'Christ is there with me . . . Christ has promised me . . . I'll give you myself.' Sunday Reflections, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Fr Ralph Beiting

1 January 1924 - 9 August 2012

[Source]

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 6:7-13 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

High Street, Pewsey

[Wikpedia; photo by Nigel Cox]

Today's gospel reminds me of experiences as a seminarian while on Peregrinatio pro Christo with the Legion of Mary, in St Anne's Parish, Edge Hill, Liverpool, in 1963, in St Fergus' Parish, Paisley, Scotland in 1965 and in Holy Family Parish, Pewsey, Wiltshire, England, in 1966. Peregrinatio pro Christo, or PPC, is a programme of the Legion of Mary that began in 1958. Legionaries give up a week or two of their summer vacation to do full-time Legion work in another country. The name comes from the motto that inspired St Columban and many Irish missionary monks, Peregrinari pro Christo, 'to be a pilgrim for Christ'. Saint Pope John XXIII quoted this in a letter to the Irish Hierarchy in 1961 on the occasion of the Patrician Year, commemorating 1,500 years of the Catholic faith in Ireland. In the same letter he specifically referred to the involvement in this spirit of the Society of St Columban in Latin America. 

Many of us in the seminary, including some of the priests, used to go for a week or two during our summer break. Like the apostles, we depended on the hospitality of parishioners for board and lodging. In my three experiences I was in parishes and the main work was going from house-to-house in pairs, rather like what the Apostles were sent by Jesus to do in today's gospel. Legionaries never work alone. Occasionally people would close their door once we announced who we were but very few were impolite. Some would give us a warm welcome. 

I remember one family we visited in Liverpool. They were lapsed Catholics and the parish records showed they were rather hostile to the Church. However, when the man who opened the door heard our Irish accents he called his wife and began to tell us about their pleasant experiences on visits to Ireland. I suggested that the friendliness and warmth of the Irish people was  an expression of their Catholic faith. We had a very friendly conversation with the couple and when we were leaving they seemed to have let go of their hostility to the Church.

Garrard County Courthouse, Lancaster, Kentucky

[Wikipedia; photo by W. Marsh]

As a young priest studying in the USA I had similar experiences in Lancaster, Kentucky, during the summers of 1969 and 1970. The parish priest, Fr Ralph Beiting, had college - and some high school - students from other parts of the USA work on various projects in his parish that covered nearly four counties and that had very few Catholics. There was still a lingering prejudice against Catholics among some of the people. 

One of the projects was to visit each home in pairs, just as the Legion of Mary does, and introduce ourselves as being from the Catholic Church, and telling the people about our programmes. Again, the response was generally positive. In some rural homes we'd meet older people sitting on their rocking chairs on the veranda. They'd invite us to sit down and relax and would sometimes share a bit about their Bible-based faith. As we'd leave we'd hear the friendly farewell so common in the area, 'Y'all come back!'

Some of the programmes we invited children to were summer Bible schools and five-day vacations for poor children in a summer camp, boys one week and girls another week. Black and white children would be together at a time when this was rare in that part of the USA.

Only God knows what can result from going from house to house as a way of carrying the mission that Jesus gave to the Twelve and that he gives to us. He doesn't guarantee 'success' but simply sends us out in trust.

One of Father Beiting's summer apostolates for many years was street-preaching, very often with seminarians. On one occasion before I met him he was driven out of one town at gunpoint but returned the next day, not to preach but simply to show himself. Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there . . . and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” (First Reading).

Fr Beiting was eventually not only accepted but welcomed. He, a Catholic priest, was continuing an old tradition in the area, that of the travelling preacher. He was one of the very few left. Fr Beiting, born on 1 January 1924, was ordained in 1950 and up to his late 80s he was still going strong. In the video above he is preaching during the summer of 2011. He died on 9 August 2012. What a wonderful example he was as a disciple of Jesus and as a Catholic priest! I was a young priest when I first met Fr Beiting in 1969. He and the community he created that summer had a profound and formative influence on my life.

My experience with Fr Beiting was similar in many ways to that with the Legion of Mary. The Handbook of the Legion, mostly written by the Servant of God Frank Duff, who founded the Legion in 1921, states: The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary's and the Church's work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ.

