The Fellowship of St. Columbanus

Isaiah 50:5-9a St Mark 8:27-35 I want to explore two notable aspects of the readings today. The first is perserverance. Isaiah lays his case before God. He has been reviled, humiliated, and abused. His back has been thoroughly whipped, his beard roughly plucked, and his face spat upon. Today, we might reserve this treatment only for rapists and pedophiles; this is a thought worth remembering, as the fallout of the sexual abuse scandals within our church rage on. It is very likely that the suffering of Isaiah will be laid on anyone who lifts high a Catholic faith. We may ask, where does the prophet get the strength to persevere? Here we see that it is in hope. Not of what the Lord has done, but that the Lord will not allow the righteous man to be put to shame. We suffer now without any evidence that things will become better. No evidence, except hope.   The second is identity. Jesus asks, “who do they say I am?” The revilers, the humiliates, the abusers. That vast net...

For the Feast of the Holy Cross we're posting two short pieces. The first is Evan's poetic meditation on the Holy Cross, and the second is simply Matthew's description of a hypothetical icon of Christ Pantocrator. The cross itself unfolds In the undulations of time. Warp-wood, weft-woe, Flowering. Adoracion de la Santa Cruz por Santa Helena y el emperador Heraclio Miguel Ximenez circ 1487. The Heart is a rosebud planted with ploughshares-to-be undying in, out-pouring bleeding. Lift high, lift high! Stretch out the very sky Torn-robe, shred-cover Freeing. In Heaven, Christ is seated on His cruciform throne, the Cross that bore him since he first bore it. The wooden throne, with tracery in crimson, spreads out its wings in which his subjects take refuge. In the king's outstretched hand, scarred gloriously with the name of his beloved, a scepter benevolently lowered: a golden reed worked with green. He is crowned above with gold and silver acaccia bl...

Epistle: Galatians 5:25-6:10 Gospel: St Matthew 6:24-34 “ God is not mocked ” proclaims St Paul in today’s epistle. Because of the exalted nature of his creed, because of the truth of his profession, and because of the purity to which his religion ever calls him, the Christian’s life is constantly beset by the dangers of temptations, falls, and corruption. The effulgent calling of those who have been washed in the saving blood of the Lamb is bounded by darkness visible and invisible. The devil, knowing full how man’s free will is swayed this way or the other, ever intends to make a mockery of this calling by putting all sorts of dangers in our way, by facilitating the occasions of sin. Very often, the devil does not have to do much, for, we, of our own depraved and vitiated wills, will fall into that which makes a mockery of God’s word. This is warfare, within and without. Life’s cares and worries sometime overtake us, the pursuit of wealth and honour blind us, and we slacke...

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 St. Mk. 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 It is difficult to know where to begin talking about this week's Gospel lesson. Five years ago, at a much earlier stage in my conversion, I wrote at some length on how Christ treats the Law of Moses, and I substantially stand by what I have written there. I hope you will take the time to read that more thorough commentary on how Christ applies Moses. In fact, what I would really like to say much more briefly here is said better in my old article. Moses with the Ten Commandments Rembrandt Suffice it to say for the moment that commentators are mislead when they claim simply that Christ "abrogates" the Law. If that were the whole tale, then He could not appeal to the Law in his own defense in verses 8-9. Rather, Christ criticizes an approach to the Law which emphasizes form over substance. This is a refrain which goes back to the prophets. Amos writes in astonishing verse, "Though you give me grain offerings...

Joshua 24:1-2, 15-17, 18b Psalm 34 St. John 6:60-69 In our Old Testament and Gospel readings, two groups of followers of God are challenged in their intention. The Israelites answer Joshua saying that they will not "forsake the Lord" (Jos 24:16), and Peter on behalf of the twelve responds to Jesus with these incredible words: Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" ( Jn 6:68). What's interesting to me is their reasons why. The Israelites had just gone through a period of victory in battle followed by peace and "rest from their enemies" (Jos 23:1). And in their reply to Joshua, they cite the goodness of the Lord in their past-- the way he brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery, performed miracles before their very eyes, and so on (24:16). They can look back in history and point to how God has been faithful to them. At first reading, I struggled a bit with this passage, and with the Psalm which so cleanly parallels it, bec...

Ezekiel 34 St. Matthew 24 I am writing this week with a very heavy heart, in the aftermath of the devastating news from Pennsylvania. In light of this crisis and a response from the Vatican press office which can be described as "underwhelming," this week we are departing from commenting on the lectionary. In stead, we are taking as our texts Ezekiel 34 and St. Matthew 24. The Sorrow of King David William Brassey Hole The history of the People of God is a history of crisis. The summary of the book of Judges given in chapter 2 is a cycle well known to us. Sin is followed by God's redemption, which is followed by our self-satisfaction and further sin. And the history of the Church is no different. No sooner was the controversy with the Judaisers (Eusebius and Epiphanius know them as the Ebionites) resolved in Acts 15, then the controversy with the Gnostics began. Followed immediately by the Arian controversy, which was not yet resolved when the Church faced the ris...

St. John 6:41-51 In "The Pain of Animals: A Problem in Theology," C.S. Lewis points out that Satan rebelled before mankind, and that his work might be seen in the widespread "distortion" of God's created order, noting that "(in particular) the insect world appears to be Hell itself visibly in operation around us." Gustave Dore, "The Evening of the Seventh Day" illustration for Paradise Lost Our conversations about redemption are rightly focused on our own story: God became man and gave himself up for us. But it is good to call to mind that there is more to this story. All of creation is marred by the cosmic war in which we find ourselves. Nature itself is deeply scored and does not escape the consequences of the Devil's fall from grace. Christ addresses this in today's Gospel: "The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." Our fate is bound up in the fate of the cosmos, this dust and ash, thes...