The Carmelite praying with Jesus of the Gospels

Foreword St Teresa of Jesus throughout her life shared a vibrant friendship with Jesus, albeit at a period in time it was low key. In hindsight, one could describe their friendship as a real companionship. It was not an ordinary one either. For her, it meant being one with him in his divine redemptive mission. This affirmation could be said of a great number of saintly Christians, men and women, down the ages. However, something which characterises her above the average saint is that she was a charismatic contemplative and a reforming founder of contemplatives. Teresa of Jesus grew up nurturing her friendship through the faithful exercise of meditative contemplation from the heart. This was a secret she treasured and extolled in her writings, and fully expressed in talking about it to her nuns and friends alike. She learned it in nascent form from an Augustinian sister friend while still in her teens: while in prayer she endeavoured always to imagine that she was personally present with her heart close to Jesus in whatever he happened to give his attention to in the Gospels. In my lifelong endeavour to promote spirituality in my pastoral ministry, Teresa’s way of prayer always intrigued and guided me. In recent years, with more time available for prayer and writing, the Lord is granting me a reserve of energy and inclination to channel everyday grace into worthwhile attempts to document historical facts, insights, discoveries and lines of thought into writing. Already a sixteen-year collaboration has produced the publication of the spirituality review ‘Teresa’. Last year saw the limited publication in Maltese of an update and revision of the ‘Imitation of Christ’ with Carmelite and Vatican II spirituality’. It enjoyed a quick sell out and practically from a single outlet: The Sanctuary of St Therese, at B’Kara, Malta. God willing and provided my health hold well; I intend to publish it in English at an appropriate time. This booklet may be considered a sequel to the referred publication in one way at least: its direct encounter with the Lord Jesus, as reported in the Gospels. I’ve tried to follow St Teresa by placing myself at Jesus’ feet, recalling many incidences of his life and interactions with people. Happily endowed with training in Carmelite spirituality down many years of formation received and provided to others, quite recently, I collected excellent relevant information available on the internet on theology, history and geography, and embarked upon a project which sprang in my heart a couple of years ago. My great source of ideas, however, has been silent prayer engaged in throughout the better part of 55 years. Through God’s mercy and guidance, every-day concerns, insights and discoveries, even dreams, have concurred in building up convictions and ideals dear to my vocation as a priest and a Carmelite religious. About two thousand years ago, Christ called around him friends and disciples to bear witness and have a part in his redemptive mission. And yet, the time lapse does not present a different Christ and invitation today extended to other persons to commit themselves to him as friends and disciples in the work of continued redemption and sanctity.

No one comes to the Father except through me

What I mean by meditation is to busy one’s understanding in the following way. We begin to think about God’s goodness to us in giving us his only Son, but we don’t stop there, we go on to all the other things of his glorious life. Or we begin with his prayer in the garden, and our understanding doesn’t stop until we picture him nailed to the cross. Or we take a single scene from his passion, and go on thinking about that one mystery, working out in detail everything that can be thought or felt about it. It is a very admirable and meritorious kind of prayer. No soul that has received so much from God, such precious proof of his love, can forget them. They are live sparks that can only intensify what we feel for our Lord. Anyone who says he can’t dwell on these mysteries is quite mistaken. He will often have them in mind, especially when they are being celebrated by the Catholic Church. The company of our beloved Jesus, and his blessed Mother, is far too good to be given up. For my own part I could not wish for any blessing that had not been won for us by him, though whom every good thing comes to us. Our Lord said himself, ‘No one can come to the Father except through me’, and whoever sees me, sees my Father’. So, if we never look at him, or think about what we owe him and the death he underwent for our sake, I don’t see how we can hope to know him or do anything to serve him. (Without such good works, what good is faith? And what good are works, unless they are joined to the merits of Jesus Christ, our only good, which alone has any worth?) And how can anyone persuade us to love our Lord? From The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Jesus, VI, 7, 10-15; II 1, 11

A word about the title. A Carmelite in prayer with Jesus of the Gospels

When a Carmelite approaches Jesus to pray, he entrusts himself to him in an act comprising faith, hope and love. Any Carmelite prayer wholly centred on Christ is contemplative. The reference to the Gospels refers to parameters of subject matter, of time and logistics. This booklet delves into a friendly association with Jesus concerned with everyday occupations and his interactions with the eternal Father, his foster father Joseph and mother Mary and later with disciples and followers, while on mission to realise his unique and specific task of Redemption. Related events and salvific truths are realities often contemplated by the attentive believer. In substance this is the perspective and simple content of this book. Its aim is to encourage familiarity with and imitation of Jesus always with a proclivity to come to the aid of ailing humanity.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

We take up our journey of faith in the name of the prodigal love of the Father, the bountiful grace of the Son and the soothing enabling union of the Holy Spirit… As I thread the threshold of the dark unknown, I fling myself, unaware of any inner beauty, yet trusting confidently in the embrace of the loving Almighty. It’s a moment where imperceptibly and necessarily come in action the theological virtues. And in this perspective that I long to reach towards the brightening horizon. Lord, you fire in me a home coming instinct whenever and wherever I dare approach you. And along with it you favour me with a touch of love, faith and hope. Instinctively, I close my eyes eager to behold you, hugging your presence in unknowing abandon and heartfelt adoration. Keeping off any lurking distractions, I focus my limited faculties on your innate goodness. There opens up the vast expanse of the largely undiscovered universe unenclosed in billions of light years but also the minute gamut of our own planet earth, so replete with myriad life amid an apparently stable environment yet evolving reiterating itself between manifold extremes. It’s a wonder of wonders, that central to reality, as we know it, the mystery of the Incarnation has occurred with Christ’s coming. The eternal Word spoken in hallowed silence by the Father conveyed by his Spirit assumed human nature becoming man himself in order to enact redemption in favour of his joy and masterpiece but fallen humanity. Through untold travail, abject humility and supreme gentleness, you, beloved Christ, freely bore the Cross making yourself victim of expiation for sin, then, arising from death with enriched new life, you promised it also to all who believe in you. Once the unique work of redemption was accomplished, You ascended to the Father’s right in power and glory, mandating your salvific mission to the Spirit and to chosen apostles and countless disciples down the ages. How proud I find myself to be part of such a rich mystery of wisdom, mercy and love. Never far from your heart-beat, dear Jesus, - you said you would never leave us alone as orphans – my own heart overflows with comfort knowing that my daily pilgrimage, as long as I keep close to you, is safeguarded against the wiles of the devil and his wild cohorts.

The Annunciation

I am led to contemplate and giving precedence to the absolute divine initiative in God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. The one privileged person to spearhead such initiative fell on Mary the dearly beloved spouse of Joseph, the gentle carpenter of Nazareth. Both spouses suffered unimaginably interiorly on account of it. Mary was consulted directly by the archangel, Gabriel, and she gave her outright consent once she was confided with God’s plan. While Joseph, left to face accomplished reality, had to struggle within himself for months. Apparently, neither discussed the situation among themselves. Joseph loved Mary too much to permit any harm to fall on her. He was on the point of deciding to wrench his heart and quietly separating himself from her without denouncing her. And then, the Lord God intervened through a dream and provided him with knowledge of his plans. Joseph was told that the Holy Spirit had overshadowed Mary and that Jesus was conceived; while he, the just, found strength thrust upon him to take Mary as his lawful ever chaste wife and assume the responsibility of a lifelong guardianship of both mother and son (Mt 1, 16, 18- 23). All events happened in the highest echelons of the divine already revealing with a consenting mankind his loving plan for its regeneration and newly established place in the order things.

Mary hastes to the aid of her kin Elisabeth

Perhaps I need to fall down instantly on my knees to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation while the Annunciation is proclaimed. Let me pick up what St. Ambrose then Archbishop of Milan contemplated while considering the Incarnation and visitation of Elisabeth by Mary with Jesus already conceived in her virginal womb. The archangel Gabriel proclaimed and unravelled what was until then a hidden mystery (Lk 1, 38). It was to confirm her in faith and to show that for God nothing is impossible, that the angel confided to her that her elderly kin Elisabeth and her old husband Zachary were expecting a child in their old age. The evangelist Luke remarks that upon hearing this, Mary hurriedly picked up her things and went (with others)in journey towards the hills to visit (Lk 1, 39) and put herself at Elisabeth’s service. The holy and wise bishop adverted that Mary set herself to visit not to verify things for herself, or because she doubted the archangel’s word. Rather, she felt overwhelmed with joy and restlessness to share her feelings with her kin. Bishop Ambrose pointed out too that Mary, always full of grace, was under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It was he that urged her to forego all else and rush to fulfil her intent. Her arrival and the unborn Jesus in her own womb, caused the child John within Elisabeth to jump with joy while his mother shared in his joy. It was Elisabeth who first heard Mary’s salutation, but it was John that jumped for joy with Jesus so near him for the first time. Elisabeth embraced Mary and both their offspring internally embraced the mission they each had to accomplish: John heralding the mission of Jesus. John jumped for joy; Mary rejoiced too. When John rejoiced, Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit; as Mary was filled with the Spirit before the Annunciation by God’s messenger Gabriel. Her exaltation was expressed in ‘The Magnificat’. We can admire Mary’s devotion (as well as her stamina!) in setting out on what must have been an arduous journey to go from Nazareth, where she lived, to a town in Judah where her cousin lived, possibly Ajn Karem, about 70 miles away from Jerusalem. Speaking of magnifying, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once referred to our Blessed Mother as being like “a magnifying glass that intensifies our love of her Son”. Note that Mary’s joyful claim that “all generations shall call me blessed” in no way takes away from her humility. If she seems to boast here, it is much as St. Paul does later on when he says “whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord” (2Cor 10, 17), that is to say, in God’s work being done through us. In this regard, the Magnificat is more than a prayer of praise. It also reminds us about the essential link between humility and holiness. Just as God has “regarded the lowliness of his handmaid” and “has done great things” for Mary in making her the Mother of his Son, so too “he has put down the mighty from their thrones (with his own might!) and has exalted the lowly”. As her Divine Son later stressed “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Mt 23, 12, also in slightly different words in Lk 18, 14 and Lk 14, 11). Jesus wasn’t saying anything new here, either! We read similar thoughts in throughout the Old Testament such as in the Psalms and in this example from the book of Sirach “Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favour with God” (Sirach 3, 19). The line about God filling “the hungry with good things” resonates later in the Gospels as well, when our Lord says “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled” (Mt 5, 7). This serves as a good reminder for us to “stay hungry” for God’s graces in praying and in reading His word in scripture. And as for the rich being sent away empty? This line refers to those who live for wealth and power and feel they have everything figured out. These people in effect wish to be gods rather than God’s. How can our Lord fill those who are already full - of themselves? How about you? Does your soul magnify the Lord? We may never be able to approach Him from Mary’s level of sanctity as the Mother of God. Still, we are all called to be saints nonetheless. Your good example, like our Blessed Mother’s, can help others in their spiritual growth. Do people see Christ’s love and goodness in you? Are you letting God work within you to accomplish his will? Let Mary help give you the graces you need to follow her Son and his Church in praying the Magnificat. As St. Ambrose once said in referring to this wonderful prayer, "Let Mary's soul be in us to glorify the Lord; let her spirit be in us that we may rejoice in God our Saviour". Indeed, the Father’s inscrutable wisdom turned on mercy to bring about a mystery as great as his being, involving all Three Divine Persons. His Word spoken in silence and through his Spirit lowered to reach mankind gave rise to its fairest person to acknowledge his invitation to bear his Son one with divine nature to assume human nature also. Mary, the fairest, the full of grace, unaware of what transpired in the triune God adoringly accepted his invitation. Through her free will she made possible the incarnation which already defined in essence the redemption and gave herself to fully participate in its fulfilment. The Father’s redemptive will highlights his privileged love for mankind, enabling it in his Son to partake of his nature and eternal glory. This primarily came to be wrought through Jesus, but also through his mother Mary and to lesser degree through Joseph her chaste husband, and guardian father of Jesus. It is well to bear in heart and mind, that the Father’s redemptive plan was never exclusive of the Son’s cruel travail, culminating with his death in Holy Week. Every single moment of Christ’s breath was directed to benefit ailing mankind, from his conception until his death and resurrection to new life in glory. This opens up a wide and profound meaning to all that Jesus did and proclaimed. And this reiterates with every single participant in Christ mission: beginning with Mary herself, Joseph, and all his followers, you and me too, up to our own time. St. Luke tells us that the Annunciation happened in Nazareth. Joseph too was from Nazareth and he had approached Mary there with the intent of marriage. Probably, he was already a well-known capable and experienced carpenter. Eventually, Mary and Joseph were betrothed with some years between them.

Entering the life of Jesus

Finding myself close to the built-up area surrounding Nazareth, perched on high ground leading to cliffs, I enquired about the whereabouts of the workshop of Joseph the carpenter. I was told that his household and workshop lay further up the way I was. Surmising that it should be pretty close, I hurried there with a brisk walk. Soon enough I was out of breath. But I had already reached a wide opening with two gigantic cedars at one end and a couple of huge olive trees close by. And there was Joseph’s workshop within an enclave surrounding it by a shallow wall with one of the cedars inside and both olive trees. A water source rushed steadily from a rock face nearby overflowing into a trough and partly on to a canal lading to a sizable kitchen garden behind the workshop, patio and Joseph’s modest household, jutting out of a rock rise. At the back, a gate led down to a set of steps which opened to a spacious cave with a couple of nooks with a donkey, goats and sheep, while about ran rabbits with a few hens. A hay loft took up most of the cave’s ceiling. A separate gate stood at ground level. A personal hygiene closet paired the entrance at the top leading to the stable facing the back of the house. In the front, logs of wood stood upright to dry against the cedars, while another high stack cut lengthwise and planed waited for use outside the workshop. Under the outside cedar, a row of rustic benches arranged on stones, close to the water source, provided respite for clients and visiting relatives alike. Before I entered the enclave, I took a deep breath enjoying the set up. I could see that other households formed half a crown at the base of the rocky rise around Mary’s and Joseph’s house, possibly, owned by relatives. Entering the workshop. I could see that Joseph was not alone: his son Jesus, now an adolescent, was shuttling among pairs of workers occupied on work at various jobs. I went over to Joseph to give him my respects. I found myself receiving and offering a vigorous handshake. He was such a towering man of gentleness. Still at his best, he radiated confidence and comradeship. Unwilling to disturb him more than necessary, I asked if I could see his wife Mary. Smiling, with a slow wave of his callous hands, he showed me a door at the back. Jesus in the meantime had run out on some errand; I earnestly hoped to hold and embrace him on his return. Feeling at home and singularly privileged, I made my way to the open back door. Mary had already seen me heading towards her through the kitchen garden and patio. She waited holding the living room curtain. With exquisite natural grace she invited me in and indicated a high stool. I dared not embrace her but my whole being sprung up to her in shy confused attraction. Instead, bowing low, my eyes longed for her own and they met for a split second of admiration: spelling beauty, virtue, purity, strength and generous love. I don’t know if the admiration was my petty answer to her extraordinary appearance. My reverie was cut short, however, when I heard her calling Jesus who had by now returned from his quick errand… I glanced around, and found myself taken in by the simplicity and order of the place. Jesus had returned with an armful of dry logs, which he delivered to Joseph who in turn directed for kitchen use, and a plateful of fresh cheese cakes which he handed to Mary. The whole lot was meant as payment for a small window he himself had fashioned but did not require him fixing. He came in the living room lithely as behoves his age. We moved to hold each other in a tight embrace. His face shone with an enthralling smile of cognizance. My heart leaped and bounced; I pressed him hard against me while tears rolled down my face and chest. None of us uttered a word. There was no need. We understood each other at our different levels. We stayed like an eternity locked in each other’s eyes. But soon I found myself lowering my own eager to conserve what went far and deep through those fractions of a second. That wasn’t raw emotion but a communication of abyssal importance. An experience of this kind is not in the order of every day. It was a rather rare and far between regular encounters. It wasn’t absolutely a sign of greatness nor uniqueness, rather a providential experience meant to enhance greater fidelity and qualitative self-giving. Other encounters occur darkly and empty of emotion; but once the theological virtues are active they must be equally beneficial and long-lasting, It’s right and fitting that I should dare to encounter Jesus bearing my poor testimonials of faith, hope and charity and were he to further enrich me with matching emotions, I welcome them, without laying claims or attaching undue importance to them. To attempt meeting with Jesus is a unique experience. He, the eternal, deigned to enter time and space as if the through the instance of a bolt of lightning, with just enough time to effect redemption. And yet, he made it repeatedly clear that he always enjoys man’s company and likes to engage in friendship with hordes of men and women, imparting to them renewed and enriched life, welling up to participation in his holiness and indeed eternal life in bliss. It is truly a wonder, that so much change is wrought through redemptive friendship. This and more winked between us in that instant with our eyes locked in knowing insight. It was an often-repeated experience…as in encounters between countless lovers.

Everyday life in Jesus’ time We met Jesus engrossed with his father’s labours in their workshop. But that wasn’t the real life for him or for his parents. His inner life - one with the Triune God - was his true concern. That truly gave meaning to all occupations… Like other adolescents Jesus was equally attached to his mother Mary. The only altercation between them is recorded with his mother at the temple when he was twelve, which closed the incidence of Joseph upon the Holy Family and opened up for the last one of Mary, years later, at the marriage at Cana, where Mary and Jesus with his disciples were among the invited but not Joseph. The daily fare, like in any other common Jewish household of the time, was far simpler than ours, twenty centuries later. They had no cooling ice, beverages like coffee or tea. After all, electricity with its many uses was eons away. But they had natural coolers like wells with plenty of water. They had barley and wheat for flour and dough, loaves and wraps. In the living room shivers of wood from the workshop lighted log fires, over which hung the pot at a hollow corner with perhaps a dwarf chimney, supported what was in effect an oven for baking bread and roasting meat. Importantly, the ubiquitous vines assured grapes and wine, for any kind of celebration and relaxation. Bees provided honey and wax. Crushed olives oozed precious oil. Not least to keep a wick burning for company on sleepless nights. Nearly everybody had domestic animals, kept not as pets, but for their use as beasts of burden and travel, a donkey, mule or camel, sheep for wool or goats both for milk, then a few hens for fresh available eggs, rabbits and pigeons for the weekly supply of meat. The cheaper fish was the more common for week days but meat in just amounts was reserved for the Sabbaths clean and cut the day before to be consumed freshly cooked. Every farmer would covet a couple of cows or bulls to pull heavy weights or the field ploughs. Womenfolk would have the skills to salt and sun-dry fish and meat, cooking fats and fruit from figs to all the seasonal fruit. They would use clay earthenware to hard press them in and then place them on shelves in the living-room, preserved for months on end. Foodstuff for use at short notice, like fish, meat and milk extracts lowered into wells held their original freshness for days. The ubiquitous kitchen gardens, once running spring water was available, had fruit trees and all year round a rich crop of fresh vegetables, aromatic spices and medicinal herbs. With other pots dispersed in the open near the kitchen corner they had sufficient delicacies to pluck and flavour with the day soup, and other dishes. People woke up early in the time of Jesus. The working day started at six in the morning and ended before six in the evening, with a rest break at noon. Water was always at hand; while milk, cheese and other products consumed with a loaf or two provided the first protein and carb intake to make for a long hard-working day. Season fruits often picked directly from trees by the home supplemented one’s fare. Day shepherds, farmers and fishermen took leave of sleep at the first flickers of dawn. Pallets stuffed with beaten straw and feather pillows provided many a comfortable night’s sleep. Once on their feet they would pull over their night-time undergarments single colour woollen or linen tunics, longer for women and headdresses or shawls which could reach down to their ankles. Cloaks which doubled up as blankets on cooler nights were worn by both by men and women during the day. Veils would cover the head coming down diagonally to be hitched at the midriff band would provide pocket for all sorts of things. The headdress varied. Men would uncover their heads when praying, but the climate would suggest wearing woollen turbans or lighter ones; others would opt for a wrap folded in two and tied at the back or held together with a band or string. Breakfast over, workers with camel skin sandals and midriffs secured with broad cloth bands would hurry to reach their destinations in time. The day shepherds would call at households, except during the winter months, to pick goats or sheep already milked to be led with their herd to pastures outside the villages and returned well before sunset to be milked. All workers by this time would re-unite with their families for prayer and evening meals. Possibly, once Jesus had his disciples around him, he ventured early at dawn to reach places to proclaim the Good News. From the Gospel accounts, we gather that he hardly bothered to secure lodgings for the night for himself or his disciples, though he refused none. His intent to meet people in towns and villages suggest that after the dutiful visit to the local synagogue, he would then head to the people thronging the marketplace! Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context. Of 40 miracles in the book of Acts, 39 were wrought around the marketplace. So, Jesus and a Paul were not only accustomed to work but to commerce as well. People would come around him initially by dint of hearsay, bearing their sick all the while listening to whatever he had to say; and later they would ask him to visit their other bedridden relatives. This pattern would repeat itself as he walked through the villages along the shores of Lake Gennesaret or elsewhere. And whenever the crowds swelled, he would climb a nearby high rise; or if anywhere low around the lake, he would settle himself on a boat to face his listeners on the shore. The Evangelist Luke notes her name for the first time when he speaks of the mission entrusted by the Eternal One to the Angel Gabriel who went to Nazareth.

Mary was a common name in Palestine: the sister of Moses and Aaron was called Miriam (Mary), and, at the time of Jesus, we know the mother of James (the younger) and Joseph with the same name, Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdala. In Nazareth, among the friends of the village Mary was known as Joseph’s young betrothed; after the birth of the Son she will also be known as the mother of Jesus (cf. Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3). Nazareth was the land where Mary had lived, had played and dreamed as an adolescent, knew sacred history, exercised her faith in the Most High, accepted his will; in Nazareth the Angel Gabriel asked her for consent to become the mother of the Son of God; after Bethlehem and the flight to Egypt, she returned to live with Joseph. She always carried two 'secrets' in her heart: the first linked to her distress at hearing herself called 'full of grace' by the Angel, and the second in learning of the conception of a son while being a virgin. These were intimate and profound issues, not easy to communicate and comment on. Luke mentions it because, apparently, one day she spoke about it and he wanted to leave a trace in his story about the incarnation of the Son of God. It was indispensable, because it concerned the divine origin of Jesus and the very work of the redemption. Mary's initial 'Yes' thus became the starting point of a process that would end with the last 'Yes' under the cross; the two 'fiat' became inseparable. An unforgettable moment in Mary's life was her meeting with Elizabeth already in the advanced stages of pregnancy; Elizabeth blessed Mary: Blessed are you among women, blessed are you who believed in the fulfilment of the words of the Lord (Lk 1, 42.45). A memorable moment, surprising words, memories that became life and companions of reference, even in the darkest hour of her life. Everyone, learning the first part of the Marian prayer, repeats in praise: Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Mary rarely appeared in the public life of her Son; she remained in the penumbra; the evangelist John wrote that she was present at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee, where she is referred to as "his mother" (Jn 2, 1); Mark, on another occasion, mentioned it in the same way, when relatives sent for Jesus who was teaching and he seemed to forego the blood relationship only to establish a new one: “Whoever does God’s will be my brother and sister and mother"(Mk 3, 35). Already in Cana of Galilee, calling her with the term "woman" rather than "mother", Jesus seemed to distance himself from her; but on the Cross, "Woman, here is your son!" (Jn 19, 26), the temporal relationship between Mary and Jesus ended with John being entrusted with her care: "Here is your mother!" (Jn 19, 27); there, her new maternal mission was defined. With the entrustment to John - "from that time on, this disciple took her into his home" (Jn 19, 27) - Mary became part of the new family that was being established. Indeed, from then on, she belonged inseparably to the Church. And in this capacity, we find her mentioned for the last time in the New Testament, while she was persevering in prayer with the apostles on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 1, 14). Mary, therefore, takes on a dimension, that is not only Christological (for the physical motherhood and being the first educator of her son together with Joseph), but also ecclesiological; in this context, it should be noted that, with her femininity, she balanced the presence of the apostles since the acceptance of grace had taken place from the beginning in the female dimension. Here we like to quote a significant and illuminating expression of Benedict XVI, who wrote that "the Church, in its juridical structure, is founded on Peter and the Eleven, but in the concrete form of ecclesial life it is always (...) women who open the doors to the Lord, who accompany him even under the cross and are able to meet him as a resurrected person" (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth - From entering Jerusalem to the resurrection). If Mary was no longer alone under the cross, neither would she be for eternity; She will be the most precious part of the new family, the Church, which in the person of John had welcomed her with immense affection; but above all she will never leave the Church. In fact, we find her always and everywhere and, in our times, in Lourdes in the context of the dogmatic declaration of the Immaculate Conception, in Fatima as a sign of hope after the atrocious first great war, etc., We are certain that Mary's faith gives us Jesus, but also that she gives us to God.

The Holy Family The Holy Family has been the catalyst of the Father’s plan for the re-generation and redemption of humanity. And yet, all along, it enjoyed the highest level of holiness and constituted the closest collaborators in the travail involved. Jesus was himself the only physical and psychological victim of expiation as no other co-redeemer, from our Mother Mary herself to the entire communion of Saints. There’s a very old strong tradition that the parents of Mary were Anne and Joachim. They were close relatives of Zacchary and Elisabeth, John’s elderly parents. Zacchary was a priest in the temple of Jerusalem. According to a tradition which goes back to the 14th century, John’s parents lived at Ain Karem, a hill-site exquisite with caves for homes joined with a wide footpath on the east side overlooking a refreshing verdant winding valley just beneath not far from Jerusalem. This leads to surmise that both sets of parents visited each other. A tradition revered by the eastern Church hold that Mary on reaching three years was presented and consecrated to God and thereby lived along with others her age close to the temple. Mary would not have stayed by the temple precincts beyond her adolescence. This leads one to believe that her parents were elderly and once they were gone, she must have been offered to live with close relatives in Nazareth. Other relatives could have lived in Cana (at the wedding here both Jesus and Mary were guests) and Sepphoris to the west and north of Nazareth respectively. Indeed, St. Luke makes it clear that the Archangel Gabriel called at Nazareth to announce his wonderful news to Mary, that she was the chosen one to bear the promised Messiah. Before this time, Joseph the well-known carpenter must have known and indeed proposed marriage to Mary. Upon receiving this news of unimaginable portent, Mary was confided also with the condition her elderly kin Elisabeth was in, indeed already in her six- month expectancy with John the Baptist. Mary hurried to assist her. Possibly, Mary left Joseph unaware of her predicament and carried her secret with her during her three months stay at Elisabeth’s home. When she returned, she faced herself on how to confront her beloved Joseph. Would not God, who so mysteriously chose her to bear his Son through the Holy Spirit, deign to inform her gentle Joseph as well? Matthew and Luke compiled and published the family tree of Joseph, of king David’s line and not of Mary because Jewish ancestries took only the male descendants. Messianic prophetic utterances point to a descendant of King David as the only Messiah. The foster father of Jesus was a descendant of king David, a subordinate head of a line and focal figure in the family trees drawn up by both Matthew and Luke. Matthew put Abraham at the top of his list; while Luke ventured way back to Adam. The lists generally agree for the generations between Abraham and David, but differ on all else. Besides, Matthew identifies 27 generations between David to Joseph, while Luke has 42 and rarely meet. Matthew (1, 17) lists 14 generations in each set, which does not tally. It is obvious that the lists are not to be taken too seriously. Both are approximate and hardly exclusive of reputable persons: foreigners entered the Jewish genealogy through marriage. Jesus could count in his human ancestry both good and less good people. If reliable knowledge about Mary is so scarce, what to say of Joseph’s? St. Matthew mentions that Joseph’s father was a Jacob from the house of David (Mt 1,16), while St. Luke affirms that his father was Eli (Lk 3, 24). We don’t know how and why. Could they not have consulted one another, despite the logistics and lapses of time between their writing the Gospels? When Joseph left Nazareth to register at Bethlehem in the census ordered by Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, second time Roman governor of Syria, on behalf of Emperor Augustus in Rome, Joseph took Mary also of David’s line, heavily with child with him to Bethlehem. She gave birth there. But how long they stayed there and where is not known. It could be, however, that after Mary’s three month stay with Elisabeth at Ain Karem not far from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Mary and the rest of the family could have asked for a return there. They could have stayed there upwards of forty days before presenting Jesus at Jerusalem’s temple. Moreover, Matthew alone among the evangelists gives an account of the Magi and the eventual flight to Egypt. If we were to accept the run of events as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the exile in Egypt would have protracted for at least to two years. Herod wanted male infants of two years or younger to be killed. Nor were those years in Egypt easy ones, especially for Joseph. He had to provide a decent living for the family, and how best to do it than to put himself at the job he knew best? Years later, when Jesus himself along with his disciples visited Nazareth, people instantly recognised him and referred to him as “the son of Joseph, the carpenter” and his “brothers Jacob, Jose, Simon and Jude” (Mt 13, 55) and his sisters were known too, though not mentioned by name. The language used does not necessarily mean blood brothers, but relatives, like cousins, sons and daughters of close relatives of Joseph and Mary. When did Joseph and Mary marry? The Gospels remain silent and none of the contemporary sources offer any information. Betrothal had more social importance then than now and it could even be contracted when one was in early adolescence. Joseph overcame his hurt hesitancy to take Mary as his wife on the advice of Gabriel the Archangel “for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Mt 1, 20-21). We are all familiar with the birth of Jesus’ narrative. After a three-day difficult journey because Mary was heavy with child, they reached Bethlehem but failed to find shelter. Instead they were shown caves nearby which shepherds kept ready for shelter. In one of them Mary gave birth to Jesus, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a straw manger. Luke brightened the event by the appearance of angels praising God and announcing to shepherds the birth of the awaited Messiah. They huddled to greet and worship him. Matthew contributed the account of wise men coming from the East led by a star to adore him and presenting him with princely gifts. He further involved Herod Antipas, who jealous of the child king, ordered the slaughter of any two-year old male at Bethlehem and environs, and occasioned the eventual flight and exile of the Holy Family to Egypt (Mt 2, 16). Some four years may have elapsed when Joseph and Mary found it sufficiently safe to return and re-settle in Nazareth.

Jesus in prayer The following are the major often quoted direct affirmations about prayer in the three synoptic Gospels and John’s. It will be well that we take some time to let them sink deep in prayerful contemplation. Luke 3, 21 Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while he was praying, heaven was opened, Matthew 14, 23 After he had sent the crowds away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray; and when it was evening, he was there alone. Mark 6, 46 After bidding them farewell, he left for the mountain to pray. Luke 6, 12 It was at this time that he went off to the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. Mark 1, 35 In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. Luke 5, 16 But Jesus himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Luke 9, 18 And it happened that while he was praying alone, the disciples were with him, and he questioned them, saying, "Who do the people say that I am?" Matthew 26, 36- 44 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray". And he went a little beyond them, and fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will". He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done". And he left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Mark 14, 32 They came to a place named Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here until I have prayed". Mark 14, 35 And he went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass him by. Mark 14, 39 Again, he went away and prayed, saying the same words. Luke 11, 1 It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples". Matthew 14, 19 Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, he blessed the food, and breaking the loaves he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, Matthew 19,13 Then some children were brought to him so that he might lay his hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. John 17, 9 "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me; for they are yours”. John 17, 20 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word; Luke 22, 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers". John 16, 26 "In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf”; John 17, 1-25 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, He may give eternal life. "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”. John 14, 16 "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever; John 11, 22 "Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give You". Pope Francis in 2018 in a homily at St. Martha’s remarked that when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, they did not so because the rabbis left them bereft of the skill to pray but because they valued his own way and quality of prayer as far superior to what they knew. Jesus insisted on prayer at all times, primarily because he himself lived by it. It’s the only one reality we could get to really live as we should, already in a ‘heaven on earth’ St. Elisabeth of the Trinity), yet on pilgrimage, among the daily travail we have to go through. The kind of prayer we engage in is personal encounter with the Creator, Saviour and enabling Lover, the Triune God himself. Certainly, it’s not a soul-less litany of meaning-less beautiful end-less chatter. It should aim at being lost in self-giving in and to the one who matters. An analogy offers itself. Listening to heart-warming music often helps to draw us over the earthly and let us glimpse into the mystical. As much as I get transported out of myself, I soon tire as music drags on repetitious harmony. It’s different when in the company of silent contemplatives. Their attention is fixed on the loved one. Totally selfless, their sacrifice of praise lingers on and renews itself for much longer, eventually tiring out too into something agreeable and dutifully accomplished.

In his reply Jesus offered ‘The Our Father’, prompting the raising of eyes and hands of his disciples in confidence towards the almighty heavenly Father. And their attention was first drawn to augur that his holy name be held high and his kingdom widely known. This was accompanied by a declared aspiration that his will would be welcomed in Heaven and on earth. Changing tack, Jesus, on the practical normal life, suggested asking for enough daily provision of food; while on the moral sphere, he asked for divine help to ensure that mercy be at the top of human behaviour, ‘as we are good to each other’. As a last caution, he again asked for aid that we may be spared from falling into the clutches of evil. Amen. I find best to behold Jesus in artistic representations while praying, rather than others we are accustomed to. Also, Jesus in prayer arguably reveals more of himself than working miracles, preaching or submitting himself as victim of sacrifice, etc., even his rising to glory. To my mind, Jesus absorbed in prayer tells more about his nature and mission and his taking humanity upon himself. It’s both revealing and redemptive. It’s well that we accustom ourselves to it. Dear Jesus, I drag myself to join you in prayer at my own level best. I have no idea how you are communing with the Father and the Spirit. Among you, Divine Persons, it couldn’t be better. It’s enough for me that I’m near you: fluttering serenely and freely like a flame adoring before the Eucharist. And like the flame before the Eucharist, I stand and pray on behalf of our communities of faith. Like Peter and two his co-apostles, James and John, tired and silent, you invited them to witness along with Moses and Elias on Mt Tabor, the manifestation and confirmation of your redemptive mission. I too find myself participating as if from afar in the mystery out folding before me, leaving me dumb-struck, out of myself, reeling in wonder. The evangelists seem to slow down in their reporting whenever they affirmed that you prayed alone in solitary places. Luke further remarked that you had a custom to wake up early to pray and once at least you spent a whole night in prayer. It’s wonderful to think about you was moved by the Spirit to sneak out from home to be alone with the Father. John collected in four chapters themes related to prayer which Jesus uttered for the twelve. It is interesting to note the manner by which Matthew (see Mt 14, 23-25 relates how Jesus took leave of thousands whom he fed by the lake of Gennesaret, and asked the twelve to board a boat and cross to the opposite side while he stayed back, and rose up the hill to pray alone. With near darkness, he thought of coming down and re-join the twelve. Reaching the shore, he started walking on the choppy waters towards the distant boat with the apostles. On seeing him they mistook him for a phantom. Reading their thoughts, empathizing with their evident fear, he immediately shouted to assure them that it was him. Upon which Peter asked to accompany him on the water! Taking off his outer clothes, he half thinking let himself down and found footing in the shifting waters. However, his long experience with life threatening waters started to take control of his excited feelings, and increasingly assailed his security forcing forgetfulness of Jesus’ closeness. Hence, he felt himself slipping and engulfed in the encircling waters. Bereft of means to clutch at safety, he turned imploringly to Jesus asking for help. Jesus looked at him questioningly: “Man of little faith, why do you doubt?” Jesus grabbed him and both got into the boat with the others. Peter must have felt foolish. For his brashness, he fell short in his complete trust in Jesus. He was to repeat such behaviour! Yet Jesus continued to trust him, and especially prized his simplicity. Moreover, he never imputed on others his failings. He blamed himself and cried unashamedly over his shortcomings. And he came out the stronger and earned even the respect and love of his companions. But more of this will follow later. Luke alone remarked that you had developed a custom to venture out early to pray. Most probably, you started this custom very early in life and continued it while sharing life with your apostles. I would like to think that you picked up the custom while you were an adolescent in Nazareth, when the human in you was drawn to open up to your mission in life. You would draw the curtain enough separating your pallet from Joseph’s and silently tiptoe towards the stable and out to meet the Father. It would still be dark but your inner light shown bright as the noon day sun. You wouldn’t venture far, just enough into the garden on to a favourite place under a fruit tree. There, you would put yourself to the Father’s heart and gouge its intensity. In that instant, you would be privy along with the Spirit to all affairs of the infinite where you have your being supremely alive. In my creaturely way, I imagine that you would lay out to him and the Spirit at the start of the day your plans and concerns, even the petty ones! This eagerness, to be at the Father’s behest so early in the day, speak volumes by itself. Along with the holy angles you realised that you had to be at the Father’s entrusted mission on behalf of ailing mankind, at the earliest of the day. It’s like the many religious founders, who without fail instructed their followers that waking up from night’s sleep they would immediately as possibly gather to render praise to God with and on behalf of the Church and indeed of all mankind and ask for his blessing on all tasks to be performed. Some founders requested waking up even during midnight sleep to intercede for others. Devout Jews did their best to hold the prayer day times kept at the temple extended to their synagogues and indeed in their households. Undoubtedly, the Holy Family whenever possible followed such a practice. It was easier to do it near meal times, than at other times because of work obligations. Still, some had to forego it. Mary and Jesus frequently found themselves praying in the living room together while Joseph had to keep work going at the workshop along with his helpers and then region join you and Mary at lunch and dinner time. The practice of sanctifying the day spread early in the Church, especially among nascent religious orders and institutes. Indeed, to join in prayer with and on behalf of the Church and mankind, formed part of the substantial order of the day for them. And this was held as a pride of place as the ministry and other apostolate required of all members. Manual labour was the other occupation which was offered in love with wise flexibility, silence and generosity.

Dreams in the Bible Dreams come naturally to all. The Holy Books attest to their reality. Because they thrive in the realm of fantasy and spritely intelligence, they do not fall under the scrutiny of moral responsibility. They remain outside reckoning because they are not capable to follow the rules of conscience and free choice. However, God in his wisdom does use dreams to communicate messages, and telling ones at that. Biblical examples, however are few. I refer to the early ones in the Old Testament like: (Gen: 20, 3 and Gen, 40 8). There are others. The New Testament, even more sparse, made use of a couple in Matthew’s Gospel and then in Acts, and especially in the Book of Revelations, where the whole book is described as a dream, or better, a prolonged series of visions. The experience of some saints is replete with accounts of private visions, dreams, and private revelations. The Church has always maintained a distance from regarding private visions as authentic communications from God to his people. It advises caution as regards private communications; it discourages undue fear, but tones also down outrageous imaginative dreams. None of the dreams of the NT exceed in importance to dreams reported in St. Matthew’s Gospel in favour of Joseph with a message to take Mary as his chaste wife and two others to flee to Egypt to prevent the slaughter of Jesus and then to ascertain the time for the safe return to their home in Nazareth. Joseph heard from the angel about the mission the Father had laid out for him. He listened in silence. He increasingly made it his own and had it ingrained and treasured in his heart. He willingly determined to carry it out to the best of his abilities even at great personal sacrifice. Joseph, you soon proved your silent determination to carry out your duties towards your beloved spouse Mary and Jesus in exile in Egypt and for many years later at Nazareth. Dreams have their relative importance beyond the resilient ever going workings of the mind, day and especially night. It’s a reality that though it lacks free choice and the ability of decision, it often presents surreal situations relative to current issues and at times it builds on past memories. Lord Jesus, you had your dreams too. They kept you company along the years. They inspired and threatened you. Some kept you awake while others encouraged more rest as happens with all of us mortals. It’s something surrealistic, riding over the already muddled life and its varied and sometimes gloomy situations. I’m moved to consider how you managed to keep in cheque your superior intellect and the growing invading divine knowledge. Some cineastes and their scriptwriters put Mary and Joseph at odds over this. They presented a Joseph who was drawn to over-protect you, while Mary with gentle deference to him was more set to maintain silence and then to accommodate you: You asked for clear intelligent answers from Joseph who hesitated when affronted with your ‘puerile’ immature yet pertinent questions!... Lord, your provident governorship is behind my thoughts and indeed my reveries, day and night. With all due respect to my free choice, you deign to channel my state of mind after your plans. You are far better equipped to know things about myself than I am. And you have countless other friends in your care, as well. When distraught and confused in apparent sin my hard-won moral instinct draws me to seek redress and comfort huddling in thought close to you whom I may have faulted. This assures me that I was never really far from you, indeed never had parted from you. And I attribute this as a sign of your infinite mercy and goodness. All the more, I’m drawn to you, my bulwark and strength, imploring you never to permit me to wander about heedlessly, not even during near-sleep and half consciousness. Lord, guard me in the genuine intent of pleasing you always.

