Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 24 February 2021, during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

We are still in the early stages of Lent and I hope that you have adopted some sacrificial commitments and that you will be able to keep to them throughout Lent. Should you slip up, don’t give up but simply start again. Welcome to this reflection and, as usual, let us listen to an excerpt from today’s Gospel (Luke 11:29-32): 

The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgement with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Let us pray:

Convert us, O God our Saviour, and instruct our minds by heavenly teaching, that we may benefit from the works of lent. We make this prayer through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever, amen. 

Repentance is a major theme of both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament the prophets frequently called the people of Israel to repent of their wickedness and evil deeds and return once more to the Lord. For example, as we hear in the First Reading of today’s Mass, Jonah was sent to the people of Nineveh, who were not Jews, to proclaim to them that they would be destroyed because of their sinfulness. Surprisingly, the people of Nineveh took the message very seriously and their king ordered all the citizens to fast and wear sackcloth as signs of their repentance and commitment to change for the better. For that reason, God did not destroy them. This is a pattern throughout the Scriptures – time and time again we hear that God is merciful in response to true repentance and does not wish punishment or death on anyone (e.g. Ezekiel 33:11). 

In the New Testament John the Baptist preached repentance in preparation for Jesus’ coming ministry, and gave a baptism of repentance (Mark 1:4). Jesus himself appealed to people to “repent and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). Repentance is not only a fundamental teaching of the Scriptures but it is also fundamental to our relationship with God. In building and deepening our unity with God it is imperative to acknowledge our imperfection and sinfulness. In this way we also become more and more aware of our need for forgiveness and our need for God’s grace. We become more aware that we are the created and by ourselves we cannot achieve eternal life, and thus we turn to the Saviour. Those who do not have a sense of their sinfulness will find it difficult to accept that they need Jesus Christ, that they need a Saviour. Repentance demands true sorrow and it demands humility. It is not easy to admit to our mistakes and the times of infidelity to God’s law. It is also not easy to break with our favourite sins.

Thus it is important in all our prayer to express sorrow for our failings and our commitment to do better in the future. So it is in the celebration of Mass as well. After the greeting, which I spoke about last week, we are invited to express sorrow for our sins. There are different formulations for this but they are all truths about a loving, forgiving God and an appeal to his mercy. Once again, we should remember that these truths arise from the Scriptures themselves: “Lord Jesus, you were sent to heal the contrite of heart”, “you came to call sinners”, “you are seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us”, are all profound truths about Jesus from the Bible.

The Confiteor, the longer formulation, also conveys the communal aspect of our need for forgiveness – we not only confess to Almighty God, but also to you, “my brothers and sisters”. We acknowledge imperfection not only to God but to the family of God as well. And we specify the type of sins we commit, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do. Thoughts, words, actions and inactions all contain the possibility for sinfulness. It is important to realise that there are sins of commission (the wrong things I have done) and those of omission (the good I could have done but failed to do). So often we see sin only as wrong-doing, whereas we very often do not make use of many opportunities that come our way when we could actually do some good, perhaps because of our insensitivity, laziness or just because we could not be bothered. In praying the confiteor we are taking responsibility for our sin – we did not sin because of the devil, or because of other people, I have sinned “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault” – repeated three times to ensure that I understand that I am responsible.

The Confiteor also expresses our need of prayer, not only from “you, my brothers and sisters” but also Mary ever virgin, the angels and saints. The Church is united, here on earth and the Church in glory and we pray for each other that God will be merciful to each and every one. After our plea for mercy, the priest proclaims the prayer, on behalf of all, asking God for his forgiveness, he says: “May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life”. We then sing or say the “Lord have mercy”, the kyrie eleison (which, remember, is Greek and not Latin).

If it is a feast day, we will then sing (or say) the Gloria, a hymn of praise addressed to Jesus Christ. It glorifies Christ and our belief in who he is – “you alone are the holy one”, “you alone are the Lord”, “you alone are the most high”. Occasionally it happens that in a parish the words of the Gloria are changed because there may be a more “snazzy” tune. However, we should never change the words of the Gloria – if we cannot sing it as it is, we should then recite it. It is true of the whole Mass – we are not entitled to change it as we like, because it is the Liturgy of the Church and unites us in common worship with all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. The Gloria is a beautiful, profound and rich hymn of praise to Jesus Christ.

