A-Z of Paul: Timothy and Titus

The Letters of Paul to both Timothy and Titus are know as the 'Pastoral Epistles'. If we read them carefully, we can notice several things about them. The first is that they are addressed to individuals who seem to have responsibility for local Churches. It seems likely that both Timothy and Titus are early bishops, episkopoi, who, if we take the literal meaning of the Greek word, 'oversaw' the affairs of the local Churches. We also notice that the tone and the content of the letters is quite different to, say the Letter to the Romans or the Corinthian Epistles. Many scholars are of the opinion that the different style of these letters is a sign that they are not in fact from Paul - the tone and language are, after all, very different. On the other hand, it can be argued that the letters addressed to both Timothy and Titus have a very different aim in mind. A leader such as Paul would, after all, write quite a different letter to other Church leaders than the kind that he might write for instructing and encouraging all the members of a Church in a particular place. The arguments for and against Pauline authorship will no doubt continue, and we must be careful not to be too drawn in, lest we lose sight of their value to all Christians.

The letters to Timothy and Titus are above all letters of support and encouragement. The First Letter to Timothy emphasises strongly the importance of prayer and of peace in the local Church. His instructions concerning those who are to be Bishops and Deacons show how clearly Paul thinks that holiness in Church leaders is fundamental in leading the faithful to Christ. Good leaders have a duty to ensure good teaching in the Church, and safeguard the wellbeing of the whole community, young and old (1 Tim 5:1-2). In the Second Letter to Timothy, it is clear that Paul believes his life to be coming to an end. This time, Paul encourages Timothy, and sets himself up as a model to be imitated, reminding him of the ways in which the Lord worked for him and through him throughout his life. 'Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching' (2 Tim 4:2). The letter to Titus, the shortest of the Pastoral Epistles, emphasises good teaching and good deeds.

So we can see how there are common threads running through all the Pastoral epistles. The Church needs leadership and authority to maintain its unity. But the effectiveness of that leadership will be compromised unless the lives of the leaders is upright and blameless. And this message goes out to all of us of course: if we are to show Christ effectively to the world, we must all be people of holiness, ready to do all we can to help and serve others. We must strive to be icons of Christ, for there is no more powerful way to draw people to faith than to make his face visible to the world in which we live.

A-Z Paul: Son/sonship

Before his conversion to Christianity, Saint Paul must have been very aware of Christian claims about Jesus. He no doubt regarded these claims as an objectionable glorification of a false prophet. They must have provided part of the reason for his zealous opposition to this new religion in defence of his own Jewish tradition. His account of his conversion on the road to Damascus, which turned Paul from opponent to apostle of Jesus Christ, makes plain that the experience involved him in a complete reversal of his opinion of Jesus. Jesus was no longer a false prophet for Paul but a unique representative of God. He writes in the Letter to the Galatians that 'in his good pleasure God, who had set me apart from birth and called me though his grace, chose to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles' (Galatians 1:15-16).

It is clear from his letters that for Paul Jesus' sonship was in some sense unique, that Jesus possessed a unique status and favour with God, that he in some way shared in the divine glory and so was worthy to be venerated with God at Christian gatherings. Yet Paul develops his understanding of the sonship of Jesus against the backdrop of Jewish tradition and Old Testament themes. In the Letter to the Romans, for example, Paul describes how Jesus was 'declared Son of God by a mighty act in that he rose from the dead' (Romans 1:4). This seems to echo the Lord's promise to David in the Second Book of Samuel: 'I will raise up one of your family, one of your own children, to succeed you and I will establish his kingdom [...] I will be his Father and he shall be my Son' (2 Samuel 12,14). Here Paul uses language and imagery from the Jewish, royal-messianic tradition to explain his belief about Jesus' place in God's plan. At the same time, he goes far beyond Old Testament ideas in his account of how Jesus was constituted God's son by his resurrection from the dead.

