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With Christianity dying out in Europe we need the family more than ever
| Posted on April 6, 2017 at 4:44 AM |
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 The prophetic words of John Paul IIIt's a real wake up call. Jesus is losing his influence in Europe. Christianity is dying out. We've known for some time now that Christianity is on the decline in Europe, but recent data released by the Pew Research Center reveals just how stark that decline is. Indeed, it is the only decline in any religion in any part of the world between 2010 and 2015. But for Christianity's decline in Europe, every religion across all continents witnessed an increase in numbers, including Christianity itself, which is growing rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Islam is also growing rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as Asia Pacific. But it is in Europe where the real story lies. An astonishing drop of 5.6 million Christian births to deaths has seen the religion plummet across the continent. There are many reasons for this, not least a much greater prevalence of lukewarm Christianity and an increasingly secular culture. Across the world Islam will continue to grow in greater numbers than Christianity, with a fertility rate of 2.9 compared to 2.6 for Christians. Islam also has the youngest median age in terms of adherents to the faith, at just 24. Hindus are at 27 with Christians at 30. We have known for some time that Islam would eventually catch up with Christianity in terms of numbers, and within twenty years births to women of Islamic faith will outnumber Christian births. But it is in Europe where there must be deep concern for Christians. Why is the faith struggling so much in that continent? For European Christians there is undoubtedly a crisis when it comes to the family. Europe's secular influence, with its liberal laws around contraception, abortion and marriage, has chipped away at the hearts and minds of the faithful, giving them an excuse to focus on the self and to set aside the call of Christ to first and foremost love God and neighbour. Families now come in all different shapes and sizes; their constitution often based on the ideological whim of selfish individuals. The idea that a young man and a young woman can look lovingly into one another's eyes, establish a firm and beautiful friendship that leads to the great sacrament of marriage and the bearing of fruit through the birth of new life is dumbed down by the culture of want. And we have all bought into it. It is a sad reflection on our lack of faith. As Pope John Paul II said, "As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live." We Christians have let down the family, and Europe is the nation Pope John Paul refers to. It is going and if we don't reclaim it the world will eventually go with it. Europe, to coin a famous song, is most definitely losing its religion and losing Christ. If it is to recover, radical change in attitude is required. Starting with the family. |
Looking anew at the Nativity scene (Dwelling on the Word of God, Sunday 8th January 2016)
| Posted on January 7, 2017 at 3:37 PM |
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 After Jesus had been
born at Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Heron, some wise men came
to Jerusalem from the east. “Where is the infant king of the Jews?” they asked.
“We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.” Today's Gospel (Matthew 2:1-12): In contrast to the wise men in today’s Gospel, we live in a
world of instant access to news. Through
television and the internet, we have access to the most up-to-date news of all
genres 24 hours a day. Indeed we are
bombarded by news from across the world and it is difficult to disconnect from
this stream even with concerted efforts.
The wise men were likely men of contemplation. Before setting out on a
long and arduous journey, carrying with them precious belongings, they would
have spent much time noticing and pondering the meaning of the star rising in
the west. They likely discussed this at
length between them, having their own doubts and misgivings about their
quest. How puzzled would they have been
to find their journey’s end, not in a palace, but in a stable – had they got
this right? And there, in the silence of the night, their efforts and faith
were rewarded as they saw the wondrous sight.
They saw that which prophets had long foretold and nations sighed for. The Lord at his birth. What would we be willing to do or sacrifice to
see this sight? To us, Jesus’ birth may
seem like “old news”. Repeated
re-enactments and a multitude of nativity images can numb us to the awe we
should rightly feel when contemplating this scene. We face different challenges from the magi in
our time. Theirs was a time of quiet and contemplation, of expectation and
hope. They saw this wondrous sight for
the first time, having no idea what they would see. Our is a time of noise, instant gratification
and cynicism. We have ‘seen it all before’.
Plus Christmas is really over now isn’t it? It’s time to move on to a
new year! But like the wise men we are asked in the readings today to search in
the silence for signs of our Saviour’s coming and to remain open minded about
where and when we might encounter Jesus.
