Author: Simon Sleeman

Fr. Mark Patrick Hederman: Today is red letter day. The Holy Spirit is moving through the airwaves. You could be the person needed for a next move in plans for the universe. Each of us has been fitted with a connecting link inside our identikit. It is important to take time to look around inside yourself and find the switch; Especially if you are making life-changing decisions or sitting important exams; The help-line is there if you are humble enough to use it.

There are two ways of living in this world: on your own or in the company of those who made us. The word ‘company’ comes from the Latin ‘cum pane’ meaning ‘with bread’ – Panis Angelicus – we who eat the bread of life together are companions. Companions with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Companions with all those who have left us and who make up the company of the saints in heaven. They are all around us here this morning, we only have to reach out and touch them with our love.

The Holy Spirit is our Sat-Nav on this journey through life. The signals are often silent and always discrete. We have to listen carefully and stay awake. There is no attempt to force us or to impose. The invitation is private, privy sealed and personal. There is total respect for your free will and mine. It is always your choice, my choice. So, my advice is this: plug in; turn on; and do what you’re told. That, for me, is the recipe for happy, exciting, and meaningful life. 

‘Today, if you should hear this voice – harden not your heart.’

Fr. Simon Sleeman: A friend gave me some advice when I told him I was preaching at the Parents Day Mass. ‘Good luck with that’ he said….’I know you have a great message, a message of peace, of freedom and living without fear but, but your congregation will  have other things on their minds… BBQ’s and bacon, sunshine and showers, music and sports, prizes and awards. Here’s what you do.’ Make your introduction concise, the ending abrupt with nothing in between.” So here goes…

We are here on assignment. The Christian assignment is not about getting more, it is not about doing more or even knowing more.It is about ‘becoming more’. Bearing fruit. Fruit that will last. Growing up into the full stature of Christ.

‘Becoming more’ is not getting bigger – Pliny the elder said that the Romans when they couldn’t make a building beautiful, made it bigger. ‘Becoming more’ is not bulking up with steroids or weights.  It is not even becoming nicer… ‘Becoming more’ is, ‘growth in the sense of the other’ – be that other my neighbour, or my God. Space for the other.

Before your mind takes you down the rabbit hole of ‘do-it-yourself becoming’, or asking yourself, ‘how can I get this done with ‘just one click’?  know that this growth is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, the Divine Artist who teaches you everything – an almost impossible proposition to hear, convinced as we are, that we can self-engineer anything we want or desire.

Our assignment is to cultivate that delicate instinct that responds to the slightest movement of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives leading us to life… and then hold onto your hats.

Fr. Anthony Keane: In today’s gospel, which gives us the farewell discourses of Jesus,  dearest brothers and sisters, we are confronted with the mysteries of Life and Death. There is the horror of betrayal  even by one who shared his table – Jesus was deeply disturbed and declared:  ‘one of you is going to betray me’, and there are the chilling words of the text: As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out.  It was night.

Lest we be too afraid, we also read:  and light shines in the darkness of that night, and the darkness could not overpower it.  And of divine Wisdom:  compared with light she takes first place for light must yield to night, but against Wisdom evil cannot prevail.Despite the murderous threat of the Jewish establishment and the weighty Roman Empire, to which is added the treachery from among one’s own,  despite all of this horror,  Jesus says:‘Now has the Son of man been glorified’                                          

– Glorified because the life of the Giver of Life has been confronted, existentially threatened and, thereby,  gloriously revealed in all its power of  love  which overcomes death itself.

And in this power, ever ancient and ever new, we receive a new commandment:  Love one another.  This comes naturally, supernaturally,  to us when we see the wonders that God works.   For,  Wisdom, unchanging,  renews the world, and generation after generation, passing into holy souls, makes them into God’s friends and prophets.                           

