Message of Abbot Paul - Friday 3rd March 2023

It’s a great joy for me to be able to send you this short message from our monastery in Peru, where I arrived on Wednesday night after a comfortable and punctual journey from the U.K. with Air France via Paris. It’s late Summer here, quite warm, 28C, but humid, being just 5 minutes from the Pacific. I had a lie in, but got up in time for Mass at 7 o’clock. It was good to have a healthy breakfast of fresh tomatoes, avocados and lettuce, prickly pears, which I love, and mangoes, all washed down with strong Peruvian coffee. Most of the day I spent reading, chatting with the brothers and relaxing. I will try to have a bit of a break as well as dealing with monastery business. Greetings from the brothers. This coming Sunday I will be admitting an oblate postulant into the oblate noviciate and the following Sunday a monk postulant unto the monastic noviciate. It’s good to see the community growing solidly.

Our Gospel reading for today comes from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, (Mt 5: 20-26), and begins, “If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the Kingdom of heaven.” You see, the scribes and Pharisees were essentially good people. Many of them became followers of Jesus, who himself was probably brought up in that tradition. Jesus often criticised them for their complicated interpretations of the Law, which didn’t allow their hearers to see the wood from the trees. So, while criticising them, Jesus also recognised the good that was in them, hence today’s saying, that we must go even further than the scribes and Pharisees in keeping the Law and in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains to us how he wants us to do this. Lent is a good season of the year in which to take the teaching and example of Jesus seriously and obey him.