2007 - Epiphany to Corpus Christi

Sunday, 7 January 2007

Feast of the Epiphany - Lord, every nation on earth will adore you!

Australian performer Peter Allen made famous the song I still call Australia home. It's often used as background music for an advertisement on TV. An Australian traveller, flying home from overseas, looks wistfully out the plane window. For some strange reason I think of that ad when I read today's reading from Isaiah (Isaiah 60:1-6). Home come the Jewish prisoners of war, after many years away, still calling Jerusalem home.
But Isaiah, a genuine prophet, sees something even more exciting. Perhaps he was watching a sunrise over Jerusalem, still a spectacle for visitors today. While the valleys all around are yet enshrouded in darkness, the city walls, already reflecting the glare of the rising sun, appear all bright with light. He also sees non-Jewish people streaming towards Jerusalem. According to traditional Jewish belief, shared by Isaiah, these non-Jewish people would be subordinated to the Jewish tribes. Nevertheless, this is a remarkable vision of the first step along the road to Christian universalism, and an appropriate text for the Feast of the Epiphany.

In the first 100 years of Christian history, the Church had to struggle with the problem of centralism versus the rest. The Jerusalem Christians (Jewish) were naturally tinged with the old nationalism. They had to give up this narrow idea of centralisation. The Church's central bodies are nothing but a service at the disposal of local assemblies and the source of unity' (Guide to the Christian Assembly).

Responsorial psalm 71 connects our two main readings: 'Lord, every nation on earth will adore You.'

Isaiah has done us a spiritual favour by reintroducing 'universalism', as part of authentic Judaism. God's people should have seen themselves as the 'mother' of God's plan of salvation for all humanity. That was their unique destiny. They were to be the catalyst which enabled, even triggered, God's and humanity's relationship which we know as the kingdom of God. Unfortunately for all of us, the chosen people became inward looking. They saw themselves as the kingdom within which non-Jews should be satisfied with the status of second-class citizens. (If I'm wrong here, please enlighten me!)

Matthew wrote to reassure Jewish Christians of their 'Kosher' lineage, spiritual inheritance. In today's reading (Matthew 2:1-12), he was also to reintroduce that already mentioned, Isaiah's theme of universalism. So, we hear of spiritual outsiders, so far as orthodox Jews were concerned, followers of an ancient Persian holy man, Zoroaster, discovering the infant Messiah where and when the Jewish theologians couldn't find him. Whether or not today's gospel episode is entirely historical, it's purpose remains unchallenged. Science may some day show the Magi never came to Bethlehem and the star never appeared! Scriptures use legends to advance a good cause.

Sunday, 14 January 2007

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations

Our first reading is from the third part of the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 62: 1-5). It is a beautiful section full of comfort and consolation. Everything had not gone well with the Jews who came home from exile. The miracles announced earlier by Isaiah had not occurred, due to the infidelity of the Jewish leadership. A poor community tried to reorganise itself and to solve all kinds of problems stemming from the fact that during the seventy years of exile, others, less enthusiastic for religious reform, had taken their place. Cyrus, King of Persia, had already done wonders by freeing the Jewish prisoners from Babylonian captivity. He had authorised the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple. He had ordered the return of Temple furniture and equipment stolen by the invader seventy years earlier. What effect, however, could this restoration have on a local community grown indifferent to God?

Isaiah sought to sustain the exiles 'courage' by sketching the religious future of Jerusalem. She would receive a new name- to signify change. No longer will she be called 'abandoned' by 'spouse'. She would be like a young bride ready for a wedding with her husband, God. The author is actually using a highly important biblical image that would become a prominent Christian symbol: the marriage between God and the spiritual Jerusalem built of 'living stones', the true believers.

Here is the basis for our spiritual lives as church sharing and mutual giving between God and humanity best expressed in the person Christ.

Responsorial Psalm 95 links our two main scripture readings 'Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations'.

Let's repeat that the most marvellous deed done by God was the marriage between Himself and humanity. That's the real marriage John highlighted when telling of the Cana wedding.

John's gospel version (John 2: 1-11), written probably around 90 AD, shows an insider's familiarity with the Old Testament and with Jewish religious practices, so we may conclude that whoever was behind this version was of Jewish background. However, there were some indications that he may not have been from mainstream Judaism. John's primary audience seems to have been a group of Jewish Christians experiencing tension with the Jewish religious leadership. The faith of the group may have been wavering as a result of conflict and persecution.

The Cana intervention by Jesus was recorded by John to reinforce the faith in Jesus as Lord among that group of disturbed convert Jews. John's style is unique as he interprets a miracle of Jesus, even a relatively ordinary one, as a sign of the Passover of Christ, still three years away. He places the Cana miracle at week's end: he introduces the spiritual theme of the hour: he deliberately emphasises the matter of wine. He pointed out the inability of Jesus' own family to interpret the miracle appropriately.

This is John's specialty - to teach us that, in the final analysis, Jesus is the mystery of God made flesh.

Sunday, 21 January 2007

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Your words, Lord, are spirit and life

Beginning with the decree of King Cyrus of Persia in 538 BC, several groups of Jewish exiles came back to Jerusalem from Babylon. They began the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple. Then, foreign 'squatters', who had settled in Palestine during many troubled times, tried to prevent the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem.
In 458, Ezra came to organise the Jewish community. He imposed the Law of Moses as the basis of a rule binding together all God's people.

In 445 Nehemiah came from Persia and rebuilt Jerusalem's walls. He became administrator of Jerusalem for twelve years. Today's first reading from Nehemiah (Nehemiah 8: 2-6, 8-10) records a very important date in sacred history. Until that time Jewish people kept their faith alive through prayers and taking part in Temple services. Decisions and preaching came to them through priests and prophets. They didn't feel the need for Scripture. Anyway, they had no access because the Scriptures were kept in the Temple or the King's palace. Nehemiah records for us the beginning of a religious tradition whereby ordinary Jews would have access to the Scriptures in every city. Their synagogues were built, meeting places where people would gather on the Sabbath to hear God's word, meditate and respond by signing psalms.

Catholics have recently been through the same kind of return of Scripture to ordinary parishioners.

Indeed, today we can link our two main readings by singing (or reciting) Psalm 18: 'Your words, Lord, are spirit and life'.