Later in the Letter to the Romans Paul writes of how 'God did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for us all' (Romans 8:32). Again it is possible to identify Old Testament allusions, to the offering of Isaac and, in particular, to the angel's words to Abraham: 'inasmuch as you have done this and have not withheld your son, I will bless you abundantly and greatly multiply your descendents' (Genesis 22:16). In his decription of Jesus as 'the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me' (Galatians 2:20) Paul may have been aware of the Jewish tradition which attributed to Isaac a ready willingness to offer himself up in obedience to God.

For Paul the purpose of God sending his Son was 'to purchase freedom for the subjects of the law, in order that they might obtain the status of sons' (Galatians 4:5). Through Jesus, therefore, Christians are brought into a filial relationship with the Father. Christians are fellow-heirs with Christ and are thus enabled to call God 'Abba, Father' (Romans 8:15). The sonship of Jesus, however, remains unique. The sonship of Christians is a derived sonship which is patterned on and given through Jesus' own Sonship which is not derived from another.

Dominican Pilgrimage to Lourdes (Part 4)

A pilgrimage is a time for prayer, preaching and study, but it is also a time for recreation and building community. The Dominican Pilgrimage brings together Dominican friars, sisters and laity, parishioners of Dominican parishes throughout the country, as well as students and friends of the Order. The pilgrimage is an opportunity for us to become acquainted, to grow in friendship, to exchange ideas and to have fun.










On the penultimate night, a very enjoyable social evening with music and singing was organized by fr Dermot.










fr John Farrell also blessed an enormous votive candle which burns in Lourdes for the intentions of the entire Dominican Pilgrimage.

Finally, small tokens of thanks were given to our helpers who contribute so much to making the pilgrimage possible, and to those who help organize it, including nurse Bridget (below) with fr John Farrell OP:




As usual, the pilgrims gave a very warm thanks to the friars who took part in the pilgrimage:

"For the many graces received here,

for all the conversions,

all the forgiveness,

all the healings,

for the vocations and promises

which you have witnessed or engendered,

for the love of serving others, which you have let us experience,

Our Lady of Lourdes

we thank you!

With all our brothers and sisters of the human race,

with all people in need of peace and justice,

with young people in search of a way,

you who appeared so young to little Bernadette,

with all those who are in mourning, who are ill,

handicapped, or facing a setback,

with those who may have a reason for despair:

Our Lady of Lourdes

We pray to you!

Because you are the smile of God,

the reflection of the light of Christ,

the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit,

because you chose Bernadette in her misery,

because you are the star of the morning, the gate of Heaven,

and the first resurrected creature

we praise you,

we acclaim you

and with you we sing the wonders of God

Magnificat!"

A-Z of Paul: Resurrection

The central message of Christianity is of our God who died, suffered the pain of death as we suffer it, and rose triumphant over it. In the resurrection of Jesus we are given the promise that death is not the end of our existence. Through our life in Christ, who is now living, we too continue to live. All are alive in Christ, all the faithful will reign with him.

When St Paul was preaching, word reached him that some in Corinth were denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and as a consequence, denying also the bodily resurrection of the dead. St Paul dealt with this problem in his first letter to the Corinthians, in Chapter 15. He tells the Christians of Corinth that unless Christ did indeed rise, bodily, from the dead, their faith was completely in vain:

Now if Christ is preached as risen from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ risen; and if Christ has not risen, vain then is our preaching, vain is your faith... For if the dead did not rise, neither has Christ risen; and if Christ has not risen, vain is your faith, for you are still in your sins 1 Cor 15:12-14, 16-17.

St Paul sees the resurrection of Jesus as the proof of our salvation; it is the final event in the salvific mission of Jesus. That is why the bodily resurrection must be seen as a real bodily event. Just as bodily death was the punishment for Adam's sin, which afflicts all humanity, so too the bodily resurrection of Jesus, his victory over death, is the remedy for all humanity, the end of death’s reign over us. Paul also tells us, in 1 Corinthians, that on the last day, when Christ will return in glory, we his followers will be glorified with him. Our bodies will be like his glorified body, we shall be changed to be as he already now is.

“For this corruptible body must put on in-corruption, and this mortal body must put on immortality” 1 Cor 15:53-54.

