'Christ sits at the helm and rules.' Sunday Reflections, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St Peter Walking on the Water

Alessandro Allori [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 14:22-33 (English Standard Version Anglicised )

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Fr William Doyle SJ

3 March 1873 - 16 August 2017

Fr William Doyle SJ, killed on 16 August 1917 in the Third Battle of Ypres, Belgium, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, wrote this commentary on today's Gospel. Father Willie was an Irish Jesuit who served as a chaplain in the Great War (1914-1918) with Irish regiments in the British army. There is a wealth of information about him and of his writings on Remembering Fr Willie Doyle SJ.

About the fourth watch of the night he cometh to them

Christ did not show himself until the fourth watch of the night. How often is this same history repeated in our own case! There is no encouragement, no comfort. We are wearied waiting. There is no sign of approaching help. Why not give up! Surely we never bargained for this. We never believed things would come to such a pass! Oh, the anguish of these moments, when in the midst of struggle, depression and loneliness Christ withholds his sensible presence. 

Christ delays to come. But he is watching all the time; he would only test us. Let him not be disappointed. This is a moment of tremendous grace. If we are stout of heart and bear our trial manfully, we will emerge from the crucible with well-nigh herculean strength. These are moments that disentangle us from many of the trappings that weaken and weigh us down. After they have passed, invariably we find our vision clearer and our appreciation of the value of things truer.

Walking upon the sea

Thus does he come to us also walking upon the sea with these words upon his lips. 'Have a good heart, fear not. It is I.' And we whisper to ourselves, 'It is the Lord.' Yes, then we understand. Then everything goes easy and we wonder that we should ever have doubted. Then we are ashamed of our wavering. What a beautiful tribute to Christ our trust would have been. So we determine next time we will understand. We decide that when next the tide of our life runs high, when our heart-boat is lashed by a rugged sea, we will understand that Christ is near, watching us and we fight fearlessly and cheerfully. Thus, little by little, troubles and crosses will serve to clamp the trust in Christ that will steady our hearts and like St Peter will will cry out: 'Lord if it be thou, bid me come to thee across the waters.' O the joy of our hearts as the master says 'Come.' And we go. We really walk upon the sea. We do wonders until some tremendous sorrow-wave dashes up between us and Christ, and for a moment we lose heart and cry out 'Lord save me'.

Immediately he spoke with them

Immediately - that word is full of love - stretching forth his hand he takes hold of me. And when He has come into my heart-boat the wind ceased. But it is only after Christ has been given full control of our heart-boat that the winds cease. This is the struggle of our life - to let Christ rule.

So long as he must come over the waters to us there will be many a lonely struggle. But when through great generosity on our part we have emptied our lives of everything likely to raise a tempest in the heart, then Christ will sit at the helm and the waves may toss, the winds may roll and blow about the boat. We are calm. We have no cause to fear. Christ sits at the helm and rules.

The Man at the Helm

Théo van Rysselberghe [Web Gallery of Art]

The reflection above was taken from pages 182-184 of To Raise the Fallen, compiled and edited by Patrick Kenny and published by Veritas. Patrick Kenny's blog, Remembering Fr Willie Doyle SJ has a wealth of information on Fr Doyle and many extracts from his writings, a new post each day.

Antiphona ad communionem

Communion Antiphon Cf. John 6:51

Panem, quenm ego dedero, caro mea est pro saeculi vita, dicit Dominus.

The bread that I will give, says the Lord, is my flesh for the life of the world.

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)

This Sunday, 9 August, is the Tenth Sunday After Pentecost in the calendar that uses the TLM. Complete Mass in Latin and English here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page).

'Blessed are the peacemakers'

John Hume 

18 January 1937 - 3 August 2020 [Wikipedia]

John Hume, husband, father, statesman, peacemaker, was a man who lived out his Catholic Christian faith in the world of politics, above all as a peacemaker. More than anyone else, it is widely acknowledged, he helped to bring about the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 that brought an end to decades - one might say centuries - of conflict in Northern Ireland.

A friend of mine, Madeline McCully, knew John Hume and knows his wife Pat very well. Like John and Pat, Madeline and her husband Tom were teachers in the city of Derry. I know them through Marriage Encounter. Madeline wrote this about her late friend. 

I was so sad to hear of John Hume’s death today. Apart from being born in the street next to him, he helped me greatly when I was at university.

For my final dissertation I chose the subject of ‘The University for Derry Campaign’ which was going on at the time in 1967. John was the driving force behind this. When I contacted him he was enormously helpful and on several occasions I travelled home from Bristol where I was studying and spent many Saturdays in his home in Beechwood Avenue. He saved pamphlets and articles for me and made the gathering of information easy. I recorded him on my big Grundig tape recorder. His wife Pat made me so welcome and plied us with cups of tea during the day.

