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PALM SUNDAY

This Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday, and we will gather in our Churches for the Blessing of the Palms. As we gather we remember that last year we had begun the first COVID 19 lockdown and no one was able to be in Church for Palm Sunday and the Holy Week celebrations it was different to say the least. But as we know a year later we are slowly beginning to emerge from the pandemic but as we begin to get back to normal we must take our time and  be cautious as we go forward. So for us this year things will be different but they will also be the same and that is reassuring. Last Tuesday we marked the 1^st anniversary of the lockdown and we paid  tribute to all those who work  in the NHS and we prayed for all those who sadly lost their lives. may we continue to remember and hold in our prayers all those who have helped during the pandemic as well as all those families who have lost loved ones as a result of the pandemic.

Palm Sunday is just the start as we begin our annual Holy Week journey, from the Hosannas of today we go to the Upper room on Holy Thursday and then on to the denials of peter and the Cross of Good Friday. Then we come to Easter when all that seemed to be lost on Good Friday was redeemed and is redeemed every Easter. So now we stop and think for a moment about how we began our journey on Ash Wednesday and where we are now as we approach the life changing and life giving events of Holy Week. The entrance into Jerusalem is one of the very few events in Jesus’ life which is mentioned in all four gospels.  It is the only time that Jesus accepts and encourages public acclaim as Messiah.  He even goes as far as organising his entrance by telling the disciples to go and fetch the donkey. The key moment in God’s great plan of salvation is about to begin and Jesus knows exactly how it will unfold as he knew and understood what the will of the father would mean for him.The events of Palm Sunday were foretold thousands of years ago.

The first reading from Isaiah, speaks of a courageous and obedient messiah-figure, who says, “I have set my face like flint” against the beatings and scourging that lie ahead, “knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” The second reading from Philippians reminds us of Jesus’ total emptying of His divinity in order that He might identify Himself with the lowest criminal being led to His execution, “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” And the reading continues but God raised him high and gave him the name above all other names. We move towards the heavenly Jerusalem because Christ himself made the journey to the Cross for us and now he offers to make it with us.  The full drama of the Gospel  begins with the crowd’s fickle acclamation of Jesus as King at the beginning of the reading. On Palm Sunday we feel embarrassed to cry out “Crucify Him” but we do. It reminds us of our own fickle response and our lack of courage in responding to His love and truth.

Yet we know that it was the sins of us all which brought Jesus to Calvary. Palm Sunday and Holy Week are all about Jesus suffering for our inadequacies and our own very real sins. Holy Week is a time for us to realize what we’re really like, and to find that the only remedy for our pains and our fears is love. That is Love of God, love of others and oneself. Are we ready to join our own pains and fears to the Master’s? Are we ready to add as much love as we can possibly muster to His boundless love? As God’s family, we are called to look out for one another. It’s not just about “me myself and nobody else.” It’s about “us and everyone else altogether and the covid 19 pandemic response  has really proved this over the last 12 months. Our journey during Holy Week is all about god’s love for all of us that is his great love that has no end. 

let us not be afraid to set out and go through the week we are beginning today so that we will be able to celebrate the bright light of Jesus present in our lives  at Easter having travelled the journey of Lent and Holy Week.

5th Sunday of Lent

we are now at the fifth Sunday of Lent,  with Holy Week and Easter on the horizon it is hard to think that we are going through lent at such a fast pace.  It will be good to celebrate the Liturgy of holy week with people in the Church as last year the ceremonies were online with no one present in the churches. It has taken us exactly one year from the beginning of the COVID restrictions in Northern Ireland on the 18^th March 2020 to where we are today and time has flown by. It has been a year in which all of us young and old have suffered in so many ways. We have been travelling along a long dark road but now the light is beginning to appear at the end of that road. We thank God that we have got through the various restrictions that COVID has brought and we pray for all those who have lost family members as a result of the pandemic.

We are an Easter People and this means that no matter how dark the darkness  may be the light of Christ will light up our lives and show us the road to take as we go forward with hope and joy in our hearts as we emerge slowly from this pandemic.

