Pastoral Messages Archive
Dear Parishioners;
It is with great pleasure that we initiate our parish website. I thank all those who helped bring it to fruition. It is introduced at a very difficult and challenging time in our lives, the emerging of the Corona Virus – COVID 19. Those of us living through it, will never forget it.
It is especially difficult that we are deprived of that which we rely on so very much in our lives: the celebration of our liturgical rites, especially in the live communal experience of the Mass.
Thankfully and while not replacing the live community, Masses are celebrated on television, and live streamed on different channels with great viewing opportunity: on special channels; Salt and Light, Vision T.V, and live streamed from the Cathedral every Sunday at 10:00 AM, celebrated by Bishop Riesbeck. (www.dioceseofsaintjohn.org)
Let us all remain prayerful, grateful for the minimal numbers in our Province who have been infected – and pray for each other, and our medical and civil leaders, and above all practice wisdom, prudence, and patience.
God bless you all,
Msgr. Sheehan
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Dear friends;
We are a week away from Easter… we are in the octave of Easter… our celebrations are still familiar to us… the new light, the Easter water… the new life of Baptism… the first invitation to the table of the newly baptized…
The Church continues its celebration… it deepens the meaning of resurrection… it highlights what resurrection brings… it focuses on what Jesus the risen Lord offers…
The risen Lord offers… peace, forgiveness, the Spirit… communion, community…
The risen Lord offers something to one man… a sign as to what he wants to offer all of us… faith in the midst of doubt…
What a community the Church is… men and women – who are children of God… trying to love God and obeying his commandments… and the commandment of Jesus is quite simple: “A new commandment I give you: -- “love one another as I have loved you…”…”this is my commandment.” (John 15)
The disciples would remember his word of commandment… but the action of Jesus would be more fresh… more recent…
To love as he loves… would mean… laying down one’s life… giving oneself completely… even unto death… they would remembers his word – “That there was no greater love than laying down one’s life for one’s friends…” the example of which would be fresh in their minds… they knew that he had done it…
And the one who had done it… stood among them… alive… and they were in fear… they were in doubt… and they were anxious… and they were uncertain…
So the first thing he said to this little frightened band – was – “Peace be with you.”
How they needed peace!... and how we need peace!... we pray at every Mass, “give us your peace”… “Grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom…” “Grant us peace in our day… protect us from all anxiety…”
Then he gave them the Spirit… the Spirit of power, and strength… to overcome, not to go under, never to be defeated… ever… yet a gentle Spirit, a humble spirit… but above all… a Spirit of forgiveness…
“A forgiving heart, create in me O Lord”… in a world where there is so much hatred, and hostility, and vengeance… meanness and stubbornness… He gave them power to be forgivers… and to lead others to forgiveness.
We pray for forgiveness… it is enshrined in his prayer… his very own prayer… that he taught…: “forgive us our trespasses…” …another prayer that we say at every Mass… “look not on our sins…” …“free us from all our sins”…
Then he singled out one man… a man who is so much like us… a doubter… a weak man in faith… a man who struggles with his beliefs….but he takes them seriously… he cannot cavalierly believe… he can’t go with the crowd… just to go with the crowd… he must follow his doubts… his questioning… he is a searcher…
He is an honest man… he was being like Peter… he was being like Zaccheus… they stand out… they’re not wishy-washy… they know how to defend themselves and their behaviour…
It took a week for Jesus to come back… everything was the same… the doors were locked… but this time… the man who couldn’t yet come to belief was there…
And Jesus spoke to him… and invited him… “place your finger here… reach out your hand…”
And Thomas the doubter… moved from doubt to belief… at the sight and word of the Lord…
It was one more raising of those invited with Jesus… Peter, the coward… proclaimed with boldness… Mary of Magdala, woman of ill repute, outcast, became the Apostle with the message of salvation – announcing, that He was risen… sent by the Lord…
And Thomas, the one weak in faith, is raised to be the first proclaimer of the great Christological statement of the early Church – regarding Jesus the Christ… so much so… that still on the lips of the faithful… centuries later when the host is raised… we still hear… uttered in praise and thanksgiving… the words first uttered by Thomas… “My Lord and My God.”
All was being transformed… all was being changed… not only had something happened to Jesus… something was happening to them… and something is still happening with us… his Church… the community of believers… reborn again in Him – the risen Lord.
AMEN.
SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT
Dear friends;
I have been reflecting about the transfiguration a lot this week. Wondering about many things… why it happened…? what exactly happened…? why with just Peter, James and John…?
How could the three of them ever recover from such an experience?... Did they really keep quiet about it?...
Why do all three evangelists (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) record it nearly in consistent manner with very few minor differences?
Let’s look at it again…
First it happens on a mountain…
- “the mountain is primarily the place of wilderness – a special place of God’s revelation. On a mountain top there is a unique sense of aloneness without loneliness: as one climbs, the world seems to drop away, one feels in union with nature and with God.” (Bishop Robinson)
- Jesus was transfigured… his clothes began dazzling white… such as no one could bleach them – the traditional colour of those who had entered into glory…
- Such an event had happened to Moses… there are many similarities to Moses on Sinai… Moses also took three men with him – climbed the mountain… a cloud covered the mountain… the glory of God was present… God spoke through the cloud… and the face of Moses shone…
Moses was the most respected person of the Old Testament… he was as a savior of his people… chosen by God as his messenger… leading them out of slavery of Egypt… into the promised land… he was associated with the law… the basis of their behaviour and worship…
Moses is present… he appears – but also another – Elijah – the most “messianic” of all the prophets – it was said that he was taken up alive into heaven… and it was thought that he would be the one to come again to prepare the way for the Messiah. More was written about Elijah than any other prophet.
Taken together they represent the two great strains of the Old Testament – the Law and the Prophets… -- it is as if the whole of the history of Israel is present… and testifying to Jesus – and they were talking with Jesus.
The two greatest figures of their faith – were present – talking… conversing with their leader… this was too much!! It was certainly too much for Peter!
Awkwardly… he says – “let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” –
“Let us make this – another great moment of the Exodus – the golden moment of our history – when our people lived in tents… on their way to the promised land!”
“It is good for us to be here.”
Let us stay here – let us capture the moment!! – let us forget about everyone else down there… let’s not talk any more about suffering, and the cross, and all that… let’s stay here.” That’s what Peter is saying –
And we know his feelings…
Just then – something happens – quite extraordinary… because it happens right when Peter is experiencing this high elation –
“The cloud overshadowed them” -- the sign of God’s presence… as it were the cloud… God’s Tabernacle… and from the cloud – as at the baptism of the Lord… the beginning of Jesus’ ministry… a voice came –
“This is my Son – the beloved…” the same words as at the Baptism – but now added – “Listen to him.”
The message was spoken… they heard what was all important… and “suddenly – when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more – but only Jesus.”
The moment had gone – as quickly as it had come… and they looking could only see Jesus…
And he told them as they came down the mountain to tell no one… about what they had seen… the others would certainly not be ready to hear about what the three had just experienced..
It would completely distort the message… it could be spoken of – but only after the resurrection which in a way it pre-figured.
We are still left, after all this, as to why it happened…? Why did it happen?
Something happened which unveiled for a moment to his closests friends… who Jesus was… and what he meant for them.
It was important for them to know this about Jesus… but they weren’t to dwell on it then… they had to remember it… but they had to move away from it… and move on from it… somewhat transformed themselves… Jesus explicitly told them to move on from it… while not speaking about it… but allowing it to irretrievably change them… and bring it to bear through on their daily lives… but not constantly try to repeat it…
One could call it… a “religious experience” for these three disciples… religious experiences have to be handled carefully… wisely…
Peter would write about it himself:
“We had seen his majesty for ourselves… he was honoured and glorified by God the Father, when the sublime Glory itself spoke to him and said – “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour.” We heard this ourselves, spoken from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain –
So we have confirmation of what was said in the prophecies… and you will be right to depend on it… and take it as a lamp for lighting a way through the dark until the dawn comes and the mourning star rises in your minds.”
(2 Pet. 1, 17 – 20)
What a line…!!
“Take it as a lamp for lighting a way through the dark… (as we are walking now…) until the dawn comes… (which it surely will!!) and the morning star rises in your minds…”
“When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark… At the end of a storm is a golden sky and a sweet silver song of a lark. Walk on… walk on… walk on through the dark… hold your head up high… you’ll never walk alone!!”
(Rogers & Hammerstein… Carousel)
Amen.
EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Talk, talk, talk… today’s readings are all about talking…
Sometimes I think we all talk too much… me included…! We should all talk less… much, much less.
How often do we catch ourselves reflecting… “Why did I say that…?” “I wish I would never have said that!!” “Somebody should have told me to just “shut up!”
I never forgot what a wonderful old priest once said way back in St. Joseph’s University… he was a Saint Johnner, by the way, Father John Brown, c.s.c.
“Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re foolish, then open it – and remove all doubt!” – It is a classic!
Now in the Book of Sirach today – a book so full of wise sayings; we hear this: --
“When a sieve is shaken, the rubbish appears; -- so do a person’s faults when one speaks – the test of a person is in conversation.”
(Sirach 27, 4)
“As fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so a person’s speech discloses the cultivation of the mind…” (Sirach 27, 6)
“Do not praise people before they speak, for this is the way they are tested.” (Sirach 27, 7)
And in the Gospel we hear Jesus using an ancient proverb: –
“Out of the good treasure of the heart, the good person produces good, and out of evil treasure, the evil person produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6, 45)
So the texts are all about talk… and the source of talk… and what “comes out” of a person in their speech…
And in the great biblical tradition not only as a source of speech – but the center of one’s emotional activity – of one’s innermost setting of one’s mind – is the condition of one’s heart.
The “heart” is used in the Bible where in English we would use “mind” or “will”… the “heart” in the Bible is the source of thoughts, desires, deeds – and speech, as we hear today.
It is not ever spoken of simply as a bodily organ… as we do speak of it today… but even we speak of the heart in figurative language.
We speak of “broken hearts”… we use expressions like… “my heart is not in it…” … “I have not heart for this…” We are not talking here of the bodily organ – and in fact we are getting close to what the Bible means by “heart”.
The most classic example of this whole subject is treated by Jesus when he is confronted by the scribes who confront him because they say that his disciples following him do not observe all the external rituals of purification – before eating… and thus they eat their food with unclean hands… and in a way they are unclean.
Jesus answers by quoting the famous passage from Isaiah – which also speaks of talking – and speech… and lips:
“It was of you hypocrites” – he says to the Pharisees and scribes – that Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture: --
“This people honours me only with lip service while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.” (Is. 29, 13)
Then he called the people to him – and spoke a near revolutionary statement about… what is clean, what is unclean… and what is truly the source of one’s right behaviour or evil behaviour…
“Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean.” (Mk. 7, 14-16)
Now the disciples, as well as the crowd were astounded by this… so they asked him again what he meant – as this was so radical from what they had been taught. So he says to them: -- in a very “earthly” way:
“Do you understand?... Can you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot make them unclean, because it does not go into their heart but through their stomach and passes out into the sewer!”—
“It is what comes out of a person that makes them unclean – for it is from within, from a person’s heart, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly… All these things come from within peoples’ hearts – and make a person unclean.” (Mk. 7, 14-23)
What is the condition of our heart? How does it affect our behaviour? What we do? How we act? How we speak?
For as Jesus tells us today – it is from whatever is in our hearts that will determine our speech…
Am I full of bitterness, and envy, and hatred… then I will speak that way… with bitterness, hostility, mean-spirited.
Is my heart full of jealousy? resentment? warring within myself? Then I will give vent to those sentiments in my speech.
Or does peace live in our hearts, knowledge of acceptance… of being loved by God, confident, trusting… what then will come out of us…? Would not words of praise, of goodness, of comfort and consolation – be spoken – yes – wisdom!
We begin the wonderful season of Lent this Wednesday dear friends – Ash Wednesday.
It is a season of penance… repentance… “a change of heart”… that is what is asked of us dear friends…
A time in which all of us together… applying the three traditional ways of penance: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, will try to soften our hearts… making them more sensitive, generous, open to self-giving… forgetting self… with open hearts – letting the Lord come into them… into all of us.
Amen.
SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Jesus presents us with something about how to be a real disciple to-day… and it can all be summed up – in two words “Go beyond… “Go beyond what you would naturally do… or want… or think is sufficient.”
And it all has to do with relationships… with the way we live with each other… the way we act with each other… the way we deal with each other. In a way, that is what Christian life is about – what discipleship is about… behaviour based on faith in Jesus Christ, flowing from our faith in this person.
And what this person asks us… in this very central “sermon on the plain” in Luke’s Gospel… is to “go beyond” what we would naturally do…
We naturally want to strike back those who strike us on the cheek…
We naturally want to hate our enemies, those who wrong us… we naturally want to curse those who curse us…
But Jesus tells us very forthrightly… and strongly with the trademark words when he really wants us to hear what he’s saying:
“I say to you who listen”
“Bless those who curse you”—
“Pray for those who abuse you”—
“If someone strikes you on the cheek – offer the other also.”
“If someone takes your coat – offer them your shirt as well…”
Where can the basis for such behaviour come from…?
We find it in the second part of the Gospel – when Jesus asks us to behave and live as children of the most High… and to be merciful as your Father is merciful.
If we are children… of the Father… true children… we will not only love those who love us… an easy thing to do… we will not only lend to those whom we expect a return… we will not only do good to those who do good to us… all of which is a tit-for-tat morality –
But we will love our enemies… (Jesus) uses a strong word… “agape”… He tells his followers that they are to manifest the ultimate form of the human expression of openness and concern toward those who are their enemies –
He recommends not merely a warm affection (philia) such as one might have for one’s family… or passionate devotion (eros) – such as one might expect between spouses –
But a gracious, outgoing, active interest – (agape) in the welfare of those persons who are precisely antagonistic.
And if you do that… then you will be like your Father in heaven… because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked…
“Be like your Father… in heaven… it is he that I have come to reveal…” You too will reveal him… if you go beyond… what you would naturally do… naturally feel… naturally want to do…”
“Be merciful… just as your Father is merciful…”
What a program dear friends…! To go beyond… to rise to a new height of acting, of loving, of forgiving… and to do it together all of us…
To remind ourselves that we are all God’s children… and that we should start behaving like his children in the Lord.
“Be like your Father in heaven…”
I’m old enough and have lived long enough to know children and grandchildren of families…
I knew their mothers… I knew their fathers…
And I, like so many of you can vouch about one thing… the traits, the manner, the way of some of these little ones – and sometimes not so little, live their lives…
That there is so much of their grandparents and parents in them… in their ways… even of speaking… the way they handle things… the way they deal with other people… the way they treat them…
It is amazing…!
They haven’t learned this from paternal or maternal lectures… they’ve learned it from observation… by looking at their elders… listening to what they say… how they react to situations… how they speak to people who are in need or hurting…
And they become like new fathers and mothers – after they have grown from sons and daughters… and they are like them…
That is what Jesus asks us to do – to be today…
“Be merciful… be kind… be forgiving…”
“You are children of your Father…”
“Be like your Father in heaven… generous, magnanimous… merciful and loving in every way!
It is in the parallel verses in Matthew where all this is more forcefully brought home…
Jesus said – about hating your enemy… “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you – so that you may be children of your Father in heaven… for he causes the sun to rise on the bad as well as the good… and sends down rain to fall on the upright and wicked alike…
You must therefore set no bounds to your love, just as your heavenly Father sets none to his…”
(Matt. 5, 45 – 48)
Amen.
SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
There are two sets of beatitudes in the Gospels, one is in the Gospel of Matthew, the other is in the Gospel of Luke… they are similar and they are different.
Matthews’ are longer… and better known – Luke’s are shorter and are paired off with “woes”… “blessings and woes”… in a way that’s what life is made up of… “blessings and woes”!!
Beatitude – the word – comes from “blessing…” Matthew’s Gospel has eight… who are they? blessed are the:
- poor in spirit
- the gentle
- those who mourn
- those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
- the merciful
- the pure in heart
- the peacemakers
- those who are persecuted in the cause of righteousness
Then both include the last one about persecution and abuse because of the name of Jesus, or in Luke – “The Son of Man.”
Luke – has only four beatitudes – and are addressed to the disciples:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you,
revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great
in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets…”
(Luke 6, 21-23)
I find the beatitudes difficult, difficult to understand, difficult to appropriate to myself – and particularly difficult to live by.
How can it be a “blessing” to be poor, in need, hungry – weeping… to be hated, excluded, reviled… defames… even when it is on account of the Son of Man – which must mean – because of one’s trying to follow the Son of Man?
There is somewhat of a clue in the way the beatitudes are introduced in Luke… as to how to try and understand them…
Before they are introduced, there is a great emphasis on “listening”… now listening has always had a lot to do with discipleship… So much so that in the mind of Jesus “the listener” and “the one who acts upon…” what is listened to is like a brother or mother to Jesus:
“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God.”
(Luke 8, 21)
And Mary, Martha’s sister had chosen the “better part” – not because she
Was lazy and didn’t want to help her sister… but because “she sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking.”
And when a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Jesus on one occasion – “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you!” – Jesus astoundingly responds – “More blessed still are those who hear (listen) to the word of god and keep it.” (Luke 11, 28)
Now in Luke the Beatitudes have to do with listening… they are introduced in this way… it is a build up to listening… (thus discipleship)…
“A great crowd of his disciples… and quite a throng of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, from the seacoast town of Tyre and Sidon … and they came to listen to him… and to be healed… (Luke 6, 17-18)
But when he starts the beatitudes Luke portrays Jesus this way… “Then Jesus fixed his eyes on his disciples and addressed them…” no longer any mention of the crowd.
Have you ever had somebody, a father, a mother – a friend… kind of grab your head and look at you eyeball to eyeball and – say – “now listen to me…” “This is important!”
“He fixed his eyes on his disciples…” Then he says – not generally as in Matthew – blessed are the poor, gentle, etc. … But – “blessed are you…” and talks to them about daily existence… and experiences of daily existence… poverty… hunger… grief… hatred… betrayal…
And I suspect… the more one listens to the word of Jesus, the voice of his Spirit, and truly follow him… there will be indeed longing (poverty) – dependence, -- hunger for things not achieved… weeping… crying… hurt… and to some degree a sense of being excluded, reviled, defamed…
And Jesus says, when this happens, don’t be surprised, in fact, rejoice… you are in good company… the prophets... experienced all this…
And if you are not experiencing some of this – then woe to you… “if you are full now, and rich, and non-dependent… and frivolous… woe to you… true discipleship is not in you… are you really living it?...”
“If everybody only speaks well of you… wonder about it… that’s what once ancestors did of the false prophets…”
Is there a holy longing in your heart?... True discipleship is one always listening, open, always realizing so much is yet to be given… that it is a hard and painful road… with suffering, the cross, -- to walk towards and with the Lord – but already we are blessed now to be on it.
Amen.
FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
Have you ever been in the presence of a good person… or discovered how good they are… or were… heroically good… and you think of yourself in respect to them… and feel inadequate, even inferior, or if surprised by their virtue or goodness – even ashamed at your sinfulness…
Some years ago… not in this area… a priest friend of mine had a younger brother… a difficult person… with what we might call a checkered life… the younger brother constantly gave his older brother much worry, anxiety, grief.
Their two lives became diametrically opposed… the priest growing in success, achievement, respect… The younger brother more and more struggling with his addictions, -- to alcohol and drugs… making him somewhat of an embarrassment… especially to his family and to his brother the priest…
The priest challenged him, sometimes would get angry with him… but never abandoned him… Finally, one day, the younger brother died in rather difficult and questionable circumstances… questionable, because questions remained as to the exact circumstances of his death… there was much pain all around for all his family, and particularly the priest.
Guilts about his handling of his younger brother, -- had he been tolerant enough…? Had he been kind enough? firm enough? gentle enough?
It was up to him to bury him, take care of his affairs, go through his belongings, and personal effects…
I called him when I heard of his younger brother’s death…. I can still hear him… “Brian, Brian… if I had only known his struggles, but moreso what a good person he was… you should see his writing, his prayers… my God, he was a holy man…” (we’ll call him Billy)… all he could say – was “dear, dear Billy!”
Unspoken, was his sense – of his own unworthiness before the discovery of his little brother’s true struggles, and bravery, courage and ultimate goodness… even holiness.
Something of that is in our readings to-day, my dear friends… in Isaiah and Peter… two great figures deeply aware of their sinfulness before the goodness of God…
They both give vent to their admission of “unholiness” before the holiness of God and its manifestation for Peter in the person of Jesus.
Isaiah cries out before the holiness of God… of his unworthiness in God’s presence:
“Woe is me, I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…”
Peter, knowing that he too was in the presence of something which he had never experienced before… and saw Jesus’ wonder and power… is overcome… and falls to his knees and says… “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
These expressions from these two great men are not false modesty, or artificial utterances… they are an honest admission of their truest feelings – and their sinfulness deeply felt.
Not contradicted, by the way… by either the seraph that touches Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal – or Jesus who does not deny Peter’s sinfulness…
But both, from their sinfulness… acknowledged… are called… notwithstanding perhaps because of their acknowledged sinfulness…
God calls the weak, chooses the weak… as Paul, the third figure in to-day’s readings says; always conscious of his terrible shame in having persecuted Christians:
“I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God… But by the grace of God I am what I am… and His grace toward me has not been in vain.”
And in the same epistle… about his calling and in defense of it his famous word:
“Take yourselves, for instance… brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word, how many were influential people, or came from noble families? No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, and to shame what is strong that he chose what is weak by human reckoning… those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen – those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything…”
(1 Cor 1, 27-30)
”Woe is me…” “Depart from me, O Lord… I am a sinful man…”
What a lesson… he calls us in our weakness… in our sinfulness… how much these texts should temper our hardness and meanness to the weak… and sinners… we are they… they are us…
And to all… Jesus says… “come I believe in you…” “put out into the deep…” … “lay out your nets… in your tiredness… your weariness… your lack of self-belief and self-esteem…”
“I want you… I am calling… l come with me… come follow me… I will not depart from you… do not fear… from now on… we work together…”
AMEN.
FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
Rejection and feelings of abandonment: a common human occurrence… a common human experience… one with which Jesus is presented with and undergoes early in his ministry and public life.
Rejection means lack of acceptance… it means non-acceptance… it says “we don’t want you…” “we reject what you want to say… what you want to do… what you want to bring to us…”
Rejection has many facets… sometimes it is not a direct rejection of a person… but what he or she stands for… but when a person becomes identified with… or unites themselves, binds themselves to what they proclaim, or defend, or want to further… then the rejection of that position or way of life… becomes a rejection of that person.
Take for example, people because of their sexual orientation, or of their divorced or separated status… they often feel rejected… sometimes by their families, their friends — or by their Church… where they were so looking for understanding, compassion, and acceptance… not easy…
So rejection is a painful thing… it happens because of misunderstandings, envy, jealousy, past hurts, deceptions, unfulfilled expectations, differences… fears of the unknown, vulnerabilities, etc. …
Rejection is going to be a part of every person’s life… it is an experience which happens in everyone’s life… it is not a pleasant thing… it happens because of who the person is, what they believe, or stand for, or want to further, or believe in or want to do… etc. …
It is particularly difficult though if it comes from sources or people, or groups of people in which, or from which one would ordinarily, or expectedly, one would have thought they would have been supported, or welcomed, or received…
Rejection by people whom you were sure you would be rejected… or whom you really couldn’t care less how they reacted to what you say, or who you are, or what you do – is not very distressing… in fact you may say – “I couldn’t care less how you feel about this…!”
But rejection by one’s own… by one’s associates, friends… or moreso by one’s family… that is a singular painful human experience.
And it can happen to any of us… at different times of our lives… by what we say, by what we decide, by what we wanted to pursue or abandon… or decide not to abandon.
Now rejection and apposition has always been “a part”… not the whole story… “a part” – significant part of those who want to serve… and give of themselves, or feel called to give of themselves in some way…
And they better be prepared to taste it… and accept it… and among the group of people that served and were called to serve the Lord… were the prophets… and the greater part of the prophetic role was to endure rejection…
They were afraid of it, they knew it was part of being a prophet, thus their reluctance to even allow themselves to be prophet, and their history is covered with their complaints to the God that called them about their constant and painful rejection… and what it was doing to them…
So they had to be warned… and encouraged… and re-assured time and time again not to lose hope… that God would not abandon them… that He would be with them… not to be afraid… or grow weary, that He was very close to them… never to forget it… in the midst of their rejection…
They were afraid of it, they knew it was part of being a prophet, thus their reluctance to even allow themselves to be prophet, and their history is covered with their complaints to the God that called them about their constant and painful rejection… and what it was doing to them…
So they had to be warned… and encouraged… and re-assured time and time again not to lose hope… that God would not abandon them… that He would be with them… not to be afraid… or grow weary, that He was very close to them… never to forget it… in the midst of their rejection…
And so in the very first chapter of one of the greatest of all this prophets… Jeremiah… it is recorded right, right from the beginning… he is given his mandate against rejection… first by reminding him that God wanted him and loved him even before he was born.
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you… and before you were born I consecrated you… I appointed you a prophet to the nations…”
“Therefore, gird your loins… stand up… tell the people everything I command you… “Do not break down!”
“I for my part have made you to-day a fortified city, an iron pillar, a bronze wall… against everybody – whole land, kings, princes, priests, people…”
“They will fight against you… but they shall not prevail against you… for I am with you… says the Lord to deliver you…” (Jer. 1, 4-5, 17-19)
And Jesus, the last in the line of prophets… the great prophet… the voice of God… in the midst of his people… is rejected… by his own… not only rejected but… “they were filled with rage… and they wanted to hurt him off the brow of the cliff on which the town was built…”
But God’s hand was on him… “and he passed through the midst of them… and went on his way…”
Each of us at our baptism were signed with the chrism of salvation… making us, raising us to the offices of Christ, Priest, King… and prophet…
When we follow the Lord… in that prophetic office… rejection and abandonment will seemingly be our portion… but equally will be God’s presence… and his saving and gracious word: --
“Do not break down… I have made you a fortified city… they will fight against you… but they shall not prevail against you… for I am with you to deliver you. Amen.”
THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Some years ago I had a very memorable experience… I was executor of a will… the experience was memorable because the people I knew well… the deceased I knew well…
We had all gathered for the funeral… we had celebrated the funeral… we had a reception… greeted guests… and then retired to a home… in the parlor… I was not a family member… but all knew that I had been asked to be the executor…
After the room was cleared… leaving only myself and immediate family… siblings and spouses… I opened the will… and read it… they did not know its’ content…
Trust me… never, did I have a more captive audience… it was as if their deceased brother was talking to them… a bit of their history… something dear to him was being passed on… and they were receiving it… testament… passing on of the mind of the donor… his wishes… “this is what I want”… “I have signed this”… “and I ask that it be executed according to my wishes.”
Now in a way… that is what our readings are all about to-day… and in a way… that is what happens every time we gather for liturgy dear friends.
Listen to our first reading from Nehemiah:
“All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate… they told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel… accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding… and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the Law.”
Then the author records the reaction of the people to the reading of the law of Moses.
“So the Levites read from the book of the law of God with interpretation… they gave the sense… so that the people understood the reading… and all the people wept when they heard the words of the law…”
Then the author records the reaction of the people to the reading of the law of Moses…
“So the Levites read from the book of the law of God with interpretation… they gave the sense… so that the people understood the reading… and all the people wept when they heard the words of the law…”
But Ezra said to them: “do not mourn or weep… do not be grieved… For the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
You see, Ezra was like a new Moses… he was responsible for finally editing the first five books of Moses… the Torah…
These had been growing over the centuries… always in the spirit of Moses… yet reaching out to problems and needs… and interpreting it… it just wasn’t read to the people… He also “interpreted it so that all would understand what was read.”
And this event which we’ve heard about to-day begins what is considered the beginning of the oral tradition in interpreting the law… with inspired stories, edifying events… and applying them to new circumstances so that each moment may be seen and sanctified by God’s will… it’s as if… “here at last it’s ready… and here it is…”
Luke wrote his Gospel with the same purpose… he writes in the prologue to his Gospel… that “many have undertaken to set down in an orderly account the events that have been fulfilled among us… just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word… so I too decided after investigating everything carefully from the very first to write an orderly account to you…
Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.” (Theophilus… probably a catechumen).
These words… the sacred word in the testament… the will… of the one we worship… it is made of the teachings, the events, the history, the interpretation, the reflection, the inspiration…
Presented to us in public gathering… first… that we can solemnly hear it… second… that we can solemnly hear it together… as a body… as Paul says… not each in our own corner… but united to hear it… so that in hearing it… it unites us… thirdly… that in hearing it… we let it speak to us to-day… as to how it confronts, challenges, and consoles and encourages us for to-day.
We might well be like the first hearers… way back in app. 428 B.C. when they heard the final product… perhaps feeling so ashamed to have forgotten God’s goodness, mercy, presence… and saying “why did we ever doubt… after all God has done for us…” … and they wept and mourned.
And Ezra had to say… no… no… don’t be grieved… the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Or like the people in the synagogue in Nazareth… when they heard their boy… their own citizen… read from Isaiah… that what had been written was now taking place among them.
“And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.”
Amen.
SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Weddings, drinking of wine, good quality, good quantity!! Lots, and lots of wine – and good wine! -- And a party… and Mary was there, and Jesus and his disciples were there… and something extraordinary happened!!
Isn’t it too bad… that to-day, the mention of the word wedding for some people brings negative “vibes” – when we first hear the word.
For a number of people… the word conjures up… these reflections… “too expensive!...” “too long!...” “wrong time!...” “another wasted summer weekend!...”
Now I suppose, if one thinks of one’s own wedding – (an experience, I’ve never gone through!) – one might conjure up different sentiments…
Some couples don’t want to remember their wedding… others never seem to move beyond it… like so many high emotion experiences – there are all kinds of weddings… and the older you get you are inclined to remark – “I’ve seen it all… and someone else remarks – “No, listen to this one!!”
Still – the theme of a wedding or marriage occupies an extremely important place in the Bible… - no image has been found that better expressed and symbolizes the union, the joining of life and destiny, ordained by God, between himself and his chosen people… He is in the groom, and his people – the bride… and he courts her, follows her, covenants with her, joins himself to her, to bring forth life… he delights in her, is hurt by her rebuffs, by her rejection, by her infidelity… but he never forsakes her or abandons her.
The prophets constantly resort to the image of a marriage to express God’s love for his people without the least embarrassment – as in our first reading from Isaiah this evening:
“For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” (Is 62, 5)
So it should come as no surprise that the first “sign” – the first manifestation of Jesus’ glory should take place… at a wedding… in a festive setting… for Jesus comes to bring the fullness of joy and the best of love…
And the first thing that John says of this – even before noting that “Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. “The mother of Jesus was there…”
Mary’s role is both discreet and effective… for it is she who notices the lack of wine – and tells her son about it… implicitly asking him to do something about it… (she’s not only a mother – but a Jewish mother!!)
It is no accident that Jesus calls her “woman”, for she calls to mind the woman of Genesis, the woman of the Apocalypse, and the women in the other parts of John’s Gospel.
Woman is the symbol of humanity before God, receptive and responsive to the divine initiative – to bring forth life…
Now a word about wine… wine in the Bible is one of God’s most precious gifts… (water is scarce as we know) – As Ps. 104 says – “it gladdens men’s hearts;” and the heart of God himself! – It is a blessing from heaven – it eases the curse that lies over the earth and the labor that goes with tilling the soil.
But at a deeper symbolic level… its abundance is a sign of messianic times! “I will prepare you a banquet of rich food and healthy wines… on that mountain!”
“On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines… juicy, rich food – and pure choice wines!! (Ps. 25, 6)
“I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine, set out gardens and eat the fruit.” (Amos. 9, 14)
So “wine” in the context is the gift of messianic times – of the wonderful, singular relationship that Jesus brings of friendship, intimacy, affirmation, acceptance, happiness, joy, with God… not based on legalisms, or cold ritualistic obligations, heavy with demands and retributions… and fear of displeasing… anxious over punishment, slavishly following precepts – void of God’s delight and joy over each and every one of us…
And that kind of religion is in the jars… and that is why they are empty…
Here in this story humanity is turning to Jesus, complaining that religion is empty, it no longer gives meaning to life, it no longer gives joy to existence.
At first Jesus says that it is not yet time for him to do something, but the woman knows that the hour of redemption is at hand. She tells the waiters to do what Jesus says, and in so doing she symbolically tells all those who are waiting for salvation to turn to Jesus and do what he says. We want the wine of life, we want to taste something better than the daily drudgery which the world and cheap religion offer us.
The inability of cold ritualistic religion to satisfy us is symbolized by the empty water jars used for Jewish purification rituals. But if, like the waiters, we do what Jesus asks, he gives us something to replace what the old religious practices were meant to convey. He gives us wine for water! We thought we have something good, but it turns out to be cheap wine compared with what he offers us. The relationship he invites us into is more than we ever could have expected. It sets our heads spinning! It makes us drunk with gladness! It’s like gallons and gallons of the best wine!
And once we taste it… we never go back.
Amen.
BAPTISM OF THE LORD
Dear friends;
Baptism… means immersion… immersion… drowning… submerged… under water… buried in water and raised out of water… going into… coming out of… plunging…
Think of the term immersion, in other ways… not baptismal… We say of somebody who, for example, studies very hard… or works very hard… such a person we say – has immersed himself in his study or work…
Well we know – how we use it with language… for example those who are in French immersion… it is not a part-time study – or simply French as a subject among others – but all subjects, all the environment… the classes, the recreation, the social activities… it is a “bathing” an immersion into the whole language – and culture… French immersion.
Immersion… means… getting “fully into”… fully “involved in”… fully “taken up with”… fully “tasting”… and “experiencing” fully “embracing”…
We say it when a person is very, very much in love… very into the relationship…… it usually happens at the early stages of the relationship… Parents sometimes shake their heads in exasperation when it happens too quickly or intensely… with their son or daughter… “If Johnny wasn’t so darn immersed in that new relationship! He doesn’t have time for anything or anybody else….
We need these examples to understand something of Baptism… because that is what we are celebrating… that is what happened to Jesus… His Baptism is his immersion into something…
And the thing that he is immersed into is our humanity… He became one of us… one with us… one like us…
It is a movement of God towards humanity… not disinterestedly, not vicariously, not at a distance… but being “plunged” so to speak… “immersed” into our lives… our species… our humanity… as one of us…
It is touching of our fabric… the human fabric… it is an embracing of what makes us to be human…
And in his doing this… it is a thing “acceptable” to God… “pleasing” to God…
“This is my Son… the beloved… in whom I am well pleased…” He is pleased, well pleased with this identification with humanity – solidarity with humanity…
And in his immersion into humanity he brings the divine… the divine qualities… the divine goodness… the divine attributes…
And so on this feast of the Baptism of the Lord… the first action of the Lord… after his birth and Epiphany… actions done towards him… he actively and freely is baptized… He plunges into the humanity that he come to save… by being one in a rite of forgiveness and remission of sin…
Thus we have as our first reading from Isaiah what God always wants to bring and be… and do for his people as he comes to them and why he comes to them –
“Comfort… comfort my people, says your God… speak tenderly to Jerusalem… she is forgiven…” (Isaiah 40, 1-2)
That is the message… the reason for embracing humanity… console… comfort… tender speaking… forgiveness… mercy…
Paul so aptly writes to Titus:
“For when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saves us, not because of any works of righteous that we have done – but according to his mercy…” (Titus 3, 4)
Mercy… compassion… tenderness… goodness… These are the face of God immersed into our world…
And God’s wish and pleasure is that it be manifested, permeated… and that as his Son has immersed Himself into our world with those divine qualities, that we too… baptized in Him… show forth these divine qualities in our lives.
How? By immersing ourselves into our world with them… transforming our world with them… not at a distance… not dispassionately… not hesitatingly… but wholly embracing our world with them… touching… being with… identifying with… being in solidarity with…
“Comfort… comfort my people says your God… speak tenderly…”
“This is my son… my beloved in whom I am well pleased…”
“These are my sons and daughters… they are the consolers, they give comfort… they speak tenderly… they are my beloved… in whom I am well pleased.”
Amen.
SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
Dear friends;
Our New Year begins with a beautiful wish in the blessing from the book of Numbers: -- it certainly is a beautiful prayer for New Year… the Irish think it’s from them… but they have only added to it… still here it is in its original form:
“May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord let his face shine on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover his face to you
and bring you peace.”
Blessed & Happy New Year ---
To You All.
The liturgy also offers us another beautiful picture to begin our New Year – it is a picture to begin our New Year – it is a favorite of mine – because it is the most beautiful picture or image of Mary that we can think of and it is a biblical image… not one conjured up by artists, or visionaries, but one from the inspired word of God –
“The angel of the Lord appeared to them… The glory of the Lord shone around them
“The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem…
“everyone was astonished…
“there was a great throng of heavenly host praising God
but as for Mary ----
“She treasured all these things and
pondered them in her heart.”
(Lk. 2, 17)
The hauntingly and beautiful phrase happens again in Luke’s Gospel…
and again it is within circumstances of great activity – or “business”… when Jesus is teaching in the temple… being twelve years old… his parents thought he was in the caravan… they looked for him, but could not find him… he was in the temple… sitting among the doctors – listening to them… asking them questions…
- They were astounded by his answers…
- His mother said to him – “why have you done this to us my child?...
see how worried your father and I have been” ----
looking for you.”
