2009 - Feast of the Ascension to 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Ascension Sunday –God mounts His throne to shouts of joy
Two New Testament Books are attributed, popularly, to St. Luke. Biblical experts disputed it. Let’s stick with Luke, for now. His gospel is all about Jesus during His 33 years on earth.His Acts of the Apostles is all about the first 20 years of the Church of Jesus, at worship and work, under the influence of the Spirit. Paul’s story is a big part of Acts.
Today’s passage (Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11) is a beautiful summary of Luke’s gospel, right up to the incident we celebrate today. It even mentions the confusion, still in the Apostles’ minds, about the real purpose of Jesus’ mission. Some still expected Our Lord to inaugurate an earthly kingdom, with them playing lead roles in government. This confusion had to come to an end. The apostles had to face up to their responsibilities and get on with the job. So, it was essential to have a definite closure for the physical presence of Christ on earth.
Other incidents of the Bible, such as the ascension of Elijah and, also, the Temple, suggested to Luke the spatial imagery be used to tell of our Lord’s departure. The Lord would be 'seated at God’s right hand', meaning He alone would be in control of the continuing plan of salvation through the Spirit, unrestricted by time, space or culture.
The Ascension and Pentecost, together, mark the beginning of the Church. The Church is provisional, so to speak, the pilot light of the Kingdom.
'Our attitude to Church should be neither admiration nor criticism but belief because we do not yet see the Kingdom' (Guide to the Christian Assembly).
Our Responsorial Psalm 46 links our two main Readings'. 'God mounts His throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets to the Lord.'
We should be glad Jesus is no longer physically present among us. It means He has entrusted to us, the Church, the Father’s work of salvation for all.
Probably today’s account of the apparition to the eleven apostles (Mark 16: 15-20), fuses into one episode, a whole series of experiences and discoveries during the 'forty days' after the resurrection.
It includes a selection of the marvels already wrought by the apostles, and account should be taken of the readiness of spectators, culturally to accept 'magical' things. This analysis, of the final New Testament text about the Ascension, offers an opportunity for reflection on the attitude of the earliest churches towards the Ascension and the strength of their faith. These church communities needed to summarise all that had happened to them since the disappearance of Jesus.
Baptism converts, preaching by the apostles and their successors, missionary activities among other than Jewish villages – all these were noted as faithful, essential activities of churches under the influence of the risen, ascended Jesus.
The early Church was gradually institutionalising itself.
Over two millennia later, we’re still struggling to ensure that contemporary church institutions are always reforming themselves, just like their earliest predecessors, to guarantee faithfulness to the Gospel.
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Pentecost Sunday – Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth
One of the earliest Old Testament epic stories is about the tower of Babel (Babylon). The story ends with no one understanding anyone else!Today’s first reading (Acts of the Apostles 2:1–11) is about the reversal of Babel. It ends with everyone understanding everyone else. Pentecost was fifty days after the Passover which celebrated the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian captivity. Pentecost became the annual Jewish celebration of the solemn contract (covenant) sealed on Sinai, in the Arabian desert, between God and the Hebrews, with Moses as go-between. In today’s first reading, Luke gives us several clues as to the similarity between the Sinai Pentecost and the Jerusalem Pentecost.
For example, the disciples were all gathered in one room, just as the ancient Hebrews had gathered around Sinai. Wind and fire played a big part on Sinai, as in Jerusalem at Pentecost. God’s law was given to the Hebrews on Sinai. God’s own Spirit was given in Jerusalem.
The list of nationalities assembled in Jerusalem, is meant to teach that God’s Spirit is discernible in all cultures and generations. The Church from the beginning was meant to become missionary, without prejudice, to be inclusive, catholic, not exclusive of any time or place.
Not long after the Pentecostal experience in Jerusalem, there was another at Joppa where Peter witnessed the Spirit engulfing an entire non-Jewish gathering at Cornelius’ house. How apt are the words of our responsorial psalm 103: 'Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.'
