Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 1 February 2026

 

Lala Vicente with Jordan Navor

L'Arche, Cainta, near Manila. I have known both for many years.

In Ireland this Sunday is the Feast of St Brigid, Secondary Patroness of the country. The Mass is that of St Brigid but the readings are those of the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.

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

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 5:1-12a (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

At that time: Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.’ 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Beatitudes

L’Arche, Bognor Regis, England

Down Syndrome Abortion Rate

A study of abortions in the United States from 1995-2011 found that 67% of women who were told their baby would have Down syndrome decided to abort. This number is much higher in other countries. BBC reports that 90% of women in England whose babies are diagnosed with Down syndrome choose to abort . . . We see that trend in other countries as well. For instance, the Life Institute reports that in Iceland, nearly 100% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted. And in Germany, more than 90% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted.

Research will show that these figures have become higher in recent years in Western Countries. Since 2018 it has been legal in the Republic of Ireland, where I am from, to abort children in the womb simply because they have Down Syndrome.

Pope Francis on abortion

This central paragraph in Laudato si', the encyclical of Pope Francis 'On care for our common home' is all but ignored by the vast majority who profess to be concerned about Planet Earth. I've highlighted the words of Pope Francis and of Pope Leo XIV below because of the importance and clarity.

Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? 'If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away' (Laudato Si’, No 120).

Pope Leo XIV on family, abortion and surrogacy

On 9 January in his address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See Pope Leo said: The vocation to love and to life, which manifests itself in an important way in the exclusive and indissoluble union between a woman and a man, implies a fundamental ethical imperative for enabling families to welcome and fully care for unborn life.  This is increasingly a priority, especially in those countries that are experiencing a dramatic decline in birth rates.  Life, in fact, is a priceless gift that develops within a committed relationship based on mutual self-giving and service.

In light of this profound vision of life as a gift to be cherished, and of the family as its responsible guardian, we categorically reject any practice that denies or exploits the origin of life and its development.  Among these is abortion, which cuts short a growing life and refuses to welcome the gift of life.  In this regard, the Holy See expresses deep concern about projects aimed at financing cross-border mobility for the purpose of accessing the so-called 'right to safe abortion.' It also considers it deplorable that public resources are allocated to suppress life, rather than being invested to support mothers and families.  The primary objective must remain the protection of every unborn child and the effective and concrete support of every woman so that she is able to welcome life.

Likewise, there is the practice of surrogacy.  By transforming gestation into a negotiable service, this violates the dignity both of the child, who is reduced to a 'product,' and of the mother, exploiting her body and the generative process, and distorting the original relational calling of the family. 

Postscript

A report on Thursday 29 January says that primary school enrolment in the current school year in the Republic of Ireland is down by 6,470 compared to last year when enrolment fell by almost 4,000 and by just over 2,000 two years ago. 

In 2018, when abortion on demand was legalised up to 12 weeks and, in special cases at a later stage of pregnancy, there were 6,666 abortions. In 2024 there were more than 10,000. 

I haven't seen any commentaries yet on the clear connection between these two sets of statistics.

Rachel's Vineyard offers healing retreats in many countries for persons affected by abortion.

Lala and Hachiko, each looking more content than the other!

Sadly, this beautiful dog choked to death from a chicken-bone.

Second Reading. 1Corinthians 1:26-31

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

+++

The two photos of Lala above show to me the truth of the words of St Paul. They show pure love. I have seen both Lala and Jordan draw love out of others, especially out of those living in L'Arche (Ang Arko): the 'core members' - the VIPs, if you wish - and the assistants.

Pope Benedict with young friends

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3; Gospel).

Traditional Latin Mass

Septuagesima Sunday

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 02-01-2026 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 10:1-5. Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16.

Gospel Lectionary of Henry III

German Miniaturist [Web Gallery of Art]

This illustration of the Gospel shows the labourers working in the vineyard  and receiving their wages.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard (Matthew 20:1; Gospel).

 

           

Brendan Kelly, a saintly teenager with Down Syndrome who died from leukaemia

The Little Children Being Brought to Jesus

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

A few weeks ago I came across an article in Crisis Magazine with the intriguing title Brendan Had Three Babies by Austin Ruse. (There is a delightful photo of Brendan there supplied by his family that I was unable to save.) Brendan Kelly, from Virginia, USA, was born with Down Syndrome and developed leukaemia at a young age. This eventually led to his death at the age of 16 in 2013. Here are the opening paragraphs of Austin Ruse's article.

Every year on the anniversary of his passing, Brendan Kelly gives a little gift to a woman who was close with him. It has never been great big things, but always a kind of wink that Brendan is there, and that he loves her. This past May was the 10th anniversary of this 16-year-old boy’s passing, a boy with Down syndrome and a lifelong struggle with leukemia that eventually took his life. 

