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Mercy Works – Full text

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Pope Francis

Pope Francis

 

Last month I wrote about my pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. I recounted the experiences of passing through the Holy Door in various basilicas. So where do I go now? I’ve gone into those great churches, prayed and gone to confession, is that it? Can I now say, “I’ve done the Holy Year of Mercy!” and move on? Somehow I don’t think so.

I’ve turned back to Pope Francis himself for advice on the direction to take. On the cover of his book, “The name of God is Mercy” there is a quote.

“The Church is not in the world to condemn, but to make possible an encounter with the visceral love that is God’s mercy. For this to occur we must go out. Go out from the churches and the parishes, go out to find people where they suffer, where they hope.”

It might seem a bit strange at first that the Pope tells us to get out of the churches after years of trying to get people into church. Look again at what he said; Go out FROM the churches. We are not being encouraged to leave the churches but to take the gospel from the church out to the world.

That raises the question, how are we to take the Gospel into the world? Should we be shouting through a megaphone or handing out leaflets on the streets? Pope Francis in his book examines the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy and asks us to examine how we can use these.

Let’s take a look at these and see if they give us a way of promoting Gospel values in today’s world. First we have to feed the hungry. We all know that millions of people are going without enough food and that even in this modern age people are dying of starvation. We have long known of those who are starving as a result of famine in Africa and beyond. The rise of foodbanks in our own country shows that there are many families who are going hungry in the midst of plenty here today.

The second work is to give drink to the thirsty. We all know that water is essential for life. Here in Scotland we take drinkable water for granted. A few years ago I visited some small islands in the seas around the Philippines. On one island I was talking to the mothers of the schoolchildren who were in our feeding program. They told me that only one of the fifteen villages on the island had a water supply. They had to take their big plastic cans on their canoe and paddle round the island to fill the can. Then they had to paddle back again. When I told them that houses in Scotland have a tap to give drinking water at any time of the day they were astonished. There are lots of people out there who need our help to get clean water.

We also have to clothe the naked. There are not so many naked people wandering around Scotland (you would never last a winter) but there are many who need fresh clothes. They may be homeless or they might be finding it hard to manage. There are charities around who can help people out with clothes donated by people like you. You wouldn’t believe how many children in Africa sport football tops from a whole range of British teams. When these clothes come via Mary’s Meals the message is not lost on the recipients.

The fourth corporal work of mercy is to shelter the traveller. How would that work in practice? In a small community the traveller would be obvious, standing out from the familiar faces. In a big city it is not so easy to recognise the traveller as everyone seems to be on the move. How does this work fit into our modern lives? One of the big issues today is that of the refugees flooding into Europe from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The numbers of refugees, their dramatic means of getting into Europe and the underlying threat of terrorist action has put most of Europe in a state of unease to say the least.

Nevertheless we are impelled to help those in danger, even if they may have put themselves into that danger. Migrants in leaky boats are being plucked from the sea. Hungry, cold refugees are given shelter and food in Italy and Greece. What is our response to this? Are we petitioning our government to do more to help or are we demanding that they stop the flow of refugees? This is not a simple question but nobody told you that living a Christian life was going to be easy. We may not agree with accepting refugees but we have a Christian duty to help those in peril.

The fifth Corporal Work of Mercy is to comfort the sick. I’m sure most of us have gone to see someone who is ill at home or is experiencing a stay in hospital. Apart from bringing a bunch of grapes and a couple of magazines we bring something of the outside world into their sick quarters. We become a link with what’s going on outside and help them to feel they are still part of it.

Some Eucharistic Ministers regularly visit the sick and bring them communion, linking them in that mystical and poorly understood way with the rest of the Church through Christ. Theirs is a special ministry we are not all involved in. We can all be involved in helping the sick in the mission countries by our charitable donations to the missions.

The sixth work of mercy is to visit the imprisoned. This is not something that most of us would relish the opportunity to take on. Who wants to make their way to some remote spot to visit a criminal? Why would anyone want to comfort someone convicted of some heinous crime? I have only ever visited two prisons. I visited Shotts prison when researching an article for this paper. I was visiting the chaplains and had the opportunity to talk to some of the prisoners there. These were all young men who found themselves serving long sentences for crimes they had probably not given much thought to before committing them. They all seemed to be pleasant young men who had made a series of big mistakes.

