CURATE SPEAKS OUT ON ATHY SCANDAL

You may have heard about the recent public sacrilege and scandal that occurred in Athy.    If not you can read about it here and here.  One of the curates has responded to clarify the situation and his accidental involvement:

"Dear Editor, 

I write to clarify my position regarding my appearance on a video taken in Athy church. I was one of the five priests, a curate, con-celebrating Mass in St Michael the Archangel’s Church Athy, last Saturday evening on the 10th September 2016. 

My intentions first and foremost was to celebrate the Eucharist which is the source and summit of our community’s Christian life. This Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was also in appreciation of Fr Tim Hannon’s 50th Anniversary of his Priestly Ordination and to mark my own departure from the parishes I have happily served over the past three years. 

I was not present to promote or condone same-sex ‘marriage’ or what appeared to be the apparent triumphant and victorious return of our musical directors which seemed to become the focus of the evening. In my opinion, the Mass was hijacked to support the cause of same-sex ‘marriage’ which is clearly in breach of Catholic Church teachings.

How does this make sense within the Catholic Church?

This breach was displayed openly and in a very public manner from the holy sanctuary. I felt very uncomfortable about this as I had not given my blessing to such a union. I am not been harsh but simply following the teachings of the Church, that we all serve. 

The ladies in question have a very important leadership role in the Church but decided to enter into a civil same-sex marriage which blatantly contradicts and challenges the teachings of their Catholic Church, and the instruction of Pope Francis. To me, this defies belief ? Is it not a contradiction to our faith? How does this make sense within the Catholic Church?"

You can read the rest over at Catholic Voice.

Personally I think the Archbishop will need to take action on this and visible action at that.  This unfortunate priest and his fellow concelebrants (this the celebrant know in advance this was to happen?) were put in an invidious position and the Mass was hijacked to flagrantly flout the Church's clear teaching.  Nothing excuses that.  On top of that, though, it appears that they received Holy Communion.  That is sacrilege.  Have years of bad catechesis left Irish catholics so far divorced from the basics of their faith that even this can happen? It seems that these two ladies were not only involved in the parish choirs but one of them was also an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion and no one in the Parochial leadership (here I mean the clergy and in particular the P.P.)  appears to have thought that this latter role was inappropriate.  Homosexuals, even sexually active homosexuals, are welcome in the Church providing they acknowledge their acts as sinful.  We are all sinners seeking mercy.  Being welcome in the Church while seeking to reform is one thing but one is not permitted to receive Holy Communion unless one has confessed one's sins and is genuinely sorry for them.  The  family and human sexuality are now the frontline of the war between truth and falsehood, good and evil.  We have to decide which side we are on.

OLD AND NEW

I have an ongoing interest in Liturgy (it goes with the job) and in Church History.  The changes to the Liturgy made after the Second Vatican Council have been much debated in the last sixty years.  Most of the attention has gone to the changes in the Mass.  Much neglected, though it impacted on the clergy as much as the changes in the Mass, has been the Divine Office and its vehicle, the Breviary.  Before the Council, for all but those with special permission to recite the Office in the vernacular, the Office was prayed in Latin so the most obvious change was in language and therefore accessibility.  One of the advantages of the changes has been the number of laypeople reciting the Divine Office.  But the changes did not stop there.   Many of the old, theologically rich, Roman hymns were chopped or dumped and replaced with hymns largely from the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century as well as optional poems (I am of course referring to the Breviary I use which is for Britain and Ireland).  The revision of the Liturgical calendar also affected the Divine Office.  The cycle of the saint's feasts was changed beyond recognition.  Most significant though was the shifting of the psalms over to the monthly format.  The psalter, the arrangement of the 150 psalms plus the canticles from the Old Testament, was completely rearranged as the psalms were spread our over four weeks.  Previously anyone reciting the whole Divine Office would cover all the psalms over one week.  So were on an average day anyone reciting the old Office would recite a total of thirty four 'psalms' (many psalms are stretched divided into smaller parts separated by antiphons and canticles are counted as psalms) in the new Office he would recite only thirteen 'psalms.'  Psalm 118, for instance, the longest in the psalter by far was taken from its traditional place on a Sunday and chopped up, spread over the Month.  Some psalms, such 108, are not recited at all and psalm 117 crops up all over the place.

