O Magnum Pietatis Opus

Exaltation of the Holy Cross
September 14, 2014

"O GREAT WORK OF LOVE: that death then died when Life was dead upon the Cross." 

What could possibly be more grotesque, more heinous a symbol than this instrument of torture and laborious execution, used wantonly by the Romans to shame, maim and drain the last breath of life out of all manner of criminal and traitor? And yet how victorious it stands in its glory; the profoundest of all symbols of love; the most potent symbol of life; and the eternal symbol of salvation. It is the wood of the Cross on which hung the Saviour of the world.

It is the greatest mystery of our faith that God so loved the world that he condescended to the frailty of human life in the person of Jesus Christ; and being at once true God and true man he gave what only man may give to gain for mankind what only God may give: his death, for the destruction of death and the restoration of life everlasting. For from time immemorial, God has willed that his chosen people, our fathers in the faith, should regain that which they had lost in Adam, through faithfulness to the covenant, that time and again He had offered them for their salvation. But despite the wonders, the prophets, the conquests, the Promised Land, the kings given by God as signs of his faithfulness, yet still Israel would not believe. In an abundant outpouring of love, therefore, God offered himself through the Incarnation of Christ, as the perfect fulfilment of the Law and the perfect sacrifice Whose death would reconcile mankind with God for ever more. It is with this in mind that St. Augustine asks, “What may not the hearts of believers promise themselves as the gift of God’s grace, when for their sake God’s only Son, co-eternal with the Father, was not content only to be born as man from human stock but even died at the hands of the men he had created?” 

St. Augustine elsewhere exhorts, “In order to be healed from sin, gaze upon Christ crucified!”  And that is precisely what we are called upon to do today, as the Church invites us to exalt the glorious Cross of the Saviour and adore Him who took upon Himself the burden of our sin in order that we should have eternal life. Wherever you are reading this article now, take a moment and find a Cross and spend some time looking upon the Crucified One. See, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, how “the instrument of torture which, on Good Friday manifested God’s judgement on the world, has become a source of life, pardon, mercy, a sign of reconciliation and peace.”  Understand what Christ has done for you on the Cross. Understand and rejoice.

Rejoice for Christ has turned this symbol of death into a source of life; the tears of defeat into shouts of victory; the weakness of human flesh into the strength of Almighty God. And what an icon of strength the Cross is, and what faith it inspires that the Apostles Peter, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Simon and Jude are believed to have embraced the same death as their saviour rather than deny their faith in Him. And today, the Holy Cross still stands as a courageous witness to lives lived in the spirit of the Gospel; a symbol of hope, of safety, of peace in a world that is increasingly full of despair, war, and hatred. And we too, like the Apostles, are called to live the way of the Cross with the strength and conviction that it inspires; to obey the command of Christ to take up our cross daily and follow him. But what does this mean for us? It means a willingness to accept, with faith in the providence of God, the means of healing that the Cross of Christ offers. It means accepting that we need Him, and grasping the foot of the Cross, as the tempests of the modern world try to tear us apart. It means, when catastrophes fall, that we keep the faith, as did Noah. It means that, when sacrifice is demanded of us, we offer ourselves with faith, whole-heartedly into the hands of God, as did Abraham. It means suffering whatever the world throws at us with patience and a stubborn trust in the love of God, as did Job. It means knowing that no trial, no pain, no hardship or misery can ever be more arduous than that already suffered by the innocent Lamb of God, Whose Cross is your triumph, your life and your glory in Him Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Cum Iucunditate [With Joy]

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
08 September, 2014

"WITH JOY let us celebrate the nativity of blessed Mary, so that she may intercede for us with the Lord Jesus Christ” rings out one of the antiphons for First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) on the eve of this great feast; and it is under the pervading theme of joy that we commemorate the great intercessory role of the Blessed Virgin in the history of our salvation.

Mary’s birth intercedes between the old and the new covenants, like that moment of first light before the sun rises above the horizon, with a glow that brings the promise of a new dawn. The nativity of Mary creates the bond that will unite God to his people; for through her birth, by God’s grace untouched by original sin, she becomes the pure vessel through which the Word will be made flesh; and by means of her heredity her son will be the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham that in his seed will be sent the Messiah, the deliverer of His people, Israel.

So it is with great joy that we can appreciate the great saving plan of God to fulfil His covenant with His chosen people in the incarnation of "Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” [Mt.1:1]; the Son of God sent in fulfilment of the law and the prophets and to institute in His blood a new covenant for the salvation of not just of Israel but all mankind. 

We find that as with every Marian feast, the celebration today of the Nativity of Mary points us towards her son, and in particular the Christological significance of the Saviour’s earthly lineage, from which the immense joy of the day is derived. And the theme of joy is propagated across every part of the Church’s public worship today, from the Divine Office to the Word of God in the Mass of the day. 

The prophet Micah proclaims the joyful future of God’s people with the coming of a ruler who “shall stand firm and shepherd his flock” in to an era of justice and peace. In his prophecy, Mary stands at the threshold of this time of deliverance as the instrument through which God will forever change the fate of his children, from a people forsaken, to a family united in covenant with God.

The Psalm echoes Mary’s own song of joy at the gift of the incarnation that she was chosen to bring forth. Her joy becomes our own with the refrain from Isaiah 61:10, “With delight I rejoice in the Lord” as the Psalmist recalls the goodness of God who has been our salvation.

The apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans, whilst not speaking directly of the Virgin, recalls the joyful destiny of all who are chosen and called by God “to be conformed to the image of his Son” and so justified and glorified in Him. The same is true for Mary, the first of all believers in Christ Jesus, who was foreknown by God even from her conception and birth as intimately united with Him in the Divine plan for which she had been predestined by the grace of God to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit and the Mother of God’s Son.

