Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 11th May

Abbot Paul • May 10, 2022

Message from Fr Paul for Wednesday, 11th May 2022

Dear friends, yesterday I spent 13 hours travelling from the Abbey of Las Huelgas in Spain to Belmont. I returned exhausted by the journey, so this message today will be particularly short. I apologise. Tonight, we will celebrate our May Procession at Belmont after a break of 2 years due to the Covid pandemic. Many people in Herefordshire as well as in Wales and the Midlands are looking forward to coming to Belmont again as we have really missed this evening in honour of Our Lady. We will all be praying for Br Bernard, who organised it for so many years and are grateful to Fr Augustine for organising the event tonight.

Our Gospel for today, as always in Eastertide, comes from John, (Jn 12: 44-50), where Jesus continues to speak of his relationship with the Father, insisting that in him we see the Father and through him enter into a relationship with the Father that reflects his own. He says:

“Whoever believes in me

believes not in me

but in the one who sent me,

and whoever sees me,

sees the one who sent me.”

To believe in Jesus is to walk in the light, the light of faith.

“I, the light, have come into the world,

so that whoever believes in me

need not stay in the dark any more.”

Jesus, the light of the world, has come among us as one of us, that we might no longer live in darkness. In Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to his disciples that they are the light of the world. I find it a frightening thought to think that I might be the light of the world. How about you? But surely it depends on our closeness to Jesus.

It is Jesus’ intention and desire to “save the world,” but people are free to accept or reject him. Those who reject Jesus are already judged, condemned even, by the word he has spoken, that loving invitation to be a disciple. As Jesus says, the invitation realty comes from the Father.

“For what I have spoken does not come from myself;

no, what I was to say,

what I had to speak,

was commanded by the Father who sent me,

and I know that his commands mean eternal life.

And therefore what the Father has told me

is what I speak.”

Ultimately, the invitation to follow Jesus and listen to his voice is an invitation to enter into and enjoy eternal life. I wonder why so many reject it.

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