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2nd Sunday of Advent – Year C  –  5th December 2021
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent. The theme of the readings is that of Hope. In the First Reading from the prophet Baruch, we have the people of Israel in exile in Babylon. They are despondent, the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed, the vessels for sacred worship had been desiccated, the people scared and they were living under harsh circumstances. For them, God had abandoned them. The prophet gives them courage by saying the time was coming that all would be restored. He tells them to turn from their sorrow and affliction and look forward to the glory of God. Although this passage would have given them courage there was still something missing. They were still waiting for the coming of the Messiah. There was still a sense of emptiness.
In the Gospel, we have the arrival of John the Baptist, who as the prophet Isaiah says, is the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He had come to announce the arrival of the Messiah. This announcement was not so much as to announce about a baby born in Bethlehem, but rather that the public ministry of the Messiah was about to begin. He was amongst them already. John the Baptist tells the people that they need to prepare themselves for that coming of the Messiah by baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The interesting aspect of the person John the Baptist was that, although he came from a priestly family with his father Zachariah being one of the priests of the Temple, John the Baptist was not seen as a Temple priest, but rather a wanderer who lived out in the desert, wearing a garment of camel-hair with a leather belt and his food was locusts and wild honey. God had chosen what would have been considered as an outcast to announce his arrival amongst them. Despite this fact, many people flocked out into the wilderness around the river Jordon, because his message was a message of Hope. The unfortunate fact that stemmed from this was that the people still had the wrong idea of who the Messiah was going to be. For many of them, they still were looking for a great leader who would lead them out of the occupation of the Roman Empire and restoring the great Kingdom of King David who had lived some 900 years before. Their hope was in this great King who would rule over them as King David had. John the Baptist and Jesus, through their teaching, tried to show that the Messiah was going to come and restore for them something greater than an earthly kingdom but rather a spiritual kingdom which would be manifested in the repair of the relationship between God and Humanity that had being lost with the fall of Adam and Eve.
We might be tempted to think that all this was only for a group of people who lived thousands of years ago, but in reality, this call to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is for us today as well. We are waiting for the second coming of Christ and just as the people of John the Baptist time hoped for the coming of the Messiah so too we should live in hope for the coming of Christ in our lives. This is especially true of the situation we find ourselves today, where we too might want to become despondent as we see an increase in the number of infections of the Covid 19 virus. Ww are called to put our hope in the Lord, that he has not abandoned us, but that in fact, he is indeed present in our lives and that he is faithful to his promise that he is with us until the end of time. Let us therefore dispel the feeling of sorrow and gloom and put our hope in the Lord that he will continue to be with us and sustain the hope that we are called to have in him.
God bless.
Fr Mark

First Sunday of Advent Year C – 28 November 2021
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, we start the Season of Advent. The importance of Advent is that it signifies the coming or arrival of Christ. It lasts for four Sundays. The season of Advent is penitential in nature, but also the joy of anticipation. This comes to us in two ways, firstly the anticipation of the second coming of Christ but also secondly, the first appearance of Christ as the child in Bethlehem. Advent should be a time of desire, longing and expectancy. The Church in this time prepares us in three ways.
1 The Old Testament, especially through the prophets, prepares the people for the coming of the Messiah which had been promised by God since the fall of mankind as we read in the Book of Genesis. The prophets slowly reveal to the people of Israel that God would send someone from the line of King David to redeem the World.
2 Then we have St John the Baptist. He is the herald sent by God into the world to call the people to repentance and a time of conversion. His words lead, not only the people of Israel to a genuine reformation in their lives, but also in our lives.
3 This leads us to the Blessed Mary, who God chose to be the Mother of the Lord, but also our mother. She is the best role model that we can have in doing the will of God and showing us that putting our trust and faith in God will lead us to eternal life.
In the Gospel today, we reflect about the Second coming of Christ. This is something that we must not fear; what we need to look forward to with Joy. If we take up the challenge to lead a life worthy of being called a disciple of Christ and try and live a life in the footsteps of the Lord, then death, which in many ways is our experience of the second coming of Christ, is not to be feared but rather welcomed because it would be our opportunity to go and live in the full glory of the presence of God. We would join the communion of saints and be filled with the joy and love of God. In this time of Advent, it is our opportunity to sit down and reflect on our relationship with the Lord. While doing, this we can identify those aspects of our lives that are in accordance of God’s will and those aspects that tarnish our relationship with the Lord. This is not easy, but we need only keep in mind that God is a loving God, who does not seek revenge, but rather a restoration of our love for him and his kingdom. God waits for us with open arms, all we need to do is respond by putting our trust in him and allowing us to have a conversion moment in our lives. This, at the beginning of the new Liturgical Year, is the challenge that we face.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, it is a call for us to use these next few weeks of Advent productively and prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ in our lives. He is just waiting for us to respond and embrace him in love.
God bless.
Fr Mark

