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).
GospelMark 1:40-45 (English
Standard Version Anglicised: India)
A leper came
to Jesus, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you
can make me clean.”Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched
him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him
away at once,and said to him, “See that
you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to
them.”But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and
to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but
was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every
quarter.
I have used this material before. The story of Dr Carlo Urbani is one that gives me hope during the current pandemic. It is a story of a person inspired by his Christian faith to serve the poor as a doctor with the full support of his wife Giuliana. And in serving the sick he gave up his life. Covid-19 is closely related to SARS, the disease that he discovered and from which he died.
Towards the end of February 2003 Dr Carlo Urbani,
an Italian, went to Vietnam, representing the World Health Organisation, to
investigate an American businessman who was showing unusual symptoms. It turned
out to be severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a highly contagious virus.
The man who discovered this new disease died from it
himself about a month later on 29 March. In a conscious moment,
while in the ICU in a hospital in Bangkok, he asked for a priest to give him
the Last Rites.
Vladimir Redzioch of Inside the Vatican interviewed
Giuliana Chiorrini, the widow of Dr Urbani. MISYON, the Columban
magazine in the Philippines, published the
interview, with permission, in its March-April 2004 issue. Here are
extracts from it.
ITV: Your husband chose to work with the sick and
poor around the world. Why?
Giuliana Chiorrini: Carlo was always involved in
volunteer work and since his youth was attracted by the poor. He cultivated the
desire to discover new horizons. To do this he left for Africa with the
missionaries. Since his days as a young student with a backpack full of
medicines, he had traveled in Africa (Mali, Niger, and Benin). Afterwards he
work in solidarity camps run by the Xaverian Fathers, Catholic Action and Open
Hands. He was always in contact with missionaries. As a doctor he wrote for the
missionary magazine Missioni Consolata. Carlo
also fulfilled his desire to help he poor during his 10 years working at the
hospital in Macerata. This confirmed him in his work with Médecins Sans Frontières, of which he was
the president, and in this capacity he received the Nobel Peace Prize when it
was conferred on the organization in 1999.
ITV: What role did his faith play in his choice of
life?
Chiorrini: Faith had an extremely important role in my husband’s life. Everything
he did enriched the spiritual lives of the people who were in contact with him.
He was also very sensitive to the beauty of creation - he even used to go
hang-gliding to admire nature.
Dr Carlo Urbani with his wife, Giuliana, and their children, Maddalena, Luca and Tommaso[Source]
That year St John Paul II invited the family of Dr
Urbani to carry the Cross during the Via Crucis on Good
Friday, 18 April, in the Colosseum.
ITV: This year, during the Via Crucis at
the Colosseum, you and your son carried the cross. How did you react when you
heard you had been chosen by the Holy Father, and what significance did it have
for your family to participate in this Good Friday liturgy?
Chiorrini: I am a believer, as was my husband, and knowing I was to carry the
cross during the Via Crucis touched me a great deal, as well as
giving me an enormous joy. It was a very intense moment of the interior
spirituality and in all honesty it was also very moving, with the evocative
atmosphere which was created that evening.
Giuliana Chiorrini, Dr Urbani's widow, carries the cross during the Via Crucis at the Colosseum, Good Friday 2003
If you will, you can make me
clean. Like Jesus, Dr Carlo Urbani chose and made many
clean, sacrificing his own life in doing so.
The video is based on a letter that Dr Carlo Urbani wrote in May 2002. It is in Italian and contains many photos of his family and in his work situation. He writes very warmly about his family and thanks God for the generosity he has experienced from so many.
There is a longer video, with English subtitles, about the life of Carlo Urbani here. It is just over 16 minutes in length and I would encourage you to view it.
The last two verses of the First Reading (Leviticus 13:45-46) could well describe the situation of so many today: The
leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of
his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean,
unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean.
He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
So many persons very sick with Covid-19 cannot be visited by their own family. A friend of mine whose brother-in-law was very sick with the illness spent two hours in very cold weather, along with family members, outside the window of the room of the sick person, who has since died. So many die isolated from their family with the medical staff attending them dressed like astronauts, something that is extremely uncomfortable for them and not only physically. The PPE they are required to wear in a sense hides their humanity. And, very distressingly, many cannot attend the funerals of persons who were close to them.
