Where were you when I needed you?

2024 12^th Sunday of the Year (B)

I recently reread one of the most famous books ever written by a catholic. It is called ‘The Story of A Soul’ and was written by a French Carmelite nun in 1896-97. Her name was Therese and she was to become one of the most popular saints in the church today.  She was from a small town in Normandy called Lisieux.  Since it was first published her book has sold over half a billion copies and has been translated into 50 languages; they’re quite extraordinary figures. Why is this book so popular?  I suppose one answer to that is if you read it yourself you will find out why. 

Therese was only twenty-three when she found out she had TB. In those days there was no cure, just a long painful death. In fact, it took her eighteen months to die. When I re-read it I was struck by the depth of her faith and trust in God. Quite extraordinary. Here she was dying slowly and painfully of asphyxiation. She knew what it felt like to go crazy with pain. She told her nurse never to leave tablets beside a dying person. She confessed that if she didn’t have faith, she would have taken her life a long time ago. But she did have faith. 

This faith was put to the test.  She had nightmares about death, she heard voices telling her that there was nothing after death, that she was kidding herself, that after death there was infinite darkness. This frightened her but she clung to her faith in God. This is remarkable in anyone, but even more so in one so young. She had three natural sisters who lived in the same convent. They would spend long hours looking after her as she approached death. The closer it got the harder it was to watch her suffer. The sufferings were real yet Therese said, “I am at peace.” What a wonderful thing to say. That despite all she was going through both physically and mentally she was at peace. It was a deep peace that only God can give. In the storm she was calm because she knew Jesus was with her. 

We just heard in the gospel how the disciples found themselves in the midst of a storm. They were experienced fishermen, used to storms on the lake but this time they thought they were doing to die. Yet Jesus, who was also on the boat, was asleep. They couldn’t understand why he wasn’t frightened like them. “Master do you not care” they shouted “we are going down”!  Of course he cared. He wasn’t playing games with them. He then did something that they would remember for the rest of their lives. He told the storm to be calm, and immediately the wind dropped, and all was calm again.  He turned to his incredulous disciples and asked, “Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith”? 

All of us will sometimes find ourselves in the midst of a storm. Like the disciples we will be frightened. But Jesus asks us as he asked his disciples: where is your faith?  Do you not believe that I am the Lord of all; that I have the power over any storm. I am in your midst. Maybe asleep. So, wake me up. Turn to me in faith when you are in need, and I will be there for you. 

St Therese believed and trusted in God. Her last words were not “why did you let me suffer so much” or “where were you in the midst of the storm” but “My God I love you”. God loves us. He is looking after us, even when it seems that He is not. He is always there at our side to calm the storm. 

Share your faith with others

2024 11^th Sunday of the Year (B)

The readings we just heard tell us about growth. The seed that’s thrown on the land grows. How? The farmer doesn’t know. It had little or nothing to do with him. Now, Christ often uses parables to tell us an important truth. He’s not really interested in seeds but He is interested in us. The seed is our faith. It is planted in us when we were baptised. And over the years it grows. How? We don’t know. But God knows.  Sometimes the growth is remarkable. I want to share with you about this growth in an Irish nun. 

I was reading the catholic newspaper yesterday called ‘The Tablet’. In it is saw a photo of an Irish nun. She died some many years ago. When I read the story I realised she was the aunt of one of our parishioners; he’s told me about her.   She was sent to France in the Frist World War to work as a nurse in a hospital. There she helped wounded soldiers from both sides. She returned to Ireland after the war but at the outbreak of the second world war she went back to France, to a small town called, Bethune. Once again, she worked as a nurse, caring for soldiers who had been hurt during the fighting.  At the same time, she worked with the French resistance helping English prisoners to escape. She was betrayed and was arrested by the Gestapo. They sentenced her to death. However, for some reason, they didn’t shoot her but sent her instead to a concentration camp. It would have been better to have been shot. She remained for four years in this hell hole until she was liberated by the allies in 1945. Her nephew told me that she had not become embittered by what she went through, on the contrary, she was still a delightful person. 

This is a story of someone whose faith, once a little seed, had grown till it had become a huge tree.   This is what faith can do to a person. We too were given faith as a little seed. Without our knowing how or why that faith grew in each and every one of us. Some are given more than others. Why? This is a mystery. As the years go by so our faith continues to grow. We appreciate it more. We realise how important it has been in our lives, that we don’t know what we would have done without it, especially in times of difficuties. 

