The Gospel for this Sunday, the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, comes from an abridged version of Mark 7:1-23. The missing verses only expand on what Jesus means by observing human traditions and how the digestive tract has nothing to do with the motivations of the heart.

Jesus has been in public ministry for a while, His apostles have been chosen, and He is getting a reputation as a wonder worker. The miracle of the feeding of the 5000 has definitely attracted the attention of the ‘higher ups’, and we see some scribes and Pharisees arrive - who have specifically made the journey from Jerusalem to Galilee to find out for themselves what is going on.

Places like Capernaum would not have had the same refined manners as the more wealthy and learned residents of Jerusalem. Fishermen, shepherds and farmers aren’t going to be overly picky about personal cleanliness. Whatever the disciples have been doing (or not doing) about the ceremonial washings that are de rigueur in Jerusalem hasn’t been worthy of comment up until now.

Either these infractions of tradition got up their noses big time, or they didn’t have any better question to ask, so the scribes and Pharisees decided to pick on Jesus by bringing their (the disciples') lack of perfect hygiene up for public discussion.
Boy did they underestimate Jesus!

Jesus took their question, turned it like a mirror back on to the questioners, and then used it to springboard a major teaching to the gathered crowds. A bit like a leg spin bowler serving up a deceptive googly with an expectation of hitting the stumps and the batsman thwacks it for six.

Do not underestimate Jesus.
Do not pick on Him.
Do not pick on His disciples.
It will backfire big time.

How did these ceremonial washings of hands begin? Don’t know. But it could have been a measure introduced to stop the spread of infection within the community in bygone days.

However now it has become a bit of a yardstick to measure who takes God seriously and who doesn’t, and to pressurize people into conformity. Was it something God actually asked the people of Israel to do? No. But these Jerusalemites are enforcing it as though it was of the same importance as the Law and the Prophets.

It is much, much easier to keep your hands clean than your heart clean.

God did require cleanliness and associated preparations for public worship of Him, as is His due. He deserves the best from us, and sloppiness won’t do. But it was also as a physical reminder to ready the mind, heart and soul for worship too.

Jesus calls them hypocrites because they are more concerned with the minutiae of hand cleanliness than with honouring and reverencing God in our hearts, thoughts and feelings.

What is a hypocrite? It was a name used for an actor under an assumed character, or a dissembler, and became a term to describe the disguise (or concealment) of one's real nature, motives, or feelings behind a false appearance.

We have in these visitors from Jerusalem people who are supposed to be 'the best of the best' in putting God first in their lives, and they are more concerned with infractions of ceremonial handwashing than with the worship offered in mind, heart, and will to God.

Jesus tells us (and the big crowd that has gathered around Him) the truth:
nothing from the outside can make us unclean or defiled,
only acting on the evil thoughts and malicious desires of our hearts makes us truly unclean and truly defiled.

Jesus then goes on to make us aware of just how much He fully understands human iniquity and our capacity for evil.

(verse 21) For from within the hearts of men 
come/ discharge/proceed/project (ekporeuontai)
evil/ bad/worthless/depraved/injurious (kakoi)
thoughts/ discussion/consideration/debate (dialogismoi).
sexual immorality (porneiai)- feminine plural
theft (klopai)- feminine plural
murder (phonoi) slaughter, killing- masculine plural
adultery (moicheiai) - feminine plural

The plural is very interesting here, because it includes collectively planned evil, evil with the support and encouragement and teamwork of others.
But there’s more….

(verse 22) greed, (pleonexiai) covetousness, avarice, aggression, desire for advantage – feminine plural
wickedness, (ponēriai) iniquities, depravity, malice; plural plots, sins- feminine plural.
deceit, (dolos) guile, treachery, tricks, wiles- masculine singular
debauchery, (aselgeia) licentiousness- feminine singular.
envy, (ophthalmos) the eye; the mind's eye, by implication, vision; figuratively, envy – masculine singular.
slander, (blasphēmia) abusive or scurrilous language, blasphemy, vilification- feminine singular.
arrogance, (hyperēphania) pride, disdain, haughtiness- feminine singular.
foolishness, (aphrosynē) want of sense, impiety, wickedness, egotism; recklessness- feminine singular.

Even if we might debate how poorly the ancients considered the morality of women relative to the morality of men; this list doesn’t let anyone off the hook, male or female, alone or in groups.

It is also a stark reminder that some forms of depravity take an element of organisation and teamwork, and that we can be culpable not only as individuals but as parts of groups.