After the Gloria the celebrant will pray what is called the “collect”, which is always addressed to God the Father. It ends with the formulation of our Trinitarian belief,” we ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever”. The prayer is made to the Father but through Christ who is the mediator between God and Man (1 Timothy 2:5), our link to God and the revelation of the very being of God. It is made in unity with the Holy Spirit because God is a communion of three persons and, in our faith, we too are brought into that unity. The collect ends the introductory rites of the Mass and we then enter into the first of the two great pillars of the celebration, the Liturgy of the Word, which I will speak of next week.

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you R/ And with your spirit

May your faithful be strengthened, O God, by your blessing: in grief, may you be their consolation; in tribulation, their power to endure; and in peril, their protection. Through Christ our Lord, amen. And may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Auxiliary Bishop Sylvester David offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Friday 19 February 2021, during this time of the Coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Reflection for 19 February 2021. Friday after Ash Wednesday – Isaiah 58:1-9. 

There is absolutely no substitute for the actual reading of the text. Read the text in its entirety – i.e. Isaiah 58:1-16. It is still early in Lent and as we set out on our pilgrimage, the Church gives us this text to remind us what true fasting is all about. It is a sharp reminder that our religion does not occur in a vacuum but in the context of real human relationships. I will deal with two verses: “Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin? Then your light will blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice will go ahead of you and Yahweh’s glory come behind you” (Isaiah 58:7-8). 

What the text indicates is that our fast is only acceptable to God if we act with compassion for the marginalized and relate with them as brothers and sisters. Perhaps the following quote from Fr Gustavo Gutiérrez OP will be helpful: “You say you love the poor – okay tell me their names”. This implies that helping the poor is no mere “remote control” giving – we have to relate with those in need and recognize their dignity. Ultimately we have to realize that our contributions to the poor are not only helpful to them – we in fact, are the primary beneficiaries because without the practice of almsgiving our discipleship is not authentic (cf. Matthew 6:1-18 which lists almsgiving, fasting and prayer as key elements of Christian discipleship. Christian faith is more than just a nice feeling – it is meant to change lives!). In today’s first reading the prophet shows us how almsgiving and fasting go hand in hand.

I had the privilege of living in community with Bishop Barry Wood OMI. The parish we worked in, in the Durban South area, had a wonderful outreach to the poor and ran a successful soup kitchen. The various churches ran soup kitchens on different days of the week. Sometimes when people came in search of food (the then) Fr Barry would make them sandwiches himself. He was rather clumsy in the kitchen and was not a skilled sandwich maker, turning out very uneven sandwiches – but I am sure his efforts brought relief to many. He could very easily have said that the soup kitchen is closed or that on that day another church ran the feeding scheme. He was aware that some could not make it during the two to three hours in which the soup kitchens operated. He knew that hunger has no time table. His actions show clearly what genuine giving is all about – and it was not remote controlled. In response to the question posed by Fr Gutiérrez, Bishop Barry would have been able to recite an entire litany of names.

I wish you a joyful Lenten journey as we discover the kind of fasting which pleases our God. 

Let us pray: Heavenly Father – over and over again you invite us to imitate your own goodness to your children who are on the margins. Help us to authenticate our Christian faith by a life of service. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. [Blessing].

Bishop Sylvester David OMI 
VG: Archdiocese of Cape Town

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 17 February 2021, during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Today we begin the season of Lent, a time of grace as we focus on the tender mercy and forgiveness of God. The more we experience God’s compassionate mercy, the more we become aware of our own incompleteness, our need to humble ourselves and how much we thirst for God in our lives. Welcome to this reflection. I have taken an excerpt from the second Reading of today’s Mass, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2:

Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation”. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Let us pray using the Collect of the Mass:

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint. We make this prayer through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever, amen. 