Then we look at others who seem to have little or no faith. It disturbs us, especially when it concerns our family. Why don’t they go to church?  But what we have to realize is that faith is not just a seed, it is also a gift. It is given to us freely, we don’t earn it. What God wants us to do is the share our faith with others, beginning with those who are closest to us. Faith is given to us for a reason; yes, to help us to grow, but also to share that faith with others. When you have something precious you want to share it with others, and there is nothing more precious than faith. 

That Irish nun has impressed me so much by her life. It is because of people like her that I have faith today. You too have the same gift of faith. Live in such a way that you too will impress others. They may never tell you, but they will always notice. Then leave the rest to God. He is always ready to sow that seed. 

We have such a force for good within us

2024 Corpus Christi (B)

It is only last week that we restored the practise of drinking the precious blood from the chalice.  It was interesting to see that most people did this. I suppose the consecrated wine symbolises the blood of Christ in a way that the host, the bread, doesn’t.  Blood is our life source; without it we die. The author of the letter to the Hebrews in speaking of blood says ‘The blood of goats and bulls… are sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement and they restore the holiness of their outward lives’. If that is what the blood of animals achieves what more does the blood of Christ?

In the ‘Story of A Soul’, which is St Teresa of Lisieux’s autobiography, she tells us what happened at mass one Sunday: ‘As I closed my Missal…, a picture of the Crucifixion slipped out a little way and I could just see one of the wounds in our Lord’s hands, with blood flowing from it…. It pierced my heart with sorrow to see His Precious Blood falling, with no one bothering to catch it, and I made up my mind, there and then, to stay in spirit at the foot of the Cross, to gather up the dew of heavenly life and give it to others.’ This was no empty gesture.  She says she was consumed by the same thirst as Christ for souls. As she put it, ‘I yearned to save them from the everlasting fires of Hell, no matter what the cost.’  It was shortly after this that she prayed for a condemned criminal, a man called Pranzini. He had been condemned to death for several brutal murders and was unrepentant. He has refused confession and absolution, but as he was being led out to the block he suddenly turned round to the priest following him and seized it and kissed the sacred wounds three times.’  Therese was convinced it was her prayers. 

This feast of Corpus Christi is a reminder of the love of God and of his thirst for souls. He died on the cross for us all, good and bad alike. The blood that flowed down his body and onto the ground was not wasted. It inspired people like St Teresa to imitate Christ in praying for lost souls. That same letter to the Hebrews states: ‘how much more effectively the blood of Christ … can purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.’  The body and blood of Christ is for us, it is for our purification from sin and even our sanctification. It gives us strength to carry on in our struggle with sin,  not to give up.  Like St Teresa we too should pray for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Christ wants us to do this. He has given us his body and blood not just for ourselves alone but for others. He wants us to pray for the salvation of all and he will do this, but we have to ask him, we have to pray. God can and will do great things in us, we have his word for it, he died on the cross, he poured out his blood for this reason.  We have such a force for good within us, we should not waste it. 

Love brings out the best in us

2024 Trinity Sunday (B)

I recently watched a film on Netflix called ‘A Triangle of Sadness’. It was, as the title suggests, sad. There were three people vying for each other’s’ love. But it was a selfish love; in fact, it wasn’t love at all. In the end it all ended tragically.  True love isn’t sad, on the contrary; it brings life and joy to a person’s life, and so much more. Love is wonderful, it is life giving, it inspires and encourages us to feel good about ourselves and about others. 

Today we are celebrating a feast which has love at its heart. It is the feast of Trinity Sunday, not a triangle of sadness, but a triangle of love. How do we know this, because this is what Christ, the son of God, taught us. He didn’t tell the disciples to baptize in the name of God. No, he said, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  I used these same words last week when I baptised a baby. Every time someone is baptised these words are pronounced. Most of us were babies when we were baptised, but if we could have understood we would have heard the same words Christ taught his disciples: “I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

Why does this matter?  Couldn’t God be just one?  Couldn’t the priest say, “I baptise you in the name of God”?  Wouldn’t that be enough. But no, it is not enough. Jesus, the Son of God, came to tell us what God was like. He wanted us to know that God is love; He is a triangle or trinity of love; the Father loves the Son and both love the Spirit. It is perfect love. They have everything, as you do when you have love; you don’t want anything more. Love is more than enough. 

