Sunday Reflections, 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A, 10 May 2026

The Holy Family with the Father and the Holy Spirit

Carlo Dolci [Web Gallery of Art]

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth (John 14:16-17; Gospel).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 14:15-21  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 

‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Last Supper

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Today's Gospel is taken from the Last Supper Discourse, found only in St John's Gospel. These are the last intimate words of Jesus to the Twelve Apostles before his death on Calvary the next day. He makes this promise to them: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

The Helper, the Spirit of truth, is the Holy Spirit whom the Father was to send on Pentecost Sunday to guide the Church until the return of Jesus in glory on the Last Day. The Holy Spirit guides us through the Holy Bible, through the teaching of the Church and through the many great teachers He has raised up down the centuries. One of those teachers was the author of the Letter to Diognetus, who lived towards the end of the first century AD and into the second. An extract from it was in the Office of Readings in the Breviary last Wednesday. Here is part of that. I have added emphases. 

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law.

It was the upright lives of the followers of Jesus, especially in the area of chastity, that slowly transformed those around them. Countless Christians from every background, young and old, were martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ and, in many cases, out of contempt for their chastity. 

On Tuesday 12 May the Church honours three martyrs. Pope St Damasus writes of two of them: Nereus and Achilleus the martyrs joined the army and carried out the cruel orders of the tyrant, obeying his will continually out of fear. Then came a miracle of faith. They suddenly gave up their savagery, they were converted, they fled the camp of their evil leader, throwing away their shields, armor, and bloody spears. Professing the faith of Christ, they are happy to witness to its triumph. From these words of Damasus understand what great deeds can be brought about by Christ's glory. The third martyr honoured on 12 May is St Pancras, from Syria, who became a Christian when he went to Rome and was beheaded for his faith in Jesus Christ, at the age of 14.

The Letter to Diognetus speaks to today's world, especially in the West. Like others, [Christians] marry and have children, but they do not expose them. Another translation of those last few words reads, but they do not destroy their offspring. The killing of babies in the womb is now legal in most countries, in some jurisdictions right up to the moment of birth. And there are places where children who survive abortion are left to die, allowed by law.

Christians share their meals, but not their wives. In many Western countries now the very concept of family, consisting of husband, wife and children, has been undermined, with divorce becoming more and more common among those who have married, and sexual activity outside of marriage being accepted as normal, usually with no till death to us part involved. 

A parody of marriage is now legal and socially accepted in many countries, mostly in the West, and those who oppose 'marriage' between two persons of the same sex are often condemned as 'bigots'. Two generations ago the very idea of such a 'marriage' would have been laughed at.

What Genesis 1:27 teaches us, as does nature itself, is now being rejected more and more: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Legislators, some of them claiming to be 'devout Catholics', approve of the genital mutilation of minors, in some jurisdictions without the consent of their parents, in a vain and tragic effort to change their sex, an impossibility.

Language has been corrupted to bring all of this about. Terms such as 'the gender assigned at birth' instead of the sex of a person being a given from the moment of conception, as science teaches us, are being widely used in order to dehumanise us. We are being asked to worship false gods just as Saints Nereus, Achilleus and Pancras were asked to do. They gave their lives for Jesus Christ rather than do that.

Every moment of our life, everything we do, every decision we make, are meant to be informed by our faith in Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, as Jesus described himself in last Sunday's Gospel. We know that he loves us, that he died for us, that he rose again in glory, that he and the Father have sent the Holy Spirit to guide us, that he will come to judge us on the Last Day when everything will be seen clearly.

The description of the life Christians are called to in the letter to Diognetus written 1,800 years ago speaks to today's world, especially the Western world, now a post-Christian world, but a world where the Holy Spirit still can fill us with wisdom and courage to bear witness to Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I will finish with two quotations that reflect what the Letter to Diognetus says. One is on the top of the homepage of this blog: 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). 

The other is from the Venerable Sr Lucia of Fatima OCD which I found in Magnificat - a monthly liturgical publication I can recommend unreservedly - and is a reflection for the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, celebrated on 13 May. Sr Lucia writes: From the moment of our conception, our life continues through time and goes on to eternity, where it will abide. As long as we live on this earth we are pilgrims on the way to heaven, if we keep to the way that God has marked out for us. This is the most important thing in our lives: that we should behave in such a way as to ensure that, when we depart from this world and at the end of time, we shall deserve to hear from the lips of Jesus Christ those consoling words: 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'.

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.

+++

David Carlin, in an article in The Catholic Thing three years ago, describes what has happened in recent decades in the Western world and in the USA in particular in Logical, but Mad.

If Ye Love Me

Music by Thomas Tallis (c.1605 – 1685)

Sung by The Mancunium Consort

Text: If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; e’en the Spirit of truth (John 14:15-17; King James Version).