Taking the promptings of our innermost soul and no little share of
faith, Jesus will guide us through uncertainty and darkness, to behold His face
in all its glory. It is worth spending
time contemplating what the wise men saw and asking God to give us the grace to
see this scene anew, so that we can honour and praise him with all our hearts as
they did. |
Pope's message for 50th World Day of Peace
| Posted on December 13, 2016 at 8:22 AM |
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 Picture: zenit.orgPope Francis asks "God to help all of us to cultivate nonviolence in our most personal thoughts and values." Read the entire message here: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-message-for-50th-world-day-of-peace/ |
Standing up for God (Dwelling on the Word of God)
| Posted on November 11, 2016 at 5:47 PM |
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 From Sunday's Gospel: “But before all this
happens, men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the
synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors
because of my name – and that will be your opportunity to bear witness. Keep
this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself
shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be
able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and
brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will
be hated by all men on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be
lost. Your endurance will win you your lives” Jesus warns us time and again through the gospels that we
will be persecuted for believing in him.
We are perhaps tempted to brush over this, given the relative comfort
and freedom we enjoy as Catholics in the Western world of the 21 Century. And indeed it is unlikely that any of us will
be martyred for the faith, imprisoned or seized and brought before governors
and kings. So can we happily skip these
passages of scriptures, confident that they are not relevant to us, needed
perhaps for another time and place, but not now? I would suggest that we would do this at our
peril. Christians remain the most
persecuted people in the world today. But even in our apparently “tolerant”
society, Christian beliefs are scoffed at and looked upon scornfully. It is worth meditating upon in prayer: in what ways does your Christian faith
disadvantage you in the world? Do colleagues
laugh or look at you askance when you mention you went to Mass at the weekend? Do family members dismiss some of your views,
as they are based on faith and therefore are somehow less important? Do disbelieving friends aggressively try to engage
you in debate to point out the flaws in your theology? Do people stare if you say grace in a
restaurant before meals? To help us to consider this further, it is perhaps
worth pondering the times when we fail to stand up for Jesus for fear of
ridicule. Do we stay quiet when others
discuss ‘hot topics’ like abortion or same-sex marriage? Do we bite our tongue when we overhear someone
taking the Lord’s name in vain? Do we
agree with the relativist position “that’s true for you but not for me” when
challenged? These might seem like small
points, compared to the crown of martyrdom.
But these are the persecutions of our time, put in our path to lead us
to holiness. These are the “opportunities”
talked about in today’s gospel passage. We
must “keep this carefully in mind” and pray about these things, asking Jesus to
give us the grace to be bold and confident in his love and help. And we must look on any ridicule or challenge
as a blessing, ever keeping our eye on the prize of eternal life. In staying true in these small persecutions,
our souls will be prepared, with God’s grace, for martyrdom, should we ever be
called to that. |
Pope Francis claims gender theory is the ‘great enemy of marriage today’
| Posted on October 6, 2016 at 6:03 AM |
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 Pope
Francis has spoken out against the theory of gender, something he has stated as
being the “great enemy of marriage today”.
The pope, speaking to a group of religious men and women in Tbilisi,
Georgia, said: “Today, there is a global war trying to destroy marriage…they
don’t destroy it with weapons, but with ideas.
It’s certain ideological ways of thinking that are destroying it…we have
to defend ourselves from ideological colonisation.” The
pontiff has often spoken about ideological colonisation and gender theory and
the dangers they pose to society. The
ideological colonisation he refers to is primarily to do with developed
countries – mainly in the West – imposing their ideas and values into
developing nations and potentially withholding aid where those ideas and values
are resisted. Gender theory, on the
other hand, is what an individual person believes himself or herself to be and
it may not necessarily correspond with their biological sex. Indeed, it may even be non-binary; that is, neither
male nor female. The next day, during an in-flight press conference on his way home
to Rome, the pope spoke once more about gender theory and expressed deep
concern about “teaching in school about this [gender theory], to change mentalities.” This, he says, “is what I call ideological
colonisation.” He then spoke more specifically about homosexuality and the
pastoral call of the Church with regard to people who experience same-sex
attraction. He said: “First of all, I’ve
accompanied in my life as a priest, a bishop, and even as pope, people with
homosexual tendencies or even homosexual practices, I’ve led them closer to the
Lord.” He called on all people within
the Church to accompany people in such situations “as Jesus accompanies”
because “when a person who has this condition gets in front of Jesus, Jesus won’t
say ‘leave because you’re homosexual.’” The pope was, however, cautious about the more liberal headlines
that have been attributed to him in terms of a possibly softer Church attitude
towards homosexual acts when he said: “I want to be clear, this is a problem of
morals. It’s a problem. It’s a human problem that has to be resolved
as it can, always with God’s mercy.” |
Aiming for the narrow door to be one with God
| Posted on August 18, 2016 at 2:33 PM |
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 We must aim for the narrow door‘Through towns and
villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him
“Sir, will there be only a few saved?” He said to them, “Try your best to enter
by the narrow door, because, I tell you, may will try to enter and will not succeed”’ This year the pass rate for Higher Grades in Scotland was
77.2%. The chances of winning the UK National Lottery is 1 in 45 million. As
humans, we love statistics and take comfort in them. They help us feel like we
know where we stand, what the likelihood is that we will succeed and fail. In today’s Gospel passage Jesus is asked a
seemingly straightforward question: what is the success rate of people getting
to Heaven? Wouldn’t it be great to know
the answer to that question? Knowing the
exact proportion of people who ‘make it’ might just give us the comfort we need
to know that our future rests with God.
