'The riches of a virtuous, pure heart will bear eternal profit.' Sunday Reflections, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Tacloban City, Philippines after Typhoon Hayan/Yolanda

[Wikipedia; photo]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 12:38-44 (shorter form: 12:41-44) (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

[In his teaching Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the market-places and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”]

And Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Pope Francis with victims of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda

Palo, Leyte, 17 January 2015 

[Wikipedia; photo]

Typhoon Hayan, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, made landfall in the country on the night of 7 November 2013. As it passed over the country it killed more than 6,000 and affected 11 million people. I was living in Bacolod City at the time where we got heavy rains and strong winds but it wasn't catastrophic, though it did some damage on the island of Negros where Bacolod City is located.

The Wikipedia entry on the storm gives details of the assistance sent by many countries to the Philippines. However, one is missing: Guinea-Bissau, a small country in west Africa that is less than half the size of Ireland or of Mindanao, with a population of around 2,100,000. It declared its independence of Portugal on 24 September 1973. This was recognised on 10 September 1974. About 11 per cent of the population are Catholics. The country has two dioceses.

An Agenzia Fides report dated 9 December 2013 reads: In the spirit of the liturgical season of Advent, the Bishops of the dioceses in Guinea Bissau and Bafata , His Exc. Mgr. Pedro Zilli and His Exc. Mgr. José Camnate na Bissign have invited all the diocesan communities to a 'Day of fasting and prayer for peace in the world, in Africa and in Guinea-Bissau' to be held on December 13. Further on the report states: In tune with the wave of international solidarity in favor of the Philippines, a nation deeply wounded by Typhoon Haiyan, the Bishops recommend to all parish communities that 'the fruit of fasting has to be destined to the victims of this natural disaster'. Furthermore, the Catholic Church promotes a fundraiser for the Filipino people until Sunday, December 22.

I remember being deeply touched by this report. I sent the link to a local newspaper but it wasn't interested.

Typical Scenery, Guinea-Bissau

[Wikipedia; photo]

This story of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau sending aid to the Philippines is similar to that of the Choctaw people in the USA  who had been dispossessed of their traditional homeland. In 1847 they raised money to help the people of Ireland who were starving because of the failure of the potato crop over a number of years. In 1840 Ireland had a population of about 8,000,000. By 1850 a million had died and another million had emigrated to North America, Britain and other places, man dying on the way. (The population of Ireland kept decreasing through emigration till 1950 and today there are fewer people in the country than there were in 1840.) An enduring bond has lasted between the Choctaw people and the Irish to this day.

Flag of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

[Wikipedia; photo]

On the Sundays in Ordinary Time the First Reading and the Gospel have a common theme. I have been praying with these readings during the week and the generosity of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau to the people of the Philippines and that of the Choctaw people to the Irish kept coming to mind. They reminded me of the generosity and faith of the widow who gave the prophet Elijah water to drink and bread to eat even though she had really nothing. They reminded me of the widow giving her two small coins to the Temple treasury in Jerusalem, totally unaware of Who noticed this. Neither widow is given a name. 

I doubt if any of the people in Ireland dying of hunger in the 1840s had ever heard of the Choctaw People of if the latter had ever heard of Ireland until someone told them of the plight of the people there, similar to their own plight. I doubt if the majority of Filipinos know where Guinea-Bissau is or if the people of that country know much about the Philippines. There are no historical links between the two no more than there were between the Choctaws and the Irish in the 1840s, though there are now.

The widow who looked after Elijah in his hunger and thirst and the widow to whom Jesus drew the attention of his followers have been giving to the Church for 2,ooo years. Their generosity continues to be a channel of God's grace to the Church and to the whole world.

The amount given by the two widows seems like nothing. The amount the Choctaw people sent to Ireland and that the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries in the world, sent to the Philippines were minimal compared to that sent by other nations and groups. But it was far greater in that it was sent by people with pure and generous hearts and by people of faith. In the case of the Catholics of Guinea-Bissau that faith was their Catholic faith. And every donation given by individual Choctaws and by individual Bissau-Guinean Catholics was a 'widow's mite'.

Calon Lân (A Pure Heart)

While I was praying in one of our small chapels during the week the Welsh hymn above, which I've used here before, kept coming into my mind and I listened to it a number of time from my mobile phone through my hearing aids. Calon is the Welsh for 'heart' and Lân the word for 'pure' or 'clean'. The Welsh have a great choral tradition, largely due to the rise of Methodism in the late 1700s and 1800s. Part of that tradition is that hymns are sung before international rugby matches. The above video was made before a match between Wales and Scotland in 2014.

Calon Lân contains the lines, None but a pure heart can sing, Sing in the day and sing in the night. Further on we find, The riches of a virtuous, pure heart will bear eternal profit.