This is from today’s Gospel and includes the words of the Communion Antiphon.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fifth Sunday After Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-10-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: James 1:22-27. Gospel: John 16:23-30.

The Penitent Magdalen

Georges de La Tour [Web Gallery of Art]

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:23-25; Epistle).

                                                                  

'And because of our traditions everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.' Sunday Reflections, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Moses

Carlo Dolci [Web Gallery of Art]

Moses said to the people: “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you." [First Reading].

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 7:1-8, 14-15; 21-23 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

Now when the Pharisees gathered to Jesus, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash^[a] their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the market-place, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honours me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Still-Life of Kitchen Utensils

Cornelis Jacobsz Delff [Web Gallery of Art]

And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels . . . [Today's gospel].

This reminds me of all the rules and regulations that we had during Covid-19. Thank God that they have not become a tradition. However, we cannot argue with the good sense of the Jewish traditions about washing utensils and washing hands before eating. 

Today's First Reading opens with these words: Moses said to the people: “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live . . . Moses is offering the Hebrew people life, life from God, through the commandments that God has given them through him, most basically the Ten Commandments. The people will have life if they observe them, even if on the face of it they are restrictive - Do not do this, do not do that.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that our faith is based on Sacred Scripture and Tradition: 

One common source

80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal. "Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own "always, to the close of the age".

. . . two distinct modes of transmission

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."

Tradition, with an upper-case 'T', is fundamental to our Catholic faith. But traditions, with a lower-case 't', can help us know and live our faith, can strengthen our sense of identity as a community of faith. Traditions too can give us a sense of identity as a family or a nation or any group to which we belong. Connected with traditions are symbols. National flags and anthems are examples. These help us to know who 'We' are. That doesn't mean being over and against others. When we are secure in our own communal identity we can honour and identify with other groups in theirs.

I am inclined to think - this is only my opinion - that one of the reasons for the exodus from the Catholic Church and the rejection of the Christian faith itself by so many in recent decades in the Western world is the abandonment of traditions and symbols by the Church after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), none of them mandated by the Council. We abandoned the universal Friday abstinence from meat. We abandoned the Lenten fast. Catholics were encouraged to choose their own penances instead - Whatever you're having yourself, as we say in Ireland in a slightly different context. The communal aspect of traditions that had help bring the life of God himself to the Church for most of its existence was abandoned.

Eucharist in Fruit Wreath

Jan Davidsz de Heem [Web Gallery of Art]

Everyone used to kneel at the altar-rails to receive Holy Communion. Altar-rails were taken out of so many churches. I could go on. A 2019  study in the USA shows that only thirty percent of Catholics there believe that in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the bread and wine become the 'body, blood, soul and divinity' of Christ. They see only symbols of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord in the Holy Eucharist. (The notes to the painting above touch on this).

This is not what the Tradition of the Church and Sacred Scripture teaches us. It was precisely on this issue that many of the disciples walked away from Jesus in last Sunday's gospel.

I'll conclude with the opening words of Pope Benedict's Angelus talk on 2 September 2012 when he spoke about today's readings, with my emphases: The theme of God’s Law, of his commandments, makes its entrance in the Liturgy of the Word this Sunday. It is an essential element of the Jewish and Christian religions, where the complete fulfilment of the law is love (cf. Rom 13:10). God’s Law is his word which guides men and women on the journey through life, brings them out of the slavery of selfishness and leads them into the 'land' of true freedom and life. This is why the Law is not perceived as a burden or an oppressive restriction in the Bible. Rather, it is seen as the Lord’s most precious gift, the testimony of his fatherly love, of his desire to be close to his People, to be its Ally and with it write a love story.

Tradition from Fiddler on the Roof

Music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Sung by Topol, playing Tevye the Milkman

Based on stories by Sholem Aleichem.

This wonderful musical is set in a Jewish community living in a village in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1905.

And because of our traditions everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.

 

Traditional Latin Mass 

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-01-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 5:25-26; 6:1-10.  Gospel: Luke 7:11-16.

The Raising of the Young Man of Nain

German Miniaturist [Web Gallery of Art]

When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her (Luke 7:13; Gospel).

'Even the Spirit of Truth.' Sunday Reflections, 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A

The Holy Family with the Father and the Holy Spirit

Carlo Dolci [Web Gallery of Art]

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth (John 14:16-17; Gospel).

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel: John 14:15-21 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Last Supper

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Today's Gospel is taken from the Last Supper Discourse, found only in St John's Gospel. These are the last intimate words of Jesus to the Twelve Apostles before his death on Calvary the next day. He makes this promise to them: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

The Helper, the Spirit of truth, is the Holy Spirit whom the Father was to send on Pentecost Sunday to guide the Church until the return of Jesus in glory on the Last Day. The Holy Spirit guides us through the Holy Bible, through the teaching of the Church and through the many great teachers He has raised up down the centuries. One of those teachers was the author of the Letter to Diognetus, who lived towards the end of the first century AD and into the second. An extract from it was in the Office of Readings in the Breviary last Wednesday. Here is part of that. I have added emphases. 