But the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, does not give an easy answer to
the question posed to him as he makes his way to Jerusalem. Instead he uses it
as a training opportunity; his message seems to be that we should not compare ourselves
with others, and that we should focus and strive for the Kingdom, aiming for
the narrow door. We may tremble at the
seemingly harsh and sobering reply Jesus gives; and so perhaps we should. But a healthy fear of the Lord is important
and a great virtue. We can also take comfort in today’s second reading: ‘My son, when the Lord
corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when He
reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones He loves and He punishes all those
that He acknowledges as His sons”’ It would do no good for an athlete to know the statistical
chances of obtaining a gold medal in his or her sport, but instead a good coach
would push them hard to reach that top prize regardless of statistics.
Similarly, we need the same push to win the greatest prize of all. We should
not fall into despair and resign ourselves to being one of those locked out of
the Kingdom, and we should not doubt God’s unfathomable mercy. But neither
should we grow complacent and lazily take our salvation for granted. Jesus
shows us the narrow door. He is the
way we must follow, bearing our crosses and sufferings as He did, using them to
shape us into saints, and all for God’s glory. |
Jesus' Call to Keep the Ten Commandments
| Posted on July 8, 2016 at 10:10 AM |
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 The Ten Commandments were written on two tablets of stoneSunday’s Gospel (Luke 10:25-37): ‘There
was a lawyer who, to disconcert Jesus, stood up and said to him, ‘Master, what
must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the
Law? What do you read there?’ He replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your
mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘You have answered right,’ said Jesus
‘do this and life is yours.’ But the man was anxious to justify
himself and said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was
once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of
brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half
dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he
saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite who came
to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan
traveller who came upon him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went
up and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him on
to his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him. Next day, he
took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he
said “and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have.” Which of
these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into
the brigands‘ hands?’ ‘The one who took pity on him’ he replied. Jesus said to
him, ‘Go, and do the same yourself.’’ Eternal
life in Heaven is where we all want to be.
And even for those who do not believe, the idea of living in comfortable
and joyful surroundings forever is a fantastic thought! But how do we get there? Well,
Jesus gives us two very straightforward commands. He tells us that we must love God with
everything we’ve got and we must also love our neighbour. Looks simple on paper doesn’t it? And in a way it is. It is, however, important to avoid
oversimplifying these commandments in order to suit our own busy lifestyles and
agendas. For example, we can’t simply state that we
love God and we love all other people and never follow this up with words and
actions to support our claim. If we are
going to follow Jesus’ commands we need to act upon them, and act with
conviction; a conviction that tells the world: 'this guy really does love God and he really does love other people!' Jesus’ commandments are a perfect summing up of the Ten Commandments (or Decalogue)
given to Moses by God. They are not a
watering down of the Ten Commandments and they are certainly not an attempt to abolish
and replace the Ten Commandments. What
Jesus does is present to us the Ten Commandments in a new way in order to aid
our understanding of them. He invites us
to rediscover the beauty and truth of God’s perfect law. It is worth remembering that the first three
Commandments concern love of God and the other seven concern love of neighbour,
hence Christ’s summing up of them by referring to love of God and love of
neighbour. This is also why God
presented the Commandments to Moses using two tablets of stone rather than one;
so as to distinguish between the call to love God and the call to love our
neighbour. In order to obtain eternal life our words and actions must be in keeping
with the Ten Commandments. We must
respect God’s clear instructions and, in a spirit of humility and love,
encourage others to do the same. The Ten Commandments:
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Jo Cox death should herald a turning point in public/political relations
| Posted on June 20, 2016 at 11:43 AM |
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 Jo Cox in the House of CommonsThe death of Labour MP Jo Cox has shocked not only the world
of politics in which she worked, but also the British nation as a whole. The horror of what happened in the town of Birstall
last Thursday will be a permanent scar for the MP’s family and is something
they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. But what does it mean for the relationship between MPs and
the general public? Scottish Secretary
David Mundell, who has himself received death threats, lamented the influence
of social media in relations between the public and MPs, criticising the
“vitriol” that is often expressed towards politicians. I for one agree with him. Whilst our elected representatives’ role in
public life is such that they are very much open to criticism, that criticism
should be constructive and measured, and it should be expressed with
politeness. It should not be unjust or
whimsical, and it should not be expressed with any degree of hatred or be
threatening in any way. Politicians have
the right to do their job in safety and without abuse. Isn’t that the legal right of every
worker? Why should politicians be any
different? Very few politicians are actually in the job to make people
worse off or to act selfishly. They are
in politics because they genuinely want to make a difference. Yes, there will be bad apples in there; just
like there is in any walk of life. But
as with any bad apple, we need to pray for them and we need to trust that our
peaceful system of democracy will ultimately win the day. The hate directed at poor Jo Cox as she walked through her
constituency last week was of the worst kind.