And all of us are required now in many situations not only to cover our upper lip but our whole mouth and our nose with our masks.
I have a priest-friend who has been isolated in his room for more than three weeks in the nursing home in Dublin where he now lives because of an outbreak of Covid-19. Ten priests there died in January, all over 80 and eight of them positive for the virus. My friend is managing well. He spent many years working overseas and is used to being on his own. And he is grateful for the care of the Sisters and staff.
But many do not have such care. Families are not able to come together except through phone calls or Zoom meetings. These are helpful but are not the 'real thing'.
A friend who is a parish priest told me the other day of a six-year-old boy in his parish who told his parents that he wished he had never been born. He is feeling the isolation from his friends and is too young to understand it.
Jesus in healing the leper in today's gospel brought him back into society. The way society in his time dealt with leprosy and those who had it is not really all that different from how we are dealing with the current pandemic, though we have much greater medical knowledge now.
We are not totally helpless but we can pray to Jesus on behalf of all with the words of the leper: If you will, you can make us clean. He is already responding through the countless front-line workers taking care of the needs of those seriously ill with Covid-19. Some of theses workers, like Dr Carlo Urbani, have given their lives so that others might live.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
Quinquagesima Sunday
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 2-14-2021 if necessary).
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.
I have posted a number of times about St Valentine's Day, a feast day that is observed in the calendar of the Traditional Latin Mass, though not this year, as it falls on Sunday. In an audience with newly-married couples Pope Francis reminded them of the importance of three expressions: May I?, Thank you and I'm sorry. He told them: The
second word: be appreciative. How many times the husband needs to say to his
wife, ‘Thank you’. And how many times the wife must say to her husband, ‘Thank
you’. Thank each other, because the sacrament of marriage is conferred by the
two spouses, one to the other. This sacramental relationship is maintained with
gratitude.
The song above is just that: My Thanks to You, a husband singing to his wife. The singer, Steve Conway, was a husband and the father of a young daughter when he died after heart surgery in 1952 at the age of 31. As a child I loved his voice, which I would now describe as beautiful.
This weekend we are holding the first online Marriage Encounter in Ireland, led by three couples ans myself. I would appreciate your prayers very much.
Someone sent me this photo back in April, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and expressing a desire that we should pray for the people of China, where the virus began in Wuhan.
That city is a conglomeration of three cities: Wuchang, Hankow and Hanyang.
When the first group of Columban priests, including our Co-founder Fr Edward Galvin, travelled to China in 1920 some went to Hanyang. In 1927 Fr Galvin was ordained as the first bishop of what was then the Vicariate Apostolic of Hanyang. It became a diocese in 1946.
Bishop Edward Galvin and Fr John Blowick
Co-founders of the Columbans (mid-1950s)
Bishop Galvin lived through wars and natural calamities, serving the people of his diocese with one desire: to do God's will. He was expelled from the People's Republic of China in 1952. In a report he wrote that year he stated the reasons the authorities gave for this.
You have opposed and obstructed the establishment of an Independent Church in China. You have brought into being a reactionary organisation called the Legion of Mary. You have engaged in anti-patriotic propaganda against the government. You have destroyed the property of the people.
Archbishop Antonio Riberi, appointed Apostolic Internuncio to China in 1946, asked the Columbans the following year if Fr Aedan McGrath could be his delegate to travel through China establishing the Legion of Mary. Father Aedan had been involved with the Legion for quite some time by then with the encouragement of Bishop Galvin.
In his book The Splendid Cause, a history of the Missionary Society of St Columban, my fellow Columban priest Fr Neil Collins writes about the experience of a young Irish Columban priest, Fr Oliver Whyte, newly-arrived in China in 1947 in a place called Nanzin where he began the first praesidium of the Legion of Mary in the district. Three other praesidia followed, in Huchow city, Songlin and Sinkadhay. Members of a legion praesidium undertake apostolic work, especially visitation of hospitals, prisons, hostels for down-and-outs, and private homes. Whyte asked the Nanzin legionaries to visit lax Christians, and to instruct house-bound catechumens. All the members of his praesidium were illiterate, except one lady who had to act as both president and secretary. Perhaps the greatest fruit of the Legion was the effects on the members themselves. Through involvement in the apostolate of the church, study of the Legion handbook, the discipline of a weekly meeting, and prayer, they become so committed that most could resist all communist pressure and indoctrination.