Today’s Gospel (John 15:26–27; 16:12–15) provides some of John’s deepest insights, about what Our Lord had to say to His Disciples on the night before He was executed. He promised them the abiding presence of the Spirit, the third person of the one and only 'communitarian' God. From Pentecost on, it would be the Spirit who teaches the Church. It will be always necessary for the Church to be humble, self-sacrificing, to allow the Spirit to govern it. Church history gives us many unfortunate examples of the contrary. That same history, let us be honest, even as it unfolds today, proves beyond reasonable doubt, that the Spirit alone inspires Church in the vast majority of cases.
Without adding anything to the Father’s 'word', this greatest witness to the Risen Lord continues to lead into Gospel truth, all Christians of every generation. The 'many things' that Jesus had to say, but didn’t, because 'they would be too much for you now', are being gradually imparted by the Spirit, wherever and whenever Church people are open enough, adventurous enough, to hear and discern them. And, not only Church people but all people of good will! Throughout her long history, the Church has gone on discovering the implications of her universal mission.
St Paul thought it would work within his compatriots: today we realise that it has scarcely more than just begun. Our latest, most dramatic example of the work of the Spirit, surely is the groundswell of public support for reconciliation with our Aboriginal fellow Australians, and the collective passion for reconstruction after floods in the north and fires in the south.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Trinity Sunday – Happy the people the Lord has chosen to be his own
At the risk of oversimplication, the book of Deuteronomy can be summarised as: One God, one people, one sanctuary. It’s understandable, therefore, that this most theological of Old Testament books, has had a great effect on both Judaism and Christianity. The most important teaching of this book, is that Israel must always be monotheist, faithful to the one god who had inspired the patriarchs. This same God had visited the Jews in Egypt, to lead them out of slavery, through the desert, into their own homeland, Canaan. The whole book is one of the most important, for elaborating what we now call salvation history.We may, naturally, be disappointed, in hindsight, that this book encourages 'tunnel vision', because it deals with only the promises made by God concerning Canaan.
No account is taken of the universalist promises involving Abraham’s descendants, e.g. 'All the nations will bless you.'
Catholics who hear this text (Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40) proclaimed this weekend, can have complete faith that God is immersed in contemporary history in Sri Lanka, Burma, indeed wherever the struggle goes on for reconciliation, justice and peace.
Secular societies need to be confronted by churches, called to be discerners and promoters of salvation – history, to ensure that current affairs are guided by good people, God’s people.
Responsorial Psalm 32 links our two main readings: 'Happy the people the Lord has chosen to be His own'.
In very few words (Matthew 28: 16-20), today’s gospel is a superb mix of Old and New Testaments.
It may help to recall that the ancient book of Daniel had already suggested the existence of a ‘trinity’, by mentioning as well as God himself, a 'Son of Man' and a powerful ‘Angel’.
So it was up to Jesus of Nazareth to re-position God as community, calling the human family to communion with Him and within itself.
Jesus commissioned the apostles to launch an expedition, whose aim would be to break down the barriers wherever and whenever uncovered.
The new order of universalism would need to be based on Christ’s unique commandment of reconciliation.'This simple definition is a key Catholic concept and theological insight – evangelisation.
Jesus knew his disciples, and they knew him, by sharing everyday life. The same holds true for today’s Church, evangelisation implies interpersonal sharing.
To evangelise means to help someone (or some group), to reflect on former experiences, until he can recognise in the person of Christ, in His death and resurrection, the truth that lights up his own life.
That’s what local churches of today need to do, when they reveal to secular society the meaning, not the politics of this life of ours, especially its tensions.
Only Jesus Christ, from the midst of the Holy Trinity, is empowered to reveal to us the way of communitarian reconciliation.
Sunday, 21 June 2009
12th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Give thanks to the Lord. His love is everlasting
We've been through Easter and Pentecost, together, and the 'high' feasts of Trinity, Body of Christ, Ascension and Sacred Heart. Not only did these liturgies give us a chance to assemble and remember, as do many secular occasions, but they're meant to provide us with personal and collective experience of God and ourselves as family and circle of friends.Today's first reading (Job 38:1, 8-11) starts our annual routine reappraisal of our place in church and neighbourhood. It's called 'Ordinary Time'. What else! So we listen to a God who's down to earth enough to swap ideas with a not particularly religious man, once rich and powerful, now down on his luck. 'Why me? What kind of god are you?' God doesn't show his own wisdom, but he forces humans, like Job, to admit that they don't know anything. We're getting better (science and technology) at knowing WHAT. We still don't know WHY. A cat's or dog's strange eye contact, children at play or just the shape of a leaf are enough to show forth the mystery of creation. The world of the senses is not all of reality.