Jesus answered…
“Why were you looking for me…
did you not know that I must be
busy with my Father’s affairs…?”
But they did not understand… what he meant…
Then Luke continues:
He went down to Nazareth… and lived under their authority…
And then – our beautiful phrase – with so much imagery ---
“But his mother stored up all these things in her heart.”
(Luke. 2, 51)
Most mothers can understand this biblical picture more than most of us…
it is presented within… busy activity, many words, momentous events… swirling around the main characters… and Mary is presented… as reflective –
- “pondering these things storing them up in her heart…
- treasuring them…
- seeking out their real meaning…”
What a wonderful image for the New Year my dear friends… that the Church offers us… the reflective woman… the mother of the Lord… our Mother…
The prophet – had earlier said to her: “You see this child; he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel… destined to be a sign that is rejected” – and to Mary he said…
“And a sword will pierce you own soul… too – so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.”
A reference to the cross of Jesus… and Mary’s place at the foot of it… and Jesus’ giving her to us – as our mother…
Let us take time today – and tomorrow – at the beginning of this year… to be like Mary… so much happens around us… to us… so many words are spoken… so much is hurried… we go here… we go there… Our blessed Mother shows us how to act… when we fail to see, fail to understand – in her greatest moments… in the most momentus times of her life – which involved her, which involved Jesus, which involved our very salvation – we read: -
“As for Mary… she treasured these things, storing them up… pondering them over in her heart.
Amen.
CHRISTMAS 2021
Dear friends;
One of the deepest longings of the human heart is to belong to be a part of… to be with… to feel connected…
One of the most feared feeling… are sentiments of rejection, loneliness, being shut out… feeling unconnected… not belonging…
There is a great measure of both in all our lives… sometimes the sentiments of loneliness and unconnectedness or estrangement can be quite overcoming, quite dissipating any sense of connected or experienced.
This is particularly true in there two last Covid years… not only are people lonely… there are also anxious…
Some people live with these feelings for a great part of their lives… a loneliness, a melancholy robs them of their spontaneity, their light-heartedness, their joy.
They long for closeness, intimacy, friendship… they deeply want to bond with others… but seem unable to, or are incapable… it seems perpetually out of their reach.
Christmas sometimes accentuates these sentiments… it brings them to bear upon us like no other season, more than any other time.
Christmas, though, should also answer these quests like no other time. For we might ask ourselves… Why did Christ come into the world…? Why does God come to mankind? Why did he become one of us?
Is there a longing in God? Is there a holy longing in the creator of all for unity?... for closeness? For intimacy?...
If Jesus Christ is the revealer of God… and his word and action show forth the reality of God… then the answer is a resounding yes!
God passionately loves his world… God passionately loves us… and all of us… none any differently!
“God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the
world his only Son so that we might have life through
him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but
God’s love for us when he sent his Son…”
(1 John 4, 9)
The yearning of God… to love us… to be told that we are loved… to be made his children… to be united with him… with one another… to let him live in us… to live in trust…
So that at the end of Jesus’ life – when all is said and done at the last supper… in the last discourse… there is a great sense of satisfaction… and finality… and accomplishment.
Jesus says… “I have spoken the words you asked me to speak… the works you asked me to do…” … “I have done them…”
“Now… Father… they know…” – they know that you love them even as you love me.” The knowledge that breaks down all barriers… the knowledge… that gives flight to loneliness, fear, unconnectedness, despair…
“Father, I have given them the glory you gave to me…
that they may be one as we are one… With me in them,
and you in me, may they be completely one that the world
will realize that it was you who sent me and that
(they may know) that you love them even as you love me.”
(John 17, 22-23)
“And that I want those you have given me to be with me
where I am.” (John 17, 24)
This is the message of Christmas dear friends… this is the Christian message of all time… that it be proclaimed even more forcefully… it is about God… it is about love… it is about closeness… it is about oneness… and it is about Jesus Christ… sent by the Father to tell it… to show it… to make it happen between us all.
May we all come to know it, and live by it.
Merry and blessed Christmas!
Amen.
FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT
Dear friends;
To-day, we are introduced to two great Advent figures… Elizabeth and her cousin Mary… the mother of the Lord.
Elizabeth was at home waiting for her visitor. She was waiting for the Lord to come, but she did not know it. She expected only Mary, her cousin. She knew that Mary was pregnant, but she did not know who the child was. Her own unborn son, John, was the one who told her finally, by leaping in her womb at the presence of his Lord.
This new coming must have been a surprise for her. She may have thought that the Lord had come to her finally and forever when he gave the great gift of allowing her and Zachary to conceive a child after long years of fruitless trying. She knew (probably more than most mothers) that the baby in her womb was a “gift of God,” that God had touched her being and changed her life. She may have thought that there was no new way for God to come to her, that she had experienced the absolute epitome of his presence in her miraculous child.
But then Mary came to her and Elizabeth saw that God had come to her in an even more wonderful and mysterious way… clothed in the flesh of helpless infancy. Her leaping son taught Elizabeth that there are no limits on how or when God will come into a human’s life. But she learned only because she was prepared to see. She accepted her hidden God only because she was ready to receive him. Elizabeth’s eyes were clear and her heart was open.
Elizabeth was able to see the presence of the Lord in her ordinary surroundings and was able with open heart to grant that Mary’s unborn Jesus was the most important thing in the world. It was an exceptionally demonstration of humility. Before Mary came, Elizabeth must have believed that the child in her womb was the absolute greatest. But when Mary stood before her, Elizabeth immediately proclaimed that the unseen child of her cousin was much greater! In the presence of a still hidden Jesus, Elizabeth changed all priorities. She chose an unborn child in another’s womb over all else in her life. It was an act of faith, and act of courage, and act of an open heart prepared to receive God however he came to her… in the sorrow of her barren years, in the unexpected joy of the child now felt inside her, in the clouded hiddenness of her cousin’s womb. Elizabeth was able to see the unseen and open her heart to a God previously unknown in the new human guise.
As we wait for God to come and hope for him to come and pray for him to come, we need Elizabeth’s clear eyes and open heart. But it is not easy. Without God’s grace, it is impossible. The Lord comes in many ways. Sometimes we are called to join him in a Sometimes different from what went before… a life fulfilled beyond our wildest dreams, a life emptied beyond our most terrifying fears.
The Lord comes sometimes in a new venture, a new vocation, a new job that becomes possible only because we fail in old ventures, vocations, and jobs. Peter found Jesus because he was willing to move beyond his fishing career. Zachaeus found Jesus because he was to take a day off from work. Mary Magdalene found Jesus because she was willing to take a chance on true love.
There is no predicting how the Lord will come into a human life. Sometimes the Lord comes when we fall in love, and sometimes he comes when a love is lost. Sometimes we can only come to see the Lord when we are all alone, when all earthly loves have gone from us. In the emptiness of life that results, we perceive that the Lord has come to us – not to make us feel better (at least right away) but just to stand by our side as we live through our despair.
Sometimes the Lord comes on a bright spring day. We walk arm in arm with someone we love along an empty beach. There is a warp in time and space. There is no past with its troubles. There is no future with its fears. There is only the golden beach and bright sea, the white cloud-ships sailing across the blue sky, the pleasant warmth of the sun and the fresh breeze caressing our brows as we talk quietly about everything and nothing. God sometimes comes to us on such days when we truly feel GOOD, when for a few precious moments we seem to experience life itself.
Sometimes the Lord comes in the ecstasy of life, but sometimes he comes to join us in the midst of a killing illness, perhaps just after someone has said the somber words: “I am sorry, there is nothing more that can be done to save you.” Sometimes in hearing words of death, we come to perceive that the Lord of life stands near.
We must be prepared to see the Lord in every ordinary event of our lives and to accept his coming even though it comes with pain. Christmas is any day that God comes to a human being, and however he comes he asks the same question: “Do you believe in me? Do you love me more than the rest?” If we hear those whispered words in our life and consistently answer “Yes!” then we never more will be separated from him. Jesus will have come, and we will have seen him with clear eyes and received him with an open heart.
Elizabeth disappears from history after the scene in the first chapter of Luke, but she leaves us with a good memory as we wait for the Lord’s coming. She shows that if we are prepared to see and accept him whenever and however he comes we shall indeed see him and hold him even in the most ordinary days of our lives. Our faith tells us that the Lord comes to us in this life. Elizabeth tells us that sometimes he comes in quite unexpected ways.
As the day approaches when the Lord will come to us, we should pray for the virtues of Elizabeth: the gift of clear eyes and an open heart. We need clear eyes to see the Lord in case he comes to us in an unexpected way. We need an open heart to set aside our accustomed lives to receive him.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Dear friends;
The season of Advent, the season of hope, expectation, breaks out into the season of joy…
“Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud: Rejoice – exalt with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem.” (Zeph. 3, 14)
Our psalm, from a poem in Isaiah –
“Sing and shout for joy, for right in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” – Is – 12.
And in Paul’s letter to the Philippians: - we read “I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord… I repeat, what I want is your happiness –“ (Phil 4,4)
In the gospel we read… “there was a feeling of expectancy growing among the people…”
There was hope, joy was breaking through… Zephaniah was a prophet under one of the worst kings of Judah… and not only was the reign of Monasseh one of the worst in the history of Israel – it was one of the longest… (why do the worst last the longest??)
Acts of sacrilege in the temple were common place, altars to pagan gods were built – even in the temple of Jerusalem… Monasseh even burned his own son as an offering – he committed murder on a grand scale…
Zephaniah – apparently a citizen of Jerusalem – is raised up by God to condemn these abuses and atrocities. He predicts a Day of Yahweh as a Day of wrath – a day of distress and anguish, he predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and of all the nations… Yahweh is portrayed as angry – as indignant over the sinfulness of the rulers and his people… in its description of the destruction Yahweh is going to bring about, very much like God’s decision to destroy the earth by means of the flood. (Gen. 6.7)
The first chapters are not totally negative – Ch. 2 indicates that there is still time for repentance… those who approach Yahweh with humility – obeying his precepts may be spared… and Yahweh will restore this remnant.
The last chapter from which our reading is taken – is a description in lyrical manner of the salvation of the remnant… it is great contrast in tone to the previous chapters.
It is nearly a love song – between God and his faithful… among the most beautiful and tender in all of the Bible – and again it is spoken in the midst of upheaval and destruction –
“Rejoice, O Israel… exult with all your heart… - The Lord has repealed your sentence… you have no more evil to fear”
“Don’t let your hands go weak… The Lord your God is in your midst”
But it is in the next passage that remind us of God’s love being manifested… and that is what this season is all about… We celebrate the season where we have come to realize how much God loves us! He comes to us because He loves us!! He come to us as a child – as one of us…
I think I have told you – that we have been, in our family, blessed lately with the birth of new babies – some years ago – we went through the terrible period of five deaths in less than two years – one of whom was my father – now my mother had died.
Now, God is blessing us with new births… new life… my Fredericton nieces are having new babies… on the twenty-third of December – I’m going up to Fredericton to baptize three little ones at St. Dunstan’s.
Then, as I’ve mentioned to you before… the little Swyers children – James and Scarlett have become the joy of my life…
The joy I have in seeing them grow – James, seven, Scarlett, 18 mos. is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced… they are such happy children… they carry me through dark or difficult days…
Listen to the text of Zephaniah… it is the inspired word of God… “The Lord exalts with joy over you – He will renew you by his love… he dances with shouts of joy for you as on a festival!”
Why is it so hard to believe this?! No wonder we find it hard to give thanks – we have trouble believing – that we are God’s delight – that He could dance?! Over us!!
Remember at the Baptism of Jesus… and at the Transfiguration… the voice from heaven came… “this is my Son in whom I delight… in whom I am well pleased!!
It is the recalling of His great word in Zephaniah – in all the Scriptures – it is the word to us to-day – from God… to us… “I exalt for joy over you – you are truly beautiful, wonderful – you are my pride, my joy… my happiness… I exult with joy over you…”
Let us give thanks for this message of delight, hope, love… not only in Advent – but always.
Amen.
SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT
Dear friends;
We are introduced this Sunday to a great advent figure… John the Baptist.
A strange figure… he had only one great role… the precursor… to prepare the way of the Lord.
He was according to Jesus… the greatest of all the prophets… Jesus would say… “there is no man born of woman greater than John.” (Lk 7, 28)
He was eventually to baptize Jesus… and then he retires from the scene… to decrease as he says… and finally meet a terrible death… thrown into jail and eventually executed.
The cousin of the Lord… who leaped in his mother’s womb…
What did he preach? Repentance… immersion… forgiveness of sins… making his own the words of the prophet Isaiah…
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness”
- Prepare the way of the Lord…
- make his paths straight
- every valley shall be filled
- every mountain and hill be made low…
- the crooked ways shall be made straight
- the rough ways made smooth
- and all flesh shall see the salvation of God…”
Valleys, and hills, and paths… They are what we walk on… they are the courses we choose to travel… these are about the courses of life we embark on…
And John’s preaching revolved around the readying ourselves for this and how to walk them.
The first thing he spoke of in his preaching – was about repentance… changing one’s heart… for the forgiveness of sins… doing something – or rather allowing something being done to you – allowing oneself to be changed… allowing your heart to be changed…
A very difficult thing indeed… we may allow many things to be changed… but to allow a change of heart… that is repentance…
It means… I will forego a course of action… I will turn away from what I have sought and what possesses me… and what I want to possess… I will let go…
I will live a life of dependence… of openness to God… instead of my constant self-seeking… and let myself be led by Him… trust of Him, confidence in Him, dependence on Him… with an attentive ear to what He calls me… instead of always doing what I want – what I seek for myself…
A life lived in this way… is the beginning of… a change in one’s way of life…
- those paths… crooked… full of distractions and dear-ends… become straight.
- those valley… those depths reached by the emptiness of always demanding one’s own way… of always seeking one’s own pleasure at everyone else’s expense, those valleys of emptiness can gradually be filled…
- those mountains, those hills so difficult to overcome… so seemingly unsurmountable, so difficult to crest… impossible to cross over… somehow become low… we can see the other side…
Rough ways are made smooth… roughness, roughness of speech, of action… violence, hostilities… disappear with a changed heart… a gentle heart… a loving heart…
When all this happens… all human beings shall see the salvation of God…
“Come, Lord Jesus, make all this happen for us.”
AMEN.
FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING
Dear Friends;
Pilate stands before the accused one – Jesus of Nazareth… and he is perturbed… he is anxious… this is one like no other who has come before him… he is intrigued by him…
Pilate does not want to be involved with this man… still he asks him are you what the others say you are… “are you the king of the Jews…?”
“My kingdom is not of this world…” Jesus answers… Pilate draws a sigh of relief…
“My kingdom is not from here…” – Pilate is even more calmed… there is at least no threat… no claim on power… no chance of uprising. But then… he asks now with the charged atmosphere removed…
“So you are a king?” … more inquisitively than accusingly… “tell me about how you are a king…” “what would you establish?” “what do you bring about…?”
Jesus answers: “For this was I born, and for this I came into the world… to testify to the truth… everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice…”
“I came to testify to the truth”… Pilate will end it all by asking (not included in our reading…) “Truth, what is that?”
And then he goes out to the crowd… and vainly tries to free him…
“Truth… what is that?...” What does it mean to “testify to the truth…” What does it mean to “belong to the truth?”
From John’s epistles we learn that “living the truth,” “belonging to the truth” “witnessing to the truth” – all have to do with right relationship… right living…
Not simply or primarily moral behaviour, moral behaviour issuing from an understanding of right relationship – as to whom God is… what God wants… hope for… expects… and who we are… and how we life in reflection of such “knowledge…”
We testify to the “truth”… to the revelation of God as given in Jesus Christ… by our knowledge of it… and our living out of it…
We testify to the “truth”… when we have “heard”… and “listened”… to what this person Jesus Christ… says of God… in his talk of God… in his acts of God… his “deeds” of God…
When we behold them… appropriate them into our lives… and live… in a way affecting our relationship with God… affecting our relationship with one another… and inasmuch as that patterns the revelation that Jesus is and brings, and speaks – then we are “living in the truth…” we are “children of the truth” we “belong to the truth.”
It is in John’s epistles that we find out – what kingdom living is all about in John’s gospel… and what is this kingdom of truth.
And it has to do with living in a certain way…
Listen to these texts:
“My children, our love is not to be just words or mere
talk… but something real and active; only by this can we
be certain that we are children of the truth.”
(1 John 3, 19)
“It has given me great joy to find that your children have been living the life of truth as we were commanded by the Father… I am writing now… not to give you any new commandment, but the one which we were given at the beginning, and to plead: let us love one another.
To love is to live according to his commandments: this is the commandment which you have heard since the beginning to live a life of love.” (2 John 4 – 6)
Those who live a life of love… who live as God wants them to live… for God is love… and thus love one another… they know “the truth”, they know the truth about Jesus and his message…
“My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son… so that we could have life through him…” (1 John 4, 7 – 9)
The truth… “What is truth?” to the crucified Jesus, Pilate asks… to the king… king of the Jews… king of the truth… king of the kingdom of love…
The shepherd… motif in the Old Testament has as its background the portrait of the king… who shepherds… who looks out for those who belong to him… they hear his voice… they are believers… they know that he lays down his life for them… they know he speaks words of service, of forgetting oneself, looking for the lost, words and deeds only of love… in all of this being a true revealer of God… and his followers listen to him… and they try… only try… but succeed with him to establish the kingdom… of which he is the King and Lord.
Amen.
TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
One can say that every relationship that we have… something is asked of us… we might not see that at first, but as the relationship develops with another… we slowly come to realize that something is happening here and we might even one day reconsider whether too much is asked of us or not.
This is our common experience… isn’t it with the people we live, and work? As we go through life’s journey, we can reflect that in some relationships very little is asked of us… so much so that a certain guilt arises from within us… for example with our parents…
With others too – who have been, as we say, too kind to us, too generous, too self-effacing… we come to realize that we have taken them for granted, or not been expressive enough of our gratitude, of telling them what they mean to us… sometimes we wait too long…
Now our Lord, knew very well there is no such thing as real love without struggle, gift, risk and commitment and suffering – and it would be a travesty to ask people to follow Him, or love Him without first telling them that to do so would involve sacrifice, and risk and struggle…
Not at all that these would be the only things present in His relationship with us… no more than they are the only things present in love relationships amongst ourselves… but in His respect for us, and His sensitiveness to us – and in His love for us – He tells us as clearly as possible what following Him means…
It will mean in great measure, picking up ones’ cross, dying to self, losing one’s life… all which means as He says in the Gospel, “DRINKING THE CUP.”
Can you drink the cup?... He asks those boys who thought only of first places… and the glory of being near the Lord… and who forgot about serving and loving in a real way.
He had to tell them that real joy and happiness would be found not in first places, but in self-giving and service to others… as costly as that might be.
CAN WE DRINK THE CUP? How different it is for each of us… not everyone is asked the same… as some people ask more of us than others… only to discover that we love them more than others…
How wonderful is our Lord to be honest with us… not to treat us immaturely or irresponsibly… but to know us and love us enough to ask us. He does not take our love for granted or try to fool us.
To ask something of another is to take a risk… it is to place one in a vulnerable position… with the chance of being refused and rejected…
But to ask something of another which involves placing one’s life at his disposal, of forgetting one’s own preferences for the sake of others, to lose one’s life for His sake – is to take the ultimate risk… because it is asking the best of us and in us. And that is how much He loves us – and He simply says: -
“CAN YOU DRINK THE CUP… THAT I MUST DRINK… CAN YOU DRINK THIS WITH ME?”
Do we understand the word of the Lord… “that whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve?”
It is rather strange that his conversation even happened – and it happened because two members of a family – two brothers came to Jesus with a request…
A request which bordered on arrogance… “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you…”
I’m afraid that is the way most of us ask… “This is what we want you to do”…
How far from… “your will be done…” “Whatever you want Lord…”
So often we do not ask God… we tell God…
And what is it that these two brothers wanted? – They wanted to be seated at the right and left of Jesus in his glory… basically, they wanted power, privilege, influence…
And before he challenges them as to what seats at his left and right will involve… he says something to them which I’m afraid might often be said to us about our prayers:
“You do not know what you are asking…”
Isn’t that what could be said to us… or our requests… of our prayers?
We have no idea of the consequences of our prayers – if they were really granted!
That’s when he talks to them of drinking the cup… a symbol of suffering… of sacrifice… which Jesus had already begun drinking… and which he tells them as his closest followers… they too must imbibe… they too must take up… drink up…
And it all ends with a teaching quite differently from which it all started with a request for power, domination, privilege:
“Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant… and who ever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all…”
Namely, that under the reign of God greatness comes only through service, and the greatest of all is the one who serves others faithfully.
A long way from first places, power, domination, privilege…
What a Gospel dear friends!
A pattern so different from what the world envisions and embraces and calls us to…
James and John were not bad people… they were very human…
But for a moment they lost sight of the person who loved them… who was to give himself up for them… who was to drink the cup for them – and in the end asked them to drink it with him… Which they both did at last… as we are called to do.
Amen.
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
This weekend has the reading of one of my favourite Gospel passages: The invitation or calling made to the rich young man.
It is a scene which we can easily imagine. A man comes to Jesus. He seems to be a very good man (Matthew presents him as a young man) who impressed Jesus, and Mark relates that Jesus was drawn to him.
“Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him.”
He must have noticed his genuineness and his sincerity in trying to do the best he could.
In coming and making reverence to Jesus we notice that this is not the mocking bow of the soldiers, or of the Scribes and Pharisees. It is, from all indications the earnestness of a man who wanted to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life. As Jesus recognizes this, and having ascertained that he knows how to obey in little things, he asks more of him. He leads him higher, to a more noble, to a more perfect obedience and following.
He says to him: “go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me.” And the Evangelist records:
“But his face fell at these words, and he went away sad,
for he was a man of great wealth.”
Why was he sad? Why couldn’t he follow the invitation he himself had solicited? He would not follow because he would have had to let go of what he had, and we are told that he had much.
Jesus then looks around to his disciples, the poor of this earth in so many ways, and says to them:
“How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.”
And they were astounded by these words, he insists a second time, and this time without mentioning riches:
“How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”
The surprising answer to this young man, and thus the answer to us as well is:
“Leave” – “Let go” – detach yourself from what you have thus far desired, from what you possess and what you want to possess, and follow me.”
And this is hard. It is not simply a question of riches, or of wealth, or material possessions. It is also mother, father, brothers, sisters – all of which we naturally long for, and naturally seek – all of which are not denied us – but which we must be ready to forego for the sake of the Gospel – and which in attitude and in fact we must be ready to leave.
And this is hard – we can react in sadness – over the years feel the hurt – it is painful, and if we start doing it against our will, it makes us bitter and spiteful.
To leave… to let go… would be impossible were it not out of love for the one who calls and his promise and its’ fulfilment of blessings a hundred times over. But what will only come with a free response to a free invitation.
A free response to a free invitation which needs attention daily – and of which we must constantly be reminded. Very little is done once and for all, and professions and commitments are quickly forgotten if not kept in view. The cost is not equal for everyone, nor the moments of effort in letting go or leaving off as numerous or as difficult for everyone.
All of us love self. There is such a measure, a great measure of self-love in all of us – and denial and detachment do not come easy.
What I would like us all to do is to stand with Peter and ask ourselves his question: “What about us?”
Not only ask ourselves this question – but courageously and honestly ask our Lord… “What about me?” - “How faithful have I been in my response to your invitation?” – “Have I really let go – and made those breaks which are the real and only beginning of true life in you?”
My friends… what a hauntingly beautiful sentence! – “Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him.” It is because he loved you, and goes on loving you that something is asked of you. How have you responded? How are you responding now?
Re-read this text,
There are no threats, there is no vindication, or condemnations once the young man moves away… it was simply a request to do more, to go higher, to excel. It was an invitation in answer to a request.
The Gospel, indeed the whole of God’s word is first and foremost – the history of God who comes to us inviting, asking, calling forth from us his best. It is the history of a loving God at once seeking out, and again waiting for us to approach him so that he can who new and wonderful ways to speak to others of what that love means – that in following him is our true salvation.
This passage in particular gives evidence to it my friends – it is but one example of God’s calling us – in this case – a rich young man – but it is also the story of our own lives, the life of any calling in Christ.
The late Pope Paul VI has beautifully paraphrased this in one of his conversations with Jean Guitton, the French lay theologian, in the book entitled “The Pope Speaks” -- Dialogues of Paul VI with Jean Guitton: The Pope remarks:
“Be what you become, or rather, better still, become what you are. Continue. Be better. Be more, be still better. That is to say, remain the same, remain the person I see in you, but at a higher level or at a greater depth.” (P. 81)
Is not this paraphrasing the invitation of Jesus to the rich young man… deepening the invitation, calling forth the best, the excellent, the noblest that we have to offer.
Does not St. Paul write in the same vein to his beloved Philippians – calling forth the best from them when he writes?”
“Finally brothers, fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise.”
Let us not allow the gift of ourselves which we make become our curse – but rather, let us with Him who emptied himself, who was rich and became poor for our sakes, let us with Him learn the blessings of detachment and true poverty – so to embrace the fullness and richness of the promises he has made to all who follow Him.
PRAYER:
Let us pray:
Father, how greatly you respect us,
that you offer us yourself in love,
but do not force yourself upon us.
Life, with all its challenges, is open wide
before us;
We are free to love, and free to refuse love;
free to give, and free to seek only for ourselves.
Breathe your spirit upon us in all choices
that we face;
may we never run from love in fear,
but freely risk that death which alone brings life.
We ask this in the name of Christ,
who has freely loved, and freely died,
and who now lives with you in glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.
TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Ideals, aims, achievement, success… they are the stuff of what we all want to attain… we applaud the achievers, we honor the successful, we encourage and uphold the ideal…
We do it in “the world”… and in society… and we do it… by imitation in the Church… and in doing it in the Church, we might just miss the point that the Church was never meant to reflect the world values or its aims.
The Church must always reflect the mind of its’ founder, who came primarily for sinners, the broken, the wounded, those whom the world considers failures, the outcasts… the poor, the lonely, the widows…
And yet the church must point to the ideal… to asking what is best drawing out from us all what our hearts are open to, stirring up within us the divine… the image in which we have been made and created…
One of the ways we fulfill the yearning for the divine that is within each of us is through personal relationships…
Personal relationships are as important to us as the air we breathe and the food we eat; without them our lives would wither and die. They are subtle and fragile, and yet touch profound depths within us.
Of all personal relationships, marriage is the one in which people invest the greatest hopes, desires, and fears.
The depth of any relationship may be judged by the degree to which people make themselves vulnerable to be hurt in the relationship and, for this reason, marriage is at the same time the most rewarding and the most potentially dangerous personal relationship known to human beings.
So true, so true… and what to do… and how to minister to those whose marriages… have not succeeded…? It is, as you know, and area of ministry that occupies much of my attention.
I am in it, I might add, because I know of no greater area of human contemporary suffering then marriage breakdown… and the hurt and pain it causes, not only to the spouses, but their children, their parents, their relatives
and friends.
That pain and hurt, is often unnecessarily, increased by the misinterpretation of the Church’s teaching and practice – freely offered by insensitive clergy or laypersons – on marriage and divorce, thus further alienating broken and wounded people and often preventing them from receiving the compassion and understanding from the very institution to whom they so look to for those qualities.
Jesus calls to the ideal… the Church calls to the ideal… it can do no other… but it must always – and in this it can do no other… minister to those who for one reason or another… often through no fault of their own… have not been able to live up to the ideal…
We must shore up support for marriages, develop strong marriage preparation courses, encourage marriage support groups, create family nurturing associations…
But, we must equally, as a Church and individually be present to those who experience the shattering pain of marriage breakdown and separation.
The harshest words of Jesus do not come regarding the indissolubility of marriage… it is an appeal… but his harshest criticisms are to those who show no compassion, or understanding, and mercy and acceptance of those who are the “little ones”… the “last”… the strugglers with their sense of failure and rejection...
And often, the divorced, the separated, those who have gone through a marriage breakdown are amongst these… made worse by relatives or friends who callously judge motives, impute blame, take sides and glibly condemn.
Pain increased, by the way, when they feel they are unwelcome or unaccepted by the Church in her liturgy and sacraments – or even worse excommunicated – never teaching of the universal Church.
Much could be said of this important subject that affects so many of our families… there is hardly a family without a divorced son or daughter… all of you know the pain and sadness it causes.
Let us all commit ourselves to temper our judgments, harbor our harsh criticism, -- and reach out with compassion, and understanding, being present to – with encouragement, affirmation – and acceptance.
There are no magic wands to heal the pain that come people go through -- we in the Church may not always be able to grant annulments, or dissolve marriage, or even religiously solemnize remarriages – but we can always be ready to receive, welcome, and accept a group of people who are amongst the most hurting of our community.
Amen.
TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
God is not bound to the strictures – or structures that we have laid out for him… good can be achieved through the most unlikely sources… the most unsuspecting or unsuspected persons can be channels of God’s grace and goodness.
That, it seems to me, is the lesson of to-day’s readings – and it is a hard lesson for some of us to learn… or to accept. The two teachers who help us learn this lesson are Moses and Jesus… and both speak the same message… “be not jealous or constraining of the magnanimity of God’s grace.”
Both events in which the lesson is given take place in the early developments of structures in the faiths to which we belong – we are in the early days of the Hebrew faith – they are still a nomadic, journeying people… we are in the formative years of Christianity – apostles were being chosen and roles were being developed…
In the first case… Moses was leading the people through the desert… they were a journeying people – there were no sanctuaries, but at each stop Moses pitched, as some distance from the camp, a tent called “the meeting tent.”
It was in the meeting tent that God gave Moses his instructions. There, also, Moses spoke to God in prayer – answering his requests, hearing his questions… God’s presence, we read, was manifested under the form of a cloud which came to rest before the door of the meeting tent.
On one of these occasions, God told Moses to choose seventy elders as helpers in the task of leading the people… as our text says: “they shall bear the burden of the people along with you… so that you do not bear it all by yourself.”
Then the text goes on in a rather primitive description to say that the Lord came down and took some of the spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders… we might say… He spread it around!! And as a result they prophesied…
Now it just so happened that two of the elders who were not in the meeting tent when this happened who remained in the camp – their names were Eldad and Medad… but they seem to have received the Spirit as well…
And it is reported to Moses that without being visibly invested with power… they too were prophesying… and Joshua – Moses’ aid since his youth begins remonstrating with Moses… “My lord Moses, stop them…” worrying about Moses’ authority…
And what does Moses answer… “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them “all”… “Don’t be jealous for my sake!”
In the Gospel, something very similar occurs… John comes to Jesus… and says to him, “Teacher we saw someone casting out demons in your name… and we tried to stop him… because he was not following us.”
And what does Jesus answer…?
“Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.”
Now my dear people – the stories in both texts are striking… in both situations… power is given to a certain few… God did not say… “choose everybody”… he said “choose seventy of the elders”… we know as well that Jesus in choosing the Apostles – he called twelve – and as the text says – “he appointed twelve… they were to be his companions… and to be sent out to preach… with power to cast out devils…” (Mark 3, 13-15)
The second parallel – is that in both cases “others” seem to have the gifts that were given only to a few – and are using them… and it’s working!!
The third parallel is that in both cases… there is a worry – a concern – authority of the leader – Moses or Jesus – is being undermined, and that concern is brought to the fore by a close associate… Joshua in the case of Moses… John in the case of Jesus.
The fourth parallel – and the most important one is the answer of Moses and Jesus…
“Stop fretting about this… don’t be jealous of these things… be grateful that good is being done…” “You seem to be more concerned in protecting the right channels of the gift – than rejoicing in that the gift is being received.”
There is much for us to learn and reflect upon here – my dear friends…
We have “harnessed” God’s grace… we have restricted it to the channels which we have set up… and organized…
We have limited it to the practices and person whom we have called “holy” – and “ordained” for the purpose of dispensing – solely – dispensing as the sole dispensers of God’s mercy and compassion…
We have tried to “contain” – “hold back” “hold in” something which can never be contained by any human institution, or held, or possessed by any group of people – or persons… or jealously guarded to be given out at our will or at our discretion…
The Spirit blows where it will… and while, thanks be to God, it is present in the institution that the Lord has founded to some degree – it is not restricted to it… the life of the Spirit is found in the most unexpected places and persons… it is of its very nature surprising and spontaneous and unexpected…
And way back centuries and centuries ago… a great prophet in the face of the rigorous structures of Israel… looked to a new day… a bright day… in which Moses’ dream would be fulfilled – that all of God’s people would prophesy…
Joel would write:
“After this I will pour out my spirit on all mankind… (not only your sons)… your sons and daughter will prophesy…
Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men see visions. Even on the slaves, men and women alike, will I pour out my spirit in those days.” (Joel 3, 1-2)
Amen.
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
There is a “powerlessness” to Christian life… it is an integral part of discipleship… it is a strange part of it… difficult to live by… difficult to incorporate…
It is associated with being vulnerable… not being completely in control… it has to do with “not dominating”… not seeking prestige, fame, or seeking power… the seeking of which much of our lives seem taken up by.
We say… “If I can get this”… “if I can control this”… Much of our lives are spent on achieving certain stature so that we are in a position of controlling something, or somebody – dominating them… having our way… and brought to extremes… we call such people despots… dictators…
God does not have much place in peoples’ lives who are always out for power, prestige or fame.
In the world of business, in politics, in human relationships and in the relationships between groups and nations, the seeking after power is the explanation of a significant part of the evil in the world – as fear of others leads to the will to dominate them, and many people can never be satisfied that they have enough power.
It is very much in us, in all of us… our world admires people of power… of means… we like to be associated with them… we want to be one of them even… there are loads of little worlds that we want to be in charge of…
Now this little band of the twelve that Jesus had chosen… had their little world… and it slowly became a “unit” so to speak…
And he had just spoken to them about his betrayal, his being handed over… and put to death… all things which meant a certain powerlessness in him.
He was subjected to “unprotection”… vulnerable to forces which he allowed to succeed in their aim… “undefended” before betrayal, before schemes… of men… “The Son of man… will be betrayed by men.”
So reminiscent of the first reading… where the godless… the evil wait… as if for the hunt of the innocent… for the killing… “Let us see… let us test… what will happen… let us torture, let us insult… let us condemn him to a shameful death…”
Will he remain “unprotected”…? “Will God help him…” … will the “all powerful”… deliver him…?
All of this was far from the little world of the twelve… like any small group that was being formed… leadership soon became an issue…
Who will be in charge?... Who will run it?... Who will be first?... Who is the greatest?...
“These are important things for us to know… and Jesus better get on with telling us who it’s going to be!!!” And they were arguing about this and talking that way… “on the way” as they walked…
So he asked them… “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.”
They were silent for they would have known instinctively that Jesus would not be part of such a conversation, that being the greatest was not something that concerned him, for rank presupposes a world of glory and power…
And here Jesus was speaking about suffering… and losing one’s life, and being betrayed…
And he said… in the kingdom, and in true discipleship – the one who wants to be first must be last of all… and servant of all…
In the kingdom – real power is power to serve… power to give oneself for others… not to control others, or dominate them…
For Jesus this is the only justification for all forms of power… and the only reason for its existence. In order to help others, we often need the power that position or money or knowledge can bring, but this is the only reason why power is given to us.
And to make sure they understood this… he brought before them a child… a powerless… dependent figure… a vulnerable figure… and taking it in his arms… and said to receive and welcome a child… is to receive and welcome him…
He is the powerless one, the vulnerable one… the one betrayed… handed over…
And the powerless, the vulnerable, the betrayed… the wrongly accused and vilified… the sufferers… they all know that he is with them and in them all along the way.
Amen.
TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
To-day, in our spiritual journey we are presented with one of the most difficult realities that each one of us must grapple with…
Simply put, it is the problem of suffering. We ask ourselves, “why does it happen”? Why does it happen to me, to my loved ones?
Does it really, seemingly… have to be a part of my following of the Lord Jesus? Can I escape it? – Can I avoid it?
In a way, these questions are the background and setting of to-day’s Gospel and message…
The setting takes place in a beautiful valley of the Jordan River, majestic mountains, and a powerful city built by Herod Philip named after him Caesarea Philippi.
Jesus and his disciples look over this… it speaks of beauty, power, grandeur.
Jesus seems to have felt it was time for him to ascertain and teach his disciples more about himself, his mission.
So he questions them… he asks them what they think of him… how other people see him… how they see him…
There had been already quite a bit of time spent with him… they saw his success, his achievements; they saw the crowds responding to him, the healings, the acceptance of his message…
So he asks them, rather gently at first – “Who do people say that I am?”
And they answer -- telling him that people are saying different things:
Some are saying like Herod, that you are John the Baptist whom he put to death, alive again… others say you’re Elijah… (whom some thought would return before the coming of the Messiah) -- others say that you’re one of the prophets…
And it is their leader who answers, not only for himself – but for them collectively: “You are the Messiah.”
It was a giant step of faith… a memorable moment…
But it was a moment and an answer that carried with it notions of the day… a Messiah who was thought to be a conquering general of sorts, overthrow the occupying Romans, restore the kingdom to the glory of past ages…
So he told them – without rejecting their claim – to definitely tell no one about him… that way – which would have totally jeopardized his mission…
Then Jesus began to correct and clarify what their deficient notion of Messiah implied.
“He began to teach them”… it’s as if he was saying to them… “now this is what you have to know about me being the Messiah…”
And to say the least, it’s not what they wanted or were ready to hear.