[The basic unit of the Legion of Mary is known by the Latin word 'praesidium', the plural of which is 'praesidia'.]
In The Splendid Cause, Fr Neil Collins tells us, A Campaign of newspaper attacks began in June 1951, with bitter articles on the 'imperialists' in the church. Chief of these was the papal internuncio, Riberi, but the Legion of Mary was also mentioned. Riberi was expelled on 4 September 1951. Two days later Aedan McGrath whom Riberi had appointed in 1948 to organise the Legion throughout China, was arrested. The Chinese government officially suppressed the Legion on 7 October 1951.
I doubt that the authorities in the People's Republic of China were aware that 7 October was the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.
The Splendid Cause then quotes Columban Fr John C. Casey: The next day the secret police, dressed in black uniforms or in mufti arrived . . . From now on the destruction of the Legion of Mary was the immediate target . . . Beating them, roping them halfway to jail were common methods used in the attempt to break them down . . . This went on for over six months . . . Yet not one of them broke down . . . and in the end the Communists had to admit that they were beaten.
Fr Casey along with three other Columbans, Frs Owen O'Kane, Patrick Reilly and Patrick Ronan, were arrested in June 1952 and imprisoned for 17 months. and expelled 'eternally' from China on 28 November 1953. They became known to the Columbans as 'The Four Felons'. You can read about them here. Several members of the Legion of Mary were arrested along with the four priests but there are no records of what became of them.
L to R: Frs Patrick Reilly, Owen O'Kane, John C. Casey, Patrick Ronan
'The Four Felons' after their expulsion from China.
Fr Aedan McGrath was released on 2 May 1954 after nearly three years in solitary confinement and spent the rest of his long life working with the Legion of Mary, especially in the Pacific region. I came to know him very well in the Philippines. He died suddenly at a family gathering on Christmas Day 2000 at the age of 94. I witnessed something quite extraordinary at his funeral, which I wrote about in A Heavenly Farewell. There's a video version of the article that includes the brief video of Father Aedan himself below.
Fr Aedan McGrath talks about his only friend in prison in China
Fr Aedan NcGrath with St John Paul II
Fr Neil Collins ends his section in The Splendid Cause on the work of Columbans in China with this paragraph.
The small group of Columbans in Huchow, 1946-53, trained no students for the priesthood, and their ministry in the district might seem to have been fruitless. But the most striking achievement was the formation, in a very short time - Casey's praesidium existed for only two years - of several remarkable praesidia of the Legion of Mary. The communists searched for members of the Legion who would make accusations against McGrath or the other priests and found none. When Oliver Whyte returned to Nanzin fifty years later he found a healthy church, and one faithful parishioner was the lady who had been the president of the praesidium.
Legion of Mary Tessera
Leaflet with the Prayers of the Legion of Mary
I know very little about the particular image of Our Lady of China that was sent me. Googling will show many other images of Our Lady of China but not this one.
The whole world has been affected this year by Covid-19 that originated in Wuhan in an area with which the Columbans and the Legion of Mary have close connections. But the Church in China has grown in recent decades despite many hardships. I have met young priests and religious from China who joyfully live their faith and that gives me great hope.
May Our Lady of China obtain God's choicest blessings on the people of China, on the Legion of Mary and on Columban missionaries.
This recording of Va, pensiero, also known as The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, from Verdi's opera Nabucco was made as a tribute to Italy's medical workers and others fighting Covid-19 in that country. The Wikipedia article on the aria, which includes the Italian lyrics with an English translation, notes Verdi composed Nabucco at a difficult moment in his life. His wife and small children had all just died of various illnesses. Despite a purported vow to abstain from opera-writing, he had contracted with La Scala to write another opera and the director, Bartolomeo Merelli, forced the libretto into his hands.
