Fullerton T

Christmas 2020

Little did I think that when 2020 began that I would be writing this reflection with the covid19 pandemic continuing. We remember in a particular way all those who are affected by the pandemic. Many people have lost loved ones as a result of Covid and we pray for them. We also pray for all the healthcare professionals who have been in the frontline .

For the last four weeks of advent we have been looking forward to the coming of Christ into our world with all its ups and downs. We have completed our advent spiritual preparation So now  then let us rejoice in the Lord.

At this time when we celebrate the birth of “a saviour who has been born for” us, who is “a great light” in the darkness of the world around us, we welcome an opportunity to put aside our cares and worries as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.   None of us will travel to Bethlehem to behold the  new-born infant lying in the manger in the way the shepherds and the wise men did in their time. But all of us travel the road of daily life, and we are called to see Jesus the new-born Infant in all the people we come across especially those who need a helping hand especially during the COVID pandemic. We remember in a special way all those who have died especially those who lost their lives as a result of COVID19 and we keep their families in our prayers.

The customs of this season are veiled announcements of one message: Christ is born for us. To remove the veil, to hear the good news, we gather together in our churches. There the message of Christmas speaks loud and clear. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us, “In times past, God spoke in  various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he speaks to us through his Son.” The customs of Christmas speak the message in partial ways, but God speaks the message clearly through his Son, who has come into our midst. At Christmas the whole community of heaven joins with all believers on earth in a jubilant song of praise for the good news proclaimed by the angels:  Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people,for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11). Christmas is the annual renewal of being filled with wonder at the nearness of God. The nearer we are to our God, the nearer we come to those lowly ones who are God’s special ones. We are challenged at Christmas to do what Jesus and the angels did: bring the good news to the outcast and the lowly. The “tidings of great joy to be shared by the whole people,” and no one is to be left out.  Christmas is a great celebration of our faith in Jesus. We gather to celebrate light in the midst of darkness; we celebrate the new hope that Jesus has generated in people down the centuries. He is our light; he is our hope. When we want to know God, it is to Jesus that we turn; when we want to worship God, it is through Jesus that we sing our praises.

We too give glory to God in the highest for revealing himself to the lowly:  So with Mary and Joseph with the shepherds the Angels and  Arch Angels and the whole company of heaven  let us adore the Christ Child the child in the manger who is the reason for the Season that we celebrate at Christmas.

4th Sunday of Advent

This week we have heard that the local covid19 lock down restrictions will be reimposed here in Northern Ireland for another 6 weeks from the 26^th December. It is very easy to be critical of these decisions and we cannot forget the fact that they will affect the livelihoods of many people as COVID-19 itself has affected all of us and continues to do so.. We also remember that the NHS could be overwhelmed with COVID19 as well as the normal pressures of this time of year and we pray for everyone that they will get the strength to keep on going despite the difficulties that might lie ahead.

This weekend we celebrate the 4^th Sunday of Advent and we hear the story of the Angel Gabriel coming to tell Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus. But as we hear this story we should stop and step aside from all the ongoing activities of this time of year to think about how Mary felt when she got this news that she was to have a child. Luke tells us, ” she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.”

The angel has to reassure her, “Do not fear Mary.” – she must have been afraid. In that uneasy world of Galilee, a place of conflict and struggle, Mary’s personal response showed confusion and doubt. Still, Mary did not get a road map of the future neither do we especially these days with of COVID19.  Gabriel announced the conception and birth of royalty. Mary’s child would be “great”. He would be Son of the “Most High” (a title for the greatest God, the highest concept of divinity one could have. The title “Son of” indicated a unique, intimate relationship with this highest God and a sharing in this God’s power). He would have the Davidic throne of Israel forever. [1:32] Mary made room for God in her life. Scripture suggests God wants to enter more fully into our lives; with all the good and bad and all the happy and sad times that are part and parcel of our lives. Mary accepted, even proclaimed, God’s will in her life. She placed her future in the hands of the Father so should we.

Marys example should inspire us to stand firm as Christians in today’s world of ever-changing fads and fancies as we face up to the secular razzmatazz in the run up to Christmas. Remember, the words of others may sting, but the Spirit of God burns within. The divine fire can withstand the darts others fling toward us. This Christmas will give us many challenges as this past year has and we should place ourselves and our future in the hands of our heavenly Father as Mary did  and we wont go far wrong at all.

