Fifth Sunday in Lent

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The last scene of today's Gospel episode portrays with exquisite beauty the poignant encounter between the adulterous woman and Jesus, the source of forgiveness and grace. One by one the accusers had left the place. Only the woman remained, still waiting for the rest of her sentence. She was finally accorded the dignity of responding for herself. Jesus straightened up and asked her two questions that would gently underline her astounding experience of salvation: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” When the redeemed woman answered that there was no one, Jesus exercised his authority, not as a judge, but as a saviour. Unlike the Pharisees and Scribes, upholders of the Law, he refused to condemn her. “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

By saying this Jesus didn't mean that the woman didn’t do any wrong. Naturally Jesus did not approve of her sin, but instead, he showed mercy to her and pardoned her. And he readily gave her a compassionate admonition that would radically set her on the road of conversion and restoration. She was freed from the burden of condemnation and was sent on her way - contrite and resolute, not only to obey the law for the law’s sake but to renew her conscience and to reform her behaviour according to the loving mercy that had been shown her. And, as for the woman’s accusers, Jesus redirected their judgmental frame of mind. Instead of judging others, they should judge themselves. Jesus did not condemn them either, but he helped them to come to their senses and realize their sinfulness.

Fourth Sunday in Lent

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As today we hear the familiar parable of the Prodigal Son (or the Forgiving Father), the message is Reconciliation – the making new of relationships, the healing of past wrongs and the opening of ourselves to the "new creation". This is just as the Israelites opened themselves to the New Creation of the Promised Land, when under Joshua they ended their sojourn in the wilderness after forty years of hardship, and began to eat of the produce of the country. It is all God's work: it is God who calls us back, and God who welcomes us into the Promised Land of his mercy when we return. So today, let us think not so much of sin and offences, as the new creation God offers us, if we but turn back to him and embrace him as our Father.

Third Sunday in Lent

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Fig trees are supposed to provide figs, to produce the fruit that God made them to produce in the first place. And we, too, have been put on this earth to produce the results for which God gave us life in the first place to produce. A little lesson in Palestinian horticulture: fig trees over there produce crops of figs three times each year. These trees are given every chance to produce; they receive a gardener’s care. Their owners have a right to expect them to produce, not to simply wave their pretty leaves in the air. When the master found this fig tree to be yielding nothing, he had every right, if not the duty, to eliminate that fig tree. All it was doing was soaking up water, minerals and other precious resources needed by the other trees to produce their fruit. This tree was good for nothing.

The response of the owner here in this parable was extra tenderness, extra-ordinary care, and a range of “second chances.” The owner allowed three seasons, nine chances, to be productive, before it was to be cut down. That fig tree was given no room in which to complain that it wasn’t given a chance to produce.

What, then, about us? God has planted us in the midst of His love and grace. Our families and our friends have given us love, our schools have given us education, and our Church has given us God’s holy presence, love, and graces. God has offered us His tender, loving care in abundance. How have we responded? How will we respond? Will we just wave our pretty leaves in the air or will we feed the world’s hungry, care for the outcast, and be about the tasks of bringing order out of the injustices and chaos in the world around us?

God wants us to finish the story for ourselves; the parable of the fig tree had no real ending. It just sort of stopped and we don’t know what eventually happened to that fig tree. The same is true for you and me. God has given us life and launched us out into our world with a script to follow along with a director, Jesus, to guide us. But how our individual life stories are eventually written depends entirely on how we respond to what God has given us. A merciful God has spared us all, many times over, up to this present moment.

Fifth Anniversary Breakfast

We are looking to celebrate our 5th anniversary as the Reading Ordinariate Mission at the beginning of March. On 13th March this will be the anniversary of our first Sunday Mass together and we will celebrate with a Breakfast at Carluccio’s after Mass on this date.

Visit by the Ordinary

We are delighted that the Ordinary of Our Lady of Walsingham, Rt Rev Msgr Keith Newton will be visiting us during Lent and will be celebrating our Sunday Mass on 6th March (Mothering Sunday). Mgr Newton has not celebrated Mass with us for several years and so this will be a good occasion for him to see everyone again. The visit of the Ordinary also coincides with our Fifth anniversary of meeting at St James' Church. The first Mass we attended as a group was the Ash Wednesday Mass on 9th March 2011 and our first Sunday Mass as the Reading Group was celebrated on 13th March by Msgr Andrew Burnham.

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Assumpta est Maria

On this feast of the Assumption of Our Lady we are reminded above all that God so loved the world that he found a way to become man so he could unite us to himself. He allowed Mary to be created in such as way that this could happen and her Assumption heralds the path now open to us all. The sign of her Assumption, the Assumption of the first fruit of God's harvest, indicates to us our own 'chosenness' and gives us therefore a reason to rejoice. Here is a rather lovely hymn for the Assumption for you to meditate on.

1. Sing, sing, ye angel bands,

   all beautiful and bright;
for higher still and higher,
   through fields of starry light,
Mary, our Queen, ascends,
   like the sweet moon at night.

2. Oh, happy angels! Look,

   how beautiful she is!
See! Jesus bears her up,
   her hand is locked in His;
Oh, who can tell the height,
   of that fair Mother’s bliss?

3. And shall I lose thee then,

   Lose my sweet right to thee?
Ah! no-the angels’ Queen
   man’s Mother still will be,
And thou, upon thy throne,
   wilt keep thy love for me.

4. Hark! Hark! through highest heaven

   what sounds of mystic mirth!
Mary by God proclaimed
   Queen of Immaculate Birth,
and diademed with stars,
   the lowliest of the earth.

5. See! see! the Eternal Hands

   put on her radiant crown,
and the sweet Majesty
   of mercy sitteth down,
for ever and for ever,
   on her predestined throne.

6. On, then, dear Pageant, on!

   Sweet music breathes around;
And love, like dew, distils
   on hearts in rapture bound;
The Queen of heaven goes up,
   to be proclaimed and crowned.

So that you can hear it in action here is a rendition performed by the group 'Seraphim'.