Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 31st August 2023

Today is my very last day as Parish Priest of Belmont and I thank the Lord for allowing me to serve our home parish for five years, marked by Covid and Lockdown to be sure, but also with many memorable events such as baptisms, weddings and funerals, as well as many ordinary Sunday and weekday Masses, great feasts and the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla. There have been summer fetes, quizzes, BBQs and dog shows. What have I enjoyed most of all? The daily interaction with parishioners and visiting the sick, when they allowed me to visit them. Next week, while still living at Belmont and continuing my duties as abbot, I go north, in the footsteps of St Ethelbert and Blessed Roger Cadwallador, both martyrs, to serve the people of Leominster and Bromyard. I continue to ask for your prayers. I am not yet old, nor am I young, so I pray for strength and good health.

 

​As we move on in our daily reading of Matthew’s Gospel, (Mt 24: 42-51), we find the teaching of Jesus becoming more apocalyptic in nature as he approaches his passion and death. He talks more about the end of the world and emphasises his second coming as judge on the last day. He talks to his disciples rather than to the crowds in general. “Stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Watchfulness is the key idea often expressed in the simple phrase, “Stay awake.” This is usually qualified by the statement that we know neither the day nor the hour when our master, Jesus himself, will return. He looks forward, then, to his resurrection and ascension, whence he will come again in glory on the clouds of heaven. He often describes himself as returning like “a thief in the night.” Today’s text is no different as he speaks of a burglar breaking in through the wall of a house. Had the householders known that this was going to happened, they would have been watchful, kept vigil and stayed awake.

 

​Jesus then presents his disciples with a parable, though we are not told it is one. “What sort of servant, then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment. I tell you solemnly, he will place him over everything he owns. But as for the dishonest servant who says to himself, “My master is taking his time,” and sets about beating his fellow servants and eating and drinking with drunkards, his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” You will see that this text has at its heart the communion antiphon for the feast of pastors, ’Fidelis servus et prudens.’ “What sort of servant is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their food at the proper time?” We are those dishonest servants who make excuses for our bad behaviour and lack of preparedness by citing the late arrival of the master. I often wonder how many people really believe in the second coming of Jesus and in final judgement. We often act as though we did not! Today’s Gospel offers us an opportunity to think seriously about our faith and what we truly believe. Perhaps we should take stock of our faith.