We have already remarked how the institution known as synagogue came about. In Israel there was only one Temple that of Jerusalem, where priests used to offer sacrifices. But in every place where at least ten men could meet, there was a synagogue where every Sabbath (Saturday) a liturgical service, led by community members, was celebrated. It was the done thing for locals to take part in the readings and commentaries on them, so Jesus made himself known by sharing in the Sabbath services in the synagogues of his area, Galilee. When he did the same thing in Nazareth, where he had grown up, he wasn't well received at all! The reading of the day was for Isaiah who was referring to his own mission: God had sent him 700 years earlier to announce God's intervention to bring Jewish prisoners of war back from Nineveveh to Israel. But, for Jesus, to comment on Isaiah's test was not a catechism lesson or a look to the past or into the future. Jesus' style was to announce that the present should be lived as the acceptable time of the Lord's coming, the here and now for ordinary people (Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21).

Our Catholic Liturgy of the Word may well be acknowledged as stemming from the synagogue model. However, it superseded that model by showing how actual events in Christian and human experience reveal God's plan for the here and now.

Sunday, 28 January 2007

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time - In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord

Our first reading is from Isaiah (Isaiah 6: 1-8) writing at the time of King Uzziah's death in 742 BC. The Middle East was in turmoil. The Jewish people were divided into two kingdoms, north and south, Israel and Judah. Israel, with its own kings, was hostile to the south, even though David's city, Jerusalem, was there. It was all a bit of a mess - the opposite of God's plan for the region. Just like today!

Isaiah took advantage of the chaos to write as if God himself had taken over as King of Kings. The Prophet had a vision of god enthroned in the Jerusalem temple attended by heaven's legendary guardians, the seraphs, fiery spiritual beings. Isaiah was terrified that he would drop dead because he had seen God face to face. He was overwhelmed with the experience of God as the 'totally other', the holiest of the holy. He was also awfully aware of his own unworthiness to even attempt to bring God's word to the minority group of Jews ready to be converted becoming 'totally other themselves. Isaiah's vocation as a prophet to them was his response to what he had experienced of God's holiness. He had met God and was compelled to become activist.

For those of us, who feel called to a activist, right now where we are, a close encounter with God, through Jesus, is necessary. It won't be glorious, as for Isaiah, but it will be real through Word, Sacrament and immersion in current affairs.

Our gospel is from St Luke (Luke 5: 1-11) who links the call of the first disciples with the miraculous catch of fish. In this way he recalled for his own church community (probably in Greece or Turkey, definitely made up of non-Jewish people) that their contemporary mission was intimately bound up with Jesus' earthly ministry.

What a contrast with the picture of God painted by Isaiah as recorded in first reading! There god is revered as 'totally other'. He is guarded by spiritual extraterrestrial beings or seraphs.

Here, according to Luke, God, in the human person of Jesus, is totally accessible, rubbing shoulders with commercial fishermen. For them, Jesus presents himself as a veteran fisherman, more competent than they are. He shares his fishing secrets with Peter who, despite fatigue, puts out to sea again. For the Jews, water, especially the sea, represented the awesome power of evil.

Our Church is called to engage with humanity, especially in its dark nights of the human soul. Helping it to rise above evil by seeking a greater measure of equality, more stable peace, a greater opportunity for the world's 'small' people to improve their lot. The Church need have no fear of this mission. Despite Dawkins, God is with us.

Sunday, 4 February 2007

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time - In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord

Our first reading is from Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8) writing at the time of King Uzziah's death in 742 BC. The Middle East was in turmoil. The Jewish people were divided into two kingdoms, north and south, Israel and Judah. Israel, with its own kings, was hostile to the south, even though David's city, Jerusalem, was there. It was all a bit of a mess - the opposite of God's plan for the region. Just like today! <P>

Isaiah took advantage of the chaos to write as if God himself had taken over as King of Kings. The Prophet had a vision of god enthroned in the Jerusalem temple attended by heaven's legendary guardians, the seraphs, fiery spiritual beings. Isaiah was terrified that he would drop dead because he had seen God face to face. He was overwhelmed with the experience of God as the 'totally other', the holiest of the holy. He was also awfully aware of his own unworthiness to even attempt to bring God's word to the minority group of Jews ready to be converted becoming 'totally other' themselves. Isaiah's vocation as a prophet to them was his response to what he had experienced of God's holiness. He had met God and was compelled to become activist. <P>

For those of us, who feel called to be an activist, right now where we are, a close encounter with God, through Jesus, is necessary. It won't be glorious, as for Isaiah, but it will be real through Word, Sacrament and immersion in current affairs. <P>

Our gospel is from St Luke (Luke 5:1-11) who links the call of the first disciples with the miraculous catch of fish. In this way he recalled for his own church community (probably in Greece or Turkey, definitely made up of non-Jewish people) that their contemporary mission was intimately bound up with Jesus' earthly ministry. <P>

What a contrast with the picture of God painted by Isaiah as recorded in first reading! There God is revered as 'totally other'. He is guarded by spiritual extraterrestrial beings or seraphs. Here, according to Luke, God, in the human person of Jesus, is totally accessible, rubbing shoulders with commercial fishermen. For them, Jesus presents himself as a veteran fisherman, more competent than they are. He shares his fishing secrets with Peter who, despite fatigue, puts out to sea again. <P>

For the Jews, water, especially the sea, represented the awesome power of evil. Our Church is called to engage with humanity, especially in its dark nights of the human soul, helping it to rise above evil by seeking a greater measure of equality, more stable peace, a greater opportunity for the world's 'small' people to improve their lot. The Church need have no fear of this mission. Despite Dawkins, God is with us. <P>

Sunday, 11 February 2007

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Happy are they who trust in the Lord

