Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 23rd August

 Today the Universal Church remembers St Rose of Lima, although in Latin America her feast is kept on 30th August. Having spent the best years of my life in Peru, all twenty of them, I have many, many happy memories both of her feast day and of St Rose herself. Although paintings and statues depict her as a Dominican nun, she wasn’t a nun, but a lay associate. She lived at home with her parents and built herself a mud hut in the garden. The house was just opposite the house where St Martin of Porres was born and brought up. Her baptismal name was Isabel (Elizabeth), but she was such a beautiful baby that people said she looked like a rose and the name stuck. She must be one of the few saints known and canonised by her nickname. She was renowned for her charity and her chastity, for her spirit of penance and prayer and for the simplicity and beauty of her faith. Born on 20th April 1586, she died on 24th August 1617. She was beatified 50 years after her death and canonised just 4 years later, the first American to be declared a saint. She is the patron saint of the Americas and of the Philippines and is dearly loved.

 In our Gospel passage today, we continue to read Matthew, (Mt 23: 23-26), the attack of Jesus against the scribes and Pharisees and, of course, their hypocrisy. 

“Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who pay your tithe of mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law – justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have practised, without neglecting the others. You blind guides! Straining out gnats and swallowing camels! Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become clean as well.’” In what does this hypocrisy consist? Here Jesus mentions their obsessive addiction to meaningless minutiae and their neglect of “weightier matters of the Law – justice, mercy, good faith.” Essentially, they are trivialising the observance of the Law to the exclusion of what really lies at the heart of it, the very mind and heart of God, the rule of the kingdom. Their religion is made up of externals that have no interior spiritual value at all. But obviously, Jesus’ intention in uttering these words goes beyond their immediate context to the times in which we live and the dangers facing his Church in every age, We, too, and our leaders can behave as did the scribes and Pharisees and there have been moments in history when, as a Church, we have. Lord, help us always to focus on what is truly important and central to our faith. May all our thoughts, words and actions be a faithful reflexion of our faith, life of prayer and humble service. May we always follow the example of St Rose and of all the saints. Amen.