I have no doubt that the two widows in this Sunday's readings are singing in the eternal day of heaven, bearing eternal profit because of their virtuous, pure hearts. May each of us pray for a virtuous, pure heart.

Traditional Latin Mass 

Resumed Fifth Sunday After Epiphany 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-10-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17.  Gospel: Matthew 8: 23-27.

Reading the Bible

Gerrit Dou [Web Gallery of Art]

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom (Colossians 3:16; Epistle).

'Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith.' Sunday Reflections, 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

SHEMA YISRAEL ADONAI ELOHEINU
ADONAI ECHAD [ U'SHEMO ECHAD ]
V'AHAVTA ET HASHEM ELOHEICHA
B'CHOL LEVAVCHA U'VCHOL NAFSHECHA
U'VCHOL MEODECHA

[YAIDA DAI YADA DAI YAIDADAI . . .]

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart (Deuteronomy 6:4-6). [First Reading; quoted by Jesus in the Gospel].

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 12:28b-34 (shorter form: 10:42-45) (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

One of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Shema Yisrael, Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem 

[Wikipedia; photo by SuperJewderivative work]

The first reading today is one the most important in the whole Bible for people of the Jewish faith. There is only one God. Only the Hebrews in the ancient Mediterranean world believed that. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-6 in his response to the scribe. These words are at the heart of Jewish prayer and are prayed by or spoken to a Jew when he is dying, reminding him of the most important reality of all, that God is God. The Hebrew for Hear, O Israel is Shema Yisrael, שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‎in Hebrew. Believing Jews pray or sing the Shema Yisrael, or Shema, just as Christians pray or sing the Our Father, the opening words giving their name to the whole prayer. Jews pray it twice a day and before sleeping.

The setting of the Shema in the video above is modern and joyful. Jesus would have prayed the Shema everyday and perhaps chanted it first as a child when St Joseph took him to the Temple and later when he went there as an adult.

And at the wedding in Cana Jesus would have danced with the other men in a style like that of the man in the video. The Shema is a profoundly joyful proclamation of faith in the one God.

Often enough I've heard people creating a gap between the two great commandments, which are a summary of the Ten Commandments. There is no such gap. You shall love your neighbor as yourself is a consequence of you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . just as in God’s plan being a father or mother is a consequence of being first of all a husband or wife.

In his homily at the opening of the Year of Faith on 11 October 2012 Pope Benedict said, Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith. The Christian believes in God whose face was revealed by Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and their definitive interpreter. 

The testimony of the saints shows us men and women, young and old, even children, whose lives were focused on Jesus the Lord, God who became Man, and because of this gave themselves in the service of others. It is impossible to live the first great commandment without wanting to live the second. It is impossible to live the second without wanting to live the first.

On 21 October 2012 when he canonised seven new saints including St Pedro Calungsod, the young catechist-martyr from the central Philippines and St Kateri Tekakwitha, the first native North American saint, Pope Benedict underlined the mission of the saints: The tenacious profession of faith of these seven generous disciples of Christ, their configuration to the Son of Man shines out brightly today in the whole Church. He used a term that St John Paul used many times in his apostolic exhortation of 1992, Pastores Dabo Vobis, configuration to the Son of Man.

St John Paul's document was about the ordained priesthood and he reminded priests in it a number of times that they were called to be configured to Christ. But here Pope Benedict is calling all of us to be such, that is to become, with God's grace, so like Jesus Christ that others will see him in us.

Jesus, as he quotes the Shema Yisrael in today's gospel, is not calling us to be 'nice' to others, but to be configured to him. He is calling us to be able to say with St Paul in Philippians 1:18, What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

The Holy Family

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Four Jews: Jesus, Mary, St Joseph and St Anne

Go in Peace

Written and sung by Jude Nnam

Sir Jude Nnam is currently the National Music Director for National Catholic Liturgical Music Council,  Nigeria.

Traditional Latin Mass 

Resumed Fourth Sunday After Epiphany 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-03-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 13:8-10.  Gospel: Matthew 8: 23-27.

Christ in the Storm on the Sea

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep (Matthew 8:24; Gospel).

'Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”' Sunday Reflections, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Christ Healing the Blind Man

Eustache L Sueur [Web Gallery of Art]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 10:46-52 (shorter form: 10:42-45) (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Fr John Burger is an American Columban who was member of the Columban General Council from 2006 till 2012. He spent the early years of his priesthood in Japan and tells a wonderful story about a blind man who was a member of a prayer group in a parish where he served. Each week the group met to share on the following Sunday’s gospel and to pray. Father John was a little nervous when this Sunday’s gospel came up, wondering how his blind friend would respond.

