Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 30th May 2023

It was a great delight yesterday to drive home to Wales to spend the day with my mother. The weather was ideal and the roads were clear: no heavy traffic, in fact, hardly any traffic at all. My mother had prepared a fantastic lunch, which we thoroughly enjoyed, tasty, nourishing and yet as light as a feather. I suffer from indigestion so easily, that I have to take care of what I eat and how it is prepared. I’m always amazed that my mother can still do all she does. Physically, she’s very frail, but she has phenomenal will power. I do admire her and thank God for her. Toby, too, had a wonderful time. We went down to the beach, but all the car parks were full to overflowing and there were mile-long queues for ice cream. We didn’t stop, but drove back to our local cemetery and spent a happy hour together in the shade, Toby sniffing and exploring to his heart’s content, I looking at gravestones, searching for old friends and neighbours and taking a few photographs of Old St Baglan’s church, sadly now abandoned to its fate although it is an important historic building, dating in its present form from the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. What a sight of desolation and neglect! Sadly, a hundred yards’ away, St Catherine’s church, a beautiful grade 1 gothic revival building, with windows designed by William Morris and Burns Jones, is rarely if ever open. It’s well worth a visit and make sure you see the ancient Celtic Brancuff Stone in the vestry.

 

​Our Gospel today comes from Mark, (Mk 10: 28-31), which is preceded by the meeting of Jesus with a man who is unable to give up his riches in order to follow him. He turns his back on Jesus and walks away. Following Jesus does involve making sacrifices and not everyone is willing to do that. This is the context in which Peter addresses his question to Jesus. “What about us? We have left everything and followed you.” Indeed, we are witnesses to the fact that when Jesus called Peter and his companions to be his disciples, saying, “Follow me,” they left everything and simply followed him, trusting in God’s mercy and providence. Jesus replies, saying, “I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecutions – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.” Jesus is aware of the sacrifices they have made “for the sake of the Gospel,” and promises them more than a just reward, above all, the gift of eternal life.

 

Jesus concludes with the enigmatic proverb, “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” They should not be taken in by appearances. This teaching of Jesus reminds them of how different the ways of God and His Kingdom are from the ways we see the world. God doesn’t look for those who are rich or powerful or beautiful. He looks for those who are humble and full of faith. Many whom the world sees as first will miss the Kingdom of God, while many who are overlooked by the world will be great in God’s Kingdom.