Fr. Mark Patrick Hederman: It is interesting how the liturgy provides readings for special occasions. Next Wednesday the conclave begins to elect a new Pope. The Gospel this morning is about St Peter, the one chosen by Jesus to head up his team of disciples, to be the rock on which Christianity is founded. It would have been difficult to choose a less likely candidate. ‘I will never leave you, I am ready to die for you, you can definitely count on me!’ His oaths of loyalty are a penny a dozen: all blow and no go!

 Jesus is patiently realistic: ‘Before the cock crows tomorrow morning, he tells his over zealous disciple, ‘you will have denied me three times.’

There are only two scenes in the New Testament where a burning charcoal fire provides the setting. Here on the beach, after the miraculous catch of fish, where Jesus is waiting to meet both Peter and ourselves. The last time we sat warming ourselves beside a charcoal fire ‘A servant girl saw us, looked closely at us and said, “This person was a follower of Jesus.” And we all stood up with Peter and denied it. “Woman, we said, “I don’t know him; I know nothing about him.”  A little later someone said, “You must be one of them.”

And about an hour later another insisted, “This guy was certainly with him, his accent betrays him.” And Peter, like the rest of us, began to curse and swear saying “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”  And as he said it, a cock crowed. The charcoal fire kept burning and Jesus turned and looked at us straight in the eye. And Peter remembered the words he had spoken to him: “Before the cock crows, you will have disowned me three times.”  And Peter went outside and wept bitterly.

Here, today, in front of a similar charcoal fire, Jesus asks Peter three times ‘do you love me’ and Peter is offended by his asking him three times. But both Jesus and the charcoal fire are making a point. If you deny me three times, you must tell me three times that you love me. Not like Judas who hanged himself after his terrible betrayal, we are invited to say how sorry we are and that, in spite of everything, our weakness, our cowardice, our treachery, we really do love him. The charcoal fire is yet one more symbol of God’s burning love, it stands like the paschal candle here as a reminder that whatever we do, however we fail, we must never give up on God’s love for us. 

On Wednesday next, 133 cardinals will assemble in conclave to vote for the next pope, a new Peter. 108 of these electors [that is 80%) were appointed cardinals by Pope Francis. Was he shortening the odds or, maybe, increasing the oddballs? No one can say who will eventually be chosen. In Italy it is forbidden by law to place bets on the result. If you want to cash in, you have to access international aps such as Ladbrokes or Paddy Power. It would be foolish to predict. All we do know is that, by the end of next week, someone will have become a household name, an international celebrity and that person, whoever they may be, no matter how incompetent, how pathetic, how foolish they may have been in the past; that person will receive from that moment on, the guidance and the courage they need to do whatever the Holy Spirit has arranged for them to do. Such a process will have happened seven times during my lifetime and in each case I have to take my hat off to the Holy Spirit because, for the most part, they have been a credit to him or her, certainly in comparison with other internationally elected leaders during that time span. 

And why is this so? Because that fire of love is still burning on the beach by the waters of the Sea of Galilee.   Our God is a blazing fire; the Trinity is iron, coal and burning heat; the axis of the universe; what makes each of us and all of us complete. The three sang with one voice from the heart of the fire: blessed be God, alleluia.

Fr. Luke Macnamara: Whenever the Risen Lord appears to the disciples, he greets them in the same way: “Peace be with you.” The Risen Lord continues to offer his peace to us today. He does so at this Mass. After the Our Father we will hear his words: – “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you”. This peace is not the absence of war or strife, it is something much more. Wherever we are in the world, in whatever situation we may be, however difficult, the Lord with hands outstretched offers us his peace. We may have lost a beloved spouse, broken up with a girlfriend, lost a dear friend, developed a severe illness or be under threat of violence – the Lord’s peace reaches beyond the surface into our deepest selves, so that we be truly at peace. 

The Lord doesn’t force his peace upon us. We can be reluctant to believe, we can have doubts and fears about exposing ourselves to the Lord’s touch. When the Lord appears to Thomas he asks him: “Give me your hand”. The hand represents our action in the world – so much of what we do involves our hands. It is only when they don’t work through illness or handicap that we come to realise how much our hands allow us to do. To give one’s hand to another implies a relationship of trust and much more. The clearest example is in marriage – “to give your hand in marriage” is more than a handshake – it is a giving up of one’s autonomy to share life with another. That sharing will involve moments of love and joy but also heartache and pain. However where there is true sharing, there is a deeper peace that sustains through the hard times. 