In the Gospel for this weekend some Greeks ask to see Jesus. Jesus responds by saying that anyone who loves his life will lose it; to gain your life, you have to be like a grain of wheat which brings forth much fruit only by falling into the earth and dying. The seed which must die to produce a harvest is a powerful image of Jesus death. The Greeks must have been baffled. They were baffled in much the same way that we are when we listen to the stories from scripture about Jesus and all the things that he had done. The gospel goes on to tell us that a voice is heard from the cloud, as at the Transfiguration in the other gospels, but here it speaks of the ‘glory’ that will come to Jesus for giving up his life. It is in his death and resurrection that he draws all people to himself, both Jew and Greek slave and free man.

Many Learned men and women have tried to put their interpretation on the Scriptures but if we listen with open hearts and minds to the scripture readings what the word of God means to us in our lives will become apparent. For many people including me God’s presence is not often thought of  at the time we say or do something but afterwards, when you look back at what has happened or what you have said you often see that the hand of God was with you at that point. I have often said things to people about situations that they were  in and thought to myself where did I get that from? Then on reflection I know that what I said was right and I was inspired to say and do the right thing in the right place.  As we come to the last few days of Lent as we begin to get back to normal living after coming through COVID 19  let us prepare with great intensity for Palm Sunday and the Easter Triduum and then we will really be able to enjoy the Easter feast when it arrives and don’t forget the Easter celebration lasts 40 days until Pentecost Sunday !!!

4th Sunday of Lent

This weekend we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Lent that is also known as Laetare Sunday and this mirrors Gaudete Sunday in Advent because the mood and theme of both days is one of hope and rejoicing. So what is the cause for rejoicing this Sunday? The cause for our rejoicing is that we are getting close to the great events of Holy Week and Easter that have brought us salvation. But on a more secular  note we are rejoicing because we are beginning to slowly emerge from the restrictions that COVID19 has imposed on us for the last year or so. We thank God that we are at this stage but as we are thankful r we pray for all those effected by the pandemic especially the families of all those who have died.

The Gospel reading from John tells us that a person is condemned because that  person did not  believe in the Son of God. God the Father has no desire to condemn, but people condemn themselves by putting God and the ideals of faith out of their lives.

Over many centuries so many people have said there is no  god or in situations that seemed hopeless  they have asked where is God and all of us have done this especially since the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic and we know in faith the God is with us. There are so many people out there in our so called modern world  who have turned out the light of faith in their lives permanently for many reasons.  I know people of all ages who have been brought up in the Faith and then have left it all behind and yet we as people of faith know that there is a  god and he is there among us in the people who are in our daily lives though sometimes we do not realize it . He is there in the good and bad times that we have in our lives and helps us to get through whatever happens. At the Easter Vigil we proclaim the risen Lord as Christ our Light and we celebrate with joy.  Jesus is God’s own Son given to us and for us, the one who wants to restore the people who are  in exile. He wants to bring light to those who live in darkness. He wants to bring life to those who are perishing.

This is the good news, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This is the reason that we are trying to be faith filled people even though it is hard going. This past year has been hard going for everyone but we try to keep the faith knowing that God is with us in all our troubles. This Sunday is a cause for rejoicing in the midst of our Lenten efforts to renew ourselves so that we may bask in the light of Christ at Easter.

THIRD SUNDA OF LENT

This weekend we celebrate the third Sunday of Lent and we are almost at the 12 month point since the restrictions around COVID19 began here in NI. I get the feeling that we are coming out the other side with the slow return of all the things we value. When all this started we really did not know what was going on and all of  had to make the best of what has happened. Now as we begin our slow return to normal we are asked to hold firm and stay with the changes that have taken place as we do that we are also asked to be a friend to those around us who might be in any difficulty especially when life is not so good  during and after the pandemic.

This Sunday’s gospel shows us that Jesus was really tuned in to our human nature: He knew what was going on in the hearts of those around him. He knew what they thought. He saw what they did to the Temple. The Temple was supposed to be a place of celebration celebrating the spiritual presence of God in the world. The reading tells us that  the people changed the Temple into a marketplace when it should have been a place of spiritual encounter.

For many in our modern world the day of the Lord Sunday has been replaced with so many secular things taking the place of God religion and faith.  Jesus knew that people would see the signs that he worked, the miracles he performed, but the same  people would refuse to see the messages behind the signs and the miracles that were there if front of them in plain sight. Instead they would see him as a wonder worker, a superman, a good show and Jesus wasn’t about any of that. Many people have left the faith behind but in similar fashion many are returning again. It is often said that in order to really appreciate something we have to leave it behind and then go back to it again later on when we understand the thing we have left behind was a better deal than the place we went to.The portrait of Jesus in today’s Gospel is a world away from the storybook caricature of Jesus, the meek and mild figure. An equal caricature is to use this passage to make Jesus into a godfather of violence, a revolutionary willing to support annihilation for the sake of the cause and that was not the case. Jesus did use force in the Temple; he was certainly aggressive. But he did not use force because he was not a political leader. Nor did he use aggression to gain power for himself because his kingdom could not be established by violence.

