Please see this information graphic from the WC Government with regard to available vaccination sites for 21 August 2021.

Auxiliary Bishop Sylvester David offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Friday 13 August 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 Friday 13^th August 2021.

I once again wish to start by saying the prayer for peace in Southern Africa:

O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa,
and help us to live in your peace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;

For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

We are encouraged to pray the peace prayer often. 

Ps 50 (51) The Miserere – the prayer of the contrite of heart

The Church’s morning prayer comprises, in addition to scripture readings and versicles, two psalms and a canticle. On Fridays our first psalm is the miserere – a prayer of contrition which also expresses a desire for renewal. Like other forms of biblical literature, the psalms were not composed in a vacuum but were embedded in the real life circumstances of the Nation and very frequently the King. Psalm 50 articulates the lived experience of King David.

The background to this psalm is described in the historical OT book, the second book of Samuel. This is a wonderful opportunity to catch up on some Bible reading. Read 2 Samuel 11 – 12. In 2 Sam 11, David is shown to have neglected his duty, not to have been abstemious during a war, committing adultery out of which arose a pregnancy, covering up the sin by having Uriah killed, and then marrying Bathsheba. Sin can sometimes develop a momentum of its own and can lead its perpetrator to act in whatever way possible to hide the sin. We see this is manipulation, bribery, and the like – especially where persons with power misuse their positions.

But the prophet of God (or, the word of God) is not far away. In 2 Sam 12, the prophet knocked at David’s door. When God acceded to Israel’s request for a king, he also sent along the prophet who was to correct the king when the latter strayed off course. Unbridled power is not good. By means of a parable the prophet Nathan gets David to see what he had done. 

It will be worthwhile here to see how God acts towards the sinner. One gets a full picture when looking at the words for justice in the OT. There is one word which means to punish the guilty. This is normally acted out in human courts. But God acts differently as shown by another word. God gives the guilty a chance to reflect and to make amends. Pharaoh refused and was doomed. King David accepted the second chance, survived and even thrived – so much so that his and Bathsheba’s names occur in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5-6). To put it colloquially, God can write straight with crooked lines!

But back to our story. After Nathan’s confrontation of David, the latter repents (2 Samuel 12:13ff). He showed all the signs of a repentant sinner and trusted in God’s mercy. This is when he composed the psalm which is still in use among the faithful today. When this psalm is uttered with humility and knowledge of our brokenness, it becomes an authentic prayer:

“Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin….”

It continues:

“Indeed you love truth in the heart;
then in the secret of my heart teach me wisdom.
O purify me, then I shall be clean;
O wash me, I shall be whiter than snow…

A pure heart create for me, O God,
put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
nor deprive me of your holy spirit…

… my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn…”

This is both a prayer for forgiveness and also a prayer of humble trust that God will be God and offer us mercy. I wish you a joyful celebration of the gift of God’s forgiving love.

Let us pray: Father, bless us with contrite hearts so that we may joyfully receive your forgiveness. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bishop Sylvester David OMI
VG/Auxiliary Bishop: Cape Town.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 11 August 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 reflection. Today is the feast day of St Clare, a contemporary and spiritual friend to St Francis of Assisi. Like St Francis, Clare dedicated her life to serving God in poverty, a powerful witness in her times when some in the Church were more concerned about material benefits. Let us pray the Prayer for Peace for southern Africa, remembering especially the countries of eSwatini and our own country:

O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa, and help us to
live in your peace.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;
For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others. We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

The Scripture Reading comes from the Gospel of today’s Mass (Matthew 18:15-20):

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church;

In South Africa we are quite used to people turning to the courts to settle disputes. Courts also have often been called on to resolve political matters that should really be resolved politically. There are those who turn to courts to solve conflicts with neighbours or strangers who “have crossed swords”. In general, courts prefer matters to be resolved outside of the legal framework if at all possible – of course, if a crime has been committed then matters need to be dealt with according to the law. While complainants may be granted relief by a court, it seldom results in the restoration of relationships and the re-establishment of a relationship that is peaceful and harmonious.