The carpenter’s shop

Jesus graced Joseph’s shop for more than half his age (and six times the amount of time spent in pastoral ministry) under his father’s management and among co-workers who may have been close relatives. Ken Campbell, a biblical scholar, suggested that the Greek tekton when translated as “builder” is more accurate. “In the context of first-century Israel, the tektōn was a general craftsman who worked with stone, wood, and sometimes metal in large and small building projects”. So, in those days the carpenter or builder saw to everything that had to do with the common homestead’s needs: from laying foundations to raising walls with apertures and covering rooftops, providing furniture even though scant, and their refurbishment, all concerned him. Moreover, he made his own tools and kept them in working condition. This required a forge, an anvil along with a turning ‘machine’ and their ‘go with’ tools. Whatever was not wooden had to be fashioned, and so heated in a forge, placed on an anvil and beaten to shape by suitable hammers. The carpenter/blacksmith fashioned most of the tools used by the farmer. From the donkey cart and plough and the tools for harvesting, Whenever he was commissioned to build a house, he first went to have a close look at the desired locality. He made and studied plans, corrected, made suggestions or improved them. He measured on site according to the exact design. He then employed day workers to dig up the foundations till rock appeared and built on it with used or cut stone stored or bought from a quarry. In like manner, he depended on wood. He continuously piled logs and wood of all sizes. Ultimately, he had to log wood from unclaimed forests or thickets. Then he would harness his donkey and prepare a cart with a huge axe, sturdy saws and ropes. A suitable tree or two would have to be cut down, stripped and sawed into workable logs. He had to have enough logs to support planks to cover rooms and enough for apertures and furniture. He would leave them to dry for quite a-while and cut them as required; and then stack them in different orderly piles. It was hard work only for the able bodied. Day workers could be counted on, as the evangelists attest, and not only for harvesting wheat or grapes. Jesus must have had a part in all of this until Joseph was around and then when he passed away, took over himself for some years before leaving it to relatives. He toiled for many hours of concentrated work on particular orders. Besides, he had to deal with clients and hustle for money for work provided. That also, involved also criss-crossing Nazareth and its neighbourhood with handicrafts, and was a familiar face at the market with its commerce, perhaps as a day worker with Joseph at Sepphoris and elsewhere. For some scholars, who apparently did not judge Joseph overly attached to his work as carpenter, suggest that he may have often been a day worker who travelled to the then important town of Sepphoris, today known as Saffuriya, six kilometres to the north of Nazareth) at the cross roads of considerable commerce. And several scholars have suggested that Jesus, while working as a craftsman in Nazareth, may have travelled to Sepphoris for work purposes, possibly with his father and ‘brothers’. (In late antiquity, Sepphoris was believed to be the birthplace of Mary, mother of Jesus, because it was the village where her parents, Saints Anna and Joachim, often resided, where today a 5th- century basilica was excavated at the site honouring the birth of Mary). Jesus, as a youth blossoming slowly into his teens, must have been very close to his mother Mary. He knew and loved her as no one else. And though he did mix with boys and girls his age around his father’s workshop, he would have accompanied them for lessons and prayer at the Nazareth synagogue and for walks of discovery along the cliffs nearby. But I can hardly imagine him being attracted to anything but the living room with the kitchen corner where Mary was the silent queen and the gentlest manageress. Jesus would see to the upkeep of the kitchen garden, where Mary contributed wirh her own ideas and Jesus picked whatever she asked. He would lend a hand at the cleaning of vegetables for the day’s pot. Besides, it would be his job to feed, water and keep clean the families’ animals. Not one to venture on his own, he mostly enjoyed his mother’s company. Sitting studying a scroll, he would now and then raise his eyes to observe mother at her loom and yarn. She would also see to his father’s and his own clothes, making and mending them. The weekly laundry was an event in itself involving both. Jesus would carry the laundry basket to the public laundry (still standing today, known as Mary’s Spring) pic photo of 1901. And he would help her back home to hang them in the patio between the workshop and inside the kitchen garden. The three of them at noon would sit at table to share the day’s fare and enjoy their first period of easy talk. This was also the first communal time for prayer, like in most families. After a lull and rest, all would return for the work place and resume whatever was at hand. Except the Sabbath, of course. They would either make of the Sabbath a day of physical rest or else, it could have been a recreational or dutiful occasion when they would take the opportunity to visit relatives at acceptable and reachable places. Their yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem or its vicinity where Zachary and Elisabeth lived with a growing John would require more than a single day of travel and then enjoy sufficient visiting time. Then, more than nowadays, staying overnight with relatives was far more common. Besides, an inn, as mentioned in a parable by Jesus, praising a Samaritan who came to the aid of a Jew who fell victim to violent thieves (Lk 10, 25-37) was not that far off commodity. The family of Lazarus and siblings could have run a guest house, as suggested elsewhere. That would explain Jesus’ own later visits to Bethany together with alternate places following his parents’ friendship with them while at or around Jerusalem. However, work time consuming as it was never made the day. Absorbing as it could have been, what really defined the day was attending to God’s presence and through work participating in his ongoing creation and providence by embracing the day’s chores. Father, Son and Holy Spirit overshadowed the concentration and dedication to perfect accomplishments, without ever being in the way. Indeed, all was celebrated in their honour and praise. That is how we should see each of the persons in the Holy Family, consecrated in action, holiness intent on normal work as to benefit ordinary humanity. This must be understood not so much that we are in the presence of highly talented, even genial persons, who follow proven techniques and skills to produce masterpieces. Rather, we are with persons who have the inner qualities which come to the aid of whatever is at hand. Were we to focus on each person of the Holy Family in prayer, we would certainly gain a wealth of spiritual benefits! Let’s start with Joseph. Joseph, the just, daily witnessed to a silent obedience to the Father. He daily carried to the extreme his self-giving in otherliness. Not unlike Mary, he treasured in his heart the wonders he saw enfolding before his very eyes. He understood only gradually all their complexities… I always felt fascinated about what his feelings were for Mary. She was extraordinary in many ways. Her youthful freshness must have been outrun by her beautiful qualities of soul. Suffice to mention the angel’s words of salutation, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’. It would be extremely too little, that she was full of grace only at that precise moment, or from then onwards. We know it through a dogma. Mary since her conception was full of grace, loveable, outstanding for all and for all time. Joseph recognised this and he could have come to be aware of her inner qualities while she was away at Elisabeth’s while he was left in the dark during those months. It got worse when she returned, and after some months he discovered that she was pregnant with Jesus. Who can figure his soul searching laid besides her beautiful qualities amid the darkness related to his place in her life? (At this point, I recall, the few passing crushes I myself went through my teens, and of others who dared express their inner feelings in pastoral confidence). Utterly dumbfounded, Joseph must have felt miserable, but later also secretly elated that he was made privy and indeed very close to the unfolding of such great mysteries affecting mankind and through his personal unique mission.

How did Joseph relate to Mary? With Mary, you maintained an utterly non-physical relationship. As to communication, it was naturally guarded, never wanting to dare and take back or outstep your place beyond the intimate dependence of her unique role before God. Even the easy talk during meals respected the sacred environment you lived. Prayer time among yourselves made it easier to unlock your feelings… The Spirit must have comforted you wonderfully through Mary and Jesus and lifted you wholesomely up during the hard times you had to endure. However, a characteristic trait about you was a contemplative restraint and loving silence at most times. Mary shared this with him, throughout her life. That’s Joseph and Mary for you. The towering gentle giant of fatherly goodness and Mary the quiet contemplative loyally by his side.

And Joseph with Jesus? I hesitate to dare to commit myself; but I’ll try. The over-riding attitude would have been a deep and really profound sense of adoration: because of your awareness of the Divine Incarnate living under your own roof and dependent on your own close daily care of him and his mother. Meanwhile Jesus subjected himself to serve manually under you, first with Mary in the living room and thereabouts and then in your workshop for a number of years. Unheard of situation. Who can ever fathom Joseph’s self-worth living in such a situation? Better to leave it to contemplative wonder.

How Jesus relate to Mary and Joseph in prayer?

It is not easy to behold them praying together, each a consummate expert. Who would lead? By Jewish ritual, it would have fallen on Joseph. Did he ever do it? There was Mary, Mother of the Church, who often joined in prayer, but did she ever lead even the assembled Church? Or was it Jesus, the Lord, the Teacher and indeed the High Priest? Actually, I dare suggest that the question never rose among them. Nor have I ever figured out how they did it. Surely, whenever they came together to pray, no one of them ever attracted attention to self. Certainly, they prayed spontaneously, and not necessarily using words! Silent contemplative prayer came naturally, it reflected infinitely better the Father and the Spirit, their divine interactors! Luke must have spent hours contemplating his gospel story in constant review; he has originality running through his Gospel. Again alone, he remarked that with each event in Jesus’ life, Mary kept and treasured in her heart. And so, did Joseph. It is not known why Matthew who wrote first alone reported the lengthy events tied up with the magi and the consequent exile in Egypt and why the other evangelists excised them.

The Ark of the covenant and the tabernacle The Ark was an acacia wood chest designed according to precise indications (Esod 25, 23) and coated entirely with gold. It originally contained only the two stone tablets of the commandments handed to Moses; later were added Aaron’s staff and a copy of the rolls of the Bible written until then and an omer of manna (Esod 16, 2-33). The Ark and all that it contained for a long time was the pledge that God lived among his people and indeed led them as his chosen. It was revered and greatly feared. It was carried some eight hundred metres ahead of the marching army or throng of people, covered with large blue drapes and animal skins, hidden also from Levites who carried it accompanied by priests and then the people. In this way they criss-crossed the Arabian desert for about forty years. The Ark of the covenant, called also the Tabernacle, was with the chosen people in the promised land for centuries, kept under a tent, until Solomon built the temple for it at Jerusalem placed in the Holy of Holies. After Solomon’s death, the kingdom again was divided like it was before his father’s time. The people increasingly chose to worship the gods of the nations around them, rather than seek the Presence of the true God. Their rejection continued until they finally lost their land, the beloved city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people was carried away into captivity. The Ark was destroyed by the Philistines in 1050 B.C; while the last historical mention of the Ark in Scripture is in 2 Chronicles chapter 35, where King Josiah (who reigned in Judah c. 640-609 BC) asked the Levites to return the Ark to the temple where Solomon had originally housed it after rebuilding and rededicating the temple sometime in the 10th century BC (2 Chr, 5). There is no mention as to why the Levites had removed the Ark in the first place, nor is there any indication as to whether or not the Levites acquiesced to King Josiah's request, granted that it was available! After this, inexplicably, the Ark of the Covenant was never seen again, even to this day. "The ark of the covenant of the Lord will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again", the prophet Jeremias declared (Jer 3, 12-16). It is well to note that Jeremiah began preaching approximately about 626, the 13th year of King Josiah, or with the accession of King Jehoiakim of Judah (608 BC). The only other mention of the Ark of Covenant in Scripture occurs almost 700 years later when it is mentioned briefly in the Book of Hebrews (9, 4-5) and in the Book of Revelation (11, 19). By this time, of course, the Ark had long disappeared (see Hebr 9, 5b). The Ark was an important foreshadowing of Jesus Christ as its whereabouts called for atonement of sins. In the Old Testament, the Ark was the only place believers could go (through the high priest) to have their sins forgiven. In the New Testament, Christ replaced the Ark becoming the only way to salvation, gaining the kingdom of heaven.

The temple and synagogues The temple and later the synagogues are the Jewish places of worship. It had been the wish of king David – finally free from wars – to construct a worthy temple to house the Ark and its tabernacle. But he was told that he had spilled too much blood and instead his son Solomon made his dream come true. The temple took forty years to build. It became the pride and principal place of worship for all the people. Nebuchadnezzar raised it to the ground around 587 AD, when a large proportion of the Jewish people were expelled from Jerusalem and exiled to Babylonia. The second temple was built by the Jews after their return from Babylonia when Jerusalem was ruled by the Persian King Cyrus, and completed in 515 AD. Then Herod the Great, desirous of gaining the favour of the Jews, restored it, widening its foundations (including the new construction of the ‘Wailing Wall’), over the previous decrepit and in dis-repair second temple. Work on the renovation begun in 18 AD, was carried out at great labour and expense, and on a scale of surpassing splendour. It stood until Jesus’ time, but in the year 70 AD the Romans destroyed it, never to be rebuilt again; in spite of the Orthodox Jews, who continue to express yearnings of building a third temple incorporating the reality of a Messiah. The temple attracted the heart of the Holy Family like any other Jewish family. The Nazareth synagogue was Jesus’ school from five to eighteen years. Time there was spent starting with prayer and continued with Scripture study under a rabbi. People sought the synagogue on the Sabbath, on other days, the father as head of the family led prayers during different times. Time spent in the temple was held in honour. Luke in 2, 25-38 praised the widow who prayed there for years on end, as did Simeon, who assisted the presentation of Jesus, the culmination of a lifelong wait for the Messiah and recognising him for what he was. And as such gave thanks to God. Parents sent their children, boys and girls, separately to their synagogues, several days a week for religious lessons depending on the availability of the rabbi. Every male child was circumcised and given a name on the eight day of his birth either in the temple in Jerusalem, in his local synagogue or in his own home. On the 32nd day after his birth, his parents travelled to Jerusalem and presented him in the temple, offering either a lamb, a pair of doves or turtle doves depending on their means. The temple had long been deprived of its Holy of Holies, the Ark, for which the temple was built by Salomon as wished by David his father. Instead, the Holy of Holies treasured a copy of the Sacred Books, also at the time of Jesus. Never it had it looked so splendid as restored and enlarged in places at great expense by Herod the great a few decades before the appearance of Jesus. It is revealing that Jesus shared the fullness of the temple’s greatness and significance in Jewish peoples’ life. Some forty years later it drifted to utter historic and theological irrelevance with its complete destruction prophetically foretold by Jesus and brought about by the arrogant Romans intent on levelling a humiliating definite blow on the Jews. Jesus himself was to take on himself what the unique Jerusalem temple stood for. Sacramentally, he more than represents the Father’s presence among his people, no more housed exclusively in some magnificent cathedral, but made it possible for him to wait upon the humblest of his faithful even in a wayside chapel throughout the expanses of where faith has roots. Indeed, his farsighted comment to the Samaritan woman: “But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4 23-24) require no built structure but steadfast loyal friends. This means too that his divine presence goes beyond the wonderful Eucharist and equally resides wherever anyone treasures in faith, hope and love his life of grace and redemption. When Jesus was twelve, on the family’s yearly visit to the temple, something unusual happened. Mary and Joseph returning home, discovered late that day that Jesus was not following them nor was he with any of their relatives. They turned back despite the enveloping night to look for him and surprisingly much later found him engaged talking with temple grandees, “listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers”. No doubt, Joseph and Mary made their best to find him at the earliest, but incredibly it took them more than a night and day to discover him… Pope Francis in his Christus vincit (CV, 28) suggests that the loss of Jesus was a proof of how much his parents trusted him, letting him to move for long among his relatives, cousins and other peers. In the Gospels’ reporting, Joseph never broke his silence. Instead, when she faced Jesus, Mary blurted out uncharacteristically: “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress”. And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” They did not understand. But he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother (and father) treasured up all these things in her heart (Lk 2, 57)!

A last look at Mary’s household Having progressed so far beyond Jesus’ adolescence, it may be useful to have another close look at Mary’s household before we take leave of Nazareth for good. Some years rolled by. We all age and rather quietly too. Making my way up the Nazareth hill to Joseph and Mary’s household, I could feel that my legs are not what they used to be. And I was taken aback with the thought that the Holy Family which I was about to meet must have aged too. Already the enclave with the carpenter’s workshop looked differently. Last time, it was like a beehive of activity. Now, it was a rundown to the more essential menial jobs with less stacks of logs and less hands-on jobs. Jesus in his twenties seemed to share the running of the place with another close relative. Joseph was nowhere around. With a rather heavy heart, I edged further in. Jesus embraced me warmly as if my last meeting only happened few hours ago. He understood that I was anxious to meet and sound the intimate feelings of his precious parents. He led me to the back door into the patio and the kitchen garden. He left me by the door of the living room. I knocked respectfully from a distance and waited for a response. Mary left what she was doing and stepped hurriedly to welcome me. Mary looked well, graver and on the whole not much different than the last I visited. I took her hand gently and thankfully, while she pointed at Joseph who was sitting in an armchair over a rug. I noticed a staff resting upright by the cooking nook. Obviously, Joseph was in need of it to move about… He was now tending whatever was cooking in the pot. He was a shadow of the giant of strength inspiring confidence that I knew; but his eyes spoke the same compassion and deep understanding. Confined to early retirement at his sixties and to swift degeneration, he was, however, making up for the times requiring him to endlessly attend to work. Now he had ample opportunity to venerate his better half closely. He literally followed Mary in every move she made around the living room. You could see his love and admiration for her. And not simply by the smiles they exchanged. She reciprocated his veneration by small acts of ineffable kindness. The love between them created a warm atmosphere that swelled up to mystical heights. And God blessed their love as it reflected his own presence and love for and among them. Standing there, I felt, like a fish out of water. And, quickly, I asked to leave. But not before I approached Joseph, fell on both knees, took both his harsh hands, daily becoming bonier with sinews showing. I kissed them slowly, acknowledging my gratitude and privilege to repeat the number of times Jesus may have done the same remonstration of affection. Then I turned to Mary with a deep bow and left eager to never let go such an intimate imprint of memory as long as I live. Stepping into the workshop, Jesus practically stood on the spot I left him, as if expecting that I would not be long in returning. He too smiled and embraced me again as if to share with me the frail and fickleness of life but at the same time glorying in the knowledge that every single instant is a treasure trove of gladness. This was his parting message after letting me visit his parents on the last period of their life together and sharing with them another important bit in the redemptive mystery. He then made me meet his co-workers. He went around approving and showing me their work. But he also gave me to understand how much he appreciated their part in sharing his waiting time soon approaching to start his real life’s work. It is also a sober thing to reflect that he attended to his foster father Joseph during the years of his premature old age along with his mother Mary. Jesus certainly held that Joseph had done everything in his power to give his best to Mary whom he treasured very highly and to him his adoptive son whom he adored from the depth of his heart. Their exile into Egypt and their many voyages to Jerusalem or elsewhere might have cost him dearly and must have made searing encroaches into his life span, but probably all this is incomparable to what he went through interiorly and which had a great bearing on his holding to life, but draining it . Of course, this was more than counter-balanced with satisfaction at being so close at redemption as it evolved through the actions of so prominent and unique personalities. It’s more than right that I should address to you Mother Mary my heartfelt gratitude for the special place you had for Joseph your chaste Spouse. He never dared to veer anywhere from your sight and he himself was continuously day and night under your privileged care. During Jesus’ upbringing which you shared with him, you were his direct witness and companion of his fatherly devotion, in small and great things often in silence but utmost in intensity. With Jesus, you acknowledged the precedence but never demanded privileged treatment. You were one with Joseph to remonstrate your inner adoration and affection. Catholics have often been regaled with their artists representing the Holy Family lovingly intent on each other at various stages of Jesus’ upbringing, usually with both parents holding a toddler Jesus over an arm. Less common artistic representations depict the early retirement of Joseph submitting to premature degeneration and the assiduous care given by both Jesus and Mary. It’s another thing when Joseph is captured lying weak on his pallet bringing to an end his heroic part in the redemptive mystery. It’s fitting also to remark that with Joseph giving his last witness of his part in the redemptive mystery, Jesus’ parents were not spared the suffering and empathy looking after a loved one, so compelling in the entire human condition.

Out and about doing good Jesus, on his visits with the apostles, to various towns and villages used to single out the synagogue. There he would enter and open his heart to the Father and possibly, after an invitation by the local rabbi, address a few words to those present. This shows what his value preferences were. Besides, it happened that he and his own passed several times through villages on the sabbath and possibly found lodgings around there. He healed whoever happened to be sick, worked other miracles, drove out devils provoking commotions among the more hollow-minded literal ‘orthodox’. To which he reacted strongly, like when he confronted an interlocuter, and asked whether he would lead his ox to drink on the Sabbath (Lk 13, 15) and here he was healing a human being, maybe after years of suffering. It’s revealing to draw out a list of the places he visited and stayed at the most during three ‘pastoral’ years. Capernaum tops the list with 171 days of stays, followed by Jerusalem with 134 days and Nazareth with his apostles 122 days and Bethany 75. These are the most mentioned jn the gospels; there follows Cana of Galilee, Bethany of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, Bethlehem and Bethsaida of Peter and Andrew. Others around and below Jerusalem in Judea, like Nain, and in Galilee he visited its towns and villages and stayed for several days there too. After Jesus left his family for good, he made Capernaum his rallying point (see Mt 13). It was the town of the sons of Zebedee, James and John and the tax collector, Matthew and James of Alphaeus. He wrought many miracles there; and yet he had harsh words for Capernaum as when he threatened it with falling behind sin-steeped Sodom and Gomorrah… Peter and his wife lived in Capernaum and they must have hosted him often, besides providing plenty of fresh and dried fish for the whole band of Jesus, like John and James did. This homely scene brings to mind an evangelist who reminisced on how once Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in law of fever and then she helped in serving them at table… While at it, it’s legitimate to ask what Jesus and the apostles spoke about in their forays through villages. While in the Nazareth synagogue, Jesus took up the revered parchment and happened to open up a reading from Isaias foretelling wonderful deeds with the coming of the Messiah. But we have other instances when the rabbis asked him to preach in their synagogues. Like John the Baptist, it was often in open areas that he took up moral behaviour and good works, but often he broached more substantial discourses on faith, love, forgiveness and the necessity of frequent prayer. We know of one instance when he sent ahead seventy-two disciples in pairs to prepare people for his own visits.

Meeting John the Baptist

Before commencing his journeys throughout the Holy Land, proclaiming the Good News, Jesus deemed it proper to meet his kin John, his own herald and baptiser. Jesus already had a few disciples following him. The river Jordan has its source in Caesarea Philippi, a locality below the cluster of hills bordering Israel, Lebanon and Syria. It has a noteworthy historical and religious Importance. It was here that Peter was inspired to confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and on nearby Mt Tabor together with James and his brother John they were called to witness Jesus transfigured in the company of Moses and Elijah. John left home (at Ein Karem?) following his parents’ death to spend time in the desert tradition and eventually gave himself to proclaim the coming of the promised Messiah, for whom he prepared the way by preaching change of heart in belief and moral standings. He established himself along the river Jordan wearing camel’s hair and eating whatever the desert provided, baptising the contrite in its waters, mostly at a place known as the Mag]tas, Arabic for, ‘immersed’. (In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II visited this locality on the West of the Jordan and north of the lake of Gennesaret). Jesus walked towards John and joined others with the intent of getting himself baptised. Inspired, John recognised him. And aware of the wish of Jesus, John remonstrated that he should be baptised not Jesus. But Jesus had his way. On exiting the water, a dove appeared over him, representing the Spirit, and from a cloud a voice was heard: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased…; listen to him” (Mt 3, 17, Mt 17, 5, Mk 1, 11, Mk 9, 7, and Lk 3, 22; see also Jn 1, 30-34). John’s baptism was not for a remission of sins but an admission of guilt for which people made penance, as preparation and willingness of a change of heart. The sacrament of Jesus, with ‘Spirit and water’, when accompanied by the right dispositions, forgives sins. We often ask why Jesus submitted himself to John’s baptism. Simply to give his complete approval over all his mission and be an example of continued conversion. Thomas and Philip were disciples of John, who after this episode, left John and permanently joined Jesus. Why did John and his whole band not follow suit? Because it was his avowed mission to prepare the way for Jesus, and he was determined to honour it to the end. John and Jesus’ disciples baptised, but not Jesus himself. John proclaimed that “Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (1Jn 29, 36). And to his disciples he conceded that (Jesus) had to increase, while he to decrease (Jn 3, 22). Afterwards, when Jesus re-joined his disciples, he said to the multitudes concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? Matt 11, 7. John did not preach for convenience or to please. A case in point and highly emblematic is his brush with Herod Antipas himself. While travelling with his brother’s wife Herodias, near the place where he was baptising, John attacked the tetrarch's dalliance as contrary to Jewish law (it was incestuous, as Herodias was also Antipas' niece, but John also criticized the fact that she was his brother's wife (Mk 6, 18), lending credence to the belief that Herod Antipas and Herodias lived together while Herod II was still alive). Herodias got her revenge when her daughter Salome danced for his birthday and so pleased Herod, that he promised her even half his reign. She took Herodias’ suggestion, when her mother asked for the Baptist’s head. And Jesus made an astounding admission: “For I say to you, among those that are born of women none is greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk 7, 28). The Baptist is often linked to the Prophet Elias, both were rather gruff, one in appearance and the other in the fiery and lose language he could use. John was a relative of Jesus.

Jesus in the desert

Jesus met and got baptised by John. Then Jesus left for the desert, with no mention that any of his early disciples followed him. In the biblical tradition, the desert is the coveted place where one endeavours to meet God through introspection in an adverse and harsh environment through a time lapse of days, months or even years. Jesus himself chose to live for forty days in the desert. After him, Paul spent a never specified number of years there. John the Baptist earlier opted to lead others to conversion by living his mission as herald of Christ in a harsh desert environment that made him look gaunt and gruff. Moses prepared himself for his life mission by being the first to spent time in the desert in lower Arabia and again high on Mt Horeb itself for days on end. He even dismayed his people who had grown impatient waiting for him and turned to a condescending Aaron who gathered golden trinkets from the people themselves, moulted them in a mould representing a golden calf eating grass and danced in celebration around it! After this the people fresh from exile in Egypt wondered and languished in the Arabian desert for a further forty years. Elias chose Mt Carmel as his vast desert for himself and his followers (sons of the prophets) where a lifelong contemplative process was undertaken to dispose themselves to holiness… Up to our own times, countless Christians avid to break with their past throw themselves in God’s presence shutting themselves from the comfortable commerce with peers and thrust themselves to new unknowns with lives intent in fulfilling God’s plans for them. The desert experience includes a regimen of fasting, restraint against indulgence but above all personal prayer. The emphasis in our times rests squarely in irreprehensible conscientious behaviour, the close loving attention to God’s presence and the accomplishment of his will in changing historical circumstances. It will be helpful at this point to take a closer look at biblical accounts of experiences God’s people, even his own Son, had in the desert. Time in the desert seems to be very important. The journey through the desert for the Israelites was not only a necessary geographical area to be crossed, it was also a time of testing and preparation (see Hebr 3). The Israelites then were free from their bondage and slavery. They were out of Egypt, but they were not yet in the Promised Land. It was during this time in the desert that God tested and prepared them. Hebrews 3 says that the Israelites saw what God did for them in the desert, yet they repeatedly hardened their hearts and rebelled against him. Because of this, only the fellow spies Joshua and Caleb eventually entered the Promised Land. Jesus spent forty days in the desert before beginning his public ministry. This was a time of testing and preparation for him. The New Bible Commentary tells us “Before he even entered upon a ministry whose purpose was to challenge and ultimately to break the power of Satan in others, that enemy had to be met and defeated on the battleground of his own life”. Remember that Jesus is not only fully God, but also fully human. He had the same body that we have. Jesus had to develop physically, emotionally, and spiritually just as each one of us do. In fact, Luke tells us that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men” (Lk 2, 52 NIV). Jesus had to grow in awareness of who he was: The Son of God, and of what his mission was. His time in the desert appears as the last step of testing and preparation before entering and fulfilling his task. Life in the Promised Land was very different from life in the desert. As the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they needed to take possession of the land. Slowly they secured one piece of land after the next until they possessed it all. The Gospel of Mark tells us that immediately after Jesus’ baptism, “the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wind animals and angels attended him” (Mk 1, 12-13). Let us look at Jesus’ experience in the desert. First, we note that Jesus was alone. His newly acquired disciples after meeting John did not join there and then. How often do we feel alone while we are going through severe temptation? Even if there are people around, it seems that they cannot help us in our struggles. Jesus’ aloneness and the strength of the temptations is intensified when Mark tells us that “He was with the wild animals”. He could become lonely, have given up, or he could have been devoured by the wild animals. Second, we note that Jesus was “being tempted by Satan.” Satan was not waiting at the end for Jesus before he began his temptations (see Matthew 4 and Luke 4). Satan buffeted Jesus continually for forty days. We like to believe that we can handle an occasional temptation — but it is the continual onslaught of temptation that leads to despair — that leads to the cry “Will it ever end?” Third, we note that Jesus was fasting - not for a day or two, but for forty. Fasting will affect a person physically as well as spiritually. Beside enduring hunger pains, a person on an extended fast will tend to become dizzy when he moves quickly. There is a certain amount of weight loss and a decrease in physical strength. The spiritual benefits outweigh those side-effects, but let us not forget that Jesus was in the hot, dry desert, with the wild animals, alone. The intensity of Jesus’ struggle was great. It was as intense as our own struggles. Jesus was identifying and becoming one with us. It is in the desert that we see Jesus as a very human man going through very human temptations. Jesus was identifying and becoming one with us. Jesus had to defeat His personal devil just as we do. As the writer of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are — yet was without sin”. (Hebr 4, 15 NIV). Jesus not only knows about our temptation to sin, he has experienced it! Jesus not only knows about our battle against Satan, he has experienced that battle! In the desert, the Israelites were prepared to enter the Promised Land. They needed that experience to drive out the enemy living in Canaan. So too Jesus had to be trained and prepared. He had to be hands on about our battles. Jesus could then go out, meet the enemy, and defeat him — which he did ultimately through his death and resurrection.

Meeting Jesus in the desert A temptation period is hard, debilitating and exhausting psychologically and physically. For this reason alone, we should never give in to withdraw ourselves in desperation becoming oblivious to everything and everybody else. Not many spiritual persons opened up to me while under extreme stress, worry and pain. Nor did they dare abstain from reaching you Lord to ask for help. Even if they did momentarily, they did not persist. More often they keep away from the sacraments, stay away from attending Mass and give up prayer altogether! And this goes on maybe for a few days, but also for months or incredibly for years. What a pitiful situation such persons go through. It has to be you Lord Jesus to come to their aid, to rediscover consolation and renew courage to unfold themselves in fresh trust. And in all this you thread through a maze of frailty and sin but also like balsam through great forbearance and bring in bouts of hope and optimism. Sharing Christ’s grace in dealing with persons such as these is a wonderful grace in itself. It is a revelation of how mercy works. And to think that every confessor priest is called to involve himself and to contribute in his own pastoral way to a miracle enacted so many times every day. Lord Jesus, meeting you in the desert alone leads me to dig deep within me until I find you, my dear saviour and friend. I need not travel far to make contact with you. As one of the sons of the prophets long associated with Elias on Mt Carmel, we are in allegiance with you our Lord, to lead a life in pilgrimage of continual desert in your presence and guidance, to make of the fruitful desert on Mt Carmel a lifelong contemplative process of holiness… As our brothers of old, spread as colourful flowers in a garden along an extensive stretch of hilly landscapes, now huddled in our personally hewn caves, as in a vast beehive, we are at work producing honey of contemplative action for a wild wide world. And yet, I, with thousands before me, some already canonised, others are on a tortuous pilgrimage like me, drawing my essential sustenance from my daily contact with your word and Eucharist, always abundantly fresh and life giving. Dear Jesus, beholding you gaunt and yet set for the task before you, I fall down in admiration at your feet, thanking you, empathising with you and sharing in the many concerns gripping at your heart. Foremost, you hear the cries of the voiceless, the weak in spirit and body, the abandoned and the forsaken, the apparently useless among us, the many tightly held by vice, prejudice and presumption. You are one with the timorous, frail, hesitant, hopeless and inconsistent among us. You feel the widespread tiredness, the heavy foot dragging, indeed the spokes in the wheels of the well- intentioned, the well-meaning, the energetic, the well-provided, the well placed. You are the only hope of all those who want to push forward at whatever cost. Yet, they always look around to ascertain that you are squarely right behind them. You are the only light they look up to. They follow your every move. They hold on to you, even on your own very footsteps. Lord, in the empty desert you felt the emptying in yourself as you let yourself be tempted by the pompous evil one, threatening in his guile and vile driven by his empty pretentiousness. What a difference in personal presentations. Ever humble, towering in honesty and uprightness, Jesus you contrast infinitely with the evil one. No ground at all for comparison really.

Elias and Eliseus Elias standing alone before the Lord God makes the best of Elias’ place in the history of Israel. His confrontation with the hundreds of Jezebel’s Baghal prophets makes captivating reading and ideal cinema graphic creation. The deeds of Eliseus, his chosen successor and wealthy head ploughman, are plenty and astounding. My own preference for remembering Eliseus is the journey he had in conversation with his master Elias having forced himself to accompany him along to the Jordan valley leading to his final parting in a whirlwind. Elias had been directed to meet the end of his life mission by walking to the river Jordan followed by Eliseus and closely by fifty other sons of the prophets. Reaching its banks, he took off his mantle, wrapped it and slapped the water with it. The river flow stopped, rose and spread about but left a corridor of dry land in the river through which both Elia and Eliseus crossed dry shod. While doing so, Elias offered what he could do to his steadfast follower as a parting wish. Eliseus made an astounding request: that he be endowed with a double share of his mentor‘s spirit. “A difficult thing to ask”, burst out Elias but assured him that he would have his way if he will be granted vision of him being lifted up in a chariot of fire. Once on the other side, a whirlwind like a chariot of fiery horses picked the prophet and took him to heaven. The astounded Eliseus cried out: “Father, my Father! Chariot of Israel ridden by fiery horses”. He rent his clothes, picked up Elias mantle, wrapped it and he too rapped the Jordan waters with it, saying, “Where is the Lord, God of Elias?” Again, the waters parted and he crossed and went his way. Like the mother of Jesus later, Elias was assumed body and soul to heaven. Only them and Jesus crossed to the heavenly Father in like manner. Mary the Mother full of grace and co-redemptrix, Elias the prophet of God with fiery words and deeds. And Jesus, Word and Redeemer, were privileged to join glorified body and soul the Father ahead of anybody else. Elias like some Old Testament saintly figures were brought to share the merits of Christ’s redemption ahead of real time. John the Baptist was the last of them. It is significant that Elias’ contribution towards universal redemption centred on the place Our Mother Mary was to have in the envisaged divine plan. And he was to have a further part in the way that he held the ideal of contemplation as he lived it on Mount Carmel, ahead of thousands in the Carmelite Order, in other Institutes and in the universal Church.

The school of Jesus

With Jesus’ finding at the temple of Jerusalem, Joseph is not mentioned further in any of the Gospels. We usually take it that for several years Jesus kept himself close to his father in his workshop. Since his retirement and his early death, Jesus took over with help from cousins and other relatives. Until he was around thirty when he left Mary and Nazareth to start his life mission, Jesus proclaimed God’s kingdom for three short years and established it with his selfless Redemption. Now I wish to recall the relations Jesus had with the apostles and others. The evangelists highlighted that in anticipation of the calling of the Twelve Jesus spent an entire night in prayer alone with the Father and the Spirit. It is highly engaging to observe Jesus rounding up his immediate followers. Two cousins may have been his co-workers at the carpenter’s workshop, James and Simon (Mt 13, 55; Mk 6, 3). Andrew, Thomas and Philip were disciples of John who switched allegiances to Jesus. It was Philip who brought Bartholomew (Nathanael) provoking undiluted praise from Jesus and promised him that he would see greater things. Andrew and Peter were fishermen from Bethsaida who plied their work from Capernaum; James and John sons of Zebedee were their partner fishermen. There were Matthew who was a hardened tax- collector, Judas Thaddeus and Judas Iscariot. Jesus kept close to the group, but not as continuously that family ties were broken, or kept them away permanently from their place of work. They kept moving, walking from town and village to another. Judas Iscariot was chosen to keep the bursary for the group’s needs, and for helping the needy, though John of all people once remarked that he helped himself dishonestly. None were proven idealists, quality doers, or most loyal of friends, with the exception of the admirable John the evangelist. One was to betray him for money despite three years of association with him. The outspoken Peter, who had been handpicked to lead the group, denied knowing him just a few hours before his crucifixion. Hardly a college of loyal friends to found a Church on! No wonder the Church has always been a curious mix of lofty holiness and abject misery. It has always been a wellspring of goodness of unparalleled saintly and moral authority; and yet it was also ashamedly capable of putrefying filthiness with careerism, greediness and sexual abuse, not sparing its leaders. The moral authority and saintliness of its recent popes have been contemporaneously countenanced by huge numbers men and women who left religious life and the priesthood and others who acquiescenced to sexual licentiousness. It all begun with the cultural revolution hatched in the late nineteen sixties in Europe with its idealisation and freedom of the person, the first of a series of ‘so called’ human rights, soon followed in the seventies with the world sexual revolution, affecting indifferently most people, associations and even established Churches… The Catholic Church itself suffered greatly, and had to take pre-emptive measures since the nineteen nineties to safeguard victims of abuse by errant members of its own clergy, and lately even enacted harsher laws aimed at stemming further wrongs. While it struggled to go against a longstanding accepted custom of dumping moral wrongs under the carpet. During all this period it is evident too that also in the Catholic Church the faith has been at a low ebb, in spite of a surprising heroic manifestation of it in various places elsewhere. Let it suffice to flag broadly that at no other age in the Church’s history has there a been greater surge of martyrs for the faith. In the Office of Readings, religious and priests pray God through his mercy to wipe away our sins from before his eyes, while firmly standing by a quote from St Paul: “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more” (Rom 5, 20). The apostles shared time with people while Jesus saw to it that they had enough time for themselves or time to be with them alone to pray or to explain things in greater detail. Once, Jesus remarked that they knew where he was going. To which Philip retorted that he didn’t exactly know. And Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? (Jn 14, 9) Another time, Mark highlighted an episode when Jesus asked what the apostles had been arguing about. “But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest”. “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mk 9, 34-35; Lk 22, 24). People, here and there, invited Jesus with his apostles for lunch as at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper (Mt 26, 7), at Lazarus’ and sisters’ home also at Bethany. At Capernaum, they must have enjoyed frequent meals at Peter’s house, certainly on healing Peter’s mother in law (see Mt 8, 14–15, Mk 1, 29–31, and Lk 4, 38–41). In the Gospels of Mark and Luke, this episode takes place after Jesus had been preaching at the synagogue of Capernaum. The Gospels accounts mention that Lazarus’ home at Bethany was a frequent destination of Jesus. We do not know what was the occupation of Lazarus nor of his sisters Martha and Mary. It’s likely that all of them were of the same age as Jesus. It’s likely that they were well to do people. Merit of their parents? They were friends and Jesus certainly did seek them out. It could be that it had to do with Jesus’ own occupation as a carpenter. Or the friendship reached further to Joseph and Mary and beyond. But the Gospel accounts hardly offer more information. We’ve already noted that after Capernaum, Jerusalem and Nazareth, Bethany was the locality where he spent most days with the apostles. Being close to Jerusalem, it’s likely that Lazarus and his sisters ran a guest house! Remember how the Samaritan took his robber victim to an inn to be cared for until his return? When tired, Jesus had a way to call them aside to a secluded place to assure them rest. And then they shared experiences, with Jesus contributing his own like when he enlightened them when they found it difficult to cast out a devil and Jesus recommended prayer in such circumstances. Jesus held three of the apostles closer to him than others: Peter, James and John. This trio was called to witness unique events: the transfiguration where they heard the Father saying: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to him (Mt 17, 6). The healing, indeed, the waking from death of a young girl; and his prayer at Gethsemane where he went to spent part of the night in an extremely painful prayer just before his imminent passion. When visiting Jerusalem, Jesus would lead them to pray in the temple, perhaps joining a crowd of worshipers. There, day prayer was celebrated regularly every three hours, the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh! These corresponded to the break-up of a day’s work. The normal day’s work ended at 6.00pm. Most Jews kept this time set up for personal and family prayer without joining in the synagogue or temple prayers. The Gospels attest that the apostles got used to visit the temple at the sixth hour. Possibly, Jesus himself started the custom as stated above and it seems that it triggered the first nascent clericalism in the Early Church!

Peter from extrovert fisherman to leader of apostles It was Andrew who led his brother Peter to Jesus, and presented him as the awaited Messiah. Peter was a fiery and brash individual, but never dominant intellectually. Simon Peter, also known as Cephas (Jn 1, 42), was one of the first followers of Jesus Christ. He was an outspoken and ardent disciple, one of Jesus’ closest friends, an apostle, and a “pillar” of the church (Gal 2, 9). Peter was enthusiastic, strong-willed, impulsive, and, at times, brash. But for all his strengths, Peter had several failings in his life. Still, the Lord who chose and believed in him continued painstakingly to mould him. Simon was originally from Bethsaida (Jn 1, 44) but married (1 Cor 9, 5), and set house in Capernaum (Mk 1, 29). Both cities are on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. He and James and John were partners in a profitable fish business (Lk 5, 10). Simon met Jesus through his brother Andrew, who had followed Jesus after hearing John the Baptist proclaim that Jesus was the Lamb of God (Jn 1, 35-36). Andrew immediately went to find his brother to bring him to Jesus. Upon meeting Simon, Jesus gave him a new name: Cephas (Aramaic) or Peter (Greek), which means “rock” (Jn 1, 40-42). Later, Jesus officially called Peter to follow Him, producing a miraculous catch of fish (Lk 5, 1-7). There and then, Peter left all that occupied him and followed the Lord. For the next three years, Peter lived close to the Lord Jesus. Being a born leader, Peter became the de facto spokesman for the twelve (Mt 15, 8-21, 19, 27; Mk 11, 21; Lk 8, 45, 12, 41; Jn 6, 68, 13, 6-9, 36). More significantly, it was Peter who first confessed the enormity that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God”, a truth which Jesus said was divinely revealed to Peter (Mt 16, 16-17). In several instances, Peter showed himself to be impetuous to the point of rashness. For example, it was Peter who jumped boat to walk on water to meet Jesus (Mt 14, 8-29). However, the moment he took his eyes off Jesus, he floundered and began sinking (verse 30). It was Peter who took Jesus aside to rebuke him for speaking of his violent death so young (Mt 16, 22)—and found himself astounded and sternly rebuked by the Lord (verse 23). It was Peter who suggested erecting three tabernacles to honour Moses, Elijah, and Jesus himself (Mt 17, 4) — soon to fall to the ground in terrified silence at God’s glory (verses 5-6). It was Peter who drew a sword and struck the ear of the servant of the high priest (Jn 18, 10) to find Jesus ordering him to put his weapon back into its sheath (verse 11). It was Peter who boasted that he would never forsake the Lord, even if everyone else did (Mt 26, 33), and yet denied him three times a few hours later affirming that he did not know him (70-74). Through all of Peter’s ups and downs, the Lord Jesus remained his loving Lord and faithful guide. Jesus named Simon as Peter, the “Rock,” in Mt 16, 18-19, promising that he would be instrumental in establishing his Church. After his resurrection, Jesus specifically named Peter as one who was to hear this good news (Mk 16, 7). And, repeating the miracle of a large catch of fish, Jesus made a special point of forgiving and re-commissioning him to his role among the other apostles (Jn 21, 6, 15-17). On the day of Pentecost, Peter was the main speaker to the crowd in Jerusalem (Acts 2, 14ff), and the Church began with an influx of about 3,000 new believers (41). Later, Peter healed a lame beggar (Acts 3) and preached boldly before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4). Even arrest, beatings, and threats could not dampen his resolve to preach his beloved risen Christ (Acts 5). Jesus’ promise that Peter would be the rock on which to build the Church was fulfilled in three stages: Peter preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Then, he was present when the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8). Finally, he was summoned to the home of the Roman centurion Cornelius, who also believed and received the Holy Spirit (Acts 10). In this way, Peter “unlocked” three different worlds and opened the door of the Church to Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. As an apostle, Peter experienced some growing pains. At first, he had resisted taking the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile. However, when he saw the Romans receive the Holy Spirit in the same manner he had, Peter concluded that “God does not show favouritism” (Acts 10, 34). After that, Peter strongly defended the Gentiles’ position as believers and adamantly suggested that they did not need to conform to Jewish law and custom (Acts 15, 7-11). Another episode of growth in Peter’s life concerns his visit to Antioch, where he enjoyed the fellowship of Gentile believers. However, when some legalistic minded Jews arrived in Antioch, Peter, to appease them, withdrew from the Gentile Christians. The Apostle Paul saw this as hypocrisy and called it such to Peter’s face (Gal 2, 11-14). Later in life, Peter spent time with John Mark (1 Pt 5, 13), who wrote the Gospel of Mark based on Peter’s recollections of his time with Jesus. Peter wrote two inspired epistles, 1 and 2 Peter, between A.D. 60 and 68. Jesus said that Peter would die a martyr’s death (Jn 21, 18-19) - a prophecy fulfilled, presumably, during Nero’s reign. Tradition has it that Peter was crucified upside down in Rome, and, although such story may be true, unfortunately, there is no scriptural or historical evidence detailing Peter’s death. Peter, more than any other apostle, offer the kind of relation we all could have with Jesus. Jesus, the always reliable and welcoming, the other brash and extrovert who would never hesitate to approach him despite the gravity of his sin, and beg forgiveness. More than any other apostle, including Paul, he was gifted with miracles in Jesus’ name.

