2004 - 23rd Sunday of the Year to 1st Sunday of Advent

Sunday 5 September 2004

23rd Sunday of the Year 'Prayer is the answer and remedy: Prayer - Spiritual Breathing'

The Jews, like the Irish, have been often forced to live away from home! In about 80BC, one such expatriate Jew compiled the book called 'Wisdom of Solomon'. He was living in Alexandria, Egypt. At that time, Greece was the dominant power in the Middle East! Philosophy, dear to the Greeks, challenged Jews to review their own opinions on everything. Such an exploration of the 'human predicament' was foreign to them. They had been brought up on God's own revealed thoughts, contained in the Scriptures. So, today's first reading (Wisdom 9:13-19) is a short example of this attempt to adapt revealed Wisdom to contemporary sensibilities. Of course, this process is well known to conscientious catechists and preachers. Effective missionaries become experts at adapting eternal values to modern situations. But, beware, 50 years social philosopher John Carroll in 'The Wreck of Western Culture', you could throw out the baby with the bath water. (May I put a 'plug' for my own colleagues around the nation who follow this style when preaching at especially poignant 'rituals of passage' baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Wisdom is ready to inspire them on those occasions.)

Today's text warns that true Wisdom is to discover the limits of one's intelligence and to learn how the physical and emotional can weigh one down. Prayer is the answer and remedy prayer, not prayers. Prayers have a place, of course, but prayer has precedence. It is after all, spiritual breathing. The prayerful individual or environment, as in local churches, will always attract the Spirit of God.

The Gospel for today (Luke 14:25-33) puts 'teeth' into the Wisdom teaching. One who has decided to follow Christ must be ready to renounce his possessions, his dearest relationships, even his life. This is true Wisdom: to ignore it is to fail to recognise that Our Lord, and His way, must be preferred to everyone and everything. It sounds like a hard ask, but you lose nothing and gain everything of real value. The language used is dramatic and provocative. (Be very careful of the word hate in today's versus!). 'To see things in perspective' is preferable, I think, to 'hate'. Jesus asks all disciples of all generations, to 'see in perspective' their loved ones and family affairs. He shows everyone that they will never be free to respond to God's many invitations to change, if they refuse to rethink, in an entirely new, Gospel way, about family relationships, the use of time and resources. Don't forget that Luke published these sayings of Jesus at a time, very early in Christian history, when disciples were edgy about the coming of the Lord at Judgement Day. Luke needed to refocus his own faith community's attention on the day to day contact with the Lord through Sacraments, Scripture readings, preaching and discerning the 'signs of the time'. Jewish families had been split apart as some members converted to Jesus and the Gospel way. Some converts were tempted to return, to former, normal relationships. Luke challenged them to reconsider their priorities in the light of the Gospel.

Sunday 12 September 2004

24th Sunday of the Year - I will rise and go to my Father

Even if God opened all Australian detention centres so all refugees could go, free, into mainstream Australian society, human nature would soon take its course. Sooner or later, squabbles would break out. Conditions in camp were better than here in Melbourne', or 'The camp administrators were more hospitable than the local council and neighbours'. Just so, no sooner had the Hebrews been freed from Egyptian slavery than people forgot God's part in their rescue, the great escape. They complained that Moses had spent too long on Mount Sinai in dialogue with God: They were impatient. They want to get going from that deserted place. They even persuaded weak Aaron to provide comforting images of lesser gods to carry, on the trek. Bulls sometimes depicted 'gods' in that part of the world. At other times, statues were made of 'god' figures standing on bull's backs. The only God, known as Yahweh, had done enough for Israel to feel bound to Him, but he seemed to have deserted them and to have even taken Moses from them.

In today's first reading (Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14), we have God's reaction to Israel's petulance He didn't like it at all! The point for us, however, is that Moses loved God, but he also loved his people. Later, Joshua, Isaiah and Jesus would become Moses like figures in their own time and places. These three, and several other besides, would 'go-between' God and His people to win forgiveness for collective sin.

Responsorial Psalm 50 joins our two main readings: 'I will rise and go to my father'.

Our Gospel passage (Luke 15:1-32) follows easily the theme struck in Exodus. Once again, Luke takes full advantage of a meal setting. This time, the main players are Jesus and some Pharisees, guardians of the national identity, who thought of themselves as exclusive, righteous brethren. These men had not time at all for sinners, those who broke or ignored religious laws. They certainly had no time for non-Jews, gentiles. So, Our Lord presented them with an open-ended parable, recorded for us in today's Gospel. The Pharisees would be left to decide whether they would enter the Father s house to rejoice with the family, or stay outside to criticise the erratic behaviour of the elderly head of the family. This is a parable as much about the forgiving father as about a prodigal son. There's no doubt the younger son had 'sinned' by becoming almost a gentile by eating with pigs. (The elder son always came out on top in similar educative stories of that era).

Jesus lived dangerously by reversing so many customary outcomes of contemporary religious cautionary tales. Pharisees were in no doubt as to Jesus' implied criticism of them. Conversion on the part of the younger son is, of course, an important part of the story. Equally striking is God s lavish response, portrayed in the person of the father of both sons. We now know that God s grace opened the Kingdom to all comers. So, too, must our Church be Catholic, open to all, especially the marginalised.