That is all beside the point.  Laslo Dobzay (you can get some of his books here and here) has covered this area in ample detail.  I am writing this because a thought was rolling around my empty head.  In addition to my three volume Divine Office, visible on the left above and below, (which will cost you €483 for the set or €61 each from Veritas here in Ireland) I also have a single volume breviary on the right in each picture.  It's in English but not it is not the edition that priests and religious are obligated to use.  I found it one of our houses along with a three volume Latin and English edition of the pre-Conciliar breviary and three of the four volumes of the Capuchin version of the same (all in Latin of course).  This single volume uses an earlier version of the Grail Psalms that we normally use.  This single volume from 1965 contains the entire pre-Conciliar Divine Office except the Gospel readings and the Martyrology which was usually separate anyway.  It's all in there.

I use it as a sumplementary 'devotional' and praying all the psalms over the week has really helped my prayer and it sanctifies my day.  I've been using it consistently for at least five years.  The reason I am posting abour this is not to blow my own trumpet - I need those psalms to keep me on the right track and I enjoy praying them!  I am posting this to query aloud: 'how can you call a reform successful and yet go from a single volume to three large volumes?  That single volume is lighter and thinner than the thinest of the other three! Vatican II has been accused of verbosity but this takes it to a new level.  There is needless repetition here. Cui bono?

I supply a side by side comparison below so you can compare the size of the text.  It has a very different 'feel' to the post-Conciliar breviary.

Anyway 'just saying...'

THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE LOST COIN: A homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday, Year C (Luke 15:1–10)

To hear the homily as it was preached see here.

We have all lost something, or someone, at some point.  It is a moment when we realise how important they really are to us.  To be sought for by another is an affirmation of how important we are to them.  A writer I follow tells the story about how he lost one of his children.  He has a large clan of kids and they were at the playground.  As he got them together to bring them home he noticed that one he was one short.  He recounted and recounted but quickly had to conclude that one, a daughter, was missing.  The clan was dispatched in all directions, calling out her name.  Other families were recruited and a frantic search unfolded until in the midst of his despair and desperation he stopped and saw her, sitting on top of one of slides, watching them all in calm delight.  He was filled with joy and relief though he probably had other emotions as well.

There was once this Greek philosopher called Plato.  He lived about 500 years before Christ and he said that our human condition was as though we are born into a cave where all we know are shadows and illusions.  He said that the task of the philosopher, once he had achieved enlightenment, was to return to those in darkness and draw them out into the light.  He warned that this would not be an easy task and could cost a philosopher his life.  The Church Fathers drew on this image.  Christ, they said, is the true philosopher for He brings Divine, not human, Wisdom and He enlightens us with the Divine Light.  He has come in search of us and leads us out of the darkness of illusion and ignorance into the brilliant daylight of the Truth.  All Heaven rejoices at each one that, repenting, leaves the darkness of sin for the light of God’s mercy and forgiveness.

It is Christ the True Philosopher who is also the Good Shepherd and He has sought us out to bring us back to the fold, to the flock of those who follow Him and He does so repeatedly for His patience with us in inexhaustible.  He may have to hobble us to get us to stay close to Him, to teach us obedience and patience but never to hurt us.   If he does it is because He carries us on His own arms that are stretched out on His cross. Christ wants us to learn the discipline that must accompany the freedom of faith in Christ, the freedom of the life of grace. 

When I was very little I lost my mother’s engagement ring.  She never let me forget. The ladies will understand that better than the men - how important one’s personal jewelry can be to a woman.  At the time of Jesus Jews did not use rings to symbolise marriage but a woman wore her wedding dowry as part of her headdress.  To lose a coin from the dowry was tantamount not just to negligence but to infidelity. It is through the Church that Christ ministers to the world sunk in evil.  The Church is the woman who having lost us when we sin has lit the lamp of prayer and swept out her house through penance and fasting in order to find us and she rejoices over our finding and our healing. 

It was not just to forgive and heal us nor just to restore us to the state of Adam before the Fall that Christ became fully and truly human but in order to lift us up into the very heart of the Most Holy Trinity and give us a place on His throne.  He did this by offering to the Father His own eternal worship through His suffering and death on the Cross.  In this way He made of His own Body the way and the Temple, the price of our redemption and the source of our salvation.  He gives His all to us by giving His all for us.   This eternal life already flows into us through the Sacraments.