“The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes… and be killed… and after three days rise again.”
Such a statement must have hit them – as we say to-day: “like a ton of bricks!”
For Jesus to call himself – “Son of Man” a term referring way back to the Suffering Servant Poems… a mysterious servant who, though beloved of God, a chosen of God, in whom he delighted… but described in this way: “He will not cry out or lift his voice… or make it heard in the street… a bruised reed he will not break… a dimly burning wick he will not quench…”
and describes his plight:
“I gave my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard… I did not hide my face from insults and spitting…”
And the text further says of him: “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him…”
“He was despised and refected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity… wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises
we are healed…”
These passages, by the way, are read not only to-day as our first reading – but make up the solemn readings of Holy Week especially, Good Friday…
Jesus, seemed to be transferring all this to himself… with all that it implied…
For Peter, and again – as the spokesman of the Apostles – this was too much!
And he gives vent to his feelings: And the text says: “Peter took him aide and began to rebuke him…”
In other synoptics… it is stronger, Peter says: “This must never happen to you, Lord!”
Jesus, then turning and looking at his disciples – he rebuked Peter – saying – “Get behind me Satan… you are thinking not as God does but as humans do!”
The rebuke of Peter contains the harshest words that Jesus ever spoke to anyone… -- “this is what it’s going to be”
And then… to make sure – that they, his disciples, would realize that all this was not only so integral to who he is, and what he would face… he tells them about how all this is part of who they are – and will be…
“Whoever wants to become my follower, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me…”
Suffering is part of who he is… but it is redemptive suffering… suffering, as so many of you know firsthand, painfully… is also redemptive…
Look at all the great and wonderful people you know… especially parents, spouses… what they go through, the burdens they carry, the love they exhibit… it always includes denial of self, sometimes great pain and suffering… it is for the other…
The author of the letter to the Hebrews summarized it so well: (Heb. 12)
“Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which was still in the future, he endured the cross…
At the time… any suffering is most painful, far from pleasant, but later on those whom it has been used, it bears fruit in peace and goodness.”
Amen.
TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Have you ever been asked… to be “open” to something which you feel uncomfortable with…?
It is difficult… you’re apprehensive… your reticent… you delay… you hesitate…
I find myself often in that situation – especially as I get older… I often want to take more time to consider… to discuss… to think about consequences.
And it must be frustrating, and exasperating to people who want quick actions on this or that plan or action.
They will say – “why aren’t you open to this?”
Another example is a personality type – they are quiet, shy, reserved… as a young person… we remember them that way… timid, apprehensive…
That’s how they were in their youth… I had a cousin… so shy… reticent… would hide behind his mother’s apron, so to speak…
Somehow, somewhere, all that changed… now whenever we have a family gathering… the most fun-loving, and witty, jocular person… outgoing in every way – the one always chosen to be the emcee at wedding is this guy… we older ones who remember him as a boy are dumbfounded.
How did this happen?
Mark has written up the event of the cure of the deaf man… in a symbolic opening of a radical change wrought in a pagan man… and he has written it up in such a way that people were dumbfounded… they couldn’t understand how it happened.
Because that is what this Gospel is all about… the radical change in a person… closed… unable to hear… unable to speak… and then so open to the message… that he can’t be silenced.
The scene is the pagan side of the “Sea of Galilee”… in the region of the Decapolis… it’s pagan territory… where eventually the Gospel will have to be preached.
Everything is symbolic with Mark’s Gospel… and others bring to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech…
The man needed others… to become open… and free… he was so disabled that he was incapable of coming on his own…
This is often the way… when we’re incapacitated physically, mentally… but also in our ideas… closed… we need others… we’re never going to change unless we try to listen to others… without the help and patience of others we remain “closed”…
“He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue.”
The man could not hear, so Jesus could not communicate with him in words… and his actions were a universal language that crossed all cultural boundaries…
There is the intimacy of Jesus… away from the crowd… taking time to be alone with… no change is every wrought by magic wands… it is done through personal contact… expressed here by Jesus’ physical actions touching the ears… and the tongue…
Then… the great expression of Jesus’ desire… “Then looking up to heaven… he sighed…” the scene portrays the deep emotion of Jesus…
The deep desire, the deep longing to free people… to unbound them… to loosen whatever hinders their freedom… whatever incapacitates them… “he sighed…”
And he said “Ephatha”… that is “be opened” – it is the permanent desire of Jesus… the permanent truth of Jesus to open us… to free us… to help us to see clearly… to hear clearly…
It is nearly the groan of Jesus, the cry of Jesus… the Ephatha… If only people would hear… it only they would see.
And as soon as Jesus had opened the man’s hearing… everything that had prevented him from speaking was also removed… because the inability to hear was also what prevented him from speaking the message to others…
“His ears were opened immediately, and his tongue was released… so much so that he couldn’t be silenced… and the others couldn’t be silenced…
And all were astounded… beyond measure… and they said… “He has done everything well… he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak…
The prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled… say to those who are of a fearful heart… “Be strong… -- weak… incapacitated… Here is your God… He will come and save you”–
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened… and the ears of the deaf unstopped… then the lame shall leap like a deer… and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy…” (Is. 35, 4-7)
“The Lord opens the eyes of the blind… and lifts up those who are bowed down.” Praise the Lord O My Soul. (Ps. 146)
Amen.
TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
Moses spoke to the people: --
“Give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe… You must neither add anything to what I command you… nor take away anything from it…” (Deut. 4, 2)
“Do not add… do not take away…” Why do we always want to add… impose more and more…? Why do we want to take away what is essential? Remove what is at the heart of the matter? And forget what is at the center.
From time immemorial societies have grown and thrived on structures, and constitutions and by-laws, and customs… until they became weighed down to the point of smothering and irrelevance.
On the other hand, societies which have tried to live or grow without them, have quickly turned chaotic… falling into disarray…
Newman, when defending rituals, and the use of ritual against some of reformers… had a wonderful line – “forms are the very food of life…”
But forms, without some depth of understanding of their origin, their development, their history, -- can become meaningless, misunderstood, odious…
Jesus came face to face with the use of forms… of rites… and the discussion of their importance, their role in expressing faith, in observing faith…
And his word on them – as always, goes to the “heart” of the matter… for observances, even legitimate ones… had become more important as to how they were observed than what they signified… their important in themselves, for themselves, by themselves had become exaggerated – thus their meaning lost…
So he enunciates a revolutionary principle… and it is introduced solemnly by the phrase… “listen to me all of you and understand…”
All of these observances… can be misused, abused… done for the wrong reasons… it is the state of your heart that is important…
And he goes back to the ancient cry in Isaiah – about empty worship – where the Lord complains: -- “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…” (Isaiah 29, 13)
“In vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines…” “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition…”
What is the great commandment...? Jesus says to the Pharisees: “To 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 neighbor as yourself…” On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.” (Matt. 22, 37-38)
When the big questions are asked… the big answers come back… and they have to do with the heart…
In human relationships… and in the things that matter most to us… we also bring in the expressions which betray our deepest feelings about things we value and cherish… or have lost interest and focus about…
“My heart is no longer in this…” “I have no heart for this kind of thing any more…” “You don’t know how disheartened this has made me…”
It is a frightening thing indeed, that the gestures which evoke the state of one’s affections and condition of one’s heart… can also be used so negatively and perversely…
Embracing can express warmth, acceptance, closeness… but it can also be a means of conveying shame, abuse and untoward advantage…
Even something so wonderful as a kiss… can become the vehicle of coldness, repulsiveness, and as in the case of Judas, betrayal…
All actions, all observances, all foods – and eventually all persons… have their moral judgement made by what our intention of the heart has towards them.
That is why so many people are fooled by others, and even try to fool themselves… because we are afraid to really look at their hearts… and our hearts… and in the end… the only one who can discern them fully is God… God alone.
AMEN.
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
“This teaching is difficult… who can accept it?...
Because of this… many of his disciples turned back… and no longer went about with him…”
“So Jesus asked the twelve… “Do you also wish to go away?”…
Simon Peter answers… “Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life…”
What a forceful dialogue, dear friends… what a picture of all of us… not only the disciples… but all of us represented in them.
The teaching is difficult… the Eucharistic teaching yes… but more than this… the answer to the call is difficult…
It is not the first time that reference is made to the difficulties of discipleship… for make no mistake – this is basically what the dialogue is about… about “walking with” the Lord…
“He called those whom he wanted, they were to be his companions… “walk with…” (Mark 3, 13)
When Jesus meets the rich young man – he tells him what to do to follow him… “sell, let go, divest yourself of what you so want to hold on to and possess…”
And he can’t for he had many possessions… and so he cannot walk with Jesus… he “went away… sad…”
And then Jesus says to the disciples: “how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God…” and then as the disciples were astounded – this time he doesn’t speak of riches at all – he simply states: -- a second time: -
“My children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God…” (Mark 10, 24)
Why is it hard?... Why is it difficult? Why shouldn’t it be easy… did not Jesus say – that his yoke was “easy” – and his burden ‘light”…
At its deepest level… discipleship means leaving… and letting go… and detachment… and losing one’s life… and depending for more on God and His Providence and His presence… than on our own…
And all of this is difficult and hard… because it is a letting go of what we want to have and possess… and it makes us vulnerable… we want to be completely in control… we do not want to live in a dependent way…
Look at the most selfish, and self-centered people you know… they will often say… “I don’t depend on anyone…” …”I never want to be betoken to anyone…”
You can’t give them anything, you can’t do anything for them, they don’t know how to receive… so they can never express gratitude or thanksgiving!
They cannot taste the joy of praising… they are not Eucharistic people… they are not disciples… they have not learned to make the first step in walking with Jesus… and it is a hard first step… “let go…”
In both cases… in the dialogue with the rich young man and in the discourse on the bread of life… it is the spokesman for the disciples… the first amongst them-and in both cases… it is “what about us…”
It is about the journeyors… those who are walking… those who have left all… those who sometimes weaken and look back… unworthy though they are for having put the hands to the plough… and yet want to sometimes give up… “throw in the towel…” it’s all too difficult and challenging…
And Jesus turns to them – lovingly, no doubt… somewhat apprehensively, somewhat tentatively… and asks the twelve… the special disciples… his closest followers – and asks them… “Do you also wish to go away…?”
“Do you also want to stop walking with me…?”
The scene is charged with respect, with respect for freedom, -- yet with hope… and desire… and longing for friendship and gift.
And Peter rises to the occasion… and he basically says: -- “Where else, Lord… who else can give us what you feed us with… who else can be for us what you are for us… we have come to believe… you have made us into a new people… we are irretrievably changed… we cannot go back… no one can give us what you give us… no matter how hard it is some days… all else pales in comparison… you have the words of eternal life… you have the bread that is our life.” “You are who and what keeps us going.”
AMEN.
THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY
Dear friends;
We celebrate the feast today of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – a dogma defined in 1950 by Pius XII, but celebrated much before in the earlier centuries of the church.
The proclamation of Pius XII reads as follows:
“We pronounce, proclaim and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin when the course of her earthly life was over, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven.”
That in essence is what we celebrate today…
It is the feast which celebrated Mary’s destiny – of fullness and blessedness… her glorification… as a person… body and soul raised to heaven.
But as Paul VI says:
“The Assumption is the feast that sets before the eyes of the Church and of all mankind the image and consoling proof of their final hope, namely, that this glorification is the destiny of all those whom Christ has made his brothers and sisters, having ‘flesh and blood in common with them’.” (Heb. 2, 14)
Mary’s Assumption is therefore related to us… As Mary is and where she is… we are to be…
Thus the Church offers us on this feast the ‘Magnificat”… the prayer of Mary… the prayer of Christians… the prayer of all who let God’s blessedness bring his purpose to fulfillment.
Mary speaks the prayer… as a person who lets God do the saving, lets God be the source of every gift… lets God look upon the lowly, the humble… and raise them up… transform them… glorifies them…
Mary’s Magnificat expresses the kind of life and faith that we are called to live… trust, dependency, openness to God… prayer of trust… letting God work through us and in us… Mary is our great symbol of that openness and trust in God… so difficult for all of us…
But when it is attempted, different things happen:
Through prayer we become attuned to God’s voice calling us to do his will, calling us to be united with him. Through our decisions and our actions we seek out his direction for us and, no matter what we do, we know that we are going in the right direction if it is leading us toward greater love and greater giving and greater freedom.
We do not have to worry about making mistakes, for God will correct us if we are always listening. We do not have to worry about stumbling or falling, for he will be there immediately to catch us.
Life at this level of faith becomes incredibly simple, almost naïve. We realize that God does not demand great things of us; he wants only to be great in us. If we allow it, God will even do great things through us.
But we ourselves do not have to make them happen. We only have to surrender and trust at every step. We only have to hope in him every moment. We only have to stand on his promise and wait for it to be fulfilled in our lives, choosing in accordance with that promise.
The woman who first completely understood this and totally accepted the Word of God within her was Mary. Through her yes, God took on flesh and and became incarnate in a unique way. She lived the life of faith to the fullest. She carried the meaning of faith beyond what it had been for Abraham, the Israelites and the prophets to what it would be for Christians.
Mary lived at the point where the Old and New Testaments meet, and she helped make the transition from the one to the other. As the mother of Christ, she exemplifies what all Christian spirituality would henceforward be. But as a Jewish maiden she also typifies what the spirituality of Israel was always meant to be. The Magnificat, Mary’s prayer of praise to God for all that he has done in and through her, provides a New Testament summary of the full meaning of Old Testament faith:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit exults in God my savior;
because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.
Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.
He has shown the power of his arm,
he has routed and proud of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exulted the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.
He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy
according to the promise he made to our ancestors –
of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
(Luke 1:46-55 JB)
As a person of faith, Mary is tuned completely toward the Lord. She knows in her heart that God is her savior; she has no illusions about saving herself. She praises the Lord and thanks him because she knows that he is doing it all.
At the same time, Mary is aware of a new greatness within herself. She has a sense of her own incredible dignity because the Lord is within her. In our own faith, we come to realize that the Lord is within us and working through us, and this makes us unbelievably great. Not that we are going anything great, but we are allowing God to do great things in our lives.
The feast of the Assumption… the feast celebrating God’s purpose and fulfillment of Mary’s life.
The feast of the Assumption – our feast… allowing God to bring about to completion what he intends… if we but trust, be open… let God work through us… and bring us completely to himself.
AMEN.
NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
We continue this Sunday – the long chapter six in John’s Gospel – on Jesus speaking to us as “the bread of life”…
Jesus says – that he himself is the bread of life… a bread that sustains us… no matter what we face… no matter what we encounter… that he will be there for us… to carry us through… to keep us going…
In our first reading from First Kings… we have a very vivid example of one of God’s chosen people… the famous prophet Elijah…
Elijah is portrayed in this passage as being tired… he had come through a lot… he had announced the end of a long three year drought… but he was met with great opposition… no one defended him – and Queen Jezebel hunted him down and he fled for his life…
Betrayed, he fled into the wilderness in south district of Judah… he is tired, discouraged, and weary…
God sees this and sends him an angel to touch him… because he is so discouraged… seeing his life as futile…
He very colorfully describes his situation this way: “It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life…”
I have heard such despair, dear friends in my priestly ministry… things like: “I can’t take any more Father”… “I can’t bear any more”
Elijah lies down under a tree and falls asleep in his discouragement… but God sends an angel to him – touches him – and says to him: “Get up and eat” – and Elijah looked and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water… Sustenance!! “He ate and drank, and lay down again”…
The text then goes on…
“The Angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said – “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you” – Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mountain of God…”
“The journey will be too much for you”… says the Angel… to Elijah… “you won’t be able to handle it… you need something to sustain you…”
What an astute and deep observation… we use it about ourselves – we speak it of those dear to us…
“I’m not sure I can handle this… I don’t know how she’s going to be able to handle this…”
The many facets of the human condition… the more negative ones: discouragement, anxiety, worry, despair… fear… lack of strength, loss of hope… conviction…
- “Get up and eat… otherwise the journey will be too much for you…”
Words we hear so often… words and condition – we feel so often!!
“Elijah – got up… ate and drank – then went in strength for a very long time…
That is the background of to-day’s Gospel, dear friends…
Jesus – in his person, in his teaching, in all that he says and does… wants to be our food – our bread… the sustaining thing that keeps us going… that revives us… that lifts us up…
And it is real… it is his very self…
“I am the bread of life… eat of it… and you will not hunger… you will not perish… you will not die…”
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven… whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh…”
“Take and eat… this is my body… Take and drink… this is my blood…”
Consume all that I am… be consumed by me… I will be in you… I will strengthen you… I will life and bear you up… I will live in you… always.”
AMEN.
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Have you ever asked yourself – what it is in this life that you could do without? Or on the other hand, what it is that you absolutely could not do without?
There is, after all, as we grow older, situations… which naturally develop… that prevent us from having, or doing… some of the things that we used to cherish and enjoy so much… that we could never imagine life without them.
We depend on these things, we need them, we believe, and need them absolutely – and without them life would seem unbearable.
Yet… somehow we move away from them, or circumstances… make us move away from them.
For example… something so mundane as a car… and an ability to drive a car… that’s not seemingly so important… some people go through the whole of life… they’ve never owned a car, they’ve never driven, or learned to drive.
But for someone since eighteen years of age… has always had a car… enjoyed driving, felt the necessity of a car… never realized that some day… there will be no car… and the freedom it brings.
There is a very special person in my family… now into her eighties… the hardest thing for her to give up… was owning and driving her car… it bothered her to no end… for a while it changed her disposition… she felt imprisoned… incapacitated… alone… extremely frustrated… and downright irritable.
Now, after a number of years… she has come to accept… that a car is not as absolutely necessary… as she once thought… because now her health condition is starting to affect her bodily mobility… and she has trouble walking… and she knows the loss of that would be far more traumatic than losing her ability to drive, or having a car…
I suspect she must start to wonder… what if so much is going to be taken away from me… my mobility, maybe my sight… maybe my hearing… how will I cope?... Will I have anything that will keep me going? Will I have anything to sustain me?
The things that I so valued… and thought I absolutely needed… are perishing… are disappearing… I’m losing them…
Now we call the basic sustenance of life… bread and water… without which we can’t live… they are essential… to our survival…
Bread in those terms can also mean more than bread…
“Bread on the table” can mean “food” generally… I need this to put “bread on the table” for my family… - we say – “somebody’s got to put bread on the table”…
“This is my bread and butter… this is my work… this is what I do… that’s what keeps this business… or me going… “Bread and butter issues”… everyday things that occupy us.
When a kid says… “Give me some bread man” – it means… “I want some money…” “mullah”. These meanings all have to do with need… essential need… sustenance…
Now when the crowds were looking for Jesus… having heard about the miracle of loaves of bread… he told them something about bread, about the necessity of bread… about food… and the kind of bread… and necessity that would satisfy… and last… and not perish…
He says to them… “Why are you looking for me…? “What do you want from me?” “You are looking from me for something that does not last… you are looking just for loaves… your present need… and your present need passes… it is very transitory… you may think you will always have to have this… but no… this need and this “craving” will pass.”
“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you.”
“The real food that will sustain you… is me… my person… my teaching… it will bring you through everything… it will enable you to handle everything… it will allow you to lose everything… it will support you… it will sustain you… feed on it… it will carry you through everything…”
They said to him… “Sir give us this bread always…?”
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of live, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and who ever believes in me will never be thirsty”…
AMEN.
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
Some situations in life seem very hopeless… odds seem to be against us… unsurmountable conditions seem to make solutions unachievable.
Some people face these things every day… everyday is begun and ended with a lot of pain and worry, with a lot of deception and hurt, with great feelings of disappointment and reversal.
For others, life affords some respite, there are days when all seems to go well, they have few cares, few worries.
Then things start going wrong… their world starts crumbling – death of a loved one, sickness of a family member, financial instability, insecurity of employment.
Others, do not experience these things so much themselves, it is people who are close to them, they see their pain, their anguish, their terrible unmet needs.
Or they see the magnitude of problems universally, -- the hostility between peoples, the strident accusations of factious groups, the loss of hope and vision amongst some young people… our high rate of suicide… etc. …
And a refrain starts growing – we give utterance to a question which has been asked for centuries – from time immemorial – by groups and by individuals… “What can we do…?” “Is there anything we can do?”
The question is asked before seemingly impossible situations – unsurmountable odds…
Last week, we saw Jesus – in the end of our Gospel passage… reflecting that he felt sorry for the crowds… and had compassion on them – “for they were like sheep without a shepherd…”
Crowds… the mass of humanity… is always before him… he feels for them… he has compassion on them… it is a loving look that he has towards them… he hurts for them…
They want out of their condition of sickness, and pain, and abuse… they want deliverance from what incapacitates them… they want healing… to be made whole… being at one with themselves, not disjointed… not fragmented in their body and spirit…
They want oneness with each other, in relationships that have been fractured and bruised… they want forgiveness and mercy and acceptance… for the burdens of guilt they carry.
And they hunger for all these things… and they all hunger for it… and we all hunger for these things… each and every one of us here… sometimes very much indeed…
And the men and women around Jesus hungered for those things too… and he knew it… and that is why he looked upon them with such affection and compassion… for you cannot love someone without feeling their pain.
And the disciples were beginning to see with the eyes of the Lord… they were learning through observation of him… how he felt, what he said and what he did…
These are characteristics in all the narratives of the miracle of the loaves and the fish which are common to all the four Gospels…
There are many who are present… too many to really deal with… it takes place in an arid place… a lonely place… there is no great vegetation support…
The disciples impress upon Jesus… that there are too many… and that they have too little… too little to offer…
In all accounts Jesus asks them to bring him what they have… and he takes what they have…
And whatever he does… a prayer? a blessing…? … in that interchange… then they distribute enough for all… with more left over…
What happened…? The odds were unsurmountable… there is no way… the crowd could be fed and satisfied…
He asks… they ask… “what can we do”? “Bring me what you have… look into yourselves… look within the depth of yourself… you have within yourself… in the little boy… in the little girl… the gifts that I can transform if you but let me…
Together… we can transform together we can multiply… together we can bind and heal and make whole and feed – nourish hungering and hurting broken… all of them… with lots left over…
You have to be part of it… I have to be part of it… together we can do it… bring me what you have… bring me who you are…” –
“I will not do it alone – You cannot do it alone…”
“A man came bringing food from the first fruits to Elisha… the man of God…”
“There is a boy here… he has some barley and fish…”
“He is just a boy… and he has so little…” “It doesn’t matter… I can do – and you can do so much… bring it to me… you hand out what we have…”
AMEN.
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Where do we look for wisdom? To whom do we go for answers? Who satisfies our probing of questions?
The answer to all of these questions – is unfortunately – rarely the persons who might have them – near us… living right with us… people we know, and have always known.
We would never turn to them, or really listen to them, or accept what they might say – because, we claim, we know them, we know who they are, and where they come from.
It happens to us all – and it happened to Jesus.
It is a timeless truth, expressed by Jesus – by a proverb – “no prophet is accepted by his own, and in his own country.” It was an ancient proverb –
People will always listen to a “guru” from afar… or an “expert”… but rarely to a local person who might say exactly the same thing – even better – or more profoundly…
Let me give you an example:
I remember once I was speaking to a neighbor of mine about someone dear to me who was going through marriage difficulties.
And I laid out the situation – but moreso my worry, and concern for this couple… and my neighbor – and average guy – listened attentively… without interrupting – (more than an average guy) and I suggested that we may as priests, preachers, marriage counsellors… parents… etc. … talk too much of ideals in marriage and relationship…
He answered, -- very quickly and directly – “You know Brian – the big problem with all of us… is that none of us are prepared or learn how to handle failure… we’re never taught that!!”
I immediately remembered – this wonderful book by an American Jesuit that I cherished – “The Theology of Failure.”
I loved it – because it was so original. Its’ chapters had to do with – Failure, -- The Church Fails – Jesus Fails – etc. … things I had never seen written before.
Now had – the author – come and sat down and given a talk on this subject from afar… we would all be raving at his wisdom… and learning… and astuteness… and originality!
Yet here in my backyard… an ordinary person… my neighbor… offered me – because of his lived experience… and reflection… the very answer that this learned and well-educated, theologian and philosopher – offered in his book…
The family of Jesus, his relatives – “took offence at him”… -- “we know him… he is the son of Mary…”
There was a block… they cut off from acceptance… one who was offering them something… something very precious… very valuable…
They rejected it from him… because they said he “is one of us…”
When God spoke to Ezekiel the prophet… and he saw visions… his mission was to go to the people with full knowledge that he would meet rejection – and people would refuse to hear – but look how God addresses him:
“Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel…”
‘Mortal’… a finite being… a human being… the message come through humans – through people… through relatives – through Paul… a man beset by weakness – with a “thorn” in his flesh… and embarrassment and pain…
What is this fascination with the extraordinary, with visions, with gurus, with signs, with appearances…?
The message is revealed in weakness, in everyday people and events…
We make faith and the things of faith – out of reach of people when we focus so exclusively in the extraordinary, on miracles, on happenings…
The things of faith, the stuff of faith, the message of faith… is revealed by “mortals” in everyday life… by and ordinary neighbor who drops in at a providential moment… and you are concerned, worried, anxious about a loved one…
And just sitting on the verandah… in a quiet, reflective conversation – without even knowing it says something which evokes peace, and hope – and solace… “we all have to learn how to handle failure… we’ve never been taught that.”
It happens when a relative… comes home… he is still the brother and sister… the cousin… the son of this or that… he was speaking… as he was doing in every other town… he had wonderful things for them to hear… things to do… but they missed them… he couldn’t do them there… all because they said… it would be too ordinary… what could this one ever tell us about God… we know who he is… how sad that their minds were closed…!
The mysteries of life are revealed in the very people you often interchange with everyday… and we miss it because we think they wouldn’t be able to reveal to us things we don’t know or understand… but they can and they do, if we but listen and accept them.
AMEN.
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Where do we look for wisdom? To whom do we go for answers? Who satisfies our probing of questions?
The answer to all of these questions – is unfortunately – rarely the persons who might have them – near us… living right with us… people we know, and have always known.
We would never turn to them, or really listen to them, or accept what they might say – because, we claim, we know them, we know who they are, and where they come from.
It happens to us all – and it happened to Jesus.
It is a timeless truth, expressed by Jesus – by a proverb – “no prophet is accepted by his own, and in his own country.” It was an ancient proverb –
People will always listen to a “guru” from afar… or an “expert”… but rarely to a local person who might say exactly the same thing – even better – or more profoundly…
Let me give you an example:
I remember once I was speaking to a neighbor of mine about someone dear to me who was going through marriage difficulties.
And I laid out the situation – but moreso my worry, and concern for this couple… and my neighbor – and average guy – listened attentively… without interrupting – (more than an average guy) and I suggested that we may as priests, preachers, marriage counsellors… parents… etc. … talk too much of ideals in marriage and relationship…
He answered, -- very quickly and directly – “You know Brian – the big problem with all of us… is that none of us are prepared or learn how to handle failure… we’re never taught that!!”
I immediately remembered – this wonderful book by an American Jesuit that I cherished – “The Theology of Failure.”
I loved it – because it was so original. Its’ chapters had to do with – Failure, -- The Church Fails – Jesus Fails – etc. … things I had never seen written before.
Now had – the author – come and sat down and given a talk on this subject from afar… we would all be raving at his wisdom… and learning… and astuteness… and originality!
Yet here in my backyard… an ordinary person… my neighbor… offered me – because of his lived experience… and reflection… the very answer that this learned and well-educated, theologian and philosopher – offered in his book…
The family of Jesus, his relatives – “took offence at him”… -- “we know him… he is the son of Mary…”
There was a block… they cut off from acceptance… one who was offering them something… something very precious… very valuable…
They rejected it from him… because they said he “is one of us…”
When God spoke to Ezekiel the prophet… and he saw visions… his mission was to go to the people with full knowledge that he would meet rejection – and people would refuse to hear – but look how God addresses him:
“Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel…”
‘Mortal’… a finite being… a human being… the message come through humans – through people… through relatives – through Paul… a man beset by weakness – with a “thorn” in his flesh… and embarrassment and pain…
What is this fascination with the extraordinary, with visions, with gurus, with signs, with appearances…?
The message is revealed in weakness, in everyday people and events…
We make faith and the things of faith – out of reach of people when we focus so exclusively in the extraordinary, on miracles, on happenings…
The things of faith, the stuff of faith, the message of faith… is revealed by “mortals” in everyday life… by and ordinary neighbor who drops in at a providential moment… and you are concerned, worried, anxious about a loved one…
And just sitting on the verandah… in a quiet, reflective conversation – without even knowing it says something which evokes peace, and hope – and solace… “we all have to learn how to handle failure… we’ve never been taught that.”
It happens when a relative… comes home… he is still the brother and sister… the cousin… the son of this or that… he was speaking… as he was doing in every other town… he had wonderful things for them to hear… things to do… but they missed them… he couldn’t do them there… all because they said… it would be too ordinary… what could this one ever tell us about God… we know who he is… how sad that their minds were closed…!
The mysteries of life are revealed in the very people you often interchange with everyday… and we miss it because we think they wouldn’t be able to reveal to us things we don’t know or understand… but they can and they do, if we but listen and accept them.
AMEN.
THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
The Gospel we have just heard is among the most poignant of all the passages of Mark’s Gospel.
It has to do with especially two people… a little girl at the point of death, and a father who is at a loss of where to turn, and what to do… and a woman worn out by a long disease, and having nearly lost all hope of ever overcoming it…
Such situations perdure today… people face even to-day similar hopeless and harrowing moments…
Fathers and mothers know all too well the frightening feelings of a sick child… and how it affects them… women know all too well the draining consequences of a seemingly permanent illness… how hopeless they feel in the face of it…
Jesus comes into both their lives… because both – a centurion by the name of Jairus – and a woman whose name is not given but her condition is a seemingly permanent issue of blood…
Let us look closer to what happens:
First of all – Jairus is introduced as a centurion – a leader in the synagogue… and official in the synagogue… the synagogue had earlier rejected Jesus… yet here is an official of the synagogue who breaks ranks… because of the love that he had for his daughter… who, we learn was at the point of death…
Fathers and mothers understand this like no other… they would do anything for the health and wellbeing of their little girl – or little boy…
Jairus… falls at Jesus’ feet… and begs him repeatedly… “My little daughter is at the point of death… come, and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live…” It was if he was saying: “I beg you… come and save her… it’s my little girl!!” “You, and your touch can save her!!”
“I want her to be made well… but I want her to live…”
Being made well… means being cured… but living… means as well… to begin living in faith… being given something that endures… that which is eternal…
Jesus’ response is to go with Jairus… “He went with him”… he accompanied the broken-hearted father… that’s what Jesus does… he accompanies us… and many others decided to go with Jesus and Jairus…
Then, there is an interruption in the story… and a second person is introduced… a woman… “who had been suffering from hemorrhages… “A continuing loss of blood… the very thing which is absolutely needed to sustain life…
The plight is more pronounced for this woman – because, by Hebrew law – the flow of blood made the woman ritually unclean and unable to take part in public worship… and was forbidden to touch anyone…
All this is made even still more poignant… “She had endured much under many physicians… and had spent all she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse…”
You can imagine her mind… hopeless, discouraged, penniless, worn out psychologically and physically…
Mark then simply introduces what came about and why:
“She had heard about Jesus”
And it made her – like Jairus, throw caution and ritual, position to the wind…
“She came up behind him in the crowd – and touched his cloak… (though she wasn’t supposed to)… and said “If I but touch his cloths, I will be made well!!” We know what then happened… “Immediately, her hemorrhage stopped and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.” The very source of the flow of blood was healed… at the touch of Jesus… and Jesus as well knew and was aware that power had gone forth from him…
The next part of the woman’s story is less dramatic… but offers us great lessons to reflect on…
First of all… Jesus wanted to meet the woman… to engage with her… to make sure she harbored no quilt for breaking the law in touching him…
Secondly, Jesus wanted the cure to be an experience of faith for her… not just a cure… but something to hold on to for the rest of her life…
“So the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth…”
These two people – Jairus and the woman – both risked a lot… Jairus, his position in the synagogue… the woman, betraying the ritual law of not approaching another person – let alone touching them… their actions show that they both were already persons of faith… risk takers… brave souls…
Jesus thus warmly confirms this… affectionately calling her “daughter”…
“He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Now, we return to Jairus’ daughter…
“While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say:
“Your daughter is dead… why trouble the teacher any further?”
These people – like so many in impossible, hopeless situations – were convinced there was nothing more that anyone – not even Jesus, could do…
Jesus overhearing them said to Jairus: -- “Do not fear, only believe.”
Jesus warns Jairus of the dangers of fear… how it incapacitates… destroys faith… and remarkably says…
“The child is not dead but asleep…”
“-Believe that in some way that I can awaken the girl from a sleep like death to life…” and they laughed at him… their faith not extending to Jesus’ power and ability to raise from death to life…
Then Jesus takes her mother and father with him, putting all the others outside.
The text then continues:
“Then Jesus put all the mourners outside, and took the child’s father and mother, and those who were with him and went in where the child was… and he took her by the hand and said to her: “Talitha kum” which means “little girl, get up”…
Notice Jesus’ personal gesture and sensitivity… and attention… taking her by the hand… like he had done with Peter’s mother-in-law… with the fever…
And “immediately” – just like the woman with the issue of blood… who was “immediately” healed at the touch of Jesus… so too – “immediately” the girl got up and began to walk… and he told them to give her something to eat… she is not a spirit… she is a real human being… give her some sustenance… some food…
What a gospel dear friends, so many lessons, so much to reflect on… the power of Jesus’ word, the bravery and faith of Jairus – of the woman… in the face of hopeless and helpless conditions… the efficacious of Jesus word upon them… for the moment – and for the rest of their lives…
What Jesus does for them… who represent us… he is ready to do for all of us.
AMEN.
TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
Some Gospels are not understood – or their impact – not fully appreciated without – some background.
The sea in Israel’s nation “psyche” – had great overtones. The sea can become as we all know a hostile, angry, area.
Israelites were not a sea-going people. Only once in the reign of King Solomon did they build their own fleet at Elath, the seaport that opens onto the Red Sea. (The Arabian peninsula and eastern Africa).
Two centuries later King Jehosophat attempted to renew naval contacts with this part of the world – but the ships were wrecked by a storm before they left the harbour. (1 Kgs. 22, 49)
But there are many biblical references that introduce the imagery of the angry sea into the poetry of Israel. To redeem his people from slavery in Egypt. The Lord turns the sea monster upon the Egyptians. (ex. 15, 8)
Most of the time the roaring waves of the sea are tamed only after a fierce struggle as in Isaiah 51, 9-10.
“Awake, awake, put on strength
O arm of the Lord…
Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep?”
The Scriptures draw upon this poetic tradition about the hostile sea to instruct us about God’s strength to quiet the storms of life, to calm our mental fears and to inaugurate a period of peace.
God reminds Job – of his work in creation – when he brought order out of chaos – the sea already created –
“Who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb?
When I made the clouds its garment
and prescribed bounds for it, and
set bars and doors” – and said –
“Thus far shall you come, and no
farther, and here shall your proud
waves be stopped.” (Job 38, 10-11)
God is master of the sea… He controls it, he can stir it up – he can border it – he can calm it – as our beautiful, beautiful psalm records…
Now we can look at the Gospel of the day – and Jesus and the sea…
Jesus is the leader of the disciples – he has had them frequent the evil of their world, confront it – human suffering in hatred, sickness, misunderstanding…
Now he would take them into a new world – the world – of pagan peoples “across the sea”… “Let us go across to the other side…”
Jesus would use a similar word to the tired fishermen, his disciples, when they had caught nothing – “Put out into the deep…” It is a constant word of Jesus… “set out” – “go out” – “leave” – “put out into the dark – with courage…”
“They took Jesus with them”… “just as he was” – a mysterious phrase… he was ready…
A storm arises – a great storm… storms arise when people venture out into the unknown… either the unknown of circumstances around them – or the unknown within themselves…
Mark presents this storm so ferocious that it made even experienced fishermen afraid – for the boat was being filled and was in danger of sinking…
The contrast to all of this – is the calmness of Jesus – “he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.”
Sleep in biblical imagery is seen as a sign of trust in God –
“I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you above, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.” (Ps. 4, 8)
“Teacher…” Jesus had just taught them in parables… about the kingdom – so they use the term now for the first time in Mark’s Gospel…
“Teacher” – “What about your teaching?” “What is it worth?” “do you not care that we are perishing?” –
These words express one of the most permanent cries of human beings to God –
Mark was writing for a community that had suffered persecution – when soldiers broke down doors and carried away family and friends to suffering and death.
For the Christian people of that community there had been a storm raging around them and a storm within their own hearts –
Where was Jesus when they needed him so desperately? Did he not care?
We too in our own day – level the same accusation at God. “God is dead, or asleep, or not interested, God does not care.” –
Moreover – we are sinking – we are going down – we are being submerged!!
“He woke up – and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea – “Peace, be still!”
It is the language of exorcism – as if the sea and wind were living things – evil forces – “Be still – be muzzled” – as when Jesus cast out evil spirits –
He stills the evil forces in the sea – but moreso – the fears working within the hearts of the twelve – the storms of doubt and fear in them – greater than the storm on the – symbolized by it.
And he said to them – “Why are you afraid – Have you still no faith?” –
Fear had destroyed their faith… the enemy of faith is always fear… the first enemy of faith…
Fear incapacitates us… fear makes us forget – the most important thing of all – Jesus is with us… he is always with us… he is especially with us in the storms – and when they realized this – “they were in awe…” “great awe” - and the segment ends with a question – not an answer… “who then is this… that even the wind and sea obey him?...”