Sunday 19 September 2004

25th Sunday of the Year - The best investment is in the poor

Money is such a tyrant, and the use of it such a test of sincerity of heart, that prophets, like Amos, always saw it as one of the chief areas for the practice of true religion. A person, who exploits the poor, cannot serve God (Amos 8:4-7). Amos wrote in the 8th century BC, when the gap between rich and poor was widening alarmingly throughout Palestine.

I recall a quote from 'The Revolt of the Elites', by Christopher Lasch, which puts Amos' concerns in a contemporary setting. George Bush's (Snr) wonderment, when he saw for the first time an electronic scanning device at a supermarket checkout counter, revealed, as in a flash of lightning, the chasm that divides, the privileged classes from the rest of the nation.

Amos records, in our first reading, shock at some of the shady practices employed by the wealthy against the poor 'lowering the bushel, raising the shekel'. Religious non-trading days, like the Sabbath, were a hindrance to the already rich merchants. They represented not being able to dupe the poor 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even the sweepings from the floor could be packaged and sold at a profit! We moderns have given this practice a name - 'economic rationalism'. Credit unions, co-operatives and bartering systems sprang up earlier last century as creative attempts by modern prophets to fight unfair commercial profit making. Australians designed trade unions 100 years ago to keep a watch on profiteers. The Catholic Church has a fine tradition to uphold in the face of ruthless secular plundering of the poor.

In today's Gospel (Luke 16:1-13), the argument is continued. When salvation is offered by God, every effort must be made to grasp it, with as much understanding and shrewdness as the steward showed for business and his own future.

A modern parable could be designed around the unscrupulous activities of some well-known Australian entrepreneurs, of recent memory. As for money, Catholics have surely, by now, learned the moral lesson that the best investment is in the poor. It's essential to know which master to choose so as to serve God and not enslave oneself to money. I was impressed, just the other day to hear a young and successful businessman say: I'm taking a sabbatical. I'm spending a year with my wife and children. Moneymaking is killing my soul. So, apart from a salutary warning about money, today's parable, from Luke, also encourages a proper use of money. Luke's early Christian communities were confused about money. Conversion to Jesus and Gospel values had disrupted many Jewish families. Family stability then, as now, was necessary for economic health. Early Christians, many separated from families, had developed communitarianism as the cure for economic poverty. They were not owners but administrators of pooled wealth for the good of all members of local churches and dependant poor. Catholic parishes must be smart, 'best practice', and compassionate administrators of parish resources.

Sunday 3 October 2004

27th Sunday of the Year - We can't accomplish our projects alone

In the 600's BC, Assyria was on the way out of as leading Middle East power, much like Russia in our Middle East. The Chaldeans, based in Babylon (modern Iraq), took Assyria's place. Indeed, our first reading, from Temple prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4), was written while the Chaldeans were marching on Jerusalem. If that wasn't bad enough, the Jewish King Joachim, was ruling God's people with an iron fist. Local, uncomplicated but religious people approached Habakkuk to petition God on their behalf. They wanted him to exercise his priestly power of prayer, even at the risk of offending God by his audacity (given the nature of the questions). Habakkuk carried out his responsibility, and we have today his question and one of God's answers. 'Read the signs of the times', God told Habakkuk. The local political chaos would be solved once and for all when the Chaldeans entered Jerusalem and over threw Joachim. It's probably not what the locals wanted to hear but they had, after all, asked for a divine answer. (What would God's answer be to all the prayers offered up, all over the world, in the wake of 9/11?) George Bush's answer was to launch military campaign Operation Infinite Justice. The lesson of the confrontation, between God and Habakkuk, is that we must have unwavering faith in God and His ways! Jeremiah would continue Habakkuk's style in a later period of terror emanating from Babylon. Paul would have the same task in the face of hostility from fellow Jews and foreign Romans. Australian secular democracy, of its nature, encourages conformism, an impossible situation for those citizens who espouse Gospel values towards indigenous people and Muslims, for example.

In today's Gospel (Luke 17:5-10), faith in God is again presented as paramount for true disciples. Luke was giving a short treatise on faith and good works. Faith doesn't give us power to plant a mulberry tree in the ocean, nor does it; on the other hand tell us to regard our efforts as useless. The general lesson is clear. We can't accomplish our projects alone: we need communion with God and other people. The other parable of the 'worthless' servant may well have been aimed at the Pharisee sect. These men measured their rights and their value to God in such a way as to make them appear to be God's servants. In fact, they were incapable of giving good service to God or His people. To their self-assurance and calculation of merit, Jesus opposed the pure and simple faith of these poor people looked down upon by the Pharisees. Yet it was just those 'little ones' who had unconditional confidence in God.

Is it stretching the parable too far to make it fit the modern relationship between catholic laity and clerical leadership? 'It is sometimes easy to forget that by far the greater part of Catholic life is lived out in Catholic parishes, not in committees, conferences, councils and conclaves'. (The Tablet). As we advertise in Melbourne for lay people to assume more and more positions of responsibility in parishes, we take a giant step towards the dignity bestowed by God on those lay people, who after all, the vast majority of members of the 'Catholic Church'. So says the Pope. So says the Archbishop.

