" PAST " REVEALING THE CENTRALITY OF LOVE SAINT JOHN

 

SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST

Recurringly, in his Gospel and his other writings, Saint John  leaves off his narrative for a major reflection on the meaning of the Life of Christ, and the significance  of Faith that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

In his Gospel narrative,  ( 3:16) he opens up the subject of God's Love:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,

that whoever believes in Him should not perish

but have eternal life.

For God sent the Son into the world,

not to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through Him.

He who believes in Him is not condemned;

he who does not believe in Him is condemned already,

because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God.

And this is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light,because their deeds were evil.

For everyone who does evil hates the light,and does not come to the light,

lest his deeds should be exposed.

But he who does what is true comes to the light,

that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

Later, in the First Epistle of Saint John (iv : 7 -11), he reveals how that Divine Love flows through us outward to transform the world:

Beloved, let us love one another;

for love is of God,and he who loves

is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love does not know God;

for God is Love.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us,

that God sent His only Son into the world,

so that we might live through Him.

In this is love,

not that we loved God but that He loved us

and sent His Son to be the expiation of our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

No man has ever seen God; if we love one another,

God abides in us and His Love is perfected in us.

There we have laid out for us, by the Divinely inspired Saint John, the beloved disciple, the full significance of Divine Love for each of us and for the world at large. It is inspiring and challenging and gives us the measure of our success or otherwise as followers of Christ.

" PAST " HE HAD BECOME A MAN, NOT AN ANGEL

JESUS CONFOUNDS SATAN'S ATTEMPT AT TEMPTATION

 

 

 "For the moment, Satan had been worsted, but perhaps he had learnt all he had cared to know. Whoever this Jesus was it was clear that He was a Power with whom he would have to reckon. He left Him, but in no confusion; he left Him, but, as the Evangelist carefully tells us, only "for a time". He had other weapons at his disposal and he would use them, even till the last night when would come

                        " Your hour
And the power of darkness."  Luke xxii: 53

Meanwhile, Jesus Himself was at peace. He could ask His Father, and His Father would give Him legions of angels to help Him in His work, but that would not be His way. He had not become an angel, He had become Man, and man should be His helper. Still, because of His humiliation, He should not be deserted; He Who had submitted to this buffeting by the spirit of evil should be visited by the spirits of good. As at the beginning in Bethlehem, as at the end in the Garden, so now in His first desolation,

                          "Behold angels came
                       And ministered to Him.""

- Extract from Archbishop Alban Goodier S.J.'s masterful " The Public Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ".  

"

CYCLONE YASI  -  1,000 Kms Wide

 

 We stand in a difficult position – in the midst of great physical travail as a nation. As I write, the mud of the recent catastrophic floods is barely dry over much of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and in New South Wales and Victoria, firefighters are battling bushfires. And then, and then…. off Far North Queensland, the terrible spectre of Cyclone “Yasi” steadily works its dreadful way across the sea toward the region of Cairns and Townsville. It threatens death and destruction we are told, on a scale not seen since Cyclone “Tracey” which destroyed Darwin. Well might Dorothea Mackellar in the poem “My Country” write about “her beauty and her terror “.

But we are approaching the commemoration of another, infinitely greater tragedy. We are given every opportunity to approach this coming commemoration with great care and all attention. And just as the residents of Far North Queensland are given ample opportunity to prepare and are doing so, we should take the opportunities offered to us as we approach the sacred commemoration of the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. Our loving holy mother the Church offers us the 40 days of Lent – commencing on 9th March 2011 with Ash Wednesday.

