This year marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s inspirational ‘I have a dream’ speech.

Given on 28 August 1963 at a rally of over 250,000 people in Washington, Martin Luther King called for a world where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers, ‘when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’

His dream for a society united and based on justice for all was drawn from the last book of the Bible, Revelation. His commitment to non-violence in promoting this dream, and in securing an inclusive future, was ridiculed by some who saw only violent methods as having any chance of success. There were even some who saw racial justice only in terms of one group ‘overthrowing’ another.

Today, and in our own country, we still have racial tensions. We face the challenges posed by living in a multi-cultural society with the added complications of differences of language, ethnicity, and country of origin being ever present.

In the world there is conflict and injustice based around prejudice, racism, and the struggle for one religious or ethnic or racial group to secure superiority over another.

There seems little we can do about the global situation. Nor even, in our little section of the Fens, about problems faced by inner cities and areas of high racial mistrust.

However, this Sunday 8 September is Racial Justice Sunday and we are invited to think again about Martin Luther King’s speech. We can ask ourselves how we contribute to making our own towns and villages places where ‘freedom rings’ and where everyone irrespective of colour or creed can feel secure and included.

We can pray for a just and peaceful environment which begins with, and springs from, our own attitudes and actions.

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Prayer for Justice

Merciful Lord,

we consider your wonderful world

and its beautiful people created in your image,

and we ask for forgiveness for behaviours and attitudes

that devalue or demean those who are different.

Forgive us for our tacit acceptance of a society

where privilege, partiality and advantage

are often the passports to success and wealth.

Have mercy on us for ignoring the reality of racism and bigotry,

which deny or curtail the rights and opportunities

of those of different ethnicities and cultures.

Give us the courage, determination and honesty

to fight for a society governed by justice, equity and compassion,

and underpinned by the belief that each person has an inherent worth,

and has been afforded the dignity and respect they deserve.

Enable us to value diversity, as you do, and encourage it in all forms.

This we ask in your precious name. Amen.

When Pope Francis was a student in Germany, it is said that he came across this picture by Johann Schmidtner entitled: Mary Untier of Knots.

Schmidtner was a seventeenth century artist and his work depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary standing on the moon and surrounded by angels as she patiently unties a series of knots in a long strip of material.

Above her head is a dove, the sign of the Holy Spirit, and Schmidtner uses typical Marian symbols such as twelve stars forming a crown and Mary’s foot upon the head of a snake. These are biblical references to be found in the Book of Revelation and the Book of Genesis.

The inspiration behind this picture, however, is thought to be a piece of writing by the second century theologian, St Irenaeus, rather than the bible.

In his work, Against the Heresies, St Irenaeus wrote that “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith”.

This emphasis on the role of Mary in the history of salvation is meant to highlight the importance of the way God works with and through human beings. He only ever invites our co-operation; he never forces our hand.

By co-operating with God in saying “Yes” to the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation, Mary assists humanity by letting God work in her and allowing the Son of God to be made flesh of her.

The story goes that the painting was commissioned and donated to a monastery in Augsburg by Hieronymus Langenmantel. His grandfather had been on the verge of separating from his wife and sought advice from a Jesuit priest. The priest prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking her to look upon the couple’s marriage and untie all knots and smother them. From that moment on, peace was restored to the couple and their marriage survived.

Pope Francis obviously liked this painting because he introduced devotion to Mary the Untier of Knots into Argentina and from there it has since spread to other Latin American countries.

As Cardinal Bergoglio, he even had the image engraved onto a chalice which he presented to Pope Benedict XVI on behalf of the people of Argentina.

Perhaps we can pray, in the spirit of the story behind the painting, that the Blessed Virgin Mary will intercede for all those who face difficulties in their relationships and married life: that she will untie any knots that might disrupt their lives together and bring Christ’s blessing upon their families.

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Excerpt from the Prayer to Mary, untier of knots

Mary, our mother,

God has charged you with untangling the knots

in the lives of his children;

into your hands we place the ribbon of our life.

There is no knot that cannot be untangled by your fingers.

Compassionate mother,

by the power of your intercession with Jesus,

your dear Son and our Redeemer,

take into your hands today this knot.

[name the knot that is troubling you]

I beg you to untangle it forever,

for the glory of God.