There is something of this dynamic in the Lord’s invitation to Thomas to give him his hand. Thomas must trust even if that hand is to be placed in a tangled wound. The Lord shares the glory of his resurrection with Thomas but also the pain of his passion. Thomas by giving his hand replicates the Lord’s journey through the passion and death to the resurrection and life. By giving his hand to the Lord, he receives the Risen Lord’s gifts of peace and forgiveness. The Lord invites us to do the same, to trust and open our hands to him, that he may fill us with peace and forgiveness. The Lord invites us to open our hands to one another to share his peace and forgiveness. There is great power in a chain of open hands – we will share something of that power at the sign of peace. May we truly then go in peace at the end of Mass and bring that peace to all those we meet.

Luke Macnamara OSB

Fr. Lion Moreira: We have just heard Saint John’s account of how the tomb of Jesus was found empty. This is the story of a spiritual race, where the disciple whom Jesus loved was the first to cross the finish line. He saw and believed (Jn 20:8), and it was a while before Mary Magdalene, Peter and the other disciples reached that point. Let us briefly examine the successive stages of this race, which, in a sense, is also our own.

First upon the scene was Mary Magdalene. When she got to the tomb, she saw that the stone covering its entrance had been removed (cf. Jn 20:1). Relying solely on the testimony of her senses, she jumped to the wrong conclusion: ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,’ she cried, ‘and we do not know where they have laid him’ (Jn 20:2). 

On hearing this, Peter and the other disciple set out at once. The two were running together, says the Evangelist, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first (Jn 20:4). What is the significance of this? Why was Peter following (cf. Jn 20:6) the beloved disciple, and not the other way round? There seems to be a connection here to an earlier incident, when Jesus was brought before Caiaphas. On that occasion, both Peter and the other disciple were following their Master (cf. Jn 18:15), but Peter denied being one of Jesus’ disciples (cf. Jn 18:17). Now, on the way to the empty tomb, Peter was being led by the one who had never turned away, so that he too might run the path of discipleship without wavering.

At the entrance to the tomb, the beloved disciple stepped aside and let his companion go in before him. Then Simon Peter saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself (Jn 20:6-7). At this point, Peter understood that he was looking at signs with a special significance. First, he realised that the neat positioning of the linen wrappings and the facecloth showed that the body had not been stolen. Then, he began to recall what Jesus had said and done. Perhaps the first thing that crossed his mind was the response Jesus had given to the Jewish authorities just before the Feast of Passover: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (Jn 2:19). It is written in Saint John’s Gospel that Jesus was speaking of his own body and his resurrection from the dead (cf. Jn 2:21). But this could well have been Peter’s original interpretation – a truth that began to dawn on him when he stood inside the empty tomb.

While Simon Peter was still reflecting, the other disciple also entered the tomb. He saw and believed (Jn 20:8). His was the gaze of someone who had already pieced it all together and now fully realised that God had fulfilled his plan to save humankind by raising Jesus from the dead. He understood this with his mind, believed it with his heart, and was ready to proclaim it with his lips.

In this episode from Saint John’s Gospel, there is a marked contrast between Mary Magdalene on one side, and Peter and the beloved disciple on the other: Mary appears alone in the dark of night, unable to see beyond the evidence of her senses, while the other two are shown running together on the path of discipleship – an action that leads to faith in the resurrection of Jesus. The story, however, does not end there. Mary follows closely behind Simon Peter and the other disciple, and when she reaches the tomb again, the risen Lord reveals himself to her, making her the first herald of his resurrection.