The evangelist Mark Matthew asserted that it was Salome, mother of John and James sons of Zebedee, who kneeling at Jesus’ feet, had Jesus enquiring of her: "What is it you want?" She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom" (20, 21). Mark has it that while Jesus and the apostles were going up to Jerusalem and foretelling that the elders would kill him, but also that he would rise after three days, James and John said: “Grant us to sit, one at your hand and the other one sit your left, in your glory (10, 37). Despite the effrontery of the suggestion, the question posed reveals the ideals the two brothers shared and spurred by their equally ‘hands on’ generous mother, and showed to what lengths they were prepared to go and pursue them. Jesus saw deep into their hearts and treasured their enthusiasm. (Perhaps, this occasion occasioned the time that Jesus loved John in a singular manner). James and John must have surmised by now that following Jesus was no light thing at all; and having heard him speak sombrely about what was in wait for him, made up their mind and heart, to throw in their lot entirely on him, irrespective of what that meant. Possibly, Jesus’ asking whether they had an idea about what they were asking, was perhaps meant more for their fellow apostles. “But Jesus said to them, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am to be baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able”. And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit on my right or my left is not mine to grant to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared” (Mk 10, 39-40). ‘Some of the apostles’ took exception to this and got entangled in the discussion with anger directed at the two brothers, …eventually, to their shame! Jesus emphasized that he himself did not expect to be served but rather the contrary: to serve. St. John Chrysostom had to say this about this episode in Mk 10, 35- 45): Let’s see how Jesus asked to warn and encourage them. He did not suggest: “Have you the courage to bear the hardship I have to go through? Even to lay down your life for me?” He asked them: “Can you drink from my cup?” And even more suavely, he added “The cup I drink from, you’ll indeed partake from”. The cup stood for the baptism he had to go though, because the world needed a great cleansing. They answered that they were prepared. With their hearts inflamed, they promised him their loyalty, not because they knew what they were saying, but because they were sure to obtain what they asked. What did Jesus reply? The cup, they would indeed drink, and they would be baptised with the same baptism reserved for him… “You’ll merit martyrdom, and you’ll suffer like myself, giving up your life with violent deaths, like I do. However, that one sits on my left or my right, this is not something for me to give, but to those for whom it has been prepared by the Father”. Jesus first encouraged them, then continued to heighten their aspirations even amongst hardships, and finally he warned them about what they asked. The other ten, on hearing this, got angry at the two brothers. You understand? They were all still imperfect: the two brothers who pretended to outstep the others and the ten who got envious. Yet, look at them sometime after this happened, and you’ll see that they threw all inane things behind them. John, who dreamed of staging himself better than the rest, would let Peter always take up centre space to speak and work miracles, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. And his brother James did not live long”. After the resurrection he was caught up in a surge of heroic witnessing to the risen Lord, laying aside all prudence with people who were ill prepared to accept what he proclaimed, he attracted the spiteful politics of the powerful Herod who did not lose time to have him beheaded to the glee of the scheming Jews. And so, James indeed acquired first place among most of the loyal apostles who died for his Lord. Ironically, the only exception to escape death by martyrdom fell on his brother John. Though he was close to it according to tradition. He was allegedly lowered in a cauldron of boiling oil! However, he never shrank from witnessing repeatedly to Christ and was ever closest to Peter the leader!

St. James of Alphaeus, or the Less James, the son of Alphaeus, is generally credited with writing “The Epistle of James”. It seems quite evident that it is this apostle who was also known as “James the Less”, perhaps because he was younger, or smaller in stature, than the other James the son of Zebedee brother of John. This apostle was more prominent among the brethren after Pentecost than were some of the others. Jesus seems to have appeared specially to him too after his resurrection (I Cor 15, 7). It would seem that he soon acquired an elder’s position in the Jerusalem church. Some suggest that he became a silent column of the Church together with the genially articulate Paul who never met Christ except risen and glorified on the road to Damascus. This fact impinged greatly on all Paul’s vision and teaching on the Lord and Master. Indeed, Paul’s influence surpassed Peter and James himself who both related to Jesus in everyday life, contrary to Paul. When the apostles gathered at Jerusalem to decide on some course of action with respect to Gentile converts who were coming into the Church in various places, it was James who presided over the conference. It was at this conference that he stood up and said: “Men and brethren, hearken to me: Simon has declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, said the Lord, who does all these things. Known to God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15, 13-18). The last record we have of this apostle is when Paul went to Jerusalem bearing gifts from the various churches, and James, together with the other brethren, advised him to go into the temple for the ceremony of purification. This, the brethren reasoned, would help to clear Paul of the charge that he was opposed to the Law of Moses. Instead, this resulted in rioting against Paul and his eventual protective arrest by the Roman authorities (Acts 21, 17- 40). After this, we know nothing more of James’ activity. St. James the Less, the author of the first Catholic Epistle, was the son of Alphaeus of Cleophas. His mother Mary was likely a close relative of the Blessed Virgin, and for that reason, according to Jewish custom, James was sometimes called ‘the brother of the Lord’. The apostle held a distinguished position in the early Christian community of Jerusalem. St. Paul tells us he was a witness of the Resurrection of Christ; he is also a "pillar" of the Church, whom St. Paul consulted about the Gospel. According to tradition, he was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and presided the Council of Jerusalem about the year 50. The historians Eusebius and Hegesippus relayed that St. James was martyred for the faith by the Jews in the spring of the year 62, and had given him the surname of "James the Just." Tradition has always recognized him as the author of the Epistle that bears his name. Internal evidence based on the language, style, and teaching of the Epistle reveals its author as a Jew familiar with the Old Testament, and a Christian thoroughly grounded in the teachings of the Gospel. External evidence from the early Fathers and Councils of the Church confirmed its authenticity and canonicity. The date of its writing cannot be determined exactly. According to some scholars it could have been written as early as about the year 49 A.D. Others, however, claim it was written after St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (composed during the winter of 57-58 A.D.). It was probable written between the years 60 and 62 A.D. St. James addresses himself to the "twelve tribes that are in the dispersion", that is, to Christians outside Palestine; but nothing in the Epistle indicates that he is thinking only of Jewish Christians. St. James realizes full well the temptations and difficulties they encounter in the midst of paganism, and as a spiritual father, he endeavoured to guide and direct them in the faith. James the Less is a figure of early Christianity, one of the twelve chosen by Jesus. He is not to be confused with James, son of Zebedee ("James the Great or Elder"), the first apostle martyr. In Catholic tradition, James's mother is none other than Mary of Cl(e)opas who was among the few women at the foot of the Cross of Jesus, weeping. For that reason, and given the fact that the Semitic word for brother is also used for other close relatives, James son of Alpheus is often held as a cousin to Jesus. He is also thought by some to be the brother of Matthew the apostle, since the father of both was named Alphaeus (compare Mark 2, 14 and 3, 18).

St. Andrew, Peter’s brother

Andrew had the distinction of drawing to Jesus his outspoken brother Peter. Both were fishermen, originally from Bethsaida, but settled in Capernaum where Peter had his family and home. Today the remains of Peter’s handsome house still stand under a canopy serving as church. Andrew was the withdrawn type, yet put himself in the thin and thick of things, observed and drew his own conclusions staying aback until he took action. His winsome credibility earned him great respect, so much so, that his tongue in cheek brother Peter did not hesitate an instant from leaving aside what he had at hand, listened to his summons and hurried to meet the Lord Jesus. This event shows how close the two brothers were, and more, how they were eager to share what was of value, indeed, of utmost importance. St John Chrysostom highlights also, in one of his homilies, how Peter despite his dominating character would not tarry until he submitted himself totally to superior views and vision. Andrew himself was an off and on disciple of John the Baptist (Mt 4, 18-19), who still partnered his brother Peter fishing for a living and the sons of Zebedee. In Jn 1, 35-42, the evangelist John affirmed that Jesus first met Andrew with John the Baptist and met Simon shortly afterwards, when Andrew called him. It was at this time (Jn 1, 42) that Jesus renamed Simon by calling him Cephas, or Peter. What is wonderful about Andrew’s nature was that he was always bringing people to Christ. Perhaps, he had been doing the same thing for John the Baptist. Maybe that’s because Andrew immediately recognized Jesus as the fulfilment of the long-prophesied Messiah (Jn 1, 41). Andrew and Philip once even brought some Greeks to meet Jesus (Jn 12, 22); so, the thing that impresses most about Andrew is that he forsook everything and everyone to follow Jesus and then was determined to bring others to Christ. How much am I like that or how far do I fall short of that willingness to forsake all and bring others to Christ? From what we know from church history and tradition, Andrew kept bringing people to Christ, even after Jesus’ death. He never seemed to care about putting his own life at risk. It is believed that he was martyred by crucifixion in the city of Patras which was on the northern coast of Peloponnese, in Greece. Given the fact that he was likely crucified there, he must have, like many of the other apostles, went well beyond Judea to bring the gospel into all the world as Christ had commanded (Mt 28, 19-20). It is interesting that he was crucified like Christ but in the shape of an “X” which was often a Christian symbol and is now known as St Andrew’s cross because it was said that Andrew, like his brother Peter, considered himself unworthy of being crucified in the same manner as Christ was. He was crucified close to the year 70 AD.

Thomas and Philip, followers of John the Baptist, apostles of character

Thomas, nicknamed the twin, at one time perhaps not fully aware what Jesus and he himself was saying commented asking Jesus: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How are we to know the way?” Jesus answered him. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Nobody goes to the Father without me” (Jn 14, 6-7). The terrified apostles, after the death of Jesus, gathered on resurrection Sunday in a room behind closed doors. Jesus appeared to them there, imparting his peace over them standing in awe and dumbfounded. Thomas was not among them. However, when they met him and told him the extraordinary news, he must have rigidly stood as if struck by lightning. He blurted out obstinately that he would never believe, unless he put his fingers into his wounded side. Thomas like most of the apostles had absolute trust that he would never see a frail Jesus be put down by his enemies. Thomas who had been taken over by a fearless and gruff John the Baptist became even more drawn to Jesus because of his exuding singular authority, power and gentleness. To him it was unthinkable that Jesus had to undergo the passion as he did. Nevertheless, he too inexplicably shied away from the difficult occasions; and could not find any explanation for such a turn of events, despite the fact that Jesus had warned all of them a few times that he had to go through such hardships and so assure forgiveness of sins for all. To think of it, how is it that only John among all the apostles stuck to his side in spite of his goodness, friendship and trust building up between them? Had it to be his resurrection which would cement forever their relationship culminating in the shedding of blood as martyrs, as if it were a requisite of apostleship carried to the ultimate? Thomas cut to the quick, like all his companions, could not stomach the situation nor could he acquiescence to events. With a loud voice he swore unbelief until he saw with his own eyes and dug deep with his fingers into Christ’s side. About a week later, Thomas too was with the rest when Jesus appeared and right away drew the attention of Thomas to himself. Speechless, poor Thomas did not summon enough courage to stand up by his rash words of a week before. Instead he must have fallen on his knees and shakenly proclaim: “My Lord and my God”. Jesus blessed him with the rejoinder: “You saw and believed, blessed are those who believe without seeing”. It’s worth mentioning that a week before the passion, while at the last supper, it was Thomas who seized by the force of Jesus’s words about the forthcoming passion, he invited his companions to bravely accompany Jesus in his travail in Jerusalem. None overtly did, except the intrepid quiet John. Peter followed at a distance on his own and out of the way. Philip too entered into the life of Jesus’ while still a disciple of John the Baptist. Soon after Jesus’ baptism, he left John and followed Jesus asking “Where do you live, Master?” And Jesus replied, “Come and see”. And both he and Thomas complied and became loyal disciples of him who had nowhere to lay his head on. Jesus upon hearing of the Baptist’s murder felt great heaviness of heart at such a glaring show of evil. He withdrew alone with the Father and soon asked his disciples to row him to the other side of lake Gennesaret. Some people understood and quickly started to follow on foot round the lake. On arriving Jesus was taken aback with the number of people so swiftly accumulated bearing their sick on their pallets imploring that he heals them. Laying aside his grief his heart leapt to the appeal of the crowd gave solace to all until it was near evening. Then, the disciples approached him to send the people away as it was getting late. Jesus sought out Philip and said to him, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” The evangelist John in his account specified that Jesus intended a provocation: “to test him, for he himself knew what he would do”. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little”. Another disciple, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother and another former follower of John the Baptist, contributed to this scene by saying, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” … Jesus multiplied the food available, fed the big crowd of five thousand men without counting women and children, and had twelve basketfuls returned with leftovers. This episode brings very near to us a grieving human Jesus forgetting his feelings and placing as his immediate duty wholehearted attention to the good of others. We too at times find ourselves set up badly by insensitivity and downright injustice and forced to withdrawn within ourselves; and yet when duty propels us to dispense with our feelings, we too need to rush with help to who may need it. Another episode brought Philip and Thomas asking Jesus “to show them the Father and we shall be satisfied”. And Jesus gently replied, ‘Have I been so long with you, and you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me, has seen the Father; how can you say, “show us the Father?” (Jn 14, 10...).

St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist The apostle Matthew (called Levi, the tax collector for the Romans before becoming a follower of Christ), is also identified but only in Mk 2, 14 as the son of Alphaeus, yet scholars doubt he and James were really brothers. Nowhere else in the Gospels are the two disciples connected. It was a compelling moment when Jesus passing by Matthew’s place and table gave him a hard-penetrating look and asked him to leave all behind and follow him. Which he did, instantly. Perhaps, Matthew was not short of information about Jesus, as indeed his job demanded that he would know about everybody’s living in Capernaum regarding how their means fared. Nor was he that dry about spiritual matters, rather, he was long avid for a more acceptable occupation. Ven. Bede wrote about Matthew’s calling: “He rose and followed Jesus. Isn’t it wonderful, that the publican, on hearing the Lord calling him, left all slip from his fingers, nor thought of the money he had accrued, and instead he entrusted himself to one who was penniless? The Lord addressed him with a public invitation, but behind this more pressing invitation, there was an interior inspiration of discipleship, an enlightenment of grace in favour of the value of imperishable treasure”. To mark his passage to discipleship, Matthew entertained Jesus and his disciples to a meal to which many of his fellow publicans and other ‘sinners’ were invited. “One publican, once converted to God, gave an example of repentance and forgiveness to many publicans and sinners. It was indeed an act heralding the good things to follow: that of the apostle and evangelist to the gentiles, he who opened up to new life drew the attention of a great flock of sinners towards conversion; he had just stepped on the way of faith when he forthrightly proclaimed the good news. He was yet to excel in his new occupation…” “Matthew prepared a meal for the Lord in his house… but more than this he set up a better meal in the depths of his heart through faith and love…” concluded the Ven. Bede. There’s almost nothing recorded about Matthew’s work as apostle, other than that considerable information about being author of the Gospel known by his name, written about the year seventy. Nor are there direct any first accounts about how he ultimately gave witness to Christ… Contrary to Luke who in his Gospel was very favourably inclined towards the Pharisees, Matthew was consistently critical. Scholars point to the hard time when he wrote the Gospel. Then the Church had to face a harsh period when the pharisees in the seventies had the upper hand; the rest .of the Jews rose in revolt and all of this contributed to the total destruction of the temple by the Romans. In the 3rd-century Jewish–Christian gospels attributed to Matthew were used by Jewish–Christian groups such as the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. Critical commentators generally regard these texts as having been composed in Greek and related to a Greek Matthew. A minority of commentators consider them to be fragments of a lost Aramaic-or Hebrew-language original.

Nathanael in John, Bartholomew in the Synoptics Nathanael was one of the first to express belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God (Jn 1, 49). His name means “God has given” in Hebrew. Interestingly, Nathanael is only mentioned in the Gospel of John; the other three gospels identify him as “Bartholomew.” The call of Philip and Nathanael to discipleship is recorded in the first chapter of John, beginning in verse 43. His birthplace was Cana and a tradition claimed that he was a distant relative of Absalom, the son of David. It was his friend Philip who led him to Jesus (Jn 1, 43-51). "We found him whom Moses wrote in the Law and the prophets in their Writings: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph.” To which Nathanael retorted: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Come and see?” offered Philip. At the time, Nazareth was of no consequence. Jesus observing Nathanael coming towards him, remarked: “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit” (verse 47). Strikingly, Nathanael accepted this description as true; and in turn acknowledged the special powers invested in Jesus enabling him to see deeply into his character and mores, without never meeting him before. Jesus explained: “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you” (verse 48). Nathanael then immediately recognized Jesus as the Christ, calling him the “Son of God” and the “king of Israel” (verse 49). It is obvious that Jesus’ mention of “no deceit” triggered amazement in Nathanael. Jesus responds to Nathanael’s statement of faith with a prophecy: “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that” (Jn 1, 50). Then Jesus prophesied that Nathanael will see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man (51). This is a reference to the story of Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28. But instead of ascending and descending on a ladder as they did in Jacob’s dream, the angels will ascend and descend on the Son of Man - meaning that Jesus himself will be the final, efficacious connection between God and humanity (see Hebr 9, 12; 10, 10). We know something more about Nathanael from St Jerome’s Ecclesiastical History (5, 10). After Jesus’ ascension in heaven, the apostles dispersed to proclaim the Good News (see Mt 28, 19-20; Acts 1, 8). Tradition has it that Nathanael like Thomas went to India and then to Armenia where with Jude Thaddaeus spread the Christian faith. It was in Armenia that he suffered martyrdom by savage flogging to an extent that he was almost flayed alive and then mercifully beheaded.

St. Luke, evangelist

It’s a widespread tradition that Luke was a Greek physician of possible Jewish extraction. He was not an apostle, nor one of the seventy-two disciples. Luke himself admitted that he never met or seen Jesus. He wrote with a human touch, with an interest in women and a consistent gentleness for Pharisees which is unique with him and in contrast with Matthew. It is a tradition that asserted that he lived to a ripe old age of 84 as martyr in the Greek city of Thebes, nailed to a live olive tree. His remains were taken to Constantinople towards 338 and then transferred to Padua where he is still venerated in the Basilica of St. Justine (S. Giustina). It was Paul who in Philemon 24 and Colossian 4, 14 mentioned that Luke was his companion in spreading the Gospel and asserts also that he was a ‘loved physician’. and he confirmed that he worked and travelled with Paul even on his last voyage to Jerusalem (c 58 AD), eventually to Malta (60 AD) and then to Rome where Paul suffered martyrdom in the year 66 AD. He wrote the Gospel for non-Jews; while the Acts was meant to give an accurate account about the Church after the resurrection of Jesus. Both Gospel and Acts Luke addressed to one Theophilus, meaning lover of God, but who could have been a Roman acquaintance who had asked him for a detailed account of the Gospel and the early Church. That he was an erudite idiomatic and literary writer with a deep knowledge of the old Testament is attested both by the Gospel and the Acts. He had a Greek culture and hardly bothered about Jewish rites and customs. He wrote during or somewhat a little later than the Jewish revolts of 66-73 AD. Scholars believe that he had some influence on the Pastoral Letters and the Letter to the Hebrews, perhaps as a copyist, because of similarities with his Gospel and Acts. The book of Luke is generally considered to be one of the most literary of the NT and possess a style similar to the great Greek writers. His association with St. Paul was always low key, nowhere like St. Paul with St. Barnabas.

Simon the Zealot, Judas and Jude Thaddaeus These three apostles are grouped together not only because knowledge of them is scant but also because historical facts about them are not solid. It’s a pity that this state of affairs existed also regarding some of the twelve in spite of living close to events. The reasons could vary. One of them is that the twelve did not remain a homogeneous group after the resurrection of Christ, as they all soon dispersed and rarely met, if ever together. Simon has four mentions between the synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles (1, 13) when the apostles met to elect a replacement for Judas Iscariot. Matthew and Mark refer to Simon as the Canaanite, while Luke got one better when he refers to him as the Zealot. It is not known whether he was a former sympathiser with the Jewish Zealots at the time of Jesus or that he was a zealot among his companions. Certainly, he did not figure among those under the Cross of Christ. Indeed, John the Evangelist makes no mention of him at all! Tradition attests that Simon preached the Gospel in Egypt and later joined Judas in Persia, where he suffered martyrdom, but other sources put Sanliurfa – in today’s Turkey as the place of his martyrdom. The Catholic Church keeps a feast in his honour on the 28th of October. Opinion is divided on whether Jude the apostle was also Jude, brother of Jesus, the traditional author of the Epistle of Jude. Generally, Catholics believe the two Judes are the same person, while Protestants generally do not. According to tradition, St. Jude suffered martyrdom about 65 AD in Beirut, in the Roman province of Syria, together with the apostle Simon the Zealot, with whom he is usually connected. The axe that he is often shown holding in pictures symbolizes the way in which he was killed. Their acts and martyrdom were recorded in an Acts of Simon and Jude that was among the collection of passions and legends traditionally associated with the legendary Abdias, bishop of Babylon. Sometime after his death, St. Jude's body was brought from Beirut to Rome and placed in a crypt in St. Peter's Basilica which was visited by many devotees. Now his bones are in the left transept of St. Peter's Basilica under the main altar of St. Joseph in one tomb with the remains of the apostle Simon the Zealot. These were moved here on 27 December 1665.

St. Barnabas companion of St. Paul in Asia Minor Barnabas (Greek: Βαρνάβας), at birth named Joseph, who according to tradition was an early Christian and a prominent disciple in Jerusalem. He was known the ‘just’. According to Acts 4, 36, Barnabas was from Cyprus. He was presented to the apostles along with Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot; they drew lots, and the choice fell on Matthias (see Acts 11, 24; 14, 4). Matthias despite joining the twelve is never again mentioned in Acts or elsewhere. In his place it’s Paul, an outsider who has been increasingly considered an apostle, who took a leading role as an unofficial apostle! He was called by Christ himself on the way to Damascus. After long years of reflection, and concurrently with the chain of events, he increasingly became known in the Church as the apostle of the gentiles. Barnabas and Paul made some missionary runs together defending gentiles from Jewish proselytes. In the years 45–47 they resumed the conversion of new Christians. Having a part in the Council of Jerusalem (50 AD) they were entrusted with explaining its deliberations to the Christians of Antioch. Barnabas along with his wife are known to have sold a piece of inherited land, and gave the proceeds to the Church in Jerusalem; with Paul he collected a sum of money which they put at the disposal of poor Christians in Judea. Together they passed through some cities of Anatolia (Turkey). where they addressed gentiles open to God in the synagogues there. Paul mentioned him repeatedly in his Letters. Tertullian surmised that Barnabas wrote the Letter to the Jews, but critical scholars did not go beyond assigning his personal opinion in this matter as with other matters. Nor is it certain that Barnabas wrote the letter which bears his name. The date, place and the manner of his death are not known. A Christian tradition attributed martyrdom by stoning in the city of Salamis, Cyprus, in the year 61. The Greek Orthodox Church venerates him as its founder, almost a millennium previous to the rift in 1054 between Rome and Constantinople!

We revisit some other random personages with whom Jesus engaged.

Simeon and Anna, prophets in the temple

Evoking reverence by their long habitual presence in the temple, Simeon happened to be there when Joseph and Mary on the eighth day of Jesus’ birth brought him for purification (Lk 2, 21-38). Inspired by the Spirit, Simeon welcomed the Holy Family, and though not a priest at the temple he asked to take Jesus in his outstretched hands. He offered and presented him to God, and praised him, saying: "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel". The child's father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "Behold, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too". There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She hardly left the temple, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, "she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem”. Simeon and Anna are icons to many Christians who spend long years in loyal trusting hope that their exemplary life will finally be assuaged by obtaining what they gave their life for. Often, they visit, worship and patronise a particular church. I think of thousands and thousands of religious sisters, priests and hordes of lay people who have militated in a Church of silence, prayer and active hope.

For once, Mary stepped out to urge Jesus to save the wedding feast at Cana Preachers of all time have hailed Mary as the one who prompted Jesus to perform his first miracle. What has not been widespread knowledge is that Cana lies e few kilometres north of Nazareth, west of Sepphoris, the alleged birthplace of Mary, where her parents Anna and Joachim lived on and off. And Cana itself could have hosted some of their closest relatives. That is why Mary and Jesus together with his disciples, were invited for a wedding there, while Mary went out of her way to see that all went well. As no mention is done about Joseph, he apparently had already prematurely passed away to receive his glory. And further, the spouse could have been a close relative through either parent or even a prominent disciple of Jesus as well. An observant Mary became aware that for some reason wine was running short, risking drying out completely. And wine in those time and in such circumstances was not a dispensable commodity. She rose and discreetly approached Jesus to urge him anticipate his mission and provide and ascertain that so important a day for a young couple would be not spoiled by lacking wine but rather that the celebration would proceed worthily till the end. Jesus complied but not before asking Mary: “what is that to us Woman?” (Jn 2, 4) (Jesus utterance has irked scholars, fearing that he may have meant a sort of disrespect to his Mother. Recently, The New International Version gave this translation: “Dear woman, that’s not our problem”, Jesus replied. It seems that many scholars today have accepted favourably the change in translation. Let it be said that in translating, better than the literal sense is following the contest. And there is no doubt that an unpleasantness on the part of Jesus towards his mother ran counter to all the contest of his relationship with her). Mary then hurried over to the servants and instructed them to present themselves to Jesus and encouraged them to “Do whatever he tells you…” They did. And Jesus had already thought of an ingenious and unobtrusive plan to completely accede to his mother’s wishes. He pointed to six big stone jars each capable of containing from twenty to thirty gallons of water meant for the ritual cleansing of hands, cups and vessels. He merely asked them to fill them up anew with water. And to their wonder he changed the water into very good wine, certainly better than that which was available till then. We know it from the mouth of the master of the banquet himself: He took the groom aside and complimented him. Most couples serve the best wine first, he said, then brought out cheaper wine when the guests had too much to drink and would not notice. "You have saved the best till now" (Jn 2, 1-11). The evangelist John commented: by this miraculous sign, Jesus revealed his glory as the Son of God. And his amazed disciples from then on wagered their unwavering faith in him.

The seventy disciples

Only once we hear about the seventy disciples, mentioned in Lk 10, 1-24. Disciples could easily be translated as apostles. Students or apprentices to become apostles. This unique test in various ancient authorities could also equally read seventy-two… They were followers of Jesus whom he once sent in pairs to various places he was to visit. And on their return, they gave an account of their work. Then, they vanish from the Gospel account, never to be heard of again. But let me put all in perspective. In Lk, 10, 1-7, Jesus appointed seventy-two and instructed them to a specific mission. He “sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road’. ‘When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house. If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house’. ‘When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’. But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near’. I tell you; it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town’. “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me”. (The evangelist gave an account of the successes they achieved) “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name’”. Jesus replied to that, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” … Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it”. These passages are too precious not to merit some adequate commentary. They provide instruction for would be apostolic workers for all times. And more than actual advice they point to attitudes with variants to accompany apostolic activities, all responses to inner convictions and motivations. The joy experienced by the returning disciples and shared by Jesus is also a reality we priests go through ministering to Christ’s mandate. Perhaps we don’t appreciate it enough, or see it as the Lord oversees it. In any case it’s a grace and privilege to serve even were we to suffer with our blood or worse bear opprobrium for any length of time. This brings to mind the last of the beatitudes: blessedness for persecution in Christ’s name.

Nicodemus

On the first mention the evangelist (Jn 3, 1) presents Nicodemus as a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin who had more than sympathy for Jesus, but kept his feelings to himself, and dared to face Jesus only in the darkness of night to discuss his teachings. Obviously, he averted any unnecessary confrontation with his companions. The second time Nicodemus (John 7, 51). His name is mentioned, he reminded his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that the law requires that a person be heard before being handed sentence. Finally, Nicodemus appeared after the Crucifixion to offer a new tomb where Jesus could be laid and provided the customary embalming spices, and then personally helped Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the body of Jesus for burial, before the usual loyal group of women took over. His appearance represents the many who prefer to stay on the side-lines, well aware of events but hold in cheque their opinions, sympathies and beliefs, without brandishing them about unnecessarily. Jesus, certainly, appreciated the sympathies of Nicodemus despite his ever late godly remonstrations and contributions.

Joseph of Arimathea Joseph of Arimathea was, according to all four canonical gospels, the man who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion. He entered the scene at the last hours when everything reached accomplished. Matthew 27, 57 described him simply as a rich man and disciple of Jesus, but according to Mk 15, 43 Joseph of Arimathea was "a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God"; and Lk 2, 50–56 adds that he "had not consented to their decision and action". According to John 19, 38, upon hearing of Jesus' death, this secret disciple of Jesus "asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission". Joseph immediately purchased a linen shroud (Mk 15, 46) and proceeded to Golgotha to take the body of Jesus down from the cross. There, according to Jn 19, 39-40, Joseph and Nicodemus slowly un-attached the body from nails and wood and lowered it from the cross, washed and anointed it, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices that Nicodemus had bought. The disciples then conveyed the prepared corpse to a newly hewn tomb from rock in a garden of his house nearby. The Gospel of Matthew alone suggests that this was Joseph's own tomb (Mt 27, 60). The burial was undertaken speedily, "for the Sabbath was drawing on". For his late services to the dead Christ Joseph of Arimathea like Nicodemus is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestant Churches. The traditional Roman calendar marked his feast day on March 17, but he is now listed, along with Saint Nicodemus, on August 31 in the Martyrologium Romanum. Eastern Orthodox Churches commemorate him on the second Sunday after Easter and on July 31, the date shared by Lutheran Churches.

The Samaritan woman Jesus Christ is the master teacher for all and for all times. While on mission among the Jews he taught in a variety of ways. He frequently spoke to the multitudes, and he spent considerable time in one-on-one situations. He gave kindly the needed attention to the individual. John’s Gospel account reveals one such incident. The record of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, as contained in John 4, is a rich depository of biblical information worthy of the careful attention of any devout contemplative. The narrative falls into three major segments: First, there is the explanation as to why the Lord happened to be passing through Samaritan territory (Jn 4, 1-4). Second, there is the actual exchange between Jesus and a strange Samaritan woman (Jn 4, 5-26). Finally, there is the effect that was produced as a result of this incident (Jn 4, 27-42). The second segment present the actual exchange between Jesus and this unusual woman. Jesus, as ever, never avoided people, men or women, sick or healthy. Being Samaritan, this woman was completely unknown to him. Standing by Jacob’s famous well, he asked her for some water to drink. Used to lash her tongue nonchalantly, she pronged him with the customary pungent language between Samaritan and Jew. Jesus ignored the dig, but she nonetheless gave him the drink he asked for. The encounter took on an interesting turn when he remarked that she had to do with several men. With candour, she admitted her situation and perceived that he had powers that went beyond the senses, indeed through the heart. Besides herself, she hurried to tell her people about Jesus. And the Samaritans showed eagerness to meet Jesus and finished by inviting him to stay with them. He accepted their invitation and stayed for two days among them.

Zacchaeus, the other tax collector

Luke in chapter 19, 1-10 reports that Jesus passed through Jericho. There he met Zacchaeus, a wealthy chief tax collector. The evangelist pointed out that this man wanted to see who Jesus was. Because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today”. So, he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner”. Zacchaeus was prepared to shed his dishonesty after meeting Jesus. Ironically, his name means "pure one" or "innocent" in Hebrew. Probably in his heart of hearts, he long yearned to enjoy the innocence of soul implied in his name. Short in stature, Zacchaeus climbed a tree to watch Jesus passing by. Much to his astonishment, the Lord singled him out to come down. Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus’ home and sat at his table, like he did at Matthew’s the other tax collector before him. As the Jewish chief tax collector for the vicinity of Jericho, Zacchaeus was an employee of the Roman administration. Under the Roman system, men bid money on those positions, that is by pledging to raise a certain amount of money. Anything they raised over that amount was their personal profit. Luke says Zacchaeus was a wealthy man, so he must have extorted a great deal from the people and encouraged his subordinates to do so as well. Probably a lonely man, his only friends would have been sinful or corrupt people like him. At the home of Zacchaeus, Jesus told a parable about ten servants entrusted to administer some of their Master’s wealth. Moved by the teaching of Jesus, Zacchaeus at a point stood up, and said to Jesus, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount" (Luke 19, 8, NIV). Zacchaeus is not mentioned again in the Bible after this episode, but we can assume his repentant spirit and his acceptance of Christ did, indeed, lead to his salvation and the salvation of his whole household. Clement of Alexandria wrote that Zacchaeus became active in the Church and accompanied Peter, and later became the bishop of Caesarea. There is no other reliable documentation to substantiate these claims. Jesus came to save sinners and still does today. Those who seek Jesus, in reality, are sought, singled out, and saved by him. No one is beyond his help. His love is a constant call to repentance. Accepting his invitation leads to forgiveness of sins and entrance to eternal life.

Jesus, Lazarus and his sisters It’s apparent that whenever Jesus and his apostles were anywhere near Jerusalem he thought first of Bethany where to turn to for rest, meals, for lodging and good company. He may have followed a custom already started by Joseph and Mary whenever they travelled from Nazareth for their yearly Jerusalem pilgrimage and other festivities. The place they stayed at was arguably Lazarus and sisters’ home. This makes of their home a quest house with or without pay for patrons and friends already with their parents. It has also been suggested that they had inherited extensive vineyards with huge olive groves in this vicinity. For this reason, they could have been a well to do family. Bethany stood on the other side of the Kedron Valley from Jerusalem at the foot of the Mount of Olives. It was here that Jesus took leave of the apostles forty days after resurrection Sunday to re-join his Father. And here too, he gave them the mandate to proclaim the Good News and to spread it to the whole world. The Gospels mention more often the two sisters than Lazarus. Martha comes out as energetic with initiative. While Mary stays behind lost in thought or relishing whatever Jesus happened to say, mostly sitting on the floor listening. Jesus on his frequent visits to them hardly ever first sought to take leave of his apostles, rather he huddled them along to join him for rest, lunch or night lodging. None of these visits is fraught with more interest as that which happened a day during a whole week he spent there before the Passover. The episode under consideration is particularly confusing because there are four different accounts with varied details in each of the four gospels. Mark and Matthew both mention an unnamed woman who anoints Jesus’ head with nard or other ointment. Luke tells us of an unnamed woman “who was a sinner” (not necessarily Mary of Bethany, but another woman) who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears, anointed them with ointment, and dried them with her hair. John describes Mary of Bethany, aka Martha’s sister, anointing his feet with expensive oil nard and wiping them with her hair. Only in John’s gospel is the woman named as Mary of Bethany. None of the accounts suggest any involvement by Mary Magdalene, unless she could be identified with ’a known sinner’ as in Luke.

Two anointings by different women, Jn 12, 1-11 Mary, the sister of both Lazarus and Martha, anointed Jesus’ feet with spikenard six days before he was to be crucified. Spikenard is a very expensive perfumed ointment used for anointing the dead. Judas Iscariot objected to this apparent waste of money, protesting that it should have been given to the poor. Jesus replied that while the poor will always be with us, he would be crucified in just a few days’ time. This was Jesus’ first of two anointings in the same week with perfumed ointment. The next took place two days prior to the crucifixion. Mary knew that her friend was going to die on the cross, while those around her, whom Jesus was still teaching, could not believe, or understand, that this was going to happen. Jn 12, 1-7: Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany, where Lazarus lived, the man whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a litron of very expensive perfume made of pure nard and anointed Jesus’ feet. She wiped his feet with her hair, and the house became filled with the fragrance of the perfume. “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for 300 denarii and the money given to the destitute?” Judas said this, not because he cared about the destitute, but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the moneybag and would steal what was put into it. Then Jesus said, “Leave her alone so she can observe the day of my burial, because you will always have the destitute with you, but you won’t always have me”. Martha and Mary were not only sisters but shared ideals and sentiments. They both felt close to Jesus and accepted his message wholeheartedly. The Gospels give the sisters prominence twice: regarding the event of their brother’s fatal illness and raising from death, and the meal they prepared in the honour of Jesus, in the first days of Holy Week. Mary here pleased the Lord over Martha because she wasn’t taken over by the hassle of the occasion, which undoubtedly was among the last, but kept attentive to whatever Jesus was saying. Like when he promised that he would prepare table for his disciples and pass before them serving them himself.

Two Marys, icons of contemplatives The most appropriate icon of contemplatives in the Church cannot be other than Mary herself, the mother of Jesus. Her entire life span is an endless contemplation of events related to the life of Jesus the divine Redeemer. Especially her life after his death is a constant recalling in prayerful remembrance of the divine mysteries of redemption, treasured as no other in her heart. At least this is the perception one gets from reading accounts about her life under the care of John the evangelist whom Christ on the Cross himself commissioned to look after her. In Ephesus, Turkey, she had stations erected on a hill near her little home, in which she had a niche reserved to the Crucifix. Twice she travelled to Jerusalem to contemplate the heart of Jesus as he made his way up to Calvary. The writers of these apocryphal acts of Mary give a realistic picture of an emaciated woman far beyond her age, not given to socially mixing with new and joyful Christians, living in a distant land, of a very venerable lady as if stuck in her contemplative devotion to the sufferings of her Son Jesus. She carried her Calvary empathy long after the events happened, indeed until she gave her last breath. In the Gospels there’s a sentence of great significance which could be said of only two persons and both are closest to Jesus: ‘they’ treasured all these things in their hearts: Mary and Joseph. This Gospel expression is monumental testimony to their contemplative attentiveness to Jesus. On another level, there is also a Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha. She is remembered for one instance which has always been taken to characterise her entire life as disciple: listening to Jesus with rapt veneration at his feet, at a time when she could have been helping her sister Martha preparing delicious meals for Jesus and his companions “She chose the better thing”, Jesus said approvingly to her fretful and equally devoted sister. They both loved Jesus extremely; but each had their particular way to show it.

Mary Magdalene, top loyal disciple and apostle to apostles Mary Magdalene, sometimes called simply the Magdalene, was a Jewish woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, travelled with Jesus as one of his female followers and loyal witness to his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. She is mentioned by name 12 times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other non-family woman in the Gospels. According to many mainstream scholars, Mary's epithet Magdalene may mean that she came from the town of Migdal, Arab and Hebrew meaning tower, a fishing port on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Gospel of Luke 8, 2–3 lists Mary first as one of the women who travelled with Jesus and helped support his ministry "out of their resources", indicating that she was relatively wealthy. The same passage also states that seven demons had been driven out of her, a statement which is repeated in the longer ending of Mark. However, it is among Luke’s few mentions of Mary and nowhere in Acts. In all four canonical gospels, she is a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus and, in the Synoptic Gospels, she is also present at his burial. All four gospels identify her, either alone or as a member of a larger group of women which includes Jesus’ mother and the mother of the Zebedee’s sons – James and John, as the first witness to the empty tomb, and the first to testify to Jesus's resurrection. For these reasons, she is known in many Christian traditions as the "apostle to the apostles". Mary is a central figure in later apocryphal Gnostic Christian writings appearing in Egypt, including the Dialogue of the Saviour, the Pistis Sophia, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Mary. These apocryphal texts, which scholars do not regard as containing accurate historical information, portray her as Jesus' closest disciple and the only one who truly understood his teachings. In the Gnostic gospels, Mary Magdalene's closeness to Jesus results in tension with the other disciples, particularly Simon Peter. In a series of Easter sermons delivered in 581, Pope Gregory I conflated Mary Magdalene, who is introduced in Luke 8, 2, with Mary of Bethany (Luke 10, 39) and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus' feet in Luke 7, 36–50. This resulted in a widespread but inaccurate belief that she was a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman. Elaborate medieval legends from western Europe tell exaggerated tales of Mary Magdalene's wealth and beauty, as well as her alleged ministry in Provence, southern France, and her relics ended up in Vézelay Abbey in Burgundy, where they are still venerated. The identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed "sinful woman" was a major controversy in the years leading up to the Reformation and some Protestant leaders rejected it. During the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church used Mary Magdalene as a symbol of penance. In 1969, the identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and the "sinful woman" was removed from the General Roman Calendar by Pope Paul VI, but the view of her as a former prostitute still persists in popular culture. Mary Magdalene is considered to be a saint by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran Churches—with a feast day on July 22. Other Protestant Churches honour her as a heroine of the faith. The Eastern Orthodox Churches also commemorate her on the Sunday of the Myrrh bearers, the Orthodox equivalent of one of the Western Three Marys traditions. Quite recently, career writers and cineastes dug into a plethora of pseudo Christian literature and concocted an incredible story of a special relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, going so far as having them married and bearing a child! Jesus never shunned associating himself with sinners, men or women. In the case of Mary Magdalene, he rewarded her loyalty with appearing first to her after his resurrection and commissioned her to ask the apostles to gather in Galilee where he soon appeared to them.

