Speak Lord: source of life

When we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.

But we believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him: Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again. Death has no power over him any more. When he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is life with God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:3-4,8-11

The Second reading at Mass on Sunday, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, reminds of the glory that is ours through baptism – made one with Christ, members of his Body.

That unity is not pretend or honorary. It is real and it is abiding. No one can take it from us, and it offers us the gift of life eternal. It is a life and a quality of life that we begin to live here, even in our mortal bodies, but it is a life that endures beyond this world and beyond our death here. In Christ we will be raised again, ourselves called into the life of heaven.

• How is your life today going to reflect and share that glory?

Architectural fragments from Baptistry, paleo-Christian basilica, Cimiez, Nice. (c) 2013, Allen Morris

Speak Lord: Lead us to your cross and ours…

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows:

‘Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

‘Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and those who welcome me welcome the one who sent me.

‘Anyone who welcomes a prophet will have a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes a holy man will have a holy man’s reward.

‘If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.’

Matthew 10:37-42

The Gospel on Sunday, the 13th Sunday of the Year, reminds of the call to follow Christ and the challenges it contains.

At one level all is easy: welcome a prophet, give a cup of cold water to ‘one of these little ones’. At another level all is difficult even counter-intuitive: called to communion with Jesus and the family of the Church? Well, have no preference for your own family. Choosing life? Well, take up your cross and follow…

This is a choice that has to have real consequences in our lives and our other choices. Otherwise we have not chosen.

It is also a choice that cannot be made once and for all, never to be revisited. Rather it is a choice we have to make and affirm each day, indeed each moment that we face any choice: do we respond as disciple of Jesus, or not. Holy habits can make some of these choices, well, habitual, and help us form certain dispositions… but there will still be those moments, those choices we have not prepared for. Closeness to Jesus will help us make the better choice: closeness to Jesus, and recourse to him will be our consolation and our aid as we struggle and even as we fail.

Abbey Interior. Lerins, France. (c) 2005, Allen Morris.

 

 

Taste and See: The gift of God’s love

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word was made flesh and lived among us: to all who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God. Alleluia!

Jn1:14,12

The Gospel Acclamation above is one of the two offered for use at Mass last Sunday, the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

The Gospel of the Day speaks of our call to faithfulness to Jesus. The acclamation reminds of his radical commitment to us – evidenced in the Mystery of the Incarnation – God taking flesh and not just for the 33 years or so of Jesus life on earth, but remaining joined with us in the flesh after the Resurrection and the Ascension. God in flesh is one with us for ever.

May we choose likewise: to be one with him, and for ever…

Sculpture by Jacob Epstein. Cavendish Square, London. (c) 2009, Allen Morris

 

Taste and See: beyond harm

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Do not be afraid. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.

What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.

‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.

‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’

Matthew 10:26-33

The Gospel heard on Sunday, the 12th Sunday of the year, sets against each other two approaches to human life; ‘mere bodily life’ and ‘life of the soul’.

The latter does not exist independent of the body, but is more than just that. And that more is found especially in a relationship of trust and faith in the Father, and Jesus, who love and are for us, and who are our assurance that despite anything that might happen to the body, we are safe and secure in God.

This knowledge itself frees us from fear and for more adventerous, generous, godly life here. We can live in the now, without the dread that ‘this’ might very soon come to an end and us with it. We can live the promised eternal life even now.

Chapel to Martyrs of 1792, St Germain des Pres, Paris. (c) 2011, Allen Morris.

 

Taste and See: Faith

Jeremiah said:

I hear so many disparaging me,
‘“Terror from every side!”
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
All those who used to be my friends
watched for my downfall,
‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error.
Then we will master him
and take our revenge!’
But the Lord is at my side, a mighty hero;
my opponents will stumble, mastered,
confounded by their failure;
everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.
But you, O Lord of Hosts, you who probe with justice,
who scrutinise the loins and heart,
let me see the vengeance you will take on them,
for I have committed my cause to you.
Sing to the Lord,
praise the Lord,
for he has delivered the soul of the needy
from the hands of evil men.

Jeremiah 20:10-13

Many of us hearing the above reading, the first for Mass, yesterday, the 12th Sunday of the Year, will have wanted to transpose it to a spiritual/abstract pitch. For though we may know disparagement and insult, many (most?) of us will not experience to the intense level that Jeremiah did.

Yet to drain the reading of its particularity, and the violence and threat of violence of its direct and bruising quality, can neuter the text and remove its force and potency.

There are many in our world who do face such threats, such persecution, whose lives are indeed at risk – and who remain steadfast in faith, powerful witnesses to the reality of God and his gift and promise of life.

As we learn from them, and give thanks to God for them, let us also pray with them, and seek to come to their aid in what ways we can…

Refugee City, Lebanon (?), 2015

Speak Lord: My protector

 

Jeremiah said:

I hear so many disparaging me,
‘“Terror from every side!”
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’

All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’

But the Lord is at my side, a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, mastered,
confounded by their failure;
everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.

