Dear Friends in Christ,
These are unprecedented times. The world has never known anything quite like this shut down. We are all now very conscious of self-isolation and keeping well. We’ve seen the incredible work of the front-line workers in the NHS, and all those workers in our supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. who are working flat out to provide for the general public. It has brought the best out in most people; there will always be those who take advantage of these situations, but for the most part the good will and kindness of people far outweighs selfishness.
I would like to thank all those parishioners who have been keeping in regular contact with me, especially over the past week. Your thoughts and prayers mean so much. With the miracle of modern technology, we have been able to live-stream Holy Mass each day. I thank all those who have tuned into our daily celebration at 10.00am. First and foremost, it is a lifeline with our faith, even though people aren’t able to receive Jesus sacramentally, there is the wonderful opportunity to make ‘Spiritual Communion’.
What do you make of this incident in Jesus’ life? What is its meaning, it significance? Well, in that holy moment Jesus disclosed his divine glory. He also revealed that his glory was achieved first and foremost by embracing the shame of the cross. Jesus kissed the cross in order to enter the glory of heaven. It also presents us, as St. Thomas Aquinas explained, with a revelation of God as Trinity: ‘The whole Trinity appeared: The Father in the voice; the Son in the man; the Spirit in the shining cloud.’ This revelation of God as Trinity also occurred on the threshold of other significant moments in Jesus’ life such as his baptism and his Passion.
The name Satan means ‘adversary’. In the book of Job, we are given a vivid picture of Satan in God’s heavenly court, along with all the other angels, where he has the role of accuser or prosecutor. The Scriptures identify Satan as the serpent in the Garden of Eden who tempted Adam and Eve and, therefore, as the origin of sin and temptation. What the Scriptures and tradition make known is than humankind has a mortal enemy who, although a finite being created by God, is in a desperate struggle to overthrow God’s reign, usurp his Lordship and lead his creation into darkness and death. On Easter Sunday each of us will recite our baptismal promises and in doing so renew them. Bear this in mind as we move through lent because, as you will be aware, a renewal of our baptismal promises involves us actively, freely and voluntarily rejecting Satan.
Lent is also a time for us to discover anew and afresh the gospel, the Good News which Jesus began to proclaim immediately after his time of testing. What is the Good News? The Good News is a message in two parts; the first part is to repent, and the second part is to believe in the gospel. We walk together on this road marked out for us by the church and take up our call to stand firm and resist the devil, knowing that he will flee, and embracing freely and with love the gospel, which is Christ with us and in us, the hope of salvation.
That perfection includes loving not only your friends but also your enemies. We are called to radical commitment to the Good News, which involves more generous, more prayerful and more willing to set aside our own needs for the good of others. But loving our enemies? This sounds like and impossible goal – we often struggle to be in the same room as them! Jesus is trying to help us to see the world a little more as God sees it. For God, there is goodness within each person; every person you meet is created in the image and likeness of God. Our task is to make room for everyone. Firstly, because that is how God is, but secondly because we do not want to be in bondage to our resentment and thus fail to grow in our own relationship with the Lord of love. Our efforts will demand much more of us spiritually and even emotionally but will pay dividends in a new kind of interior freedom.
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist, her voice shaking with anger, told world leaders at the UN in New York, ‘You have stolen my childhood with your empty words. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth – how dare you.’ Many things make us angry, and some anger is right, fit and proper. Sometimes we know we are wrong to be angry; much more often we think we are right. We think the fault lies with others – they have made us angry. Or else certain situations provoke us to anger – and because these are bad situations, we feel that we have the right to express our anger. Jesus teaches with extraordinary clarity that ‘everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says: “You fool!” shall be liable to the hell of fire.’
There were, of course, occasions when Jesus himself knew righteous anger and expressed it – but his anger never led him to sin. When he was betrayed, insulted, ridiculed, tortured and crucified, he had full right to feel angry. However, Jesus let go of his feelings of anger and forgave his oppressors: ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Jesus shows us a new way of living. As his disciples we must emulate him. Whenever we are angry, we must acknowledge our anger and then let it go by calling on the Lord’s grace. Christ’s Spirit will give us the power to fulfil his commandment to live as he did.