The disciples of Emmaus The episode of the disciples unknowingly meeting the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus is a favourite in our times with retreat preachers. For a change, here I present the reflections made by Pope Francis on Tuesday morning, 12th May (12th May 2017 Oss. Rom. Weekly ed.). We each must enter a “dialogue of three”, each as a protagonist, face-to-face with both Jesus and the adulterous woman, who is a sinner but victim par excellence of those “hearts of stone”. In this way, we can be overwhelmed by the “tenderness of God” who, as he did with the two disciples of Emmaus, “warms our heart” and opens our eyes. Pope Francis strongly advised that we do not close ourselves off in the “rigidity” that leads us to “close our ears and grind our teeth”, not allowing the Holy Spirit to pass. “Last week we reflected on ‘being Christian’”, Francis recalled, and “we saw that a Christian is a witness to obedience”, just as Jesus, “who obeyed unto death, death on the Cross”. And, “today the first reading shows us another witness of obedience in Stephen”, the Pope explained, referring to the passage from the Acts of the Apostles (7, 51 - 8:1) which recounts how Stephen is “persecuted, accused, even with the same cruelty to which Jesus” had been subjected, “for telling the truth, for being a witness to obedience”. This, Francis said, “makes me think about the different ways of not understanding the Word of God, because these people who stoned Stephen did not understand the Word of God”. For comparison, the Pontiff offered the example of the “disciples of Emmaus”, who “did not understand and were on the road”. So, “what does Jesus say to them? — ‘Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe’”. Francis then observed: “they were not closed, but they did not understand”. Of course, the Pope acknowledged, calling someone foolish “is not praise; but it is not as harsh as what Stephen says to these people” who end up stoning him: in fact, Stephen calls them “‘stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears’ — and saying ‘uncircumcised’ is to say ‘pagan’”. Jesus “does not say ‘pagan’” to the disciples of Emmaus, but says “halfway believer”. He says: “You believe; you did believe, but not now: you have doubt”. However, Francis explained, those who stoned Stephen “were convinced. They were pagans”. The disciples of Emmaus “did not understand; they were even afraid because they did not want problems, and they distanced themselves from Jerusalem: they were afraid. But they were good”. They had “these limitations, but they were good: they were open to the truth”. On the other hand, the Pope remarked, the people who accused Stephen and stoned him “were closed to the truth, closed; and when Stephen rebuked them with these harsh words — ‘As your fathers did, so do you’ — they were vicious at heart: their heart was closed by rage ‘and they ground their teeth against Stephen”. The disciples of Emmaus, for their part, had a different attitude to the rebuke: “they listened, they let Jesus’ words enter, and their hearts warmed”. The Acts of the Apostles, the Pontiff continued, also recounts that “when Stephen says he sees Jesus in his glory”, his persecutors “shut their ears: they did not want — did not want! — to listen”. And “this is the tragedy of closure: closing the heart; the hardened heart; hardness of heart”. “The Lord admonishes his people in Psalm 95: ‘Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah’”, the Pope repeated. “Then, with the Prophet Ezekiel, he makes a beautiful promise: ‘you have a heart of stone, but I will give you a heart of flesh’”, that is, a heart that is able to hear, that is able to listen, that is able to receive the witness of obedience and that the Word truly became flesh”. This, the Pontiff added, “makes the Church suffer so very much: closed hearts, hearts of stone, hearts that do not want to open, that do not want to hear; hearts that know only the language of condemnation”. They “know how to condemn” and “do not know how to say: ‘explain to me, why do you say this?’”. Instead, the Pope stressed, they remain hardened: “they are closed; they know everything; they do not need explanations”. And, he continued, “as Stephen and even as Jesus rebuked them: ‘what did you do to the prophets? You killed them, because they told you what you did not like’”. In other words, the Pope said, “there was no room in their heart for the Holy Spirit”. But “today’s reading tells us that Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, had understood everything: he was witness to the obedience of the Word made flesh, and the Holy Spirit does this”. And, whereas Stephen’s heart “was full” of the Holy Spirit, “an empty heart, a stubborn heart, a pagan heart does not allow the Spirit to enter, and feels self-sufficient”. Francis recommended that we fix our gaze on “these two groups: we are the two of Emmaus, with many doubts, many sins”, and often “we are cowards and want to distance ourselves from the Cross, from trials. But let us make room to feel Jesus, who warms the heart. And let us ask for the grace to be like them”. “Let us look at the other group”, the Pope continued, made up of those “who stopped their ears; they did not want to hear: (self-)sufficient, closed in the rigidity of the law”. In response, “Jesus spoke a great deal” to these men, “and said worse things than Stephen had said”. Thus, Francis said, “we can end with a dialogue, a dialogue of three: each one of us enters a dialogue between Jesus and the victim of the hearts of stone, the adulterous woman”. The scribes and Pharisees “wanted to stone her: she was a sinner”. But “Jesus simply responds: ‘Look within yourselves’”. And this way, the Pontiff stated, “we see this tenderness of Jesus: the witness to obedience, the great witness Jesus who gave his life, shows us the tenderness of God, as compared to us, for our sins, for our weaknesses”. Therefore, “let us enter this dialogue”, Francis concluded, “and let us ask for the grace that the Lord make these rigid hearts more tender”, the hearts “of those people who are closed within the law and condemn all that is outside that law: they do not know that the Word came in the flesh, that the Word is witness to obedience; they do not know that God’s tenderness can move a heart of stone and put in its place a heart of flesh”.

Was Jesus ever rude? Do you ever read the Gospels and cringe sometimes at the way Jesus spoke to people? Normally, Jesus was patient and loving, even when he said difficult things. When he told the rich young man to sell his possessions and give to the poor, he spoke compassionately, like a loving father pleading with his son to make better life choices (Mk 10, 17-22). But what about those other times when Jesus comes off as impatient, maybe even rude? Are those times as if Jesus was more human than divine? Hardly, for the Bible teaches that Christ was perfect in every way (Hebr 4, 15). A closer look at the New Testament reveals what typically makes Jesus angry and why the anger is justified. As starters, let’s read the short passage from Mk 8, 11-13. Jesus found himself assaulted by insolent Jews: they demanded a sign from heaven. It was unthinkable that such a demand was ever levelled at any Jewish rabbi. Yet it appeared as a natural thing to do and more than once when Jesus was concerned! This time, Jesus took this swipe slapping of face not at all lightly. He turned the other side and silently took his leave of them. He boarded a boat and his disciples waded him to the other side of Lake Gennesaret. And there he let his latent discomfort blow away with the different environment… Jesus harshest words were aimed at the scribes and Pharisees. He called them “brood of vipers” (Mt 12, 34), “blind guides” (Mt 23, 16, 24), “blind fools” (Mt 23, 17, 19, 26) and “whitewashed tombs” (Mt 23, 27). Numerous times he called them “hypocrites” to their faces (Mt 15, 7; 23, 13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29). However, we’d all probably agree that those religious leaders deserved to be scolded. Their self-righteous and judgmental attitudes misrepresented the faith and sadly kept people away from God. When Christ overturned the tables of the moneychangers close to the temple, he was also taking a stand against those who oppress the poor and marginalized (Mt 21, 12-13). What made Jesus angry should also make you and me angry and we should all take a proactive stand against poverty and oppression. In each of these instances, Jesus was hardly rude. He was bold and passionate for certain wrongs that needed to be righted. And he did this at the very doorsteps of the temple privileged people yet responsible with authority who should have known better. I’m totally cool with Jesus taking the religious leaders to task. He had every right to be severe with those narrow-minded scumbags. But what about his own disciples? On more than one occasion, he was hard on them. For example, before rebuking the storm, he rebuked the disciples: “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Mt 8, 26). It seemed like an insensitive thing to say to a bunch of seasoned fishermen who were hanging on for dear life while he slept with his head on a pillow at the back of the boat! On another occasion, when the disciples fretted because they didn’t have anything to eat, Jesus broke in and said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?” (Mt 16, 8). Granted this happened on the heels of Jesus twice feeding crowds of several thousand with a few loaves of bread and some fish, so the disciples should have known better. Nonetheless, Jesus sounded irritated with his band of brothers. Jesus felt aggravated when his disciples failed to heal a boy possessed by a demon. “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” (Mt 17, 17). These words sound over-the-top strident. And yet, when all was said and done, he counselled humble prayer in such cases. Why did Jesus give vent to bouts of anger? Was he having a bad day? Was he ranting out of control? No, no, and unequivocally no. Upon closer scrutiny, Jesus’ anger is understandable and justified. In each of the examples above, Jesus scolds his followers for their lack of faith. Indeed, Jesus has little patience for those who lack faith but should know better- people, like the disciples and like us, who have experienced God’s richest blessings and miracles and yet worry and fret as if God is far off to care about us. Faith - believing that God is God and that he acts for our good in the world - is a high value in Jesus’ mind. That’s why he marvelled at the faith of a centurion who sought healing for an ill servant (Lk 7, 9). He commended the faith of those who brought their paralytic friend for healing though an opening in the roof of Peter’s house (Mt 9, 2). Jesus withheld blessing from an entire town because of their lack of faith (Mk 6, 6). “…without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hbr 11, 6). When the disciples wavered in unbelief, Jesus rattled their cages that they let be enclosed in to awaken their faith. Sometimes faith can be gently coaxed; other times it needs to be boldly and assertively called out. Now if it was easy for those who saw Jesus in the flesh to grow lax in their faith, the same can happen to us. So, like the man who prayed, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mk 9, 24), let’s continually ask the Lord to deepen our faith. Some preachers (and bloggers) may be tempted to use Jesus’ example as an excuse to run roughshod over others in the guise of speaking “prophetically”. Before you call your congregation a “faithless and twisted generation” and try to bully them into submission, remember that you are not God; Jesus is. Besides, the point the Gospel writers were trying to make is that self-righteousness, judgmental attitudes, oppression (as exemplified by the Pharisees) and a lack of faith (as seen in the disciples) are offensive to God. Therefore, let’s guard against being infected with unloving attitudes toward others and letting our faith go dormant. I think about this often as I try to understand better who you are and how I can relate to you. It is a struggle for me to hear the tone with which you spoke many of the things you said them then. It’s like receiving an email from someone and completely keep mis-reading what he writes. I constantly remind myself that you are Love itself. So, everything you said, everything you did was an expression of love, not as the world understands love, but as love truly is. And this brings me to the occasions with penitents in confession, who recount their failings in an unbecoming way. Some unload their consciences too indulgently with peppered superficial excuses, often not respecting the confessor’s good sense and his fatherly encounter. Sometimes adequate pastoral care demands a matching loving dressing down and a parting never without a final blessing!

Jesus and women This subject is not often broached in literature of this kind. But it should not be, because Jesus in his entirety is the subject of our love, admiration and close study. Jesus spent thirty years very close to his mother Mary. He inherited and drew from her physical, psychological, spiritual and human traits as no other. Their mutual long relationship was further enhanced by the superb guardianship of the just Joseph. Humankind is one: with its nucleus made up of a man, male, and a woman, female, with the possibility to procreate. Though genetically humankind shares much of its DNA with animal primates, a few decades ago it used to be distinguished as a social animal with the ability to lough. These expressions are passé. Both are applied to particular species of animals and other creatures. Catholic anthropology understands humankind as being endowed with a spiritual soul, directly created by God at the moment of conception. The spiritual soul gives the body its life and a host of the highest attributes, which to a lesser degree are found also in some creatures like emotion and understanding, or abilities to build homes (nests), use tools and effect organisation to a degree of social order. They can also copy art, imitate speech and writing, though not thinking reflexively about reality or invent. Thinking exists as the top mental activity demonstrated by humans. All human accomplishments and advancement come from the results of thought. Civilization, knowledge, science and technology arise from the thinking process. At this point, I’m drawn to reflect on how the mind, the intellect, the soul or the spirit concurrently focus on the moments of prayer – the times offered to encounters with God in love – for deepening one’s spiritual life, for imitation of Jesus, for contemplating the mysteries of creation, salvation, co-redemption and eternal life of union with God.

After long years of academic research on the subject I’ve come to be aware of details which are coming to light more clearly only recently; but it is difficult to quote an authority to underscore truth free from fake or agents of particular agenda. This two-pronged reality is wildly rampant these first years of the third millennium, when ethical uprightness is not held in the highest regards, nor is it held to direct motives and behaviour correctly. Complementarity between man and woman is increasingly acknowledged not necessarily on the question on sex but more so in the psychological, behaviourally and professional spheres. Beyond appearances, superficial importance to wear and fashion, pretences and aloofness, opposed to the beauty of naturalness, the give and take of receptivity, the knack of reading the heart and rapt attention are qualities highly appreciated in women. Usually men are looked up to for their strength of principles, consistency, broadness of vision, forbearance and stands strictly logical. These are some of the dominant and interchanging qualities admired in men and women. It is interesting to note that the Church, while decrying abuses in its top ranks and elsewhere, is becoming more and more sensitive to engage among its echelons of influence and power far flung women of substance not simply to grace but to assume responsibility in areas of the highest calibre. While, relations tend to shrink and individual living shut each other out, the call to genuine conscientious behaviour and respect becoming sacred and unassailable the necessity of maintaining a relation of friendship with the One who ultimately counts is on the rise. This reality is hard to describe and harder to live by, but still it is in the ascendancy. For obvious reasons, however, it does not augur well for religious life as we know it.

Here is a key quote from St. Therese’s famous autobiography, The Story of a Soul, emphasizing the core of her spirituality, namely, the primacy of love, or of capturing God’s heart through love: “But what I demand is love. I care now about one thing only – to love You, my Jesus! Great deeds are forbidden me, I cannot preach the Gospel nor shed my blood – but what does it matter? My brothers toil instead of me and I, a little child, well, I keep close by the throne of God and I love for those who fight. Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Well, I will scatter flowers, perfuming the Divine throne with their fragrance, and I’ll sweetly sing my hymn of love. Yes, my Beloved, that is how I will spend my short life. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least of actions for love. I wish both to suffer and to find joy through love” (p 156, Image Books edition). What did Saint Therese see with great accuracy (great spiritual insight)? She saw that God has a Father’s heart! And growing up in a very affectionate home she knew that a good Father helps out his little children. And seeing clearly that God is an Infinitely Good Father, she realized that her littleness and weakness would draw down the Father’s help. She realized she could trust God…her Father…because she was a child, a daughter, of the Father! She saw she could take God by love! (Reference: The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by Saint Therese of Lisieux by Father Jacques Phillippe). “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’”(Rom 8, 15). Abba literally means Daddy or Papa. That’s what Therese did with God: she cried ‘Abba’, or ‘Papa’, as the adopted daughter of an infinitely Good Father. So now we see why, despite her weakness and littleness, Therese had such confidence in God. Father Faber says that so much stunted growth in the spiritual life comes from not truly seeing God as our Father. We must get this right: ‘Abba’. Saint Therese’s way of spiritual childhood is reflected nicely in this quote from her: “To remain little is to recognize one’s nothingness, to expect everything from God, as a little child expects everything from his father”. “Our friends were too worldly and too clever at mixing the pleasures of the world with the service of God. They scarcely gave a thought to death…. And I knew that all is fleeting that we cherish here under the sun. The only good thing is to love God with all one’s heart and to stay poor in spirit” (pp. 49-50). “Oh, how sweet the first kiss of Jesus was! It was a kiss of love. I knew that I was loved and I declared: ‘I love you and I give myself to you forever!’ …on that day it was no longer a matter of gazing: it was a union. There were no longer two of us. Therese had disappeared like a drop of water in the depth of the ocean. Only Jesus remained….” (St Therese, The Story of a Soul, Image Books, page 52).

Companionship, friendship and wedded love The themes of companionship, friendship and wedded living are different, not necessarily related, though they could be. The common word between them is companionship. The title has been drawn to include three realities, and intends to analyse at some depth the maze involved. My interest leans towards the religious, specifically, the interactions of grace and growth in spirituality. Companionship is a lower form of friendship. In my experience friendship is a rare super commodity; it is hard to acquire and still more difficult to maintain and foster. Wedded living has been long institutionalised to make it subject to laws and social mores. Though nowadays all this has whittled down to allow easy multiple divorces, promiscuities and widespread separations between wedded persons. Even living together with no bonds whatsoever, if a couple so wishes, with no responsibilities towards offspring is quite common. Indeed, so called single mothers and single fathers could opt for single parenthood for life without thought of regularising their position. State laws are being drawn to adapt for all forms of life styles. Single mothers or lesbians can opt to repeat their experiences and have more children, and even males in homosexual unions can find states willing to let them adopt toddlers or older… It is a far cry from a reassuring moral situation. The outside world is no secure platform for living the Gospel values. The Church is holding to its vigilant standards despite vociferous objectors in favour of fake human rights in ever increasing liberal post-modernist beliefs while a minority keeps reminding the need for the personal upholding of ethical and moral principles. An insightful glance at newspapers avid for readership though not for ethical principles is a clear indication enough. What gives humanity dignity is its firm hold on ethical principles. Our age levels a hodgepodge of differences at so fundamental an axiom. It’s true that we tend to stay apart, but we find it also enriching to look for and stick to each other. And it’s a wonderful experience when men and women mutually engage with each other. In many ways, it’s the same with members of the same sex, intellectually and emotionally, but there is a heightened feeling with the other sex. At the present time, globally, the Catholic Church and Islam both distinctly defend the separateness and complementarity of the sexes. Lesbian or homophobic orientations come on regularly for short periods in one’s development. Pseudo-scientific claims point to the irregular in animal and insect realms as indicative of uncertainty in this matter. Never before have exaggerated interpretation taken over by political positions in most countries have given rise to an unprecedented rebus of pseudo-human rights and confusing considerations in social and legal systems like in subservience to LGBT demands. Notably, the Catholic Church has maintained its forefront position of a tradition flagging natural complementarity and giving greater weight to the legal axiom that the exception confirms the rule not the opposite!

Trust and enlightenment I never thank God enough for his grace in welcoming persons in confession. Often, I feel embarrassed with the trust shown. People, who hardly know me, are prepared to open their consciences, their most treasured intimate of self, to me. Over decades dedicated to this service of reconciliation, all summed up and in retrospect, I judge as highly beneficial the work we do in the confessional. However. It must be conceded that the ministry of confession can be depressingly boring and un-ashamedly artificial but also liberatingly profound and mutually enriching. Still, it’s the most noble of ministries, as much as the Eucharist is love in adoration and self-giving. And it earns us priests lots of respect and trust. Besides, it urges us to keep us well tuned spiritually, theologically and psychologically, actively close to the divine mysteries which we administer unworthily, because we are really hardly ever up to it. Through our ministry we assist and accompany persons to dare embrace the Lord and draw from his love, strength and qualities. This ministry is nothing like any other profession. The measure of trust is so high that the risk of perjury hardly raises its head. And it is something we are led to do so for granted, that when running through the course of other relations we can become naïve and highly strung when confronted with amoral persons. Usually, when duties require me to attend to people asking for confession, I consciously put myself to the care of Jesus to inspire me how to adequately answer to the pastoral needs evident with the free opening of one’s state of soul. Often, I wonder how expressions of encouragement take hold of my tongue and continue to communicate enlightenment to different people following each other in opening their most guarded secrets to me. This is a miracle of mercy and yet it is a liberating exercise for most penitents. Often, it helps to shed light on various aspects of one’s life. No wonder that I tire so easily after sessions of confessions that draw so much grace and drain substantially the accompanying human endeavour. Another great truth about the sacrament of the reconciliation is that it is incomparable as one upon one opportunity of spreading, maintaining and encouraging living the Good News, evangelisation among the converted and the evangelised. But it is also an opportunity to welcome and help raise the fallen by the wayside, the lapsed, the sloppy and mediocre, and the downright misled, consciously or unconsciously! These may be the few, but also the hardest to deal with. And the most who are not given absolution! Usually, they are advised to take some time, pray and think things over and then approach again an understanding confessor. Persons usually come to confession well-disposed to accept the word of God, willing to submit to conversion of heart, earnestly ask for repentance and committing themselves to better Christian living, in short, to improve on one’s faith and to come more than even on their civil responsibilities.

First reflection on Mary the Mother of Jesus Carmelites willingly drop everything at hand when it comes to honour their Mother of Carmel, be it in liturgical or contemplative prayer. The more so when she is honoured in relation to the mysteries of salvation. The Evangelist Luke notes her name for the first time when he speaks of the mission entrusted by the Eternal One to the Angel Gabriel who went to Nazareth. Mary was a common name in Palestine: the sister of Moses and Aaron was called Miriam (Mary), and, at the time of Jesus, we know the mother of James (the younger) and Joseph (Mt 27, 56 - Joses Mk 15, 40) with the same name, Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdala. In Nazareth, Mary was known as Joseph’s young betrothed; after the birth of her Son she will also be known as the mother of Jesus (cf. Mt 13, 55; Mk 6, 3). Nazareth was the land where Mary had lived, had played and dreamed as an adolescent, knew sacred history, exercised her faith in the Most High, accepted his will; in Nazareth the Angel Gabriel asked for her consent to become the mother of the Son of God; after Bethlehem and the flight to Egypt, she returned to live there with Joseph. She carried two 'secrets' in her heart: the first linked to her wonder at hearing the Angel calling her 'full of grace', and the second in learning of the conception of a son while being a virgin. These were intimate and profound issues, not easy to communicate and comment on. Luke mentioned them after listening to Mary herself revealing how the angel Gabriel announced the incarnation of the Son of God. Further, Mary's initial 'yes' to the Father’s plan became the starting point of a process that would end with the last 'yes' under the cross, when an unspoken ‘yes’ in fact confirmed her spiritual motherhood over all mankind; the two 'fiat' became inseparable, one followed the other. An unforgettable moment in Mary's life was her meeting with Elizabeth already in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Elizabeth blessed Mary: Blessed are you among women, blessed are you who believed in the fulfilment of the words of the Lord (Lk 1, 42.45). A memorable moment, surprising words, memories that became life and companions of reference, even in the darkest hour of her life. The Carmelite and everyone, learning the first of the Marian prayers, repeats in wonder and praise: Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Mary rarely appeared in the public life of her Son. She remained in penumbra. The evangelist John says she was present at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee, where she was referred to as "his mother" (Jn 2, 1). Mark, on another occasion, mentioned it in the same way, when relatives sent for Jesus who was teaching and he seemed to almost overstep the blood relationship to establish a new one: “Whoever does God’s will be my brother and sister and mother"(Mk 3, 35). Already in Cana of Galilee, calling her with the term "woman" rather than "mother", Jesus seemed to distance himself from her; but on the cross, "Woman, here is your son!" (Jn 19, 26), the temporal relationship between Mary and Jesus was concluded with the handing over of her to his loyal John whom he loved, "Here is your mother!" (Jn 19, 27). There her new maternal mission was defined, with her entrustment to the apostle John - "from that time on, this disciple took her into his home" (Jn 19, 27). Mary becomes a significant part of the new family – the Church - that was being established. Indeed, from then on, she will belong inseparably to the Church. And in this capacity, we find her mentioned for the last time in the New Testament, while she was persevering in prayer with the apostles on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 1, 14). Mary, therefore, takes on a dimension, that is not only Christological (for the physical motherhood and being the first educator of her son together with Joseph), but also ecclesiological; in this context, it should be noted that, with her femininity, she balanced the presence of the apostles since the acceptance of grace had taken place from the beginning in the female dimension. Here we like to quote a significant and illuminating expression of Benedict XVI, who wrote that "the Church, in its juridical structure, is founded on Peter and the Eleven, but in the concrete form of ecclesial life it is always (...) women who open the doors to the Lord, who accompany him even under the cross and are able to meet him as a resurrected person" (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth - From entering Jerusalem to the resurrection). If Mary was no longer alone under the cross, neither would she be for eternity; She will be the most precious part of the new family, the Church, which in the person of John had welcomed her with immense affection; but above all she will never leave the Church. In fact, we find her always and everywhere and, in our times, in Lourdes in the context of the dogmatic declaration of the Immaculate Conception, in Fatima as a sign of hope after the atrocious first great war, etc., We Carmelites are certain that Mary's faith gives us Jesus, but also that she offers us to God.

Interactions of Jesus with his mother

The relationship between Jesus and Mary is essential for a loving knowledge of Christ. It is too seldom examined and less meditated upon. As a result, many people think that Mary's role is unimportant to the Good News This is even true of many with a broad knowledge of the Gospels. Jesus spent over 90% of his earthly life with Mary his mother, from his conception to the beginning of his public ministry. Yet even in his public ministry Mary accompanied him (Jn 2, 12). However, we find very little in Scripture of what happened in those private years between them. We have already considered one of the family's pilgrimages recounted in Luke (2, 41- 52) when Jesus was 12 years old. Jesus, feeling the call to ministry remained behind in Jerusalem "doing his Father's business" (Lk 2, 49). This episode somewhat highlights that the role of Mary was much more tied to redemption than Joseph's role. The difference between the role of Joseph and Mary should become more obvious as we go along. It seemed that Jesus was anxious to begin his public ministry and complete it as he later indicated in Luke 12, 50, "great is my distress till it is over". There should be no question that Jesus himself knew who he was in referring to God as his Father, here, and later, as he indicates in John 5, 19, "(Jesus) can do only what he sees the Father doing: and whatever the Father does the Son does too". The whole incident presents an insight which reveals who Jesus is and the significance of ‘real’ family life. Jesus remained obedient to his parents, observing the 4th commandment, and remained with them until once again God revealed to him, through Mary (Jn 2, 5), that he was to begin his public ministry at age thirty. The passage about the finding in the temple concludes with a statement about Jesus growing in wisdom, stature and grace. Jesus' growth in wisdom and stature refers to his connatural development. In a sense, this describes the process of God fitting into the natural physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual development of a growing boy. Grace here refers to his love-ableness in the sight of God and of people including spiritual holiness, graciousness, tact, charm, and attractiveness. This, rather than denying his full divinity, points out the reality of his human development acquired mostly from Mary. Another point about Jesus' remaining in Jerusalem is that it shows the compassion of God. Jesus knew that he would eventually have to leave home and begin his public ministry. Considering what was in store for him in the world this incident of his remaining in Jerusalem and his restoration to his parents does two things. It prepares Mary for his eventual leaving and helps her get ready to give up her son. Secondly, in this instance he is given back to her for another 18 years, something she can rejoice over, be grateful for and something for which she can give glory to God as she ponders the mercy of God in her heart. The loss of Jesus and the finding in the temple is a precursor of Jesus' death and resurrection in that he was lost for three days as he would be in the tomb for three days. This can be seen as a mercy given to Joseph, as well, since he would not be alive at his death and resurrection. As Joseph and Mary sought Jesus sorrowing, Mary would seek Jesus in her grief over the time of his death until his resurrection. So, the loss and the finding of Jesus in the temple, which Joseph shared with Mary, was a kind of an early enactment of the pain and triumph of the cross. The Gospel silence of the hidden life of the Holy Family does not prevent us from meditating on what that life was like. Jesus, Mary and Joseph must have lived a simple life because when Jesus returned to preach to his own town the people marvelled at his wisdom, power and authority and said with some incredulity, "Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?" (Mk 6, 3), indicating great surprise that such an "insignificant" person could have these gifts. Even his own family members could not believe his calling and wanted to "take charge of him" (Mk 3, 21). Incidentally, Mark’s question put on the mouths of these Nazarenes is unique to him. More often in the other evangelists, it is to Joseph the carpenter himself that they refer him to, not to Jesus his assistant. An intimate glimpse at the wedding feast at Cana and into the hidden ‘teamwork’ between Jesus and Mary provides a source of fruitful meditation. The second part of Jesus' response to Mary was similar to, but the opposite of his response in the temple at age twelve. In the temple he had said in effect, "My time has come", but here at Cana he said, "My hour has not yet come", even though he already had a following of disciples (Jn 2, 2, 11, 12). Nevertheless, Mary, in her prerogative as mother, continues to lean on her Son to do something. She believes without wavering that he will help. "Do whatever he tells you", she instructed the servants. In the temple, when Jesus was twelve, Mary accepted her responsibility of being mother and brought him home with her to Nazareth. At Cana, although retaining her authority as mother, Mary gave Jesus to the world which was waiting in darkness for him who is the Light of the world. Another Gospel incident of the relationship between Jesus and Mary, which goes greatly misunderstood, occurs in the three Synoptic Gospels (Mk 3, 21, 31-35; Mt 12, 46-50; Lk 8, 19-21). In this episode Jesus is sitting with a group of his disciples. His mother and relatives came to speak with him. When Jesus is told of this he responds, "Here are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father is my brother, sister and mother". The misinterpretation of this lies in some people thinking that Jesus was indicating a lack of care or respect for his mother. The other side of this misinterpretation is that he saw those with him as being more important than his mother. Nothing could be further from the truth! Jesus, could hardly sin against the fourth commandment to ‘honour your father and mother’. Also, we know something of the depth of relationship between him and his mother from the events at Cana that would belie any denigration of her. Confusion about the meaning of the Jesus’ words of comparing his disciples to a family can be traced to a preceding text found only in Mark's Gospel in which the evangelist writes, (his) "relatives, (were) convinced that he was out of his mind (Mk 3, 21). The passage about relatives thinking Jesus was crazy is excluded from Matthew and Luke thus clearing some of the confusion about Mary's role there. These latter two evangelists, also, generally give us a fuller development of Mary's role in the life of Jesus. What Jesus, in fact, did, when he compared the disciples to his mother, was to elevate those who do the will of the Father to the status of brother, sister and even mother. The presence of his mother gave Jesus an opportunity to teach this wonderful truth to his disciples. Another similar incident occurs in Lk 11, 27 where a woman calls out, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked". In a sense, we can already see the fulfilment of Lk 1, 48 referring to Mary, "…all generations will call me blessed". However, Jesus makes the distinction between the physical and the spiritual. Yes, Mary was blessed to conceive and bear Jesus but she is more blessed to have conceived him spiritually, that is, "still happier are those who hear the Word of God and keep it" (Lk 11, 28). We can see in some passages about Mary that she kept the Word of God in her heart (Lk 2, 19 & 2, 51). Since Mary followed the will of the Father in keeping the Word of God in her heart, she is an example for all believing Christians to meditate on the Gospels. Even in agony Jesus was concerned with the well-being of his mother and ensured that she was taken care of by asking John the Beloved to take her home (see John 19, 27). In these scenes Jesus the Christ can be viewed as the epitome of a noble son. He was noble because he was obedient to the Law and the Prophets. It would be interesting to know how and where John cared for Jesus’ mother. Did he tarry long in Jerusalem after Jesus’ ascent to the Father? Perhaps they made it to Nazareth for Mary to settle her things. But then? He had to make true Christ’s mandate to spread the Good News like the other apostles. Possibly, he again settled his things at his Capernaum’s home. It is known that John made Ephesus in today’s Turkey his preferred hub for his pastoral activity. A strong tradition testifies that he took Mary with him and there established a community of Christians, including a group of women headed by Mary, who led a secluded contemplative life ever occupied with the mysteries of Jesus. Because of this. it is held that she revisited Jerusalem twice to contemplate the stations of the passion of Jesus. It is possible too that in Jerusalem she was taken up body and soul in sleep when she was around sixty-seven, surrounded by some of the apostles.

Martha and Mary

Christ had come to the two sisters’ home in Bethany accompanied by his disciples. Having to fix a meal for her visitors in her home, Martha felt frustrated and complained to Jesus that her sister Mary, instead of helping her prepare food, was sitting at his feet listening to him (Lk 10, 40). Before reacting too harshly to Martha’s reaction, readers must look at what she was doing as her sister sat at the feet of Christ. Martha was serving the Lord. Luke says, “Martha was cumbered about much serving” (Lk 10, 41). Martha was attending the needs of others and doing service herself out of love for Jesus. How could the Saviour be critical of such service? Luke never intended a censure that Martha’s service was unacceptable. Similarly, Jesus did not consider educating women as time wasted. He viewed women as intellectually and spiritually capable of understanding God’s word. As Martha showed her bother that her sister was untroubled with the many details of the day, she requested Jesus’s help. It is well that disciples of today should envision the tone of the Redeemer’s voice to be entreating, not accusatory. As he twice repeated her name, Martha felt a softening of her stress. In a loving, tender tone, he acknowledged her many calls of duties: “Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things” (Lk 10, 41). When the Saviour used the word “careful” he could have been suggesting that Martha was concerned with others’ needs — that she was cautious and considerate of others’ feelings. The important word in the next passage is the word “needful”. “But one thing is needful; and Mary has chosen that good part” (Lk 10, 42). When Jesus used the word needful, was he perhaps showing a concern for Martha’s personal needs? Could the Saviour have been suggesting that sisters who so often put others’ needs before their own deserve to care about their own needs once in a while? Was Christ perhaps suggesting that women have to take a spiritual break, listen to the Gospel, and treat themselves with the “good part” before going out again and sharing with others? The Saviour’s response strikingly clarified what mattered most. On that evening in Martha’s home, the good part was not in the kitchen; it was at the Lord’s feet. Dinner could wait. Though the Lord’s motives cannot truly be known, Christ most likely wanted Martha to keep a balance between serving a meal and gaining spiritual refreshment; and he was willing to facilitate that balance. In this particular story, Mary’s actions are different than her sister’s. She was daring since we have no examples of a rabbi instructing women. In this account, Mary acts like a male disciple, sitting at Jesus’s feet to be taught. This story can be viewed as the basis of the changed status of women thanks to Jesus and his teachings showing that women could be independent disciples who were fully accepted by Christ, like Mary Magdalene. Yet, this incident does not relate Martha’s finest hour. Her behaviour as a disciple of Christ can be observed when she loses her brother Lazarus. As Lazarus takes ill, his sisters know that Jesus was in Perea, a day’s journey away, and they sent for him. When the messenger finds Jesus, his reaction is that Lazarus’s “sickness is not unto death” (Jn 11, 4). The Lord stayed two more days teaching and ministering without any seeming regard for Lazarus, and then took another day to reach Bethany. Martha’s mindset was that she knew the omniscient Christ had full knowledge of her brother’s condition and had done nothing to prevent his death. As soon as she hears that Jesus is approaching their home, Martha runs to meet him (Jn 11, 20). She then acknowledged that what she had experienced had been difficult. She did not negate the impact of the sorrow she felt and her first words to Jesus were “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” (vs. 21). Though her faith had been tested to the utmost she still testified: “But I know, that even now, whatsoever you will ask of God, God will give it you… I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (Jn 11, 22-26)”. Her faith was soon rewarded with Lazarus’s restoration to life. According to the Gospel of John, Mary’s response to Lazarus’s death is unlike her sister’s. Although Martha seemed to keep her emotions in control as Jesus appeared on the scene, Mary sobbed. And he exhibited remarkable sympathy. “When Jesus therefore saw her weep, he justified Mary’s tears by displaying the epitome of empathy. Truly, empathy is at the heart of Christ’s behaviour. The scriptural account does not say Jesus suggested to Mary that he would make everything right again. At this point, he did not try to rectify the situation. He simply showed empathy and was there for Mary physically and emotionally. This was also a’ transgression’ of gender boundaries of a man crying. Yet Christ’s perfect example is for men to feel, express, and show empathy giving us another critical dimension of how one behaves toward women, and others. In another passage from John’s Gospel, we find an interesting interaction between Mary and the Saviour, again indicating to followers the proper attitude disciples of Jesus display toward women. It would appear that Mary wanted to do something for the Saviour in honour of his burial. Her conclusion was to sit at the feet of the Saviour, take a pound of spikenard, uncover her hair, and wipe the Lord’s dusty feet with the ointment. In her society, Mary’s actions were inappropriate. For a woman to uncover her hair in the presence of men unrelated to her was scandalous and offensive. Biblical scholar Raymond Brown pointed it out that in Jesus’ day it was the head of the living and the feet of corpses that were anointed. The amount of ointment she used was the equivalent of an entire year’s wages (see Mk 14, 5). She used so much spikenard that the entire house was filled with the fragrance. The act she chose to perform of dusting the feet with her hair was a task performed only by the lowliest of slaves. Her choice of this act of service somehow shows that Mary knew Jesus was to die and live again. Jesus could have responded in a critical manner. He could have chided her, “Mary, I am not dead yet”. From his gentle response, he obviously understood her motivation. Judas ungraciously responded to Mary’s actions and mentioned that she was incurring a ridiculous expense (see Jn 12, 3-5). Jesus’ reply denounced Judas’s brutish conduct, “Let her alone: For she has preserved this ointment until now, that she might anoint me in token of my burial” (Jn 12, 7). Jesus allowed himself to be the recipient of Mary’s affection, graciously accepting her offering. He let this sister serve him in the way she knew how, even when others were critical of an action that could be seen as inappropriate. Yet it was something that was entirely appropriate in the Saviour’s eyes.

John whom Jesus loved John the evangelist is the author of the Gospel which bears his name and of three letters and perhaps also of the Apocalypse. He was known as ‘the one Jesus loved’. He had the unique distinction of standing alone among the apostles beneath the Cross, together with Mary mother of Jesus, Mary of Cleofas and Mary Magdalene. And further, Jesus before dying left his Mother Mary in his care. This is a clear indication how greatly he appreciated his loyalty even to take his place of filial responsibility, years after Joseph had passed to his reward. John along with Peter was the one who jumped to occasions but always let Peter talk and take the final step. Indeed, he trekked Peter and consistently was indomitable when facing Jew and High Priest. John and James were the sons of Zebedee and Salome from Cafarnaum. With their father, they plied a fishing boat for a living in the lake of Tiberias, Lake Gennesaret, until Jesus called them both to follow him. The mother Salome with other womenfolk took it upon themselves to look after Jesus and his band of apostles. The brothers were also referred to as ‘boanerges’ - sons of thunder, perhaps after their fiery suggestion levelled at Samaritans who made Jesus unwelcome among them (See Mk 3, 17). In the Fourth Gospel, ascribed by early tradition to John, and known formally as The Gospel according to John, the sons of Zebedee are mentioned only once, when at the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, the risen Lord appeared. Whether the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (who is never named) mentioned in this Gospel is to be identified with John (also not named) is not clear from this text. John’s authoritative position in the Church after the Resurrection is shown by his visit with St. Peter to Samaria to lay hands on the new converts there. It is to Peter, James (not the brother of John but “the brother of Jesus”), and John that St. Paul submitted his conversion and mission for recognition. John’s subsequent history is obscure and passes into the uncertain mists of legend. At the end of the 2nd century, Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, claimed that John’s tomb is at Ephesus, identified him with the beloved disciple, and added that he “was a priest, wearing the sacerdotal plate, both martyr and teacher”. That John died in Ephesus was also stated by St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon c. 180 AD, who said John wrote his Gospel and Letters at Ephesus and Revelation at Pátmos. In the Byzantine tradition the evangelist is portrayed as old, with long white beard and hair, usually carrying his Gospel. His symbol as an evangelist is an eagle. Because of the inspired visions of the book of Revelation, the Byzantine churches entitled him “the Theologian”; the title appears in Byzantine manuscripts of Revelation but not in manuscripts of the Gospel.

Proclaiming the good news everywhere Most of Christ’s own ministry was addressed to people in the open country, at markets’ corners or walking from place to place. A privileged regular setting was the local synagogue wherever he happened to visit which was often. A familiar scene is Jesus sitting in a boat by the Lake of Galilee addressing throngs on the shore. Another more familiar scene is Jesus proclaiming the Good News to the disciples gathered rounded him. And a varied representation is provided whenever and wherever Jesus worked miracles and he took the occasion to drive points of truth and to right moral living directly addressed to the recipient of beneficence and the witnessing onlookers.

St. Barnabas companion of St. Paul in Asia Minor

Barnabas (Greek: Βαρνάβας), at birth named Joseph, who according to tradition was an early Christian and a prominent disciple in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4, 36, Barnabas was from Cyprus. He and Paul made some missionary runs defending Gentiles from Jewish proselytes. In the years 45–47 they resumed the conversion of new Christians. Having a part in the Council of Jerusalem (50 AD) they were entrusted with explaining its deliberations to the Christians of Antioch. Barnabas is known to have sold a piece of land, which he had inherited, and gave the proceeds to the Church in Jerusalem; with Paul he had collected a sum of money which they put at the disposal of poor Christians in Judea. Together they passed through some cities of Anatolia (Turkey), where they addressed Gentiles open to God in the synagogues there. Paul mentioned him repeatedly in his Letters. Tertullian surmised that Barnabas wrote the Letter to the Jews, but critical scholars did not go beyond assigning his personal opinion in this matter as with other matters. Nor is it certain that Barnabas wrote the letter which bears his name. The date, place and how he died are not known. Though a Christian tradition attributes martyrdom by stoning in the city of Salamis, Cyprus, in the year 61. The Greek Orthodox Church venerates him as its founder, almost a millennium previous to the rift in 1054 between Rome and Constantinople.

We go to revisit some random personages with whom Jesus engaged.

Simeon and Anna, prophets in the temple Evoking reverence by their long habitual presence in the temple, Simeon happened to be in the temple when Joseph and Mary on the eighth day of Jesus’ birth brought him for purification (Lk 2, 21-38). Inspired by the Spirit, Simeon welcomed the Holy Family, and though not a priest at the temple asked to take Jesus in his outstretched hands, offered and presented him, and praised God, saying: "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel". The child's father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too". There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She hardly left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem”. Simeon and Anna are icons to many Christians who spend long years in loyal trusting hope that their exemplary life will finally be assuaged by obtaining what they gave their life for. Often, they visit, worship and patronise a particular church. I think of thousands and thousands of religious sisters, priests and hordes of lay people who have militated in a Church of silence, prayer and active hope.

The allegory of love taken to mystical levels St. John of the Cross was never a person obsessed with human relationships, rather he was a person trained to live lovingly in the presence of God, drawn to stay by himself deep in thought or concerned intently on the job in hand. And yet, undoubtedly, he was increasingly attracted to the selfless love which his parents had for each other and which was to consume itself not only in producing three children but complemented itself in the care bestowed to each single member of the family… and, ultimately during the fatal untimely sickness and death of Gonsalvo, the father. Then the mother had herself overflow her love beyond her own to call street children around the family table. It’s hard to know how much he was influenced by his mother. He never mentioned or made references to her in his writings. And yet, there’s nothing to suggest otherwise, rather, he showed himself openly appreciative of nuns and women in his spiritual care, beginning with the Holy Mother Teresa herself... His relationship with them went beyond the spiritual sphere and freely enjoyed their friendly talk, yet it never crossed his mind to entertain the physical. A young girl once managed to enter his room through a window to be with him. Nonplussed, he talked her out of her crush and she went sullenly on her way. Certainly, he was aware of the wonderfulness of human sexuality and complexities of love. In his mystical writings John used a language doused with the intimate workings of married love, following the language used in the Song of Song. Yet he shunned the erotic.

The free will of angels Angels are mentioned about 250 times in the Bible. Most mentions are incidental to topics accounted. Satan rebelled against God and a third of the angels followed him. How can this be? The heavenly angels gladly and completely are expected to do the bidding of God. Ps 103, 20-21 states, "Bless the Lord, you his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word. Bless you the Lord, all you his hosts; you his ministers, that do his pleasure". Their purpose is to execute his orders, hearken to his voice, and do his pleasure. However, no scripture saying declares that angels have no free will. From the fact of the fall of so many of them, they obviously have some form of self-determination. That is, they have the freedom to remain in that holy estate into which they were placed by creation or to leave their first estate for a lower one. "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 1, 6). Clearly, they are not robots unable to do anything but obey God. However, their condition is not like that of man. Man can be redeemed from his fallen state by Jesus Christ. The fallen angels have no means by which they can return to their first estate after they leave it. They will all be cast into the "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt 25, 41). Also, there is no mix of obedience with disobedience in the angels as there often is in regenerate man. The angels in heaven perform the commandments of God with full obedience (Ps 103, 20-21). The fallen angels are simply "the angels that sinned" (2Pt 2, 4). No good is expected of them. We shall probably never be able to grasp with fullness the reason for the angels to rebel against God and leave their heavenly estate. They saw God in his absolute glory and holiness. They saw the greatness of his power. What could they hope to gain by a rebellion against such a God? However, scripture does reveal the initial motivation of their rebellion. From a study of Satan and his part in leading the rebellion, we know that their rebellion was fuelled by wilful pride. Is 14, 12-15 gives important insight into this matter. In this passage, Satan (as Lucifer) states five times, "I will". Especially revealing is his fifth declaration: "I will be like the Highest" (Is 14, 14). He did not desire to submit to the will and glory of God, but rather wanted to be like God himself. This was pride. The bishop, or pastor, is not to be "a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he falls into the condemnation of the devil" (1Tim 3, 6). The devil fell into condemnation because he was soaked in pride. He refused to submit to the will of the Father, lost his first estate, and has taken many of the angels with him (see, Rev 1, 4). The angels do not have a sin nature. We have one because we are descendants of Adam. All angels have been directly created by God and must have been created with a holy nature. Therefore, they never have the mix of good and bad often found in men. However, they were created with the ability and responsibility of self-determination. They can choose to leave the estate of heaven by an act of will. Or, they can choose to stay with God. Those who leave, do so in order to be gods. Satan is the "the god of this world" (2Cor 4, 4). Satan's motivation is further revealed in his temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden. He told them, "and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3, 5). That is what moved him to rebel and that is what he used on Eve. In compiling this section, I am indebted to David Reagan who under the title ‘The free will of angels’ have drawn an excellent resume of the question. His last paragraph finishes well what could be a satisfactory explanation posed by St. Paul. He writes: ‘Understanding this helps with another verse. 1Cor 11, 10 states, "For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels". The passage in 1Corinthians is dealing with the outward submission of the woman. Her external act of submission is important "because of the angels". I take that to mean that ladies who submit to their husbands, not because he is any better but simply because it is God's way. If she can submit to her husband with all his faults and problems, then certainly the angels should be able to submit to the all Holy God’.

