Message of Abbot Paul - Sunday - 14th April 2024
Abbot Paul • April 13, 2024
​It was a great joy for me yesterday to have breakfast with a dear friend near Leominster and, later in the day, lunch with close friends at Bromyard and to enjoy a walk around their spectacular garden. The recent loss of my dear dog Toby has made me appreciate all the more and thank God for the support of friends as well as many parishioners and readers of this daily message. How can I thank you all for your prayers, kind words and expressions of love and understanding? May the risen Christ shine on your hearts and fill them with his grace and tender lovingkindness.
​Today’s Gospel Passage from Luke, (Lk 24: 35-48), recounts the meeting between Jesus and his disciples following on from his encounter with Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus. “The disciples told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised Jesus at the breaking of bread. They were still talking about all this when Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’ In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, ‘Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts rising in your hearts? Look at my hands and feet; yes, it is I indeed. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ And as he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it, and they stood there dumbfounded; so he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ And they offered him a piece of grilled fish, which he took and ate before their eyes.” This resurrection appearance reminds us in part of John 20, where Jesus appears to his disciples in the upper room where they are gathered on the night of that first day of the week, the occasion on which Thomas is absent. There Jesus breathes on his disciples and gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit with the power to forgive or retain sins. That appearance results in the declaration of Thomas that he refuses to believe unless he can see Jesus and touch his wounds. In Luke all the disciples seem to doubt, probably because they’re so excited about seeing him. In fact, they think he is a ghost and he has to eat something before their eyes to make it quite clear that he is indeed flesh and bone.
​Jesus then goes on to “open their minds to understand the scriptures”, just as he had done with the two on the road to Emmaus. “’This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms has to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.’” He emphasises that what they are seeing is the fulfilment of all three sections of the Hebrew scriptures, the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, or Wisdom literature. The Old Testament, as we call it, in its entirety points to him, the Son of God incarnate, the Messiah, the Christ they can see before their eyes and is risen from the dead. They, in fact, are his witnesses, whom he is now sending throughout the world to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sin. They are to do this in his name. They are given their mission by the risen Christ and told what they must do. Luke is now preparing the reader for his second book, the Acts of the Apostles.
​We talk blithely about our faith being based on the resurrection of Jesus, but what do we really believe? The disciples were there and saw it all; they were witnesses to every moment and every detail and yet, to start with, they doubted. But for each one of them, there came a moment of light and of understanding and from that moment, they believed and were prepared to die for their faith in Jesus. Our faith rests on their testimony, but there must also be a personal element, a personal encounter with Jesus our risen Lord on our road to Emmaus. It’s good to look over our lives and to remember when we first met Jesus and believed. You could think of St Paul on the road to Damascus.
Pope Francis RIP Pope 2013-2025 Born 1936, Died 2025 We are deeply saddened at the passing of Pope Francis. As the successor of St Peter he has been a spiritual father and shepherd to the church in our day, challenging us, and calling as to reach out to those on the peripheries. He was the first Jesuit Pope, but took the name Francis after the Poor Man of Assisi who modelled for him a closeness to the poor, a concern for those on the margins of society and a care for all of creation In his preaching Pope Francis always spoke of the joy of the Gospel and encouraged us to reflect the joy of our faith in our lives. He showed the compassion of Jesus to everyone. He worked tirelessly for the unity of the church and travelled even to non-Christian countries promoting a message of peace. He has left a great legacy. With the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio with the community over Easter we were able to express our closeness to the Holy Father in his final suffering. There will be a special Mass at Belmont this Thursday 24th April at 11am to pray for Pope Francis as he makes his final journey to the house of the Father. On the day of his funeral, the Office of the Dead will be sung, and Mass that day will be a Requiem. May the angels lead him into paradise; may the martyrs receive him at his arrival and lead him to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive him and with Lazarus, the poor man grant him eternal rest." (The In Paradisum, words from the Funeral Liturgy)
We were were honoured and delighted to be joined by the Apostolic Nuncio to celebrate Easter. His Excellency Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía is the representative of the Holy See in Great Britain, and therefore of the Holy Father. His presence on Easter Sunday morning brought us more consciously in communion with Pope Francis, the successor of St Peter, as we heard the Gospel story of Peter running to the tomb. His patron saint is St Michael, so afterwards, at a festive lunch we were able to present him with some Belmont cufflinks with the monastery coat of arms - very similar to his as Archbishop. We were able to pray for him and his work in this country.
