Pride in Jesus

Homily at All Hallows’, Miskin, Ss Gabriel & Raphael, Tonypandy, and St Dyfrig’s, Treforest, for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A.

Today, I’d like to talk about pride.

There’s a good kind of pride and a dangerous kind of pride, and as followers of Jesus it’s vital that we recognise the difference.

The dangerous kind is what the western world today celebrates with rainbow flags and “Pride Rallies”.

This kind of pride is all about celebrating me and what I desire. “Hello world! Look at me, and my desire to be with whoever I want. Please say Hooray if I suggest I’d like to change my own identity. Give me a big cheer for whichever romantic partner I choose.”

There’s a trap we can fall into as Christians. This trap says that Jesus was all about love, so we have to celebrate love in all its forms. But in the language of the Bible, the love which is celebrated is agape, the love where a person sacrifices their self-interest for someone else’s good, not any kind of lustful desire.

The beatitudes, the declarations of happiness in today’s Gospel, are all about self-sacrificing love. They are promises of future blessing for people who are faithful in difficult circumstances now. In some cases the people are blessed because they choose to hope and trust but can’t change their situation. And for today’s world, we need new beatitudes.

• Happy are you when you feel you don’t fit the gender stereotypes of the world around you, for you shall know Christ as your Bridegroom.
• Happy are you when you fall in love but do not pursue relationships God cannot bless, for you shall know true love at the Resurrection.
• Happy are you when the world calls you contemptible and bigoted for your sexual views, for you will rest in the Lord, free of perjury.

So why might the world hold us in contempt, or think that we are out of touch?

When it comes to transgender issues, the Catholic Church has little in the way of formal teaching. We recognise that Genesis states, and Jesus quotes from it, that in the beginning God made humans as males and females. But Jesus also recognised that some people are “born eunuchs” and so don’t fit neatly into either category. Clearly there are individuals who face a lifelong struggle because their minds and their bodies are not in agreement, and such people deserve our compassion and sympathy. But our bodily parts are God’s gift of life to us and we can’t disregard them as insignificant. So we should be quick to hear the words of those who say they don’t feel they fit, but slow to agree that anyone can really, fully, be the opposite gender from the anatomy of their birth.

“Pride” is more commonly used to celebrate same-sex relationships. Here, Scripture is clearer. Jesus said nothing about this explicitly, but when he affirmed that God’s plan was for a man to unite with his wife, he implicitly ruled out other options. And Jesus had much to say about mastering our lust so that our lust does not master us. St Paul did explicitly write that acts of same-sex intimacy were sinful.

Our challenge today is that we’re called to live knowing that such relationships are always wrong in a society which now celebrates them as good and right. Often our own families are affected – if one of your relatives forms a long-term relationship with a same-sex partner, can you welcome that person as part of your family? Well, that person has become part of your family whether you like it or not. So what is a follower of Jesus to do?

Pope Francis was famously asked about this during the first year of his papacy and said “Who am I to judge?” That might sound like ducking the issue, but it’s not. To “judge” means to condemn, and Pope Francis was reminding us that no-one should be punished for making sexual decisions which go against God’s law – we’re talking about consenting adults here. Remember that when Jesus met a woman caught in the act of adultery, he shamed the crowd into putting down the stones they would have used to kill her, and said “Neither do I condemn you – but go and sin no more.”

We, my brothers and sisters, are called to walk a difficult tightrope. We should neither punish, nor celebrate, relationship choices which go against God’s law. That might look like welcoming your unchosen relatives to your dining table but declining an anniversary party. It’s true that there are verses in the Bible which talk about cutting off contact with an “immoral brother” – but to be a “brother” in this context the person must be claiming to be a follower of Jesus while rejecting His teaching.