Jesus taught with authority The people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Both here in Mark’s Gospel and in Matthew’s at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the people were amazed at Jesus’ doctrine because he taught as one having authority. But what does this mean? What was different about the way that Jesus taught? The Lord Jesus is the “new Moses”, the prophet spoken of by Moses in Deut 18, 15- 20). A prophet like me with the Lord, your God, raised up for you from among your kin; to him you shall listen. The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) very clearly presents our Saviour as the “new Moses”, the new Lawgiver. St. Mark does the same here. The passage begins with Jesus teaching in the synagogue and the people being astonished at the authority with which he speaks. Then, after the exorcism of an evil spirit, the people are again astonished at our Saviour’s teaching, saying to one another: What is this? A new teaching with authority. Far too often today, people speak as though our Saviour did not come to give any teaching or doctrine, but was only a “nice guy”. However, the Gospels clearly show that Jesus was known, during the time of his earthly ministry, as a great teacher and as a prophet. Christ is truly the Prophet, the one promised by God to Moses and the people of Israel. And the very word “prophet” is related etymologically to the word “professor” – for a “prophet” is one who “speaks in the presence of others”, Latinized from the Greek “pro” (meaning, “before”) and “phanai” (meaning, “to speak”). And this is precisely the same etymology as the word, “professor” – “one who speaks in front of others” (namely, in front of students). The connection between the two words is more clearly seen in “professor” and “prophecy” (where the “t” has been softened to the “s” sound). Christ is the Prophet, which means he is the teacher. Our Saviour came to instruct us in doctrine, and salvation is more than just about being nice, it also requires true and orthodox belief in what our Lord has taught us. Christ was and is (through his Church) a teacher, but he does not teach as did the Scribes; rather, he teaches as one having authority. But what does this mean? What set our Saviour’s teaching apart as being with authority? St. Theophilus (cited in the Catena Aurea) tells us: “Again, Christ taught them by rebuke, not by flattery as did the Pharisees; wherefore it says, And, they were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having power, and not as the Scribes. He taught them also in power, transforming men to good, and he threatened punishment to those who did not believe on Him”. Further, St. Bede the Venerable adds: “The Scribes themselves taught the people what was written in Moses and the Prophets: but Jesus as the God and Lord of Moses himself, by the freedom of His own will, either added those things which appeared wanting in the Law, or altered things as he preached to the people; as we read in Matthew, It was said to them of old time, but I say to you”. Commenting on Matthew 7, 28, Fr. Cornelius a Lapide gives seven points in which Christ taught with authority: 1) He taught important matters of the highest importance and which are necessary for salvation. But the Scribes taught trifling matters of rites and ceremonies which were passing away, such as the washing of hands and of cups. 2) What Christ taught in word, he fulfilled in deed. Precisely because he is without sin, our Lord teaches with the greatest authority those things which pertain to holiness and salvation. 3) The Lord taught with great spirit and fervour, such that the words of Scripture could always be applied to him, The zeal of your house has eaten me up. 4) The Saviour confirmed his teaching by miracles, which the Scribes could not do. 5) The Scribes were mere interpreters of the Law, but Christ is the Lawgiver sent from heaven. 6) While the scribes sought their own glory and the praise of men, our Lord taught solely for the glory of God and our salvation. 7) Not only by his words and example, but also by the hidden inspirations of his grace, the good Jesus illuminated the minds and inflamed the hearts of his hearers. Thus, he made the ignorant to become learned, and the wicked to become good. Preaching today concerns itself to encourage imitation of the Saviour. The priest must preach neither for his own glory nor seeking to be accepted or thought well of, but for the glory of God and the salvation of his flock. He must preach with zeal, recalling that his sermon really will have an effect on the salvation of souls, either for good or ill. Further, the priest must not preach his own doctrine or opinion, but rather the doctrine of Christ which nourishes the Church. Most importantly, the priest must live a holy life in accord with what he preaches – and, though he be not perfect, he must at least strive for perfection. Thus, may what St. Gregory Nazianzen said of St. Basil the Great be said of all priests: “A sermon of Basil’s was like thunder, because his life was like lightening” (Orat. 20).

Jesus wrought lots of miracles; among others, healed groves, drove out devils, restored people to life

An overview of all the miracles of Jesus recorded in the New Testament would include, the healing the sick, casing evil spirits and performing other astounding miracles to show both his love for mankind and his power over creation and its internal laws. The miracles of Jesus Christ show us that God is real, God loves us and God wants to heal and restore us to abundant life. Jesus didn’t only heal a few sick people, the Bible says many times that all who came to him were healed. Huge multitudes of people came to him, not only from Israel but also from surrounding nations and they brought all their sick to him to be healed. The Gospel of Matthew says several times that all were healed – not just a lucky few. ‘They brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and he healed them’ (Mt 4, 24). ‘The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them’ (Mt 21, 14). ‘Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them’ (Mt 15, 30). ‘A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.’ (Mt 12, 15) The miracles of Jesus were more than juSt healing the sick. Besides healing the sick Jesus Christ did many more miracles, like turning huge amounts of water into wine of the highest quality, walking over rough water during a storm, raising several people from the dead (some had been dead for several days), multiplying a small amount of food into an abundance for many thousands of very hungry people, and so on. The gospels record at least 37 detailed miracles of Jesus. However, the apostle John shocks us by saying that the world would be too small, if they had tried to record all Jesus Christ had said and done. So, what has been written down is only a small portion of the miracles Jesus did. He has done far more… “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (Jn 21, 25). This shows us how absolutely amazing Jesus Christ really is. He is so much more than all we can imagine. He came as a bright light in the deep darkness of this world and touched tens of thousands of people with the lifesaving power of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t need the internet and social media to gather a crowd: the miracles of Jesus were so extremely powerful and so amazingly abundant that the news spread like wildfire, throughout the land and far abroad.

Last journey north

Close to the end of his pastoral ministry, Jesus and his disciples headed north, the farthest of Israel. Now, the area is known as the Golan Heights, the chain of Hermon mountains running inland roughly parallel to the Mount Carmel chain thirty miles in length and fifteen in width and twenty miles north of Lake Galilee. In Jesus’s time, following the importance accorded to the place by Herod Philip, establishing there his capital Caesarea Philippi, its commercial bond with Israel, Lebanon and Syria enhanced. Its traditional multi-religious prowess always was a force, it boasted one of the main tributaries of the river Jordan, the other being Tel-el-Kadi of Dan. Caesarea Philippi has no Old Testament history, though it has been not unreasonably identified with Baal-gad. Its present name is Banias, a village of some 50 houses. It was visited by Christ shortly before his transfiguration, Mt 16, 13-28. It was here at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus revealed who he was and that he was going to die. He asked his disciples, "who do you say that I am?" and Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus announced his death to them and the building of his Church. He said that "the gates of Hades" will not prevail against it (Mt 16, 18). Christian tradition in the early centuries named the mountain of the Transfiguration as Tabor. This location is cited in early apocryphal writings and was accepted by the Syriac and Byzantine churches. It rises dome-like from the Plain of Jezreel. Many biblical scholars strongly doubt whether Mount Tabor was the scene of that event (described in Mt 17, 1-9; Mk 9, 2-8 and Lk 9, 28-36). However, it has throughout history been a place of mystique and atmosphere, where humanity has sought contact with the divine. Mount Tabor stands some 420 metres above the plain in lower Galilee, 7km east of Nazareth. Mount Tabor’s location does not fit well into events before and after the Transfiguration. At the time, a Hasmonean fortress stood on the summit. And would Tabor be considered a “high mountain”, especially compared to other mountains in the vicinity? (It’s actually more than 200 metres lower than Jerusalem.) These scholars see the much higher three snow-capped Mount Hermon as a more likely location. Nevertheless, a succession of churches and a monastery were built on Mount Tabor from the fourth century. Mount Hermon (or “sacred mountain”) is the highest mountain in ancient Israel, boasting majestic, three snow-capped peaks rising just over 9,000 feet above the sea. Visible from great distances, the mountain range is nearly 30 miles in length and about 15 miles wide. It is located at the north-eastern boundary of Israel, on the border between Syria and Lebanon. Along with melting snow and the abundant rainfall on Mount Hermon, large springs at the base of the mountain form the main headwaters of the Jordan River. Worshipers from the earliest of times were drawn to its isolated heights. Several ruins of ancient sanctuaries have been found on Mount Hermon’s peaks and slopes and at its base. Judges 3, 3 calls the mountain Baal Hermon, meaning “Lord of Hermon” (see also 1 Chron 5, 23). Some psalms praise Mount Hermon for its loftiness and majesty (Ps 42, 6; 89, 11–12). Mathew and Mark specify that Jesus led Peter, James and John up a “high mountain”. The traditional site for the Mount of Transfiguration is Mount Tabor. However, Matthew’s gospel places events leading up to the transfiguration in the district of Caesarea Philippi, making the snow-capped Mount Hermon the closer site. Also, in those days, the flat summit of Mount Tabor provided for fifty households and was surrounded by a wall, according to the historian Josephus. Alternatively, Mount Hermon afforded privacy and seclusion (see Mk 9, 2). At Caesarea of Herod Philip you, Jesus, felt that the time was ripe after three years to have your apostles declare openly what you meant for them. Out stepped Peter who blurted that “You are the Messiah, the Son of God”. An unheard-of confession of unimaginable portent. So much so, that you spoke and attributed his outburst as being inspired by the Spirit of the Father. He did it in the name of the non-outspoken apostles and disciples. This must have suggested that they were really among the most privileged testimonies of the God-man, and close participants if his redemptive mission. This event prompted another and the most important announcement that you had to undergo the painful rigours of redemption, revealing your identity as Messiah and fulfilling the law and the prophets (Mt 17, 1–8. At a point you called Peter, James and John, your inner circle, and led them on where you would be all alone up a high mountain. Reaching the appointed place, you were transfigured and glorified revealing your otherworldliness and appeared accompanied by Moses and Elias, who both experienced God on other famous mountains: Sinai and the Horeb, in a burning bush and a slight breeze after forty days and a long tiring walk respectively. The three talked about what was going to happen to you and undoubtedly tied up their mission with yours. Apparently, the three apostles heard the conversation - a revelation which struck deep chords and admiration within them. Peter despite being overawed with wonder again blurted out his pleasure and offered to set up tents - which he might have been carrying - for the three of them… His exuberance broke the wonder itself and soon you Jesus returned to touch your loyal apostles and warning to keep what they had just experienced to themselves until the events discussed happened. It has always been suggested that the transfiguration happened to strengthen the faith and resolve of the three apostles some time before the events of your passion, and to benefit their future mission. It hardly effected their immediate behaviour, and they didn’t rise up higher than the rest, certainly, not during the passion, with the exception of John. James, despite of his brashness, made no show of it as long as the passion lasted, and Peter stayed far aside and for three times failed miserably to stand for you his Master.

Palm Sunday Bethany was the present-day West Bank city of al-Eizariya, located about 1.5 miles east of Jerusalem on the south-eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. According to the Gospel of John, six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was and whom he had raised from the dead. There Martha prepared and served him a supper; “Lazarus was one of those that sat at table with him. Then Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment” (12, 1-4). Palm Sunday quietly draws open the scene with Jesus leaving Bethany to his friends and he accompanied his apostles. They go down the hill of olive groves into the Kedron Valley and enter Jerusalem through one of its eastern doors. A crowd gradually gathered around him and enthusiastically brought olive and palm branches intent on giving him a welcome worthy of a victorious king. “Blessed is the King of Israel that comes in the name of the Lord”. The apostles had already been briefed by Jesus himself to loan a young ass, upon which Jesus sat draped over by a mantle. As it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt (12, 15). Mantles were spread before him too. The revellers headed for the temple and there soon dispersed, with Jesus and his apostles returning to the quiet of Bethany (Mk 11, 11). The scene closes this unique episode with Jesus and his group returning among his loyal friends at Bethany. There, Jesus stayed low and prepared himself for the long momentous week-end ahead.

Holy Thursday

I imagine that after a turbulent night of heavy dreams Jesus was the first to wake up and go out for his usual meeting with the Father. Wednesday night witnessed nearly all the apostles huddled unusually together for dinner and night sleep at Lazarus and his sisters’ house around Jesus, as had been happening every day since Sunday. Now the big days were at hand. He was to take centre stage in the history of salvation. He had prepared himself for it, saw it coming engulfing him more potently than a tsunami and this morning of all mornings he asked the Father with the Spirt to stand by him more intensely than ever. He felt their attention on him and, encouraged, he returned to his friends. Martha and Mary with Lazarus had lain out breakfast for all of them. Jesus approached Lazarus to tell him that they were having Passover supper by themselves in the city. Lazarus immediately offered to have his sisters prepare the paschal lamb. Jesus agreed on condition that he would ask Peter to buy a lamb, the last from the common purse, a figurative spotless specimen of the Paschal Victim himself, and have it delivered to them for roasting. Then at the appropriate time, Peter and John would carry it to the city. Late on Thursday afternoon, Jesus took leave of his Bethany friends, personally thanking them for the meals and the good times he had with them… It was an early Spring day, rather drab with a southernly wind. Jesus signalled the twelve that it was time to bid farewell to Lazarus and his sisters, skirted the Mount of Olives and proceeded to whatever awaited them in Jerusalem. Peter and John waited for the sisters to have the lamb roasted and after thanking them carried between them the cooked lamb in a dish and continued on their own to prepare the Passover meal. Jesus had already booked an upper room where to celebrate it. Jesus moved in a somewhat heavier mood than usual. The apostles must have sensed that something really extraordinary was gripping and tearing at his heart. But he kept a reassuring half smile giving the message that he was determined as ever to accomplish what he had to do even against all odds.

Enactment of the pristine mystery of the Eucharist

I joined the end of the line of the slow-moving apprehensive apostles. None of them was less eager to exchange serious or easy talk more than Judas Iscariot. He hardly noticed me. He kept apart, lost and unsure of himself. I gave quick inquisitive glances at Jesus. His gentle determined countenance eked understanding with each of his followers who all showed signs of mounting confusion. The ritual of preparing the pesach meal is meant to safeguard the purity of the most important meal for Jews. Anything unleavened, as haretz, was put away or discarded. Washed hands and scrubbed utensils added to the solemnity of the occasion. The paschal lamb was at the centre of the celebration, by which Jewish families and groups are encouraged to recall the end of the exile in Egypt and the start of the way back to the promised land. The size of lamb or goat kid varied to match the size of the family or group. If a family was small, they shared the animal with another family or group. It had to be consumed entirely at the celebration. Reaching the place agreed, I followed them to the welcoming upper room. Peter and John sent beforehand made a thorough job of preparing it. Everything seemed in place. Purification jars and towels. The table was set for the number of guests expected. John huddled close to the person of Jesus. No doubt he was aware that his Master felt unusually troubled, and acutely aware of the difficult times predicted by Jesus himself. John showed himself increasingly oblivious of others. His sole attention was riveted to Jesus. We reclined at our places. John looked for the place nearest to Jesus, indeed, reclined as we all were, his head was bent down against Jesus’ chest. On the other side of Jesus laid Peter apparently in control but his eyes betrayed his uneasiness. But none felt more out of place than Judas Iscariot. He avoided the eyes of everyone, especially those of Jesus. He helped himself to wine which he slowly sipped to hide himself from any unwelcome stare. At this stage permit me to make a small digression. The Last Supper had three stages: the washing of feet, the eating of the pascal lamb and the apex: the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. This latter is also the start of the paschal mystery: passion, death and resurrection. For unknown reasons such a breaking up of so great an event was never spelled clearly in tradition, though it may have been discussed in theology classes and contemplated in private prayer. There is no issue with the first two stages. The third provides a solution to problems related to the institution of the Eucharist and the real Presence. Any bread or wine consumed before and during the meal with the paschal lamb was not the body and blood of Jesus. When none was left of the lamb and Judas had left the upper room, Jesus “took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me’. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me’” (1Cor 11, 24-25). St. Paul has the earliest account of this oft quoted passage, recounted in Mark and Matthew and later Luke and referred to in John. It was already by that time part of a liturgical rite celebrated anywhere Christians gathered to pray. It was also the central piece which called the presence of an apostle, elder or their successor, assistant, a priest. It constituted the mandate by Christ himself to whom he entrusted the consecration of his body and blood… Judas was startled when he saw Jesus abruptly rising himself from the table, disrobing himself off his mantle. He approached the towels, and helped himself to a hefty one and girded himself with it. He then poured water from a jar of purification into a trough and invited the twelve to prepare themselves to let him wash their feet. At this Peter protested, “You washing my feet?”; but Jesus reassured him: “You do not understand what I am doing for now, but you’ll understand later”. And upon further remonstrations from Peter, Jesus had the better of him with the retort that he would not have a part with him, if he won’t let his feet be washed (Jn 13, 1-9). With that, Peter acquiesced: “Lord, not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well”. "Whoever is clean does not need to wash, only his feet. You are clean, but not all" (Jn 13, 11). Jesus finished washing their feet and then put back his cloak and returned to his place at the table. After he did so, he offered an explanation: “You call me ‘the Master’ and ‘the Lord’ and you are right, because that’s what I am”. “However, if I am Master and Lord and have washed your feet, you too should wash each other’s feet” (Jn 13, 13). … John in reporting all of this, makes it absolute clear, that he did not take Judas’s betrayal lightly. At table during his last supper with his apostles he repeatedly returned to the subject. He remarked also that the servant or messenger is never greater than his Master, and then exclaimed; “Blessed are you, when you know these things and accomplish them” (see, Jn 13, 18). “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is. to fulfil this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me’. ‘I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me’. After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me’. His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he means’. Leaning back against Jesus, he asked, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish’. Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So, Jesus told him, ‘What you are about to do, do quickly’. But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night (Jn 13, 18-30)”. Soon the bread was distributed. Most of the apostles took water to assuage their thirst after their walk from Bethany. The lamb still sizzling made its way to the centre and filled the place with its aroma. Jesus as the host helped himself to his portion, and likewise did the others in respectful order. A great way to value our Catholic heritage is to celebrate Jesus and his Jewish heritage. On Holy Thursday, we recreate (as close as we can) the Last Supper meal – or Seder the Jewish word for Passover – that Jesus and his disciples shared. Side dishes unleavened bread: scriptural, was at the Last Supper meal and became part of our Holy Communion. Olive oil, honey, figs, olives, bitter herbs were mentioned in Deuteronomy 8, 8 Main dishes lamb: there is much debate as to whether there was a lamb at the Last Supper. If the Apostles were preparing for Passover, this would have included sacrificing and preparing a Passover Lamb (Exod 12, 21). Most recently, Pope Benedict announced in 2007 that Jesus ate dinner without lamb as Jesus himself became the sacrificial lamb the very next day. Despite the theological reasoning behind the thought, I find it highly unlikely that Jesus made do without the main food characterising the Jewish seder, the paschal lamb. Drinks ‘red’ wine: was at the Last Supper meal and later became part of our Holy Communion. He spoke the words over the wine effectively turned into his blood only when the lamb was consumed. pomegranate juice: pomegranates are mentioned in Deuteronomy 8, 8. Due to the season, fresh pomegranates weren’t likely at the table. Dessert haroset: a sweet dessert made of apples, cinnamon, and sweet wine traditionally served at Passover.

Having set the scene and the general atmosphere at the last supper of Jesus, let us delve into the mysteries unfolding along these eventful days of universal redemption. When Philip asked Jesus to reveal the Father the reply he got was a gentle reprimand: “I have been so long with you and you haven’t known me yet…? He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14, 8-9). While we accompany Jesus carrying the cross, and also while he was dying on the cross, let us not for a moment forget that he and God the Father are one. Looking at his battered head crowned with thorns, his face lined with running blood, his eyes heavy with a soul in tired pain, it’s the Father whom we have before us, even in glory, his light is too bright to see properly and it’s only in Jesus’ own face that we can perceive something. Pilate presented Jesus in this wretched state (Jn 9, 5), cynically hoping that the Jews might be induced to some remnants of mercy. “Here’s the man”. Truly, it was the very greatness of God. Such infinite power of God in mercy towards mankind, hidden in wretchedness! St. Anthony of Padoa expressed the hyperbole this way in his sermons: “Behold Christ your life, is hung quartered on the cross before you. Were you to appreciate such mystery, you would be aware how great is your dignity and worth? Nowhere else you have better proof of your worth!” (Sunday Festive Sermons, iii pp 213- 214). Lord Jesus, I take your Mother Mary as a revered companion revisiting the stations of your passion and death. Once you exited the upper room, you called around you the three closest to you Peter, James and John. Alas none was in sync with you. For once also John was found wanting. Tense and confused the whole evening his eyes were heavy with sleep. The moment you left them on their own, they huddled themselves for a comfortable position on the uneven ground and let themselves be drawn to oblivious sleep. You wanted nothing better than to be deeply syntonic with the Father and yet you returned more than once to feel the moment with your privileged ones, and found them oblivious of your feelings. Utterly abandoned to your redeeming fate, you realised that you could count on nobody for this one enormous struggle. You had to bear it as if alone with your invading thoughts and surging pain. And it was to break you first psychologically and then physically, but you were prepared to bear it out, committed as you accomplished it in complete obedience to the Father, out of love for him and for humanity. Mary, your blessed mother, understood this perfectly. But she had to content herself with a secondary role, though she did her best to be as close as she could to be near you. She is forever the unique Co- redeemer. She couldn’t shy herself away from it as long as she was committed to life on earth. This is fundamentally the reason that she accompanied you the first time and revisited time and again the passion stations for as long as she remained alive; and in this she had thousands of faithful co-redeemers like her, down years and years, even without ever visiting the Holy Places but virtually revisited them countless of times in intimate communion in prayer with you and while fulfilling their life missions.

Good Friday

This yearly appointment with deep stark events, conscientiously remembered as they happened, always brings with it a deep sense of belonging. The redemptive mystery is all abounding, outpouring living grace in all directions, reaching all receptive persons. As such, it is with a sense of adoration that I immerse myself in this mystery… Lord Jesus, you are at the very centre of it. You were well prepared for it, though aware if its gargantuan implications, even you must have felt yourself daunted when you saw it coming. Nobody has faced so much, though many indeed have faced horrid martyrdom down the ages. They all looked to you for courage, strength and solace, your guidance, to remain true to you and like you to the end. Thousands have borne with fortitude and perseverance up to the ultimate witness in faith and love for you in hope. You must have kept them closest to your heart years before and during your own passion. It is all so unbelievable, but such is your power and redemptive grace. You embrace, empathize and resolutely hug them all. All absolutely unprecedented. Even before your Passion started you must have felt psychologically alert though daunted by it. For how long could the physical bear with the pressure demanded upon the mind? Yet, you were prepared to give all heroically and totally: let the Father deal with it as he thought fit! In the end, it was your loving heart that bore it all. It was the mind first to give way, worn out; and then the body and the physical heart, but not your divine loving seat of infinite love…

The stations of the cross

In two thousand years of Christian piety, the stations of the cross took various forms and stretched in numbers. Today fourteen episodes from the passion of Christ form the stations of the cross. For completeness, we could and will supplement them with other incidents mentioned in the Gospels. One expects that each station presents the fruits of waiting on the Lord with the Gospel narratives in heart and mind.

First station. Jesus condemned The first station presents Jesus at Pilot’s side, already condemned by Caiphas and his Sanhedrin, derided by Anna, and insulted by Herod, brutally abused on Pilot’s orders with wild scourging, crowned with thorns, endured blasphemy and submitted to ridicule. Why was Jesus condemned to death, he who did good wherever he went? (Acts 10, 38)? On this question hang all reflections we do especially throughout this section dedicated to Holy Week. All the Gospels give a consistent answer. The Jewish leaders arrived to push for the death of Jesus principally because they never understood him. They took his admission that he was the Son of God without really delving deeply enough into what this meant. Yet this was the pretext they brought before Pilate to justify his quilt meriting death by crucifixion. Actually, what really grated Pilate was their accusation that he declared himself the king of the Jews, as somebody standing up to the Roman Emperor to which he was delegated in his name to govern Palestine! Yet behind these bland theological, legal and political answers there is hidden a meaningful abyss for which the Gospels and indeed all Scripture give an explanation. Jesus let himself be killed because of our sins. More profoundly, he willingly died for us; because God himself loves us to such depths that he willed to sacrifice his own Son, that we may have new life in him (Jn 3, 3-17). This being the case, we need to analyse foremost our present human condition. If evil and sin are present within us, and not only outside of us, we need do away with absconding in figments of ignorance and really point out what is not right and not correct in us. And we do this also by drawing deeply from the God who is rich in mercy and who loves us to the point of considering us his friends (Jn 15, 15). In this way, we embark on the holy road of sorrow, penance and conversion, but also of faith, gratitude and joy.

Second station. Jesus forced to carry the cross With the death sentence of crucifixion proclaimed and hurled at Jesus, came the humiliation of staring at the cross, grasping and carrying it in obedience to the Father’s will, first and foremost. Crucifixion was the worst form of criminal punishment and it was held in abhorrence. How the soldiers treated Jesus was very inhumane. We should consider, however, that a condemned man to crucifixion, lost every right for considerateness and humanity. His plight became close to an accursed dog at a time when bloody cruelty was not a criminal offence. Rather, cruelty was a sport meant to elicit pleasure and held in public for entertainment. The highest sought-after performances at the time were combats to the death between slave gladiators, or unchaining starving wild beasts to feed on defenceless (Christian) prisoners in state sponsored amphitheatres. Jesus the ever Just was despised, ridiculed, vexed with dark ferociousness and obliviousness of his physical and moral pain. He was nailed to a cross as a sacrificial victim on behalf of humankind. He suffered brutality of historic inhumanity.

Paul in Romans 7, 18-19 gave a terse account of the interior paradox present in his own flesh: “For I know that nothing good dwells within me... I will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me”. Our consciences are alive with impulses for doing good; and most of us are guided by this divine light and drawn to realise good and noble things. But equally on the contrary, many others prefer darkness to light. And still more respectful persons opt for mediocrity. The worst among us wobble in consorting with the devil, others who opt for mediocrity are happy to wander in no man’s land and experiences high emotional sentiments, to being caught up with desires to be ashamed of, horrible perversions of the heart. It is in times like these that we become incredibly cruel and indulge in the worst possible behaviour. Dear Lord Jesus, considering our human condition I find myself confronted with the worst situations just around the corner and like St. Therese I owe it to you that I do not share the misery of so many brothers and sisters. But being so close I find myself among those almost deriding and hurting you. Especially, by not being committed enough to come to the aid of little ones: “Whatever you have done to these my little ones, you have done to me” (Mt 25, 40). Jesus, forgive me.

Third station. Jesus curled in pain under the cross for the first time The Gospels do not mention the three falls of Jesus under the weight of the cross on his way to crucifixion. Still, such a tradition is very much likely, the more so, when the Gospels attest to the harsh treatment meted out to him at the hands of Pilate’s soldiers. Jesus was at this time already exhausted physically and spiritually. As we delve into the sufferings borne by Christ, his physical ones come to the fore. Enormous by all counts and accompanying him until his last breath, without any respite. Surely, a fearsome suffocating suffering. And we believe that he was all the time acquiescent in solidarity with all sufferers of all times. The first fall under the weight of the cross recalls the massive sufferings of mankind. Contemplating him, our hearts are moved in prayer for courage to be like him, fully open to the physical sufferings of others.

Fourth station. Jesus met his mother Mary The Gospels again have no mention of Jesus carrying the cross meeting his mother. But their testimony of her presence under the cross would indicate that she was among the few whose loyalty was especially observed in the most telling instances towards the final consummate trial. Meeting his mother in such a condition was in itself a great weight of concern for Jesus. It pained him greatly to behold her humiliated, dragging the hated cross, the worst symbol of condemnation, exposed and shamed before his own people. Another time when he met her while preaching, he singled her out as the example to follow: the perfect one who completely submitted to the Father’s will. Anyone faithful to the Father would be welcome to be his sister, brother and mother! Now the scene is laboriously laid out for the live drawing of one great masterpiece of all faithfulness and loyalty. The incarnate Son is approaching the moment of his most sublime self-giving to the Father; and he does it, as if by necessity, accompanied by his gentle mother, heart-broken but indomitably standing fast close by, nonetheless. Exhausted yet replete with redemptive love the Saviour is a paradigm of strength. Meeting with only their eyes in contact, mother and Son remained locked in mystical interchanges: The mutually personal gave way to the universal salvific out-pouring of grace and new life.

Fifth station. Cyrene made to carry the cross That Jesus was hardly in a condition to make the remaining few metres to the top of calvary was evident to the Roman soldiers. So, they forced a passer-by, Cyrene, to put off going on his way and step in to help the condemned Jesus in carrying the cross. The Almighty willingly lowered and subjected himself to the human condition and with the redeemer Jesus on the point to uplift humanity he assumed the effects of sin and bore its ignominy, weakness and baseness. Such is the humility of God! The Gospels recorded Cyrene’s privileged sharing in carrying the cross at a point on approaching Calvary. He could sense the gratitude of Jesus but we are left musing about the effects of those precious harsh moments. Some have written stories about the experience of Cyrene, about how he passed it to his family. But for most it still hangs in the air for those who now are lucky enough to contemplate it in prayer. In his contest, often in life, we have to bear difficult situations. One of the most cruel has been the global kovid-19 pandemic, which up till now has infected globally 16,323,558, and killed 6,500,011 people. But these are statistics. Who can keep track of the heroism, hardship and even death suffered by front line health workers, the social downturns affecting education, commence, travel, etc; the adverse economic woes in most countries and the hardships we had to endure for months in voluntary or forced quarantine? Most are ordinary moral and spiritual ones. But there are numerous others, like other sicknesses and unexpected circumstances, personal, familial and others which embroil us completely. If we are ‘faith’-full, we immediate ask for Jesus’ help in carrying it; and we may have the good sense of relating it to that far off two-thousand-year momentous experience of Jesus (see Mt 16, 24). Sixth station. Veronica favoured with the image of Jesus That Veronica obtained a unique image of Christ face is a popular and accepted, traditional story, started in the 8th century and in a more serious vein taken up in the 12th. Probably, Veronica and her veil stayed rivetted to popular devotion because early she figured in most of various stations of the cross contemplated in different times. Her image of Christ gave way to the image extracted from the burial shroud, which with time far exceeded it and almost made it forgotten, copies and all. Among Catholics, the image provokes compassion and gratitude. It’s always the face of the Son of God, disfigured because of the depravity of sin, bearing also the many sufferings of mankind which he himself bore. And it galvanises Christ’s gratitude to whomever past or present shows compassion toward him.

Seventh station. Jesus fell the second time Not only exhausted physically, he carried himself along fatally wounded in his heart. The rejection of those since the start of his mission, others shallow in their superficial enthusiasm fail miserably when personally called to behave correctly. He cried over Jerusalem. “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold your house is forsaken and desolate” (Mt 23, 37). Surely the betrayal of Judas whom he had chosen weighted heavily on his delicate heart. Likewise, he dispersion of the twelve away from him at the moment of trial; and especially galling were the three denials of Peter, whom he had strengthened with his Body and Blood a few hours earlier and had him with the Zebedee brothers a few days earlier to witness his transfiguration. Not to mention peter’s own inspired declaration that he was the Son of God, the Messiah! Need I mention the countless times when we, his self- confessed close friends and collaborators, priests, religious and lay people, were found wanting while he yearned especially for our company? Therefore, may our hearts confidently rush to ask the compassionate God to forgive us. Help us to make up for Jesus’ hurt and stand to comfort him to the best of our abilities. A sure way to show that we really care is to look around and help all those who evidently are in need. Eight station. Jesus in compassion with the Jerusalem women Jesus engaged in mutual compassion with the women of Jerusalem (Mk, 8, 2). It was not usual that a condemned criminal on his way to execution would have the comfort of any compassionate group. Not in the case of Jesus. Despite the latest accusation and conviction there were isolated persons who stood for his innocence and were ready to back it. Others like most of the twelve stayed away because they feared exposure. Not a particular group of women. Convinced of his goodness, yet hardly concerned about the dogmatic and political strings involved, they steadfastly maintained their loyalty and openly wept over his sufferings while snubbed the threats and treatment of the rough soldiers and the jubilant jeerers alike. Seeing them, Jesus was moved. “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children” (Lk 23, 28). In the state he was in, he had thoughts of the sufferings they would undergo for the loss of the city and the fate of its inhabitants; and perhaps even for the lack of faith even their own children would never have in him.

Ninth station. Jesus collapsed under the cross for the third time A more profound motive for the repeated collapses of Jesus under the cross, besides his eroded physical condition and the treacherous rejections of his own apostles, was the incomprehensible will of the Father. Infinitely good and generous. The Father willed that the whole sum failings of humanity be weighted and atoned by the Redeemer! While we contemplate and try to be one with you, Jesus, brought low to utter weakness under the weight of the cross, it is natural that we get immersed in sentiments of deep sadness and sorrow for our sins. Yet in this redeeming malaise, thankfulness should fill our hearts too. Yes, Lord, you atoned for our sins, you freed us, you justified us before the Father. Indeed, you so united us to yourself, that we too have become children of your own Father, one family and friends with you. How could we thank you enough and ascertain that such thanksgiving be our high note sentiment all the rest of our lives!

Tenth station. Jesus stripped naked and crucified With the shedding off his clothes we enter the final phase of Christ’s drama begun with the institution of the Eucharist and soon followed by his arrest in the garden of olives, through the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, one of his own. From then on Jesus let the apparent power of evil have sway over him, playing havoc on his human dignity with his divinity hidden to let his humanity be burdened to the utmost as sacrificial victim for sin. Jesus exposed nude is a massive symbolism of Jesus’ frank openness of heart. Doing the will of the Father to the end as foretold by the prophet Isaias, he invites all to hide nothing from God and place everything at his service without pretences or allowances. Jesus perhaps more than anything else fought and opposed hypocrisy. Matthew noticed this trait and exposed it repeatedly (Mt, 6, 2.5.16; 23, 13 – 29). Lord Jesus, I adore you sprawled across the wood of the cross. Always, suffer me to stand bare before you.

Eleventh station. Jesus gave his last after three hours agony on the cross Jesus let himself be despoiled of his one piece fine linen tunic made by his mother and other clothing. Then he was sprawled on a bare cross. Unceremoniously, his hands and feet were nailed, metal wedged between bones at his wrist and down into wood. Horrible torture. Once nailed and roped he was hoisted and slugged into a dug hole in the ground with an excruciating jolt running through his whole body. Hardly settled in his new torture he was meted by taunts and ridicule. “He saved others, let him save himself. He confided in God where is he to save him, if he wishes him well? He said “he is the Son of God!” (Mt 27, 42- 43). He and his mission were derided. That mission was being realised in fullness at that very moment. Redemption was being accomplished. His very being cried out in agony, and finally burst into a stunted shout: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk 15, 34). Words used in Psalm 22, 1, and which concluded with a reaffirmation of complete trust in God. Unedited references aside, they expressed a very real way how the redeemer felt at the moment: the greatest trial borne in flesh, heart and spirit. How often, ourselves in dire need - apparent or real - have we cried out to the Father who appeared non-existent, silent and afar ...let to ourselves, abandoned! The Son Jesus who drank to the last dredges from the bitter chalice ...was to rise to new life. He himself in his flesh, heart and soul bore witness at that moment that we must trust the Father despite appearances of aloofness. Must we not believe him, when he proved himself totally at one with his dear only Son?

Twelfth station. Jesus lowered in death from the cross In your supreme sacrifice you turned to your loyal apostle John and confides your mother under his care. Standing under the cross, Mary in a profound way was called to utter a second time: “Yes!” This time she opened up to accept our motherhood in salvation. To whomsoever Jesus shed his redeeming blood, she assumed motherhood in mercy and love in like manner as the Father. We become bound to her in affection, evident whenever the Church falls down on its knees to invoke her, the Mother of Jesus. Mary too paid a high price for her role in the redemption of all. The words of Simon in the temple had rung out ominously: “a sword shall pierce your heart” (Lk 2, 35). Catholic piety attributes her with seven sorrows lodged deep in her heart. Mary, our mother, help us to really fathom from within the pain of your heart which bound you to your beloved Son on the cross. When we assist the dying after a long painful sickness, we often comfort each other by a platitude expressed no doubt in good faith: “Death brings all suffering to an end”. This rings true also about words to describe the end of Jesus’ sufferings, despite their limits and superficiality, said to all but especially to that God-man who is the Son of God. When Jesus died the veil of the temple ripped in two and there occurred others signs as well, like the centurion exclaiming at the foot of the cross on seeing clouds darkening amid thunder: “truly such is a Son of God” (see Mt 27, 51-54). In reality, nothing is darker or more mysterious than the death of the Son of God, who with the Father is the source and fullness of life. And nothing is more luminous than the glory of the almighty and merciful God. In the presence of the death of Christ we should kneel down in silent adoration. There we entrust ourselves to him without asking nothing in return in life or death that may separate us from him (see Rom 8, 38-39).

Thirteenth station. Jesus in death given to his mother Jesus having breathed his last soon started to turn cold. His friends were given permission to shroud him up from his slumped position, and raised him enough to enable loosening him from nails and wood and slowly lower him down from the cross. Bludgeoned, ashen and listless in death, Mary embraced his adorable body. Jesus found himself in affectionate contact with his mother after the frightful solitude of death: the strongest, the sweetest and the indestructible of links already is resurfacing. Just think of the Pieta of Michelangelo. And after her, we too embrace him, personally, at our own death, just before our soul departs to be thoroughly purified and then re-join him in everlasting new life and glory, soul and body.

Fourteenth station. Jesus laid to rest in Nicodemus’ tomb With a heavy stone blocking the sepulchre there seemed that all was finished with Jesus. But how could the very author of life remain prisoner of death? The sepulchre of Jesus up to our times remain a place of pilgrimage singled by deep silent devotion. But it is also a bone of contention with those whose intelligence and heart stay dead set against belief in Jesus’ resurrection, despite the fact that many consider Jesus a wonderful man, but no God. That sepulchre soon remained empty. And nobody could give a convincing answer how it remained empty except that Jesus had risen from the dead to new life, and he himself had this repeatedly confirmed with appearing first to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, to James and to the rest of the apostles, even chatting and eating with them. Prostrating by the sepulchre, we join the thousands of pilgrims who pray in gratitude for all the good received through the Risen Christ. On my first pilgrimage to the Holy Land entering the church of the Holy Sepulchre, I found myself near a canopied plane slab of stone were Jesus supposedly was laid after he had been put down from the cross. Instinctively, oblivious of the people milling closely about, I dared stretch myself along the slab for a few seconds, and prayed that I never ever be let to wander off away from Jesus. Then I followed the silent crowd to the spot of crucifixion, and let my hand reach deep down into the hole which secured the cross heavy with Jesus. And distractedly heard about the other conglomerate of legends allegedly associated with the place. In the sepulchre itself, it was altogether different: One by one all pilgrims could spend a few precious moments alone where Jesus was laid for two nights and a whole day in between awaiting his resurrection. I felt void of thought in there, as if the density of memories blocked all clear thinking. One thing struck me though. How could such a unique and distinctive small place be the tomb of my beloved? Easter Saturday reserves an aura of its own: a sombre quietness which smells of death and the tomb. The expectancy of hope was soon to implode - to happily produce the glory of the risen Christ.

On the fringe leading to the resurrection and beyond St. Mark goes his own way in reporting the Week of the Passion. Mk 14, 3 recalls that in Bethany Jesus was invited with his disciples at table in the home of Simon the leper. There a woman made her way among the guests and stopped by Jesus’ feet. From her robes she fetched an alabaster jar with pure nard, very costly, broke its neck and poured its perfumed contents on the head of the Lord Jesus. Some of the present took exception at the daring of the woman. Indignantly they asked "Why was the ointment thus wasted? (Mk 14, 5). For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor. And the reprimand went around until Jesus himself interjected and said: "Let her alone; why do you trouble her?" (Mk14, 6) She has done a beautiful thing to me (Mk14, 7). For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can always do good to them; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She anointed my body beforehand for burying. And truly, I say to you, wherever the Gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done, will be in memory of her" (Mk 14, 9). Needless to say, never was such precious ointment well spent! And Jesus justly highlighted the adulation she was to receive to the ends of time, wherever her exploit in the Gospel will be proclaimed. People kept loitering around Lazarus’ house in awe since his awakening from death. Jewish leaders likewise were keeping a close eye on him, especially, when Jesus happened to be around. It was an open secret they would be happier with both of them eliminated! …

Why are Jesus’ death and resurrection important for Christians? Unfortunately, like Christmas, in our postmodern age, Easter outside the Church’s influence has become largely divested of its religious significance. Globally, it is mostly celebrated as long as it attracts petty money. Jesus’ all-important death and resurrection for believers are not being given any thought socially and politically by huge chunks of the population, as if they have lost real value for present day mankind. Why did Jesus have to die for our sins? None of the world’s most daring heroes come close to the saving work that Jesus accomplished. Jesus elevated the entire mankind to the loftiest heights. He instilled new life with the qualities of sanctity to persevering believers. Despite the concurrent presence of amoral and sinful disbelief, his provident, salvific love and grace continuously raise saints to counterbalance and win the struggle of goodness over evil. If you are exploring the Christian faith, or you are a new believer, or simply that you want to deepen your Christian testimony, you may wonder why Jesus had to die? Was there no other way for God to reconcile us with him? That remains a rhetorical question. For we don’t usually press for answers to such questions. For they lead us nowhere. We are more than happy to limit our examination to illustrations of the present reality. St. Paul in his last letter, Romans 3, 20-26 affirmed “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus”. We may think we’ve led a good life and haven’t done anything particularly evil. If we were to measure our own moral standard against someone like Hitler, we may think that in comparison to him, we’ve led a pretty good life and none of our acts would compare to anything as atrocious as what he did. However, God’s standard is perfection. The only one who has absolutely led a perfect and sinless life is Jesus Christ. This is the standard to which we must measure up. When we compare our own acts to Jesus, even our best acts of righteousness fall far short. No one is expected to reach God’s perfect standards. That is simply not possible. Your righteous acts might be better than some but worse than others. This is why simply observing the law, loving our neighbour and trying to do good in good conscience is truly great but not enough in itself. Our own works cannot save us because they can never measure up. We absolutely need sanctifying grace, which God denies to no one, even without asking.