This year she waited and waited for the little gift that she expected. At the last minute, she was invited to a fundraising dinner for a local school here in Northern Virginia, and she thought that was a lovely little present from Brendan. It was bigger than that, though. That night, she sat at the table and struck up a conversation with a couple sitting near her, Joe and Roxanne Miller. Over the course of the evening, they realized that their little girl, Megan, also with Down syndrome, also with leukemia, had been on the cancer ward with Brendan nearly 16 years ago, when she was 11 months old. Megan was one of “Brendan’s Babies.”

Continue reading Austin Ruse's article to find out who the other two of 'Brendan's babies were'. Towards the end of his article the author writes: God sent Brendan a community that is almost like a desert, a community of vast power and fabulous wealth. He was sent to show that all lives are worth living. I believe Brendan is a canonizable saint, that he will become the patron saint of those with intellectual disabilities. There are many stories to tell about Brendan and his almost mystical faith. 

Only the Church will eventually decide if Brendan should be formally recognised as a saint. But his story is for me truly inspiring and uplifting, pointing towards God's personal love for each of us and showing it in the most unexpected ways and through the most unexpected persons.

I recently featured Blessed Carlo Acutis in Sunday Reflections. He died in 2006 at the age of 15, also from leukaemia, dying within a week of it being diagnosed. Last Friday I attended the funeral of Mrs Mary (Hurley) Higgins. I didn't know Mary but I knew her three brothers who became Columban priests, Dermot, Paddy and Gerry, and her sister Catherine who became a Columban Sister. Mary was 92. After the funeral Mass Bishop John Buckley, Bishop Emeritus of Cork and Ross, came to pay his respects. I saw him handing out prayer cards of Blessed Carlo to mourners.

God calls young people, including those with various disabilities, to be saints. Pope St John Paul II emphasised this. Young Brendan Kelly met him in 2001 when he was four, as this article by Al Eisele in HuffPost reports.

Chris Ullman shows the impact that Brendan had on him and his family in Brendan Kelly: A Life that Touched Many Hearts. 

For me one of the most striking things about Blessed Carlo Acutis and Brendan Kelly is their influence on the lives of adults, including their own parents. Chris Ullman highlights this in his article: Imagine that – a father asks me to help keep the spirit of his son alive through a simple song; a son my wife and kids and I never met, but formed a bond with nonetheless, a kid who battled and beat a cruel illness three times until he couldn’t fight any more. He was a child of God who was challenged with Down Syndrome, but who touched many lives: 3,000 people attended his wake.

There is an old expression in the Irish language for a person such as Brendan: Duine le Dia, A Person with God.

To see the world with the eyes of Jesus as He saw the man born blind. Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday of Lent, Year A

 

Blind Pensioner with a Stick

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 9:1-41 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

[For the shorter form (9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38) omit the text in brackets.]

 As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. [ And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”] Having said these things,] he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” [So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”]

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

[The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ] They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe”, and he worshipped him. Jesus said, “For judgement I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see’, your guilt remains."

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

Servant of God Jérôme Lejeune

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe”, and he worshipped him. 

The blind man met Jesus, heard him and believed.

Our Christian faith is a gift that can be lost by an individual and by a whole community. The Church flourished in North Africa and in the Middle East before Islam came into being but the vast majority lost the gift of our faith. In our own lifetime the faith has been rapidly disappearing from places such as Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Quebec. Sixty years ago these places were still sending missionaries to every part of the world and their seminaries were full. Now most of those seminaries have been closed. Just over 100 years ago CICM brothers and priests (Scheut Missionaries, Missionhurst) and ICM Sisters went to the mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines from a part of Europe that is as flat as a billiard table, most of Belgium and the Netherlands. In February 2014 Belgium made it legal for sick children to be killed, to be put down like sick animals. There was little international reaction to this, though there was to the putting down of a healthy giraffe in a zoo in Denmark a few days earlier.

There still are people in these places and others like them who are living the Christian life faithfully, often heroically. Martyrs such as Fr Ragheed Ganni of Iraq and politician Shahbaz Bhatti of Pakistan are outstanding examples. Another is the late Professor Jérôme Lejeune, doctor and researcher, who in 1958 discovered the cause of Down Syndrome (trisomy 21).

In so many places in the gospel we find Jesus going out to those considered unimportant such as the blind man in today's gospel. In what is now largely a post-Christian Western world the opposite is happening. Children in the womb who are considered 'defective' in one way or another are aborted. Because of pre-natal testing the number of children being born with Down Syndrome has gone down considerably - because they have been killed in the womb. (See here.)

At the recent Oscar awards ceremony a short movie from Northern Ireland, An Irish Goodbye, won an Oscar. Its star, James Martin was celebrating his 31st birthday the same day. He is the first person with Down Syndrome to share in an Oscar award.

Dr Lejeune cared passionately for the lives of persons with Down Syndrome and feared that society would see them as worthless, not worthy of being born. He said, The real danger is in mankind; in the increasingly worrisome imbalance between its power, which grows daily, and its wisdom, which sometimes seems to regress.

