January 23 2018 - Association Of Catholic Priests

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2 comments
11 June 2023 – Sunday – Corpus Christi, Year A
June 11 2023
Pádraig McCarthy
Joe Humphreys writes a piece on philosophy each Thursday in the Irish Times. It goes under the title Unthinkable. His piece on 8 June ponders the Census 2022 results on the religious makeup of our population. Among many other things, he writes: “An Irish Times/MRBI poll a decade ago found only a quarter of Irish Catholics believed in transubstantiation – the idea that the Eucharist is not a symbol but actually the body of Christ. Would you find a quarter today who could explain transubstantiation, let alone believe in it?” Mysterious indeed. To answer his question: definitely No. We would find not one person who could explain it. In our Eucharistic Prayer at Mass we proclaim “The Mystery of Faith.” This does not mean, however, that nothing can be said about the Eucharist. We need to think outside the box. As a partial answer to Joe’s “Unthinkable” question, St Augustine about 405AD pondered it: “If you wish to understand the body of Christ, listen to the Apostle as he says to the faithful, ‘You are the body of Christ and His members.’ (1 Cor 12:27) If therefore, you are the body of Christ and His members, your mystery has been placed on the Lord’s table, you receive your mystery... You hear, ‘The Body of Christ,’ and you reply, ‘Amen.’ Be a member of the body of Christ so that your ‘Amen’ may be true… Let us listen to the Apostle who said, ‘We though many, are one bread, one body.’” This is what Communion is. Not something we receive, but a relationship into which we are drawn. A relationship not only with Jesus Christ, but with one another. Paul in the short second reading uses the word “communion” (koinonia) twice. He uses the expression “one loaf” twice, so that we, though many, are one Body as we share in the one loaf. This is not just some intangible, spiritual idea. We see how it affected our history. In Penal times in Ireland, we were subject to the “Test Acts” (1661, 1673, 1678), legislation to exclude Catholics from any public office. Only those taking communion in the established Church of England were eligible for public employment. To qualify, they would have to renounce the Catholic church and transubstantiation. Lest anyone would do this, and yet continue to live as a Catholic, a person was required to attend the Sunday services of the Church of England, and to receive Communion there: such action would itself would be a renunciation of the Catholic church. Taking part in Communion with the Church of England had very clear significance and effect in law and in life. These Test Acts were repealed gradually in 1780, 1828, 1829 and 1867. Religious tests for officers of the University of Dublin (Trinity College) were repealed by the Tests Act 1873. Despite the legal change, the significance of taking Communion in the Church of England lingered for Catholics. May the day come quickly when the two churches will agree that, whatever our differences, they are not sufficient to justify us remaining apart, and we will be in communion and will share communion in the Eucharist, we who are members of the One Body of Christ. Theologian Godfrey Diekmann (died 2002): “What difference does it make if the bread and wine turn into the Body and Blood of Christ and we don’t?” The ultimate challenge is not whether or how bread and wine are transformed, but whether Christians are transformed into the Body of Christ, the Real Presence of Christ in our world today. A work in progress, most certainly not complete. It is for the future, yes; but it is also for now. “Anyone who believes has eternal life … Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” John 6:47,54) Not will have; has. Come. Celebrate. Be the mystery, however Unthinkable it may seem.
