Here are the readings, Gospel and Homily from an evening Mass celebrated by Father Richard today - Laetare Sunday
Readings: http://universalis.com/mass.htm
To listen, click here
“Rejoice” is the first word
of today’s Mass. The Introit begins: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her.”
Listening to this, you might be saying: “Father, are you having a laugh?!”
Rejoicing is perhaps the last thing that springs to mind at the moment as we
worry about the coming weeks. But it’s precisely this sense of Christian joy
that will sustain us in these testing times.
In our second reading, St Paul
speaks of darkness and light. We do have to acknowledge the darkness we
experience at the moment: uncertainty, loneliness, concern for our vulnerable
family and friends, financial worries. We particularly have to look out for our
neighbour’s mental health as well as their physical health at this time. St
Paul reminds us, though, that “we must be like children of light, for the effects
of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth.”
“Living as children of the light”
– that’s what we’re called to do amid the darkness. The light that shines on
us, of course, is the light that radiates from the Person of Jesus Christ who
tells us in the Gospel: “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
We know that Jesus is in our midst today and that his light of hope shines out.
We know he is acting in the world and bringing people his healing touch.
Trusting in him, we can say
together with the Psalmist: “The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall
want.” We hear further: “Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping
spirit.” Yes, the Lord offers us the comfort and healing of his saving waters.
By his saving action, Jesus
sends the blind man in the Gospel to the Pool of Siloam. By bathing in this water,
the beggar is healed of his physical blindness. But we discover he heals the
man of his spiritual blindness too. Jesus opens up that man’s soul so that he’s
able to receive the gift of faith in Christ. Although the beggar doesn’t at
first know fully who his healer is, he testifies to Jesus in front of the Pharisees.
Jesus then rewards his openness to faith by revealing that he is the Christ - Son
of Man. The man who once walked in darkness has been led by Christ into the “radiance
of faith”, as the Preface for this Mass says.
Today, too, Jesus the Divine
Physician heals those whom he chooses of their physical illnesses by His Divine
Will. As well as healing the body, Jesus also heals and strengthens our souls
too. If we stay close to Him in these challenging times, he will lift us out of
any darkness we experience into His marvellous light that will bring us joy.
Being unable to come to Sunday
Mass and receive the Lord in the Eucharist will be heart-breaking for you - I
know. It must be very difficult to have faithfully come to Sunday Mass all your
life and then all of a sudden not be able to.
These times, then, call for
us to plunge ever deeper into the waters of our Catholic faith. We need to
constantly go back to our Baptism when we were washed clean in water and the
Holy Spirit, when we made our baptismal promises to believe in God, the Holy
Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of sins, the resurrection
of the body and life everlasting. We need to plunge ever deeper into our
spiritual life, to dedicate ourselves more and more at home to quality time
with the Lord in contemplation and meditation on the Scriptures.
If we grow in faith and love
of the Lord in these difficult days, then he will continue to heal us and bring
us deep joy. In the words of Saint Paul: “Rejoice in the Lord always; I say it
again, rejoice!” (Phil 4:4).
