Priest: Fr. John Halton, Parochial House, Tempo.
Telephone : 895 41344.

Sunday 7th March 2010

Third Sunday of Lent

God said to Moses: “Take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground”. All religions designate certain places as holy places and rightly demand a certain level of reverence and respect. For ourselves as Catholics our sacred place is the church where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. But the revelation of Christ is that the most sacred place of all is the company of another human being. He said that what we do to even the least person we do to him. Because of Christ, we are always standing on holy ground and our response always has to be one of reverence and respect. This has very far-reaching implications for us in the practice of our faith. The intimate relationship of husband and wife is a sacred place and calls for great reverence from all of us. And equally our homes and families and our faith community are places where we very often need a change of heart.

Fr. Johnny Doherty, C.Ss.R.

Sunday Masses:

Tempo: 7.00pm Saturday evening.
11.00am Sunday morning

Cradien: 9.30am Sunday morning.

Daily Masses:

Tempo: Tuesday 10.00am, Friday 8.00pm.

Cradien: Monday 7.00pm, Thursday 9.30am

Eucharistic Ministers

Tempo: Sat 13 March Una & Anthony McCaffrey.
Sun 14 March Billy Donoghue & Lorna Warnock.

Cradien: Sun 14 March Thomas McCusker.

Altar Servers

Week Beginning 7th March: Orla Cassidy, Shannon Durnion.

Week Beginning 14th March: Una & Declan McHugh, Kirsty Gallagher & Ronan McCaffrey.

Anniversaries

Tempo: Sunday 7/3 11.00am M.M.M. Terry Dolan, Magonragh
Friday 8.00pm Patsy McPhillips, Omagh and deceased of family.

Cradien: Sunday 14/3 9.30am James McShea, Cavanacross.

Justice: Thou shalt not Steal.

We all know that God continues to speak to us about his love for us, his relationship with us, and about the world in which we live. He reminds us today that our world is still a darkened world. He reminds us that we are surrounded by sin and evil. He reminds us that “He is our light and our help”. Every generation has it own blind spots. And while one generation grows in its understanding of sin and evil in one area of living, it is often blind to another. We have grown in many ways in our generation. We now know that our world is a relatively small place, and we have become very conscious of poverty in the world. We know that God gave all the goods of the earth, to all the people of the earth, and that we who are well off in comparison to others in the world, are called by God to share with those less well off. And more importantly we know that we must share out of justice, and not just out of charity.

We now take for granted that God gave all the goods of the world for all the people of the world. We cannot keep all for ourselves, otherwise we are stealing from those who have nothing. Not to give to others less well off, would be a breach of the seven Commandments; “Thou salt not steal”. Some years ago we would consider ourselves very charitable if we did give. This is a new insight and a development in our thinking that has happened in our time. It is a development that we now take for granted, because of our new found knowledge, and insight into the Gospel, through our understanding of our world. If we don’t give in justice we create anger, war, resentment and a broken world. For injustice leads to conflict.

We in Northern Ireland have developed in our understanding of the seventh commandment over the last thirty difficult years. We have learned the hard way, that we cannot love God and our neighbour, without that love being built on the seventh commandment which states, “Thou shalt not steal” for justice is the foundation of love, truth, peace, and harmony. We cannot be loving people, and at the same time be unjust people. All people have rights, and if these rights are not respected there cannot be love, peace, and harmony, and there cannot be Christianity. Justice always comes first. Even at a local level we know that this is true. If one person tries to take property belonging to another person they have got rid of love, for they have got rid of justice, peace, and harmony. They cause conflict. And this leads to division and bad felling in the community. This can happen among neighbours, employers, and in many areas of life. If the seventh commandment is broken there cannot be love. Justice, and fair play, is the foundation of love of God and love of neighbour. If we get rid of the seventh commandment we get rid of the foundation.

In our times we have learned this lesson at a very high price with the paedophile scandals. The injustice committed against some children by some people in society, undermined the whole fabric of love of God and love of neighbour. This injustice to children lead to the stealing away of children’s innocence, their emotional well being, and their very future as people. And naturally this injustice produced the sour grapes of anger, fear, mistrust, and havoc in some people’s lives, and in our society. This is the natural follow up to injustice, or to the breaking of the seventh commandment. This is why injustice is the greatest sin and evil of all. It destroys people, relationships, and it destroys community. This is why we examine our lifes under the microscope of justice during Lent.