It took her life and has thus
caused immeasurable pain to her family, friends and colleagues. But underneath all of that is an unhealthy
undercurrent of hate and cynicism which exists throughout our country and is often
directed at many in officialdom, including politicians. This is especially the case on social media, where the abuse and hatred spewed forth has the potential to fuel the anger in certain individuals predisposed to dangerous actions. Jesus Christ called us to love all people;
even those that we perceive to be our enemies.
Our politicians need our support and prayers. They work in an incredibly testing
environment in which they are under increasing fear for their own safety and
wellbeing. May the sad and unnecessary passing of Jo Cox herald a
change in attitude across our nation so that we come together as one, and in a
spirit of brotherly love may we work with and support our politicians in
striving for peace, equality, tolerance and prosperity for all people. |
Unity in Christ
| Posted on June 17, 2016 at 11:11 AM |
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 Sunday’s Second Reading (Galatians 3:26-29): ‘You are, all of you, sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus. All baptised in Christ, you have all clothed
yourselves in Christ, and there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek,
slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Merely
by belonging to Christ you are the posterity of Abraham, the heirs he was
promised.’ This Sunday’s second reading reveals a teaching that is
fundamental to the Christian life, that of unity. Jesus Christ unites. He doesn’t desire to separate or divide. Rather, his intention is to bring all people
together in his name so that he can one day bring them to share in the glory of
the Kingdom of God. Do we unify people?
Do we seek to be at one with others as we go about our daily lives? Or do we create divisions through pride,
selfishness and cynicism? Christ’s love demands unity, not division. If we love as Christ loves, we will
unite. |
Jesus brings great hope, even in death
| Posted on June 3, 2016 at 9:29 AM |
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 Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 7:1-17): ‘Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by
his disciples and a great number of people. When he was near the gate of the
town it happened that a dead man was being carried out for burial, the only son
of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable number of the
townspeople were with her. When the Lord saw her he felt sorry for her. ‘Do not
cry’ he said. Then he went up and put his hand on the bier and the bearers
stood still, and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you to get up.’ And the dead man
sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Everyone was filled
with awe and praised God saying, ‘A great prophet has appeared among us; God
has visited his people.’ And this opinion of him spread throughout Judaea and
all over the countryside.’ The miracle performed by Jesus in this Gospel passage is one
of great hope. The woman, a widow, had
lost her only son. Can you imagine the
grief and sorrow that this woman must have been experiencing? Can you imagine how alone she must have felt
watching her only family being carried away for burial? She must have felt that nothing could take away the extreme pain that was now drilling through her heart. Yet moments later she would witness the resurrection of her son from the dead. Just when all had seemed to be lost, along came Jesus. We must never lose hope when death comes knocking at our
door. Whilst it is perfectly natural for
us to grieve and to feel sorrow when a loved one dies, we must always have
confidence in the one who makes all things new.
Jesus’ death on the Cross was not a pointless exercise. It was necessary so that our sins could be wiped
away and we could have eternal life. When your loved one dies, remember that Jesus is there. He has come down from the Cross and is
standing ready at the gates of Paradise, waiting to put his hand on your loved
one, waiting to bring them back to life. |