WELCOME to St Joseph's. Whether you are one of our regular congregation, an occasional member or coming to St Joseph's for the first time, I hope that your visit to this church will give added meaning to your celebration of the birth of Christ. Christmas is a season that we all hope to enjoy but we know that it is a time of many different feelings because it brings back to all of us, the memories of the joys and sorrows of our lives, especially the memories of our loved ones who are no longer with us. I am particularly grateful to Churches Together who provides a special lunch for all those on their own, so that they too can enjoy Christmas among friends.
The New Year will bring increased responsibilities for me. Bishop Crispian has appointed me as one of the new Vicar Generals for the diocese. There are three Vicar Generals in the diocese. They are the Bishop's helpers for the whole diocese. With the Bishop they make up the "Bishop's Council" which is where major diocesan issues are discussed and decisions are taken. Initially this position will involve spending more time away from the parish; even Vicar Generals cannot be in two places at once. It is my hope that the parish will not suffer from this absence.
My hope for you is that this season will be a blessed time for you and your loved ones and that the new year will bring everything that you hope for and that is good for you. Happy Christmas.
Mary, of all God's creatures, is the one who is most intimately associated with the Advent story leading to the joy of Christmas. What was promised nine months earlier is now reaching its fulfilment. We reflect today on Mary, the Mother of God.
Mary was the first disciple of Christ and the first preacher of the Good News. She, of all people, followed Christ the closest. Never should we separate her from her Son nor remove her from her solidarity with us. 'Mary is truly our sister, who as a poor and humble woman fully shared our lot.' (Pope Paul VI).
The Second Vatican Council, sensing a slight tendency to divorce Mary from her Son, held the most animated debate of the Council over where to put and how to phrase Mary's role. Some maintained (very strongly) that Mary 'deserved' a special document for herself while others asserted (with equal vigour) that her place and whole vision was within the document on the Church. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit the rest is history.
Rejoice: the first word of today's Mass sets the theme for the third Sunday of Advent. We light the pink candle and we wear the rose vestments to show that today is a little different. We are nearly there in the sense that we have almost arrived at our celebration of the incarnation. Today we take a pause from the austere spirit of Advent and celebrate that we have come so far.
Again John the Baptist is the central figure. He clearly points out that he is not the one. His job is to point out the way to the one that they were all waiting for. He goes on to point out that what he does is not real baptism; it is only a token of what is to come.
The one they were waiting for is in fact among them every day but they fail to recognise him. Jesus also stands among us. This period of Advent is our opportunity to recognise him and having recognised him to place him central to our lives. If we do recognise who Jesus is and his place in our lives, then this season will be full of meaning for us. If we do not recognise who Jesus is then this season is going to be full of confusion for us.
The waiting and the longing are nearly over. At last a voice in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. It is no longer some future far off date, it is right now. There is no more time to waste.
This is the message of the second Sunday of Advent.John the Baptist makes a dramatic entry into our liturgy. He is a man with a mission and he is in a hurry. There is no time to waste; there is a job to be done and it has to be right now.
Maybe many of us are heeding John; we have so many things to do and so little time to do them. But what things do we have to do? We need to ask ourselves what is important.
I am sure that if we can prepare for the coming of Jesus among us then we do not have to worry. Everything else will fit into place and we will enjoy the whole Christmas season because Christ will be there with us.
Few people learn from experience. Many repeat the mistakes of previous generations as history shows. Our generation is no exception. On every side people go it alone, inattentive to the gracious presence of God and oblivious of the plight of the poor.
In this state of unawareness, selfishness waxes strongly while ope decays rapidly into despair. God is more ignored than ejected. His people are crushed by the trials of life. The emptation is to desert him to seek security in possessions and to confuse happiness with pleasure.
Advent is God's rallying cry to his people before Christmas. Isaiah highlights how limited we are without the power of God and he compares us to clay in the hands of a potter. He pleads with God to rescue us from our inadvertence to him. The gospel cry of Jesus to be on our guard and to stay awake alerts us to the reality that self-interest always hinders our response to God. On the other hand, Paul is loud in his praise and thanks for the converts at Corinth who have responded so fully to God's gifts to them. Together there is a pressing invitation to be attentive during these weeks to the wonder of God among us. Let us make space and time for him in prayer during this Advent season. It will be well rewarded.