On every occasion that we met he was invariably courteous and kind as he was with everyone and therein lay his greatness. He often said that Pat was the one who deserved credit for getting him to appointments. ‘I’m the parcel and she delivers me!’ Our thoughts are with you Pat and the family at this sad time. Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam [May God have mercy on his soul].

John Hume singing Tráthnóna Beag Aréir

This was on The Late, Late Show, an enormously popular TV show in Ireland that has been running for nearly 60 years, in 1985, presented by Gay Byrne, who died last year. After the song, in this longer clip from RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcasting service, John Hume talks about people in his native city of Derry. This shows his rootedness in his own people, a quality that was so important in his role as a peacemaker enabling him to see and understand their own rootedness in others.

In a very real way John Hume was an embodiment of the words Fr Willie Doyle used at the end of his reflection on this Sunday's gospel: Christ sits at the helm and rules.

‘Is meaner do lucht síochána a dhéanamh, óir glaofar clann Dé orthu’ (Matha 5:9).

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’ (Matthew 5:7).

'Beati pacifici: quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur' (Matthaeus 5:9).

'My actions and my desires can have a divine scope and can change the face of the earth.' Sunday Reflections, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Feeding the Hungry

Master of the Acts of Mercy [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 14:13-21 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Stamp issued in Chile for the beatification of Fr Alberto Hurtado SJ, 16 October 1994

The late Fr John Griffin, a Columban colleague from New Zealand, who after many years in the Philippines went to work in Chile, wrote about a great saint of our times, San Alberto Hurtado SJ, a native of that country, in the last printed edition of Misyon, the Columban magazine in the Philippines that I edited from 2002 until 2017, the March-April 2008 issue.

One story he told in that article is a perfect expression of what happened in today's gospel. But first a little background in that same article:

Overall, Fr Hurtado is best known and remembered throughout Chile for his Hogar de Cristo (Christ’s Home) Foundation. The seed for this was sown late one night when he was on his way home to San Ignacio. He met a man who was in poor health, had eaten nothing all day and had nowhere to go.

This was the priest’s first encounter with such poverty and it moved him greatly. He did what he could for the man and then asked: ‘What are our Catholics doing for those who have no roof over their heads?’ He began asking this question during his retreats and so was born the idea of ‘Hogar de Cristo’. He formed a board of directors from people eager to help – six men and 30 women. Land was available alongside the Jesuit parish of Jesus the Worker and the first night-shelters were built and an appeal for funds began. By 1945 there were five shelters that had been able to house 12,000 poor men. Now it was time to do something for the numerous ‘street kids’ who spent their nights under the many bridges over the Mapocho River which runs for miles through Santiago. These youngsters needed educations as well as shelter and land was donated for this purpose a few miles to the north of the city near Colina railway station and a children’s home was built.

Today's gospel tells us: Jesus said to them, 'They need not go away; you give them something to eat.'

Stamp issued in Chile in 2001 for the centennial of the birth of  Padré Hurtado

Fr Griffin continues about San Alberto: 

Providence was always on his side. At a meeting one night his board of directors was unwilling, for lack of funds, to approve a new project. In the midst of discussions there was an unexpected call for Fr Hurtado to attend to someone at his front door. He had a brief conversation with the caller who said she wanted to leave a gift to help the great work he was doing.

He gratefully put her envelope in his pocket, wished her a good evening and returned to his meeting. He looked at the contents of the envelope as he sat down. Then he tossed a cheque onto the table saying, ‘There you are, you of little faith!’ It was for one million pesos – worth about US$30,000 at that time.

Statue of San Alberto Hurtado SJ

Viña del Mar, Chile, his birthplace [Wikipedia]

The directors on the board of Hogar de Cristo were being prudent, as they were supposed to be and, in being so, following what Jesus teaches us elsewhere in the gospels. But Father Alberto was listening to what Jesus said to the Apostles today: They need not go away; you give them something to eat.

I'm sure that when Father Alberto threw the check on the table and said 'There you are, you of little faith' he did so with a smile that expressed both irony and gratitude and that the board members saw the irony and felt the same sense of gratitude.

Once again we find the presence of Jesus in the needs of others - and in one who joyfully lives the Gospel.

Smile and move forward! Total sacrifice is perpetual joy. The squaring of the circle? No. Because there is a secret link between the gift of self, out of love, and peace of soul. (San Alberto in a retreat to priests, 1948.)

The Gospel, radiant with the glory of Christ's cross, constantly invites us to rejoice. (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, No 5, 2013.)

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Lambert Lombard [Web Gallery of Art]

TheMultiplication of the Loaves

Meditation during a retreat by San Alberto on the gift of self and cooperation.

Some of the details here are found in St John’s Gospel.

        

Indecision, faintheartedness is the great obstacle in the plan of cooperation.  We think: I’m not worth all that much, and from this comes discouragement: It makes no difference whether I act or fail to act.  Our powers of action are so limited.  Is my unpretentious work worthwhile? Does my abstaining from this have any meaning? If I fail to sacrifice myself nothing changes.  No one needs me . . . A mediocre vocation?  How many vocations are lost. It is the advice of the devil that is partly true.  The difficulty must be faced.

