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In the Entrance Antiphon, we acknowledge the enormity of our sins and God’s unlimited Forgiveness to those of us who repent. We then, in the First Reading (Isaiah 25:6-10), look with Faith and Hope towards the infinite happiness of Heaven which will be ours if we have striven, in this life, to stay close to our Father. All trials and evils, including death, which result from the Fall into Original Sin, (and which sometimes appear to monopolise the daily news) will be no more! This theme of joyful hope continues in the Responsorial Psalm, (Psalm 22) in which, through the refrain to the verses (which we often sing as “The Lord’s my Shepherd”) we proclaim our belief that, “In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for ever and ever”. In the Second Reading, Saint Paul (Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20), while thanking those who have selflessly supported him in various ways in his mission, underlines that all he has achieved (and will achieve) has been possible only because of the strength given him by God; every good that we do is a positive response to God’s Grace just as an evil deed involves a refusal of this Life of the Soul. Through the Alleluia Verse we echo this Truth, proclaiming Christ, the Word made flesh, to be the Source of the “...power to become children of God”.  The Uninvited Wedding Guest, an oil on panel painting dating from 1631 by the Flemish painter Vincent Malo (c.1595-1649) which is currently on display in the Brukenthal National Museum in Romania Finally, in the Gospel, (Matthew 22:1-14) Our Lord makes it very clear that Salvation, first offered to (and through) His Chosen People is, of course, offered to all; The Magi at the Nativity stood for all the Gentile (non-Jewish) races, also called to be saved and live the Life of Grace. As the Parable of the Wedding Feast makes abundantly clear, those who will, one day, be told, “Come, Blessed of my Father…” into everlasting Joy, will be those who truly wished (and made the effort) to get to Heaven.
We may, sadly often, through sin, damage or lose the Wedding Garment of God’s Grace, but as long as earthly life remains we may, through repentance and the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession), ‘repair’ or ‘restore’ this Garment. Unlike those in the Parable who refused the initial invitation through material preoccupations or through wilfully failing to ‘come up to the mark’, may we ever set God as our priority in life! Our prayer might well be, in the words of Blessed John Henry Newman, whose memorial we have recently celebrated, “Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom...”. How can we err if we keep the ‘eyes’ of our Soul fixed on the light which can never fail!? In the Entrance Antiphon (from Daniel 3:31) today we acknowledge God’s Rightful Justice in condemning sin, while also expressing our faith that, should we repent, there is no limit to His Loving Forgiveness.
Ezekiel (18:25-28), warns the Israelites that, having chosen what is manifestly against God’s Will, it is illogical and unjust to blame God for the consequences arising from their sins, actions through which they have chosen to leave the safe road of loving obedience. How often do we hear someone (maybe ourselves) ask, “Why did God do this (make this happen) to me?” when the question should be, “Why did I let go of God’s protecting Hand to do what He has told me is wrong?” As we know well, God has given each one of us a spiritual Soul, Intelligence, Reason and Free will; in His Love he will not force us to ‘do as we are told’; to attain Heaven (or not to) is our choice! We suffer, in this world, because of the wrongful choices made by ourselves and others. We will reach Heaven by heading determinedly God’s Way, however challenging; by God’s Grace we will recover from falls into sin along the way, ‘picking ourselves up’ and continuing the journey! In the Responsorial Psalm (Ps.24) we cry out, ‘Remember your Mercy, Lord’ but honesty compels us to acknowledge that God, in His Infinite Goodness, is constantly showing us the way we must go. It is we who are the forgetful ones, not God. We can stay on the safe path or, thinking, with the worldly-wise, that we ‘know better’, head into mortal danger! Saint Paul (Phil 2: 1-11) urges us to go forward, in union with our Saviour, and with each other. We are not to consider ourselves superior in any way to others; We are not ‘in competition’ with our Brothers and Sisters, who we should consider before ourselves, neither may we presume to judge them. We must look honestly at our own shortcomings. Judgement is to be left to God Who, alone knows us ‘...through and through...’. Paul holds before us the supreme example, Jesus, the most reliable rôle model we have. To reach our Heavenly Home, we must model our lives on Christ’s. His earthly Life, lived in loving and humble submission to the Father and leading to His Passion, Death and Resurrection, is our guarantee that we will, having done our best in life, one day, be greeted in Heaven by Him Who re-opened the way closed by Adam and Eve. In the Alleluia Verse we, again, affirm the vital necessity of backing up our declarations of love for God by living as He has wisely decreed. If we strive to go steadfastly towards God, we cannot fail to meet Him in Heaven! In the Gospel (Mt. 21:28-32), Jesus, in the parable of the two sons, makes it very clear that ‘actions speak louder than words’. However much of an outward ‘show’ one may make of being a Christian, in the end it is the effort made which will tell. As the Saints have demonstrated, Peter and Paul among them, while one cannot guarantee that one will live a consistently perfect life it is those who, having the humility to recognise, repent of and correct their faults, however much they may, in consequence, be ‘looked down upon’ by others, who will ‘…endure to the end…’ and ‘…be saved..’