Summing up Catholic teaching on this sensitive area in a 7-minute homily is not easy; there are always details we can explore when more time is available. Each person’s moral dilemma is unique to their personal circumstances. But we should not be surprised, hearing St Paul’s words today, to be reminded that the world will think us foolish when we embrace God’s wisdom – so foolish, in fact, that we could be written off as closed-minded idiots. Let’s stop trying to agree with the world – but let’s find a way to disagree kindly so that we don’t break trust with those who have yet to know the Lord.

As for me, I take pride in Jesus. St Thomas Aquinas noted that in walking the way of the Cross, Jesus demonstrated great patience in two ways: by suffering much; and by choosing not to avoid that suffering, because it would save us from our sins. Jesus in turn invites us not to rush to grasp or celebrate “what I want” but to discern when it matters that we should resist our deep desires for the greater good. Yes, happy are you when you hold fast to Catholic teaching in an unbelieving world, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Changing Times

Homily at All Hallows’, Miskin, St Mary Magdalene, Ynyshir, and St Dyfrig’s, Treforest, for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A.

Imagine what would happen if you had Jesus as your lodger?

At first, it might be fun to have the Lord Himself sharing a home with you. But perhaps very soon it would become annoying.

“We could pray now,” says Jesus. But you want to watch TV or get an early night.

“You could knock the door of the house next door and offer to put the bins out for that elderly couple,” he suggests. But you’re afraid of making a commitment.

And even when Jesus is being quiet, you know he has standards. So when you do put on the TV, maybe you won’t watch that film or this channel, because you know he won’t approve.

In fact, having Jesus as your lodger is a problem, because you know all the ways he would like you to change. But if you can’t live with the embarrassment, there’s a solution. You’ve got a big closet for coats and things, so you leave the door open and wait for the right moment. With a shove, and a turn of a key, Jesus is locked in the cupboard. The coats muffle his voice, so you don’t have to listen to what he is saying to you. But you know you need to show some respect so you put a little table outside the cupboard with a fresh bunch of flowers and a candle burning. In fact, each time you pass the cupboard, you make a little bow in reverence. But listening to the voice of Jesus as part of your life is too much trouble… or is it?

The hardest step in the Christian life is deciding to trust Jesus – not just in some things but in all things. For me, I made that step 30 years ago, on a youth retreat. It was still nearly a decade before I entered seminary, but I was already thinking about priesthood. And on that retreat I had a conversation in my head which went something like this.

Do I believe that Jesus is wiser than I am? Yes. So he knows better than me what is good for me.

Do I believe that Jesus loves me? Yes. So what he asks me to do may be difficult but will not be harmful to me in the long run.

Do I call Him Lord? Yes. But if someone is my Lord, I cannot go against his instructions. Otherwise he is only my advisor. But I do call Jesus my Lord, and I believe that he should be.

“Jesus, I surrender. I take you as Lord of my life. I will trust you and I will do whatever you ask of me – even if it is the priest thing!”

It was still a few years before I entered seminary, but that key day, in August 1993, was the day I decided to be open to Jesus in all things; in many ways, it was more significant than the day I became a Catholic 3 years earlier.

Each of us has our own struggles. Each of us is called to “repent” – but the word is better translated “change”. Change may be exciting. Change may be scary. But change is always God’s way, that we may journey with him from glory to glory.

Some changes are welcome – having a parish priest again is probably a good change. But other changes are hard. You can probably give me a long list of changes you’d like to see in the people who are close to you, people who are not perfect and sometimes annoying. But remember, they have an equally challenging list of changes they’d like to see in you!

Cardinal Newman – St John Henry Newman – reminded us that to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

Some nameless wag has noted us that change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

Jesus proclaimed: Change! God’s Kingdom is close to you! Rejoice, in this good news!

Jesus called for METANOIA. Yes, that word includes repentance from those sins which are always sins. If you know there’s sin in your life, do something about it! But it also includes the call to turn from God’s will for the previous stage of our journey to embrace God’s will for the next. Even the 12 apostles were reluctant to embrace change. Jesus prophesied his death and resurrection. They didn’t want to hear it! But that was the only way God’s purpose could be fulfilled, and in the fullness of time they came to understand.