Some of the people around the blind man in today's were the ones who were truly blind, who could not see what was truly real. They could not see God's love for the man born blind. They saw the blind man as being punished for his sins and Jesus as a sinner for breaking the sabbath laws. Jesus overturned their very narrow world.

The video below invites us to overturn our own world, as the Gospel invites us to do, and to see it as Jérôme Lejeune did, with the eyes of Jesus as He saw the man born blind. And may we always treasure the gift of our Christian faith that gives us that sight.

Solemnity of St Joseph

This year the Solemnity of St Joseph is moved to Monday 20 March. The Sundays of Lent take precedence over solemnities.

Hymn to St Joseph

Produced by Fundación Canto Católico, Santiago, Chile

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourth Sunday in Lent

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 03-19-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: Galatians 4:22-31. Gospel: John 6:1-15.

Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Lambert Lombard [Web Gallery of Art]

Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted (John 6:11; Gospel).

'God chose what is low and despised in the world . . .' Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

Jesus gives the Beatitudes

from The Chosen

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 5:1-12a [or 4:12-17] (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

 

The Beatitudes

L’Arche, Bognor Regis, England

Down Syndrome Abortion Rate

A study of abortions in the United States from 1995-2011 found that 67% of women who were told their baby would have Down syndrome decided to abort. This number is much higher in other countries. BBC reports that 90% of women in England whose babies are diagnosed with Down syndrome choose to abort . . . We see that trend in other countries as well. For instance, the Life Institute reports that in Iceland, nearly 100% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted. And in Germany, more than 90% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted.

Pope Francis

Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away” (Laudato Si’, No 120).

Lala with Jordan

L'Arche, Cainta, near Manila. I have known both for many years.

Second Reading. 1Corinthians 1:26-31

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Lala and Hachiko, each looking more content than the other!

Sadly, this beautiful dog died not long afterwards, choking on a chicken bone.

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 1-29-2023 if necessary).

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

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Two tragedies in every abortion: killing an unborn child; killing an opportunity to love.

Archbishop Charles Chaput OFM Cap of Denver, Colorado, USA, is one of the shining lights in the Church right now, preaching, teaching and speaking the truth with clarity and charity, especially the truth of the sacredness of human life.

The Archbishop gave an address last night, 17 October, at a dinner sponsored by ENDOW (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women). The talk is titled 'Little Murders.'

Archbishop Chaput covered much of the same ground in his column in The Denver Catholic Register on 1 October. The column concludes with a memorable statement:

There are really two tragedies in every abortion: the killing of an unborn child; and the killing of an opportunity to love.

I've highlighted some parts of the full text below.

Respect Life Sunday and our calling to the ‘Gospel of Life’

Exactly 10 years ago this fall, America’s bishops issued a pastoral letter called “Living the Gospel of Life.” Even a decade later, this is no ordinary Church text. I believed then, and I believe now, that it’s the best document ever issued by the U.S. bishops on the priorities of Catholic citizenship. In writing it, the bishops sought to apply Pope John Paul II’s great encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”) to the American situation. The heart of their statement, paragraph No. 23, stresses that:

“Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care. Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as advocates for the weak and marginalized in all these areas. Catholic public officials are obliged to address each of these issues as they seek to build consistent policies which promote respect for the human person at all stages of life.

“But being ‘right’ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’—the living house of God—then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation. These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right—the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive of other human rights” (emphasis in original).

This is why abortion is not merely one among many urgent issues, but rather the foundational one. It provides the cornerstone for a whole architecture of human dignity. When we revoke legal protection for unborn children, we violate the first and most important human right—the right to life itself. And once we do that, and then create a system of alibis to justify it, we begin to put every other human and civil right at risk.

This coming Sunday, Oct. 5, is national Respect Life Sunday. It’s a good moment to remember that over the past month we’ve had a couple of extraordinary witnesses to the preciousness of human life, even when that life is severely disabled.

Thomas Vander Woude, a Catholic father of seven, sacrificed his own life on Sept. 8 trying to save his son with Down syndrome from drowning. And around the same time Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and mother of five, began her campaign for vice-president. Palin’s youngest son, Trig, also has Down syndrome. One of the things that makes the example of these two parents “extraordinary” is that their disabled children exist at all. More than 80 percent of children diagnosed in the womb with Down syndrome are now “terminated”—the news media’s antiseptic word for killing the innocent.

Raising a child with disabilities does not by itself qualify (or disqualify) anyone for public office. But it does demand a quiet kind of strength, wisdom, character, patience, self-sacrifice, trust in God and inconspicuous heroism. The many parents of children with special needs whom I know have discovered something important about what it means to be human. God’s invitation to love a disabled child, whose imperfections are so obvious, is his way of growing our hearts to love each other, who so often wear our own imperfections—which are just as real and just as disabling—hidden on the inside.

There are really two tragedies in every abortion: the killing of an unborn child; and the killing of an opportunity to love.