How to be happy? This question haunts humanity. There is a choice, according Jeremiah, to be made: to seek happiness through our own human resources, or seek it in God. Judgement will not wait; to trust in ourselves is to end in an arid, spiritual wilderness, the collective dark night of the soul. To trust in God is to secure enduring spiritual productivity. Jeremiah suffered much personally for trusting God alone.
You may know this story - called by God to challenge his own people, especially the leadership to return to God's way of doing things, Jeremiah was denounced by his own as a traitor and public enemy number one! He was tortured, imprisoned, chased out of town, ending up in Egypt. A 'hit squad', sent by his own compatriots, found him there and killed him. No wonder Jeremiah is compared, during Holy Week with Jesus himself.
To both Jeremiah and Jesus could the taunt be directed: 'he trusted in God, now let God come and save him'. So our first reading (Jeremiah: 17: 5-8) recommends sacrificial trust as a spiritual priority.
A person who trusts himself first and foremost wraps himself in security blankets like health, wealth and worldly wisdom. A true disciple of God may appear naked to others but is spiritually safe, wrapped up in God.
Our responsorial Psalm I echoes the sentiments of Jeremiah: 'Happy are they who trust in the Lord.'
You may be shocked by Luke's language in this passage (Luke 6: 17, 20-26). He records curses as well as blessings. It's a literary device or procedure often used in Old Testament writings. Luke recorded the beatitudes as Jesus proclaimed them to the people of Galilee. According to Luke, Jesus addressed the whole assembly of people, speaking as one of them. Like the prophets, he spoke boldly and clearly: 'You, the poor, are the first beneficiaries of the promises of God. Rejoice, because God is giving you the great message and you shall be the ones to transmit the secrets of God's mercy to the world.' For Luke, the materially poor were blessed by God for the very reason that they were totally dependent on others and circumstances. They were in the best position to experience the kindness of God. He would watch over them as a parent, a fathermother God.
This gospel is the scriptural foundation for the regular pronouncement that the Catholic Church has to opt for the materially poor first. Matthew's version of the beatitudes was not so hard on the affluent. He called for a spiritual poverty, not a material poverty.
Catholicism has to be open to both.
Let us keep to the essential: the child worshipped by the Magi inaugurates a universal kingdom.

Sunday, 18 February 2007

7th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Love your enemies.

David shocked Abishai, an impulsive military companion, by not taking the advantage of surprise to kill king Saul (Samuel 26: 2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23). Saul, the first king of the Jews, was so erratic and self-seeking that David had left the royal court. He formed a band of freedom fighters to defend God's chosen people against tyranny, as many other young men and women, rightly or wrongly, do in our own day.
But, he believed, against all odds, that Saul had been anointed by Samuel the prophet and was therefore God's appointed, despite his poor performance. He spared his rival and placed all his trust in God. In this way he foreshadowed the Messiah, Jesus the merciful, who would preach love of one's enemies, even Osama, according to a Melbourne suburban Church notice board.
In those days, before ballot boxes and elections, rivals in the leadership stakes knew that the loser would be killed and his family and friends wiped out. So, David's magnanimity really was heroic and a sign of his friendship with God.
We must learn that God chooses agents who are not yet perfect. There is a trend in western democratic society to expect perfection in leaders, political, religious and corporate. But, the place of David in salvation history flies in the face of modern western attitudes to leadership. God is present not only where there is perfect love and accomplished virtue. We find him where there is no more than the rude vestige of faith, hope and love, as in David's case. The ordinary people loved David and so did God!
Remember, too, that Jesus of Nazareth would not be insulted when hailed as the person most like David, the spiritual descendant or son' of David. Admiration at David's magnanimous gesture towards Saul is nothing when we're confronted with Jesus' code of conduct towards 'outsiders'.
Jewish people had been brought up with national pride as virtue number one. They were born God's people and were therefore, not 'good' people. They were 'enemies', 'gentiles', 'outsiders', and 'sinners'. So it was Jesus living dangerously when he taught that Jews should love their enemies (Luke 6: 27 - 38). He wasn't just compiling a new list of virtues to be practised within a family, a profession or a club. This is not Jesus' little book of social graces.
Unfortunately, preachers and teachers sometimes reduce weighty doctrine of compassion to a personalist moralism. Many listeners preferred to hear him espouse a policy of hatred and revenge towards foreigners like the Roman occupation army, the Samaritans, indeed, anyone other than Jewish.
We moderns are living in a culture of conflict. Justice and mercy are not popular. Litigation and revenge are reaching 'state of the art' ranking Catholics have a mission to break that cycle.

Sunday, 25 February 2007

1st Sunday of Lent - Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble

Each Sunday in Lent, the first reading calls to mind some important stage in salvation history.
Today's text from Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 26: 4-10), written by priests in about 700 BC, sketches the broad outline of this unique story. Let me pick out the 'peak experiences' proclaimed in today's text.
From the Patriarchs (wandering Aramaeans) we learn of Joseph going into Egypt for food and shelter. From the time of slavery in Egypt -Moses leads out the chosen people. From the period of Judges or desert leaders - Joshua leads the Hebrews into the Promised Land. During this whole long story, there are many temptations and the chosen people often fail the test.
Similarly, in today's gospel (Luke 4:1-13), Jesus is found in a desert, overcoming all diabolical tests and preparing to offer Himself to God as the greatest success of salvation history.
People living at the time Deuteronomy was written, were stunned by the overwhelming power of nature. But, they had matured spiritually to believe their one and only God to be master of nature. God revealed Himself, they believed, in natural phenomena, as well as in prophets, priests and kings. So they carried on an ancient pagan tradition of offering fruits, grains and animals to God. They did, nevertheless, purify this tradition by using a ritual to seal the covenant relationship mutually accepted by God and themselves.
Thanks to Jesus, Christians can meet weekly to celebrate the perfect ritual of His and our self-sacrifice. When he was on the Cross, outside Jerusalem, Jesus would encounter temptation like those recorded in today's gospel. As in the desert, at the start of his campaign, he would conquer those temptations, and Evil itself, by faith in the Father. Luke, writing for non-Jewish converts, didn't see Jesus as a symbol of the chosen people in the desert.
Matthew did, and his similar desert episode, meant for converts from Judaism, is heavily weighted with Sinai desert inferences. Luke's version is meant to portray Jesus as the faithful servant and Son of God.
As Jesus told Satan more than once, God's strength alone was all he needed there in the desert, throughout his ministry and at their fateful meeting on Calvary, outside Jerusalem.
Luke's convert community needed this reassurance that Jesus did overcome hostility to his mission by faithful obedience and, so, free all men and women held captive by Satan. He demonstrated that communion with god, while in the grip of the human predicament, can be achieved when we reject the various values elevated by secular society to the status of 'gods'.
Church today is called to celebrate and preach this victory won by Jesus, given to us embodied in heroic life-styles, Christian or not.

