When I was training as a nurse we were taught a golden rule “never assume”. An assumption being accepting something as being true without proof.

This principle is important in the context of the medical professions as the wrong assumption can have very serious consequences. But there are times for all of us when we have to make assumptions. There will be times when the information we have is incomplete and we have to use our intuition and prior experiences to fill in the gaps and reach conclusions.

Perhaps assumptions are part and parcel of being a Christian. After all St Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says that we see things dimly in a mirror. But St Paul was writing around 53 AD at a time when the gospels were being formulated from people’s recollections of the life of Jesus. On Sunday we hear from Luke’s gospel written between 80 and 90 AD. By the time Luke is putting pen to paper, the time for assumptions about the good news of Jesus has passed. The core of the teaching of Jesus was in place. All of the gospels address, in one way or another, the end of history, both the end of our personal history in this life at our death, and the end of time itself.

Jesus time and time again warns us to be ready for both, are we? Are you? Am I? As part of hospital and hospice ministry I see people who are approaching their personal end time here on earth. It is a grace and joy to be able to offer the sacrament of the anointing of the sick to people, to cleanse them of the spiritual ills alongside their medical treatment.

At the same time there is a feeling in some parts of the Christian world and more generally in society that spiritual interventions and remedies like this are unimportant, irrelevant, not needed. It’s just between the person and God. It’s an assumption that all people are saved and enjoying the eternal beauty of the vision of God. Of course no one can comprehend the scope of the love and mercy of God for us, either in this life or the next, but we need to be careful, the idea that a person can do everything on their own to attain grace and eternal life is an ancient heresy called Pelagianism.

We know from our own experience of life, and what we see in the world, that we cannot simply save ourselves let alone our world, and that the exercise of our will cannot save us. If it could the world would already be a very different and better place. We need God or loving Father; we need Jesus; we need the grace and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Only God’s free gift of grace, mediated in this life through the medicine for our souls, the sacraments, can bring about the personal transformation that we need and that the world desperately seeks. The Mass and the sacraments is the narrow door, narrow but always open, to those with a sincere heart.

So how are your assumptions today about your life as a Christian? How are you today with loving God with your heart mind and soul and the stranger as yourself? How well do you know Jesus? How well does Jesus know the real you? He desperately wants to know you; he wants to work with you to transform you into something beautiful, something eternal. Do not be afraid. He wants to invite you to the feast of eternal joy. Please, please, don’t pass it up.

This week's bulletin is attached.

As always please be assured of my daily prayers for your needs and intentions.

Fr Chris