Sunday 10 October 2004

28th Sunday of the Year - God wants universalism to pervade His faith community

The two books of Kings were written in a period of 400 years of Jewish history, from Solomon' s death to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, 578 BC. These four centuries of the Kings are the most important in sacred history because, during that period, God raised up the prophets from among his people. Maybe a better title would be ' Books of the Prophets!' There is great precision throughout these books. Jewish decadence of wealth and power as recorded in these writings mustn't distract us from discovering how, through trials, persecutions and difficulties of all kinds, Jewish faith grew to the point of reaching, in the great prophets, a sublimity and clarity which only Jesus Christ would bring still further.

Today' s first reading (2 Kings 5:14-17) is such an example of this developing spiritual maturity. The context, however, is spiritually primitive. Naaman was a Syrian general. He believed ' Gods' were territorial beings and that prophets could elicit divine favours by lengthy and mysterious rituals. He almost ' blew' his chances of a cure for a serious skin disorder by scoffing at Elisha' s lack of finesse in the healing business. Luckily, he backed down and was rewarded with a cure. We learn from this incident that God wants universalism to pervade His faith community. That faith community must welcome foreigners, even enemies. Elisha took us part of the way down the road of spiritual maturity as developed by the prophets, not the priests, hundreds of years BC.

Jesus took us all of the way in his unique ride as messiah, saviour and redeemer. The cure of the ten lepers highlights this point (Luke 17:11-19). By using the words 'Take pity on us' usually addressed by Jews to God the lepers recognize Jesus as someone special, even the saviour, the messiah of God. By sending the lepers to the Temple priests, as required by the health regulations of the Book of Leviticus, as if already healed, Jesus tested their faith. They could have shown gratitude there and then, at the source of the healing, but were enslaved to ritual and rules imposed by the spiritually immature clerical system. Only one returned to thank the true priest of the new spiritually mature covenant, Jesus of Nazareth. That sole returnee was a Samaritan, an outsider as far as the clerical system was concerned, but in fact, spiritually superior by lack of coercion from ritualism and legalism. As in our first reading, universalism is revealed as close to God' s heart. We still meet Christians who resemble the nine lepers. They practice religion keenly, but are incapable of contemplation. They take communion frequently, but cannot give thanks. Their ethic is narrow, turned inward; scruple and detail bedevil their moral performance. Their God is a bookkeeper! (Guide for the Christian Assembly Glenstal Bible Missal).



Snday 17 October 200429th Sunday of the Year - Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth

In the 13th Century BC nomads, descendants of Abraham and Jacob, were in and out of Egypt, home of one of the great contemporary civilizations and even, known-world superpower. One of those nomadic groups was fleeing, under the leadership of Moses, from slavery. Mythic fact or historical fact, this is a pivotal event in the human story. Moses was their guide and prophet who taught them about the God who had intervened in his life, as he shepherded sheep in the Sinai desert. In the Oasis of Kadesh, Moses' group joined others of their race, all of whom accepted the Mosaic Law. Not far from Kadesh at Rephidim, Moses adopted a pro-active, military-style operation against one of the local clans, the Amelikite followers of an animist deity (or two). Some of the other Hebrew tribes migrated peacefully into Palestine, mingling with the local clans, and even accepting local religious practices. Not so, Moses. Our first reading (Exodus 17:8-13) provides us with an example of his method of dealing with locals who opposed his divinely inspired march into Palestine. The real point in this episode, for us Catholics, is the spiritual role played by Moses while Joshua led the military action. We learn that prayer plays an equally important part in the lives of 'true believers' - as does action. Of course, this is a primitive example of the power of prayer. But, we have learned to value these Old Testament incidents, not for the colourful details, but for the heart of the matter. It would be Jesus of Nazareth who purified Old Testament images as, indeed, he does in today's Gospel passage.

Our responsorial psalm joins today's two main readings: 'Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth'.

Our Gospel excerpt (Luke 18:1-8) begins with Jesus giving an Old Testament example of how prayer works - at least, that's what most of his audience thought. All you have to do, according to this example, is keep on badgering God. He's sure to give in. But on other occasions Jesus would criticise roundly this popular style of prayer. He also denounced religious officials for teaching people to pray long, loud and in public. But, now, he revealed an all-loving God who could do nothing else but hear his people cry out day and night. If the unjust judge would listen, eventually, how much more would our loving Father take notice! For spiritually mature Christians, prayer is basically a protest. A protest because war triumphs over peace, because a few privileged rich people trample upon the masses of the poor and natural disasters kill the innocent, as well as the guilty. Through this prayer, seen as protest, we enter into communion with the God of patience. But, through this special, patient relationship with God, our cries of protest-type prayer are slowly but surely, translated into action. When we pray together at Sunday Mass that the lonely will be comforted, we protest against local loneliness over which we have some control. So, prayer must lead to action by those who pray. Otherwise we have reverted to the primitive religious attitude that God will do everything for us.