Oh, we’ve seen the Penitential Season of Lent bleached, gutted, diminished for some 40 years now – as we have been urged to shuck off “all that medieval stuff”. Queer thing that, most of the clerics who ran that effort have died, left the priesthood or self-indulgently “retired”- leaving us to clean up after them. But, as she has done for 2,000 years the Church has survived despite their worst efforts. Survived and still proposes to us, in continuity with her immemorial custom, the Penitential Season of Lent, so that we might dare to then approach the foot of the Cross “on which the Saviour of the world hung”

The floods, the bushfires and even the spectre of the giant cyclone are truly terrible – but in truth, they pale, yes pale – before the prospect of GOD MADE MAN BEING BEATEN, SCOURGED AND CRUCIFIED because of His innocence of any wrong. AND ALL OF THIS FOR US AND OUR SALVATION. No wonder the Earth trembled, the “dead arose and appeared to many “and the veil of the Holy of Holies in the Temple was torn “from TOP to bottom”. The Old Covenant was brought to an end, having been superseded by the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood.

So let us, each one, “get with the programme” as the Advertising people say and really make something of this Lent. Remember Christ’s own words about the efficacy of “Prayer and Fasting “in driving out Devils? That’s right – He didn’t exclusively concentrate on works of mercy. No – He also urged “prayer and fasting”. So we need to work on ourselves – diminish our selfishness (how “medieval”!) Look around us and we find a mightily self-indulgent society – not beyond causing 100,000 abortions a year, and ever more boldly espousing or tolerating any vice publicly recognized – can you doubt that there are Devils to be cast out?

Please keep your mind’s eye on the Man on the Cross. Pray, fast and do good works this Lent – for your sake, for the sake of our society and for Christ’s sake. Don’t let that great LOVE be treated perfunctorily.

ACOLYTE

COPYRIGHT TONY DIXON - First published in January, 2011 Issue of FOUNDATION

" NEW " WHAT CAN WE KNOW???

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225- 1274)

There are many "giants" in the 2,000 years history of the Catholic Church since it was first founded by God. 

Although various Catholics have their favourite Saints- even Popes for various reasons - the Popes themselves have regularly nominated and recommended the Angelic Doctor - Saint Thomas Aquinas-  as the very model of the Authority , the Ideal Teacher and Thinker whom those aspiring to learn about the Catholic Faith, should study.

In recent times we can look to the strong, no nonsense Pope Pius XI who commended Saint Thomas Aquinas to be studied by those aspiring to the Priesthood.He did this in an Apostolic Letter accompanying revisions of the Canon Law.

And Pope Saint John Paul II,often called "the Great", himself an extraordinary Teacher and Scholar ,said  "The philosophy of St.Thomas deserves to be attentively studied and accepted with conviction by the youth of our day, by reason of its spirit of openness and universalism, characteristics which are hard to find in many trends of contemporary thought" (Fides et Ratio).

It is this very "openness" which sometimes brings us up short when reading Saint Thomas ( the same can be said when reading Pope Benedict XVI - himself a devotee of the great Saint Augustine of Hippo, perhaps even more so than of Saint Thomas.

A remarkable book is  "AQUINAS AT PRAYER" by Father Paul Murray O.P. Bloomsbury 2013.It gives us a wonderfully instructive example of this phenomenon.Here is the relevant extract: 

"Believing Christians to day seldom hear from preachers and teachers about the incomprehensibility of the divine nature. So the notion that the height of our human knowledge of God, far from being a remarkable fountain of wisdom, is no more than a "drop" in the ocean relative to the awesome mystery of God might sound alarming. But St.Thomas, in his work, shows not the least hesitation in making clear to us, and over and over again, the true depth of our "ignorance" . Thus in the Summa Theologiae , he writes, 

"Neither a Catholic nor a pagan knows the nature of God as He is in Himself."(p 25) And, in a commentary on Boethius on the Trinity :" at the end of our knowledge, God is ultimately known as unknown."(p.25)  

WHAT???  Is our giant of the Faith an "agnostic"???

NO WAY!!

 "St.Thomas's  position differs from that of modern agnostics because while modern agnosticism says simply "we do not know, and the universe is a mysterious riddle", a Thomist says "We do not know what the answer is ,but we do know that there is a mystery behind it all which we do not know, and if there were not, there would not even be a riddle. This Unknown we call God. If there were no God, there would be no universe to be mysterious and no body to be mystified." Victor White O.P. p26.