. In the Entrance Antiphon today we are reminded that the Lord is ‘…Saviour of all people…’ who, unlike even the best intentioned earthly friend, will be ‘…always there…’ and, very significantly, is unlimited in His ability to help us through life. We are expected, of course, to actively seek and use these opportunities to attain Salvation! Isaiah (55:6-9), very wisely, urges us to seize every opportunity offered us by our Creator while we live on Earth, and ‘Seek the Lord while He is still to be found’. Until we draw our final breath we can, should we sin, repent and be assured of God’s Forgiveness; not that we should gamble our eternity on living apart from God and ‘getting in at the last moment’. God, who is so superior to His creatures, nevertheless leaves the final choice with us! As the Responsorial Psalm (From Ps. 144), recalls to mind, God ‘…is close to all who call Him….” How aware are we of our constant need to examine our conscience and make sure that we are not living in ways that take us further away from God? Saint Paul (Phil. 1:20-24, 27), while looking with longing towards his entry into Heaven, acknowledges that, while he lives on earth, he has a vital role (as does each one of us) to play in the Salvation of Mankind. Paul’s ‘rule of thumb’ for the here and now, which will stand us in good stead when we die, is to keep from anything in our everyday life which will set us off in an opposing direction to God. Our Saviour, knowing our weaknesses, has left us the Sacrament of Reconciliation, through which we can, as long as life lasts, keep close to or even return to God. God, who clearly sees our exact knowledge of good and evil and our intentions, cannot lose any soul which, in all honesty, has striven to be faithful to Him.
Previously we have recalled our duty to correct error. Today we look at a basic condition for being, ourselves, forgiven by God, which is that we forgive, ‘…those who trespass against us’. Straight away, not mincing his words, the writer of Ecclesiasticus condemns emotions which so often set up barriers to our forgiving those who hurt or offend us: “Resentment and anger…foul things…found with the sinner.” Whilst we must certainly ‘hate the sin’ we know that we must ‘love the sinner’. If we set ourselves up to judge and condemn any person, we become, in a way, like them. We are presented with the undeniable logic that we cannot reasonably expect God to approve plans to ‘get our own back’ for wrongs done to us, or to be able to show us Compassion if we deny this to our Neighbour. The extract finishes with what is (or should be) a chilling reminder that, as we deal with offences from our fellow humans, so will the same, in justice, be meted out to us at our Judgement!
The Responsorial Psalm highlights the attributes of our Creator, “…compassion…love…slow to anger…rich in mercy”, which, in spite of our fallen nature can, should we wish, sustain us in the ups and downs of life. Saint Paul, writing to the Romans, simply reminds us that both here on earth and in the hereafter, we are all God’s creatures and, however much we may think that we live in ‘our own little bubble’, each life lived has an effect on others. How often do we think of this? Do we attract others to God, or do we undermine their search for the Truth? Do those around us, seeking meaning and purpose in life, perceive that we look, as the Alleluia verse proclaims, to God Who, alone, can bring us to Eternal Happiness? In the Gospel our Lord, very emphatically, removes any limits to forgiveness. In a dramatic Parable, He delivers a stern warning that, just as the servant who refused to forgive a comparatively ‘trivial’ debt owed by a fellow servant was, as a result, severely punished for his own much greater debt to his Master, so our own forgiveness (or not) will determine the Judgement we receive at the end of our life. We need to recognise, of course, that Jesus is not saying that we shall not be wronged, perhaps deeply, during the course of our life. We may well be unable to forget grave wrongs done to us or our loved ones. We must, however (and we have some profoundly moving examples following recent terrorist murders) strive to forgive, whatever effort this may cost, those who have set out to hurt us. We may well recall, also, how the Mother of Saint Maria Goretti forgave Alessandro, who had attempted to rape and had then killed her daughter, Maria (who also had forgiven him on her deathbed). Also the example of Saint Pope John Paul II who, following his life-saving treatment in hospital, visited Mehmet Ali Ağca, his would-be murderer, in prison, publicly forgiving this man who had shot him with the intention of killing him. How many examples might we, personally, recall of, perhaps, very ‘costly’ forgiveness?