Sunday 24 October 2004

30th Sunday of the Year - We are all sons and daughters of God

Our first reading is from a book called Ecclesiasticus or Sirach (after the author) written about 200 BC (Sirach 35: 12-14, 16-19). The author, Ben Sira, was well heeled and well travelled. He was a sensitive, new age Jew who fossicked among the new-age wisdom of the Greeks, filched whatever suited his own staunch faith, and taught young Jewish men to live as proud Jews in a modern world. (Abu Bakir Bashir would claim to be doing just that for young Muslims in Indonesia). Today's reading is about his recommended attitudes towards people who had a special niche in Gods heart the oppressed, the widow and the orphan. Throughout the Old Testament, people judged prophets to be genuine or false depending on their espousal of such attitudes. Two hundred years later, Jesus of Nazareth would preach and practice such attitudes to perfection!

Two thousand years later, Christians are judged by secular society using the same standard. Secular societies, in the so-called western liberal democratic style, have institutionalised love and service for the poor and oppressed in what has been called, contemptuously, the 'Nanny State'. The prevailing, philosophy of economic rationalism shocked by the September 11 incident in the USA, is taking a hard-nosed look at the affordability of State welfare programmes. Non-government agencies feted in the US are, in Australia, left to care for those who fall, or are thrust through the welfare net. I know. I chair two such NGOs. Catholics will have to tackle anew, in a prophetic, confronting way, the self-sacrificing love of the oppressed, the widow and the orphan.

While Jesus admired the Pharisee sect for the loyal way its members defended the Jewish religion against all subversives, He consistently opposed their claim to be the best and finest example of Gods own way to salvation. He once thundered: 'Listen to their preaching but, for God's sake, dont follow their example, because they themselves don't practice what they preach.' Sadly, the Pharisees took upon themselves the credit for their 'model' lifestyles: they thought they no longer needed God's mercy because their good deeds would force God to reward them.

Todays Gospel passage (Luke 18: 9-14) highlights this Pharisee attitude. He came to church convinced he was OK with God. But, he wasn't! The local tax collector, on the other hand, was a gazetted sinner. Known as 'publican', this man knew he wasn't OK with the local parishioners, but he threw himself on God's mercy. He did, however, go home OK with God.

When Catholics gather for Mass on Sunday, they are all equal in God's sight, thanks to Jesus, not thanks to their individual rating as observant or practicing Catholics. Through our union with the Risen Lord, we are all sons and daughters of God. Not long ago, our way of condemning a single mother, an adulterer, our paternalistic way of referring to non-practising and non-Catholics, while forgetting that as Christians we are all equal, was another form of Pharisaism. Such attitudes, alien to the Gospel need exorcism.

Sunday 31 October

31st Sunday of the Year Everyone and everything is sacred or special

'Is nothing sacred anymore?' is a question asked by many, over the last thirty years. Certainly it's a question asked by many since 11 September 2001. That's the puzzle before the eyes of anyone searching the Old Testament for clues to understanding Jesus of Nazareth and his gospel of 'everyone and everything is sacred or special'.

Our first reading (Wisdom 11:22-12:2) is from the pen of a Greek-speaking Jewish intellectual living in Alexandria, Egypt, probably in the last half of the first Century BC. Here were the Jews, back again in Egypt, still suffering alienation, while the unbelieving locals seemed to be blessed by God! 'How come?' asked the believing author. He was beginning to grasp the spiritual insight that God may well have chosen the Jews for a specialised task, while that same God loved and was merciful to all men, women and children of whatever colour, creed or race! The best of the Koran teaches just that). Jews in Egypt probably lived in ghettos to support each other in an oppressive environment. They would have found it difficult to think well of the Egyptian dominant society with its strange religious practices, like animal worship. Their main concern was self-preservation, which opposed the universalism of the best of the Old Testament.

Modern Catholics are called to avoid the ghetto mentality in the face of the dominant philosophies within Australian secular society. We must refuse the invitation to step back into 'sacristy' Catholicism and choose, instead, to take our place, without fear or favour, in God's own secular milieu.

As we have learned to expect, our gospel (Luke 19:1-10) develops further the best of the Old Testament spirituality. The context is the providential meeting between Jesus and an extreme 'outsider', Zacchaeus - an incident provided only by Luke. It fits very well with Luke's own views on wealth and about Jesus' relationship with the 'outsiders' or gazetted sinners. The Jewish leadership had already made up its mind about who the sinners were. They were the hand that signed the papers' of excommunication from Jewish society. Zacchaeus was on that list. The Jericho citizens, well educated in narrowness by the Pharisees, expected Jesus, a prophetic person, to toe the party line. Our Lord, however, feared neither Pharisee nor citizen. He spotted Zacchaeus, discriminated against not only because he was a despised tax collector, but also because he was height impaired. Zacchaeus had to climb a tree to catch a glimpse of the man he admired. Not only did Jesus do the politically incorrect thing of happily eating with Zacchaeus and associates. He even declared that Zacchaeus was a true spiritual descendant of Abraham! He was even superior to other Jews because he, on the spot, compensated everyone he had fleeced. Catholics need to look outside their churches for the many men and women of good will who require only a welcome to joyfully live good lives, even if they don't join us in church.