- “Who is this person?”… the Scribes and Pharisees – too would ask --
“Where did he get his learning?” Pilate would ask – “Who are you?”
- The Gospel of Mark’s crucifixion scene ends with what we have all come to forget… in our fears, and storms… and it is the pagan centurion who gives the answer to all their questions – and our question as he gazes on the crucified Lord –
“Truly – this man was God’s Son.”
AMEN.
ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
What an appropriate Gospel this weekend for our reflection – as we celebrate last month, and this month, graduations, anniversaries – achievement…
For these events all have to do with accomplishment, achievement… growth, effort, fruition…
They also have to do with wonderment, surprise at what has been achieved, accomplished, what has been done… amazement at how it was done… reflectiveness over past years, forgetting the cost, sacrifice, time spent – as we look fondly, memorably at what is present before us… young mature men and women.
These are parent parables, these are teacher parables, they are parables for people who know that they have to make a contribution, that they have something to give. –
Jesus had just told crowd the great parable of the sower – and the necessity for growth of good soil… of preparing good soil… that the word must fall on good soil to grow…
That soil – presupposes – attentiveness, disposition, readiness, openness… earnestness to receive… all those things which we associate with docility…
But now Jesus turns to perhaps a more important message… a message more difficult for our time… for our world… for our communities… for our Church…
He has addressed our efforts in preparing the soil… now he addresses the point that his seed, his message – God’s message, unleashes powerful and mysterious forces.
It speaks of a time of less activity for the sower, but of constant activity for the seed within the earth. We have difficulty with that… we don’t want to allow for less activity… and the time – necessary, time intervals to take their course.
And Jesus is telling us that though there is a seemingly long interval between the sowing and the harvest, there is an appointed course to events and there is an appointed time.
That the sower and harvester are one and the same person, and a time for his activity will come, for there is germinal power in the seed and the harvest is certain…
And he goes to nature… and the work of the farmer who scatters the seed… and what happens? – “he would sleep and rise night and day…”
He would have to let it alone…! A very difficult thing in our day… to let it alone… would mean that one would have to trust… to really believe that it might grow… that it might not die… that it needs time… space… the risk of not interfering!!
Having scattered… he would sleep… why can’t we sleep on things…? leave things alone for awhile… maybe keep quiet for awhile… let things take their course…
For the seed is not dead… something is happening… the parable does not exclude all ordinary work of caring for the crop… but the important words are…
The seed would sprout and grow… “but the sower does not know how…” the controlling thought is – that growth is mysterious, amazing, awesome, and that those things are gifts from God. He it is who gives the growth – how?
“We do not know!!”
In the earlier parables we were told how much God’s word means to us depends on ourselves, -- but now in this parable we are told the teaching which we find more difficult to accept – i.e. the work of growth of that word within us is God’s work.
God will do the growing once the seed has been planted… “we do not know how…”
Real parents, real good teachers – whom we highlight and pay gratitude to at this time of year, in so many ways – as we honour the young people, and congratulate them – know that they had a role, they had their contribution… but true parents and teachers – know that something greater, more wonderful, unknown as to how it developed, was happening – as they live their lives… and see what happens to their children and students.
And the second parable is like the first, re-enforcing it… from the smallest of beginnings, the greatest of accomplishments can occur…
Never to lose heart… from the tiniest of means, great things can be achieved…
These are parables of hope… these are parables which make us full of confidence, they are parables to temper our reflection that we have to do it all… that everything depends on us…
Let us try to be like those wonderful parents and teachers – when we want to praise them, and honour them too greatly in our thanksgiving… they demur… for they know – that in the end… God gave the growth… how? “they do not know”… they are just so grateful that they had some little part in it.
AMEN.
SOLEMNITY OF THE
BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (Corpus Christi)
Dear friends;
To-day, we celebrate the great gift that Jesus gives us of his Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
It is the gift that the Church cherishes, receives with great joy and gratitude, that is constantly and always available to us.
It is a gift treasured over the centuries, because it is what Jesus wanted – to make himself present sacramentally – by allowing us to be fed on his sacred body and Blood… “Take and eat… this is my body… take and drink… this is my blood…”
We come together to be nourished by this wonderful sacrament… it feeds us, it nourishes us, it sustains us, it carries us through everything… every possible circumstance that face us in life… we hold on to it… we look forward to it… we need it, to carry on in our lives…
Perhaps, we have never needed it more than in these challenging and unsettling times – like the one we are faced with now… the ravages of Covid… and the pain and death it has spread in our country and around the world…
And now, in recent days, a second challenge… to face a dark period of our Canadian history: the treatment of our First Nation Peoples – especially their children – by our Church, the Catholic Church, in its Church run schools, by communities of men and women Priests and Sisters, and others under government auspices, which have left such a moral stain on that early period of the last century… with continued pain and hurt inflicted on the children and families of that, and our present era.
We stand with heads bowed, in sorrow, regret, shame – revulsion, especially at the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the former Kamloops Residential School.
I offer you, dear parishioners, on this sacred feast of Corpus Christi, two letters of expression of pain, sorrow, regret – and apology –
One from the President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops: -- president, Archbishop Richard Gagnon.
The second is from Michael Miller, Archbishop of Vancouver – and addressed to the First Nations Governments – all indigenous communities, families and citizens:
First Archbishop Gagnon – on behalf of the Canadian Bishops:
“On behalf of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), I express our deepest sorrow for the heartrending loss of the children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on the Tk’émlúps te Secrwépemc First Nation.
The news of the recent discovery is shocking. It rekindles trauma in numerous communities across this land. Honouring the dignity of the lost little ones demands that the truth be brought to light.
This tragedy profoundly impacts Indigenous communities, with whom many people across this land and throughout the world now stand in solidarity.
As we see ever more clearly the pain and suffering of the past, the Bishops of Canada pledge to continue walking side by side with Indigenous Peoples in the present, seeking greater healing and reconciliation for the future.
We lift up prayers to the Lord for the children who have lost their lives and pledge our close accompaniment of Indigenous families and communities.
May our Creator God bless all of us with consolation and hope.”
Secondly, Archbishop Miller’s statement to the Indigenous communities and families:
“In light of the heartbreaking disclosure of the remains of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, I am writing to express my deep apology and profound condolences to the families and communities that have been devastated by this horrific news. Each time new evidence of a tragedy is revealed, or another victim comes forward, countless wounds are reopened, and I know that you experience renewed suffering.
I take this opportunity to reflect upon the apology I gave publicly before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2013, words to which I remain committed and accountable: ‘I wish to apologize sincerely and profoundly to the survivors and their families, as well as to all those subsequently affected, for the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of those Catholics who perpetrated mistreatment of any kind in these residential schools.’ The Church was unquestionable wrong in implementing a government colonialist policy which resulted in devastation for children, families and communities.
If words of apology for such unspeakable deeds are to bring life and healing, they must be accompanied by tangible actions that foster the full disclosure of the truth. Truth comes before reconciliation. On behalf of the people of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, I commit to the following first steps in support of the Nations, families and communities impacted by the recent heartrending disclosure:
1. We will be fully transparent with our archives and records regarding all residential schools, and strongly urge all other Catholic and government organizations to do the same. Our records regarding the Kamloops Indian Residential School (Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc) were provided to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and will remain available for review.
2. We will offer and support mental health support and counselling for family members and others whose loved ones may be buried on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
3. We will offer to assist with technological and professional support to help the Tk’émlúps te Secwepemc and other affected Nations in whatever way they choose to honour, retrieve and remember their deceased children.
4. We commit to supporting the same process and resources to all Nations in whose territories Catholic-run residential schools were forcibly located, and which fall within the historical boundaries of the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
5. We will renew our efforts to listen to Indigenous Peoples to hear from you how we can best walk with you along the path of justice.
We recognize that there is so much work remaining to be done, yet we hope that, if we persevere in these commitments with humility, we can restore the trust among us that will bring healing.
Let us pray for forgiveness and healing, and ask the Lord – ever present in His Body and Blood for reconciliation and peace.
AMEN.
TRINITY SUNDAY
Dear Friends:
Today we are in the second of four major feasts that the Church calls us to celebrate and reflect on: the first two are events in the life of Jesus and his sending of the Spirit: -- namely, the Ascension and Pentecost.
The next two are feasts of reflection, reflection on dogmatic truths… God as Trinity of Persons, and secondly, next week, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Event and reflection on event… that is the order… not doctrine and then event… rather, event and revelation… then reflection on meaning of event… issuing into dogmatic definition…
Perhaps that is why for most of us these great doctrines don’t have the impact that they should on our lives in that we started off by learning the definition of what they mean before reflecting on how they came about to be revealed.
Nowhere do we find in the Gospels Jesus calling his disciples aside, and ‘revealing’ the Trinity as if it were this week’s catechetical lesson.
On the contrary, the Church gradually and painstakingly came to certain conclusions about the inner reality of God on the basis of its experience of God within its own human experience.
The Church came to the knowledge of God as triune as it progressively reflected on its experience of the triuness of God’s dealings with us in history…
The revelation did not come about by a revealing of a dogma – requiring cerebral and intellectual assent – but by saving events, words and actions – of the Lord Jesus, who sent by the Father, revealed in his life, passion, and death, the love of the Father, and the Father who raised Jesus, and together they sent the Holy Spirit to teach us, and unite us, and thus continue the word and work of the Lord Jesus in our world.
So whatever “understanding” a loose word in this context, came about only as a reflection on the very practical, saving activities of the Triune God in the lives of the early Christians.
While we might think of ourselves at an advantage for having two thousand years of reflection on these sacred mysteries issuing out into dogmatic definitions –
We are in a bit of disadvantage with the early Church in that we learn of the dogma, in often definite and cold terminology, rather than reflecting on the experience of the meaning of God revealing of himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each with their distinctive “roles” so to speak as to how they reveal themselves to us.
Thus, you have, for example, people who “know” a lot about theology, and the “doctrine” of the church… or revelation – but have not “experienced” the creative goodness of the Father, the saving unconditional love, forgiveness, and mercy of Jesus Christ, and the outpouring, uniting force and power of the Spirit.
Thus, for many, the doctrine of the Trinity, remains a definition, a dogma, to which one gives an intellectual assent… having little to do with one’s daily life.
Not that one directly experiences the life of the Trinity – but one allows oneself to fully experience human life – in the light, of the Gospel revelation… allowing human experiences to be appealed to the revelation… to let them say something of what God is like.
If that happens, all is radically changed… the Father with all that is best in imagery of providence, and affection, and earnest love is revealed to us…
The Son who walks with us, who invites us to companionship, to earthly experiences of friendship, and self-giving, and relationships of nurturing and heroic outpouring of self, is revealed to us as the pattern of all this.
And we live in the power of sustaining Spirit, who enables the continuing presence of the Father and the Son to be with us… which carried us, unites us, strengthens us in the midst of all that comes our way…
We become aware of these “persons” in our lives, we address the individually in our prayer, as the Church always does… it all becomes “real” and “alive”… and a faith that sustains and nourishes – carrying us always further into the depths of the eternal and triune God.
“God our Father, who by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification made known to the human race your wondrous mystery, grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith, we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty.”
AMEN.
PENTECOST SUNDAY
Dear friends;
“Oh God, … pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth and, with the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed, fill now once more the hearts of believers.”
(Opening Prayer for Pentecost’s Feast.)
Does the Spirit still work…? Is the Spirit working in the world…? … Are the hearts of believers open to the Spirit?...
In Peter’s first recorded sermon Acts 2, -- right after the account of Pentecost when the devout people from every nation, saw what had happened… And the speaking in tongues about the marvels of God… and they accused them of being drunk – and Peter says – “come on! It’s only nine o’clock…!” but rather – he says – it is what old Joel spoke of – centuries ago – has now come to pass:
“In the days to come – it is the Lord who speaks –
I will pour out my spirit on all mankind.
Their sons and daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Even on my slaves – men and women –
in those days, I will pour my spirit
I will display portents in heaven above
and signs on earth below.” (Joel 3, 1-5)
God has poured out his Spirit on all mankind… What are the consequences of the outpouring of the Spirit…? Firstly, “that your sons and daughters shall prophesy”!
The offspring… the descendants shall interpret – shall become messengers – spokespeople – recognizing meaning of events… seeing what they convey… A prophet is one who understands their time… is able to challenge their contemporaries, encourage them… point out to them what they might not see… lead them to another viewpoint… makes them see things in a different way – a new way – that is what prophets do!
That is what the prophetic do in our world… Joel’s word says “that when the Lord will pour out his Spirit on all mankind… the sons and daughters will do that… they will become a prophetic voice in the world…
The second thing that will happen is that “Young men will see visions – and old men will dream dreams…”
Do you notice the incongruity of it…? Ordinarily – it is young men that dream dreams – dreamers – are for people without experience, for those who haven’t tasted life… who are naïve – we tell young people – “You are in for a rude awakening…” (with your dreams)
The old get feeble… they have illusions – they are not able to discern properly… things get confused… they get “mixed up…” they “envision” what really is not there!! They see things… that really don’t happen… “Dad… you’re just imagining that…!!” Old people have visions… young people have dreams…
Joel’s text is exactly opposite…
“Your young men will see visions –
Your old men will dream dreams…”
If ever there is a sign of the Spirit – and life of the Spirit – is when we find an old person – full of hope, full of enthusiasm…
An old person… full of optimism… still having gone through a whole life with no doubt a measure of broken hopes, broken dreams, unfulfilled and unrealized longings -- still able to dream, and long, and desire…
“Your young men will see visions –
“Your old men will dream dreams…”
Thirdly, “And even on my slaves – men and women in those days will I pour out my Spirit.”
On the constrained… on the enslaved… on the controlled… and ensnared… on the unfree… on those without stature… having no position… no standing… in society…
Not only on the men like that… but on the women… and those who were treated like women… on all the disenfranchised… on all those who were considered just property or pawns of somebody else…
Even on slaves – men and women – and I’m singling them out…
Even on them the slave women – they too will receive my Spirit…
In other words – they will all receive my Spirit – and all who call on my name will be saved…
“My Spirit is a Spirit of newness, of confidence, of courage, of unity, of peace, of forgiveness, of freedom, of being young again – when you are old… of maturity and vision when you are young… of bringing men and women together – of free and slave… together… Receive it – be open to it--”
“God our Father, let the Spirit you sent on your Church to begin the teaching of the gospel continue to work in the world through the hearts of all who believe.”
AMEN.
ASCENSION SUNDAY
Dear friends:
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven…” say the angels… to the Apostles.
And in the conclusion of Mark’s Gospel – Jesus appears to the eleven… “Go into the world…” he says… proclaim the good news… to creation…”
Look not to the heavens… look to the created things of the earth… baptize, preach… lay hands… “handle the things of the earth…”
To baptize – in the early Church… and in its original meaning means – to immerse… Jesus… as he departs leaves his closest followers with a strong message… confirmed by the angels in the Acts of the Apostles…
“Why do you stand – looking up toward heaven...” it is not the place of your work, your mission, your apostolate… Your place of mission, and apostolate… and work… has to do with the same things – that Jesus dealt with…”
“He leaves you – to leave with you his work… He leaves to you… the immersing of people in his word… the casting out of the demons of this world… the demons which we all have to deal with… that you can overcome, by living the message, by having people embrace the message, and give route to the demons…
“Go into the world… lay hands on the sick… lay hands to recover… touch them, care for them… minister lovingly to them… the sick… in their pain… in their wounds… in their woundedness… lay hands… on them… healing hands… being present to them… binding their wounds…
“Those who are physically sick… those who are psychologically and emotionally wounded and challenged… go to them… allow your hands… to caress them… to fondle – not abusively – but respectively, lovingly – wipe their tears, put your hands on them… your healing hands… like the Lord… who laid his sacred hands on the sick… his healing hands… the hands that lifted up, -- the hands that caught Peter when he was sinking… the hands that reached out and picked up the dead daughter of Jairus… and lifted her up to life… use your hands… put your hands to the plough… to the plough of healing the world you live in.”
“Speak in new tongues… speak a new language… speak a language of reconciliation… speak forgiving words… speak new ways to people who are tired of trying, who want to give up… speak a message of hope… speak a word of new possibilities… give new life by your words… people want to hope again, believe again, believe in themselves again, believe in the goodness of humanity again, speak about it, speak about a loving God, speak about the Son who loves the world, and gives himself for it, who came not to condemn, but call out what is best in each of us… speak that new tongue…
“Do not be afraid of the snakes… the rodents who destroy, and poison, who poison minds and hearts with their avarice, their lustful and vile material – with their ways of connivering, and deceit… You can handle all these… you can overcome them… you can slay the snakes, the groveling forces that people sometimes want to follow and be seduced by… you can pick them up… you can crush them…
“No deadly thing will destroy you… nothing you imbibe… will hurt you… nothing you take in from this world… will ever have a final hold on you… you are my disciples… I will be with you… no harm will come to you…
“I will be with you… the Father and I will come and dwell in you… we will make our home in you… you will do greater things than I have done…”
“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God…
And they went out… and proclaimed the Good News… everywhere… while the Lord worked with them… and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it…”
Why are you looking up to heaven… the Lord is not up there… he is working and confirming… and he is present where all those things – those signs are happening… and he is with you to make all those things happen.”
AMEN.
SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Dear friends:
What wonderful texts, dear friends, as we continue our final reflections on the Easter event… what it means for Jesus… what it means for us…
And our focus this last Sunday of Easter is very suitably on the summit of Jesus’ message… his own personal commandment… and his great desire to have us, as his disciples, as his dearest friends, to embrace, to espouse, to live out…
And thus, it’s about love… how to love, the quality of that love, the pattern of that love…
As always… the subject of love and its exercise – goes through gradations of understanding… and scriptural development…
Jesus would have addressed in all three of the Synoptic Gospels… Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
The occasion was the Pharisees, in Matthew, but in Luke it is the lawyers… asking Jesus, as a teacher, a master of Law: “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, was given by Jesus, quoting the Book of Deuteronomy 6, 5.
Jesus, would continue by saying:
“This is the greatest and the first commandment.” (Matt – 22, 37)
Then he continues:
“The second resembles it: You must love our neighbor as yourself.” Here Jesus is quoting from the Book of Leviticus, 19, 18…
But then he does something quite original – he says: “On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.” (Matt. 22, 40)
But in Luke’s Gospel – there is a further development – and it is occasioned by and introduced in this way… “the lawyer was anxious to justify himself” – and said to Jesus: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10, 30)
-What follows is Jesus speaking the most well known of all his parables: “The Good Samaritan”…
You all know it well… about the man falling into the hands of bandits on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho… they stripped him, beat him – leaving him half dead on the side of the road…
Jesus in his story has a priest pass by – looks at him… keeps going… then a Levite… also looks at him passes by on the other side…
Then a third guy comes by – from the much hated group of the Samaritans – he, on the other hand – is moved with compassion – bandages his wounds… pours wine and oil on them… lifts him up onto his mount – took him to the shelter of an inn… tells the innkeeper to look after him… gives the innkeeper money for his care… and tells him – he will pay him when he comes back on his return…
After all of this – Jesus… simply asks – “Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the bandit’s hands?”…
And the lawyer – couldn’t even mention the word Samaritan – he simply says… “The one who showed him pity…” Jesus ends it with this nearly curt comment: “Go and do the same yourself…” (Luke 10, 37)
This is all a summary of Jesus’ teaching on love… on the primary place – of loving God, loving neighbor… the setting of the stage for to-days Gospel.
It is all part of the discourse – before Jesus’ passion and death… introduced so simply, plainly and beautifully:
“As the Father have loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love…” (John 15, 9-10)
“This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you…” (John 15)
In a way – dear friends – this is where we have to stand back… to think of many things…
How does Jesus love?... What does he do to show his love?... His love, he says – reflects the Father’s love for us in him… it is in friendship that he has made known everything that he heard from the Father…
What he has spoken to us – has been so that his joy may be in us… that our joy may be complete… and that we, loving as he has loved us – will give the father much joy… and we will bear much fruit…
It is his Father’s – and his most earnest wish… that we love each other as he has loved us…
The two great proclaimers of this message – are both Paul – and John… in their letters…
We have to-day the wonderful statement – summarizing statement on all of this in our second reading to day – in John’s first letter:
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God… everyone who loves – is born of God and knows God…
Whoever does not love – does not know God… for God is love.
God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him…
In this is love – not that we loved God but that he first loved us and sent his Son into the world…” (John 4, 7-10)
The text continues:
“My dear friends – if God loved us so much… we too should love one another…” (1 Jn 4, 11)
AMEN.
FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Dear friends;
Some time ago, I had the experience of telling someone… after a difficult period, a long and extended difficult period… and his unexpected, unanticipated surprising visit, and that he had completely changed my mood… my perspective on everything…
So I called him and said… Thank God you were there… thank God you dropped by, and without thinking I said… “I have often thought how different my priesthood would have been without you.”
I have attended many anniversaries, marriage anniversaries… and invariably when spouses address the quests on such occasions, after they coyly tease each other affectionately, then a spouse more seriously will say very honestly… “Well, I couldn’t have done all this… without you… without my Jean… etc…” or “I owe whatever I did to Jean…”
Those who have known them, and seen them, and loved them – their children especially will say – “you know something – he’s right!!”
It’s unbelievable what people can accomplish together… it’s unbelievable how little people can accomplish alone.
What a lesson we have in these hockey greats over the years… like Lemieux, or Gretzky when they used to be interviewed would never allow the focus to be on themselves… it was always – what the team does, and how the support of the team makes the thing happen…
I remember it like yesterday when Gretzky would make his hat tricks… the first thing he attributed to – was not his prowess around the net, but to his buddy – Messier! – He said, when asked how it came to be that that night he scored the hat trick – “Well,” he said, “Mess just said – “go for it, buddy, we’re gonna feed you – you’re on to-night.” “You can do it!”
“Mess said” – Isn’t that interesting? “Mess said… “you can do it…” and so he went and did it … That is very telling… and it is telling about human behaviour generally…
Two things are important in life… and in the challenges of life… if in any way we are going to come to some minimal achievement…
The first is: -- we got to be encouraged that we can do it… that what we attempt is somehow achievable – and that we are encouraged to go for it…
The second thing is: We got to have some support in doing it… we can’t do it alone… and what a hard lesson that is to learn… whether in a hockey team, or a marriage, or any other kind of effort… or enterprise. We’ve got to “be with” some type of unity of purpose, of mind, of desire…
Jesus’ great prayer includes a terribly important line in his last farewell discourse – in John 17, 24 when he opens his heart to his Father – he has prayed that he and they, his disciples, be one, that they be consecrated in truth, that they know that they are loved…
And then he says – “And Father, I want those you have given me – to be with me… where I am…” (Jn. 17, 24)
With me… certainly in the end, in his presence for eternity – but now… “with me… in what I am doing, what I am saying… in purpose, in mission, in revealing your love, Father.”
The expression is used again after the Bread of Life Discourse in John’s Gospel – when some found his discourse too difficult to accept… “This is intolerable language… How could anyone accept it.” They said…
And the text goes on to say:
After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.” (Jn. 6, 66)
They stopped being the thing that he had called them to be in the first place… “companions”… walk with, break bread with… journey with…
Jesus says… if you go with me… and we go together… ask for whatever you wish… and it will be done for you… this is my Father’s joy, my Father’s glory… you will bear much – because we will be together.
“If you go alone… I won’t be with you… it won’t work… it will be like dead branches… alone, there is no way… anything can be produced…” Together… with… all is possible… “I could never have done it without my Jeanie…” “Mess just said, go for it… we’re with you…”
“Fear not, fear not, little flock, I am with you always.
“I am the vine, you are the branches… Whoever abides in me and I in them bears much fruit…”
AMEN.
FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Dear friends:
On this fourth Sunday of Easter… we continue to reflect on the event of Easter – and especially what the event brings to us – what it effects for us… in our union with the risen Lord.
To-day, to bring this home to us, we are presented with probably the most appealing and loved image of Jesus… “the Good Shepherd”…
In the homes of our parents – or grandparents… the two most popular representations of Jesus – in a center place, in their halls, or living rooms – were either a framed painting of Jesus as – the Sacred Heart – or Jesus, as the Good Shepherd…
The Good Shepherd one perhaps being more popular… surrounded by sheep – or with a lamb around his neck… they were all over the homes of our ancestors…
The shepherd image has a long history… going way back in the Old Testament… and even in secular literature…
In the ancient Near East, the title of shepherd was applied both to kings and to gods… The title of shepherd is given to the rulers of the people, who include the king, the royal officers, the elders, all who have authority…
In Jeremiah, the prophet strongly rebukes the leaders as shepherds – for failure to meet their responsibilities… they scatter the flock… they lead people astray… they are unfaithful; Ezekiel complains that they have no understanding…
“Disaster for the shepherds who lose and scatter the sheep of my pasture”, the Lord declares, “you have scattered my flock, you have driven them away, and have not taken care of them” (Jer. 23, 1-4)
Even more forcefully in the prophet Ezekiel:
“The word of God was addressed to me as follows:”
“Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel… the Lord God says this: “Disaster is in store for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Are not shepherds meant to feed the flock… you have sacrificed the fattest sheep but failed to feed the flock… You have failed to make weak sheep strong… or to care for the sick ones… or bandage the injured ones…” (Ezk. 34, 1-3)
“You have failed to bring back strays or look for the lost… on the contrary, you have ruled them cruelly and harshly… for lack of a shepherd they have been scattered, to become the prey of all the wild animals…” (Ezk. 34, 4)
And finally:
“Very well, shepherds – hear the word of the Lord… since my shepherds have ceased to bother about my flock… I shall take my flock out of their charge and henceforth not allow them to feed my flock…
I myself, shall take care of my flock and look after it… I shall look after my sheep… I shall rescue them… I shall bring them back… I shall pasture them… I myself shall pasture my sheep, I shall give them rest… I shall look for the lost one… I shall be a true shepherd to them…”
(Ezk. 34, 10-16)
All this is the background of to-day’s Gospel – dear friends…
There are many other texts… especially Psalm 23… “The Lord is my Shepherd…” and Jesus’ words about the lost sheep… and how the real shepherd leaves the ninety-nine just – to go after the lost… and the joy in finding the lost one…
All this is the background of this beautiful Gospel to-day… chapter ten of John’s Gospel…
An earlier part of this chapter is so descriptive of the role of Jesus – as both the sheepgate and the shepherd:
“The sheep hear his voice… he calls them by name… those that belong to him… he leads them out… he walks in front of them… they follow him because they recognize his voice…”
(John 10, 3-4)
Then to-day’s words:
“I am the good shepherd…”
“What does the “good shepherd” do?... What is the greatest thing about him?
“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”…
“There is no greater love than to lay downs one’s life… for one’s friends…”
(John 15, 13)
All this is what we have just celebrated and meditated on –
Then this beautiful second description and quality of the “good shepherd”:
“I know my own… and my own know me…, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father…” (John 10,14)
The wonderful quality of being known completely by another… the greatest blessing of a real friendship… not needing to explain yourself – or cajole, or prove… just to be totally accepted by another, as we are… who we are… being loved by someone who unconditionally accepts and loves us…
“I know my own… my own know me…”
Then a magnanimous statement… which broadens the scope of the good shepherd’s focus – on a universal salvation:
“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice… so there will be one flock, one shepherd…” (John 10,16)
The ever present outreach… of Jesus… and for his followers… not looking inward… but outward… towards others –
And the whole thing ends with this summarizing statement:
“For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again… No one takes it from me… but I lay it down of my own accord… I have received this command from my Father”…
(John 10,18)
“In the laying down my life… I am following the command of my Father… it is what he asks of me… to show you his great love for you… it is the sign of his love for me… it is the sign of his love and my love for you…
For you… in love… my sheep… I have laid down my life…”
Amen.
THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
Dear friends;
We come to-day on this third Sunday of Easter – to the last of Jesus’ meals…. In Luke’s Gospel… all in all – ten meals… which in some way prefigure the Eucharist… seven meals… all having lessons on the Eucharist, who is to be invited… what dispositions are required… etc. … then the Last Supper meal – and two post-resurrection meals.
The first of these last two is with the disciples of Emmaus – where they recognized him at the breaking of the bread… having opened the Scriptures to them “on the way”…
Jesus walked with them… opening the scriptures… teaching them… it had a great effect on them… they would not forget it…
The event was summarized in Luke:
“They said to each other – “Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke to us on the way, and opened the scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem – where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying: “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way, and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
(Luke 24, 32-35)
That is the setting of our Gospel to-day, dear friends… two people who greatly want to share their experience… their joy… their great news…
While this is taking place… Jesus suddenly appears to them… all of a sudden, he is in their midst.
Again – he stood among them… the risen stance… standing with them… in their midst… “I’m standing with you… amongst you…”
And his first words – similar to the accounts in John’s Gospel… are: “Peace be with you…”
They were startled, they were terrified, they thought it was a ghost…
Just like the account in John’s Gospel… so he tells them – asking them:
“Why are you afraid?... Why do doubts arise in your hearts?...”
That’s what fear does… it creates doubts… it causes wondering… hesitation.
So he does what he will do for Thomas to make him overcome his doubts… and says to them…
“Look at my hands and my feet… Touch me and see… a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have…”
While in Luke – there is no mention of his wounds… or his pierced side – like in John’s Gospel in the Thomas episode… there is something else… it is about what he says of himself… and what he has been through that is the focus… often repeated in Luke’s Gospel… three times earlier…
Instead of showing the wounds as in John’s Gospel… Jesus does what he had done – three times before…
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything is written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled…”
And to make sure they understood the whole import and scope of what he had to undergo… he continued:
“Then he opened their minds… (not showing his wounds like in John -) to understand the scriptures: And he said to them: “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations beginning with Jerusalem…”
It was the same message that he had spoken to the disciples of Emmaus:
“Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
(Luke 24, 23-26)
Jesus seemed to be lamenting… as he did when predicting his passion and death to the uncomfortable disciples… when they didn’t want to hear of suffering and dying… Peter remonstrating with Jesus even…
So for a final time… he speaks to them… in some similar way – “Yes, I am risen… I am with you, in your midst… standing with you always… not as some kind of a superman… but as the once wounded – bruised – Christ… risen from the wounds, the cross, the death… alive… with you… that is who I am…”
“And I eat with you… I share with you… I break bread with you… and I call you to be witnesses to this.” “I have overcome… the wounds, the passion, the sufferings, the death… as I ask you to follow…”
“You are my witnesses… to this extraordinary reality… it is mine… but it is yours… overcoming… healing of wounds… of bruises… of hurts… coming from darkness to light… from death to life… I am showing you the way… you are my followers… my companions in all of this… it is all for you.” “You are to be witnesses of all this!”
AMEN.
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Dear friends;
We are a week away from Easter… we are in the octave of Easter… our celebrations are still familiar to us… the new light, the Easter water… the new life of Baptism… the first invitation to the table of the newly baptized…
The Church continues its celebration… it deepens the meaning of resurrection… it highlights what resurrection brings… it focuses on what Jesus the risen Lord offers…
The risen Lord offers… peace, forgiveness, the Spirit… communion, community…
The risen Lord offers something to one man… a sign as to what he wants to offer all of us… faith in the midst of doubt…
What a community the Church is… men and women – who are children of God… trying to love God and obeying his commandments… and the commandment of Jesus is quite simple: “A new commandment I give you: -- “love one another as I have loved you…”…”this is my commandment.” (John 15)
The disciples would remember his word of commandment… but the action of Jesus would be more fresh… more recent…
To love as he loves… would mean… laying down one’s life… giving oneself completely… even unto death… they would remembers his word – “That there was no greater love than laying down one’s life for one’s friends…” the example of which would be fresh in their minds… they knew that he had done it…
And the one who had done it… stood among them… alive… and they were in fear… they were in doubt… and they were anxious… and they were uncertain…
So the first thing he said to this little frightened band – was – “Peace be with you.”
How they needed peace!... and how we need peace!... we pray at every Mass, “give us your peace”… “Grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom…” “Grant us peace in our day… protect us from all anxiety…”
Then he gave them the Spirit… the Spirit of power, and strength… to overcome, not to go under, never to be defeated… ever… yet a gentle Spirit, a humble spirit… but above all… a Spirit of forgiveness…
“A forgiving heart, create in me O Lord”… in a world where there is so much hatred, and hostility, and vengeance… meanness and stubbornness… He gave them power to be forgivers… and to lead others to forgiveness.
We pray for forgiveness… it is enshrined in his prayer… his very own prayer… that he taught…: “forgive us our trespasses…” …another prayer that we say at every Mass… “look not on our sins…” …“free us from all our sins”…
Then he singled out one man… a man who is so much like us… a doubter… a weak man in faith… a man who struggles with his beliefs….but he takes them seriously… he cannot cavalierly believe… he can’t go with the crowd… just to go with the crowd… he must follow his doubts… his questioning… he is a searcher…
He is an honest man… he was being like Peter… he was being like Zaccheus… they stand out… they’re not wishy-washy… they know how to defend themselves and their behaviour…
It took a week for Jesus to come back… everything was the same… the doors were locked… but this time… the man who couldn’t yet come to belief was there…
And Jesus spoke to him… and invited him… “place your finger here… reach out your hand…”
And Thomas the doubter… moved from doubt to belief… at the sight and word of the Lord…
It was one more raising of those invited with Jesus… Peter, the coward… proclaimed with boldness… Mary of Magdala, woman of ill repute, outcast, became the Apostle with the message of salvation – announcing, that He was risen… sent by the Lord…
And Thomas, the one weak in faith, is raised to be the first proclaimer of the great Christological statement of the early Church – regarding Jesus the Christ… so much so… that still on the lips of the faithful… centuries later when the host is raised… we still hear… uttered in praise and thanksgiving… the words first uttered by Thomas… “My Lord and My God.”
All was being transformed… all was being changed… not only had something happened to Jesus… something was happening to them… and something is still happening with us… his Church… the community of believers… reborn again in Him – the risen Lord.
AMEN.
EASTER SUNDAY
Dear friends;
There are two feasts which in my early priesthood I had difficulty in understanding the scope of their celebration. The first one was Epiphany… I found it a strange feast… the three men from the East…
I couldn’t see what they symbolized until somehow it was brought home that they represented the outsiders… and that they really represented us who have come but late to the revelation – that Jesus has come for all peoples… not just the chosen people. So it is our feast.
The second feast that I missed out on its great significance was Easter… and I think many people are like me… they think of it as a celebration simply of Jesus’ resurrection.
It is the feast of Jesus’ resurrection – to be sure – but it is a very strange thing the Church doesn’t focus on His resurrection – it takes it for granted… it is the cornerstone of our faith… as Paul says to the Corinthians:
“If Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection from the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless!”
(1 Cor. 14, 12-14)
But what the Church does at Easter while celebrating the resurrection of Jesus – it focuses on what that resurrection means for us…
The Father raises Jesus – not for himself – but for us… and for many of us – we celebrate Easter as if it is a celebration simply of Jesus’ resurrection – having little to do with what it means for us… That is not what the Church does.
The very first words uttered at the blessing of the new fire – recalls Jesus’ resurrection and then what it means for us:
“Dear friends in Christ – on this most holy night, when our Lord Jesus Christ – passed from death to life – the Church invites her children throughout the world to come together in Vigil and Prayer – this is the Passover of the Lord: If we honour the memory of His death and resurrection by hearing His word and celebrating His mysteries – then we may be confident that we shall share His victory over death and live with Him forever.”
Everything is celebrated to remind us of what we have become and who we are in Christ… and in His death and resurrection… new beings in baptism… repeating our baptismal vows… reborn in the waters – called to walk in the light… the whole world having undergone a new creation… Rejoice O Earth… Rejoice O Mother Church… the risen Saviour shine upon you…
“This is the night when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin, and freed from all defilement and restored to grace, and grow together in holiness.”
Tomorrow morning… our opening prayer will be similar – it is our Easter wish:
“O God, who on this day, through your only begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your spirit, rise up in the light of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.”
AMEN.
FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT
“Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain, but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.”
My dear friends:
Our Lord in saying this was expressing a law of nature… a law of nature which will be happening all around us in these next few weeks…
As the snow slowly goes, we may well think that everything underneath is dead in the ground – having died in the autumn – and smothered by the snows and frost… yet we all know that underneath… the earth is throbbing with life and ready for growth and bloom.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our part of the world… where the seasons are so marked and this lesson of dying and living is played out so dramatically in nature.
And while we learn from this evidence all around us in nature… we have difficulty in transposing it to our lives… and the movement and progress of our lives generally…
And yet as part of this world, we too are subject to that same law of nature… there is no way of removing ourselves from it. It applies to us, and our lives, as well as to the natural world.
Death and dying, and those aspects of it such as pain, suffering, aloneness… forgetfulness of self, setback, failure, -- may all contribute to life if we let them… these may all issue into growth, maturity, new life if we know how to respond to them – and use them well.
With us – this law of nature may be followed or not – this is the difference… we are free to subscribe to it or not… for us there is a choice… while death and dying is part of the movement… we can have death end in death – or end in new life. We can allow suffering to be crippling and destructive or make it productive… we can let failure and setback and sin be stifling and death-giving or let it become the learning and beginning of new efforts, new ways of accepting ourselves, of loving ourselves in a true and real way – and therefore contributing to growth and new life.