The most important change any one of us can make is the decision not to put Jesus in the closet and muffle his voice, but to open the doors to Christ and let his call for change be heard in our lives. He asks you to change because he loves you. He asks you to change because he wants to see you become the best version of yourself – the saint he is calling you to be! He asks you to change because He is Lord, and you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you are His.

Imagine what would happen if you had Jesus as your Lord? It won’t be comfortable, but it will be good. He is the Living Word, and he speaks to us through the Scriptures and in our prayers. On this Sunday of the Word of God, I encourage you anew to listen to Him. Jesus, I Trust In You.

Unexpected Gift

Homily at All Hallows’, Miskin, and St Dyfrig’s, Treforest, for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A.

“Behold the lamb of God!” 

These words are so familiar to anyone who attends Mass regularly, they’re part of our DNA as Catholics. Soothing, familiar words, they remind us that Jesus is close to us, and feeds us with Holy Communion. But when John the Baptist first spoke those words, it would be the same as if I held aloft the Blessed Sacrament and declared: “Chicken of God! Chicken of God!” – you would be intrigued, and wonder what on earth I was talking about.

The Jewish people were familiar with animal sacrifices. The Law of Moses set down the rules for when a bull, or a goat, or two pigeons, were to be offered in sacrifice. Mentioning a Lamb would make a Jewish person think of Passover: the first Passover, when the Israelites who obeyed Moses were spared from the Angel of Death by placing the blood of a lamb on their doorposts; and the annual Passover, when lambs were sacrificed at 3 pm in the Jewish Temple. Prior to being roasted, those lambs would have been stretched on two roasting spits, making it look rather like they had been crucified!

John the Baptist didn’t fully understand the implications of what he was saying, but he allowed God’s Holy Spirit to place words in his heart and on his lips which we now understand as a prophecy that Jesus must die as a sacrifice for our sins. It is because we put our trust in the Lamb of God that our sins can be forgiven, and our shame overcome. If Jesus loved us enough to die to take our sins away, we can have no doubt of his desire for us.

But that was not the end of John’s prophecy. He also declared that Jesus would “baptise with the Holy Spirit” – a baptism the Bible elsewhere calls a Baptism of Fire.

That sounds a bit scary, doesn’t it, a baptism of fire?

I wonder if you’d feel reluctant to receive a baptism of fire, a baptism in the Holy Spirit?

We might worry “What would happen if I said yes to this gift from God?”

But shouldn’t we also worry about what would happen to each one of us, and to our church community, if all the members said “No thank you!” when offered this baptism in the Holy Spirit?

When we were baptised, we were given the gift of the Holy Spirit to make us holy. If we’ve been confirmed, we’ve also been sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to do God’s work in the world. To help us understand this, I’ll tell you the story of three gifts I received as a child – a telescope, a microscope and a computer.

I was an astronomy nerd at the age of 7, so I was delighted with the gift of a telescope. It was something I wanted, something I’d asked for, and something I used often.

A year or two later, I received an unexpected gift of a microscope. But I wasn’t particularly interested in looking at small things up close. I used it once or twice, then put it away and ignored it.

When I was 10, I received a ZX81 Computer as a Christmas present. I was quite flummoxed. “What’s this?”

“It’s a computer,” said Dad.

“What am I supposed to do with it?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Dad, “but here’s the manual, you’ll figure it out.”

I did. Within a few months I taught myself to programme and I became quite a good coder.

Why am I telling you this? Because it’s not enough to give someone a gift. The recipient has to choose to make good use of it.

We put our young people through Confirmation courses, and the bishop comes and confirms them. Perhaps naively we hope it will do some good and create a spiritual hook which will draw our young people back into the Catholic Church. But the evidence of decades tells us it doesn’t work like that. Confirmation on its own isn’t enough to magically draw young adults back to church, even when they start having children of their own.

