2019 October Reflections

Home ⇰ The Current ⇰ Previous Issues ⇰ 2019 October Reflection 

Inspired by Pope Francis' concern for creation, which resonates with Saint Francis of Assisi, whose feast day we have just celbrated, Fr. Michael Brunner here calls our attention to the call to responsibility for our environment.

It’s October, it is Fall. The seasons are in the process of changing again. In another month Daylight Savings Time will end. One sign of Fall is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, which is on October fourth. In honor of that saint’s mystical rapport with animals, many Churches and schools have a blessing of pets during this time. 

September was half over before I learned that September 1 was the Catholic Church’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. We sure missed that one. The Pope’s message for this day began with a reminder that this day is observed united with our Orthodox brothers and sisters, and with the support of other Churches and Christian communities. And more than that the whole month of September is the Season of Creation, a month-long prayerful observation of the state of the world, its beauty and the ecological crises that threaten it and all its inhabitants. It runs from Sept. 1, the World Day of Prayer for Creation, through Oct. 4, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology and the environment.

I can see your eyes are glazing over.  I understand. Most of us have not been convinced that this is an important matter. Pope Francis issued his encyclical Laudato Si back in May 2015, four and a half years ago. I should say that Laudato Si is OUR encyclical, because what it teaches is now officially part of the Magisterium, the teaching of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately we, the wider Church, seem not to be paying too much attention to it. Certainly the local leadership groups of the Church in the industrialized world haven’t. The Church in the third world has paid attention because it is a matter of life and death for them, and they have noticed our inattention. Our presidential candidates aren’t paying much attention to it. They focus our attention on matter such as tax returns or medical reports, ad hominem arguments and character mauling.

Some people are still saying that there is no real problem. But science has really proved them wrong, conclusively. The  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory used eleven years of measurements from specialized instruments at sites in Alaska and Oklahoma to analyze the source of energy fluctuations, and the data confirmed that it is carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels that’s causing warming — and not water vapor, changes in the sun or someone tampering with the data to make it look like global warming is worse than it is, as some have claimed. According to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded. Wildfires have burned in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia in areas never touched before. Sea ice in the Arctic is reaching its lowest maximum extent ever, and satellite data confirms that Greenland is now losing over 300 billion tons of ice per year now, versus 90 million per year in 20th century. Consequently, sea levels are rising, up to now at an average rate of 3.5 mm per year, but that number is rising. This has an impact on the water temperature, storms, coastal flooding, etc. Texas and Louisiana have experienced a half year worth of rainfall in just a few days.

If your home was infested with termites, you would surely do something. The environment is our home, and it is adversely affected with something worse. It is possible to stop termite damage, and it is possible to stop the ongoing degradation to the environment. Pope Francis has made it abundantly clear that damaging the environment is a sin. Certainly there is an element of social sin there, but there is personal sin: our individual contributions to the problem. There’s no excuse to not recycle, for instance. Littering is not just ugly; it is sinful. Pouring chemicals or prescriptions down the drain is harmful and sinful. There’s a long list.

So we must do our part to keep the world sound and healthy. The story of creation in Genesis is a poetic statement that physical and animal creation as God made is good. But more than good, The Hebrew word we translate as “good” means a lot more. It means sound and healthy, complete. And human beings were given the responsibility to care for creation, not license to destroy it or any part of it. Saint Francis said: “If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” And also: “Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

Pope Francis said this: “So let me propose a complement to the two traditional sets of seven: may the works of mercy also include care for our common home.  As a spiritual work of mercy, care for our common home calls for a grateful contemplation of God’s world which allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us. As a corporal work of mercy, care for our common home requires simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness and makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world.

So where do you and I begin?

(Sunday, September 29, 2019; 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Before I begin I should apologize because this is probably going to be long. And secondly, when it’s over, you might want to kill me. And if the acoustics in here are not good and you could not hear the readings, you should look at them in the missalette in the pews.

Today’s readings make their point very powerfully. That is to be expected for a reading from the prophet Amos. We don’t hear from him too often in the Liturgy, perhaps because his message is so direct and makes people feel uncomfortable.

Amos was one of the so called minor prophets. He was from the little Kingdom of Judah, from a town just south of Jerusalem. God called him and sent him on a most difficult mission: to go and prophesy, to speak for God, to the great Northern Kingdom of Israel, centered on Samaria. Now the northern kingdom had no use for Jerusalem, the temple or any prophet from south of the border. So the cards were stacked against Amos right from the start. Nevertheless he went north and fearlessly spoke God’s word. Now Samaria at this time was a powerful kingdom, and had regained much of the empire once ruled by Solomon.  So business was good. They were in a bull market up there and everyone in business (and lots of people were) was experiencing big profits and returns on their investments. Of course there were taxes, so the great King could afford a large army and a palace suitable for the ruler of such a rich place, of so large and prosperous a nation. Public works too were necessary, so they could suitably impress traders and ambassadors from other lands. But still, the businessmen and artisans really had an extraordinary amount of discretionary income.

