Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 23rd August 2023
Abbot Paul • August 23, 2023
Although many Catholics might not consider St Rose of Lima to be an important saint, she holds a very special place in my heart and I have a great love for her and devotion to her. As you know, much of my life has revolved around Peru and I lived there very happily for twenty years, only returning to Belmont in December 2000, when I was elected abbot. In Peru her feast is celebrated on 30th August rather than on 23rd and we know that she died in her 32nd year on 24th August 1617. She was baptised Isabel (Elizabeth), but was such a beautiful baby that everyone called her Rosa and that’s the name she’s known by. Imagine if you were canonised by your nickname! Her soul was as beautiful as her face and from an early age she dedicated herself to God, not as a nun, but as a Dominican tertiary, living in an adobe hut in the garden of her family home, just across a narrow street from the house where St Martin de Porres was born. She dedicated her life to prayer and penance, and to charitable acts of extreme generosity and kindness. She was greatly loved and remains so today. I can’t think of a Peruvian home or office where her portrait doesn’t have pride of place. She, like St Martin, are members of every family and invoked daily in prayer, their lives and miracles read and talked about with enthusiasm and genuine affection.
​Interestingly, today’s Gospel from Matthew, (Mt 20: 1-16), ends in exactly the same way as yesterday’s. “Thus, the last will be first, and the first, last.” Here it comes at the end of the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, a parable that also takes me back to Peru, for the scene described by Jesus could be seen every day in the Plaza de Armas of Tambogrande, where I spent my first five years in Peru as parish priest. From 4 o’clock in the morning men would come in from the neighbouring villages, and when work was short, from far more distant villages, hoping for a day’s work and wages in order to feed their families. We had no vineyards, of course, but rice fields and lemon or mango groves. Sadly, there were no landowners who returned at the eleventh hour, as in the parable, to see if there were still labourers available, but there were many days when there was no work and about ten or eleven o’clock the men would return disappointed to their homes. It would be a difficult day of the family. Let’s listen to the parable, in my book one of the best.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his vineyard. Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place and said to them, “You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage.” So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same. Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing round, and he said to them, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?” “Because no one has hired us” they answered. He said to them, “You go into my vineyard too.” In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first.” So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each. When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each. They took it, but grumbled at the landowner. “The men who came last” they said “have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day’s work in all the heat.” He answered one of them and said, “My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius? Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you. Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous?” Thus, the last will be first, and the first, last.”
​
​Jesus uses this moving story to talk of the generosity of God, but it also brings out the meanness and envy that can take possession of men and women due to the Fall of Adam and Eve and the resultant plague of original sin that affects us all. The parable, of course, goes further. It talks about the reaction of the Jewish people, who might feel hard done by as they see gentiles and pagans becoming disciples of Jesus and so entering to form part of the New Israel of God. There are many similar parables. Within the Church, it could be that some of us see God’s forgiveness and gift of grace being unevenly distributed, or it could be the gift of eternal life and entry into the kingdom of heaven. Is it fair, we might ask, that someone who repents of sin on their deathbed should be equal to someone who struggled to be good all their life through? Instead of rejoicing, like the angels, over a repentant sinner, are we perhaps resentful at their forgiveness. There are many ways of interpreting this parable, and all help us to see how we might need to change our attitude to others. May St Rose of Lima pray for us to make the necessary changes.
From Francis to Leo: A special event with Christopher Lamb of CNN in conversation with Austin Ivereigh who commentated for the BBC on the transition from Pope Francis to Pope Leo.
On 12th June an Ecumenical Service was held at Hereford Cathedral to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea.
Archbishop Mark O'Toole, of Cardiff-Menevia presided at the Requiem Mass for Bishop Mark, while Abbot Brendan conducted his burial. Cardinal Vincent Nichols preached a homily full of warmth and affection for Bishop Mark which is reproduced below.