Sunday, 11 March 2007

3rd Sunday of Lent - God often waits on a person in this or that desert of life

The second book of the Old Testament, Exodus, was written by the same authors, as was Genesis. In the 9th Century BC, one of these unknown authors, codenamed Elohist, wrote from various remembrances of the Patriarchs and of Moses, at times repeating what a brother author had written in Genesis, but from a somewhat different angle. So we have in our first reading (Exodus 3: 1-8, 13-15), part of the dramatic story of Moses.
Briefly, he had been born a Hebrew but brought up Egyptian, ironically ending up working in Pharaoh's administration. His Hebrew background providentially caught up with him one day. On an official visit to the Hebrew slave precinct, he remonstrated with a cruel Egyptian foreman, killing him. The Hebrews didn't thank him for that. They were punished. Moses was on the run. He fled into the desert. Moses married into a nomadic family, descended from Abraham, and led by a priest Jethro, who followed the religious customs of Abraham's free descendants.
God often waits on a person in this or that desert life. During those times, apparently so harsh and empty, God prepares His servant, while heart and generosity remain intact despite circumstances. So it was that God commissioned Moses to return with wife and son, on a donkey, to Egypt, to do battle with Pharaoh, over the detention of the Hebrews.
Jesus of Nazareth, 1000 years later, came out of Egypt to do battle with the evil empire, which had enslaved so many good people.
In today's gospel (Luke 13: 1-9) we are informed about an incident, a current affair, when some locals report to Jesus that Roman soldiers had massacred some Galileans holding a violent demonstration in the Temple precinct. His audience expected Jesus to call for an immediate and bloody reprisal against the Romans. He refused. Instead, he challenged the informers to take stock of themselves and their own attitudes.
Once again, and many times thereafter, he refused to accept the role many Jews wanted to thrust on him. They had long expected a military Messiah. They wanted to know if Jesus was their man and up to a fight.
He, on the other hand, wanted to know if his compatriots were willing and able to give up their mistaken view of reward and punishment, taught to them relentlessly at home and in the synagogue. These misguided people were brainwashed to expect reward and punishment in their life. They knew precious little of life after death. Jesus wanted them to know that only God discerns the real good and bad in people.
The parable of the fig tree reinforced His message. God is patient and concedes the time to change for people willing to convert fundamental attitudes. Our parishes are called to be learning centres of mercy and forgiveness not fear and discrimination.

Sunday, 18 March 2007

4th Sunday of Lent - Taste and see the Goodness of the Lord

It was Joshua's mission to lead the chosen people into the Promised Land. The book called Joshua was written five centuries after Joshua's exploits. Prophets wrote the book. They limited themselves to recalling those exploits that had prepared and made possible the formation of the future nation of Israel. Contrary to the simple Bible stories told during our childhood, the twelve unorganised tribes did not rush, all at once, into Canaan. Some drifted in and settled down beside the Canaanites. This would later call for reforms to purify those Israelites from acquired bad religious habits. The militant minority, under Joshua, invaded, destroyed villages and towns and began the establishment of the kingdom of Israel, successfully concluded by King David after two more centuries.
Today's excerpt (Joshua 5: 9-12) is about a ritual, a Passover, which marked the end of the exodus and beginning of the settlement in the Promised Land. No more heavenly logistic support! God's people would have to provide for themselves and grow accustomed to a new situation, evolving a kind of religion suitable for this new, non-nomadic lifestyle. And, God Himself would change (be careful here!) taking the risk of becoming institutionalised.
The “free-wheeling” God of the desert would become the localised God of the temple.
In our gospel passage (Luke 15: 11-32), we are confronted, as in the Joshua segment, with other examples of God at work among His people.
Today we delight in one of Luke's ‘mercy' parables. Remember however, that God comes across, in many Old Testament passages, as anything but merciful! In fact, one of Jesus' main duties was to present God as Father of us all, long suffering, always ready to forgive.
The parable, known widely as 'the prodigal son', is really the parable of 'the forgiving Father'. There are three characters in this parable: the father, representing God, the elder son, representing the Pharisees. But who is the younger son? Does he represent sinners or, maybe, all humankind?
People often think God wants to enslave them, to take freedom from them. God, in this case becomes a burden. People feel compelled to leave Him behind.
Later, enslaved by secular values (pigs were unclean animals to Jews) people often return to God. They become newly convinced (converted) that God has a better way in store for them. They return to their spiritual home, finding god very different from what they previously experienced. He had been waiting all the time, even running to embrace them.
And, there's a feast, referred to many times by Jesus. But the older son (the Pharisees) was unable to welcome a sinful brother or take part in the feast.
Where do you, your family, your parish fit into today's parable?

Sunday, 25 March 2007

5th Sunday of Lent - The Lord has done great things for us. We are filled with joy

Scholars tell us that the prophecy of Isaiah comes from three main writers over a considerable period of time. <P>
Today's little poem of second Isaiah (Isaiah 43:16-21) fits well into the general framework of what's known as the consolation section, wherein a broken people is encouraged by the hopeful vision of a new start. God urges the Jews, battered and bewildered by the Babylonian captivity, to look forward to another 'exodus'. 'Forget past trials and even, triumphs', God says, because what is to come will outshine even the 'great exodus' led by Moses.
God is ready, at any cost to himself, to be reconciled with this people, chosen by Him, but now lost through their own fault.
One of the most mysterious things about God is His willingness to be reconciled with unfaithful, described in the Bible as adulterous people.
(We see Jesus tackling, in today's gospel, the same kind of moral dilemma. More of that later.)
So, god is always preparing 'new' options for humanity. He takes the initiative many times throughout the Old Testament.
It was the mission of the prophets, such as Isaiah, to repeatedly raise the spirits of the chosen people.
In today's Gospel (John 8:1-11), Jesus of Nazareth continues to make abundantly clear what the best of the Old Testament had proclaimed consistently but what had been rejected, equally consistently, by Israel. He didn't restrict himself to words about a Merciful Father God. He became involved, personally, in dangerous situations such as the one recorded by John.
A woman caught in the act of adultery was being subjected to a 'kangaroo court', a public trial. Pharisees, representing the worst of the old ways, sought to entrap Jesus. They hoped he would show acceptance towards the woman, sending an ambiguous message to the assembled spectators. If Jesus showed such concern for the 'sinner', refusing to condemn her, was it because he trivialised adultery? No. It was because God uses different means than people do to persuade sinners to repent.
There's a big difference between telling a person his ideas or deeds are wrong or immoral, and condemning that person. We commonly condemn the person with his action, leaving little room for change and mercy.
In this gospel episode, Jesus is both demanding and merciful towards the woman. She is free to go, but not to sin again.
Many Catholics during Lent wilI avail themselves of the good news about God's mercy.
They will gather in local communities to be reconciled with God and fellow believers. Such an experience of repentance and mercy is an essential element of mature Catholic spirituality.