He and the others were astonished when the man shared that this was one of his favourite passages in the gospels. Why? Because Jesus asked Bartimaeus, What do you want me to do for you? The blind parishioner went on to say that he was quite happy as he was. He had his own apartment and he knew his way around. But if the Lord were to ask him directly What do you want me to do for you? he would tell him that there were parts of his life where he would like Jesus to shed his light, even though he would hesitate to ask him to do so. 

Probably the blind Japanese man had experienced people, with every good intention, wanting to help him when he needed no help. On a pilgrimage to Lourdes in Easter Week 1991 with a group of persons from Ireland, some with physical disabilities, I shared a room with our leader, Joe, able-bodied like myself, and Tony and Tom who weren’t. Both needed help in some very personal matters. However, I learned very quickly from Tom not to do something for him when he could do it himself. That was a very good lesson for me.

Jesus didn’t presume that Bartimaeus wanted his sight back. He asked him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man, who had shouted Jesus, Son of David, a title indicating he was the Messiah, answered, Rabbi, let me recover my sight.

Do I allow Jesus to ask me, What do you want me to do for you? And if I allow him do I have the faith of Bartimaeus to tell him what I want him to do for me? Jesus responded to the faith of the blind man: Go your way; your faith has made you well. And the blind beggar’s response to this was a further expression of his faith: And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

On 11 October 2012 in his homily at the Mass marking the opening of the Year of Faith and the 5oth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council Pope Benedict said, The Year of Faith which we launch today is linked harmoniously with the Church’s whole path over the last fifty years: from the Council, through the Magisterium of the Servant of God Paul VI, who proclaimed a Year of Faith in 1967, up to the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, with which Blessed John Paul II re-proposed to all humanity Jesus Christ as the one Saviour, yesterday, today and forever. Between these two Popes, Paul VI and John Paul II, there was a deep and profound convergence, precisely upon Christ as the centre of the cosmos and of history, and upon the apostolic eagerness to announce him to the world. Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith. The Christian believes in God whose face was revealed by Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and their definitive interpreter. Jesus Christ is not only the object of the faith but, as it says in the Letter to the Hebrews, he is 'the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith' (12:2).

Bartimaeus seemed to have grasped something of this, calling Jesus by a Messianic title, Son of David, putting his faith in him and following him on the way.

+++

Fr William Byrne

6 August 1936 - 10 October 2024

Fr Willie Byrne spent the early years of his priesthood and the latter years of his active ministry as a Columban priest in Japan. After a cerebral haemorrhage he gradually lost his sight and returned to Ireland in 2014 and lived in our nursing home until his death. He suffered quite a bit in the last months of his life, spending most of those in hospital, but was always patient, cheerful and welcoming. May he rest in peace.

When I was in secondary school we studied some of the poetry of John Milton, most of which I disliked. But his sonnet On His Blindness was an exception.

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide;

‘Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?’

I fondly ask. But Patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies: ‘God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and wait.’

. . . who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best . . . They also serve who only stand and wait.

Father Willie lived those words of Milton in his latter years, as so many are doing right now, God speaking to us through their needs.

Traditional Latin Mass 

Our Lord Jesus Christ the King

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-20-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians 1:12-20.  Gospel: John 18:33-37.

Christ before Pilate

Jacopo Pontormo [Web Gallery of Art]

Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.” (John 18:37; Gospel).

'You are here to make yourself available to God.' Sunday Reflections, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

St James the Elder

Rembrandt [Wikipedia]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 10:35-45 (shorter form: 10:17-27) (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

[James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.] 

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

+++

Fr Nicholas Murray 

(1936 - 2011)

When I was reflecting on the gospel the late Fr Nicholas Murray came to mind. I knew him as a friend and as my superior. He was Regional Director in the Philippines in the early 1980s when we started to invite young Filipinos to become Columbans. In 1983 he appointed me as first Columban vocation director in the Philippines  and in 1984 on his recommendation and that of his council our Superior General, Fr Bernard Cleary,  put me in charge of our first group of Filipino seminarians in Cebu City. Last July Fr Andrei Paz from La Union became the first Filipino Superior General / Society Leader of the Columbans.

Father Nick later found himself appointed to Ireland to do vocations work but before long he became Regional Director here. In 1988 he was elected Superior General and six years later was re-elected, the only Columban with that distinction. He and his council made one particular decision that didn't sit well with many, but he stood by it and made no excuses. In this he showed himself to be the kind of person his classmate Fr Gerry French recalled after his death: He was the natural captain of every team'. (Father Gerry went to rejoin Father Nick's team on 12 December last year. May they both rest in peace.)