The Responsorial Psalm highlights our innate obstinacy, or hardness of heart, which can blind us to the gravity of an action; our fallen nature inclines more readily, as we know, to sin than to goodness which often involves self-denial. It is, sometimes, frighteningly easy to justify what we know in our heart to be wrong. Saint Paul makes it very clear that God insists on the Commandments and our obedience to them out of Love. That is not, of course, what is so often portrayed by the media as love, which is often directly opposed to this Virtue! Promoting Love as God intends can make one very unpopular indeed, even among one's fellow Christians! Through the Alleluia verse we beg that Truth will underpin all that we do in life. Jesus, in the Gospel, echoes Ezekiel's call for the correction of sinfulness among those around us. He also confirms that, in binding us to certain ways of conduct or, indeed in absolving us of any, the Pope and Bishops act with His Authority. Lord, grant us courage!
Today’s Entrance Antiphon anticipates the Joy which will be ours when, following a life of faithfulness to God, we come before Him at our Judgement and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant….”. Today we consider how God provides us, through the Pope, Bishops and Priests, the Teachings of the Church and the Sacraments, with the means to reach Eternal Life and our fundamental responsibility to make use of these means. Isaiah compares weather conditions, which nurture growing crops, with God’s Word, which stimulates our spiritual growth. Of course, just as crops cannot grow and flourish without the farmer’s efforts in conjunction with the weather so, to attain Eternal Happiness, we must ‘take on board’ and act upon God’s Truth, aided by His Grace. The Responsorial Psalm might be read as a ‘companion piece’ to the Gospel, talking lyrically of God the Creator’s limitless Love which provides for us in this life, seeks our willing response, and, so, brings us to live forever in Eternal Joy once our time on Earth is over.
A major stumbling block for some could be the growing materialism and declining moral standards of the world, so clearly in opposition to our Creator. Satan, knowing as he does that God will, in the end, triumph over evil, nevertheless does not give up tempting souls to join him. Temptations will only cease when we enter Eternity.
Of course, Good Shepherd that He is, God does not cease to love, watch over and call each and every one of us to Himself until the day we die. Those who drift away may, please God, in time, return to the practice of their Faith. It is an act of Charity (certainly not judgmental) to pray for the return of our lapsed Brothers and Sisters, sometimes nicknamed ‘resting Catholics’. It is exceedingly unwise, however, to gamble one’s Eternity by putting off a return to the Church on the basis that ‘God won’t let me be lost’. Saint Augustine reminds us that God created us without our co-operation but makes our Salvation totally dependent upon that co-operation throughout our life. God knows (but we can rarely be certain) when we shall die and come before Him, but to love Him and go to Heaven is a choice He will not force upon us. Love must come freely from our heart in return for His Love, as we meditated more deeply in June. Christ’s parable, of course, ends on a ‘high-note’; countless souls will hear, be inspired and live by the Church’s Teachings, thereby coming, as planned, to be happy with God forever in Heaven, the “…glory…which is waiting for us”, as Saint Paul writes.
If you are looking to better understand this Truth, perhaps to explain it to others, then one of the clearest explanations of the Three-in-Oneness of God is to be found in Frank Sheed’s book, Theology for Beginners, chapter 5, The Three Persons. This can be further simplified in order to explain it to our children; they also have a right to the Truth and we have a duty to do our best to teach them. For those who would postpone such teaching until children are ‘old enough’ (and who of us will ever be ‘old enough’ to understand it?!), you would do well to heed the words of a renowned educational psychologist, Jerome Bruner, who said that anything can be taught to anyone at any age as long as it is properly thought out first. Such forethought will be very beneficial to teachers as well as those being taught.
In this day and age this Doctrine may be a stumbling-block to be overcome in a journey of Faith. It takes Prayer and perseverance to break down barriers; we cannot allow our human limitations to be transferred to God. We have to make a ‘leap of faith’ over the barrier! The image is 'The Holy Trinity' a miniature from the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany, Queen consort of France (1477-1514). God the Father is depicted on the left, God the Son (Jesus) on the right, holding a book with seven seals open to the Alpha and Omega passage, and the Dove of God The Holy Spirit in the centre. The animal symbols of the Four Evangelists are depicted in the corners.  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? |
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Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark
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