Sunday 1 April 2007

Passion Sunday - Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory

Scripture experts tell us that the book of Isaiah is in three parts, probably written over a long period by three authors.
Today's first reading (Isaiah 50: 4-7) comes from the third author and is part of his four songs about 'the suffering servant'. It seems that the author dedicated these songs to the prophet Jeremiah who suffered much at the hands of his own countrymen who, eventually, had him killed. But, the Suffering Servant can also be interpreted, collectively, as the Jewish people suffering endlessly at the hands of regular foreign invaders
Jesus of Nazareth, of course, would personify this same revelation - success through suffering and death.
Jewish thought discovered this insight about a sacrificial death by a just man for sinners, precisely because of the keen Jewish feeling about earthly reward and punishment. Some meaning had to be found for the suffering borne by good people!
Indeed Jesus may have found in this very doctrine the strength necessary to accept the ordeal before and during death. Such patience in the face of such an ordeal (passion) was expected to be mightily rewarded.
The Church international and local is called by God to personify this divine attribute of humility. We have a vocation and mission to demonstrate the death of God depicted as punitive and vengeful and the birth, through Jesus, of God as gentle and humble of heart.
Because of its length, we cannot do more than skim the surface of today's Passion gospel (Luke 23:1-49).
Luke's main aim, in recording these terrible events, is to provide a context of mercy and love. The whole narrative becomes a revelation of the Father's love for His son and for humankind, the Cross being the great sacrament of divine mercy.
Luke doesn't blame the Jews or the disciples: if it was good enough for Jesus to forgive all, it would be blasphemy, for Luke to conduct an investigation to discover who 'dunnit'. He goes easy on the sleeping, then fleeing, disciples and on the swearing Peter. Luke depicted even Jesus' enemies in non-hostile terms. There's scarcely a mention of Judas' betrayal and suicide.
Luke differs from the other gospel writers even in the matter of Jesus' isolation. Rather, he mentions the presence on Calvary of friends and acquaintances.
Thus, in the flow of the great pardon of the Cross, practically everyone is absolved - Pilate, Peter, the official who lost an ear to an apostle, the thief on another cross, the centurion. All this forgiveness stems from Jesus' intimate relationship with the Father. Only Luke lets us in on this secret, which is the well-spring of Catholic spirituality.
It was, indeed, a very Good Friday for the rest of us.

Sunday, 8 April 2007

Easter Sunday - This day was made by the Lord

The earliest Christian belief in the Resurrection of Jesus was coloured by Jewish ideas about the resurrection of the flesh, and restoration of all the people in time for the last judgement.
The prophet Hosiah had, centuries earlier, preached the resurrection of all the dead members of God's chosen race. Jewish tradition had then developed the idea that it could take three days for all those people to take possession of Jerusalem. So, it was normal for St. Luke to use this resurrection vocabulary telling the story of the conversion of non-Jewish Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:34,37-43). Indeed, Luke intended clearly to teach that the resurrection of all the dead throughout time.
According to these beliefs, the great resurrection is initiated by that of the Lord, and the restoration of the 'true believers' began with the establishment of Christ as judge of the living and the dead.
The conversion of non-Jewish Cornelius as a direct result of the continuing mission of the risen Lord was a shock to many early Jewish converts to Christianity. It broke the chains that tied the early Church to Jerusalem and Jewish conservatism.
It was indeed, tempting to restrict conversion to the Jews. But Cornelius' conversion pointed the way to universalism, which had died at the hands of Jewish conservatives. The Risen Lord conquered death for all humanity.
Today's Gospel according to John (John 20:1-9) is dominated by the empty tomb. Every detail is meant to emphasise that something completely outside our experience is staring us in the face. We are lured by the writers of John to feel the emptiness wrapping around us.
Peter, chief apostle, fallen so short so often of Jesus' challenge to exercise leadership, had to endure the emptiness of the tomb. That experience would be both shocking and healing. John, younger and more intuitive, quickly concludes that Jesus' body had not been taken by others. Jesus had risen or, better, been raised by the power of God upon whom He relied utterly for the vindication of His life's mission.
There is, however, another possibility: whenever a Parish enters into dialogue with secular society (as many Australian parishes are), emptiness stares it in the face. It's as if God is dead out there. Maybe it's up to us to roll back the stone so the world itself, so loved by God can rise from the dead.

Sunday, 15 April 2007

2nd Sunday of Easter - Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love is everlasting

The earliest Christians were Jews who believed in the lordship of the Risen Jesus. At the start of the 'movement', all these people were based in Jerusalem. Later, they were thrown out of that city and not allowed to return when it was destroyed in 70 AD.
Peter was in charge. James and John were his principal assistants. This earliest Christian community was deemed to be a sub-division of Judaism. Members attended the Temple sacrifices. They held house gatherings where there was instruction by apostles, the traditional Jewish breaking the bread together with the president's Eucharistic prayer and communal meal.
Many poor, displaced and homeless Galileans swelled the numbers of true believers. Some staunch members like Barnabas sold property to provide funds to support all these people.
Today's first reading (Acts 5:12-18) also emphasizes that miracles played a big part in the success of this early church.
Modern parishes are more aware than early churches of how slow a process is the growth of the kingdom. For us moderns it isn't miracles that indicate the presence of the Lord, but active witness to Christ in all walks of life. We need to devise institutions and structures, which will enable us to actualise the power of the Risen Lord in worship and missionary activity, especially among the marginalised.
Responsorial Psalm 117 connects our two main readings: 'Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love is everlasting'.
John's version of Our Lord's appearance to the apostles, including Thomas (John 20:19-31), emphasizes forgiveness as one of the main features of Christianity. This incident is not just about the institution of the Sacrament of reconciliation, but also about the complete victory of Jesus Christ over evil and chaos. Our Lord wanted his disciples, then and now, to be agents of reconciliation. The capacity to forgive is the only power able to heal the great tensions within humankind, especially in these days of divisive terrorism. Although it doesn't easily conquer hearts, nevertheless it is an invaluable secret and the Church should consider it as its own special treasure.
One, who doesn't know how to forgive, doesn't know how to love.
Absence of reconciliation, authentic forgiveness, has brought about evil and chaos on a global scale, of which we are made well aware by the media. To mention a few well-known examples should suffice as proof: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans (yet again!), Korea.
Closer to home - refugee compounds, aboriginal settlements and the many places where 'greens' and developers are opposed, Christ Jesus has personified God's unlimited appetite for reconciliation. That revelation of God's heart as well as His mind is 'sacramentalised' in the words of Mandela, South Africa, and Gusmao, East Timor.
Catholic parishes are called to keep the flame of that message alight wherever the darkness of fear and hatred threatens to engulf secular society.