Today's gospel calls us to reach out, to whom it does not matter as long as they need our help. The colour of a person's skin, their past or indeed present inadequacies, doesn't really matter. We can easily recognise the vulnerable in others, and in ourselves, but we are called to recognise the suffering Christ in others and to be the redeeming, nourishing Christ in their lives.
As we make our way through life, we experience many ups and downs. Sometimes we are the people that are in need of help and support. We can't do it on our own. At other times we feel strong and able to reach out, then we need to remember that there are other people who need support and the test for us is to recognise that need and reach out with a helping hand.
Today we are celebrating Christ as the King of service. He did not look for power or influence and he calls us to follow in the same way.
We can be held back in life for many different reasons; one of the most common is fear. Afraid of what might happen. When we are afraid we can get stuck and paralysed, unable to make a decision and move forward. We can be afraid as individuals, e.g. afraid to go out in public or we can be afraid as a society with the same effects. Sad to say, fear has often been used by the church to keep people in their place and keep them down.
In today's gospel we hear the poor maligned servant tell his master that he was afraid. Fear held him back from making the most of what he had been given, from discovering his full potential.
Jesus came to set us free; to help us lead fully human lives. That is why our human institutions should help us to attain that freedom. Our homes and schools need to be places of love and care where we are allowed to develop and grow. Yes we need rules and guidelines but they need to be implemented with love and care. The question we need to ask is, do we act out of fear or out of love? Those who act out of fear will never find happiness or fulfilment. If we want to grow then we need to be free to make mistakes and at times even to take risks. It is from these that we will learn ,and discover who we are and what we are called to be.
Today's readings give us an opportunity to ask if we have anything to show for the life opportunities that come our way. I am reminded of the prayer card, which carries the message "Any good thing that I can do, any kindness that I can show, let me do it now because I shall not pass this way again". It is easy to fall into a rut and become so immersed in day-to-day happenings that we put important things on the long finger and give them scant consideration. We forget that when a great opportunity comes our way it sounds no louder than a heartbeat and it is very easy to let it pass by. If we are to have no regrets, we need to say or do these things here and now.
As we move into November we are beginning to come to the close of another year and so we begin to look back. November is also the time when we remember our loved ones who have passed away. They are still with us but in a different way and we need to remind ourselves that their love for us is as strong as it always was. We need to keep them in our prayers and thoughts, remembering that we still need each other and can still be of support to each other.
One of the great impoverishments of our time is the lack of creative and life-giving authority. The tragedy is that authority, which is intended to be an enabling and supportive gift, is often experienced by many as a restrictive burden. The reasons for this situation in a rapidly evolving world are complex. The temptation is to bemoan the passing of the security which powerful authority gave to another era and to do nothing to enable powerless authority to enrich society today.
All authority is time-conditioned in how it is exercised and received. At all times, it is the particular responsibility of those in leadership roles or positions of control to ensure that authority nurtures respect-filled relationships between all members of the community in their varied situations and with their particular gifts. Today's gospel has harsh words for those who fail to take that responsibility seriously.
It is the leader's task to evoke the trust that allows people to overcome their fears of being exploited or misled and so to accept the guiding hand of another fellow pilgrim on life's journey. Each of us is called to create and protect genuine authority by affirming the courage of the unselfish leader and by building up the wisdom authority needs. All true authority is God's gift to his people. Such a gift must be made present in every age through those who are called to be saints, you and I.
Love is always inventive. No matter what the obstacles, it always finds a way to express itself. Novels, plays and films strive to surpass each other in showing dramatically how courage, generosity, tenderness, ingenuity and endurance comes into play as the lover seeks the loved one. Genuine love enables the lover to break out of the shell of fearfilled self-centredness that always surrounds the one who does not love.
Today's gospel reminds us that we are called to and capable of such inventive love of one another without exception. It is not that we are simply asked to help the neighbour in need when there is no easy escape or nobody else around to do it. The commandment is much more creative and rewarding. It is an invitation to explore, to seek out, to be sensitive to the myriad of ways in which we can respond to another in love by respect, by presence, by word, as well as by sharing and caring.