Solemnity of Christ the King Year B – 21 November 2021
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. This marks the end of our Liturgical year. On this day we celebrate the Kingship of Christ. When we think of Kings and Queens, we imagine a person who sits on a nice gold throne, wears a golden crown and dressed in wonderful clothes. They have lots of servants and armies at their call. When we look at Christ our King, we don’t find these wonderful things. What we find is the fact that what is Christ’s throne is a Cross, his crown is made from thorns and he has no clothes on. This was what is so striking about the feast of today. The Cross for us, as Christians, is not a sign of failure or folly, but rather a sign of Victory and Glory.
Also when we read the Gospel of today, we find that Christ is alone. He stands before Pilate with no one around him to defend him. This is a journey that he has to go along on his own, but in reality he is not alone. He has his Father with him. By his suffering, he is fulfilling the will of his Father. What we find in the Gospel is, that in some way, Jesus turns the situation around. Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent, but out of fear of the Jewish leaders, he tries to catch out Jesus into saying something that would give him reason to find Jesus guilty, but when Jesus tells him that his Kingdom is not an earthly Kingdom but a spiritual one he tries to take the easy way out by washing his hands. Jesus talks to Pilate about truth. Pilate then asks the question what is truth. Jesus tells him that he came to preach the truth. The truth that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to redeem the world. The truth was that God’s love was so great that he sent his Son to die on the cross and rise again that all people, no matter what their position was in life, would benefit from him dying on the Cross and rising again in order to give all humanity the opportunity to gain eternal life.
The question we need to reflect on in our lives is that are we prepared as Christians to follow his example and take up our cross and follow him that he speaks about in the Gospels? The cross for us, should challenge us to give thanks to Christ and be prepared to die to sin and rise again to a new life in the glory of God. This we can do by coming together and giving praise to God in the most wonderful prayer of thanksgiving, namely, the Holy Eucharist. I therefore, encourage people to consider to return to Holy Mass on a Sunday, not because we are forced to, but rather that we have a longing to receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our King. Yes, receiving Spiritual Communion gives us many blessings, but it is a poor substitute for actually receiving, physically, the Body and Blood of Christ.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us respond to the challenge to giving praise and worship to our Lord and Saviour by honouring his Kingship, by coming back to Mass and together as a community of believers, show our unity by being good witnesses of our faith and love to the world of today.
God bless.
Fr Mark

MASS INTENTIONS for St Bernard’s & St Ignatius

Mass is once again open to public, but with restricted numbers. Our parish, according to the restrictions and protocols of the government and our Archdiocese, is limited to 60 attendees. Please book for the weekend Mass to avoid disappointment. There is no need to book for the week day Mass.

Mass at St Ignatius is on Saturday evenings at 5.00pm, Sunday mornings at 10.30am and Wednesday mornings at 9.00am

Mass at St Bernard’s is on Sunday mornings at 9.00am & Sunday evenings at 6.00pm, Tuesday mornings at 9.00am, Thursday evenings at 5.00pm and Friday mornings at 9.00am

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We remember in our prayers those who have gone before us:

St Ignatius:

18 March 2020 – Marjorie Van Rensburg
13 June 2020 – Yvonne Beckam

13 November 2020 – Edmund Peter Nasson

12 January 2021 – Christopher Shelmerdine
25 March 2021 – Colin Burgess
13 October 2021 – Michael Pienaar

St Bernard:
4 March 2020 – Henry Hugo
5 May 2020 – Stephanie Poezyn
May 2020 – Maurizio Allugrecia
19 June 2020 – Cecil Bradley
20 July 2020 – Paul Dobson
8 August 2020 – Jacqueline Petersen
9 August 2020 – John Kellett
21 November 2020 – Patrick Moore

15 February 2021 – Sandra Nel
18 February 2021 – Theresa Naidoo
2 March 2021 – Eve Griesson
13 May 2021 – Brian Louw
24 July 2021 – Antoinette Esterhuizen
28 July 2021 – John O’Hagan
8 August 2021 – Antonio Marchesini
6 September 2021 – Brian Joyce
16 September 2021 – Yvonne Visser
18 October 2021 – Luigi (Gino) Tarantello

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