There are no exceptions to these progressions in life… the author of the epistle to the Hebrews – who speaks so much of the humanity of Christ – tells us that Jesus though He was Son of God… “During His life on earth offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears… He submitted so humbly… and He learned to obey through suffering.” (Heb. 5, 7-9)
He learned… He went through the process of learning from what He experienced… trained by the human experience of living in the midst of what is a very great portion of life: suffering setback, sin, and dying to self.
He learned to obey through suffering… He learned how to respond to God… He learned to become perfect, to grow, to come to knowledge of God… He learned about life… He learned about himself…
Rest assured, my dear friends, I am not speaking about a cult of suffering for its own sake… there is no need to cultivate suffering… life offers its due portion for all of us… but rather of the way we use it… and those things associated with it.
It can be – a means, a source, and a necessary one – for growth, learning, maturing, knowledge of self and of God.
We do ourselves and those we love a terrible disservice when we do not allow that very integral part of life to take place within us or them to happen… we rob ourselves and them of what could become the true moments of salvation.
Nowhere is this more difficult to let happen in those relationships with people we love… and especially between parents and children… there are parents who cannot bear the thought of their children having to go through anything which will make them suffer… and will go to any means to shelter them from the normal process of growing up which includes all these things we have been speaking of…
In trying to “save” that life – we “lose” it… it is not easy to love – and love well!
The most beautiful text in all of this is from Hebrews Chapter 12, suffering and growth and life:
“Any suffering is most painful at the time… and far from pleasant… but later in those on whom it has been used, bears fruit in peace and goodness.” (Heb. 12-11)
May all that we go through… suffering – setback – reversal… in the end issue out – with Christ into peace and goodness, and especially in this season, issue out into new life!
Amen.
FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
Dear friends;
There are many images which come to mind when we hear the words “lifted up.” One of the first which come to mind is in the birth of Kunta Kinte in Roots, the film about slavery in America, and the child is held up to God in a most dramatic way at birth and presented to God.
Another image, is that of a mother or a father playing with their child… and the child says “lift me up – Daddy – or Mommy.” They want to be picked up, held, carried – for they know they cannot reach what they want to touch without being lifted up by their parents.
Another image – or expression used with the words “lifted up” - is in Charismatic Prayer Groups – they speak of “just lifting up” their intention – or a person to God – for Him to handle it as He sees fit, as He might wish to respond to them.
We also use the expression after we have heard a talk, or received a visitor, or experienced a positive event which “lifted us up” – or uplifted us. And we say – we needed that “lift”.
We even associate some people, because of their brightness, their optimism, their warmth – with an experience of uplifting. They give us “a lift”.
Have you ever thought of your Christian vocation – in such simple terms as a ministry of lifting up… of carrying, of bearing up… Those you have been called to live with, work with, associate with…
Why is it that – after we’ve delayed to visit somebody – so much – and finally we set a day… no matter what happens we will not be deterred – and we finally visit them?…
We don’t do much… -- we just drop in on them – and then we meet one of their relatives a few days later… and they are effusive – and profusely thank us… and they say – “What a lift you gave my mother – my father… that was so good of you.”
There is something about a happy person – a person who exudes optimism, and brightness and lightness of heart… warmth – gentleness – all the ordinary human qualities…
I have a personal example of this – how influential such persons can be – simply by being their happy-go-lucky, uplifting characters that they are…
When I was in my last year at St. Joseph’s University, in Moncton, my roommate’s cousin was the already well known and popular Father Peter McKee… he was just a few years ordained – a curate at St. Augustine’s.
As his cousin and I both liked to see him, Father Peter would drop in to our room about once a month…
He would banter with us… and ask how we were dong… whether we were studying and reading a lot… and gradually pick up a book from our shelves… look at it and throw it out on the floor… continuing until nearly all our books, both Jacques’ and mine – were strewn all over the floor!!
Then he would leave, chuckling and laughing!!
I was very impressionable in those years – trying to discern my calling in life…
Never once – did Fr. Peter – ever bring up the priesthood as a vocation for me…
But after his visits – I would ask myself… “Why is this guy so happy…? So full of life…?
He was very handsome, athletic… he played hockey… even at St. Michael’s, pro-hockey -- the farm team for the Maple Leafs in those days…
He could have had it all… and now he seemed to have given it all up… to be a priest…
Without knowing it… he was one of the greatest influences in my future decision… I wanted to have… and be something of what he had and was… -- he became the major influence… in “lifting me up…” to what I became…
Our Gospel speaks today of being “lifted up”, and about looking at what is lifted up for salvation, for redemption.
The Hebrews were to look upon the bronze serpent “lifted up” as a means of delivering them from the venomous serpents – and Jesus says, when he is “lifted up” he too will become by believing in Him the means of eternal life.
Isn’t it strange – a new meaning of lifted up… a harrowing meaning… “lifted up” becoming associated with “strung up”… crucified…?
There is not much uplifting in that meaning unless we know that we can be a source of uplift – in our tiredness – in our own weariness – in our own self-giving.
Like always – looking upon someone whom we know who gives from weakness – and hurt – and frailty… but still gives gamely, generously, even enthusiastically creates sentiments of admiration… edification… triumph…
I know a woman in this parish, she gives me a lift… because when I look at her… and know what she has been through with her marriage, her children, her difficult financial situation… yet her sufferings have hewn her, hoaned her – into a serene, calm – yet always positive, encouraging, determinedly good woman.
I’ve known her for years; no setback brings her down, no reversal of fortunes destroys her… the years have made her more graceful than she knows… there is never a trace of self-pity… or complaint…
What she does not know is how much she has a ministry of “lifting up” others in a world that so often “brings down.”
We have all witnessed people like that, my dear people… we minister to them… we are ministered to, by them.
They are people – who triumph… even in their suffering… they embrace the cross willingly… we look upon them… we behold them… and in some strange way – we acknowledge that they lift us up… they pick us up… they raise up the downtrodden… they pick up the weary…
Unbelievably people might just look upon us too someday – and in some way – somehow – be lifted up – in our world – a no small measure.
AMEN.
THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
Dear friends;
Did you ever see or witness somebody who is hurt and frustrated – because what they wanted to say to you – or what they wanted you to hear – you’ve gotten it all wrong… you’ve misinterpreted everything they wanted to tell you.
Now pretty well, that’s the bottom line of to-day’s Gospel… it’s the act of someone – who is chagrined – no – angry – in a just anger – at the misinterpretation or misuse of a message – and a practice…
We shouldn’t be that surprised at the scene… we know – we all know about empty actions… meaningless gestures… heartless overtures…
And do you know when they are most pronounced? ... when they involve relationships… relationships that are based on love… on giving and receiving… in affection… gratitude… and for some reason – become meaningless… empty… cold… and thus repugnant and distasteful.
The most simple gestures… issuing out of love, consideration, affection, appreciation, gratitude… are full of meaning – they speak to us… they touch us… they are full of warmth…
They serve to develop relationships, they help them grow… we look forward to them… we yearn for them… in love relationships we pine for them…
A pat becomes a “love tap” – a “squeeze” becomes a gesture of deep appreciation – the shortest note – is re-read a hundred times by a lover – eeking out of it every ounce of affectionate meaning!
Gifts from the loved one are cherished forever… it doesn’t matter how little they are… they become more precious – the more of the person has put of themselves in them… This week, I had a great example of this… we have a little girl - 7, -- a granddaughter of one of our parishioners – with a serious health condition… such that she has to be flown to Toronto for a delicate surgical intervention… The family could have to be in Toronto for about a month…
I felt the family – especially the daughter who grew up in this parish – could use a little help… which I forwarded to them through… her mother – our parishioner…
A card came back this week… it could have been just a card… a bought one… a standard “Thank You” note…
No… it was a precious – little brown paper card… with a big red heart on the front… and inside… green plants drawn… “Thank You – Love Chloe!!”
Then two people at the bottom… drawn – with under them – a heart under each… with the words: “Me under one – and “You”….
Now – how do you think I felt… as I told Susan – our Parish Secretary: “That’s a keeper”…
So your see… dear friends… I think that what Jesus is saying about God’s commandments in the Gospel… and about doing things by rote… without considering the possibility of infusing them with meaning, warmth, heart…
But what if the heart turns cold… and the words, and the gestures, and the gifts become just words, just gestures, just gifts.
What if the presence is not there... it’s all by delivery… (so to speak)… even if by “special delivery”… we notice an emptiness in the words… the words and gestures do not come together… we say one thing and do another… we just go through the motions…
Then, even something worse happens… we misuse what used to be beautiful, and meaningful… and full of symbolism… and we trivialize it… we keep on with the same actions, the same words, the same gestures… but now they are repugnant to the one we direct them… because our hearts lie elsewhere… our behaviour betrays something else is more important to us… and that we are just going through the motions – for whatever reason…
That is why Jesus is angry in to-day’s Gospel… and that is why the Ten Commandments are read with it to-day:
In both cases – the commandments, and the sacrifices in the Temple – have had the heart town out of them…
The Ten Commandments were never meant to be cold, stern commands… they arose from a God who so loved his people, and formed them – that he would offer them (having loved them – brought them out of slavery) – ways of behaving towards him and each other… in freedom… as a gift from him – not as a way to observe them so to gain his approval.
In the same way – Jesus angrily – rids the abuse of purveyors of religion… which have made a ritual of gratitude and meaning into a commerce of empty words and actions… thinking that if you bring your offerings, you follow certain rules, say the right words – all will be well…
It is all abhorrent – not only abhorrent – hurtful… as it is abhorrent and hurtful to the lovers who know that the words are empty, the gestures meaningless… because the heart is out of it…
Amen.
SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT
Dear friends;
There is a terribly important word in the two first readings today my dear friends… it is a somewhat frightening word, in fact.
It is a frightening word because it describes something which we know is at the heart of faith… it is at the heart of love…
In the book of Genesis – the Lord says to Abraham after this severe test of trust in calling to offer his son –
“By myself, I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son…”
And in Paul’s letter to the Romans… we hear… “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?”
“Withhold”… “hold on to”… “Not part with”… “not let go of”… “not leave go of”…
Abraham is considered, and called by Paul… the father of faith… his name in Hebrew is related to “Abba”… which means “father”… and so Abraham is the great forefather… the father of the Israelites, the father of their faith.
Why? Because he trusted in the Lord… he listened to the Lord… and left what was certain – for what was uncertain… for what was only a promise…
For the way of the Lord is always the way of promise… God steps into a person’s life and makes a promise... The person of faith is the one who accepts that promise and expects it to be fulfilled.
So God says to Abraham:
“Leave your country, your father’s family and the people you grew up with, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, and you will be a blessing to many others.” (Gen. 12, 1-2)
So Abraham the model of faith, packs up his family and sets out across the desert.
And that takes faith – but the of author Genesis – wants to show that Abraham had extraordinary faith, so he paints a picture in bold strokes.
Not only does Abraham get up and go, but he’s already seventy-five years old! Not only that, but his wife Sarah is just about as old! And not only that, but she is childless, sterile! How could she become the mother of a great nation?
So the author is telling us, in so many words, that this is faith! This is what it means to trust in the Lord and scorn the consequences.
Because so often faith has nothing to do with common sense… there’s no common sense reason for Abraham to believe in the Lord… still he gets to the promised land, the future land of Israel, just as the Lord had promised.
The Lord had promised that the land would be there, and it was… but when Abraham reaches it, he sees that as he looks around that it is already populated and that the local kings are always fighting to defend their territory. But he hears the Lord speaking to him again: “Don’t worry for I am your shield.” (Gen. 15, 1)
So faith is the opposite of fear… the way of faith is the way of trust… letting the Lord do the fighting, letting the Lord provide the protection. Still Abraham asks… “How can I be sure that you will give this land to my descendants?”
(Gen. 15, 7-8)
And the Lord’s reply is a classic invitation to a deeper faith. Abraham’s faith is great, it must be greater still… God offers no proofs… instead he tells Abraham to offer a sacrifice, which was the ancient ritual for entering into communion with God… He asks Abraham to walk closer with him…
Abraham trusts the Lord, who finally gives him a son… Isaac… at last it looks as if the promise is coming true… A few years later, the Lord comes to him and says, “Okay, Abraham. I really want to see how much you trust me. I want you to kill Isaac in sacrifice to me.”
By now Abraham is ready for anything. He has seen God do the impossible before, and so he replies… “All right… You are the Lord. You know the promise. I still believe in the promise and that it will be fulfilled, somehow. If you say I must kill my only son, I’ll do it.”
Faith is not always logical and sometimes it might even appear to be immoral at first sight.
Abraham leads his son up the hill and lays Isaac on the altar. He is doing something that his father’s heart revels against. He is about to do something that goes against all common sense… but he is finally ready after his long, long, journey of faith to withhold nothing from the Lord, not even his son, his only son.
Then just as he raises the knife, when he has trusted to the bitter end, the Lord says – “Lay down the knife. Don’t harm the boy… Now I know for sure that you revere God, for you have not withheld anything from me, not even your only son.” (Gen. 22, 12)
And so the Lord gives Abraham what he needs to enter into communion with him, since Abraham has given all he needs to give in order to enter into communion with God: He has given everything.
And because he has not withheld anything – Abraham becomes free – a free man.
He was set free from family and country when he left his native land. He was set free from fear when he walked into hostile territory. He was set free from doubt when he let the Lord give him a son… and finally now – he is set free from his ties to his own children and from worrying about the future – because he has put himself entirely in God’s hands. He has withheld nothing…
And what does God do… He gives it all back to him… Abraham has a family again, he has a country again, he has a son again, he has a future again.
The reward of his faith is freedom… the freedom to fulfill the deepest desire of his heart. That’s the desire the Lord puts there, the desire which leads to faith, just as faith leads to the greatest human fulfillment…
So Abraham dies a happy man, he has not seen his descendants. He has not seen the promised land become his own. But he has seen the Lord, and in that vision, he has seen it all.
He saw it all… because he let go of all… and was ready to let go of all… he became like the God who loves us… who in turn “did not withhold his Son… his only Son who gave him up for all of us.” (Rom 8, 31)
AMEN.
FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT
Dear friends;
Those of you who parishioners know by now, that my favorite Gospel and evangelist is Mark… for many reasons, it’s concise, it’s the earliest, it’s full of hidden symbolism.
Every first Sunday of Lent – the Gospel is always – the temptations of the Lord… this year it is Mark’s account.
They are presented by him in a very brief manner… not like in Matthew or Luke – where there is a long discourse between Satan and Jesus with all kinds of power that Satan is allegedly able to give him. There is nothing of that in Mark…
In Mark, the temptation – or testing of Jesus – takes place – “immediately” as he says right after the monumental moment of the Baptism of Jesus… the descent of the Spirit upon him – and the voice from heaven: “You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
This was an extraordinary moment, full of revelation and symbolism…
The gift of the Spirit was always to be a messianic sign… that there would be an outpouring of the Spirit at his coming…
But in the Jewish faith – the Lord God was always understood and believed as one… and as one commentator says: “the ideal that God should have a son was unthinkable, impossible, and a great heresy.”… “It is the most startling innovation of the Christian religion, and it is what separates Christianity from any other world religion.” (Robinson)
It is after that event – that our Gospel to-day begins… it is introduced as if there is no time to glory over what has just taken place… no time to bask in elation – or wonderment…
The text begins this way: “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”
Life is often like that… great moments of uplift, elation, celebration… -- a wedding, a big promotion, and honor bestowed… don’t last forever… you have to get on with it… back to reality… everyday life… everyday challenges… everything that makes up being human… humanity – and that’s exactly what happens with Jesus…
The same Spirit that descended upon him at his baptism – now “drove” him out immediately out into the wilderness – the word is strong… power in driving him out…
In the time of Mark’s Gospel… Christians were often persecuted after Baptism… imprisoned… put to death… like being in the wilderness of the earth… rejected, alone… -- trying to find themselves… being tested…
It is the place when a person meets God… but also the place of testing… “for forty days”… a significant time… -- forty days in the book of Numbers becoming forty years…
It is also a time of getting to know yourself… know what you have to face… to have to come to grips with… a time of preparation… a time of temptation by Satan for Jesus… trial, testing…
A time which Jesus would acknowledge that – the presence of Satan – would confront him in his life – personal and public…
And the wild beasts were there – also… a strange phenomenon – the evil spirits… were always present to Jesus in his forthcoming public ministry…
But so were the angels… God’s Angels… -- God would never abandon him… not then… and never in the future… “I know Father, you always hear me…”
God was with him in his testing – and he is with us all – in our time of testing –
And the early church in presenting us the temptations – and reflecting on them – did not see them as God testing Jesus – but as a reality in His life – that He was so one with them – as experiencing so fully their humanity – which always includes temptation: and in which – the best of and in each of us – can be brought out – and that his manner of overcoming them gave his followers the possibility of facing them, and overcoming them themselves:
“For it is not as if we have a high priest who was incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us; but we have one who has been tempted in every way that we are – though He is without sin.” (Heb. 4, 14)
And again:
“It was essential that He should in this way become completely like His brothers so that He could be a compassionate and trustworthy high priest –
Able to atone for humans sins – because He himself has been through temptation He is able to help others who are tempted.”
(Heb. 2, 17-18)
The whole experience of Jesus’ testing in Mark ends nearly abruptly… Jesus has been baptized – declared to be God’s Son… tested in the wilderness… and now:
“Jesus came to Galilee… proclaiming the good news of God… saying:
“The time is fulfilled… (I am ready… baptized and tested) the kingdom of God has come near… repent – and believe in the good news.”
AMEN.
SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDIMARY TIME
Dear friends;
The Leper…
“At the time of Jesus, leprosy was an awful disease. It was pretty well the worst form of sickness that could strike anyone. The person who suffered from leprosy was called in some circles the “son of death”.
What was perhaps even more destructive was the notion entertained by religious people that those who suffered from leprosy were being punished by God and lived under a curse from Him.
Because of the danger of contamination, and because they were officially declared unclean, lepers lived in segregated areas.
This had all sorts of ramifications. They could not enter Jerusalem, the holy city. Out of a desire to protect their own health, no one would come in contact with them.
They were forbidden to bring offerings to the temple and to pray there for healing, because the sacred place was for the healthy: the clean.
Above all else, they certainly could not contaminate this holy place, for how could anyone who lived under the curse of God dare to come into God’s presence in the temple?
So it is most surprising that at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus we are presented with the meeting of Jesus and the leper…
The meeting with Jesus… to me is more important in a way that what happens after… First of all – the leper was supposed to warn others to stay away for fear of contamination… this seems to have been omitted…
Secondly, he comes to Jesus… he approaches Jesus… there is sometimes in life that… we want to do something because of our enthusiasm, or even our hurt or pain – to throw, as we say, “all caution to the wind…” Was that sentiment present in the man with the skin disease…?
We hear nothing of the disciples trying to prevent him from reaching Jesus – as they do with the beggars, or children… maybe they thought Jesus would have nothing to do with him anyway – so preventing his approach was unnecessary.
In any event – the man is earnest… he pleads with Jesus… “begs him” – literally, falls on his knee – the original text says…
He begs him – but also expressing confidence… if Jesus is willing to act… “I know that if you want you can do it…”
Now Jesus’ reaction… it is more than pity – or felt sorry for him… That would be putting it mildly… the original is this: “His bowels turned over with pity at the sight of this man.”
Compassion – means – to be passionately moved over something of someone… from one’s deepest emotions… and he then reaches out and touches him…
He reaches out… touches… the untouchable… touches the one whom others say you must not be near let alone touch…
Touch is very important in Mark’s Gospel… Jesus – is not afraid to touch – or people are not afraid to touch Jesus – e.g. the woman with the issue of blood… “If only I could touch the hem of his garment…”
There is another great passage having to do with compassion and the touch of the Lord –
It is found in the famous parable – “The Good Samaritan” -- again someone is hated, hated by the Jews – outcasts… cousins, but not cousins, relatives but no relatives – like the Palestinians and Jews – both are Semetic people…
You know the simply story – occasioned by the question of the lawyer – who is my neighbor? – If I have to love God and neighbor –
And Jesus tells the story of a fellow who is beaten up, robbed, left half dead in the ditch – “off the road.” – a priest goes by… a levite goes by… on the other side… the text repeats twice… “they saw him… and moved along…” “passed by on the other side…” -- they stayed away… that’s what we do… with people we don’t like… we stay away from them… we don’t go near them…
But what does the Samaritan do?… Now the Church fathers, the first teachers of the faith – saw in the Good Samaritan the figure of Jesus… and what do we have? –
The same sentence as in our reading to-day… what happened when he saw him? “He was moved with compassion when he saw him…”
- And what did he do then –
The text is very descriptive… “He went to him, He bandaged his wounds… he poured oil on them... he then “lifted”… “picked him up”… on to his own mount” – “carried him to the inn… and looked after him…”
He embraced – touched – bound up – picked up—lifted up… cared for… the wounded one… the one off the road… the broken and beaten up one… whom both the priest and levite – the upstanding had treated as an outcast… as if he were a leper who wouldn’t even go near him… who gave him a distant look… and moved on…
What about – those people – whom we treat as lepers… those people we say we don’t want to have anything to do with… and we don’t want others to have anything to do with… we just look at them – from a distance…
Or rather, what about the leprosy of our own persons… what about the wounds – sometimes open – sometimes festering of our own lives…
Do we get down seriously on our knees and ask… the Lord to touch them… do we believe that he can heal them… would we let him touch them?
Do we let others heal them… can we tell them… “I have some leprosy in my life… I too am a wounded person with whole areas of my life needing healing… needing the touch, the embrace, the warm embrace of friendship, affection, intimacy – which because of the lack of it – and keeping people away – have scarred me… have broken me… I need to be bound up… I have open wounds… which need the healing hands of Christ through others…
This has to do with us… with our leprosies… and letting ourselves being healed… and believing and asking… and kneeling… and begging earnestly… and finally professing… “I know you can…” and receiving the warm embracing touch of God and others who do it in his name…
It is about giving and receiving… about embracing and healing… it’s about the touch of God and the touch of human beings… it’s about forgiving… and being forgiven… it’s about being sinners… and reaching out to sinners… it’s about woundedness… and needing to bound up… and have oil poured over wounds… and it’s about picking up, lifting up others… and longing to be picked up and lifted up ourselves… it’s about what needs to happen with each of us here today—and it’s called reconciliation… being touched and embraced in and by the Lord. AMEN.
FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
We are presented to-day with the greatest problem facing humankind… the problem of evil and suffering… that is what our readings lead us to reflect on to-day, my dear friends…
Theologians, philosophers, all great thinkers have pondered over it… biblical authors also have pondered over it… and the poetry of the Scriptures is in many ways more true to life than the abstractions of theology.
We look at pain and suffering, consequences of evil… through two people – Job and Jesus… By the way, both are on record as being afraid of it… Jesus, with a “fear unto death” during his Passion… a very strange and powerful expression.
Job, is presented as a man who has it all… he treats everybody well, he is faithful to the Lord, he enjoys good health and prosperity… so the traditional theory seems to be working; namely the promise that the upright will prosper, and the wicked will suffer the consequences of their evil ways.
Now the author of the book – has Satan, being the devil’s advocate, going before the throne of God and argues, in effect, that Job is being good not because of the benefits that he is receiving… and that if he was tested as most people are he would quickly turn against God…
God allows this to happen, and three friends in turn are sent to dialogue and chastise Job for his unswerving faith in the midst of setback and reversal of fortune.
Lo and behold – even his wife chides him for his steadfastness… no great comfort there…!
In the book of Job – a good man is suffering, an innocent is punished, a righteous person is being persecuted… Job becomes immersed in the “human condition” – friends turn against, he is ridiculed…
Yet out of it comes some of the most expressive descriptions of what we all feel in the depths of our pain – and the emptiness of our lives… first look at our few verses to-day…
He describes his life as that of a slave and a labourer –
“a slave longing for the shadow…”
(out in the hot sun)
- A labourer longing for his wages)
(this means nothing to me – only the money…)
“ – I have months of emptiness… nights of misery…”
“At night I long for the day – tossing until dawn…”
“Will I ever again see good…”
To some of you this may mean nothing – to others, I know they can subscribe and identify with it… they know about sleepless nights, meaningless work… longing for it all to end… wondering if ever, they will see and experience some measure of happiness.
Let me tell you about my modern day Job – a Saint John Job…
(example of hard hatter)
Jesus too comes face to face with the power of evil… and its hold on the human condition. And Mark has him – confronting it (we are still only in the first chapter… verse 29)… in a personal and individual way… and in its vastness and universal way.
The first is the cure of Simon’s mother-in-law… Simon was then, if not married, at least been married…
The text speaks of gentleness, of a desire to remove… of being very attentive and personal… and the determination of others to have Jesus “do” something for her… for even before this, Jesus was healing…
“He came… and took her by the hand… and lifted her up… (she had to be lifted up by Jesus…)
She had to be taken by the hand… “Stretch out your hand…” “The Lord lifts up the downtrodden…” “He heals the brokenhearted…”
Then the fever left her… the fever left her – that which was incapacitating her… left her – then after that she began to serve them. She began discipleship… service to the community, for Jesus had taken her by the hand and lifted her up… for he heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds… so that they will not be incapacitated in their giving.
But now Jesus… comes face to face with the vastness and immensity of suffering… his reputation for healing had grown… he had already cured the possessed man, the paralytic, and now Peter’s mother-in-law…
So Mark introduces this part: “they brought to Jesus all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door.”
We saw a few weeks ago, dear friends, the significance… in Mark of “all” and “everyone”… his mission being to all…
But the next verse is telling… there is no “all”… -- “And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons…”
Mark says that Jesus healed many sick persons – but he does not claim that Jesus resolved all the problems of the entire town.
There is no evidence that Jesus ever cured the aging process… there is no evidence that Jesus changed the past history of people whom he met. For many people, it is events in their past life that are the “demon” they must contend with. A lack of love in childhood, for example, can lead to serious problems in a person’s life.
Jesus could give to such people an overwhelming sense of present love… forgiveness and wholeness, but he could not change their past life… they might now have the capacity to cope with the past much better, but the past would always be there, and would remain something they would have to contend with.
Then, there are many problems that cannot be solved without the cooperation of the person with the problem… Jesus could not force cures… and in fact required faith for healing…
But what began as individual, personal, healings – mushroomed into mass yearnings for all kinds of healings… and cures… and before long – all who had problems or ailments of any kind came to him – “All the city was assembled at the door…”
- Jesus cured “many”, but even he did not cure “all” problems in the town…
In fact… the section ends with what most people involved in dealing at the depths with the problem of evil and its consequences… and what happens in the face of it.
Jesus was overwhelmed by it.
1) He sought solace by getting away by himself.
2) He came to terms with it through prayer.
The sheer size and immensity of, and variety of suffering, of human suffering – has Jesus struggling through prayer and aloneness…
He goes while it is still dark… the dark night… the symbol of the interior struggle… and to the wilderness place… the place where one is alone with God…
But even here – he has no peace – and no escape… Simon and the companions – (the text says) hunted for him… the word is strong – the verb means – “to pursue to the finish – to hunt down…” as in the hunting of an animal that is attacking the flock…
The disciples want Jesus back… they wanted to impose their own values and priorities on Jesus. Yet he knew more than they what he had met in the mass of suffering…
He was a man of compassion and the very real needs of people cried out to him, but if he allowed these needs, they would engulf him and he would achieve nothing else.
His prayer had given him the answer… I must go on to proclaim to other towns… not necessarily – to stop healing… for his healing continues… but proclaiming the good news would be the first priority… always…
For it was in the message he was to proclaim that there could be discovered the most profound answer to the problem of growing old and dying, the problems caused by events in one’s past life, and the dissatisfaction at the human condition.
And the message is… that he too was overwhelmed in the face of human suffering, that in the face of its enormity he had to withdraw from it for a time, to focus himself on how to face it… that he would not give in to simplistic solutions on overcoming it… but that he by his preaching and teaching would give people ways not of removing it, but coping with it, and eventually giving it some meaning, and that within them as his followers, they would have what it takes not to let it destroy them.
AMEN.
FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Have you ever witnessed a great change in a person? Someone you knew at a stage in their life… perhaps in the early part of their life… in school – or college… and then met them much later – and they’re very different… sometimes for the worse… sometimes for the better…
Some parents, for example, are amazed how well certain of their children turn out… they will say – “Father, there was a time… when we just held our breath, and crossed our fingers…!”
In a way, a young person can go through a period of life… in which anything goes… they try everything, they want to experience everything – some are marked, and hurt for life by it… it is as if there are no boundaries for them… and the consequences of that period of their life remain with them forever…
Some people call those times in their lives… their dark side, their shameful past… their evil ways…
To-day’s Gospel passage speaks about a man who is possessed by an unclean spirit. It is important that we do not rack our brains over the man possessed by an unclean spirit, or by something demonic.
That is just and image that the Gospel uses to describe the human condition outside the sphere of Jesus – an image to make us see how unfree we are when we try to make it on our own.
And the Gospel does not mean it as a putdown or as grounds on which we will be condemned. In that case, it would not be Gospel or Good News anymore. No, the Gospel simply makes an observation. Left to ourselves, we are subjected to forces that enslave us; we lack freedom; we are not fully human.
When we are not free… when we are not really human… we are to some degree more or less… enslaved, possessed…
And anyone who is honest enough with themselves – knows that by which they are enslaved… that which stifles their spirit… that which prevents them from being the person that they can be, could be… that which prevents their being fully human… and in a way makes us all stifled, and incapacitated.
To some, this may seem exaggerated… and yet – if you speak to someone who has undergone – a “conversion” in their lives… a moving away from a former way of life… in which they have been freed from a life-style which might have seemed great, and exciting, and pleasurable – but which they now know was hell – and lonely, selfish, and devastating… they have no trouble relating to this Gospel… as being possessed; hell-bent as we say, on a destructive course of their persons.
Some-time ago – I renewed a friendship with someone I knew long ago – and the friendship now has given me much pleasure and enjoyment –
So I said – how sad – that for so many years – we didn’t know each other – and with the utmost conviction – and without a trace of doubt – he simply answered – “No – there was a time, when you would not have wanted to know me at all!”
Dear friends, I am giving examples – perhaps exaggerated to make my point – but with most of us – the differences are not so stark in periods of our life – but rather there are in all of us constant moments where we wonder if we are not possessed by some forces which control us – in which we act so meanly, with aggression, and pride, and vindictiveness.
Times in which we realize so deeply how unfree – how inhumanly we behave – and how so much of our behavior – our very being seems to be enslaved.
Times in which we harden our hearts – to keep out any message – or appeal – to change… and we are held or possessed – enslaved by our selfish intentions.
To-day’s Gospel suggests – that Jesus and his way… and our accepting to allow him to speak to us, to follow him – and respond to him – to-day’s Gospel suggests: that those powers which enslave us are not invincible… that they can be overcome… that we can be freed – that whatever is demonic in us – can be driven out… and that when we allow Jesus – and a way of life to which he calls us – enter our lives – we can be signs of humanness, and of freedom, and of beauty…
And it is amazing to-day – when it happens – as it was to the people in the time of Jesus – they will tell you – it was as if I was dead… I thought I was happy – but I didn’t even know what happiness was!!!
AMEN.
THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Now is the time… now is the hour… “Get up Jonah… go to Nineveh… Get up and go… to that great city… and proclaim repentance…” (Jonah 3, 1)
Paul in Corinthians says: -- “Brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short…” (1 Cor. 7, 29)
Jesus begins his ministry with the words:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near… repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mark 1, 14)
God sent his only begotten Son into the world – at the acceptable time, at the favourable time… at the appointed time… these are all scriptural words… He chose a people, prepared them, sent them prophets, leaders… gave them a law… guided them, watched them… nurtured them… then at the appointed time… the great revelation… the time of salvation, God sends His Son…
Jesus, too has his time… he respects time… he goes through the regular rituals of his people… he is presented in the temple… he waits to begin his ministry… he spends time alone in the desert… a time of temptation and fasting…
In his ministry, Jesus knows how to wait on people… allowing the growth of faith… using constantly parables of growth to describe his kingdom… telling his disciples that we must respect the seasons of growth… like the farmer who knows that the seed must die… the rains must come… and we must give it time.
Jesus knew how to use time to be with others, to take time to stop when called out by the blind beggar, crying out to him by the wayside… time to let the children come to him and lay his hands on them… time to go to weddings, time to stay with Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus… time to be with the widow who brought to him her dead son… time to see the beauty of the lilies in the field, of the birth of a child and see them as signs of growth and joy of the kingdom.
Finally, Jesus spoke of his own time… and his hour… the time of suffering and death… the time of deliverance… a time which he preferred would pass by – but ready to go through it for love of us.
His “time” near at hand becomes our salvation… his “hour” as he calls it, becomes the summit of all that he has come for, and for what it will accomplish – for him and for us – and so he embraces that time lovingly… and so he asks – “will I say, Father save from this hour… no, it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour?” (Jn. 12, 27)
So we have Jesus in our gospel today saying… “the time is fulfilled, the reign of God has drawn near…”
This is a powerful statement to the people of Israel, for it meant that over a thousand years of waiting, longing, and yearning had finally come to an end.
A people that had lived its whole national life looking to the future was being told that its hopes were now fulfilled.
For a thousand years people had said “Tomorrow”; suddenly someone was saying, “Not to-morrow, but to-day, here and now.”
A he was associating it with the two great dynamics of time… it’s time… “repent” and “believe”!
Repent… keep changing your minds, your hearts… have a change of mind and heart… cast aside some of the old ways of thinking and acting that have brought you so little life, and happiness… and embrace a new way of thinking… unaccustomed… to you… but will bring you life… but you must change… allow yourself to be changed… and believe… keep believing… in the good news… in what I tell you, preach to you… about letting go… and depending on… relying on me and my teaching… and my presence… and trusting…
It is time… it is a moment… it is always a new time… every moment is precious… we have the opportunity to change… to move on… to move away from… to move towards…
It’s about our minds… our hearts… it’s about embracing a new way… even God does it… He changes his attitude towards the city of Nineveh he’s not inflexible… as we think he is and as Jonah is sure he is… and the point is of Jonah’s story is that God changes… He is merciful… compassionate, not like Jonah wants him to be so finally Jonah understands… “I’ve got to be like God… I’ve got to change…” “And I better do it soon… it’s high time that I do it…”
The time has drawn near… repent… change your minds and hearts… believe… live a life of trust, dependence… goodness.
AMEN.
SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
One of the most remarkable things about Christian life is our being chosen… chosen… called to live it… called by God.
From the outset, we have to acknowledge that this is one of the deep mysteries of Christian life… and of life generally.
Yet, choices, or being chosen for something, or choosing a person in deference to or for another… affects us more than any other act after birth. They affect our way of life, the place we live out our life, with whom we live out our life… and they are all filled with mystery, awe, and wonder.
And we have all made certain choices in life… and after a certain age… we all have to make them. Before, some may have well been made for us… when we were too young to decide, but with age and maturity comes the difficult task of having to make our own… and live by them, and their consequences. Some are forced onto us by circumstances… some are freely made… for which we alone are responsible.
It is a fascinating subject… and it is central to our lives, and to our faith… because one thing is certainly affirmed in the scriptures… that is, that God chooses… God calls… God invites… God asks.
And a second aspect following on the subject of God’s choosing or calls… is that God always allows freedom to respond or not to respond… freedom to accept or reject the call.
This is a very difficult subject for us to understand, the free initiative of God’s call, when and whom God calls, and to what God calls us… which is called grace… but much more difficult for us to follow or imitate: the allowance of the freedom to answer or not to answer.
We are not, any of us, very good in allowing the deep respect for freedom which is such an integral part of God’s calls… we are rather prone to pressure, berate, taunt even, or threaten those to whom we present choices.
Thus we rob them of this sacred act… the sacred exercise of choosing, or responding to being chosen, as they wish. Thus we rob them of the appreciation of this gift… they are thus not inclined to give thanks to God, inclined to praise Him for His choice… they are robbed of the experience fraught with great pain and turmoil of coming to a decision literally wrestling with it… the experience of anxiety and trepidation… and then finally… issuing out into peace and calmness… assurance… and gratitude.
The texts today have to do with all those things… they are texts relating to choices… and being chosen, and listening… discerning… and responding, being called for a work, a mission, a task… and especially knowing us enough to ask us, to call us, to invite us into following.
These texts are full of this, from young Samuel going to the older Eli and saying basically, “I’m hearing a voice calling…” and Eli finally discerning that it may be the Lord and advising him to answer in the end to say: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Or in the Psalm, which so poignantly speaks of waiting, taking one’s time to discern… “I waited patiently for the Lord, He inclined to me and heard my cry”… then I said: “Here am I Lord; I come to do your will.”
And in the Gospel, the chosen one of all chosen, the anointed, has the name ‘Lamb of God’ appropriated to Him… led like a lamb… docile like a lamb… but also sheared like a lamb, in prophetic literature the word lamb emphasizes the innocence of the person who is about to be sacrificed… the servant… the beloved… and as the Father (the voice from heaven) says at the baptism and transfiguration – “This is my Son, the beloved, my chosen in whom I am well pleased.”
The chosen one, who now calls others… “Come and see… come and stay with me… look at me… listen to me… learn from me…” and the text says: “They came, and they saw, and they remained with Him.”
Just as surely as Jesus looked at Simon, and as He looked at the rich young man and loved him… so too does He look at us and loves and calls us… He wants us… how frightening… how wonderful…
May we answer to whatever we discern it may be: “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.”
AMEN.
