Author: cathcomms

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Gregory the Great, a highly educated nobleman of sixth-century Rome, by then a city overrun by barbarians and an empire crumbling.

Simon has just made his great profession of faith in Jesus as God and Saviour, been praised and appointed future pope (Mt 16:13-20). All of a sudden the mood changes. Having just renamed him ‘Peter’, Jesus now calls him ‘Satan’ (Mt 16:21-7).

In his international best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey argues that there are three stages of maturity: dependence, independence, and interdependence. Together these three form what he calls ‘the maturity continuum’.

Go out to all the world to preach the Good News,” Jesus said (Mk 16:15; cf. Mt 28:19). Paul in our epistle today brags of his mission to the gentiles (Rom 11:13-15,29-32) and we know that he ultimately joined Peter in giving the witness of blood in Rome.

Most of Jesus’ miracles addressed people’s particular needs. Last Sunday He multiplied loaves and fishes to satisfy the hunger of the multitude.[1] The haul of fish and the changing of wine into water were on a similarly extravagant scale.[2] You might wonder if anyone really needed so much wine as He made for them at Cana, but if you watch the crowd-funded TV series, The Chosen, you’ll pick up the emotions, tension and potential humiliation around that wedding reception, and why the wine mattered so much.

For some, this pandemic-enforced retreat has been an opportunity to connect more deeply with family and God – to give time to conversation and prayer so often crowded out by the busyness of our lives. Many have maintained their connection to Mass and parish by live-streaming; others, who can’t normally come to Mass, have enjoyed Mass coming to them at home.

The Moirai or Fates were the good luck gods of the ancient world. People experienced many aspects of their lives as beyond their control. So much depended on where and when and into whose family you were born. On forces of nature, weather, accidents and plagues like COVID.