The other prison I visited was in Nigeria in the company of the local priest who went there to celebrate mass. If I tell you that the first prisoner I saw was a naked man staked out on a concrete slab in the boiling sun you will understand that this was no “cushy number”. The young men I joined for mass were likeable fellows who were grateful for my company. There was not a hardened criminal among them. There was one older man who was well dressed. He had shot his nephew in cold blood and showed no remorse. He is the only real criminal I have ever met.

If prisons are to be successful in correcting the behaviour of the inmates perhaps more of us need to be visiting the poor souls locked in there.

The last work of mercy is to bury the dead. I have been to more funerals than I would like. I think there is something special about a funeral mass with a congregation praying for the repose of the soul of the deceased. Perhaps it’s the presence of Christ in the Eucharist that makes me feel that this is a service that offers great hope rather than a final laying to rest. Don’t be put off attending funerals; you are joining in spirit with someone who is in the presence of Christ.

I hope I have given you plenty to think about. I’ve certainly begun to take a closer look at myself in the process.

Just fitting the Flux Capacitor into the DeLorian

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Well, that’s it we are on our way! Where to you ask? Back, back to the future, where things were and will be again, rosy and wonderful. Back to the future of the good old days.

video here

Yes, the vote was decisive and we are about to set off into the future on a journey to the past. I’ve been told by those who know these things that things were great in good old Britain before we went into the E.U. Food was cheap, beer tasted better and we were living the life of Reilly.

Mind you that’s not quite how I remember it. I remember a post war Britain where rationing still determined what you could eat. I can still remember the day I was able to go into the shop at the end of the street and buy sweets without my mother bringing her ration book.

I remember a selective schooling system where only the few could get a full secondary education. I remember my dad going to work onChristmas day because it was not a holiday. I remeber people could be forced to work long hours for low pay. I remember when people died of industrial diseases and accidents at work.

So I’m going off to revisit the past now that we can dispense with these pesky E.U. directives. Just as soon as I can hook up my Flux Capacitor into my DeLorian and get it up to 88 miles per hour I’ll be back in a flash. By the way, anybody know where my nearest Plutonium retailer is?

You, on the other hand, will just have to wait till the negotiations have completed and we get out again – back to the future of the past.

Will you go out with Boris and his pals?

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We are nearly there. Thursday is the day when we will choose whether to go out of Europe with Boris and the guys in the band or stay and get on with business. What will you choose to do?

Boris tells us that we should go because we will be able to rule without the interference of the ‘Brussels bureaucrats’ who interfere with our freedoms. They neglect to say that the EU has brought us more freedoms than this government ever did. They would love to rule us unhindered by ‘human rights’ (how can they make that sound like an offence?) and working time directives that stop employers forcing people to work unsafe hours.

Lets have a look at the boys;

GoveHere’s Michael Gove. Remember Michael as Education secretary? He instigated a programme to remove schools from local, democratic control to be responsibel only to the Education secretary, himself.

He would be a great champion of  our democracy, unhindered by European ‘interference’.

 

IDSIan Duncan Smith, the man who has pushed through reforms to the welfare system that took millions away from the poorest in society, is he your cup of tea?

Everything was going well until he fell out with the P.M. and decided to change his story about the reforms. Watch out he doesn’t do the same after he takes us out of Europe.

 

HowerdMichael Howerd, a man with ‘something of the night’ about him, according to another Tory M.P.

Where did he ever take the Tories? Are those a safe pair of hands?

I’m not convinced that he is all that he pretends to be. I don’t think I’d go into a dark alley with him.

 

nigel-farageNigel Farage, hail fellow well met? The kind of guy you would have a pint with down the boozer? Well, he has never appeared in my local.

Is that because he is a former commodities broker? One of the financial types who made such a great job of the economy a few years ag? We’re still paying for that. He might deny that his campaigning is racist but I think that would be hard to prove. Is he your type?

BorisThen there’s Boris himself, a man who see’s  himself as the one who pulls the strings. If we all vote his way and trott out of Europe forever then he will be well placed to take over as leader of the Tory party. That will make him prime minister.