The Gospel sets before us the whole history of salvation into which the Christ child will be born, descended from Abraham and born of a virgin that he may be Emmanuel, God with us. And as a precursor to the joy of Christmas, we celebrate today one of only two other births that the Church has elevated to a solemn feast: the Nativity of Mary – the other being the Nativity of John the Baptist. And just as many “will rejoice” at the birth of John, the precursor of Christ (Luke 1:14), how much greater is the joy that is roused by the birth of the Mother of the Saviour?

Praesumite Paulisper [Assume for a moment]

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
15 August, 2014

ASSUME FOR A MOMENT that Mary was not significant to the development of the Church in its earliest days; that, unlike every other person intimately connected with Jesus, she was not considered important enough to be cared about either during her remaining life or after her passing. Venture the thought that the only blood relative of Jesus, who followed him throughout his earthly ministry, was ignored by his followers after his death and given no place of honour amongst the apostles and other disciples of Christ, who claimed to be the extended, spiritual family of her son. See if you will, how the bones of the earliest apostles and martyrs have been the subject of preservation and veneration throughout the centuries; how great basilicas have been erected to house and celebrate them – but not Mary’s, because being chosen by God to give birth to the Saviour of the world is somehow less deserving of dignity and honour. Assume all of this is true – Would not Christ himself seek to give honour to his mother? Would it be so abhorrent for the God who loves all men to love the woman who bore, raised and stood by him to his death, enough to grant her the first taste of the reward that is promised to all who follow him faithfully on that day when “the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible”?

As in every event of her earthly life, Mary calls out through her glorious Assumption, ‘It is not about me!’ and urges us to ever deeper love for her Son. She always took praise – be it from the Angel Gabriel or her cousin Elizabeth – and magnified it to the glory of God, wanting to keep nothing for herself, a mere handmaid of the Lord for whom he had done great things. The Assumption is the final act of the almighty God in honouring that most precious of his creations whom he had chosen to be the vessel of his love for all mankind. It was not by her own power that she was assumed body and soul into heaven. She did not ascend into heaven like Christ, as we are sometimes accused of believing by our detractors. The Assumption was the action of God, her Son, out of the most profound love for the one who had truly loved God just as perfectly as he had loved her.

And it was not for her glory alone that Christ called his Blessed Mother to his side when her earthly sojourn had come to an end. The glory of the Virgin Mother of God is no less than the glory we are destined to receive in Christ when he will raise our mortal bodies and make them like his own in glory. So it is that our Holy Mother becomes a living testament to our own redemption through her Son and to the great power of our God, whose promise of our own participation in his eternal glory is made real through her bodily assumption to the Father’s house. For as the Virgin Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin, so too have we been washed clean through the waters of baptism. And although her sinless flesh rendered her immune to the physical corruption that death inflicts on our own mortal bodies, yet do we who cling to the grace of God through faith in Christ need but to slumber a while until the appointed time when our own frail flesh, raised by the Spirit, will rejoin our souls in his Kingdom.

To those who would say that, today, we place Mary on a pedestal too close to the divine to be acceptable, I say, if it were Christ himself who placed her there, is it not acceptable? To those who would say that we assume too much beyond the Word of God by believing in the Assumption of Mary, I say, if you are to believe the apostle when he says, “for the wages of sin is death” [Rom.6:23], and that, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin” [Rom.5:12], then what would you have happen to the handmaid of the Lord; the one hailed “full of grace” by the angel Gabriel? Scripture prohibits that one free from sin should suffer the punishment of Adam and his progeny, to be consigned to the dust from which he was made.

To those who would say that Mary’s Assumption into heaven makes her equal to God and that we blaspheme to acknowledge it, I say, it is impossible for God to blaspheme against himself, and whatever wonders he decides to perform or dignities to bestow upon his servants – as he did as well upon Elijah and Enoch – are done that all may come to know and love him. God’s glory is not diminished by the glory of his saints, for they glory in the Lord and are but reflectors of the source, as the moon shines but only for the power of the sun. So the brightness with which Mary shines is not her own or for her glory. She, the star of the sea and the star of the east, shines for all men, that we may be led to God – “For with thee is the fountain of life: and in your light we shall see light” [Ps.36:9].

To those who would say that the Assumption is the invention of the Church in modern times and was not a belief recognised by the early Fathers, I say, that the New Testament they hold in their hands was only acknowledged as canonical at the end of the fourth century, most probably at the Synod of Hippo (393AD), in the very same decade as St. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote these words of the Mother of God: “she through whom the divine light shone upon the world is in the place of bliss with her sacred body." [Haer. lxxix, 11] While he freely admits that he cannot be certain how or even whether Mary died, he leaves in no doubt that her body is with Christ her Son. Writing later but recalling the tradition of bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem, who attended the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD, St. John of Damascus tells us: "Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem at the Council of Chalcedon made known to the Emperor Marcian and [his Empress] Pulcharia, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles and that her tomb, when opened upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to Heaven." [Homily on the Dormition, II,96]

And for all of us, who celebrate this great feast of God’s glory in the raising of the Blessed Virgin, body and soul, to his side in heaven, I pray that we may always be strong in our faith and not resort to the distortions of human logic to reason that which is of divine providence; that we may rejoice with the angels that God so loved the Theotokos, that he chose to share with her, first, that to which we are all destined through Christ: the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Hic Nos Esse [We are here]

The Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

06 August, 2014

WE ARE HERE, as was Peter, in the presence of the Lord. Peter clearly didn’t want to leave. And why would he? This was the most marvellous sight he had ever beheld and, indeed, would behold until his Lord stood in his resurrected body and ascended into heaven. For Peter, this witness “of his sovereign majesty” [2Pet.1:16] coming only a short while after his confession “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” [Mt.16:16] was a confirmation of his faith of momentous proportions. His master, the carpenter’s son, stood, not bathed in divine light but exuding it from every fibre of his being; talking with Moses and Elijah whose law and prophecy he had come to fulfil; and confirmed by the voice of God himself as his son, the Word, to whom all men are charged to listen. No, Peter didn’t want to leave that mountaintop or see the resplendent glory of his master fade. But fade it must, and, this, Peter could not understand, even now, that “the Son of man must suffer many things … and be killed, and on the third day be raised” [Lk.9:22]; that suffering must necessarily precede the illumination of his glory that he had with the Father since the beginning; and that Peter too would have to “deny himself and take up his cross” before he could climb again the mountain of the Lord and see once more the face of the God of Jacob.