Gaudete Sunday 3rd Sunday of Advent

This weekend we continue our Advent Journey as we come out of another lockdown here in NI. We thank God that the Vaccine has been found and approved for use with the first doses been given ,we pray for the continuing success of all the scientists who have brought us to this point.

This Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent it is also known as Gaudete Sunday. In some places Rose vestments are used and we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath. It is a Sunday when we rejoice as we look forward to the birth of Jesus. In our parish we are celebrating Bambinelli Sunday though in a reduced way.  This  is a Roman tradition where  the priest will bless the baby Jesus from family cribs brought to Mass by the children on Gaudete Sunday.   The blessing of the Bambinelli reminds us that the crib is a school of life where we can learn the secret of true joy.

This does not consist in having many things but in feeling loved by the Lord, in giving oneself as a gift for others and in loving one another. As we prepare for the birth of Jesus we have to ask ourselves is God made real through the baby Jesus present in our own life stories especially this year with the continuing pandemic? Our Gospel story tells us about John the Baptist who was the voice crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord. John the Evangelist presented the Baptist as God’s witness, the one who spoke eternal truth in a transient world. John’s message and ministry of a repentant baptism prefigured Christ’s. John baptised in the spirit of hope and we live in the spirit of hope. The baptism of Jesus realised that hope. Those baptised by John looked forward to a life with God. Those baptised by the Christ lived in God as we live in God.

We rejoice and praise God on this Gaudete Sunday. We thank him for all he has done for us in our own lives and in the lives of all those who are near and dear to us, families and friends wherever they are especially at this time. We rejoice that through the coming of Jesus we have come to know God as our Father. We do our best to follow his Gospel of love in a spirit of joy. As we continue our Advent journey  along the road that leads us to salvation let us prepare the way for the Lord in our own lives remembering that in  the words of the Entrance Antiphon  we should rejoice in the Lord always; for the Lord is near. 

1st Sunday of Advent

This Sunday we begin the season of Advent and we begin another church year as we start our preparation for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. This year all we do at this time in preparation for and celebration of Christmas will be tempered by the reality that COVID19 is with us as a real and present danger lurking in the background. Christmas when we get to it will be very different for all of us as we struggle to make sense of everything that has happened since last year.

Advent like Lent is a time of spiritual preparation and there are many opportunities for doing this between now and Christmas Eve. Amongst all the razzmatazz of the Christmas preparations and the madness of the shoppers on our town and city streets including Black Friday we need to stop and ask ourselves what are we waiting for this Advent.  We are waiting for Jesus who is coming to help us awaken from sleep so we can put aside all that is false in our lives and our world and rebuild our house on rock, that is the rock of faith. St. Paul’s words “God is faithful” will accompany us through any change or adjustment we need to make in our lives . This is the God Isaiah evokes as he imagines us as clay to be formed by our God, “the potter,” and reminds us, “we are all the work of god’s hands.  The Father will transform both humanity and nature to the way he intended them to be from the first moment of creation free from sin, sickness, and death- free from the consequences of evil. In our anticipation for the Lord’s coming, we hope that our faith will help reveal the Kingdom and prepare others as well as ourselves for eternity. Our efforts alone will not bring about the Kingdom, as if we humans can progress or evolve to a higher plane by ourselves. But, God, acting through us, will reveal and realise the Kingdom. Then, when we act according to his will; we add our contribution to his activity.       CCC 1042-1050

Blessed John Henry Newman in his time reminded us in a homily for the Advent Season: “Advent is a time of waiting, it is a time of joy because the coming of Christ is not only a gift of grace and salvation but it is also a time of commitment because it motivates us to live the present as a time of responsibility and vigilance. This ‘vigilance’ means the necessity, the urgency of an industrious, living ‘wait’. For all this to happen we need to wake up, as we are warned in the  reading to the Romans: ‘Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (Rm 13:11).As we begin this advent we ask ourselves what are we waiting for ? Are we waiting for the razzmatazz of Christmas Day or are we preparing as we should be for the greatest gift of God, Jesus his Son, Christ the Son of God the light in the darkness for a broken world. A world that needs something to hold on to this Christmas especially during the Covid 19 Pandemic.