All this is to remind us of what He has done and how dear we are to Him.   God has become human for us yet this was not enough for Him and His Love, so He suffered and died for us.  Suffered and dying for us was not enough for Him and His Love, so He gave us Baptism and Confirmation so that we could be truly one with Him.  This was not enough for Him and His Love, so He made His Sacrifice really present in the Mass and gave us the Priesthood to make that happen.  The Mass and the Priesthood were not enough for Him and His Love, so He gave us His Himself really and totally present in Holy Communion so that we could receive Him into ourselves.  Yet this was not enough for Him and His Love, so He gave the Priesthood power to remind us of His Teaching, and to wipe away our sins in Confession as well as to heal us with the Sacrament of Anointing.  He has even glorified the union of man and woman with the Sacrament of matrimony.  He is interested in every aspect of our lives for He loves us.  As He said to King Solomon, this and much more would He do to show His love for us.

Yet how cold and indifferent we are in return.  We are blessed in so many ways and how ungrateful we are.  How many of us count our blessings and give thanks to God even a few times a year let alone daily?  How many times do we go to Holy Communion without thought of Who it is we are to receive and whether we are fit to receive Him?  How many prepare properly for Mass?  How many neglect not only to go to confession regularly but even to examine their conscience daily?  How many have hours to spend in front of the TV or on the computer but have so little time to pray?  He is full of love for us and we are cold in return.  He laid down His life for us and we are so slow to give anything up for Him in return.  We are careless, negligent and unfaithful with sacred things, with the salvation of our souls and of those around us and worry and fret over things that do not matter and do not last.  We wander away from Him and make Him search for us.  Then we resent Him for teaching us the Truth and showing us to the way to the splendour and glory of Heaven.  We do not deserve Him yet He loves us and shows us mercy still.

Let us no longer wander but let us follow faithfully.  Let us no longer abuse His love, His mercy and His patience but begin to respond to it daily.  Let us decide to do the duties of our life out of love for Him who loves us.  Let us decide to learn more and more about Christ for those who love want to know everything they can about the one they love.  Let us offer any and every sacrifice we can, however little, in return for all He has done for us.  By these little steps we can follow in His footsteps to paradise.  By this way we can sweep out our lives and rediscover the faith and devotion to Christ that we have lost.  By this way we can be the means for others to be found by Christ and His Church and we can draw them back into communion with Him.  By this path we will one day rejoice with Christ and with all the angels and the saints in the Kingdom of Heaven where there will be no darkness and no tears are ever shed.

FACE UP TO REALITY AND TRAIN IN EARNEST: A homily for the Twenty Third Sunday, Year C

BrTomFordeOFMCap

What is your picture of our Lord?  When you hear the name ‘Jesus’ what picture comes into your head?  Is He tall or short?  Is He fair skinned or dark?  What colour are His eyes?  What does His voice sound like?  Does He have an accent? 

            Our imaginations are so fed by paintings, statues and nowadays by movies that the chances are each of has pretty much the same picture in our heads.  Even His accent has its place.  I would guess that most us think our Lord would sound something like Michael Powell in Jesus of Nazareth.  Yet our Lord did not speak English, English did not exist back then.  He spoke Aramaic and probably Greek too.  Aramaic is close to Hebrew and to Arabic.  That’s not just some incidental information but a key point in this sermon.

Isn’t Jesus, our Lord, supposed to be ‘nice’ and kind and loving?  How can He say that we must hate our father, mother, brother, sister?  How can we hate our life and still be Christian?  What kind of teaching is this?

            Those of you who remember Saddam Hussein in his heyday when he was first attacked by the Americans and their allies will remember that he promised it would be ‘the mother of all wars’.   That kind of exaggeration in aid of emphasis is what our Lord is doing in the Gospel.  Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, like the Arabic of Saddam Hussein, is not a subtle language.  It is quite black and white.  In order emphasise something one either exaggerates or one repeats oneself.  So our Lord speaks of hating others.  He means that we must put God and His kingdom before all other relationships.   More we must oppose all those who endanger our salvation.

