Author: Justin

Fr Jarek Kurek OSB

How fitting today’s readings for church that needs wise guidance, calling for leaders to take on the responsibility of following the teaching of our ‘Instructor’, Jesus Christ.

Now, when I say ‘responsibility’, I think of becoming ‘responsible’, that is, being capable of responding to the needs and challenges of our times, acquiring the ability to read and understand the world and human needs in the light of the instruction that Jesus Christ and all the tradition of the Church have left with us.

But there is also another, somewhat hidden meaning of the term ‘responsibility’, which is to able to set things straight, to guide the way, and ultimately to instruct.

We are just after celebrating the Feast of All Saints, and also, just two days ago, there has been a feast of a rather unappreciated saint, in our times I must add. Because in his own 12^th century lifetime, he was a point of reference to many in this country and far beyond. Imagine that one of the most influential saints of all times, Bernard of Clairvaux, chose to write his one and only biography about this man. Such was Bernard’s admiration, that on arrival at his monastery in France, he hailed this man as the ‘true Orient from on high’, a label normally restricted to Jesus himself. Searching for the right modern analogy it’s like getting one’s face on the cover of Time magazine with the headline ‘Man of the Century’.

The man was an Irishman, and his name was Malachy, St. Malachy.

Now, it might be a pure coincidence, but today’s first reading was from the prophet Malachi! The name itself means ‘a messenger of mine’, ‘my messenger’ from God’s perspective, which I think fits quite well into the profile of ‘the one who bears responsibility for the spiritual well-being of people entrusted to him’.

As we have heard, prophet Malachi tried hard to instruct the priests of his times. Actually, he gave out to them for misguiding the people of God. What can we learn from our Irish Malachy about the proper way of instruction? Bernard puts down a striking note: Those who have never been disciples themselves are the blind leading the blind. Malachy, though taught by God, nevertheless sought out a man as a teacher, and he did so cautiously and wisely. A remarkable lesson for everyone who wishes to become more responsible for their own spiritual welfare, and perhaps of the others in the long-term: a prudent looking for someone who deserves to be their teacher and may lead them to Christ.

Our friend Malachy found such one, and after some years, he was ready to go out to the people of Ireland with Christ’s message. As his biographer St. Bernard notes, he was commissioned to give the ‘law of life and instruction to [sorry for this harsh description] an uncultured people living without the law’. What’s striking in what follows in Bernard’s story is that Malachy ‘accepted the command eagerly, fervent in spirit. He did not hide away his talents, but he was gasping for gain…he rejoiced as a giant to run everywhere…he was like a burning fire’. Setting things straight, leading his people toward the light by means of his instruction. Can you hear the intensity of his endeavour? By no means did he take his responsibility lightly. He got it right: to be truly responsible means, in this case, to be fervent in the spirit while spreading the message of the Lord.

But that’s not all when it comes to being truly responsible. St Malachy, according to the testimony of St Bernard, applied to himself one of the main responsibilities of any priest as prescribed by the prophet Malachi. His instruction was successful because his ‘holy lips…guarded knowledge’. Now, knowledge doesn’t get good press in our Christian circles nowadays; it is often seen as some sort of danger to our faith, ‘faith doesn’t go through the head’, we are told. Nothing can be more untrue. Faith and knowledge need to be seen as one; they are needed to form unity. As one of the spiritual masters put it: ‘Faith is a firm and certain knowledge of God’s kindness towards us, founded upon the truth of the promise given in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit’. Faith is a knowledge of God’s loving invitation, presented to us through Christ’s instruction and constantly renewed by the Holy Spirit. But it requires our wholehearted response, a daily fervent spiritual quest. If you are happy to seek this knowledge of God and hear God’s plans for you, at some point, you will hear this extraordinary message from God in your heart: ‘messenger of mine, now you are ready’.