ADVENT REFLECTION

As we begin the Churches new year it is a good opportunity to stop and reflect on what has happened over the last year and as we all know such a lot has happened. In particular we have the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic in which many have lost their lives and many more have given their all in terms of caring for and sharing with other people. We pray for them all. It has been a time of uncertainty as well as fear of the unknown for all of us. We have come through all the upheaval of the last 8 months and now we are moving towards Christmas.

Advent is the time of preparation for Christmas and Christmas this year will be very different for all of us for so many reasons especially COVID 19. Sadly, for so many who live in our secular world, Advent has no meaning.  It is so easy to pass the whole of December in the frantic secular preparation for Christmas.  With all of this going on the Church invites us to spend these 4 weeks in a spirit of hope filled anticipation. Advent from the Latin, Adventus means `coming’. God wants to be with us that is why he sent his Son Jesus into the world. As we think about the deeper meaning of Advent we cannot forget those who are in any kind of need especially as a result of the COVID Pandemic.  Over these days  of preparation we are asked to go beyond our own personal comfort zones and to take note of the places and people in this world most easily overlooked by everyone especially where we live.  

That is why the money we give to those organisations such as saint Vincent DePaul and the Salvation Army are so important at this time of the year as they help so many more people at Christmas and this year there will be so many people who will need their assistance due to the current circumstances. There are a number of steps for all of us to take to enter into the Advent season. All of us should slow down and as a result of covid19 this should be the case as we go about the daily toil that this time of year brings. Then, when we slow down we can begin to quietly pray, “Come, Lord, Jesus.”  Advent is about letting God come to live in us as we go about our everyday lives. For all of us, the Christmas we will celebrate this year with COVID19 around us  will be very different in comparison to wonderful Christmases of our past perhaps because we were younger perhaps because some of our loved ones who were central to our Christmas celebrations are no longer living perhaps because the burdens and struggles of life or the changes in our world robbed this Christmas of something or someone that was there before.

Some of us, might be looking forward to Christmas, and not be as aware as we should of the people around us who will be  struggling with Christmas,yet we  feel that, in spite of our best efforts to make Advent different there is still something missing, and we still feel that we are not -ready for Christmas when it finally arrives. For all of us, the story behind Christmas  draws us in, and invites all of us to understand the mystery of how Jesus came into this world and why.  Our best preparation for the Christmas Season  is for us to reflect upon how he came.  He came in the midst of scandal and conflict.  He came in poverty.  He was rejected before he was born.  He was born in a Manger in a Stable.  He was hunted down.  And he grew up in obscurity. He did not shun our world its poverty and conflict.   He embraced it.  And he wants to embrace us today, on this day at this time especially in this time of COVID19 with all its difficulties.  Right where we are.  Right when we are feeling most distant.  Right when  we are feeling least “religious” or “ready.” 

If we let him come into our hearts during these challenging days, we will find ourselves entering into the real meaning  of Christmas. Christmas  is all about being the people  that we are called in faith to be that is people who are caring for and sharing with our families and friends as well as those who are in need wherever they are and there are many people who have little or nothing at all.  All of our Advent preparations should lead us to  the celebration of the Christ Child Emmanuel who is God with us. So as we go forward may the Advent season help us to prepare for the birthday of Jesus at Christmas as we make our preparation this year we pray:

Come, Lord, Jesus.”  “Come into my life, it is messy in so many ways. I believe you love me.  Come and fill my heart mind and soul with the peace and the love only you can give.” “Come, Lord, Jesus, come into this house, into my family, into our struggles. Come and heal us, and give us peace in heart mind and spirit. Come into our communities and let us experience, each in our own way, the joy you are offering us at Christmas time.”

THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

This Sunday  we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. The theme of the kingship of Christ should not be misunderstood. Jesus is not king in an earthly sense of the word. The acclamations of the crowds that took place in the Gospel and the enthusiastic endorsement of the disciples that Jesus is the Messiah might mislead us. Jesus is king to the Glory of God the Father; Jesus is Messiah, because he is the anointed one of God, who comes to do the will of God.The gospel parable of the last judgment picks up on the king and shepherd themes. At the end time Jesus, the Shepherd King, will return and surrounded by his retinue of angels, will judge the nations. He will share his glory with those he finds worthy. Will he find us to be worthy of his call to be with him forever? If we are serious about our Christianity, if we are committed to the Kingdom of God, then we will be living lives of sacrificial love, the love of Jesus Christ. To take Christ as our Shepherd involves becoming a shepherd to others making Christ present to them by reaching out showing the faith and leading them along the path of faith if they aren’t already there.

The kingdom of Christ, a reign of charity and peace, is for all of us where ever we are. We remember that the Kingdom of God exists in every home where parents and children love each other. It exists in every region and country that cares for its weak and vulnerable people. It exists in every parish that reaches out to the needy with a helping hand. This very moment in our history and our lives presents us with a challenge and a choice. We can hear the Lord’s call in the presence of other’s needs. Or, we can turn away. Still there is hope in the grace God offers. Our past selfish ways can be overcome.  Now is the time for  conversion of heart and mind as we look to the season of Advent. Now is the time to give ourselves to the work God and his kingdom where all are valued and no one is left behind. These months of the pandemic have highlighted the desperate need of the poor, and those newly impoverished by loss of jobs, businesses and everything else.  Jesus directs us Christians today, even if our resources are limited, to ask ourselves: What can we share with those Jesus so powerfully identifies with in today’s parable?  May all of us take up the challenge that the feast of Christ the King gives us . That challenge is to reach out to others showing them that the ways of Jesus that is the way of caring and sharing with other people is  what we as Christians are really all about especially during the CIVID19 pandemic

33RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

This Sunday we celebrate the world day of the poor for 2020 and is has as its theme Stretch forth your hand to the poor” (Sir 7:32). This is a timely reminder to all of us who support Church Based charities to continue our support of the organisations such as the St. Vincent DePaul  and the Salvation Army especially during the run up to Christmas 2020 with all the challenges that it will bring with the ongoing COVID19 pandemic.

Our reading from the Gospel for this weekend  is about the servant and his one talent. The parable speaks first of the Master’s trust in his servants. While he goes away he leaves them with his money to use as they think best. While there were no strings attached, this was obviously a test to see if the Master’s workers would be industrious and reliable in their use of the money entrusted to them.

The master rewards those who are industrious in their work and faithful to his vision and he punishes those who sit idly by and who do nothing with his money. The essence of the parable seems to lie in the servants’ conception of responsibility. Each servant entrusted with the master’s money was faithful up to a certain point. The servant who buried the master’s money was irresponsible. One can bury seeds in the ground and expect them to become productive because they obey natural laws. Coins, however, do not obey natural laws. They obey economic laws and become productive in circulation. The master expected his servants to be productive in the use of his money. If we stop and substitute the money aspect of the parable with the word faith then we get to what the parable is really about and it tells us that faith is a real and wonderful gift from God that should be treasured. Faith is also given to us according to our ability to deal with it; each in proportion to his ability, as it says in the parable.

But the most important aspect of the Parable is that the Master will eventually return and the big question is will we be ready for his return? Paul assures us, ” The day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.” This is a wake-up call to alert us to stop relying on false security, while missing the ways that Jesus comes into our lives and they are many.  Sometimes we feel God’s blessing. Sometimes we feel he is away out there in the distance. There are even times God may feel like the enemy. We enjoy times of intimacy as graced moments. But in all the moments of our lives  we should try to realize that in times of distance and estrangement God offers us his life. The Gospel parable about the talents, and Saint Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians both tell us to be at peace with ourselves in heart and mind, for if we are doing the Lord’s work there is nothing to fear. So let us be fearless in our living out the gospel in our lives where we are and remember that even in our darkest times God is near to those who love him and do his will.

32ND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

This week we have seen the presidential election in the USA and it has been a real roller coaster for so many people. We pray for the American Nation and its people we pray for the healing of the hurt that the election process has brought as there are many people who are hurting at this time.