It is difficult to deal with conflicts, especially those in the family or in a close relationships. If we have been wronged by someone, we go through a host of emotions: hurt, anger, the impulse to “hit back” or seek revenge; often there is fear as well, especially fear that in trying to resolve the matter it will result in even greater hurt. Jesus gives sound advice in his teaching which we heard in the Gospel we heard, saying that we should start off in the simplest way possible to resolve matters. First and foremost, talk to the person who has wronged you. If he or she listens and understands, then the relationship is restored, things can get back to normal, harmony and peace have once again been established. If he doesn’t listen, then get one or two with you and, once again, try to talk things through. If he still does not listen, then you should escalate it to the community to help find a way forward.

Don’t start by escalating things – try to resolve them yourself, face to face with the other. As I’ve said, that can be difficult because we often feel vulnerable and would like to have people with us to bolster our case. Secondly, in talking to the one who has wronged you there should always be with the intention of re-establishing a good relationship, of being able to put what has happened in the past. It should not be done to prove that you are right, to justify yourself or to humiliate the other party. In short, it is not about getting on our high horse. Thirdly, in order to confront the other in such a way means having to get our emotions under control, to put aside the hurt, the anger or to hit back. These emotions can be expressed, but not in a way that is intended to hurt the other.

Wherever there are people, differences will arise among them. People rub each other up the wrong way, we fail to understand each other and make judgements about others without really understanding them. It is not pleasant when things go wrong, but it is part of life. The most important thing is not that there are conflicts, but how we handle things afterwards and the steps we take. This calls for much maturity and, indeed, Christian maturity, because forgiveness, which is a mark of Christian living, is required in such situations. If we cannot forgive and “let go” then we will not be able to resume the relationship as it was and will certainly not be able to deepen it.

We can only develop that type of maturity through growing in the image of Jesus Christ, who prayed on the Cross “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. We grow in the image of Christ through prayer which is ultimately communion with God, uniting ourselves to him, becoming one with him. Prayer enables us to put things in perspective, it calms us and our emotions, it gives us purpose and it gives us courage. When we pray with others the prayer is made all the stronger. As Jesus says later in the Gospel of today’s Mass, for when two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them. It is especially important in our families, among the most important people in our lives, that we pray together. Christ is part of our families and we should see him as a member of the family. This can only be achieved when we pray together as a family and keep the love of Jesus before our eyes at all times, inviting him to give us a share of his Divine love.

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you R/ And with your Spirit

Bow down for the blessing:

Almighty God and Father, you call your people to reconcile with you and to establish harmonious relationships among those we live with. We ask your blessings on your people that, through the intercession of St Clare, they may restore their relationship with you, Father, and restore their relationships with others, that all may live in peace and harmony. Through Christ our Lord, amen

May Almighty God bless you, the Father and 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 6 August 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 6 August 2021. The transfiguration. Mark 9:2-10. 

I once again wish to start by saying the prayer for peace in Southern Africa:

O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa,
and help us to live in your peace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;

For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

We are encouraged to pray the peace prayer often. 

Chaos, disfiguration and the need for a new creation

I recently read a book on the second half of life entitled “This Blessed Mess”. The opening line simply reads: ‘This book is about struggle’. The author goes on to describe the chaos of living in present day society. The occupants of our global village experience chaos and upheaval comprising the horrors of Covid 19, heat waves which claim lives, unseasonal rains and massive flooding. Recently we have also been experiencing forest fires of apocalyptic proportions either displacing people or killing them. All this makes life uncertain and our insecurities are heightened. Add to this the human complicity in wars, state capture, looting, the instigating of political violence, substance abuse, ecological damage, racism, violence, abuse of children and vulnerable persons, the abuse of animals though poaching and abandonment, and nuclear proliferation; and it becomes easy to see why this chaos so easily overwhelms us. 

