March 9 2012 - Association Of Catholic Priests

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09 March. Friday of Week 2 of Lent

The Stone rejected by the Builders

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2 comments
24 Sept 2023 – 25th Sunday, (A)
September 24 2023
Thara Benedicta
Key Message: The last will be the first and the first will be the last. Homily: Our Lord Jesus is encouraging us to have hope that God has planned a bright future for each one of us through today's Gospel reading. Many of us look at our friends, peers, or relatives and feel that we are lesser than them. Though we struggle hard, and do things in the right way, somewhere they have reached heights that are difficult to achieve. We do face hardships like late marriage, broken marriage, childlessness, slow career growth or health challenges and so on. I spoke to an elderly person, who has led a decent life with well-settled children. I said: "When you look back at your life, what do you see?" His immediate answer was, "My career was a failure. I have not succeeded as much as my friends". But his life as a whole was a big success. He was taken care of well in his old age, and he was able to provide professional education for his children, they were doing very well in their careers, but when he compared his official designation with his friend's designation he couldn't feel happy about it. With his job, he was able to fund his family and do charity so in reality, his career was a big success. So according to the records in God's book, he was successful in his career too. Though in his own eyes, he was seen as the last, in God's eyes, he is always seen as the "first" not the "last". There is a major wave of suffering due to longing to get married, to get settled in a career or to have children, and so on. In the pages of the Holy Bible, we see that where there is a great delay on purpose there is a great blessing. Zacharias and St. Elizabeth were quite old when they were blessed with John the Baptist. St. Elizabeth would have longed to get pregnant whenever she saw a pregnant woman. But she gave birth to the one to whom our Lord Jesus Himself testified, "There is no man born out of a woman as great as John the Baptist". So this delay was required to prepare Zacharias and St. Elizabeth for such a great blessing!! Were they first or last? God always saw them as "first" never as the "last". We need to be enthusiastic during our 'wait time' also because our God has been preparing for us a greater glory. For instance, when the Angel announced to Zacharias that he was going to have a baby, he did not believe it. So to prevent him from saying anything negative, the Angel had to shut his mouth. Otherwise, by his own words, he would have stopped the blessing. When the Angel announced the impossible thing to our Mamma Mary, that she will conceive as a virgin itself, immediately Mamma Mary said, "I am the Lord's slave. Let it happen unto me according to your word". Our Mamma Mary's heart was ready to accept the "impossible promises" of God since she knew that nothing was impossible for God. God's blessing is set by the mind of God. It will be a surprise and beyond comprehension for our human mind. As we see in today's Gospel reading, the 'wait time' may be more for us. It's ok to wait since Jesus will not miss noticing us. When that sick person in the pool of Bethesda was lying there for 38 years, not knowing what to do, fully helpless, our Lord Jesus went in search of him and cured him. He said, "Take your mat and go away from this place". Our Lord Jesus does not like to see us always in tears, lying down all the time. He wants us to be happy. He has planned only a bright future for us, not to sit and weep beside Bethesda all our lives. There are some challenges that come our way on the road to achieving our goal. Life will take us to some places where we have never been and never want to be. Even if we do not have the slightest idea of how to live our lives, let us not panic. God will find us a way to get us through it. The important thing is only to be with God. Let us consider the life of Joseph in the Old Testament. Through no fault of his, Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers to a foreign land. When he maintained his integrity before God, he was accused of the worst crime and sent to prison. The shame caused by the unjust accusation would have crushed Joseph's heart more than the prison walls. But God converted his shame into great glory even in the foreign land because he was just before God. Joseph would have realised, "Once upon a time, I was the lost bro, but now God made me the first". There is nothing in our lives that God cannot handle. Nothing is lost. For whatever we have lost, God will compensate. He will compensate for all our agonies. Our trials can never push us to the last since our God will push us to the first!!
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2 comments
Pádraig Daly osa on Gabriel Daly RIP
September 19 2023
Sean O'Conaill
