Afgespeeld
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Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches on the eve of Palm Sunday (March 27, 2021), inviting us to be enamoured with the figure of Christ and to meditate his passion and death this week. It can help us be men and women of real integrity.
Music: J.S. Bach, "Komm, Jesu, komm", BWV 229. https://musopen.org
Thumbnail: Bartolomé Murillo, Ecce homo, (17th century) private collection, Sothebys.
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Mark 4, 35-41: The account of the storm at sea. The whole time, during this storm, the Lord was asleep. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said Be quiet! Be still….
The Holy Father Pope Francis used this account last year when the pandemic broke out and we saw the first signs of death and lockdown all around us in March of 2020. It seems as though the Lord was asleep.
Some people are good, have faith, go to Mass, receive plenty of formation, but are cold and dry when trying to pray. There is virtue, and even struggle. They try, but it is as though there was nobody there. They feel everything is cold and theoretical. They don’t feel anything. They don’t feel as though Jesus is there. In my heart I don’t feel anything. Like when you get a bad connection on the phone, cutting out. You can’t understand the other.
These souls seem to be good earth, but there doesn’t seem to be any communication. I don’t feel anything.
What is the solution?
Deep down, when you look at it, if there is a lack of real connection with Jesus, there is also deep down a lack of affective connection with others. Meaning connection, empathy, understanding.
Here’s how to move forward.
Music: Adrian Berenguer, Fall Album Singularity 2017
Thumbnail: Rembrandt's Storm at Sea, 1633, stolen in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.
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On March 13, 2013, Pope Francis was elected as the 266th successor of St. Peter, not so he could shine, and outdo everyone, but so that he could serve as Bishop of Rome, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, vicar of Christ, servant of the servants of God. What a responsibility. He is the visible foundation and source of unity, and as pastor of the entire Catholic Church.
Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, said that each new Pope is like a gift for the church, but that is slowly unwrapped, through years of ministry, writings, decrees, and images for the people of God.
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches this morning in Lyncroft after a month away due to Covid restrictions, asking how we have unwrapped the gift that is Pope Francis.
Music: Adrian Berenguer, Fall (Album Multiplicity, 2017)
Many images can be seen if you see this meditation on my YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/LX6YUg2fhnk
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On March 6, 2021, Pope Francis had an inter-religious ceremony with leaders of Jews, Muslims, and representatives of other religions at Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, the common father of these religions.
He is on a small stage, blown in the dry winds, surrounded by a stark desert where Abraham came from. They’ve laid out a wide red carpet in the audience. Everyone is separated. There is a small stage. A large screen.
It is all centred around the covenant that God made with Abraham at Ur in Genesis 15, 4-6. In Genesis humanity had been dispersed with the Tower of Babel. It was the confusion of languages and the dispersion of humanity over all the earth (cf. Gn 11: 7-8).
At this point, with Abraham's call, the story of the blessing begins: it is the beginning of God's great plan to make humanity one family through the covenant with a new people, chosen by him to be a blessing among all the peoples (cf. Gn 12: 1-3). This divine plan is still being implemented; it culminated in the mystery of Christ.
The pope urged humanity to look to the stars, as Abraham did.
Opening words:
This blessed place brings us back to our origins, to the sources of God’s work, to the birth of our religions. Here, where Abraham our father lived, we seem to have returned home. It was here that Abraham heard God’s call; it was from here that he set out on a journey that would change history. We are the fruits of that call and that journey. God asked Abraham to raise his eyes to heaven and to count its stars (cf. Gen 15:5). In those stars, he saw the promise of his descendants; he saw us. Today we, Jews, Christians and Muslims, together with our brothers and sisters of other religions, honour our father Abraham by doing as he did: we look up to heaven and we journey on earth.
Music: Adrian Berenguer, Fall (Album Singularity, 2017)
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When we hear the words of Jesus who says Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5). in Latin as beati pauperes spiritu.
Joseph was poor, but he was not among the poorest of society of the time. He was not among the totally abandoned, bedraggled, homeless, that lived from hand to mouth. These would have been in the lowest class of society. The Lord gave them hope, some consolation. But Joseph had a trade. He was an expert, and worked for a living, as did so many others. He would have had a heart for these too, by fair work, well done, never over charging.
In the encyclical letter Patris corde, Pope Francis praises Joseph, but underlines his normality, he’s like an everyday guy. As so many normal people are being affected by the pandemic.
We heard about Blessed Guadalupe de Landazuri. At the beatification in 2014 that she was classified among the saints. Not as a virgin, not as a religious, but quite simply as a saint. No real qualifications needed. But when she is described briefly, just to identify her, people said she was a chemist.
Music: Adrian Berenguer, Fall (Album Singularity, 2017)
Thumbnail is St. Joseph the worker, from the altarpiece of Torreciudad in Huesca, Spain.
my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/EricNicolai/videos
