Mass Times
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N.B. There will be no exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on Fri 27th Dec or Confessions on Sat 28th
A Happy and a Holy Christmas
With best wishes for the New Year
Canon John
Are you the one who is to come,
or have we got to wait for someone else?
In many ways the readings this Sunday are simply a continuation of last week – Isaiah gives us more details about the work of the Messiah, and Paul invites us to continue to be patient until the Lord’s Coming. What is slightly different is the voice of John the Baptist this week: last week in Matthew 3 he was proclaiming with utter confidence that “someone is coming”. Now, in Matthew 11, he asks Jesus from prison: “Is it you?” For us, as we listen to these scriptures, we are being offered something very particular – the prophecies of Isaiah (and indeed the prophet John the Baptist) are pinned down firmly and securely in the person of Jesus, Son of Mary – in fact, Jesus himself, in his reply to John says as much: “I am the Messiah that Isaiah prophesied.” Again we are invited to hold the images of the prophecies in our minds until Christmas, when we can look on the child in the manger and say “We know who this is: it is the promised Messiah – God who comes to save us!”
First Reading: Isaiah 35: 1-6, 10
Res: Come, Lord, and save us.
Second Reading: James 5: 7-10
Gospel Reading: Matthew 11:2-11
Mass Times
Christmas Eve: St David’s 6pm
Our Lady’s 9pm
Christmas Day: Our Lady’s 9am
St David’s 10.30am
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand
Throughout the first three weeks of Advent our focus is very clearly on the End of Time, and the Second Coming of the Lord – not on the run up to Christmas (that only comes in the last week). If we view Advent as a Season preparing for Christmas these readings will make little sense – and neither will the figure of John the Baptist who appears today: if it was about the preparation for Christmas, then John the Baptist, preaching after Jesus was born, becomes a confusing figure: his role is to preach to us, as he did of old, and to prepare us for the (second) coming of the Lord. Everything gets more specific today: what is being preached is not an event, but a person: Isaiah promises him, John welcomes him, Paul invites us to imitate him. We have here a thumbnail portrait of the Messiah – useful to refer to when we get to Christmas and he is revealed as a child in a manger!
First Reading: Isaiah11:1-10
Res: In his days justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails
Second Reading: Romans 15: 4-9
Gospel Reading: Matthew 3:1-12
Stay awake, so that you may be ready!
Advent opens with a great promise: “In the days to come…” the hope of a people who need God. “…The master is coming” is also a promise, not a threat to breed fear, but to answer our cry. So Advent begins, not with thoughts of the past, with the coming of the Lord we celebrate at Christmas, but with the future, and the promise that He is coming back. We are encouraged to stay awake, and treat every day as the day the Lord will come; we do not do this out of fear for a Master who beats his servants, but out of love of a Master who always treats us with mercy. Nevertheless we must always be watchful, because we can grow sleepy and complacent, saying that we can leave this prayer or that confession or the other change in the way we live to tomorrow. Even as we look forward to the tomorrow of the Lord’s coming, we must remember that it might be today!
First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5
Res: I rejoiced when I heard them say: “let us go to God’s house
Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14
Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
The year of Saint Luke ends with a characteristic take on the feast of Christ the King: in Luke’s gospel we are so familiar with seeing and hearing the voiceless, the rejected, those whom society puts in second place: how suitable, then, that on the feast of the King of all Creation we see him at his most vulnerable – on the cross, with only an abrupt inscription to announce that he is the King. He is King because of the work he has done, which is described by Saint Paul in the Second Reading: “all things [are] reconciled through him and for him … when he made peace by his death on the cross.” Next week, when we re-enter Advent and a new Liturgical Year, we will be thinking of the King who will come again: though he will come as his disciples saw him go at the Ascension, the marks of the cross will still be visible for all time, to remind us of the one who came to reunite all Creation, especially frail human creatures.
