Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 20th May

Abbot Paul • May 19, 2022

Message from Fr Paul for Friday, 20th May 2022

This seems to be a very busy time of year, busier than I can ever remember. Did I become lazy during those two years of lockdown, or have a grown older and slower? Is it that people have come out of hibernation and are making up for lost time? Whatever the reason, there are days when there’s scarcely time to breathe. I’m really grateful to those who help me in any way to get my work done and often do it for me. I’m really moved by the kindness and generosity of others. May the good Lord reward them. At Belmont and in Herefordshire today, we keep the feast of St Ethelbert, King and Martyr, patron saint of the county, who was murdered on this day in the year 794 on the orders of King Offa, whose daughter he had come to seek in marriage. He was King of East Anglia and did much to build up the Church in his kingdom. May he pray for us and for peace in our war-torn world.

Today we continue reading the fifteenth chapter of John, (Jn 15: 12-17), where Jesus talks with his disciples during the Last Supper of how they should love one another and of their relationship with him and, in him, with the Father.

“This is my commandment:

love one another,

as I have loved you.

A man can have no greater love

than to lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends,

if you do what I command you.

I shall not call you servants any more,

because a servant does not know

his master’s business;

I call you friends,

because I have made known to you

everything I have learnt from my Father.”

Jesus has loved us by laying down his life for us. There can be no greater love than to sacrifice our lives for others, wherever and however this occurs. It could be in war, or our care for the sick and the elderly. It would be our patience in difficult relationships. It could be giving our time and our skills to help others. There are so many ways in which we can lay down our life for our friends. Jesus calls us his friends and this is an invitation to call others our friends. I never cease to be amazed that Jesus would want me to be his friend, call me such and share so much with me, even the working of his heart and mind. In Jesus, the Father reveals himself to us, his children, and also reveals the intentions of his heart.

Jesus continues speaking of discipleship.

“You did not choose me:

no, I chose you;

and I commissioned you

to go out and to bear fruit,

fruit that will last;

and then the Father will give you

anything you ask him in my name.

What I command you is to love one another.”

We have been chosen by Christ to be his disciples and his friends and he has commissioned us to bear much fruit in the life that God has given us. At times it’s difficult for us to see God’s plan in our lives, but that doesn’t mean to say that there isn’t one. One day we will understand, when we look back and see how God was working in and through us, perhaps for the salvation of others. Life is a great mystery, but a mystery that will gradually be revealed to us by Jesus, our friend. Let us place all our hope and trust in him.

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