Job, reduced to sensual poverty in one way and enhanced in another unexpected way, caught a redemptive glimpse of the divine wisdom. All beauty, goodness and truth have their roots there in that ultimate reality.
Celebrate this unfathomable and unmarketable mystery in Sts Peter's and Paul's this weekend, or another sacred (religious or secular) space near you.
Psalm 106 helps get us from Job to Jesus: 'Give thanks to the Lord. His love is everlasting.'
Mark, indeed all the gospel writers, wrote to reassure Christians, especially convert Jews, that everything would turn out alright. Today's gospel story (Mark 4:35-41) does the job. Who cares what happened or how! These gospels are bequeathed to us to activate the question 'why?' Jesus, notice, didn't reprimand the disciples for their fear of the storm but for not overcoming their fear.
We church people get a chance, today, to admit and confront our many fears the world's collapsing around us, the church's falling to bits, we're failures because we can't measure up in countless ways. But we, together with Jesus and the disciples are working for the Kingdom, which evolves imperceptibly whatever goes on around it. Jesus' disciples admired him greatly, as we admire a champion, hero or, even, celebrity. Yes! As fickle as that! But, on the night he stood up for them against the storm, their eyes were opened. Remember, we need not to care about how or what but why. From that dramatic occasion on to Calvary, the disciples enjoyed Jesus not only as teacher and friend but the one to whom they had entrusted their very selves. Exciting but scary!
Sunday 30 July 2009
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time - I will praise You, Lord, for You have rescued me
The book of Wisdom was written in Egypt between 80 and 50 (years???) before Christ. The Author was one of the many Jews living in a foreign land, deeply under the influence of Greek culture.In the last centuries before Christ, that culture, spread by Alexander the Great, had penetrated the nations of the Middle East. Greeks contributed a new way of looking at the freedom of the individual, and the nobility of the human spirit.
They promoted scientific research, and highly esteemed physical beauty and skills such as those shown within the Olympic Games.
The book of Wisdom is the first serious effort to express the faith and wisdom of Israel, not only in Greek but also in a way adapted to Greek attitudes.
Today's first reading (Wisdom 1:13-15, 2: 23-24) enshrines the basic Wisdom truth: God is nearer to us that we are to ourselves! God is humanity's friend, who wants everyone to live life to the full.
So, we are urged to look to God with confidence: to think well of God, is to fly in the face of all criticism of Him, like 'Why does God allow suffering and death?' The closer one gets to God, the more convinced one becomes of His concern for humans' spiritual and material welfare.
Secular society is naturally confused about the right to life. It prefers to debate the right to die.
The Christian church, emerging from Judaism and respectful of all theologies and philosophies, is the guardian of God's wisdom about life and death.
Responsorial Psalm 29 links our two main readings: 'I will praise You, Lord, for You have rescued me'.
Today's Gospel selection (Mark 5:21-24. 25-33) must be kept in context. Herod was plotting against Jesus. John the Baptist had just been executed, the great ordeal was looming on the horizon.
Confronted by a most distressing, even senseless sickness, and the equally disturbing death of a young woman, Jesus revolted against these humanly hopeless situations.
Miracles were often His way of protesting against the vulnerability, the 'woundedness', of the human condition.
Jesus knew, as did the Author of Wisdom, that God wanted people to live life to the full.
Sickness and death were not God's doing, nor are they today.
In the case of the adult woman, we can discern the trusting attitude we encounter today, in so many people who entrust themselves, health and all, to a devotional, or popular Catholicism.
This may be superficial or naive, expecting great results, from touching images and religious objects - Jesus' garment in this gospel incident.
But as Jesus did, we should respect such religious expressions of Catholicism.
In the same way, we should try, like Jesus, to help people discover deeper dimensions of their faith, of their discipleship.
Just say that the 'little girl' of the gospel story, personifies Hope. In each of us, she lies asleep: she must be woken up regularly, made to get up and walk around.
It's only made possible by faith, in the One who can make our darkest nights give way to light.
Sunday, 5 July 2009
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Our eyes are fixed on the Lord.