Biblically chaos is the opposite of creation. It is raw unformed energy and because it lacks shape and form it is totally unpredictable. The original chaos was transformed into life giving energy which we call creation – ‘… and God saw that it was good’. But the litany of disasters listed above shows that this good world has been disfigured. To the extent that we have contributed to the pollution and negativity then we too have become disfigured. This is why the remembrance of the transfiguration and commitment to its values are so important. We need to get back to the mountain of revelation and listen again to the voice of faith. Moses challenges us with the Genesis narrative and Elijah reminds us of the prophetic task of challenging the status quo which makes a profit out of uncontrollable consumerism. Jesus challenges us to again seek the path that leads to God – and the Father not to be silenced, reminds us that the way of Jesus is correct and that we ought to listen to him. In short the reading of the transfiguration event challenges us to re-engage with the work of bringing order out of chaos. What this calls for is for us to commit ourselves to the “new heavens and the new earth” (Isaiah 65:17, 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). 

The Gospel text is a beautiful composition – woven like a tapestry enriched with OT threads. In praying the text an important aspect nourished me. After their prayer experience (it was a prayer experience if we look at the original text) and the Divine voice requested them to listen to Jesus, the three Apostles looked up and saw “only Jesus”. How nice if our prayer experiences could end in such a way – that we look up and see only Jesus. For that to happen, we need to be open, honest, and willing to acknowledge that we are in need of redemption.

Let us pray: Lord, we turn to you in our time of need. Help us to reconstitute ourselves as a transfigured human community after the violence that has disfigured us in recent weeks. Remove all notions of hatred and vengeance from among us. We are still in the midst of a frightening pandemic and look to you to once again to speak your creative word in our hearts, our families, our Church and our world. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bishop Sylvester David OMI
VG/Auxiliary Bishop of Cape Town

Welcome to this prayer hour for an end to the Corona Virus with Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley‘s Bishop Duncan Tsoke and Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Town‘s Archbishop Stephen Brislin, presented and hosted by Radio Veritas.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 4 August 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 all who are joining this reflection. Today is the feast day of St John Mary Vianney who is the Patron Saint of Parish Priests, and so I take this opportunity of wishing all priests a blessed feast day. My prayer for you is that you will experience deep joy and happiness in your vocation to the priesthood. In these difficult and uncertain times, let us begin by praying for Southern Africa:

O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa,
and help us to
live in your peace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;
For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others. 

We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

I have taken the Scripture excerpt from today’s Mass, from the Book of Numbers (13:1-2,25-14:1,26-29,34-35)

At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Par’an, at Ka’desh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Yet the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.

We all know that, after leaving Egypt, the Israelites spent 40 years in the desert before entering the Promised Land, the land flowing with ‘milk and honey’. We are reminded in the First Reading of today’s Mass that they could have gone into the Promised Land much sooner, but some members of the group that had been sent to “spy out the land” were fearful and so they gave an evil report of the land and stirred people up against entering into it. The Lord heard their complaint, turned them back, said that for every day that the reconnaissance group had spent in the Promised Land, the Israelites would spend a year in the desert. Since the spies had been away for forty days, the Israelites were to spend 40 years wandering in the desert. Furthermore, the Lord decreed that not one of them 20 years and older who had complained against the Lord would reach the Promised Land but they would die in the desert – the only exceptions ere Joshua and Caleb who had been honest in the report they gave.

We can understand this event and its consequences in two ways. We could think of it as God punishing the Israelites for their lack of faith in him and the fact that they were always complaining against him. Or we could see, not as a punishment from God, but as a natural consequence of doubting and succumbing to fear. I tend towards the second understanding. I think that we humans are so often the cause of our own misery, and the masters of our own unhappiness. We tend to blame fate, other people or even God when things go wrong. Often, though, things have gone wrong because of the choices we have made and for which we are responsible. The amazing thing about being human is that we do have a choice, even when terrible things have happened to us, we have a choice as to how we respond and also whether we are going to allow those terrible things to have continual power over us and our happiness. Sometimes we live with things that happened years ago and which still cause us upset and hurt. We may need support and accompaniment in getting over such things, but a lot also depends on whether we choose to let go.

