20 March St Cuthbert (635-687). He was born in Northumbria the same year
as Aidan founded Lindisfarne. He was placed with foster parents to become a
knight, and as such fought in wars. Brought up a Christian, he had a vision of
Aidan going to heaven and became a monk, at first at Melrose, then Ripon,
returning to Melrose as Prior. In 664 at the Synod of Whitby, he voted for the
Roman tradition and was sent to Lindisfarne. Aged 40 he became a hermit,
but later a travelling bishop. He died at his hermitage, but the body was taken
to Lindisfarne and later to Durham. The Lindisfarne Gospel was made for the
ceremony of ‘the elevation of the body’ of Cuthbert, which was found un-
decayed, a sign of sainthood. His Shrine at Durham was a major medieval
Pilgrimage destination. After the Reformation the body was buried in a plain
grave by the High Altar.
19 March St Joseph ( First Century)
Nothing is known of his life apart from him being father /or foster father of
Jesus. He disappears from the story after the incident of Jesus having been
left in the Temple. The Jewish historian Pinkas Lapide thinks he was killed
(maybe crucified as a rebel) early on in Jesus life. There are only legends
about him being a carpenter in Nazareth. The Church in Rome instituted his
liturgical feast in the 15 th century. Joseph is (after Mary) the supreme
intercessor-maybe because there is so little known about him. A feast of
‘Joseph the worker’ was created in 1956 for 1 May to counter socialist Labour
Day. St Teresa of Avila said she knew from experience that ‘he helped in every
need’.
The Sermon On The Mount
T
he eminent Jewish historian and theologian Pinkas Lapide wrote
extensively about Jesus, his life and teaching. One of his books, first
published in 1982, dealt with the Sermon on the Mount. Its interpretation
from the Jewish point of view makes fascinating reading. He says that he is
reading the text ‘with Jewish eyes and Jewish spectacles.’
Setting the scene, he sees Jesus going up the mountain and sitting down. If a
Jew hears of a mountain without a name he thinks of Moses on the mountain
and Sinai, the mountain of Law Giving. Like Moses, Jesus leaves the masses
of the people behind and, sitting as in the rules of the great schools of the
Torah, where the rabbis sit ‘in Moses’ seat’(Mt 23,2), he teaches the small
audience of his disciples, while sermons for a wider audience would be
delivered standing up. It seems that Jesus thinks of an audience in three
circles- first of his disciples, then of Israel and finally to make Israel ‘a light for
the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’ (Isaiah 49,
6).
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