In the days when Ezekiel wrote, 500’s BC, people really believed that their ‘Gods’ were confined to specific sanctuaries, some natural, some man-madeThus, the Jews believed that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their God, was not to be found beyond the Temple in Jerusalem. Jews, therefore, exiled in Babylon, far from that Jerusalem temple, were soon given to despair.
They felt that God had abandoned them, and only the Jews left behind in Palestine, would enjoy God’s care. Into this hotbed of angry despair, God sent Ezekiel, a young priest, to preach good news to the prisoners of war.
Ezekiel had the divine vocation to convince these exiles, so rebellious against God’s abandonment of them that God did dwell, indeed, in the Jerusalem Temple, BUT he was no less present among them in distant Babylon.
Rejoice, taught Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2: 2-5), because our God follows His people and dwells among them wherever they are!
Of course, we now know that five hundred years after Ezekiel, the Word of God would become flesh and dwell among his disciples – God with us.
In preparation for that ‘Incarnation’, it was Ezekiel’s task to launch a theology that would become the indelible mark of ‘true believers’ throughout human history.
Religious people who resent this closeness of God, and keep Him prisoner, in some lofty, inaccessible (except to them!) place, are not ‘true believers’. The Babylonian exiles were meant to take Ezekiel’s message back to Palestine, to revitalise religious institutions.
Responsorial Psalm 122 links our two main readings: 'Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for a fair go (mercy)”\.
Again, in today’s gospel passage (Mark 6: 1-6), we find a group of people uncomfortable with God’s closeness.
Even His relatives gave Jesus a hard time, undeserved – His friends, too, treated Him badly. Because He always lived among them, and hardly ever demonstrated anything extraordinary, they were astonished that, in such a short time, He became famous throughout Galilee. They just didn’t seem to know Jesus at all. Well, you may say, “How can one be so close to another person, and yet be so blind to that person’s special gifts?”
Closer to home, we’re well aware that lots of parents, maybe most, go through this same test, as they observe their children growing up before their eyes. Some never get over the discovery that their children are not just ‘clones’ of themselves.
Just so, Jesus’ relatives and friends resented His escape from their ‘dynastic’ expectations. He, they complained, just didn’t know His place. By the way, Mark seems to have had a covert hostility towards Jesus’ blood relations.
Whenever Mark mentions them, he counter-balances their obvious lack of faith in him, with the support provided by Jesus’ other family, His disciples.
We now accept that Jesus, like all humans, had to grow into an awareness of His vocation and mission.
If His family stood in His way forward, His disciples gradually grew along with him.
Local churches, just like individual believers, have to mature, through trial and triumph, just as did Our Lord, Son of God and son of Mary.
Sunday, 12 July 2009
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Jesus’ mission was, simply, one of reconciliation between God and people
In Palestine, during the late 700’s BC, there was a period of stability and prosperity. During that time, the rich became richer and of course, the poor became poorer (does the first inevitably cause the second?).Amos, a shepherd from southern Judea, was called by God to preach, especially in the prosperous north, against social injustice. He went from city to city, arriving eventually at Bethel, the northern King’s own 'cathedral' city (Amos 7: 12-15).
In poor taste, but at God’s insistence Amos preached there his message of repentance and reconciliation.
The priest in charge, Amaziah, told him off in no uncertain terms. Amos, after all, was publicly, and without permission, warning of the downfall of the Jewish northern kingdom and its impending absorption by Assyria! Heady stuff!
So, what was Amos up to? Was he a terrorist or freedom fighter? To those, like Amaziah who profited from maintaining the systemic 'status quo', Amos was a terrorist. To God and those who sought faithfully, to serve Him, Amos was a freedom fighter.
Eventually, after the rise and fall of many prophets like Amos, the voice of genuine prophecy was no longer heard in Palestine, say from 300BC onwards. Then up popped John the Baptist!
Throughout Church history, it seems to me, founders of religious orders carried on the role of prophet. As a result, they had to live dangerously. Prophets are not appreciated in their own milieu.
Today there are many Lay Catholics who feel called to prophesise within the Church. Do we value them enough?
In today’s Gospel, according to Mark (Mark: 6:7-13), Jesus begins the third stage of His ministry by organising a mission throughout the region.