Expressed love blossoms. The gospel message is to love the neighbour as oneself with a constructive spirit that evokes bonding between the lover and the loved one. This foundation commandment is about living joy rather than about mere duty. To allow oneself to experience it is a blessing from God.
In baptism, we are called into a relationship with Jesus Christ and with all those who share our faith. All relationships must be nurtured if they are to grow and develop. It is the same throughout our life of faith: we all have the responsibility of finding opportunities to explore and deepen our relationship with Jesus, especially with those who share our faith. This may be through prayer, scripture, liturgy and theology, faith-sharing groups, and in the ways we live out our faith in our personal lives and the wider community.
Formation in faith (often known as 'catechesis') is not just for children. It is for all of us, at every stage in our lives, whether we are lay, religious or ordained. In fact, the Church says that formation for adults is to be given priority over other forms of catechesis. it is good for priests, deacons, religious and lay people to share formation together. (from "Go Out and Bear Fruit" - A Pastoral Plan for the Diocese of Portsmouth)
Further to Bishop Crispian's launch of the Pastoral Plan "Go Out and Bear Fruit"at St Edmund Campion on Thursday evening, two sessions have been arranged for our own parish to meet and discuss the initiative. All are invited, so please take the opportunity to come and join us and be part of the changes happening in our diocese and parish. The sessions will be held at 8.00pm on Thursday 27th October and Thursday 24th November in the St Elizabeth Room in the Parish Centre.
I am sure that there is not one of us who does not enjoy receiving an invitation to a special event. Somehow I think that we enjoy it even more if the event is selective. Equally, we know how hurt people get if they do not receive the invitation that they were expecting. How many families do we all know, where there have been major fallouts over wedding invitations.
Today's Gospel gives us a parable about wedding invitations. The strange thing here is that no one accepted their invitation. The banqueting hall was empty. All those who were invited decided to do something else. It is hard for us to imagine a more hurtful situation, but the King was not to be denied his wedding. He sent more invitations, going out into the highways and byways.
The real message for us behind the parable is the invitation that we all receive to become members of the Kingdom of God. In a sense God goes out into the highways and byways. He spreads the net far and wide, but because it is cast to so many people, does not mean that it is not important. It is the most important invitation that we will ever receive. The people in the parable did not turn up because they were bad but because they were busy, they had other things to do and left the opportunity of a lifetime pass them by.
I suppose for us as Christians, out invitation came to us through our Baptism. Those who brought us for baptism were really acting as agents of God. Giving us an invitation to be members of God's kingdom. We would be very foolish people if we allowed anything else in our lives to become more important than God's call.
"It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone".
Jesus is the best of many examples of being rejected by those he came to save. They thought they knew who was coming and what sort of person he was going to be. We now know that they could not be more wrong. In every way Jesus was different to what was expected; in the sort of person he was; in how he did things; in the sort of people he mixed with, so he was not recognised when he came.
It is easy for us to look at the people at the time of Jesus and see how foolish they were and what great opportunities they passed over. "Are we any different in how we run our lives?" In our time we have more opportunities than ever before but does this mean that we are any happier? We need to take stock of ourselves, and our priorities. What is important to us, and what can we do without. Things that seem important now, may not be so in the future and we do not always get a second chance.
I hope that none of us will be accused of rejecting the "keystone".
On Thursday 15th September we had our parish catechists meeting. I am grateful to all who attended. It gave me yet another insight into how much work is being done by so many people. The catechists keep the faith life of the parish going; without them we would not have any life in the parish. I think that it is fair to say that they do gain a great amount by sharing their faith with others. The rest of us must not take them for granted, sit back and just let them get on with the handing on of our faith which belongs to us all. How can you help?
This year the one big gap in our catechetical team is the preparation of our children for their First Holy Communion. This is the work that has been done by Maria Meerstadt and helpers for the past four years. Our thanks to them for all that they have done. Their wish is now to move on to other things and that needs to be respected.
At our meeting we decided that for the coming year we would hold the preparation on Sunday mornings before the 10.45am Mass and then everyone involved could go directly into Mass. I know that this time will not suit everyone but no time does. If families regard their children's communion as important some adjustments may need to be made.
