Spring is a time of new beginnings.  Leaves sprouting, birds nattering, colours peeping out, blossoms bursting, all indicate new life.  Hope is in the air.  Good beginnings engender hope.  It is almost as if a bountiful harvest can be foreseen.  But there is many a slip between sowing good seed and harvesting a bumper crop.  A late frost can arrest growth.  Summer storms can wreak havoc, perhaps, even total destruction.  Still, there is hope.  Without hope nothing worthwhile is achieved.

Something similar happens in life and in particular, in the life of faith.  Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriage vows and Ordination all speak of new beginnings pregnant with great expectations.  Selfishness and sin, weakness and wanderlust, fear and fantasy, pride and prejudice can retard growth into mature faith-filled living.  But no matter what the setbacks here, there comes the chance to make a fresh start.

Today’s gospel is an invitation to make the most of such an opportunity with its clarion call to repent and its challenging image of the barren fig tree reminding us that we are called to go before the Lord with a bumper harvest of good works, of kindness to those in need, of fidelity in the face of suffering, of steadfastness in sharing faith.

Repentance is unfashionable because compromise is more accommodating.  But repentance is about reality.  Compromise is about fantasy.  The choice is to live in the world of make believe or to allow him to revitalise the seeds of the spirit within us one more time.  To be willing and able, to make a fresh start in life is God’s greatest gift to us.  He offers it now.

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Sunday Missal: Page 576    †   New Edition: Page735

Psalm Response

The Lord is compassion and love.

In order to grow, friendship needs space, sharing and trust.  Time alone is not enough to build friendship.   Some people can be work colleagues or neighbours for years without any real bond growing between them.  Friendship can only grow where people make space in their lives for each other and use it to get to know each other, to share hopes joys, fears and secrets, to trust the other person with what is deepest in oneself.

What was deepest in Jesus of Nazareth was his relationship with the Father.  He was the beloved Son.  Time and again, he went aside from the crowds to be alone with the Father in prayer.  Often, he took the apostles with him, especially Peter, James and John.  With them he shared his fears about his future sufferings, his hopes of glory, but, above all else, his bond with the Father.  One such occasion was on Mount Thabor where the trio glimpsed that their friend was the promised Messiah, the fulfilment of all their hopes.  They had left their fishing behind to be with him.  They had made space in their lives for his friendship and trust.  He responded by strengthening their faith.

Today is our day for making space and time for Jesus in our lives.  His response will always be generous.   Today is Thabor Sunday.

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Sunday Missal: Page 573    †   New Edition: Page731

Psalm Response

The Lord is my light and my help.

It is often suggested that each stage of a person’s life is deeply influenced by a particular drive or instinct.  While pride is ever-present in our hearts, the suggestion is that the young seek pleasure, the middle-aged want power and the old put their hope in possessions.   Some people find such wayward trends alive and well in every stage of their lives, and are happy in the ongoing human struggle by inviting Christ to be with them as they grow gradually in the gospel values that redirect these strong human drives.

Today’s gospel recounts in a vividly descriptive way how Christ himself experienced similar temptations.  The bread he was offered when he was hungry is a symbol of how easy it is to justify putting our own comfort and pleasure before the needs and rights of others.  His trip to the high mountain with its offer of control over many kingdoms, alerts us to the many ways in which we can be tyrants in small ways through emotional blackmail in our families and through pressure groups in the job or in school.

The desire to be accepted and popular can be so strong that we are often tempted to do what will please rather than what is right, as happened to Christ on the parapet of the Temple.

In each situation, the choice is between selfishness and the other’s good, between settling for human limitations or accepting our greatness as God’s children.  Lent is a time to strengthen the choice to belong enthusiastically to God’s family.

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Sunday Missal: Page 569    †   New Edition: Page727

Psalm Response

Be with me. O Lord, in my distress.

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent.  We will only make something important of Lent if we get our diaries out today and plan ahead by asking ourselves how we can participate and what events will be of most help to us in using Lent as an opportunity to renew our Faith.

On Saturday 20^th February, our three Catechumens and our candidates will travel to Portsmouth for the Rite of Election.  At this ceremony, Bishop Crispian will formally accept them to be prepared for the Easter Sacraments.  He will remind them to use the short time that is left as a time of prayer and purification, so that they are as ready as they can be for full entry into the church.  I hope that you will all keep this group in your prayers.  Also, please take the opportunity at the different ceremonies, to reach out to them and make them feel welcome and at home in our parish community.

It would be great if all of us entered into Lent in the same spirit as the Elect.  We would then begin to get excited about our faith and make it central to our lives again.  We are fortunate to be part of the parish -  this we should see as a privilege rather than a burden.  Our elect do share a sense of joy about where they are going . Why not share that joy with them and really celebrate your gifts?

This newsletter gives information regarding the different events that we will have in the parish.  Some of these events will need preparation if they are to take place.  So I am asking for volunteers to come forward to prepare and run these events.  The ideal would be to have small team working together.  This is another way of “Living our Faith”.

Monsignor Tom McGrath

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Sunday Missal: Page 634    †   New Edition: Page 810

Psalm Response

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.