We are surrounded by laws and rules. On the one hand instinctively we don’t like them, on the other hand we cannot do without them. We know that without them our society simply cannot function and in that sense neither can we as individuals; laws and rules help us to regulate ourselves as well as society. Despite the pull of our free will and individuality (both of which are gifts from God), having a structure makes us feel safe. Framed well laws and rules give us the ability to be free. Laws go back a long way. For the Jewish people the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament (a word meaning instruction, teaching or law), was put into written form around 450-350 years before the birth of Jesus before which it was passed on by word of mouth. In Jewish law there are 613 commandments. The Pharisees’ whole way of life was dedicated to keeping all of them. This is something of the setting for Sunday’s Gospel. In the context of Sunday's gospel those listening to Jesus thinking “how does what He says fit in with the laws we know – the law of Moses; is Jesus putting all that in the bin?”. The answer is no he wasn’t and the doesn’t, but the people listening to Jesus did not realise that in himself, as God, Jesus fully embodies the law given by God to Moses, in his very being he is the law. He is the fulfilment of the law given to Moses centuries before. So what is important to the law of Jesus in Sunday's Gospel? It's about relationships, how we see and treat each other. The love, regard, and respect we have for each other. Jesus expands the commandment against killing. The act of murder begins in anger, hate, and a lack of regard for the other person. Not killing another person is not enough. Way before the point of violence is reached there is a need to resolve feelings and actions which damage the other person. How can you worship a loving God when you cannot bear those around you? The thing we need to kill in ourselves are the things, often little things, which harm others. Perhaps the deepest form of relationship is that of marriage. At the dawn of time God bound himself to us in love. Marriage is special because the promises made by the couple mirrors that of God willingly binding himself to us unbreakably and forever. Married couple’s also share with God the ability to create new life in their children. It is not creation in its purest sense, where God creates something from nothing, but it is pro-creation. An amazing and beautiful thing we are reminded of every time we hold a baby or look into the eyes of a child. Marriage is more than a legal contract that can be torn up, it is a covenant, an agreement that brings about a relationship, something which adultery puts in the bin. We know this when we see in people around us just how damaging and devastating an extra marital affair is ultimately for everyone involved in it. Related to both if these is simple honesty about our feelings and what we commit to others. If you say yes or no simply say it and mean it. We don’t need extravagant and wordy oaths. God knows what is in our hearts, God sees straight through us. God is almighty and all seeing Today’s gospel fundamentally challenges us. It points us towards a law of love, faithfulness and honesty. How loving are we towards those around us? How often is there malice not love in our hearts? Do we keep the promises we have made, including those made before God and the church? Did we mean them in the first place? Do we always say what we mean and honour our commitments. Big challenges for poor sinners; sinners like me, sinners like you. With God's grace it is possible to live the way of love. God bless and keep you all with the assurance of my daily prayers for your intentions. Remember this coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and a day of fasting and abstinence from meat. Details of Mass in the parish are in this week's bulletin. Fr Chris

My grandmother in the west of Ireland, God rest her soul, was just about 5 foot in her wellington boots. Until later in life, her house and farm had no gas, no running water or electricity. For light in the evening we relied on paraffin lamps which at night, and for us children who were used to electric lights, things were at best were dim and sometimes the lamps threw up lots of strange and disturbing shadows. Outside, with no street lighting, the sky was literally filled with a sheet of bright silver stars, a breath-taking and beautiful sight, one that I can still see in my mind’s eye; a sight that filled me with awe and wonder. The absence of light can have a beauty all of its own but its distortions can provoke anxiety and have their own dangers. Total darkness can be terrifying; something that leaves us directionless and groping in the dark, perhaps that’s why we instinctively prefer to be in the light. That’s perhaps why we light things up when they are dark, even our streets. People the world over, and over countless centuries, have sensed that things are not as they could and should be in our own lives, between each other, and in the world. People used images for this, including light and dark. We sense and experience the feeling of light and dark in ourselves – virtue and vice; grace and sin. In our lives everyday we experience this struggle of light and dark within is, we see it in the world around us. In our tradition we hear that the people who walk in darkness see a great light; we speak of the light of Christ; the candles we use are symbolic of this. Jesus describes himself as the light of the world. A light which banishes shadows and cannot be overcome. It is a light that shows us our world in all of its wonder and love, but also its ugliness and pain. A light that illuminates our hearts, our minds and our souls in their beauty but also their pain and sin. But it is a light that the darkness of the Satan and his works cannot and will not overcome. Jesus, the light of the world, invites us to share his light with him. But it is not only intended for us. He wants us to share it with our brothers and sisters who still live in a land of deep shadow. How are we to do this? This Sunday Isaiah shows us way in which we can be beacons of the light of Christ in our lives and the world. In Sunday's reading from Isaiah we see an easy list to read but something which is hard to do. The people who live in the shadows can be hard for us to see; we somehow see them but they are invisible to us but they are there in plain sight. The people who sit in the doorways in our town; perhaps our neighbours who we know are there but we seldom see; maybe the image of the child on the charity poster of our little sisters and brothers waiting for their next square meal. Where do we start? As much as we can by being generous, by being merciful and just. By taking pity on others. By doing what we can in giving to the poor. Often it is not about the big extravagant gesture (good though that is) but the small acts of kindness, the little smile, acknowledging the person in front of us and by doing what we can. Small acts perhaps but a good way to eternal life. Acts that enable us to salt to the earth and light to the world. God bless and keep you all with the assurance of my daily prayers for your intentions. Fr Chris