Lent is a time of grace, a time of new growth and renewal of our resolve to follow Jesus Christ faithfully by integrating his teachings into our lives and daily activities. We can compare it to a time of pruning when fruit trees or other plants have the dead wood cut away in order to stimulate growth and fruitfulness. We are invited by the Church to look carefully at our lives and to become aware of the clutter and “dead wood” that is part of us but does not belong to God. We undertake more intense prayer, abstinence and fasting, as well as sacrificial good works as a remedy against the clutter and as a commitment to learn and adopt new habits making us into an acceptable offering to God and making us worthy of the name “Christian”. To accomplish this we need God’s grace. Grace, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church is favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life (CCC1996) and is a participation in the life of God (CCC1997). “It is the gift of the Holy Spirit who justifies us and sanctifies us”. How beautiful it is in Mass when we are welcomed with the words, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, or, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

A very worthwhile effort during the Lent, as we strive to improve and deepen our prayer life and spirituality, is to reflect on Holy Mass, what it means and how essential it is for us as Catholics since it is the source and summit of Christian life. For that reason, and because it is the Year of the Eucharist,  I would like to talk about the Mass over the next few weeks so that we can renew and re-find the beauty of Holy Mass as a true communion between ourselves and God.

As you are aware, every Mass consists of two fundamental parts – the Liturgy of the Word when we hear the Scriptures proclaimed and application of the Word given in the homily, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist where we fulfil the command of Jesus, “do this in memory of me”. The “this” refers to his actions at the Last Supper as recorded in the Gospels, and encompasses his passion, death and resurrection. Before we enter into the Liturgy of the Word there are the introductory rites, and after the celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist there are the concluding rites.

Mass really begins as people begin to assemble – we all are familiar with the words of Jesus, where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them (Matt 18:20). So Jesus is present as the faithful begin to gather who, as they wait, pray silently and in their hearts, preparing themselves inwardly for the spiritual event that is about to take place. When the appointed time arrives, the entrance procession of the priest and ministers is usually accompanied by a hymn praising and thanking God. All prayer should begin with praise of God as we acknowledge his bountiful gifts which he bestows on people, most especially the gifts of creation (life) and salvation. The hymn of praise enables us to focus on the reason for us being in Church – to acknowledge God as God and our relationship with him as the created. After the priest venerates the altar which, in itself a symbol of Christ who is priest sacrifice and altar, and speaks aloud and makes the sign of the Cross, a custom that begins most of our prayers as Catholics, and which again help us to focus on God. We are gathered in the name of the Triune God, not merely in our own name. The celebration is being conducted in God’s name and everything that is said and every action performed should lead us more deeply into God’s presence. The people then make their first response “amen” – it is so – thereby expressing their own consent and understanding of what has been said. It should be understood that the Mass is a dialogue. While both priest and people are all focussed on God, they have different parts and are in dialogue with each other in words of prayer and faith. The Mass is prayer from beginning to end.

Then come the wonderful words I was talking of earlier, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, or another similar greeting such as, the Lord be with you. These are words taken from Scripture – again, we should remember that the whole Mass is Scripturally based. If we are truly to appreciate the Mass we must recognize its Scriptural foundation. The greeting is beautiful and expresses unity between priest and congregation who respond “and with your spirit”. The words convey a desire for well-being, goodness and God’s blessings on all assembled, who are united in their faith in the one Triune God, despite being diverse and different people in so many ways. I will continue talking of the Mass next week.

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you                                                                          R/ And with your spirit

Father, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, your love, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with your people at all times, through Christ our Lord, amen.  And may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin calls for religious respect and tolerance in the light of the act of contempt on the Bait Ul Awal Masjid in Athlone, Cape Town.

Auxiliary Bishop Sylvester David offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Friday 12 February 2021, during this time of the Coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Reflection for 12th February 2021. Gospel passage: Mark 7:31-37. [Please read the text].