But there is more. God wanted us to be caught up in this loving relationship. When we were baptised, it wasn’t just the sprinkling of water that made the baptism, it was the words as well pronounced over the baby: “I baptise you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”  St Paul clearly understood the implications of these words. Listen to him again, as he told the Christians in Rome: “the spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of children, and it makes us cry out, ’Abba, Father!” In the text Paul uses an exclamation mark, to underline this extraordinary truth. At our baptism we have become, as St Paul puts it, “heirs of God and coheirs with Christ.”  So, we too are caught up in the love between the Father and the Son. 

It is definitely a “wow moment”. Doesn’t Jesus say that elsewhere: “as the Father has loved me so I have loved you”?  To know that you are loved is wonderful; it makes life worth living, it puts a smile on your face, it makes you want to love others. The film that I saw, ‘The Triangle of Sadness’ is all too familiar; it showed the worst in human nature. But love, the love of the Trinity, does the opposite, it brings out the best in us. What a great gift is given to us when we were baptised. What God, the Trinity, wants you to do, is not keep that love to yourself, but share it with others. Break into the Triangle of Sadness in our world and make if a Triangle of Love. 

We are all called to mission

2024 7^th Sunday of Eastertide (B)

Did you notice how that first reading began?  It said, ‘One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about and hundred and twenty persons in the congregation.’ I ask this question because we are about the same number.   So, the idea is you must close your eyes and imagine I am Peter!   It shouldn’t be too difficult… I don’t think. Peter goes on to talk about the Holy Spirit. The second reading also speaks about the spirit, how Christ lets us share his spirit. The gospel doesn’t mention the holy spirit, but he is always present. 

Next week we celebrate Pentecost; the coming of the holy spirit. Yesterday I baptised a child and told him that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. I suggest it will take a long time for that baby to realise the significance of his baptism. It probably won’t happen when he is a teenager or a young adult, but hopefully will happen when he gets older. Who does fully understand the significance of their baptism?  Most of us were baptised as babies; we didn’t know what the priest was saying, even though what he was saying was life changing.  However, that was not apparent at the time. It is something we discover in the course of our lives.  

As a child I used to listen attentively to what the priest was saying, but I don’t remember ever hearing about the importance of our baptism. I didn’t hear about the gift of the holy spirit. I didn’t hear that we have a mission. But we have, each and everyone of us, not just priests but all baptised Christians. In the gospel we’ve just heard Jesus talks to his Father and says, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” The “them” is all of us. If the Church is to grow today, then there has to be a deeper understanding of our baptism. We have to realise that the Holy Spirit is calling us all to be missionaries. I don’t mean foreign missionaries, but missionaries who work in their home and workplaces. 

I didn’t hear this as a child. I heard that we should go to mass on Sundays and holydays of obligation. That it was a mortal sin to miss mass. That I should go to confession on a regular basis. And that was it. There was nothing about the spirit working in me to make me a disciple of Christ, to spread the gospel and to make the world a better place. If I had heared this I would have said to myself: “That’s, surely, the priest’s job. He is holy and I’m not. So how could I do the job of a priest? “

It’s not that the church’s message has changed but there is a growing awareness of the role of the laity in the Church. And it’s not because of any shortage of priests. But rather, like me, because you were consecrated in baptism and you have been sent.  All of this is the work of the Holy Spirit who will come to us anew next Sunday. We didn’t understand what God was asking of us when we were baptised, all those years ago, but we do now. God is asking you, through the power of his Spirit, to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the people here in Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross, Stoke Poges, Denham and even Beaconsfield. 

Why should anyone love me?

2024 6^th Sunday of Easter (B)

There’s a lot about love in today’s readings. God’s love for us. We are to love one another; “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you”, Jesus tells his disciples. I was talking about love the other day, as you do, and they said that love is a verb. Interesting I thought. I didn’t give it another thought until now, and I said to myself, “no, it’s not just a verb, it’s a noun”. How did I come to that insight?  Well, God is love. In those few words is the secret of life, it’s that profound. 