All of creation has been redeemed in Christ, and we too will be transformed by his resurrection. As believers we will die in Christ, but we will also be raised and transformed in him.

Dominican Pilgrimage to Lourdes (Part 3)

A distinctive aspect of the Dominican Pilgrimage is the attention to study and preaching. Every morning, the pilgrims gathered after Lauds in the cinema to listen to a talk given by the Prior Provincial, fr John Farrell OP.

In addition to the homily preached each day at Mass by a different preacher, there were also daily talks on a range of topics given by Dominican friars.

This year, Lectio Divina was introduced to the daily schedule as well as Rosary and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament each evening. Both of these took place in the hotel for those pilgrims who were unable to get down to the Lourdes Sanctuary with ease. 

Below is a photo of Adoration in the underground basilica.

In our Dominican tradition, preaching and giving talks is a handing on of the fruits of our contemplation, of prayer and a contemplative study of the Scriptures. Lourdes offered time for this vital element of our spiritual lives.

"Holy Spirit, you are the Spirit of love and unity.

Here in Lourdes, through Bernadette, Mary asked

for a Chapel, and for people to come in procession.

Inspire the Church which Christ is building on Peter’s faith:

that it may be one.

Guide the pilgrimage of the Church:

that it may be faithful and daring!

Mary, you are filled with the Holy Spirit,

you are the spouse and the servant.

You are the model for Christians, and the maternal face of the Church. 

We pray to you.

Hail Mary..."

A-Z of Paul: Quarrelling

St Paul was something of a feisty character, and was not unaccustomed to becoming involved in argument. We know that he was quite a vicious persecutor of the early Christians. Some of this passion seems to have remained in his character throughout his ministry. When Paul eventually returned to Jerusalem, following his conversion to Christ, it was Barnabas who persuaded the disciples to admit Paul to their fellowship (Acts 9:26). As a result of this intercession, a wonderful friendship between Paul and Barnabas was formed. It is, therefore, sad to note that they eventually had a “falling out” of sorts.

On the first missionary journey of these two friends, Barnabas takes his cousin John Mark, as their companion (Col. 4:10). However, we are told that during the journey John Mark decided to return to his home in Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). The reason for his departure is not specified in the text. When they had planned their second campaign, Barnabas proposed taking Mark as a helper, but Paul resisted the idea. The New Testament record indicates that a “sharp contention” developed between them (Acts 15:36-41). They could not reach an agreement, and so they split up. As far as is indicated in the scriptures, these two remarkable men never saw one another again. The segmentation of their work did not disrupt permanently the love and respect that Paul and Barnabas entertained for one another. Paul would later affectionately mention Barnabas as being worthy of monetary support in his work of proclaiming the gospel (1 Cor. 9:6).

There is also his argument with Peter about which he speaks in the letter to the Galatians. 'I opposed him to his face', Paul says (Gal 2:11). It is a moment in a much longer argument in which Paul was engaged with 'Judaizing' elements in the early Church, people who believe that pagan converts to Christianity should also be subject to requirements of Jewish law such as circumcision. Peter seems to have been trying to hold quarrelling factions together whereas on this one Paul felt that this would compromise the way to salvation now revealed, faith in the cross of Christ.

So, Paul was clearly a fiery brand, and yet when he wrote to the Corinthians he was very clear about the danger of quarrelling. He tells them that if the path to the cross is dominated by trouble and strife, then its power will be diminished (1 Cor 1:17). Therefore, he calls for the exclusion from the Church for those who espouse different leaders that oppose each other and segment the Body of Christ. But this was not just an early church problem for we experience similar problems today. There are factions, whether leaning right or left, that fragment the Body of Christ. Such factions wound Christ’s body with their theories and opinions about what Christianity should be. Often, they see personal views and entrenched stances as more important than what Christ taught and His Church developed.

