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The monks of Glenstal Abbey wish you all a happy Saint Patrick’s Day ☘️

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Laetare Sunday, we call it, today, after the first word of the Introit which has just been sung; Rejoicing Sunday. It is also called Mothering Sunday, since medieval times, when the faithful are invited to re-visit the mother church where they were baptised. Today, it is more generally a celebration of mothers in general and an opportunity to send another card and maybe, even, a flower. Whatever about that, today’s rejoicing is marked by a distinct sobriety of tone. The readings make it feel more like a day of moral accounting. We are sinners, we are reminded; we have sinned and we have suffered the consequences, the first reading tells us. But, following that bald estimate of our situation, the tone changes dramatically, in the Second Reading, with the lapidary statement that, whatever about the past, we have been saved by God’s kind decision to do just that. By God’s grace, sinners though we be, we have been rescued; we have been saved. That is the truth of our situation; and so we have much over which to rejoice, much  for which to be grateful.

The Easter event, inaugurated by Christ’s passion and death, with all its heavy drama and pathos, has given birth and will continue to give birth to new life and a newness of life which will overwhelm and supplant all the suffering and difficulty of this present age; and, God knows, we are all too familiar, today, with suffering and difficulty. We are being reminded, after the past weeks of Lenten effort, that this is the essence of the Christian Good News; in effect, the reason why we bother to be Christian. It is all gift, because God is God. And again, because God is God, it has made sense, in God’s way of thinking and dealing, that this gift of everlasting life should be achieved for us by Jesus Christ’s death, of which the cross over the altar is a constant reminder. The folly of it! The ghastliness of that tortured death! The wonder of it, as the definitive expression of God’s love, of us, of the world, of his universe.

The language of the Gospel which we have heard, just now, speaks repeatedly of light, darkness, truth, belief. Against the backdrop of the assault on truth, across the so-called “free world”, in our day, when we have become familiar with “alternative facts”, QAnon and invented news, many find it problematic to establish any solid basis for truth. How can we be sure of anything? As Pontius Pilate famously asked of Jesus, “What is truth?” Well, as Christians, we  have our criterion for making a decisive answer to that question. Jesus’ own words to those reclining at the table of the Last Supper are, “I am the Truth.” He is the truth about God, who is the touchstone of all truth, the ultimate reality. With God in Jesus, Jesus in God, we have the ultimate foundation of truth; of that, at least, we can be certain sure. And the first certainty, after that, is that God loves us, as He loves His own Son. In expression of that love, God plans no less than that we should share in Jesus’ victory over death, to join him in his everlasting glory. So, yes, we rejoice; there is much for which we have to be joyful; much for which to give thanks, as we do in this celebration of the Eucharist. 

Fr Christopher Dillon OSB

Our fourth Lenten talk on the theme of Saint Patrick, Baptism and the Paschal Mystery with Br. Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB is now available to watch again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ngSX8VqhMA (🎙️ Audio-only: bit.ly/3vtYSc7)

It’s natural for us to hear, but do we really listen? 👂 Father Simon continues some thoughts in this episode of the Mindful Monk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-wK8PFJU_k

Our third Lenten talk on the theme of Life in Community with Fr. Henry O’Shea OSB is now available to watch again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoYm5ZsbMYo (🎙️ Audio-only: https://bit.ly/3c78e4s)

There’s plenty of differences between the four gospels. But today’s story of the ‘cleansing of the temple’ is one that all four gospels see as being closely related to Jesus’s death. This is not simply because Jesus was just making himself a nuisance and causing a fuss, but because by his actions Jesus was seen to be making a claim about himself, one that was absolutely unacceptable to the religious authorities of Jerusalem.

This is clear in the account that we read today. ‘What sign have you to show us for doing this?’, he is asked. In other words, ‘Who do you think you are? and why should we believe you?’ Jesus gives an answer, but it’s a cryptic one, which is naturally enough misunderstood, at least until the resurrection, when the sign is fulfilled. But in fact what he has done, in cleansing the temple, is itself the sign that justifies his action.

