Taizé - Veni Sancte Spiritus

Pope and Patriarch

 

Pope Paul VI with Patriarch Athenagoras I

 

Pope John Paul II with Patriarch Bartholomew I

 

Pope Benedict XVI with Patriarch Bartholomew

 

 

Pope Francis with Patriarch Bartholomew

 

We pray that soon the Church will again 'breathe with both lungs' ; East and West....

Rome - for the Canonisations of John XXIII and John Paul II

Last year I celebrated 25 years as a Capuchin and when it was announced that both Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II were to be canonized as saints, I asked my Provincial Minister could I come to Rome. So I find myself here in Roma in the last days of April ahead of a memorable weekend in which we are being advised that 500 thousand will gather in St.Peter's Square in Sunday, April 27th. I was over at the Basilica of St.John Lateran (the Cathedral church of the Bishop of Rome - Pope Francis) and they are rigging up a stage there. At this moment, I'm wondering will it be tricky to get to St.Peter's Square on Sunday? I have great memories of the Canonization in St.Padre Pio (by Pope John Paul in June 2002) and there were throngs of people. Of course I had a ticket then. Up to now I have no ticket. Anyone buying or selling tickets?

I have a great love for John XXIII. He died in 1963, six years before I was born. My parents remember his election in 1958 and my grandparents loved his smile and his sanctity was obvious. I was almost 10 when Pope John Paul II came to Ireland and I saw him with my own eyes in the Phoenix Park on Sept 29th 1979 at the Papal Mass with my mam and my brother, Kevin. We all saw him later on that same evening in the Pope Mobile going down Thomas Street in the heart of Dublin. We were all horrified and numb when he was shot within inches of his life in May 1981.

These two popes have helped us to aspire to sanctity. They have shown us that although we are all sinners, we are called to be saints. It is only right that they themselves are canonized. As Pope, John XXIII called an Ecomenical Council (Vatican II - 1962 to 1965) to remind the Church that we are all a pilgrim people of God on our way to the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is the force that guides and sanctifies the Church. Pope John Paul II reminded us all of the universal call to holiness. He beatified and canonized more saints that his predecessors. Sanctity is a call for all of us, not just for medieval monks and martyrs. It is for all; in factories, in fields, in schools, in kitchens, in prisons, in churches, in hospital beds. Pope John Paul also reminded us of the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. He called for a Gospel of Life and he even witnessed to this when he himself was sick and powerless. And even when he had no physical voice left. 

Pope Francis will canonize these two saints of our time on Sunday (and I believe that Pope Emertius Benedict will attend the ceremony) I am hoping and praying that I will find a small corner of St.Peter's square stand in. I go to Assisi tomorrow morning to visit St.Francis, my Patron as a Capuchin and I will ask him to help! I will remember you all in prayer at the tomb of St Francis and then at the tombs of Pius X, John XXIII and John Paul II. "Do not be afraid." 

Do not be afraid....

Isaiah 53: 3 - 5

He was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard.

Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God;

Whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises.

The Fourth Sunday of Lent.

Jesus is more than willing to heal us of our fears, our prejudices, and our illnesses and it doesn't matter what day it is or what time it is. In today's gospel we see him healing a man blind from birth. He makes a paste with spittle and dust and covers the eyes of the man and tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. He washes and his sight is restored.

There are people who witness this event and he is quickly identified as the one who begs for alms. The Pharisees are more interested in disputing the healing, the good intention, and the witness. They are far more interested in saying that Jesus broke the Sabbath law and also arrogantly dismissing the poor blind man as a sinner through and through. The twisted thinking of the time was that he was blind because either he sinned or someone in his family tree sinned.

In last week's gospel Jesus goes to the periphery. There he calls a Samaritan Woman to faith. He was sitting down by Jacob's well in the Samaritan town of Sycar in the heat of the day and he noticed her coming to draw water. This was curious because most of the hustle and bustle of drawing water happens in the cool of the morning and there people would exchange the morning's news. At mid-day the woman comes the well alone and it becomes apparent that there is a reason for this which Jesus sees. Yet he calls her to faith in him and in turn she goes to the townspeople to bring them to Jesus. This 'sinner' becomes an evangelist.

The blind man too is a witness to Jesus Christ. This 'sinner from the day he was born' is called to witness to the fact that Jesus is the Son of Man. And as he looks at Jesus he professes his faith; "Lord, I believe."

Jesus crosses the border for you and me each day and calls us - sinners - to repentance and then to witness to him. It doesn't matter what day or time it is, he doesn't operate in chronological order, but in Kairos; God's time. Now.

The First Sunday of Lent

Jesus is tempted in the Desert. (Matt 4:1-11)

The desert is seen as a place of foreboding. It is a place of danger and where one can find it difficult to live and survive. In the desert we can be attacked by hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and wild animals. We can also get lost in the desert. 

There is also the desert within where we can be faced with our own personal difficulties and of course our own sins. These can be unpleasant and facing them can challenge us and take us out of our comfort zone. 

Jesus goes into the desert after he is baptized as a preparation for his public ministry. He is fortified by the Holy Spirit. He fasts and prays while he is there and in a physically weakened state he is tempted by the devil. 

In Matthew's Gospel we see Jesus tempted in three ways; the first is to trust no longer in God's providence... "Tell these stones to turn to bread." The second temptation about putting God to the test. "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.." The third temptation is to compromise the unique place of God in our worship. "I will give you all of these, if you fall at my feet and worship me." 

While Jesus is physically weak and tired, he is morally and spiritually strong. When we go into the desert, when we give up something or take on some self-sacrifice for Lent, we become morally and spiritually strong.