It’s difficult to know what that would mean for the country as Boris is prone to changing his mind about policies to fit the current trend.

Can he be trusted? I think I’d prefer the guy on his right.

This could be a fateful year for the democracies; just imagine Boris is P.M. and we are an island again. Donald Trump is President and the U.S.A. is on the skids. Scotland has another indyref and opts out in despair. I can just imagine the complaints from ISIS, “Hey, stop wrecking the world – that’s our job!”

Well if you do decide to leave then remember you asked for it. The complaints desk here will be closing down for good. The rest of the world might just be in too bad a state to be able to help in any way.

My May Column – Through the Holy Door – Full Text

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Through the Holy Door

The Holy Father, Pope Francis instituted the Holy Year of Mercy by opening the Holy Door on the 8th December 2015 at the Vatican. Each diocese has its own holy door and we are all invited to pass through this door. Since last month’s article I have been on a pilgrimage to Assisi and Rome as part of my Holy Year. I have passed through Holy doors in Assisi and at the Vatican as well as other basilicas in Rome.

So what is it like to pass through this door? What happens as you pass through? Well it’s like passing through any other door. What happens is you go from the outside to the inside. Going through the door doesn’t do anything to you. It is a symbolic act. It symbolises my coming in from the world’s values into the values Christ taught us. By walking through the door I express my willingness, my intention to change, to follow Christ’s teachings of mercy.

Walking through the door is only the start. We are expected to stop and pray, contemplating our coming to Christ’s mercy. To gain the jubilee indulgence we are also expected to receive the sacrament of reconciliation and the Eucharist soon after. Confessions in a range of languages were available in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran when we went through that particular holy door and our parish priest; Fr. Eamon Sweeney celebrated mass with us every day of the pilgrimage.

This was my first time in Rome. The Vatican is a magnificent setting. Saint Peter’s Square, (It’s not really square) filled with people is something to be experienced. Security in The Vatican City is very tight with armed police and soldiers at strategic points. We had to pass through airport type scanners each time we went in. That didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowds.

I didn’t find Saint Peter’s to be the place I had expected. The architecture, the history and the artworks are very impressive but it felt, to me a bit like a museum. The crowds of tourists milling around taking pictures added to this feeling. I was looking for the centre, the core of the Church and it didn’t seem to be here. Turning round I met a young man from the Balkans with his little daughter Matilda on his shoulders. Now that is where the core of the Church lies; in the people, especially the children.

My image of the Vatican has changed. I don’t see it as the core of the Church but as a kind of pin that Catholics all over the world are linked to and through that linked to each other. It’s a symbol of our unity together under the leadership of the Holy Father. However I can understand why Pope Francis decided to live somewhere other than the Papal apartments.

During our time in Rome we attended the Papal blessing and the Holy Father’s general audience. His address during the audience was enlightening. He referred to the parable of the Good Shepherd and the lost sheep. The Pope told us that Jesus doesn’t see any of us as lost sheep but just sheep waiting to be found. His intention is for everyone to be saved. Just as the Good Shepherd rejoices in bringing back the lost sheep, Jesus rejoices in the return of the sinner.

He also mentioned that the rest of the flock rejoices in the return of the lost sheep. That raises the question of how we, the rest of the flock, view the return of the sinner. That was a bit puzzling. I’m not sure whether I am one of the rest of the flock or a sinner making a return. I suppose I am both. My life seems to go in cycles when I am sometimes out of touch with God and times when I get closer. However, it does imply that I should be rejoicing when sinners return to the fold. That raises the question of how I respond to returning sinners. Do I welcome those who have seen the error of their ways or am I dismissive of their motives? Jesus spent a lot of time with people who were widely regarded as sinners. Some thought that made him a bit suspect. Am I willing to be thought suspect by welcoming sinners?

Another important theme in the story of the Good Shepherd is that the lost sheep can’t find its way back on its own. Just like the sheep we can only find our way back to Jesus because He reaches out to us. The Church provides the paths back to Jesus through the sacrament of reconciliation, bringing forgiveness and the Eucharist, nourishment for the soul. How can we act like Jesus and help bring lost sheep back to the fold? I pose the question but I’m afraid I can’t give the answer. I can suggest what not to do. We should never condemn sinners; for two reasons. The first reason is that I am a sinner and I’d rather not be condemned and the second reason is that Jesus never condemned anybody.