The urgency of such work is highlighted in a letter Frank Duff wrote to my late Columban confrere Fr Aedan McGrath in 1948 where he stated that where the laity did not fulfil its role, the Church would fail. He insisted that 'an inert laity is only two generations removed from non-practice. Non-practice is only two generations away from non-belief'. (Frank Duff, A Life Story by Finola Kennedy, p.8).

That is what has happened in the Western world, including Ireland, in the last 76 years. More than ever each of us needs to joyfully proclaim Christ is there with me . . . Christ has promised me . . . I'll give you myself, as the 87-year-old Fr Beiting, with many serious illnesses, was doing in the video above.

The words of the Gospel Acclamation, based on John 6:63, 68, put everything in focus: Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Magnificat anima mea Dominum 

My soul glorifies the Lord

Music by Johann Sebastian Bach 

Conducted by Jordi Savall

This is the opening of Bach's setting of the Latin text of Luke1:46-56, Mary's prayer during her visit to Elizabeth. The full work is here. The Magnificat is part of the Church's Vespers (Evening Prayer) and is often proclaimed at Mass when the Gospel of the Visitation of Mary is read. Every member of the Legion of Mary prays the Magnificat every day and it is prayed in the middle of every meeting of the Legion.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Elias Gottlob Haussmann [Wikipedia]

Traditional Latin Mass 

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 07-14-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 8:12-17.  Gospel: Luke 16:1-9.

Sheaves of Wheat

Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty’ (Luke 16:7; Gospel).

‘It is meaningless to preach at a funeral Mass if we don’t mention the resurrection of Christ.’ Sunday Reflections, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

Moses with the Ten Commandments

Philippe de Champaigne [Web Gallery of Art]

Teacher, Moses wrote for us . . . (Luke 20:28, today's Gospel)

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

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 20:27-38 [or 20:27, 34-38] (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, [and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterwards the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”]

And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

Fr William Spicer 

(1949 - 2009)

Thirteen years ago a Columban colleague of mine, Fr Willie Spicer, died suddenly in Ireland at the age of 59. And in a very real sense he preached at his own funeral. The homilist, Columban Fr Michael Scully, a very close friend of Father Willie because of their many years in Japan, told a remarkable story of how central the Resurrection was in the late priest's preaching at funerals and of how a man was led to the faith by this. Here is part of the homily of Father Scully, who died on 29 September 2019. I have highlighted  some passages. 

Over that period of eight or nine years Willie and I enjoyed a game of golf together on a regular basis even though we lived quite far apart. Willie was pastor at the Church in Chigasaki City in the Diocese of Yokohama; I was assigned to a church in the Archdiocese of Tokyo about 80 miles away from where Willie lived. Sometimes before our game of golf I would stay overnight at Willie’s house.

On one of those occasions I noticed a painting which I had not seen before on the wall of his living-room. So, I asked him where he got the painting. ‘There is a story behind that’ was his answer. I would like to tell that story as Willie told it to me. These are his words: ‘About a year ago I did a funeral Mass here in Chigasaki Church. And, as usual, during the homily I emphasized that death was not the end of everything; and then went on to talk of Christian hope in the resurrection of the dead’. At this point, Willie paused and turned towards me: ‘I think it is meaningless’ he said, ‘to preach a homily at a wake or funeral Mass if we don’t make some mention of the resurrection of Christ and our own hope in the resurrection. Isn’t that what our Christian faith is all about? It’s because of that faith that we are on mission!’

Those words of Willie were for my benefit, but, needless to say, I was in complete agreement with what he said. However, Willie’s story did not end there. ‘You know’, he said ‘after that funeral Mass an elderly man approached me and said to me “Today was the first time I ever heard a talk like the talk you gave at the Mass. Until now, I had never heard of the resurrection of the dead – and somehow, it makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to hear that homily. If I had a chance I’d like to study the Catholic faith. Do you know if there’s a Catholic Church close to where I live?” And Willie continued, ‘That was about a year ago – something that I did not know at that time was that that man was an artist who lived about a hundred miles away. That painting came from him to me as an expression of thanks – thanks for my homily at the funeral Mass, but also as an expression of profound gratitude for the fact that he was studying the Catholic faith, and in hoping to be baptized in the not too distant future in a church close to where he lives’.