Sunday 7 November 2004

32nd Sunday of the Year - The other life isn't natural but a gift from God to those worthy of it

In the middle of the second century BC, the Syrians took Palestine from the tolerant and benevolent Greeks. It was the beginning of another long, dark night of the Jewish soul. The Maccabee family led a revolt against the Syrians and, as our first reading (2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14) shows, were massacred. (To the Jews, the Maccabees were freedom fighters to the Syrians, they were terrorists!) Earlier Old Testament books taught that God continually tested Israel as a community and He would resurrect her as a community. But, another book, Daniel, had indicated that faithful individuals would also be raised from the dead and rewarded with a place in God's kingdom. The book of Wisdom, much closer to Jesus' times, would also teach resurrection for faithful individuals. Recent media coverage of 'Jihad' or holy war waged by Islamic people against the satanic West and the ancient enemy Israel have stunned secular humanists. How could hordes of people, young and old, be willing to die, absolutely certain God will raise each warrior to a glorious heavenly reward?

Catholics especially during November, observe an ancient and venerable tradition of prayer for the dead, predating Islam. Trust in the resurrection of the individual true believer keeps many a Catholic alive and spiritually robust in the face of trial and tribulation. We have a relevant mission to show and tell about our great expectation that good individuals will be marching on long after the apparent disaster of death.

Our Gospel passage (Luke 20:27-38) shows Luke's unique way of expressing life after death. He was writing for Greek Christians. Their culture inclined them to believe in the immortality of the soul as something natural for humans. Luke clarified for them that the other life wasn't natural but a gift from God to those worthy of it. Luke used Jesus' conflict with the Sadducee sect to teach his 'parishioners' that life after death was real but inexplicable. We, like the Sadducees, want to know too many details about life after death. We must be satisfied with, we must have faith in the central revelation that the individual is immortal. This conviction drives Catholics to espouse the causes of the unborn and the incurably ill. USA and Australian societies are in the throes, before and after election campaigns and Christopher Reeves death, of debating both these issues. Euthanasia and abortion are not mentioned in the Australian party political campaigns. They are, however, important on the political agenda in the USA. Jesus confronted the Sadducees with their own scriptures that taught, clearly, that God created humans to live forever.

Catholics, however, can't rely on scriptural texts to persuade a mainly secular and materialistic society. We need to point to the unwavering testimony of innumerable good people whose lives are driven by the absolute conviction that death is not the end but the beginning of everlasting life. So many mobile phone calls on 11 September from people about to die, were about love as everlasting.

Sunday 14 November 2004

33rd Sunday of the Year - The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice

The Babylonian captivity was over. Persia was now in charge of the Middle East. Jewish prisoners of war were released from detention. (Iraq, Iran and Israel in 2004. Same struggle different generation). Some stayed in Babylon to take advantage of the benign, inclusive rule of the Persian leadership. Others returned to Palestine. They expected to be welcomed with open arms. Not so. Jews who had escaped deportation, didn't take easily to the influx of patriots whose arrival would challenge the comfort, such as it was, of the 'stay at home citizens'. Many such citizens had married foreign wives, thus weakening their Jewish faith. The Temple administration had slackened off leading to lack of discipline in worship and religious practices. Malachi, not a name but a code word meaning 'my messenger', preached hope and eternal reward for those Jews who had kept the faith against all odds (Malachi 3: 19-20). He, also, denounced non-practising Jews and warned them of eternal damnation. Malachi opted for fire as ultimate punishment because, in the Noah legend, God had promised never again to use water to destroy humanity.

Five hundred years later, Jesus would promise fire and water as the spiritual means of renewing Jewish hearts and minds in line with His Gospel. Catholics have inherited that belief in the fire of the spirit and the water of the sacraments.

Responsorial Psalm 97 links our two main readings: 'The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.

In our Gospel passage (Luke 21:5-19), Jesus predicted the total collapse of the Jewish system. He had delivered God's message that the Jews must turn from nationalism and follow His Universalist Gospel. They were called to conversion so they could again be God's chosen instrument of justice and peace. This message was rejected as not politically correct the messenger was executed! The Romans lost patience with Jewish intransigence and destroyed the spiritual center of Judaism, the Temple in Jerusalem. Worship ceased. The priesthood was disbanded. The Jews scattered to the four corners of the earth. The world, as they had known it for centuries since Solomon, had ended. But, the new 'world', known to Christians as 'the Kingdom', took shape almost immediately as the apostles and disciples found themselves urged by the Spirit to leave Palestine and bring the Gospel to all cultures. The Church, pilot light of the Kingdom, has plodded away at the task known as evangelisation. We modern Catholics may think 2000 years to be an inordinately long time. It isn't. It is a good start. 1800 years before Jesus, Abraham began his journey of faith. It made him spiritual' first parent' of Jew, Muslim and Christian. Many times, since Sept 11, commentators have emphasised the common ancestry of these three religions. Maybe we should start again. The last word, however, belongs to Jesus of Nazareth: 'Your endurance will win You Your (spiritual) lives'.

Sunday 21 November 2004

Feast of Christ the King - Let us rejoice to the house of the Lord

Before we look at today's readings, let me sound a note of caution. When in 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King, his purpose was to highlight and guard against two contemporary, extremes modern laicism and the clericalism of previous generations. I can do no more, here, than bring the origin of the feast to your attention. The situation, now, has been eased but, some would argue, the struggle between the two continues. Be that as it may, we can regard this feast as a good opportunity to gain proper insight into a traditional doctrine, essential to Christianity, and extremely relevant to church-world relations.

