Prayer and Reflection by Archbishop Stephen Brislin

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 25 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.

It is wonderful that the vaccine is now available to those 18 years and older. We are on about day 517 of the Covid restrictions and sadly there is no end yet in sight. The vaccine roll out has been slow, partly due to reluctance on the part of some to receive the vaccine. Nonetheless, we are aware of God’s presence and the psalm of today’s Mass gives much comfort and consolation. But first, let us pray 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.

These are the opening verses of the Responsorial Psalm 138 (139):

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

This most beautiful psalm should be properly understood. For some, it may give rise to feelings of “God the policeman” who is always watching us and waiting for us to make mistakes. This is not what is meant and the way to understand Psalm 138, and I encourage you to read the whole psalm, is in terms of the love relationship we have with God. The composition of the psalm is attributed to King David, a person who was well aware of his faults and sinfulness. He was also a person deeply aware of God’s love and forgiveness, and this filled him with repentance, humility and gratitude. He loved God, and the psalm celebrates God’s love and expresses his love of God.

O Lord, you search me and you know me. Think about that for a moment. If you fall in love with someone, you really want to know them, to know what makes them “tick”, how they see the world, what makes them happy and what makes them sad. It is not idle curiosity or invasiveness, it is a fascination with the person you love. And so God “searching us and knowing us” is not invasive or punitive, it is God’s love for us. In modern society it often feels that we are only a statistic, one of a multitude, anonymous. How lovely it is to be known by someone else. How very blessed we are to be known so personally by God. Hopefully, we can have the same response to God in that we thirst, hunger and desire to know him more and more and to enter the depths of his being, because we love him and wish to love him more. Just as the psalmist says in v.17, How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Psalm 62(63) also captures this desire: O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water.

The psalmist invites God to test his thoughts, Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! It is easy to verbally profess love for someone, but how deep is that love? Is it true love or will it burn out when the initial fascination ends? Will I be rejected if I the other really gets to know me? And so, we may want to test the love of the other; not maliciously or harshly, but a little here and there to ascertain whether it really is love or not, and how far that love extends. The psalmist is willing to make himself vulnerable and so invites God to do the same to him, to “try him and know his thoughts”. The invitation is a mark of the genuineness of his desire to love and that, despite failings, his motivation is pure and there is no deceit in his expression of love. We also face circumstances from time to time when our love of God is tested. We are comforted by the words of St Paul in this regard, the God will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The important thing about being “tried and tested” is not that God will discover new things about us– after all, “he knows us through and through”. But that testing leads us to know ourselves better, to see ourselves in a different light and to learn new things about ourselves, so that we can improve, correct mistakes and deepen our love to make it more true and authentic. We all have our “blind spots” and, as someone said, lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others. Discovering our true motivation in life is a life-long endeavour. We sometimes couch our actions in philanthropic language which does not reflect a deeper and perhaps even unconscious motivation. For example, we help the beggar at the street corner saying we want to share our resources, whereas we are really doing so as an easy way of getting rid of him. We always need to question and reflect on our motivation, especially for the important decisions of life. God trying us and testing us helps us to see ourselves more honestly.

Finally, the psalmist invites God to “lead us in the way of life everlasting”, because we cannot embark on the journey to our eternal home without God’s leadership, guidance and accompaniment. We cannot do it by ourselves, we need God in our lives and, if we are to grow in love of God and neighbour, we need Him to shed his light into our hearts and onto our thoughts, that the love we profess so easily with our lips will indeed indicate the love we bear in our hearts and which is manifested in our actions.

The Lord be with you R/ And with your Spirit

Bow down for the blessing:

Loving Father, in these times of uncertainty we take comfort from the fact that you are never far from us and that, indeed, you search us and know us. Grant us perseverance, Lord, to use the passing things of this world wisely and to place our hope in the eternal truths of your Kingdom. Through Christ our Lord, amen

Prayer and Reflection by Bishop Sylvester David OMI

Auxiliary Bishop Sylvester David offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Friday 20 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 20 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.

Reflection based on Ruth 1:1,3-6,14-16,22

Our first reading is taken from fragments of the first chapter of the book of Ruth. A thorough reading of the fist chapter from your Bibles is recommended. Read it slowly and prayerfully. Note the struggle of the family, note the neediness which took them to Moab. Undoubtedly the early readers of the work would have remembered how their ancestors also had to leave their homes and go to look for food. Once in Moab the sons marry Moabite women.

The names in the story are all significant. Elimelech literally means “my God is King”. Irrespective of where the faithful find themselves, God still reigns over them. Naomi means “a pleasant person”, who shows herself to be an exceptional mother-in-law (Ruth 1:7-18). At the end of the chapter, Naomi renames herself Mara which means “bitter”. Life sometimes does leave scars on us. The sons are called Mahlon and Chilon. While the former means “sickness/weakness”, the latter means “pining/destruction”. This is symbolic and points to their untimely deaths. Orpah means “neck” – read in some circles as “stiff neck”. This seems a bit unfair as Orpah showed a willingness to go with Naomi. Ruth means “friend” and has come to symbolise abiding loyalty and devotion. She is fully incorporated in the family of God’s chosen people and her name is included in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5) as the great grandmother of King David. Earlier on I recommended a reading of the whole of the first chapter. Let’s revise that. Read the whole book of Ruth. It is very short with only four chapters but it makes very interesting reading, with all its intrigue. The ultimate lesson is that anyone who obeys God is acceptable – whether they belong to the clan or not. But you can read the story for yourselves and make your own discoveries.