            St Paul talks in one of his letters about the athletes training for the games and about their sacrifices and discipline.  He says that we too need that kind of discipline if we are to make the sacrifices necessary to remain faithful to the Lord.  To sacrifice literally means to honour something important, something holy by setting something else aside.  That is why we say that parents make sacrifices for their children.  The most important sacrifices we make are those we make for God. 

            Salvation, the reward for which we compete, is not a collective experience, that is, we are not offered it as a body, whether a nation, a community or a family.  Each of us must choose to co-operate with the grace we receive in Baptism and Confirmation.  Our earthly relationships, especially our families, are meant to help us grow in holiness, grow closer to God and be better people.  If they do not then we have to choose: God’s way or the other way.  Choosing God’s way can be very painful.  We can find ourselves at odds with those we love but we are called to love them with more than mere human love.  We are to love them with supernatural love, a love that seeks their salvation, that is, life with God forever in Heaven.

            Being in conflict with our loved ones because we remain faithful to Christ and oppose their infidelity can be a very painful place to be.  We don’t always know what to say or when to say it.  We want peace and happiness in our families but we do not want it at the price of denying our Faith or turning a blind eye to something that is wrong.  This is the cross, a cross we agreed to in Baptism, that we agree to at every Mass, and whenever we call upon the Lord.  The price of salvation is engaging in the spiritual conflict within ourselves, within our families, and within our society between those who want to do God’s will and those who do not, between those who choose to co-operate with God grace and those who choose not to.

This is not possible by our own power.  We cannot do it on our own.  God is the King who advances with the larger army and we need to sit down and face reality.  Let us negotiate our peace with God and co-operate with Him.  Let us calculate what sacrifices we need to make to be faithful to the Lord and ask for the grace to make them.  The tower that is built on the rock of Christ and His Church will not fall but become a safe haven for those who seek to be saved.  Let us not come last in this contest.  Let us not be left outside.  Let us train. Let us compete and let us win.

GETTING OUR PRIORITIES RIGHT: SEEKING THE LOWEST PLACE, A Homily for 22nd Sunday in year C (Luke 14:1, 7-14)

To hear the sermon as it was delivered just check out my page at Gloria.tv  BrTomFordeOFMCap

It would be a hard-hearted individual who was not moved to pity at the plight of the people of Amatrice and the other Italian towns and villages flattened by last Wednesday’s earthquake.  Hundreds are dead, babies, children, parents and grandparents, and many others have lost homes and livelihoods on top of their bereavements.  Yet we so easily forget that many more have had their homes flattened, have lost their lives or the lives of their loved ones in the dreadful insanity of the ongoing war in Syria.  Others around the world have lost loved ones and their homes and livelihoods to floods, mudslides and to forest fires.  Why does our Lord permit these things? 

The answer is a little complicated.  As for natural events like earthquakes, floods and fires they are part of a world that is alive and therefore constantly changing.  If you live in an area where there are fault-lines and therefore there are earthquakes one can choose to endure the risk of death and injury or move away.  Likewise if you live on the flood plain of a river  you risk being flooded or in a region where it gets very hot and very dry you risk runaway fires.

 When it comes to war and other moral evils, though, the case is very different and we must deal with the issue of human freedom and the consequences of human choices.  All our choices have consequences in little things as in big.  We can choose to listen to reason and to God or we can choose to listen to irrationality and the evil one.  War is the product of humans listening to irrationality, of choosing to put their will before God’s will.  Our Lord permits this because He respects our freedom.  God is not and does not want ever to be a puppet-master managing everything.  He respects our freedom even if it means we end up separated from Him in Hell, forever.  God loves us enough to let us go where we choose but He will still offer us every help to go the right way, to do the right thing.  He wants us to freely believe and trust in Him and to freely choose eternal life with Him.

There, then, is another reason why our Lord permits evil whether natural or moral.  He permits it so that we do not forget that this is not whole of our existence but only the beginning.  Our souls are immortal – we will never cease to exist.  Therefore where we will spend eternity is vitally important.  If we become engrossed in this life we risk losing eternal life with God.  We must get our priorities right if we are to avail of what the Father has offered us in Christ.