Our first reading (2 Samuel 5:1-3) is about how David brought peace to Palestine. He was king of the southern tribes of the Jews. His base was Hebron. He managed, by diplomacy, to win the vote of the northern tribes to unite north and south. He chose a neutral city, Jerusalem, as his seat of government. It was a Canaanite city but appears to have surrendered without a fight. Jerusalem was meant to be the city from which peace would flow to the entire world. But, it turned in on itself and failed to fulfill its divine destiny.

Jesus Christ, the new David, the only King after God's heart, would realise in Himself, by the cross of self-sacrifice, not the force of arms, the perfect and final unity of the people of God.

Responsorial Psalm 121 connects our two main readings 'Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord'.

In our Gospel (Luke 23:35-43) we're confronted with a parody of royal investiture. The central figure is Jesus. His throne is an instrument of torture and death. The official proclamation of enthronement is a foreign, Roman, document nailed above his head. The two witnesses, required by Jewish law, are two thieves to be executed with Jesus. If there were any way around this abominable situation, Jesus would welcome it. But, there was no way around Jesus' Father's grand design for a better world. So, Our Lord willingly accepted that Father knew best. The Jews, by the way, had always accepted their kings as representatives of themselves. So, here hung Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews, and THE representative of all men and women. On one side, the hostility of the Jewish leadership and Roman soldiers whose unbelief was expressed by the ironic comments of a convicted criminal: on the other hand, the thoughtful silence of the crowd, whose belief was expressed by the other criminal. The real power of the crucified Saviour, the wounded healer, was revealed on the Cross: He is King and welcomes into His Kingdom all who trust Him.

How can we Australians translate into civil practice, especially in the politically divisive matters of the welfare of Aboriginal people, refugees and our domestic underclass of homeless and unemployed people, this reconciling message of the Cross? Parishes will need to be faithful and brave enough to personify the self-sacrifice of Jesus as they develop pastoral and missionary strategies to heal secular Australia.

Sunday 28 November 2004

1st Sunday of Advent - All of us who observe Advent must dedicate ourselves to peace

The prophets of Israel are portrayed as men of exceptional character. They had outstanding faith in God and the human spirit. They were, also, God driven to endless conflict with the Temple Priests. It's exciting to note that the 6th Century BC, which produced the great Jewish prophets, like Isaiah, also gave birth to other great religious leaders, for example, Confucius in China, the Buddha in India, Zarathustra in Iran and in Greece, the founders of European philosophy. Isaiah was an optimist. Even though Jewish kings since David and Solomon, had fallen far short of the combined humility and wisdom God wanted, Isaiah predicted that, sooner or later, a true descendant of David would emerge to lead the Jews to spiritual maturity. Isaiah was also a universalist. He foresaw, as in today's reading (Isaiah 2:1-5), a new and missionary Judaism, not locked into history and territory, but a spiritual movement bringing God's Word of peace and justice to all civilizations and cultures.

I recall, again, Yitzhak Rabin's funeral. Many world leaders assembled to pay respects to a Jew who had once been a militarist, but had been converted to a missionary for peace in Palestine. As I watched the funeral on TV, Isaiah's prophecy came to me: 'They will beat their swords into ploughsharesthey will train for war no more'. As we note Yasser Arafat's death and funeral the thoughts should cross our minds: Rabin and Arafat needed each other. Many commentators have, since September 11, traced our present predicaments roots to the Palestinian crisis. Isaiah's prophecy won't be fulfilled immediately, as he himself learned with sorrow, but it will be so. All of us who observe Advent must dedicate ourselves to peace, domestic and international.

Our Gospel (Matthew 24: 37-44) is from Matthew. For him Jesus was first and foremost the teacher of humankind. His teachings and parables show us the way to perfection and lay down guidelines for community sharing in a church of the poor, where everyone is equal. John the Baptist dressed like Elijah the prophet. Many Jews expected Elijah to return to Palestine to prepare them for Messiah's arrival. He preached like Elijah. His message of conversion was so powerful that despised tax collectors and prostitutes and some members of the Roman occupation force came to John to start a new life. Words of repentance weren't enough for John. Candidates for conversion had to be immersed by him in the river Jordan. The Jewish religious system already allowed for do it yourself purifications rituals. John's procedure insisted a baptiser was necessary to show publicly that God was involved with a person's conversion. John's many converts became some of Jesus' first disciples. Just being a faithful Jew wasn't enough anymore. Even being a priest, as were the Sadducees, wasn't a ticket to the Kingdom. John and Jesus would insist on a complete change of mentality flowing into a new way of living and attitude, especially towards society's outcasts. Catholicism is in a perpetual state of conversion, a state of sin and repentance. Advent provides yet another chance for individuals and communities to start afresh.

Sunday 5 December 2004

2nd Sunday of Advent - Jesus warned his contemporaries to wake up or else!