There is a touching image at 4:40 of a medic cradling Italy as a new-born child.
I first became familiar with this beautiful chorus back in the 1950s when it was regularly played on Hospitals Requests on Wednesdays at lunch time on Radio Éireann, Ireland's state-owned national radio station.
The libretto of the opera, which is set in the Babylonian captivity of the Jewish people around 600 BC, is by Temistocle Solera who was inspired by Psalm 137 [136]. Here is the Grail translation, used in the English language versions of The Divine Office (The Breviary).
By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat and wept, remembering Sion;
on the poplars that grew there
we hung up our harps.
For it was there that they asked us,
our captors, for songs,
our oppressors, for joy,
'Sing to us,' they said,
one of Sion's songs.
O how could we sing
the song of the Lord
on alien soil?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
O let my tongue
cleave to my mouth
if I remember you not,
if I prize not Jerusalem
above all my joys!
St Teresa of Ávila, who lived
from 1515 to 1582 in Spain, could never have imagined the internet, though if
she were around today I'm certain that she'd be involved in this digital continent, as Pope Benedict calls it, and as a woman who travelled
considerably, despite being a contemplative nun, she would certain journey
along the digital highways - las calles digitales - of Pope Francis.
in 2014 83 followers of St
Teresa, Discalced Carmelite nuns from 24 countries, created a virtual
choir to sing and record the saint's poem Nada
te turbe - Let nothing disturb you to mark the 500th anniversary of her birth. She was born on 28 March 1515. An interesting piece of trivia is that she died on the night of 4-15 October 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII switched from the Julian calendar to the one named after him in what was a correction of the older one.
Sr Claire Sokol of the Carmelites in
Reno, Nevada, wrote the music.
Though this is not a 'Covid-19' initiative, the words of St Teresa are very appropriate for what the whole world is living through right now.
Nada te
turbe Let nothing disturb you
by St
Teresa of Ávila
Nada te
turbe,
nada te
espante,
todo se
pasa,
Dios no
se muda;
la
paciencia
todo lo
alcanza;
quien a
Dios tiene
nada le
falta:
Sólo
Dios basta.
Let nothing disturb you,
let nothing frighten you,
everything passes,
but God stays.
Patience reaches it all;
he who has God
nothing lacks:
God alone suffices.
Eleva
tu pensamiento,
al
cielo sube,
por
nada te acongojes,
nada te
turbe.
Lift your thinking,
raise up to heaven,
let nothing anguish you,
let nothing disturb you.
A
Jesucristo sigue
con
pecho grande,
y,
venga lo que venga,
nada te
espante.
Follow Jesus Christ
with an open heart,
and, no matter what may come,
let nothing frighten you.
¿Ves la
gloria del mundo?
Es
gloria vana;
nada
tiene de estable,
todo se
pasa.
See the glory of the world?
It's vainglory;
it is not everlasting,
everything passes.
Aspira
a lo celeste,
que
siempre dura;
fiel y
rico en promesas,
Dios no
se muda.
Yearn for the celestial
that lasts forever:
faithful and rich in promises,
God doesn't change.
Ámala
cual merece
bondad
inmensa;
pero no
hay amor fino
sin la
paciencia.
Love it the way it deserves
immense kindness;
but there is not fine love
without the patience.
Confianza
y fe viva
mantenga
el alma,
que
quien cree y espera
todo lo
alcanza.
Confidence and a live faith
let the soul maintain,
that he who believes and hopes
reaches it all.
Del
infierno acosado
aunque
se viere,
burlará
sus furores
quien a
Dios tiene.
Although harassed by hell
one may see himself,
he who has God
will defeat its rage.
Vénganle
desamparos,
cruces,
desgracias;
siendo
Dios tu tesoro
nada te
falta.
Come abandonment,
crosses, misfortune;
God being your treasure,
you lack nothing.
Id,
pues, bienes del mundo;
id
dichas vanas;
aunque
todo lo pierda,
sólo
Dios basta.
Go, then, wordly goods
go, vain happiness;
even if everything is lost
God alone suffices.