Now these businessmen, artisans and the civil servants were very busy people; they didn’t get rich by being idle, mind you, and they didn’t have a lot of time for prayer. But they could pay for sacrifices, which they did big time, LOTS of sacrifices. After All, didn’t God like sacrifices? And the bigger the animal the better. The priests in Samaria were frantic to keep up with the demand, but they did, and Samaria was awash with the blood of these sacrifices and the priests were also getting quite rich off of their share. Now what could these people do with all this surplus wealth? It was a problem: if you invested it, you just got MORE wealth and made the problem bigger. So their answer was to spend it. They became avid consumerists: whatever luxuries that could be imported, from Persia, from India, from Egypt, from China and the East Indies, they bought it and did their best to support the global economy and its trickle down benefits.

Life was good, real good, except for one thing. There were a lot of really unpleasant people that weren’t part of the system. They didn’t own land, or flocks or a business; as a matter of fact all they owned was the clothes on their back. They had no trade or skills, only their muscles. It was supposed that they were suffering perhaps for the sins of their parents. These people didn’t bathe often or use perfumes; they smelled. They had too many children, so they had to beg, and often they had to borrow, but the only collateral they had was their only substantial clothing, a cloak, which was a necessity for warmth at night and in the winter. What could you do for such people? Well, the Samaritans gave when they begged, and even lent to them – at least you could make a profit that way. But just to make sure that these poor people didn’t think a loan was a gift, or get any ideas about not repaying, the Samaritans held on to their cloaks at night, even when the law said you had to return a cloak at nightfall so its owner could use it as a blanket. If only those people would work harder and smarter, they thought, then life would be so much better.

As you can imagine, these Samaritans were not happy with Amos, preaching about justice and righteousness. He was shunned and mocked, told to go back where he belonged, down south.  After all, there were LOTS of official northern prophets in Samaria, and the status quo was just fine with them. Didn’t they speak for God, and weren’t there more of them than one little Amos? Well, After a serious run-in with Amaziah, high priest and  friend of the king,  Amos either returned to Judah or was murdered.  He had kept faith with the Lord and fearlessly spoke his word. God’s word was this: I hate, I despise your festivals. I want mercy, not sacrifices. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Then as now, God’s word cannot but be fulfilled. The Samarians were indeed successful in impressing others by their wealth and power. They certainly impressed the Assyrians. About twenty years after Amos prophesied, Sargon II conquered Samaria  and exiled all the educated and wealthy to the far flung outposts of his empire, and Ten Tribes of the people who followed Moses from Egypt and Joshua into the promised land were forever lost.

When I saw the readings for today, I wished I could change the subject. Here in Portsmouth or in most places we live we cannot escape the fact that life is pretty good for us. Back in 2000, when we were building a new monastery in St Louis, a boy in the Priory school said to me, “You monks take a vow of poverty and yet you have a new seven million dollar house. Some poverty!” Of course, life today is a lot more complicated than it was in Amos’ time, or when Jesus told that story about poor Lazarus in the gospel. A lot more complicated. Perhaps that same Priory boy was in the crowd, when, at an away football game in the heart of the city, the Priory fans and the team were greeted by the chant, “Go back to West County, Rich Boys.” Not very polite or sportsmanlike, but they made the point that there are tensions, economic and social inequity in our society.

It’s complicated. We have to admit we do have more than we need, and we are the disciples of the same Jesus Christ who told that instructive story in the Gospel about Lazarus. If there’s any ideology most people, rich and poor, ascribe to in America today, it’s consumerism. Buy stuff!!! Our economy depends on it. It is complicated, but Jesus did not say, “This Gospel of expires in the year 2019.” It still holds true for today and for us. In the Gospel story, Abraham tells the rich man, “Between you and us a great chasm is established.”  The truth is that the rich man dug that chasm while he lived, and we are in danger of doing the same thing. In St Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there is your heart.” If our treasure is money, power, status or things, that’s where our heart is. God judges hearts, and if the heart does not seek God as its treasure, the heart is lost. God is love, and only love survives death, it’s the only thing you can take with you, and death will claim us all one day. And then we must trust in God’s merciful judgement.