We Catholic's haven't conformed entirely to secular society's requirements. We still follow, in liturgy, our own calendar of events in what we call the Year of Grace. For secular societies, now is the end of the year. For us, though, it's the start of the Year. Advent, meaning 'arrival', gives us four weeks to prepare, yet again, for the liturgical celebration of the Birth of Our Lord. As today's Gospel points out secular society slips easily into the Noah syndrome. We all seem to go about business, blissfully ignorant of the time bomb ticking away at the centre of our world. Although, let's be honest, September 11th seems to have changed that apathy in so many of us.

In the Old Testament story (Isaiah 11:1-10), Noah warned his fellow citizens to change their ways or else! The prophets continued that warning throughout Israel's history.

Jesus assumed all the key Old Testament roles prophet, priest and king, warning his contemporaries to wake up or else. The Church continues to warn each generation. It's not a popular job. It never was, nor shall it ever be. The ongoing UN discussion about the legitimacy of pre-emptive strikes against 'rogue' nuclear states or movements, has the touch of prophecy.

So, too, has the Australian national discussion about the morality of 100,000 abortions recorded annually. Many Australian Catholics will have shrugged their shoulders on hearing this statistic. But, surely, in that case, we resemble, sadly, those ancient scoffers who just wanted a quiet life. Theirs, too, was a free society. If Noah wanted to make a fool of himself and his family, he was free to do so. So long as his foolishness wasn't made compulsory for all!

Jesus really loved his Jewishness, with all it's off and on loyalty to the one and only God. He truly grieved over the impending end of the Old Order, epitomised by the splendid city of Jerusalem. The fall of Jerusalem, around 70AD, however, did enable the Church to free herself from Judaism, to initiate, at long last, a spiritual cult and embrace her universal mission. Is this not a sign that that process can be looked upon as a 'coming of the son of Humanity? To the uneasiness of the apostles in the face of a catastrophe, Jesus attached watchfulness, a quality that discerned, in the turn of events, the evolution of the Kingdom of the Risen Lord. It is this Christian virtue of vigilance, which is praised in the second part of today's Gospel (Matthew 3:1-12), the parable of the householder and the thief. 'Be alert, but not alarmed'.

At every moment of her history, the Church is in danger of missing the approach of the thief, the Lord Himself. He is a noisy thief, intending to awaken the Christians to the voice of the Spirit. In our own time, the Australian Church, and individual Christians, also, still have a vigilant and prophetic role to play to arouse a slumbering nation in immanent danger of losing its soul. Social philosophers, of which there are a few among us, thank God, have been alerting us to the recent signs of the hardening of the Australian heart against outsiders and domestic underachievers, even imprisoned aspiring graduates. This Advent, let Catholics, at least, learn to listen to a 'whispering in our hearts', especially in the cases of indigenous people, refugees and other involuntary underachievers.

Sunday 12 December 2004

3rd Sunday of Advent - Jesus aimed at the re-creation of the entire human family, then and forever

Jesus and the apostles quoted more from the prophet Isaiah than from any other book in the Bible. While most of the people around Isaiah fulfilled their religious duties, especially observing the Law of Moses, they did so from routine rather than conviction. They lacked what matters most to a religious/spiritual person a close encounter with a living God.

Isaiah claimed to have had just such a personal meeting with God (Isaiah 35:1-6). So intimate was this encounter, that Isaiah's conversion, in mind and attitude, was overwhelming. It became the raw material of which genuine prophets are made. Isaiah's vocation became his mission, so complete was his spiritual makeover for him this was like an 'exodus' experience. The Great Exodus out of Egypt, made up of several waves of migration seeking the promised land, was already engraved on the collective Jewish (Hebrew) memory. Just so, for Isaiah, hundreds of years later, for the returning exiles from Babylon, the judgment of God, a day of vengeance on the wicked, joy for the afflicted, sick, the 'little ones', this looked like a new Exodus. God, according to Isaiah, builds and rebuilds his kingdom, again and again. If the current king of the Jews was no good as a leader, Isaiah expected him to be replaced by a descendant who would govern well, but under God's influence. As each royal successor proved as bad as others, Isaiah still expected an eventual Messiah, one who would create a glorious environment for the returning exiles. They deserved as much.

Today's Gospel reading (Matthew 11:2-11 ) is meant to convey an exciting image of paradise regained. But, it also recalls the confusion throughout Palestine, about the 'new brooms', Jesus and John the Baptist. It's not disloyal to John to admit that he was, indeed, confused about Jesus. The Baptist had begun his crusade, to purify Judaism, by inviting everyone to repent or be damned. He recognized Jesus as Messiah but he wasn't impressed by the emphasis Jesus placed on forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. He was in prison and mulling over the strange way things had worked out. John's disciples were still loyal to him. But he knew his time was up and sent them to experience 'the Jesus' experiment', up close and personal. Most would stick to the ways they had learned from John. They were comfortable with his brand of reformed Judaism. Jesus was too extreme for them. Jesus' Gospel programme was a challenge launched not just at Judaism's strictest purity regulations, or even at the Mediterranean's' patriarchal combination of honour and shame, patronage and clientage, but at humanity's eternal inclination to draw lines, invoke boundaries, establish hierarchies and discriminate. Jesus' Gospel didn't invite a political revolution but envisaged a social one at the imagination's most dangerous depths. John and his disciples meant to reform Judaism, as had all the prophets. Jesus, on the other hand, aimed at the re-creation of the entire human family, then and forever.

