Maundy Thursday

Ex 12:1-8.11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26
The Ceremonial (n.297) says that tonight's liturgy is “first of all” the memorial of how the Eucharist is “the Lord’s Passover” in which He “perpetuated among us the SACRIFICE of the New Law” –and this will be my theme tonight.

When people refer to “Passover” they typically mean the Jewish annual meal.
But that meal, as we heard in our first reading, is actually an annual commemoration of the ORIGINAL Passover in Egypt, by which the Jews were rescued from slavery. They were rescued from physical slavery and led onto a path towards a promised land. In fulfilment of that, Christ, the Passover of the New Covenant, rescues us from spiritual slavery to sin and brings us onto the path to heaven.

In both Passovers, the Jewish, and Christ’s in the Eucharist, the rescuing is by a sacrifice.
But, at first glance, both the Eucharist and the Passover seem to be about a meal rather than be about a sacrifice. However, in the Scriptures, and even in the pagan religions, these two went together: a meal and a sacrifice -you frequently ate the thing that had been sacrificed (but not always: there was a wide variety of Old Testament offerings). Just as, for us now, the Eucharistic sacrifice is also ordered towards us consuming it in Holy Communion.

(Pause)
More specifically, the Scriptures of the Old Testament teach that it is through “blood” that “atonement” is made for sins (Lev 17:11) and the rabbinic commentaries interpreted the blood of the Passover lamb as likewise being about sacrifice and atonement.
The blood of the Passover lamb was smeared on their door posts, and when the angel of death saw it he passed over them and spared them.
The blood of Christ, the New Passover, is spiritually smeared on us, so that the punishment that might otherwise come to us likewise passes over.

St Paul therefore says, “Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us”(1 Cor 5:7). St John similarly portrays Christ as the lamb of the new Passover:
He records John The Baptist hailing Him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29);
He describes how Jesus was crucified, sacrificed, at the very moment that the lambs of the Jewish Passover were being slaughtered in the Temple (cf Jn 19:14);
And he describes how not a bone of Jesus was broken on the cross (Jn 19:32,33,36) just was the bones of the Passover lambs weren't broken.
Jesus is the Passover Lamb of the new Passover of the Eucharist, the Mass.

Let me focus this by noting that all this amplifies what is meant by St Paul’s words at the end of our second reading, that what is “proclaimed” in the Eucharist is the “death” (1 Cor 11:23-26) of the Lord.
The Eucharist does not “proclaim” His feeding us,
Does not proclaim His Resurrection,
Rather, as St Paul said, the Eucharist proclaims His “death” –because the Eucharist is the sacrifice, His sacrifice of the Cross, that takes away our sins.

To sum that up, the Passover meal was a commemoration of the original Passover.
In that original Passover the death, the sacrifice of the Passover lambs was the sacrifice that spared the Jewish people.
The new Passover is Christ. His death is the sacrifice for our salvation.
The Eucharist is that sacrifice made present of our altar.
And it is that sacrificial death that is proclaimed in each Mass.

Darkness, Passion Sunday

When we think of the crucifixion of the Lord there are a number of visual aspects we might focus on. Today, I want to point out the darkness.
The Gospels (Mt 15:33; Mt 27:45; Lk 23:44) note how darkness descended on the whole earth when Christ was crucified.
Darkness, and God hanging dead on a tree, and the dead God being laid in the tomb to lie dead in the darkness of the tomb: such darkness fittingly expresses the mood of this moment.
Jesus, “the light of the world”(Jn 8:12), had entered His world (Jn 1:4), and He allowed the darkness to overcome Him.

(pause) Darkness is something we naturally fear.
In particular, as children, many of us experienced the fear of the dark.
What can reach a child trembling with fear in the dark?
In this context, Pope Benedict noted that what will reassure a child in the dark in the presence of one who loves them.
And the point, very simply, is that we each have many things in life that we experience as darkness.
We each have many moments when that fear and loneliness we know in the dark can descend upon us.
There is, however, One who has gone into the darkness before us.
He is One who is present in the darkness with us.
Even in my apparent aloneness, the Lord is at my side.