Sunday, 22 April 2007

3rd Sunday of Easter - I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me

The earliest Christians were Jews. They lived in Jerusalem. They worshipped in the Temple. It didn't take long for the shadow of the Cross to fall over this community. The Apostles had already run foul of the authorities, in this instance not the Romans, but the Jewish establishment.
Today's reading (Acts 5: 27-32, 40-41) gives a brief taste of the second trial of the Apostles. They were, again, warned off. During the trial, Peter took his argument right up to the High Priest in council. His case was - he and the other apostles were witnesses of the death and resurrection of Jesus. He was inviting the Jewish leadership to repent and follow the Gospel. That same mission is exercised by the whole church in our own day and time.
Internationally, Pope John Paul 2 personified the church's mission. He was widely accepted as the voice of humanity's conscience. Parkinson's hadn't stopped him. His great encyclical, 'The Gospel of Life', does for modern secular society what Peter and the apostles did for the Sanhedrin (governing body of clerics). In that encyclical, he called the world away from the 'culture of death' to the Gospel of Life. He had urged Catholics, individually and collectively, to be agents for change in their own societies. Around the wide world, Catholics and others stand up before secular authorities to preach reconciliation, at great risk to themselves.
Many lay people in Australia are at the cutting edge of this mission to secular society - all in the name, lest we forget, of the Risen Lord.
Responsorial Psalm 20 connects our two main readings: 'I will praise You, Lord, for You have rescued me'.
Today's gospel (John 21:1-19) provides a delightful passage. It gives insights into the relationship between Jesus and his closest associates. Reconciliation is, again, a prominent theme. It's especially important for Catholic Christians who place so much trust in the Pope and the 'college' of bishops who recently reviewed Australian Catholicism.
We find Our Lord inviting Peter to make up for his weakness in the dark hours of the trial and torture of Jesus. Peter had to be a forgiven person before he could be entrusted with the overall leadership of the early Church. This Office of primacy in the Church (the subject of so much argument from then till now!) wasn't a reward for Peter's oaths of loyalty. It was, and is, meant to be an institutional gift, broadcasting Christ's love for all humanity.
The earliest communities began to be concerned, looking for signs and proofs of an on-going Lordship of Jesus. Tradition arose, stressing the presence of the Lord among his own, whenever and wherever, through continuing apostolic leadership, liturgy and universal mission.
Many readers will have experienced that blessed Presence during the recent liturgies of Holy Week. Faith in the Resurrection is, above all, faith in the Risen Lord's continuing participation in contemporary societies.
Through the Spirit of Jesus, facilitated by the care and mission of our Church, at its best, our beautiful world continues to rise from death.

Sunday, 29 April 2007

4th Sunday of Easter - We are his people, the sheep of his flock

The Spirit of God was engaged in a project, much the same as was Jesus, for the continuing education of the Apostles (Acts 13:14, 43-52). Peter, James and John and their supporters intended to keep Jerusalem the headquarters of the Christian Church. Yet, the Spirit was striving to get the Apostles away from that doomed city. So Paul and Barnabas were commissioned to head north.
Many new converts had already settled in Antioch, Cyprus and Turkey to evade persecution from the increasingly hostile Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. Paul pressed on into Turkey and preached to emigre disciples and local pagans. Paul was a universalist. He felt as ease with pagans. He knew the Spirit was there, wherever good people were. Indeed, the entire locality turned out to hear Paul when they realized he saw them as equally acceptable to God as were the Jews.
Over the last few hundred years, Western missionaries made that same error, corrected by Paul, when they thought developing nations would become Christian by adopting Western habits of thought and action. Thank God that error is being corrected by local Catholic (and other Christian) churches worldwide.
In our own day, Iraq will be saved by universalism not imperialism or separatism.
John was single minded in striving to ensure that the early Christians knew Jesus' true identity. Both his version of the Gospel and his awe-inspiring Book of Revelation teach emphatically that Jesus is the Son of God, not just another prophet.
Today's gospel (John 10: 27-30) is part of a response by Jesus to the Pharisees, whose leadership he criticized. He insisted on three criteria for judging genuine religious leadership: the good leader (shepherd) gives himself for his flock; he lives on terms of communion and knowledge with his flock; he's concerned about unity, gathering the lost sheep around himself. Jesus Himself fulfilled all those criteria. The Jewish leadership did not!
The Pharisees considered the 'flock' to consist only of Jews who kept the religious observances. Other Jews were low caste, even untouchables. (Catholics have experienced phases of the same discrimination). So, too, have our own original ancestors, our Muslim brethren and our refugees.
According to this jaundiced view, non-Jews couldn't be God's friends unless they became honorary Jews. Jesus' Gospel, on the contrary, was all embracing - gender, colour, creed just weren't a factor in being welcomed by God through Jesus.
Remember, throughout the best of the Old Testament, God was presented as the only trusted Shepherd. Now, Jesus presented Himself as one with God. Only by virtue of that relationship was He equally involved in shepherding the universal, non-discriminatory flock.
Local churches are intended to be faithful shepherds; self-sacrificing and open to all men, women and children especially those discriminated against by others.