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11 June 2023 – Sunday – Corpus Christi, Year A
June 11 2023
Thara Benedicta
Key Message: Are you spiritually hungry? Lord Jesus is our best food. Homily: History says Pontius Pilate lost his job after the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus. He was never happy after that. He went to Switzerland and he used to sit at the foot of the snow covered mountains and cry, "Won't this pure droplets of snow cleanse away my sin?" Since then people named that mountain as "Mount Pilatus". He died without peace, and in fear because he did not receive forgiveness of his sins. But because we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, we do not have the fear of dying without receiving forgiveness for our sins. 1 John 1:7 says "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sins". Revelation 5:6 says "...stood a Lamb as it had been slain". So in Heaven also our Lord also looks like a Lamb as it had been slain. His wounds are still fresh just for us. Our Lord Jesus said, "... the bread that I shall give is my flesh" in today's Gospel reading. So His wounds are still fresh, and we are eating His flesh in every Mass. It is His real flesh that we are consuming during our Communion. Like how our Lord Jesus became bread for us, we should also become bread for others. Our Lord Jesus said, "unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds". So we should be the bread for others. But to become bread for others, we should try to remain pure. The purer we are, the more powerful our bread becomes. For example in the Autobiography of Little Thérèse of Child Jesus, Little Thérèse says she has not committed sin till the age of 3. Until the age of 3, we do not know how to commit a sin. So she was always pure. Our Lord Jesus chose her to make sacrifices and with her little little sacrifices saved countless souls. The sacrifices were even like drinking bitter medicine slowly so that she was able to taste the bitterness for more time. It has the redeeming power to save souls. Let us make use of every opportunity to save souls. If you are a parent tolerating a teenager, offer all your sufferings to save all the teenagers of the world. You will be able to understand the pain and pray for all other parents suffering like you. Likewise if you are sick, or unemployed or undergoing any kind of suffering, offer it along with the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ to our Almighty Father. With the Blood of His Son He will wash away all our sins and answer our prayers. The most cruel form of death is death by crucifixion on the cross. If a person's hands are tied vertically up, then death is faster. But if it tied like how our Lord Jesus's hands were tied, it is a slow and more painful death. For our cause, He chose the most painful death. No fear was big enough to stop Him from going to take up the cross. Because His love was deeper than fear. His eyes were stricken for the sins we commit with our eyes, His hands were nailed for the sins we commit with our hands, His back was scourged for our immoral sins, His head was thorned because most of our sins are thought sins... Likewise no part of His body was left. He gave us all of His entire body to redeem us from sins. Now all of us who are redeemed by His Body and Blood became members of the same body of our Lord Jesus Christ. In today's second reading we read, we are all individual members but form part of the same body of our Lord Jesus Christ. So though we are members of the same Body our calling is different. Our capabilities also depend on our calling. We can be called to be His eyes, His hands and so on. Whichever part we are, we need to serve as that part of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. A pious mother once testified about her son who was not on the right path, "This son of mine is my crown of thorns". She actually suffered a lot because of her son like Saint Monica. She used to offer all the Masses for her son, always praying for him, sacrificing and so on and on... And later, her son came on the proper path and is leading a good family life. This mother was part of the head of the Lord Jesus, which she realised. Her life was a success. Likewise all of us will have different calling, which we need to fulfil. The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ also gives us nourishment for our lives. In the first reading we read our God moulds the Israelites - "He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you understand that man does not live on bread alone but that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord." ".. that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord." - Our Lord Jesus was the Word of God. He was the Word that proceeded from the mouth of God. That is why when the Word became flesh, He said, "Eat me and live". So God our Father has been teaching the Israelites also to live on His Word, and our Lord Jesus also teaches us the same in today's Gospel. The Israelites came out of Egypt with a big victory. They were all singing victorious songs. But when they reached the wilderness, they suffered from lack of food. They started complaining for want of food in Egypt. Though they knew that Almighty God was taking care of them, when they suffered lack, they still complained. They forgot that when their Egyptian neighbour was suffering with frogs, they were sleeping happily. They forgot that Almighty God submerged the Egyptian chariots submerged in the sea, while they came out of the Red Sea happily. By making them go through the wilderness, the Almighty Father teaches to go through the wilderness of our lives trusting in the Heavenly Mannah. They started from Egypt happily, they ended in Canaan joyfully. In between for their wilderness path they required the nourishment to sustain, which is Mannah. So when we are humbled, our Heavenly Mannah helps us to sustain Focus on Jesus. He will give all that is required.
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Séamus Ahearne: ‘Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.’ (Elegy – Thomas Gray).
June 6 2023
John Collins
Thank you Seamus.. ordinary times indeed .. I find myself struggling to find the mustard seed .. going through the motions.. HC & the Confirmed etc ..(confirmed exit dead on the nail) .. remixing intolerable language.. trying to bring life’s experience to listening ears.. people of faith are extraordinary.
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8 June 2023 – Thursday of Week 9
June 8 2023
Sean O’Conaill
When Jesus recites ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God is one’ he is proclaiming the ‘Shema Israel’, the ‘credo’ of every Jew. Our Christian Creed truly incorporates that credo also - adding to it our beliefs in God as a Trinity. Would it not help every Catholic to remember always what the essence of Jesus’s professed faith was, the ‘easy yoke’ and ‘light burden’ he spoke of? That would also help to combat Catholic antisemitism, for Jesus never stopped being a faithful Jew, observant of the totality of the law, as expressed in Mark 12.
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