When I was a teenager and in my early twenties I was always falling in love. I used to go out on Saturday nights with my friends and hope to meet someone special. And every now and then I did.  What always struck me was why did they like me.  I saw myself as oh so ordinary and, compared with others, I saw myself as boring. And yet here was this young lady who thought I was special. Now I don’t know if that was love, but it was certainly a wonderful experience. To be loved by another person is so special, in great part because you feel you don’t deserve their love.  You can have negative thoughts: if they really got to know the real me they wouldn’t like me, never mind love me. True love is when you love someone in spite of their faults and failings.  What a wonderful thing love is: you can’t see it, touch it, but it is real. There is no more powerful force in the world. 

Love then is a verb, but it is also a noun: God is love. He is the source of love and He loves us. This is not always easy to believe. Like the young man who falls in love and wonders why anyone would love him, so it is with God. It can be hard to accept that God loves us.  Why should he love us?  What have we done to deserve it?   Most of us do not consider ourselves to be living saints, the opposite is probably truer. We can be so aware of our failings; our weaknesses, our impatience our bad temper.  Who can love us?  But God isn’t like other people. God loves us despite all our failings. If we can get our heads around this then we will truly begin to understand that God is love, and what divine love is. 

God wants to love us even if we were the worst person in the world. But how difficult it is to accept this. It’s more logical to believe, if I am not a good person then I do not deserve to be loved by God or by anyone.  The opposite is true: I deserve to be punished.  He doesn’t wait for us to turn a new leaf or reform out lives. He loves us as we are, not as we should be, or could be or even would like to be. “But why?” you may  ask. Because God is love, and there is nothing He wants more than for us to realise the depth of his love for us. Yes, love is wonderful. We don’t deserve it, but love is God’s free gift to us. Yet how hard it can be to accept this free gift. 

Would You Just Trust Anyone?

2024 4^th Sunday of Easter (B)

Today’s psalm is one of the best known among all the psalms. It is often used at funerals: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.” It is almost unusual not to have that psalm at a funeral. What is it that makes it so popular?   One reason must be it’s poetry, the imagery of green pastures, restful waters, reviving my drooping spirit. It is also optimistic. The kind and gentle shepherd guides me along the right path and should I walk in the valley of darkness no evil would I fear. Then those lovely words: ‘Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life.”  These are the kind of words you want to hear when you are at a funeral, when you are feeling sad. Funeral are good opportunities to tell people about God, precisely because mourners are sad and needing some words to lift them up.  No better than the words of psalm 22; today’s psalm. 

In western Europe we are not that familiar with shepherds, yet the image is not lost on us.  We know what a shepherd does, how he or she looks after their sheep.  In today’s readings Christ is compared to a shepherd; we call today “Good Shepherd Sunday”.  We just heard the words, ‘When the shepherd has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice.’ In the middle-east the shepherd doesn’t use dogs or tractors, he walks in front of the sheep and they follow. That’s because the sheep have come to know him, they know they can trust him.  The trust is everything; without it the sheep wouldn’t follow the shepherd. 

I remember many years ago I had a friend who married very early, he and his wife were still teenagers. I used to visit them in their home as they couldn’t afford to go out. They had two children whom I got to know well. When they decided to emigrate to Australia I went with them to the airport. On the way to the departure gate I felt this little hand slip into mine. It was one of the sons. Even though his parents were there he trusted me enough to let me lead him.  It was a simple gesture but one I’ve never forgotten.  We are all called to let God lead us through life, so that should we walk in the valley of darkness we would have no fear.  But as the psalms concludes ‘surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life.’  

Then at the end of today’s gospel Jesus says, “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.’ Do you believe this?   The honest person would probably say: “I’m not sure”. But if I asked: “Do you want to believe it” I think most people would say “Yes”. 

If you want to live life to the full then let Christ be your good shepherd. Trust him to guide you to pastures fresh and green. Trust him to protect you from all harm. Trust him to lift you up when you are down. The key is trust. If you love someone you will trust them.  God, in Christ, loves you: He will never let you down, all He wants is your happiness. 

“I am that addict”

2024 Holy Thursday 

“Do you understand what I have done to you?” Jesus asks. A few moments earlier Simon Peter showed that he clearly did not understand why Jesus wanted to wash his feet.  The idea that Jesus, the Lord and Master, should wash his feet appalled Peter: “Never, shouts Peter, you shall never wash my feet.” And not for the first time Jesus tells him off: “If I don’t wash your feet then you can have nothing to do with me.” 