That is why our Lord tries to reach the Pharisees with whom he had a constant battle.  The Pharisee movement was largely composed of lay people, wealthy and devout.  They devoted themselves to living the Law of the Jewish religion in every aspect of their lives.  Many devout Jews still do.  But the Pharisees fell pray to externalism, the belief that how you appear to others is what is important, a kind of religious version of ‘keeping up with the Jones’.   Externalism is always a danger for us so that our Faith is lived only on the surface and not from our heart, the core of our being.   It so easy to confuse the values of our society, in which the Church has lived for so long, with the values of our Faith, especially when we do not know our Faith well.  The Pharisees, like many people of that time and our own, thought of illness and poverty as curses from God, sure signs that the individual or his forebears had sinned and were being punished.  Therefore they despised the poor, the sick and the disabled.  Our Lord rejects this as false.  The greatest honour is that which is stored up in heaven for those who have cared for those in need.  They should emulate God in His loving mercy and reach out to the poor and the lame.

Our Lord therefore uses their thinking to try and reach them with the Gospel.  He points out to them through the parable that searching for public honour and respect leads only to embarrassment, shame and humiliation.  In contrast being humble can lead to honour and personal satisfaction. 

Our Lord is inverting their value system.  He, the Son of the Father, is God’s ambassador to us.  Indeed He is God’s greatest gift to us.  He brings us the Father’s invitation to Great Wedding Feast of Heaven.  He wants us to seek the highest possible honour and glory there.  How? By seeking the lowest place here.   In seeking the lowest place in this world we are seeking to be with our God is always humbler yet.  We do this by reaching out to those around us who are lame and find it hard to walk in our Lord’s footsteps, who are deaf to the Gospel, blind to His merciful love, who cannot cry out for help.  He wants us to reach out and find Him in those around us who are in need: lonely, in need, or lost.  It is up to keep our eyes and ears open and bring Christ to them.  We are to be ambassadors for Him and extend to them the love and mercy we have found in Christ.

The great English Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton said of St Francis that he stood on his head and saw the world the right way up.  He was only following our Lord’s example.  The world exalts the beautiful, the young, the healthy and the talented.  It weighs our value by our usefulness.  In contrast our God looks to the heart.  He sees us in Christ and knows our true value, that value which He has given us in Christ.  Let us reject the false valuation that the world offers and see ourselves as God does in Christ.  As Catholic Christians we are not to be concerned to keep up with Jones but to keep up with Christ and His saints.  We are to be concerned not with our position and place in this world but in the next. 

Here at Mass we have a foretaste of Heaven’s Feast – let us take some of that beauty and good out to others to let them taste Heaven through us.  Let us be real ambassadors for Christ.  Let us seek to be truly converted to Christ, to change direction, and return to God’s way.  Let us replace in our lives the values of the world with God’s values: sincere repentance for our wrong-doing, forgiveness for those who hurt or offend us, prayer to God from the heart, compassion for the suffering and generosity to those in need, humility before God and neighbour and commitment to virtue and to the Truth.   By this path we be His ambassadors, we can travel in Christ’s footsteps and though we may lack prestige and honour in this world we will not lack them in the next.

ENTERING BY THE NARROW DOOR: A HOMILY FOR SUNDAY 21 C (Luke 13:22–30)

 I couldn't get the printer to work this morning so the actual homily was delivered from notes I took based on what I had prepared below.  It seemed to go well!

One Sunday a year our Guardian, on behalf of all the friars speaks to you about the issue of child abuse and apologizes for the harm done to children and vulnerable adults by some of our Capuchin brothers.  There are some people who want that topic to go away perhaps because it is so unpleasant or perhaps because it so painful.  It can bring up dark memories for some.  It can also seem that abuse of children by religious or priests is worse than that any other kind of child abuse.  It isn’t.  Any abuse of children or of vulnerable adults is evil and there is no excuse for it.  The Church’s Tradition has long held that there are four sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.  I think they should add the abuse of the young and vulnerable to that list.  The price of peace is eternal vigilance and that applies to protecting children as much as it does to anything else.  I know too many people whose lives have been scarred by abuse whether at home or in care, whether by strangers or those they knew and loved.  We apologize so that we will not forget and we do not forget so that we will take seriously our obligation to protect the weakest and the most vulnerable from those who would prey on them.