 

As a "Master of the Sacred Page", we would say a Master of Sacred Scripture, Saint Thomas of course knew and taught what we do know about God : That is the detail which God Himself has revealed to us. Firstly, from the time of  Adam and Eve we know that God IS. We also know that God made us  and that "in His Own image and likeness". Later in Sacred Scripture we know that God revealed Himself to Abraham. When Abraham asked God His Name  ( a foolish request since names are used to distinguish between like beings, and there is no being comparable to God.) He received the answer "YWHW" : "I Am Who I Am." The Jews took this up as a Name.  

 

As time went by, God revealed Himself to Moses giving him the Ten Commandments. In countless ways throughout the Old Testament, God revealed to us His continuing Mercy.

 

In the fullness of time God became Incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose birthday we celebrate today.

 

During the Life of Jesus the Christ, He revealed to us the  great Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, He also revealed His Divinity and His place within the Trinity.He also revealed the paternity of God toward us His creatures. Later still, through the inspired writing of Saint John ,God revealed that He "is Love".

So, although what we know of God is only like a "drop" in the ocean, we DO know by Divine Grace, enough to keep our puny human intellects going. But we have to recognise as Saint Thomas did, that our capacity to know God the Creator is limited by our the difference between our finite nature and the INFINITE God.

 

So Saint Thomas knew , and we can know quite a bit about God even with our limited human minds.

 

However, the point Saint Thomas is making above, is that  even beyond what we do know the full and complete knowledge of God by which Sit Thomas meant  to know God in such a way that we can define Him finally and that, our limited created intelligence can never do.

" PAST " "NOTHING COMES FROM NOTHING", NOTHING IN NATURE EVER COULD.

THE ANGELIC DOCTOR   SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

                                                                         1225-1274

 

 "The existence of God is not self-evident. But it is unreasonable, even stupid, not to believe in God, an eternal being that had no beginning and always existed. The alternative is that there was a time when there was absolutely nothing. But that makes no sense. St. Thomas Aquinas said, "if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to exist; and thus even now nothing would be in existence--which is absurd."[12] As Julie Andrews put it in The Sound of Music, "Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could."


This extract from Charles E. Rice's Commencement Address at Christendom College , reported on the Blog Ignatius Insight, says it all . Now the reader knows why I don't believe in "Atheists" - no-one is that foolish.

As usual St. Thomas Aquinas gets it right.

" PAST " SERVING WITH THE ANGELS FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT

 

SERVING WITH THE ANGELS




“Familiarity breeds contempt”. The maxim brings out a truth at the extreme end of an arc of human experience, relating most often to inordinate familiarity with figures of authority. Moving back along that arc into more moderate territory, we come upon the phrase “taken for granted”. In this case the contributions, co-operation and even the very presence of a person are so much assumed that their merit and value seem forgotten.



Somewhere between the two is a position in which our experience of the Faith can sometimes be found. It can come to be one part of our very busy life - sure, a very important part - but kept in the allotted place and not allowed to disturb the other parts as we hurry along from one preoccupation to another. Set in its place, its “fire” can be dimmed, even reduced to mere” embers”.



In this situation there is little chance that we will deepen our realisation of the wonderful fact that God loves us so much that He burst into Time from Eternity to bring us His Only Begotten Son at the Annunciation. That Divine Son - the Word made Flesh - came to Earth to save us from our sins by His death on the Cross. Then, by His Resurrection, He led the way for us to follow Him. He left us the means to do so by founding His Church and endowing her with the seven Sacraments sharing with us His Life of Grace.



It seems incredible that we could sometimes become so familiar with these extraordinary realities, that in our human weakness, and distracted by our worldly concerns, we could ever come to “take them for granted”. This could create a dangerous state of affairs when, ever so subtly -  as is his wont, the Devil comes a’ knocking.



We are better prepared to counter any such tendency when we follow a regular and systematic course of reading and reflection. The daily readings from the Liturgy of the Hours, the systematic reading of Sacred Scripture especially the New Testament or some major spiritual work are useful examples. The reader finds inevitably that they are major channels of God’s Grace and of special insight. Acolyte well remembers re-reading some years ago “The Public Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ” by Archbishop Alban Goodier S.J. The words “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me for I Am meek and humble of heart” which were all too familiar to me, struck me heavily, and it was as if I had been looking Him straight in the eyes - yes He meant this message for me and for each one of us. 

