Reflections 2020

5th April 2020

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)

To behold God in all things is to live in complete joy … He does all that is good and tolerates
all that is evil. It’s not evil itself that is honourable; it’s our Lord’s tolerance of it that is
worthy of honour.
(The Showings, Ch. 35)
29th March 2020

Teresa of Avila (1515-15-82)

Contemplative prayer teaches us to be mindful of what we are doing. It inspires us to seek
reconciliation with our God. It helps us draw the strength we need to elevate our souls. We
must believe that if we abandon the path of prayer, we are flirting with grave danger … The
Prayer of Quiet is a little spark of True Love that the Lord begins to ignite in our soul … This
little spark is a sign of God’s promise that he has chosen the soul for great things … All the
soul needs to do during these times of quietude is be still and make no noise.
(The Book of my Life, 103-4)
22nd March 2020

10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other

people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a
week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but
13

beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all
those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be
exalted.”

(Luke 18: 10-14)

15th March 2020

It is noon at Jacob's well. Tired from the journey, Jesus stops to rest. The Word of God is
hungry and thirsty. He calls a woman and her fellow citizens to faith. A Samaritan woman
comes to the well at the hour when the sun is burning. Perhaps this woman of bad reputation
comes at this hour to avoid an encounter. But there is someone sitting by the well. Who is he?
He is a Jew, and Jews do not associate with Samaritans. It is an old story of schism and fear
of contamination. In the eyes of Jesus, Samaria is like this woman who has five husbands. It
has become a prostitute to the idols. But the Word of God is thirsty. He desires the faith of
this woman. He begins playing a game of question and answer with her. By the questions he
raises, Jesus breaks through to the heart of this woman. She cannot avoid the question, who is
this man who is greater than Jacob? Is he a prophet? Is he possibly the Messiah? Refreshed
by the water of life, the Samaritan woman runs to the village, announcing the good news of
the mystery of Jesus. The hunger of the Word has now been satisfied. By introducing the
woman to the life of faith, by bringing to God true worshippers, Jesus has begun to fulfil his
mission. The Samaritans are already on the way. Their adherence to Jesus, the Saviour of the
world, prefigures the fruitfulness of a gospel preached to the ends of the earth.
8th March 2020
At this second station on our Lenten journey we meet Jesus transfigured on the mountain.
This story serves as an icon for our contemplation, an opening through which we can see a
divine and mysterious world simultaneously near and far. In Matthew's gospel, it is scarcely a
week since Jesus predicted to his disciples his passion and their part in it. The three disciples
who witness Jesus' glory on the mountain are thus strengthened to witness his agony in the
garden. Suddenly they see Jesus as he will become. Upon this human face which is
threatened with the shadow of death, the dazzling light of Easter is already seen. Moses and
Elijah surround him. These two great witnesses of the old covenant attest by their presence
the imminence of the last days, the appearance of the great awaited prophet. The Father is
also present in the cloud, and just as at Jesus' baptism, his voice reveals for an instant the
secret of Jesus of Nazareth: "This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him. Receive, in Him and in
yourself, the narrow way of glory and suffering, of power and weakness, of death and
resurrection!" It is time to come down onto the plain to continue the journey behind the
servant. Soon the clouds of Golgotha will absorb the shining of this transfigured face. There
will no longer be anything to see, apparently nothing more for which to hope. But the light
which once shone was not misleading, the vision was not an illusion. The dawning of Easter
will show that life can conquer death.
1st March 2020
We begin the forty-day Lenten journey in the desert where the new Adam becomes freer as
the conscience becomes sharper. United with all who are suffering from famine and
oppression, Jesus, the new Moses, relives the forty years of Israel's struggle in the solitude of
the exodus. Through the descriptive narration of this ordeal, the evangelists suggest that
Jesus, true God and true man, was tempted by Satan throughout his life. Jesus' mission is the
focus of his adversary's attack. Would he be able to accept being poor, ignored and weak?
Would he be able to refrain from selling short the reality of his incarnation by using miracles,
force, and seduction as if he were superhuman? Would he be the ServantSon according to the
heart of God, or Prometheus, relying upon his own power to steal fire from heaven? Every
time Jesus felt in his heart the temptation to be a worldly messiah, he rejected it, relying
solely on the word of God. He fled the crowds who clamoured for his marvels and wished to
make him king. He rebuked Peter who came between him and the way to his passion. Jesus
wished to drink the bitter cup of his death, not to save himself once he was nailed upon the
cross. This stands as a strong judgment against many of our choices, our appetite for
consumerism, our solicitation of profit and our unbridled ambition. How can we set priorities
at the beginning of Lent without contemplating Jesus who is turned toward the one source of
all his actions, the word of God?
23rd February 2020