Previously, the apostles accompanied Jesus, but now, He sends them ahead of Him. They are to go out in teams of two so as to convey the message that the Gospel is not just one person’s insight.
Jesus was an educator. Not only did He teach His disciples but He got them to participate in the mission. They had to preach what they had grasped of Jesus’ message. They had to anoint with oil those who wanted to break away from chaos and evil. Jesus’ mission was, simply, one of reconciliation between God and people. Healing of sickness was one thing. More important was spiritually healing.
Even if physical or emotional sickness remains, spiritual healing makes all bearable. Like Amos, previously mentioned, nothing had prepared these Galilean fishermen for such a mission.
And, so it is in our time, we are all called, especially lay people, to be apostles during the third AD millennium.
The task, today, remembering and learning from all the changes around us is to help people talk with one another, to share convictions about God, Jesus, the Church, themselves, their religious worldview and their bond with the rest of creation.
Not only individual Catholics but each and every parish is called by God, like Amos and Jesus, to be prophetic within the Church and within secular society.
Sunday, 19 July 2009
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time– The Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing I shall want
'Oh what a tangled web we weave'. Shakespeare meant these words to describe the politics of his own time. But, they fit as easily the times of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The Northern Kingdom, Israel, had already fallen to the Babylonians. The best and fairest Jews had been deported to ensure there would be no further insurrection against foreign rule.Before he was last heard of in 690 BC, Isaiah had warned all who would listen that disaster would happen unless the Jewish leadership in the southern kingdom, Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem, repented and reformed.
Judah’s king, Zedekiah, admired Jeremiah but was too weak to resist court and Temple officials who plotted an alliance with Egypt. They persecuted Jeremiah but fled when their plotting forced Babylon to attack Jerusalem.
Today’s first reading (Jeremiah 23: 1- 6) gives us Jeremiah’s denunciation of these mischievous and cowardly officials (shepherds).
But, the prophet preached hope also. God would raise up, sooner or later, a worthy descendant of the shepherd-king, David. He would suffer, like Jeremiah, but would succeed in gathering together (reconciling) into a spiritual Kingdom, all true believers, in God’s universal plan of salvation.
‘The nationalism of the false shepherds of Judah never quite dies. It manifests itself again and again in both church and secular history.’ (Guide for the Christian Assembly.)
Our Responsorial Psalm 22 follows today’s ‘shepherd’ theme: 'The Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing I shall want’.
In today’s Gospel, according to Mark (Mark 6:30-34), Jesus’ pity for the crowd is highlighted.
Obviously Jesus was the shepherd promised by Jeremiah. Opposed to the carelessness of the shepherds of Israel, who were, after all, responsible for the scattering of the ordinary people, the caring love of God is demonstrated in the person of His Messiah, the true shepherd.
At the start of today’s Gospel, we witness Jesus’ concern for his disciples. This raises the question of how to balance prayer and action, pastoral care and missionary activity?
‘Devotion that doesn’t issue action is not true devotion. Prayer that doesn’t produce work is not true prayer. We must never seek the fellowship of God to avoid the fellowship of men and women but, rather, to equip ourselves better for it. The rhythm of Christian life is the alternative meeting with God in the secret place and serving men and women in the market place’.
Sorry for the long quote from Willy Barclay’s ‘Gospel of Mark’, but it does hit the nail on the head.
Our Lord doesn’t show Himself to the world through the moral good example of churchgoers exclusively.
Many an atheist can lay claim to ethical behaviour as well, as many, a churchgoer.
The guarantee of God’s presence is when we project Him, by our daily attitudes, individually and collectively, into troubles like death, war, poverty and social justice.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time – The hand of the Lord feeds us: He answers all our needs
The period of Kings is the third stage in Israel’s history. It follows the age of the Patriarchs (starting with Abraham in 1750 BC) and that of the Exodus and the settlement (Moses in 1250 BC).The times of Kings covers a period of four centuries. They are the most important in the sacred history because they are the times during which God raised up prophets from among His people. It is, also, a time we know with the greatest precision. There would be, throughout those times, decadence aplenty, but, in the prophets, Israel’s faith would mature to the point of reaching a sublimity and clarity which Jesus Christ alone could bring still further.