If I can come back to the Holy Door for a moment, I’d like to point out that after going in through the Holy Door I came back out. If going in through the Holy Door was a symbol of turning back from worldly ways to the gospel teaching, then going back out can only be symbolic of taking the gospel out into the world. Passing through the door and taking the other steps to gain the indulgence offered is only the first step, not an end in itself. There is no going back to our old ways. We are now on a new path, bringing mercy to our fellow sinners.

Perhaps we could take a leaf out of the Holy Father’s book. When we attended the General Audience in Saint Peter’s Square the security was highly visible and very strict. Armed police and soldiers screened everyone entering the square and the Pope’s personal security men kept very close. Despite this and the threats that lay behind it, he was joyful on his tour round the square. His face lit up as he toured and the crowd cheered.

Our gospel story is the greatest story ever told. It is the good news and that should surely show in our faces as we make our daily rounds of work, shopping and our home life. I have to ask myself if I am showing the joy that Christ’s message brings or if I’m just a grumpy wee bald guy, muttering to himself as he goes about his day. I’ll have to give that some thought. Am I encouraging others by my joyful outlook or am I putting people off by giving the impression that the Church is a solemn, glum place to be?

If you would like to hear the Holy Father and the English translation of the summary of his talk you will find it below.

Through the Holy Door

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My May column is published in the Scottish Catholic Observer today. What happens when you pass through the Holy Door?

Read my thoughts on that and my pilgrimage to Rome when you get your copy this weekend. The full text will be available next week.

My clip of the Papal Audience is shown below.

Any thoughts?

My April Column – Mercy in Marriage? – Full Text

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My latest column in the Scottish Catholic Observer was published last week. The full text is below. It’s on the theme of the Jubilee Year of Mercy and looks at the Holy Father, Pope Francis’ thoughtd on marriage.

Sinners

My wife recently insisted I install the Pope App on my tablet. She has been using it for a while now. I was a bit sceptical at first but soon realised this was a direct line to the Holy Father’s thoughts. I thought I’d find out a bit more about his thinking on mercy. This morning I opened the app and there was a record of his comments in the general audience this week.

Pope Francis was talking about sinners. “Ah, what will he say about them?”, I thought. His message was that we are all sinners. There is no ‘them’. It is all about ‘us’. He spoke about Jesus’ attitude to sinners. In short Jesus is all about sinners, all about ‘us’. That made me have a closer look at how Jesus treated sinners he met. The incident that came to mind was the story about the woman taken in adultery.

The religious leaders came to Jesus who was teaching in the temple. The brought along a woman they said had been caught in the act of committing adultery. They quoted the Law of Moses which said she should be stoned to death and asked Jesus his opinion. This was not the first time they had tried to trap Jesus. They obviously didn’t understand who they were up against.

Jesus started writing on the ground with his finger. They persisted with their question and Jesus replied that the man who has not sinned should throw the first stone and continued to write. They began to walk away, starting with the eldest, till they were all gone.

Now I can see the wisdom of his answer, but I am puzzled about what he was writing on the ground and why. I did some research on this. One commentator drew a distinction between writing in a book and writing in the dust. He suggested that if your name was written in the book it meant salvation but writing the name in the dust meant quite the opposite. Could it be that Jesus was writing the names of the accusers in the dust to warn them about their own fate?

I’m not sure that theory is right. Given that they saw Jesus as an imposter and a fraud, his writing their names wouldn’t have much effect. I think that his writing had such an effect because Jesus wrote things that nobody else knew. I think that Jesus exposed all of them as sinners and that came as a shock. They were the authorities, the people who thought of themselves as holy, not sinners. Jesus was showing them that they were not better than the woman, just sinners.

We can be very illogical when we make judgements. The Jews brought the woman caught in adultery but did not bring the man. Adultery is something that takes two people to commit. They saw the woman as the sinner but not the man. How often do we see sin in others but not in ourselves? Some sins are more visible than others. The big issue in the Church at the moment is that of divorced and remarried Catholics. Divorce and remarriage is very public. Catholics in that situation are often made to feel excluded from the Church while the rest of us can continue to sin and still be accepted.

