ‘Heart speaks unto heart’, gives us an insight into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to prayer gradually transforms us into the divine likeness. As he wrote in one of his many fine sermons, ‘a habit of prayer, the practice of turning to God and the unseen world in every season, in every place, in every emergency – prayer, I say, has what may be called a natural effect in spiritualizing and elevating the soul. A man is no longer what he was before; gradually … he has imbibed a new set of ideas, and become imbued with fresh principles’.

St Paul puts it this way: Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). While Moses didn’t know Jesus Christ, he tried all his life as leader of the Hebrews, the position to which God called him, to have the same mind in him that was in God, with whom he spoke heart to heart. And he persisted in praying to God on behalf of his people, most especially when they sinned. While scolding his people he never ceased to pray for them. Like the widow in the parable ‘pestering’, ‘bothering’, ‘wearing out’ - different English translations - the unjust judge, Moses did the same to God in his prayer.

St John Henry Newman was a great theologian, a great preacher and, above all, a great priest. Pope Benedict in his homily focused on how Newman lived the priesthood, a pastor of souls: visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial.

The Pope made reference to thebeautiful description of the Christian life that Newman wrote and that recognises the specific, unique call or vocation each of us has: God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about.

These words of the new saint expand on our Opening Prayer: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart . . .

+++

In Sunday Reflections for this Sunday three years ago I included this video, in a different context. 

I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling (St John Henry Newman).

The story of Abu Wad, 'Father of the flowers', whose whole existence seems dedicated to the beauty of life, and his 13-year-old son Ibrahim is both heartbreaking and hope-filled. May we continue to pray for peace in Syria where war has been raging along its border with Turkey since last week.

And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? 

Ibrahim about 18 months later

'Tá Íosa ina Chríost go fóill! Jesus is still the Christ!' Sunday Reflections, Easter Sunday, Year B

From The Gospel of John (2003) directed by Philip Saville

Gospel of the Mass during the Day, John 20:1-9

The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

Gospel Mark 16:1-7 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’

The Roman Missal states: The entire celebration of the Easter Vigil must take place during the night, so that it begins after nightfall and ends before daybreak on the Sunday. The Mass of the Vigil, even if it is celebrated before midnight, is a paschal Mass of the Sunday of the Resurrection.

The Easter Vigil is not an 'anticipated Mass'. It stands on its own and is the most important liturgical celebration of the whole year. One may fulfil one's Sunday obligation by attending either the Easter Vigil or the Mass during the Day. One may also receive Holy Communion at both. 

The Resurrection of Christ, Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

At the Mass During the Day

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

Gospel John 20:1-9 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.  Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Mark 16:1-7, as at the Easter Vigil (above) or Luke 24:13-35 may be read instead.

Courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem [Wikimedia]

[Referred to in the poem below as 'Church of the Saviour']

Father Pádraig Ó Croiligh is a priest of the Diocese of Derry in Ireland. He is also a poet. The following poem is from his book Brúitíní Creidimh (Mashed Potatoes of Faith) published by Foilseacháin Ábhair Spioradálta in 2005. I have added my own interlinear translation.

Calvaire (Calvary)

Ag barr na gcéimeanna

At the top of the steps

In Eaglais an tSlánaitheora

In the Church of the Saviour

Tá séipéal tógtha thart ar rian na croise,

There’s a chapel built around the mark of the cross,

An dara stáisiún déag dearaithe are a chúl

The twelfth station drawn at the back

Agus poll sa talamh faoi

And a hole in the ground beneath

San áit a mbíodh an chrois

In the place where the cross was

Ag an am ar tharla an crith talún.

At the time of the earthquake.

Ach níl an tarlú fein ná an duine

But neither the event nor the person

Í láthair anseo anois,

Are present here now,

Ach in áiteanna brúite buartha

But in crushed sorrowful places

Ar fud na cruinne

Throughout the world

Agus i láthair an uaignis.

And in the midst of loneliness.

An fear a fuair bás anseo,

The man who died here

Den bhás a rinneadh anseo,

Of the death wrought here,

Tá sé beo agus aiséirithe.

He is alive and risen.

Tá Íosa ina Chríost go fóill!

Jesus is still the Christ!

Every day 'crushed sorrowful places' are in the news. The wars in Iraq and Syria seem to have gone on for ever.