First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3
Res: I rejoiced when I heard them say: “let us go to God’s house”
Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23: 35-43
Your endurance will win you your lives
The Word This Week
As we approach the end of that part of Saint Luke’s Gospel before the Passion narratives, and approach the end of the Church’s year, our thoughts are turned towards the end of time and the Second Coming of the Lord – this will led us into Advent in two weeks’ time. Saint Luke’s message is very distinctive: the Lord will come, but there is a lot to be lived through first. The coming of the Lord is not going to be a “quick fix” – we will have to live through (and endure) all the mess of human joy and suffering. The Lord is clear too that we have to be aware of the personal cost of belonging to him – think back to last week’s readings, and the stories of religious persecution from every place and every age, even to this day. Even as this sounds gloomy and depressing, it is worth noting where the Gospel passage starts – in the material beauty of the Temple – and where it ends – something far more precious will be saved: our lives.
First reading: Malachi 3:19-20
Res: The Lord comes to rule the peoples with fairness
Second reading: 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Gospel Reading: Luke 21:5-19
He is God, not of the dead, but of the living
The Word This Week
It is fortuitous that this passage of the Gospel is normally read near to the beginning of November, when we have celebrated the feasts of All Saints and All Souls, since it is a strong proclamation of the reality of life after death and the resurrection of the body. This Sunday is not without its difficulties, however, since this message is framed in two very sensitive passages: we have a story of cruelty and martyrdom in the first reading, and a controversial (and possibly upsetting) question about marriage in the Gospel. Remember that the example that the Sadducees bring is ridiculous, legalistic and completely misses the point: Jesus’ reply does not mean that we are not with our loved ones after death – quite the contrary, he proclaims that we will all become one with God and each other as children of God.
First reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2.9-14
Res: I shall be filled, when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord
Second reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:16 – 3:5
Gospel Reading: Luke 20: 27-38
The Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.
The Word This Week
There is a subversive humour in today’s Gospel which turns upside down the conventions of everyday life: we see a senior tax official climbing up a tree for a glimpse of Jesus, and the faintly ridiculous scene where Jesus stops, looks into the branches of the sycamore and says, “Zacchaeus, come down!” Did Zacchaeus worry about what people thought? The rest of the story shows that he did not. It would be easy to laugh at little Zacchaeus – and people in the town probably did, in between muttering about his extortionate taxes. And yet he has understood the message of God more clearly than others: he reveals the meaning of the first reading, since he understands that God is gentle, merciful and loving. Jesus corrects him, “little by little…so that he may abstain from evil and trust in the Lord.”
First reading: Wisdom 11:22 – 12:2
Res: I will bless your name for ever, O God my king.
Second reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:11 – 2:2
Gospel Reading: Luke 19: 1-10
The publican went home at rights with God; the Pharisee did not.
A few weeks ago (22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time) we had a Gospel about humility in social life – today we hear the Lord reiterating the message, but this time in reference to our prayer lives. The two Gospels are linked by the last words today, which also appear in the other story: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” This phrase is obviously a key part of our Lord’s teaching! The sin of “self-exaltation” consists in putting others in a lower place – as the Pharisee does to the tax collector. Perhaps the most telling phrase in today’s Gospel is where Jesus refers to the Pharisee saying “this prayer to himself,” rather than offering it to God! And since the Pharisee wasn’t talking to God, how could he expect to be heard?
First reading: Ecclesiasticus 35:12-14.16-19
Res: This poor called; the Lord heard him
Second reading: Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18
Gospel Reading: Luke 18: 9-14
God will see justice done to his chosen who cry to him.
The Word This Week
Perhaps the hardest Olympic event is the marathon: not only does it demand strength and fitness, but it calls for immense perseverance and endurance. Life in general and the Christian life in particular, is a marathon. We will face hills and mountains as well as valleys and gentle slopes in life: we will face obstacles and pressures which will make us want to say, as the prophet Elijah did, “Lord, it is enough!” Especially in our lifetime of prayer, there will be times when we say “Lord, I can go no further.” Jesus himself understands the need for perseverance in prayer, and the temptation to lose heart, which is why he offers us this parable and teaching today. And remember the thought from the first reading: sometimes we may need to hold each other in our praying!
First reading: Exodus 17:8-13
Res: Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth
Second reading: 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:2
Gospel Reading: Luke 18:1-8
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