Ouch! Gulp! Oh Ohh!

Yes, the Lord Jesus is giving us an opportunity today to look deep into our hearts, and to acknowledge the depths of wickedness that linger there, to accept our own culpability,
and to ask and beg for His mercy.
For only He can truly make us clean on the inside.

May each one of us accept that loving challenge from Him. Amen.

You might like to pray this adaptation of a well-loved prayer in response:

Lord Jesus, I come before You, just as I am,
I am sorry for my sins,
the sins I am aware of, the sins I may have forgotten,
the sins I do not yet comprehend the full gravity of;
​the sins I have committed through human weakness,
the evils that I don’t yet understand as evils,
squashed my conscience about,
and yet have done them anyway.
I repent of my sins, please forgive me.
In Your Name, I forgive all others for what they have done against me.
I renounce Satan, the evil spirits and all their works.
I give You my entire self, Lord Jesus, now and forever.
I invite You into my life, Lord Jesus.
I accept You as my Lord, God and Saviour.
Heal me, change me, strengthen me in body, soul, and spirit.
Come Lord Jesus, cover me with Your Precious Blood,
and fill me with Your Holy Spirit.
I love You Lord Jesus. I praise You Jesus. I thank You Jesus.
I thank You for the enormity of Your mercy towards me.
I shall follow You every day of my life. Amen.

Mary, my Mother, Queen of Peace,
​and all the Angels and Saints,
please help me to ratify this prayer with my whole life. Amen.

In many countries, including Australia, we are now in the extraordinary situation of being without sacraments for the foreseeable future, due to efforts to minimise the effect of the coronavirus.

Being without Mass, sacramental Communion, Confession and the encouragement of worshipping together as a community and catching up with each other is going to be extremely difficult for everyone.

(In some places Confession and Eucharistic Adoration may still be possible, so check with your local diocesan and parish websites.)

These things are gold, but we do have access to silver, since the Church teaches that God answers our desires for these good things. For example you may remember you were taught there were three kinds of baptism, by water, by blood (martyrdom) and by desire.

In a similar way there is sacramental communion and spiritual communion. While there are many good prayers of spiritual communion, and learning at least one of them by heart is recommended, all it really needs is expressing to Jesus that you want to receive sacramental communion, but are unable to, asking Him to come and visit you in your heart spiritually instead.

The PDF below (one A4 page) explains more about spiritual communion:

My Jesus, I believe that You are truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to possess You within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as already being there, and unite myself wholly to You; never permit me to be separated from You.

It is also why we were taught that if we find ourselves in danger, a good Act of Contrition is the best thing to do. Again, the Act of Contrition is expressing to God our desire for His pardon and forgiveness, which is in essence a desire for Confession. There are many approved prayers of Acts of Contrition, find one you like best and commit it to memory.

My God, I am sorry for my sins
with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and
failing to do good, I have sinned against You
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance,
to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads
me to sin. Our saviour Jesus Christ suffered
and died for us. In His name, my God,
have mercy. Amen.

Like the prayer of Spiritual Communion, praying an Act of Contrition daily during this extraordinary situation until the churches reopen is a good idea.

Thankfully there are options online for Mass

https://www.ewtn.com/tv/watch-live televises Mass 4 times a day (in Australia currently that means at 3am, 10am, 3pm and 11pm) although for us in Australia it will be the Mass from yesterday, and these times will change by an hour when daylight savings ends on 5 Apr 2020

https://www.youtube.com/user/ShalomWorldWide is where you can access recorded copies of Pope Francis' daily Masses. It is likely to be in Italian and without subtitles, but you should be able to pick up enough words and gestures to follow along.

In Australia on the free-to-air tv Channel 10 at 6am on Sundays there is Mass For You At Home (30 mins), which you can always record and replay at a more convenient time.

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, has promised to live stream their 1.10pm and 5.30pm daily Masses via both their website https://www.stmaryscathedral.org.au/ and their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/stmaryscathedralsydney/

And these are only a few of the Mass options available online.

See what your local diocesan website is recommending or offering. For example, on Instagram @frjasonsmith will be live streaming a daily Mass.

Another thing that can be done is to join with the universal Church in praying the Divine Office (morning prayer, evening prayer, night prayer, or as much of it as you can manage).

For those who do not have copies of the prayer books at home to do this, some websites and apps make this possible to do.
https://divineoffice.org/welcome/
(although you will need to send them a request)
https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/liturgy/ scroll all the way down for the link, it will be according to the USA liturgical calendar.