A besieged city, political intrigue and weak leadership are the back-drop to this Sunday’s first reading from the prophet Jeremiah.

The setting is Jerusalem under threat from an expanding Babylonian Empire. The leader is Zedekiah, essentially a puppet-king put in place by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon.

The intrigue is the tussle between the various court factions, each trying to sway Zedekiah into one direction or another.

The events being described took place sometime between 588-587BC. The twelve tribes of ancient Israel which had once formed a single nation under King David had long ago split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah based around the capital city, Jerusalem, in the south.

Israel had fallen to the then world power, Assyria, back in 721BC. However, a century later, Babylon (which would today be in Iraq) had taken over from Assyria as the major threat to the region, and this new empire was quickly expanding south and west, threatening Egypt which needed allies, as well as a buffer zone between the two empires.

Some at Zedekiah’s court urged the king to unite with the Egyptians in their fight against the Babylonian Empire. Others argued that he should stay in alliance with Babylonia and remain a ‘vassal’ state.

In today’s excerpt, Zedekiah has thrown his lot in with the Egyptians and brought the wrath of the Babylonian Empire upon the city. A weak king, he is paralysed by what to do next: fight on or surrender.

The beginning of the reading has the Egyptian faction at court gaining the upper hand. They demand the execution of Jeremiah, who has been urging surrender to the Babylonians as the only way to avoid bloodshed.

Jeremiah saw the total dominance of the Babylonian Empire in the region as inevitable and believed the fall of Jerusalem to be a punishment from God for the people’s readiness to abandon their faith and worship other gods from the region.

He urged the people not to fight, to accept deportation if necessary, and to trust in the Lord whatever came, rather than rely on politics.

So King Zedekiah has Jeremiah thrown into a well, or water cistern, which has become clogged up with mud.

The second half of the reading sees the intervention of Ebed-melech, a Babylonian supporter and ally of Jeremiah. Note how easily he persuades the king to change his mind and save Jeremiah from drowning in the mud.

Zedekiah is chained and brought before Nebuchadnezzar

Ebed-melech cleverly puts the blame for Jeremiah’s predicament on the king’s advisors, neatly overlooking the fact that it was Zedekiah who had ordered it. He also plays on the king’s fear that Jeremiah is truly a prophet of God and that harming him in any way will bring down terrible retribution on his family and his reign.

In the end, Zedekiah refused to listen to Jeremiah. His policy of flirting with an Eqyptian alliance ends in disaster and leads to the sacking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the deportation of many of the people as slaves in Babylon.

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JEREMIAH 38: 4-6, 8-10

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The Feast of the Assumption, held on 15 August each year, celebrates our belief that at the end of Mary’s life on earth her body and soul were taken up (‘assumed‘) into heaven by God.

What Mary has experienced is essentially what has been promised to all of us: a resurrection of our bodies at the end of time and life in heaven in the presence of almighty God, body and soul together.

The idea of our future existence as a union of body & soul in heaven rather than just an immortal spirit is an important one for Christianity. It is something we say we believe each Sunday when we profess the Creed.

In a way, Mary can be taken as a role model for how to be a good disciple. In her life she says a radical ‘Yes’ to God, when invited through the Angel Gabriel to co-operate with His plan to save all people.

In any of the gospel stories Mary is to be found firmly focused on Jesus. ‘Do whatever He tells you,’ she recommends to those wanting more wine at the wedding feast of Cana. At the foot of the Cross, it is Mary who stays standing, filled with anguish at the sight of her dying son.

The Feast of the Assumption, then, is given to us not to glorify Mary as such but to provoke us into reflection: do we say ‘Yes’ to God in our lives, or is it more likely a mixture of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, depending on what suits at the time?

Can we really claim to be near Christ, and willing to stay near, when faced with difficulties and disappointments, confused or alone, in suffering and even death?

And do we really believe what we profess each Sunday Mass: that one day we too will be received body and soul into heaven?

Mary’s Assumption assures us of our dignity and our destiny as followers of the Lord. It is ‘a  sign of sure hope and comfort’ (as the Preface puts it) of what will face each of us one day. It is also a challenge to live more radically the life of the genuine disciple.

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From the Preface for the Feast of the Assumption:

For today the Virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven

as the beginning and image of your Church’s coming to perfection

and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people.