But St Paul did not pull punches, so he challenged the factions to preserve the unity of Christianity. Challenging the kind of party politics that meant opting 'for Paul', 'for Apollos', 'for Cephas', before Christ, his argument is that there is one body that teaches the truth, and that is the Church of Jesus Christ. We are called together to be members of the Church, the People of God, the Body of Christ. We are not called to design our own church. Quarrelling worried St Paul because it threatened the very aims of his preaching by putting political or personal convictions before the unity of the Body of Christ. At the same time he was not averse to engaging in argument where the reality of what Christ had achieved was in danger of being compromised.

Dominican Pilgrimage to Lourdes (Part 2)

According to the Directory on popular piety and the liturgy, processions are "a manifestation of the faith of the people. They often have cultural connotations and are capable of re-awakening the religious sense of the people." In this way they are a form of preaching expressing and stirring up our faith. In Lourdes, two processions take place daily: the torch-lit Marian Procession with the Rosary every evening and the Eucharistic Procession with the blessing of the sick every afternoon.

On the eve of St Dominic's feast day, the English Dominican Pilgrimage led the Marian Procession, and friars and young pilgrims had the honour of carrying the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes at the head of a crowd of thousands.

The statue is carried to the head of the Procession.

Torches are raised high as hymns to Our Lady are sung.

Pilgrims in wheelchairs at the front of the Procession.

Fr John Farrell OP leads the prayers at the end of the Procession.

Rosary Square outside the Lourdes basilica is ablaze with thousands of torches.

Four of our young helpers carrying the emblems of the Evangelists used in the Eucharistic Procession.

The Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession by a French bishop.

Br Alistair Jones OP read the Gospel before a period of silent adoration in the underground basilica.

After a period of adoration in the underground basilica, Benediction of the sick concludes the Eucharistic Procession.

In addition, the pilgrims prayed the Stations of the Cross during which fr Thomas Skeats OP led the prayers and reflections.

Of course, a homily was preached every day during Mass by a different Dominican friar. Here, fr Leon Pereira OP preaches on the feast of St John Vianney.

"Lord Jesus,

You gave us Mary as our Mother.

She shared Your Passion and Resurrection.

Here in Lourdes she showed herself to Bernadette,

saddened by our sins but radiant with Your light.

Through her, we entrust to You our joys and our sorrows,

our own, those of the sick, and those of all people.

Mary, our sister and our mother,

our confidante, and our help:

we pray to you.

Hail Mary..."

A-Z of Paul: Pharisee

Is there not a deep irony in the fact that God chose a Pharisee to be the apostle to the Gentiles? Paul was a Pharisee and a son of Pharisees (Acts 23:6). Pharisaism was a lay movement, centred on study of the Torah, the Law of Moses, which believed that to study the Law was itself obedience to the Law. He trained in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the great teachers of the time (Acts 22:3; 26:4). The Pharisees were a strict sect (Acts 22:3; 26:5), zealous in their service of God and of His word in the scriptures. We are indebted to Paul himself for this striking description: I was, he says, 'as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the Church, as to righteousness under the law faultless' (Philippians 3:5-6).

Within Judaism, the Pharisees contrasted with the priestly Sadducees, not only in their position within the hierarchy of Judaism but also as regards their beliefs. Paul plays on this in his trial in Jerusalem, noticing that his accusers are made up of both Pharisees and Sadducees, and saying that the reason he is on trial is because of his faith in the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees shared this belief and the hope it offers, the Sadducees did not. So the two groups end up fighting with each other (Acts 23:6-10).

Paul was not only a clever but also a learned man. Pharisaism was an urban rather than a rural movement and so tended to be more sophisticated and cultured than other movements within Judaism. Paul knows the Bible through and through and is familiar with Jewish traditions about it and ways of interpreting it. He also knows a lot about Greek philosophy and is keen to engage with the philosophers in Athens (Acts 17). When Festus, one of the Roman officials trying him at Caesarea, cries out in exasperation, 'Paul you are mad; your great learning is turning you mad' (Acts 26:24), Paul replies calmly that he is not mad but speaking 'the sober truth'. He does not deny, though, that he is a person of great learning! His testimony at Athens, Jerusalem and Caesarea show him to have been equally at home with Hebrew and with Greek.