It is easy for us to forget, just as Peter misunderstood, that the victory of Christ lies not on this mountaintop but on the hill of Golgotha. Just as Peter, seeing Christ’s glory there made manifest, thought it better that they remain there rather than proceed to Jerusalem, where his master would undoubtedly fall foul of the Jewish authorities, so too do we sometimes seek the refuge of Christ’s glory without first taking our share of his suffering. 

The Transfiguration was Christ’s revelation to his closest followers that although he has been granted all authority in heaven and on earth [Mt.28:18] all that was about to unfold is indeed his will, even though of his nature he should never be subjected to such scorn and debasement, torture and death. And for our part, as witnesses through the Gospels to the glory of Christ that night on the mountain, we must understand that the nature of our glory in Christ was wrought at a price; and that while each celebration of Mass is a celebration of his glory, it is also the living sacrifice of the cross – for neither can be separated one from the other. In the words of Pope St. Leo the Great:

"Thus, the Lord’s example calls on the faith of believers to understand that, no doubt against the promise of happiness, we must nevertheless, in the trials of this life, ask for patience before glory; the happiness of the kingdom can not, in fact, precede the time of suffering.” [Leo the Great, Sermon 38,4]

The Lord precedes us, his glory a lamp for our steps and a light for our path that in all things we should emulate his humility and service, his love and sacrifice, and so be led – as were Peter, James and John – up the mountain of his Transfiguration. The Psalmist asks, as should we of ourselves, “Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?”. In his answer we find the lives we should lead, “The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things, who has not sworn so as to deceive his neighbour.” We must endeavour to be unpolluted by the world of sin, both outwardly (in the action of our hands) and inwardly (in the desires of our hearts). We must seek not glory in worldly attachments but follow Christ in his path to glory through the cross. And we must keep our covenant with Christ, to love God and our neighbour, both, as we ourselves have been loved by God in Christ; for, “such are the men that seek him, seek the face of the God of Jacob."

And how are we to achieve any of these things but through prayer? It is St. Luke who recounts that Jesus and the disciples went first up the mountain to pray [Lk.9:28].  And it is through prayer that the soul connects to the divine in praise of his name, to understand his will, and to offer ourselves in his service in the words of Jesus on another mount, “not my will, but thine, be done.” [Lk.23:42]. Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the “primacy of prayer” in the mystery of the Transfiguration in his final Angelus address:

"Meditating on this Gospel passage, we can draw a very important teaching from it. First of all, the primacy of prayer, without which the entire commitment of ministry and charity is reduced to activism. During Lent we learn to give the proper time to the prayer, both personal and communal, which gives breath to our spiritual life. In addition, prayer is not an isolation from the world and its contradictions, as Peter would have wanted on Mount Tabor. Instead, prayer leads to a path of action. The Christian life consists in continuously scaling the mountain to meet God and then coming back down, bearing the love and strength drawn from Him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters with God’s own love.” [Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, 24 February 2013].

It is indeed good for us to be here; for us to possess the gift of faith that makes our souls cry out that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; for us to be able to pray with him to our Father in heaven, for the divine will to be done and for the coming of his kingdom; for us to be able to walk in his footprints of humility, service and suffering with the strength he constantly provides through the Holy Spirit; and for us, one day, to be able to see the radiance of his face, the glory of God, in his kingdom for ever.

Ex Milite Sancto [From soldier to saint]

Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola

July 31, 2014

FROM SOLDIER TO SAINT – the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola marks the most impactful conversion in the history of the Church after that of St. Paul the Apostle and the Emperor Constantine. The Jesuit order that he founded went on to bring the Word of God to every corner of the world, fulfilling with evangelical zeal the commission of Christ to, “go therefore and make disciples of all nations”.

But whom God chooses to carry his message may sometimes be surprising. For the apostles, the choice of St. Paul was a consternation, as he had spent his life fervently persecuting Christians. Ignatius’s conversion may not have been such an 180-degree turn as St. Paul’s but it was significant that a man of such worldly ambition and deftness of sword should seek to dedicate his life so completely to God and the Church.

In his early life, Íñigo López de Loyola might be described as a typical youngest son in a big family: always desiring attention and more recognition. He luxuriated in the aristocratic life of the court of Castile, taking pleasure in fine clothing, enjoying the attention of the ladies, a little gambling, and participating in occasional thuggery against enemies of his family. All-in-all, not someone his peers would expect to take to the cloth.

But as they saying goes, “God moves in mysterious ways; His wonders to perform”. And a wonder was indeed performed when the 30-year-old Ignatius, now an officer in the Spanish army was spared death when he was hit by a cannon ball, which broke one of his legs and severely injured the other. Near-death experiences are often the catalyst for conversions, but not in the case of Ignatius. While undoubtedly brave in facing numerous operations on his broken leg, including the sawing-off of a protruding knob of bone without anaesthetic, he was far from grateful to God for still being possession of his life. He remarked that to have one leg longer than the other was a fate worse than death because he would no longer be able to wear his tight-fitting pants and because walking with a limp would make him unattractive to his many lady fans. His vanity nearly killed him as he sought to have his shorter leg stretched to its previous length.

It was only by chance that, while he recuperated, his request for some racy romance novels was met, instead, with a copy of De Vita Christi (The Life of Christ) by monk-cum-theologian Ludolph of Saxony. Bored out of his wits, Ignatius began reading the book and so began his page-by-page conversion. One of the most notable points about this conversion is how he felt a sense of calm and fulfilment when reading about the life of Christ and the saints. This sense of peace and satisfaction was in direct contrast to the restlessness and anxiety he felt when pondering his own convoluted life. Eventually he began to be more and more drawn to the peace that only Christ can give and began a journey of spiritual discernment that would lead to his great work, the Spiritual Exercises.