You can order the prayer books online
(for Australia)
https://www.paulinebooks.com.au/search/search.cgi?search=divine+office

If you are new at this choose the Morning and Evening Prayer (black cover) https://www.amazon.com.au/Morning-Evening-Prayer-Not-Available/dp/0007211333
If you have money to burn, get the 3 Volume Divine Office which contains the Office of Readings
If these books look too heavy for you, go for the Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer (red cover), which covers everything but doesn't have the richness of the liturgical seasons and saints feast days that the black cover has.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Shorter-Morning-Evening-Prayer-Icel/dp/0007219873

If the Divine Office feels too complicated for you, then there is something similar at http://disabilityandjesus.org.uk/ called An Ordinary Office http://anordinaryoffice.org.uk/ specifically designed for people with disabilities who cannot access church buildings. If you have a Twitter account you can pray it via @DisabilityJ

All of these prayer options can keep us plugged into the prayer life of the universal church, and in unity.
………………………
There are lots of your friends who need this information,
so please share it around.

In all this we remind ourselves that God is in control. If He has permitted us to go through this dearth of the sacraments, then it is only so that He can bring a much greater good out of it. We can look upon this time as an opportunity to deepen our faith and to deepen our desire for Jesus. The more we do this, the shorter the time of trial will be, since we believe that Jesus longs for sacramental contact with us much, much more than we long for sacramental contact with Him. Pray for your priests, that this time is transformative for the better for them too. If nothing else, we will never take the sacraments for granted again!

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us
St Joseph, terror of demons, pray for us

Because other papal bulls in recent memory have included options for those who are infirm or unable to leave their own house (eg Incarnationis Mysterium) and because Misericordiae Vultus was silent on the matter, I am going to assume that those conditions apply to the Jubilee Year of Mercy viz 'They can gain the indulgence by spiritually uniting themselves with those carrying out the prescribed work in the ordinary manner and by offering to God their prayers, sufferings and discomforts'.

The Handbook of Indulgences 1988 says 'To be capable of gaining indulgences a person must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace (ie free from all serious sin) at least at the time the prescribed works are completed.'

So this Virtual Pilgrimage is designed to help those who are infirm or housebound to unite themselves spiritually with those making Holy Door pilgrimages to Holy Cross, Kincumber. As usual, whether the grace of an indulgence is full or partial is up to God. Since St Thomas Aquinas says, 'The benefit of a single grace is greater than all the material value of the whole world.', we shouldn't neglect doing our best to be granted even the smallest ones. Even St Paul encourages us, 'The more grace is multiplied among people, the more thanksgiving there will be, to the glory of God.' 2 Cor 4:15b

So let's begin.

Holy Cross Kincumber was built in 1842 with convict-hewn sandstone blocks, at a time when access to this part of the world was only possible by boat. Next door is the convent and orphanage built by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart under the guidance of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. On the other side is an historic cemetery.  

​Here's what the exterior of the Holy Door at Holy Cross Kincumber looks like:

Before we go in we need to do three things.

Firstly we need to express our contrition to God for our sins. To obtain the full indulgence requires going to the Sacrament of Penance (a.k.a confession) and receiving God's mercy in a personal way. Since for some that may not be possible within the 'week before or week after' time requirement, we can pray an Act of Contrition. Choose which one you like most and pray that...

O my God, I am sorry and beg pardon for all my sins and detest them above all things, because they deserve Your dreadful
punishments, because they have crucified my loving Saviour, Jesus Christ, and, most of all, because they offend Your
infinite goodness. And I firmly resolve, by the help of Your grace, never to offend You again, and carefully avoid the occasions of sin. Amen
 
My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against You
whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our saviour Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In His name, my God, have mercy. Amen.

The next thing is receiving sacramental Holy Communion. Again, that might not be possible for many, but instead we can pray a prayer of spiritual Communion. In the life of St Catherine of Siena we read that Jesus compared these types of communion to gold and silver respectively, and that both pleased Him. Choose to pray the one you like most...