An ancient funeral chant of the Church puts it this way: “May the angels lead you into paradise: when you arrive may the martyrs receive you, and bring you into the holy city Jerusalem (which was in the poor Southern Kingdom). May the chorus of angels receive you and with Lazarus who once was poor may you have eternal rest.” So when we arrive at the judgement seat of God, Lazarus, the same Lazarus we heard of in the Gospel today, will be there too, waiting to hear where our hearts were. Will we comfortable with that? Will we be comfortable to be in the company of that Lazarus, who was covered with sores, who smelled, who was so unpleasant in this life? St. Paul tells Timothy in the second reading today, and so God is telling us: “Pursue righteousness. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called.”

It’s complicated, and the living out of it is different for each one of us, but if we are NOT comfortable with getting Lazarus’ input at our judgment, we have some time and more than enough opportunities to straighten out our hearts. And here’s one way for us as a community and nation. If you follow the news and words of politicians, you know the matter of immigration is one of the concerns of the President and Congress , but has been mired in controversy. Just this week the US has limited the number of refugees to be admitted to 18,000. In 2016 we admitted 85,000. But the bottom line is this, as taught by the Catholic Church in the official Catechism, and by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. Good government has a duty to welcome the foreigner out of charity and respect for the human person.  And persons have the right to immigrate in search of the security and the means of livelihood which they cannot find in their country of origin and thus government, especially of financially blessed nations, must accommodate this right to the greatest extent possible. Much of the objection to the immigrants and refugees of today derives from prejudice against their Hispanic language and culture and their Catholic Religion, a prejudice that lies deep in American culture and history. Their position is not unlike that of Lazarus and the poor in Samaria. In his description of the last judgment in Matthew 25:40-45, Jesus tells us the criterion by which we will be judged, and He assures us: Whatever you do or don’t do to the least of these brothers and sisters, you do or don’t do for me.  So there’s more to protest than inaction on climate change, which we heard so much about this week, although it is part of the reason there are so many refugees.

These scripture readings today give us a lot to think about, about how we live our lives, how we spend our money, what it means to be a Christian, or a Jew or a Muslim or Buddhist what it means to be a truly good human being, what political choices we make, and whether with our lives and our choices we are building bridges or building walls.
 

On the feast day of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church (October 1), Abbot Matthew proposed the following passages as summarizing her teaching on the beauty of the Christ. “To catch the blood flowing from the hands of the Crucified and to participate in the suffering and pain of Jesus was, above all, to bear with Jesus the suffering of ordinary life, the pain of the human condition; the pain of being displeasing to oneself in personal weakness, inadequacy, and incompleteness; the pain thoughtlessly or even deliberately inflicted by others. It meant not to retaliate, not to be vindictive or violent; not to be discouraged or self-indulgent.” (from Chapter 17 of  Everything Is Grace: The Life and Way of Therese of Lisieux, Joseph F Schmidt, FSC) Further, Abbot Matthew pointed to the following passage concerning life in community, life in her convent, “a statement which totally applies to monks, teachers, and family”:  “ I understood now that charity consists in bearing with the faults of others, in not being surprised at their weakness, in being edified by the smallest acts of virtue we see them practice.” (Story of a Soul, Manuscript C, p 220)
 

On the feast of the Guardian Angels (October 2), Fr. Paschal called us to remember the reality of the angels, and to incorporate them in our prayers. “Despite what you may have seen in movies, like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ no human beings have ever been turned into angels. Human beings are human beings, and angels are angels. Angels are minds without bodies, pure intelligence, pure spirit, which is a wide spectrum of intelligences. The more intelligent, the more powerful; the more intelligent, the more awesome; more awesome, more scary. But angels do exist, according to the experiences of saints and holy people…  We have today the feast of the Guardian Angels. God in his abundant love and his abundant creativity creates all these beings – beings like us, beings like the angels…  reflecting his person, His power, His love. We have these beings, these messengers, these instruments of His works, to do His will in this world. So we have good angels, the angels who protect us, inspire us, guard us, pray for us, etc. We have fallen angels, evil spirits, demons. The more powerful the intelligence, the more powerful the demon, the more scary the demon. Some are quite pathetic, they irritate, try to make you frustrated... Others are far more scary. But they are tools, in every sense of that word, evil spirits are tools. God rules the world. He controls all of reality… He allows things to happen, among them the battle we all fight every day. Every day you can resist evil and become more virtuous, more holy, spread God’s love and majesty throughout the world… We don’t need demons to inspire us to evil, we do it pretty well ourselves… We have our own Guardian Angel, a spirit, an intelligence, a pure reality to help us on the path. We should pray to our Guardian Angels every day. It can’t hurt to pray to our Guardian Angels, our saints, etc. It can only help us in the process. So on this feast of the Guardian Angels, let us pray to the angels to come to our aid, to fight against evil demons every day, because in the end they are just tools, in every sense of the word. God runs this world, and he wants us to have happiness and holiness. So let us pray to God, pray to the angels… Let us venerate the true God, and worship the true God. We can’t worship angels, they are only creatures. But God has made these creatures to help us on the path to holiness… Let us pray to our Guardian Angel this day, and every day, to St. Michael the Archangel, battler of Satan, whose feast was earlier this week. Let us pray to these angels for help, and worship the true God, and we will find eternal happiness."