Reasonably we take this to mean that Jesus is against selling things and changing money in the temple. We may ask ourselves whether he would express equal displeasure at the fact that all the temples are closed now, whilst the shopping centres are open. But this would be quite to miss the point. Without the sellers of animals for sacrifice, animals that were guaranteed to be acceptable according to the Law of Moses, there could be no sacrifices. Without the money changers, taking the unacceptable Roman coins and turning them into shekels, no-one could offer money to the treasury or pay the temple tax that every Jew took pride in paying. In other words, Jesus is not just trying to get rid of a few corrupt practices that have crept in to mar something he basically approves of; no, he is trying to put a stop to the whole thing.

And this is because Jesus brings, in his own person, the fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah, in fact the very last verse of his prophesying, which says that ‘there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord on that day’. On what day? On the day of the Lord, when the Lord shows himself to be King over all the earth, when all the nations of the earth will be gathered into one, and when ‘living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem’. On the day of the Lord, the temple is no longer needed, because the whole world is sanctified by the presence of the Lord.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman: ‘The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.’

Jesus claims to be the one who brings in this day of the Lord. Indeed, when he is nailed to the cross, Pilate will truly proclaim that here is the Lord enthroned as King. From that Crucified King living waters will indeed flow out from Jerusalem to bring life to the whole world, on the day when zeal for God’s house really does consume him. The temple was a great institution, it was the place where God had chosen to make his dwelling among humanity and it was where he invited his chosen people to celebrate his mercy by participating in the sacrifices established by Moses. Even all of that, important though it was, was but a sign pointing towards its fulfilment, the astonishing fulfilment that came in the person of Christ. The reading from the first letter to the Corinithians contrasts the Jews seeking miracles that is to say demonstrations of power and the Greeks who want wisdom which is access to the mysteries by rationality. And these routes to meaning are as strong in our own culture as they were in Jesus time. Jesus offers a different route which is in the flesh of his person. This stumbling block and this madness have become no more acceptable in our day than they were in his. Jesus himself is the power and wisdom of God. This too human mystery that is before our very eyes in our humanity is what will reveal the power and the wisom of God. Just as God reveals himself in himan flesh it is only in our own flesh that we can meet him. It is in this body, this time and not in another, not in some special moment or some special moment yet to be revealed in some obsure fashion. We can ignore it all we want, but the call is now, this is our time. And we are the people we’ve been waiting for.      

The ‘zeal for your house’ that consumed Jesus is also Christ’s love for God’s true house, which is the world, and which is every human heart that welcomes his Spirit of truth and love. On the Cross Jesus died for love of us, as zeal for our hearts consumed him. Today, we again have the chance to accept that life-giving love. Pope Francis went to Iraq to meet Sheik Ayatollah Ali Sistani among others for this reason. There was no big statement, they met, they spoke, and they encountered the other. Francis went to say yesterday at Ur.  “From this place, where faith was born, from the land of our father Abraham, let us affirm that God is merciful & that the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers & sisters.” In our shared humanity we can meet each other as brothers in faith, in fraternity if we choose. 

Fr William Fennelly OSB

Lean Íosa ar a thuras go Calvaire i rith #SeachtainNaGaeilge i mbliana leis an sraith Thuras na Croise álainn seo i gcruan ó Shéipéal Cholmcille Naofa ar an dTulach i Co. na Gaillimhe, cruthaithe ag an mBráthair Benedict Tutty OSB (1924-1996). Is é an Bráthair Pádraig atá i mbun na tráchtaireachta san fhíseán, le tionlacan orgáin ón Athair Columba. Is é an Canónach Stephen Farragher a sholáthraigh na grianghrafanna – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMPue_oTU0o

Listening is a precious gift we can receive or give to others, something transformative for our world. Watch Father Simon’s latest reflection here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnfcX3KufCo

We heard two startling and mysterious stories this morning… Two fathers… Two sons whom they loved… Two mountains… Two pledges of future glory. Abraham and the Almighty; Isaac and the Lord Jesus; Mount Moriah and Mount Tabor; the promise that the agèd and decrepit Abraham would have offspring ‘as numerous as the stars of heaven’; and the promise that the Son of Man would rise from the dead.