Berliner Luft by Paul Lincke
Every summer the Berlin Philharmoniker give a concert in the Waldbühne, an amphitheatre in Berlin. They play a programme of classical music, most of it of a serious nature, but always end with Berliner Luft - Berlin Air, from an operetta written by Paul Lincke in 1899. The song has become the unofficial anthem of the city. It has no deep significance whatever. But as you can see in the video, made in those 'far off' days of the pre-social distancing era, it's a piece of music than can bring a smile to anyone's face and create a moment of happy community between the musicians and the audience, and between the generations. The conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, is from Venezuela. He's enjoying it more than anyone else. You enjoy it too!
There is a very good commentary on this painting in the March 2020 issue of the liturgical monthly Magnificat.
A Comment on the Covid-19 Pandemic
A diocesan priest in Canada,
officially retired but very active pastorally in his diocese and who is a good
friend, sent me the following, which I have slightly edited, a few days
ago.
I
can see how this trial can make for a great Easter. Only our relationship with
Christ cannot be destroyed by the horrors of the world. The prayer on the
opening Sunday of Lent reads: Grant,
almighty God, through the yearly observance of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ
and by worthy conduct pursue their effects. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who ives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, for ever and ever. The Season of Lent will deliver us into the
riches hidden in Christ [emphasis added].
I find that these days have for us priests the grace to be
more prayerful; to remember better who we really are in our parishes and in the
heart of the universal Church. I am befriending a very depressed Catholic man
helping him to ask Jesus to assist him and most of all to be something of Jesus
for him. He said that after many years of regularity in the Church he has never
really connected with Jesus.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
GospelJohn11:1-45 [11:3-7,17, 20-27, 33b-45] (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?”Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died,and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off,and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”Jesus wept.So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.”Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.
Shorter form John 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45(New American Bible)
The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said, “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him. ”But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me. ”And when he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
I think it was back in the 1980s when I was at home
in Ireland on a visit that I heard a young diocesan priest being interviewed on
national radio about his work as a prison chaplain. He spoke about an occasion
when he spent an hour in a cell with one prisoner who was there for stealing on
a large scale. The priest got no response whatever - until he was about to
leave. He then looked at the young man, put his arms around him and said, 'I
love you', adding the man's name.
The prisoner broke down and began to open up to the
priest. Over a period of time they became friends. After he was released the
young man set up a successful security agency, no doubt drawing on his
'professional skills'.
In Worldwide Marriage Encounter we say 'Love is a
decision'. At times it may be accompanied by warm feelings, at other times the
very opposite. It is easy for a young man and a young woman who find each other
attractive to feel 'love'. This may lead to 'until death do us part', a very
solemn decision to love one another.
In his general audience on
Wednesday, 2 April 2014, Pope Francis reminded married couples of this, gently,
humorously and clearly. The secret is that love is stronger than an
argument. And therefore I always advise married couples, 'Don't end your day
without making peace.
Here the Pope was saying 'Love is
a decision'. He added humorously: It's not necessary to call the United
Nations and have them come to your house to broker the peace. A little gesture
will do, a caress, a 'Goodnight, see you tomorrow'. And tomorrow you start
over. This is life, carry on! Go forward with the courage to want to
live together. This is great, it's beautiful. What Pope Francis is saying
here is that love is a decision, a major decision made on one's wedding
day that demands many daily 'minor' decisions. The same applies to anyone
called to a commitment.
The young priest visiting the
prisoner in Ireland wasn't experiencing any feelings of love for the prisoner
and the latter probably felt deep anger towards him, maybe even hatred. But the
priest made a decision to love that man, no matter how difficult it was, no
matter what he was feeling at the time.
In the gospel we find Jesus making a number of
decisions, all expressions of love:
·He decided not to go immediately to visit the
gravely ill Lazarus when he got news of this: Though Jesus loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill,
he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
·He then decided to go back to Judea despite the
fears of his disciples that harm would come to him.
·He accepted the reproaches of both Martha and
Mary: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. He
made no attempt to 'explain' why he hadn't come.
·He told the people: Take away the stone.