Fr Abbot Brendan OSB

What is holiness? This is the question posed to us by today’s feast. We cannot simply read the beatitudes as a nice poetic text. The beatitudes explore the complex relationship between faith and blessedness!

The English word “bless” is derived from an Old English word meaning “blood” and suggests something set aside through sacrifice. God makes holy that which brings about His will. God’s people do not live in a hermetically sealed glasshouse where only good things happen. We live in the real world where there is war, sickness and pain, as well as joy, success and peace. We live in a world where there is war in Ukraine and the Middle East, where terrible hatred and injustice is being acted out before our eyes. The people of God have always lived in the real world and had their share of sufferings. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was barren. So were Rebekah and Rachel, the wives of the patriarchs. Jacob was cheated over and over by his father-in-law. Joseph was hated by his brothers and sold into slavery. David was attacked and hated by Saul and even by his own son, Absalom. Job, the just man, suffered great pains. John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded. Paul was shipwrecked, in dangers, hungry, cold, exhausted and fearful.

A blessed state does not come from external conditions, it does not come from well-being, from pleasure, from success, from wealth; instead, it arises out of precise behaviours.

Being poor in spirit, being able to take on meekness, struggling to renounce violence and war; hungering and thirsting for justice and truth; being pure of heart, practicing mercy and becoming a peacemaker; being persecuted and slandered for love of Jesus. We are blessed with qualities that seem humanly impossible because we have become like the saints, ‘risen from the dead’, partakers in Christ’s resurrection.

Primo Levi, a very famous Italian chemist who died in 1987 spent one year of his life as a prisoner in Auschwitz. While there, he met a man called Lorenzo who gave him part of his ration of bread every day. Levi wrote: “I believe it was really due to Lorenzo that I am alive today; and not so much for his material aid as for his having constantly reminded me by his presence, … (that) it was worth surviving. Thanks to Lorenzo I managed not to forget that I myself was a man.” Every act of kindness and compassion is a witness to the possibility of goodness, which evil can never destroy. The sun shines through even into the darkest corners. To live the life of a saint is to move from a world of black and white into a world of glorious colour.

They give us blessed hope, the peacemakers, the poor in spirit, the merciful, the pure in heart, those who mourn, the persecuted. Because they assure us again and again: no one is born a saint, but every one of us, by the grace of God, can become one.

Fr Senan Furlong OSB

When Jesus was twelve years old, his parents thinking that he was lost went in search of him. They found him in the temple in Jerusalem sitting among the teachers of the Law, listening and asking them questions. I like to imagine, improbable though it is, that one of those teachers was Hillel the great. There is a famous story that a would-be convert approached this wise Rabbi and demanded of him: “Teach me the whole Torah (the Divine Law) while I stand on one foot!” Hillel answered: “What is hateful to you, don’t do to another. That is the whole Law; the rest is commentary. Now go and learn.” Basing the whole Law on one principle, like standing on one foot, Hillel tells the man to go and learn what this principle—the golden rule—requires.

After all, God is in the details. Today’s first reading from the book of Exodus gives a few examples of those details: don’t oppress the stranger, don’t be harsh with the widow or orphan, don’t exploit those in debt or take advantage of someone who has fallen on bad times. For just as God listens to all who cry out to him and is compassionate, so must we, his people, do likewise. The details bring the divine presence down to earth, where we need it most, inviting us to live life as God wishes us to do.

“What is the greatest commandment of the Law?” the Pharisees challenge Jesus in today’s gospel. Jesus replies by quoting the familiar commandment from the book of Deuteronomy: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your strength”, or as Matthew puts it, with all your heart, soul and mind. But Jesus does not stop at loving God and sets a second commandment taken from the book of Leviticus beside the first: “love your neighbour as yourself.” Fulfilment of the Law flows from love of God and love of neighbour.

