Welcome this holy season

Lent begins with much to think about. At home the state of the economy, the strikes in the public services, the continuing cost of living crisis, all remain unresolved. Abroad the war in Ukraine seems far from resolution, the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria is palpable; it seems that we are being challenged from all sides, with solutions a long time arriving. Our faith, and its place within the interplay of all these issues, must speak loudly to us as a guide and a response which directs our Lenten practice. Ash Wednesday spoke to us clearly and unequivocally. The mark of the ash on our foreheads must be more than a symbol. The gospel message of fasting, prayer and alms giving needs to be put into practice as much as we can in these coming days. So how can we engage in such a way as to make our witness both meaningful and visible?

All three are in one sense a demonstration of our solidarity with each other. What we are experiencing we do so together and not in isolation. We come together to pray, we share our experiences with the community and with the Lord. Nowhere is this more visible than at the Eucharistic celebration, the “source and the summit” of our Christian witness. It is before the Eucharist that we fast as we open ourselves up to the grace of the sacrament. Into the space we create, comes the animating and inspiring power of the Spirit. It directs our prayer in opening our eyes and ears to the needy and the disadvantaged. It moves us to act as we are sent out to announce the gospel of the Lord, through our deeds of generosity and relief. In doing so we share Christ’s love beyond the confines of our own comfort, causing us to reach out and become aware of others whose want is so great.

This is the challenge of Lent. Let us listen carefully to the gospel on each Sunday and then, during each week, let us pick a day in which we can do our best to live out one of those three actions of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. This Sunday the gospel features the temptation of Jesus in the desert. As we go through this week, let’s make a concrete effort to resist temptation, let us pray about the impact it will have upon us and of how it may change us, to act in a way that helps us to give ourselves more freely to the work of Christ, in the healing of our wounded world.

Our Father

I think it is interesting to note, as it is not widely appreciated, that the prayer which Jesus taught us to pray each day, is part of his teaching that is included in the Sermon on the Mount. Over these last four weeks, the gospel readings have been from this momentous section of Matthew’s Gospel, in which Jesus unfolds for us a panorama of images that act like a landscape for the Christian life. We are being instructed how to live in the light of these realities, and as we look back over these gospels, we should be mindful of what we are being asked.

The beatitudes themselves have their own context. It is the kingdom of heaven. When we try to define that term, do we assume that Jesus is us calling us to consider a quasi-utopian reality which for many people is simply beyond their grasp. Think of the thousands who are struggling with the circumstances of their lives, be it the cost of living crisis, or the lack of food and shelter. The devastation of war and conflict, or natural disaster, and simply find it inconceivable to imagine how such situations can ever be overcome. Yet at the heart of the ‘Our Father’ we make a petition, that the kingdom for which we long, be made visible and sustainable here on earth, within in the confines of all those difficult and horrible circumstances and conditions. It seems so incongruous but that is what the prayer evokes, and it is what makes the prayer and the whole of the Sermon on the Mount so radical. The idea of turning the other cheek, of going the extra mile and of loving enemies are no longer fanciful expectations, but concrete expressions of the true identity which the Christian faith is about.

From its very beginnings the hallmark of the Christian community was the way in which it sought to offer comfort to those who mourned. Compassion for those in strife, such that it hungered for what was right, notwithstanding the persecutions it suffered. Doing so, because the community and each member of it, knew it was the pathway by which the kingdom was to be made present. It is what Jesus still calls upon us to undertake, each day, evidenced by acts of kindness and generosity, through forgiveness and blessedness. it is sustained for us by the bread of life which feeds us. So when we pray the prayer, we recognise the centrality of the Father’s love, in which we are all blessed.

Let us make this love the driving force of our desire to build the kingdom in all its fulness, beauty and glory.

Light and Salt

Without a doubt these are two necessities of life. Light, generated from the sun gives us warmth and heat, and salt, the compound produced from the two elements of sodium and chlorine, is required in some amount to ensure the survival of all animals and plants. You might then call them essential necessities, so, when Jesus refers to them in the gospel today, we should open our ears and listen to what he tells us. I think he is telling us that our discipleship is identified by association with these two necessities. Light as a means of illuminating a pathway, and salt as a means of adding richness and flavour. But we may ask, where is the pathway leading us to and what is the richness and flavour that is to be brought into play?

In the prologue of John’s gospel, we read that the Word was the true light that enlightens all people...and the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. If we are to be light illuminating a pathway, it must be a pathway that leads all people to Christ. Therefore as disciples, our challenge as followers of Jesus, is to walk this pathway ourselves, encouraging others to take up the same challenge. We cannot therefore allow the light to become submerged or dimmed by our own failure to keep it shining brightly in our lives. The light of Christ has been given to all of us at our baptism. It was lit for us from the Paschal Candle as a reminder that the Risen Lord is now the light that illuminates our journey through life. To be true to our calling we must always support and encourage each other to keep it shining brightly.

In Matthew’s gospel Jesus begins his mission with the word “repent”. It is a word which means “change” as in change your way of doing things or change your way of living. The agents of change in the chemical world are known as catalysts, of which salt is a well-known example. Sprinkle salt on your chips and you will certainly notice the difference! Jesus is identifying us as catalysts of change in the world, agents of reaction and transformation. We are to be proclaimers of the great reagent of change, the gospel. We are to spread its joy and to sprinkle it around liberally and generously so that it transforms our lives and the lives of those around us.

The pathway we walk is to be illuminated by and enlightened by the change from what we were, to what we now are. Through Christ we have become “new creation”. Our eyes have been opened and our lives transformed. We are alive in his life. Let us share this life and show the world how wondrous and beautiful it is.