It should be encouraging for us all to see how the conversion of St. Ignatius unfolded, because it happened in stages rather than in a moment of great divine intervention. We can see how he struggled and overcame obstacles through a process that he would call “discretio” or the ability to discern, through contemplation, between spirits that are good and bad and would act on our soul for either the glory of God or for capitulation to Satan. Ignatius came to understand himself and all mankind to be essentially torn between two real and opposing forces, capable of both acts of great goodness and of profound evil; the direction in which man is drawn to action being dependent on his ability to examine his conscience in the grace of God, in order to avert the expression of evil desires. It should, perhaps, not come as a surprise that such a master of battle strategies should come to express his faith in terms of spiritual warfare, and that he would become as sought after in the art of spiritual direction as he had been in the direction of war.

If there was a moment of decisive turning to the Lord for Ignatius, it would have been when he raised his sword for the last time, to lay it down upon the altar of Our Lady of Montserrat, at the Benedictine shrine bearing the same name. He had just witnessed how his own soul had teetered on the brink of damnation when he was tempted to strike down a Moor he met on his journey and who had denied the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fortunately he was pulled back from the brink by an act of pure chance: he decided to dismount his mule at a fork in the road and kill the Moor if his mule followed him, or spare him if the mule took the alternative route. The mule followed the other path and the Moor’s life was spared, but Ignatius had been a hairsbreadth from committing murder. Whether he had been saved by chance or the intervention of God in directing his mule was irrelevant to Ignatius. The fact he had come so close to the point of no return in his conversion was enough to move him to kneel in vigil before Our Lady’s altar and leave there his weapons and fine clothing – trappings of a lifestyle that he had once loved above all else.

Thankfully, we live in times when the real opportunity and impetus to commit such horrendous crimes as murder do not present themselves for the vast majority of us. Still, the temptation of evils equally malicious, though arguably less deadly, are very real. Just as the human mind is a powerful tool in the hands of Satan, so too is the human conscience a powerful tool for good if accessed prayerfully and in a spirit of humility before our Creator. There are actions, great and small, for which our consciences weep and send out that familiar twinge of regret. Accessing that twinge before thought of sin becomes action is the spirit of discernment that we must try to master in the occasion of all manner of sin, so that our lives may be lived here on earth as we desire them to be lived one day in heaven: for and with God alone.

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, like his own conversion, is a process of experiencing God, at each stage deeper than the last, until the trajectory of human life itself intersects with the joy of the resurrection and the eternal glory of God. The result is a highly structured and divinely guided journey of a soul towards the true knowledge of redemption, lasting 30 days and arranged as a programme of contemplation and prayer grounded in Holy Scripture, taking each soul on its unique conversion to Christ through acknowledgement of our failed human state; of the gift of God in Christ; of the need for and nature of Christ’s passion and our own acceptance of suffering; to the sharing of the Blessed Virgin’s joy in the glory of her Son’s resurrection. It is a journey through the story of our salvation, undertaken precisely for the salvation of our souls.

No article can do justice to the great gift that the conversion of St. Ignatius of Loyola has given to the world in the four-and-three-quarter centuries since the foundation of the Society of Jesus. No single day of celebration can adequately memorialise the ministry rooted in the charisms of St. Ignatius of Loyola, which have seen the evangelisation of the Gospel of Christ by the Jesuit Fathers to over one hundred countries in every continent bar the frozen one, through the foundation of schools, colleges, universities and seminaries, and through the conversions of millions of souls, all ad maiorem Dei gloriam – for the greater glory of God. 

Though our reading stop here may our living begin in earnest, in St. Ignatius’ spirit of conversion "to conquer oneself and to regulate one's life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment."

Etenim Caritas Dei [For the love of God]

In remembrance of
Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH17

Friday, 18 July, 2014.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD must prevail in our lives even amidst the profoundest of trials.

There are times of personal sorrow; there are times of national grief; there are times of international horror and mourning. We are living in all of these times today. In the face of evil of such magnitude, it can be difficult to discern the presence of God in our world. But despite the atrocities that man inflicts on mankind, we must hold fast to the love of God – in the words of the Apostle Paul, “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” [Romans 8:38-39].

For we have witnessed what the rejection of the love of God can inflict. For in its neglect is the source of depraved ambition, lust for power and domination, vengeance, wrath – evil. Without the love of God we are hollow men waiting to be preyed upon by the Evil One who seeks to twist men’s souls from the path of the living God to journey in darkness and death. With the love of God every blessing is possible, but likewise when that love is abandoned, there are no limits to the depths of depravity to which the human soul may sink.

Today we have witnessed the repudiation of God’s love in the actions of a few men and the tragedy that has ensued. Let us pray that the whole world may, in these troubled times, hold strong in the love of God so that further manifestations of Satan’s power in the world may be halted. Wars have been ignited for less than we have witnessed on our TV screens this night passed. May we instead pray for the peace and love of Christ to prevail; to transform and convert; and to comfort and heal.

Anger is natural, but it is not of God. A desire for revenge is natural, but not of God. A need to apportion blame is natural, but to judge is for God alone. And He will judge. Just as sure as night follows day, so too may we be assured that our God, who sees and knows all things, will receive the blameless into his bosom and turn his face from those who embrace the rule of sin and death in their lives.

For those responsible, directly and indirectly, for the tragic loss of life on MH17, let us pray:

That God may strike in their very souls a profound understanding of the evil of their actions and that His Spirit may fill them with such deep remorse that for their whole lives they may weep unceasingly at the feet of Our Blessed Lord begging for forgiveness and desiring nothing but to be freed from Satan and his evil grasp.