We must stand on these two feet. “Love your neighbour as yourself.” But not all neighbours are lovable. There are neighbours we may dislike, even deeply. Our neighbour may have harmed us and acted in a
way we believe is wrong. If we were angels, it would be easy to love our neighbour. But we are not. For this reason the command in Leviticus is very practical. It sums up a paragraph about dealing fairly and honestly, about talking things through and admonishing, about not taking revenge or bearing a grudge. In effect, it commands us to give our neighbour the consideration we would like to receive in their situation; to give our neighbour’s interests and rights the respect we give our own.

At heart, the command implies, Love your neighbour—who is just like yourself. In other words, my neighbour is profoundly connected with me, and this connection is rooted in the fact that both of us has been created in the image and likeness of God. We share an identity, no
matter how different we may be. In a world that is increasingly divided and polarised, when it becomes difficult to see the person behind the label, it is so easy to get outraged and swept up in hated. Hatred is familiar and easy but it is as destructive of ourselves as of those we hate. What is hateful to you, Hillel reminds us, don’t do to another.
We may be a handful of dust but we are made in the image of God and have been blessed with the gifts of intellect and creativity, empathy and perception. In today’s gospel Jesus invites us to put these gifts to use as we strive to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and all our mind, and then love our neighbour as ourselves. Stand on these two feet, for as Jesus says, on these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.

Fr Lino Moreira OSB

In the sixth year of the Christian era, Rome introduced in Palestine a poll tax of one denarius per adult person. Many argued that to pay such a tax was to acknowledge a foreign pagan sovereignty over Israel, which was forbidden by the Law of Moses. However, when Jesus was consulted about this matter, the aim was not to settle the question, but rather, as Saint Matthew puts it, to ensnare him in his words (cf. Mt 22:15).

If Jesus said that it was lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor, he would incur the wrath of nationalists and lose his credibility before those who regarded him as a prophet. But if he said the opposite, he would be denounced as a revolutionary, who was inciting the people to rebel against Roman rule.

One cannot but admire the skill with which the trap was laid. Jesus was confronted with a yes or no question which was prefaced by very flattering words: “Teacher, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances” (Mt 22:16). This statement was meant as a ploy but, ironically, it was a perfect description of Jesus, who said of himself: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). As the embodiment of truth, Jesus could not be deceived or influenced by any form of outward show, and being in awe of none, he said: “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax” (Mt 22: 18-19).

At this point we need to remember that Jesus was speaking in the Temple at Jerusalem, and that the denarius brought to him was a powerful symbol of a pagan cult, for it showed the head of the Emperor Tiberius over an inscription which read: “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus, great High Priest.” The claim here was that, after his death, Octavius Augustus had been deified, and therefore his heir, Tiberius, the ruling Emperor, was to be honoured as the son of a god.

“Whose image and inscription is this?” – Jesus asked. – They said: “Caesar’s”. Then he said to them: “Therefore give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mt 22: 18-19). By drawing such a sharp distinction between Caesar on the one hand and God on the other, Jesus was pointing out, first of all, that the Roman Emperors were no more than perishable men, according to the words spoken by God through the prophet Isaiah: “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god” (Is 45:5). And in Psalm 46 it is also said: The rulers of the earth belong to God, to God who reigns over all. That means that the course of human history is in the hands of our Maker, and all kinds of worship of a worldly leader are to be rejected as a form of idolatry. However, there is an obligation to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. The taxes legitimately imposed by the civil authorities must be paid in line with Saint Paul’s teaching in the Epistle to the Romans: Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honour to whom honour is owed (Rm 13:7). And the basis for doing all this, Saint Paul tells us, is that the governing authorities have been instituted by God to serve the common good (cf. Rm 13:1.4).