It raises the question though how could the perpetrators of these acts do these things and how could those who knew or came to know, whether superiors, neighbours or family members, not act to bring these things to an end?  There are many reasons why those who abuse choose to do so and we would need a psychiatrist to cover that.  There are very few for why anyone would turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to abuse.  I think that one reason that some Catholics do so is a failure to heed our Lord’s warning.  If we think that somehow we will not have to give an account to God or that we can find a ‘backdoor’ to salvation that avoids the narrow door then we are more likely to take the coward’s way out and fail those who need our help the most.

That is why it is an important question ‘How many will be saved?’ and it’s an important question that is not often asked today.  Our Lord does not actually answer it, not directly, but rather urges us to strive for salvation, to enter by the narrow door, the narrow way that leads to Eternal Life.  He warns us that many will try and fail because they are not strong enough.   What is the narrow door?   It is the way of the Gospel, of the Church’s Teaching, of virtue.  It is narrow because it demands that we let go of all that is not necessary and above all of anything that is contrary to the will of God.  We are so attached to these things that it can be painful but once through the door there is the joy and peace of the Kingdom of God.  Do not lose Eternal joy for a joy that cannot last!

Our Lord does not answer the question about how many will be saved directly because He wishes to keep us from two errors.  Those errors, opposites to one another, are that of despair and complacency.  In the past some generations have tended towards despair thinking that so few get through that narrow door that most of us are doomed.  In our present age we have certainly leaned towards complacency with some theologians and even bishops holding that ‘all or most of us are saved’.  Both extremes are a lethal to our salvation.  Salvation, the avoidance not only of damnation forever in Hell but gaining Eternal Life with God is not our achievement.  If we try to save our selves, to enter by the Narrow Door on our own steam, by our own strength, then we are doomed to failure. It is God’s free gift to us, unmerited, unsought, and often unappreciated. 

The middle way between despair and complacency is one of hope, hope not only in God’s mercy but in the power of His grace to empower us and magnify the effects of our efforts so that what is beyond human strength is shown to be more than possible by His grace.

God not only permits, but actively invites us to get involved in our salvation through faith in Christ and through active love for God and our neighbour but it is His grace that enables us to believe and to love.  He saves us we do not save ourselves.  He it is who can heal the harm and damage that has been done even by those who should be the best examples of what it is to follow Christ.   There is the hope in the Cross of Christ: mercy for those who have sinned and repent and healing for those who have been hurt.

This path of hope means that we must take our salvation seriously but also do so with knowledge and faith that everything really depends on God and His mercy.  It gives us the courage to keep our eyes and ears open and to stand up to evil especially when it targets the weak.  This path challenges us to really live the Gospel in every aspect of our lives and to never allow the weak and vulnerable to come to harm or to let their cries for help go unanswered.

CATCHING FIRE FOR CHRIST a homily for the TWENTIETH SUNDAY, YEAR C (Luke 12:49–53)

Does anyone want their family divided?  Who wants the members of their family falling out with one another, not speaking, saying hurtful things?  It is a sad thing to see and I have seen it.  I have seen funerals here in Cork where one part of the family sat at one end of the front seats and the other part at the other end.  I have seen funerals where some members of a family stood at the back of the church or did not even show up for their own Mother’s funeral!  I know of families where members have not spoken in years.  The pain that such conflicts inflict is immeasurable.  We should make every effort to forgive and be reconciled.  But that is not the topic of my sermon.

Our Lord says He has come to divide.  He says that the fire He will send upon the Earth through His baptism will bring this division, this conflict.  Is not the Lord the Lord of Peace and Love, Mercy and Forgiveness?  How can He talk of conflict and division? Are we not supposed to be kind and merciful to one another, tolerate one another and be nice?

Actually I have come to hate that last word ‘nice’! Originally the word ‘nice’ meant ignorant and later it meant ‘stupid’.  Nowhere in the Gospels are we called to be ignorant or stupid or even ‘nice’ in the modern sense of the word.  We are called to stand up for Christ and the Truth.  We are called not to be afraid but to be willing to risk everything for Him and His Kingdom.