THE FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
Dear friends:
Again today in the Gospel we meet John the Baptist, the advent figure reappears. We meet him at his greatest moment, when his work comes to an end… and Jesus’, the one for whom he has come to prepare the way, work begins, is inaugurated.
The significance of this event in the life of Jesus, the reason why it was retained in the Gospel tradition, lies both in the event itself, and especially in what immediately follows the baptism… namely: the descent of the Spirit, and the words spoken.
In the Old Testament, the descent of the Spirit of God upon a person indicates the calling to a special work of God: for example, when Samuel called Saul (1 Sam.)
“Then the spirit of Yahweh will seize on you and be changed into another man. When these signs are fulfilled for you, act as occasion serves, for God is with you.”
We know from parallel texts, that words were spoken from heaven at this occasion: “You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased.” (Mk 1, 9) As the prophets, the Messiah too was to receive the power of the spirit of God, and the command to accomplish a mission. As John says: “the Spirit of God will come down and rest upon him.”
To fully understand this event, dear friends, we must go back to a text from Isaiah taken from the section called the poems of the Suffering Servant: These poems spoke of a Servant who was to take upon himself all the sins of the people and through his suffering was to expiate them. Many interpretations were given to these tests by the Hebrews. That this servant was to be the light of the nations, that he was to mediate a new Covenant, the texts speak of his innocence, his humble obedience… all these features could easily be transferred to the Hebrew concept of the Messiah as King… but the Servant’s essential task of atoning suffering was not transferred to the Messiah. And we know how difficult it was for not only the leaders in Israel, but even the Apostles to accept any idea of the Suffering Messiah. (cf. Peter… (not you Lord!!)
Let us look at the relevant text:
“Behold my servant whom I will uphold,
My chosen one in whom I am well pleased;
I have put my spirit upon him,
He shall bring forth right to the nations.” (Is. 42)
These are the words of Yahweh, to the Suffering Servant. Let us listen to the words as recorded by Matthew at Jesus’ Baptism:
The heavenly voice says: “This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased…”
There are two important changes: in the Suffering Servant poem, Yahweh, addressed Israel, my Servant… but in Matthew the voice substitutes the word Son for Servant, and says: “This is my Son, the beloved.”
The voice then, is that of the father addressing, His Son and designating him personally as the Servant of God, the Suffering Servant.
Coming to the Jordan, Jesus is in the process of discovering his mission… and at the Baptism, Jesus is publicly invested with the mission of fulfilling the role of the Suffering Servant, the innocent one, who takes upon himself the sins of the people… his Father’s words publicly confirm his mission, underline its aspect of suffering, and indicate that the moment has arrived for it to begin effectively.
Jesus’ Baptism then become the event by which he is consecrated to his mission, identifying himself with humanity. He takes upon himself the human condition through in him there was no sin, innocent and undefiled, he gives himself to the calling of and suffering in love for our sakes.
He embraces us fully, our humanity, our condition, he immerses himself in our world, our vulnerabilities, our fragility, he allows himself to be subject to all the tenuousness of the human condition…
He immerses himself into all that it means to be human… and the Spirit is poured out on him in this movement towards us… confirming the Father’s “approval” so to speak of his coming so close to us as to being one of us…
It is the feast of the further extension of Christmas – of his complete oneness with us… He truly is the “God-with-us…”
And the Spirit rests on him… the abiding presence of the Father, through the Spirit will never be far from him.
The great lesson here for us dear friends – as we celebrate his life… is to realize… that if we follow him… and truly are immersed in him… and baptized in him and receive his Spirit… as we all have…
We have to try and realize – as He is immersed into our humanity… so fully and completely… into the human condition –
So to, we, because of our Baptism, are immersed in Him, with all the consequences of the Suffering Servant condition… we are with Him, in Him, God’s Spirit is upon us… we are one with Him, He is with us in our sufferings, in our reversals, in our achievements… He is with us in every way and circumstance. He is our brother and our Lord.
AMEN.
EPIPHANY: GOD’S SECRET (An Essay)
Jesus came to this world to reveal a great secret, and he began its revelation when he called those three mysterious strangers from the East to visit with him when he was yet a baby. The Epiphany scene preaches his great secret by action rather than words, and the secret is simply this: there are no “foreigners” in God’s eyes. There is no chosen people; all humans have been chosen by God to be members of the same body and the sharers of the same promise. There are no outsiders or insiders; there are only the people that God loves.
Before the coming of Jesus, the equal value of all humans was not all that clear. It seemed as though God loved one people more than another. There was a “chosen people,” that people which was to produce the Messiah, and it seemed as though God paid special attention to their welfare. He chose their kings, listened to their priests, and spoke to them through his prophets.
The secret of God revealed at the Epiphany was that though the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was from the Jewish people, he was for all people. God’s secret is that in terms of his affection there is no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, no white or black or yellow or red or brown. There is only humanity and Jesus, God Incarnate, who comes to make the same promise of eternal life to every member of the species. Thus, Jesus preached to the poor, to male and female, to countryman and foreigner. He had dinner with saints and sinners. He fraternized with the disabled, held the young in his lap, and made sure that he saw the ancient Anna and Simeon before they died. His entourage included fishermen and tax collectors, women of some substance and boys still looking to make a mark in life. Pharisees came to him for advice, and Roman officers came to him for help. He was willing to speak to rulers and the ruled, and his message to all was the same: “God has forgiven the human race. All humans are saved.” He tolerated every human being, and for this he was executed.
He was executed because although humans are willing to go to heaven with God, they seem bound and determined that some other humans will go to hell. We humans have always had difficulty with tolerance. We seem to enjoy making lists of the good and the bad, “us against them” where “them” is anybody not exactly like “us.” We make those others second-class members of the human race and persecute them for being different.
We have killed each other for being a different color or nationality, for being too young or too old. We have abused each other for being female or male. We have cursed each other because we did not believe in the God of love in exactly the same way. We have made foreign nations “kingdoms of evil,” and in dealing with them we have justified any deceit in peace and any means in war.
Prejudice is a human creation, and God’s secret revealed in his Epiphany is that such prejudice is simply insane. There is no chosen people; there is no nation of assured virtue. There is no evil empire in this world except that which is carried in the sill hearts and clouded minds of each one of us.
We call each other names and fear each other because our limited intelligence prevents us from knowing each other and understanding that we share the same hopes and fears and destiny. In our silliness, we think that we will be safer if another person dies. We can’t see that if we don’t hang together we are all going to hang separately. We are all in the same boat, and it is a hospital ship.
The secret of Epiphany is that God loves each one of us despite our sometimes craziness. He became human to save every human. The fact that he was Jewish and brown-skinned and male and a carpenter was accidental to his task, just as it was irrelevant to the scope of his love.
The secret of God is that he come to save all humans because every human has an infinite value. Perhaps the sign that we humans have finally understood that secret will be when we begin to treat each other as equal children God. When we stop sending people to hell, then we will be ready to enter heaven. Because in heaven there will be male and female, Christian and non-Christian, Jew and Gentile, black and white, red and yellow and brown. In heaven we will still have our differences, but for the first time in our eternal lives it will truly make no difference. Then the banquet will begin. And Jesus will serve the meal. And truly we shall get our just deserts.
(from Emmanuel by Donald X. Burt, O.S.A.
Reprinted by permission from The Liturgical Press.)
MARY, MOTHER OF GOD (NEW YEAR)
Dear friends:
What a wonderful way to begin the New Year to hear the very first words of the sacred word of God in today’s first reading from the book of Numbers;
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
And give you peace.” (Numbers 6, 22)
These beautiful words are incorporated in the committal service at the grave… which we recite often… they are given to us for our reflection on this first day of the year… and I make them my own dear friends, on this New Year’s Day.
May the Lord indeed bless you… and keep you… and make his face to shine upon you… in this new year. May the Lord watch over you and yours… keep you… keep you in his sight and protection… keep you from danger… keep you from the pitfalls that beset us in the ordinary course of our lives… may he guide you and direct your paths.
As John says in his first Epistle: “If we live our lives in the light, as he is in the light, we are in union with one another.” (Jn. 1, 7) Or as Paul says to the Ephesians: “You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth. Try to discover what the Lord wants of you having nothing to do with the futile works of darkness but exposing them by contrast.” (Eph. 5, 13-14)
“May the Lord be gracious to you… may His favour rest upon you… as upon Mary… on whom His favor rests… and was thus blessed and able to respond to his grace… to fulfill the great role that he had for her in making her the Mother of the Lord.
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you… may you see his face, may others see his face in you, may you be a revealer of God… for to love is to see the face of God and be a revealer of God in this world.
And finally may he give you peace… true peace… the kind of peace that only he can give… may you be persons of peace… may you be peace givers and peacemakers… may you be filled with God’s peace… the real
meaning of SHALOM is completeness… wholeness… knowing the comprehensiveness and full bounty of God’s presence and activity.
To live in peace is to live in harmony… with God… with nature… with oneself… All this is what we wish you… today… be like Mary… the woman of peace… who pondered all these things in her heart and thus came to realize how blessed she was… and how God had indeed done great things in her and for her… and thus for us. AMEN.
CHRISTMAS
Dear friends:
A child is born for us, a son gives to us;…” (Isaiah 9, 6)
“This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2, 12)
“So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child;… and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. (Luke 2, 18)
This is the sign… you will find a child… Christmas is about a child… and the sign of a child… and about finding the child.
A child has to be conceived, a child has to be carried… a child has to be born… of a woman… a child is rooted in humanity…
A child… is a product of love… an expression of love… a sign of love between two people… who together bringing forth new life… and so much of who they are is in their child…
A child is a thing of joy, of happiness, of delight, of beauty… a thing of pride, of hopes and expectancies, of dreams.
A child is also fragile, vulnerable, unprotected, -- easily bruised, hurt… very dependent…
All of this is said of every child… and every human being, because we all started out as a child… and there is much of the child still within us… the child in us all…
We can still be hopefully – a delight, a joy, a blessing, a thing of pride and hope, and beauty.
We can be and often are, fragile, very vulnerable, easily bruised and hurt… and very dependent…
Even when we’re old, there is still the little girl and little boy in us… a mother and father always see in their son and daughter – their child… before their son or daughter.
I was struck recently at a funeral parlor… when looking for something to say about a father of a number of children – but only one daughter – seeking to find out what he was like… and his daughter ventured quite straight forwardly:
“Well, after all, Father – he was my father, and I was always, “Daddy’s little girl.”
The feast we celebrate today is more than a birthday… even more than the birthday of Jesus… it is the celebration of a sign… and the sign is the child.
That God in His Son has become all those things that it means to be a child and those things that it means to be human…
And that that is how God wanted it for His Son:
“You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, you prepared a body for me…” (Heb. 10, 5)
“His state was divine… yet he did not cling to his equality with God… but emptied himself – and became as human beings are…” (Phil. 2, 6-7)
That is what we celebrate at Christmas… the humanity of God in Christ… the sign of the child… the delight, the joy, the hope, the vulnerability, the fragility, the love that we now have in common with God… because He has become one with us… and one of us…
“This will be the sign for you… You will find a child… when they saw this… they made known what had been told them about this child… all who heard it were amazed…”
For unto us… a child is born…
AMEN.
HOLY FAMILY
Dear friends;
In former years, the opening prayer of this Mass was very important… it speaks of two things that are necessary… in all relationships – but are especially important in that primary and fundamental relationship which we all issue from… and to which we have all tried in some measure to go back to this Christmas – the family – our family.
The prayer said: “Father, help us to live as the holy family, united in respect and love. Bring us to the joy and peace of your eternal home.”
We have just celebrated Christmas… the feast religious and even in its secular dimensions which we most associate with family. In whatever way possible, which was not so easy this year because of the Pandemic, whether by physical presence, by phone, by gifts, by letter, through memories… we have been pulled to family ties…
We are all a bit idealistic when it comes to families… we want everything to be good with our families, -- we want our children to be successful, we want our spouses to be perfect… our parents wise and generous… our brothers and sisters, considerate and sensitive… etc. … we generally want ideal situations with families… it doesn’t happen!!
Because families, like everything else in this world carry much imperfection, and limitation, and finiteness…
Theologically, we might even say that that translates into sinfulness… not that families are intentional sinners… but their members lack perfection… they often act unvirtuously, they often fail… they forget themselves in their behaviour…
Some people can never accept that… and it is the most normal thing in the whole world… they never get over their children’s failure, their husband’s misjudgement, their father’s addiction… their mother’s setback… their sister’s unwise choice…
And they are unforgiving in dealing with them… they won’t forgive them, because they were never ready to accept them in themselves… never allowing that that could ever happen to them.
And the root of non-acceptance, of non-forgiveness towards the faults of family members, and the deception, and the bitterness – lies right in one’s non-acceptance of one’s own faults, one’s own mistakes, one’s own poor judgements, one’s own sinfulness…
Right after Christmas, the great feast so associated with family, the Church offers us the feast of the Holy Family… and the texts offered are about faith, and trust in God… Parental and filial respect… leaving for a distant country as a refugee – for safety of a mother and child… in the face of barrenness, and not knowing where one was going as one leaves family, and about offering up a son, and only son, in whom all expectations were riveted upon.
And presenting us with Mary and Joseph… being told about suffering in their lives because of their son… that hearts would not only be broken but pierced, that people would oppose and contradiction would follow…
Hardly an idyllic picture of idealism and serenity…
And so that opening prayer… “Father help us to live as the holy family, united in respect and love…”
I remember a prayer I read once… it went like this… “Father, how greatly you love us – that you respect us enough to allow us to make our choices… not forcing yourself upon us – but open to us the possibilities of your love.
“You allow us to freely love – or refuse to love… in your great love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nowhere is love and respect more important than in family relationships… and there is no love without respect… respect of boundaries, respect of choices that family members make… respect for their legitimate freedoms… respect for their space… their time… all of this has to do with spousal, and parental love… and it is hard and difficult… because we all think that each and everyone has a right and obligation to say – or speak, or act… on each and every situation that involves family members… We do not.
Let us look to Mary and Joseph… the two great figures in this life of Jesus – they speak rarely… and Joseph – not at all…
Let us temper our judgements… let us temper our words… and let us pray for the most difficult demands of real love: respect for the other…
“Father, help us to live as the holy family, united in respect and love… bring into our homes – they joy and peace of your eternal home. Amen.”
FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT
Dear friends;
Some time ago I visited a man terminally ill with cancer. After anointing him in his bedroom with his wife sitting beside… she left the room to prepare a cup of tea…
I knew this man to be very bright, intelligent, well read… often in theological readings… he was lying there in great pain… on his rubber mattress to prevent bed sores…
I took advantage of his wife’s absence to ask him – as his sickness was into about a year… what his thoughts were… what he was reflecting on…
The answer was not exactly what I had hope for – or expected… He said that quite frankly… he wondered why all this was happening to him… that he was in some way “paying” for his sins…
He also honestly expressed bitterness if not anger… though some resignation… and in the end still believed in God’s love for him.
I was saddened especially – by his feeling that God was punishing him through his sickness… a misconception so prevalent… as prevalent as it is erroneous… so common among sick people… mostly among good sick people.
And as I drove away from his house I reflected too on this good, kindly, gentle man… in his pain… and his being immersed in the consequences of sin… of the human condition… suffering, sickness, pain… death…
And especially of my poor inability to try and explain… or give some reasonable “analysis” or “theological” or “spiritual” meaning to all that this dear and gentle man was experiencing…
Then… I remembered this great text of to-day’s Gospel…
A text so familiar… so precious to us at this time of year… on this feast, and at this season…
And I remembered this young woman… the one whom such great things would be asked… whose consent was solicited… who was blessed like no other… “favoured” by God like no other.
And then I remembered… those haunting words… when in Luke’s presentation… carefully chosen words… when all this happened…
“But she was much perplexed by the angel’s words…” (1, 29)
Literally… Mary is portrayed… the text says – as being “greatly troubled…” or “deeply disturbed”…
She is told… “Do not be afraid…” Afraid… not to fear… she must then have been afraid to be told not to be afraid…
Then she asks… “How?” “How can this be?” All through… the full humanity of Mary is being portrayed… not being removed from the human condition but while being conceived without sin as – she is completely one with us in experiencing the consequences of sin…
She is presented… as the woman who wonders… who struggles with what happens to her… but above all who reflects and ponders…
She is portrayed as “pondering”… the words… wondering… it is the great biblical stance of Mary… the reflective mother…
It, again will be the picture of her at the birth of her Son… with the angels praising God, the shepherds coming and going… people hurrying to see “this thing that has happened…” – “all being astonished…”
What does Luke have Mary doing? “As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Lk. 2,19)
Finally a third time at the presentation and finding of Jesus in the Temple… the last part of the infancy narrative is introduced after Simeon’s prophecy – with these words:
“As the child’s father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him…” (Luke 2,33) – and finally the narrative concludes for a fourth time with these words:
“Jesus then went down with them and came to Nazareth and
lived under their authority… His mother stored up all these
things in her heart…” (Lk 2,51)
I will go back to my very sick friend… if for nothing else to assure him of his affinity with the handmaid of the Lord…
Not to give him easy answers… to explain away his sickness, or pain, or struggle… or questionings… but to assure him… that he has a sister in faith…
She stands beside him… she questions, she wonders… she asks… she is perplexed… she is deeply disturbed… and she ponders… she stores up in her heart…
But in the end… she asks us to say what she says… after she hears what was said to the barren Sarah… married to the father of faith, old Abraham… when all offs seem unsurmountable…
“Nothing is impossible to God…”
In the face of those words… Mary simply says… as she asks us to say – not with all our fears removed… not even with all our questionings removed… but in faith and trust…
“Here I am, the servant of the Lord… let it be done with me according to you word.” (Lk. 1,38)
AMEN.
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Dear friends;
Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to speak the word of patience to the impatient? That is what our readings are all about to-day dear friends… it is the work of prophets, the work of preachers, the work of the Church, and the work of Christians…
Our world wants something… it wants it impatiently… but in its impatience it blinds itself to what has already present…
We shall see something of that happen this Christmas… when children open their presents… children of all ages… I saw it the other night when one of my little cousins had a birthday party… his presents were all stacked over on the table… and he began by opening one… he hardly had it out of the box, then he ran back to the table for the next one… and with each subsequent present he opened… he became more interested in the next one… taking less & less account of the one he already opened.
So much so that by the time he got to the last one, he could hardly remember what he opened… what they looked like… who had given them to him… and disappointed that there were no more to open…
What a picture or ourselves… what a picture of our world… what a picture of our way with God… In our impatience… in our demands… in our running from one thing to another… we don’t recognize what gifts God has already given us…
And the voice that tries to hold us back from that impatience, that feverish running… that obsessive amassing of things has to be a voice that truly cries in the wilderness…
And as it was impossible to stop that child from running back to the table, and forgetting what he had already opened… so too it is with us… those who try to slow us down and look at what has already been received by us from God… what he asks of us now – and what he calls us to… is truly the work of one “crying in the wilderness…”
Isaiah had the work, or mission, -- or calling… and so did John the Baptist… and the hearers of Isaiah passed over his message… and so did the men sent by the Pharisees…
“Are you the Christ, are you Elijah… are you this, are you that…”
“There stands among you… unknown to you the one who is coming…”
But he is already here… and you are so distracted and hyper and impatient… that not only do you not recognize him… but you have lost sight of what he brings… what he wants to give you… what he wants to be for you…
But Isaiah… Mary… John… these great Advent figures… and Paul too… know what God offers to his people… to those who look for him, wait for him… they recognize what He wants to give them… what He calls them to be…
They are able to do two things… (1) Identify the gifts and (2) secondly give thanks for them…
What does Isaiah realize – so deeply so movingly conscious of what is his calling…
“The spirit of the Lord has been given to me… -- the Lord has anointed me… but for what…?
— to bring good news to those who are in need of it… in a world when there is so much bad new bearers…
— to bind up hearts that are broken...
— to speak of liberty from those who are oppressed with guilt, with shame, with hurts…
— freedom to those imprisoned, ensnarled enchained by their vices, and weakened by their failure…
— to proclaim this… as a season… a year of favor… a time for the favor of the Lord…
— I am called to do this… unworthy though I am myself… so “I exalt for joy… in the Lord…”
“My soul rejoices in my God… he has clothed me… he has wrapped me in integrity…”
Mary too – realizes… that he comes to this lowly handmaid… “Who am I…?” What would you have me do…” … - you must realize my nothingness… I am a lowly handmaid…”
“My soul glorifies the Lord… the Almighty works marvels for me… His mercy is boundless”
And Paul tells the Christian of Thessalonika…
“Be happy… in all things give thanks to God… because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus… because he has called you – he will not fail you…”
“O God, help us to be the men and women who, on one hand, stifle our own impatience – our aggressive demands – all that prevents us from recognizing your Son and his gifts. –On the other – help us to realize that you have given us the spirit, anointed us to be proclaimers of the message – of good news… binders of hearts that are broken… liberators of captive and bound people…
For this we praise you… our hearts exult… You look on our lowliness… and see and recognize your Son in us… and in our work… He has come… He comes.
AMEN.
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Dear friends;
Advent figures… Isaiah… John the Baptist… Mary… Jesus… Israel… people of hope… people of longing… a people waiting… a people harassed… a people needing consolation comfort… a people in the wilderness.
Why is it, dear friends, that we so often find it difficult to appropriate God’s word to our lives…?
Why is it that we have so much difficulty seeing that this word transcends time… transcends even the people who first uttered it – or wrote it… or first brought it to light?
The author of the epistle to the Hebrews:
“The word of God is something alive and active – it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely; it can slip through the place where the sword is divided from the spirit – or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts.”
(Heb. 4, 12-13)
It discerns the heart… it goes to the place… the heart… it lays bear the secret emotions and thoughts…
What does the heart do? It longs – it pines… it overflows… it hurts… it gets broken… it yearns…
And like perhaps – one of the most popular songs in recent years… it can ache and break… “Don’t hurt my heart, my achey-breakey heart!” –
Believe it or not that is what this word addresses today dear friends… it addresses the broken heart of Israel… the people whose hopes are dashed… whose reverses seem endless… whose promises never seem to be fulfilled…
It is the beginning of Second Isaiah – or the great book of Consolation… and the picture we get is of God who has not forgotten… who want to comfort or console his people and wants to speak to their heart… or as it is in our new translation… wants to “speak tenderly to them”…
That in the wilderness of life… a way is being prepared… that those crooked ways… tortuous ways will eventually be straightened – that those unsurmountable hills and mountains will be lowered… that those precipitous cliffs will be leveled… and the rough ridges will be flattened…
And then… the glory of the Lord will be revealed… and all will see it… because you have been a people of hope… a people who did not give up… even though – the “day” seemed long… even when the day seemed like a thousand years… a thousand years are like a day with the Lord…
He is not slow… he has not forgotten… he has not abandoned… his help is near for those who trust in him… and his glory will dwell in our land… (Ps. 85)
And the way that that is brought about – is by people leading lives of holiness and godliness… where righteousness can be at home… and at peace with one another…
And John the Baptist – is called to say that such a life – of holiness and goodness… of tenderness and heart… of hope and longing… is the is the manifestation that the promise is fulfilled…
The outpouring of the Spirit… or the Baptism with the Holy Spirit – which John heralds and with which he says Jesus will baptize with… is the first statement of Mark’s Gospel… of what is John’s hope and mission.
“That is what you have to aim for… what I am saying or doing is nothing… nothing in comparison to what the outpouring of the Spirit will do for you – which Jesus will give you… which will strengthen you, bolster your faith, teach you to forgive, soften your hard hearts, empower you to achieve things you couldn’t even dream about…”
And you are to be the heralds of this today…
You are to go to the mountains and shout…
“Here is your God”
You be the joyful messenger
You shout with a loud voice… and shout without fear…
Here is your God… -- He is coming…
He is here… and he loves… and he speaks to broken hearts – and aching hearts… and he gathers lambs “little ones” in his arms… and he holds them close… and he consoles them – and speaks to their hearts tenderly…
As St. Paul writes about consoling so beautifully in 2nd Corinthians:
“Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ the God who gives every possible consolation… he consoles in every hardship… so that we are able to console others in every hardship because of the encouragement that we ourselves receive from God…” (2 Cor 1; 1-4)
Amen.
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Dear friends;
Let’s talk about animals a bit today. It’s not going to be a long talk about animals because I hardly know anything about animals!
I like them… but I’ve never owned one… some of my priest friends have animals… cats… dogs… we have a priest with a Great Dane… We have to advise him when we are coming to visit…
What little I know about animals is a quality that is related to our reading today… and especially to one little animal that we seem to have in overabundance… “The Squirrel.”
They’re all over the place on our properties… you nearly have to be careful not to run over them… they have a quality… an evangelical quality… they’re always (it seems to me) on the lookout! Their little heads turn from left to right in a flash… at the slightest sound… they are majorly “alert”
I think the squirrels could tell us something about the theme of the First Sunday in Advent, because it’s all about keeping awake… and keeping alert… about being vigilant… staying awake and looking out.
In a way, if one wanted to characterize the spirituality of the whole liturgical year, one would have to speak of wakefulness and vigilance.
We have been admonished to practice these virtues from the time of the announcement of the first manifestation of the Lord until his anticipated return as the King of the universe.
But in the gospels of the First Sunday of Advent, we hear Jesus say to us: “Stay awake, “be on guard”, “keep alert”, “pray constantly.”
The call to vigilance is more intense in Advent… though it is always present in all liturgical celebrations.
Why? So that we may recognize the Lord in His coming. Why? Because as we know, He can be missed… He can come unnoticed… He has already come… and He is coming again.
That is the great announcement of advent… we say in our refrain “Come Lord Jesus”… “Come O Divine Messiah” – but equally as important… our refrain should be “Keep us alert enough to recognize you…”
He has not just come once and for all… it is the very nature of God to come to us in so many ways.
He comes to us in his creation… in His messengers… in His word… in His son… who has come… but He still comes to us in His spirit… in one another… and He will come again in a wondrous and mysterious way in the end of time…
He comes to us in the daily events and peoples of our lives… but we are not alert to it… we do not hear His voice… we are blind to His presence… we do not hear Him stalking, crying out sometimes for justice, for peace, for healing, for reconciliation, calling for pardon, for renewal, for beginning again, in a new way.
That is why our readings are so earnest today, so plaintive… nearly shrill: “You O Lord, are our Father… O that you would tear open the heavens and come down…” (Isaiah 63) “Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, you are enthroned
upon the cherubim, shine forth… stir up your might and come to save us.” (Ps. 80)
There is a poignant conversation in the gospel of John… between Jesus and the apostle Philip… where Philip impatiently tells Jesus to stop talking about the Father!” -- and Jesus answers calmly, “Philip, have I been with you all this time and you still do not know me? To see me is to the Father!”
Seems to me, that poignant text of the disappointed Jesus has to be heard as we take up the advent refrain… “Come Lord Jesus…”
It has also something to do with love, this call to vigilance… everything in the gospel message has to do with love anyway…
What does a parent say to a young person whom they cherish… when they start out to school, to work or on a journey? -- sometimes grabbing them by the shoulders… embracing them… “Be careful… please watch out… stay alert.”
It’s not threatening… it’s a measure of their love…
“Be like the squirrel… look around… the Lord is very near… very near to you… He is coming… He has come… He is ever present to you.”
AMEN.
CHRIST THE KING
Dear friends;
The last judgment scene is depicted to-day. Painters and preachers have used it and depicted it with great earnestness. Great frescoes have been painted about it… preachers have used it to terrify good people, to make them feel guilty, to manipulate them into false perceptions about God.
And yet on this last Sunday of our Liturgical year… in which we reflect on “the end” – and “the end times”… on “Judgment”, and the “kingdom” and the life in the kingdom – really, -- the Gospel’s message is reduced to a much simpler and basic truth…
That truth is: when you are generous, and kind, and forget yourself, -- when you look out generally for other people… and do it consistently – you don’t even notice it… you don’t even remember it…
How often has it happened to you, dear friends? – when after a number of years has elapsed… you did a generous act – or spoke a kind word – or reached out to someone in whatever way…
And a long time after, they come to you… and say – “you know, I never forgot the time you did this for my father… or mother… or you came to us…”
And you try in vain to remember it, or recollect the occasion… and you cannot… You see it these days… we are in an era of testimonials – testimonial dinners, roasts, etc. personally, I think too much – perhaps, because, as the Irish say – “don’t build monuments to the living…”
In any event, the one good lesson of those affairs – especially if the person honored is deserving of it – is that they are amazed at what people remember… their kind act, or word of encouragement, or the difference it made…
Because – it was so simple… it was just ordinary… they are amazed… they quietly brush it off… they smile rejecting self-consciousness – and say – “Oh that – that’s nothing more than any friend would have done.”
Why is this --? Why do they react this way? Because it is – that people who try to be kind and generous, without counting the cost, give themselves away in love for others.
They cannot remember what they did… because in those crucial moments of their lives – forgot themselves…
That is why they cannot remember… they perceive human needs – and respond to others for their sake – ignoring their own needs… unworried about their own appearance, unconcerned about the impression they are making.
They don’t keep an account of it… because they have taken a certain stance in life… that is free of concern for themselves… it is their habit… of looking out for others… for the binding up, the feeding, the clothing, the visiting… of all those who need…
Those in need… not solely of material goods… wouldn’t that be easy – but the hurting needy… those who need their emotional wounds to be bound up… those who hunger… not just for food… but for affection, and presence… and acceptance… those who need to be visited not just in prison… but visited in the prison of their terrible circumstances… in the prison of their loneliness, in the coldness of their rejection… in the captivity of their addiction…
That is when kingdom building happens… it happens in everyday occurrences of generous, selfless, little acts of kindness, warmth, goodness, patience – which if done consistently – when later brought up – we can’t even remember it… we are surprised that people even recall it…
Unfortunately, kingdom building doesn’t happen – not because momentous, or dramatic ecclesial setbacks seem to be occurring… and which we judge as being so terribly negative… kingdom building doesn’t occur – because simple, generous, kind, considerate… respectful, honest gestures – of visiting, feeding, nourishing, comforting – have ceased…
When did all this happen…? The king will reply… “it all happened in the way you lived… in how you treated each other… the kingdom was going on all the while… you were a part of it… I was a part of it…
I was present in your embrace, I was present in your – non-embrace… I was the one visited… I was the one – non-visited… I was the one bound up… held back, hurting, rejected… I was the one you picked up, accepted and freed…
All that you did… it was to me.
AMEN.
THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
The Image of God
Dear friends;
One of the most painful experiences in life is to be mistaken about the true character of someone… it is painful for the one who is maliciously portrayed – but equally painful for the one who mistakenly sees the other in this way… less – than the way he or she really is…
For later they realize they were wrong about a person, or their motives, or their intentions…
We may ask… what brings about a wrong judgment of another? – Is it gossip…? Is it the mean-spirited ways of defaming another?... Is it jealousy?... Is it allowing our imagination to run wild?... Is it fear?... Is it envy?...
Too often it is a combinations of all those things…
One of the sorry results of such impressions of another is that they respond in kind to these judgments… and they also become hard, and mean spirited, and full of fear…
Now, as we know, this happens amongst all of us… because our image of one another is not as good as it should be… but today’s parable is not about our image of one another – but about our image of God…
And how a poor image of God can stifle us – and render us inactive… and powerless…
The man entrusted his property… to his servants…
A very important word… he entrusted – you trust somebody you know… the more precious what you hand over… the more you trust…
The story exaggerates what is handed over… a talent… – 10,000 days salary! – a very great amount… and each were given according to their ability…
In the parable… Jesus intends as always to give us another image of what God is like… the master is none other than God…
But what paralyzes the third servant in to non-action is his fear of God. For him God is a hard task-master, one you’d better be on your guard against, because you never know how he is going to deal with you.
Being unreasonable is supposedly God’s prerogative, and we have no defense against it. The servant thinks that God can deal with us at his pleasure. There is nothing more offensive to God than this sort of image of him.
How sad it is that so many of us go through life with warped, distorted, sick images of God. Every so often in conversation with people about God – it is amazing to find how fearful they are of God! e.g. – conversation with a relative… or hitch-hiker.
No wonder some people – especially some young people have no use for God… eventually.
The point of today’s parable is that we take notice of that each one of us have been graced by God. – not in the order of material or intellectual capacity – that’s not how you measure the worth of a person – but our ability to love… our ability to give life to others… our ability to contribute to each other’s benefit…
The other point related to the fact that God has given us these abilities – under a trust… he trusts us – to use what he has given us – and to use it well.
To use it not out of fear for the eventual account we have to give of it, not out of fear of a punishing God who will take no nonsense in the end…
That kind of fear paralyses us – we lack all self-confidence and initiative… besides that kind of fear is an insult to God…
He believes in us. – He delights in us… we have to take pride in that God loves us, and trusts us – to use what we have… as his co-workers, co-creators…
The other servants – worked with God – they were thrilled that they were that God had invited them to share his kingdom… in their joy they started to work… they did not allow themselves to be held back – or waste their time worrying what account they would have to give of it in the end.
For them, working on God’s kingdom has its own rewards here and now.
And just perhaps this is what we have to ask forgiveness for more than anything… God has trusted us… entrusted us with so much… we have forgotten that wonderful image of God… We have let fear, unbelief, lack of self-confidence, cripple our response to him and to others…
“Father, how greatly you love us and believe in us, and respect us – that you give us even your Son… and ask us to be with him… one with him in fashioning this world… according to your life and purpose.
Forgive us in not accepting your call, and responding to it with gratitude, confidence, hope and joy.”
AMEN.
THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
“Give us some of your oil”
Dear friends;
Have you ever seen somebody whom you acknowledge as being smart, intelligent, wise – prudent capable… etc. … act foolishly…?
It can happen… nobody is without some poor judgment, some blind spots, some deficiencies…
I had an uncle once… an old military man… one of my favourite uncles… a very successful business man…. He probably became a millionaire… he had two daughters… thank God – no sons… I probably was the closest thing to a son to him…
But growing up – his daughters and I – we realized the one thing that would completely send him into a tizzy – was if we did something “stupid” – like not using our brain… saying something without reflection – or getting ourselves into a jam!!
I can still hear him – during my adolescence… after doing something really silly – “Good, God Brian, for someone who is supposed to be smart… that was a foolish thing to do!!” It was never said in a harsh way – but lovingly… and with every effort to correct and form in the best way.
I thought about my uncle Jack this week – reading these texts about wisdom, and the sensible and foolish virgins…
I thought about him fondly – because he always tried to make us think straight… not that we’ve always done it…
Now the foolish virgins in the parable weren’t thinking straight… imagine taking torches without bringing any flasks of oil… now they weren’t so silly that they didn’t bring any oil… -- because apparently they did have enough for a while…
They covered “Plan A”… but it wasn’t the night for “Plan A”… it was the night for “Plan B”… and “Plan B” was that the bridegroom was delayed… and they found themselves without the necessary amount of oil to light their torches to go out and meet the bridegroom…
So they said to the wise virgins… “Give us some of your oil”… and the wise virgins said “No… they may not be enough for you and us… go and get some at the dealers…”
Dear friends… it struck me once that someone spoke of the “oil” in this parable as experience… and wisdom… and growth… and maturity… and this would not be surprising – it is eminently applicable to this parable… it is more than knowledge… it’s more than having “the smarts”… it’s more than being intelligent… it’s having something that can only come with prayer, experience, setbacks, failure, pain, growth, achievement, and time – and it’s age.
It takes a lot of work to become wise… and you don’t get it quickly… it comes slowly, and you have to watch for it… and desire to be wise… and it is never “given” as if completely…
In the Scriptures – it is the thing most sought after… it has to do with life… and with living… and the way of living – not only of thinking… but of living… and in the end after all was said and done about God’s wisdom which humans hoped to share in… the perfect expression of God’s wisdom was to be found in looking at his Son… in all that He is… all that He said… all that He did… all that He experienced… and all that He is for us to-day… and all that He continues to be for those whose life is a reflection on his: called wisdom…
And that is why, those virgins who were sensible – and sensible indeed they were… had to say to the foolish ones… we couldn’t give this kind of oil to you even if we wanted to… it can only be gained by living – by painfully growing… by entering into relationships… by discovering life for yourselves… by reflection… by thinking about your life and those around you… by observing people… getting into their lives… loving them… being hurt – being tossed around… being consoled yourself… and that is the project of a lifetime – and that is wisdom and we just can’t pour that into your flasks in an instant!!
Amen.
ALL SAINTS
Dear friends;
“Who are these, robed in white… and where have they come from?... “they are the great multitude… that no one could count… from every nation… from all tribes and peoples and languages”… (Rev. 7)
The great multitude of saints… so many… too many to have a special feast day… too many to honour individually… too many to be known by everyone… to many to be canonized by a strict process – or an ancient tradition.
They cross all barriers… all classes… they have achieved heroic holiness… they are hidden… they are known sometimes only to God…
They are nameless… like the markers in hundreds of graves of the war dead… inscribed… “A soldier of the 1939-45 war.” – “Known only to God.” There was no name tag… so they buried them with that memorable and poignant inscription.
“Known only to God”… yet sometimes known by others… as outstanding for their goodness, for their kindness… for their compassion and mercy… for their long an patient suffering… not for their perfection…
Sometimes we think saints were perfect… they are not… they were human… they are human… saints who are canonized were holy, interesting, admirable, heroic –
But they were also eccentric, difficult… strange… even cantankerous, sometimes ambitious and downright worldly…
For example, it is said, that the great Jerome – was so impetuous that he was a master at sarcastic insult… called the unfortunate British monk, Pelagius, a “corpulent dog stuffed with Scottish porridge.”