The extremely solitary prophet, Elijah, had mysteriously disappeared, but not before anointing Elisha as his successor.
The chief emphasis in today’s first reading (Kings 4:42-44) is the abundance of the loaves, the importance of the scraps and the unbelievable nature of the incident. To share this extraordinary meal, an attitude of spiritual poverty in the guests is presupposed.
One must be hungry to participate, hungry for the bread, yes, but also for a right relationship with God and others. It’s a meal of abundance! The guests can’t begin to exhaust the menu – even the scraps tempt the participants.
Such profusion is symbolic of the inexhaustible spiritual resources available to humanity from the loving hand of God.
Our weekend gatherings around God’s table are meant to celebrate this abundance: 'The hand of the Lord feeds us: He answers all our needs.
We have read Mark’s gospel until today, when we’re treated to one of the key passages in John’s version (John 6: 1-15). We now accept that this passage is all about the Eucharist and the Word combined. Indeed, Old Testament passages abound where God’s Word is described as food and drink.
Isaiah had promised that the day would come when God and humanity would sit down together at a great banquet. The spiritually poor would be special guests.
By the time Jesus had arrived as God’s last and perfect 'Word', Palestine was filled with people of little concern to their leaders called to be their shepherds! Today’s passage portrays Jesus as the good shepherd concerned that so many people were left to their own paltry efforts to survive.
John was at pains to reveal the real character and personality of Jesus. John has Jesus do all the work including passing around the loaves. (The other gospel writers have the apostles doing that.)
But, when the people decided to capture Jesus and keep His miraculous powers for themselves – Our Lord disappeared. He will not be monopolised by any individual or group, rich or poor or in-between.
A newborn modern sickness, 'affluenza' has emerged in western societies. Affluent people need help to avoid the soul-destroying impact of extreme wealth.
Our international Church and local churches have a duty to ensure that all men and women have equal access to God’s saving Word which alone can inspire a genuine creation and distribution of wealth. So insists the Pope in his latest letter.
Sunday, 2 August 2009
18th Sunday of Ordinary Time – 'I am the bread of life' The hand of the Lord feeds us: He answers all our needs
Today’s two main readings continue last week’s theme – God is the perfect host!Our first reading from Exodus (Exodus 16: 2-4, 12-15) stresses God’s providence throughout the Sinai desert experience.
According to biblical experts the first expedition out of Egypt occurred in the 1400’s BC. Those Hebrews were driven out into the desert, blamed for causing the spread of a fatal infection. They took the shortest route to Palestine.
In the 1200’s BC, it seems Moses led other tribes into the Sinai desert. He took the long way down the west coast of the peninsula, via Mount Sinai, up the east coast to Palestine
The priests who retold that epic journey, seven hundred years later, to rally the morale of their contemporaries, emphasised the miracles performed by an interventionist God, in favour of His chosen people. They’d become disheartened by the length and toughness of the divine task. But God needed them to persevere so His plan of universal salvation could unfold.
Innumerable quails, tired by a long migratory flight over the desert, dropped dead into the Hebrew camps. Edible resin from desert bushes (bush tucker!) appeared in the mornings.
People of all generations and cultures need to be sure that God is on their side. We need God. He needs us. This is the centre of Judeo-Christian theology.
Direct intervention by God doesn’t appeal to moderns. Maybe we need to constantly remind them that the story of human progress is equally miraculous.
Psalm 77 links our two main readings: 'The Lord gave them bread from Heaven'.
In today’s gospel passage (John 6: 24-35), John records Jesus, in effect, agreeing that God had done a marvellous thing for the Hebrew ancestors of His contemporary listeners by feeding them in the desert But, Jesus insisted that a giant leap of faith was now called for. People who had claimed they believed in God had to learn and accept that God’s Word was of far greater value then just food and drink. We all have to decide what our priorities are. We’re naturally inclined to become absorbed by day-to-day, even minute-to-minute, needs.
Jesus questioned, for our sake, whether that was really living life to the full.
At that stage of revealing His personality, Jesus introduced a new formula: the bread of life, an expression not found in the Old Testament. We have John to thank for that, as for other comparable phrases: light of life, word of life, water of life. Here is a spirituality that merges natural images with deeply mystical ones.