The Gift of the Holy Spirit received in Confirmation is like the gift of a microscope or computer. If you keep choosing to use the gift, it will bear more fruit than my ZX81. If you don’t, it will be as useful as a microscope in its gift box. That’s why St Paul wrote to Timothy that he should “stir up” the gift of the Holy Spirit entrusted to him.

So how do you use the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which Jesus has offered you?

Do you pray, “Holy Spirit, make good your promise of courage and wisdom to deal with this situation?” Just this morning, I heard an interview with a nurse who asked God for the gift of confidence to help her cope with changes at work, and her prayers were answered in a way that meant she didn’t leave her job!

Isaiah spoke of a double calling to restore Israel and become a light to the nations. We too have a double calling, a call to invite Catholics who no longer attend Mass to reconnect with the Church and a greater call to invite the people who live around us to come and receive baptism in water and the Holy Spirit. St Paul heard this call and brought the pagans in Corinth alongside their Jewish brothers and sisters as members of the Church.

This call is for you, today. If you’ve never been confirmed – I’m speaking to adults and any young person who missed being confirmed in Year 8 – please consider getting confirmed. You’re not a complete Catholic without the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

But the gift needs to be unpacked, else it will be useless. Fan into a flame this gift. Ask the Holy Spirit to set your heart on fire with.a passion to bring back the lost and to light up the ends of the earth. Imagine what would happen if you did? And imagine what would happen if you didn’t?

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

OMG

Homily at the Rhondda Parishes for the Baptism of the Lord, Year A.

I’d like to begin with the story of a little girl who was drawing a picture. Mum was puzzled, so she asked her daughter, “What are you drawing?”

“It’s a picture of God, Mummy!”

“But, darling, how can you draw a picture of God? No one knows what God looks like!”

“They will when I’ve finished!”

In fact, we do know what God looks like. God looks like Jesus, because Jesus is God. But we can get in a twist because we use the name “God” in different ways.

The problem is, God is not one person, but three. Sometimes we use the name “God” to talk about what all three have in common. But other times we use it for just one, usually the One Jesus called “Father”.

In today’s readings we encounter Jesus being baptised and St Peter’s memories of Jesus. Jesus sees the Holy Spirit – referred to here as the “Spirit of God” come down upon him. Of course, the Holy Spirit is also God! In our First Reading and Psalm, the person called “God” or “Lord” there is the person Jesus called “Father”.

God is Three Persons yet One God. I’m not going to try to explain how that works, because it is beyond human understanding. Instead, I’d like us all to take a moment to think about whatever comes into our heads when we hear the word “God”.

Is it an old man with a beard, sitting on a cloud?

Is it a policeman in the sky, watching to see if you break the rules and then writing you into his Bad Book?

Is it a smiling uncle, showering blessings down upon you and asking for nothing in return?

Does hearing the word “God” make you think about church things rather than a holy person?

Whatever comes into your head, it’s good to notice that and then ask yourself, “Where did that come from?”

God has no grandchildren. We cannot live off other people’s experiences of God. But because God relates to each of us in different ways, we each have our own direct experience of God. And the very best way we can know God is by looking at Jesus, what he said about His Father, and the power of the Spirit who dwells within him. But unless we clear out the clutter of false or inadequate ideas of God, we can’t really know God.

Because God is three Persons, not one, we are invited to have three relationships with God.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father”. If you don’t know the words to speak to the Father who adopted you when you were baptised, those are the words to use. But it’s fine to use your own words to pray, too.

In my prayer life at the moment, I find I relate mostly to Jesus. I look at an image of his Sacred Heart or a crucifix, and I tell him how much I love him. That’s worship – in fact that roots of the word “worship” mean “declaring the worthiness”. Jesus was a good man, who was also God, and he died so that I could go to heaven. I don’t know how that works, either, but I trust that it does work. So I love Jesus and worship him each day.