I think I can say that most people understand where Peter is coming from.  He didn’t mean any harm, on the contrary. It was because he respected Jesus so much that he said this. It was the role of a slave to wash people’s feet: how could Jesus lower himself like this?  It reminds me, to a lesser extent, of what happened to Pope Francis after he was elected Pope. He had gone into the conclave a Cardinal and came out a Pope.  When he went to pick up his bag, the bag he had carried to the conclave, the curia were shocked. “You are the Pope. Popes don’t carry their bags. We have servants to do this.” But like Jesus, Pope Francis was prepared to shock them. He carried his own bag.  He did not want to hear Jesus say, “you can have nothing to do with me.” 

In washing his disciple’s feet Jesus is teaching them one of the most important lessons that they will ever learn. He knows what he is doing. He knows this is the role of a slave. By doing this he is identifying with the slave. A slave then, as today, is the poorest of the poor. He or she has no freedom, they can only do what they are told to do.  They are the lowest of the low. And they know it.  Jesus is telling his disciples, not in words but in gestures, that I am that slave. To see a slave is to see me. “Do you understand?” he asks. 

A slave is then a poor person. But the poor have a special place in Christ’s heart. He was born into poverty; born in a stable. He became a refugee before he was old enough to understand the meaning of the word. In his ministry he blesses the poor: “blessed are the poor in spirit” is his first and greatest beatitude. He heals the blind, the lame, the lepers. He casts out evil spirits from prostitutes. He is happy to eat with those whom others look down on. Why?  Because he identifies with them.  To see one of these wretched people is to see Jesus. 

Jesus identifies with the poor, the slave. Today there is still slavery.  People, mainly women, are taken from their homeland, often under false pretences, and made to work for criminal gangs. Some as prostitutes, others in domestic service, some in places like nail-bars. Trafficked men often work in car-cleaning centres. Their passports are taken off them and they suffer violence and abuse or all kinds.  Yet, Jesus identifies with them. “Do you understand?”

Poverty comes in all sorts of guises. There are the refugees, often driven from their homelands. They come here to seek a better future not so much for themselves but for their children. Yet, they are looked down upon, criticised, told to go back where they belong.  They cannot work and so live in poverty. 

Another guise of poverty is addiction.  Addiction to alcohol, to drugs or to gambling, to name just three. The alcoholic has no quality of life. He or she lives for drink. They will steal from their own grandmothers to get a drink.  The drug addict is similar.  What has driven them to this?  What memories of childhood are they trying to hide from? 

Then there are the homeless. They have nothing except a cardboard box to sleep in at night. Why are they on the streets?  Ask our people who go on the London-Run, they will tell you.  Many are ex-service men who cannot cope with normal life; some have mental health problems, others addicts, some refugees.  They beg in the streets. The better off sell ‘The Big Issue’. Many people avoid them, feel sorry for them and some despise them. Yes, they are the poor, but Jesus identifies with them.  To see the refugee, the addict, the homeless is to see Jesus. He doesn’t say this but that is what he is trying to teach his disciples. ‘Do you understand?”

Everyone, no matter who they are, how poor they are, how awful they look, is created in the image and likeness of God.  When God looks at them, He does not see the tatooes or the dirty clothes. He does not smell the awful smell. Instead, he wants to wash their feet. It is an act of service yes but above all an act of love.  God in Christ, loves everyone, but He has a particular love for the poor, the slave. 

Do you say, like Peter, “Never! You shall never wash my feet?”  in which case, you will have nothing in common with Christ. Or, do you say, “yes, Lord, now I understand.” “Give me the faith to see you in all people, but especially in the poor.” 

Love makes sense of it all

2024 5^th Sunday of Lent

‘Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour.’ These words of Jesus tell us so much about him and what he is about to do. When he admits, “my soul is troubled”, he is saying: “I am afraid.”  He knows what lies ahead and he is afraid. Who wouldn’t be. If you knew that danger lay ahead, imprisonment, beatings, torture, solitary confinement and death, wouldn’t you be afraid?  Jesus acknowledges his fear but he doesn’t allow that fear to win. Instead, he sticks to his resolve, he will go into Jerusalem come what may. 