This Fire that our Lord speaks about is above all the Fire of the Holy Spirit which through His Baptism, His passion, death and resurrection is now cast upon the world in the form of the Church.  In receiving Baptism and Confirmation we are immersed in that Fire so that it dwells in our souls and we are commanded to spread it.  Why does He call it Fire?  Fire burns, of course, it consumes.  This Fire from Heaven consumes evil and sin, purifying humanity and the world. Fire brings about change and the Fire of the Spirit empower us to confront and overcome evil and to do good.  Fire warms and, if we let it, the Fire of Christ warms our hearts with Divine Love, enlivening us and giving us zeal for good and for the Gospel.  Fire gives light and the Fire of Christ gives light to the world, showing us the Truth and driving out error, so that we do not remain ignorant or stupid.  Fire is a symbol of love and the greatest love is the Love of God.  God wants to soak the world in His Love for us and restore us not just to what we were before the Fall but to lift us up into the very Heart of the Most Holy Trinity.  He wants to place us in the very heart of the furnace of Divine Love.

But we must choose.  God has too much love for us to force His love upon us.  We must choose and choose in the Truth, choose the Gospel of Christ.   Choice divides.  Every position is a choice and so it is divisive.  This division exists first of all in our own hearts.  We are divided within ourselves because we are fallen and are uncertain about the right path to follow.  We can only be whole by letting Christ fuse us with Himself.  Only in union with Christ can we know real peace and happiness and the right way to go.  This division runs from our hearts and out through the world.  So it is no surprise that modern secular society struggles with the question of Truth and of right and wrong.  They have a home in their society for everyone but Christ and those who side with Him.

Choosing therefore also demands rejecting and being rejected.  If we choose Christ then we choose His Church, His Truth, His Authority and we reject that of the world, of immorality, false freedom and ignorance.  To choose Christ is to choose Eternal Life but it is also to choose to suffer rejection and conflict in this life.    That conflict is firstly in our own hearts as we struggle to keep to the Truth but it is also in our families and homes.  There will be members of our families who will not choose Christ, who will resist or who will even side with the world.  I know how painful this is.  Here I made reference to family situations that I will not put on the Internet!  That’s not the way my parent’s and their generation brought us up.  What are we to do?

Long ago a monk living in the desert of Egypt went to his abbot and asked him how he could make progress.  The abbot told him to live their rule of life and pray continually doing all and enduring all for the love of God.  The monk said he did all this.  Then the abbot stood up and his hands became like flames.  He said to the monk “Then become all fire.”  The answer then is ‘Fire’!  Become afire for God by doing everything and enduring everything for the love of God.  Fan into a flame the faith God has given you!  When you are ablaze for Christ others will catch fire from you and the blaze will spread.  The faith is dying in Ireland because of lukewarm Christians and our Lord has promised to spit them out of His mouth.  Fan this flame of faith and protect it from the icy winds of our present time.  Feed it and make it grow, brighter, hotter, stronger.  If we take our faith seriously and put it into practice it we will not be lukewarm but on flame for Him and we will bring others to the faith.  This fire will demand that we allow it to purify us not just of all that is sinful and wrong in our lives but even what is unnecessary too.  If we would love God as He wishes to be loved, as He deserves to be loved, then we must let go of any love that is incompatible with that love.  In return we have been promised that if even one person in a family practices their faith wholeheartedly and trusts in our Lord and His Blessed Mother then the rest will be saved.  As one Russian saint said “Become a saint and you will save a thousand souls.”

How do we do this? First, pray!  Here I recommend the book “The Practice of the Presence of God”, it’s short, easy to read and costs less than €5 on Book Depository.  Secondly know your Faith, read a piece of the Catechism each day or use EWTN or other sources on the net to get to know your Faith better.  Thirdly put it into practice especially by charity to the poor which covers a multitude of sins.  Fourthly attend the Sacraments especially Confession.  Examine your conscience daily and go to Confession regularly.  Fifthly do the duties of your state of life, avoiding evil and doing good, enduring what comes your way for the love of God.  This is the way to become a saint, on fire for God.

We cannot sit on the fence if we are followers of Christ.  We cannot run with hares and hunt with the hounds.  The price of Eternal Life with God is total commitment to Him in this world according to our state of life.  We cannot remain ignorant , still less must we be stupid.  We must face up to this battle, this war within ourselves, our families and our society and enflamed with the Love of Christ set our world on fire with love for Him.  Be on fire with love for Christ and others will catch fire from you.