Sometimes I pray to the Holy Spirit. Usually that is some version of the “Come Holy Spirit”, asking the presence of God to come into me and stir me up into prayer.

Of course we can pray to Our Lady and the saints as well, but that’s a different kind of prayer – we ask them to pray for our needs.

When we’re praying to the three Persons who are God – Father, Son or Holy Spirit – we can ask for our needs, but we can also worship them. We can express our love for them. We can make an act of surrender. “Father, thy will be done,” or “Jesus, I trust in you” – or “Jesus, I surrender myself to you; take care of everything.”

But these are not words to be said lightly! When we pray “Thy Will be Done” have we already decided that God is in the driving seat of our lives, and if He makes it clear that we are to do something, we will obey?

Jesus always obeyed his Father’s will; this is why the Father’s favour rested on him.

But each one of us is invited to the same relationship with God. By our baptism, we become brothers and sisters of Jesus, adopted children of God-the-Father. The same Holy Spirit which descended upon Jesus lives within us; we received the Holy Spirit when we were baptised, and a further seal from the Holy Spirit when we were confirmed. (If there’s any adult here today who hasn’t been confirmed, please consider getting confirmed; why miss out on the support that God promises us to live a full Christian life?)

Know this:

The Father loves you, and wants to see your sins forgiven.

Jesus loves you, and died so that the price of your sins could be paid.

The Holy Spirit loves you; he bothers you to pay attention to your sins so that you can confess them and be forgiven.

I invite you to bring to mind once again whatever image or idea you think of when you hear the word “God”. Does the God who lives in your head match the God who has been revealed to us by Jesus as Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

If you’re not sure, I encourage you to take time to ask God to re-write his image into your imagination. Carrying a false image of God in our heads or our hearts will do us no good at all.

When the answer is yes, take heart, for your faith is built on a firm foundation. In your private prayer time this week, give thanks to God – you can address any or all of the Three Divine Persons – for the gift of faith.

Why not try devotion to the Five Wounds? By St Alphonus Liguori, Pope Francis and Elizabeth Kindelmann.

From the East

Words at the Churches of Our Lady of the Valleys for the Epiphany of the Lord, 2023.

Opening message

It’s good to be with you this evening/today!

Today, we celebrate that day, when wise men who studied stars came from the east, and discovered baby Jesus, perhaps a little older than a newborn, when he was dwelling in a home with his family. It seems a very good day to for me to begin [St Dyfrig’s: take up again] my ministry among you. You may be aware that before I became a priest, I was a professional astronomer, a student of stars, gaining a qualification from Cardiff University. You may know that for the last two years, I have been living in Essex, east of London, the headquarters of the Sion Community for Evangelism. And I am sure you understand that, by the sacrament of holy orders, a priest is a visible sign of Jesus, being present among his people. Put all of those things together, and Epiphany is a very good day for this student of stars to come from east of London to bring his gifts, not least the priestly presence of Jesus, among you. Whether I am a wise man from the East, that’s up to you to judge!

The Christ-child came to take away the sins of the world, so let us call to mind our sins and so prepare to celebrate these holy mysteries.

Homily message

Arise, shine out, holy parish, for the glory of the Lord is shining upon me you! We are the new Jerusalem, the shining city, to which many of God’s children will come. As you see new people come into you, your heart will grow throbbing and full!

That was Isaiah’s promise to Israel of old – and it is God’s promise to this parish today. If we embrace the mission God has given us, to share the Gospel with the people around us, we will see this parish grow in strength and numbers, and our joy will be renewed.

The recent national Census showed that here in Rhondda Cynon Taf, there are more people than practically anywhere else in the UK who say “I have no religion”. Some of them will be members of our own families who have abandoned the Catholic faith; many more will have grown up in homes where religion simply didn’t matter. The name Epiphany means “appearing” or “showing forth”. God sent baby Jesus to show his love – but he makes us responsible for sharing the name of Jesus, and for being God’s loving hands, in this community. When we make the name and the love of Jesus present, slowly but surely, new members will be added to this church!