Father Nick  then went to teach English as a second language at a university in China where he was known as 'Mr Nick'. He wrote about his experience there in an article in Misyon, 'When you learn, teach; when you get, give'. He chose a certain obscurity after having been in senior positions of authority for so much of his life. He was also aware that no everyone saw what he was doing as proper missionary work. In his article he wrote:

The witness of presence can be particularly effective. As I have come to realize from personal experience. Some Chinese teachers of English, who employ journal writing as part of their course to the same students I teach, inform me that their students are deeply impressed by my life, work and values and have recorded such admiration in their journaling. One of those same students, actually the brightest in my own classes, one day shared the following reflection in my class. I was so deeply impressed that I asked her to write it out for me. Here is her sharing: ‘Never have I so seriously reflected on the power of religion (it is far from and alien to us Chinese). By sharing life’s journey with us, our Oral English teacher, Mr Nick, aroused my reflection on religion. Now I realize it’s not only a relief from anxiety, distress and grief, but also a motive for one who believes in it to strive to do good deeds; a way to have a noble heart and a remedy for spiritual barrenness. I feel that it is his beliefs that inspire Mr Nick to do what he has done. Now I’m thinking of converting to Christianity, though I’m quite at a loss about how to do it.’

'Mr Nick' with some of his students in China

Father Nick reflected further:

My travels and lifestyle did not escape her attention and reflection either. She went on to say, ‘I could see Mr Nick’s eyes shining and face glowing when he referred to the places where he traveled: the Philippines, Brazil, Japan, Pakistan . . . to name just a few, and now China . . . When his privacy was intruded by a question about his own family he smiled and said, “No one will marry a man who never has enough time for his wife and children.” Now Mr Nick is 65-years-old and forty years have passed since he embarked on his road of serving and helping people. He sticks to the life-long pursuit, the calling, at the price of hardship, marriage and his precious youth (I know how difficult it is to travel around and help people). I was deeply moved when I heard Mr Nick’s answer to the question, "Is there one day when you will stop doing all these things?" "Yes," he said, "when my health won’t allow it." I was seized by this simple answer and began to realize how profound the saying is, "When you learn, teach; when you get, give.”’

When Father Nick returned to Ireland he worked for a couple of years in his native Diocese of Clonfert but he eventually reached a point where he had to say to himself, as he had said to the student in China, My health won't allow it. He died on Holy Thursday 2011.

Father Nick never sought to be at the right or left hand of the Lord. But he accepted heavy responsibilities when the Lord sent them his way. He carried them out with full and cheerful responsibility. Father French said of him, I remember one of my colleagues saying of his election, 'Nick never thought of himself as superior or inferior to anyone else' - what a beautiful tribute. 

As we say in Irish, ‘Fear ann féin a bhí ann’, 'He was a man at home with himself'. 

He also believed in individuals doing what they were supposed to do. I remember one time when he sent an article to the editors of the different Columban magazines he wrote in a covering note in his humorous way: You lads are paid to edit! He trusted us to do a good job - and his articles needed very little editing.

The other ten apostles were indignant with James and John over their request. I'm quite sure that this was because each of them wanted positions of importance. They still had much to learn. Yet James was to become the first of them to die for the gospel in AD44. St James is sometimes known as 'The Greater' or 'The Elder' to distinguish him from St James the Less, the son of Alphaeus.

Rembrandt paints a very different James from the one in this Sunday's gospel. We see a prayerful, humble man in the dress of a pilgrim. El Camino, the pilgrimage across northern Spain  to the saint's shrine in Santiago de Compostela, 'Santiago' being the Spanish form of 'St James', is one of the oldest in the Church.

As Superior General, Father Murray went on many a 'pilgrimage' visiting the different Columban missions and was very familiar with all of them, countries such as the Philippines, Chile and Peru that are predominantly Catholic, Korea where Christians have become prominent in public life, Japan and Pakistan where Christians are a small minority, Fiji, where the ethnic Fijians are all Christian and the Indian-Fijians mostly Hindu.

By choosing to go to China to teach and to be a missionary through his presence there he was living out the vision of our patron, St Columban, to be a peregrinus pro Christo, a pilgrim for Christ, following in the footsteps of Bishop Edward Galvin, with Fr John Blowick co-founder of the Columbans who was expelled in 1952 from the China he loved and who once said to some fellow Columbans, You are not here to convert the people of China, you are here rather to make yourself available to God.’

 ''To make yourself available to God' is for each of us a grace to pray for as we observe Mission Sunday.

Fr Andrei Paz

Superior General / Society Leader of the Columbans

Traditional Latin Mass 

Twenty-second Sunday After Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-20-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: Philippians 1:6-11.  Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21.

Apostle Paul in Prison

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel (Philippians 6:7; Epistle).