It is easy then to see why someone decided that these two Scripture passages were a good fit to be read at Mass on the same day. But while the parallels are notable, the differences are even more striking. The Transfiguration of the Lord is a glorious and awe-inspiring moment. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for Peter and James and John to see their friend and master’s outward appearance change to such an extent that he shone with divine glory and ‘his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them’. No wonder Peter lost the run of himself and began talking about building tents. He was excited. 

But the other story we heard is much less luminous and exhilarating. It is downright disturbing. Why would God test someone so cruelly as to tell him to sacrifice his own son? One way of getting our heads around the story of Abraham and Isaac is to note the fact that the famous ‘sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith’, that we mention in one of the Eucharistic Prayers, was a sacrifice without a victim. God did not demand blood. God does not demand blood….. The God of Abraham is no angry monster who needs to be placated with bloody sacrifices. As we say in the psalm that is most associated with this season of Lent, Psalm 50: ‘In sacrifice you take no delight, burnt offering from me you would refuse, my sacrifice, a contrite spirit, a humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.’ And in the book of Hosea, the Lord announces: ‘I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.’ That is our call at all times, but especially during Lent – to turn to the Lord God, not with grand gestures, but in simple humility and honesty, knowing our need for him and for his mercy, with hearts that desire to love him more deeply.

As we journey towards Easter, and our annual celebration in mystery of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour, we can rejoice that as with Abraham and Isaac, God did not demand that humanity offer up a victim in order to be reconciled with him. For God offered himself up to save us. ‘In his willingness to take on the sin – to take on the prejudice and derision and animosity ordinarily heaped upon the outcasts and powerless – Jesus breaks the cycle of violence, for he chooses to pass it on to no one.’ [Ed Foley OFM Cap] In this extraordinary, burning, infinite love, the Law and the Prophets, represented on the mountain by Moses and Elijah, find their fulfilment. 

The Love that dances at the heart of things

Shone out upon us from a human face

And to that light the light in us leaped up,

We felt it quicken somewhere deep within,

A sudden blaze of long-extinguished hope 

Trembled and tingled through the tender skin. [Malcolm Guite]

The light of the Transfiguration is love – a love that burns with such intensity that humanity’s sin is taken away and we are reconciled with God. It is a love that prefigured the love poured out on the hill of Calvary. 

The extraordinary experience of his Transfiguration occurred as Jesus and his disciples were journeying towards Jerusalem. Six days earlier, we read in Mark’s Gospel, he spoke to his disciples about the suffering, death and resurrection that was to come. Such a prospect was difficult for them to take in. And so he graced them with this extraordinary moment of illumination – in all senses of the word – in order, St Leo teaches us, ‘to prevent their faith being disturbed by the humiliation of his voluntary Passion by revealing to them the excellence of his hidden dignity’. 

Moments like the Transfiguration, where the veil is drawn back and we experience insight and exhilaration are wonderful, and as they did for the apostles, can strengthen us for the future. Nothing will ever ‘eclipse that glimpse of how things really are’. [Malcolm Guite] But they are just that – moments and glimpses. And of course, not all so-called mountain-top experiences are enjoyable. ‘Moses may have spoken with God “face to face” on Mount Sinai, but his life mournfully ended on Mount Nebo, where he saw the land whose flowing milk and honey he would never taste. Elijah may have been triumphant on Mount Carmel, but soon afterward he was found scared and dejected on Mount Horeb, where God was not in the strong wind, the earthquake or the fire. …Jesus radiated in holy splendour on the Mount of Transfiguration, but he died naked and scorned on Calvary’s hill’. [Andrew Byers] Nevertheless, that moment of radiance and holy splendour on Tabor was precious. May we all be blessed with such moments during our lives, not to be smug or puffed up with pride, but so that we can perceive reality.

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl

of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you. [R.S Thomas]

Fr Martin Browne OSB