The Best Kept Secret

Last week we met as a deanery to discuss the parish response to the issues surrounding Justice and Peace. We were led in this discussion with the following presentation. It is offered here for your own personal reflection. It is a wonderful reflection on Matthew's Gospel. As my colleague says: Our eternal destiny will hinge on our lives being cloaked in the deeds of human kindness.

Justice and Peace is central to our preaching of the Gospel.

The core of Christ’s teaching is in the Beatitudes. (Mt 5:1-12)

There can be few more challenging passages in the scriptures to measure out attitudes and actions against than the Beatitudes.

This teaching can only be understood when we try to start living according to Jesus. Otherwise it appears quite illogical.

Jesus told us how to put this teaching into practice, as we hear in the Gospel for the Feast of Christ the King. (Mt 25:31-36)

“Then the King will say to those on his right hand, ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome: naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.’”

Mathew gives a pictorial impression of the last judgement. The picture painted in a few words gives a powerful image of Christ assuming the mantle of leadership as a true shepherd and acclaimed as Lord of all creation. ‘When the Son of man comes in his glory escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat of glory.’ The thought of the ‘day of the Lord’, when we come face to face with Christ to give an account of our lives is daunting and awesome. In the moment of judgement everyone will be held responsible for the conduct of their lives and every act will carry the burden of consequence. There will be no pretence or escaping the scrutiny of the Almighty who looks at nothing but the human heart. The human conscience will stand naked before Christ and there will be a full revelation of the truth. The yardstick for judgement will not be the knowledge we have gained, the fame won, the wealth acquired or the quality of our lives, but our performance or neglect of what is called, ‘the corporal works of mercy.’

Everything will depend on how we have treated the poor and downtrodden. Our eternal destiny will hinge on our lives being cloaked in the deeds of human kindness. This Gospel encourages us to reflect on how we are in our relationship with one another or have fallen short in serving Christ in the least important members of our community, our world.

We meet Christ in the beggar stretching out his hands for alms, in the refugee who is made to feel unwelcome in our streets, in those afflicted by aids or in the victims of war and civil strife.

In Matthew’s picture of the last judgement we hear expressions of wonder, surprise, shock and amazement at the unexpectedness of the judgement, ‘Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you etc?’

The church offers a way of joining together the love of God and love of neighbour.

Over the last hundred years or so, the Church has often focussed on what is sometimes called ‘Its Best Kept Secret’ ‘Catholic Social Teaching.’

The Church has always had social teaching and the most fundamental source is the Bible.

In the Old Testament we have Sabbatical Year and Jubilee Year. During the seventh year all land had to be left untilled and unplanted, and debts from close neighbours that had been unpaid during the previous six years were to be cancelled. The laws can be divided into three different concerns. Environmental concerns that overuse of the land would make it unusable. Debt concerns, the poor needed to be allowed to start over and not languish in poverty. Land ownership concerns. Every 50 years a Jubilee was declared. The laws of the Jubilee were similar to those of the Sabbatical Year, but also contained additional provisions, (1) compulsory restoration of ancestral land, (2) the freeing of all slaves etc.

In the early Church there was also the tradition of the Church Fathers in such areas as ownership of property, the just war and the charging of interest. In its modern form, however, Catholic Social Teaching first emerged at the end of the nineteenth century as a response to the injustice of the Industrial Revolution and the threat of Communism.

The document on Catholic Social Teaching covers:

What is Catholic Social Teaching?

Key principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

Key documents and Themes

In 1996 our bishops produced ‘THE COMMON GOOD’ in preparation for a General Election. Strongly critical of dominant market values it also serves as a readable introduction to Catholic Social Teaching and its application to some of the issues facing our society.

Its influence reached beyond these isles, it has been quoted in documents coming out of Brussels, the United Nations and even Washington.

The CCC draws attention to the great gulf between rich and poor countries. It lists factors which keep poor countries poor; perverse structures which prevent advancement, lending debts which strangle a week economy; commercial relationships which harm a country, particularly related to armaments sales.