For the friends and especially the families of those who lost their lives on MH17, let us pray:

That God may give them consolation in their mourning, hope that will lift their souls from the depths of anguish into the certainty of the love of God, and His strength to be steadfast in faith and love and to rise anew from the broken pieces of their lives.

And for all of the victims of this tragedy, who perished in such unspeakable circumstances, let us pray:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Simon James Phillips

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Beati Oculi Vestri [Blessed are your eyes]

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 13, 2014

BLESSED ARE YOUR EYES, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. We, who gather at the table of the Lord today are but twenty percent of the one in six people in the world who have been baptised into the Catholic faith. Faith is indeed a gift from God but what we do with the seed of faith once it is planted in our hearts is entirely up to us. Whilst the Holy Spirit continues to work through the Church and her people, there is no let up and in fact a marked increase in secular rhetoric that seeks to undermine any and all belief systems, preferring to exalt the god of self with the litany of sins that such an existence brings.

Today, in the Parable of the Sower, the Lord gives us an opportunity to reflect upon the state of our own faith. Just what is the state of the faith even among the twenty percent of us who faithfully go to church every week? We can perhaps be grateful that our seed of faith has not fallen upon the path but that does not necessarily mean that our faith is in a healthy state.

If our hearts are of stone then for sure the seed of faith will not have a chance to put down solid roots. The Lord gives us a clear description of the results of faith that lacks the soil to grow roots: "As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” [Mt.13:20-21]. Sometimes life events might trigger a need for hope, which faith is apt to provide but when the situation subsides the first fervour is forgotten and the flame of faith slowly dies. There are many things that can attract people to Catholicism; external things like the compassion of our priests, the authenticity and history of our teaching, and the outer beauty of our liturgy and churches. These externals are a great pull factor but if faith is not internalised and propagated, then, when the novelty wears off (as it does with new phones, new cars, and practically new anything), faith withers. Then there are those who come to church out of habit or obligation but do not live the faith outside the walls of the church. They might meet the bare minimum requirement of arriving at Mass before the Gospel and then leaving immediately after communion, but they have abandoned all other expressions of faith. They are most in need of the fellowship of the parish community, to help foster growth in faith, but they keep themselves on the fringes of parish life, where their faith languishes in the shadows. Obligation may not seem like an altogether bad reason to attend Mass, but with the passing of time, these people too will drift away from the faith.

And what of those whose faith is stronger but choked by thorns? There are many temptations and distractions that would shift our focus from God, both within our church communities and in the world beyond. Secular self-indulgence and even other religions that seemingly offer a more comfortable fit for our lifestyles and preferences may spring-up and lure us away from our faith. When the Lord speaks of “the delight in riches” [Mt.13:22] it is not just the temptation of material gain that he warns against. The desire for praise and the riches of acclaim are an unwelcome distraction from the focal point of church life, which should be God. Cliques and elite groups abound within the lay ministries, where seemingly strong faith finds pleasure in the seeking of fame or notoriety. Like the seed planted among thorns, faith stands little chance to grow before it gets caught-up in worldly concerns and suffocated.

It might appear that faith is fickle and hard to cultivate but it is always our action or inaction that stunts the seed’s growth. Faith cannot be lost in the way we might lose a wallet or our keys. It’s not about being forgetful or careless. To ‘lose faith’ there has to be a conscious action to discard it; to discard the very explicit teaching of Christ himself on how to propagate it. The “good soil” of which Jesus speaks in the Parable of the Sower is the Word of God and “he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit” [Mt.13:23]. Whatever first called us to the faith, and however the seed of faith was first planted in our hearts, we must constantly seek to root it firmly in the good soil of the Scriptures. Prayer, of course is vital, but like many externalised expressions of faith, even prayer can become rote and devoid of the true understanding of the faith that we are called to embrace. The conscious act of reading or listening to the Word of God, however, is a practice that can only ever lead to spiritual growth and a blossoming of faith. Whether through more frequent attendance at Mass, to participate in the Liturgy of the Word and to internalise the Word through Holy Communion; or by developing a practice of following the daily scripture readings in the Missal; or even by setting aside time each day to read and contemplate a random verse of scripture; regular turning to the Word of God will nourish your faith because it is the means by which God speaks to us in every situation (be it good or bad) that we find ourselves in.

And there will be bad times. Our faith is no cure-all or talisman against misfortune. Our faith is more powerful than that. Some might tell you that their gods can protect and bring luck. People might pray and when the luck they seek does not come, or when obstacles in life are not removed, they move on to the next, more powerful deity. But as Christians living the faith, we are “strong in the Lord and the power of his might” [Ephesians 6:10]. We know that life is more than a numbers game and the next cutthroat step up the corporate ladder. We know that our God does not send us trials to hold us to ransom for prayers and offerings. Trials are of this world; how we deal with these trials is witness to the world to come “[f]or our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” [2 Corinthians 4:17].

Strong in faith and armed with the Gospel of Christ and the counsel of his Spirit we must aspire to face adversity with the charity, love and hope we have been given through our faith – A charity that that finds expression in tolerance and kindness, even of those who seek to harm us. A love of neighbour (even the not so nice ones) that emulates “the kind of mercy and grace that our Saviour showed those who were crucifying him” [James 1:17]. A love of God that is unfailing, even through personal tragedy, and endures even as God’s love endures for us despite our failings. And a hope that transcends mortal desires (“for who hopes for what he sees? [Romans 8:24]) and keeps our souls’ gaze always on the Kingdom of God.

This is faith. Faith tempered by the endurance of suffering, in the name of Christ and with the strength of Christ, which lifts the human spirit to share in the divine. A faith that shines as an unshakable testament to our God for the world to see.