This is a story about one man whose love is so great that he is prepared to go through anything in order to do his father’s will. Now, you might ask yourself: what kind of Father would allow his son to go through such horrible things. Surely, if the father loved his son then he would do all in his power to prevent any harm coming to his son. But he doesn’t. On the contrary. He is actually asking his son to go through hell. He is not a sadist. He is just the opposite; he loves his son so much that he, the father, must be crucified when he sees what we will do to his son. Jesus, the son, believes in his father. He knows what the father wants of him: to give up his life in order to prove the Father’s love for all humanity. Jesus tells us, “when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself.”  Could he have doen anything else?  If God wanted to prove his love for us then the answer has to be no: no man can have greater love than to give up his life for his friends.  Jesus was willing to die out of love both for his Father and for us. 

Love is the key. It makes sense of something that apparently doesn’t make sense: who wants to die?  Who would go through so much in order to save us.  Who was the philosopher who said: “Love has its reason, that reason doesn’t understand.”  But the lover understands. Jesus is about to die out of love for us. When we know this, then his love is planted in our hearts. Jeremiah, the prophet, speaking for the Lord said, “Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts.”  The heart is where God is. God is love. And he wants to give us that love. That means that we too will, in some way, want to be like the one we love. We too will suffer, and we will do so, if not willingly, at least, accept it as part of God’s loving plan for us. Love changes us. It makes us think differently, it makes us act differently. Other will not understand. To them, suffering in silence, turning the other cheek, suffering humiliation does not make sense. But that is because they do not have that love of God in their hearts. 

We are fast approaching the most important time in the year. At time when Jesus willingly offers up his life for us. He does this to change us; to make us better. He wants to touch our hearts so that we understand how much we are loved.  No man has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. Well, this is what Jesus is about to do. Love is his way. Love is his word. Love is his gift to us all. Yes, we don’t deserve it, but it is a gift; not something we can deserve. A gift, freely given, but one that will change our lives. 

We were not meant to live in the dark

2024 Lent 4^th Sunday (B)

‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.’ This is one of the most important sentences in the whole of the bible; because it sums up the secret of life; that secret is love: God’s love for us. God loves us so much that he sent his only son to die to prove it. What more can someone do to prove love? Nothing! 

And yet we read in the same gospel: ‘though the light has come into the world people have shown they prefer darkness to the light… and indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it.’ Love is like light. Christ has come to give us both light and love. The opposite of love is hate; the opposite of light is darkness. Who would want to live in darkness? Well, many people do, they may not want t but they do. Who knows, maybe we lived in darkness for part of our lives. All of us can go into the dark sometimes, even now. When all is dark you cannot see anything; you cannot even see yourself; you cannot see your faults and failings and sinfulness. But God is there, offering light and love. The tragedy is that some chose to live in darkness, and to avoid the light.  I think the gospel explains the reason well why people avoid the light: ‘for fear their actions should be exposed.’  Is this about shame? That they are ashamed of that side of them that is dark. 

This is a tragedy. God died for love of everyone; people who live in the light as well as people who live in the dark. He is begging the latter to open their eyes, to see themselves for who they are; and to know that there is no judgement awaiting them, only love and mercy.  

All of us can be in the darkness or perhaps semi-darkness sometimes and just don’t see it. There are lots of reasons why we don’t. We can be too busy to notice. Too wrapped up with ourselves. We don’t see our selfishness and especially our pride.  This blindness to our sins  can be compared to driving a car on a sunny day. When you drive away from the sun the windscreen looks clean and spotless. But when you drive into the sun then you notice how dirty the windscreen is; that indeed there are lots of spots and stains. 

Living in the light can also be like looking at yourself in a mirror. I try to avoid doing this. But I have to shave in the morning. I have to look in mirrors when I shop. I dislike going shopping to buy clothes, particularly trousers. I usually have to try them on before I buy them, because I can’t remember my waist size. But when I go into the booth, there are bright lights. I look into the mirror and all I can see are creases in my trousers, and specks of dirt I don’t normally see. I can’t wait to get out of there. 

This is what the light of God does: it reveals our creases, or rather, our darker side. But instead of hiding, it is good to acknowledge this darkness, it is part of us; it is who we are. No one does not have this experience. But if we ask forgiveness no condemnation awaits us, but only mercy. We must believe this. It’s not just words. God proved his love for us. He offered up his son for us.  What more proof do we need. The very least we can do is acknowledge that.  

This Lent is a great time to drive into the light, to see, to be honest and to ask forgiveness. That is what the sacrament of reconciliation is for. There is no greater joy than to be forgiven for something we have done wrong. And that is what God wants to do for us.