Our faith is not about a good show instead it is about our relationship with God and how we bring the love of God to those around us. Jesus shows us  what real love is as he went on to die on the cross for us on Good Friday.  Our dying to ourselves during Lent is an identification with the power of Christ crucified. Our calling, then, is to be strong in faith, not weak. God gives us signs both people and places as anchors of faith even during this time of pandemic. We must trust the Lord to cut us free from everything that stops us going to him and allow him to guide us through the rough currents of life especially the ones we are going through these days. So we go forward with hope and certainty towards Easter as we do that we remember that our god is a god who is with us in good and bad times and he won’t let us down.

Second Sunday of Lent

Here we are at the second Sunday of Lent. It is hard to believe it but time is marching on and yes its nearly a year since all the COVID19 restrictions began. In the Gospel reading for this weekend we hear about Jesus going up the mountain taking Peter James and John, with him and we hear the voice of the father identifying  Jesus as “my beloved Son.”  the God who speaks to the disciples on the mountain directs all of us to “Listen to him”. Our journey during lent is a journey of listening to scripture and listening to one another as we tell our own stories of faith.  Mountains were  always seen places of retreat and encounter with god.  Moses and Elijah were no strangers to mountain encounters with God. They met God on the mountain, but struggled to make God’s plan a reality back down among the people on the ground. Moses, the lawgiver and Elijah, the prophet, symbolized the rich religious tradition of the Jewish people.

Through them, that tradition is in dialogue with Jesus.  The voice of god from the heavens identifies Jesus as “my beloved Son.”  Jesus invites us to an exciting journey our lives lived in faith should be an exciting journey from birth right until we get to the pearly gates when we die. “The kingdom of God is at hand, Repent, and believe the Good News are all about Lent and in a particular way it is our call to take up the spiritual journey.  We’re not invited to go on  a trip to Disneyland or any other holiday place we might want to go to especially during the Pandemic when a great number of us are in lockdown. Instead we are called to explore the great depths of God’s love for us as we try to move and live in God’s Love as we climb the mountain of the Lord which is represented by our annua observance of Lent. Every year we hope to rise again from the ashes of our sins and failures “to recreate ourselves anew.” Every year we take a six week journey, a pilgrimage of faith that takes us through the penance, self-discipline, prayer, and  good works of Lent that lead us  to the refreshing waters of Easter.

As Jesus taught a lesson in patience and hope to Peter, James, and John, so He teaches us to listen and wait, as we wait we are encouraged to listen to his message. In our Lenten journey we remember Jesus transfigured on the mountain and listen to what he is telling us! May we keep in mind that God and the community around us provide us with encouragement and strength to continue in faith through all the adversities that have been thrown at us especially in this past year with the COVID19 pandemic with all the hassle it has brought to us .

First Sunday of Lent

This Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent and we would normally begin with the ashes on Ash Wednesday but this year things are very different. With covid19 around and an ever present danger we began Lent with  the Ash Wednesday services online but as usual we were asked to  repent and be faithful to the Gospel. This year lent is different  for all of us little did any we realize that we would be in the various restrictions  for so long. Nor did we realize that so many would be saying goodbye to their loved ones who died from the Corona Virus over the last 11 months. This Year Lent will be different as we go into the wilderness with Jesus and that is where we seem to have been for the last 11 months or so with the restrictions in place.

Many of us feel that we have been in the wilderness we also remember that Jesus has been with us in that wilderness and is journeying with us in all we have gone through as we look forward to more hope and joy filled times. Lent throws out many question to challenge us and the questions I often think about  around this time of year is Why do we have Lent every year? Why penance? Why fasting? Why almsgiving? What does that have to do with us? If we take our faith seriously then Lent, penance, fasting and almsgiving have a great deal to do with us. This reading from the Gospel of Mark also tells us that the time has come for us to repent and believe in the Good News. It is an ancient custom in the Church that the story of the temptation of Jesus in the desert should be read on the first Sunday of Lent. Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. At the beginning of the forty days of Lent the Church always puts before us his time of solitude and it also puts before us a time for renewal.