The conclusion is easily drawn: at times, we may feel lost in the darkness of this world, where we are told there is no scientific evidence that anyone has ever risen from the dead. But if we persevere in following Jesus together with his other disciples, as members of his Church, the risen Lord himself will open our minds to recognise the signs of his living presence – so that we can sing and proclaim with joy: Christ has risen, alleluia!

Abbot Christopher Dillon: There is a great deal happening in this scene of the woman who has been caught in the act. At the same time, one wonders what had become of her partner. She cannot have been alone and they are each as guilty as the other; indeed, the Law which the priests and the Pharisees are quoting prescribes that the man should be stoned before the woman. Whatever about that, the point here, of course, is that Jesus is being put to the test on the horns of a dilemma. The Law is clear: the woman must be stoned. On the other hand, Jesus is beloved by the crowd for his reputation for mercy. Which is it to be? The righteous indignation, even the vindictiveness, of the accusers is palpable, as they press Jesus for his response, while he writes or doodles with his finger on the ground, avoiding their gaze and probably gathering his thoughts. But when he stands up, the simple expression of his conclusion both challenges and rebuts their judgmentalism, “Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone.” His response is as brilliant in its simplicity as in its justice. He does not minimise the gravity of the crime or question the justice of the sentence, but he reveals the unworthiness of the woman’s accusers and their own sinfulness rendering them incompetent to raise a hand against her. Among those present, Jesus alone is competent in his sinlessness to lift a stone against her, which he forbears to do. Instead, Jesus invites the woman to make a new beginning, leaving the past behind, to go and sin no more.

Is not this what Jesus is doing for all of us, as he embarks on the final stretch of his mission among us and embraces his passion in these coming weeks? The first reading from Isaiah has God leading us on a new Exodus inclining us to thanksgiving rather than complaining. Then St Paul speaks of straining forward to faith in Christ instead of striving for perfection by his own efforts. 

In this woman who has sinned and indeed in her sinning partner, Jesus is urging us to go and sin no more. For the Lord wishes not the death of sinners but that we be converted and live. God’s justice and mercy are infinite, but somehow his mercy outweighs his justice. We should study his example and learn from it to apply it in our own lives. The goal of all God’s action in Jesus is that we have life and have it to the full. Is that not what God is working towards by means of the passion of Jesus in the astonishing phenomenon of the resurrection? 

We have much to reflect on with that woman and with her we have much for which to be forever grateful.

Fr.Luke Macnamara: Life is far from perfect in our lives, year groups, families, community. We make mistakes in our relationships, with God, with others, and with ourselves. Embarrassment and shame can stop us from mending relationships. We can live alongside rather than beside one another. This is not being fully alive but only a half existence. 

The Gospel story reflects this reality. It speaks of a dysfunctional family – where relationships are messy: the wayward younger son (Junior), the resentful older son (Senior). As the story progresses, Junior and Senior no longer regard themselves as sons. Junior hopes to be treated as a hired servant. Senior regards himself as having worked as a slave for his father. While both Junior and Senior are physically alive, they think of themselves as slaves and not as sons. They live apart from their father.

When Junior returns home, he is greeted by the Father who runs out to him, welcomes him with a kiss, gives him his finest robe, a signet ring and sandals, indicating his status as a son in the family. The feast is held to celebrate because as the Father’s says: “This son of mine was dead and has come back to life, he was lost and now is found.” How can this be? How can the Father overlook Junior’s many faults? Is Junior looking for some nice clothes and a full belly? How pure are his motives? The Father asks none of these questions – he simply embraces his lost son.

Although assured of the Father’s welcome, how can we take this difficult road back to the Father? Jesus has taken this road before us and for us. He has become lost and found for us, he has died and risen for us, that we might have fullness of life. Through the power of Christ’s death and resurrection, we are reconciled with God. Let no feelings of inadequacy come between us and the offer of Christ’s powerful reconciliation which leads to fullness of life, now, and in the world to come. Those joined to Christ become a new creation. Let us use these last three weeks of Lent to join ourselves close to Christ, to be reconciled to God, each other and ourselves, that we may receive his Easter gifts of peace, love, and life.