On a number of occasions Paul explains how he has been faithful to his original zeal and dedication even if both fellow Jews and fellow Christians find it difficult to see how this was so. 'According to the Way', he says, 'I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law or written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust' (Acts 24:14-15). Later he repeats this: 'I stand here on trial for hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain ... and for this hope I am accused. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?' (Acts 26:6-8). He presents himself as a radical Pharisee, 'saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles' (Acts 26:22-23).

Abraham's faith in a God who raises the dead becomes central to Paul's thinking once he has encountered the risen Lord on the road to Damascus (Romans 4:17). Paul's 'faultless righteousness' on the basis of his study of the Law is shown up to be worth nothing compared with the knowledge of Christ, the first to be raised from the dead. Having once been zealous for the Law he is now zealous for Christ. This Christian Pharisee now regards everything else as so much skubala (a term that means 'dung' or 'excrement') compared with gaining Christ Jesus and being found in him (Philippians 3:7-11).

Dominican Pilgrimage to Lourdes (Part 1)

This year is the 150th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to St Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes. The annual Pilgrimage to Lourdes of the English Province took place from 1 - 8 August which meant that we had the privilege of celebrating St Dominic's day in Lourdes in this Jubilee Year.

As part of the Jubilee celebrations, Pope Benedict XVI granted a plenary indulgence to all pilgrims who visited four sites associated with St Bernadette in Lourdes and said a special Jubilee prayer. Inspired by this pattern, Godzdogz will post this prayer in four parts with various photographs from our pilgrimage based on the four elements of Dominican life: Prayer, Preaching, Study and Community.

In every Dominican pilgrimage, liturgical prayer is an important element. In Lourdes the highlights include the festive International Mass in the cavernous underground basilica and the more intimate Mass at the Grotto where Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette:

fr John Farrell OP presided at the Grotto Mass which was concelebrated by priests of the English Province, Bishop Joseph Vianney Fernando of Kandy (Sri Lanka) and clergy from Ireland and Sri Lanka.

fr Dermot Morrin preached during the Grotto Mass and likened the grotto to God's ear where God has, as it were, bent low to listen to our prayers.

One of our young pilgrims who was on his sixth pilgrimage to Lourdes received his first Holy Communion during the Grotto Mass.

Our new Pilgrimage Director, fr John O'Connor OP with pilgrims before the start of the International Mass.

The English Prior Provincial at the altar in the underground basilica of Lourdes.

One of our pilgrims was chosen to read an intercessory prayer during the International Mass, seen here on the big screen projected throughout the vast basilica space.

Daily Masses often took place in St Joseph's chapel.

fr Alistair Jones OP proclaims the Gospel during Mass, surrounded by three altar servers from our London parish.

One of the most moving occasions is the Mass during which the sacrament of anointing is administered to the sick. Here, fr Dermot Morrin lays his hands on the sick; in the foreground is his own mother.

fr John Farrell anoints one of our sick pilgrims with the oil of the sick. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them."

Vespers is also celebrated with Mass each day and Lauds is sung together every morning. Here, fr Bruno Clifton OP and fr Robert Gay OP lead Vespers in Lourdes.

On Sunday we made an excursion to Gavarnie and sang Vespers in the beautiful church of Luz.

On our last night in Lourdes we were given the privilege of leading the Marian Procession. Carrying the heavy portable shrine of Our Lady in the rain made this an act of prayer and penance as well as a form of holy preaching, of which more in the next post.

"God our Father

among all creatures You have formed Mary,

the perfect creature, the “Immaculate Conception”.

Here in Lourdes she proclaimed this name and Bernadette repeated it.

The Immaculate Conception; this is a cry of hope:

evil, sin, and death are no longer victors.

Mary, precursory sign, dawn of salvation!

Mary, the innocence and refuge of sinners

We pray to you.

Hail Mary..."

A-Z of Paul: Old Covenant

What is the Old Covenant and why would St Paul, being the Apostle of the Gentiles, be interested in the Old Covenant in the first place? Paul was a Pharisee, a devout Jew who led his life with a firm belief in the Scriptures. Inspired by them the whole people of Israel saw themselves as the heir to the promise and the blessing given by God to Abraham and to his offspring, and this is what the Old Covenant means.