16th February 2020

The New Testament is explicit: there is one Law of Christ and it is new. Far from abolishing
the old Law, this Law fulfils it by emphasizing interior observance. This law calls for justice
which surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. This law is radical because the call of Jesus
goes beyond the letter to a more authentic life. For Jesus, the human heart is decisive. Hatred
is prohibited: anger is the beginning of murder. Coveting another's spouse is forbidden: there
are looks which are as bad as adultery. Repudiation of a spouse is not allowed: this can only
come from hardness of heart. The making of oaths, true or false, is not permitted: it is enough
to be fully committed to our word. We who believe that the gospel is not some sweet,
indulgent consolation, are confronted by unprecedented demands without compromise. We
could have the impression of being trapped. Why should we be surprised that there is within
us as in the disciples something that is indignant, when Jesus abruptly declares that riches are
an impediment to the kingdom: "Then who can be saved?" (Mark 10:26). Christian morality
is impossible without the support of life in Christ, consciously lived. Without him, we can do
nothing. With him, everything is possible. To put on the mind of Christ is the only way to
fulfil the law in spirit and in truth.
2nd February 2020
Paradox has sometimes been described as truth standing on its head. In today's readings the
kingdom of God stands as the supreme paradox. In this kingdom everything which seems
truly desirable is turned upside down. The prophet Zephaniah announces that those chosen to
survive the dreaded upheaval of the "Day of the Lord" are not the rich and powerful but "a
people humble and lowly". Paul informs the contentious Corinthians that God continues to
choose not the wise, not the wellborn, not the strong, but the weak. Jesus himself claims that
the genuinely blessed are not the prosperous and the successful but those who seem in fact
badly treated by providence: the poor, the sorrowful, the needy, the persecuted. What is this
kingdom of God? Is it a home for riffraff? So, it seems, according to the gospel. It is a place
where tax collectors and prostitutes are welcomed before religious purists. It is a banquet
whose guests have been gathered from the highways and the byways. It is a feast where the
Lord himself sits down at table with sinners. It is not that the well-fed are unwelcome.
Matthew, by offering a more spiritualised version of the beatitudes than Luke, suggests that
the issue is attitude. Those who are well off by the standards of this world run the risk of
complacency. Satisfied with all they have, they are content to seek no more. Not knowing
they are hungry, they ignore the Lord's invitation to come and eat of the true bread of life.
Blest are they who know their need! They are free to seek first the paradoxical kingdom of
God. And those who seek shall find.
26th January 2020
This Sunday's gospel opens with the preaching of Jesus. The time of prophecy had ended
with the arrest of the Baptist. He had to decrease so the other could increase. The gates of the
prison have been closed upon this great voice. Up to this time Jesus has been silent.
Henceforth he must proclaim that the kingdom is here. This proclamation begins surprisingly
at this frontier crossroads of Galilee. Common opinion held that nothing good could come
from Galilee. It was to this people, then under subjection, that Isaiah had announced the
messianic light of the Immanuel. It is again to them that Jesus addresses himself. He is the
one who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation,
and saying to Zion, "Your God is King." (Is 52:7) This dawn of the kingdom calls for a
change of heart. From this moment on, the Messiah had some faithful followers. The memory
of their fidelity to Jesus remains. Here the Church is born.
19th January 2020
12th January 2020

The annual season of light draws to a close. January may be quite bleak in northern climates,
but the solstice has passed. Light has won out over darkness and we have celebrated the
bright hope of salvation. We have ritualised once more the cherished customs of Christmas.
Families, stores, and communities regularly package their Christmas decor and store it away
for eleven months. For the Church, our season of birth and manifestation is not packed up and
stored. The feast of the Baptism of the Lord does not tie up all the loose ends of the plot or
neatly summarize the mystery. It remembers one more aspect of Christmas, but it also sets
the stage for the week-by-week unfolding of the mystery of Jesus through the recounting of
each synoptic gospel. The evangelists present the baptism of Jesus at the start of his public
life because the varied details of their accounts unveil his identity. Like the servant praised in
Isaiah, Jesus has come to do God's will. He is consecrated in the Spirit. He is the beloved
Son. These proclamations about Jesus summon us to fuller awareness of the paschal mystery.
Through baptism we are the body of Christ, facing the same mystery of dying and rising. We
too must be open to the Spirit, conscious of our relationship to God. Thus we can live a life of
discipleship and begin to understand the true meaning of history. From his fullness we have
all received everything that we need so that we are able to reveal to the world the Word that
brings life. This is Christmas.
5th January 2020