I invite all families with children over 7 years on the 1st September who have not yet made their First Holy Communion, to register them as soon as possible. I also invite parents of these children to consider helping with the programme, as we do need more people to come forward to help. Once we have the team in place we will draw up the list of dates and get under way.
On every side, people are more conscious of their rights with less concern for the real needs of others. The unemployed, the homeless, the less fortunate experience themselves more and more excluded by the better off. Those who have want more. Such attitude was there from the beginning, apparently. While Adam and Eve had everything they needed, they were tempted to desire something extra with disastrous consequences. The early workers in the vineyard were not satisfied with their agreed wage and begrudged the latecomers a similar wage.
Today's gospel is a stern reminder to be aware of the destructive selfishness that can so easily take over our hearts. We tend to ignore the fact that we have no claim to this world's goods over and above our brothers and sisters at home or elsewhere. Creation and life itself are God's gifts, given for all equally. Talents and work opportunities are not entitlements to self-aggrandisement but rather make one responsible for building a better world for all. No matter how small is the contribution we make to our neighbour's welfare, it is ours to make.
In pointing out how subtle and deep-rooted selfishness is in our hearts, today's gospel is frighteningly challenging but we ignore it at our peril. The antidote to selfishness is generosity. Try it several times daily.
With the return of the schools we say goodbye to another summer and welcome back to full parish activities. I am sure that we are all pleased to return to a more active parish: music at Mass, children's liturgy and the catechetical programmes. We are fortunate to have so many people involved in the life of the parish. Our first event will be the shared confirmation with St. Edwards on October 14th. We have regular meetings to prepare parents for the baptism of their children and for many this can be the first contact with the church for a long time and is therefore very important.
The preparation of children for First Holy Communion has always been very important also and this year we have a major problem because at this time, we have no catechists to run the programme. Clearly we need catechists; otherwise there can be no preparation. I have called a special meeting of all catechists, those interested in becoming a catechist and parents, in the Parish Centre at 8pm on Thursday 15th September so that we can find a way forward. If you have any thoughts please come to the meeting.
Our Journey in Faith meets every Wednesday evening in the Presbytery at 8pm. This is for adults who want to find out more about their faith, especially those who may be interested in joining the Catholic Church.
Finally, there is the follow-up meeting to the July conference (Growing Together in Christ) in Reading when the Bishop will attend a meeting in St Edmond Campion Church in October. I hope that our parish will be well represented at that meeting.
In every human community there will be arguments and friction between people, and Christian groups are no different from others in this respect. What matters is whether we deal with such problems in a Christian way. Jesus tells us that if we have a difficulty with someone, or a grievance, we should go and talk to that person about it. It is not always easy for us to do this - we can prefer not to rock the boat, or tell ourselves it is more Christian just to put up with it in silence. But this is avoiding a problem rather than facing up to it: if we brood over things they can grow larger in our thoughts and poison our minds and lives. So it is healthy to talk about problems, and tell people when we think they are going wrong, but not in a self-righteous or confrontational way. We too should not resent being criticised by others, if it is done out of real concern for us and the Body of Christ - such honesty is integral to being a genuine community. It is part of loving people to bring problems into the open and try to improve their faults: we know that human relationships in which individuals do not do this tend to run into problems.
Jesus reminds us that we are not just individuals who follow him, but members of his body. We are part of whatever local church we belong to, and of the whole Church of Christ. St. Paul reminds us that we cannot ignore other parts of the body, because we all need each other. All parts are connected, and if one suffers the whole body suffers. So we need to sort out the problems we have with other people, or the whole body will be damaged. We can be confident that Jesus is with us to help in every difficulty. He has promised us that he is there wherever two or three gather in his name, and that there is a special power when Christians pray together for something,
For previous "Thoughts" click here
Contact Details
Parish Priest: Fr. Tom McGrath, Tel: 01628 783988
Parish Office: 01628 783988 Fax: 01628 776863 (Monday to Friday 9.am to 12 noon)
Parish Centre: 01628 636312 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 12.30pm)
Web author : webmaster@stjosephsparish.co.uk
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