'My Jesus, I believe that You are truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to possess You within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as already being there, and unite myself wholly to You; never permit me to be separated from You.' St Alphonsus Ligouri

'At Your feet, O my Jesus, I prostrate myself and I offer You the repentance of my contrite heart, which is humbled in its nothingness and in Your holy presence. I adore You in the Sacrament of Your love, the ineffable Eucharist. I desire to receive You into the poor dwelling that my heart offers You. While waiting for the happiness of sacramental communion, I wish to possess You in spirit. Come to me, O my Jesus, since I, for my part, am coming to You! May Your love embrace my whole being in life and in death. I believe in You, I hope in You, I love You. Amen.' Cardinal Merry del Val 
 
The third thing is choosing your intention. Any indulgence can be obtained for oneself (as a way of kick-starting or renewing your relationship with God) or for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Once you have chosen, we can enter the Holy Door with as much humility and trust as possible.

Here's what this holy place looks like inside.

It is a favourite place for local brides and grooms to enter into sacramental marriage.

​Now we pray an Our Father, the prayer Jesus Himself taught us. Choose where you would like to pray it, near the tabernacle or near one of the crucifixes.

For this part you can pray in your own words, or you might like to pray this prayer for St Mary of the Cross MacKillop for your living loved ones and an Eternal Rest for each deceased loved one.

Ever generous and merciful God, You inspired St Mary of the Cross MacKillop to live her life faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and constant in bringing hope and encouragement to those who were disheartened, lonely or needy. With confidence in Your generous providence and joining with St Mary of the Cross MacKillop I ask that You grant my request  ............................ for .......................... May our faith and hope be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit so that we too, like St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, may live with courage, trust and openness. Ever generous and merciful God hear my prayer, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
May his/her soul and all the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

​...............................................

Our virtual pilgrimage is now at an end. Come back any time during this Jubilee Year of Mercy to pray it again (it finishes 20 Nov 2016).



 
  

In Rome, and in many diocesan cathedrals around the world - and hopefully some parish churches as well - preparations are being made for 24 Hours For The Lord at the end of this week (13/14 Mar 2015). It is a wonderful initiative of Pope Francis, to keep the lights on and the doors open for a full 24 hours, and to invite people to come and pray and to return to the Sacrament of Penance. Many generous priests will be giving up sleep over those 24 hours to be used by Jesus to bring His Mercy to all those who seek it. May they be richly rewarded for such service.

In many other churches there will be opportunities to attend the sacrament of Penance under the 2nd Rite of Reconciliation in these final weeks before Good Friday. At those times the community gathers, prays, listens to Scripture and has an opportunity to think about those areas of their lives that are not in harmony with God's love before going up individually to one of the several priests available to confess their sins, followed by a time of prayer and communal thanksgiving.

The big question is: How can we make it easier for people who haven't experienced God's personal Mercy in a long time to take that daunting step into the confessional?

For starters you need a team of well-prepared parishioners outside the doors of the church building. People need a friendly face on the outside of a church as they do the 'Will I or won't I go in?' battle. The courage it takes to get over a church threshold is formidable, and the battle happens outside not inside. They become a visual reminder of the Father waiting for the prodigal child to return home.

You need people outside, so that someone can come up and ask, 'What's going on inside?' 'Why are there lights on at 2am?' and so an answer can be given, 'Pope Francis has asked us to have open house for 24 hours so that people can pray and so they can experience God's Mercy in the sacrament of Penance. If you wanted to go inside, you would be most welcome.'

Then if someone says, 'But I don't know how to pray' or 'I have forgotten how to go to confession' or 'Can you tell me what sin is, so that I know what I need to confess?' your team can help them.

If you can have a similar team on the inside of the church as well, that's even better. You need people on the alert for those who have become emotional before and especially after the sacrament of penance. Do you have a ready supply of tissues? Do you have people on alert for those going through the 'Will I or won't I risk going through the confessional door?' battle who can pray silently, and can encourage when appropriate. Do you have people ready to listen to those who have just experienced God's Mercy? Do you have people who can get up to a microphone every hour or so and give testimony to how prayer and the sacrament of Penance have changed their lives?

In the confessionals themselves, have the priests been supplied with printed material to hand out to penitents? Things like Parish Welcome kits (with information on parish groups, how to contact the parish office, Mass times, Reconciliation times, RCIA and how to enroll a child in a Catholic school etc), How to Pray pamphlets, small booklets of the Compendium of the Catechism and Gospels. Anything that will assist a penitent to keep going forward in the grace they have received help from God's Mercy.

Person to person interaction is best, but even that needs paperwork support, so here are some resources to download:

Sin is when we do not love God and others as Jesus taught us to. That's the answer our children going through sacramental initiation receive. Pondering our lives in the light of the Ten Commandments is valuable when preparing for the Sacrament of Penance. These documents are A4 size, one for adults and one for children.