But you, O Lord of Hosts, you who probe with justice, who scrutinise the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them, for I have committed my cause to you.

Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.

Jeremiah 20:10-13

The First reading at Mass today comes from the prophet of Jeremiah and tells both of his trials and persecution, and, especially, of his trust in the Lord who is his protector, even as he endures hurt and harm.

The hurt and harm is passing. The Lord will sustain him in this, and deliver him into newness of life; where love and care and security will be his; where his faithfulness, achieved at his cost and with God’s help, will meet with reward.

Jeremiah prays for his opponents to stumble, be thwarted and disgraced. It is understandable…. But the teaching of the Gospel moves us beyond that desire for revenge and ‘satisfaction’.

In the love of God made known in Christ, we are to learn to love our enemies too. We are called to victory with God, and for all peoples.

Prophet. Louvre, Paris. (c) 2017, Allen Morris

Speak Lord: Comfort in our need

 

In your great love, answer me, O Lord.

It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.

In your great love, answer me, O Lord.

This is my prayer to you,
my prayer for your favour.
In your great love, answer me, O God,
with your help that never fails:
Lord, answer, for your love is kind;
in your compassion, turn towards me.

In your great love, answer me, O Lord.

The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,
the sea and all its living creatures.

In your great love, answer me, O Lord.

Psalm 68:8-10,14,17,33-35

The Responsorial Psalm at Mass tomorrow, the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, comes from the lips of the Church called to imitate Christ, and experiencing something of the persecution that the Lord himself experienced.

But the Church travels in the steps of Love and in her trials receives love to endure and be raised again to joy in God’s presence.

Maquette for memorial, Tikhvin Cemetery, St Petersburg, Russia. (c) 2015, Allen Morris.

 

Speak Lord: Healing Saviour

Sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned. Sin existed in the world long before the Law was given. There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of ‘law-breaking’, yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law.

Adam prefigured the One to come, but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man’s fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.

Romans 5:12-15

The Second reading at Mass on Sunday, the 12th Sunday of the Year, points to a deeper wound to human living than law-breaking, even when that law is Torah, God’s law given through Moses.

The failure of Adam is a failure to live right with God, lovingly. Love goes beyond law, because of its commitment to the person of the other. For Adam the other was God, the Creator, and he failed in his relationship through disobedience and through a self-isolating fear and shame. The result proved to be a lasting alienation.

God never gave up – even dressed Adam for the exile. Underlying the whole of the Old Testament is the tension: might this next person, this next episode be the one where we return to that relationship, even as formalised (cramped?) by the Law. But the answer is always, ‘No’, and Israel waits.

Then begins the New Testament, and Jesus, God’s sustained ‘Yes’ to us and, in his humanity, our sustained response to God.

In him we find life.
Adam. Cracow, Poland. (C) 2014, Allen Morris.

Speak Lord: Our safety and hope

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Do not be afraid. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.

‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.

‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’

Matthew 10:26-33

The Gospel on Sunday, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – we are now beyond the sway of the liturgical seasons of Lent and Easter – calls on us ‘not to be afraid’.

Fear is corrosive of our freedom and integrity. It inhibits love and drives us towards addictions and compulsions. Jesus urges us to be free of fear, won from it by the deepest knowledge of the love and mercy of God who is our sure safety.

• Take a deep breath and know you are loved.

Light in darkness. Quayside, L’Estaque. (c) 2013, Allen Morris.

 

Taste and See: Jesus, source of life for us

Jesus said to the Jews:

‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,
for the life of the world.’

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:

‘I tell you most solemnly,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

John 6:51-58

For Christians, and perhaps for Catholics in particular, the Gospel passage heard at Mass on Sunday, the feast of Corpus Christi, speaks especially of the Eucharist. The controversy there presented – ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ – evokes other, later controversies about whether or how this flesh is given in the Eucharist. A variety of Christian attempts at answers maybe recalled – transubstantiation, transignification, a memorial, a ‘mere’ remembrance….

The debates about what/who the Eucharist is continue to be important. From the Catholic perspective the reality of real presence in the Sacraments, and the principle of sacramentality underpins so much of our understanding of God and the world, and our reading of the salvation God continues to offer to us.

However what is prior to our talking about the sacraments is the belief that in Jesus, and expressed in his humanity, the incarnate Son, God is really present. And really present, through the incarnation, God makes free gift of himself for all who would receive him and ‘eat’ of him. Through our communion with him, expressed in many ways, and including now the sacraments, we can in truth enter into life in him and for ever.

The Pelican – sign of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Detail of Eucharistic Screen, Our Lady’s church, St John’s Wood. (c) 2007, Allen Morris