Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 19th November
Message from Fr Paul for Friday, 19th November 2021
Yesterday, Toby and I went home to visit my mother. The mist and drizzle overtook us just beyond Brynmawr and remained with us throughout the day until Dowlais Top on the way back. From my mother’s garden you could barely see the house next door let alone anything else, but it was mild for a late November day. I mightn’t have mentioned that Toby is suffering from a sports injury sustained a week ago while running at breakneck speed in pursuit of a tennis ball. He’s still limping badly, has seen the vet twice and is booked in for an X-ray next week. Hence, when the time came for our jaunt on the beach, he opted for the briefest of walks down the road and back. I took the opportunity of extra free time to read my novel for an hour, something I rarely have time to do. The return journey was a bit of a nightmare as the A465 was closed between Tredegar and Brynmawr and the long detour in the dark through unknown territory badly signposted.
As we come towards the end of the Liturgical Year, this coming Sunday being the Solemnity of Christ the King, on weekdays we draw our reading of Luke’s Gospel to a close. Could I remind those living nearby that this Sunday there will be adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Abbey all afternoon from 1.00pm until the end of Vespers and Benediction about 6.45pm. You are welcome to drop in at any time and stay for as long as you can.
Our reading from Luke today, (Lk 19: 45-48), gives us Luke’s minimal account of the Cleansing of the Temple. Here it is: “Jesus went into the Temple and began driving out those who were selling. ‘According to scripture,’ he said ‘my house will be a house of prayer. But you have turned it into a robbers’ den.’
He taught in the Temple every day. The chief priests and the scribes, with the support of the leading citizens, tried to do away with him, but they did not see how they could carry this out because the people as a whole hung on his words.”
Jesus objected violently to trading in the name of religion and, worst of all, in the Temple, which was believed to be the House of God. In fact, he describes it as a “robbers’ den.” At this stage, Jesus still has the crowds with him, yet these are the same people who, led by the chief priests and scribes, will cry out, “Crucify him,” on Good Friday and call for Barabbas to be released. As he preaches in the Temple, “they hang on his words.” The behaviour of the crowd, I feel, always obliges us to take a look at ourselves. How would I have behaved had I been part of the crowd then, and how do I behave now? How faithful am I to Jesus? How closely do I follow his teaching and example? Lord, increase my faith and my love for you in all that I think, do or say in the course of each day and always. Amen.
