Tag: Catholic

My March Column – Full Text

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Lord have mercy

Lord have mercy

In this jubilee Year of Mercy we are being encouraged to be merciful as God is merciful. This month I’d like to look more closely at that. How do we see God being merciful and is it possible for us to emulate Him? If you ask people how God is merciful you will get some surprising answers. Some people see God’s mercy in ways we didn’t imagine while others don’t think God is merciful at all.

Many people look at tragedies and decide that God is not being merciful. These might be personal tragedies such as sudden deaths or incurable illness. It is understandable that when we suffer the loss of a loved one we may feel that God is being unfair to us. “That’s not right” or “why should this happen to me” are typical responses in those situations. How can God be merciful when He allows someone to die young or to suffer a long illness?

Sometimes these things are taken a step further. If God is not merciful then He is not the God I believe  in, some will say. If that’s the case then I don’t believe in God anymore. You can see the train of thought but it’s not really logical. You can’t blame God for things and then not believe in Him because of what He does. If He does not exist then He can’t be blamed. Logically, then we can believe in a bad God who is not merciful. Does that make any sense?

I suppose it all boils down to people believing in a different God. We might like to believe in a God who will be looking out for us and making things work out the way we want. We can believe in a God who will always give us what we ask for. That is not the God of Abraham and Isaac. It’s not the one God. Perhaps we really believe in Santa Claus; a Santa Claus who doesn’t restrict his work to Christmas but is always on tap.

Sadly I don’t believe in Santa Clause. It’s true that God expects us to be childlike in many ways but He expects us to take an adult view of our faith. God gives us the gift of life. It is only a temporary gift in this world. It will be taken away and replaced with a better version. Is that cruel or merciful? Imagine you are driving a fifty year old Ferrari and God takes it away (sad) but replaces it with the latest model (delighted). Would you complain? That’s a silly question; some people would complain.

What I’m saying is that we have been given a life in this world and we are constricted by the physical laws of our universe. We can’t fly like superman and we don’t have X-Ray vision but we have been given much greater powers than the rest of creation. We are the only species that has the intelligence that enables to reshape our world. We have free will to choose how to behave. Sometimes we get it wrong. How does God behave when we get it wrong? He forgives us.

So, this year I’m going to try to be more like God. That might sound a bit pretentious. After all, God is the Supreme Being, all powerful and omnipresent. I’m not very powerful (not in our house anyway) and I’m only ever in one place at a time. How can I become more like God? How forgiving must I be?

Let’s see how forgiving Jesus was. When Peter asked him how many times he must forgive his brother Jesus’ answer must have surprised him.

Then Peter went up to him and said, “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me?”  As often as seven times? Jesus answered, “Not seven, I tell you but seventy seven times.”

Matthew 18:21,22

 

Seventy seven times is a great deal of forgiving but I don’t think it stops there. Jesus was not putting a limit of seventy seven times on forgiveness. It was His way of saying that we must just go on forgiving. I must say I can see Peter’s point. Having forgiven seven times I would expect the other person to get the message and stop whatever he was doing.

That’s where I’m falling down. How many times have I gone to confession and confessed the same sin? I can tell you it’s much more than seven times, probably more that seventy seven times. Each time Jesus gives His forgiveness.

How can we understand forgiveness like that? Jesus gives us the answer in the story of the prodigal son. The younger son is cheeky and feckless. He wants his inheritance while he is still young enough to enjoy spending it. That’s just what he does. He goes off and spends the lot on living the high life. When the money is gone he finds himself in a foreign country and is starving. He sees how wrong he was and returns to his father to ask to be a servant.

The father is watching out for him and goes to meet him. Everything is forgiven because he loves his son so much. The older brother who stayed and worked for the father gets annoyed because the son who returned is welcomed and he gets no recognition.

There are hard lessons here. Jesus is telling us that it is love that will enable us to forgive. It is in forgiving that we show our love for our neighbour. The younger brother does well in this story but the older brother feels hard done by. Where do you fit into this story? Are you the prodigal, happy to be forgiven or the older brother getting annoyed when sinners are forgiven? I think I’m the prodigal and if you are the older brother I ask your forgiveness also.

Long before this Jubilee Year of Mercy, forgiveness was a big issue for us. One of the first prayers we were taught was the Our Father. We say it at every mass, at the start of each decade of the rosary and it is often the prayer that unites Christians of different churches. However it must not be taken lightly. It is a dangerous prayer.

In the Our Father we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others. Do we really want God to treat us in the same way we treat people who have ‘trespassed against us?’  That’s what we are saying. Perhaps the Year of Mercy has come along at just the right time for me. I have to think about how I treat other people, especially the ones who annoy me or actually harm me in some way. I might feel righteously aggrieved and feel I have every right to make them pay. Be that as it may, I must learn to forgive, even if it’s only so that God will forgive me in turn.

It’s a few months since my last confession and I’m going before Easter. I’m not going because I can earn forgiveness by going (although I find it very hard as someone who is always right to go and admit I’m often wrong) but I’m going to experience that great Love that God has for me just like the father for the prodigal.

Happy Easter.

My February Column – Full Text

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Lent has begun; I suppose you knew that already. What I really mean is that we are now in a process of rethinking our attitudes, examining our behaviour and acknowledging our sinful ways. Looking in the mirror on Ash Wednesday I see a marked man, literally marked with a large splodge of ashes on his forehead. Does sister Moira deliberately make my mark bigger or is it just my guilty conscience?

I’m marked as a sinner, depressing isn’t it? In this Year of Mercy I’m looking for God’s mercy, asking him to forgive my sin and hoping to prove by my fasting and good works that I’m worth saving. The truth is that my sacrifices during Lent can’t save me. I’m saved by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. That might seem an unhappy thought that I’m not able to save myself, but there is another side to it.

If the God who made the Universe and everything in it can go to the bother of saving me, not a group of people but me, then that is surely a plus. If God, who knows everything about me can still be merciful then perhaps I should take a leaf out of his book. Perhaps I should start being merciful to myself. If I can see myself as someone that God thinks is worth saving then I should think that too.

I can start to see Lent, not as a punishing time but as a time when I rebuild myself. Giving up red wine during Lent might not be much fun but I should be able to see it as something positive, perhaps even enjoy it (steady on there!). Well, if not enjoy it I can certainly be reassured by the fact that I can exercise free choice.

Coming this early in the Year of Mercy, I’m going to use this Lent to make some changes. The first thing I’m going to do is to have mercy on me. Yes, I’m starting with me. I’m going to face up to my faults and have a look at who I really am. I have to admit to myself that I’m not perfect (not a word of this to my wife) and see that it’s ok. I don’t have to deny my faults but see them as God sees them, the things I have to work on to improve myself.

That might sound easy but I think it’s what we used to call examination of conscience before confession. Like most people my self-image is not the same as the image others have of me. It’s not just admitting that my hair has mostly gone but admitting that I make mistakes more often that I let on. I need to take an honest look at myself to find what it is about me that stops me having that close relationship with God that He really wants.

I need to get a better understanding of that relationship. I need to stop seeing God as someone I can call upon when things tough but ignore for the rest of the time. God is not just someone I meet in church. God is not even someone I live with. God’s invitation is to share my life. This came home to me the other day at Mass. In the Eucharist Jesus comes to us, actually part of us. We say our prayers and then go off and continue life as before. How can that be?

How often have we seen news items of some personality shaking hands with their fans and the fan saying “I’ll never wash that hand!” ? What is it about me that lets me go away after Mass and forget that Jesus is actually with me? It’s a sign of how merciful He is that He keeps coming back. How would I behave if I could only see myself in communion with Jesus? It’s God’s mercy that makes me worth saving. I need to be merciful enough to see that I am too important to just regard myself as ordinary.

Christians have received the gift of Faith. They have been chosen to have that gift for a purpose. What is our purpose then? To misquote an old catechism answer, God made us to know Him and love Him. So getting to know God would seem to me to be a priority. How do I go about getting to know God this Lent? If you want to get to know someone better you need to spend time with them, talk to them and, most importantly, listen to them. Let’s take that in order.

I need to spend more time with God this Lent. It makes sense to be where God is to be found; I need to go to Him rather than wait for Him to come to me. That sounds like going to church. Lent is a good time for that because there are lots of opportunities for me to get to church and spend some time with God. Now I could go to Mass every day but unless I’m really participating, not letting my mind wander, I’m not really getting closer to God. That brings us to the second part.

I need to talk to God. I could kneel in church and recite Hail Marys and Our Fathers but not really communicate. How would you feel if your visitors came and recited poetry and then left? God wants to hear what you have to say. I’m sometimes reluctant to do that in case I give away something I’m hiding from God. As you know, that is really stupid because God knows more about me that I do. I’m really hiding things from myself. Talking to God about these things makes me face up to them and perhaps see areas of my life I need to change.

Last of all I need to listen to God. This can be a problem because God doesn’t usually appear to me to spell out what He has to say. Listening to God often doesn’t require the use of your ears. A deeper kind of listening is required. When God speaks to us it just requires us to be open to Him. Sometimes we know what he is saying but choose to ignore it because it’s not what we want. A lady in our parish was being asked by a friend why God doesn’t answer her prayers and give her what she requested. Her answer to the question was that God’s answer might be “No”.

So this Lent I’m going to have to get into church more often, not just Sunday Mass. I’m going there to visit God, not to chat with my neighbours. I’m going to concentrate on being with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

I’m going to have to pray more meaningfully, telling God what’s going on in my life and discussing the real issues, not the usual list of wants. I’m going to look deeply into myself to identify the really important things that God wants me to see to. Prayer is a two way communication and I’m going to listen out for what God is saying to me, either deep within myself or through the people God sends along to me. I wonder who they might be. Probably not someone I ever thought of a a messenger from God. It could be you.

Free E-Book Offer This Week Only

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My Kindle book “The Way of The Cross” is on free offer from Amazon this week (8th February 2016 – 12 the February 2016) . Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.Here’s something to aid contemplation.

Find it here on the UK site

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00U1JYB9G?keywords=Joseph%20McGrath&qid=1454782879&ref_=sr_1_4&sr=8-4

 

Mercy – My Column Full Text

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Rome and Persecution

In this series of articles we have looked at how the early church began with practicing Jews who also met and offered sacrifice with bread and wine as Jesus had told them to. They thought of themselves as Jews. They carried on life as Jews, viewing Christ’s teaching as a continuation of what they already believed. For them Jesus was the Messiah promised to the Jewish people. Paul even described himself as a Pharisee.

It was Paul who went to Rome as part of his mission to the pagans and brought Christianity to the heart of the Roman Empire which ruled much of the known world at that time. This gave the new religion a way to spread over the world. We all know that Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire and wonder how it survived.

The Romans were actually quite used to absorbing religions from places they conquered. It accommodated new cults and philosophies from different cultures, such as the Persian cult of Mithraism, the Egyptian cult of Isis and Neoplatonism, a Greek philosophical religion. These were tolerated as long as they posed no threat to order or conflicted with the worship of the emperor as a god.

Persecution of Christians began with Emperor Nero about the year 64AD. Historians believe Nero set fire to Rome and blamed the Christians to divert suspicion from himself. It was during this persecution that Peter and Paul were martyred. Nero’s brutal treatment of the Christians, he set fire to some and used them as human candles, prompted some sympathy for the persecuted people.

Historians record ten periods of persecution of Christians. There were long periods when there was no persecution and some periods of persecution were times when Christianity was illegal but did not involve searching out Christians to punish. Where Christians refused to recognise the Emperor as a deity and make sacrifices to him they were open to the suspicion of treason. Moreover, many believed that the gods protected Rome and that refusing to give sacrifice was to look for the destruction of Rome.

There were also misunderstandings about what Christians believed. Christians were often accused of cannibalism because the professed to eat Christ’s body. The practice of Agape, or love feast was thought to be about incest. Christian apologists tried to explain the true meaning of these practices and allay the fears of the Romans.

The final persecution was under Emperor Diocletian in the years 303 – 324. This is sometimes called the Great Persecution. It was extremely violent and resulted in the destruction of churches and the deaths of many Christians.

Persecution ended when the Emperor Constantine became a convert. Historians have problems with this conversion because Constantine did not rule in a particularly Christian way. He seemed to cling to some of the ways of the old religions while also being a Christian. Was he unaware of Christianity’s demand to be the only true religion or was he hedging his bets?

I remember visiting the home of a tribal chief in Ghana. The family had converted to Christianity but there was a peculiar structure at the entrance. On enquiring I was told that this was where animal sacrifices to the pagan gods were carried out. Apparently it was common for one member of the family to remain in the old religion and offer sacrifice, just in case. This was a bit of the best of both worlds I suspect. How easy is it to just throw away old beliefs? Many superstitions which still survive are rooted in old pagan beliefs.

However strong or otherwise Constantine’s Christian faith was he made it possible for Christians to exist and for the religion to grow and spread throughout the empire. Persecution seems to occur when Christian values seem to be opposed to the values of the ruling authorities. Some commentators would say that more Christians have died under persecution in the last decades than died under Roman persecutions. The current violence in the Middle East has resulted in many Christians being executed, some in a barbaric manner, and many more fleeing the persecution.