The Israelites gave in to fear. Fear can be a life saver – if you meet a tiger escaped from the zoo in your back garden, fear is an appropriate response and will prevent you from giving into the temptation to pat the tiger on the head – it might well save your life. The problem only arises when we allow fear to govern us and to determine our actions, preventing us from doing what is right. St John teaches us that love drives out all fear (1 John 4:18) and when love rules us we will be able to choose the right course of action even when we feel afraid. Love was the motivating force for the martyrs and saints who continued to do good in the face of opposition and persecution. Our love must ensure that, when it comes to doing what is right, we do not become paralysed by fear.

The failure of the Israelites to enter the Promised Land at the time led to great hardship and suffering for them. Ten of the twelve who had been sent to spy on the land gave in to the fear and they gave a negative and exaggerated report on the land. In a way I find it comforting to know that fake news is not something that has just started happening – it has been around since time immemorial. But we do see the consequences of fake news and learn from it – even today, fake news can and does divide people, instills unnecessary fear in people, and causes them to react negatively. The propagators of fake news find it easy to manipulate people for their own purposes and, just as the ten lying spies did, to cause a sense of mass terror and frenzy.

The event of the first arrival of the Israelites at the brink of the Promised Land is a wonderful account with many rich lessons. It emphasises the need to have faith and trust in God, even in the most difficult of times, and allow ourselves to be led by him. It calls us to respond to the Lord’s injunction to “stand firm”, as he will do the fighting on our behalf. Again we respond to his words, “be not afraid”. It reminds us that hardship and unhappiness often comes to us through the choices we ourselves make, rather than as a punishment from God, or because of other people’s mistakes. It re-affirms our belief that truth is the only way to real progress, justice and peace. Adopting falsehood will only divide people, cause them to act erroneously and will result in increased suffering. Finally, this event reminds us of the power of love which conquers fear and negativity. We open our hearts to God’s love and offer our love to him. In the words of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, “Love Him trustfully without looking back, without fear. Give yourself fully to Jesus. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His Love than in your weaknesses.

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you R/ And with your Spirit

Bow down for the blessing:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the priests who minister in the Archdiocese of Cape Town and we pray for a special blessing on them today. Bless, too, all your people, Lord, that like St John Vianney, they will persevere in faith no matter what obstacles they encounter and that they will always be faithful to you. Through Christ our Lord, amen

May Almighty God bless you, the Father and 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 30 July 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 Friday 30 July 2021. Freedom to love. Text for reflection – John 13:34-35.

I would like to start by praying for peace in Southern Africa:

O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa,
and help us to live in your peace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;

For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

During this time of unrest, mistrust and now rebuilding, let us pray more often and more fervently.

The text I wish to comment on comes from the command Jesus gave us to love one another. I was reminded of this text through one of the intercessions (the third one) for the Church’s morning prayer for today viz. “Guide our thoughts, our words, our actions: so that what we do today may be pleasing to you.” 

How do we live out this intercession which we pray? The answer is that we live it out in our relationships with the neighbour. Our love of the neighbour does not exist in a vacuum nor in attractive sayings that one finds on greeting cards. It is a lot more practical, and in its essence, is what discipleship is all about. It is always embedded in a context and speaks to every occasion. What then is our context? Or to put it scripturally, what is the mood of this time (cf. Ecclesiastes 3)?

On 25 July 2021, President Ramaphosa announced an easing of the Lockdown restrictions. We moved from Level Four to Level Three. We now have greater freedom. But with greater freedom comes greater responsibility. Freedom after all, is not freedom to do just anything – it is freedom to do the right thing. The right thing at this time is to exercise the Church’s teachings about being pro-life. In this regard, the text of Deuteronomy 30:15-20 is very significant. The very fact that we can now gather – albeit in limited numbers, does not mean that we are free to do as we like. In Christian terms we have to make sacrifice for the neighbour. 