When we immerse ourselves in the Word of God and allow our faith to bear fruit, that is when we become evangelists in deed and word. It is this strength of faith through both the joys and pains of life, which finds expression in our demeanour and the way we live, that will be the rallying call of the communion of the saints militant – a call to live, day-by-day, in the joy of the Gospel. For as the Holy Father says, “[i]t is not by proselytising that the Church grows, but ‘by attraction’” [Evangelii Gaudium,  §15]. We shall each be known by the fruits that our seed of faith bears. Let us, then, constantly seek to nourish our faith “on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” [Mt.4:4], that our faith may grow stronger, like the seed planted in good soil, and bear the fruit of the true joy that only Christ can give and, indeed, has already given in the Good News of salvation. And may our joy be a magnetic witness to our faith, which calls back to us our brothers and sisters who have drifted from the faith and all those who seek and desire the joy of being loved by God.

Vae Vobis Pharisaeis [Woe to you Pharisees]

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

06 July, 2014

WOE TO YOU PHARISEES, who have taken the simple and pure love of God and made of it hoops through which you pleasure in watching God’s children jump. There is nothing tortuous about embracing the love of God, for God even gives us the love which we return to him in faith. Nothing could be simpler than the invitation Christ makes today. And yet there are those who would adjudge themselves more worthy and others less so, of the divine gift of life that is so freely given by the Lord.

“Come to me,” says the Lord. How more unambiguous can he get? The relationship we are invited to participate in is personal; a direct response to his call in the Gospels. It is the call of the Lord your God to a personal conversion of life, a re-orientation of your being towards his light. And nothing can block the light of Christ’s love but you alone. There may be those who seek to intercept this light, to withhold it, to tell you that you are not worth of it, to insist that you follow their way towards it, but they are not of God. Respond from the depth of your heart to the call of Christ, “arise, shine: for your light has come.” The Church of Christ’s faithful is lit not by the light of Christ upon an elite, select few but by the glory of the Lord magnified in the hearts of each one of those he has called by name. And what a light for a world in darkness this produces, if only we would let it shine.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” says the Lord. Struggles that burden us and make our faith laborious are not sent from God but created by us. Whenever we struggle in our faith or wrestle with following God’s plan for us, the distress comes not from God but ourselves. Our place, like that of the disciple Jesus loved, is resting on the Lord’s chest. We can pull ourselves away from him, for sure. But when we lament that God seems far away and unconcerned about our struggles, we need to see that it is we who have removed ourselves from the repose of his embrace. He remains, as does always his invitation to rest assured in him through faith. The Lord does not test us. Life just happens, the good and the bad. It is up to us whether we use all that life throws at us to get closer to the Lord and accept the peace he extends to us, or otherwise.

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart,” says the Lord. Accepting the invitation of Christ is to learn his ways; as I have said before, to live how he lived and to love those whom he loved. Just as He has said, let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone, therefore should we refrain always from judgment, for there is a time destined for judgment and one destined to judge and we do not know the former and dare not presume to know the heart of the latter. We all stand before him unworthy of his gift of eternal life, each of us in need of his mercy and compassion. And for each time that we condemn in word or deed, we forgo the chance of manifesting the divine mercy that has brought us into communion with God’s love and could too have softened the heart of a sinner.

There is no ‘in-crowd’ in the house of God. God has no favourites. The moment we build the barriers of judgment between people “[t]he mark of Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, is not present; closed and elite groups are formed, and no effort is made to go forth and seek out those who are distant or the immense multitudes who thirst for Christ. Evangelical fervour is replaced by the empty pleasure of complacency and self-indulgence.” [Evangelii Gaudium, §95]

“My yoke is easy and my burden is light,” says the Lord. So it is that the hallmark of our faith must necessarily be the free expression of the joy of God’s love and the magnification of that love in the community of the Church and beyond. The hallmark of our faith needs to be the expression of Christ’s own mercy and compassion through service of our neighbour that is, like Christ, “gentle and lowly of heart”. That is how we are to make ourselves known as disciples of Christ. Our faith is spread through the Word of God but the actions of His people. Never has the old adage “practise what you preach” been more appropriate than today, in the context of the New Evangelisation.

Amantissimi Dei [Beloved of God]

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

June 27, 2014

BELOVED OF GOD, out of love you were created, out of love you were redeemed, in love you were called, and for love you have been sent. You are the Sacred Heart of Jesus – a living testimony to the love of the one, true God.

Images and sculptures with stylised hearts crowned with thorns, burning, or bleeding, abound; the long history of devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus has its origins in Christ's ultimate act of self-giving, as he hung dead on the cross, His side pierced, and from it flowing blood and water.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart begins when our understanding of God and our relationship to Him converges on the profound acts of love of which we are witnesses and beneficiaries.

The love in the Incarnation is the love of the Sacred Heart.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]

The love of the Sacred Heart is expressed first in the desire of God that creation should have some share in the divine life of love. Throughout the ages, God has sought to lead his people towards Himself and into eternal life with Him. Throughout the history of man, we have collectively spurned the love of God, such that, in our own age, God chose to express, to the fullest extent, the depth of His love and compassion through the Incarnation of Christ.

The love in Christ’s teaching is the love of the Sacred Heart.

“You shall go ahead of the Lord to prepare his ways before him; to make known to his people their salvation through forgiveness of all their sins, the loving kindness of the heart of our God who visits us like the dawn from on high.” [Luke 1:76-78]

The ministry of Jesus, as expressed through the prophetic words of John the Baptist, was to enunciate the love and compassion of God. Despite miraculous acts of love throughout the history of the Chosen People, God’s infinite love was never fully understood. The Sacred Heart is the ministry of Jesus, through which the love of God is revealed through his teachings, his miracles, his relationships and ultimately through the new commandment: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” [John 13:34]

The love in the Crucifixion is the love of the Sacred Heart.

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” [1John 4:10]

Notwithstanding this new commandment given to his disciples, the love of the Sacred Heart is not demanding. It requires nothing of us and is given freely as the ultimate model of love, which gives all even before it has the chance to receive. Christ is the love of God personified; a love that is pure self-giving – for what did we ever do to merit our God to undergo death for our sins? Christ crucified is the Sacred Heart, for it is through this sacrifice that the reality and fullness of God’s love is made manifest.