When I feel darkness descend upon me,
When I feel alone in that darkness,
I should remember the darkness that descended on Calvary when the Lord chose to die there,
I should recall the darkness in the tomb as He lay there for three days.

Sometimes we want an “answer” to explain our suffering.
But, while Scripture gives us very significant teachings about suffering, its deepest “answer” is not so much a “why” as a “Who”:
I ask the Lord why He allows me to suffer,
and He answers by showing me He is WITH me in my suffering.
This, in fact, is worth more to me than “why”,
And this, in truth, is something more VALUABLE to know.

But there is something more:
God entered the darkness,
God chose to be Hidden and cloaked on Calvary and for three days in the tomb,
But He did not stay there.
He burst forth in power.

When I lie in darkness and loneliness, He is with me.
And He has entered into the darkness with me to LEAD me OUT.
Sometimes the “three days” I lie there seems long,
But lead me out He will.
As Pope Benedict put it, “Even in the extreme darkness of the most absolute human loneliness we may hear a voice that calls us and find a hand that takes ours and leads us out” (Pope Benedict, 2 May 2010, Turin meditation, “The Mystery of Holy Saturday” (quoted in Cardinal Sarah, The Power of Silence, p.109)).

And however long those “three days” seem, they can become bearable WITH HIM.
Like the child afraid and alone in the dark,
the Presence of the One who loves me, is with me.

Mercy and Confession, 5th Sunday of Lent, Year C

Jn 8:1-11
I want to speak today of the importance of coming to ENCOUNTER the mercy of God.
I spoke about ‘meeting God’ in prayer two weeks ago,
but meeting Him in mercy is a theme that occurs often in the words of Pope Francis.

We heard a powerful example of encountering the mercy of the Lord in the Gospel text that was just read to us. Let us consider, for a moment, what that experience was like for that woman. She had, presumably only shortly beforehand, been “caught in the very act of committing adultery”(Jn 8:4). She was then brought before the Lord to be judged. Let us think of the immense power that the Lord had over her at that moment. The Lord had it in His power to condemn or to acquit her. He could have had her stoned. Instead, He not only persuaded the crowd to not condemn her, He then Himself declared, “neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more”(Jn 8:11).
What must that experience have been like for the woman? To experience the mercy of the Lord when she encountered Him!
The Gospels record many experiences of sinners meeting the Lord, and experiencing His mercy.

Pope Francis has spoken often about mercy because he wants more people to meet, to encounter this mercy, and to do so especially in confession.
In just over a week, for Lent, there will be 4 priests hear your confessions, and the regular Saturday slots here and elsewhere continue -as advertised in the newsletter.

Mercy is not a long or complicated thing.
People sometimes are surprised at how brief the priest’s words of forgiveness can be in confession.
The words of Jesus to that woman were very brief.
But mercy is a powerful and important thing, even if it can be brief.
Though, to appreciate the importance of those words we need to bring the right inner attitude to the experience.

What then is the right inner attitude we need?
Pope Francis, when he was asked what advice he would give a penitent in order to help him or her make a good confession, he said that the penitent needs “to FEEL like a sinner, so that he can be amazed by God. In order to be filled with his gift of infinite mercy, we need to recognise our need, our emptiness, our wretchedness”(Pope Francis, The Name of God is Mercy, p.41).
The Pope went on to note, with sadness, that often people don't recognise their sins. They see some good things in their lives, they mistakenly think that they are “OK”, and they don't “feel like a sinner”.
And, if you don't feel like a sinner you can't be sorry for your sins.
And, if you don't feel like a sinner you can't resolve to turn away from those sins, to follow the words that our Lord spoke to that woman, “go, and sin no more”(Jn 8:11).

What then am I to do if I don't really “feel” like I am a sinner?
Well, I can read through an examination of conscience, like the one inside your newsletter, and try to honestly compare my life to the questions being asked.
And, as Pope Francis advises, if someone doesn't feel like he is a sinner, “I would advise him to ask for the grace of feeling like one!” Because “even recognising oneself as a sinner is a grace”(p.30), is a gift from God, so we should ask Him for this gift.