Everyone reflects God’s goodness God made us in his own image and likeness. Nothing mirrors this truth better than our inner goodness. But even the best of our righteousness can never measure up with him (see Is 64, 6). Even if we were to try to repent, on our own strength, we are only capable of something that is imperfect and likely driven out of self-interest. When our efforts call on his mercy, we are on a different level altogether. In the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, 11-32, the younger son realises that even his father’s hired servants are better off than he is, a swine herd. He decides that he will go to his father, ask forgiveness, say that he is no longer fit to be called his son and will ask him to take him back as a paid servant. However, while this might appear on first reading to be the moment where the son repents, you soon realise that his change of heart arises mostly because he is starving. It’s not because he realises how much he has hurt his father that he chooses to return. His “repentance” is like filthy rags. The son experiences true repentance only when he is in the arms of the father, after the father has run out to prodigally meet him and welcomes him back. This time, the younger son didn’t recite his prepared asking the father to take him on as a paid servant. He simply confessed his sin and said he was no longer worthy to be his son. . The Eucharist: the wonderful sacrament

All the sacraments are wonderful, more so the Eucharist. Each and every one of them brings the divine to bear with the human and transforms it to be carried in grace to new uncharted heights. The Eucharist takes what is humble very human fare and puts us directly to share the grace of life in Jesus. Let me enter before you quietly by the side door. I see myself as a 45-year ordained priest with my share of arrogance, pretences and hypocrisy. It’s been these last years that I earnestly prayed for freedom from these shackles which limit my efficiency as a mediocre minister at the service of the holiest. I struggle to act on your model, in humility, in acceptance of your will and of whoever approaches and accepts me in your stead and name. You deign to meet your people through me and with no merits of mine. I feel humbled shorn of all skills to engage pastorally, compliantly, with your gentleness and wisdom. At your feet as a flickering flame, I adore you wishing to be totally focussed in your living presence and power. You are eternally open in the company of your closest, the Father and the Spirit. Since assuming human nature, you are one with the Blessed Mother and St Joseph, the legions of angels and saints and indeed all of mankind past and present. Adoring you, there is no question of coming to you bearing the choicest of recalled sentiments and holding on to a few lofty theological insights but rather humbly embracing your presence and truly and simply falling to the ground in the state I’m in and in loving deference to you in spirit and truth. Contemplating the mystery of the Eucharist, Catholics easily fall short of the ability to express their sense of mystery which brims over one’s heart. To non-Catholics the Eucharist is hardly more than a wonderful remembrance. The Catholic by contrast, when in sync he is lost for words, struggles for breath, stammers even to dumbness in front of the Eucharistic mystery. You chose ordinary bread and wine, the daily most common food and drink fare, raised them up sacramentally to God the Father as your own flesh and blood offered on the cross at Calvary, and eventually to be ritually performed endlessly in his name and remembrance by his priests everywhere for the forgiveness of sins. Catholic theology always understood this as a mandate of Christ, which of itself constitutes the basis of the institution of the Catholic priesthood and ministry. The New Testament sources the Eucharistic mystery in the synoptic gospels and famously preceded by an account of St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians: 1Cor 1, 25; Mt 26, 28; Mk 14, 24 and Lk 22, 20. When I approach to contemplate the Eucharist, some of the above considerations always present themselves in my prayer. They provide a wide and deep perspective from the theological stratosphere to mingle with the pastoral dimensions at hand. First and foremost, each biblical account merits a slow, profound and loving reading. Likewise, the dogmatic implications specifically demand serious attempts at understanding at their original sources and subsequent authentic interpreters. Among these come to mind the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, the Magisterium among whom the recent saintly crop of Papal interpreters. Lastly, the way and how profoundly the Eucharist is celebrated throughout the world should be reflected in our adoration. This last engages us individually and lays open our intimate dispositions we hold dear in our ordinary relationship to Christ himself and the rest of the Church.

Victim and Priest: Christ’s sacrifice as realised in the Eucharist The offering of sacrifice to God is a central act of the virtue of religion. It is a morally binding act of obligation. The Old Testament is replete with this central act of religion. In contemporary society, most people have no awareness of it. Even Catholics who attend Mass are generally unaware that they are participating in a dutiful offering to God. Nor are they aware that it is the principal reason why there is a Sunday Mass obligation. The more society becomes secularized, the more the notion of sacrifice and its obligation becomes alien and difficult to grasp. Clearly, there is a great need for catechesis about the meaning, the beauty and the obligation of offering sacrifice to God. Sacrifice implies a particular person ordained to act as a priest whose duty is to offer sacrifice. Sacrifice and priesthood are inseparably linked. The priest indeed serves as an ordained mediator between God and man. This mediation works in both an ascending and descending direction. The priest’s ascending mediation involves his offering to God of gifts on behalf of the people and sacrifices for their sins in an act of adoration, thanksgiving, and petitions for the entire people. The ascending mediation is the priest’s offering of sacrifice. The Letter to the Hebrews (5, 1) defines the mediation of the priest in this way: “For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins”. The priesthood is thus essentially linked with sacrifice. The Son of God has infinite dignity both as victim being offered and as high priest leading other priests in offering the victim Christ and themselves in loving sacrifice. Christ offers himself with unlimited charity, both for the glory of his Father and for the love of all men, for whom he offers himself. Every man can say with St. Paul that the Son of God “loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2, 20). The holocaust is greatest and superabundant because he offers himself even in the worst and most humiliating kind of death with total freedom, holding nothing back. As John says in 13, 1, which introduces the Last Supper and the Passion: “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end”. Furthermore, the unity is total both between priest and victim, and between the priest, who is God the Son, and God the Father to whom it is offered. The unity is also greatest between the priest and those for whom he offers himself. In his Incarnation the Son has become the new Adam—the new head of mankind, for whom he offers himself. In the sacrifice of Calvary, Christ offered himself in union with all human suffering, redeeming it and giving it a redemptive sacrificial value when offered in communion with his Church. As we read in Hebr 4, 15, “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin”. The sacrifice of Calvary has an infinite value of reparation, for it gives infinitely more glory to God than all human sin put together gives offense. This sacrifice of Calvary was the true sacrifice prefigured in all the other sacrifices, the one sacrifice that is efficacious in itself. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that after Calvary no ritual sacrifices are necessary, for the sacrifice of Calvary fulfilled all the purposes of sacrifice, including propitiation for sin. No mere animal sacrifices are necessary, for they simply had prefigured the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. For this reason, the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law lost their principal reason for being, which was to prefigure the sacrifice of Calvary and the Mass. This was symbolically manifested by the rending apart of the veil of the temple on Good Friday as our Lord expired on the Cross. Likewise, it was also symbolized in the destruction of the temple some forty years later, never to be rebuilt, and even, wonder of wonders, the consequent cessation of the Jewish sacrificial animal rites worldwide ever since! Christ did not want his Church to be merely the beneficiary of his sacrifice, but he meant that it be also a co-offeror. He wanted her to enter into the glorification of his Father inherent in his sacrifice. The offering of sacrifice to God is both a duty and an inner need of man, a law written on our hearts. It was not enough for Christ to sacrifice himself for his Bride. he wanted his Bride to be able to offer herself to the Father, together with him, the perfect sacrifice. And since his Bride was to remain on earth until his second coming, he wanted her to be able to offer the perfect sacrifice in every place until his return. So, on the night before he died, Jesus wished to leave a perfect sacrifice to his Church. But what better sacrifice could he give to his Church to offer to God, since he himself in person was about to offer everything to the Father on the Cross? He could not give his Church a figure or prophecy of his own sacrifice, as God did to ancient Israel, for the figures were fulfilled on Calvary. Nor could he give the Church, his Bride, merely a symbol or remembrance of his great sacrifice, for that would be too little, superficial, almost void of meaning. The solution was worthy of both divine wisdom and divine omnipotence. Christ willed to leave to his Church the same sacrifice that he offered his Father on Good Friday. By instituting the miracle of the Eucharistic transubstantiation, Christ made himself present in the Eucharist as the divine Victim, the same Victim who was offered in a bloody manner on Calvary. Furthermore, by instituting the priesthood at the same moment, he arranged to be continually present as High Priest offering his own Body and Blood in the sacrifice of the Mass through the ministerial priests ordained to act in persona Christi throughout the ages until his second coming. Nothing less than the Sacred Heart of Jesus himself, burning with love for man, is present, mystically immolated together with his entire humanity and offered in this holy and immaculate sacrifice. On Calvary, Christ alone offered himself. In the Mass, he allows himself to be offered by his whole Mystical Body through every one of his ordained ministers.

‘God is Judge, Jesus is our ‘substitution’ A classic theological formulation of explaining Jesus’ death and sacrifice is that we rightly deserved to be punished for our sins. God is a just God. If a judge failed to punish the guilty, then we would not view him as a just judge. However, the question that always comes up is how God can fulfil both roles as a just judge and a loving father. The two would seem to be in direct contradiction to one another. Maintaining both his justice and his mercy as a loving Father would appear to be a delicate balancing act. How can he possibly be both at once? Various theologians over the centuries have attempted to explain this in different ways. Some like St. Anselm of Canterbury over-stressed the justice of God as a figure who requires a ransom in order to satisfy his just wrath. Other theologians have placed more emphasis on God’s love and compassion to the exclusion of his justice. The problem is that if we don’t hold both of these in equal tension, then we come away with either a God who is harsh and judgmental, or a God who overlooks all sin and evil because of his innate enormous, indeed, infinite love and mercy. Neither of these two options are acceptable. Because both ultimately lead to a God who is not intrinsically good. While the second option might initially seem like a better choice, a truly good and loving God cannot allow evil to go unpunished and for evil to triumph in the face of goodness. Other Christians have misunderstood the dilemma we perceive that God faces. At first glance, it could seem as if God is only giving us two alternatives: either we die for our own sins, or someone else dies in our place. This can lead people to mistakenly draw the conclusion that God is unfair. It could seem as if God is an angry judge who simply demands payment, and that anyone will do, so long as they satisfy this debt. Some may get the impression that God is simply punishing Jesus in our place as a third party, an atonement, as a substitute. However, this is an incorrect way of understanding the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity and God. Therefore, Jesus is both our judge and saviour. God does not simply punish an innocent or uninvolved third party in our place. It is God himself who takes our punishment. I came across many examples intent on ‘explaining’ a bit of this mystery. When metaphors or analogies are used to describe what has happened on the cross, these are inevitably imperfect and ultimately break down if we take them too far. The determining factor is almost always about where to put God’s redeeming love into it. No ingenious analogy approaches the reality of the mystery, and ultimately, we’ve got to lay down low and appreciate God’s wisdom and love in finding a way to effect redemption. When Jesus died for us on the cross, he had to be perfect and sinless. He was the equivalent of someone whose blood was not contaminated with the same disease of sin, otherwise the cure for our sinful condition would not be effective. The cross was not the end of the story. It was a period within which Jesus defeated death and broke the curse of sin. In John 19, 30, when Jesus cried from the cross “It is finished”, this was not a cry of defeat but a cry of victory. He was effectively saying “It is accomplished”. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead to bring his victory over sin and death to full completion.

Why did Jesus rise from the dead?

In 1Cor 15, 12-19, Paul talks about the importance of the resurrection for Christians. “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then, those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied”. The resurrection was a necessary event, as his death on the cross. God the Father raised Jesus from the dead so that we too might share in his resurrection. The resurrection for Christians is an irrefutable and unassailable historical event. 1Cor 15, 20 tells us that Jesus’ resurrection was the first fruits for all who die believing in Christ. Paul insists in 1Cor 15, 16-17 that if God did not raise Jesus to life, then the dead are not raised either. If the dead are not raised, then our faith is futile. As verse 19 tells us, if our hope is only something for this life only, and for nothing more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in the world. We might as well give up now and stop believing if it is all a delusion. This is why Jesus’ death and resurrection are the most important and essential part of the Christian faith. It’s also why simply following Jesus’ teaching or trying to live a good life without the saving power of the cross and resurrection is ultimately futile. World religions are based around doing good. The Christian faith is different. Jesus is not simply a prophet who gives us a set of rules to follow or words of wisdom to live by. In the first place, we are incapable of adhering to these properly as our own sinful nature prevents us from doing so. Secondly, it is Jesus’ death and resurrection which delivers us from the power of sin and the penalty of sin. Besides they allow us to have a new nature, enabling us to perform and persevere in good works. We are no longer subject to the old pattern of sin and death, instead we are able to break free of that cycle, begin anew and build a life in holiness. It is only when we have a new nature that we are able to live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, as Romans 8, 5 tells us. All those who believe in him no longer have to pay for their own sins, because Jesus has paid for it in full on the cross. Everyone who believes no longer has to worry about sin’s power over us or death, because we have the hope of new life. Jesus explained to Martha “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, … and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (Jn 11, 25-26). The mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the message that Christians hold on to. It is these truths that bring the promise of new life and hope for a future beyond this life.

Ascension of Jesus to the Father’s side The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the foundation truth of the Gospel (1Cor. 15, 13- 19). For this reason, the resurrection narrative has overshadowed the ascension event. But the ascension is of equal significance, and merits careful attention. David prophesied the ascension of Jesus when he announced the Lord’s enthronement at the Father’s right hand (Ps 110, 1). No other psalm is so frequently quoted in the New Testament — an indication of the importance attached to it. Jesus referred several times to his death, because the disciples struggled with the very concept of it: he told them plainly that he was going back to the Father (Jn 14, 12). While on trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin, Jesus announced to the high priest that soon he would be “sitting at the right hand of Power” (Mt 26, 64). The New Testament writers five times employ the Greek term analambano (to take up) of the Lord’s ascension (Mk 16, 19; Acts 1, 2; 11, 22; 1Tim 3, 16). Each time the verb is in the passive voice, he “was taken up”. The passive voice represents the subject of the verb as being acted upon. Thus, in this instance, indicating that the taking up was empowered from above, namely by God. If Jesus was not raised from the dead or if he somehow survived the ordeal of Calvary and died later, surely the Lord’s enemies would have vigorously sought to reclaim his body, thus nullifying the resurrection story. Christianity could have been crushed in its infancy. Those efforts, however, where ever they occurred, proved futile. That lack of evidence indirectly supports the record of the resurrection; there was no earthly corpse in the tomb. Even the burial clothes were neatly folded and left in place. The apostles themselves witnessed the Saviour’s ascension (Acts 1, 9-11). Luke, though not an eye-witness, carefully researched the record of this event (Lk 1, 3; 24, 51). Mark, who wrote under the influence of Peter (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 2, 15), took proper note of the ascension (Mk 16, 19). The event was taken for granted in other accounts of the New Testament (Acts 2, 33; Eph 4, 8-10; Phil 3, 20; Col 3, 1; 1Tim 3, 16; 1Pt 3, 22). At the time of his martyrdom, Stephen was permitted to actually see the glorified Christ and petition forgiveness for his murderers (Acts 7, 55-60). It is significant that Luke’s account of the ascension episode (Acts 1, 9-11), takes up only 63 words in the Greek Testament. This brevity demonstrates the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit. The ascension was never a point of controversy among the early disciples and the nascent Church. There are several significant doctrinal points connected with the ascension of Christ. It highlights the Lordship of Christ, who has the right to exercise “all authority” (Mt 28, 18; Eph 1, 20-23). On Pentecost, Peter spurred by the Spirit spoke openly about the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and asserted “Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2, 36). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost resulted in the establishment of the Church of Christ. The ascended Christ empowered disciples with miraculous gifts, by which the mind of God was revealed to humanity and subsequently preserved in a body of sacred literature (see Eph 4, 10ff). The ascension of Christ into heaven clearly reveals that, contrary to Jewish expectations, the Lord’s mission to this planet was not to overthrow Rome, and establish an earthly, political administration reminiscent of David’s (cf. Jn 6, 15; 18, 36; Acts 1, 6). The ascension of Christ demonstrated the manner of Christ’s final return. The disciples “beheld” Jesus vanishing into the clouds (Acts 1, 11b). The verb theaomai is employed twenty-four times in the New Testament. It is never used in a figurative sense. They literally saw Christ ascend. Additionally, Luke emphasized that “in like manner”, i.e., in a visible fashion, the Lord will return. The combination of these terms clearly indicates that the Saviour’s second coming will be a literal coming. This eliminates the spurious notion that Christ’s representative coming via the Roman armies (Mt 22, 7) in the overthrow of Jerusalem (Mt 24, 30) was his second coming (cf. Heb 9, 28). The ascension of Jesus provides us with a supreme confidence that we have a heavenly High Priest who, having been “crowned with glory and honour” (Heb 1, 13; 2, 7, 9) ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb 7, 25; cf. 1Jn 2, 1-2). This concept of a heavenly high priest is a prevailing theme in the book of Hebrews. The ascension argues for the proposition that our eternal destiny will not be upon a glorified earth. Jesus entered heaven as a “forerunner” for us (Heb 7, 20). By his return to heaven, Christ “dedicated for us” a new and living way that is not earthly in nature (Heb 10, 20). Earth is not heaven (Mt 6, 19-20). The ascension of Christ underscores the fact that Christians are charged with the responsibility of implementing his will on earth, as he reigns from heaven. The Teacher’s parting words commissioned his apostles to make disciples of every creature among the nations throughout the earth (Mt 28, 18-20; Mk 16, 15-16; Lk 24, 47). In the parable of the pounds, the nobleman (Christ), who went into a far country (heaven), expected his servants to wisely utilize, on his behalf, that which had been placed at their disposal. The servant who ignored this obligation was considered at fault and punished, along with those who acted as “enemies” (see Lk 19, 12-27; cf. Mt 25, 30). The Lord uses our feet and tongues to go everywhere and proclaim the good news. The treasure has been deposited with ‘earthen vessels’ (2Cor 4, 7). We are evangelisers ordinarily by our way of living.

Fifty days after the resurrection

The Day of Pentecost commemorates the day of the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in Jerusalem after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many Christians mark this date as the beginning of the Church. Historically, Pentecost (Shavout) is a Jewish feast celebrating the giving of the Torah and the summer wheat harvest. It was celebrated fifty days after Passover and was marked by pilgrims coming to Jerusalem from all over the world to celebrate the event. In the book of Acts, we read about an unusual event on the Day of Pentecost. About 40 days after the resurrection of Jesus, the twelve apostles and other early followers were gathered together in a large house in Jerusalem to celebrate the traditional Jewish Pentecost. Though not mentioned, there were present Jesus' mother, Mary, and other female followers. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability (Acts 2, 1-4, NLT). The crowd of visitors were astonished because every pilgrim heard the apostles speaking to him or her in their own foreign language. Some people in the crowd thought the apostles were drunk. With the Holy Spirit's empowerment, Peter preached boldly to them about Jesus Christ and God's plan of salvation. He explained that the people were not drunk, but empowered by the Holy Spirit. This was in fulfilment of the prophecy in the book of Joel that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all people. The crowd was so moved when Peter told them of their part in the crucifixion of Jesus that they asked the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Acts 2, 37, NIV). The right response, Peter told them, was to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. He promised that they, too, would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Taking the gospel message to heart, Acts 2, 41 records that about 3,000 people were baptized and added to the fledgling Church on that Day of Pentecost. It marked a turning point in the nascent Church.

Points of Interest The apostles prayed and cast lots and chose Mathias to replace Judas Iscariot. That brought their number back to twelve. However, Mattias is never mentioned again with the twelve or elsewhere. The title was unofficially hitched on Paul as the Apostle of the Gentiles. Before his ascension into heaven, Jesus had promised his disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit to give them strength and wisdom to spread the Gospel throughout the world: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1, 8. NLT). Thus, the events of the Day of Pentecost were seen as the last fulfilment of this messianic prophecy. The apostles' ability to address foreign visitors in their own languages was a miracle from God. After they were filled with the Holy Spirit, the Bible says the twelve apostles performed many other miracles and wondrous signs. Right from the start of the Church, as demonstrated on this Day of Pentecost in Acts, God offered salvation to all nations. Christians steadfastly believe that whoever calls on the name of Jesus, repents, and believes in him will be saved: "For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Rom 10, 13 NLT; see also Acts 2, 21). The rushing wind filling the whole house is reminiscent of the presence of God filling the temple in the Old Testament (2Chr 7, 1; Ezek 43, 5). Like the wind, fire is also associated with God's presence as on Sinai in front of Moses (Exod 3, 2). The celebration of Pentecost began in the Apostolic Church, and is recorded in Acts 20, 16 and 1Cor 16, 8.

Mary assumed body and soul to heaven According to a strong tradition, John the evangelist took Mary to Ephesus where he spread the Good News. With Mary other women formed a special group, very much like a religious community who established on a hill three hours away from Ephesus various small houses some. From here twice Mary was taken to Jerusalem where she spent considerable time, mostly in contemplation of the Holy Places associated with the Passion of Jesus. A late account relates the experiences of Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824), a mystic Augustinian Nun, about the life of Mary. This lengthy account took existing variously reliable legends into a single mystic document. Among its assertions, Mary would have visited Jerusalem for the last time when she was 64 years old, and there surrounded by many of the apostles upon giving her last breath she was assumed into heaven with body and soul. Not too long ago, German pilgrims built a beautiful church, dedicated to the Dormition of Mary, near the Roman Fortress to the south-east of Jerusalem, famous for the scourging and crowning of Christ received at the start of his Passion. According to similar but different tradition, Mary died at Ephesus where she lived regularly under the care of John as described above. Surrounded also by some apostles she gave up her pure soul, and body and soul and was taken up to heaven. After a hallowed very early Catholic tradition, Pope Pius XII in 1950 declared as a dogma of faith her bodily ascension to heaven: “It is a dogma revealed by God that the Immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven”. On 25 June 1997 Pope John Paul II proposed that Mary experienced natural death prior to her assumption into Heaven". The New Testament contains no explicit narrative about the death or Dormition, nor of the Assumption of Mary, but several scriptural passages have been theologically interpreted to describe the ultimate fate of the Mother of Jesus. Various apocryphal documents do contain narrations of the event. Mary’s assumption instils rightful wonder directed at such a worthy favoured first disciple of Jesus. Who uniquely merited so better an exit from earth in imitation of her Redeemer son? The meditation here offered perhaps stays too much on the almost obsession on the part of Mary with the pain experienced by Christ to the detriment of the joy of new holy life following his resurrection. However, the many appearances of Mary down history attest to the need that Christians must be truly aware what Jesus had to bear to effect redemption and that they too should live in constant penance in meaningful prayer. Because sin and the evil one is still very real in the quality of life they lead; and this is a reality in the whole Church and humankind. The final victory will come with his second coming, when he will be all in all, the Holy triumphant over all sin.

Spiritual maternity and intercessory power of Mary

I took Mother Adela, SCTJM, accessed on the internet on 25/2/20, as a guiding light for this meditation. Without undue repetition but with relevant information, this is a close and filial account of the subject. She is the woman associated par excellence to the sacrifice of Christ that won eternal and divine life for us. Having been the privileged woman who cooperated in a singular manner with the work of redemption, she is also, by divine design, the one who distributes the graces of Christ to us; she nourishes us, guides us, protects us and helps us grow in the life of grace and the supernatural life in order to reach the perfection and full stature of Christ, like St. Paul tells us in Eph 4, 13. It is hard to imagine how favoured we are to have such a mother who cares for our spiritual life. Because we often give particular attention to our natural life rather than to our supernatural life, we need to be reminded that the supernatural life is a superior reality: “Do not fear those who can kill the body but rather, those who can ruin the soul” (cf. Mt 10, 28). The famous chapter six of Lumen gentium which treats of Mary’s role in the Church beautifully synthesis this truth: “She conceived, brought forth and nourished Christ. She presented him to the Father in the temple, and was united with him by compassion as he died on the Cross. In this singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in giving back supernatural life to souls. Wherefore she is our mother in the order of grace” (Lumen Gentium (LG), 61). She does so with supplications directed to Christ in order to obtain grace for us. The Fathers of the Church referred to her as the all-powerful intercessor: because of her perfect communion with Christ, with which she desires what he desires, and because of her faith, a faith that moves mountains. When she suggested, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2, 5), she manifested what was needed and left the rest to her Son’s judgment. She left everything completely open to his will because she was sure that his will was the most perfect thing that could be brought to bear and that which would really solve the situation. She trusted in his superior knowledge, and in his wide and profound vision of things that embraced aspects and circumstances she might not have been aware of despite their age differences. It is this kind of faith which moved the heart of the Lord with greater force than the most astute arguments. When his mother spoke to him, his hour had not yet come; after speaking with so much faith, his hour came hurriedly in aid of the young couple. Her faith permeated the words of her brief suggestion, hastened the hour in which Christ manifested his divinity come quicker through an extraordinary manifestation that enhanced the faith of his disciples. She distributes the graces Christ obtained with his redemption. “The maternal duty of Mary toward humanity in no wise obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows his power. For all the salvific influence of the Blessed Virgin on men originates, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. It flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it. In no way does it impede, but rather it does foster the immediate union of the faithful with Christ” (LG, 60). She does this particularly when the Church is in danger, risks falling into error, or when attacked. Just as the pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire at night went before the Israelites in the desert to show them the way, the Blessed Mother – the new pillar as described to us through the dream of St. John Bosco – goes in front of us during times of confusion and battle, leading us safely to the Heart of Jesus and his Church. She does this also through apparitions that display her maternal concern for sinners, for difficult situations in the world, and for adverse situations in the Church. When did her maternity begin? From the moment of the Annunciation. When the Blessed Virgin received the call to be the Mother of the Redeemer. Her call to be the Mother of all mankind also began in an implicit and hidden manner. The Mother of the Head ought also to be the Mother of the Body. The Mother of the Redeemer has to be the Mother of the redeemed. The physical Mother of Christ will be the Spiritual Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ. The Blessed Virgin, by engendering Christ physically and naturally, also engenders spiritually and supernaturally all of the members of the Mystical Body of Christ – the entire human race. Therefore, she is the Mother of the total Christ – the Head and the Body; she is Mother physically of the Head and spiritually of its members, as Pope Pius X explained to us in his encyclical, Ad diem illum. The spiritual maternity of Mary is the complement of her divine maternity. “Because of the redemptive Incarnation, Mary became not only the Mother of God in the physical order of nature, but also in the supernatural order of grace she became the Mother of all men” (cf. Pius XII, Message to the Marian Congress of Ottawa, Canada, June 19, 1947).

Mary’s maternity We see some signs of the spiritual maternity of the Blessed Virgin over man (in its two facets: intercession and dispensation of graces) in the Gospels. We see this in the Visitation, when her presence brought saving graces to John the Baptist and the grace of the Holy Spirit upon Elizabeth. We also see it in Cana, where her maternal mediation brought about the first miracle. These two signs of her spiritual maternity reach their full realization on Calvary when, in an explicit manner according to the Gospel of St. John, Christ from the Cross directed himself to the Beloved disciple (and in him to each one of us) and gave her to us as Mother. “Behold, your Mother. …Mother, behold, your Son” (cf. John 19, 26-27). If the spiritual maternity of Mary in respect to man had been delineated since the Annunciation, it is clearly established on the Cross. Then, the words of Christ officially proclaimed and confirmed the spiritual maternity of Mary that existed since the Annunciation, but was formally consummated and completed through her most sorrowful association and participation in the redemptive sacrifice. This spiritual maternity upon man, confirmed and completed on the Cross, cost our Mother great sufferings, and she gave birth to us in intense pain; her heart was pierced. She gave birth to us while watching her Son die; her maternity is the fruit of pain. With the same ‘fiat’ with which she responded to the Annunciation by the angel that brought about her divine maternity, she embraced the annunciation of Christ on the Cross that brought her spiritual maternity. From that moment on, she received John, and in him, every human person as sons and daughters. Her heart was spiritually pierced and open to man for all times. When the angel told her, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son” (Lk 1, 31), She opened her immaculate heart to receive, with faith and obedience, the invitation for divine maternity. The second announcement of maternity came at the foot of the Cross. “The words of Jesus, ‘Woman, behold your Son’, opened the heart of the Mother in a new way. A few moments later, the soldier pierced the heart of Christ. With those words, the heart of Mary opened to receive those whom the pierced Heart of Jesus was to reach with his redemptive power” (cf. John Paul II, Homily, May 13, 1982, no.8). Just as the heart of Christ remained eternally opened on the Cross to pour graces of salvation upon humanity, the heart of Mary has remained eternally open to receive as Mother those who accept the redemption of her Son. John Paul II, in his encyclical Mother of the Redeemer, says, “It can be said that motherhood ‘in the order of grace’ preserves the analogy with what ‘in the order of nature’ characterizes the union between mother and child. In the light of this fact it becomes easier to understand why in Christ's testament on Golgotha his Mother's new motherhood is expressed in the singular, in reference to one man: ‘Behold your son’. It can also be said that these same words fully show the reason for the Marian dimension of the life of Christ's disciples. This is true not only of John, who at that hour stood at the foot of the Cross together with his Master's Mother, but it is also true of every Christian disciple. The Redeemer entrusts his mother to the disciple, and at the same time he gives her to him as his mother. Mary's motherhood, which becomes man's inheritance, is a gift: a gift which Christ himself makes personally to every individual” (no. 45). According to John Paul II, the maternity of Mary over the whole of humanity is the express desire of Christ, his final testament. This maternity is universal and personal; She is the Mother of the Church and the Mother of each member. Each one of us ought to enter into a personal relationship with her, a relationship of Mother and child. She desires that we maintain an intimate relationship with her as Christ had with her, and that this relationship be an extension of the love Christ had for his Mother. He desires that we love her as he loved her. Furthermore, her maternity is a gift of Christ to each of us. Such disciple ought to have a Marian dimension in his or her life. As well, the maternal mission of Mary ought to be received by each person. This is the profound meaning of the Holy Father John Paul II’s papal coat of arms. “The disciple took her into his home” (Jn 19, 27) … In other words, he took her into his heart, responding to the gift of Christ. He made her a part of his life, his spiritual life, his decisions and his physical life. And as Mary was given as Mother personally to him, the disciple responded with a “self-offering”. Self-offering is the response of love of a person, and concretely, it is the response to the love of a mother. “Entrusting himself to Mary in a filial manner, the Christian, like the apostle John, ‘welcomes’ the Mother of Christ ‘into his own home’ and brings her into everything that makes up his inner life, that is to say into his human and Christian ‘I’”(RM, 45). Christ entrusts and gives us his Mother. He consecrated us to the maternal care of his Mother because he knew that we need her to grow in the life of perfection and to defend ourselves in the spiritual battle against the devil. This maternity has real effects in our lives: it leads to the transmission of spiritual life, to the restoration of souls. It has the mission of guiding us, protecting us, educating us, forming us, and watching out for our needs. Because she is our Mother, she is the powerful intercessor and mediatrix of all graces. All of Mary’s earthly life was marked by her maternal care towards her Son and towards man. This maternal solicitude was greater at the moment of the Cross when her maternity was completed and confirmed and when, from the pierced heart of her Son, the Church, the Mystical Body of her Son, was born. From that moment her maternal heart turned towards the newly formed Church. She would be a true Mother for the Mystical Body of her Son; She would be with them in prayer, in watchfulness and in maternal diligence through her interventions and visitations; She would be with them through her generosity and her powerful intercession, through her constant and loving presence. She would intercede and intervene on behalf of all the many diverse needs of her children. She would aid the needs of men, bringing about with her prayer, meditation, and maternal presence, the salvific action and saving power of Christ. Her maternity is in itself a mediation. For this reason, John Paul II refers to it as a “maternal mediation”. He says, “Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings. She puts herself ‘in the middle’, that is to say she acts as a ‘mediatrix’ not as an outsider, but in her role as mother. She knows that as such she can point out to her Son the needs of mankind, and in fact, she ‘has the right’ to do so. Her mediation is thus in the nature of intercession: Mary ‘intercedes’ for mankind. And that is not all. As a mother she also wishes the messianic power of her Son to be manifested” (RM, 21). Furthermore, if Christ has called her to be Mother of all, he not only gave her the responsibility but also the rights of maternity – to intercede, nourish, bring about growth, protect, teach, form, etc. Finally, her intercession has a double aim: the good of man and the manifestation of the saving power of her Son. “This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in faith at the annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and lasts until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers, until they are led into the happiness of their true home” (LG, 62). What does this mean for us? First, it means that her maternity will continue without ceasing until the perfect consummation of the chosen – in other words, until the end of time. The mission of her maternity is to see Christ being formed in our hearts, to see that we live in Christ and with the life of Christ. It is her mission to lead us, by her intercession and maternal mediation, towards Heaven. What suffering it causes her to not find Christ or his divine life in souls. If St. Paul said in Gal 4, 19, “My children, for whom I am again in labour until Christ be formed in you”, what more can she say who, as our spiritual Mother, is supposed to give birth to Christ in our hearts? Moreover, her maternity serves to introduce men to Christ and Christ to men. She did this with the shepherds, the Wise Men, Simeon and Anna, and on a different level the wedding couple and their servants at Cana. In heaven, she has not forgotten about us. She lives interceding and intervening in the life of every member of the Church. For this reason, Mary is ever more powerful in her intercession after the assumption, after having entered heaven with body and soul and having been crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. With maternal love she watches over those who pilgrim amidst anguishes and dangers and. Being our Mother implies being involved in our lives and in the life of the Church. It is with good reason that St. Louis de Montfort said, “It prompts us to go to her in every need of body and soul with great simplicity, trust and affection. We implore our Mother's help always, everywhere, and for everything. We pray to her to be enlightened in our doubts, to be put back on the right path when we go astray, to be protected when we are tempted, to be strengthened when we are weakening, to be lifted up when we fall into sin, to be encouraged when we are losing heart, to be rid of our scruples, to be consoled in the trials, crosses and disappointments of life. Finally, in all our afflictions of body and soul, we naturally turn to Mary” … with the… “confidence that a child has for its loving Mother” (Treatise on True Devotion to Mary, no.107). Pope John Paul II constantly has had recourse to the maternal care of Our Lady, both in a personal manner as well as pastor of the Church. There has been no single occurrence, no single letter, no allocution, and no ministry that he had not confided to the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To her, he attributed his having been spared from the assassination attempt. “One hand fired, but another directed the bullet”. It is that bullet that is found today in the crown of the image of Our Lady in the Sanctuary of Fatima. “And as Mother of the Church, Mary assumed and crowned in heaven does not cease to be ‘involved’ in the history of the Church, history of the struggle between good and evil” (John Paul II, Homily, Aug 15, 1995, no.4). When the Church goes through the desert embroiled in the midst of great battles, Mary is always present to protect her children. And when a battle is fiercest, the children have recourse to the Mother; this has been the constant testimony of the Church. A prayer from the third century reads, “Under your protection we place ourselves, Oh Mother of God; do not refuse our pleas which we direct to you in our needs, but rather, free us from all danger, Oh glorious and blessed Virgin”. John Paul II, as a cardinal, spoke these words: “The experience of the faithful is to see the Mother of God as the one who is, in a most special way, united to the Church in those most difficult moments of its history, when the attacks towards her are ever more menacing. This is in full communion with the woman who is revealed in Genesis and the Book of Revelation. Precisely in those periods when Christ, and therefore his Church, are a great sign of contradiction, Mary appears particularly close to the Church, because it will always be the mystical Body of her Son… In those periods of history, the particular need of entrustment oneself to Mary is felt. God the Father entrusted his only Son to humanity. The first human person to whom he entrusted him was Mary. And until the end of times, she will remain as the one whom God confided the mystery of salvation in favour of the human race” (Lenten Sermons to Pope Paul VI to the Roman Curia, 1976). We have 2000 years of history in which we have seen many interventions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in key situations in the life of the Church. She intervened in her beauty and glory as Mother and as Queen. Mary has appeared under many titles to diverse peoples in different periods of history. The list presented here in some detail all depict Mary’s maternal care of mankind and remarkably point on the need of persistent prayer and penance. They relate to the monumental work of Jesus as Redeemer and the struggle with the power of evil not only opposing greater sanctity but also salvation to mediocre persons and colluders with the devil down the centuries. Mary appeared to children and humble people like herself. Our Lady of the Pillar: In the year 40 AD, she allegedly appeared in Spain to the Apostle James in order to encourage him in his efforts of evangelization, as he was not having much success. After the apparition, the Blessed Virgin Mary left a pillar with a small statue as a proof of her presence and to manifest the fact that she intervenes in history to sustain and support our faith. She asked him to construct a chapel, and upon its completion, it became the first church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Covadonga: Here, we see the intervention of the Virgin Mary in the re-conquest of Spain from the hands of the Moors (Muslims) begun by the mountain of Covadonga. Our Lady appeared in a cave there and animated the Christians to do battle, eventually bringing about victory and the re-establishment of Christianity. Guadalupe: In 1531, the evangelization of the Indians seemed almost impossible for the Spanish missionaries. The Virgin Mary appeared as a mother, a mediator of unity, who touched the hearts of the Indians while giving support to the spiritual authority of the missionaries and their bishop. She made possible the evangelization of eight million Indians. Saint Dominic: She obtained the conversion of the heretical Albigensians by means of the Holy Rosary which was given as a sure remedy against heresy. Lepanto: In the 16th century, the Muslims were invading Europe from the east and imposing their religion by force, thus destroying Christianity. They threatened to advance to Rome, and Pope Pius V called upon free Catholics to defend the faith. An army was formed and set out to meet the Muslims. On the 7th of October of 1572, the armies faced each other in the Gulf of Lepanto. Between them, they had more than 400 ships and 80,000 soldiers. However, the Christians were outnumbered. Before beginning the battle, the Christian army was encouraged to confess, attended Masses and prayed the Rosary, and concluded by singing to the Blessed Mother. At the beginning, the battle was unfavourable for the Christians as the winds were blowing in the opposite direction, which kept their ships still. In the meantime, the Pope, with a great multitude of people, was processing the streets of Rome praying the Rosary. Miraculously, the wind changed its course and filled the ships’ sails propelling them forward against their enemies, achieving victory. For this reason, to this day the date of October 7 throughout the Church is celebrated as the day of the Rosary. Napoleon: Pope Pius VII was abducted by Napoleon, but was able to return to Rome on the 24th of May, 1814, through the intervention of Mary Help of Christians. Napoleon’s army was defeated, and he was imprisoned for life. Besides, here are the nine major approved Marian apparitions closer to us, based on their acceptance by the Church and the importance they have assumed over time. The apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. Mary appeared four times to Juan Diego in 1531 at the Tepeyac hill near Mexico City. She proclaimed herself the spiritual mother of all mankind and left her miraculous image on Juan Diego's outer garment, his ‘tilma’. To this day Mexicans have a great devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. The apparitions at Rue du Bac, Paris, France. Mary appeared to Catherine Labouré, in the chapel of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, at Rue du Bac in Paris, three times in 1830. She showed her the design of the medal of the Immaculate Conception, the "Miraculous Medal". This medal, when propagated, helped to renew devotion to Our Lady, both in France and eventually around the world. The apparition at La Salette, France. Mary appeared to two children, Maximin Giraud, aged 11, and Mélanie Calvat, aged 14, in 1846, one afternoon while they were looking after their flock high up on the mountains. She appealed for penance and an end to blasphemy and the non-observance of Sunday. This apparition is credited with a major revival of Catholicism in the area. The apparitions at Lourdes, France. Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, aged 14, a total of eighteen times at Lourdes in southern France, at the Grotto of Massabielle. She asked for penance and prayer for the conversion of sinners, and described herself as "the Immaculate Conception." Lourdes is most famous for the miraculous spring which has been responsible for many cures accepted by the Church. The apparition at Pontmain, France. Mary appeared in the small town of Pontmain in north- western France to a group of young children for about three hours in January 1871, as the Franco-Prussian war was threatening the area. Her message appeared on a banner under her feet, and encouraged prayer while emphasising Jesus' love and concern. The town was spared invasion. The apparition at Knock, Ireland. Mary appeared at Knock, a small village in County Mayo, Ireland in August 1879. A number of villagers of diverse ages saw a silent apparition, which lasted about three hours, outside the gable end of the local church. They saw three figures, Mary, Joseph, and St. John the apostle, as well as a lamb on an altar and angels. The apparitions at Fatima, Portugal. Three children, Lucia de Santos, aged 10, and her two cousins, Francisco Marto, aged 9, and Jacinta Marto, aged 7, saw Mary six times between May and October 1917. She described herself as "Our Lady of the Rosary", while urging prayer, and particularly the rosary, as well as penance for the conversion of sinners, and the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. The apparitions at Beauraing, Belgium. Mary appeared thirty-three times to a group of children between 1932-33 at Beauraing in Belgium, in a convent garden near a hawthorn tree. She described herself as "the Immaculate Virgin" and "Mother of God, Queen of Heaven", while calling for prayer for the conversion of sinners. The apparitions at Banneux, Belgium. Mary appeared eight times to Mariette Beco, aged 11, outside the family home at Banneux, a small village, in Belgium. She described herself as the "Virgin of the Poor", and promised to intercede for the poor, the sick and the suffering. Hiroshima and Japan in the Second World War. On the 6th of August, 1945, a group of Jesuit priests were praying the rosary at the moment in which the bomb was set off. They suffered no harm whatsoever. Furthermore, the signing of peace with Japan at the end of World War II was on the 15th of August, 1945. Six years later, on Sept. 8, 1951, a more formal treaty was signed. Austria. 70,000 people committed themselves to pray the rosary for 7 years to rid themselves of Soviet communism. On the 13th of May in 1955, the Soviets were forced to leave the country. Brazil. In 1962, the left-wing Communists took power. A rosary and procession were organized in which 600,000 women went through the streets praying the rosary. Twenty- one days later communism was thrown out of the country. Philippines. In 1986 the Church celebrated a local Marian year. There was a great confrontation between the army and the people. A beautiful woman appeared to the army dressed as a religious, who told them, “Why do you want to kill my children?” The soldiers put down their weapons and liberation came to the Philippines. Cardinal Jaime Sin openly declared that this victory was the work of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fruits of Consecration. After the consecration of the world in 1984 and the Marian year of 1987, Europe experienced the peaceful fall of communism. Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical Redemptoris Mater (no.3) as an anticipation of the jubilee year 1987, a Marian year. The Pope foretold that its fruits would be expressed fully in the year 2000. John Paul II. His assassination attempt was on the 13th of May, 1981 – the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. The Holy Father publicly proclaimed that his life was protected directly by the intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that the messages of Fatima at the end of last century seemed to have been fulfilled. As recently as twenty-five years ago, in 1995, a statue of Mary appeared weeping blood in the household of Fabio Gregori of Civitavecchia, near Rome. From 1996 until 2018 our Lady herself and Jesus as well appeared to more members of the same family recommending prayer and penance for the preservation of the family, for world peace, against widespread apostacy in the Church and for faithfulness to the Pope’s guidance (see Vatican Insider, accessed on 25th August, 2020).