As Christians, therefore, we are urged to fulfil our civic duties and contribute generously to the welfare of society. But that should be a consequence and an expression of a much greater and more important commitment – namely, the commitment to love and serve the one true God. That is why, in the Temple at Jerusalem, Jesus gave the commandment to pay back to God what is God’s. Caesar had a right to claim a denarius, on which his image had been imprinted, but to God belong the lives of all his children, created in his own image and likeness (cf. Gn 1:26). So to worship God, our Father, in spirit and truth (cf. Jn 4:23) is essentially to return the gift of our very existence to the one from whom we have received it. As Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe said in one of his sermons: “Give God his own image in yourself, an image that must be kept undiminished by prudent care, pure by true faith and shining by good habits and deeds.”

Fr Luke Macnamara OSB

Weddings can be a nightmare. Who do you invite to the meal? Who do you invite to the afters? Who do you place beside one another? Who do you place far apart? Even regular meals can be difficult to negotiate when eating with a crowd. Where do you sit in the school refectory, university canteen, or the family dining table when at home? What dictates where you sit? Do you choose to sit with someone or choose to sit apart from someone? There is no choice in the monastery. St Benedict has his monks take their places by date of entry into the community. So at formal meals at Glenstal, you may end sitting next to the same person for 6 decades! A good reason for eating in silence one might add!

The Kingdom of God is likened to a great wedding banquet on the Lord’s mountain. Isaiah says that all our desires will be fulfilled, with rich food and fine wines. Mourning and death will be no more. This is a wonderful vision. Sadly this vision is very far from our current reality where so many families mourn the loss of loved ones, especially in Ukraine and the Holy Land.

There is a catch to this wonderful future vision of the kingdom as a great banquet. We are there at the Lord’s invitation and we do not get to choose the guests. There is no screening to exclude certain people who we would rather not sit beside. Astonishingly, all are invited to the Lord’s banquet, the good and even the bad! Invitations are not dictated by our notions of merit, and that is probably just as well. We begin to discover that our imaginings of the Lord’s mercy fall far short.

This vision contrasts with the reality of the world where so many cannot site at the same table together. However, the vision points to a way forward for us. The future vision of the kingdom, we make a reality every day in a small way when we gather around the one table at home, or in the monastery and school refectories or university canteens. By sharing the table together with people of different personalities, different nationalities, different politics, etc. we anticipate that universal banquet in the kingdom.

We anticipate the kingdom’s banquet in a particular way here at this Mass, where parents, students and staff from both the school and the university with many nations represented all gathered around the one table. Here, the Lord will offer us his peace, a peace that the world cannot give, and yet a peace that he empowers us to give one another. Here, the Lord will provide his body and blood as the true food for life eternal. As we remember the many dead in Ukraine, Gaza, and Israel, we also remember the Lord’s promise that he will destroy death forever. Perhaps our best response to the senseless round of murder and violence is for our families, our class groups, and our communities to be united around the one table and so be beacons for peace in our world. There are many in the world who are too busy to respond to their invitations. We have all been invited to take our place at the table – let us do so now.

Fr John O’Callaghan OSB

Today’s gospel is a parable about God’s people and their leaders, before and after the coming of Christ. The Old Testament reading depicts a vineyard that has become rundown and unproductive. The scene Isaiah evokes is what you might see at this time of year in France, Italy or Spain – bare hills of ugly stumps and stalks where not long before there were abundant vines of red and green grapes. The dead stumps are crooked, narrow and easily broken, only good to be thrown on the fire. And Isaiah is saying that this is what God’s people have become, that they are like a barren field now. It is a powerful image.

The gospel picks up the same image but focuses exclusively on those
responsible for caring for the vineyard and making it produce fruit. These tenants refuse to pay rent to the owner and instead mistreat, grossly insult and even kill those trying to collect it. The tenants, we know, stand for the chief priests and Pharisees and, in the end, these leaders finally realise that the parable is about them. They are the ones who have not properly cared for God’s people, and it is they who will ultimately hand Jesus over for crucifixion. “They wanted to arrest Jesus [right then] but were afraid of the crowds who looked on him as a prophet.” As you know they had Jesus arrested and killed later!