The love in the sending of the Spirit is the love of the Sacred Heart.

“Through him we have obtained access, by faith, to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. … And hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” [Romans 5:2,5]

If the passion and death of Christ is the pinnacle of God’s love, then the sending of the Holy Spirit is enduring proof of that love – for Christ chose not that his death and resurrection should bring redemption for the people of one time, but for all people of all ages. The Holy Spirit, which is the bond of love that binds the Trinity is sent into the world as the abiding presence of God’s love for us, that we shall not be left orphans but rather always have the means to seek and find the love of God. In breathing the Spirit upon the apostles and sending him upon the Church for all time, the Sacred Heart of Jesus shows that his love endures forever.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is most profoundly experienced as pure divine love. It is a love so great that, when we encounter it, we are always found wanting; for no human love, however pious and well-intentioned can ever compare to the love that has been given to us by God, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit. It is appropriate, then, that devotion to the Sacred Heart should first acknowledge the insufficiency of our own love before the heart of him who gives all for love. Only from this position of reparation are we then able to undertake the conversion of life that results in the abandonment of self for a total reliance on the love of God.

In Communionem Christi [In communion with Christ]

Corpus Christi, 2014

IN COMMUNION WITH CHRIST, we find our ourselves both at one with his humanity and divinity; sharing his ministry and his glory. For never was a promise more fulfilled than that of Christ’s real presence among us, both sacramentally through the Eucharist and spiritually through the working of the Holy Spirit in his body, the Church.

The celebration of today’s solemn feast is not just a reminder of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but also a call to participate in the fullest extent of communion with Christ, which begins with the intimate encounter with Christ in the Mass and proceeds from this intimacy to community, where we both encounter and become the living body of Christ in the world.

Undoubtedly the greatest gift of Christ’s abiding presence with us in the world today is the Holy Spirit, sent for the sanctification of our lives and as the fulfilment of Christ’s promise to be with us until the end of days. It is this Holy Spirit that makes real the presence of Christ today, for the salvation of mankind; for without it the story of salvation would have ended with the ascension of the Lord to God’s right hand, and we would have been lost forever.

This same Spirit comes upon the gifts of bread and wine so that the perfect offering may be made of Christ’s body and blood in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. The Lord’s presence in the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation is thereby made real, that through nourishment with his body and blood, we may partake in this most intimate communion with Christ and come to know him as Lord and Saviour, just as surely as he was known thus by the apostles who shared this sacred meal with him on the night before he suffered death.

How blessed we are then, that we should have God in the flesh as the sustenance of our faith and the object of our most profound adoration! How blessed, and in equal measure, how challenged! For this bread is Christ's real flesh and this wine is his real blood; the blood of the New Covenant, which challenges us to live as Christ lived and to love as he loved. For what is participation in the Eucharistic Feast without a gratefulness of heart that moves us to share the Good News of salvation with the world? And what is adoration of his presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament without that love overflowing into our lives and touching all those whom he loved?

The communion to which we are called – the experience of Christ’s real presence in our lives – is not only to be found in the Blessed Sacrament, but also – through our participation in this living sacrifice – in the community of the faithful; “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” [1Cor.10:17].

The Church – the communion of saints triumphant, penitent and militant – which is the guardian of the New Covenant in Christ’s blood, is imbued with his Holy Spirit and is one body, one spirit in Christ. For not any man who eats bread and drinks wine is the recipient of the grace of Christ's presence. The Church stands as guardian and guide, as giver and guarantor of the truth of his abiding presence – a mission that each of us is called to fulfil. For each of us is reborn in the Spirit, baptised in the very name of God, and filled with God’s graces through the sacraments, the chiefest of which is that of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us then, on this feast of Corpus Christi, give the Blessed Sacrament the highest veneration possible, by renewing our faith in Christ’s real presence therein, and by rekindling our desire to seek perfect communion with him: Firstly, our personal communion with the Lord through which our souls find nourishment and our mortal bodies taste the divine, and through which we awe in his presence and recall his love for us. And also our communion with Christ in all who partake of the bread of heaven and the cup of blessing; we who are now the living body of Christ in the world; we who have received the gifts of his Spirit, (as the Apostle Paul says) some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and others pastors and teachers, but all of us equipped, as the many parts that make up Christ’s body, for the work of his ministry and the building up of the Body of Christ.

In Nomine [In the name]

The Most Holy Trinity

15 June, 2014

IN THE NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

The simplest and yet most profound; the most spoken and yet most overlooked prayer. We begin each act of devotion with this invocation, yet it is often rushed and barely enunciated rather than prayed. And yet it is the very core of our faith. 

These few words encapsulate the mystery of our creation, our salvation and our relationship with God. They are both divine revelation and commission, urging us to understand the very nature of God and to go out in his name, in fulfilment of our calling to be God’s countenance to the world in order to participate in God's communion of love for all eternity.

To pray these words is to invoke the power of love-perfected, which unites and emanates from the one true God who has revealed himself in love as the Father of all creation, the architect of the loving gift of life brought into existence by the Word, his only begotten Son, who was made man for our salvation, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from them both as the eternal manifestation of their love and as the giver of true life, uniting our immortal souls with that divine love from which we were made. 

To live these words is to blur the lines between praying and living, by dedicating every thought, word and action to the love of God. For the Trinity is not some philosophical idea of God; it is the very pulse of life that animates creation. The love that is the very nature of the Godhead is not intangible and confined, but overflows through the Father’s gift of the Son and their sending of the Holy Spirit to wake our hearts from the slumber of self-love to the love of self-giving.

For we were made in the image of God, in the image of love-perfected, with a vocation to love as we ourselves have been loved by God. And God loves in the selflessness of complete self-giving. So let it be that our whole life is lived in this fervent prayer to the most holy Trinity, that our vocation may be brought to perfection:

In the name of the Father – may we love with generosity and justice, with wisdom and truth, with patience and benevolence, and with the designs of the creator as the blueprint for all our relationships.