Pope Francis and co-redemption by Mary There is nothing in Pope Francis’s homily of December 12th, 2016, that rejects her co- redemption. From of his prior statements, it’s clear that he affirms this doctrine. In his morning meditation for the Solemnity of the Annunciation in 2016, Pope Francis states: “Today is the celebration of the ‘yes’… Indeed, in Mary’s ‘yes’ there is the ‘yes’ of all of salvation history and there begins the ultimate ‘yes’ of man and of God: there God re- creates, as at the beginning, with a ‘yes’, God made the earth and man, that beautiful creation: with this ‘yes’ I come to do your will and more wonderfully he re-creates the world, he re-creates us all”. Pope Francis recognizes Mary’s “yes” as an expression of her active role in salvation history—a role that we can call co-redemptive. During his January 26, 2019 vigil with young people in Panama, the Holy Father spoke of Mary as “the most influential woman in history”. He also referred to the Blessed Virgin as the “influencer of God”. Mary influenced God by saying yes to his invitation and by trusting in his promises. Pope Francis also affirms Mary’s union with the salvific mission of Christ up to his death on Cross and in the life of the Church. In his general audience of October 23, 2013, he notes that every action of the Blessed Virgin “was carried out in perfect union with Jesus. This union finds its culmination on Calvary: here Mary is united to the Son in the martyrdom of her heart and in the offering of his life to the Father for the salvation of humanity. Our Lady shared in the pain of the Son and accepted with him the will of the Father, in that obedience that bears fruit, that grants the true victory over evil and death”. The Holy Father also points out that “Mary’s ‘yes’, already perfect from the start, grew until the hour of the Cross. There her motherhood opened to embrace every one of us, our lives, so as to guide us to her Son”. Here we see Pope Francis affirming not only Mary’s fruitful participation in Christ’s suffering and sacrifice on the Cross but also her universal spiritual motherhood that embraces every one of us. Other statements of Pope Francis show that he recognizes Mary’s central role in salvation history. In his November 21, 2013 address to some Camaldolese Benedictine nuns he exclaimed: “We owe so much to this Mother! She is present at every moment in the history of salvation, and in her we see a firm witness to hope. She, the mother of hope, sustains us in times of darkness, difficulty, discouragement, of seeming defeat or true human defeat”. In an impromptu address given to the Servants of Mary on October 25, 2019, Pope Francis affirms Mary’s central role in the work of redemption. He told the Servants of Mary that their founders “left everything to become servants, servants of Our Lady, because they understood the role of Our Lady in redemption, a role that so often the so-called ‘modern’ theologies forget. But Our Lady brought us Jesus! And your founders understood this, they understood and they became servants”. Pope Francis likewise affirms Mary’s role in the mediation of grace. In his prayer of December 8, 2017, he refers to the Blessed Virgin as “Mother of grace and mercy” whose “open hands… let the Lord’s grace come down to the earth”. He has also referred to Mary as “auxiliatrix” and as the “Queen of the Saints and the Gate of Heaven”. All of these references and more show that Pope Francis accepts and affirms Catholic teaching on Marian co-redemption and the mediation of grace. He clearly sees Mary’s “yes” as a central moment in salvation history and he recognizes her union with Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross as spiritually fruitful.

Jesus’ mercy is greater than sin

Jesus insisted that calamities, maladies and sickness were never direct consequences of sin. Yet at times he matched a healing with the forgiveness of sins to the marvel of standers-by. The obvious inference is that both are the prerogatives of the Son of Man, with both being the attributes of the good and merciful Jesus, Master of the wholesome life and the Redeemer from all sin. The sin against the Holy Spirit is often identified with denying the manifestly known truth. Such a sin cannot be forgiven. A similar dictum less stratospheric but no less existentially appealing is despair of divine mercy, which is also unforgiveable, because no sin is greater than God’s mercy. This kind of sin is a refusal, the scorning of divine mercy. This sin harms more the person committing it. It is a false judgement to consider sins greater than divine mercy, Grieving more for their own plight is being unjust to me. Retribution is clearly their duty to offer love and bitter heartfelt contrition for the sins they have committed. They lavish such tender love on themselves and feel so sorry about the punishment they expect for their sins! So, you see how unjust they are. They scorn divine mercy. Do they turn to divine justice? It would seem that we have here a rigid separation between God's mercy and God's justice. However, St. Catherine of Siena makes it clear that it is not so much that God will destroy those who refuse his mercy; rather, God will permit them to destroy themselves if they do not willingly receive and accept his merciful aid. If we stubbornly will it so, we can cut ourselves off from him forever. For example, Catherine explains that the loving "glance" of Christ will be received differently by different persons on the judgement day, depending on their self-chosen dispositions. For St. Catherine, it is vital to our spiritual health that we come to self-knowledge, especially knowledge of how dependent we are upon God for everything: for existence itself, and for the grace that sets us free from sin. Yet we can only safely arrive at this self- knowledge in the light of God's infinite mercy; otherwise, in gazing at ourselves and our own sinfulness and nothingness, we could easily fall into despair. St. Catherine says that this is one of the ways that the devil tries to deceive and entrap us (section 66). Finally, St. Catherine gives us a beautiful symbol of the merciful love of God when Christ explains to her why blood and water poured out from his pierced side after his death. The ancient Church Fathers had generally held that these two elements flowing from the pierced side of Christ were symbolic of the graces of Baptism (water) and the Eucharist (blood), graces that Christ won for us on the cross, and from which the Church is born. Without contradicting this ancient testimony, St. Catherine is shown another layer of symbolism in the blood and the water. She asks our Lord (section 75): "Why, gentle spotless Lamb, since you were dead when your side was opened, did you want your heart to be pierced and parted?" Jesus replied: There were plenty of reasons, but I shall tell you the chief of them. My longing for humankind was infinite, but the actual deed of bearing pain and torment was finite and could never show all the love I had. This is why I wanted you to see my inmost heart, so that you would see that I loved you more than finite suffering could show. Thus, our Lord tells St. Catherine that his merciful love is so infinitely deep and broad that it could not be adequately expressed even by his (finite) act of dying for us in torment on the Cross - it overflows, so to speak, the boundaries of even that demonstration of his love, for no finite act could very fully contain or exhaust it! This is the same infinity of God's merciful love that St. Paul was referring to when he wrote in Ephesians of "the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Eph 3, 18-19). And of course, this is also the same symbol - the blood and water gushing forth from his pierced side - that our Lord will choose to sum up his infinite mercy when he appears to St. Mary Faustyna Kowalska almost six centuries later, and gives to her the image and message of the Divine Mercy. Since Christ’s messages to St. Faustyna Kowalska, the mercy of God has taken unprecedented importance but previous revelations were made to St. Mary Alaqoque and to St. Catherine of Siena and some Carmelite saints.

Did Jesus forgive Judas? Often, I find people struggling in their Christian pilgrimage who ask, why did Peter find forgiveness and apparently Judas found it more difficult. I encountered few fellow pilgrims who accept that Judas was left despairing without hope and finally hanging himself. One such pilgrim is Christopher R. Smith, who offered a plausible apologia in defence of Judas. (See his article published on the internet (edited on April 23, 2015) which I accessed on February 15th 2020. “There’s no question in my mind that Jesus forgave Judas. On the cross, Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’. This applied to everyone who was responsible for his crucifixion—not just the squad of Roman soldiers who actually put him on the cross, but also the crowds who shouted ‘Crucify him!’, the religious and political leaders who conspired against him, and yes, even Judas who betrayed him. Indeed, Jesus’ words also apply to all of us, whose sins put him on the cross”. The question we should ask is whether Judas accepted the forgiveness of Jesus. I’d like to argue that he might have. This may not be the majority view among Christians in history. (In the Inferno, for example, Dante put Judas in the very mouth of Satan, in the lowest circle of hell!). The Gospel accounts tell us that once Jesus had been condemned to death, “When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He said, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood’.” “This, to me, sounds like genuine repentance. There is open and specific confession of sin, and there is restitution—what John the Baptist once called “fruit worthy of repentance”. If Judas had not been genuinely repentant, I don’t think he would have returned the money he got for betraying Jesus. But apparently, Judas had not expected that the Jewish leaders would attempt, successfully in the end, to have Jesus put to death. He had only thought he was delivering him to arrest and detention”. When he saw where his actions had led, he repented, and saw deeply into his own sin. Possibly too, he re-lived Christ’s pristine love when he made the first move and chose him to be counted among the privileged twelve. This, at least is the reading of many English translations—that Judas “repented”. (The KJV, ASV, RSV, NRSV, Good News Translation, and several others have this reading.) But other English Bibles suggest instead that while Judas “was seized with remorse” (NIV) or “changed his mind” (ESV), he didn’t actually repent, he just felt regret. The Greek term is metameloma, and it does seem to mean something like “regret” or “change one’s mind” when it is used in 2 Corinthians (“if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it”) and Hebrews (“The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind”). However, it clearly means “repent” when it is used a little earlier in the gospel of Matthew. Shortly before the passage about Judas, Matthew quotes Jesus as telling the chief priests and elders, “John, the Baptist, came to you to show you the way of righteousness”, but “you did not repent and believe him”. (This is the NIV’s translation of the term there.) So, a good case can be made that Judas did repent of his sin of betraying Jesus, that he confessed it, and that he sought to make what restitution he could. The chief priests and elders turned him away, saying, “So what? That’s your problem”. In order to accept Judas’s confession, they would have had to admit that it was just as wrong for them to have conspired to put Jesus to death, but their pride and vested interests did not allow them to do this. When Judas did not receive the spiritual counsel and restoration that he was seeking and desperately needed, in despair he went out and hanged himself. But we should be very careful not to conclude that his suicide proves he went to hell in the end. People tragically commit suicide when they lose all hope–not when they lose all faith. “And so, I believe there is enough in the gospel narratives about Judas to conclude that he may have been a sincerely repentant sinner whom the religious leaders of his day unfortunately failed. But God knows what was ultimately in his heart, and he judges him on that basis”. One vital lesson for us is never to become so compromised by sin and pride ourselves that we cannot show the way to someone who, whether genuinely repentant or merely remorseful to begin with, might be led back to God through wise and compassionate counsel. The memory of Christ’s pristine love and calling for Judas are more than adequate reasons for his accepting forgiveness in spite of a hurried hopelessness but maybe not an utterly faithless suicide. Judas’ quandary brings to the fore countless examples of treachery and infidelity among the faithful, religious and priests. Many may have been threatened with real martyrs’ testimony but also with failing final perseverance through excruciating pain leading to moral extremes… And indeed, there was never such necessity of divine mercy to counter balance today’s easy liberal temptations to step off wildly into illicit wanderings of sex abuse or, more so nowadays - open to all - to consider procuring more available legally assisted suicide or euthanasia, or abortion, all unacceptable positions unworthy of Christ’s redemption, love and surely self-pre-emptive of heavenly promises. Suicide does not make news material anymore because of family pain and the lingering stigma, hopefully not because of its growing normality. Self-harm has been one of the less accepted behavioural fundamental axioms of the Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud the founder of psychoanalysis. This axiom has been positively useful to redirect it to the other pleasure principle governing faithful asceticism towards the acquisition of perfect bliss in God. ‘The son of perdition’ in John has to be reckoned. Apparently, this leaves little space for eventual salvation for his brother apostle, but John did not likely intend to pass judgment, but only to give vent to his deepfelt feelings about the enormous hurt Judas had caused first to Jesus and then to his brother apostles.

Jesus partaker of Yahweh’s unique function of Justifier Going through what’s been written on this subject I was attracted to the seminal insightful analysis drawn by Sam Shamoun in an article similar to the subtitle above found on the internet and accessed on the 15/2/20. What follows is a liberal account of his article supplemented by my own contribution to the subject. According to the Hebrew Scriptures Yahweh forgives sins for his own sake: "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more" (Is 43, 25). The ability to pardon sinners distinguishes Yahweh from all the other so-called gods (who in reality do not exist even though their worshipers think they do) since there is no one else who can forgive iniquities: "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Mic 7, 18-19). Moreover, Yahweh alone is the Saviour who is able of justifying or making people righteous: "Declare what is to be, present it— let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Saviour; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you end of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other… They will say of me, ‘In the lord alone are righteousness and strength.’ All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But in the Lord all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult" (Is 45, 21-22, 24-25). Another translation reads: "In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory" (Is 45, 25 ESV). If Jesus is God according to the NT Scriptures, we would therefore expect to find him doing that which Yahweh alone can do, namely, pardon sinners and justify them (justify in the sense of declaring them righteous and acquitting them of their transgressions). Lo and behold, this is precisely what we find the NT teaching: "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven", or to say, "Get up, take your mat and walk"? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . .’ He said to the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home’. He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!’" (Mk 2, 5-12) "Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven’. The other guests began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’" Lk 7, 48-49 Jesus doesn’t deny that he is able to forgive sins, which is something that only God can do, but goes ahead and performs a supernatural miracle to prove that he has the power to pardon sinners. Jesus further taught that forgiveness of sins comes through faith in his name, by his authority, and that he is the Saviour of the world: "He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms’. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Lk 24, 44-47). "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (Jn 3, 16-17). "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it" (Jn 12, 47). Even those who saw and heard him identified him as the Saviour of the world: "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’. So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world’" (Jn 4, 39-42). "And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world" (1Jn 4, 14). Moreover, the followers of Christ taught that their risen Lord is the one who justifies or declares and also makes people righteous: "Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting', the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me’" (Acts 26, 15-18). "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1Cor 1, 30). "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2Cor 5, 21). "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith" (Phil 3, 8-9). The apostles also believed that God grants saving faith and belief for the sake of Christ, on account of the righteous character and life of the Lord Jesus his beloved Son: "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Phil 1, 29). "Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours" (Ptr 1, 1). They even proclaimed that only Jesus could and does save, that salvation is found in Christ alone since he is its source: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4, 12). "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Hebr 5, 8-9). Thus, the NT ascribes to Christ the very characteristics and functions which distinguishes Yahweh as the one and only true God of all. This shows that the inspired authors truly believed that Jesus Christ is Yahweh God the Son who became man for our salvation. All scriptural quotations in this section has been taken from the New International Version (NIV) of the Holy Bible.

Stephen’s martyrdom inspired Paul St. Stephen, one of the first seven deacons of the Church, was chosen to serve the poor and the widows, and to perform other ministerial needs in the community as determined by the apostles. As the early church expanded, the first apostle bishops needed help, so they chose seven men who were “filled with faith and the Holy Spirit” to be appointed, presented, and ordained through the laying on of hands to extend the pastoral care of the apostles themselves (see Acts, 6-7). Only once Stephen is mentioned in two chapters of Acts (6 & 7) dedicated to him. And in what glowing terms! Stephen started his mission with a bang. Filled with divine wisdom, grace, and power, he welcomed many to the faith; he proved himself a great preacher and through him God performed many miracles among the people. His service to Christ soon led to his being put on trial by the Sanhedrin, where several false witnesses were engaged to testify against him. Yet even “those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like that of an angel” (6, 15). Stephen defended himself by preaching openly and unashamedly about salvation history, demonstrating Jesus Christ as the fulfilment of the prophets and the chosen Messiah and Redeemer. St. Stephen accused the Sanhedrin: “You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it” (7, 53). This incensed them, but bolstered Stephen who preached all the more boldly. The accusers rushed Stephen, “threw him out of the city, and began to stone him” to death, an execution overseen by a young man named Saul (later to be known as Paul, the apostle). St. Stephen’s last words were: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (7, 59-60). I quote liberally from one of the discourses famously preached by St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, which addressed the martyrdom of St. Stephen. ‘Yesterday we celebrated the birth of our Saviour King; today we celebrate the passion and death of his loyal soldier’. Jesus deigned raise humanity by assuming it himself, sharing his love with it and redeemed it. Without divesting anything of his divine nature, he enriched us with divine everlasting gifts. Stephen felt wholly uplifted by Christ’s love and his own dedicated service. Inspired by the biblical meaning of his name ‘crowned’, he felt deep loyalty towards his Master, with love as his special weapon, which he wielded fearlessly also to favour his killers by sharp argument and gentle persuasion. And when he failed, indomitably he gave his best love by forgiving them asking that they be spared punishment. There’s no record of Stephen winning over Paul, but his Christian witness must have cut deeply into Paul’s heart and showed itself abundantly later. And now Paul is sharing his joy with Stephen. Both experienced Christ’s blinding light, one physically, both mystically and both enveloped in his love. Love is the source and beginning of all kind of goodness. It’s an interior strength, the way that by leaps and bounds takes us to heaven. Whoever choses to live in love, can neither loose his way nor doubt his strength. Love leads, protects and lands us in heaven. Therefore, my brothers, because Christ’s love like a ladder carries us to heaven, let this love ever be authentic and strong; let us wield it as a weapon among ourselves, and use it to rise ourselves ever on high. Heavenly Father, St. Stephen, your deacon and the first martyr of the Church, was chosen to give up his life for you. Fill me with faith and embolden me with courage to profess Jesus at all times and in all circumstances, to preach the Good News of Salvation to the world in my words and through my actions. And when my time comes to depart from this life, may my lips be filled with love for you as I echo the words of Stephen, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’”. Amen.

Paul opened southern Europe to Christ

Opening remarks Any Carmelite bent low in prayer with Christ Jesus draws much theological sustenance in repeated delving into Paul’s profound thinking and complementary example. Saul, original name Saul of Tarsus, (born 4 BC?) Tarsus in Cilicia now in Turkey—died c. 62–64 AD, Rome, Italy. He was raised in Greek culture, and in the Jewish Pharisaic tradition. His father was a Roman citizen (for unknown reasons). He earned his living as a tent maker. However, he excelled among the rabbis during a three-year stint at Jerusalem. He distinguished himself as commander of the temple guard, where his special task was to ferret out Christian faithful, bringing them to court and even to lead ambushes far distant with the same end. He was prominent in the stoning of the deacon St. Stephen the first Christian martyr. Stephen’s plea for God not to count their sin must have jarred deeply in Saul’s conscience, but at the time he stifled that down and persisted with the persecution of other Christians. Saul’s all-riding concern was the keeping the Law in its entirety. He was honest and consistent. Open to God’s will. To Pope Francis’ mind his consistency was put to the test with God’s apparent higher arbitrary demands; this shaped a difficult character in him. Saul had been brought up to regard God’s law as one for all and did not admit changes to circumstances. Jesus’ break with the Law, or rather of bringing it to its fulness, was something too novel for him to chew hurriedly. He had to spend years in the Arabian desert to fully understand it… And he did it by passing in review the risen Christ and his pivotal role in the plan of salvation for mankind. Soon after Stephen’s martyrdom, Saul avid for more Christian blood, heard that some of them had distanced themselves and went as far as Damascus to avoid harassment. Saul was given letters from the Jerusalem’s synedrium enabling him to arrest them at Damascus and to lead them back for judgement. On his way there, he was struck down to the ground by the risen Christ who confronted him on his persecution of Christians (Acts 9, 4…). “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” "Who are You, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting", Jesus replied. Soul further asked what he should do. For all his bravado, Saul immediately showed himself submissive to the Lord Jesus at the turn of events. Looking around him, he discovered that he was blind. So, his companions had to lead him on to Damascus. There after three days lost in thought amid recriminations he was taken ta’ Ananias, a Christian leader, in front of whom the Lord had appeared in a vision telling him “Arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying”. And in a vision too, Saul saw a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight. With his sight restored, Saul without further ado, asked for catechism and baptism, all the while gaining his strength, praying and deepening his understanding of his new mission. However, eventually he spent several years in Arabia in the desert tradition, until he felt well equipped for the mission of evangeliser. Then he reached Jerusalem where he encountered his brother apostles and gave an account of himself to the wonder of all. Saul declared himself openly Christian, indeed the least of the apostles, and increasingly but not exclusively known as Paul, the apostle of the gentiles. St. Paul is considered as the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity. Even in his own day, he was one of the handful of leaders of the first generation of Christians, when he was a major figure within the very small Christian movement. But he also had many enemies and detractors, and his contemporaries probably did not accord him as much respect as they gave Peter and James. His letters, especially his surviving letters, have had enormous influence on subsequent Christianity and secured his place as one of the greatest religious leaders of all time. What influences did St. Paul have on Christianity? Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 are attributed to Paul, and approximately half of another, Acts of the Apostles, deals with Paul’s life and works. Thus, about half of the New Testament stems from Paul and the people whom he influenced. Only 7 of the 13 letters, however, can be accepted as being entirely authentic (dictated by Paul himself). The others come from followers writing in his name, who often used material from his surviving letters and who may have had access to letters written by Paul that no longer survive. Although frequently useful, the information in Acts is second hand, and it is sometimes in direct conflict with the letters. The seven undoubted letters constitute the best source of information on Paul’s life and especially his thought; in the order in which they appear in the New Testament, they are Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. The probable chronological order (leaving aside Philemon, which cannot be dated) is 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, and Romans. Letters considered “Deutero-Pauline” (probably written by Paul’s followers after his death) are Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians; 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are “Trito-Pauline” (written by members of the Pauline school a generation after his death). Life Paul was a Greek-speaking Jew from Asia Minor. His birthplace, Tarsus, was a major city in eastern Cilicia, a region that had been made part of the Roman province of Syria by the time of Paul’s adulthood. Two of the main cities of Syria, Damascus and Antioch, played a prominent part in his life and letters. Although the exact date of his birth is unknown, he was active as a missionary in the 40s and 50s of the 1st century AD. From this it may be inferred that he was born about the same time as Jesus (c. 4 AD) or a little later. He was converted to faith in Jesus Christ about 33 AD, and he died, probably in Rome, circa 62–64 AD. In his childhood and youth, Paul learned how to “work with his own hands” (1Cor 4, 12). His trade, tent making, which he continued to practice after his conversion to Christianity, helps to explain important aspects of his apostleship. He could travel with a few leather-working tools and set up shop anywhere. It is doubtful that his family was wealthy or aristocratic, but, since he found it noteworthy that he sometimes worked with his own hands, it may be assumed that he was not a common labourer. His letters are written in Koine, or “common” Greek, rather than in the elegant literary Greek of his wealthy contemporary the Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, and this too argues against the view that Paul was an aristocrat. Moreover, he knew how to dictate, and he could write with his own hand in large letters (Gal 6, 11), though not in the small, neat letters of the professional scribe. Until about the midpoint of his life, Paul was a member of the Pharisees, a religious party that emerged during the later Second Temple period. What little is known about Paul the Pharisee reflects the character of the Pharisaic movement. Pharisees believed in life after death, which was one of Paul’s deepest convictions. They accepted nonbiblical “traditions” as being about as important as the written Bible; Paul refers to his expertise in “traditions” (Gal 1, 14). Pharisees were very careful students of the Hebrew Bible, and Paul was able to quote extensively from the Greek translation. (It was fairly easy for a bright, ambitious young boy to memorize the Bible, and it would have been very difficult and expensive for Paul as an adult to carry around dozens of bulky scrolls). By his own account, Paul considered himself as the best Jew and the best Pharisee of his generation (Phil 3, 4–6; Gal 1, 13–14), as later he even claimed to be the best apostle of Christ (2Cor 11, 22–3; 1Cor 15, 9–10) - though he was always careful to attribute his excellence to the grace of God. Paul spent much of his early life persecuting the nascent Christian movement, an activity to which he refers several times. Paul’s motivations are not clearly known, but they seem not to have been connected to his pharisaism. The chief persecutors of the Christian movement in Jerusalem were the high priest and his associates, who were Sadducees, and Acts depicts the leading Pharisee, Gamaliel, as defending Christians (Acts 5, 34). It is possible that Paul believed that Jewish converts to the new movement were not sufficiently observant of the Jewish law, that Jewish converts mingled too freely with Gentile (non- Jewish) converts. Whatever his reasons, Paul’s persecutions involved traveling from synagogue to synagogue and urging the punishment of Jews who accepted Jesus as the messiah. Disobedient members of synagogues were punished by some form of ostracism or by light flogging, which Paul himself later suffered at least five times (2Cor 11, 24), though he does not say when or where. According to Acts, Paul began his persecutions in Jerusalem, a view at odds with his assertion that he did not know any of the Jerusalem followers of Christ until well after his own conversion (Gal 1, 4–17)! Paul was on his way to Damascus when he had a vision that changed his life: according to Gal 1, 16, God revealed his Son to him. More specifically, Paul states that he saw the Lord (1Cor 9, 1), though Acts claims that near Damascus he saw a blinding bright light. Following this revelation, which convinced Paul that God had indeed chosen Jesus to be the promised messiah, he went into Arabia—probably Coele-Syria, west of Damascus (Gal 1, 17). He then returned to Damascus, and three years later he went to Jerusalem to become acquainted with the leading apostles there. After this meeting he began his famous missions to the west, preaching first in his native Cilicia and Syria (Gal 1, 17–24). During the next 20 years or so, he established several churches in Asia Minor and at least three in southern Europe, including the church at Corinth. During the course of his missions, Paul realized that his preaching to Gentiles was creating difficulties for Christians in Jerusalem, who thought that Gentiles must become Jewish in order to join the Christian movement. To settle the issue, Paul returned to Jerusalem and struck a deal. It was agreed that Peter would be the principal apostle to Jews and Paul the principal apostle to Gentiles. Paul would not have to change his message, but he would take up a collection for the Jerusalem church, which was in need of financial support (Gal 2, 1–10; 2Cor 8–9; Rom 15, 16–17, 25–26), though Paul’s Gentile churches were hardly well off. In Rom 15, 16–17 Paul seems to interpret the “offering of the Gentiles” symbolically, suggesting that it is the prophesied Gentile pilgrimage to the temple of Jerusalem, with their wealth in their hands (e.g., Is 60, 1–6). It maybe that Paul and the Jerusalem apostles made a ‘political’ bargain not to interfere in each other’s spheres. The “circumcision faction” of the Jerusalem apostles (Gal 2, 12–13), which argued that converts should undergo circumcision as a sign of accepting the covenant between God and Abraham, later broke this agreement by preaching to the Gentile converts both in Antioch (Gal 2, 12) and Galatia, and insisting that they be circumcised, leading to some of Paul’s strongest invective (Gal 1, 7–9; 3, 1; 5, 2–12; 6, 12–13). In the late 50s Paul returned to Jerusalem with the money he and Barnabas had raised and a few of his Gentile converts. There he was arrested for taking a Gentile too far into the temple precincts, and, after a series of trials, he was sent to Rome. Later Christian tradition favours the view that he was executed there (1Clement 5, 1–7), perhaps as part of the executions of Christians ordered by the Roman emperor Nero following the great fire in the city in 64 AD. Mission Paul believed that the vision of Christ on his way to Damascus proved that Jesus was the Messiah and God’s Son, and that he would soon return. Moreover, Paul thought that the purpose of this revelation was his own calling to preach among the Gentiles (Gal 1, 16). By the time of his last extant letter, Letter to the Romans, he could clearly describe his own place in God’s plan. The Hebrew prophets, he wrote, had predicted that in “days to come” God would restore the tribes of Israel and that the Gentiles would then turn to worship the one true God. Paul maintained that his place in this scheme was to win the Gentiles, both Greeks and “barbarians”—the common term for non-Greeks at the time (Rom 1, 14). “Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them” (Rom 11, 13–14). In two other places in Rom 11 - verses 25–26 (“the full number of the Gentiles (will) come in” and thus “all Israel will be saved”) and 30–31 (“by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy”). Thus, Paul’s view reversed the traditional understanding of God’s plan, according to which Israel would be restored before the Gentiles were converted. Whereas Peter, James, and John, the chief apostles to the circumcised (Gal 2, 6–10), had been relatively unsuccessful, God had led Paul through Asia Minor and Greece “in triumph” and had used him to spread “the fragrance that comes from knowing him (God)” (2Cor 2, 14). Since in Paul’s view God’s plan could not be frustrated, he concluded that it would work in reverse sequence - first the Gentiles, then the Jews. Paul’s technique for winning Gentiles is uncertain, but one possibility is that he delivered talks in public gathering places (Acts 17, 17 ff.). There is, however, another possibility. Paul conceded that he was not an eloquent speaker (2Cor 10, 10; 1, 6). Moreover, he had to spend much, possibly most, of his time working to support himself. As a tent maker, he worked with leather, and leatherwork is not noisy. While he worked, therefore, he could have talked, and once he was found to have something interesting to say, people would have dropped by from time to time to listen. Possibly, Paul spread the gospel in this way. Travels Paul and his companions sometimes travelled by ship, but much of the time they walked, probably beside a donkey carrying tools, clothes, and perhaps some scrolls. Occasionally they had plenty, but often they were hungry, ill-clad, and cold (Phil 4, 11–12, 2Cor 11, 27), and at times they had to rely on the charity of their converts

Paul the brightest influence on the apostolic Church Letters Paul wanted to keep pressing west and therefore only occasionally had the opportunity to revisit his churches. He tried to keep up his converts’ spirits, answer their questions, and resolve their problems by letter and by sending one or more of his assistants (especially Timothy and Titus). Paul’s letters reveal a remarkable human being: dedicated, compassionate, emotional, sometimes harsh and angry, clever and quick-witted, supple in argumentation, and above all possessing a soaring, passionate commitment to God, Jesus Christ, and his own mission. Fortunately, after his death one or more of his followers collected some of the letters, edited them very slightly, and published them. They constitute one of history’s most remarkable personal contributions to religious thought and practice. Women supporters Despite Paul’s intemperate outburst: “women should be silent in the churches” - (1Cor 14, 34–36) - women played a large part in his missionary endeavour. Chloe was an important member of the church in Corinth (1Cor 1, 11), and Phoebe was a “deacon” and a “benefactor” of Paul and others (Rom 16, 1–2). Romans 16 names eight other women active in the Christian movement, including Junia (“prominent among the apostles”), Mary (“who has worked very hard among you”), and Julia. Women were frequently among the major supporters of new religious movements, and Christianity was no exception. Other ‘competitors’ Although in his own view Paul was the true and authoritative apostle to the Gentiles, chosen for the task from his mother’s womb (Gal 1, 15–16; 2, 7–8; Rom 11, 13–14), he was only one of several missionaries spawned by the early Christian movement. Some of the other Christian workers must have been quite important; indeed, an unknown minister of Christ established the church at Rome before Paul arrived in the city. Paul treated some of these possible competitors—such as Prisca, Aquila, Junia, and Andronicus—in a very friendly manner (Rom 16, 3, 7), while he looked on others with suspicion or hostility. He was especially wary of Apollos, a Christian missionary known to the Corinthians (1Cor 3, 1–22), and he vilified competitors in Corinth as false apostles and ministers of Satan (2Cor 11)! He called down God’s curse on competing preachers in Galatia (Gal1. 6–9) and asserted that some of the Christians in Jerusalem were “false brothers” (Gal 2, 4; compare 2Cor 11, 26). Only in the latter two cases, however, is the nature of the disagreement known: Paul’s competitors opposed his admitting Gentiles to the Christian movement without requiring them to become Jewish. The polemical sections of Paul’s letters have been used in Christian controversies ever since. Basic message In the extant letters, Paul often recalls what he said during his founding visits to the churches. He preached the death, resurrection, and lordship of Jesus Christ, and he proclaimed that faith in Jesus guarantees a share in his life. Writing to the Galatians, he reminded them “it was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified” (Gal 3, 1), and writing to the Corinthians he recalled that he had known nothing among them “except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1Cor 2, 2). According to Paul, Jesus’ death was not a defeat but was for the believers’ benefit. In accord with ancient sacrificial theology, Jesus’ death substituted for that of others and thereby freed believers from sin and guilt (Rom 3, 23–25). A second interpretation of Christ’s death appears in Galatians and Romans 6: those who are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death, and thus they escape the power of sin. In the first case, Jesus died so that the believers’ sins will be purged. In the second, he died so that the believers may die with him and consequently live with him. These two ideas obviously coincide (see below Christology). The resurrection of Christ was of primary importance, as Paul revealed in his Letter to the Thessalonians, the earliest surviving account of conversion to the Christian movement. Written to Christians in Thessalonica in Macedonia possibly as early as 41 AD and no later than 51 - thus no more than 20 years after Jesus’ death - the letter states (1Thes 1, 9–10): “For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming”. Since Jesus was raised and still lives, he could return to rescue believers at the time of the Final Judgment. The resurrection is connected to the third major emphasis, the promise of salvation to believers. Paul taught that those who died in Christ would be raised when he returned, while those still alive would be “caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air” (1Thes 4, 14–18). These and many other passages reveal the essence of the Christian message: (1) God sent his Son; (2) the Son was crucified and resurrected for the benefit of humanity; (3) the Son would soon return; and (4) those who belonged to the Son would live with him forever. Paul’s gospel, like those of others, also included (5) the admonition to live by the highest moral standard: “May your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thes 5, 23). See below Moral teachings. Churches Although Paul may have converted some Jews, his mission was directed toward the Gentiles, who therefore constituted the vast majority of his converts. The letters sometimes explicitly state that Paul’s converts had been polytheists or idolaters: the Thessalonians had “turned to God from idols” (1Thes 1, 9), and at least some of the Corinthians wished to be allowed to continue to participate in idolatrous worship (1Cor 8, 10). Pagan religion was very tolerant: the gods of foreign traditions were accepted as long as they were added to the gods worshipped locally. Civic loyalty, however, included participation in public worship of the local gods. Jews had the privilege of worshipping only the God of Israel, but everyone else was expected to conform to local customs. Paul to the Athenians Paul and other missionaries to the Gentiles were subject to criticism, abuse, and punishment for drawing people away from pagan cults. Although he showed some flexibility on eating food that had been offered to an idol (1Cor 10, 23–30), Paul, a monotheistic Jew, was completely opposed to worship of the idol by eating and drinking in the confines of a pagan temple (1Cor 10, 21–22). Thus, his converts had to give up public worship of the local gods. Moreover, since Paul’s converts did not become Jewish, they were, in general opinion, neither Jew nor pagan. Religiously, they could identify only with one another, and frequently they must have wavered because of their isolation from well-established and popular activities. It was especially difficult for them to refrain from public festivities, since parades, feasts (including free red meat), theatrical performances, and athletic competitions were all connected to pagan religious traditions. This social isolation of the early converts intensified their need to have rewarding spiritual experiences within the Christian communities, and Paul attempted to respond to this need. Although they had to wait with patience and endure suffering (1Thes 1, 6; 2, 14; 3, 4), and although salvation from the pains of this life lay in the future (5, 6–11), in the present, Paul said, his followers could rejoice in spiritual gifts, such as healing, prophesying, and speaking in tongues (1Cor 12–14). In fact, Paul saw Christians as beginning to be transformed even before the second coming: the new person with conversion begins to replace the old (2Cor 3, 8; 4, 16). The teaching of the resurrection of the body, however, was difficult for pagans to embrace, despite the fact that life after death was generally accepted. Pagans who believed in the immortality of the soul maintained that the soul escaped at death; the body, they knew, decayed. To meet this problem, Paul proclaimed that the resurrection body would be a “spiritual body”, not “flesh and blood” (1Cor 15, 42–55); see below: The return of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead. Moral teachings Although Paul recognized the possibility that after death he would be punished for minor faults (1Cor 4, 4), he regarded himself as living an almost perfect life (Phil 3, 6), and he demanded the same perfection of his converts. Paul wanted them to be “blameless”, “innocent”, and “without blemish” when the Lord returned (1Thes 3, 13; 4, 3–7; 5, 23; Phil 1, 10; 2, 15; Rom 16. 19). Paul regarded suffering and premature death as punishment for those who sinned (1Cor 5, 5; 11, 29–32) but did not believe that punishment of the sinning Christian meant damnation or eternal destruction. He thought that those who believed in Christ became one person with him and that this union was not broken by ordinary transgression. Paul did regard it as possible, however, for people to lose or completely betray their faith in Christ and thus lose membership in his body, which presumably would lead to destruction at the Judgment (Rom 11, 22; 1Cor 3, 16–17; 2Cor 11, 13–15). Paul’s moral standards coincided with the strictest view of Jewish communities in the Greek-speaking Diaspora. Paul, like his Jewish contemporaries the scholar and historian Flavius Josephus and the philosopher Philo Judaeus, completely opposed a long list of sexual practices: prostitution and the use of prostitutes (1Cor 6, 15–20), homosexual activities (1Cor 6:9; Rom 1, 26–27), sexual relations before marriage (1Cor 7, 8–9), and marriage merely for the sake of gratifying physical desire (1Thes 4, 4–5). However, he urged married partners to continue to have sexual relations except during times set aside for prayer (1Cor 7, 3–7). These ascetic views were not unknown in Greek philosophy, but they were standard in Greek-speaking Jewish communities, and it is probable that Paul acquired them in his youth. Some pagan philosophers, meanwhile, were more inclined than Paul to limit sexual desire and pleasure. For example, the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus wished to restrict marital sexual relations to the production of offspring. Some aspects of Jewish sexual ethics were not generally accepted among the Gentiles to whom Paul preached. Sexual behaviour, therefore, became a significant divisive issue between him and his converts, and for that reason his letters frequently refer to sexual ethics. His other moral views were as simple and straightforward to ancient as to modern readers: no murder, no theft, and so on. To all of these issues he brought his own expectation of perfection, which his converts often found difficult to hold on to. Paul’s opposition to homosexual activity (1Cor 6, 9; Rom 1, 26–27) and divorce were generally in keeping with Jewish sexual ethics. Male homosexual activity is condemned in the Hebrew Bible in Leviticus 18, 22 and 20, 13 - teachings that Christianity followed, thanks in part to Paul, even as it disregarded most of the laws of Leviticus. Jesus’ prohibition of divorce, along with his view that remarriage after divorce, if the first spouse is still living, is adultery (Mk 10, 2–12; Mt 19, 3–9), set him apart from most other Jews and Gentiles. Paul accepted the prohibition but made an exception in the case of Christians who were married to non-Christians (1Cor 7, 10–16). The consequence has been that, in some forms of Christianity, the only ground for divorce is adultery by the other partner. Interestingly, until the 20th century the laws of many state and national governments reflected this view. Two distinctive aspects of Paul’s moral teachings have been very influential in the history of Christianity and thus in the history of the Western world. The first is his preference for total celibacy: “It is well for a man not to touch a woman” (1Cor 7, 1). This view may have been a personal matter for Paul (ib., 7, 6–7), however, it was an opinion that he did not enforce on his churches. His motivation in part rested on the belief that time is short: it would be good if people devoted themselves entirely to God during the brief interval before the Lord returned (ib., 7, 29–35). Paul’s preference for celibacy, in combination with Jesus’ praise of those who do not marry (Mt 19, 10–12), helped to establish in Western Christianity a two-tiered system of morality that persisted unchallenged until the Protestant Reformation. The top tier consisted of those who were entirely celibate (such as, at different times in the history of the church, monks, nuns, and priests). Married Christians could aspire only to the inferior tier. Although celibacy was practiced by a small Gentile ascetic movement and by a few small Jewish groups - mainstream Judaism did not promote celibacy, because of the biblical mandate, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1, 28) - it was the passages from Paul and Matthew that made celibacy a major issue in Western Christian history. Paul’s second distinctive and long-lasting admonition concerns obedience to secular rulers. In his letter to the Rom 13, 2–7, he asserted that “whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (ib., 13, 2). In later centuries this passage was used to support the doctrine of the divine right of kings, which maintained that royal power came from God, and gave biblical authority to the church’s teaching of submission to rulers, no matter how unjust they were. This did not mean that the Church and its preachers did not oppose unjust rulers, even by martyrdom, e.g. Sts Thomas More, John Fisher and Oscar Romero, among many others up to our own times. Theological views Monotheism Paul, like other Jews following the prophet Elias, was a monotheist who believed that the God of Israel was the only true God. But he also believed that the universe had multiple levels and was filled with spiritual beings. Paul’s universe included regions below the earth (Phil 2, 10); “the third heaven” or “Paradise” (2 Cor 12, 1–4); and beings he called angels, principalities, rulers, powers, and demons (Rom 8, 38; 1Cor 15, 24). He also recognized the leader of the forces of evil, whom he called both “Satan” (1Cor 5, 5; 7, 5) and “the god of this world” (2Cor 4, 4). He declared in 1Cor 8, 5 that “there are many gods and many lords” (though he meant “so-called gods”), and in Rom 6–7 he treated sin as a personified or semi- personified power. Despite all this, Paul believed, at the right time, the God of Israel will send his Son to defeat the powers of darkness (1Cor 15, 24–26; Phil 2, 9–11). Christology Originally, Jesus had only one name, “Jesus”; he was referred to as “Jesus from Nazareth” (Mt 21, 11), “Joseph’s son” (Lk 4, 22), or “Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth” (Jn 1, 45) when greater precision was necessary. During his lifetime his disciples may have begun to think of him as the Messiah (“Christ” in Greek translation), the anointed one who would restore the fortunes of Israel. After his death and resurrection, his followers regularly referred to him as the Messiah (Acts 2, 36: “God made him both Lord and Messiah”). At some point, his adherents also began to refer to him as “Son of God”. Paul employed both “Christ” and “Son of God” freely, and he is also responsible for the widespread use of “Christ” as if it were Jesus’ name rather than his title. Paul sometimes shows knowledge that “the Christ” was a title, not a name, but more commonly he referred to Jesus as “Jesus Christ”, “Christ Jesus”, or even “Christ”, as in Rom 6, 4: “Christ was raised from the dead”. In all these cases, “Christ” is used as if it were part of Jesus’ name. “Son of God” in the Hebrew Bible is used metaphorically (God is the Father, human beings are his children), and this usage continued in postbiblical Jewish literature. The Jewish people in general could be called “sons of God”, and the singular “son of God” could be applied to individuals who were especially close to God. What Paul meant by “Christ” and “Son of God” cannot be known with certainty. He seems not to have defined the person of Jesus metaphysically (for example, that he was half human and half divine). In Phil 2, 6–11 Paul states that Christ Jesus was pre-existent and came to earth: he “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness”. This sounds as if Jesus was a heavenly being who only appeared to be human. In Rom 1, 1–6, however, Paul writes that God declared Jesus to be “Son of God” by raising him from the dead. This sounds as if Jesus was a human being who was “adopted”. Although both views—that Jesus was not really human and that he was not really divine—would have a long life in Christianity, until the Church decided by the middle of the 5th century, in the 4th ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, that Jesus was both entirely divine and entirely human. This solution, however, seems not to have been in Paul’s mind, and it took centuries of further debate to evolve. Paul’s thought concerning Jesus’ work - as opposed to Jesus’ person - is much clearer. God, according to Paul, sent Jesus to save the entire world. As noted above, Paul paid special attention to Jesus’ death and resurrection. His death, in the first place, was a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of everyone. Early Christians, influenced by the ancient theory that one death could serve as a substitute for others, believed that Jesus died on the cross so that believers would escape eternal destruction. For Paul, however, Jesus’ death allowed believers to escape not only the consequences of transgression but also the power of sin that leads to transgression. The believer was baptized “into Christ,” becoming “one” with him (Gal 3, 27–28). This meant that through Christ’s death, the baptized believer has mystically or metaphorically died and thus died to the power of sin that reigned in the world (Rom 6, 3–4). Death with Christ gave “newness of life” in the present and guaranteed being raised with him in the future (6, 4–5). Christ’s death, then, defeated sin in both senses: his blood brought atonement for transgression, and his death allowed those who were “united with him” to escape the power of sin. The physical universe also needed to be freed from “bondage to decay”. The fact that individual believers could escape from sin did not free the entire world. When the time was right, God would send Christ back to save the cosmos by defeating all the remaining forces of sin and to liberate all of creation. Once Christ defeated all of his enemies, including death, he would turn creation over to God, so that God would be “all in all” (1Cor 15, 20–28; Rom 8, 18–25). In this grand vision of the redemption of the created order, Paul shows how deeply he believed in one God, maker of heaven and earth, and in the cosmic importance of his Son, Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ According to Paul, all humans, no matter how hard they try, are enslaved by sin (Rom 7, 14– 21). The strength of sin’s power explains why the traditional Jewish view, that transgression should be followed by repentance and that repentance results in forgiveness, plays a very small role in Paul’s letters. In the seven undisputed letters, the word “forgiveness” does not appear, “forgive” appears six times (Rom 4, 7; 2Cor 2, 5–10), and “repent” and “repentance” appear only three times (Rom 2, 4; 2Cor, 9–10). Mere repentance is not enough to permit escape from the overwhelming power of sin. The escape, rather, requires being “buried with” Christ through baptism. While “buried with” and being “baptized into” are the most graphic terms describing the individual’s escape from sin, the most common word for this conversion is “faith”—that is, faith in Christ. The language of faith is ubiquitous in Paul’s letters and has a great range of meaning. The verb “to put one’s faith in” or “to believe” (the same Greek word, pisteuein, may be translated both ways) appears 49 times in the undisputed letters, while the noun “faith” (or “belief”) appears 93 times. Occasionally the verb means “to believe that” something is true (Rom 10, 9: “believe in your heart that God raised (Christ)”, but in 1Thesssalonians it means “steadfastness”. Paul feared that the Thessalonians were wavering under persecution, and so he sent Timothy to strengthen their faith. Timothy reported back that their faith was strong (1Thes 3, 1–13). Most frequently, however, the verb means “to put one’s entire confidence and trust in Christ”, as in Gal 2, 20: “the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God”. In Galatians and in Romans the phrase “be justified by faith in Christ, not by doing the works of the law” is used to oppose the view of some Christian missionaries that Paul’s Gentile converts should become Jewish by accepting circumcision and Jewish law. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham, the first of the Hebrew patriarchs, and it was traditionally required of all Gentiles who wished to worship the God of Israel. Thus, Paul’s rivals held that his converts were not yet among the people of God. Paul’s view, however, was that his Gentile converts could join the people of God in the last days without becoming Jewish, and he argued vociferously that faith in Christ was the only requirement for Gentiles. This is the meaning of “justification” or “righteousness” by faith, not by law, in Galatians and Romans. (“righteousness” and “justification” translate the same Greek word, dikaiosynē.) In later Christianity it was sometimes supposed that “works of the law” are “good deeds” and that Paul thus set faith in opposition to good works. This is not the meaning of the debate about “works of the law” in Paul’s letters, however. He was entirely in favour of good deeds, as the emphasis on perfect behaviour shows, and he did not regard good works as being opposed to “faith”. On the contrary, faith produced good deeds as “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5, 22). The question was whether his Gentile converts would have to accept those parts of the Jewish law that separated Jew from Gentile. Paul opposed making these aspects of the law mandatory for his Gentile converts. In Galatians and Romans, the language of “righteousness by faith” yields to the language of being in Christ. Thus, Gal 3, 24–28: “Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith”; “in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith”; those baptized into Christ have “clothed yourselves with Christ”; and the conclusion, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one (individually) in Christ Jesus.” “Righteousness by faith” is not actually something different from being baptized into Christ and becoming one person with him. Paul employed the language of righteousness and faith when he was using the story of Abraham to argue that circumcision was no longer necessary. The language that was more natural to him when he wished to describe the believer’s transfer from the power of sin to the power of Christ, however, was dying with Christ, being baptized into him, and becoming one person with him. The body of Christ Paul regarded his converts not only as individuals who had been freed from sin but also as responsible members of the collective body of Christ. Such a view probably also explains why it is difficult to sin so badly as to lose one’s place in the people of God. Only the worst forms of denial of Christ can remove a member from the body of Christ. The body of Christ is also important in Paul’s discussions of behaviour. A part of the body of Christ, for example, should not be joined to a prostitute (1Cor 6, 15). Since those who partake of the Lord’s Supper participate in the body and blood of Christ, they cannot also participate in the meat and drink at an idol’s table (1Cor 10, 14–22). Besides avoiding the deeds of the flesh, members of the body of Christ receive love as their greatest spiritual gift (1Cor 13). Those who are in Christ will be transformed into a spiritual body like Christ’s when he returns, but they are already being “transformed” and “renewed” (2Cor 3, 18; 4, 16); the “life of Jesus” is already being made visible in their mortal flesh (ib., 4, 11). Paul thought that membership in the body of Christ really changed people, so that they would live accordingly. He thought that his converts were dead to sin and alive to God and that conduct flowed naturally from people, varying according to who they really were. Those who are under sin naturally commit sins—“those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8, 8)—but those who are in Christ produce “the fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5, 22; compare Phil 1, 11; Rom 8, 2–11). This absolutist ethical view—those in Christ are to be morally perfect; those not in Christ are extremely sinful—was not always true in practice, and Paul was often alarmed and offended when he discovered that the behaviour of his converts was not what he expected. It was in this context that he predicted suffering and even death or punishment for transgressions (1Cor 11, 30–32; 3, 15; 5, 4–5). Paul’s passionate extremism, however, was doubtless often attractive and persuasive. He made people believe that they could really change for the better, and this must often have happened. Jewish law Paul reconciles Jewish law with Christian faith by using Jesus’ words “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another” (Jn 13, 34). He states that this single commandment is a fulfilment of the entire Jewish law (Gal 5, 14). He was sure that his Gentile converts were not obliged to accept circumcision and other parts of the law. In his surviving letters, he does not work out a principle that would require his converts to observe some but not all of the Jewish law. It is noteworthy that he did not regard Sabbath observance - which is one of the Ten Commandments - as obligatory (Rom 14, 5; Gal 4, 10– 11). One point is especially difficult. Paul maintained that the law is part of the world of sin and the flesh, to which the Christian dies. But how could the law, which was given by the good God, be allied with sin and the flesh? Paul, having nearly reached the point of equating the law with the powers of evil (Rom 7, 1–6), promptly retracts the equation (Rom 7, 7–25). What led him to make it in the first place was probably his absolutism. For Paul, everything not immediately useful for salvation is worthless; what is worthless is not on the side of the good; therefore, it is allied with the bad. However, he does maintain that the Jewish law is sacred and that the commandments are righteous and good (Rom 7, 12). He continues to say that his mind desires to obey God’s law, while his flesh makes him “a slave to the law of sin” (Rom 7, 21–25).