The purpose of Jesus in all these decisions was to lead the disciples
and Martha and Mary into a deeper faith:
·To the disciples and later to Martha: Lazarus
is dead.For your sake I am glad I was not there,
so that you may believe.
·To the Father: Father, I thank you for
having heard me. I knew that you always hear me,
but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may
believe that you sent me.
It is clear from the gospels that Jesus had a special, though not
exclusive, affection for Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Maybe he felt free to drop
into their home at any time and not be 'on duty'. (As an aside, in more than 40
years in the Philippines I have rarely seen a bishop invited to any kind of
occasion except to 'do something', to be 'on duty'.) The friendship Jesus had
with the three gave them the freedom to be open with him and to be true to
themselves. Luke 10:38-42 shows us Martha scolding Mary in front of Jesus
in a way that happens with someone considered part of the family. The Lord,
if you had been here . . . of both Martha and Mary can be read as a
reproach mingled with hope to someone deeply trusted.
Jesus invites each of us into that kind of warm, trusting relationship that is
expressed in the story about St Teresa of Avila: Once, when she was
travelling to one of her convents, St Teresa of Ávila was knocked off her
donkey and fell into the mud, injuring her leg. 'Lord', she said, 'you couldn’t
have picked a worse time for this to happen. Why would you let this
happen?' And the response in prayer that she heard was, 'That is how I
treat my friends'. Teresa answered, 'And that is why you have so few of
them!' But above all in the raising of Lazarus, which
points towards the death and Resurrection of Jesus himself, we see the
resurrection and the life who was greatly disturbed in spirit
and deeply moved confronting death and conquering it. The death he was
conquering wasn't only physical death but the sickness and death brought about
by sin. Jesus calls us to faith and hope in him and to make decisions to love
based on that faith and hope.
It was such faith that gave that young priest in the prison cell the courage to
express his love, rooted in the love of Jesus for both, for the prisoner in
deed and then in word. And it was that expression of love, in deed and in word,
rooted in the love of the resurrection and the life for both,
that enabled the man to walk out of the prison cell he had created for himself
in his own heart.
The decision of the priest to stay with the prisoner despite the lack of
response and the eventual decision of the prisoner to believe in God's love for
him were both examples of love being a decision, decisions based on trust in
God's love for them, the kind of trust that Martha and Mary had in Jesus.
A postscript in the context of Covid-19
Every reader of this blog, and the writer, is now living in restricted circumstances, some more than others. We can live out the Little Way of St Thérèse of Lisieux in this situation. Every decision to wash our hands, every decision to keep two metres from others, every decision to follow temporary restrictions, every decision to contact a relative, a friend, a neighbour by phone, Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp or whatever is a decision to love. Every such decision will reduce the chances of others getting sick or of dying and will give heart to others.
Like my priest-friend in Canada, each of us is called to be something of Jesus to others at this critical time.
Antiphona ad Introitum Entrance Antiphon Cf Ps 42 [43] 1-2
Iudica me, Deus
Give me justice, O God,
et discerne causam meam de gente non
sancta,
and plead my cause against a nation
that is faithless.
ab homine iniquo et doloso eripe me,
From the deceitful and cunning rescue
me,
qui tu es Deus meus et fortitudo mea.
for you, O God, are my strength.
Emitte lucem tuam, et veritatem tuam:ipsa
deduxerunt,
O send out your light and your truth; let
them lead me; et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum,
let them bring me to your holy hill
et in tabernacula tua.
and to your dwelling.
Iudica me, Deus
Give me justice, O God,
et discerne causam meam de gente non
sancta,
and plead my cause against a nation
that is faithless.
ab homine iniquo et doloso eripe me,
From the deceitful and cunning rescue
me,
qui tu es Deus meus et fortitudo mea.
for you, O God, are my strength.
The text in bold is
used in the Mass in the Ordinary Form (the 'New Mass') while the full text is
used in the Extraordinary Form {the 'Old Mass' or 'Traditional Latin Mass').
However, the full text may be sung in the Ordinary Form of the Mass. This
Sunday is known as ‘Passion Sunday’ where the Traditional Latin Mass is used.
Healing Scenes from the Life of Jesus