Today, we begin a new chapter in the life of this parish, under the leadership of a new parish priest. I come among you bearing my own gifts – but there is a great symbolism in gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Gold represents security in uncertain times. No doubt it helped the Holy Family with the unexpected costs of their flight into Egypt. My being here is a pledge from Archbishop Mark that for the foreseeable future, holy Mass will be celebrated in this church every weekend. More than that, you will have a shepherd who is present among you, directly involved in the life of this church community, sharing in your joys and sorrows.

“Myrrh is mine: it’s bitter perfume warns of the coming of doom and gloom!” Myrrh was a sign that Jesus would face exile in his childhood and crucifixion in his ministry. The path God chooses for us is not always sweet.

Let’s get the bitter pill out of the way as soon as possible. We recognise that my appointment here comes at a price. For the next generation at least, there are fewer priests available to serve in South Wales than we have been used to. So I’m not just assigned as parish priest to this church, or even to a pair of churches but here AND to 3 other parishes.

[AH & SD] Over the last year, you have learned how to run this parish with very limited input from a priest.

[MM & GR] For the last four years you have continued the life of the church without a formal parish priest, but with the help of Sr Berenice and other members of her community, not least Sr Joanna who is in our prayers after her fall.

Perhaps you were hoping that that the appointment of a parish priest means you can hand back to me most of the things you’ve had to do. Well, think again! Many of the things you’ve had to do, you will need to continue to do because my attention and my capacity to work for this parish will only be a fraction of my overall work. In many practical ways, it will be like continuing to have a supply priest. But in one crucial regard, it is different; from now on, I am here as your Shepherd.

The other bitter reality we will need to face is that from this summer, we can only have one Mass in each church, and the time of Sunday Mass may have to change from what we are used to. I won’t say more about that today, nor for the next month as I am getting to know the people of each parish. But once we enter Lent, we will need to begin the conversation about future times of Sunday services.

What we won’t be talking about this year is any merging of parishes. The Archbishop has asked that we think about this. But that conversation will not start for at least two years; first, we have to see how well we can work together. It’s easier for parishes to collaborate when there is one priest making decisions for all. Whenever this parish has the strength to do something on its own and to do it well, that is fine! Whenever it serves our common good to work together, I can make introductions and help build a strong team drawing on the gifts, which God has entrusted to the people of all four parishes.

The third gift of the wise men, frankincense, was a gift which recognises holiness. It was because the wise men saw that Jesus was God-among-us that they made their journey to worship him – they knew they were looking for God. We must learn to recognise who Jesus is before we can share Him with others. But Jesus also teaches us something about who we are. We are members of his body. We share in his holiness. We are made in the image of God! We only know this because God chose to speak to us through Jesus and his apostles. Those who live in our towns today will not know God’s love unless we show them by our lives and tell them by our words.

It’s not easy, speaking about Jesus to other people. But it’s possible, and I’ll be offering opportunities to practice in the months and years to come. I encourage you to start by speaking about Jesus to people you know and trust – members of this congregation or members of your own family. Today, Epiphany, is about Jesus showing himself – manifesting himself – to the nations. How has Jesus shown himself to you, personally? If you have the courage, share this with someone before you leave this church today. But if that’s too hard, make a silent prayer in your heart right now. Tell Jesus who he is in your life, how you see him at work, and what you want to thank him for today. Another day, you may be ready to break the silence.

So as we begin this new season together, keep your eyes on Jesus, and good things will follow. Tell other people about Jesus, who is God’s love for us, and the world will fill with hope. And may the Lord who has begun the good work in us, and made us gifts to one another, bring this good work to a happy completion. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Closing remarks

Please be seated.

Since we’re going to be working together for many years, there are a few things I think it’s important that you know about me from the outset.