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law.

It was the upright lives of the followers of Jesus, especially in the area of chastity, that slowly transformed those around them. Countless Christians from every background, young and old, were martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ and, in many cases, out of contempt for their chastity. 

I'm writing this on Friday 12 May when the Church honours three martyrs. Pope St Damasus writes of two of them: Nereus and Achilleus the martyrs joined the army and carried out the cruel orders of the tyrant, obeying his will continually out of fear. Then came a miracle of faith. They suddenly gave up their savagery, they were converted, they fled the camp of their evil leader, throwing away their shields, armor, and bloody spears. Professing the faith of Christ, they are happy to witness to its triumph. From these words of Damasus understand what great deeds can be brought about by Christ's glory. The third martyr honoured today is St Pancras, from Syria, who became a Christian when he went to Rome and was beheaded for his faith in Jesus Christ, at the age of 14.

The Letter to Diognetus speaks to today's world, especially in the West. Like others, [Christians] marry and have children, but they do not expose them. Another translation of those last few words reads, but they do not destroy their offspring. The killing of babies in the womb is now legal in most countries, in some jurisdictions right up to the moment of birth. And there are places where children who survive abortion are left to die, allowed by law.

Christians share their meals, but not their wives. In many Western countries now the very concept of family, consisting of husband, wife and children, has been undermined, with divorce becoming more and more common among those who have married, and sexual activity outside of marriage being accepted as normal, usually with no till death to us part involved. 

A parody of marriage is now legal and socially accepted in many countries, mostly in the West, and those who oppose 'marriage' between two persons of the same sex are often condemned as 'bigots'. Two generations ago the very idea of such a 'marriage' would have been laughed at.

What Genesis 1:27 teaches us, as does nature itself, is now being rejected more and more: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Legislators, some of them claiming to be 'devout Catholics', approve of the genital mutilation of minors, in some jurisdictions without the consent of their parents, in a vain and tragic effort to change their sex, an impossibility.

Language has been corrupted to bring all of this about. Terms such as 'the gender assigned at birth' instead of the sex of a person being there from the moment of conception, as science teaches us, are being widely used in order to dehumanise us. We are being asked to worship false gods just as Saints Nereus, Achilleus and Pancras were asked to do. They gave their lives for Jesus Christ rather than do that.

Every moment of our life, everything we do, every decision we make, are meant to be informed by our faith in Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, as Jesus described himself in last Sunday's Gospel. We know that he loves us, that he died for us, that he rose again in glory, that he and the Father have sent the Holy Spirit to guide us, that he will come to judge us on the Last Day when everything will be seen clearly.

The description of the life Christians are called to in the letter to Diognetus written 1,800 years ago speaks to today's world, especially the Western world, now a post-Christian world, but a world where the Holy Spirit still can fill us with wisdom and courage to bear witness to Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I will finish with two quotations that reflect what the Letter to Diognetus says. One is on the top of the homepage of this blog: 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). 

The other is from the Servant of God Sr Lucia of Fatima OCD which I found in Magnificat - a monthly liturgical publication I can recommend unreservedly - and is a reflection for the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, celebrated today as I finish this. Sr Lucia writes: From the moment of our conception, our life continues through time and goes on to eternity, where it will abide. As long as we live on this earth we are pilgrims on the way to heaven, if we keep to the way that God has marked out for us. This is the most important thing in our lives: that we should behave in such a way as to ensure that, when we depart from this world and at the end of time, we shall deserve to hear from the lips of Jesus Christ those consoling words: 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'.

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.

+++

David Carlin describes what has happened in recent decades in the Western world and in the USA in particular in Logical, but Mad.

If Ye Love Me

Music by Thomas Tallis (c.1605 – 1685)

Sung by The Mancunium Consort

Text: If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; e’en the Spirit of truth (John 14:15-17; King James Version).

This is from today’s Gospel and includes the words of the Communion Antiphon.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fifth Sunday After Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-14-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: James 1:22-27. Gospel: John 16:23-30.

The Penitent Magdalen

Georges de La Tour [Web Gallery of Art]

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:23-25; Epistle).

‘Rather, it is seen as the Lord’s most precious gift . . . and with it write a love story.’ (BXVI). Sunday Reflections, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Moses

Carlo Dolci [Web Gallery of Art]

Moses said to the people: “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you." [First Reading].