Freedom without corresponding responsibility is not freedom simply because in the context of a pandemic it can lead to an uncontrolled spread of the virus which has now mutated into a rapidly transmissible and destructive force. The very fact that we can gather compels us to act with greater responsibility. Even with the restrictions, during the last week of Lockdown Level Four we have received reports of several infections among the laity and several priests have also tested positive. Mahatma Gandhi noted that: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Last week when I commented on our moral responsibility to keep the neighbour safe, I noted: “Accountability before God to whom our sacrifice is offered, is also accountability before the neighbour. The first question to fly into the face of the creator came from the murderous Cain: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And throughout the bible God’s answer is a definite ‘Yes – you are your brother’s keeper. You are your sister’s keeper’.”

When speaking of this time of infections, medical scientists have informed us that we are called to exercise responsibility now so that we can have a brighter future. With the increased roll out of the vaccine there is a sense of optimism – so it is not all doom and gloom. We do what we have to at this time so as to achieve liberation in the future. Jesus uses the analogy of suffering so as to achieve greater joy in John 16:21. In Matthew 22:37-39, he sums up the love of neighbour as a great commandment. It is after all by our love that we will be recognised as his disciples (cf. John 13:34-35). The word for love in this verse indicates a self sacrificial love lived out for the good of the neighbour.

Let us pray: Merciful God, right now we experience pain and suffering. We have no one but you to turn to for relief for ourselves and our loved ones. Send us your Spirit to teach us how to cope, so that we may keep ourselves and each other safe. Grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Lord, above all give us the gifts of patience and perseverance. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bishop Sylvester David OMI
VG/Auxiliary Bishop of Cape Town

Pope Francis declared the Year of St Joseph, running from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021. This is a rare opportunity for us to focus on this great man who is often described as “standing in the shadows”. Joseph becomes our guide to visit the important moments of the life of Mary and the childhood of Jesus. Though operating in obscurity, Joseph leads us to a deeper understanding of Church, work, family, husband, fatherhood and prayer as we delve into some important aspects of his life. Every time we do we this have a refreshing encounter with who we are as Church in the world today. As this is also the Year of the Eucharist, Benediction forms an integral part of our devotions.

This year is an invitation by Pope Francis to celebrate St Joseph. It is an opportunity that the Church and the faithful should appropriate fully. 

Fr Shaun Addinall presents the sixth of the monthly reflections. It is titled: St Joseph the Family Man and will be livestreamed to Good Shepherd Bothasig YouTube channel on 3 August 2021 from 7.00 pm-7.30 pm. 

The livestream link is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnj6J2Sc_dW058_zPCSA4zw

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 28 July 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 reflection. Let’s start by praying the Prayer for Southern Africa:

O! God of justice and love, bless us, the people of Southern Africa, and help us to
live in your peace.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; let me sow pardon;
Where there is discord, let me sow harmony.
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
To receive sympathy, as to give it;
For it is in giving that we shall receive,
In pardoning that we shall be pardoned,
In forgetting ourselves that we shall find
Unending peace with others. We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

The Reading I have chosen for today is the Gospel of today’s Mass (Matthew 13:44-46):

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it”.

In Chapter 13 of St Matthew’s Gospel there are a number of successive parables explaining the nature of the God’s Kingdom. St Matthew begins with the parable of the sower which is about those who “hear the word of the kingdom” but receive it in different ways, and then the parable of the weeds among the wheat. He compares the Kingdom to a mustard seed, to leaven (yeast) and to a net thrown into the sea to catch fish. The chapter ends with people rejecting him, saying “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son?” Jesus is amazed at their unbelief and notes that a prophet is not without honour except in his own country. We are told that he could do many mighty works there due to their unbelief.