For now I want to look at how our first reading ends. Whereas at the start of the reading, there was famine causing the family to migrate, at the end of the reading we are told that Naomi and Ruth – the two widows, return to Bethlehem “at the beginning of the barley harvest” (Ruth 1:22). This indicates a new beginning and is fitting because Bethlehem literally means “the house of bread”. The rest of the book will show how God takes care of the poor through his faithful servants. Boaz (whose name means “in him is strength”) is exemplary in all of this – and he too is listed as an ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

It is good to know all this. But it is even more important to allow the story to reveal who I am. We mentioned the names and their meanings. These meanings were tied to the characteristics of the persons. What are my characteristics? What am I known for: Strength or its opposite; friendship or its opposite; helpfulness or its opposite? Who in the story best represents me? We also see in the story the embracing of otherness. How do I see my “in-laws” i.e. those who come into the family, and others who are different to me? This story can be used like a mirror, with every character offering a chance to get a deeper glimpse not only of who I am but also of who I am called to be. I wish you well as you see how your lived experience squares up with the template of this inspired book.

Let us pray: Lord, your Word teaches us how to live with otherness and how to show fidelity in the various circumstances of our lives. Give us the grace to imitate the Biblical heroes held up before us in the reading. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bishop Sylvester David OMI
VG/Auxiliary Bishop: Cape Town

Prayer and Reflection by Archbishop Stephen Brislin

Archbishop Stephen Brislin offers his prayer and reflection for the people of the Archdiocese of Cape Town for today, Wednesday 18 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 today’s reflection. In this month especially dedicated to women, let us continue to pray for all the women of our country, that the Lord will richly bless them, protect them and inspire them.

Let us now pray for peace in Southern Africa:

The Reading I have chosen for the reflection is taken from the end of the Gospel of today’s Mass (Matthew 20:1-16).

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Jesus had just related a parable comparing the Kingdom of God to a landowner who hired workers at various times of the day. The first lot he hired at about six in the morning and he agreed on a just wage with them for a full 12 hour day’s work. Then he hired others – some worked three hours, six hours, nine hours, others only one hour. The landowner made payment to the workers at the end of the day, paying them all the same amount starting with those who had worked the shortest time. The hopes of the first group were high and they thought they would get more since they had worked so much longer. Their hopes were dashed when they received only the agreed amount. They grumbled, but the landowner pointed out to them that they had no right to begrudge him his generosity.

The picture we get of the Kingdom of God from this parable is one of inclusivity – God’s Kingdom is open to all people. It displays a patience on the part of God who accepts those who have served him well throughout their lives, but who is also willing to give time to others to repent, mend their ways and convert. As St Peter put it, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2Pe 3:9).We see in the parable a generous God who truly desires the salvation of all and who shares his gifts bountifully with those he has created – Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow, says St James (1:17).

God is generous in the grace he bestows on us, in his mercy and in his forgiveness. It is all a free gift. We cannot earn God’s love, he grants it gratuitously. His generosity is not confined or restricted in any way. God’s Spirit blows where he wills, as we hear in St John’s Gospel, the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (John 3:8). It is against God’s nature to be miserly or mean with what he offers. It is not for us us to say who God will bless with his gifts and what gifts he will give them. We must not be envious when God grants gifts to others, even if we think them unworthy. Neither can we say who God will save and who he will not. We simply do not have that authority. God is a generous God, who offers his love and life to all his creatures. To repeat, we cannot earn his compassionate and forgiving love. It is a gift and we can only respond to it in gratitude.

The response we make is important. Sincere gratitude to God is first and foremost. Humble gratitude indicates that we realise what great gifts God has given us even though we remain unworthy of them. Secondly, just as God has been generous to us, so we respond by being generous to others so that we may reach out to those in any kind of need and assist them in whatever way we can. This may mean sharing our material resources, giving a listening ear or simply being a friend. St Paul captures this idea when he writes, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Thirdly, we respond to God’s generosity be being patient with others, helping them and encouraging them to change for the better, and not giving up on them (a small proviso here – if someone is making our lives a living hell, or we are in danger from them, obviously we have to make the correct decisions to protect ourselves).

In this time of Covid we need this generosity of spirit. Receiving the vaccine is one example of being generous because we don’t get vaccinated only to protect our own lives but also to protect the lives of others. Please vaccinate. Being generous with a smile, friendliness and cheerfulness goes a long way to lift the hearts of others who may be struggling within themselves. Finally, a very big thank you to all our parishioners for your generosity and your support – both material and moral – that you have shown the priests of the archdiocese. We really appreciate it and may God bless you.

Let us now pray for God’s blessing:

The Lord be with you R/ And with your Spirit

Bow down for the blessing:

Almighty Father, we thank for your generosity, for sharing your life and your love with us. Open our hearts and pour within them your love, that we too may always have generosity of spirit and so serve our neighbours with humility. Through Christ our Lord, amen