Today (October 4) is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. His period in history, the late 12^th and early 13^th centuries, was a time of great change; growth of wealth, growth of trade in cities, a great dynamic and flourishing period. It was also a period of great crisis for the Catholic Church. Its clergy and religious orders were ill-prepared for this new dynamic world. And so God raised up a new kind of saint, a new kind of order: friars, the mobile creatures, these simple creatures of God’s conversion and repentance, to deal with this new universe, this new world developing in Europe. We sometimes think of Saint Francis with this idea that he was this crunchy, tree-hugging, green warrior. And it is true that he is the patron saint of ecology. He did talk about “Brother Sun and Sister Moon.” And he also spoke of “Sister Death.” And he was a great believer in the our Lord’s presence in the Holy Eucharist, that the Body and Blood of Christ are really present in the bread and wine, that they are in fact His true Body and Blood. And of course he also bore the wounds of his crucified savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was a period of crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in the late 12^th and early 13^th century, as it is a period of crisis today. Let us imitate Saint Francis in his austerity, in his intense prayer, in his following of Christ, his imitation of Christ. Let us carry our own cross, and enter into His passion, and try and imitate our Lord. And the world will be very different than it is today. A new revival, a new energy, a new spiritual grace will come to this world so in need of energy and spiritual grace. There is an eastern saint you don’t very often hear of, his name is Seraphim of Sarov, an early nineteenth century saint, who was once asked, “Why is it that in earlier centuries, there were far more miracles, far more experiences of God, and it seemed God was more powerful in those centuries?” And he replied: “Nothing is lacking but a firm resolve.” If we try to imitate our Lord, imitate great saints like Francis of Assisi, then we will have as abundant, as rich, as supernaturally transformed a world as in earlier centuries. Francis of Assis loved nature, he loved God’s creation; he preached to the birds, etc., all of those things you see in stories and legends. He also believed in creation, that nature needed to be made whole, made complete, needed to be set free from its bondage, by Christ its redeemer and savior. Let us remember that. Nature is fallen, we are fallen; we need help; we need supernatural help. That’s why we have a Savior. And if we follow Him and imitate Him, like Saint Francis we will transform the world.

Abbot Matthew Stark offered the followng homily on Sunday, October 6, at the 8:00a.m. Mass:
 
In today’s gospel readings, we hear that when you have done all you should do anyway, say, “I am an unprofitable servant.” On the other hand, Julian of Norwich, whom one could say is a prophetess, says Jesus will thank us for what we have suffered for him in this world.
            In continuation of what I was saying last week, in this series on communion, when the priest says the words of consecration - this is my body, with the bread; this is the cup of my blood, over the chalice – the bread and wine truly and completely become the body and blood of Christ - St. Ephrem the Syrian, when Syria was a Christian country, says in about 350: “If anyone despises the Eucharist, or rejects it or treats it with contempt, it may be taken with certainty that he treats with contempt Jesus Christ who called it and actually makes it to be his body.” And the great Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, around 373, said, “So long as the prayers and supplications have not been made, it remains only bread and wine. But after the great and holy supplications have been sent forth, the Word comes down into the bread and wine, and thus the bread is become the Body, and the wine the Blood, of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Sermon to the Newly Baptized). The great Saint Cyril of Jerusalem - if you want do you know what the early church believed, you read what he taught the people who had just been baptized in Jerusalem in the fourth century, around 348, “Since when Jesus Himself declared and said of the Bread, This is My Body, who shall dare to doubt any longer? (Well, a lot of Catholics do!) And since Jesus has Himself affirmed and said, This is My Blood, who shall ever hesitate, saying, that it is not His blood?” Cyril goes on to say, “Consider therefore the Bread and the Wine not as bare elements, for they are, according to the Lord's declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ; for even though sense suggests this to you, yet let faith establish you. Judge not the bread and wine from the taste, but from faith be fully assured without misgiving, that you have been allowed to have the Body and Blood of Christ... Keep these traditions inviolate and preserve yourself  from offenses. Do not practice the law of communion with the pollution of sin.” This is a reference to the teaching that if you are ever going to receive communion you should be free, at least, of what we call mortal sins. And this is from a modern spiritual writer, Fr. Donald Haggerty, who speaks of God’s preference for disguising himself in insignificance. “God disguises himself in history and in our lives in insignificance, a truth as constant as the presence of Christ concealed in the Eucharist.” This looks like nothing, this bread and this wine, but once again, it is God disguising himself in insignificance. And remember, we need faith: we live by faith, says Saint Paul, not by sight. If you find yourself saying, “Well, I understand that completely,” you probably don’t, because it is something requiring faith: the Trinity, the Incarnation, the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
 