We ask ourselves what in our homes, at work, local, and parish communities needs to be changed for so many are out there in the wilderness of a godless faithless life. During the season of Lent we take stock of where we are in our lives and where we really need to be as people of faith who believe in God. These next few weeks will be a time of refreshment, a time of repentance and also a time of renewal that prepare us for Holy Week and Easter. So now as we begin Lent we are invited to commit our lives fully to God and God’s ways remembering that god’s ways are not our ways.  Jesus preaches “Metanoia which requires change of heart, mind and Spirit. Let us ask ourselves whether we are open to be really changed as gods people s so we will be able to enter more fully into the great ceremonies of our redemption during Holy Week and Easter.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday we celebrate the 6^th Sunday of ordinary time as we finish the first part of Ordinary Time as the Holy Season of Lent begins again with the Ashes of ash Wednesday next week. We have now come full circle and here we are facing into Lent with all its opportunities. However Ash Wednesday and Lent will be different this year because of the COVID Pandemic.

Our Gospel story tells us  about the Leper going to Jesus who healed him but it is about much more than just the healing, it is about the faith that the leper had in Jesus. It is also about the faith we have in Jesus.  After he heals him Jesus tells the man to be silent. He wants the miracle to be personal and quiet for a purpose. The man is to go first to the priests and go through the ritual cleansing prescribed in Leviticus (14:1ff.) Maybe the priests would ask the man how he was cured and then they would hear about Jesus. Who better to give witness to Jesus than someone whose life has been changed by him? Who better to witness to the strength, joy, encouragement, hope and direction that Jesus gives us than one who has been transformed by him?  

It is interesting to note that during his healing of the leper Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the man. This is a clear breach of one of the rules set down by Moses; touch was forbidden for fear of passing on the infection. But, of course, touch is often an important part of the healing process and Jesus does not hesitate to touch the man he is healing. In hospitals the doctors carry out the physical treatment but it is often the tender loving care given by the nurses that actually brings about the real healing. This TLC, as we call it, cannot be truly given without touching. When we consider the disease of leprosy we can see too that it has many similarities with that other great disease that afflict mankind, namely sin. Leprosy separates human beings from each other, but sin separates us both from God and from each other. Sin brings division and damages the cohesion of the community.  The lepers life was changed by Jesus’ compassion, touch and words but Jesus told him not to tell anyone. We have to ask ourselves are our own lives changed when we hear the words of Jesus?  Do we allow ourselves to be transformed by the words of Jesus in order to show his compassion to others? The man who Jesus cured became an evangelist.

He “proclaimed and spread the word.” In the context of Mark, the cured man brought others to faith even though he was told not to tell anyone. So many, in fact, Jesus could not travel in the open for fear of a mob. Yet, they came to him from every point in Galilee. Jesus continued his ministry despite restrictions placed on him. But he could not visit new territories and preach. Word of his power preceded Jesus and brought the needy to him. May we share the healed man’s enthusiasm to make known the goodness of God. As we begin the season of Lent  next Wednesday Let us pray for a spirit of compassion and understanding as we journey through Lent to the great celebration of Holy Week and Easter especially during the covid19 pandemic.

5TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

This weekend we hear from Job who believes there is nothing left for him but a life drudgery and grief. Like Job in the first reading, we all come upon times of chaos, times of stress. There are so many aspects to life for which there are no solutions especially during the COVID19 pandemic. Like Job we all experience what he called months of misery and it has been like that for so many people and countries for the past year or more as we endure  COVID19 .Perhaps, we do not suffer to the extent that Job seems to have suffered, but life these days brings many challenges, including challenges to our faith that God will get us through. The Lord is aware of our difficulties. He sees our turmoil. He wants to heal us, just as he healed all those people in this weekend’s Gospel.  In the Gospel Reading for this Sunday, Jesus comes to Peter’s house, he finds that Peter’s mother-in-law is sick, and he heals her. The whole town hears of her healing and rushes all their sick to Peter’s house. The house is surrounded, and so is Jesus. Now, all of a sudden, Jesus seems to have become a one-man hospital the man who heals all their ills.

