 On the Friday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Seat and Symbol of His Burning Love for us, Love which moved Him to Die for us, in agony, on the Cross on Good Friday and also moved Him to, at the Last Supper, institute the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in which, through Holy Orders and Father’s words and gestures, that once-for-all Sacrifice will be made present in our churches and offered until the end of time. Christ, of course, does not suffer any more; He just wishes us to join ourselves, in our own particular time and place, to His Sacrifice and longs to give Himself to each of us, in Communion.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is often linked to one Saint, in particular, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque who, round about 1673, was privileged to have Jesus show her His Sacred Heart, lamenting that although He showers unlimited Love on Mankind, so many simply show ingratitude in return. Among the revelations Jesus made was what became known as the Great Promise, namely that those, who on the First Friday of nine months in a row, would receive Communion, would be granted all the Graces they needed to live a life which would bring them safely to Heaven. Of course, as we must recognise, this does not guarantee that one will get to Heaven, come what may. Rather it promises that all the spiritual assistance we need to overcome sin and move closer to God are ours for the asking; we are, of course, expected to make our best efforts to use these helps! Jesus asked for the setting up of this Feast, to make up for Man’s ingratitude. It is significant that these visions occurred when they did because, at the time, a Heresy, Jansenism, presented God as anything but Loving, Merciful and Forgiving, but rather as someone to be feared, totally at variance with the Church’s Teachings. In an age when the meaning of the word ‘love’ has been so distorted and debased, this Devotion is another priceless asset to us in our journey to Heaven. The image above depicts the statue of the Sacred Heart in St. Bartholomew's church For Catholics this day is a liturgical ‘New Year’s Eve’. Once again we have reached the end of the Liturgical Year and, next Sunday, we begin the Season of Advent. Throughout the space of a year we will re-live the history of Salvation; we will recall how, in spite of the sin of our First Parents, Adam and Eve, God did not, on His part, renege on His side of things.
Through the Scriptures we will hear of how God promised a way back, chose and prepared His people, the Jews then, through His Son, gave them the means, i.e. the Catholic Church, the Priesthood, Mass and Sacraments, which gave them, once again, the chance of getting to Heaven, so giving life a purpose beyond the grave. Sunday’s readings bring out the image of the tender, self-giving Love of God with references to shepherds, underlining God’s unstinting care for His often straying flock. The Prophet Ezekiel shows how, as the Good Shepherd, God seeks out and (should they be willing) brings back the sheep which have strayed into dangerous territory. Once safely back in the sheepfold, there is healing of injuries, food, and security from predators. The Psalm is the familiar, “The Lord is my Shepherd”, again portraying clearly the real benefits of staying close to Christ; He will never abandon us! Saint Paul, writing to the Corinthians, recalls Christ’s Resurrection through which we were, once again, given the chance of Life after death with God in Heaven. He shows how, just as a Human Being lost the way to heaven for us, so, in taking flesh as a Human Being, living in perfection, Dying and Rising from the dead, Christ put Mankind back on track; by faithfully co-operating with Grace we will share, one day, in Christ’s final victory over evil. Lest we grow complacent, through a one-sided image of God’s Love for us, forgetting that Love is a two-way process, the Gospel gives us a vital and salutary warning that, for each and every one of us, life will come to an end; Christ will judge us and, if we are to share in the final Victory, in Eternal Happiness, we must have, during our lives, done what we can to exercise the virtue of Charity towards our fellow Human beings, many of whom do not have the Spiritual and material advantages that we so often take for granted. It is made abundantly clear that, if we are to receive a welcome in Heaven, we must, here and now, have extended help either directly or indirectly, to those around us who lack the material and Spiritual necessities of life. How well are we preparing for Eternity? As we say the Rosary we can unite ourselves with our Brothers and Sisters around the world, both those who, like us, are free to publicly profess their Faith and those who, as the news constantly portrays, are being persecuted, sometimes martyred for their Faith, the tragedy being deepened by the fact that the persecutors appear to believe that they do these things in God's Name! The Rosary has, throughout history, been the undoing of many who have sought to wipe out the Church; a notable example of its Power was at the Battle of Lepanto; why not read of this and other more recent demonstrations of Our Lady's intercessory Power. Read the story of Our Lady of Fátima or download an audio version, very suitable for children, HERE.