I have told this story because I believe that if Willie Spicer had a chance to speak to us today, he would say to us: ‘It’s all right to feel sad and to grieve on this occasion. I would feel the same way if I were in your place. But, don’t be carried away by sadness and grief. Today’s sadness and grief cannot compare with the joy and the happiness and the glory that will be ours if we but believe that the God who loves us, loves us so much that He gave His only Son for us’.

The Resurrection

Glass painting behind the altar in Mariukirkjan (St Mary’s Catholic Church) Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

by Faroese artist, Tróndur Patursson.

Today's First Reading and the Gospel - they are always related by a common theme - look at the Resurrection. In the story of the martyrdom of the seven brothers in the Second Book of Maccabees the fourth brother When he was near death, he said, ‘One cannot but choose to die at the hands of mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life! (2 Maccabees 7:14). 

The Gospel also has a story of seven brothers, in a situation put to Jesus by some Sadducees, a group that didn't believe in the resurrection, that strains credulity. This gives Jesus the opportunity to teach about the resurrection: But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. 

St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park, Ireland

I don't go along with the idea that seems to have crept in in recent years of a funeral Mass being 'a celebration of the life' of the deceased. There certainly is a place for celebrating a person's life during the wake or, in the Philippines, during the novena held  in the home of the one who has died or when the family and other mourners gather to eat after the burial. It is indeed fitting to thank God for ways in which the deceased has lived the Christian faith and shared God's love with others.  But I see the funeral Mass as an occasion above all to pray that the one who has died will share fully in the life that God desires for everyone and in the Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Perhaps most of us will have to go through the process of purification that we call purgatory. The prayers of the living help those who know that they are saved but who also know that they need to be purified further before they feel worthy to enter the presence of God.

Preface I in Masses for the Dead puts it this way:

In him [Christ] the hope of blessed resurrection has dawned, 
that those saddened by the certainty of dying 
might be consoled by the promise of immortality to come. 
Indeed for your faithful, Lord, 
life is changed not ended, 
and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, 
an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven.

Father Willie Spicer emphasised that belief in the Resurrection and the hope it gives when preaching at funerals. In Japan probably at every funeral Mass he celebrated there were people present who weren't Christians. To them he was proclaiming the central truth of our Christian faith. In for the artist Father Willie's proclamation of our faith and of the hope of the resurrection spoke to his heart and led him to Jesus the Risen Lord and to ask for baptism.

In November we remember and pray for the dead in a special way. The readings in this Sunday's Mass can lead us to reflect on the reality that one day each of us will be remembered and prayed for by others. May the Collect for the first of the three Masses on The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, 2 November, help us in this:

Listen kindly to our prayers, O Lord, 
and, as our faith in your Son, 
raised from the dead, is deepened, 
so may our hope of resurrection for your departed servants 
also find new strength.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
one God, for ever and ever.

Jesu, joy of man's desiring 

Johann Sebastian Bach

Sung in Chigasaki Catholic Church where Fr Willie Spicer served.

Traditional Latin Mass

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-06-2022 if necessary).

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

The Tribute Money (detail)

Jacob Andriaensz Backer [Web Gallery of Art]

The Sacred Paschal Triduum - Tréan Naofa na Cásca

 The Sacred Paschal Triduum

Tréan Naofa na Cásca

 

Thursday of the Lord's Supper

Déardaoin Shéire an Tiarna

Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples (detail)

Tintoretto [Web Gallery of Art]

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it round his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped round him (John 13:3-5, ESVUK). 

Ó bhí a fhios ag Íosa go raibh gach uile ní tugtha isteach ina lámha dó, ag an Athair, agus gur ó Dhia a ghabh sé amach, agus gur ar Dhia a bhí a thriall, d'éirigh sé ón suipéar, agus leag sé uaidh a chuid éadaigh, agus cheangail sé tuáille faoina choim. Ansin chuir sé uisce sa bháisín agus thosaigh ag ní cosa na ndeisceabal agus á dtiormú leis an tuáille a bhí faoina choim (Eoin 13:3-5, ABN).