In the name of the Son – may we love with obedience and humility, with openness and forgiveness, with purity and simplicity, and with sacrifice as the heart of our service of God and neighbour.

And in the name of the Holy Spirit – may we love with consolation and counsel, with insight and inspiration, with zeal and valour, and for the sake of love itself, for “by this we know that we abide in him and he in us”.

And may the love of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with us and radiate from us in all its glory as we seek to perfect in ourselves the self-giving love that is our divine inheritance.

Nolite Timere [Do not be afraid]

Pentecost

08 June, 2014

DO NOT BE AFRAID: 

When you fear that the Lord is no longer with you, the Spirit of Wisdom will open the eyes of your heart to see God’s abiding presence in all creation. 

When you fear you have not fully grasped what the Lord himself has taught you, the Spirit of Understanding will reveal the truth you seek. 

If you find yourself lost and know not the direction you should take, the Spirit of Counsel will burn like a fire within you to light your path in the way of the Lord. 

In times of fear – even for your very life – the Spirit of Fortitude will embolden you with his strength to walk in the footsteps of Christ. 

When you fear that the weakness of your human flesh will confound your good intent, let the Spirit of Knowledge allow you to see with the eyes of God and act in accordance with his will. 

And should you ever forget that the Lord your God so loved you that he sent his only son to die that you might live, let the spiritual gifts of Piety and Fear of the Lord give you the grace to stand in his presence in wonder and awe, and to return his perfect love with love alone.

Not one of the Apostles gathered that day in the upper room was without fear of one kind or another. Their Lord had risen from the dead and revealed himself as not just their Lord, but Lord of all. And then, just as their eyes had been opened to the truth, he left them. In 50 days they had gone from being orphans to sons of God to orphans again.

But before departing from the world, Christ had promised that he would not leave them orphans; that he would send a comforter, a guide, an advocate and protector, to be with them till the end of time. This Paraclete – the Spirit of God that moved over the waters at the breaking of creation’s first dawn and spoke through the prophets – will be sent now to dwell for all time within God’s chosen people to renew, inspire and empower them in the service of God.

So it was for help that they waited – for clarity, direction, inspiration and hope; for a true understanding of what Jesus meant when he said, “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you,” and again, before he ascended into heaven, “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations”. How could this mission be achieved by them in a hostile city and a foreign world?

And so they waited with great yearning. And they were not to be disappointed; for with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, no man is left wanting; for the gifts of the Holy Spirit bring to perfection in man, our vision of and share in the divine nature through our faith in Christ Jesus. And with the Holy Spirit’s indwelling there was no room for fear or doubt, because all that seemed impossible to them even as they sat contemplating the Lord’s final promise, indeed came to pass through the grace of God working in them in the bountiful charismata of the Spirit.

And what of us, my brothers? Do we not profess our faith in the same God – the Father almighty; the only begotten Son; the Holy Spirit, the giver of life – as our fathers in the faith, through generation after generation, all the way back to the Apostles? Is it not the same Spirit that dwells within us today, sent by the same Lord, indeed for the same purpose of his glory through the living body of Christ, his Church on Earth?

And so, even as you say “I believe”, never cease to trust that the same gifts are given unto us today and always, those gifts of the Spirit that say, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I am with you always, yes, even to the end of time."

Haec Oratio Domini [This is the Lord’s own prayer]

7th Sunday of Easter

01 June, 2014

THIS IS THE LORD’S OWN PRAYER, for unity in the glorification of God.

You will all have noticed how the Sunday Gospels, after the accounts of the resurrection, take us back to the night before the crucifixion, to look again at Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he gave himself up to death. It is almost as if we are the first disciples, in the aftermath of the death and resurrection of our master, poring back on his every word, trying to make sense of what has happened and where we should go from here.

And so we have been reflecting on what is commonly known as Jesus’ 'final discourse’ or even ‘last will and testament’ in John’s Gospel, the climax of which is today’s prayer. And if there was ever a model for prayer, this should be it. If there was ever a prayer that should be committed to memory by every Christian, this should be it. For this is the Lord’s own prayer; spoken with such intimacy and love, and expressing his only desire, which should become our only desire: the glorification of God.

We go to God in prayer for many reasons — some only find time to pray in time of need — but there is no better time to remind ourselves than today, that prayer is the glorification of God. Intentions abound, be they temporal, spiritual, personal or on behalf of others, they should all have one aim: the greater glory of God through our lives.

It is no accident, then, that yesterday marked the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For through the commemoration of this moment in the life of Our Lady, we see first and foremost how to do all things, including prayer, for the glory of God. With our blessed Mother, we too should pray that our souls may magnify the glory of God in the world, and that he may use us as an instrument to lead all to the knowledge of God. For as Christ says, knowledge of God is to have received eternal life through faith in God and in the salvation wrought by his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

God will work through us to bring Christ into the world, as he did through the Holy Virgin, in so far as we emulate her in her total openness to the work of the Holy Spirit. And it is to this end that the Lord prays for us – a people taken from the world and given to Christ by the Father. He prays for us because, although our inheritance is not of this world, we are very much in the world. He prays for us because we have been chosen by God, chosen for knowledge, chosen for faith, chosen for eternal life; but chosen, nonetheless, to be given to Christ and to live as Christ lived, in the world but not of it, despised and rejected by it, whilst called to love and lead it. And it is for this mission of ours that he will send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to guide and strengthen us, to call and send us filled with the divine charismata that is witness to God’s abiding presence in creation.

Our Lord prays not for the world but for his chosen ones. It is then for these chosen to go out and live in the world, lives worthy of being called ‘Christian’. And through our lives lived in the truth of faith and to the glory of God, we are to touch the world, as Christ himself touched it – with the tenderness of love and the obedience of sacrifice.

Let our prayer then, come before God in the spirit of this love and sacrifice. And let our prayer be in unison with the Lord’s own prayer, that we may share in his eternal glory by glorifying him with our lives.