Even though St Paul became a follower of Christ, he sees his new vocation as an apostle as sprouting out from his Jewish belief. Christ proclaimed himself to have come in fulfilment of both the prophets and the law and St Paul explains for us what this means. In his Letter to the Galatians (ch. 3) he says that it is Christ himself who is the heir of the promise and blessing given to Abraham. It is Christ who is the long-awaited offspring of Abraham.

If this is so, then, the Old Covenant finds its fulfilment in the person of Christ.

Jesus, as the heir of the promise, makes another Covenant with God, or if you like, extends the Old Covenant, through his death on the cross and resurrection. In this way the Old Covenant is brought to perfection as Christ died for all, and so the New Covenant made on the cross is lasting and universal. If this is so, then the only right thing to do is to preach God’s love and mercy beyond the boundaries of the Chosen Nation and this is what St Paul did with great Pharisaic dedication.

August 15 - The Assumption of Our Lady

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; Psalm 45; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56

There is great interest today in fantasy literature, in magical and enchanted stories, whether about Harry Potter or Narnia or the Lord of the Rings. Bookshops are full of material like this as well as science fiction and other kinds of imaginative writing. The desire for enchantment is a desire for other levels of life, that there might be other possibilities for humanity.

Today's feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven, her being taken up body and soul to the glory of Her Son's kingdom, meets this desire in us for a level of life that transcends the ordinary realities, a thirst for something beyond, or beneath, or within the things immediately seen, the things easily comprehended and manipulated by us. Fantasy speaks, however faintly, to our sense of wonder about hidden mysteries.

The first reading for example, from the Book of Revelation, presents us with a dramatic story full of symbols, perfect for nourishing the artistic and poetic imagination. The newborn child is Christ and the woman who gives birth is Mary. But she is also the Church, the community of the followers of Christ, destined to follow a difficult road in this world. How the imagination thrills at an adventure, a quest, a search for hidden treasure. The road is rich with possibilities but it is also dangerous and there are many obstacles to be overcome. It is a work of the apocalyptic imagination but it is a true fantasy, if we can put it like that, an accurate diagnosis of the situation of the Christian in the world, of the promise which is our treasure, of the dangerous adventures of the way.

In the second reading Saint Paul teaches us that the new life, the life of the resurrection, already established in Jesus Christ in the moment of his resurrection - this new world and new creation is not just for Jesus but has been won by him for us. The great grace of the Christian faith is this, to accept the promise of a level of living which reaches beyond our imagination. The assumption of Mary is the guarantee of this: the new creation is not just for Christ but is for all who belong to him, in the first place Mary who is next to him in all things, but eventually to all Christ's people. Mary, according to the preface of today's Mass, is thus 'a sign of hope and comfort for God's people on their pilgrim way'.

The gospel includes Mary's great prayer, the Magnificat, praising God for all His graces. Mary, an historical and particular woman, is a unique individual with a unique role in the drama. But she is 'full of grace' and so also a symbolic figure, representing the Church and all who are with her in the Church. The preface speaks of her as 'the beginning and pattern of the Church in its perfection'. Symbolizing and realizing this perfection she is fittingly called 'Mother of the Church'.

Already during this pilgrimage to the land sought by the Christian imagination, we see signs of the new creation, sparks of the glory that is to come, premonitions of the dawn. Wherever there is compassion, work for justice, care of the poor, unexpected generosity, faithful love, spontaneous and creative benevolence - in all of this we detect the presence of the Spirit for these are the effects of His life-giving love. Mary, whose following of her Son was marked by all these things, is the most beautiful creation of the Spirit, the highest honour of our race.

For the moment these signs and sparks encourage us to continue and to persevere on our pilgrimage. The full and clear revelation is yet to come. We continue to thirst, to desire and to imagine, living in the hope of the resurrection that is still to come. We are comforted and strengthened beyond measure by the prayers and example of Mary, already assumed into heaven, our life, our sweetness and our hope.

