Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 19th October 2023

Today I am looking forward to visiting my mother. Although she would like Toby and me to visit more often, I limit our trips home as I don’t want to give her too much hard work. I am more than aware of her age and frailty and the fact that she insists on doing everything herself without help from outside. Even I have the greatest difficulty doing anything to help her, other than shopping with her online. After an exhausting day yesterday, made worse by a rushed journey back to Belmont in the rain in order to be here for Vespers, ​

 

In today’s Gospel passage from Luke, (Lk 11: 47-54), we hear the concluding words of Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees, spoken at table in the house of the Pharisee who had invited him to a meal. His words are harsh and his host and the others take it badly, as one would expect. He criticises their hypocrisy at building the tombs of the prophets whom their ancestors killed, something they will continue to do with contemporary prophets such as John the Baptist and Jesus himself as well as with the apostles who will continue his work after his death and resurrection. To the lawyers he says, “Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves, and have prevented others going in who wanted to.” Instead of giving their contemporaries hope and the kind of helpful teaching they need to live a life pleasing to God and worthy of his kingdom, they complicate the observance of the law with superficial observances that simply confuse people and tie their hearts and minds in knots, so that they remain bogged down in despair.

 

​You can imagine that, when Jesus leaves the house, the situation gets very much worse, for “the scribes and the Pharisees began a furious attack on him and tried to force answers from him on innumerable questions, setting traps to catch him out in something he might say.” You could say that the teaching of Jesus to that gathering of scribes (lawyers) and Pharisees has amounted to a declaration of war and that from this moment they will be on the attack, on the lookout to try every possible way to trap him into making declarations that are clearly against what they regard to be the correct interpretation of the Law of Israel. Ultimately, they will succeed, but in succeeding, they will fail dismally, when Jesus rises from the dead. Let us pray today for the grace always to follow the teaching and example of Jesus so that we might experience and enjoy the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.