So, if at the end of a day, you pause to make an examination of your conscience in your night prayers, and you can't think of any sins that day, then turn to Pope Francis’s advice.
First, ask God for the gift of seeing your sins.
Be confident that there is SOMETHING in this day to repent of. You are not yet “perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect”(Mt 5:48) –ask the Lord to show it to you.
Second, think of the different parts of your life in your day, think the different people, think of the different possible sins: Laziness, selfishness, greed, gluttony, lust, neglect of the needs of others, critical and judgmental thoughts of others, judgemental words etc.
And, in humility, ask the Lord to help you see. Make the prayer of the blind man your own prayer, “Lord, that I may see!”(Lk 18:41)

So, to sum that up. In this season of Lent, especially, there is a renewed call to us to come and encounter the Lord in mercy, in confession.
He is inviting us to reexamine our hearts so that we can see our sins, and to pray for the gift to be able to see our sins, and seeing them to be sorry for them.
And, having seen our sins, to approach confession with confidence. The Lord has shown what He is like, and He is mercy.

Meeting God. 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year C

Ex 3:1-8.13-15
What would you say if someone asked you whether you had met God?
As a priest, this is question I sometimes get put me by random strangers, sometimes on a train station platform, or in a pub. Quite how I start my reply depends on the questioner, whether he is hostile or curious, whether he looks ready for a long conversation or just a one-liner.

The answer, of course, is that I meet God every day, and that I meet Him in many different forms. I meet Him in the love of neighbour, I meet Him in prayer, I meet Him in sacraments. I meet Him in unexpected acts of goodness I receive, that remind me that there is a source to all goodness.
And, almost in reverse, I meet Him unexpected events that bring me low, sometimes in sickness, when my weakness and smallness reminds me that there is One Who is great and strong.

But when people ask, “Have you met God?”, what they usually are thinking of is something like the drama of what we heard in our first reading, of how God spoke to Moses in the burning bush. And my reply to that line of query would be twofold.
First, ordinary people having mystical experiences is more common than people are often willing to publically talk about. (Cardinal Newman once said, much is lost by people keeping their personal experiences of the divine to themselves.)
Second, this said, it is not in the strange and unusual that we should look for God. The Bible records many such occurrences. But even in the Bible the texts repeatedly make clear that although God only very occasionally makes dramatic appearances, He is with them ALL the time, even in the undramatic parts of our lives.
One of the messages of the Bible is that God is active, God is near, it is HIS world, and He is with us all the time -the tragedy is that so often we are not aware of Him.

How then are we to become more aware of Him in the everyday?
It is, above all else, in moments of PRAYER that we can encounter Him, and carry that encounter into the rest of our lives, so that we then recognise Him in the other moments of our lives.
Pope Francis speaks often about the need to “encounter” the Lord; about how the apostles experienced great “joy” when they encountered the Lord (Evangelii Gaudium n.13).
There is one place, in particular, that the Lord has chosen to make Himself present to us, and that is in the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament upon our altars.
This week, between Friday evening and Saturday evening, Pope Francis has repeated his Lenten call for churches across the world to be open all through the night, for there to be, “24 Hours for the Lord”. Our church will be one of those churches. We’ll start with 7pm Stations of the Cross Friday night and close just before the Saturday evening vigil Mass. In between there will be continual Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: the consecrated host (that was once bread and has been changed by His very words into His Body, His very self) will be raised for display on the altar that we might gaze upon Him and Adore Him.

Pope Francis is offering this opportunity to the Church as a specific gift for Lent.
Lent is a time of ‘prayer, fasting and almsgiving’ -this, in particular, is a special way to pray.
The Lord Jesus prayed and fasted for 40 days in the desert. We need to be doing extra prayer in this season if we are to join Him.
This is a special opportunity, so please come! We need people to cover each of the hour slots from 8pm Friday to the following Saturday 6pm.
The Pope wants us to encounter the Lord here.

To return to where I began, “Have you met God?”
Many us of have had mystical experiences of meeting the Lord, but this, really, isn’t the point.
The point is that we can ALL meet Him, in prayer, especially in the Eucharist,
and that meeting Him here enables us to see Him everywhere else.