The Last Supper

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:23-26, ESVUK).

Is é fios a fuair mé féin ón Tiarna agus a thug mé daoibhse: mar atá, an oíche a bhí an Tiarna Íosa le tabhairt ar láimh, thóg sé arán agus, ar altú dó, bhris agus dúirt: “Is é seo mo chorp atá le tabhairt suas ar bhur son; déanaigí é seo mar chuimhne orm.” Mar an gcéanna tar éis na proinne thóg sé an cupa ag rá: “Is é an cupa seo an nuachonradh i mo chuid fola. Déanaigí é seo mar chuimhne orm a mhinice a ólfaidh sibh é.” A mhinice, más ea, a itheann sibh an t‑arán seo agus a ólann sibh an cupa, bíonn sibh ag fógairt bhás an Tiarna nó go dtiocfaidh sé (1 Coraintigh 11:23-26, ABN).

Antiphona ad Communionen  Communion Antiphon

Evening Mass ( 1 Corinthians 11:24-25

Hoc Corpus, quod pro vobis tradetur:

This is the Body that will be given up for you;

hic calix novi testamenti est in meo Sanguine, dicit Dominus;

this is the Chalice of the new covenant in my Blood, says the Lord;

hoc facite, quotiescumque sumitis, in meam commemorationem.

do this, wherever you receive it, in memory of me.

Friday of the Passion of the Lord

Aoine Pháis an Tiarna

Crucifixion with the Virgin, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdelene

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished”, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:28-30, ESVUK).

Tar éis an méid sin, ó bhí a fhios ag Íosa go raibh gach ní déanta feasta, chun go gcomhlíonfaí an scrioptúr, dúirt sé: “Tá tart orm.” Bhí soitheach ansiúd lán d'fhínéagar. Thum siad spúinse as an bhfínéagar agus chuir siad ar bharr chraobh iosóipe é, agus chuir siad chun a bhéil é. Tar éis dó an fínéagar a ghlacadh dúirt Íosa. “Tá sé curtha i gcrích.” Chrom sé a cheann agus thug uaidh a spiorad (Eoin 19:28-30, ABN).

Oh Sacred Head Surrounded

Original Latin lyrics by St Bernard of Clairvaux.

Translated by Henry Baker. Music by Hans Leo Hassler.

Arrangement by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Name of choir not given.

Deposition from the Cross

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there (John 19:38-42, ESVUK).

Ina dhiaidh sin d'iarr Iósaef ó Airiomatáia cead ar Phioláit - ba dheisceabal d'Íosa é; os íseal, áfach, ar eagla na nGiúdach - corp Íosa a bhreith leis, agus thug Pioláit an cead. Tháinig sé mar sin agus thóg sé an corp. Níocodaemas freisin - é siúd a tháinig san oíche chuige ar dtús - tháinig sé agus meascán miorra agus aló aige, timpeall céad punt meáchain. Thóg siad corp Íosa dá bhrí sin agus rinne siad é a chuachadh i línéadaí maille le spíosraí, de réir nós adhlactha na nGiúdach. San áit inar céasadh Íosa bhí gairdín, agus sa ghairdín sin bhí tuama nua nár cuireadh aon duine ann riamh roimhe. Is ansiúd a chuir siad Íosa, de bhrí gurbh é lá ullmhaithe na nGiúdach é, agus ó bhí an tuama in aice láimhe (Eoin 19:38-42, ABN).

The Entombment of Christ

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Holy Saturday

An Satharn Naofa

His cross stands empty

Sung by the Choir of Ely Cathedral, England

His cross stands empty in a world grown silent
Through hours of anguish and of dread;
In stillness, earth awaits the resurrection,
While Christ goes down to wake the dead

He summons Adam and his generations,
Brings light where darkness endless seemed;
He frees and claims His own, so long held captive,
Who, with the living, are redeemed.

With God the Father and the Holy Spirit,

Give praise to Christ the crucified,

Who, through the ages, seeks to save his lost ones:

The sinful men for whom he died.

This hymn, from The Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal, is used in The Office of Readings for Holy Saturday in The Divine Office approved by the Episcopal Conferences of Australia, England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland.