Sometimes the world seems to be a bleak place. Yet the Gospel, and God’s promise of forgiveness, offers the hope of renewal. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.

Readings for Tuesday of the third week of Lent can be found here.

Recently I was talking to a friend who is the same age as me. We were reflecting on how good it was to have come of age in the 1990s. It seemed like a time full of optimism and hope. The Cold War had ended, the Berlin Wall had come down, the Soviet Union had collapsed and it appeared that Russia was heading towards democracy. Apartheid had ended in South Africa without any bloodshed, peace looked to have come to Northern Ireland, and the economy was booming after years of recession. Since then, however, it feels like things have been falling apart. We’ve had 9/11, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza and now Iran; the financial crash, Brexit, Trump, Covid …. Sometimes the world appears to be a bleak place.

Azariah in our first reading is also in a bleak place. For a start he has just been thrown into the fiery furnace, and then describes what has happened to the nation of Israel: “… there is no prince or prophet or leader, no whole burnt offering or sacrifice or oblation or incense, no place to make an offering before you…” The servant in the parable that Jesus tells is also facing a bleak future. Owing 10,000 talents – equivalent to 150,000 years of wages – he and his family are about to be sold as slaves. Yet the servant and his loved ones are saved because of the mercy and compassion of the king, who in this parable of course represents God. It is the boundless love of God, expressed in the Gospel through forgiveness, and in the book of Daniel through God’s mighty power, which brings renewal when all seems lost. 

Jesus is clear that we are called to be agents of God’s renewal and hope in what might seem like a bleak world by passing on the forgiveness we ourselves have received. Unlike the servant in the parable, who later refuses to forgive a paltry debt – only 100 days’ wages – we are to forgive like God, without limit. Ultimately, this is the only way in which our world can be lifted from the sorry state it’s in, so that God’s renewal and hope may truly begin to flourish.  

Mass tonight is in St Mary’s at 6.30pm, followed by our Lent course at 7pm.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, please check out our Day By Day pages.

Humans often put up barriers between different groups, but God breaks them down. Here is today’s reflection on the daily mass readings from Fr Richard.

Readings for Monday of the third week of Lent can be found here.

A few years ago a newspaper ran a light-hearted piece asking people to name the groups they found most annoying. The answers were quite revealing. Car drivers complained about cyclists getting in their way, while cyclists were annoyed by motorists coming too close or cutting them up. Some older people complained about noisy children on public transport, while parents found it irritating when folk pulled faces or tut-tutted about their children. We humans often like to divide up the world into “us” and “them”; and of course, “we” are in the right and “they” are in the wrong. More seriously, we see this tendency played out in our increasingly divisive politics and in the field of international relations.

The world of the Bible was not immune to this, but in our readings today we see how God breaks down barriers and overcomes division. Naaman would normally be regarded with suspicion by Israelites on three levels. First, he is a Gentile; second, he is suffering from leprosy; and third, he was the commander of an enemy army. We’re told he had even kidnapped an Israelite girl in one of the Syrian army’s raids. Yet the girl herself sees beyond these divisions; it is she who suggests that Naaman go to Elisha to seek healing. Elisha too is willing to overcome the differences between him and Naaman, even if he does just send a messenger rather than go himself. 

Jesus refers to this story in today’s Gospel. His own people, in his hometown, have rejected him. He tells them that those they regard as inferior – the widow of Zarephath, and Naaman – often respond better to God than his own people. This does not go down well! Let us be aware of the barriers we often construct, or the attitude we form about others. Let us always be on the lookout for God at work in the lives of those who are different to us. We might end up being surprised, and it might help us to build a more tolerant and inclusive world.

Mass today is in St Dyfrig & St Samson, Grangetown, at 6.30pm, followed by Stations of the Cross at 7pm.

If you would like more resources for daily prayer, then check out our Day By Day pages.

Fr Richard considers both the challenge and power of Jesus’ command to love our enemies, which can help to break the cycle of violence in our world. A reflection on the daily mass readings.

Readings for Saturday of the first week of Lent can be found here.

On 8 November 1987 in the town of Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, the IRA detonated a bomb during the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the town’s war memorial. In one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles, 12 people were killed and 63 were injured. One of those who lost their lives was 20-year-old nurse Marie Wilson. Her father Gordon, who was there that day but survived, later impressed many with these words: “I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. I shall pray for those people [the bombers] tonight and every night”. 

Gordon Wilson’s attitude to his daughter’s terrible murder is surely a living embodiment of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”, Jesus says. Once again, he is urging his followers to go beyond the scope of the Old Testament law “love your neighbour”. The Old Testament never actually paired that with “hate your enemy”, as Jesus implies, but that was often the outcome. “Love your neighbour” was taken to be the limit. For Jesus, Christian love should have no limit – it should embrace everyone, even those who have wronged us or who we might have good reason to hate. 

Of course, this is not easy. It is an almost instinctive human reaction to want to retaliate towards those who have done us harm, to get our own back. This is why Gordon Wilson’s words in 1987 made such an impact. But retaliation only breeds more hatred and more violence, as the people of Northern Ireland and many other trouble spots know only too well. It took the attitude of “love your enemies”, of reaching out to the other side, to break the cycle of violence in Northern Ireland and allow the peace process to get under way. Gordon Wilson, who died in 1995, two years before the Good Friday Agreement, was an inspiration for that process. Let us pray that his attitude, the attitude of Jesus, the attitude of reconciliation not revenge, may take root in our lives, in our society, and in our world.

Mass today is in St Mary’s at 11.30am (Stations of the Cross at 11am).

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, then check out our Day By Day pages.

We are faced with many choices in life. How do we know the right ones to make, and what their consequences will be? Fr Richard reflects on today’s daily mass readings.

Readings for Friday of the first week of Lent can be found here.

Often in life we are faced with choices, and it’s not always easy to know the right one to make. Sometimes, we won’t know if we’ve made the right choice until the consequences are known. For example, in a restaurant we are faced with a range of options on the menu. We might agonise over what to have, what will taste nice or be most healthy. Then when the food comes, it might be delicious or we might wish we’d chosen something else. There’s a split second from when a potentially humorous remark forms in our mind to deciding whether to say it. The person we’re addressing may find it funny, or be deeply offended.

Today’s readings are about the choices we make, and their outcomes. Ezekiel talks about a wicked person who makes the conscious decision to turn away from sin and follow the right path. But also, there is the case of a previously righteous person who decides to turn to wickedness. One path, Ezekiel says, leads to life, while the other will end in destruction. This theme is taken up in the Gospel, where Jesus says that right choices begin deep down inside us, in the heart. It’s a bit like knowing instinctively the right meal to choose or whether a remark will land well. For him, it’s not enough just to follow an instruction manual, to do what is written in the letter of the law, such as “you shall not murder”. That was the approach of the Pharisees. Jesus says that Christian righteousness must go further; it’s about choosing the right attitude (such as rejecting anger), and this will lead to the right outcomes. 

Going beyond the letter of the law can sometimes be a challenge – but Jesus often challenges us! It’s hard always to choose that right inner attitude that goes beyond the letter of the law. Thankfully, Jesus is always there to guide us. All we need to do is open our hearts to him, and he will help us to make the right choices for ourselves and for our neighbours.

Mass today is in St Saviour’s at 10am.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, then check out our Day By Day pages.

No matter our rank or status in this world, we can all come before God in prayer and are equal in his eyes. Fr Richard reflects on the daily mass readings.

Readings for Thursday in the first week of Lent can be found here.

There was a moving moment during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. Just before the prayer of committal, all of the royal regalia – the crown, orb and sceptre – were removed from the coffin and placed on the altar of St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Then, unadorned, the Queen’s body descended to the earth just like the lowliest of her subjects. 

Death is a great leveller – it does not respect rank or status. The same is true of prayer. In our first reading, another queen, Esther, comes before God to plead with him for her people. Esther, a Jew in exile, had married the king of Persia. One of the king’s henchmen was planning to exterminate all the Jews in Persia, and Esther is about to plead with her husband that he might intervene and save them. Before she does this, she seeks God’s help in prayer. Esther acknowledges that her status counts for nothing: “I am alone”, she prays, “and have no helper but you”. In a verse missed out from the passage we heard, she also takes off her royal robes and covers her head with ashes and dung.

In the Gospel, Jesus is encouraging his listeners in the practice of prayer. Each and every person, prince or pauper, duke or dustman, can ask, search and knock, for all we all share the same heavenly Father. It can be tempting, as human beings, as Christians, and as a church, to compare ourselves with others. “I wish I was more like that person, who seems more accomplished than me”, we might think. “Why can’t our church be more like that one down the road, which appears more successful.” And then we are tempted to think it all depends on us, to strive more keenly, or work harder. And yet, when we come to God in prayer, there are no distinctions. All we need to do, like Queen Esther, is to throw ourselves on his mercy. Sometimes, that is all we have left, but what a treasure it is. 

Mass today is in St Dyfrig and St Samson, Grangetown at 10am

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, check out our Day By Day pages.