Of course the Rosary, although highlighted during May and October, should never be confined to two months of the year! Again, as with so many of the treasures of our Faith, there are ample resources (probably even Apps!) on the Internet as well as numerous books to aid and deepen our meditations. The Rosary knows no bounds! Our Lady has presented it to everyone with the good will to pray it. Another bonus these days, through the communications media, is the facility to join in online via webcams (at Fátima and Lourdes for instance) and, possibly, satellite TV, with the prayers of the faithful children of Mary all round the world. There are probably Apps for smart-phones. Mary is calling her children to come and pray for her Intercession. Are we heeding that call? In October we find ourselves in the Month of the Most Holy Rosary. Hopefully, for many, this already forms part of their Daily Prayer but, throughout this month our Blessed Mother gives us a timely reminder of this great and powerful Prayer through which we may meditate upon the Lives of Her Son and Herself. The Rosary which, time and again, Mary has, in her many Appearances, called on her children to say, presents us with an overview of the History of Salvation as in the New Testament. Thanks to Saint John Paul II (Read his Rosarium Virginis Mariae) this treasury has been enriched by the Luminous Mysteries, which bring before our eyes the part of Our Lord's Public Ministry from His Baptism in the Jordan to His institution of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Last Supper.
One of the beauties of the Rosary is that it can be said by anyone, educated / literate or not, at so many different 'levels'. Adults and children alike can gain great Graces from this Prayer. One way of presenting it is to compare it to a movie of the Lives of Christ and His Mother: the 'scenes' of the Mysteries in our mind's eye are accompanied by the 'background music' of the Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Be's; like many a film it begins joyfully then skips a few years and launches into various episodes of the Hero's Life. Events then take what appears to be a down-turn but, of course there then comes the Happy and Triumphant ending, pointing towards even greater things to come! This Prayer can be said at any time and in any place; maybe as we are travelling to or from work or as we prepare for / give thanks after Mass. It can be said in its entirety or a Mystery at a time. There are probably even Apps for our Smart-phones! In school, children have responded very positively to a Decade at the end of a day. A great apostle of the Rosary was Father Patrick Peyton with his telling slogan that “The Family that Prays together, Stays Together”. The Family Rosary has been, and continues to be, a source of many Graces and Blessings for Parents and Children alike. “Lord, save us or we perish”, cried the terrified Apostles and Jesus, with a gentle rebuke, calmed the raging storm which had threatened to overturn the fragile boat and drown its occupants. This familiar story is, surely, in a way, a picture of everyday life, filled as it is with ups and downs which sometimes seem almost overwhelming.
We live in a very busy, sometimes overactive and often noisy world; the storms that threaten us may be the cares, challenges and troubles of life, whether they be living out our Marriage vows, paying bills or bringing up our children so that they will influence those around them for the better rather than being influenced by those who regard God and Religion as nothing. For many, Sunday, maybe their sole possible weekly visit to church for Mass, those few minutes before Mass starts provide a rare opportunity for a moment of quiet calm contemplation; perhaps it is their main respite from the hurly-burly of life. They may come early because they recognise that they have a real need to prepare themselves for the Holy Sacrifice, and to ask for God’s Grace to help them in the sacrifices they may be called to make during the week ahead. Whether we, personally, feel the need to pray or not (although we all need to prepare ourselves for, as the Fathers of Vatican II, spoke of, “…full, conscious and active participation…” in the Mass) charity surely demands that we consider those who do wish to speak with God, those who need this weekly oasis in which to rest in God's Embrace, the calm in the eye of the storm of life! Sorrowing Parents, Pupils and their Teachers were once attending the Requiem Mass of one of the students who had, sadly, died of Leukaemia. During the homily, a baby began to cry. Father brought this into his thoughts. “Although we are, today, mourning the death of a loved one, we have just been reminded by that cry that, though some lives must end, others will begin”. He reminded us all of the vital place that our children hold in the Church.
