Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 7th July

Message from Fr Paul for Thursday, 7th July 2022

 This is not the place to comment on the political situation this country is going through at present. As citizens, who expect and deserve a high standard of moral integrity and truthfulness from our leaders, whom we have elected to serve our country to the very best of their ability, it saddens us deeply to see what has become of our hopes and our rights. I worry about the impact this will have on our young people, who surely deserve a better example from those who govern the country. The United Kingdom, that was renowned and respected for its democratic traditions and institutions, has become the laughing stock of the whole world. As women and men of faith, the most important thing we can do right now is pray that trust may be restored in our political system and institutions and that people of true integrity, as many already are, may be called to highest office.

 Our Gospel passage today comes from Matthew, (Mt 10: 7-15), the instruction that Jesus gave to the Twelve as he sent them out to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and the coming of Jesus as Saviour. He said to them, “As you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without charge, give without charge. Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with a few coppers for your purses, with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the workman deserves his keep.

  ‘Whatever town or village you go into, ask for someone trustworthy and stay with him until you leave. As you enter his house, salute it, and if the house deserves it, let your peace descend upon it; if it does not, let your peace come back to you. And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet. I tell you solemnly, on the day of Judgement it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom and Gomorrah as with that town.’”

 If you remember last Sunday’s Gospel from Luke, there he sent our seventy-two disciples with similar words to these. Here Jesus is sending out the Twelve to share in his mission of proclaiming not simply the coming of the kingdom but that “the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” The kingdom, of course, is Jesus himself and where Jesus is, there is the kingdom. He asks the Twelve to focus on what is really important, which is the message, the proclamation of salvation in the Gospel of Jesus, and not their own needs and interests. It would be good for politicians, who are called and elected to serve the people, were to remember the words of Jesus to his Apostles: think of why you are here and not of yourself and your own interests. We, too, should always be aware of the teaching of Jesus and keep it in our daily lives.