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the market-place, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honours me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
 in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Still-Life of Kitchen Utensils

Cornelis Jacobsz Delff [Web Gallery of Art]

And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels . . . [Today's gospel].

This reminds me of all the rules and regulations that we have in our current Covid-19 world. I hope that they will not last long enough to become traditions. However, we cannot argue with the good sense of the Jewish traditions about washing utensils and washing hands before eating. 

Today's First Reading opens with these words: Moses said to the people: “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live . . . Moses is offering the Hebrew people life, life from God, through the commandments that God has given them through him, most basically the Ten Commandments. The people will have life if they observe them, even if on the face of it they are restrictive - Do not do this, do not do that.

In a homily he gave on the Solemnity of the Assumption in 2005 Pope Benedict echoed this: The fact that our first parents thought the contrary was the core of original sin. They feared that if God were too great, he would take something away from their life. They thought that they could set God aside to make room for themselves.

This was also the great temptation of the modern age, of the past three or four centuries. More and more people have thought and said: ‘But this God does not give us our freedom; with all his commandments, he restricts the space in our lives. So God has to disappear; we want to be autonomous and independent. Without this God we ourselves would be gods and do as we pleased’.

This was also the view of the Prodigal Son, who did not realize that he was ‘free’ precisely because he was in his father's house. He left for distant lands and squandered his estate. In the end, he realized that precisely because he had gone so far away from his father, instead of being free he had become a slave; he understood that only by returning home to his father's house would he be truly free, in the full beauty of life.

But human laws can become oppressive to the extent that people no longer experience the freedom that God's own law bring. That is what Jesus is addressing with the Pharisees and scribes questioning him. But Jesus wasn't questioning tradition or traditions as such, but those that had become oppressive.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that our faith is based on Sacred Scripture and Tradition:

One common source

80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal."Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own "always, to the close of the age".

. . . two distinct modes of transmission

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."

Tradition, with an upper-case 'T', is fundamental to our Catholic faith. But traditions, with a lower-case 't', can help us know and live our faith, can strengthen our sense of identity as a community of faith. Traditions too can give us a sense of identity as a family or a nation or any group to which we belong. Connected with traditions are symbols. National flags and anthems are examples. These help us to know who 'We' are. That doesn't mean being over and against others. When we are secure in our own communal identity we can honour and identify with other groups in theirs.

I am inclined to think that one of the reasons for the exodus from the Catholic Church and the rejection of the Christian faith itself in recent decades in the Western world is the abandonment of traditions and symbols by the Church after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), none of them mandated by the Council. We abandoned the universal Friday abstinence from meat. We abandoned the Lenten fast. Catholics were encouraged to choose their own penances instead - Whatever you're having yourself, as we say in Ireland in a slightly different context. The communal aspect of traditions that had help bring the life of God himself to the Church for most of its existence was abandoned.

Eucharist in Fruit Wreath

Jan Davidsz de Heem [Web Gallery of Art]

Everyone used to kneel at the altar-rails to receive Holy Communion. Altar-rails were taken out of so many churches. I could go on. A 2019  study in the USA shows that only thirty percent of Catholics there believe that in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the bread and wine become the 'body, blood, soul and divinity' of Christ. They see only symbols of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord in the Holy Eucharist. (The notes to the painting above touch on this).

This is not what the Tradition of the Church and Sacred Scripture teaches us. It was precisely on this issue that many of the disciples walked away from Jesus in last Sunday's gospel.

I'll conclude with the opening words of Pope Benedict's Angelus talk on 2 September 2012 when he spoke about today's readings, with my emphases: The theme of God’s Law, of his commandments, makes its entrance in the Liturgy of the Word this Sunday. It is an essential element of the Jewish and Christian religions, where the complete fulfilment of the law is love (cf. Rom 13:10). God’s Law is his word which guides men and women on the journey through life, brings them out of the slavery of selfishness and leads them into the “land” of true freedom and life. This is why the Law is not perceived as a burden or an oppressive restriction in the Bible. Rather, it is seen as the Lord’s most precious gift, the testimony of his fatherly love, of his desire to be close to his People, to be its Ally and with it write a love story.

Tradition from Fiddler on the Roof

Music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Sung by Topol, playing Tevye the Milkman

Based on stories by Sholem Aleichem.

This wonderful musical is set in a Jewish community living in a village in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire in 1905.

And because of our traditions everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 8-29-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 5:16-24.  Gospel: Matthew 26-33.

Flowering Garden

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin [Matthew 6:28],

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.

Kyrie (Missa Pange Lingua)

Setting by Josquin des Prez, sung by Siglo de Oro

Josquin des Prez died 500 years ago, on 27 August 1521.

The Kyrie (Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy) is the only part of the Roman Catholic Mass in Greek. In the Traditional Latin Mass each line is sung / recited three times; in the New Mass twice.