The Church offers us on this universal feast other than the beautiful description from the Book of Revelation which we alluded… and from the first letter of John – which states: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God… and that is what we are…”
(John 3, 1)
It offers us the beatitudes… the beatitudes which are not new commandments… they command nothing, they are descriptive… they describe something of what it is to be a disciple of Jesus.
And that in living them… or attempting to live them… one is blessed… blessed for themselves… and blessed for others… a blessing to others…
The beatitudes which we’ve heard proclaimed so often… have, seems to me, an inner incompleteness to them… there is in them something of a longing, a yeaning, a moving towards something not yet achieved or fulfilled.
They describe real life… human life with its longings, and vulnerabilities, with its hopes, and ventures… if not struggles…
For saints are people who, seems to me, struggle… who keep trying… who often fall back… but always get up and try again, and begin again anew, with new resolve, with new confidence –
People who may well be ridiculed, and even persecuted… but are not deterred by their apparent failure… who even in the midst of great adversity… if not pain and suffering… know they are called by one who is with them always.
And that is their inner strength, their inner blessing… and that He assuredly calls them to continue to try and be peacemakers in the face of hostility and division… who continues to call them to mercy and compassion even in the midst of hardness of heart and anger and vengeance…
That He assuredly still calls them to hunger and thirst after what is righteousness, after those things which we all know should be so… but in our weak moments we are too ready to abandon and others would have us abandon.
And looking at those who keep trying to do all that… and seeing their effort, their patience, their goodness… and the more we come to see them, and know them… we can truly say… “my – you are blessed… you are a blessing… you are a witness to something wonderful…
And after a long while, and a lot of reflection we might just say… “there was something of a saint in those people… and weren’t they a blessing to us…”
All Saints… what we’re all called to recognize… whom we’re all called to imitate… what we’re all called to be.
AMEN.
THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT
Dear friends;
I like to listen to older people… and as you know that opportunity is given to a priest… to often to be with older people… to be with them in their old age… and with them when they are dying…
And one reflection that I’ve been able to make when thinking about them, is that:
First of all, they are not afraid to speak about love… even it all through their life they have been “hardened old fellows”… or “tough people”… or known as such – they are not afraid to speak about love – and tell people quite unashamedly that they love them.
Certainly, grandparents, first come to mind when we talk like this… and sometimes we say they are merely getting “soft”… “mellow”. I am not so sure…
A second thing which I’ve noticed in speaking with them, and these only a few will allow you to enter into this more private area of their lives is that they
will tell you… that their achievements, their setbacks, their accomplishments, their failures – are all nothing to them… the one thing that matters is the people they’ve loved and those who have loved them. Nothing else seems to matter!
Those two important aspects of old age reveal to us great truths. It seems to me there is something terribly important to learn from this, while it certainly is not always true that the older-wiser you are… If a consistent expression of old age is met with – what does it mean?
When a person is older – there is less future to plan for… less hopes to be realized… less to look forward to… and so they look back… and looking back, they talk about people… people they miss, people they’ve loved… little else seems important.
For them, this becomes the fundamental issue, the fundamental question, the fundamental conversation.
It should come to no surprise to us, my dear people, that the one who knows us best, the one who loves us like no other… the one who has given us his life – also when it comes to talk about fundamentals, speaks to us about love. Love of God, love of neighbor, love of self.
In this very non-argumentative discussion between the scribe and Jesus… we are presented with a discussion on fundamentals. They are talking like old sages… They are talking about what really counts!
And they go back to the Old Testament commandment which became the daily prayer of the Jews… “You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all you soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”
And they add to it -------
The commandment of Leviticus…
“And your neighbor as yourself.”
They were talking of many things… First of the great commandment – the most important commandment – then about the quality of that love… and the direction of that love.
1. Love is the most important
The greatest virtue for a human person is love. One’s ability to love… to give, to receive… It is something divine. God is described as love in the scriptures… To love is to be “in God” “of God”… it means to go out, to trust, to
long for, to hope, to believe in, to ask for, to forget self for, to care for… All these describe something of love…
2. The quality of the love… is then spoken of “with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your heart. –
With your whole being… everything that you are… this is so important, my dear people… How often do we give ourselves to something where we do it by rote… or disinterestedly. We say our “heart” is not in it.
We must not talk about love “cerebrally” love is the emotions… it is not only emotions, but so often our love for God, for neighbor, for self is bereft of emotion, it is heartless, cold, ritualistic, perfunctory.
Real love involves pain, hurt, struggle, -- but also joy, spontaneity, laughter… warmth – it involves our whole being.
3. Finally, to who it is directed?
To God, neighbor, and self… I think there has been enough said recently
on not being able to love God, without loving neighbor, -- and that it is in fact the measure of loving God.
But what of love of self?
To love self in a good way – not selfishly, but in a healthy acceptance of one’s self – that too is a measure of loving God… and neighbor. We fool ourselves severely when we think we can love neighbor if we hate ourselves… and it is an affront to God… it is scorning his gift to us – of life, of our individuality, of our personality… He loves us – all of us, with everything that we are – not just our good side.
All three God, neighbor, self -- all are important, all have to be included.
AMEN.
TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
The image on the coin/The image in us
Dear friends;
Whose image is on the coin? Whose head? Whose name? Ceasar’s they answer. Give back to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s… and to God what is God’s.
In Genesis we read:
“God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness
of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea,
the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the
reptiles that crawl upon the earth.”
God created man in the image of himself in the image of God he created him male and female he created them.
God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Gen. 1,26-28)
We belong to God before we belong to Ceasar… we belong to the human family before we belong to a country in the family of nations… and we are all of us made in the image of God…
What can this mean… well it means that there is something of God in all of us… something of God… there is a manifestations of… and in our world… and in us…
The Scriptures – especially the Old Testament had all kinds of images of God… the clouds… the burning bush… the fire… the wind… the rock…
God is evoked – as being powerful… strong… protective… creative… all knowing… etc. …
But God is revealed through all these manifestations as wanting to share his life – of his wanting to be close to mankind… wanting to bring us into his life… that is the nature so to speak… his goodness…
And we come to know about God in the stories of the word of God – which tell us of his desire to be close to this or that person Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah… all efforts by God… to reveal himself…
Those stories do not define God… they make us… upon hearing them… tell us of something of what God is like…
This too – in hearing – the story of Jesus Christ in whom we believe… is the truest image of God – we can behold… for he is the God make man… and to have seen him is to see the Father…
We may ask ourselves… what do we see in that image of God in the life of Jesus Christ… we see the gift of himself… the self-effacingness of himself… we see the joy of his giving… the looking out for the wounded, the hurting… we see the attention in the gentleness, the sensitivity to the little ones… the hearing of the cry of the “poor”… the delight and pride and praise of those who respond…
We see in the face of Christ also, the anger of hypocrisy… the inability to change the hearts of the un-opened… we see his tears in the face of death … the weeping over his people… the rejection by his relatives…
We see nobility in the face of suffering, we see the love continually expressed to the end…
-And we see the image of God is all of this lived out in the lives of those who try to manifest something of it in their time and place.
But we especially see it in the love of one another:
As the finale lyrics of “Les Miserables” says:
“Take my hand
and lead me to salvation
take my love
for love is everlasting
and remember
the truth that once has spoken
to love another person
is to see the face of God…”
AMEN.
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
THANKSGIVING WEEKEND
Dear Friends;
Banquets, meals, wedding banquets, preparation of banquets, rich food, well-aged wines, invitations. How appropriate that our readings are about all these things this Sunday!
Hopefully, all of us will have a special meal this Thanksgiving weekend – a special meal with special people – and that it will be a time to give thanks, notwithstanding the restrictions of the Pandemic.
In God’s holy word, his relationship to us is often described as an invitation to a meal, a banquet. Jewish literature likened the Messianic era to a feast (Is. 25, 6) and the Messiah himself to a bridegroom wedded to Israel (Ps. 45 {44}).
The Last Supper is presented as the messianic banquet in anticipation; the cup which Jesus shares with the disciples is a symbol and a pledge of the cup which he will share with them at their next banquet in the Kingdom of the Father (Mt. 26, 29) and Luke adds a promise that they will be seated at the messianic banquet in the Kingdom. (Luke 22, 29)
Why this imagery of food, of eating and drinking, of feasting to describe what God offers us? Isn’t it a strange connection? Do we find it difficult to appropriate God’s life with us as “an eating and drinking”, a “banquet”, a “wedding feast”.
Yet that imagery is very much with what our reading deal with:
In Isaiah, the author says that “the Lord will, on his mountain, make for all peoples – a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” (Is. 25, 6)
In the Psalm, the most popular of all Psalms, (Ps. 23) the Lord is said to prepare a banquet for us… and then in the Gospel we have the wedding feast parable. (Mt. 22, 1-14)
Added to that is our own dinners this weekend… Thanksgiving weekend, thus our minds are to feasting, eating and drinking.
But what does that have to do with God’s life in us? How is it related to food and drink?
The imagery can only be appealed to if we have had some taste of wonderful meals, friendship meals, enjoyable meals, long meals, that go on into the night.
Meals where conversation flows with the wine, where people reveal themselves, open up themselves to another, come to know the other person.
Meals where something special has been prepared… “I made your favourite pie… darling!!”… where smiles, and laughter, and bonding takes place…
Where someone has sacrifice, time and resources, setting aside moments to prepare, to set the table, lovingly creating the environment – not just to eat, but to share, to converse, to be with.
Where worries, and anxieties, and everyday doldrums can be forgotten – where the cold world of aggression and pressure can be replaced by the warmth of security and friendship.
Where we remember relatives, talk about the way our fathers and mothers were, where we fondly remember old relatives and their funny ways and warmly laugh at their memories.
Where we look at new life, new little girls and boys, and see their delight at the arrival of every new dish, and their expressions of glee – and recognize in their faces the traits of their grandfathers and grandmothers.
Where we hear of someone’s difficulties, their present struggle, where comforting words are spoken, encouragement expressed.
But where above all, a place where we can become one – for once – at one table, one food, one moment – to be together – “to-gather” gather as one… and know that notwithstanding all our hurts, all our divisions, all our separation – can be bridged – and we are one – loved and accepted – and have our place at the table because we belong there.
That is what the Lord invites us to… not just “rich food” and “well-aged wines” – but because on that “mountain” – the “disgrace” of his people… has been taken away – “tears” have been wiped away – and the “shroud”, the darkness that so envelopes our world, and “death” – the terrible end to life – is swallowed up. “I am creating a new environment for you.”
That is the banquet he invites us to… “come to the banquet of life, come to friendship, come to fraternal loving and living, come to knowing and sharing with each other, come to hear your burdens and sorrows, and come together, come to be with me… come and sit down with me… I invite you… I have longed to eat this meal with you.”
AMEN
TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
To yearn for, to long, to hope for, to expect…
To expect returns after much spent energy, and devotion, and care, and effort…
When what is expected does not happen or occur… there is a sense of futility… a sense that much of the effort has been in vain…
Once can say that of a job… a work… a period of work… in places of employment…
One has worked hard in a company, for a company… years and years of dependability, effort, over-exertion in tasks…
Then all of a sudden… one is let go, replaced… treated poorly, shabbily, mater-of-factly… without little or any recognition or expressions of gratitude or appreciation… (it happens… it happens often).
It happens at the level of one’s employment… one’s work place… but it also happens at a deeper level… in the area of relationship… parental, spousal, friendship… in the emotional area of life.
Parents – spouses -- … who have tried and tried, constantly gone the extra mile; over and over given the extra chance, turned a blind eye to rebuff and disappointments…
Went on and on… trying to forgive, trying to keep loving; beginning anew… receiving again… embracing again…
Knowing the expected hurt… gamely hoping… “maybe this time”… “maybe this time it will be different…”
It is on this level that we can only begin to grasp the meaning of today’s texts…
God is “emotionally” involved with his people… with Israel… with us… we are the vineyard…..
We are cared for… we are tilled… tenderly… lovingly… he chooses us… he loves us… he calls us… he calls the best from us…
God “plants”… the “vineyard”… “puts the fence around it”… gives us the protection it needs… we need… “digs the wine press”… digs into the depth of our beings to call forth from us our best resources…
“Builds the watchtower”… gives us the help to watch over us… keeps us secure from things that hurt us, impede our growth… that eventually can destroy us…
Then he leases it… he leaves us alone… not abandoning us… but respect and loves us enough to let us be independent… to be free to choose… to love or not to love… to respond or not respond… love us that much, respects us that much… to leave us… be… the most difficult thing in love…
“My beloved had a vineyard… let me sing his love song… concerning his vineyard…”
He expected it to yield grapes… but it yielded only sour grapes…” “What more could I have done for my vineyard… that I did not do… When I expected it to yield good, luscious, rich grapes… why did it yield sour grapes?”
What more could I have done…?” The eternal question of disappointed… rejected… unrequited love…
The God who yearns… who longs… who pains… who constantly reaches out…
Who holds nothing back… not even his own Son… even though rejected… even though spurned…
We can only say – with the psalmist, in sorrow and pleading… if not in shame –
“Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven and see… have regard for this vine – the stock that your right hand planted…”
“Then we will never turn back from you… give us life… and we’ll call on your name…
Restore us… O Lord God of hosts… let your face shine… that we may be saved…”
Amen.
TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
“To think better of it… To reconsider”
Dear friends:
Directions of our lives… paths to follow… decisions which affect our future… that’s what our readings are about to-day my dear friends.
The “way” – the road to take… we ask people who have travelled to a destination… “What is the best way to get to… so and so?” We often say to young people… you should do things “this way”… or “that way”…
“The Way” has to do with – the direction and the manner in which we get to a destination…
It has all kinds of uses – which we frequently appeal to in every day language…
Some examples: -
We say of somebody – who is on the right course… “You’re on your way” – Right on! -- Keep going as you are?”
We say of somebody who is mixed up… confused… “He’s way off!”… We associate a manner of acting – which we get used to, and know, predictable… which makes us sure of a habit of acting… “Well, no that’s not her way… no he wouldn’t do that or say that… that’s not his way!”
Then it becomes associated with the person… e.g. Frank Sinatra… “My Way”…
Scripturally, as well, “the way” became associated with the Lord… way back in Isaiah quoted by John the Baptist… the kingdom was introduced as a preparation for the way of the Lord… “Prepare ye the way of the Lord...”
(Is. 40 3)
“I will send my messenger… he will prepare your way before you”
(Mt. 11, 10)
Jesus himself in the famous dialogue with Thomas, speaks of himself as “The Way”…
“You know the way to the place where I am going… Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way…?” Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me…”
(John 14, 4-6)
And afterwards… the followers so recognizable by a pattern of life… a manner of believing and acting - -become known as those who follow “the Way”—Christianity itself became known as “The Way”—and Saul recalls with great shame and remorse that he persecuted the followers of “The Way”. –
(Acts 22, 4)
Our readings to-day have to do with the way… the way of righteousness, the way of the Lord… the way of the wicked…
The psalmist – prays to God to come to know the ways of the Lord:
“Lord, make me know your ways…
Lord, teach me your paths…
Make me walk in your truth…
The Lord shows the path to those who stray…
He guides the humble in the right path…
He teaches his way to the poor…”
In the Gospel – Jesus says – that tax collectors and prostitutes (outcasts) are recognizing the ways of the kingdom… and following it… but that those who should recognize the way are not taking it… even after they acknowledge it is the way… they don’t reconsider… they won’t think it over – even once they realize they are on the wrong course…
So to-day, my dear friends… in the times of our life… we could say that this moment… makes us ask the question…
Is my life going in the right direction…? Are things moving – for me… in the right direction…? Do I have an inner voice saying to me… “this is not what I want to be doing… this is not the way I want to be thinking –or acting?... Do I have the strength “to reconsider”… to allow myself to “think things over”…
Have some things happened which have made me realize -- this isn’t who I want to be? – or what I want to do…!” or the “way to go”!
Can we all utter from the depths – in all sincerity – with full knowledge that we might have to change:
“Lord, make me know your ways,
Lord, teach me your paths
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me,
for you are God, my Saviour…” AMEN.
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)
Dear friends:
Have you ever asked yourself inwardly a very big question about God? In fact it is a very big question – a basic question… What is God like?
Do we ever know what God is really all about? Human beings have always been trying to find out what God is like… philosophers of religion, theologians, aetheists who don’t believe in God, agnostics who reject God… all say something of what God is like… about God’s nature, God’s being, God’s personality…
Different world religions see God differently… according to their prophets or visionaries, as to how they see God reveals himself… over the centuries different religions have their “notion” of God, as we say…
We, as Christians, believe that God has revealed himself to a people… issuing out to a promise – in which he has revealed himself most fully in the person of the son… Jesus Christ…
And for us, to find out what God is like we are invited to “behold the Son,” to look at him, to his word, to his action, to look to the people and literature from whence he came – to find out something of what God is like…
and to look at that inspired historical literature as to how they saw and felt he dealt with them – indicating in his word and action and manner – the kind of a God – that God is.
That image, the image of God, though was colored not only by what they read, and believed what God was telling them about himself – but was colored and influenced by their manner of dealing with each other – by human behaviour, human responses to each other…
And since from the earliest times, they believed so deeply that they were made in the image of God, they could easily fool themselves, and their human behaviour, their responses, their interchange with one another reflected God’s behaviour, God’s attitudes – God’s measure and ways of acting—
Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t… and so when it didn’t… the prophets… those who challenge us in God’s name… speak out – and at their peril and death, and say to them – and to us – “God is not the way you see him…”
“You have made God to fit your very small, puny, exacting, demanding, miserly, punitive, little minds… and you thus behave towards each other thinking you are acting you are God-like – when you make your way of thinking – and way of acting – a travesty of the God you believe in.” –
We don’t like to hear that – and they didn’t like to hear that… because we like to fashion God according to our smallness, our pettiness, our restrictiveness – and our confines… and our perimeters.
We want to restrict God’s love, we want to confine him to only loving those who measure up – who have borne the heart of the day, who have done “a decent day’s work”… we want a God who has no place, as we have no place and time, for “the Johnny come latelies”!, in society and in our world… for those who don’t measure up in whatever way… who are late, slow, deficient, repulsive, awkward, unloveable, parasites… a hindrance… not “normal”… in their persons and behaviour… and we want to exclude them… in whichever and whatever way…
And to-day, the inspired word of God, the cutting, prophetic, word comes to us – so loudly, so clearly – and rings out, from these ever old and ever new pages –
“Your thoughts are not my thoughts, you ways are not my ways – as the
heavens are higher than the earth – so are my ways higher than your
ways – and my thoughts higher than your thoughts…” –
And the great psalmist – confronts us when we want to tailor God to our dimensions; as we so often do – and restrict him to certain peoples, certain nations, certain territories… (“America the Beautiful”) “who has made his light to shine on thee!!” certain groups, certain faiths… certain churches… -- the psalmist cries out in refutation – and in near indignation at the distortion –
“The Lord is good to all -- He has compassion over all that he has made… His greatness is unsearchable – He is near to all – to all who call upon him…”
And finally Jesus tells the story of the vineyard labourers – the latecomers, pagans and sinners – outsiders who come late into the chosen, and privileged – and shows us the magnanimity of God – who is always, always, always, not only just – but especially generous – and magnanimous, qualities which we find difficult to emulate unless they are directed to us.
No wonder the Church calls us to prayer in the Eucharist – reminding us of God’s ways… not our selfish, and mean-spirited thoughts and ways:
“Father, guide us as you guide creation according to your law of love.”
AMEN.
TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)
Dear friends:
We opened our Mass with this prayer today:
“Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Amen.”
Heart… all our heart… serve with all our heart… full, completely, wholly… not disinterestedly… but intensely… with a heartfelt service… involving that which is deepest within us… our hearts…
God is terribly interested in our hearts… He knows that they are the source of who we are… how we serve… how we love… how we worship…
Way back in Isaiah… e complained that his people were giving him lip service… being satisfied with externals…
This people worships me with their lips… but their hearts are far from me…” (Is.)
The kind of heart that the Lord wants us to have – is a loving heart… a tender heart… a forgiving heart…
And after his little parable on forgiveness about the two standards of the servant who is generously forgiven by the king – turns around and is unforgiving and heartless in turn to his own servant caught in the same predicament of needing forgiveness –
Jesus ends his story… with the admonition – us – with the plea – “so you are to each forgive your brother and sister “from your heart”, as the Father deals with you…”
This is where the reality check… the reality dosage comes in… it is the area in which so many of us fail to see why this call to forgiveness is so impassionedly made by Jesus – and Sirach… and Paul in today’s readings.
Forgiveness is not for simply better relations between us… brothers and sisters, families, peoples… nations… it has to do with who we are… what we have become… and who we are is because the Father – in Jesus Christ has first forgiven us…
We constantly stand in need of forgiveness… have been – are – and will be… and it is offered, freely, graciously, wholly… by God…
So the spokesmen for God… have constantly to remind us… remember… remember… remember…
This little parable is the perfect story… the servant goes out – and acts in a way that shows – he completely forgot (are we being generous…) had seemingly no recollection of how magnanimously the king had forgiven him.
And that is the trait, the great characteristic trait of unforgiving people… they become hard, they become intolerant, they become angry at other people,-- because.. they forget not only ow much God
forgives them – but also how much certainly other people have forgiven them – that is why it is so odious.
So poor Sirach… in the end after he goes through the devastating consequences of an unforgiving heart… which are anger… and wrath – and what abominations they are… and yet how we hold on to them… especially when we are unforgiving…
And how there is no way we can expect healing, and pardon… and mercy – from the Lord if we have no forgiveness in our own hearts for others…
He ends it – with an appeal… and it’s all about remembering… do not forget!!
“Remember the end of your life… and set enmity aside; remember corruption and death, and be true to the commandments. Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbour: remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook faults.” (Sirach 28, 7)
It is a parental image – of a father our mother – talking to a child, a son or a daughter… “now remember”… they are saying… “now remember how you were treated… remember… how you were loved… remember… how we tried and tried with you…” …in other words… “Don’t forget…! Always remember!”
It’s not about having to forgive once… or twice… or three times… or ten times… It’s about the state of our heart… making it… letting it, rather… become a forgiving heart… a loving heart…
The unforgiving heart is in slavery, in bondage… it is not free… it is like cancer… it destroys love, goodness, freedom, peace… it prevents praise…
The psalmist was free… full of praise… standing in need of forgiveness… aware in the knowledge of being forgiven – and so he could say:
It is the Lord who forgives all you iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far here moves our transgressions from us.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits.
“Look upon us, O God, Creator and Ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Amen.”
TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
A delicate subject… a sensitive area… correction of a brother or sister… not to be undertaken cavalierly, recklessly, imprudently…
And like no other area… the big question is… “how would we receive it…?” we may well be quite enthusiastic in practicing it… provided that we are never on the receiving end!
I have always been amazed that people on this subject quote Jesus so freely… as to the ultimate and final process – namely – treat those recalcitrant as Gentiles or tax collectors…
But how did Jesus treat the tax collectors and Gentiles…? He received them, ate with them, reached out to them – and called the “author of this Gospel to be an Apostle… who was a “tax collector” –
“Come to me… learn from me… for I am gentle and humble in heart (Matt 11, 26)
When the Gospel is used… or misused… to further ends of exclusionary behaviour… severe punishment… heavy handedness… then its use is a travesty.
When the Gospel is used or misused and appealed to in a manner that affronts what is best and noblest in the psychology of human behaviour – that too is a travesty.
Human interchange… and relationships require respect, trust, time for development and growth – long periods of patient waiting… loving, reaching out to another.
And it will happen – and does happen that in relationships… instances, problem areas develop… they are noticed… they are evident… they call out for some remedy… some attention…
What to do?... How to do? Who should do…? -- All have to be answered prudently, wisely, virtuously.
And the more serious the problem… the more serious the attention of trying to solve it – if it can be solved… must be attempted…
Moral theologians often give practical guidelines as to when fraternal correction should be practiced…
1) the one to be corrected must be in spiritual distress… the wrong to be corrected should be serious… some people think the way another butters their toast is a serious spiritual distress!!
2) There should be a reasonable hope that the correction will be profitably received…
Now this, again, is common sense… sometimes the mere mention of the problem only aggravates the behaviour… as the kids say – today – “Don’t go there!”
3) It must be possible to bring about the correction without great personal detriment.
There is always a cost to fraternal correction… but if the cost jeopardizes one’s own physical or psychological health – then one might consider whether one has an obligation and to what degree to act…
These are the three general conditions ordinarily held for fraternal correction – and then if they are present – we are all the more held to the gospel text of today…
And the first thing… is not to have a pow-wow about it… call a family conference… etc. …
The first thing – Jesus says… is “if your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.”
This speaks volumes as to how to handle such situations… alone… privately… gently… sensitively… carefully…
One might ask does anybody have a right to move on to the second and third directives if we have not attempted the first one.
And to those people who see their terrible responsibilities in fulfilling this text more than any other in the Scriptures –
I have another for them: -- may we take it as seriously as today’s Gospel:
Jesus says:
“Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother – ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye’, when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.” (Matt. 7, 3-5)
No wonder dear Newman… so perceptively said – “the trademark of a true Christian – is consistency in all things.”
AMEN.
TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
Have you ever felt tricked, deceived, taken advantage of… in chess, I believe, a winning move is called “checkmate”…
Even in everyday occurrences… when somebody is fooled, or led blindly into an unanticipated situation, of surprise, of unexpectedness – and suddenly one finds oneself in a place or situation which one would rather not be… a trap through words or manipulated circumstances…
There is a feeling that we have been tricked – taken advantage of… outsmarted.
What if it has been done not by just an acquaintance – who wanted to make us look stupid… or embarrass us… but what if what was done to us… was done not to make us embarrassed, or trick us, or make us look foolish… -- but was done by someone who deeply loving us – calling out the best from us – made us take a way of like – a habit of acting – which now we find too demanding, too draining, too difficult… and we want to abandon it… and forego it… yet we know it contains within it… the only real thing that gives us life and sustains us…
Parenting, spousal relationships, any love relationships have something of that dimension… you willingly, at first, promise – pledge – commit yourself… you throw yourself into them… you give to your wife or husband, you give to your children… you forget yourself for their sakes… you deprive yourself… no sacrifice seems too great… no effort seems to be spared… you love them…
Then something happens… it wanes…. It’s not like it used to be… the delight… the joy of giving is not in it…you start feeling taken advantage of… you feel you are being “used”… you may even as so many of us say – “I don’t need this…”
Even though what you were doing was good, and for the right reasons… begun out of love and continued out of love… you’re fed up… and the more you see it’s non-receptiveness, and it’s apparent being met with indifference and maybe opposition…
You say, eventually… well “to heck with it…” … and “to heck with her”… or “to heck with him”… and “to heck with them all…”
“From now on – it’s going to be me… I’m going to start thinking of me now… I’m number one… I don’t think they need me… and I certainly don’t need them… and it’s about time that I took care of myself…”
And yet after you’ve closed doors to those relationships – and people… who have been a cost to you… (and no doubt, you to them)… you start a life of self-seeking, of “me” first, of “my” pleasures, “my” satisfaction… and what will be for “my” benefit…
But surprisingly, after a while you find yourself empty… alone… shallow… selfish… becoming hardened…
And you look back… and you remember… that as hard as some of what was – was… -- you were then at your best self… even though it was costing you… and sometimes you might have been taken advantage of… it looks different now… it was good… and you see it from a different light… and secretly – you yearn for the ability to give again… to recapture the nobleness that you once had…
Well dear friends… this is the story of Jeremiah… and his words are spoken in that context… he felt “tricked” – he even uses the sexual language of seduction… to describe how he feels the Lord moved on him – “You duped me”… “You were too strong”… or literally: “you prevailed”… you overpowered me”… everyone mocks me…”
“So you know what Lord… let me tell you what I’m going to do… I’m not even going to mention your name… your name is off my lips…”
And he must have done it – but what happened… he remembered… his calling… and who had called him… and that it was only in love… that he was called…
He was so much like Peter… full of enthusiasm – earnest… desirous of throwing himself into the water… but forgetting the cost… at first but then coming back so often… “what about us…” “look what we’ve done…” and Jesus saying… “it’s following to the end Peter… it’s losing your life – like I lose mine…”
And Jeremiah, Peter, -- even Jesus, by the way, is afraid of that… yet as Jeremiah – so beautifully expresses it – so singularly – “I cannot get away from it… I know as sure as I am loved… and a course laid out for me… I cannot deny it…” something drawing him – something nearly more powerful than him…
“There is something within me… like a burning fire, shut up in my bones… I am weary with holding it in… and I cannot.” AMEN. (Jer. 20, 9)
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
“Who am I?”… “Who are you?” “Who are you really?”… “Who am I really”… Who do others say I am?” “Who do you say I am…?”
Questions… reflective questions… probing questions… questions which make us look into ourselves… look into others…
Frightening questions… because attempted honestly, frankly… they open us up to vulnerability, disarming rawness, transparency.
Yet as the poet Yeats once remarked: “Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle; a man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.”
Looking into the abyss… into the depths of our being, having the courage to do it…
Taking time to look at who we are… why we are the way we are… discern influences… acknowledge traits and habits that are less than positive… hurtful to our growth, our development… our potential.
Acknowledging our strengths… our abilities… the things that endear us to others… that allow us to help others… foster their development and growth…
Allowing others… to walk with us in the exercise… allow them to speak freely as to how they see us… how we are perceived by them… by others… not threatened by honesty, frankness… openness… trusting another enabling dispassionate interchange…
All not easy… takes time… takes familiarity… time being with… observing… listening…
Jesus felt it was time with the disciples… they had been with him for some time now… They had observed him… listened to him… watched him closely with all kinds of people…
The backdrop is a city… Cesaria Philippi… an echo of Rome… it had a temple erected by Herod the Great… shrines dedicated to the memories of the Syrian and Greek deities…
In the “region” of Ceasaria Philippi… Jesus dramatically asks those who had followed him… to look deeply into themselves and say some things which they might not yet be ready to do … to profess faith… to consolidate their convictions… to say out loud… for their own sake what they think of him.
For we do not know what we believe until we express it in words…
The majority borrow on “the conventional wisdom”… they repeat what “was going around…” what was being whispered…
“Some say this… some say that… some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah… others say… Jeremiah – or one of the prophets… “all kinds of things are going around…”
These are unsatisfactory answers… they had not looked deeply enough into Jesus… they do not yet “know” him… they will come to know him… and believe in him… and die for him… but not yet…
But Jesus knows that there is one whose perceptions have gone beyond the others… he does not yet know the full implications of believing in him… that they will so radically effect his life… but he believes in him… and he is the most disarmingly human of all the disciples…
He’s strong, he’s weak, he’s bold, he’s cowardly, he’s enthusiastic… he’s afraid… he’s exuberant… and he’s Jesus’ kind of man for leadership…
He has the raw kind of humanity that Jesus loves… he’s one of us… and the Son of God became “one of us…” “One like us”… it is the “rock” on which he builds his Church… humanity infused with his grace and gifts and spirit.
And of all the disciples… Peter symbolizes that humanity… that Jesus loves, embraces, and knows so well…
And so out of Peter will come the knowledge of the Lord… the truth about Jesus: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God…”
And Jesus will answer:
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven… and now I will tell you something as to who you really are…
“You are Peter… the rock… on you… and on the likes of you through the ages I will build my Church…”
The knowledge of God… God’s knowledge of us… our knowledge of God… how wonderful… issuing out into choices… loving us… singling us out, calling us for leadership, discipleship… overlooking our weaknesses… seeing within us possibilities unknown to us…
Peter’s companion… honoured with him on the same feast day as brothers… would write having experienced the same immeasurable love and knowledge of God:
“O the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” “Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. AMEN.
(Romans 11, 33-36)
TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
Summer days – are days full of good things… lazy days… (when it’s too hot to do much)… days to move about, see new things, new places… and inevitably meet new people… even though in these days of the Pandemic – we can’t move around to as we used to for a while… still..
We usually meet people from different places… with different backgrounds… different points of view… different religions… different ways of looking at things… who eat different foods… and enjoy different leisure.
That is why it is commonly held that travel is a great educator… it is because – it is always an eye opener… it broadens one’s vision of the world… which otherwise might have been quite narrow, restrictive… closed.
To do that, one has to take some risks… leave the families, the comfortable, the secure surroundings – for the unknown, the untested…
It also means that we come face to face with something different… “not like us”. “They’re not like us, father, you know… they’re not like us.”
Now Jesus was a traveler, on the move… he just didn’t stay in Nazareth… and, moved incessantly through Judea and Palestine – and up to Jerusalem… and met many different people… (because everybody’s different anyway).
And to-day in the Gospel, he finds himself outside the Jewish boundaries… trying to emphasize to his disciples that his mission is to a larger world than Judea…
And he meets a woman… a non-Jewish woman… a Caananite… a different woman… but she has something in common with every woman… every mother… no matter where they’re from.
It had to do with her daughter… and her daughter’s well-being… and her daughter’s torment…
So she crossed lines… lines of culture, of religion, of status… she breaks through differences…
Jesus too is away from his land, his people… he is an outsider… in an outside land… he is not with the lost sheep of Israel… he is with foreigners…
He too must break through lines, of culture, of religion, of status… he too must break through differences…
The woman is not deterred… “don’t talk to me of perimeters, and boundaries, of Israelites and non-Israelites… “and don’t let these men try to shut me up!”
“I am calling on you… I am naming you, Lord, Son of David”… I am asking for mercy… Lord “help me”… not for me… for my daughter… I can answer all your arguments on restricting you action… I’ll even eat the crumbs you dish out…”
The encounter cuts to the core of so much that has been set up… even when set up for good reasons… and breaks it down…
Mercy, compassion… mothers pleading, daughters in torment… children… hurting cuts through it all… they always breakdown every wall… and Jesus is not going to let them prevent him from being who he is – no matter where he is…
And so he acts… moved by the woman’s great faith and love for her daughter… and he simply says:
“Woman, great is your faith… let it be done for you as you wish… and her daughter was healed instantly.”
Amen.
NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
The gospel which we have first heard, contains words of Jesus which are the most precious that are recorded… and which it seems he used often in his earthly life.
It is a word or words for the afraid, those who lose heart… those who despair, are anxious… apprehensive…
That word is “courage” – or “take heart”
It is one of those words that God speaks to men and women… and that the Son of God speaks to his fellow disciples.
Jesus used it in all kinds of circumstances, and with all kinds of people.
FOR EXAMPLE:
To the paralytic being brought to Jesus on a stretcher by his friends – seeing their faith, Jesus said:
“COURAGE, my child, your sins are forgiven.” (MT. 9, 2)
Again in that beautiful, but pathetic scene of the woman suffering from a hemorrhage for over twelve years… wishing to touch the fringe of his cloak… saying to herself… “If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well again.”…
(WE READ)
“Jesus turned around and saw her and he said to her – “courage, my daughter, you faith has restored you to health.” (Matt. 9, 22)
But perhaps the most significant use of the word is in John’s Gospel… enshrined in the fairwell discourse… Jesus tell his apostles:
“In this world, you will have distress, but have courage, I have overcome the world.” (JN. 16, 33)
What is most surprising is the use of the word in the scriptures is that the disciples start using the word in imitation of Jesus.
You remember the scene of the blind beggar on the side of the road calling out – shouting, the text says: “Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me.” – and some of the group scolded him and told him to keep quiet – but he kept shouting all the louder… so Jesus stops – and the text says:
“Jesus stopped and said, ‘call him here’. So they called the blind man. “Courage”, they said, “Get up, he is calling you.” (Mark 10, 49)
It is as if the disciples are learning from hearing Jesus’ word to the sick and suffering and downtrodden.
Indeed throughout the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of St. Paul, the word re-appears in nearly every page.
But it is more associated with encourage and comfort… and consoling…
In 1st Thessalonians, for example, Paul says:
“Be at peace among yourselves. And this is what we ask you to do, brothers; warn the idlers, give courage to those who are apprehensive, care for the weak and be patient with everyone.” (1 Thess. 5, 14)
In the book of Hebrews, that book of trust, confidence and hope – the author says:
“Every day, - keep encouraging one another… (HEB. 3, 13)
“We, who have now found safety, should have a strong encouragement to take a firm grip on the hope that is held out to us…” (HEB. 6, 18)
The apostles, especially Paul, saw it as the very reason for his preaching… to encourage, to bolster up, to console…
Many times we read the Acts of the Apostles:
“Paul and Barnabas put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to preserve in the faith.” (ACTS. 14, 22)
“The community… were delighted with the encouragement the letter game them.” (ACTS 15, 31)
“Take heart” – “courage”… courage and taking heart in the midst of discouragement, and losing heart…
In today’s gospel – the boat… so filled with the disciples, often a symbol of the Church… was being battered by the waves… “far” from land, the wind was against them…
“They were terrified…” – “they cried out in fear”…
And what does Jesus say to this situation… “Take heart – or courage…”
“It is I, do not be afraid…”
And then when Peter, as always, the one who thought he was the strongest said to Jesus – “if it is you – command me to come to you as you are coming to us… on the water”…
It is as if – Peter is saying, “give me, give us some of that extraordinary power that you have to the extraordinary strength that I need – in my fear…”
And Jesus says – “come Peter”… and indeed Peter starts – no doubt hesitantingly – but he got out of the boat and ventured out into the deep – and started walking on the water –
But in his fright – and noticing the strong wind – he cried out – “Lord save me…!”