STOP PRESS!

Now this is a very strange coincidence. Just as I’ve written this a message has popped up on my screen telling me that His Holiness has just published his thoughts on marriage. His document, ‘Amoris Laetitia’ (The Joy of Love) was dated 19th March, Saint Joseph’s day, but has only just been published because of the time taken to translate it into different languages. Isn’t it strange that it was dated on the feast of the saint faced with a marriage difficulty but carried on, in love to take Mary as his wife? I need to stop and have a read at what Pope Francis has to say.

There were many voices predicting that Pope Francis would announce a change in Catholic teaching on marriage, recognising divorce and remarriage. They have been proven wrong. His Holiness has not proposed any change in the laws of the Church. What he has proposed is a change in us. It’s not the Church’s teaching that’s the problem, it’s how we see those teachings. Pope Francis points out that none of us knows what problems others face in their private lives. The Church holds up the ideal for us to aspire to. How many of us really understand what the sacrament of matrimony is really about?

Many people think the sacrament is the wedding. Nothing could be further from the truth. The sacrament is the married life the couple live. That should help us to understand why the Church takes marriage so seriously; it’s not just an agreement between two people it is a sacrament and that involves God. If the couple do not understand that when they get married then they are not properly prepared. Rather than just quoting ‘Till death do us part’ and expecting people to get on with it we should be more understanding and supportive of those in difficult situations.

I think it is important to remember that the laws of the Church are intended to help us and never to put us in harm. We are presented with an ideal to work towards. We ourselves are not ideal creatures. We have a nature that is not easy to understand. I saw a quote from C.S. Lewis the other day that stopped me in my tracks. It is this;

You do not have a soul.

You are a soul. You have a body.

The first sentence stopped me. I have always been taught that I had an immortal soul. The next part clarifies it. We are essentially spirit. That’s the real us. We have a body to enable us to live on this earth and that body has its needs and desires that can be different from our spirit self. The body’s needs can take control. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath. Your body will switch you off, you faint and the body starts you breathing again.

These conflicts in our natures can cause people to do things they would never plan to do. How many mild women have murdered their abusing husband when driven over the edge? That’s an extreme example. The Holy Father is encouraging us to stop judging people. We have to remember that the Church’s role is to bring people to Christ, not exclude them.

I have not read the whole of ‘Amoris Laetitia’ it is 264 pages long, but I did read the summary. Both of these documents are available online. I have made a link to them in my webpage and I would encourage you to have a read at the summary if not the full document. The link to my page is at the end of this article. Have a read; you will be uplifted and encouraged. There is hope for us all in Francis’ words.

Joseph McGrath

My April Column – Mercy in Marriage?

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This month I’m looking at mercy and considering Pope Francis’ exhortation Amoris Laetitia. I have my take on it . You may have a different view. The full document (264 pages) and a summary (considerably shorter) are available online. the link is  below.

Link Page

Any comments?

 

The full text of my column will be here next week.

The Private Sector Shows How it’s Done

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The emerging scandal of Edinburgh schools built under a PPP contract shines a light on the workings of the private sector. For years we have been told about the inefficiency of the public sector and how the private sector can get things done. It was far better to have things like schools and hospitals built and managed by businesses rather than local authorities.

Now with 7000 pupils put out of schools for an ‘indefinite period’ we can see just how business works. The schools are fine until it gets really windy then all bets are off. The wall collapse at Oxgangs primary school not only opened the school to the elements but opened business practice to full public view.

Businesses are all about making money, as much as possible. If that means cutting corners and putting children’s education and future prospects at risk, well that’s a small price to pay, especially as it’s not the businesses that pay it.

I wonder if the contracts allow the local authority, the ones left with the mess to clear up, to sue the businesses involved. Who is going to pay for the remedial work required? Who is going to pay the costs of providing alternative arrangements for the seven thousand pupils displaced?

If it comes back to bite the business involved then I suppose they can always go bankrupt and leave the mess to someone else – the public sector.