God directly communicating to you and me a fundamental truth about Himself and bidding us to learn from Him.” Awesome! “as the youth of to-day too frequently say. All of His original listeners were familiar with the procedure of yoking the more experienced and reliable ox to the younger less experienced to train it. From that experience I have acquired a heightened attention to any similar direct addresses from Our Lord in Sacred Scripture.



We need to open ourselves to such possibilities, regularly refreshing our appreciation of our part in “God’s project for the salvation of mankind”. God made Man - Jesus Christ - is talking to us in Sacred Scripture, and His attention is never distracted from any one of us. He cares enough to have suffered and died for our salvation.

 Do we really give Him our best in attention, reflection, prayer and practice?

"IT IS THE LORD...."John 21 : 7

The Holy Father reminds us that St. Paul highlights through the story of the conversion of Lydia, that to properly receive and assimilate the Word of God as it is preached and taught to us, we must first open our hearts to the Word and embrace the Truth. “The heart indicates that the first act by which one comes to faith is God's gift and the action of grace which acts and transforms the person deep within.......the heart, the authentic sacred space within the person, is opened by grace that allows the eyes to see below the surface and to understand, that what has been proclaimed, is the word of God."

Nowhere is this better demonstrated than at the first Pentecost. Immediately after the receiving of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles begin to preach to the masses and with great effect.

The Church is the essential realization of Faith. The Baptism of each individual builds up the Mystical Body of Christ which the Church is.

"Knowledge of faith opens a door into the fullness of the saving mystery revealed by God."

The Holy Father draws our attention to the vast numbers of people in modern society who, without any faith, are "searching" for some ultimate truth. This quest can lead them to the mystery of God, and finally to the fullness of revealed Truth. Their quest begins from an indelible summons written on the human heart, from, and leading to, the One who already sets out to meet us when we are sincere.

The CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH , that authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council, is the ideal vehicle for conveying full and reasoned systematic knowledge of the Faith to which assent of the heart and mind, with God's grace, can be given. It was described by Blessed Pope John Paul II as making "a very important contribution to that work of renewing the whole life of the Church........a sure norm for teaching the Faith." Here, says Pope Benedict XVI, "...we see the wealth of teaching that the Church has received, safeguarded and proposed in her two thousand years of history. From Sacred Scripture to the Fathers of the Church, from theological masters to the saints across the centuries, the CATECHISM provides a permanent record of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the Faith and made progress in doctrine, so as to offer certitude to believers, in their life of faith."

The CATECHISM he says provides a veritable encounter with the Person who lives within the Church. Beginning with the Creed the CATECHISM proceeds to examine and expound upon the Sacraments through which Jesus Christ is present, operates and continues to build His Church. The liturgy and sacraments give efficacy to the Creed and its profession. And the moral teaching of the CATECHISM is similarly given vitality by being placed in context with faith, liturgy and prayer, providing the fully developed Christian Life.

THE ARMS OF CHRIST ARE OPENED TO WELCOME THE WORLD

To facilitate the use of the CATECHISM during the YEAR OF FAITH the Holy Father has asked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to prepare a document in co-operation with the other Curial Dicasteries providing Catholics, and thus the whole Church, some guidelines on how to live the Year of Faith most effectively and appropriately at the service of faith and evangelization.

Pope Benedict XVI notes the Church's ability and readiness to confront the spirit of the age with its great skepticism and selective preference to consider only quantifiable "science" at the expense of faith. Yet the Holy Father reminds us that there can be no conflict between Faith and Science because both pursue Truth, though by different routes.

HISTORY will , in the Holy FATHER's view, be of decisive importance in the Year of Faith. Understanding the two thousand year history of the Communion of Saints lived out in Christ's Church will provoke in each person a sincere and continuing work of conversion as we recall the lives of the saints, the failures of the sinners and experience the mercy of the Father held out to everyone.