This passage has three parts: at the top, the arrival of Jesus (Mark 7:31-32); at the bottom the consequences of this arrival (Mark 7:36-37); and right in the middle, like the filling in a sandwich, we note the words and actions of Jesus (Mark 7:33-35). Here is the pattern:

1. Arrival of Jesus (verses 31-32)

2. WORDS & ACTIONS OF JESUS (verses 33-35)

3. Consequences of the arrival of Jesus (verses 36-37)

The word used in the original text to describe the deaf mute is the same word that describes the primeval chaos before God’s finger touched the earth at creation and brought order out of this chaos. The treatment of the deaf mute similarly involves the finger of Jesus – the Son imitates the Father when it comes to dealing with chaos. Later on St Paul will remind us that God is not a God of disorder and chaos but a God of order and peace (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:33). This is why our liturgy is ordered in the way in which it is – intending to imitate God’s work at creation. Notice that St Paul encourages the order referred to in the context of worship and liturgy.

After this treatment, the man was healed and he spoke clearly. For ‘clearly’ the original text uses the word from which we get the word ‘orthodox’ – meaning that after the intervention of Jesus, the man spoke in the way in which he was intended to by the Creator. The creative work of the Father continues in the Son. Just in case there is a temptation to think that this is stretching the point too far, let me add that the word used in the last verse (Mark 7:37) to indicate that Jesus did all things ‘well’ is the same word that Scripture uses to say that what God did at creation was good. It occurs like a litany in the creation account (Genesis 1:21, 25 and 31). 

Knowing all this is good, but what is important is for us to assess our own speech. To what extent do we speak in the way in which the Creator intends us to speak? In this regard the words of St Paul are helpful: ‘Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29)’. Lies, insults, gossip and foul speech fall into the category of ‘evil talk’ referred to by St Paul. In this context he reminds us not to grieve God’s Holy Spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:30). 

Prayer: Lord send us your Holy Spirit to assist us to eliminate chaos and to help us to be clear about want you want of us especially about the type of speech you desire from your children. May our words always bring honour to your name. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. [Blessing]

Bishop Sylvester David OMI
VG: Archdiocese of Cape Town

The Bishops of Southern Africa invite all the faithful to join them in asking the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes by praying the Rosary against the corona virus pandemic. Live on Radio Veritas on 11 February 2021 at 8pm. Led by the Auxiliary Bishop of Johannesburg, Bishop Duncan Tsoke. Please read or download the attached file below for details.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 10 February 2021, during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Welcome to this week’s reflection. On Sunday we celebrated the patronal feast of the Archdiocese of Cape Town, Our Lady of the Flight into Egypt. It is always a beautiful feast day that encourages and inspires us. Please keep the Archdiocese in your prayers and seek the intercession of Mary our Mother, that the Church in Cape Town may reflect the image of Christ in the love and service we offer to society.

In the first reading of today’s Mass, from the Book of Genesis (2:4b-9.15-17) we hear of the creation of the world and humankind. This is what we hear:

…a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground – then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 

Let us pray:

Through the intercession of our patron saints, we pray O Lord, that you will keep your family safe with unfailing care, that relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by your protection. We make this prayer through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever, amen. 

The First Reading of the past couple of days have narrated the account of creation, emphasising that God is the source of all life and that all things came into being through Him. Exactly how God chose this to be is somewhat irrelevant – we cannot know or understand the ways of God. The essential fact is that life comes from God, he is the Creator of heaven and earth and all they contain. Those who struggle with faith and find it difficult to come to belief in God, cannot explain how the world came to exist – “it just was”, and various events of the inanimate objects of the heavens brought the earth and life into being, some would postulate. It doesn’t hold water. Human experience and knowledge have taught us that there needs to be a cause, a “first mover”. It is most logical to believe in the Creator who has given life. Again, exactly how God did this or the length of time it has taken us to reach this point is not the most important thing. Primarily, what we need to focus on is our belief in God, the Source of Life. 

It is this key belief that all life comes from God that is the basis for our belief in the sanctity of all life, human life in particular because “Man”, male and female, is made in the image of God. This time of intense global crisis and suffering brings home to us how important life is. As Pope Francis has recently said, the pandemic forced us to confront two unavoidable dimensions of human existence: sickness and death. In doing so, it reminded us of the value of life, of every individual human life and its dignity, at every moment of its earthy pilgrimage, from conception in the womb, until its natural end. He went on to say that human life must be protected at every phase. Pro-life means being concerned and respectful of life at every phase, as the saying goes “from womb to tomb”.