The first is that I am on the autistic spectrum – I was diagnosed at seminary with Asperger’s Syndrome. This affects different people in different ways, but in my case it means that I lack that ability which is in most people’s brains to intuitively read body language and understand how other people are feeling. This doesn’t mean I don’t care; in fact I care a great deal about how each one you might be feeling – but there will be times I can’t see with my eyes what will be obvious to most people, and I will need to ask you to use words to explain to me how you are. Please bear with me.

The second thing, you’ve probably picked up from my written communications, is that I try not to refer to myself as “Fr Gareth”. Here I am trying to balance two realities. One is a teaching which comes from Our Lord Jesus himself, who said “don’t call anyone on earth ‘Father’” because you have one Father in heaven. The other is the custom which we’ve had in the Catholic Church for centuries, of using “Father” as a title of respect. Obviously Jesus didn’t mean you can’t call the man who parented you “Father”, or the word would lose all meaning. But he was saying something about being careful about the word as a title for religious leaders. This is why I prefer to refer to myself as “Pastor Gareth”. But you will find that I do call other priests “Father” in contexts where they would find it rude if I didn’t. I’m not going to tell you how to address me; I will never say to anyone “Please don’t call me Father.” But my conscience isn’t at ease in referring to myself by that title, so I will be signing myself as “Pastor Gareth”.

The third thing is that I don’t know everything, and it will take me a while to understand how things work here. As you get to know me, I hope you’ll find I am not Fr Bossyboots who wants to stamp his own mark on things, but I will be Pastor Ignoramus who needs to be shown how things work, and reminded if I haven’t grasped things the first time. I hope you’ll find I am very easy to talk to, and I am here to help you make this church community thrive. But it’s always the things we don’t know that we don’t know which trip us up.

Now, a few practical things for you about how things will work in the future.

On Saturday evenings, I will be sharing duties with Fr Nick Williams, Chaplain to Cardiff University. Because Saturday night alternates between All Hallows and St Dyfrig’s, and I want to spend a roughly equal time in all three Saturday congregations, each church will only see me roughly every third week, but because of logistics you may even go three weeks without seeing me on a Saturday.

On Sundays, I will be sharing duties with Fr Valentine Mobuogwu, who is chaplain to Cardiff Prison. Mostly Sunday congregations will see me every alternate week, though there may be some tweaks to the rota.

As I’ve said in the homily, for the next two or three years we will be structured as four distinct parishes, co-operating where it is helpful to do so. The conversation about Sunday Mass changes will begin in Lent. But one thing we will need sooner is a name for our collection of four churches. As a temporary measure, I am using the abbreviation AMDG, which is also the Latin abbreviation meaning “For the Greater Glory of God”. But for the long term, we should choose a patron saint, or a title of Our Lady, or a mystery in the life of Our Lord to be the common name and patron under which we can work together. I am open to proposals and I hope we will settle the name by Easter.

I think that is enough for our first meeting. But because I can’t be everywhere on Sunday I wanted to share these messages in all our churches on Day One, for Epiphany. Remember, we are here to show Jesus to the world by the things we do and the way we work with another. If you want to share in one or two sentences who Jesus is in your life, I’d love to hear that from you on the way out – or you can share it with someone here in church or at home. 

Let’s go on our way with a special blessing.

Children of Mary

Homily for Sunday 1 January 2023, Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, at St Joachim & St Anne, Dunvant

“To all who did accept him, he gave power to become children of Mary.”

You won’t find those words in the Bible, but they are just as true.

In yesterday’s Mass readings we heard again words which you might have heard at Christmas – Jesus, the Word, became flesh and lived among us. Many rejected him; but to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.

That same Jesus, as he was dying upon the Cross, said to the disciple he loved, “Behold your Mother.”

If we are followers of Jesus, we have been given power to become children of God – and if we are disciples of Jesus, we are entrusted to Mary as our mother. After all, if she is worthy to be mother of God, she is surely good enough to be a mother to us!