A-Z of Paul: Newness

The whole of the Bible can be viewed as an epic of new creation. Very early on in the narrative God’s pristine creation is marred by the ugliness of sin and its effects. But although it has its ups and downs the story told throughout the Bible is one of redemption. The Lord makes something new out of the mess that human beings have made and re-establishes his covenantal relationship with them. This reaching by God to heal the wounds of sin and division reaches its climax in the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus where those who follow Christ are given a newly created dignity, bought with the price of his blood on the Cross, that of children of God, members of Christ’s mystical body.

For Paul this motif of newness takes pride of place. He says in 2 Cor. 5:17 : “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.” In this passage St. Paul is trying to get across that the message of Our Lord requires us, and the gift of the Spirit enables us, to be transformed from our old worldly ways of being and acting. Our Lord Jesus tells us that we must be like little children of we are to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Little children?! Many of the people whom Paul was preaching to in Corinth were well educated, well-paid professionals and academics who had worked hard to get to the position they had reached. They had tried very hard to remove themselves form the status of children, who, let us not forget, had no legal rights in the Roman Empire. To them this preaching of newness and the message of Our Lord that a child-like trust in God was required must have seemed bizzare and totally unrealistic. It is a testament to the work of the Holy Spirit enflaming Paul and his companions that so many of the Corinthians became believers and established a thriving Christian community in Corinth. For St. Paul the newness that God gives to us is never ending, we are to be refreshed again and again, converted again and again, continually brought back to his love.

August 9th - St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was proclaimed a patron saint of Europe in 1999. Along with Catherine of Siena and Bridget of Sweden, she was chosen by Pope John Paul II "to emphasize the important role that women have had and have in the ecclesial and civil history of the continent down to our days." Each of these women was "connected in a special way with the Continent's history" and St Teresa in particular was described by John Paul II as "a symbol of the dramas in Europe in our time".

Born in 1891 to a Jewish family in Breslau, Edith Stein was a suffragette in university, a philosopher and teacher, and a nurse in the First World War. Although she had given up the practice of her Jewish religion at the age of 14, her study of phenomenology and her continual search for truth led to a realization that there is an objective reality that is the ground of all reality and makes all things knowable. So she came to recognize the reality of God. Based on her philosophical writings on 'The Problem of Empathy', John Paul II notes that Edith Stein saw that "this reality [of God] must be heeded and grasped above all in the human being, by virtue of that capacity for empathy, a word dear to her which enables one in some way to appropriate the lived experience of the other". Thus she began to read the experiences of God as related by Christians and especially the mystics. One evening Edith picked up the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila and read this book all night. She recounts: "When I had finished the book, I said to myself: this is the truth." Thus she came to faith in Christ and asked to be baptised in 1922.

St Teresa's search for truth and meaning, which led her through philosophy, to a discovery of the experience of God as expressed in the lives of great European Christians is instructive for us today, for European society seems to have forgotten its Christian heritage and seeks to divorce itself from the Christian experience of its past. In doing so, it can no longer empathise with its forebears and risks becoming uprooted, without an identity.

Conversely, Edith Stein not only empathised with the religious experience of great European saints but also remained rooted in her Jewish identity. She never saw her conversion to Christ as a rejection of her Jewish heritage and indeed she said that she "did not begin to feel Jewish again until I had returned to God". Although she went on to become a Carmelite nun, her Jewish roots never left her and indeed she suffered the Holocaust with her people. Her recorded last words, to her sister, when the Gestapo came to take them from her convent to Auschwitz on 2 August 1942 were: "come, we are going for our people" Already in 1933, when the Nazis took over Germany, Edith had written that "[Jesus'] Cross... was now being laid upon the Jewish people" and as a Catholic Jewess she felt that she was able to bring the suffering of the Jews to the Cross in a special way. She wrote: "I felt that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take it upon themselves on everybody's behalf".