Those years of persecution didn’t stop the growth of the Church. Today we seem to be seeing a drop off in numbers of active Christians. This morning I listened to someone on the radio who wants to put a stop to Christian based assemblies in schools because less than 50% of people are believers. We might be forgiven for thinking the move away from Christian values is accelerating. After all, if we banned everything that less than 50% of the people were involved in there wouldn’t be much left, including democratic elections.

Why are people being put off religion? Perhaps it has been given an aura of negativism. Some may blame the media for inaccurate reporting others may look at the Church and hoe it projects itself. How many people grew up being told not to do this or that or they would go to the ‘Bad Fire’? Were many of us taught that our role here was to escape going to Hell? I think many people have the wrong idea about the Church. Just as the Romans did not understand what Christian teaching meant I think many Catholics today don’t understand what the Church is saying.

The Church’s message is really quite simple. Christ set up the Church to save mankind, not to condemn them. The guidelines the Church must follow were set by Jesus when he said “Love God and love your neighbour.” That can not be construed as being negative. The Church must work for the good of mankind. That means Christians and all those who are not Christians. It’s all about bringing everyone safely to Heaven, not Hell.

This month the Church has opened a new Holy Year. This is the Year of Mercy. That doesn’t seem difficult to accept but it might prove difficult to put into practice. We start by recognising God’s mercy towards us. When we look at the great gifts God has given us and recognise the mercy he shows to us sinners we see an example of what is expected of us.

That’s the difficult part. Not only do we need to give thanks for God’s mercy to us but we must be merciful to others. That’s not a problem with those we love or even just like a bit. The difficult part is being merciful and forgiving to those who harm us or even hate us. How can we forgive those who have hurt us? How can we bring ourselves to forgive those who mean us harm? That’s not normal human behaviour.

We will need to start trying to behave a bit more like God than man. It’s obviously impossible for us to do that unaided. Where can we look for that help? Our only recourse is in prayer. When we are faced with a difficult situation we can turn to God and try to explain our problem. Don’t expect a voice booming out of a bush, a phone call or even an email from God. God doesn’t work like that. But that is real prayer, not reciting words that we say without thinking but telling God what we are thinking. Since I’m not God I can’t explain how this works but that is our path to finding real mercy in our own hearts.

Mercy – My December Column

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My December column will be published in the Scottish Catholic Observer in the Christmas and New Year edition. This will be available in a parish near you this weekend.

In this series we have had a look at the trials of the early Church and we conclude with a look at where we are today and the Year of Mercy.

Full text here next week.

Happy Christmas one and all.

My September Column – Full Text

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September’s column from the Scottish Catholic Observer.

Peter

 

So far in this series about the early Church we have heard about the Apostles and Saul. We learned about Stephen and his martyrdom. But what about Peter; Jesus made him the head of the Church. What was he up to and what can we learn from that?

Apparently Peter was travelling round the country, from one place to the next, preaching the good news. He arrived in Lydda and found a man named Aeneas, paralysed and bedridden for eight years. Peter commanded him in the name of Jesus to get up, he was cured. Sure enough the man got up and everyone was amazed. They were all converted to Jesus.

At that time there was a woman in Jaffa nearby. Tabitha, as she was called, was renowned for her good works. She became ill and died. There were disciples in Jaffa and when they heard Peter was close by they sent to Lydda for him. Peter went straight to Jaffa and went to the room where Tabitha lay. The room was full of mourners and Peter sent them away. He knelt and prayed and then spoke to Tabitha and told her to stand up. The woman opened her eyes and got up. Peter called the mourners in and showed them that Tabitha was alive. Many converts were made in Jaffa and Peter stayed there for some time.

Why did Peter bring the woman back to life? If she had been a good woman then presumably she would have been received by God. This is something that has puzzled me for a while. The woman he raised from back to life must have died again at some later time; either that or she is still alive somewhere. If our aim is to enter this new life after death why bring the woman back?

I can think of two reasons for this. They both involve signs. It is good to remember that people in those times did not think in what we would regard as rational ways. Rational thinking is something we associate with scientists like Isaac Newton who made us associate cause and effect.

