'Christ alone was their true treasure.' Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Lent, Year B

 

Sheaves of Wheat

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24)..

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 12:20-33 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

The readings for Year A may be used instead of those above.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Christ in Agony on the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (John 12:32).

Sir, we wish to see Jesus. This was the request of some Greek pilgrims to Jerusalem who spoke to Philip. Jesus when told of this said to Philip and Andrew, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever

loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.

Presumably, these words were conveyed to the Greeks by the two apostles or perhaps repeated to them by Jesus himself.

St Philip the Apostle

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

The Lord was making it very clear that there are consequences to following him. Philip himself was to end his life as a martyr.

On 12 March 2015 Pope Francis addressed the bishops of Korea during their ad limina visit. He recalled his visit to Korea the previous year when he beatified a group of martyrs. The Bishop of Rome said [emphasis added]: For me, one of the most beautiful moments of my visit to Korea was the beatification of the martyrs Paul Yun Ji-chung and companions.  In enrolling them among the Blessed, we praised God for the countless graces which he showered upon the Church in Korea during her infancy, and equally gave thanks for the faithful response given to these gifts of God.  Even before their faith found full expression in the sacramental life of the Church, these first Korean Christians not only fostered their personal relationship with Jesus, but brought him to others, regardless of class or social standing, and dwelt in a community of faith and charity like the first disciples of the Lord (cf. Acts 4:32).  “They were willing to make great sacrifices and let themselves be stripped of whatever kept them from Christ . . .  Christ alone was their true treasure” (Homily in Seoul, 16 August 2014). Their love of God and neighbor was fulfilled in the ultimate act of freely laying down their lives, thereby watering with their own blood the seedbed of the Church.

The previous Sunday, 9 March 2015, there were attacks on a Catholic church and a Protestant church in an area of Lahore where many Christians live as my Columban confrere Fr Liam O'Callaghan, who is based in Pakistan, reports. Pope Francis expressed his grief during his Angelus talk later in the day and noted: Our brothers' and sisters' blood is shed only because they are Christians.

After celebrating Mass in Erbil, Iraq, on 7 March this year Pope Francis met the head of the Assyrian Church of the East, which is not in communion with Rome, and said, I greet with affection His Holiness Mar Gewargis III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, who resides in this city and honours us with his presence. Thank you, dear Brother! Together with him, I embrace the Christians of the various denominations: so many of them have shed their blood in this land! Yet our martyrs shine together like stars in the same sky! From there they call us to walk together, without hesitation, towards the fullness of unity.

When we say, We wish to see Jesus we have no idea what this might entail. But we do have the assurance of Jesus himself today where our following him will lead us: If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.

Let us pray for the Christians of Pakistan, the Christians of the Middle East, the Christians in those parts of Africa who are being persecuted simply for being followers of Jesus. May the promise of Jesus, If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him give them courage and honour.

 

St Patrick's Breastplate

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

Passion Sunday

The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 3-21-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-15.  Gospel: John 8:46-59.

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.

Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.

The Minstrel Boy from Irish Suite

arranged by Leroy Anderson

BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin

I'm posting this before the feast day of the patron saint of Nigeria and of Ireland, St Patrick. Leroy Anderson was commissioned to arrange some Irish tunes for symphony orchestra. The first four were performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1947. Anderson added two more in 1949. These for me are by far the best such arrangements of Irish melodies that I know of. 

Since my childhood I've loved this arrangement of The Minstrel Boy. The video above includes many photos from the Great War (1914-18) in which many Irish soldiers in Irish regiments of the British Army died, including my great-uncle Lawrence Dowd whose grave in Belgium I located 84 years after his death, the first relative to visit it.

The full Irish Suite played by the Boston Pops under the direction of Arthur Fiedler is below. Along with the Irish music you can also enjoy some beautiful Irish scenery.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

St Joseph, Husband and Father; fatherhood.

The Presentation in the Temple

Philippe de Champaigne [Web Gallery of Art]

A few years ago while at home from the Philippines I was celebrating Sunday Mass in Blanchardstown, Dublin, when I noticed a family coming in a little late. I realised the parents were Filipinos. They came right up to the front of the church. What touched me was that the husband/father was carrying the couple’s infant.

In November 2014 I was in the pre-departure area of Incheon Airport, Seoul, for a flight back to Manila. I saw a Filipino father with his son who clearly had just recently learned to walk and was taking sheer delight in running around. He wasn’t disturbing anyone as there was plenty of space. The child’s father stayed at a distance, moving around and keeping an eye on his son while giving him space. I can imagine St Joseph doing exactly the same with the Child Jesus when he had just learned to walk.

Philippe de Champaigne’s painting shows St Joseph carrying Jesus into the temple, just as the young Filipino father carried his infant child to the church in Dublin that Sunday morning.

In his book Jesus of Nazareth, The Infancy Narratives Pope Benedict quotes Matthew 1:21: [Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The Pope then writes, Together with the instruction to take Mary as his wife, Joseph is asked to give a name to the child and thus legally to adopt it as his.

St Joseph was the legal father of Jesus according to Jewish law, much more than a foster father, important though such a person may be in the lives of many.

The Church honours St Joseph on 19 March as ‘Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.’ That is his greatest title, the one also used in the Eucharistic Prayers of the Mass. It was as husband of Mary  that he was known as the father of Jesus – and was a real father to him.