Bishop Mark Jabalé OSB RIP Given at his funeral by Dom Alexander Kenyon Baby Jean Pierre (Mark) Jabale was born on October 16th, 1933, in Alexandria, Egypt. As he said, himself, his background could be considered “cosmopolitan”: his father was Lebanese / French and his Mother, British / Greek / French. He also reminded people that he wasn’t Egyptian. Through his mother, Arlette, he was related to St. Jean Vianney, so it was, perhaps, no surprise that he followed in his priestly footsteps. His father, Jean, was MD of Fiat and Simca cars Europe and, maybe surprisingly or not, he did love a car – not, however, Italian cars, but German; he loved his Audis. Perhaps we should begin today by remembering his mother and father, his brothers Christian and Paul and his nieces, here today, Aline and Nathalie and Isabelle and their families – they were so dear to him and he to them and I know they miss him enormously. Young Jean wanted to join the Navy and came to England, to Belmont Abbey school but the Lord had other ideas – he ended up joining the rather land locked monastery, our dear, late Fr. Raymund opining that he wouldn’t last a month. After a rather uninspiring course of priestly studies (his words, not mine) he studied for a Licentiate in French literature in Fribourg, then a Dip Ed at Strawberry Hill and played Rugby there – the Papist Witch Doctor as he was affectionately known. Teaching followed, at Belmont, Housemaster, acting Headmaster, then to Alderwasley, our prep school in Derbyshire as Headmaster, and then back to Belmont soon after as Headmaster. In 1983 he went to Peru to build our first monastery there only to realise there was little money. So, he returned to the UK to put in a stint of fundraising with his usual zeal and determination. With his mission accomplished he was asked by Abbot Alan to return to Belmont as his prior in 1986 – Peru remained close to his heart. In 1993 he was elected Abbot. In his time as Abbot, he had to preside over the closure of the school, necessary but no less painful for him. In 2000 he was appointed coadjutor Bishop of Menevia and succeeded Bishop Mullins in 2001. He retired as Ordinary in 2008 and “retired” to Chipping Norton as parish priest, then Hendon, saying Mass for the nuns and helping with confirmations. After a spell at Archbishop’s House, Westminster, living with his great friend Cardinal Nichols, he came home to Belmont – it was as though he had never been away and he loved being back in the monastery, particularly praying the Office with the community. That’s the list, of sorts, but it doesn’t really say “who” he was. I haven’t mentioned his outstanding contribution to rowing – the 1979 coxless, lightweight four gold medal at the world championships in Bled, which almost didn’t happen as, at the last minute, he was told there was no money to send the crew. He begged, cajoled and got them there – the video footage of the final is compelling. He transformed Henley Royal Regatta, writing a computer programme for the race results – he was well ahead of his time. He coached the Oxford Boat, ran the Heads of the River Schools Regatta, and more. What an achievement from someone who had never sat in a boat but learned on the job, as he said, “from books, mainly”. It was his determination, his commitment, his love of people and his drive to share what he had that is, perhaps, one of the key things to celebrate about him. And it was underpinned by his rock-solid faith – nothing overly pious, nothing showy, but a faith and a love of the Lord built on granite. Even his occasional lack of patience (sorry Mark) extended to that faith; ‘why won’t God call me?”. At the risk of being irreverent my response was always “would you want you?”. But God did want him, and he knew it. God had a purpose for his Apostle during his life and he now rests with Him in eternity. His purpose was, simply, to bring the joy of the Lord into the lives of others, in many and varied ways. A few weeks before Mark died, Pope Francis died. When the late Pope was seriously ill the son of friends of mine who entertained Mark and I to lunch regularly, was distraught at overhearing mum and dad say the Pope may die. He couldn’t stop crying. “But darling”, they said, “you don’t know the Pope, why so very sad?”. “We do know him” came the reply, “it’s Mark”. “No, Mark isn’t the Pope”. “Oh, so when the Pope does die will Mark be Pope then?”. Mark loved that one. When Mark himself did die said son would only be pacified by picking flowers from the garden and bringing them to church for him. He wanted to show how much Mark meant to him and wanted to give a little something back. That is the real biography – a man loved, respected, a man who shared what he had, above all his faith, a man who touched so many lives and made them better.  Rest in peace our dear friend.
Our brethren in Peru were delighted with the election of Pope Leo.