So what were the signs in raising someone from the dead? Well, firstly it was a sign that Jesus had power over life and death. It showed that this Gospel that Peter was preaching had unimaginable power. The second sign is a bit more subtle. It is a sign that becoming a true follower of Jesus involves us in taking on a new life. In baptism we die to our old life and rise to a new life, putting matters of the world in the background and putting Jesus in the foreground of our thinking.

Teaching that it is important to discard old ways and adopt new ones can be seen as dangerous talk. The authorities certainly thought this was dangerous talk as we shall see. Meanwhile a centurion called Cornelius, a devout, god-fearing man who prayed regularly, had a vision in which an angel told him to send to Jaffa for Peter. Cornelius was in Caesarea, some distance away from Jaffa so he sent two servants in search of Peter. While they were on their way Peter had a vision in which God showed him every sort of animal and told him to kill and eat them. Peter replied that he could not eat anything that was profane or unclean. God told him that he had no right to call anything God had made clean profane.

Peter was puzzled by this vision. No wonder, you might say; it is certainly strange. Soon the men came to fetch Peter and the Spirit told Peter to go with them because it was the spirit who sent them. Peter listened to the men and agreed to go with them. Next day they set off and reached Caesarea the following day. Peter talked with them and told them that it was forbidden for Jews to associate with people of another race. He told them God had made it clear to him that he must not call anyone profane or unclean. That was why he had come to bring the gospel to them.

The Holy Spirit must have enabled Peter to understand the meaning of his vision. Peter had realised for the first time the true nature of the Church. It was intended for all of humanity, not just for the Jews. Now he really understood that this was not just an extension of the Jewish religion, it was much bigger. Peter had to explain this to the Apostles who were surprised and said that God can grant “even the pagans” repentance that leads to life. I suppose that means us.

Round about this time Herod started persecuting the Christians. He had James, brother of John beheaded and this made him popular. He decided to do the same with Peter. During Passover week he had Peter arrested and imprisoned. The plan was to have a trial after Passover. Squads of guards were assigned to watch Peter in case of any attempt to escape. Meanwhile the small Christian community prayed night and day.

You will recall the story about how an angel appeared in Peter’s cell and released him from the chains that held him. He led Peter out through locked gates which opened by themselves and into the city. After walking the length one street the angel left and Peter was left alone, realising for the first time that this was not a dream.

This might seem unreal but what convinces me is what happened next. Peter went to a house where the Christians were gathered to pray for him. He knocked on the door and the servant recognised his voice and ran inside to tell the others. She forgot to let Peter in. No one believed her and while they were arguing Peter was left outside, still knocking to get in. You couldn’t make that up, could you?

This story is a difficult one for people to believe today. Believing in miracles is out of fashion. Why would God intervene in human affairs? Why work miracles for some and leave others alone? I think the lesson here is that God has a plan and it will not be thwarted. As we saw earlier, God had a role for Saul and intervened to set Saul on the right road. He had set Peter as head of the Church and was not about to see Peter executed; not until he had fulfilled his role at any rate. This is worth remembering when we hear people predicting the demise of the Church. We have survived far worse in the past.

Apart from the miracle there is something else in this story. You notice that all the impossible things were easily overcome. The chains were released, the guards avoided and the doors were opened. God did those things. The simple thing, opening the door to Peter when he knocked, was a problem. That was the human part.

I think the message here for me is that God is making great efforts to reach me but I’m too easily distracted to notice. Just like the servant girl I hear Him knocking and go running off before I open the door to Him. The question is, what am I going to do about it? I think the answer seems to be found in how the Christians responded to Peter’s arrest. They prayed constantly. Maybe I need to do more praying and more listening to what God is trying to tell me.

Joseph McGrath

My September Column – Do You Believe in Miracles?

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My September column is published today in the Scottish Catholic Observer. What was Peter doing in the early days of the Church? What part do miracles play in the Gospel?

Get your copy this weekend or see the full text here next Friday

My August Column -Saul; Full Text

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Why perescutist thou me?

Why perescutist thou me?

Last month we met Saul and saw his role in the stoning to death of Stephen. I think I compared him to ISIS or whatever the government wants us to call them; you know who I mean. I think the comparison was fair. ISIS seems to be religious fanatics who put to death anyone of an opposing religion. Saul was definitely fanatical and he made it his business to put an end to the new Christian sect.

I’m using the term Christian sect because the followers of Christ were still Jews who followed all the Jewish rituals as well as the breaking of bread. Saul saw the early Church as a threat to Judaism. He was moving around the country seeking out Christian groups to sort out. His name was well known and it inspired fear.