Below is a video of one of the best talks on fatherhood I have ever heard. It was given during an online conference organised by the Legion of Mary in Dublin on the theme of St Joseph. The speaker, Mickey Harte, is a national and successful figure in Ireland in Gaelic Football, a major sport that is native to the country. Ten years ago his daughter Michaela was murdered on her honeymoon in Mauritius aged 27. He speaks about her briefly during his talk.

It is also clear that Mickey learned how to be a father from his own father. I have seen the same in my own family. He also suggests that if we know of a family that doesn’t have a father-figure to ‘adopt’ that family in the sense of praying specifically for them to St Joseph that they will find such a figure.

He also points out that it is a manly thing to pray and how he learned from his father to be the leader in family prayer.

Collect of the Mass of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Grant, we pray, almighty God, 

that by Saint Joseph’s intercession  

your Church may constantly watch over 

the unfolding of the mysteries of human salvation, 

whose beginnings you entrusted to his faithful care.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 

God, for ever and ever.

'For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.' Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday of Lent, Year B

 

Nicodemus

Unknown Flemish Master [Web Gallery of Art]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 3:14-21 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

The readings for Year A may be used instead of those above.

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Nicodemus with the Body of Christ

Stefano Maderno [Web Gallery of Art]

The Pharisees generally have a bad name and the adjective 'pharisaical' is defined in Merriam-Webster as marked by hypocritical censorious self-righteousness. Those words could certainly describe most of the Pharisees we meet in the gospels. But they do not apply to Nicodemus. He was patently a good man who said to Jesus when he met him at night, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him (John 3:2). He was also with Jesus at the end helping to prepare for the burial. Nicodemus, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight (John 19:39).

This good Pharisee can help us come to the light, especially when that involves walking through the darkness. Physical darkness is part of the reality that God has given us and can protect us against the cosmic powers over this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12), as it did Nicodemus when he came by night to visit Jesus.

God has given us many examples of persons willing to confront the cosmic powers over this present darkness even at the risk of their lives. One such person is in the international news as I write this, Sister Ann Roza Nu Tawng in Myitkyina ['mitchinAH'], the capital of the Kachin State, a montainous area larger than Ireland in the far north of Myanmar. A few days ago she knelt in front of armed police pleading with them not to harm protesters. In an interview shown in the Sky News video below Sister Ann Roza said, And I thought today is the day I will die. I decided to die . . . I thought it would be better if I died instead of many people.

Sister Ann Roza's actions and words reflect those of the assassinated Pakistani politician Shahbaz Bhatti about whom I wrote for the last two Sundays: I'm living for my community and suffering people and I will die to defend their rights. 

Catholic Christians like Sister Ann Roza and Shahbaz Bhatti show that our Christian faith is a way of life in following Jesus, living every moment according to the Gospel, bringing the values of Jesus into every human situation. In the words of St Paul in today's Second Reading: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). [The Jerusalem Bible translation reads: We are God’s work of art, created . . .].

Persons such as Shahbaz Bhatti and Sister Ann Roza are the true face of the Church. They come from two Asian countries, Pakistan and Myanmar, where Christians are a small minority. Their witness to Jesus and the Gospel brings us the light of hope and proves the truth of his words today, For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

St Columban's Catholic Cathedral, Myitkyina

[Wikipedia, by Sam Cooley]

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

Fourth Sunday in Lent

The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 3-14-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 4:22-31.  Gospel: John 6:1-15.

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.

Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.

Danny Boy

Sung by The Seekers: Bruce Woodley, Keith Potger, Athol Guy and Judith Durham

Wednesday 17 March is St Patrick's Day, Ireland's National Holiday. St Patrick is also the patron saint of Nigeria. Liturgically his feast is celebrated as a Solemnity, the highest rank for a feast in the Catholic Church, in Australia and Ireland. So I thought I would give an Australian flavour to the melody and song that is most associated with Ireland. The melody is Irish Tune from County Derry and is far older than the words of the song, written by an Englishman, Frederic Weatherly.

There are countless versions of Danny Boy, some wonderful, some dreadful. The Seekers are from Melbourne and Judith Durham with the angelic voice is from the Melbourne suburb of Essendon where the Columbans have been for about 100 years. She was born in 1943 - a vintage year!

The arrangement of the melody for orchestra in the video below is by Australian composer Percy Grainger and is by far the best that I know of.

Irish Tune from County Derry [begins at 4:00]

Also known as Derry Air / Londonderry Air

Arranged by Percy Grainger

Australina Youth Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder

'I, as a humble servant of Jesus Christ, will continue to serve the suffering, victimised and persecuted communities . . . 'Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year B

 

Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple 

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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 people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO IRAQ

5-8 MARCH 2021

Please pray for Pope Francis and for the people of Iraq,especially the Christian minority who have suffered greatly in recent years.

Prayer for Pope's Visit to Iraq

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 me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and 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 Joseph's Cathedral, Rawalpindi

[Wikipedia; photo by] 

The Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi opened the cause for the beatification of Shahbaz Bhatti on the fifth annivesary of his death.

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).

Epistle: Ephesians 5:1-9.  Gospel: Luke 11:14-28.

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.

Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.

Friends, Romans, countrymen

Mark Antony's speech after the assassination of Julius Caesar.from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Brutus: Paterson Joseph, Mark Antony: Ray Fearon. 

Julius Caesar was assassinated on 15 March, 'The Ides of March', 44 BC.

Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated on 2 March 2011.

Bear with me. My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar. And I must pause till it come back to me.