Sunday 19 December 200

4th Sunday of Advent - We become veritable partners that's the enduring meaning and promise of Christmas

Our first reading (Isaiah 7:10-14) gives yet another insight into the turmoil experienced by Jews in the 8th Century BC. They were divided already into two separate kingdoms, north and south, Israel and Judah. Now they, blood brothers, were going to war! See how far from God's plan for them His people had strayed. Ahaz, descendant of David himself, was facing a coalition of fellow Jewish Israel and foreign Aram. These latter two intended to attack Jerusalem and replace Ahaz with a non-Davidic king of their choice. The prophet Isaiah was sent by God to re-assure Ahaz that everything would be alright, despite appearances. At worst, predicted Isaiah, Ahaz's heir might provide leadership appropriate for those troubled times. At best, God would work the greatest wonder of all time by re-creating humanity via a second Adam! Later than sooner, the true believers of Judah, personified by an exquisite young woman of marriageable age (translated into English by the word 'virgin') would bear a son. He would rightly be described as God moving in with us or Emmanuel, in Hebrew. Isaiah's contemporaries, naturally and sadly, didn't understand all this. It's only with time that the many meanings of this 'sign' of Emmanuel would be understood. The word 'sign' as used by Isaiah, can also be safely translated as 'a marvellous event'.

We Catholics at Christmas, especially this year, after such frequent demonstrations of inhumanity, celebrate this 'marvellous event' by imitating it in our space. We must be with humanity as intimately as God is with us.

Our Gospel passage from Matthew (Matthew 1:18-24) finishes where we began, with Isaiah's words over seven hundred years earlier: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel.

Unlike King Ahaz of Isaiah's time, Joseph put his trust in the rather disturbing sign of Mary's mysteriously conceived child. Thanks to Joseph, a descendant of famous David, Jesus would belong to the original royal line, for Jews, the seal of approval. And, because of his faith, it was Joseph who gave the child his rightful name Jesus, which means God saves. Moreover, the angel's intervention was to tell Joseph about one of his roles in God's plan: You will give him the name, Jesus, and receive him as your own son. Joseph had earlier decided the best thing for him was to get out of the way, do the honourable thing, let God's work go ahead through Mary. He knew himself and he knew Mary neither was capable of infidelity. All he wanted to do was God's will, whatever that entailed. And, true to form, God responded by giving Joseph the unique job of fostering Jesus. A point not to be missed, amid the hullabaloo of even a Church Christmas, is that God reveals himself, once again, as a divine negotiator. The salvation of the human race isn't just God's work. People don't become just completely passive instruments in His hands. We become veritable partners - that's the enduring meaning and promise of Christmas.

Sunday 26 December 2004

Feast of the Holy Family - Jesus would come out of Egypt, just like Moses, to free those of us enslaved by subtle racism

Ben Sira, author of our first reading (Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6,12-14), was brought up in the 1st Century BC rural culture of Palestine. In that environment, personal success depended on one's connectedness with one's community. Family, clan and village made one's whole social and cultural milieu stable. All duties were seen in this framework, so were marriage relations, interactions between parents and children, attitudes and obligations towards one's neighbours. Ben Sira was a family man and a success in business. He was, however, afraid of the corrupting influence of the recent Greek cultural invasion. He worried that it could be more dangerous to Jews than the military invasions suffered by previous generations. So, he compiled a handbook, a do-it-yourself guide for his godfearing compatriots, seeking renewal of confidence in the old days based on Moses' comprehensive laws.

In our own society horizons are considerably widened, for better or worse, who knows? People are living less and less in traditional forms of community. Nowadays we have all sorts of artificial communities, real and virtual, based on city, profession, trade union or shared special interest. The family still plays a central role, but must share importance with these new groups. So tension exists, as it did for Ben Sira, between children who share more than one grouping and parents who want to keep everything as they inherited it. Local churches can be 'brokers' in these difficult areas of intimate human relationships, especially between children, parents and grandparents.

Our Gospel passage (Matthew 2:13-15,19-23) should be read without too much emphasis on the miraculous and marvellous. Rather, we have here the story of a child who God watches over carefully, in a family at the mercy of the historical and political crosscurrents of the time.

It's important for our spiritual development not to mythologise the flight into Egypt. Otherwise it will be unable to touch our own experiences of families in flight. Ask any refugee family what it's like to be chased away from home, to try and settle in a culturally alien community. Australia is presently engaged in a morally questionable approach to refugees, especially, but not only, so-called boat people. Many journalists and social philosophers have emerged in Australia, who perform the noble service of alerting middle Australian society to the injustices inherent in our policies of both on and offshore detention. Our bishops have not been slow to add their prophetic voices to the discussion. Almost every parish in the Archdiocese is blessed by the presence of multicultural migrant groups. Opinion polls and radio talkback shows regularly prove to us that the 'white Australia policy' is alive and kicking. While we wait patiently for secular society to become enlightened towards outsiders, Catholics are well placed to lead the way, to follow the star, towards universalism. The theological point of today's Gospel reinforces this point. Jesus would come out of Egypt, just like Moses, to free those of us enslaved by subtle racism.