Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 30th

Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 30th July 2022

I always look forward to savouring my first blackberry and yesterday was the day it happened this year, a fine crop of delicious but small fruit not a stone’s throw from the parish centre. I see our plums are almost ready to harvest. I’ve eaten two so far, just tasting. Let’s hope that this year we bring them in before thieves spirit them all away. Then yesterday evening, my osteopath shared a punnet of locally grown cherries. They were almost the size of small apricots, but exquisitely intense in flavour. There are days we have so much to thank God for. The warm weather has returned, which Toby finds uncomfortable, but I try to keep my rooms cool for him and he often snoozes before a fan. Fortunately, in ten days’ time he has an appointment with his groomer, after which he’ll be much more comfortable. If only it would rain; everything is so dry and the soil rock hard.

 Our Gospel today comes from Matthew, (Mt 14: 1-12), and recounts the martyrdom of St John the Baptist, a tragic story that we all know well. It’s told in the context of Herod the tetrarch telling his court that Jesus must be John the Baptist come back to life. “He has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” This Herod was the son of Herod the Great and was ruler of Galilee and Perea, a minor principality, but he was a man with pretentions to grandeur. Having set the scene, Matthew tells his sad tale, which I won’t repeat. Men with a little power often make rash promises to appear greater and more powerful than they are, especially when they have been drinking. This was the case with Herod, whose stupidity and stubbornness led him to have beheaded a man he liked, respected and enjoyed listening to. There are times when we can all do or say rash and foolish things. At times we need to pray, Lord, protect me from myself, or as the hymn says, “Forgive our foolish ways.”