Lebanon is a country that went through a brutal civil war between 1975 and 1990 in which 120,000 were killed, out of a population of not much more than four million. Now it has six million people. It is affected today by the conflicts in neighbouring countries, especially Syria. It is estimated that there are around 1,500,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Seven years ago in a shopping mall in Beirut this small country gave what is one of the most joyful proclamations of the Resurrection that I have ever come across. One does not need to understand Arabic to know what is being celebrated. Jesus is still the Christ!

'For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?' Sunday Reflections, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Repentant Peter, El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings(New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

Gospel Matthew 16:21-27 (New Revised  Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition) 

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)

For Readings and Reflections for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A,  click on the following: 

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

'Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.' Sunday Reflections, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Canaanite Woman, 

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry [Wikipedia]

For Readings and Reflections for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A,  click on the following: 

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Sunday Reflections for this Sunday three years ago links the situation of the Canaanite woman in the gospel with the situation of Christians in war-torn Iraq and Syria. The video above features the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in Qaraqosh, near Mosul, after it was liberated from ISIS last October.

The vast majority of Catholics in Iraq and Syria belong to the Chaldean Catholic Church and Syrian Catholic Church. There are more than twenty Eastern Catholic Churches, though the vast majority of Catholics worldwide are Roman (or Latin) Catholics. All are equally Catholic and all are in full communion with Rome. Archbishop Mouche (also spelled Moshe), belongs to the Syrian Catholic Church.

May we continue to pray for the Church in Iraq and Syria with the persistent faith of the Canaanite woman in today's gospel.

I invite all to pray that Iraq may find peace, unity, and prosperity in reconciliation and in harmony among its different ethnic and religious components. (Pope Francis, 29 March 2017).

'It is the Eucharist, the Christ who died and is risen, that gives us life.' Sunday Reflections, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Religious pendant showing Christ blessing, framed with rubies and pearls [Wikipedia]

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it (Matthew 13:45).

For Readings and Reflections for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A,  click on the following: 

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Chaldean Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq [Wikipedia]

In Sunday Reflections for this Sunday three years ago I highlighted the situation of Christians in Iraq and Syria and included a statement by Patriarch Louis Raphael I of the Chaldean Catholic Church dated 17 July 2014. Below is a video of the Patriarch reopening a Catholic Church in Tel Kaif (Tel Keppe), about 12 kms north of Mosul, in January of this year. This area is historically the centre of the Chaldean Catholic community in Iraq.

Please pray for all of the Christians of Iraq and Syria, all of them Arabs whose ancestors became Christians in the very early days of the Church.

Today we brought back part of our dignity.

A recent article about the situation of the Church in Mosul: Now that Mosul is liberated from ISIS, will Christians return?

Sts Cosmas and Damian and the doctors of Aleppo, Syria

Madonna and Child between Sts Cosmas and Damian, Andrea della Robia, c.1466 

Arciconfraternità della Misericordia, Florence [Web Gallery of Art]

Tomorrow, 26 September, is the feast of Sts Cosmas and Damian. We don't know too much about them but they were martyred around the year 287. They were physicians and believed to have been twins. They lived and served the people in the ancient Roman province of Syria and were known as the 'unmercenaries' because they didn't charge for their services.

Devotion to them is strong among both Eastern and Western Christians and they are mentioned in the Roman Canon (First Eucharistic Prayer). They are patron saints of doctors, pharmacists, surgeons and barbers.

Channel 4 News (England) 17 August 2016

There are many other videos of the same hospital, its staff and patients on YouTube.

Prayer to Saints Cosmas and Damian,  Physicians and Martyrs

O Physicians of souls, Saints Cosmas and Damian, stand before the Lord of All and ask Him to heal me and all those dear to me of any spiritual ills we may endure. 

Drive away from us all sin and sadness of mind, all darkness and despair.  Make us then willing and loving servants of Christ, following your holy example of detachment from the things of this world and care for the needs of our neighbors.

On the glorious day of the Universal Resurrection may we shine with you in the full health of our nature restored by the mercies of Jesus who lives and reigns forever and ever. 

Amen. 

Channel 4 News (England) 9 May 2016

Living in Aleppo is a martyrdom project. We think of ourselves as living martyrs. If you're in Aleppo you expect to die at any time in your home or in the street.

Please pray for all hospital workers in Aleppo through the intercession of the Syrian martyrs and physicians Sts Cosmas and Damian.

Sts Cosmas and Damian, Matteo de Pacino, 1370-75

North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh [Web Gallery of Art]

Collect

May you be magnified, O Lord,

by the revered memory of your Saints Cosmas and Damian,

for with providence beyond words

you have conferred on them everlasting glory,

and on us, your unfailing help.

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.