I’ve said before that the Bible is not a history book but a guide to how we should live today. I wondered if this section would give us some hints about how we, as Christians, should respond to ISIS. I thought a look at how the Christians dealt with the threat of Saul might give me a clue.

Saul went to the High Priest and asked for letters to authorise him to arrest Christians in Damascus. He was given the authority and set out on his way to Damascus. So what did the Christians do about it? They could have lain in ambush to attack Saul on the road. They chose another route. They prayed night and day.

Saul was suddenly enveloped in a great light and heard a voice saying “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” This is the strange part of the story. If God wanted to stop Saul a bolt of lightning might have served well. He could have destroyed this man who was intent on destroying his Church. It seems God had other plans for Saul. I’ve always thought of Saul as one of the bad guys. I suppose that’s unfair, after all he was defending his faith against what he saw as a threat.

Saul was blinded by the light. His travelling companions also heard the voice but there is no mention of them seeing the bright light. The voice told Saul to go into Damascus where he would be met. Being blind, Saul had to be led by the hand all the way.

Now while Saul was on his way Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, had a vision in which God told him to go and find Saul who had been promised that someone called Ananias would come to give him his sight back. As you might imagine Ananias was not too happy about going to find Saul. He told the Lord what he had heard about Saul persecuting the Christians. God reassured him, telling him that He had chosen Saul to be his instrument to bring the Good News to the pagans (that would be us).

Ananias went out and found Saul just as he was instructed. He went straight to Saul, laid hands on him and told him that he was sent to enable Saul to regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. From that moment his sight was restored. We hear no more about Ananias but I don’t think he gets the praise he deserves. Can you imagine being told to set out to Syria and find the leader of ISIS and give him a message from God? It would take a very brave man to do that and Ananias was just such a man.

Saul, when he recovered his strength, set about preaching to the Jews about Jesus. Can you imagine how the Jews in Damascus must have felt? Here was Saul who was coming to arrest the Christians now preaching that Jesus was the son of God. Instead of taking their part he was trying to convert them. They were angry and eventually worked out a plot to kill Saul and solve their problem.

The disciples got word of this and smuggled Saul out, lowering him from the roof in a basket. He went to Jerusalem to meet up with the disciples. Unsurprisingly they were not too keen to meet him. It was Barnabas who explained to the apostles what had happened to Saul and how he had been baptised in Damascus. Saul began to go around with the apostles in Jerusalem, preaching in the name of the Lord.

This brought about the same reaction he got in Damascus. The Jews were enraged that Saul, authorised to arrest the Christians, was now going round preaching about Jesus. Again they plotted to kill him. The Apostles, realising that Paul would not be safe among the Jews decided to take him to Caesaria and then send him to Tarsus. His work was to be among the pagans.

There are two lessons for me here. The first lesson is about God’s attitude to Saul. Despite Saul’s actions God did not see him as an enemy to be destroyed. He set out to bring about change in Saul. God was determined to save Saul. If God still wanted to save Saul then there is still hope for me.

Why did God blind Saul? To my mind, Saul was not seeing things properly. God stopped him seeing things in a distorted way and enabled him to see clearly. I suppose that’s what we need to do in our spiritual journey. We need to stop seeing things through the distorted lens of worldly things and start seeing clearly what God intends for us. God had plans for Saul. He wanted to use his sincerity and zeal to proclaim the good news. Those were gifts he had been given for God’s purpose. We have been given gifts too and God has a purpose for us. It’s just a matter of seeing clearly what God has in mind for us.

The second lesson for me is in how the early Christians dealt with Saul and what that tells us about ISIS. The followers of Jesus were powerless to do anything about Saul. He had the backing of the High Priest and they still saw themselves as Jews. They turned to prayer. Those early Christians had the faith to put their trust in God and let Him deal with Saul.

In the case of ISIS we don’t have the power to defeat them. The Church doesn’t have an army to send into battle. We do have the power of prayer. If we are really concerned for our fellow Christians and people of other faiths who are suffering at the hands of these religious fanatics we would follow the example of those holy people who were afraid of Saul. We would pray night and day for God’s intervention.

Bear in mind that God loves those extremists just as he loved Saul. They are also His children, lost sheep and he wants them returned to the fold. He has the power to change the way they see and help them to see clearly what His plan is for them.

So what’s stopping us? Why is there no rosary crusade for the conversion if ISIS? Are we not too bothered or have we been found lacking in faith?