Abbot Matthew drew upon the following excerpt from a discourse of John Paul II, at the Mass of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (Oct. 7):

“It is no wonder that having heard the words of his preaching, Mary was troubled. The approach of the living God always arouses awe. Nor is there any reason to wonder that Mary asks what this greeting meant. The archangel’s words put her before an inscrutable divine mystery. Moreover, they involve her in the orbit of that mystery. This needs to be meditated on again and again, and ever more deeply. It has the power of filling not only life, but also eternity. The angel's greeting is near to all of us. Let us therefore try to participate in Mary’s meditation. Let us try to do so above all when we recite the rosary.”
 

Fr. Paschal Scotti offered the following homily at daily Mass on Thursday, October 10.
 
“German is a remarkable language. Sometimes it had phenomenally long words – a single word goes on for pages, to express a very simple idea. Sometimes a very simple, elegant word conveys a very complex, rich idea. One of my favorite German words is schadenfreude, which means taking a pleasure in the misfortune of others. On the whole, this is a very dangerous thing. There is one instance, however, where I think it can be defended. In our first reading (Malachi 3:13-20), we have people complaining to God, complaining that there is no justice. The wicked get away with all this stuff… But God says do not worry, there is justice, and you will see justice done… It is important to know that justice will be done in this world, if not in our sight, then at some point, perhaps after this world is judged. But, there will be justice. We get disillusioned; we get disheartened, as in today’s first reading. The evil are always successful; they die successfully, they live successfully, while you ponder, do your best, etc. – and we see this over and over and over. A most disheartening thing is the scandal in the Catholic Church presently. We have these scandals even now, and quite often the evil are not punished… Bishops retire and are replaced… and nothing is done, and nothing will be done, at least not in our lifetime, not in our sight. But, God will punish the wicked, and reward the good for their goodness. We should not be disheartened, we should not be disillusioned. God is God... So, let us pursue holiness, because it is good for us. Let us pursue it because God wants that for us, particularly prayer. It is important to pray always. Only by prayer can certain things be defeated. …There were some demons that the apostles could not expel, and our Lord said, only by ‘prayer and fasting’ and in other places just prayer. So let us pray always and persevere in prayer, that evil will be defeated and good triumphant. Do not be disheartened, do not give up. God will not fool us and will not deceive us; we will see a just reality and a just world. Let us persevere in this, let us persevere in prayer."
 

At the Mass on the feast day of Pope Saint John XXIII, Abbot Matthew Stark shared from the last letter of Pope John to his family: “Love one another, my dear children. Seek rather what unites, not what may separate you from one another. I take leave, or better still, I say, 'Until we meet again.' Let me remind you of the most important things in life. Our blessed savior Jesus, His good news, His holy church, truth, and kindness.”

This talk was presented to the School by Fr. Francis on Wednesday, October 9

            If I had to summarize the Rule of St. Benedict in three words it would be silence, prayer and humility.   Having just gotten advisory grades yesterday and seeing a plethora of reactions to them, I think it is time to look at what is means to be humble.  I will use a lot of the work of Benedictine scholar Michael Casey in this talk.
             The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 7, begins: “Brethren, the sacred Scriptures cry out to us and say: ‘Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.’” This chapter contains one of the first 12-step programs in history, dealing with how to develop this great virtue and we will look at those steps someday. But I think humility, especially in a Benedictine sense, is greatly misunderstood. Roget’s Thesaurus includes “mouse-like” among the synonyms. In the list of antonyms, words like “arrogance” and “pomposity” figure, and we notice that those in authority are often publicly condemned for these vices. It appears that humility is a quality we notice lacking in others, but prefer not to embrace for ourselves.
            Humility is not a triumph of will power and effort, but an easing into a more human, more natural, less toxic form of existence. It is not driven by a desire to conform to external standards of behaviour, but is the natural consequence of a person growing in self-truth through responsiveness to the grace of God. Real humility derives from being exposed to a reality that is infinitely higher and greater than ourselves. I begin to see myself in relation to something that is larger and nobler. As Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: “Humility is born of a first encounter of the reason with the [divine] Word.”
            There are three points I will make about humility: as a quality which leads us into community, which teaches us to admire, and which allows us to recognise giftedness.