Transfigured Human Flesh, 2nd Sunday of Lent, Year C

Lk 9:28-36; Phil 3:17-4:1
Recently I came home to find that someone had put a leaflet through my front door advertising a slimming program. At first I wondered if someone has chosen me specifically. Had someone noticed that my size 15.5” neck shirts have become significantly tight this past half-year? Has someone overheard me mumbling to myself about whether I need to “upgrade” from a 32 to a 34 inch waist trouser? I don't know, but the leaflet was there, all alone, waiting for me.

Diets, as many of us know, are easy to start but harder to stick to. People often start with good and clear intentions, but often after just a week it's all gone!
We’re now just over a week into Lent, and I want to make the very obvious comparison between Lent and such diets. We have finished the first week; we are now in the SECOND Sunday of Lent. Possibly some of us have failed to stick to our resolutions, maybe some of us are wavering. What we need now is a VISION of something to keep us going, or to re-start us on the path.
And, in fact, this is what the Church always offers us on this 2nd Sunday of Lent: we are given the Gospel account of the Lord Jesus transfigured in glory, we are shown His transfigured human flesh on the mountaintop, a vision of what OUR transfigured flesh will look like if we follow Him through the carrying of the Cross to the glory of the Resurrection.

Now, the dieting leaflet that was put through my door similarly had a vision of transfigured human flesh. As is typical, the dieting leaflet had a photo of someone whose body looked absolutely perfect, with words to the effect of, “YOU can look like THIS, in just 40 days on this diet”. Great promises. High expectations.
A 40 day diet... or 40 days of Lent.
Let me point out some similarities and some differences.

Both offer a vision of transfigured human flesh.
Both make a promise.
Both have a trainer: your diet coach, or, the Lord Jesus.
Both involve self-denial and typically abstaining from the pleasure of food.
Both involve suffering: “The Cross” is intrinsic to any form of training and discipleship.
You can't be an athlete unless you undergo the suffering of the gym. You can't be a disciple unless you undergo training. You can't be a follower of the Lord Jesus, He said, you cannot be His disciple unless you take up your cross daily and follow Him (Lk 9:23).

Having noted similarities between Lent and a diet, let me also note that there are very significant differences:
The Lord Jesus has PROVED the truth of His promise, by His many miracles, and in particular, by His rising from the dead,
Whereas far too many diets seem to lack such proof.
In addition, as our training coach, the Lord Jesus ACCOMPANIES us in our suffering much more deeply than a diet instructor. A diet instructor might also be someone who diets, as he or she might tell you to. But the Lord Jesus suffers not alongside us, but WITHIN us, and He strengthens us with His grace. When He tells us that to be His disciple we must “take up our cross and follow Him”(c.f. Lk 9:23), we only ever call our sufferings a “cross” because of their UNION with the Lord Jesus –a union that is spiritual and internal, not just an external example.

A final difference, however, and a difference that is crucial, is that these two practices are aimed at two every different goals. Dieting is aimed at the health of the body, which is a good thing, but a passing thing, not the thing of highest importance. In contrast, the prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of Lent are aimed at the good of the soul. And, even saying this is only partly true: they are NOT aimed at “the good of our soul” in the manner of some self-help improvement course. RATHER, they are aimed at UNION with the Lord Jesus.

To conclude:
A vision of transfigured human flesh,
One: a diet, with slimming world -but that flesh will, even after the diet, eventually fade;
or,
Two, fasting and self-denial, with Jesus on the mountaintop, a glory that can ours if we follow His way of the Cross, if we follow Him through Lent.

Into the Desert, 1st Sunday of Lent, Year C

Deut 26:4-10; Lk 4:1-13
This year I feel particularly ready for Lent. Not ready in the sense of being prepared, but ready in the sense of needing a fresh start.
The word ‘Lent’, as you probably know, comes from the old Saxon word for the season of ‘spring’. The word thus focuses us on the new growth that we start to see in this season:
The daffodils are out, tulips are appearing, buds are in the trees. Life is starting afresh.
Spiritually, likewise, this season of Lent is about new growth.