The theme of our readings this weekend is not marriage though the Gospel story is about the bridegroom and his attendants. Instead the readings point us towards something very different that is the gift of Wisdom. The first reading  taken from the Book of Wisdom cites watchfulness as the key to a faithful understanding of wisdom according to St. Bernard wisdom lights up the mind and instils an attraction to the divine.  The author of the Book of Wisdom reminds us that we have one unfailing presence to guide us through our lives that is Wisdom. We are told Watch for her early and you will have no trouble; you will find her sitting at your gates. She is “resplendent and unfading;” always there for those who seek her out.  So we are called in this reading to look for wisdom that comes from god and it will be given to us.

The Gospel story for this Sunday is about an oil crisis in the Middle East it tells us about the five bridesmaids who didn’t buy extra lamp oil they were foolish because they weren’t prepared for the late arrival of the bridegroom. On the other hand the story flags up the wisdom of the five wise bridesmaids who were prepared for the late arrival of the bridegroom as they went out and bought more oil for their lamps. Their wisdom wasn’t extraordinary, but eminently practical. It is true that it is difficult, or impossible, to estimate the quantity of oil necessary to keep a lamp lit as we wait for an unknown length of time! In this story the Lamp oil is really about our faith and how we live our faith. This Gospel calls us to seize the moment and direct our lives guided by the wisdom that God gives us through the life and teachings of Jesus. What we experience is the routine of work, school, and various activities, rushed family meals, television, the news on the car radio, shopping, visiting elderly parents, friends and family, church services, etc. It can feel so predictable and it is. But the routine of our daily lives  can also be shattered by the unexpected and sudden demands life puts on us and our loved ones.

This has been proved to be very true in recent months during the COVID19 pandemic and that is the main thing that 2020 will be remembered for that none of us expected or wanted, it has become a great crisis for so many people who have lost their livelihoods and more importantly lost members of their families or friends. When the crisis of life whatever they may be whenever they might happen are we be ready to respond? It depends on how well we have tended to our “oil” supply.  If we have squandered it by neglect, or missed opportunities then when we look for backup in a moment of crisis, like the bridesmaids we may be left with the sound of the slamming door being locked as the bridegroom tells us I don’t know who you are you are too late. Only those who were ready went in with the bridegroom to the wedding. When God calls us, will we be ready as we do not know the hour when the bridegroom will come.

THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS

We begin by sparing a thought for all those who lost their lives in Nice in southern  France during the week that they may rest in peace and their families find consolation from those around them at this sad time.

This weekend we have the two feasts the feast of All Saints on Sunday and the feast of All Souls on Monday. On November 1st the Church celebrates all the saints: the multitude of those who are in heaven enjoying the beatific vision that are only known to God. During the early centuries the Saints venerated by the Church were all martyrs. Later the  1^st  November was set  as the day for commemorating all the Saints. We all have this “universal call to holiness.” What must we to do in order to join the company of the saints in heaven? We “must follow in Jesus footsteps and try to practice what Jesus preached as we seek  to do  the will of the Father in all things throughout our lives.

When we try to do that the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history” Among the saints in heaven are some  people whom we have known such as Pope Saint John Paul or Padre Pio who both lived in the last 100 years.  Padre Pio died in 1968 and of course John Paul died in 2005. But there are so many ordinary people who show us how to be saints by the way they lead their lives.  After rejoicing  with the saints  on All souls Day we  pray for all those who, await the day when they will join the company of saints. None of us, I feel sure, is aspiring or expecting to be a canonised saint. We don’t think that one day the pope will tell the world what saints we were. We don’t kid ourselves that our picture is going to pop up one day on the walls of churches. Not for a moment do we imagine anyone saying prayers to us or carrying around pieces of us as relics. We don’t foresee any statues of us being carried high in processions. But in its document on the Church, the Second Vatican Council wrote a chapter called ‘The Universal Call to Holiness’ and all of us Are called to be holy as our heavenly father is Holy.

A few days ago, on October 10th, a remarkable 15-year-old Italian teenager, named Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006, was declared ‘Blessed’ in the basilica of St Francis, Assisi. Carlo once said that his life project was ‘Jesus’. Surely, his beatification and our Feast this Sunday are reminders of our deep-down longings to become better people than we are already, and the best we can be with faith in god and one another ! Surely too they remind us that Jesus Christ can and will empower us to live what we believe, to practise what he preached!