            Humble people have some awareness of a reality greater than themselves. They acknowledge their solidarity with others and eschew any sense of entitlement. They are cooperative rather than competitive. They make space for others and experience a genuine empathy with them. They have the capacity to recognise and admire the gifts of others, as well their own and they are willing to be at the service of the community and beyond.

1. Humility as Solidarity:  Once we strip away our self-delusions, humility is simply the natural response of the human heart to the experience of being part of the human race. When we accept the truth about ourselves and stop defending our indefensible claim to being always correct, we will begin to show forth some of the most desirable of human traits – the capacity to cooperate and collaborate on common projects, the willingness to step back and allow room for others both in conversation and in activity, the willingness to enter into non-contentious dialogue with those with whom we disagree
2. Humility as Admiration: to be open to something greater than oneself. False humility is the pretence that one is small. True humility is the consciousness of standing in the presence of greatness; Humility, true humility, is one of the most expansive and life-enhancing of all the virtues. It does not mean undervaluing yourself. It means valuing other people. It signals a certain openness to life’s grandeur and a willingness to be surprised, uplifted by goodness wherever one finds it
3. Humility as Appreciating Giftedness: Fulfilment revolves around the notion of recognising one’s highest gifts and using them in the service of something greater than oneself. The spirit of service springs out of a grateful recognition of gifts received – in nature and nurture – and an understanding that receiving a gift somehow involves an obligation of repayment

On Monday, October 14, Abbot Matthew reflected on the New Testament teachings on judging, referring to the Desert Father Xanthias.
 
There is little doubt that the New Testament condemns judgment. We should not judge one another. Our Lord says, “Judge not and you will not be judged,“ and, “The judgment you give will be the judgment you get.“ Saint Paul says that you should not judge, the letter to the Hebrews says that, and of course St. James clearly opposes it. These are three sayings attributed to the Desert Father Xanthias, pertaining to this. First: “The thief was on the cross and he was justified by a single word; and Judas who was counted in the number of the apostles lost all his labor in one single night and descended from heaven to hell. Therefore, let no-one boast of his good works, for all those who trust in themselves fall” Notice that Judas is a judge of others. He condemns Mary in Bethany for anointing Jesus with the precious ointment. Second: “Abba Xanthias went up from Scetis to Terenuthis one day. In the place where he rested he was offered a little wine, because of the demands of the journey. When they heard that he was there, some others brought him one possessed by the devil. The devil began to insult the old man, ‘You have brought me to this winebibber!’ The old man did not want to cast him out, but because of the insult he said, ‘I have confidence in Christ that I shall not finish this cup before you have gone out.’ When the old man began to drink, the devil cried out, saying, ‘You are burning me, you are burning me!’ and before he had finished the devil went out by the grace of Christ.” And finally he says: ‘A dog is better than I am, for he has love for his master, and he does not judge.’”

Fr. Paschal offered this homily on the feast of Ignatius of Antioch (October 17).
 
Human beings are natural idolaters. There is no God, or kind of God, that we will not bow down to and worship. It’s in our DNA. In fact, idolatry comes in many forms: false religions, false ideologies, wanting to follow other people, and what they say, what they do, what they believe... To want to be like everyone else is a great temptation, a great difficulty, a great danger. It appears in many ways. The ancient Christians were hated for some of these very simple reasons. They were “atheists,” they did not follow God’s civic order, the pagan order, the empire etc. And they were “haters of humanity.” What does that mean? …They did not practice infanticide, abortion, contraception. Their sexual morality and laws on marriage were strict. They could not be involved in all of the activities of the pagan culture and pagan ritual, and so forth. Such was their age, and such is our age. Much of the things we could follow compromise us in following Jesus Christ. It is a great temptation to be like everyone else. And if we don’t conform, there is suffering, there is martyrdom. It may not be bloody martyrdom, beheading, but it is suffering, public ostracization, and so forth...We see this in the feast we celebrate today, Ignatius of Antioch. He was the Bishop of Antioch very early in the second century. On his way to Rome to be martyred, he wrote seven very impressive letters that give us deep insight into the nature of early Christianity, its belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, in the Eucharist as the Real Presence, His body and blood not just bread and wine... And like Ignatius, we should not bow down to total conformity, to do and say what everyone else does because that is the easiest thing to do. Like Ignatius of Antioch and other martyrs, we should be different. And if we are different, we will suffer… Each of us carries a cross, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that cross is what leads to transformation. Dying to this world we are born to a new one. We will come to eternal life, both in time and in eternity.