The return of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead In the Gospels, Jesus prophesies the coming of “the Son of Man”, who will come on the clouds and whose angels will separate the good from the bad (e.g., Mk 13; Mt 24). Paul accepted this view, but he believed, probably along with other followers of Jesus, that the enigmatic figure, the Son of Man, was Jesus himself: Jesus, who had been raised to heaven, would return. This view appears in 1Thes 4, which proclaims that when the Lord returns, the dead in Christ will be raised, and they, with the surviving members of the body of Christ, will greet the Lord in the air. At the end of time vision in 1Thessalonians 4, Paul indicates that he thinks that some people will die before the Lord returns but that many will not have died. In this passage he does not specify what will be raised, but the implication is corpses. As noted above, this belief was difficult for Paul’s pagan converts to accept, and Paul attempted to overcome their reluctance by emphasizing that the resurrection body would be changed into a “spiritual body” (1Cor 15, 42–54). A second problem was the time of his return: Christ did not immediately return, and the idea that believers would have to remain in the ground until he came was troubling. Paul responded to this by stating that the transformation to a Christ-like spiritual body was already beginning (2Cor 3, 18). He also, however, seems sometimes to have accepted the Greek view that the soul would be detached from the body at death and go immediately to be with the Lord; at death believers will be “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2Cor 5, 8). He restated this view when imprisonment forced him to think that he himself might die before the Lord returned (Phil 1, 21–24). Paul’s expectations have not yet been fulfilled. His letters, however, continue to reassure Christian believers that eventually the Lord will return, the dead will be raised, and the forces of evil will be defeated. I am greatly indebted to E.P. Sanders for his wonderful analyses, here absorbed and complemented, on St. Paul’s contribution and influence on the development of Christianity, accessed on the internet (20/2/20).

We need to pause and settle the issue, or non-issue, of the Sabbath and Sunday. It took a century to resolve without any real contentions. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, written around 57–58, he wrote, “For one person considers one day more important than another, while another person considers all days alike. Whoever observes the day observes it to the Lord” (Rom 14:5–6). The apostle is speaking here about the day which is being observed to the Lord, i.e., the day of worship. He appears to affirm that it is up to each person to decide what day. It must be noted, however, that Paul does not specifically mention the Sabbath here. From these texts it seems clear that Paul considered Sabbath observance a matter of personal conviction that was not important in itself. And this despite that It was one of the ten commandments. Moreover, since Paul was presumably responding to the churches in Colossae, Galatia, and Rome about matters which concerned them, it seems clear that some Christians were worshiping on days other that Sabbath in Rome and in Asia Minor around 54–58. Around the years 80–90, Christians were thrown out of the synagogues. This may have provided further stimulus for Christians to change their worship from Sabbath to Sunday. The apostle John wrote his gospel in this same time frame, significant because it provided for Christians an explanation of how God could change an “everlasting” law. John wrote how the world had been symbolically created anew in Jesus.

The Sabbath in the post-apostolic age In Syria, following the death of the last apostle, appeared a written guide for the teaching of Christians called the “Doctrine of the Apostles,” or the Didache. Its use was reported by church historians but the document itself was lost for centuries. It was found around 1900 in a manuscript dating back to the year 1000. The Didache taught: “On the Lord’s own day, gather together and break bread”. This is a clear reference invoking Christians to worship on Sunday written around the year 100. In the year 110—only twelve years after the death of the last apostle—Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, calls the Sabbath “antiquated.” The full passage of the letter of Ignatius to the Magnesians, reads: “Do not be led astray by other doctrines nor by old fables which are worthless. For if we have been living by now according to Judaism, we must confess that we have not received grace. The prophets . . . who walked in ancient customs came to a new hope, no longer Sabbatizing but living by the Lord’s day, on which we came to life through him and through his death”. There is widespread belief among Christian scholars that the institution of Sunday worship occurred in the apostolic or post-apostolic age in commemoration of the Resurrection. The New Testament itself never calls Sunday the day of the Resurrection but consistently “the first day of the week”. Moreover, nowhere does the New Testament suggest that the Lord’s Supper was celebrated in commemoration of Christ’s Resurrection. Neither do the earliest post-apostolic writings invoke the Resurrection as a reason for Sunday worship. The Epistle of Barnabas (A.D. 130–135) makes the first explicit mention of the Lord’s day worship being based on the Resurrection. Barnabas writes: “Finally He (God) says to them: ‘I cannot bear your new moons and Sabbaths’. You see what he means: It is not the present Sabbaths that are acceptable to me, but the one that I have made; on that Sabbath day, which is the beginning of another world. This is why we spend the eighth day in celebration, the day on which Jesus both arose from the dead and, after appearing again, ascended into heaven”. In the year 135 AD Jerusalem was sacked and the Roman emperor Hadrian prohibited Sabbath worship throughout the Roman Empire. Hadrian also prohibited anyone of Jewish descent from living in Jerusalem. A new Christian community was recruited for Jerusalem from other nations, and the bishops of Jerusalem until the mid–third century bore Greek and Roman names. Thus, after 135, even the Jerusalem Church worshiped on Sundays. Hadrian’s prohibition against Sabbath worship spelled the end of the Sabbath-or- Sunday problem for the early Church. Another council was not necessary. Justin Martyr confirmed the non-issue of Sunday worship in 150, writing: “On Sunday, we meet to celebrate the Lord’s supper and read the Gospels and Sacred Scripture, the first day on which God changed darkness, and made the world, and on which Christ rose from the dead”. It is worth pointing out that the unity of intent in the writings of the apostolic fathers speaks to the worldwide acceptance of Sunday worship between 100–150. In the year 321 the emperor Constantine made a new edict known as the Sunday decree: “All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable Day of the Sun.

Achievement and influence of Paul Paul’s greatest impact on Christian history comes from his letters, which are the most influential books of the New Testament after the Gospels. The Christological statements in his letters have been particularly important in the development of Christian theology. Although they do not form a complete system, they show a powerful mind grappling with the question of how to express the relationship between Jesus the Christ and God the Father. Paul’s letters inspired Christian thinkers for several centuries in their attempt to find a satisfactory explanation of that relationship. In the letters, Paul also developed powerful expressions of the human relationship to the divine in his ideas of faith as total commitment to Christ, of Christians as constituting the mystical body of Christ, and of baptism as becoming one person with Christ and sharing his death so as to share his life. On this crucial question of religion, Paul and the Gospel of John are the two great geniuses of the early Christian period. Paul’s view that the law of the Hebrew Bible is not entirely binding on Gentile converts gives biblical sanction to the selectivity practiced by subsequent Christianity. As discussed above, Paul rejected some Jewish law but accepted Jewish teachings on monotheism and homosexual activity, but he regarded the Sabbath law as optional. The latter view has generally been taken to mean that Christians are free from strict observance of the Sabbath law, even though it is one of the Ten Commandments. Most Christian churches have transferred aspects of biblical Sabbath laws to Sunday, and some, such as the Puritans, kept their Sunday “Sabbath” fairly strictly. The Christian world in general, however, has observed a weekly day of rest without regarding it as absolutely essential.

Wonders enacted by apostles after the resurrection of Jesus One day, Peter and John around three in the afternoon entered through the wide gates of the walls leading to the temple to pray. Near the Beautiful Gate they met a cripple who was being helped to take his usual place where he sought hand-outs from passers-by. He extended his hand and asked Peter and John for their offering. I too find myself praying at the time you gave your last breath on the Cross. At this hour the apostles together or in groups often made their way to the temple. Like them the Church down the ages took their example and joined in prayer in monasteries and nunneries everywhere to sanctify a particular time of day. Peter, feeling empowered by the Spirit, addressed the cripple in a way which caused a stir even in John’s heart. It was Peter’s first upsurge to speak and act in Christ’s name. He took the cripple’s hand and said to him: “Gold and silver we do not have, but I tell you: in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk”. The people who witnessed the return of the cripple to health huddled around the apostles near the Gate of Solomon. Peter addressed them with a dressing down on Jesus’ death. This struck a chord in some bystanders, who asked for information of how to redress the wrong done to Jesus. Most likely, they were told to look sincerely at themselves and discover what was wrong in their estimation of Jesus. And they were asked to obtain mercy from him and forthwith to act properly with everybody.

Antisemitism The Church’s commitment to being a reference and a beacon in the fight against anti- Semitism is plain to see. However, rampant ignorance lends itself to conditioning subtle and treacherously misleading ideologies and requires a commitment to examine the methods used in the transmission of the ecclesiastical Magisterium. This calls for the involvement of priests, Catholic media workers, teachers of religion in schools, leaders of parishes, catechesis, of the Pontifical Universities that educate the world's future priests, of the Pontifical Councils for Culture and for Interreligious Dialogue - among others. The world had a truly great Pope, Saint John Paul II, who made unforgettable gestures and declarations regarding a new awareness of errors of the past. We were deeply moved by these gestures and those of the subsequent two Popes. In England, anti-Semitism is politicized and derives from a visceral hatred of Israel (and lack of knowledge) fomented by a substantial section of the so-called "politically correct" political left, often disguised as "legitimate criticism of Israeli politics". In East European countries, ancient and so-called "classic" anti-Semitism of theological origin - not yet vanquished - is fuelled by a history of Communism polluted and distorted by lies and half-truths. All across Europe Jews are increasingly emigrating to Israel, the homeland dreamed of as a refuge from anti-Semitism by Theodor Herzl a hundred years ago. Histories of the region are rarely taught. Zionism is falsely equated with 19th century "imperialism" instead of its true definition as a national liberation movement. In his last extant letter Paul summarized both his total commitment to Christ and his complete confidence in him (Rom 8, 31–39): If God is for us, who is against us? … In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Psalm 51: Have mercy on me, O God

1 Have mercy on me, O God, in your faithful love, in your great tenderness wipe away my offences; 2 wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin. 3 For I am well aware of my offences, my sin is constantly in mind. 4 Against you, you alone, I have sinned, I have done what you see to be wrong, that you may show your saving justice when you pass sentence, and your victory may appear when you give judgement, 5 remember, I was born guilty, a sinner from the moment of conception. 6 But you delight in sincerity of heart, and in secret you teach me wisdom. 7 Purify me with hyssop till I am clean, wash me till I am whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear the sound of joy and gladness, and the bones you have crushed will dance. 9 Turn away your face from my sins, and wipe away all my guilt. 10 God, create in me a clean heart, renew within me a resolute spirit, 11 do not thrust me away from your presence, do not take away from me your spirit of holiness. 12 Give me back the joy of your salvation, sustain in me a generous spirit. 13 I shall teach the wicked your paths, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodshed, God, God of my salvation, and my tongue will acclaim your saving justice. 15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will speak out your praise. 16 Sacrifice gives you no pleasure, burnt offering you do not desire. 17 Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken, contrite heart you never scorn. (RIV)

The apostolic Church in Acts 1-15 Luke is the author of the Gospel bearing his name and The Acts of the Apostles usually dated to around 80–90 AD. Whenever Luke is reporting events in the first person he can be counted on as witness of the event and of what was said; at other times he is at best a secondary witness. Then the more reliable witnesses are the various letters of apostles, chief among them is St. Paul. During the lockdown I’ve read with fascination the accounts from the Acts as they are read in the daily Liturgy of the Mass after Easter. The reading was followed by a considerable time in prayerful silence. Acts recall the wonderful outpouring of grace following the resurrection of Jesus. After a lapse of some time, I returned to a careful re- reading and recalled the insights I had stored in my heart during prayer in the course of years. But this is beyond the limits set for this booklet…

A selection of instruction and mystical texts drawn mostly from Carmelite authors

My sweet hidden One, I lose myself in your shadow, there consuming my existence for the love of you my Master. At times, my thoughts are drawn to the eternal rewards so disproportionate to the sacrifices I’m called to submit to in this life. I feel astounded and carried over the wings leading to you and exclaim: “My good Jesus, nothing is going to stop me reaching you, my harbour of salvation, whatever the price I have to pay. Please, don’t repudiate me. This thought is like martyrdom to my soul, hidden to prying eyes while embraced to your bare cross all the days of my life. Whenever I share suffering with Jesus, that is joy, a yearning to join his suffering prompted by love. Nothing else attracts me better. My pleasure, who can ever separate me from you? Who dares break the sturdy chains binding my heart as one with yours? All else is laid aside. Until my soul unites with its creator. Temptations, pain, crosses; in such a condition the soul is free to sing its love to you. Not even death for that heralds eternal joy. Nothing can come between us, nor for short periods. My soul was made for you. It would go astray were it to rest on any other. My life is set on love. Like nectar doused with merciful love inflows deep within me where it purifies, regenerates and consumes with its flame. My heart cries “God my love, for you alone I long. My soul, bear pain and stay silent; love and hope; offer yourself and avoid your sacrifice to show with a smile and soldier ahead… I keep moving on threading lightly while enabled to hear the gentle voice of sweet Jesus. Dear sisters, I’ll find a way to submerge you in the waters of love and mercy. To get around the souls of sinners, but especially those of priests and religious. For this end little by little, my life will come to nought, consumed with the fire keeping company to Jesus in the tabernacle. I am aware of the vastness of my soul, its infiniteness, its immensity that this world cannot contain. Created to lose itself in you, my God, for you alone are big enough for it and hence to make it happy for ever. Blessed Sr Elias of St. Clement

Meditation on the Passion of Our Lord

Jesus remained silent on the Cross not because he felt badly for his detractors rather he was being consistent with his own declaration; ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they are doing’. Who can fathom the love of the heart of Jesus? Though you kept your mouth shut yet without uttering a word you revealed the mystery how you accomplished your coming to earth teaching the poor, the simple and the blind the way of virtue, patience, humility and to bear each other. You were the first to teach us all of this and all perfection. Blessed silence, the way chosen by you, Lord, to proclaim to your loved ones your wise teaching better than books and studies. You made yourself a fount of running water unlike tempests making a sea of havoc. As was written, ‘I did not come to be served but to serve’. O infinite Goodness, you make us red with shame because your words, works and patient example confront us always with: ‘Do as I do because I am humble and gentle of heart’. How can we learn to imitate him if by choosing his ways and example, that is by living in faith, hope and love? No better aids to walk in his way and fulfil his mystery. Lord, open our eyes and teach us. Without faith, there’s no light nor way to lead us to do good. Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

O my God and my delight, for your love I have also desired to give my soul to composing these saying of light and love concerning you. Since, although I can express them in words, I do not have the works and virtues they imply (which is what pleases you, O my Lord, more than the words and wisdom they contain), may others, perhaps stirred by them, go forward in your service and love – in which in I am wanting. I will thereby find consolation, that these saying be an occasion for your finding in others the things that I lack. Lord, you love discretion, you love light, you love love; these three you love above the other operations of the soul. Hence these will be saying of discretion for the wayfarer, of light for the way, and of love in the wayfaring. May there be nothing of worldly rhetoric in them or the long-winded and dry eloquence of weak and artificial human wisdom, which never pleases you. Let us speak to the heart words bathed in sweetness and love that do indeed please you, removing obstacles and stumbling blocks from the paths of many souls who unknowingly trip and unconsciously walk in the path of error – poor souls who think they are right in what concerns the following of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in becoming like him, imitation his life, actions, and virtues, and the form of his nakedness and purity of spirit. Father of mercies, come to our aid, for without you, Lord, we can do nothing. The Lord has always revealed to mortals the treasures of his wisdom and his spirit, but now that the face of evil bares itself more and more, so does the Lord bare his treasures more. O Lord, my God, who will seek you with simple and pure love, and not find that you are all one can desire, for you show yourself first and go out to meet those who seek you? Though the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit. It is better to be burdened and in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you are burdened you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden you are close to yourself, your own weakness; for virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience. St. John of the Cross in Sayings of light and love

Lord God, my Beloved, if you will still remember my sins in such a way that you do not do what I beg of you, do your will concerning them, my God, which is what I most desire, and exercise your goodness and mercy, and you will be known through them. And if you are waiting for my good works so as to hear my prayer through their means, grant them to me, and work them for me, and the sufferings you desire to accept, and let it be done. But if you are not waiting for my works, what is it that makes you wait, my most clement Lord? Why do you delay? For if, after all, I am to receive the grace and mercy that I entreat of you in your Son, take my mite, since you desire it, and grant me this blessing, since you also desire that. Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the nations, the just are mine, and mine the sinners. The angels are mine, and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me. What do you ask, then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in something less or pay heed to the crumbs that fall from your Father’s table. Go forth and exult in your Glory! Hide yourself in it and rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart. The very pure spirit does not bother about the regard of others or human respect, but communes inwardly with God, alone and in solitude as to all forms, and with delightful tranquillity, for the knowledge of God is received in divine silence. A soul enkindled with love is a gentle, meek, humble, and patient soul. A soul that is hard because of self-love grows harder. O good Jesus, if you do not soften it, it will ever continue in its natural hardness. St. John of the Cross in Sayings of light and love

Truly, Jesus you alone are the exquisite beauty.

You alone delight my soul. I call you, I cry for you, as I delve into the recesses of my soul. I dare ask him to crush me from the inside, that as a pure host he may find rest in me. Like you I would thirst with love for souls, that they may too overflow with love. I would rather die for self and all others that you only may live fully in me. Is there better comfort to know that Jesus is not in me? For he’s the Wisdom from whom no secret is hidden. He’s the Almighty who creates all. He’s the Justice which prompted him to become like one of us and atone for our sin. He’s the Providence ever wakeful and full of life. He is the Mercy, ever condoning. He is the Goodness who lets offences fly off. He is the Love who surpasses the mother’s tenderness, the brother’s concern, the spouse’s wild affection which drives him go out of the abyss of his greatness and seek full closeness with his creatures. Beauty which mesmerises! What can you think and not discover it in this Man God? Perhaps, you may imagine that the abyss of God’s greatness can never cover your nothingness and make them one? Love in him is passionate, it made him become man and man could not fear him. This passionate love likewise urged him to change bread and wine into the Eucharist and to hide his infinite being. A passionate love which changed his life and offered it as victim of atonement on the Cross. Perhaps you still harbour fear of him? Behold him welcoming children, endearing them to him, caressing them and drawing them to his heart. Or else, imagine him leading a flock of adoring sheep, bearing upon his shoulders one of them who had gone astray. Behold him standing by Lazarus’ tomb. Hear what he said about Mary Magdalene: Her sins though many are forgiven because she loved much. What is common among all these Gospel events, if not his good and tender heart, overflowing with love and compassion, indeed the Heart of God? He is the unfathomable treasure of my delight, my heaven. St. Teresa de los Andes

I urge honour from the heart with filial love to our beloved mother Mary.

These sentiments are unique and able to draw us devotedly to Christ. Every time we call her as the mother of graces and mother of mercy, and because love and mercy are necessary to lead a life of true devotion, to whom could we go to obtain by right if not the mother of love and mercy? For this reason, I join the Apostle: let us approach, therefore, ‘with a trusting heart the throne of justice, to obtain mercy and the grace we need’. But, to dare access with a trusting heart the throne of Justice, we need to have Mary’s love. This means that all who are proud to be considered her children and servants, or brothers need to have our lives be fashioned around this declaration, that we resemble our holy patron, our mother who merits all our love, our sister whom we admire and come to imitate her many virtues indeed inherit her wonderful spirit. If you reserve for her the love she merits, you also need to imitate her humility, purity of soul, poverty of spirit, docility of heart, in short, her total love for God and neighbour together with all her virtues. Daily, in offering your love and honour that rightly behove her, just after you offer yourself and whatever you may have garnered to the Holy Trinity, one with Christ and his merits, make it a habit that such an offer be made through the most beloved Mother. If anything, you do have behind it the word and the name of the Lord, the same should hold true with regards to Mary. Once dedicated to her, learn from her, consummate teacher, and ask her, the wise Virgin, to guide you. Fr Michael of St. Augustine, in ‘Mystical Institutions’

Wise counsels from our Mother

To be avid for perfection is always difficult and rightly so, because it means that we be at war with ourselves. But the moment we decide to do so, God himself comes to our souls to help us and there instils the great graces enabling us to perform wonders here on earth even though they appear little. We did the best when we gave up our free wills for his love and entrusted them in obedience on others. Why then we hold back whenever we are called to give up our interior renunciation? From the giving up of this interior resistance, all other calls for letting go assume bigger merits and greater perfection, and offers better chance of doing things faster and with greater peace of soul. We acquire this interior freedom when we slowly don’t follow our will and wishes, even in small things, until we succeed in subjecting our body to the dictates of the spirit. I repeat that everything or almost remain under the influence of what is agreeable to our wishes. However, those who want to please and serve God, the least they could do is to offer him themselves. Already, they offered him their souls. Why should they be afraid? We as religious and true people of prayer, should enjoy the gifts of God, and not be afraid to die for him and suffer martyrdom. And then, don’t you know that the life of a good religious – who wants to be counted among the best friends, the most intimate of God, is a long martyrdom? Long because, when considered with the brief martyrdom, suffered by beheading, can be thought of as long; however, life itself is short, and for some it is short indeed. How do we know if our life is going to be so short that it won’t last an hour, or far less, and that after we had decided to serve God well in everything? This is something that could well happen. That’s why we should never put our hope in something destined to last a little. Who is that person who thinks that he’s got only an hour to live and not does his best make the most of it? Believe me, there nothing so certain as such a thought. We need to learn and renounce our wills in everything. If we do our best inevitably and without knowing, we find ourselves at the peak of perfection. St. Teresa of Jesus in The Way of Perfection

The soul often loses itself in divine contemplation, enjoys prematurely as in an image, a little of the eternal freedom which no eye has seen, nor ear heard. However, once becoming aware of the heaviness of its mortality, the soul again falls back to its earthly limitations. Yet it keeps its inner eyes fixed on the door through which it perceived the joy of its true freedom, it yearns to go for it, but finds itself hampered by its own conditions. It is like the Jews, after their freedom from servitude in Egypt, they kept by the openings of their tents with their eyes on the cloud column while God kept them in conversation. We really are where we fix our inner eyes. Elias used to affirm: the living God where I stand. And he stood where his heart could be felt beating. What is the meaning that the people standing by the opening of their tents in prayer, kept looking at the cloud column, if not that their minds, turned to God’s greatness – though in mystery – raised from the bodily condition and humbly adored the Lord, though inaccessible in substance but he could be admired in his greatness as the Spirit gives and inspires.

St. Gregory the Great in On the Prophet Ezekiel

Dear friend, I delight in forfeiting my days in your shadow, even onto consummation of my existence, for love of my dear Master. At times, when my thoughts touch on eternal rewards, so disproportionate when put by the petty sacrifices I have to go through, my soul is astounded and becomes engulfed in a cry to all winds, calling on God: “O Jesus of my heart, I yearn to reach you my all in the heaven of salvation, at whatever pain or price. Let my martyrdom at the inmost of my heart, stay hidden from the sight of all. I dare confess that I want to spend the rest of my days clutched to a barren cross”. When we suffer with Christ, joy sets in; I want to share in suffering and joy, nothing else moves me. My delight, who dares drive a wedge between us? Who is so wily as to break the irons which keep our hearts as one? The disdain of creatures? Precisely this fires me up to my Creator… Tribulations, pain, crosses? In all these, the soul is most free and eager to love you. Perhaps death? No, that brings the beginning of true joy for the soul. Nothing, nothing can separate the soul from God for even a single moment. It’s been made for you; it would lose it is reason of being were it to lose touch for an instant from you. My life is love: like nectar it gives energy to my life, permeates with mercy my inner self, purifies, renews, and consumes me. My soul reacts to all this and cries out: Love of my God for you alone yearns my soul. My soul, bear pain and confine yourself in silence; love and hope; offer yourself with a smile for the sacrifices you have to make. Keep moving forward… I’m determined that in profound silence and from the bottom of my heart I listen to what you so tenderly want to say to me. Souls, I earnestly want to find ways that you may entertain the vastness of merciful love: sinners, more so priests and religious. For them I slowly let go my very existence into oblivion, like the sanctuary flame which expends itself adoring before the Tabernacle. In so doing, I am aware of the power, vastness and exceeding greatness of my soul that the immensity of the world cannot hold: it has been created to be one with you, my God, the alone infinite, almighty and so the only one to satisfy her joy. St. Teresa de los Andes

In the eremitical life, there are two aims to consider: one can be obtained by our own efforts through a virtuous life, though always with divine help. It comes with offering a sincere generous heart intent on avoiding all actual sin. We realise unto perfection what we yearn for when we hide by the spring of Kerith, where endorsed in love, as the Book of Wisdom attests, Love makes up for lots of sins. God wanted Elias to experience this aim, so he called him: Go hide yourself in the valley of Kerith. The other aim in our eremitical life is a pure gift of God: in some way we savour in our hearts and experience an anticipated awareness of his powerful presence coupled with the sweetness of his glory even in the process of life on earth. We would be able to drink the sweetness of God, as he promised to Elias when he said: You shall drink from the spring of Kerith. The religious should embrace this prophetic-eremitical life…

An invitation towards heroism in faith and love

It’s often said that we are living in an era of great men and women. Perhaps, it could be better were we to live in a decadent age where many would be urged to fight for needs and sacred values. One may understand why a politician of some weight might strive for certain values; however, we would like that he would uphold moral principles and ideals and not simply drive for aims based on human ambitions. Neo-paganism extols all human nature as emanation of the divinity: laying discriminate differences between races and peoples. Like stars show themselves different by clarity and brightness, similarly neo-paganism considers a race to be nobler and purer from another. And further distinguish it with greater intelligence and an inherent right to outshine the rest in the world. This necessarily carries with it the elimination of elements foreign to it and even to ban all things which apparently blemish it. This leads to the so- called race and blood cult. Such a core misconception may lead to fatal consequences. Poor we! when a baseless and wrong ideal of this kind fires mass enthusiasm with evil energy! Despite this, let us learn from our enemies. Their false philosophy inspires us to purify and shine our ideals; we may embrace with greater love our ideals, fire ourselves with enthusiasm and disposing ourselves to live and die for them, with courage even to inspire others. We, in-fact, confess that all comes from God and that we want that everything be done according to his will. We reject the notion of emanation from the divinity, nor do we divinise ourselves. We acknowledge provenance in dependence. When we pray and talk about that his Kingdom comes, we mean equality between peoples and in universal fraternity, even those who may hate and condemn us like the one who makes the sun rise over the good and the bad. Surely, we need not go through original sin again and pretend to be like God. Nor do we dream of being heroes because we somehow have a divinised human nature. We acknowledge God’s law and submit to it. We don’t want to sidestep him, rather we want to depend on him, our supreme being, and we live because he grants us existence. Notwithstanding, though we are aware of our dependence on him yet there is in us an inclination that runs contrary to what the Spirit wants, insists to follow its whims. At times with St. Paul we find ourselves doing what God does not approve, we find it difficult to work for perfection n our condition. We would like to be better using our talents according to our personality. And sometimes we think that we are what would like to be. Yet in our sober moments we do feel that our imperfections tower over us, that we need do better. In all honesty we find ourselves convinced that we can go ahead with more courage. Nothing is possible without a persistent fight. And further in our best mood, rather than shedding tears over frailties of ours or others, it’s better to take to heart St. Paul’s advice: “My grace is enough for you”. One with the Lord, I am able to overcome everything. We are in a world where even love is downtrodden, considered as weakness that needs to be won. We continue to hear: no shows of love, but a will to strive that all may be strong enough to lay aside weaknesses. Religion, Christianity, with its sermons on love is a thing of the past, and instead it should be replaced by German tradition of old(!?)… Yet, still Christianity comes to the fore with its teaching on love and finds people who welcome it wholeheartedly. St. Francis used to say that “love is not known”. A few centuries later in Florence, St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi found herself in ecstasy ringing a bell at the Carmelite monastery where she lived announcing how truly beautiful is love. I too want to ring several bells to tell the world how beautiful love is. While neo-paganism is averse is to love, we are all for it. History attests that love triumphs and continue to triumph over neo- paganism. We will never give up love. Even pagans will be won over. Nature is way ahead of neo-paganism theory. I firmly assert that despite the theory continue to despise rejecting love and confounding it with weakness, we proudly declare that living in love will upgrade the strength of love to triumphs and will hold sway over men’s hearts. Thoughts of Blessed Titus Brandsma .

Appendix: The aim of contemplative meditation, according to St. John of the Cross

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen In the atmosphere of fervour created by the generous practice of mortification, the soul that desires to attain contemplative union with God has to practice meditation — that is to say, mental prayer. This meditation, according to the teaching of St. John of the Cross, has as its aim to nourish in the soul a determination for abnegation. . union with God, he has recommended that we rouse and develop within ourselves a great desire to imitate Christ, the model of perfect abnegation, and to reflect on His life so as to learn from Him how we ought to act. Inspired with love for Christ in affectionate meditation, the soul feels spontaneously impelled to want to live as He did. This purpose of meditation as proposed by St. John of the Cross is a most important one. But it is, I would say, an “ulterior” one that is reached through a more proximate aim on which we ought to fix our attention: to attain the loving knowledge of God. This purpose makes the meditation of St. John of the Cross an introduction to contemplation. All the authors who explain the nature of the contemplative life teach that, to render it an effective preparation for contemplation, two practices are necessary: mortification and prayer, particularly mental prayer. Not all authors show with equal clarity in what way meditation can bring the soul close to contemplation. On this, as on many other points, St. John of the Cross is truly a master, although he depends on St. Teresa of Jesus. He is the theologian of Teresian spirituality, into which he introduces a scientific framework that receives its substance from the spiritual Mother of the Carmelite Reform. This article is adapted from a chapter in Union with God According to St. John of the Cross. Even in his doctrine on meditation, St. John of the Cross is completely dependent on St. Teresa. To throw more light on the thought of St. John, therefore, we will not hesitate to have recourse to the teachings of the great Teacher of Carmel.

Concordance with the doctrine of St. Teresa Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen In the Ascent of Mount Carmel, St. John of the Cross writes: The purpose of meditation and of mental discourse on divine things is to derive from them a little loving knowledge of God. (Ascent II, XIV, 2) These are golden words that indicate the particular intonation of meditation according to St. John of the Cross. To understand it well, we need to know the environment in which St. John of the Cross lived, and especially the concepts of St. Teresa by which he was particularly inspired. In the concept of mental prayer that the Reformer of Carmel had and that she expounded to her daughters, she made clear the affective character she gave to prayer. For her, prayer is “a friendly converse of the soul with God, in which the soul often speaks intimately with Him by whom she knows she is loved.” In short, it is an exchange of love: the soul understands that God loves it, and in its turn, it expresses its love to the Lord. It speaks with Him, and it speaks of love, precisely because it has felt the invitation to love. For that reason, St. Teresa has repeated: “Prayer does not consist in thinking much, but in loving much,” insisting thus on the subordination of thought to love. One must, of course, think during prayer — not for the purpose of becoming more learned but rather in order to love the Lord more effectively. That is why the saint insists: during prayer, do not spend the whole time reasoning, but when, after having spent some time in mental discourse, you are convinced that the Lord loves you, leave reasoning aside and, remaining quiet in the presence of the Lord, start up an affectionate conversation with Him. In this, open your heart with all the desires that you have for Him and for yourself, for His glory and for your needs. This, for St. Teresa, is the whole substance of mental prayer, and for that reason, it can well be said that, for the great saint, prayer is “a loving conversation with the Lord.” The theologians and spiritual masters of the Carmelite Reform wished to give an organic form to this doctrine of St. Teresa that would render it more apt for being taught. To this end, they distinguished the various parts, or the different moments that prayer presents in its concrete development. They proposed a little method of mental prayer, which has become common in various convents and monasteries of the order and was put together in the first Instruction of Novices of the Reform. It has been commented on many times by the first writers of the nascent family of Carmel. We do not know whether it was St. John of the Cross who organized this method, but there is no doubt that he approved it, because he affixed his signature to the document that authorized the publication of the Instruction of Novices, after having “examined and corrected it,” as the History of the Reform relates. Although we have nothing at all written of him saying that he directly expounded this method — because in his works he has treated of meditation only to show in what way the soul gradually detaches itself from it to go on to contemplation — his first biographer is quite explicit in this regard. In fact, Father Joseph of Jesus Mary Quiroga, who left us a most interesting biography of the saint and was his apologist at a time when his doctrine was meeting with opposition, has stated in a pamphlet the way in which the saint taught his disciples to make meditation. In Father Quiroga’s description, we find the whole substance of the little method of prayer that became traditional in the Teresian family. We have, therefore, all the necessary documents to be able to reconstruct with certainty the teachings of the Mystical Doctor concerning the practice of meditation. For him, all is directed to loving knowledge and affectionate conversation with God in order to prepare the soul for contemplation in the best possible way.

Index

Foreword The Annunciation Mary hastes in aid of her kin Elisabeth Entering the life of Jesus First reflection on Mary The Holy Family The prayer of Jesus Dreams in the Bible Every day in Jesus’ time The carpenter’s shop Meeting Jesus in the desert How did Joseph relate to Mary? And Joseph with Jesus? How Jesus did relate to Mary and Joseph, in prayer? The Ark of the covenant and the Tabernacle The temple and synagogues A last look at Mary’s household Out and about doing good Meeting John the Baptist Jesus in the desert Elias and Eliseus The school of Jesus Peter from extrovert fisherman to leader of apostles The sons of Zebedee, James and John St. James of Alphaeus, or the Less Thomas and Philip, followers of John the Baptist, apostles of character The evangelist Mark St. Andrew, Peter’s brother St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist Nathanael in John, Bartholomew in the Synoptics St. Luke, evangelist Simon the Zealot, Judas and Jude Thaddaeus St. Barnabas companion of St. Paul in Asia Minor The seventy disciples For once, Mary stepped out to urge Jesus to save the wedding feast at Cana Nicodemus Joseph of Arimathea The Samaritan woman Zacchaeus, the other tax collector Jesus, Lazarus and his sisters Two anointings by different women, John 12, 1-11 Two Marys, icons of contemplatives Mary Magdalene, top loyal disciple and apostle to the apostles The disciples of Emmaus Was Jesus ever rude? Jesus and Women Companionship, friendship and wedded love There exist happy and unhappy marriages Trust and enlightenment The interactions of Jesus with his mother Martha and Mary John whom Jesus loved Proclaiming the good news everywhere The free will of angels Jesus taught with authority Jesus wrought lots of miracles, among others, healed groves, drove out devils, raised a few to life Last journey north Palm Sunday Holy Thursday The enactment of the pristine mystery of the Eucharist Good Friday The stations of the cross On the fringe leading to the resurrection and beyond Why are Jesus’ death and resurrection important for Christians? Everyone reflects God’s goodness The Eucharist: the wonderful sacrament Victim and priest: Christ’s sacrifice as realised in the Eucharist ‘God is Judge, Jesus is our ‘substitution’ Why did Jesus rise from the dead? Ascension of Jesus to the Father’s side Fifty days after the resurrection Points of interest Mary assumed with body and soul to heaven Spiritual maternity and intercessory power of Mary Mary appeared with messages of hope, prayer and penance Pope Francis and co-redemption by Mary Jesus’ mercy is greater than sin Did Jesus forgive Judas? Jesus partaker of Yahweh’s unique function as Justifier Stephen’s martyrdom inspired Paul Paul the apostle opened southern Europe to Christ Paul the brightest influence on the apostolic Church Wonders enacted by apostles after the resurrection of Jesus Antisemitism The apostolic Church in Acts 1-15 Psalm 51: Have mercy on me, O God A selection of instruction and mystical texts drawn mostly from Carmelite authors Appendix: The aim of contemplative meditation, according to St. John of the Cross and Concordance with the doctrine of St. Teresa