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 (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelMatthew 4:1-11 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Then
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was
hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the
Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he
answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth
of God.’”
Then
the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the
templeand said to him, “If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you’,
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus
said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the
Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high
mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And
he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship
me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is
written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Then
the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
I remember vividly a homily on
this gospel when I was in the seminary, around 1965. The preacher was a saintly
Columban, Fr Edward McCormack, known to us as ‘Father Ted’, though he was a far
cry from the Father Ted in the British comedy TV series about a group of
priests in a remote part of Ireland. It wasn’t so much the preacher’s words as
the sense of the horror he conveyed of the very idea of Satan trying to tempt
Jesus Christ, God who became Man that struck me and that still remains. Father
Ted conveyed to me a sense of the horror of what sin is.
Lent is a time in which we can receive the grace of knowing
something of the horror of sin and of the price that our loving God paid in
order to save us from being lost in it. Lent is a time when the whole Church
prepares to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus at Easter. We can’t do that
without going through Good Friday and all that led to that.
An essential part of going through Lent, and one that
involves some pain, is accepting responsibility for our personal sins and
asking God’s forgiveness in the sacrament of confession or reconciliation. This
is an expression of God’s love for us as sinners, a sacrament in which Jesus
gives us the grace to resist the temptations of Satan as he did in the gospel.
One person who understood the depths of God's love in the sacrament of confession was the Venerable Matt Talbot (1856-1925). In the videos above and below the scriptwriter, the late Fr Desmond Forristal of the Archdiocese of Dublin, uses the artistic device of having Matt tell his own story while walking through the streets of Dublin 60 years after his death. It's a device that for me works remarkably well.
Matt Talbot was a Dubliner who had become an alcoholic by the age of 13 or 14 and spent the next fourteen years as a drunkard. He went to the extreme once of stealing a fiddle from a beggar and pawned it to get money for drink. It was his only living, Matt tells us in the video,and I think that was the worst thing I ever did in my life. Matt made many efforts later to trace the beggar but never succeeded.
Yet during his fourteen years of drinking Matt hardly ever missed Sunday Mass, though he didn't receive Holy Communion, and always said a Hail Mary before sleeping. I think that's what saved me in the long run, he tells us.
At the beginning of the second video - each video is less than 24 minutes - Matt, masterfully played by Irish actor SéamusForde, goes through a soul-wrenching temptation right at Communion time, something that happens the same Sunday morning at Mass in three different churches, a temptation that drives him out of each, until he falls on his knees outside one of them and prays Jesus, mercy; Mary help, a prayer that most Dubliners would have been familiar with.
Matt Talbot
The second video shows Matt sending a donation to the Maynooth Mission to China, as the Columbans were first known in Ireland, some time in the mid-1920s. The note he enclosed is in the Columban archives. The amount, one pound from himself and ten shillings (half of a pound) from his sister, was considerable for poor people.
Towards the end of the video Matt speaks of the things God had asked him to do. He put these thoughts in my mind when I was praying - and I knew they came from him. Only the priest in confession knew about these special things, small things God wanted me to do. They weren't for anybody else.
Among the special things, small things were the chains he wore on certain occasions. It was these very chains, found on his body when he died, that led to people asking questions about me . . . God must have wanted it that way . . . using me to say something to people today, now.
Lent is a gift that God gives the Church each year, a personal gift to each member of the Church, a time when he wants to put these thoughts in my mind when I am praying.
Matt Talbot was the farthest thing imaginable from the 'celebrities' of today during his life. In the nearly 100 years since his death he has given hope to many, especially persons struggling with alcoholism and other addictions.
Will I allow God this Lent to put whatever thoughts he wants to in my mind by giving him time in prayer? Will I allow him, as Mary did when she said Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word, to use me to say something to people today, now?
Will I fall on my knees in moments of great temptation, as Matt did during the terrible struggle he had right at Communion time three times on that one Sunday morning, perhaps reflecting the three temptations of the Lord in today's gospel, and plead Jesus, mercy, Mary help?
Will I allow myself to experience God's merciful love for me as a sinner through the sacrament of confession as Matt did?
They thought I was missing the good things in life. But God gave me the best part - and he never took it away.
Dubliners refer to older churches by their street names rather than by their patronal names. The church above, which Matt calls 'Gardiner Street church', is that of the Jesuits. Matt also refers a number of times to the 'chapel' in Seville Place, the Church of St Laurence O'Toole, once Archbishop of Dublin and now of its two patron saints, the other being St Kevin. This is another old Dublin usage, calling a church a 'chapel'. The accent and idioms of Matt in the two videos are pure Dublin.
When I was a child my mother, when 'going into town', i.e. into the city centre, would sometimes go through Granby Lane and we'd pray at the spot where Matt died. Everyone in Dublin then knew who Matt Talbot was. I'm not so sure about today.
You can discover more about this wonderful man, venerated by many struggling with alcoholism and other addictions, here and by googling.
Snowdrops, St Columban's Dalgan Park
19 February 2023
Pope St Leo the Great
Office of Readings, Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Dearly beloved, the earth is always filled with the mercy of the Lord. For every one of us Christians nature is full of instruction that we should worship God. The heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is within them, proclaim the goodness and the almighty power of their maker. The wonderful beauty of these inferior elements of nature demands that we, intelligent beings, should give thanks to God.
Traditional Latin Mass
First Sunday in Lent
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-26-2023 if necessary).
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10. Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11.
GospelMatthew 5:38-48 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Jesus said to his
disciples:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is
evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the
other also.And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,[a] let him have your cloak as well.And if anyone forces you to go one
mile, go with him two miles.Give to the one who begs from you, and do not
refuse the one who would borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall
love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you,so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on
the just and on the unjust.For if you love those who love you, what reward do you
have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than
others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?You therefore must be perfect, as
your heavenly Father is perfect.”
FrRufus Halley was one year behind me in the Columban seminary in Ireland. We were close friends. He came to the Philippines in 1969, two years before I did. He spent his early years in the country in Tagalog-speaking parishes in an area of the Archdiocese of Manila south of the metropolitan area, now the Diocese of Antipolo. He was fluent in the language. After about ten years he began to feel a clear call from God to leave the security of working in an area overwhelmingly Christian and mostly Catholic to a part of Mindanao where Columbans had worked for many years that is overwhelmingly Muslim, the Prelature of Marawi. There he became fluent in two more Filipino languages, Meranao, spoken by the majority of Muslims in the area, and Cebuano, spoken by most of the Christians. Both Muslims and Christians saw Father Rufus as a man of prayer, a man of peace, a man of God. He spent an hour each day before the Blessed Sacrament. Over the years he earned the trust of some Muslim leaders despite the long history of distrust between Muslims and Christians that sometimes led to outright conflict. Because of the trust he had built up he, a foreigner, a Christian and a Catholic priest, got an extraordinary request: to mediate in a feud between two groups of Meranaos. Father Rufus saw this as another call from God and agreed. He also sought the advice of a Muslim elder who wasn't involved in the conflict. Over a period of many weeks he was going back and forth between the leaders of the two factions until eventually they agreed to meet. The morning of the meeting was filled with tension but when the leaders arrived they agreed to end the feud. A week or so later Father Rufus dropped into the house of one of the leaders of the conflict and, to his delight, saw a leader of the other faction having coffee with him, the two men engaged in a lively, friendly conversation into which they invited the Irish priest. Father Rufus used to speak about this event as the highlight of the twenty years he spent living among Muslims, a period when tension was seldom absent from his life and where there was often danger. Though a person who had a naturally optimistic disposition - five minutes in his company would get rid of any 'blues' you might feel - that didn't keep him going. His Christian hope and faith did.
Father Rufus with young friends
On the afternoon of 29 August 2001 while returning on his motorcycle from an inter-faith meeting in Balabagan, Lanao del Sur, to Malabang, maybe five or six kilometres away and where he was assigned, Father Rufus was ambushed by a group of men who happened to be Muslims and shot dead.
Both Christians and Muslims were devastated by his death.
Father Rufus came from a privileged background and could have entered any profession. But he chose to answer God's call to be a missionary priest. Our Columban superiors sent him to the Philippines.
He later chose, in answer to God's call and with the blessing of our superiors, to go to a very difficult mission. That choice led to twenty years of joyful service there to Catholics and Muslims. It also led to his death.
Father Rufus wasn't the enemy of anyone. Because of that and because they saw him as a man of God, two groups of Muslims who were enemies accepted him as a mediator. He wasn't a man to greet only your brothers and sisters but one who crossed barriers.
The closing words of Jesus in today's gospel are You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. For years my understanding of becoming perfect in this sense was of a blueprint like that of an architect. If you found this blueprint and built according to its specifications then you'd have a perfect product.
But a building is inanimate.
However, I found a very different image of perfection in Story of a Soul, the autobiography of St Thérèse of Lisieux: Perfection consists simply in doing his will, and being just what he wants us to be.This is an image of a living being, of a unique being. God's will gradually unfolded in the life of Father Rufus, as a flower unfolds, the growth being silent and hardly noticeable most of the time.
I see in the stages of the life of Father Rufus, whose baptismal name was Michael, a testimony of the truth of the words of St Thérèse and a model of how we can follow the words of Jesus. Through his daily prayer, his daily faithfulness, his responding to God's will at crucial moments in his life, he became what God willed him to be: a Catholic priest who as he laid in death on the side of a road in a remote area of the southern Philippines, became an even stronger bridge between Christians and Muslims, a man who in life and death showed the true face of Jesus Christ, God who became Man out of love for all of us.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Author of the original Latin unknown; English translation below by St John Henry Cardinal Newman
Ánima Christi, sanctífica me.Soul of Christ, be my sanctification; Corpus Christi, salva me. Body of Christ, be my salvation; Sanguis Christi, inébria me. Blood of Christ, fill all my veins; Aqua láteris Christi, lava me. Water of Christ's side, wash out my stains; Pássio Christi, confórta me. Passion of Christ, my comfort be; O bone Iesu, exáudi me. O good Jesus, listen to me; Intra tua vúlnera abscónde me. In Thy wounds I fain would hide; Ne permíttas me separári a te. Ne'er to be parted from Thy side; Ab hoste malígno defénde me. Guard me, should the foe assail me; In hora mortis meæ voca me. Call me when my life shall fail me; Et iube me veníre ad te, Bid me come to Thee above, ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te With Thy saints to sing Thy love, in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen. World without end. Amen.
Traditional Latin Mass
Quinquagesima Sunday
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-19-2023 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Gospel: Luke 18:31-43.
Gospel Matthew 5:17-37 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Jesus said to his
disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the
Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.For
truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a
dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.Therefore whoever relaxes one of the
least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called
least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them
will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.For I tell you, unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to those
of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to
judgement.’But I say to you that everyone who is
angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his
brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be
liable to the hell of fire.So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there
remember that your brother has something against you,leave your gift there before the altar and
go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.Come to terms quickly with your accuser while
you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge,
and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.Truly, I say to you, you will never get
out until you have paid the last penny.
“You have heard that it was
said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’But I say
to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already
committed adultery with her in his heart.If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and
throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that
your whole body be thrown into hell.And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and
throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that
your whole body go into hell.
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give
her a certificate of divorce.’But I say to you
that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality,
makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits
adultery.
“Again you have heard that it was said
to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to
the Lord what you have sworn.’But I say to you, Do
not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,or by the
earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King.And do
not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or
‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”
Shorter form
of the Gospel
GospelMatthew 5:20-22a, 27-28, 33-34a, 37 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Jesus said to his disciples:
“For I tell you, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to
those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be
liable to judgement.’But I say to you that everyone who is angry with
his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his
brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be
liable to the hell of fire.
“You have heard that it was
said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman
with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
“Again you have heard that it was
said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform
to the Lord what you have sworn.’But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all,
either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
“Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or
‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”
Responsorial Psalm (NAB Lectionary, Philippines, USA)
More than forty years ago I spent part of a summer working in a parish near New York City. One day when I was on duty I answered the phone. The man calling gave me his name, which I wrote down. He told me he was living in an irregular situation, having been divorced from his wife. He was asking what the Church could do for him in that situation. I tried to tell him about programmes that the Church had in the diocese for Catholics who were divorced and re-married civilly or living with someone else. The latter situation wasn't nearly as common then as it is now.
But he was getting more and more angry, though I remained calm. He eventually hung up.