#1 Re. Fr Gabriel Daly's 'critiques of the biblical literalism evident in the Catechism of the Catholic Church' - I have just asked Magisterium AI - the new app dedicated to processing official church documents - if the Catholic Church teaches that Adam and Eve were real historical characters, as opposed to characters in a theological allegory. Here's the response: "The Catholic Church teaches that Adam and Eve were real historical figures, not allegorical characters. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice" and were created to share in divine life. Pope Francis, in his encyclical Desiderio Desideravi, affirms the parallel between the first Adam and the new Adam (Christ), stating that just as Eve was drawn from the side of the first Adam, the Church is born from the side of the new Adam. The International Theological Commission also emphasizes that Jesus Christ, as the new Adam, fully reveals man to himself, highlighting the connection between Adam and Christ as real historical figures. "It is important to note that the Catholic Church's teaching on Adam and Eve as real historical figures is distinct from other interpretations. The Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Christian East explains that the Orthodox tradition does not refer to the praeternatural gifts received by Adam and describes the guilt of Adam and Eve as falling from the state of innocence, which impaired but did not destroy the image of God in humanity. Additionally, the Eastern tradition sees the Church as the new Eve born from the side of the second Adam, emphasizing continuity between the beginning and the new beginning for humanity. "In conclusion, the Catholic Church teaches that Adam and Eve were real historical figures, not allegorical characters. This teaching is based on the interpretation of biblical language in light of the New Testament, Tradition, and the parallel between Adam and Christ as revealed in Church documents." ~ The Catechism is referenced for this, along with other documents. The argument appears to rest on the assumption that an allegory could not be as reliable a source of truth about our human 'original sinfulness' as the supposed factuality and historicity of Adam and Eve, so that e.g. St Paul's references to Adam and Jesus could not make sense if Adam was not historical. This completely underestimates the literary sophistication of not only Paul but of Jesus as well - who freely told parables to teach moral principles. Must we then believe that e.g. the Good Samaritan was a real historical character too, because if he wasn't we must immediately conclude that the parable has nothing to teach us? This literalism lies at the root of the secular rejection of scripture as a source of truth, and makes 'real history' the only reliable source of truth. Nothing could be better designed to undermine the principle of the hierarchy of truth, and to multiply 'doctrine', when there is no need whatever to do that. Given that history as a discipline is impossible where there are no reliable sources that date from the time of the event in question, and that the evolutionary emergence of homo sapiens occurred aeons before there could be any such sources, it is inviting derision to insist that Genesis must be taken as history. Nothing could be better designed to bring 'church teaching' into disrepute. There is a very good reason that the Creed is economical when it comes to what we are required to believe. Jesus belongs to the historical record because literacy had long been established by his time. 'Adam' and 'Eve' could not be historical therefore, but the pattern of behaviour that the allegory illustrates has recurred throughout historical time, so the allegory is true and revelatory and endlessly provocative in that sense - just as is all great literature. Will the DDF under new leadership now get around to making everything 'the church teaches' reasonable and credible?
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1 comments
Brendan Hoban: Driving habits must change – for all our sakes
September 22 2023
Michael Murphy
There is also a widespread selfishness among many drivers. There is a particular narrow and windy rural road that I use. I always endeavour to keep within the speed limit. However, practically every time I drive on this road, I am guaranteed to be tailgated, often by massive intimidating cars that look more like military tanks. At close range, they are lethal weapons and could cause immense harm if the car in front was hit. I usually pull in when the opportunity arises. Drivers can be mind-numbingly thoughtless and careless, bordering on criminally negligent. The measures as outlined in the article need to be implemented.
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3 comments
Brendan Hoban: Trump is the ultimate political con artist
September 12 2023
Martin Harran
Brendan talks about Trump’s “demented supporters”. Sadly that seems to include a significant minority, if not a majority, of Catholic Bishops in the USA – the same bishops who seem determined to expose Pope Francis as a schismatic heretic :(
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