St Teresa's understanding of the Cross was profound, and her last work, left unfinished by her arrest in 1942, was entitled "Kreuzeswissenschaft" (The Science of the Cross). Clinging to the Cross as our only hope, she knew that "those who are joined to Christ... will unflinchingly persevere even in the dark night of subjectively feeling remote from and abandoned by God... Getting to resurrection glory with the Son of Man, through suffering and death, is also the way for each one of us and for all mankind."

This eternal wisdom and gospel of hope is something that the Church proclaims and which Europe needs to hear. For without her ancient Faith, and feeling remote from God, Europe languishes in moral confusion and gropes for purpose and direction. It is not Brussels bureaucracy or European legislation that will save us but only, as Edith Stein learnt, a conversion to God who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

August 6th - The Feast of the Transfiguration

Living the life of faith is often hard when things are not going well in our spiritual lives. We sit and pray, yet no nice feelings of peace or warmth seem to come. It becomes just plain boring to spend time with the Lord, to the extent that when our time for regular prayer comes, even the most unimportant thing that we have been putting off for months becomes the most urgent task! Or we drag ourselves off to Church, or to our room and just sit there, wishing that time would pass..... Anyone who has ever made some sort of attempt to pray will have experienced the closeness of God - a mini Transfiguration moment, if you like, when God seemed very real and present to us. These kind of experiences are a gift, but often few and far between. When things seem less exciting, what should we do?

Well, there is much to learn from today's Gospel (Matthew 17:1-9). Once the disciples have experienced the presence of the Lord, in all its wonder and terror, they are told to rise, and it is all over. They wanted a moment that would last forever, but they have to get up, be on their way.... after all, there are things to do. But of course, this does not mean that they have to leave the presence of God. The appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus - the Law and the Prophets side by side with the one who fulfills both - serves as a reminder to them (and to us) of how God is continually present. For us it is a reminder of God's special presence in the scriptures and in the sacraments, which reveal Christ and offer him to us. So we need not tie God's loving care of us to feelings and emotions, but trust that through our prayer, our reading of the Bible and our participation in the liturgical life of the Church, we continue to receive Christ in our lives, and be transformed by him.... transformed so that we can go into the world and make him known.

A-Z of Paul: Marriage

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says it is good for a man not to touch a woman; yet to avoid immorality every man should have his own wife and every woman her own husband.

From this, one might suppose that St Paul had a rather negative view of marriage; it is tempting to think he saw marriage as the lesser of two evils. On this basis, some people even attempt to analyze St Paul’s psychological makeup and come to very unflattering conclusions.

However, in interpreting what St Paul says on marriage, we need to understand the circumstances in which he was writing. There is little evidence to suggest that sexual immorality was common amongst the Corinthians. Yes there was the case of incest mentioned in 1 Cor 5, but in the wider context of the letter to the Corinthians, Paul is concerned with those who claimed to have a superior knowledge of God. The inability to deal with a particular case of sexual immorality was just an example to show how empty the Corinthians’ claim to superior knowledge was.

St Paul, in writing to the Corinthians about marriage was trying to heal a split in the community. Reading between the lines, it is likely that Paul was addressing a group of Corinthians who were not only celibate, but who also disapproved of any sexual activity, even within marriage. St Paul in mentioning “it is good for a man not to touch a woman” could be quoting a Corinthian slogan, a slogan which he agrees with to the extent that it forbids incestuous relationships or sexual intercourse with prostitutes, but to the extent that it forbids marriage or enforces sexual abstinence within marriage, he does not agree. St Paul does recognise celibacy as a gift, but he rejects the Corinthians’ attempt to make one particular expression of the spiritual life binding on all believers. So he does not see sex within marriage as sinful, but he advises believers to marry in holiness and honour.

Being married is no obstacle to living a holy life which is pleasing to God, but St Paul goes further than this. In the letter to the Ephesians, St Paul describes Christian marriage as mirroring the relationship Christ has with the Church. Husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ also loved the Church. Therefore marriage is a sign of the mysterious union of Christ with the Church, and the sign of marriage is a way in which this union with Christ can be actually realised by the individual, a way of participating in God’s divine life. Thus St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians helps us appreciate the great importance of Christian marriage and helps us understand why it is a sacrament.