To respect the sanctity of life means protecting the unborn and protecting the lives of the elderly. Our belief in God as the source of life means that we cannot accept abortion or euthanasia. But it also means that we have to struggle against everything that oppresses people, against injustices which keep people living in poverty and without access to opportunity, health or education; it is taking a stand against violence and abuse, taking a stand on issues such as the treatment of migrants and refugees, human trafficking and the exploitation of people who are used and discarded by others for their own purpose. In short, it is about a moral imperative of respecting and protecting all life, even if it means a cost to ourselves we must be willing to make that sacrifice.

We also reflect on our own lives and question ourselves on how we respect the dignity of others. It is not only the “macro” issues that we have to worry about but also our personal relationships and interactions with others, which can become manipulative, controlling or exploitative. Filled with Christ’s Spirit we aim to bring life to people through encouragement, kindness and forgiveness. There is so much of fallen humanity that does the opposite – feelings and actions of revenge, gossiping about others thereby putting them in a bad light and destroying their reputation, putting people down, false witness and negativity or pessimism which brings darkness and sadness to others rather than light and joy – all of these belong to death and not life.

When Moses spoke to the Israelites he encouraged them by saying, This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him (Deuteronomy 30:29-30). This is what we wish to do, to always choose life. The Gospel by which we live is the Gospel of Life – Christ always brought life to people. There was never any darkness in him but only light. He is our life and he came that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). It is only in him that we can have life in abundance. But we cannot truly have that life while the lives of others around us are diminished.

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you R/ And with your spirit

Loving Father, look kindly on your people that they may always serve you with pure love and be granted the grace to accept with open hearts all that comes from loving you. May your life-giving Spirit always be with them. Through Christ our Lord, amen. And may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Auxiliary Bishop Sylvester David offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Friday 5 February 2021, during this time of the Coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Friday Reflection: 5 February 2021. Gospel passage – Mark 6:14-29.

“… King Herod had heard about Jesus, since by now his name was well known. Some were saying, ‘John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’ Others said, ‘He is Elijah’; others again, ‘He is a prophet, like the prophets we used to have.’ But when Herod heard this he said, ‘It is John whose head I cut off; he has risen from the dead’.”

This excerpt quoted above is a sharp reminder that the Word of God cannot be ignored. We cannot put it on the bookshelf, ignore those parts of it that disturb our consciences, or kill it off. Herod did this. John the Baptist challenged his lustful lifestyle. Herod had violated all the norms of decency – he had married his brother Phillip’s wife who at the same time was his niece. (The Herod family tree will outdo any of the modern day soap operas!!) 

The voice of prophecy spoke out and for this John lost his head. The voice that challenged Herod had been put firstly into a prison and finally into a tomb. Then Herod hears Jesus – and what does he think? “Ah! This is John the Baptist come back to life”. The lesson in all this is that we cannot imprison the Word of God, put it in a tomb, ignore it when it is preached, or leave it unattended on a bookshelf. It will come back and haunt us as it did King Herod. 

When St Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of the Oblates described his vocation he quoted St Paul that he was “called from his mother’s womb” so that God’s word could be manifested not to him, or through him, but, as indicated in the original text, in him (cf Galatians 1:15-16). This then is the call of all Christians – to make a home for God’s word in our lives so that so that Christ, i.e. God’s supreme Word, could be known intimately in us. Then when people encounter us they will encounter God’s holy word. I wish you an attitude of reverence for the Word of God so that God’s love could be seen and known in, by and through us. 

Let us pray: God our Father, Scripture teaches us that your word is a light to our path and a lamp to our feet. Give us the grace to respond to your word so that we may always walk along the paths you have chosen for us. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen. [Blessing].