The CCC insists that rich nations have an obligation to provide resources, by direct aid and even more by reforming international institutions to enable them to help poor countries, especially with agriculture, since the very poor are peasants, subsistent farmers.

The CCC calls for a revival of the sense of God, which it describes as the basis of the complete development of human society. This will most of all ensure that material goods are put at the service of human beings, diminish exploitation, and make people open to the love of God.

The CCC states that the main responsibility within the Church for working on these issues of justice lies not with the clergy, but rather with the lay people of the Church, working in different ways according to their individual gifts.

The Church focuses on the need for living the Gospel so as to be prepared for the Second Coming of Christ whenever it happens.

The vocation of all Christians is to love God and love our neighbour.

The Social Teaching of the Church are clear signposts for the way forward. Showing us what it takes to live as a Christian and a Catholic in our changing and challenging world.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols in his address to Benedict XVI at the conclusion of the “ad Limina” visit,

states:

We would like to take the moment to thank you in particular for your inspiring teaching in the Encyclical Letters you have issued for the whole Church. The most recent of these, "Caritas in Veritate," has been well received in our countries and is making a significant contribution to the debate about and examination of those circumstances and conditions which lead to the recent financial crises and the world wide hardship it has caused. Your insistence on the central place of the human person, and of integral human development, is a powerful reminder that the most important truths have to shape economic and social programmes if they are to be of genuine service to the common good. First among these are, of course, the respect for life from its beginnings and the crucial role of marriage and family for the well-being not only of children but also for the good of society.

We thank you for the leadership you have given, even in recent months, on the questions of our care for the environments of our world: both the natural environment and, crucially, the human ecology necessary for our proper development. These matters are of deep concern to many in our countries, including many young people, who have accepted the invitation, in large numbers, to look closely at ways in which they can live more simply, so that others may simply live.

The Pope Takes up Justice as Theme for Lent which you can read here.

Climate Change

Su Wk 2, OT, Year C

Do you know what I wish? What I wish above all things: To be a little more honest in my care for the environment. To be not only worried about what we are doing to the planet, but turn that negative concern into positive action. I have to be honest here. When I heard about the terrible scandal of the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia scientists, I immediately thought it proved that all this nonsense about climate change is just that: Nonsense; no sense at all; just someone’s opinion. Not even based on scientific fact. Anyway, if the planet is undergoing ‘global warming’ how come it’s been so cold? Why has there been so much snow? I was reading an article in the newspaper recently asking this very question. There is a difference, I read, between weather and climate change. They are not the same thing! NASA says “the difference between weather and climate is a measure of time.” Just because it snowed last week doesn’t mean our actions are not over heating the planet!

The prophet Isaiah, we hear, is still ‘banging on’ about Jerusalem. He tells us he ‘will not be silent’ and ‘will not grow weary, until her integrity shines out’. He sounds a little like those environmentalists who will not be silenced until we all start listening and acting. Until we all do just a little something to help protect the world which God created. Our bishops have asked us, today, to remember peace. This is Peace Sunday, and there is a prayer card available to all. The Pope, in his message for World Peace, says simply “if you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.” I’m beginning to think it’s gone past thinking about it, talking about or even contemplating it. What we need now is action. Let’s get on with protecting creation. Let’s be proper stewards of creation as God asked us to do way back in the beginning. There’s nothing new here. Like Isaiah, we cannot stop until the beauty of creation shines out; until the will of God is fulfilled.