There is an irony here, however, in that to cause our souls to grow we go into the DESERT
-we go into a place where there is little growth, little water, little nourishment.
Why? Well, we might note that the soul is not like the body, it works differently.
But, both body and soul find their true SOURCE of life in the Lord Jesus.
We go into the desert to go be with Him.
He spent 40 days fasting and praying in the desert, and so do we in Lent.

The desert is a place of little food.
In Lent, in union with Jesus, we fast. We “give things up” for Lent -which is a small form of fasting.
We need to go into the desert because the ABUNDANCE of things we experience can DISTRACT us from the Lord.
My chocolate, my alcohol, my TV, my snacks -all these things are good in themselves, but the abundance of them distracts me.
The “noise” of all these pleasures stops me hearing the Lord.
When I deny myself in this season of Lent I QUIETEN my soul.
I reduce that “noise”,
so that as my desires are intensified (as I lack the things that normally satisfy them), my desires might remember that there is a deeper reality that I seek: the Lord.

If this is going to work, then it needs to accompanied by prayer. This is why prayer and fasting go together.
They went together with Jesus in the desert. Even more, do WE need them to go together.
In this season I need to add some extra prayer, even if only small.
Something realistic that I can stick to, but something extra. Something that can make this time in the desert not merely training my desires, but re-focusing them on the only thing that reality matters: God.

Faith and hope need to be part of this.
Our first reading was a creed. It reminded the Jewish people of how God had been active in their lives in the past, how He had led them in the past.
He had called Abraham out of the Chaldees.
He had led Moses and the people out of slavery in Egypt.
For forty years He had led them as they wandered in the desert.
He brought them to “a land flowing with milk and honey”(Deut 26:9).
The church reminds us of this text to remind us that, in Lent, God guides us STILL. He leads us still.
If I am going into the desert, I need the confidence that comes from believing and trusting Him, otherwise the desert will overwhelm me.

Finally, love. Faith, and prayer, and fasting, all this should change me, make me more loving and giving.
And so we give to the poor in the season.

So spring, Lent, new growth.
We go into the place of desert, this place of little life, to encounter in a new way the Lord who is the source of all life.
That removed from the distractions of pleasures, we might find our greatest pleasure: the good God.
Let us go forth in faith and confidence - the land of milk and honey awaits on the far side of that desert.

Lent Talks: Finding God in Ordinary Life

A series of evenings examining 6 key tools for finding God in everyday life.

Audio and slides of the talks are available below, and/or the Apple Keynotes for the talks can be downloaded from a GoogleDrive folder here


(1) Sanctifying Ordinary Life

God has entered ordinary life by becoming incarnate in Jesus. As a result, every aspect of ordinary life can be a place where we can find Him and be something that is brought to Him
A Word document summary of the talk is available here
A PDF of the talk slides can be viewed here

(2) A 'Plan of Life'

Holiness does not happen by accident! This evening's session will examine how to develop "a plan of life" that is a specific and progressive strategy for adapting the tools used by the saints into something small and do-able enough for you to meet God in the hours of your day.
A table mapping out this 'plan of life' can be viewed here
A PDF of the talk slides can be viewed here

(3) Being 'sons in the Son'

The goal of the Christian life is to become adopted as a child of God, adopted in Christ as 'sons in the Son'. This doctrine underpins our whole identity as Christians and determines what we are seeking for in 'holiness'.
A PDF of the talk slides can be viewed here






(4) Order and 'the Heroic Minute'

Living a 'life in the Spirit' does not mean living a life of disorder! Tonight's session will examine how to identify the 'hinges' that enable us to put patterns of order and discipline into our lives -the order we need if we are to be free for Christ to enter in.
A PDF of the talk slides can be viewed here





(5) A Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ

Do I relate to God in the impersonal remote manner characterized by Islam, Buddhism or the pre-Christian religions? Or do I know and love Him personally, "as a friend knows a friend"?
A PDF of the talk slides can be viewed here

(6) Self Denial and Mortification: the path to new life

Before entering into Holy Week, our final session will look at the place of self-denial and mortification. 'Mortification' means dying to ourselves that Christ might come to life in us.
A PDF of the talk slides can be viewed here