And what happened --?
“Jesus reached out his hand and caught him…”
This is more than a short episode… this is a history of a life… a life of faith…
Faith with its measure of doubt, and setbacks, and worries and fears, and sense of abandonment, of wind against us, and storm… and feeling called by the Lord… and going towards him – but doubting… and sinking… and feeling that we are going down…
And calling out in earnest… “Lord, save me…” “I’m not making it”… and becoming frightened.
And Jesus reaching out… his hand… catches him, holds him, bears him up… bears us up…
“Take heart… have courage… I am with you… I am with you on the stormy seas of life… it is I… do not be afraid.”
AMEN.
EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends;
Food and drink are what sustain us… we cannot live without eating something or drinking something…
In fact, we say of someone who is dying – “they cannot last long… because they are taking nothing in… of any kind…”
Metaphorically, we say the same of what we need to live on emotionally… we need a diet of love and understanding – and acceptance… we hunger – literally – hunger for some friendship, presence of others, -- we thirst for relationships that nourish us… support us… make life bearable… sustainable…
We say people die physically… because of lack of food, or liquids… but we also say that they die emotionally because of loneliness, rejection – by being shamed and deceived – hurt and repudiated…
They close in on themselves… they in turn reject others, they distrust them, they fear them, they suspect them… they cut off the lines of sustenance… the giving and the receiving of the lives that could feed them and nourish them and sustain them…
Our readings are about those things today – they are not so much about an oft heard little miracle of five loaves and two fish… they are about who we are… about who Jesus is… and what sustains him… and what sustains us… and how we share what sustains him.
At first sight Isaiah’s words make no sense… “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters… and you who have no money, come… come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price… Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread – and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
“How can you buy food – and wine and milk – without money…?”
Well, there is something that you can buy – and receive – without money – when you give and receive freely… and love given and receive freely… -- and we say that of real friendship – issuing out into presence, concern, acceptance, dedication service…
And we hear it… I hear it… when an older person is being cared for not just by a paid caregiver – but also by a friend or relative – or whomever – they will acknowledge – “no money can amount to what she or he is doing for me…”
What sustained Jesus…? Certainly, the food given and provided by the women who accompanied him – throughout his journeys… whom as Luke states nearly as an afterthought… “Now after this he made his way through towns and villages… preaching – and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God… with him went the twelve as well as certain women who had been cured… Mary Magdala, Joanna, Susanna – and several others who provided for them out of their own resources…” (Luke 8, 1-3)
Was that all that sustained him – what these good women provided…?—
When the disciples say to him after a long day of preaching and journeying –
“Rabbi, do have something to eat…”
He answered –
“I have food to eat that you do not know about… and they could not understand what he was talking about… and they said, “Has someone been bringing him food…?” … “My food” – said Jesus,” is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work…” (John 4, 31-34)
“I have something which sustains me… which nourishes me… which carries me… on which I feed and drink… and live…”
And so when the disciples come to him – and say – “what are we going to do…?”
“It is late… the people are tired… it is a deserted place… (a forlorn place) send them away – we have nothing to give them… send them away to buy food for themselves”… Jesus says…
“They need not go away…
You give them something to eat…”
And they replied – “we have nothing…” “Oh yes – you have – you are my disciples –“ Discipleship – means bring what you have, who you are, what you can become, in union with Jesus – and in union with others and letting yourself be transformed… being blessed and broken… offered and transformed – and given freely from having received freely…
And the text says… not Jesus gave the loaves – the disciples received them from Jesus – the disciples gave them to the crowds… -- and the twelve baskets were still full – after all had been fed… because the broken pieces of discipleship were always ready to be distributed…
Because it is endless food… you cannot buy it for any money… it is the Lord’s gift… it is free… it sustains… it nourishes… you never go hungry… you never go thirsty…
“Incline your ear to me, come to me, listen – so that you may live… give to each other what I have given to you.”
AMEN.
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
“More than anything… that is what I want… that is what I want to do… that is what I want to be… that is what I want to have!!”
What is it that we want?... What is it that we seek…? What is it that we want to achieve?
It’s good to ask ourselves these questions… especially in long, lazy days of summer… which can be like forced retreats on some of us… not at all for others… they become busier than ever…
This kind of subject always reminds me of my college roommate… we would often muse at what we were going to do with our lives… where we wanted to go with them… what we wanted to accomplish...
I always remember his comment – “Brian… I don’t want that much out of life… a nice wife, two or three kids… a nice home… (hopefully with a picket fence around it!)… and a half-decent job – that’s enough for me!”
I think he’s achieved all of them, by the way, and more…
When you’re young… you hope for certain things… you even crave certain things… you believe that without them you will never ever be able to be happy… “I must have this… I must have that…” “without which I will never be content…”
Then as we get older… you realize that what you wanted so much… and you get it… doesn’t really satisfy you… doesn’t satisfy your cravings… your longings…
Those longings were often misplaced… that there are things far more important that you never dreamed of or even considered… maturity and experience have done that to you… they’ve radically changed what you think is worth hoping for or going after.
Now Solomon is presented in our first reading as someone who is asked by God what he would like more than anything… what would he really want to receive from God as he is to undertake the difficult role of leadership…
Don’t forget that like Moses and David, Solomon is one of the “golden boys” of Israel… so they are presented at least in the beginning as near perfect!
So God appears to him in a dream… and asks him our big question – “Solomon… you’ve got a big future… you are going to be the leader of my people… I can give you a lot of things… of all the things that I can give you… what is it that you want most?!!”
And Solomon’s answer shows that he already had the gift he asked for:
“Give your servant, O Lord, an understanding mind… able to discern.”
Then the text says:
“It pleased the Lord that Solomon has asked this. God said to him: “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches… or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right – I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.” (1 Kgs. 3, 11-12)
This gift became “the treasure” the thing… the yearning… with which to view all else… through which everything else had to be seen… all persons… all happenings… all events… and without which nothing has any value.
It is the “prism” with which to view all else… it is not “wisdom” such as intelligence, or “smart”, or even “being bright” it is “understanding”… it is “seeing things as they should be seen” “shedding light into darkness”… it is “discerning”… “realizing”… “grasping” truths and realities and consequences which makes us able to grow and cope and endure and thrive in all circumstances of life.
It’s not just faith, though faith is part of it… it’s not just family, but family are part of it… it’s not just friends… though friendships are part of it… it’s not just wisdom… though wisdom and understanding are part of it…
It’s a way of “seeing”… a way of “viewing”… a way of “hearing” a “way of understanding”… corroborated by experience of hardships and joys… of setbacks and hurts… of triumphs and achievements…
It’s a way of living… that becomes a “treasure”… that unites everything… and makes some sense of life… and living…
And it is gained slowly… when we come to realize we have something of a treasure “The Kingdom of God is like a treasure…”
That treasure is what Jesus gives us when we attempt to follow him… it will satisfy us and carry us through everything.
Amen.
SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
All our texts speak to us today of compassion, forgiveness, mercy.
Our very first opening prayer says:
“Show favour, O Lord, to your servants and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, that, made fervent in hope, faith, and charity, they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands -”
Our first reading from the ancient book of Wisdom… says:
“Lord, although you are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness, and with great forbearance you govern us…
Through such works you have taught your people that the righteous must be kind… and you have filled your children with good hope, because you give repentance for sins…” (Wisdom 12, 17-18)
The Psalm sings out in its refrain and verse “O Lord you are good and forgiving… abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you… O Lord, you are a God merciful and gracious… slow to anger… and abounding in steadfast love.” (Ps. 86)
In the Gospel, the parable of the good and bad seed is seen in its effects… and the impatient slaves ask their master whether they should cut them all down… and the Master tells them to “hold off”… “let them both grow together…” “until the harvest…”
A sign of compassion, tolerance, patience…
Are we compassionate, my dear friends…?
“As Christians we are familiar with the call of Jesus to be merciful, to be compassionate. It is one of the “Beatitudes”… God is revealed in the Word of God as ‘the compassionate’… Jesus tells us: “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.” (Luke 6, 36) or in the Beatitudes: “Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.” (Mt. 5, 7). Or again, in quoting the Prophet Hosea: “What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.” (Mt. 9, 13).
Paul’s letters are full of the call to compassion… It is a call which is based on the goodness and mercy of God which has been shown to us by the sending of Christ and the compassion that we have first received from him: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (a gentle Father) literally, the Father of all mercies.” (2 Cor. 1, 3) or again in Colossians: “You are God’s chosen race… you should be clothed in sincere compassion.” (Co. 3, 12) But perhaps the most beautiful text on the subject of compassion is from the Letter to the Hebrews in which the author speaks of the kind of High Priest we have and how we are able to approach him with all assurances of being heard and treated with compassion:
“Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must never let go of the faith that we have professed. For it is not as if we had a high priest who was incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us; but we have one who has been tempted in every way that we are, though he is without sin. Let us be confident, then in approaching the throne of grace, that we shall have mercy from him and find grace when we are in need of help… every high priest has been taken out of mankind and is appointed to act for men in their relations with God… and so he can sympathize with those who are ignorant or uncertain because he too lives in the limitations of weakness.” (Heb. 4, 14-5, 3)
And again: ‘It is essential that he should in this way become completely like his brothers so that he could be a compassionate and trustworthy high priest of God’s religion… because he himself has been through temptation he is able to help others who are tempted.’ (Heb. 2, 17-18)
When we speak of compassion, we mean among other things to reveal my feelings for what I perceive others are feeling. So it has very much to do with understanding. To show compassion is to show the apex and essence of our humanness. To be compassionate is also, as we have seen to be like God. We are truly like God when we behave compassionately.
As a priest psychologist with over twenty-five years of counselling remarks: “The great sin of today’s world among peoples, nations, races, indeed in all areas of human relationships, especially in our marriage and families, is insensitivity, the refusal to show feelings of compassion to another. It is being indifferent, uncaring, and unresponsive to the human condition of people around us. Insensitivity is at the root of the most heinous sins of our times, for it undermines and destroys the way people should live together especially in families. Insensitivity to others’ feelings is more devastating than even physical abuse and is more common.”
And Father goes on: “We often abhor the fact there are so many people starving in today’s world, even in America. Far greater, though are the numbers of people, in families especially, who are hurting desperately and are emotionally starved because of the absence of expressed compassion. This causes malnutrition of the human spirit, which is lethal to family living and loving.”
Compassion, like all human traits, has to be developed; it takes effort, work, and motivation. It exists like a raw material within each individual; it has to be mined and brought to the surface. Some of us are more aware of this than others. Much of this awareness is due to the family atmosphere in which we are reared.
The ability to expand this human potential is within each of us. It can and should be developed. The question is, “Do we want to commit ourselves to this task? Are we willing to expend the effort required? Do we want to become more human?
A compassionate person also must have so much feeling for others that he or she is willing to confront them. Confrontation is an aspect of compassion insofar at the compassionate person perceives that the other’s behaviour is hurting or destroying that person. It is not easy to confront another, to be honest with them, especially after listening to them attentively, prudently, wisely.
Jesus was very compassionate, but in his compassion he felt so deeply for others that he often confronted them… the rich young man, the woman at the well, the uneasy Peter attempting to reassure the Lord that he would not have to suffer. The prophets, with all their compassion for a suffering people, did not
hesitate to confront and challenge the same people when they rebelled against God.
Compassion and sensitivity are the threads woven through the gospels and the whole of the Bible. They are the same threads we need to weave into our own lives if we are to be truly alive and human, that is genuinely Christian.
Amen.
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
You have heard just now, perhaps for the hundredth time in your life… the parable of the sower.
It is a parable which has within it the explanation to it… or at least we think it is explained by Jesus – for the apostles ask him why he speaks in parables and he seemingly explains the parable of the sower to them.
We have, upon hearing it, it seems to me, always made the reflection – “who am I in the parable… am I the one who hears the word of God without understanding?... am I the one who hears it and at once with joy but have no root in me? – and I fall away the minute persecution comes?”
“Am I the one who receives the word amidst the worries and lure of riches of this world and choked by them?... Or finally, am I the one who hears the word and understands it… who yields a harvest and produces a hundred fold?”
In other words, we have, as so often, looked to ourselves in this parable – and immediately looked to our own self-examination – which certainly necessary at times, but it is not the first meaning of the parable.
It is a parable addressed to the crowd about proclaimers of the world, disciples, about those who would be sowing the seed which is the word of God.
Thus, Jesus begins his description of the sowing of the seed.
It is a description of frustration, the lack of success about the seed, it falls on the edge of the path… little soil… no depth to the earth… sun scorches it… the thorns… the rock .. all make it die…
Jesus could have gone on to describe as does Thomas in the apocryphal gospel other enemies of the seed… scorching wind, locusts, the worm…
In other words – to human eyes much of the labour seems futile and fruitless… resulting apparently in repeated failure –
What is the situation which caused Jesus to utter the parable?... If we go back to its original presentation in St. Mark’s Gospel – we shall see that it is closely related to the parables of the Mustard-seed and the leaven.
What was the background of those parables? Doubts…
Doubts that arose not from the meagerness of Jesus’ following—but by the apparently ineffectual preaching (Mark 6, 5… “and they would not accept him”… “he could work no miracle there”…) by the bitter hostility with which he was met (“The Pharisees went out and at once began to plot with the Herodians against him, discussing how to destroy him.”) and thirdly, by the increasing desertions “after this many of his disciples left him and stopped going him.” (John 6, 66)”
In other words, the parable is not one which is directed at a self-examination regarding the reception of the word – but rather at the great law of the gospel – success amidst failure.
In spite of every failure and opposition, from hopeless beginnings, God brings forth and will bring forth the triumphant end which he has promised.
To human eyes, much of the labour seems futile and fruitless resulting apparently in repeated failure, but Jesus is full of joyful confidence: he knows that God has made a beginning, bringing with it a harvest of reward beyond all asking or conceiving.
In fact this is what we should focus on… not on the inevitable
consequences of failure: -- some see eaten by the birds… or some scorched by the sun… some chocked by thorns and weeds… but rather on the fact that God continues to sow…
God is determined that this sowing will eventually produce its crop… He is convinced of it… there is no wavering in this purpose, in His mind… it will produce.
God is the one who sows… He invites us to participate in it… it share in it… He wants us to be sowers with Him… but in the end it is His work and venture…
Thus, we live with an attitude that God’s word will prevail… it will succeed against all odds… and will bring forth… growth… fruit… a hundredfold. Amen.
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
“Come to me/you who are weary
you who carry heavy burdens…”
Dear Friends;
The weary and those who carry heavy burdens… Have you carried heavy burdens?... have you ever carried heavy burdens? Do you know people who carry heavy burdens… have they become weary because of them…?
We say of somebody who is tired, not necessarily physically tired, but emotionally drained, from an experience that has taken its toll on them, -- emotionally exhausted – “My, he or she, looks weary…” –
We know of what that means… it means… that what they have gone through… has sucked them dry of life… of energy… of vigor… they have lost their usual resilience, their usual ability to meet challenges with determination and fortitude… they have become “weary”…
They have become weary, because… they are burdened… the very word conjures up images of being weighed down… heaviness… being oppressed…
A weight which is difficult to throw off… it shadows their days… they find it difficult to be light-hearted… they find it hard to be with other people…
They lack the energy to begin new things… there is no enthusiasm for the most simple and routine functions of the day, -- much less for attempting to break out into undiscovered or uncharted waters…
There is a great need to be alone… even to be left alone… a feeling that no one understands the singular pain which we believe – only we experience…
And in our aloneness… all kinds of things can happen… loneliness can creep in – fears become exaggerated… perspectives of reality can be lost… discouragement and our weariness is increased…
But something else can happen… a voice may open up to us… a voice in our wilderness… may get through… the voice of the most human of all humans… the voice of the one whom all – everything has been delivered…
That is… the one who knows… has experienced so fully and perfectly humanity… not at a distance… not vicariously… but by being so completely immersed in it…
One who has been “trained” – or “learned obedience by the things he suffered…” as the scriptures say… one who knew rejection in the act of loving… one who knew opposition in the act of reaching out…
One who experienced misunderstanding from his family and relatives… who was an embarrassment to his villagers… and who marveled at the incomprehension of those closest to him as to what he was saying to them in word and action…
To all that would follow him… he would foresee those experiences of weariness – and burden – and so he addressed them constantly… “Fear not”… “have courage”… “I am with you…” “do not worry”… “You are precious…” “I will not leave you orphans”… “I will be with you”… “I will dwell in you”… “They will not kill your soul… your spirit…”
And today… with a word – that appears to the weary… to the lonely… to the overburdened… not even with much explanation how it might be easier – or how it does become lighter – except
that – it is always lighter – it is always easier – when someone who understands, when someone gentle understands – the yoke becomes bearable…
When someone humble in heart – one who is not so puffed up with himself or herself… to admit that they know by letting their hearts speak to us – by letting themselves say they too have had broken hearts –
And thus – speaks today the word – from the one who knows better than any of us will ever know about weariness, and burdens, and brokenness, and gentleness, and yokes…
“Come to me… learn from me… I am with you… it can become easier and lighter… you will find rest. AMEN”
THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
Welcoming and giving… receiving prophets… welcoming the righteous… giving to the little ones… even a cup of cold water… making people feel at home…
Even setting aside a little chamber for a visitor… who passes this way… stopping for a meal…
The wealthy woman of Shunem became one of the first bed and breakfast people recorded… she tells her husband about Elisha:
“Let us make a small roof chamber with walls… and put there for him a bed… a table… a chair… a lamp… so that he can stay there whenever he comes to us…”
“Let’s make him an annex… a ‘Granny apartment’…”
Jesus says:
“Whoever welcomes you… welcomes me – and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me… Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward… whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous…”
And then… not only welcome… “And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these littles ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Welcoming, receiving, giving…
Well… we are willingly or unwillingly thrown into a state of receiving and welcoming in our beautiful Maritimes… people come to us… because… we live… amongst the beautiful places of the world to visit.
Receiving… “reception”… in many hotels… the registration desk has a universal sign… “Reception”…
It is where people are welcomed… sign in… told how they are welcome… and as you know… it doesn’t always work that way…
I worked in hotels… (before I was saved!) from little hotels on the Gaspé to the largest hotel (then) in the British commonwealth… The Royal York in Toronto! The registration area was not always the scene of warm welcomes… there was often signs of aggression, hostility… deception… hurt…!
But at a deeper lever… there is something else in this receiving and welcoming… it someone is apprehensive about the welcome… nervous… anxious…
They question and wonder about the welcome… the Gospels are full of those situations… the prodigal son wondering whether his father would ever receive him again… the older brother angry at how the father welcomed his younger brother so openly after his behaviour… Jesus not being welcome in certain towns and villages… especially in his own town… Nazareth… and by his own family and relatives.
It became all summarized in John’s prologue…
“He was in the world… that had its being through him… and the world did not know him.
He became to his own domain and his own people did not accept him.” (Jn. 1, 10-12)
It is a summarizing statement on the life of Jesus… and a painful one… lived and realized by him.
Welcoming is always important… but in a state of apprehension… and fear of non-welcome it is all… important…
The trademark of Jesus’ ministry… and one of the main accusations against his even remotely ever being the Messiah – was – that he welcomes sinners…
“This man welcomes sinners… and eats with them…” (Matt. 15, 2)
We have found a welcome with the Lord… He has come to invite us to his table… to receive… to welcome… to embrace…
Sometimes it seems to be a little thing… but when it’s needed… it’s hoped for… it makes all the difference.
Paul says:
“It can only be to God’s glory then to treat each other in the same friendly way as Christ has accepted and welcomed you…” (Romans 15, 7)
Amen.
TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends:
“If only they knew…” “if only somebody knew…”
Have you ever felt you carried a burden, or burdens… not shared… not able to be shared… not willing to be shared…
Sometimes they just seem to have fallen into your lot… you didn’t ask for them… you didn’t want them… you didn’t seek them… but they are your portion to deal with… to handle… to carry…
They seem to be like a bad hand in cards… you wonder whether it was fate… something intentional…
You look around… and you seem to feel… (perhaps quite wrongly by the way…) that others don’t seem to be having these burdens… they seem to be managing all right… with very few worries… very few cares… very few responsibilities…
You feel cheated… taken advantage of… mistreated… you feel a sense of unfairness… inequality…
Sometimes you get angry about these things… sometimes you give utterance to your frustration… sometimes you want to walk away from it all…
Sometimes you wonder why you keep dealing with some of it… you look for support… you look to share it… you look for someone to understand it… see what you’re experiencing…
You get simplistic answers… you feel they don’t understand… you expect certain close people to realize… they don’t… they trivialize your plight… they tell you… you exaggerate… you don’t have to be the one handling this… but no help comes from them…
You give vent to what you feel… you write it privately… or under your breath…
Jeremiah… dear Jeremiah… Jeremiah’s confessions… one of five in his book… part of our first reading this morning… Thank God we still have them…!
Jeremiah confronts the Lord as he confronts his generosity to the Lord… it’s as if he says… “why can’t I say no… and walk away from this??”
“Jeremiah cried out: “O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed…” (Jer. 20, 7)
And what has happened to me for having responded to you Lord…” Do you know what has happened…?? “I tell you Lord…!!”
“I have become a laughing stock all day long!! – “everyone mocks me”… they throw back at me what you ask me to say…”
“All my close friends are watching for me to stumble…”
“The word of the Lord (and the way of the Lord) has brought me nothing but insult and derision.”
Like Jeremiah the psalmist – one who tries to make sense of the human experience feels that those closest to him… do not understand… do not see… do not support… even ridicule him… turn against him:
“It is for your sake, O Lord that I have borne reproach… that shame covered my face.”
(Then the most devastating experience of all… reaction of family…) “I have become a stranger to my kindred… an alien to my mother’s children…”
“I have become… strange… to my family…”
Recently I saw a woman… whom everyone here… would agree was doing more than she needed to… for the man she loved… a long difficult road of care, compassion, love… I asked her… “Do you have any support from your family… brothers or sisters??... Bosom pals…?
“They think I’m nuts!!” she answered!
“I have become a stranger to my kindred… an alien to my mother’s children.” (Ps. 69)
The greatest of all the prophets… the one whom the psalms’ message and on whose lips have greatest expression… looks upon his disciples…
He knew Jeremiahs’ experience will be theirs… as it was his… he knows the rejection, the misunderstanding… the loneliness… the misjudgments…
So he tells them… what they terribly need to hear and will always need to hear:
“Have no fear… don’t be afraid… what you experience is known.”
“For nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered… nothing secret that will not become known…”
“You will not be destroyed… you are so precious… all is known to me… to my Father… I’ll tell you how much is known… how precious you are…”
“The Father knows all… even when a sparrow falls to the ground… even the number of hairs on your head…”
“So don’t be afraid… if you feel lonely, abandoned, or discouraged… draw on this great truth for your nourishment:
“You are of far more value than many sparrows.” Amen.
BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST SUNDAY
Dear friends:
About long ways… being led… and lingering… in the wilderness… in the wasteland… in the arid places… and being humbled and being tested…
All a picture of human life… of all our lives… over things we seem to have little control… little determination… the days seem too long… the arid places seem too forlorn… the wastelands seem too many… the events seem too humbling and too testing…
Yet Moses reminds the people… who look back at the Exodus… the major events in their history… that is was God who was leading them… it was God who was trying to find out what was really in their hearts…
“It’s what comes out of a person’s heart… “What’s in our heart…? …what’s in our heart, in the journey? What’s in our heart in trial?... when we’re tested…? When we’re in the long, hard days of aridity and wasteland…? When our life has become directionless…?
Who knows what’s in our heart? Sometimes there’s a lot of bitterness… sometimes there is a lot of anger… hostility… resentment…
That is what usually happens when we’re humbled… or feel we’re being unduly tested… seemingly taken advantage of…
That is the experience of human life… a life lived… in a human way…
Our hearts hunger for something else… they at first give in to bitterness, anger, resentment… but these are not satisfying… these are not life-giving… these are not sustaining…
We hunger for that which will carry us… carry us through… carry us beyond…
We hunger for something that will sustain us, and satisfy us… satisfy us in a way that brings us out of the “great and terrible wilderness… the houses of enslavement, the wasteland of poisonous snakes and scorpions.”
What can bring us out? …what can free us? What can liberate us? Liberate us from those dramatic and descriptive conditions found in the book of Exodus… they are not exaggerated… “enslavement”… “wasteland”… “poisonous… attitudes… poisonous influences…” They are as new and recent as they are ancient!!
God is portrayed as not letting go of his people… not abandoning them… not forfeiting his hold on them…
God gives them something to keep them going… God will not let them perish… God feeds them by giving them “Manna”… not simply a material food… but bread as word… bread as “that which will not let them perish… that which will not let them be abandoned…”
And that is the message… it is a word… it is a fundamental statement… it is the fundamental statement of God’s word… “I will be your God… you will be My people…”
Jesus says to the crowds… to all of us… to the world… “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”
“If you eat this bread… you will live forever… and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh…
“If you sustain yourself… if you eat of My flesh and drink of My blood… if you are nourished by who I am, by My message… by letting it fill your hearts… making it your way… letting Me dwell in you… live in you…”
“You will not only… Come through… survive… overcome the wastelands… the wilderness… the hunger… the arid place…”
You will live… you will have now… that taste of eternal life…
Amen.
TRINITY SUNDAY
Dear friends;
“God so loved the world…
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn but to save… “God passes by Moses… and reveals himself in these words:
“The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and rich in kindness, or abounding in steadfast love, and faithfulness… continuing kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin.”
And Moses responds… “pardon our sins – receive us as your own… take us for your inheritance…”
Trinity Sunday… the Sunday to reflect on the nature of God… on what God is like… on who God is.
And the texts offered us by the church today – speak to us from all three readings – of a God who is merciful, gracious, forgiving, abounding in steadfast love… a God of peace… and an uncondemning God…
A God who so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son – to save – not to condemn.
Why is it then – that for so many of us… and for so many Christians… and for so many in the world – that the notion of God is a condemning, unmerciful, mean-spirited… needing to be appeased… needing to be satisfied God…?
A God that instills fear, uncertainty, constraint, insecurity, -- all of which issue out from those who live this way into aggression, hatred, harsh judgments, vengeance, severity… etc…. but especially condemnation… for if God is a God of unrighteousness and condemnation – well by God!! We must be too!!
Why does such a God appeal...? To whom does such a God appeal? When does such a God appeal…?
That kind of God appeals to us when we are hurting, when we feel taken advantage of, when we are envious, when we do not feel that we have received our just due, when so called rotten, slick smart people get ahead, when we who are hard working, consistent, good, fall way behind – well God will “get them” – and one day God will show them, and we will be shown for the wonderful people we are!!
It is not inhuman to think that way… nor is it abnormal… but is it a reflection of real faith…? Is it a reflection of God’s way, and his revealing of himself…?
Jesus, the one who reveals God so fully – not only in his words – but in his work – says and prays – that his words and works have been a revelation of who God is… that they are not his but the Father’s…
But a summit of his last words are that they (the disciples) – we – may know that He loves us even as he loves him – the Son.
And that we may be one – as he and his Father are one… and that their spirit may come and dwell in us…
Now all that speaks of – love, and intimacy, and acceptance… all antidotes to fear, and condemnation… and rejection.
The most earnest prayer of Jesus is that we know these things – he makes it the summit of his prayer… that we are loved by God… that he wants closeness and intimacy with us – and that he came – sent by God – to reveal this to us – not to condemn – and over and above this – that his nature is instead – forgiving and merciful.
And that we are called – in some way as Paul says to reflect this inner nature of God by our relationship with one another…
And to the Corinthians – the community he had the most difficulty with – he begs them to be recipients and bearers of the life of the Trinity—
“Live in peace – agree with one another – greet one another with a holy kiss…
“The grace of the lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Amen.
PENTECOST SUNDAY
Dear friends;
Pentecost Sunday, the feast of the outpouring of the Spirit – so special to us in our challenging times, this year… Jesus sending the Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary – gathered together – it was a rush – like a violent wind – filling the entire house.
It was if fire appeared over them… all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit… and all of them began speaking… in different tongues… understood by the ones who were in the crowd gathered… from different peoples… they all understood… unity was being forged from different backgrounds.
Something wonderful happened… people who were afraid, felt abandoned, somewhat lost, lacking unity… lacking purpose… A dramatic change came over them…
This is the feast dear friends that is about the possibility in all of us to change… to begin anew… to receive something to start us up again… it is an essential feast of the Church… it is an essential part of who we are as a Church… as fellow believers with one another… it is the feast in which we celebrate one of the most important dimensions of our lives as Christians – as persons.
It is about being renewed… that is the refrain of Pentecost Sunday – “Lord send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the Earth”… Ps. 104
Most of us don’t want to be renewed… at least not too much… we like the old ways, the familiar, the proven… the comfortable… etc. … We resist change…
that’s not all bad…
But in other areas of life… lack of renewal, of rebirth, new wind, new ways, new ways of seeing – new ways of looking at – can be disastrous…
We get in ruts… we get stultified… we get bored… (or boring)… we become closed… fixed… before long… we resist any kind of initiative – we constantly look back… we pine for the past… we resist intrusion… but worse, we have no place for overtures to new things, new people… no breakthroughs from God… from others…
And we believe… that there is no way God can still have something in store for us… that He can still surprise us… that He might just be opening a new way for us… a new direction… if we but give him a chance…
But more so – that God still has new people to bring into our lives… people whom – unless we allow it to happen – with our closed minds and our closed hearts – and our closed spirit – will never have a chance to enter.
And what losses are incurred by this! What missed opportunities!...
I shudder at my past resistance… to what I now know were the Spirit’s movement to have me open up to situations, people, events… that have been such untold blessings in my life – and I nearly missed them because of my attitudes.
Attitudes of stubbornness, close-mindedness, prejudices, laziness, even spitefulness… basically non-openness… depending on my reasoning, my preferences, my so-called interests or well-being.
Our opening prayer this Mass is so beautiful “O God pour out the gifts of
the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth… fill once more the hearts of believers”…
Let it begin… let it begin in the hearts of men and women… let it renew the face of the Earth…
Help us all not to be afraid… open us up… “O Lord send your Spirit… of renewal… of fire… of warmth… of love… of embracing… of change… of peace… of forgiveness… there is so much that prevents us from receiving you… and you have so much you want to still give us… Breathe on us… renew us… so that we can be sent out… men and women renewed in faith and spirit. Amen
ASCENSION OF THE LORD
Dear Friends:
Getting used to absences… getting used to not having… not seeing… not touching…
Painful happenings… separation… departure… a common occurrence in every life… adjusting to change… to new situations… to a new kind of presence… new kinds of absences, like we are experiencing in these challenging times these days…
It takes a long time to admit that physical presences do not last… by their very nature they are for a determinate time… they are limited…
Physical presences end for a number of reasons… personal decisions, circumstances… choices… age… changes effected by one’s own motives – or by others’…
Physical presences also end in a radical way by death… which occurs in all kinds of time circumstances… young, middle-aged… or old… late in one’s life…
People, and especially loved ones… have to deal with the absences of a loved one… they have to cope… with the loss… the non-physical presence of somebody who was a part of their lives.
Some people handle it well… courageously, serenely… others, are never the same… life never seems the same for them… they are lost… directionless… purposeless… they nearly become incapacitated. They do everything to try and bring back… to make present the loved one… some means are healthy, positive – others can be unhealthy, unwise… even morbid.
The Church in her great doctrine – the communion of saints – a creedal statement – teaches a communion… a certain kind of bond and presence between the loving and the dear… a communion… transcending time and place…
… Newman, the great English Cardinal used to say, the Christian has but to close his eyes, and realize (make real) this great company of men and women… who are present to us… of all times and place… and in Christ… they are still with us – but in a new and wondrous way… and in which we can commune with them.
So too… though Jesus has ascended he is still present in so many ways.
There is the different presences of the Lord – sacramentally… the real presence in the Eucharist… the presence of the Lord in the Sacraments… through the Sacraments… the presence of the Lord in people… where two or three are gathered… in the poor, the needy, the least of the brethren…
The presence of the Lord in each one of us… dwelling in us – as he said he would… Making his home in us.
Then there is the presence of the Lord in his work… and that is the presence spoken of today in the wonderful feast of the Ascension.
And it is an ordering presence… a presence of association… of being with… of doing with another… of doing the Lord’s work…
“Do what I have been doing… I will not be with you in the same way as I have been with you in my physical body – but I am with you in a new way…
Make disciples… immerse yourself in their lives… teach… hand on what I have handed on to you… When you do this… I am present to you… in a new wonderful way… and I am leaving you – so that I can be present to you.”
And as Matthew ends his Gospel – “So remember… I am with you… am present to you – always to the end of time.” Amen.
May 16/17 2020 — SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
“In your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord… always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands
from you an accounting… when you are abused or maligned”… (1 Peter 3)
“It is better to suffer for doing good… than to suffer for doing evil.” (1 Peter 3)
Dear friends;
What interesting texts – my dear friends – interesting – because for most of us – Christian life – and life in general – we might believe – should have nothing to do with suffering… or persecution – of “being maligned” or being “abused.”
There is still with most of us – a feeling that – if we plan well, foresee all eventualities… act prudently and wisely… with charity and temperance… that there will in fact be no suffering – be no abuse, -- be no “persecution”…
And that if it comes – it is because we have not done all those things… or that what befalls us we must deserve – we must have brought on to ourselves.
If we but glean the Scriptures – and in fact – all literature of people and their lives… suffering, setback, misunderstanding, feelings of rejection & alienation, -- opposition has been at one time or another – their portion.
In fact – for many, it has been the larger portion, of their lives! They have not lived without it… they have lived in spite of it… in the midst of it.
The great heroes of history are such because of fortitude in the midst of setback – strength and endurance through suffering and rejection… perseverance and determination in the midst of criticism…
Their lives are not the stuff of easy solutions, quick remedies, facile environments – and always pleasant personalities…
What their stories are about is often… unmerited impossible situations… unclear directions which need to be taken… struggles with difficult personalities (including their own…)
And what the stories reveal particularly about the followers of Jesus – is not any different… there were divisions, elbowing for first places, arguments over practices to be followed, factions over personalities… and this while Jesus was with them!!
And after he had left them… if anything they became more pronounced!!
And so we read in to-days texts: -- about persecution; the scattering of the followers – the need to ready for a defense of behaviour – of being maligned – abused… being shamed… of the feeling of being orphaned – and alone!!
But we also read – about something else… and over above the fact that all these things are present in the lives of the followers of Jesus… and that is a meditation in itself --
There is also the assurance that He is present also – not outside of it – and away from it somewhere else – but within it… within those difficult circumstances!
We are, in this challenging period of our lives, of our personal history, experiencing very difficult circumstances.
It is a time to accept them, a time to be patient, to be very good to each other to reach out to each other but above all to realize and bring home to us Our Lord’s words to-day to us: they are more important than ever for us to hear:
“I will be present to you at all times but especially within those circumstances… “I will not leave you orphaned… I will give you one to assist you – to advocate for you… a helper – a sustainer… one for you to rely on… to count on…
”We will abide in you… we will live in you… just be faithful to my words of loving… and trusting… and acting with gentleness and perseverance… and you will be in me and I in you… and you will live”— Amen.
May 9 / 10, 2020 - FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” (John 14, 1)
My dear friends:
The familiar Gospel is often read at funerals… therefore for many it has the memory perhaps of a dear one – perhaps of a mother, a father – a relative – a friend…
Within the funeral context it has a special dimension – but it has a greater dimension above and beyond the moment of death – and the loss of a dear one and their eternal life.
It has to do with our life now and the way we live it, and the presence of Christ who continues to speak and work in our world today.
The disciples in some way are conscious of Jesus’ departure… and departures for the most part are foreboding – especially if it is the departure of someone we count on – someone we need – someone we depend on – someone we love…
And so the disciples are troubled in heart… and I suppose of all the areas of our lives to be troubled – nowhere is it more painful to be troubled in heart – with John’s Gospel the word does not signify the mind – or intellect – but the affective dimension of love… their hearts were hurting.
Jesus says to them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled… Believe in God – or Trust in me still…”
Believing and trusting are closely associated… they are also associated with the heart – Jesus is not talking simply of intellectual assent – a mere cerebral assent to a dogma – but a firm trust – developed out of an ongoing relationship with another.
There is in those deep relationships in life… after a long journey through life… a measure of trust which develops… we recognize it in marriages, strong friendships, familiar persons…
There comes with such relationships – a near foreknowledge – a pattern – a pattern of behaviour… a way of acting – a way of reacting – it can be depended upon – nearly without wondering… without asking…
The perception of which might indicate something different… at first sight… but we say – “Ah! There must be a reason!” “In the end, they will come through!”… “I know, he or she will come around!” –
Where do these expressions come from? They come from a long association of presence, ways of acting, assurances given and received in the past…
And they are especially important to be recognized and remembered in times which are disheartening!
Especially then, must we remember… the faithfulness of the other, the dependability of the other, the constancy of the other…
And that is what Jesus does – he is the faithful other, the constant other, the dependable other always…
It may seem that He is absent… it may look as if He has abandoned us… it may be perceived that He no longer cares…
But He is more present to us than ever… He is ever with us… leading us through “dwelling places” in which they are not the same as before…
There are new situations, new environments… new times… new people… but always… the same Master… but there are new dwelling places… there are many “weigh stations”… they are but stops on the way – to the final place… to which Jesus goes not simply to prepare for us – but to come back to us – and be with us to dwell in us. AMEN.