We Christians know that Jesus works within all of us through his word. He enlightens us, and he transfigures us through his spirit of truth, his spirit of justice, for his spirit of truth and justice, go together. “He is our light and our help”. But we must listen very carefully to his word. He tells us himself that he speaks to us in the silence of the breeze, and not in loud thunder or in loud earthquakes. In other words he speaks to us when we listen to his word silently, when we ponder on his word silently, and when we listen silently in prayer to his word. We notice in today’s gospel that Jesus was transfigured when he was silently at prayer. We too will only be transfigured into just, honest, and truthful people, when we listen to his word silently in prayer. This is expressed very well in the Psalm. The “Lord is my light and my life”. “The Lord is the stronghold of my life”. “O Lord; hear my voice”. “It is your face O Lord that I seek” “Hope in the Lord”

When we are unjust the Lord hides his face from us, and we forget “that our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the Saviour we are waiting for, Our lord Jesus Christ”. So let us pray with the Psalm: “Lord hide not your face”

Prayer with Children

I hope that Young parents of young Children are keeping up their resolution for Lent. We asked you to say One Our Father, One Hail Mary, One Glory be to the Father, and One Act of Sorrow each evening with the children. If you have already failed please start again.

Emotional Development of Children:

If parents at home do not pray with their children, or bring them to Mass, they may be doing emotional damage to their children. They hear teachers at school, and other children talking about prayer, and Mass, and they don’t have these experiences themselves. They live in a Catholic environment at school, and don’t live in the same kind of environment at home. In other words they live in a split world. The two worlds are quite different, and so they become emotionally confused. I want you to go into a child’s mind, and ask yourself what is going on in that child’s mind, when they feel left out, or when they feel that they are living in two different worlds. They feel as psychologists tell us, that they are not loved by their parents like the other children. They become confused, emotionally upset, and they come to one conclusion. The conclusion is very simple: If my parents don’t love me, then I am unlovable. At this point they have sown the seeds within themselves, of an inferiority complex which is difficult to deal with in adult life. I know of course that other contradictory experiences case an inferiority complex also. This inferiority complex manifests itself in some way later. It may manifest itself in the child’s life later as they become more difficult to deal with at home and at school. It may manifest itself through vandalism or anti social behaviour as they grow older. The call from Jesus is to become fully human, or whole. The word “Holy” come from that word (Whole). We have interpreted Christianity much too narrowly, and made it a pious practise for a pious people. In fact it is not about being pious but about being human as Jesus was human. Jesus calls on parents to insure that their children become emotionally, physically, and spiritually integrated. Jesus calls on parents to bring their children up as “Whole People” If parents fail in one of these areas they are doing great damage to their child. We should discuss this emotional dimension of our children’ education in our homes, and with other parents. In a secular society it doesn’t suit the media to remind us of this emotional destruction of our children. Yet it is taking place before our eyes. It is obvious that we are doing our children harm, if we ask them to live in a schizophrenic society. I know a child who came home from school crying to its parents because they weren’t brought to Mass like another child. It would be better for this child if it was not at a Catholic School at all. Experience shows us that this damage to children can be handed on from one generation to another. It is not genetic. I ask you to go into a child’s mind when in First Communion Class the teacher brings them into the church to talk about “The Table of the Lord”, “The Table of the Word”, “The Baptismal Font”, “The Tabernacle”, and The Mass, but the child is not familiar with these surroundings. Others seem at home, but the child is completely lost. We should think and talk about the emotional effect on the child. Here we are talking about real mature Christianity. We are talking about the freedom to choose which we have taken from the child, and we are talking about the child’s emotional make up. We are talking about Education. Is it any wonder that Jesus said some thing about a stone being put around our neck, and thrown into the sea?

amounted this year to £22,056—45. We thank all those who filled the gift aid form, and a special word of thanks to Mr Eugene Maguire who takes care of the paper work.

Pobal Parish Pastoral Council:

Meet in Fr. John’s house on Thursday 11th March at 8.30pm. All members are asked to attend.