While we might, for example, object to our prayers and contemplation being disturbed by audible conversations among adults, we will, surely, take heart at the sound of a baby’s cry or the voice of a small child; these little ones are reminding us that, through God’s Gift of life and the generosity of Parents who conceive and nurture them, the Family of the Faithful will, as Jesus promised, live on. Christ said, when His Apostles would have sent children away, “Let the little ones come to me…” On another occasion we are told by Him that we must become child-like (not childish) ourselves, showing that unconditional love and trust to God that a child shows to his or her parents. Just as our children depend on us, their Parents, to bring them to birth, feed and clothe them, they depend on us, too, in a more profound and critical way; parents as the first teachers of their children are in the forefront of their education in and practice of, the Faith. Children need to become familiar with the church and the Mass from as early an age as possible. While part of their education in the Faith will, indeed, involve developing a reverent silence in church, however, Parents must not be self-conscious if the children express themselves as only little ones can! Every time we hear the cry of a cry of a baby or the voice of an infant, we must thank God and Parents for the continuing life of the Community of the Faithful. Our children are the sign of our Love, demonstrating that as Catholics, we do not go along with the often anti-life mentality of the world. They are the Adults – Parents, Priests and Religious – of the future. We have heard Jesus remind us that, “If a man serves me he must follow me” Through the Mass and the Sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and Confession, we have, readily to hand, the means by which we may follow Our Lord and live in (or even regain) the State of Grace and so be constantly prepared for our Judgement and Eternity.
We have also heard through the Charity, Aid to the Church in Need, how for the Faith from which, sadly, we can be tempted to lapse or to practice indifferently, others of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ daily incur persecution, exile and even death for publicly practising. Bishop Patrick noted the generosity of our Parish when it comes to giving financial aid to those who, on our behalf, help those in the world who are often living in dire poverty or, as we have heard, are denied their freedom to practise their Faith. Of course, as we will appreciate, this open-handedness is only of real value when it is underpinned by Faith as it is then united to God, the Author of all Goodness. While we may be limited, financially, in what we can give, spiritually we are only limited by our own determination; “Ask and you will receive….”; beginning with our Morning Offering we can dedicate every prayer, work, suffering and joy of each day to helping those who are in need of any kind. Every moment of the day can become a prayer if it is offered to God and lived in union with His Grace. As the story of The Widow’s Mite illustrates, unlike the world, God looks into our hearts and not at externally ‘significant’ actions in our lives Saint Pope John Paul II, in Domicae Cenae (1980), said, of Eucharistic Worship, that it is “….both in the celebration of Mass and in our devotion to the Blessed Sacrament….like a life-giving current that links our ministerial….Priesthood to the common Priesthood of the Faithful…”.
As we are now privileged, at St. Bartholomew’s, to be invited to adore Our Lord every day of the week, it is fervently hoped that, gradually, more and more of our Parish Community will answer Christ’s call. Even a brief visit, a reverent genuflection, maybe taking five minutes out of a busy day, can be a source of great Graces and Blessings; with very young children this can gradually be built up into longer visits as they come to appreciate and love God’s presence and never-ending Love for them and their Parents. There is a touching story of a man who, daily, would pop into church, genuflect, saying, “Jesus, this is Jim. I have to be going now. Will you come with me?” and then leave. There came the day when he was involved in a fatal accident. As he lay there, life ebbing away, he heard, “Jim, this is Jesus. I have to be going now. Will you come with me?”. This holds a clear lesson for all; if we are, to the best of our understanding and ability, faithful to Jesus, He will more than repay our love when we die. There is only one day of the year, Good Friday, when Our Blessed Lord is not present in the tabernacle. Even then we would wish to show great reverence in church; how much more, then, should we wish on every other occasion, to show those who see us, believers or not, that we are, truly, in the Presence of God. Bishop Emeritus Fabian Bruskewitz, has this to say: “..we should (even) try to be respectful and silent in church after Mass, in consideration of those who may be trying to make their thanksgiving Prayers”. We are very lucky in this Parish as groups of our fellow-Parishioners already pray the Morning Prayer of the Church before each weekday Mass and, afterwards, pray the Rosary. On some days they also pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Why not join them in swelling the river of Prayer, both for ourselves, our Families and for our suffering Brothers and Sisters who may, even today, be killed for publicly showing the Faith we can take for granted! |
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Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark
A Registered Incorporated Charity - CIO No. 1173050
A Registered Incorporated Charity - CIO No. 1173050
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