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).
Gospel Matthew 18:21-35 (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England &
Wales, Scotland, India)
At that time:
Peter came up and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against
me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not
say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.
‘Therefore the
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with
his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten
thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be
sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, “Have patience with me, and I
will pay you everything.” And out of pity for him, the master of that servant
released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he
found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing
him, he began to choke him, saying, “Pay what you owe.” So his fellow servant
fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” He
refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his
fellow servants saw what had taken place they were greatly distressed, and they
went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master
summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt
because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow
servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his master delivered him to the
jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do
to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.’
Today's gospel brings us in touch with what is perhaps the most difficult demand for Christians: to forgive. El Greco's painting shows us St Peter praying with hope and trust in God's merciful and forgiving love.
An example of forgiveness is found in an extract from a letter of Fr William Doyle SJ, an Irish priest who died in August 1917 in Passchendaele, Belgium, while serving as a chaplain in the British Army in World War I. The extract is taken from a post on the website The Father Willie Doyle Association, the official site for the canonisation cause of the Servant of God Fr Willie Doyle SJ.
Father Doyle wrote to his father in Dublin about events of 5 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme in France [emphasis added]:
In the bottom of one hole lay a British and a German soldier, locked in a deadly embrace, neither had any weapon, but they had fought on to the bitter end.Another couple seemed to have realised that the horrible struggle was none of their making, and that they were both children of the same God; they had died hand-in-hand praying for and forgiving one another. A third face caught my eye, a tall, strikingly handsome young German, not more, I should say, than eighteen. He lay there calm and peaceful, with a smile of happiness on his face, as if he had had a glimpse of Heaven before he died. Ah, if only his poor mother could have seen her boy it would have soothed the pain of her broken heart.
To Father Doyle no German soldier was an enemy. Indeed, one of the remarkable things in the literature that came out of the Great War, as the First World War was known until the Second World War began, is that soldiers didn't seem to have hatred for the official 'enemy'. It was more often against their own generals and bullying corporals. Photos and videos from the war show prisoners of war, especially wounded ones, being treated with the same kindness and consideration as others.
Father Doyle's description of the British and German soldiers holding hands in death illustrates poignantly and powerfully what Jesus asks of us in this Sunday's Gospel. Pray for the souls of all who died in that terrible conflict.
The Banks of Green Willow
Composed by George Butterworth
Played by the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
George Butterworth, an officer in the British army, was killed in the Battle of the Somme. 5 August 1916, a month before the event described by Fr Willie Doyle in his letter to his father. Pray for the souls of all who died in that terrible conflict, The Great War / First World War.
GospelMatthew 18:15-20 (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England &
Wales, Scotland, India)
At that time: Jesus said to his
disciples, ‘If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault,
between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every
charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he
refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen
even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly,
I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you
agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father
in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among
them.’
Please pray for the repose of the soul of my brother Paddy, baptised Patrick Nicholas after our two grandfathers, who died peacefully at 00:30 today, Saturday, Irish time. He turned 80 on 15 June this year but had been ill for a long time. May he rest in peace.
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Fr Rufus Halley with friends in Mindanao
It is 25 years since the death of Fr Rufus Halley in the Philippines on 28 September 2001. He was from County Waterford in Ireland and was one year behind me in the seminary. We both worked in the Philippines. After working in Luzon for many years, where he had become fluent in Tagalog, he asked to be transferred to the predominantly Muslin Prelature of Marawi in Mindanao where we Columbans had worked for many years. There he became fluent in two more Filipino languages, Cebuano-Visayan, spoken by the Christians in the Prelature, and Maranao, spoken by the majority of Muslims in that area. Over the years he built up great trust with many Muslims. There was a long history of mistrust between the two communities. At times this broke out into warfare.
Because of the trust he had built up he received an extraordinary request: to mediate in a dispute between two Muslim clans that could become violent. This was an extraordinary request at three levels: he was a foreigner, a Christian and a priest. He agreed to the request but sought the advice of a Muslim elder who wasn't involved in the dispute.
There was much going back and forth between the two leaders, and visits to the elder for guidance, but it finally reached the point where the two leaders agreed to meet in the presence of Father Rufus. There was still an air of tension when they came together. However, they agreed to end the dispute. A few days later the Columban priest happened to drop by the house of one of the two leaders. He found the other there, the two of them drinking coffee and laughing together.
This whole event was one of the highlights of Father Rufus's life and his face would light up whenever he would recount it.
For me, Father Rufus was living out today's gospel in a very difficult situation. His goal was, with God's grace, to bring about peace and reconciliation. The leaders of the two clans were also men of faith and the words of Jesus were realised: For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
On the afternoon of 28 August 2001, the feast of St Augustine, Father Rufus was ambushed while on his way home on his motorcycle from an interfaith meeting with Muslim religious leaders and shot dead.
Where did Father Rufus draw his strength from? His close friend Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, Archbishop Emeritus of Manila, wrote in an article for Misyon, the magazine of the Columbans in the Philippines of which I was editor at the time. In the last two paragraphs of his article Cardinal Rosales wrote:
I knew of the intensity with which Father Rufus lived his own Christian faith, how he began each day with an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, the centrality of the Mass in his life. A big influence on him was the life of Blessed Charles de Foucauld, 1858-1916, beatified on 13 November 2005. This Frenchman was also from a privileged background. Unlike Pareng Rufus, he lost his Catholic faith and became a notorious playboy before re-discovering it, partly through the example of Muslims living in North Africa. He spent many years as a priest living among the poorest Muslims in a remote corner of the Sahara, pioneering Christian-Muslim dialogue by discovering himself as the Little Brother of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and as the Little Brother of the Muslims who came knocking at his hermitage door.
(Pope France canonised Charles de Foucauld in 2022. Pareng is a Tagalog word expressing respect for a male friend.)
On 1 December 1916 Charles de Foucauld died at the hands of a young gunman outside his hermitage and on 28 August 2001 Pareng Rufus died at the hands of gunmen who ambushed him as he was riding on his motorcycle from a meeting of Muslim and Christian leaders in Balabagan to his parish in Malabang. The local people, both Christian and Muslim, mourned for him deeply. The grief of the Muslims was all the greater because the men who murdered my Pareng Rufus happened to be Muslims. The death of this great missionary priest brought both communities together in their shared grief for a man of God, a true follower of Jesus Christ.
What a magnificent and worthy setting for the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!
Tuesday 8 September is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Below is a setting of the Hail Mary and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Litany of Loreto, by Sam C. Ezugwu, and performed by Trinity Choir and Amemuso Choir in St Luke's Catholic Church, Kubwa. The full credits are at the end of the video. Kubwa is located in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
Traditional Latin Mass
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English ishere. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-06-2026 if necessary).
Epistle: Galatians 5:25-26; 6:1-10. Gospel: Luke 7:11-16.
Stretcher Bearers, Passchendaele, Belgium, 1917
Madonna of Mercy
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