Below is Father Michael 's homily for Parents' Weekend (Saturday, October 19, for the Vigil Mass of the 29th Sunday in Ordonary Time)

It is one of the most vivid images from my childhood. I had a Children’s Bible. No doubt it was not complete, but each Bible story was accompanied by a full page, full color picture. Although it was by no means the most dramatic picture (that would have been Samson pushing apart the pillars in the temple of Dagon, with the building falling and crushing the partying Philistines) the picture of Moses, with his arms being held aloft in prayer by Aaron and Hur, while the Israelites and Amalekites were engaged in mortal combat below that picture was the most spiritually riveting.
 
In this world we live in, you and I are engaged mortal combat, in the spiritual warfare of good versus evil for the destiny of our souls, and prayer is a most effective weapon. Yet our life in this world is so much more than warfare, and prayer is so much more than a just weapon. Like a seedling tree that grows into a towering oak, our whole life is a process of growth and development into a being that can handle being in the full presence of God, which is our destiny, and prayer is the light, the sunshine, the water and fertilizer which propels our growth. Today’s readings say a lot about prayer, especially about persistence in praying, not getting discouraged and not giving up. And truly it’s not easy to avoid getting discouraged. We do have to wonder sometimes: does God really answer our prayers of petition, when we ask for things? A few years ago I had an unexpected exchange of posts on Facebook with a grand-nephew, then a junior in high school. Although he is now in the Army in Korea, he still posts too much information. Back then his girlfriend was threatening to break up with him because he did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. He was angry; he felt she was unfair and that such a relationship with Jesus was impossible. I suggested he try, and to begin with prayer.
 
I was unprepared for his passionate, fierce and angry response, telling me about his persistent and desperate prayers as a child up in his room, prayers to have the loud fighting between his parents stop, prayers to have his family stay together, to end the pain and preserve his happiness. These prayers were unanswered, he said. How could he have a relationship with the God who had ignored him the God who had allowed his family t and his happiness to break up? His answer explained a lot about him and his troubles as a teenager. It also put right out there what we all experience sometimes.
 
I imagine that one of the most difficult things about being God is having to sort out all these prayers. This last week , millions of Washington Nationals fans were praying for victory, and so were millions of St Louis Cardinals fans, who were also praying the Nationals would lose. I don’t suppose God has a vested interested interest in either team, but the St. Louis side definitely did NOT have its prayers answered.  Unless somebody was a first-time, high stakes gambler, I doubt anybody lost their faith over these games, but the human dilemma remains: God can’t possibly grant the wishes of everybody who prays, as in this case of the Nationals and Cardinals. And who has ever died of an illness who did not have people praying for his or her recovery? What happened there? The Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard said what my novice master always said: Prayer does not change God but changes the one who prays. For sure we do not change God’s mind or convince Him to do something He hadn’t thought of or something was reluctant to do.  In short, God who is willing to do good things for us, wants that we ask for them to be done, because the asking is good for us. On the other hand, as Oscar Wilde said: When the Gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers. We sometimes ask for things that are NOT good for us or that are not God’s will; and so despite our praying for them, they are not granted, at least not in the way we wanted. But if we have truly prayed correctly, as Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done,” and Mary in the Angelus: “May it be done according to Your word,” even these seemingly unanswered prayers are beneficial for us when they lead us to perceive God’s will and how we can be in accord with it. If every prayer to deliver someone from death were answered, one would ever die.
 
Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that when we sincerely pray, it is God himself, the Holy Spirit, actually praying in us. He says: the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings; And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will. (Romans 8:24-27) So when in the Gospel Jesus tells the comical story of the widow who harasses the corrupt judge He is not saying God is like that judge, but that we must be as focused and determined in prayer as that widow. Now Jesus ends the Gospel passage today with a chilling question: When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Prayer is necessary for faith to stay alive, so if we want to be found faithful at Christ’s coming, or when we come to Christ we must pray.
 
Pope Francis once preached a wonderful homily that speaks to our situation, especially as we look to the upcoming election campaign. He said: “When a Christian becomes a disciple of ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought; He has transformed the knowledge of Jesus into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge.”  Our faith is not an ideology, and politics is not faith. In a few moments, we will recite together the Nicene Creed, which is called the Symbol of the Faith. What our faith is, what the creed symbolizes, is our personal knowledge of, love of, relationship with the real human and divine person, Jesus Christ, and of the Father and Holy Spirit from which He is inseparable and to whom we too are connected through Jesus.  That’s not an ideology; that’s not a collection of rules or a Catechism. All the rules and the Catechism articles are descriptive of what our thoughts and actions should be after coming to know Jesus. When Jesus asks: When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? What he means is: will I find people who recognize me? When we each meet Jesus, will we recognize Him? Have we recognized him here in our most wretched brothers and sisters, like the people in Haiti or Syria ?
 
