Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 6th September
Abbot Paul • September 5, 2022
Message from Fr Paul for Tuesday, 6th September 2022
Yesterday, I had to go down to my mother’s in order to take her for her Covid booster some 25 miles away from home. Fortunately, there wasn’t much traffic and none of the promised thunderstorms and heavy flooding promised by the weather forecasters. However, when we arrived at the vaccination venue at 1.15 for a 1.30 appointment, we found it closed. I knocked and eventually an assistant opened up, glanced my mother’s six-page invitation in English and Welsh and apologised. She wondered why my mother’s appointment should be bang in the middle of the staff lunch break. The manager promptly arrived and immediately vaccinated my mum. Being Wales, both members of staff were the epitome of politeness, kindness and efficiency. We then went home, where a delicious lunch was prepared in no time at all. I met heavy traffic, a rainstorm and an accident on the way back to Belmont to make up for the easy journey going down.
I wonder whether the new Prime Minister will follow the example of Jesus before she chooses her cabinet. In today’s Gospel, (Lk 6: 12-19), we read how Jesus chose the twelve apostles. “Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came, he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.” All four evangelists, and Luke in particular, emphasise the importance that Jesus placed on prayer. Here he spends the whole night alone with his heavenly Father in communion of heart and mind. Only then does he summon his disciples and from them pick out twelve who are to be called ‘apostles,’ men who will be sent out by Jesus to proclaim the Good News that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand and has come in the person of Jesus Christ, whom they know to be the Christ, the Messiah and Saviour of the world.
“He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.” Having chosen his apostles, together they come down from the hills to find a large gathering of disciples and people who have come from all over to hear him speak and to be cured of all manner of ailments and diseases. He healed through a divine power that people felt coming into them, just as he felt it go out of him. It was with the touch of God that Jesus healed the sick and transformed the lives of those around him. Let us, then, place our lives in his hands and trust in him, today and always.
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Good Shepherd, Good Priest “I will seek the lost and bring back the strayed; I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.” Those words, spoken by the Lord God through the prophet Ezekiel, describe the heart of God, the Good Shepherd — but they also describe the life and ministry of a good monk and priest. They could well be written of Fr Stephen’s years of service as a pastor in Abergavenny, Swansea, Hereford, and Weobley. In each of those places, he shared in the Shepherd’s work: seeking out the lost, binding up the wounded, strengthening the weary, and leading God’s people with quiet faithfulness. And like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came close to his people, Fr Stephen did not serve from a distance. He knew his people; he was among them. He shared their sorrows and their joys, their hopes and their disappointments. He bore their burdens with prayer and patience he brought the joy of the Gospel and the grace of the Sacraments. His mission amongst us is complete. He has served God’s good purpose. So today we ask Christ the Good Shepherd to take Stephen on his sacred shoulders and carry him home to the house of the Father. Bind up his wounds, give him eternal rest and lead him at last to the green pastures and still waters of eternal life.