Message of Abbot Paul - Monday 1st November
Message from Fr Paul for Monday, 1st November 2021
It’s 1st November and just two months to go before 2022, yet strangely it’s not All Saints today in England and Wales. How odd! I shall never get used to celebrating feasts on the wrong day, least of all when they’re solemnities. Yesterday it seemed so unreal, like I was living in a fantasy world. We all keep our birthdays on the day we were born, unless we’re kings and queens and have an official birthday as well. What are we supposed to do with this free day before All Souls? When was Halloween, Saturday or Sunday? It’s all part of the topsy turvy world in which we now live. The weather has been pretty grim these past few days and Toby’s early morning walk has meant wading through deep puddles and carrying an umbrella as well as the rest of the paraphernalia that’s involved in any dog walk, but we have had fun together. Yesterday it took three bath towels to dry him before he could settle down to another three hours’ sleep before our 9.15 walk on the playing fields. There are times I long for a dog’s life, well, a particular dog’s life!
Our short Gospel passage from Luke, (Lk 14: 12-14), is a continuation of the conversation that went on in the house of a leading Pharisee one day when Jesus was invited there for a meal. This is what Jesus has to say to his host, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.” The teaching of Jesus is always clear and in line with the Old Testament Prophets, that our motives should be pure and unconditional and that our preference should always be for the poor, those who cannot repay us other than by their heartfelt gratitude and prayers. Jesus always invites us to question our attitudes and behaviour towards those less well off than ourselves and all those in need. How many friends do I have outside my social class, for example, and how often have I invited a homeless person into my own home and given them hospitality? How generous am I to those in need? Do I share the best I have with them or simply give them the leftovers? As COP26 UN opens in Glasgow today, these rather personal questions will be at the heart of the debate to take place over the next two weeks. How far are we and other rich nations willing to deprive ourselves, that others might have the very minimum they need just to survive? What sacrifices are we willing to make to save the planet, that our grandchildren and great grandchildren might have life in the decades and centuries to come? Our personal choices and those of our countries will decide the outcome of our planet’s destiny.