God’s will being fulfilled is precisely the point that John makes in his telling of the Wedding Feast of Cana. There are many, many rich and wonderful allusions, in this passage of scripture, to the price Jesus will pay to redeem our sins. Is it not strange that he should speak of his mother as ‘woman’? Surely Jesus would say, “mum, my hour has not yet come”, until we realise that John’s next reference to Mary with this title of ‘woman’ is at the foot of the cross when she will witness more surely what her Son’s hour means. Woman, this is your Son, he will say as the full price of his hour is made clear: his passion, death and resurrection. The fruit, of course, of He who is, is wine in plenty. Both the prophets Amos and Joel speak of wine in plenty during the Messianic times. Think, for a moment, about the quantity of water that has been transformed into wine. We hear that there were six jugs of thirty gallons. That is over 1400 pints, or the equivalent of over 600 bottles of wine. That’s a pretty big wedding and not bad for a small village in Galilee.

At the wedding feast there is one person who is the key for us to consider, today. Is it Jesus, the miracle worker? Is it Mary, the woman who intercedes for us? Is it the servants, those who carry out the instructions of Jesus? No, it is the steward. The steward is the one who determines that the first of the signs has been enacted. If we are to be, as we were created so to be, the stewards of creation then we are the ones who are to determine if peace is reigning? We are the ones who the pope is encouraging to protect creation in order that we can cultivate peace. So for me, my wish is to be a little more honest in my care for the environment; to turn my negative concern into positive action. I wonder, what is your role as a steward of creation? How are you to live out your role as the bringer of peace?

“God Bless” and We’ll Sack You’.”

This shocking story from ICN about Duke Amachree who has been suspended because he mentioned God to a woman with terminal cancer. The story says:

Duke Amachree has worked as a homelessness prevention officer for 18 years. One day, in a client meeting, a woman told him she had recently learnt she was suffering from a terminal illness. Duke tried to comfort her by commenting that sometimes the doctors don’t know everything, and he encouraged her to consider "putting her faith in God".

Two days later Duke was handed a letter informing him he had been suspended, had his ID pass confiscated and was escorted from the premises.

Watch the video from the Christian Legal Centre here. Duke's hearing takes place today at Wandsworth Council. You can sign the petition here. If you're in London, near Wandsworth, this afternoon there is a prayer vigil being staged between 4pm and 7pm, the details are here. I hope you will join in me in at least signing the petition and offering a prayer for sense to prevail.

10km and 30km

I am not sure if you have had the opportunity to sponsor our fine runners here at Oscott, but if you have not, then do please send donations to

Oscott Action for Justice and Peace
Oscott College
Chester Road
Birmingham
B73 5AA

We are running 10km on Tuesday as a sponsored jog around our grounds. There seems no definitive distance around the seminary, but it is rumoured to be about 1mile. We are, therefore, running 7 times around ensuring we have surpassed the minimum necessary to complete 10km. I might add, incidentally, that when I say 'we', we are talking in the royal sense. If that makes any sense, at all.

Talking of 'we', royal or otherwise, I am very pleased indeed to announce my successor as Dean of Seminarians to be Michael Collis. He of eastangliaseminarians blogging fame. They have announced a secret coup of the seminary in due course! Hah, their plan has been foiled. Don't write, on a blog, what you don't wish the world to know. Come on, guys, it's not rocket science. Hats off to the chaps, though. There are four of them here, and each and every one of them is running the 10km on Tuesday. Meaning they will, of course, be too exhausted to engage in any form of coup.

On a far more serious note. I was distressed to read of further attempts by the Vietnam authorities to undermine Catholicism in the their country. They attempted to prevent people travelling to Hanoi to join in the golden anniversary celebrations of the Redemptorists. Read more about it, from Independent Catholic News, here. The authorities forced the drivers of coaches bringing Catholics into the Capital to turn around and go home, forcing those who wished to continue the journey to walk 30km into the city. It will not surprise you to hear that they marched on. Well done to them. God bless them, always.

We have three seminarians at Oscott from Vietnam, Linh, Thai and Long. Remember them in your prayers. Each of them far from home and so very committed to the Faith. It is to help with Justice and Peace in our world that we are engaging in a sponsored run. The money raised will help local and international charities, but it is not just about the money. It is also about raising awareness and encouraging others to live out the faith, and sometimes that includes doing something. It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said; when you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.