St. Philip Parish and St. Clare Mission

In order to understand the significance of this episode in our gospel, it is important to know a few facts. This place where Jesus takes his disciples, Caesarea Philippi is located at the northernmost point of Israel. From there, Jesus and his followers would have a wide panorama of the whole country spread out before them. It was a place known in antiquity for being a shrine to various gods, including the god Pan, pictured as half-goat, half-man. Human sacrifice was offered to the gods at this place in ancient times. In Jesus’ time, this location, Caesarea Philippi was renovated by King Philip, and dedicated to Caesar Augustus, who insisted on being treated as a god, and to be referred to by various titles such as Son of God, Redeemer, Savior, all titles that would eventually be attributed to Jesus Christ.

So, in this shrine with so many associations with divinity, Jesus asks the crucial question: “In this place associated with various gods and idols, where do you put me? Am I just one of many gods to be worshipped at this site, or do I have a unique and special status?”  Jesus has already asked his apostles “Who do others say that I am?”  The various answers offered to that question represent good guesses on the part of the crowds, but they fall short of the full truth about Jesus. Jesus is more than John the Baptist, or Elijah or one of the many prophets in Israel’s past. I wonder if we went out now to interview people in the streets and ask them “Who is Jesus to you?”, what answers do you think we would get. Probably answers like “He was a good man” or “He was a great teacher” or “He was someone who had a lot of good ideas at the time”.… Read more...

On the front of our bulletin this weekend, you will find a reference to something called “The Life in the Spirit Seminars”. I want to urge you to read it, especially the bit that says: “The (seminars) are designed to bring each participant to a new and deeper relationship with Jesus. Its powerful spiritual experience helps believers to live their lives with joy and hope in a world that is so often opposed to the Spirit”. Then go on to read the address given by Pope Francis, also on the front page of the bulletin. Because the pope specifically mentions the Seminars, which, he says “make it possible for people to encounter the living Jesus, in his word and his Spirit, and at the same time to experience his Church as a welcoming environment, a place of grace, reconciliation and rebirth”. The Seminars, he continues, “are often an engaging and transformative experience that becomes a turning point in people’s lives.”  Sound good? Sound like something you might like to have happen to you. Of course it is! That is why Pope Francis encourages us to make these Seminars more widely available.

Well, guess what, brothers and sisters, we are going to make the Life in the Spirit Seminars available in our parishes of St Philip’s and St Clare’s. This Fall, my community of Lift Jesus Higher are putting on the seminars in our parishes, and everyone is invited to take part, free of charge. The seminars will run each Thursday evening from October 3^rd to November 14^th. So, if you want an “engaging and transformative experience” through a life-changing encounter with God’s Holy Spirit, this is for you! Last weekend, a group of us from the parishes went to a retreat centre in Plantagenet and enjoyed a powerful experience of the Spirit.… Read more...

I remember Cardinal Hume, the bishop who ordained me, telling us priests once, about a trip he made to Ethiopia, which was going through a severe famine crisis. While he was wandering through a refugee camp there, he met a young boy who took his hand in one of his hands, and with the other hand, rubbed his stomach, indicating his two basic needs: food for his stomach, love for his heart.

 Our readings today show God providing for both of these needs in his people. The prophet Elisha shows great compassion and generosity for the hundred people under his charge in our first reading, being willing to share with them the small amount of barley and grain that he has been given, but also through his faith in the word of God, seeing that small amount of food multiplied to feed all of those people. This is just one of many “feeding” miracles in the Bible. Elijah multiplies a poor widow’s meagre amount of meal and oil so she and her son don’t starve to death in a time of famine. God also miraculously provides food and drink for Elijah himself during a long walk to the mountain of Horeb, where he is due to meet with God himself at a time of persecution from the king and queen of his country, Israel. And, of course, there is the great miracle of the provision of manna for Israel during their forty day’s journeys from Egypt to the Promised Land. Tucked into that one miracle feeding story are a couple more where God provides meat on a couple of occasions to feed nearly a million people.

The psalm today extends that provision also to all of creation. “The eyes of all looks to you and you give them their food in due season.… Read more...