It is for these meetings with Jesus which prayer prepares us. It is for these meetings which this Eucharist rehearses us. It is for these meetings that we need the Church in which we can find the wonderful variety of persons who together mirror Jesus Christ, who is so much more than each of us can imagine. Prayer is to keep us familiar with our brother, our God, our savior. And when it comes to the good things God wants to give us, as I told my grandnephew using Mick Jagger’s words: You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, if you pray… you’ll get what you need. God knows better than any of us what we really need, and what we all need more than anything else is the intense, pure, personal and merciful love of God made visible and touchable in our Lord Jesus Christ. And He is here, with us, today. I pray we all recognize Him.
 

In his homily of Monday, October 21, Fr. Paschal pointed to “amusing and insightful” sayings, one in particular that needs a closer look.

“There was a superb saying several years ago, and you may remember it: ‘The one who dies with the most toys wins.’ Profound, insightful, amusing. I’m sure that original quotation is a celebration of stuff from Malcolm Forbes, who was fascinated by … stuff – in spending generously for stuff. It is a profoundly critical, profoundly dark, materialism, but Forbes proclaimed it. …But when you’re dead, you’re dead – you can’t “win” you’ve lost. You’re not the winner. When death comes it ends, and all you have ends with it. It’s actually quite an insightful criticism of crass materialism… a celebration of stuff …  in our lives. It should come as no surprise: the fact is all this will die. We are not shocked by that, surprised by that.  You can’t take anything with you. It all stays here. So it is good to know more profoundly, and earlier, that you can’t take it with you. That life for God, for the good things God gives us, the good things we can take with us ourselves, is much more important. We should always remember what our path is, what our destiny is, and it is not this world, at least not this world as it presently stands – but eternity, transfigured, transformed glory, and the only thing we can take with us into this world is our transformed selves: our selves being bettered by goodness and nurtured by grace; only that we can take for ourselves. Let us make ourselves rich in things that are important to God – holiness – and we will find more happiness..."

On Tuesday, October 22, Abbot Matthew presented a reflection on mercy given by Pope Saint John Paul II, whose feast day we celebrated that day.
 
"Christ came not to condemn, but to forgive, to show mercy (see Mt 9:13). And the greatest mercy of all is found in his being in our midst and calling us to meet him and to confess, with Peter, that he is “the Son of the Living God” (Mt 16:16). No human sin can erase the mercy of God or prevent Him from unleashing all his triumphant power, if we only call upon him. Indeed, sin itself makes even more radiant the love of the Father. In order to ransom a slave, he sacrificed his Son: his mercy toward us is redemption.
     This mercy reaches its fullness in the gift of the Spirit, which bestows new life and demands that it be lived. No matter how many and great the obstacles put in his way by human frailty and sin, the Spirit, who renews the face of the earth (see Ps 104:30), makes possible the miracle of the perfect accomplishment of the good. This renewal gives the ability to do what is good, noble, beautiful, pleasing to God and in conformity with his will. It is in some way the flowering of the gift of mercy, which offers liberation from the slavery of evil and gives the strength to sin no more. Through the gift of new life, Jesus makes us sharers and his love leads us to the Father in the Spirit."
 

Abbot Matthew (October 24), responding to St. Paul’s expression of the “sin that dwells in me” (Rom 7), drew on the Desert Fathers and Mothers, in addressing the struggle against sin and the theme of the interior struggle or “spiritual warfare” in St. Paul’s writings. Of Amma Sarah it was said: “…for thirteen years she waged warfare against the demon of a certain sin. She never prayed that the warfare should cease, but she said, ‘O God give me strength.’” And Abba Poemen said: “Just as no man can cause harm to someone who is close to the king, no more can Satan do anything to us if our souls are close to God, for truly he said, “Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you. But since we often exalt ourselves, the enemy has no difficulty in drawing our poor souls toward shameful passions.” Another father said: “The greatest thing a man can do is to throw his faults before the Lord, and expect temptation to his last breath.”
 

Homily of Saturday, October 26.

It was said of the Bourbons, the French royal family restored to the throne after the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte, that, “They learned nothing, and they forgot nothing.” That is to say, in their pride and their delusion, they were complacent in self-satisfaction and lacking in awareness. They set themselves up for total disaster.  – and so they perished… There is nothing more dangerous to any individual, nothing more dangerous to any group, nothing more dangerous to any institution, no matter how large or powerful, or ancient or venerable, than complacency, self-satisfaction, and lack of critical awareness… “They learned nothing, and they forgot nothing.” …And if they do that, they will perish. …It’s not good enough to be good enough… If we don’t produce good fruit we will perish – like the tree in today’s parable (Lk 13:1-9), we will be cut down, and rightly so. God is not mocked. God is not fooled. If you do not produce good fruit, if you do not repent, and become better people, better students, etc., we will perish.