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It is horrible, in God's sight, that when He had sent His Son to earth, to work miracles of healing before conquering sin and death, to found a Church to bring forgiveness to sinners, and to make possible the miracle of the Mass - and when it is God Who gives to each of us in the gift of life - it is horrible that, on a Sunday, a Catholic might say, "I can't be bothered by the Mass. I want to go, for example, to something more interesting, like a garden centre". What astounding contempt for our Divine Creator.

God's chosen people were led by God on a long journey to the Promised Land, through a desert, and not always understanding His wishes - as if deep in a canyon. When they emerged, so to speak, to witness Jesus the Saviour in His life-time, it was as if on a great plain, at a time of testing. Few believed. Others crucified Jesus; but He rose to Heaven, having conquered sin and death.

Christ assures us that we need not feel guilty about weeping occasionally, when we are saddened by incidents or circumstances - though He does ask us not to give in to discouragement but to turn to Him in trusting prayer to find new strength. He Himself was upset when His friend Lazarus died. He understands all our sorrows.

Almighty God wants us to honour Christ's Mother Mary. Our Blessed Lady's soul was adorned with such sublime virtues, at her Immaculate Conception, that only her son, later on, surpassed her in His soul's beauty. She deserves to be honoured by our adorning her statues, with decorations worthy of a Queen, and crowning them, and in other ways.

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.

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.

Christ was not content just to heal a twelve year old girl, and so help her, and give joy to her family. He asked them to give her something to eat - knowing she would be weak after lying in bed, ill. He wants us to follow His example of practical charity, with attentiveness to the real needs of other people.

When Christ looked at the naked demoniac, He was full of pity. The man had become separated from those who loved him, and was unhappy, purposeless, filthy and angry. With Divine power, Christ healed him, as He can heal angry people today, who are willing to be healed; and He can give patience to those who suffer from angry insults or assaults.

Christ asks His friends to be brave in speaking the truth about God and goodness; but He also asks us to be prudent. We need not feel guilty about avoiding trouble and controversy when this is possible without cowardice. He Himself ran away or hid, to avoid death, when He had stirred up anger by His words, but when it was too early to fulfil His great plan.

Christ's saving work on earth was something that only He could do. As God-made-man, He enabled sinful human beings to know and love Him, and, through Him, the Father. We can neither free ourselves from our sins nor know, without Christ and His Revelation, exactly how to please the Father. Through His Spirit, given in Baptism, we receive power; and through His Church, in every age, Truth, to guide us.

To be trapped in sinful ways, alienated from God, and helpless to bring about lasting change, is like being trapped on a rocky island, surrounded by a deep Abyss. Only if someone is parachuted in to save people there can they be helped to safety. And that is what Christ did, by coming to our world as God-made-man

It is part of being faithful to Christ: expecting ourselves sometimes to be mocked or betrayed, since even He suffered scorn and betrayal in His life-time. But our suffering is not fruitless, if we offer it up, in union with Him.

When Christ washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper, He set us an example; and He is pleased, and grateful, whenever He sees us show out practical, compassionate love in our care of the needy: whether the members of our own families in everyday life, or people in our wider community,

Some types of wrong-doing are merciless, and always wrong. Just as Pontius Pilate gestured towards Christ, and explained that he was going to wash his hands of that Galilean 'prophet', so a surgeon gestures towards a baby who lies hidden in the womb of the mother who has requested an abortion; and the surgeon explains that it won't take long to dispose of the child.

Our Blessed Lady, who is not Divine, was chosen for a special role. In consenting to conceive within her womb the very Son of God, she allowed Him to show out more clearly than ever His Divine nature: His love, compassion, willingness to share our lives from beginning to end, and His mercy and tenderness. Christ showed out, on earth, as man, what the Triune God is like: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one all-holy Creator and Redeemer.

Christ's own people found it difficult to recognise, in a Person suffering pain and humiliation, the King or warrior they awaited as a Saviour. But in His Resurrection Christ performed a marvel greater than any achieved in a throne-room or a battlefield. Truly, He and God the Father are One, as Christ said.

As Jesus was close to Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus died, so, He is close to all who mourn and weep today, sharing their sorrow.

God looks from Heaven upon the Earth, and sees the long line of Popes whom He has appointed to be leaders of the other Bishops and of the Church. He sees that although all have been faithful to the Tradition, some have been silent when they should have spoken and allowed evil to flourish. Jesus is the model for all Popes: gentle with the weak but bold in correcting serious faults or misunderstandings.

The Mass is unique because the One Who gave it to us, Christ, is unique, amongst founders of world religions. He was conceived of a virgin, claimed to be one with God the Father, proved His Origin by the healings of the sick, raising the dead to life, calming a storm - and by His rising-up from the grave, after being unjustly and cruelly put to death.