Sunday, 6 May 2007

5th Sunday of Easter - I will praise Your name forever, my king and my God

Paul and Barnabas set up Christian communities in Northern Palestine and the area now known as Lebanon. They did the same in Cyprus and throughout Turkey. (Where have all those Churches gone?) Their converts had been already religious, following their own local customs and styles of honouring the local Gods. They had priests, rituals and sacrifices. But Paul invited them to experience something different-gospel faith in God, all at once, intimate and awesome (Acts 14: 21-27).
Paul and Barnabas went back the same way they had come, leaving appointed leaders or 'presbyters' to look after these small communities. When they arrived back in Antioch, they called a meeting of Jewish disciples and reported to them how God had already been present wherever they travelled!
This is the core of mission theology. And, we must thank Paul for making it an essential ingredient in Catholic missionary strategy and tactics. It was Paul who revealed that people, almost everywhere, were willing to listen to him when they heard that they were equally acceptable to God, as were the Jews.
Over the last few hundred years, western missionaries made an error in judgment not following Paul's policy of enculturation, when they thought developing nations would become Christian by adopting European habits of thought and behaviour. Many Asian, African and Latin American nations now show the disastrous effects of that wrong, if understandable approach. Thank God, that wrong is being corrected by local Catholic churches worldwide.
Jesus talked about His disciples' future as if He intended to be with them in a real and influential way.
And, the salient point of our gospel passage (John 13: 31-35) is the giving of a new commandment - 'love one another'. It's new because it's not grounded in the love commandments of the Jewish tradition but in Jesus' self-sacrifice. Our Lord didn't command the first disciples to like one another, but to love one another. I think a lot of us are confused by that difference. Our Gospel gives us some of Our Lord's most precious thoughts at the end of the Last Supper. It has been said these verses are much like those attributed to a dying patriarch, perhaps Moses.
To be practical for our own situation, a parish community should be a startling mix of people and naturally there will and should be differences in politics, ethnic origins, age, gender and culture. Only God can create community from such a grab bag of differences.
Only the Eucharistic assembly and the love imperative can energise such an 'Easter' community. Only a parish that has love as the well spring of its pastoral work (Catholics looking after themselves) can send out missionaries, brothers and sisters of mercy and charity, to look after the interests of 'outsiders'.

Sunday, 13 May 2007

6th Sunday of Easter - 0 God, let all the nations praise you

Discrimination, against which Jesus had fought all his life, raised its ugly head again when rules about entry into the Christian Church, were hammered out by the apostles. Some over-zealous Jewish Christians took it upon themselves to visit prospective non-Jewish converts (to Christianity) and insist they adopt Jewish practices, including circumcision, before they would be accepted as members of the Church.
Paul and Barnabas were commission by Peter and the apostles to undo the damage done by the self-appointed 'thought-police' (Acts 15:1-2, 22-29). Their message was: 'Forget about first becoming Jews'. Paul and Barnabas did however invite these converts to show sensitivity towards their Jewish neighbours by voluntarily abstaining from non-kosher food and sexual relationships.
Modern Catholics should take to heart these early temptations to discriminate because it's so easy to slip into the habit. Should we not be sensitive to their predicament and them to ours? Instead, we should rejoice at the spiritual discoveries made by so many non-Christian good people.
Islam ought to be looked upon as a spiritual relative. He or she does share in our common property - the human condition. Islam's search can provide the Christian with many rich insights.
Our responsorial Psalm links our two main reading: '0 God, let all the nations praise you.'
Today's gospel (John 14: 23-29) is situated after the washing of the feet at the Last Supper.
Those who lived intimately with Jesus for several months would soon need to discover another way of living with the risen and present, though invisible, Christ. 'I was with you', said Jesus; henceforth, 'I shall be in you'.
The Jerusalem Temple, built by Solomon a few hundred years earlier, had always been thought of as the place where God was present on earth. That sign of God's presence was too material however, and God quitted the Temple at Jesus' execution, to take up residence everywhere.
A more interior presence of God had already been 'flagged' in the Old Testament books of Wisdom tradition, the presence of God in the souls of good people.
From the time of the Resurrection, God's dwelling place would be the liturgical assemblies of Christians. Hence the supreme importance of Sunday Mass!
Judas, confused as ever, thought that Jesus meant he would summon his followers to secret meetings! But, Jesus really meant he would meet with them in their innermost thoughts and attitudes. This special teaching is the basis of all Christian spiritualities and has great importance for modern spirituality.
Human as we are, however, Catholic's do depend on our institutions for spiritual support.
The spirit of God nevertheless, transcends all institutions, even those developed by the Church, to ensure that god is available to everyone, everywhere.

Sunday, 20 May 2007

Ascension of the Lord - God mounts His throne to shouts of joy

St Luke wrote two closely connected books: the Acts of the Apostles and his version of the Gospel.
The Ascension is the turning point between Jesus' own ministry and the era of the Church's mission, a time, which looks towards the Lord's return. Other dramatic incidents in the Jewish scriptures, such as the ascension of Elijah and the exit from the Temple of God in glory, suggested to Luke what imagery to use in describing Christ Jesus' departure (Acts: 1:1-11).
Luke needed to record for the first disciples and us that Jesus is no longer visibly among us and that this is to our spiritual advantage. Why? Because you and I must now assume our individual and collective Christian responsibilities.
We shall also discover, at first with surprise, then with joy, that the spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus, is active in our midst, right here and now, despite appearances.
Jesus' Gospel was and is intended to change human history, individuals, and cultures - the whole of human experience. We Catholics expect change. We suspect inertia. Only the Father knows the timing and the goals of human history, about which people today, you will have noticed, are more and more concerned. Our involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor and the Solomon's has provided Australians with a rare enough opportunity to reflect on our own history.
Jesus' Ascension has left the Church to be a beacon of hope amidst the unfolding of human history. Today's gospel reading (Luke 24: 46-53) is the final verses of Luke's version of the Gospel. It leads into the Acts of the Apostles, also written by Luke or his disciples.
The Ascension has been described as a 'trans-figuration of the Risen Lord'. For Luke, it was like the High Priest withdrawing from the Temple assembly to go alone, as prescribed, into that unique Jewish sacred site, the Holy of Holies. By borrowing this imagery from temple liturgy, Luke intended to indicate that, from now and forever, the priestly role would be fulfilled by the risen Lord alone.
He also wanted to stress that preaching and catechesis were not an invention of the apostles, but something handed on by the Lord Himself to be faithfully observed.
When we assemble for Mass, we proclaim the divinity of Jesus and our intention to work in harmony with Him. We work with Him at the task of spiritualizing secular society and, even, the natural universe.
Luke would go into greater details in the Acts. So, also, would Paul in his letters.
Today is an occasion to enjoy and celebrate the glorification of the Lord Jesus and His mission.

Sunday, 27 May 2007

Pentecost Sunday - Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth

The fiftieth day after Passover (that's what the religious term Pentecost means) the Jews of Jesus' time recalled the gift of the Law from God to Moses popularly thought to have occurred on Mt Sinai.

In the light of this definition, the gift of the Spirit, the birth of the Church, salvation promised to all - all of which make up the great Christian Pentecost - is presented by Luke at the promulgation of the new Law, and the beginning of God's mission to all men, women and children everywhere in every generation.