On New Year’s Day it’s traditional to make predictions about the year ahead, so I’m going to make one – in the Catholic world, especially online, this year there will be a lot of talk about Mary.

Why? Since 2019, an independent media production called The Chosen has sought to dramatise the life of Jesus and his (chosen) disciples as a multi-season series. Maybe you’ve seen it – if not, I recommend it.

Now whenever you try to show the Bible on stage or on screen, you have to invent some things to fill in the gaps. What did people say in their conversations? How did they dress? What were their personal traits? The people who make The Chosen aren’t Catholics – although the actor who plays Jesus, is – but they do listen to Catholic and Jewish advisors, as well as Evangelical Christians.

There are many things we believe are true, but they come from traditions handed down apart from the Bible. They don’t go against the Bible – and that’s the big difference between us as Catholics and evangelical Christians. Many Bible-believing Christians say they’ll only accept what is in the Bible. But that itself is not very Biblical – St Paul wrote, in the Bible, that the believers in Thessaloniki should hold to the traditions given to them by spoken words as well as what they had in writing.

So what do we know about Our Lady, which doesn’t come from the Bible but doesn’t go against it?

• She was conceived without original sin.
• She was presented in the Jewish Temple as a girl.
• She did not experience labour pains, since these are consequences of original sin; furthermore, the birth of Jesus was a physical miracle which did not rupture her womb.
• At the end of her earthly life, she was taken up, body and soul, into heaven.

There’s one thing, which we would get wrong if we only had the Bible to go on. We’re told clearly in the Bible that one day Mary came to visit Jesus together with his “brothers”. The natural reading would be that Jesus was the eldest of a large family. But in the ancient world, the same word could be used for brother, or step-brother, or cousin. So we can also read the text as suggesting Mary came with her step-children, or her nephews. Since we know from Catholic tradition that Mary remained a virgin after giving birth to Jesus, they couldn’t have been her natural born children.

Why is this important? It means Mary can be equally mother to every disciple of Jesus. She is Mother of God and our Mother too, because by our baptism, Jesus, who is God, became our eldest brother. Here’s a thought to get a conversation going: if someone asks you about this church, tell them it was named after your grandparents! We know – not from the Bible but from tradition – that Our Lady’s parents were named Joachim and Anne. But if you accept the gift of Mary as your Mother, then they are surely your spiritual grandparents. And if today we celebrate that Mary is Mother of God, we also rejoice that we are brothers and sisters of God! Yes, God-in-heaven is Our Father. But God-in-Jesus is our brother!

Jesus came to reveal that his Father in heaven is our Father, and I have seen grown men weep as they realise for the first time that God is not some remote spirit in heaven but someone who loves them better than any earthly father could. But sometimes we need healing for a difficult relationship with our mother, and for this, God has gifted us Mary. She is not divine – but she is a perfect model of motherhood.

I have a friend, a wife and mother who was brought up Baptist, and one of her greatest fears about becoming a Catholic was having to accept uncomfortable facts about the Virgin Mary. But then God granted her an extraordinary gift. As she was praying one day, she sensed Our Lady come to her and assure her that she had nothing to fear; Mary would not ask anything of her but just wanted to be known by her as one mother to another. She was so struck by the great humility she sensed in Our Lady on that occasion, that her fears about becoming a Catholic melted away.

What God offered my friend, he offers you too – the gift of Mary. I can’t promise you a vision of Our Lady but I can leave you with words which come from one. This is the report of St Juan Diego, the elderly man privileged to see Our Lady in Mexico City almost 500 years ago, who received the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on his cloak:

“Listen, my beloved son, have no fear or anxiety in your heart… For am I not here with you, your mother? Are you not safe in the shadow of my protection? Am I not the source of your life and your happiness? Am I not holding you in my lap, wrapped in my arms? What else can you possibly need?”

God has given you power to become children of Mary, It’s as easy as calling on her name. If you are worried about anything this year, ask Our Lady to wrap you in her arms. What more can you possibly need?