Search Page

Through the free gift of Divine grace, all that Christ out God did for us in His earthly life has been given to the Church to dispense. It all stemmed from His being made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. As man, He preached the truth, suffered and died for our sins, rose up from the tomb, and by rising up to Heaven made a Way in which we can follow, by our union with Him in our Baptism: a union made stronger by prayer, sacraments, and good works.

The Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, became man, and bore suffering and death in order to fulfil His Mission, for our sakes. He knew He would rise from the dead; and by His Resurrection He proved that He has conquered death; and He can conquer our sins, if we put our trust in Him.

When we suffer heartache, in earthly life, because our own children are sad or in trouble, we do well to remember Our Lady, and the heartache she suffered: not just at her son's Passion, in Jerusalem, but earlier in Galilee, when she waved to Christ as He left her to set out at last on His adult Ministry.

By His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension, Christ made a Way to Heaven. It's as if His head is in Heaven, as He speaks to the Father from our midst at every Mass, as a great mass of needy people encircles the altar on earth.

Christ is overjoyed by those who love and obey Him. One of the worst experiences of Christ's Passion, as He hung on the Cross, was the sight He saw - by His Divine insight - of those who would take no notice of His words, or of His desire to save them. His heartache was indescribable, as He saw souls walking away, towards damnation, through their own choices.

Pontius Pilate said, of Jesus: "I find no fault with Him". Yet he gave Him to be scourged and killed, to satisfy the clamour of the crowd. That is what is done today, as politicians allow innocent, unborn babies to be slaughtered in the womb, to satisfy the clamour of people who don't want their own children.

If we accept unavoidable sufferings with patience, from love for Christ, and offer them as a penance for sinners' conversions, in union with Christ, like Christ, it's as if we help Him to carry His Cross. We give evidence that His Passion was not wasted on us, but that we have accepted His graces and long for salvation for ourselves and others.

Christ invites us to reflect on this question: How would we have treated Him, had we met Him when He was a child, or a Preacher, or a condemned criminal? Our attitude to people today in such categories is a fair indication of the stance we might have had towards Him. Do we dismiss children, including the unborn, or mock preachers, or despise criminals?

From the crib, the infant Jesus saw only shadowy figures around Him. He lay helpless, in His humanity, as His Mother smiled upon Him, and Saint Joseph gave a protective presence. We need to ask ourselves: how would I have approached Jesus in His lifetime in His infancy, His teaching ministry or His Passion. How do I treat people today? The measure of our love for other people, in God's sight, is counted as the measure of our love for Jesus.

We pray 'in Christ' because His prayers are always heard. We are wise if we have faith in the power of prayer in Jesus' name. If we trust in Him, and in the merits of His Sacred Passion - and in the goodness of God our Father - we pray with confidence, certain that our prayers and intercession will reach Heaven. It is as if Jesus Christ is like Jacob's ladder: our 'Ladder' by which we can climb towards Heaven in prayer, even if we ourselves cannot yet enter.

Although God allowed sinful men, whom He justified, to guide and lead His People, He wants to teach all the peoples of the world through the truth spoken by His own Son, on earth, hence the Incarnation and Birth of Jesus Christ. He was inevitably persecuted and killed, yet knowing and accepting this in advance. But death, a punishment for sin, could not hold the sinless one, or His sinless Virgin Mother. They are in Heaven now, encouraging us to persevere is truth and holiness.

Some people wonder how we can believe that the Mass is a Sacrifice. At every Mass, by Divine power, Jesus Christ is made truly Present, under the appearance of bread and wine. He is God as well as man; and in being with Him now, we are also present to the events of His earthly life which - because He is God - always remain powerful and significant, including His Passion and Death. At Mass, those events are made effective for our salvation, through our union with Christ and His Church.

No sinful human being was worthy, or ever could be worthy to enter the glory and purity of Heaven. So God the Son became man: holy and sinless. After His work on earth He made a Way to Heaven. He was worthy to enter; and He can draw into Heaven, after Him, each person who has been made worthy by the grace of Christ, and through having persevered in grace to the very end.

At the Mass, we are present as Christ prays for us to be forgiven. When He is made Really Present at the Consecration, it is as though we have a pathway, in Him, through time and space, to be present to all He has done for us in His earthly life, supremely to the once-for-all Sacrifice of the Cross, on which He suffered to win forgiveness for sinners, including ourselves. By His Precious Blood, He sealed a new Covenant between Heaven and earth. By His Resurrection He conquered sin and death.

At the Mass, we are present as Christ prays for us to be forgiven. When He is made Really Present at the Consecration, it is as though we have a pathway, in Him, through time and space, to be present to all He has done for us in His earthly life, supremely to the once-for-all Sacrifice of the Cross, on which He suffered to win forgiveness for sinners, including ourselves. By His Precious Blood, He sealed a new Covenant between Heaven and earth. By His Resurrection He conquered sin and death.

The new Covenant which Christ made between Heaven and earth was sealed by His own Precious Blood: poured out on Calvary, on the Cross. That very same Covenant is renewed as that same Sacrifice is re-presented before us at every Mass.

Christ did not suffer on earth as man, and endure a terrible death, just to persuade us to be nice people who help other people across roads. He conquered sin and death! He can give us the power to conquer our sins, to be transformed, and to cross the Abyss between earth and Heaven! Salvation is more than an ability to be 'nice'.

Christ wants us to see this image, from Him, about the irreverence and silliness often seen in Church at what is a memorial of His Passion and Death! Those Catholics who wanted complete change in the Church after the Second Vatican Council tried to build a new road for everyone to follow, with changed doctrines and distorted attitudes; yet the one true Church continued to practice reverent worship, around them, and to teach truth in faith and morals.

Only because Christ suffered and died, as man, to conquer sin and death by rising up from the grave, has He made it possible for us sinners to follow in His Way. We who trust in Him, and go into the 'tomb' in our Baptism, and renounce sin, and carry our sufferings in patience, like crosses, know that our prayers are heard, and that Heaven awaits all who remain faithful.

On the evening of Holy Thursday, when we have gathered to celebrate the Mass of the Last Supper, Christ becomes Present amongst us; and He is touched to the heart by our devotion. We were not forced to attend; but we are aware of what He once suffered in His Passion, for our sakes. He is pleased that we prove our love by coming to be with Him in this special way.