The solution

5,000 men along with women and children have been hungry for three days… Food? They would need at least 200 denarii to feed them and this is the approximate yearly salary of a labourer.

In the desert!  Tell them to go! But Andrew, more observant says: There are 5 loaves and 2 fish, but what are these among so many! Here we have our same problem: the disproportion.

And the loaves.  Made of barley, hard as rocks (the Jews used wheat).  And the fish.  They were from the lake, small, rather mushy in texture, carried by a young boy in a sack that had lain on the ground for three days in the heat . . . not much of a solution. 

Did the Lord despise this offering? No, and with his blessing he fed all the hungry and had leftovers. Neither did he despise the leftovers: 12 baskets of the surplus were gathered, fish heads and bones, but even this he valued. 

The young boy consented to give Christ his poor offering, not realizing that he would feed the multitude.  He believed that he had lost his small possession but he found instead that there was even a surplus and that he had cooperated for the good of the others. 

And me . . . like those fish (less than those loaves) bruised and perhaps decomposing but in the hands of Christ my action may have a divine scope a divine reach. 

Remember Ignatius, Augustine, Camillus de Lellis, and Matt Talbot, base sinners whose lives were converted into spiritual nourishment for millions who will continue to feed on their witness. 

My actions and my desires can have a divine scope and can change the face of the earth.  I will not know it, the fish did not know it either. I can do a great deal if I remain in Christ; I can accomplish much if I cooperate with Christ . . .

A Hymn to Alberto Hurtado SJ

Written by Pablo Coloma for the beatification of Blessed Alberto on 16 October 1994, Sung by Pablo Coloma and Ximena Concha

Alberto, hoy resuena tu nombre                        

Se escucha tu palabra encendida

Tu rostro hoy recorre las calles

Tu huella marca un nuevo camino

Profeta que anunciaste el Reino

Supiste denunciar el dolor

Reíste con un canto a la vida

Mostraste un camino mejor.

Alberto, your name resounds today,

your enlightening word is heard, 

your face is seen today on the streets,

your footprints mark a new path.

A prophet who proclaimed the Kingdom,

who knew about pain,

who laughed with a song to life,

who showed a better way.

Alberto contemplé tu figura

incendiando las calles de una oscura ciudad.

Y vi que mil rostros reían

y otros más comprendían que era el paso de Dios.

Alberto has tocado nuestra alma

y ya siento que enciende ese fuego de Dios.

Tu vida fue un regalo divino,

una historia que hizo de este Chile un hogar.

Alberto, I watched you

lighting up the streets of a dark city.

And I saw a thousand faces laughing

and others who understood that that was the way of God.

Alberto, you have touched our soul

and I feel that I am lit by the fire of God.

Your life was a divine gift,

a story that made this Chile a home.

Maestro que enseñaste a vivir

la vida como lo hizo Jesús,

mirando en los hombres que sufren

su cuerpo castigado en la cruz.

A teacher who taught how to live

as Jesus did,

looking at those who suffer,

his body punished on the cross.

Apóstol, compañero de pobres,

viviste en tu carne el dolor

de tantos que viván despreciados,

tus manos fueron pan y un hogar.

Apostle, companion of the poor, 

you lived in your flesh the pain

of the many who are despised,

your hands were bread and a home.

Alberto contemplé tu figura

incendiando las calles de una oscura ciudad.

Y vi que mil rostros reían

y otros más comprendían que era el paso de Dios.

Alberto has tocado nuestra alma

y ya siento que enciende ese fuego de Dios.

Tu vida derramada en las calles

se alsa inmensa hasta el cielo en las manos de todos.

Alberto, I watched you

lighting up the streets of a dark city.

And I saw a thousand faces laughing and others who understood

that that was the way of God.

Alberto, you have touched our soul

and I feel that I am lit by the fire of God.

Your life poured out on the streets

is infinitely raised to heaven in the hands of all.

Just as St Teresa of Kolkata is known to everyone simply as 'Mother Teresa' and St Pius of Pietrelcina as 'Padre Pio', San Alberto is known to Chileans still as 'Padré Hurtado'.

Schola Gregoriana Abba Caelum, Seoul, Korea

Antiphona ad communionem  

Communion Antiphon Wisdom 16:20

Panem de caelo dedisti nobis, Domine,

You have given us, O Lord, bread form heaven,

habentem omne delectamentum, et omnem saporem suavitas.

endowed with all delights and sweetness to every taste.

On Sundays in Ordinary Time there is a choice between a Communion Antiphon with an Old Testament text and one with a New Testament text. The above is the former.

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)

This Sunday, 2 August, is the Ninth Sunday After Pentecost in the calendar that uses the TLM. Complete Mass in Latin and English here.