The Kingdom of heaven, or as it is referred to in other places in the Scriptures, the Kingdom of God, is central to the life and mission of Jesus – he came to proclaim the kingdom, which he says is “at hand” (Matt 4:17). His preaching, teaching, miracles and his prayer are all oriented towards God’s Kingdom. For this reason, St John always refers to Jesus’ miracles as “signs” and not as miracles, because he wishes us to understand that the mighty works Jesus performed were not to be understood merely as super natural events in the material realm (as amazing as they were). Rather, they all point and teach us about a much deeper reality of which they are merely the physical manifestation. We could even say that his miracles are sacramental. They point to the glory, majesty and power of God working through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. They are revelations of God and the promise of the restoration of Creation to its original beauty and innocence. They teach us of Jesus, “the light of the world” (John 8:12), of Jesus who is the “resurrection and the life” (John 11:25) and that no-one can come to the Father except through him (John 14:6). The proclamation of the Kingdom is accompanied by the call to conversion, to repentance, to turn once more to God and away from all that is sin and does not belong to God. It is a call to righteousness which embodies justice, honesty, truth, uprightness, harmony and, above all, love.

The centrality of Jesus’ proclamation of God’s Kingdom is captured in the two parables we heard in the Gospel passage I started with – a man who finds a treasure in a field sells all he has to buy the field in order to obtain the treasure, and the man who finds a pearl of great worth and who also sells everything he has in order to purchase it. The point is clear – there is nothing more important for anyone than the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is the greatest treasure we can ever hope to have. It is the purpose and meaning of our existence – we should be able to “sell everything we have” in order to obtain it, and allow nothing in life to impede us from attaining it. remembering how Christ gave everything on the Cross, allowing his life to be poured out, in order to break open the gates of the Kingdom and so to restore us to friendship with the Father.

The proclamation of the Kingdom demands a response from us, the first of which is repentance and conversion, an abandonment of all that does not belong to the Kingdom, and equally to repent of our failure to do the works that would enhance the growth of God’s Kingdom. The second is to ensure that the word of the Kingdom is assimilated in our hearts and lives, that we are no longer only “hearers” of the Word but also “doers” of the word (James 1:22). The most important of all responses is to recognize the hope which Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom of God offers to us. Despite all the evil in the world, and there is much evil, despite the hardships that we face personally and the anxieties we encounter, despite our lack of understanding, Jesus teaches us and assures us, that the Kingdom of God is at hand, it is in our midst and we belong to it. The goodness in the world may, at times, seem to be small (like a mustard seed) in the face of the darkness of evil, evil may seem to be triumphing over goodness (like the weeds among wheat), faith may seem to be dissipating or even disappearing (like the seed that falls on rocky ground or among thorns), but we await in hope for the new heavens and the new earth (cf. Revelation 21:1), of which we are already part and which already exists among us and is awaiting its final accomplishment.

Even in the dreadful looting and destruction that we witnessed recently in South Africa, there followed an outpouring of goodness as people turned out to clean up, to guard sensitive areas and to seek answers for and understanding of what had taken place. There has been a groundswell of concerned and good people calling for root causes to be identified and addressed, for the injustices of the inequality and poverty of our country to be recognized, and for the need to work for a true peace to be founded on the pillars of truth and justice. We may think that these “signs” are small in comparison, that they are, by and large, spoken about by mostly powerless people, but the signs – like the miracles of Jesus – indicate something far greater at work. God’s Spirit is working throughout the world.

This pandemic is and has been a horrible time for us. The socio-economic and political problems we face are enormous. But even in these horrible times we must see that they are part of the coming of God’s Kingdom and are leading us towards it, rather than happening in spite of God’s Kingdom. What we must ask ourselves is what we have to learn from the horribleness of the times, and what we must do to be instruments of God’s light in the darkness they have brought. So, far from giving in to despair, we face the present with hearts burning with the hope of God’s Kingdom and willing to persevere in being agents and instruments of God’s love and compassion in a world that is truly crying out in anguish for someone who cares.

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you R/ And with your Spirit

Bow down for the blessing:

Gracious and loving Father, you sent your only Son into the world to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to call mankind to conversion. Fill the hearts of your faithful with true repentance that they may receive the Kingdom of God within them. Through Christ our Lord, amen

May Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (+), amen.

Please see the attached documents from Auxiliary Bishop Sylvester David OMI with regard to the re-opening of churches for worship in lockdown level three, as well as the Covid 19 Occupancy Compliance Certificate.