Good Morning – let’s hope everyone remembered the clock went forward last night and we are here at 10am GMT not 9am!

‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’ Matthew 22:36-40

Today’s gospel is set in the last two weeks of Jesus’ life at a time when he is going to the temple every day and preaching his final preaching. In two weeks time he will be arrested and put on trial and found guilty and he will die. And the Pharisees ask the question, “What is the most important Commandment?”

The Jewish people had a lot of Commandments. We think of only the ten, the Ten Commandments, but they had at least six hundred and seventy. When they talk about the Commandments, the Jews revered all of them – the smallest and the biggest – but they also knew that all of them had a common cause – what it was to be loved by God and to love God.

What Jesus reminds them and reminds us is that all that writing, all that talking, all the sermons we have heard have only one subject and that is: love God with your whole heart and love your neighbour as yourself. Knowing this truth is to know Jesus, following this truth is to follow him, through the Cross, to the glory of the Resurrection and eternal life with his Father.

As Wales is in a Coronavirus firebreak lockdown from 6pm Friday, October 23^rd until 12:01am on Monday, November 9^th, there will be no Masses open to attendees at St. Teilo’s or Our Lady of Lourdes during this period. Mass will continue to be broadcast online each day at 10.00am.

Mass today will be at 10.00am and you are welcome to join us online.

This week’s newsletter can be found here.

Today we hear the parable of the wedding feast. In it Jesus offers an image of the kingdom of heaven as a great banquet at a wedding, something which can no longer happen in our socially distancing times!!

In today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah and in today’s psalm, the Lord’s goodness is evident in the symbol of a feast of good food and wine. Jesus’ listeners would have been familiar with the image of a wedding feast as a symbol for God’s salvation. They would consider themselves to be the invited guests. Keeping this in mind helps us to understand the critique Jesus makes with this parable. The context for this parable is the growing tension between Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

The parable Jesus tells is straightforward. The king dispatches his servants to invite the guests to the wedding feast that he is planning for his son. The listeners would have been surprised to learn that the first guests refused the invitation. Who would refuse the king’s invitation? A second dispatch of servants follows. Again, to the listeners’ great surprise, some guests ignore the invitation. Some of the invited guests even go so far as to mistreat and kill the servants.

With the invited guests now deemed unworthy to attend the king’s wedding feast, the servants are sent to invite whomever they can find. The guests arrive, but it appears that accepting the king’s invitation brings certain obligations. The guest who failed to dress in the appropriate wedding attire is cast out of the feast. We are reminded that while many are invited to the kingdom of heaven, not all are able to meet its requirements. God invites us to his feast, giving us his salvation. Yet he asks us to repent for our sins.

Jesus’ message in the parable cautions against exclusive beliefs about the kingdom of heaven. The parable also teaches about humility. Those who assume that they are the invited guests may find that they have refused the invitation, and so others are invited in their place. To accept the invitation is also to accept its obligations. God wants our full conversion in complete acceptance of his mercy.

Mass today will be at 10.00am and you are welcome to join us online.

This week’s newsletter can be found here.

Please note that St. Teilo’s will be open for Mass at 10.00am today, Tuesday, Thursday and next Sunday.  We are full for today’s Mass, but if you would like to book for Tuesday, Thursday or next Sunday please telephone Carole on 07747 562847 between 11am and 1pm, tomorrow, Monday, October 12^th.

Today’s gospel invites us to reflect on our relationship with Jesus. Are we like the chief priests and elders of Jesus day, who keep the message of the gospel with our lips, but not with our lives? Or are we those who do the will of God in all we do, think and say.

The gospel shows the chief priests and elders questioning Jesus about the source of his authority. Jesus refuses to name for these religious leaders the source of his authority. Instead, he questions them. The answer they give is correct, but it convicts them for their failure to heed the call of John the Baptist and for their inability to recognise Jesus as the bearer of the Kingdom of God.

The situation Jesus poses is rather straightforward. Given the same task by their father, one son asserts his disobedience in words, but then obeys in his actions; the second son obeys with his words but disobeys in his actions. The question that Jesus poses is pointed and direct: Which son did what the father wanted? All would agree that “actions speak louder than words” and that even if his words were disobedient, the son who did the work as ordered did the father’s will.

Jesus’ conclusion is also direct. The chief priests and elders, the ones who speak most often about God, did not act accordingly. They did not respond to the message of repentance announced by John the Baptist with a change of heart. Instead, John’s message was heeded by those one would not expect to repent—tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners. Because of their actions, these sinners will enter the Kingdom of God ahead of the religious leaders.

Jesus asks us the same question. Do our words indicate our obedience to God? If not our words, do our actions? God desires a full conversion of heart from us all. He desires that our actions (and our words as well) will give evidence of our love for God. Will we say Yes to the call of Jesus? Will we take up our cross each day and follow him?

Mass today will be at 10.00am and you are welcome to join us online.

This week’s newsletter can be found here.

The Welsh Government has announced that as from today (Sunday, September 27^th) at 6.00pm, the City and County of Cardiff will enter local lockdown restrictions due to the recent increases in Coronavirus cases. As part of the lockdown, parishes have been asked by the Archdiocese to review safety measures and reassess capacity figures for Masses. Mr. Paul Doherty, Parish Health and Safety representative, has conducted the review and advised that, given the profile of those who have been attending public Masses and the wellbeing of the small number of stewards who have volunteered, the parish should suspend the public celebration of Mass until the local lockdown is lifted. Canon Isaac has taken Paul’s advice and made the decision to cease public Masses after today, Sunday, September 27^th until the local lockdown is lifted by the Welsh Government.

Mass will continue to be celebrated online during this period.

Ceremonies not open to the general public, for example funerals, baptisms and weddings, will still go ahead.