I was able to find his mailing address easily on the parish register and wrote him a letter letting him know that I had understood his situation and the reason for his anger and frustration. Again, I informed him of the ways the Church was trying to be with those who found themselves in situations such as his.
The following day I had another phone call from the man. He thanked me profusely for my letter, for having listened to him and for having heard what he was trying to say. He also acknowledged that he was in a situation that he himself had created.
Today's Gospel shows us a Jesus who is somewhat different from the 'domesticated' meek and mild Jesus that we often imagine or create. He speaks of hard things: the consequences of breaking God's law, the necessity of forgiving and accepting forgiveness, the fruits of anger - not the feeling, which is something spontaneous, but the decision to remain angry/to hate - and the effects of adultery. Some of the most difficult parts of today's gospel may be omitted and probably will be by many priests, for various reasons.
The media at the moment are giving lots of coverage to how the Church approaches those who are living with someone not their spouse. One might be led to think that the Church is being harsh for the sake of being harsh, imposing impossible difficulties on some of its members and failing to be 'merciful' and 'pastoral'.
In 2014 Fr Edward McNamara LC in zenit.org, a Catholic news agency, replied to a question about this very matter. He quotes from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos 1650 and 1651. The latter says, Toward Christians who live in this situation, and who often keep the faith and desire to bring up their children in a Christian manner, priests and the whole community must manifest an attentive solicitude, so that they do not consider themselves separated from the Church, in whose life they can and must participate as baptized persons: 'They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute to works of charity and to community efforts for justice, to bring up their children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of penance and thus implore, day by day, God's grace.
I have close friends in such situations and in visiting parishes in Britain to do mission appeals for the Columbans I met couples in irregular situations who were very much involved in their parishes, but who accepted the teaching of Jesus, expressed through his Church, and live with that painful reality which they know they have created for themselves, for whatever reasons.
In the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) we find this exchange at the end:
Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She said, 'No one, sir.'And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.'
Jesus shows the woman the greatest respect. Part of that respect is not denying that she had sinned. She knew that she had. God alone knew what had been going on in her heart. Jesus restored her dignity to her, gave her hope: Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.
Jesus has taught us very clearly what marriage is: Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?' He answered, 'Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning "made them male and female,"and said, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh"? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate' (Matthew 19:3-6).
This is a hard saying. Many utterly reject it, even the part about male and female. Others wrestle with the consequences of not accepting the teaching of Jesus when they find themselves in difficult situations.
Some think, wrongly, that the Church does not anyone who is divorced to receive Holy Communion. That is not quite accurate. Some are. An ongoing seriously sinful situation is created when two persons, at least one of whom is married in the eyes of the Church, choose to live together whether after a civil wedding or otherwise. The same, of course, applies to any two persons not married to each other who live together in a sexually intimate relationship. That is a choice people make. But if a divorced person lives a chaste life he or she isn't living in a sinful situation. The First Reading (Ecclesiasticus 15:15-20) makes it very clear that God gives us the freedom to choose - and that there are consequences to the choices we make:
If you choose, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
He has placed before you fire and water;
stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
Before each person are life and death,
and whichever one chooses will be given.
For great is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power and sees everything;
his eyes are on those who fear him,
and he knows every human action.
He has not commanded anyone to be wicked,
he has not given anyone permission to sin.
The response in the responsorial psalm, which is an echo of the first reading, is Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord! (NAB). This is taken from Psalm 119 [118], as are the verses used in the responsorial psalm. this is the longest psalm, 176 verses in groups of eight in praise of God's law as something that makes us free.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus challenges us in every aspect of our lives. He challenges us to think with a new mindset. St Paul expresses it well: Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). That means taking to heart the words that Jesus repeated a number of times in the Sermon on the Mount: You have heard that it was said . . . But I say to you . . .
Adoramus te, Christe
Setting by Claudio Monteverdi, sung by Voces8
Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi
Quia per sanguinem tuum pretiosum
redemisti mundum, miserere nobis.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you,
because with your precious blood
you have redeemed the world. Have mercy on us
Traditional Latin Mass
Sexagesima Sunday
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-12-2023 if necessary).
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9. : Gospel: Luke 8:4-15.
The Sower
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
A sower went out to sow his field (Luke 8:5; Gospel).
Landscape with the Temptation of Christ
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