The newsletter for this coming weekend is on the wesbite within the 'Newsletter section'
Please note, coming up....
- Tomorrow (Friday 25th) 'Lenten Lunch' in the hall served from 12noon until 1.30pm with donations for CAFOD. Plus from 5-7pm the church is open for anyone to visit to light a #CandleForPeace then afterwards the Rosary will be said until Mass starts at 7.30pm.
- Sunday (27th) Mother's Day cake and gift sale with refreshments in the hall after morning Mass.
Thanks go, once again, to Deacon Vincent for sharing his weekly Reflections
~ 4th Sunday in Lent Year C
1st Reading from the book of Joshua 5: 9-12.
This book is named after this single person because he figures greatly in this story. We are dealing with the Israelites entering and slowly conquering Canaan under the charismatic leader Joshua. For the reader in the Greek translation, they get a bit of a shock as Joshua translates as Jesus from Hebrew to Greek. Just try to imagine the shock of the early Christians reading this book with Jesus the main character. We use the original Hebrew name of Joshua to avoid discomfort. The book is about the struggle to establish their promised land. Its main theme is about following God’s rules which lead to success or disobeying and finding themselves in a mess. This particular section is their first meal on the products of their new land, and the joy of celebrating their maturity from slaves to free born people in the feast of the Passover. Moses had recently looked across the Promised land but was forbidden to enter it. Joshua would lead the people to possess this land, and this is the new people in the new land with their heritage remembered and driven deep into their whole being. God will be their God and whilst they remember this and do not stray, their heritage is secure.
This is a (Wisdom) psalm of thanksgiving. Our response today is taken from verse 8 and the word for good in Greek sounds like the word for Messiah or Christ, so a Christian hearer would have heard “Taste and see that the Lord is Christ.”
2nd Reading from 2nd letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 5: 17-21.
God’s victory over death is not just for Jesus, but due to God’s generosity it is extended to all of us, and it will transform our lives. But God will not force us, so Paul says, “be reconciled to God”. We are Ambassadors for Christ, and that message is, be reconciled to the sinless one, Jesus Christ. We ought to be astonished at God’s generosity, he made Christ into sin, all for us!!
The Holy Gospel According to Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32.
This is an extraordinary story, the younger son is brutally rude and arrogant to his father, who is extremely docile. Off goes the young son and leads a very dissolute life, there are no redeeming features except that when things go wrong, he decides to go home. Now just be amazed that the father is looking out for him day in and day out. He knows the lad will get into trouble, and he wants him home. He sees the boy at a distance and dashes to greet him. He does not shout or condemn he restores him to his family place, and of course orders a feast. The story does not finish there for this parable is for those who criticise Christ’s generosity in receiving sinners. So, the elder son comes sulking and grumbling, forgetting that the father had given him half of himself, he complains at feasting “this son of yours”, he can’t bear to give him a name, whilst saying how he has obeyed all his commands and followed all his rules and never once did he feast him. The father replies, my son everything I have is yours, but it is right to rejoice because, “this brother of yours was dead, but is alive, was lost but is found.” God’s generosity knows no bounds, so let us rejoice when the lost are found, not queue up to name their failings, for we are all “Lost and we all want to be found.” This is a week to ponder God’s generosity in letting us be called his children, for that is what we are through our baptism, Christ has earned our admission, let us always be grateful.
God Bless us all and fit us for eternal life, Amen.