He is so besieged that he can’t even pray in the house. He has to head out into the countryside secretly in the dark of morning. When his absence is detected, his disciples go looking for him. when they find him, they tell him “Everybody is looking for you!”  We Christians of today have many advantages over the people of Capernaum. They saw Christ with their eyes as a man of power amongst them; we see him with the eyes of faith as he really was and is the Son of God who came on earth in order to make us the family of God. We know who he really was and we know the full meaning of his mission. We have seen that mission completed amongst us by his death on the cross and his resurrection. By his death he conquered death by his resurrection he opened the gates of heaven for us and shows us  how to get there. The road we have to take is not easy and many people have chosen other roads. But I believe that people of all ages are out there looking for Jesus seeking the things of lasting value they are out there looking for Jesus and they are finding and following him. The questions of the suffering Job are not answered in the Gospel. Jesus may have his own questions about the suffering that surrounds him, as he will have his own questions when his own suffering becomes his passion on good Friday.

But whatever his questions are, Jesus stays committed to caring for the sick. That is his witness. Through the witness of Jesus we hold fast to the truth that God loves us in our weakness and fragility, in our sickness and suffering. We can see a reflection of God’s care in the commitment of doctors, nurses, healers, hospital chaplains and all the people who tend to the suffering of others especially in these times of the COVID19 pandemic. They are God’s compassion in flesh, God’s care in action on the ground. No doubt all of them have reason to wonder, to protest, to be angry when they see the innocent suffer. But they carry on. That is their enduring witness. Last Tuesday  we celebrated the feast of the presentation of Jesus in the temple and we blessed the candles. The candles represent the light of Christ will we be the light of Christ in all the places and situations we will find ourselves in  as we head towards the season of Lent that starts on the 17^th February? Will we be the people who point others along the right roads that lead to Jesus  in what we do and what we say during the season of Lent and beyond?

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week we have been taking part in Catholic Schools week, over these days we have been celebrating what it means to be a catholic  school. This year with the schools closed there have been a number of celebrations online as most of the learning at home has been online and we pray for our teachers, parents, grandparents and the young people  that make up our school communities. For all our young people and their parents this past year has been a tough one but we should not forget that things will get better as we go forward and we pray for all those involved in education wherever they are.

in this Sundays  Gospel we hear about the authority of the Lord to cast out demons and devils. The reading is taken from the Gospel of Mark. As Jesus begins to teach in Capernaum. The people are spellbound because he spoke with authority, not like the scribes. A man comes to Jesus who is in the hand of an evil power and Jesus makes the devil come out of the man. The bystanders are amazed because Jesus has such authority.  What do we mean when we speak about the authority of the Lord? What do we mean when we talk about authority in general? What ways do we exercise authority in relation to those around us? What ways do we exercise the authority of the Lord as Christians?  The word authority comes from the Latin word auctoritas. The basic meaning of this Latin word is creator, the word author also comes from this word. In general, authority is intimately connected with its source that source is the person who gives another the authority to do something so the authority that Jesus has comes from his Father. Jesus, speaks for God through his divine nature. His entire public life was about compassion and mercy. He despised arrogance, fought hypocrisy, and he believed the heart was stronger than the law.  He brought God’s mercy compassion and love to the earth and in the process brought us forgiveness from our self-interest, our scapegoating, our manipulation of frayed emotions, and our insecurity in the face of diversity of language, race, and nationality. Are we going to ignore the calling of Jesus to be prophets in our own place or will we step up and be the prophets of god for our own time here and now where we are? Recent events in America show us that we need prophets for our time people who are not afraid to stand up and be counted when it comes to pointing out the errors that people make as they need to hear us  speak truth to power. We are truly prophets when we stand for the truth, for the marginalized, for the alien, for the victim of war, for the victims of capitalism that serves only the capitalist when it should serve everyone. We are stronger when we show that there is another way and that way is the way of forgiveness it is the way of compassion and it is the way of love that comes to us from god the authority for all we do and say as people of faith hope and love we who are the people of god.  

When we find ourselves depressed by the evil we see in others, perhaps we best hear the authoritative teaching of Jesus when we hear it as a call to conversion of heart mind and spirit bringing God’s mercy compassion and love to the people around us as well as ourselves. If that call seems to touch us when we are at our weakest, let us be encouraged that such weakness is an opening for God’s healing and liberating power so let us be the prophets of gods healing in our broken world a world that needs healing more than ever these days of the uncertainty that comes with COVID19 and many other things and people as well.