I heard an overseas theologian once refer to Pentecost as 'the reversal of Babel'. You may recall the Old Testament story of a town whose citizens lost the feel for religion and God, one side effect of which was social disintegration. They fell out of love with God and goodness and with one another. They lost the gift of communication. That bred fear, hatred and violence. Babel and chaos became synonymous.

Iraq and Palestine stand out as two stark examples of Babel chaos.

In today's first reading from 'Acts' (Acts 2:1-11), we learn that the gospel gathers together the human family, so easily misled into forming factions, sects or political parties that don't share the same language, because each follows its own dreams (or nightmares), its fears or interests.

Social philosophers warn us that modem technological development in communications and genetics could create chaos once again, dividing the rich and the poor, the computer literate and illiterate.

Let's celebrate Pentecost 2007 by reversing this trend towards factionalism by sharing the church's 'new language of love'. 'Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth' - (Psalm 103).

Today's gospel John (14:15-16, 23-26), thanks to St John and his inspired insight into the communitarian nature of God, puts the reversal of Babel in another way. To John alone do we owe gratitude for a glimpse into the intimate relationship between Father, Son, Spirit and Humanity?

Because of Jesus' life and death, because the Father raised Him from the dead, because both of them sent the Spirit into the midst of the human family, a new form of dialogue has become possible between heaven and earth.

Jesus the Christ makes us able to enter into the divine family. Thus, we need no longer feel obliged to speak of approaching God as if He were far from us. We can now experience God's own communitarian way of life, way of loving. The Church is the guardian of this revelation, but has no monopoly on it.

Like Paul and Barnabas in the early Church, we modern disciples ought to learn to rejoice wherever God's spirit is discovered to be at work in other churches, other religions and in people of no religious connection but full of natural goodness.

God has entrusted Himself to the Church so that the 'unchurched' may have easier access to Him.

Local churches in Australia, 106 years after Federation, need to emerge from the darkness of sectarianism, so often practiced during those 100 years, into the light of communitarianism. Just as God has shared Himself with us, so we need to be self-sacrificing in sharing our spiritual and material resources with the neighbourhood.

Sunday, 3 June 2007

Trinity Sunday - O Lord, Our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth

This part of the Book of Proverbs (Proverbs 8: 22-31) was written at a time (perhaps the 3rd Century BC) when the descendants of the great King David were no longer kings of the Jews. Indeed, the Jewish people were realising, at long last, that salvation for them would not come from a King, a government or even a religious law. They felt called to look more deeply into God’s unique plan for them. What had He in store for them? So there emerged a spirituality based on the best primitive, natural religion together with the divine self-revelation enshrined in the Old Testament.
At the same time, a new form of spiritual writing, called Wisdom literature evolved. It would flow naturally into the New Testament writings and those of spiritual writers up to, and including, those of the present day.
We’re reminded by today’s first reading that the arrival of the Son of God crowned at last the messianic hope and emphasised that salvation was free for all people of every place and time. A unique feature of today’s reading is the touching revelation that god, Wisdom personified, felt at home with humankind, even playing in human company.
This is a preview of the intimate relationship between heaven and earth revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, Wisdom Incarnate.
And so to our Gospel according to Saint John (John 16: 12-15), in making us children of god, his Father, Jesus enabled us to discover the intimate mystery within the Trinity.
Starting from the day of Pentecost, the Spirit began to act within the Church, the worldwide assemblies of true believers, showing He is, indeed, the Spirit of the Risen Lord sent by the Father.
Before He left their sight, Jesus told the disciples in no uncertain terms, that they would all be re-united with the Father. Love and deep understanding would compensate for the absence of his visible presence.
The whole gist of the long discourse, of which today’s reading is part, is Jesus’ departure and the apparent desertion of his apostles.
He insisted the Spirit’s mission would be His own. It wasn’t really a question of His mission being now ended and replaced by the Spirit’s. They must not seek vainly for His physical presence but discern, in faith, an abiding spiritual presence, in a world order totally animated by God Himself.
This, I know is heady stuff! It is however, the foundation of all Christian spirituality.
In our own day, called by many writers ‘The Church’s moment’, development of a lay spirituality, based on the Trinity’s mission, is top priority throughout our global network of churches. Benedict XVI in Brazil personifies this relationship.

Sunday, 10 June 2007

The feast of Corpus Christi - Christ incorporated

This final reading from Genesis (Genesis 14: 18-20) has a special place in my personal story. It happened thus.
I was ordained priest in 1960. Among other beautiful things, the St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir say, convincingly 'You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek'. Then, we took it all for granted. But, since then I’ve wondered about Melchizedek many times.
The story goes that Abraham was promised by God occupancy of the land of Canaan, today’s Palestine. But before he could take possession, some of his relatives, including his nephew, Lot, were captured by marauding local chieftains.
Abraham knocked them about, retrieved Lot and the captured relatives with their possessions. As part of the diplomatic peace process, the offending chieftains opened their village gates to Abraham.
Melchizedek, King of Salem, was one of them. He was a born searcher for spiritual wisdom and had an affinity with Abraham and his desert God. He was a pastor/king, caring for his people, not involved in the regional practice of book sacrifices. Instead, he revered God through hospitality, offering Abraham bread and wine.
Paul, by the way, in his letter to the Hebrews, would declare that Jesus was a priest, indeed, not like Jewish priests who were too involved with ritual sacrifices, but according to the order or style of Melchizedek.
I and my colleagues are proud to be priests according to the order of Melchizedek!
Our Gospel takes up the themes of self-sacrifice and pastoral hospitality. Jesus had become embroiled in unrest among the Jewish people.
They were sick and tired of the double-dealing indulged in by Herod and the religious leadership. They were attracted to Jesus’ straight talking and compassion. They dearly wanted Jesus to claim the thrones as King of the Jews.
Today’s Gospel (Luke 9: 11-17) tells us why they wanted him as king. The miracle recorded confirms the faith of many humble believers who, perhaps, not too devoted to Church formalities, often knew how to risk all they have in the service of others less fortunate.
Each Church Community, let’s keep in mind, when the Gospels were the heart of Christianity, quickly saw more in this miracle than just feeding the poor. They soon developed a whole liturgical atmosphere around the breaking and sharing of the Eucharist. Australia’s bishops are now involved in the same kind of research.
We modern Catholics have inherited this beautiful understanding of the relationship between celebrating Eucharist and practicing Gospel justice. We, today, perhaps more than ever before, know that only those who celebrate Eucharist have the spiritual integrity and poverty to sacrifice themselves in the service of the poor.
There is more than social work