Our parable condemns those leaders for their corrupt behaviour, saying that “the Kingdom of God will be taken from [them] and given to a people who will produce its fruit’, adding that ‘the stone rejected by the builders became the corner stone’. On Christ’s death and resurrection the church was founded. So our gospel is about regime change, changing the leadership of the people of God from chief priests & pharisees to Christ. We are thus to be made productive, and as delightful as a fertile vineyard. What does that change really involve?

First of all, recognising Christ as God-with-us, as confirmed by the prophecies and especially the resurrection. Christian faith is the great gift that illumines our lives and frees us from unbelief and its substitute, idolatry. Those who do not put their trust in God must hear the din of countless idols crying out: ‘Put your trust in me!’ By faith we know there is always something greater than our own understanding. And Christian faith is trust in a love that holds us all in existence, and even enters into relation with each one of us, and gives our lives ultimate meaning.

Not content with smaller lights, faith is a light capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. It is by faith that we believers receive a new being and become sons and daughters of the living God, who is our Father. And faith leads on to hope. In the letter to the Ephesians St Paul reminds his readers that before their encounter with Christ they were’ without hope and without God in the world’. Of course he knew they had their pagan gods and religion but those gods had proven doubtful. They were in a dark world, facing a dark future. In a cemetery of the period there is a gravestone engraved with the words: ‘How quickly we fall back from nothing to nothing’. But the distinguishing mark of a Christian is that we know the future is positive, is a victory of life over death. This gives us the courage to rise to the challenges that face us. It is the kind of confidence we all need. And our own individual lives do not end with a shovel full of clay but in the glory of the kingdom of God! Thirdly, love. Christians trust in a perfect, divine love, in its decisive power. We believe in a God who is so close to us that he entered our human history and is constantly guiding us towards Himself. This transforms us to live our lives in
this world with greater intensity, to become loving persons, in his image, ready for renunciation and willing even for sacrifice.

Faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these, says St Paul, is love. It is this we are called to live today, surrounded as we are by so many challenges. The first Christians were known for it; may we also be in our times!

Fr Luke Macnamara OSB recently returned to Glenstal after teaching a two-week course on the Gospel of Saint John at the Notre Dame de Sion Centre for Biblical Formation in Jerusalem’s Old City.

More than two dozen participants from around the world joined Fr Luke for a series of lectures, individual and group study, field trips and excursions focussing on John’s Gospel.

A Glenstal monk for more than twenty years, Fr Luke completed his doctorate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and has lectured at Saint Patrick’s Pontifical University in Maynooth for almost a decade.

In addition to lectures on John’s Gospel, the course included some inputs on Judaism and Islam, taking into consideration Jerusalem’s unique position at the heart of the three Abrahamic faiths.

Glenstal’s Br Justin Robinson OSB – who is currently away on studies in the Holy Land – was invited to give two talks on Islam to the participants. He spoke on the subject of ‘Text, Land, People: an exploration of the Qur’an, its People and Holy Land.’

The presence of two Glenstal monks in Jerusalem provided an opportunity for a number of meetings with friends of the monastery and, most importantly, the chance to pray in the holy places for the Abbey’s monks and their relatives, for Glenstal’s friends and benefactors, colleagues, students and their families.

It was a privilege for Fr Luke and Br Justin to pray for these intentions at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during an early-morning Mass celebrated on Calvary. In a particular way, they remembered the intentions of the students, families and staff of Glenstal Abbey School who recently began a new academic year together.

Most providentially, the pair later had a chance-encounter with Abbess Klara, the superior of our congregation’s foundations in Ukraine, who has visited Glenstal a number of times over the years and was making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

This brief meeting was an opportunity to exchange greetings between monastic communities and to hear news of the Benedictine Congregation of the Annunciation’s brothers and sisters in Ukraine.

To learn more about the Benedictine monastic foundation in Lviv, Ukraine, visit the website of our Congregation here.

To find out more about similar talks, retreats and events from monks of Glenstal Abbey, visit our Events page here.