Bishop Sylvester David OMI
VG: Archdiocese of Cape Town

Attached please find updated guidelines from Auxiliary Bishop Sylvester David OMI for the re-opening of Churches and the celebration of the Sacraments during revised level 3 lockdown,

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 3 February 2021, during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. It is also available on the Archdiocese of Cape Town’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please also see below the text of his reflection, primarily for the deaf.

Peace and blessings on all of you. Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, a feast that is characterized by the lighting of candles. As small as the flame of a candle is, no amount of darkness can extinguish it. This is true, too, of the small flame of faith we have in our hearts – evil cannot extinguish it. At this time most particularly, we need to fan into a flame the gift of faith (cf. 2 Tim 1:6-7), so that we can bring its light into the world. In the First Reading of todays’s Mass, from the Letter to the Hebrews (12:4-7; 11-15), we hear that God disciplines us:

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is training you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet.

Let us pray:

O Lord, we offer you our hearts in your service. Be pleased to accept our offering in its imperfection and transform our hearts into what is pleasing to you. We make this prayer through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever, amen. 

To be called a son, as in the reading we have just heard, is not meant to be gender exclusive but refers rather to a relationship of closeness and love between ourselves and God. Many people still believe that God is a punishing God, while others go to the other extreme and believe that God’s forgiveness is automatic. Some are claiming, as they did when HIV/AIDS made its first appearance, that the Covid 19 pandemic is a punishment from God resulting from the sinful and evil behaviour of humans. But is this so?

We hear clearly in this reading that God does discipline those he loves, but discipline and punishment are not the same thing. Punishment has the connotation of inflicting some sort of pain with the purpose of satisfying a wrong or eliciting remorse. Discipline, on the other hand, is fundamentally positive – it has the connotation of training and correcting a person for a positive result. Parents may discipline children in order that they can learn appropriate social skills, that they may develop good relationships with others and that they can learn to delay pleasure in order to achieve something good – for example, not going to a party but studying in order that they can pass their exams. Its aim is to build character and enable the person to become a functioning and contributing member of society. External discipline is useless, of course, unless it results in self-discipline, the ability to control and exhibit appropriate behaviour even when there is no external pressure.

So does God punish evil and sin in this world? The parable of the good seed and weeds that grow together until the harvest (Matt13:24ff), at which time the weeds will be separated from the wheat and burnt, indicates that punishment from God is not done in this world. We cannot interpret pandemics and other tragedies, such as earthquakes, as being punishments from God. Some such calamities result from human behaviour – such as the devastating climate change we are beginning to experience; others arise from the finiteness and fragility of human life and the earth.

But we do accept that God does discipline us – he allows challenging times and events to come our way. St Paul says in his letter to Titus (2:11-14), For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. St Paul compares this to the training of an athlete (1Tim 4:8). This training results in patience, endurance, faith, compassion and sanctification. It is not always pleasant to be trained in this way – think of the slogan often used by gyms: “no pain, no gain”. Spiritually this is the case as well. What is imperative, though, is to learn from the difficulties and challenges we encounter in life and to allow them to change us for the better. 

So, the Covid 19 pandemic is not a punishment from God, but nonetheless it is essential that we interpret it and learn from it. C.S. Lewis, in his discourse on the Problem of Pain, wrote, Pain insists on being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. And so, I think it is true that God is shouting to us in this pandemic. He is shouting to us to accept our brokenness, to humble ourselves as the created and not to see ourselves as the creator, to ponder and reflect on the meaning of our lives and our purpose in relation to our responsibility towards others and, indeed, to be my “bother’s keeper”. He is shouting to us to allow the uncertainty and anxiety of this time to mellow us and to seek God who is our true strength. It should build and deepen our character, making us better, more holy and more Christ-like people. God is shouting to us that change is necessary in the world, that we cannot ignore the suffering of poverty, oppression and violence. God is shouting to us not to ignore the cry of the poor and, indeed, not to ignore the cry of the earth.

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you R/ And with your spirit

Compassionate and merciful God, we are grateful for your care and vigilance over your people. As they endure this difficult and anxious time, mould and transform their hearts, that they may never lose trust in you and that they will seek your strength and place their hope in you. Through Christ our Lord, amen. And may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.