This is the 'incarnational' aspect of catholic theology, which is so needed, in our western secular, materialist society.
Whatever about seeking the 'mind of God', we surely enter into the 'heart of God' by the earthly process of eating bread and drinking wine.
'I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me
Will never be hungry;
He who believes in me
Will never thirst.'
Will never be hungry;
He who believes in me
Will never thirst.'
Sunday, 9 August 2009
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Taste and see the Lord’s goodness
In the 850’s BC, the king of the northern Jewish kingdom was Achab. He was a good politician but a bad religious leader. He 'married out' with a woman from Tyre. Her name became infamous – Jezabel. Achab tried to be faithful to the God of Abraham and Moses. But, his wife was a great fan of the local 'gods', collectively called Baal.It fell to the famous prophet, Elijah, to take on Jezabel and the worship of Baal, which didn’t do much for his popularity with Achab. Mt Carmel was the scene of a bloody battle between Elijah and the followers of Baal. Hundreds of Baal’s priests were slaughtered as a result. Jezabel came after Elijah. He became disillusioned. Hence, today’s first reading (1 Kings 19: 4-8).
After all, Elijah had done God’s will. How come he was on the run, tired and deserted? God intervened and dealt with Elijah as He had with Moses hundreds of years earlier. God gave Elijah spiritual nourishment, bread and water just as He had given Moses in the desert. He sent Elijah on a spiritual journey down south to a mountain called, sometimes Sinai, sometimes Horeb. He met with Elijah who was spiritually refreshed by the encounter.
In our lives, it’s when everything suddenly falls apart – any worthwhile life knows such moments – when the strengths we thought we had, evaporate, when sacred truths seem all at once open to question, that God can begin to help.
Responsorial Psalm 33: 'Taste and see the Lord’s goodness'.
In the Sunday Mass, God continues to provide us with the necessary spiritual sustenance. According to John, Jesus of Nazareth is like bread for true believers.
Thank heavens bread has been reinstated as an essential item of a healthy diet! It makes it so much easier for us to understand John’s Chapter Six.
It should have been easy for Jesus’ own compatriots to accept him as an essential ingredient of their spiritual diet. For them, Jesus was too much like themselves to have come from 'elsewhere', too much part of their culture to come 'from God'. They had become distracted by Jesus’ miracles. They liked Him as a wonder-worker. To maintain His popularity, all Jesus had to do was to keep the miracles coming!
But, as today’s gospel (John 6: 41-51) so clearly shows, Jesus insisted that, like all genuine prophets, it was His job to simply be God’s messenger. He had to be eaten alive so as people could be brought back into touch with the Father. For John, it was always essential, before the link of discipleship was formed with Jesus, that one recognise the link between Jesus and the Father.
To highlight this need for spiritual discernment, John also recorded some people’s complaints, those who failed to see Jesus’ relationship with the Father, thereby refusing to recognise that the Son of Mary and Joseph was someone 'come down from heaven'.
When we today, eat the bread and drink from the cup we proclaim the relationship between Jesus, God and us.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
20th Sunday of the Ordinary Time – Taste and see the goodness of the Lord
When Palestine had settled down to become some kind of peaceful society (thanks mainly to King Solomon), a new kind of literature emerged. Thoughtful Jewish writers took advantage of the lull between struggles to develop what we now call wisdom literature. These religious 'philosophers' reflected on human behaviour, how people could live together in harmony, the moral consensus, the role of wealth, the different fates of the good and the bad.As an aside, there is a great hunger in our own times for such philosophical writings and discussions. Many people are looking for more than a trip along the super-highway of information.
Our first reading (Proverbs 9: 1-6) comes from what was written around the second century before Christ. (Keep your eyes open for Jesus’ own use of the ‘new’ style in his ‘banquet parables’.) All people are called to change their lives; yet, the only one thing we all love to avoid is change.
The book of Proverbs talks about wisdom, Jesus Himself is wisdom, the very personification of God.
This Old Testament book presents God as always present in our lives. He gives Himself and nourishes us. We’re invited to open our hands to accept whatever He offers, learning to trust it will all be for the good. Each day He gives us whatever, spiritually, we need to solve our human problems, individually and collectively.
John would later develop this theology both in his version of the Gospel and in the Book of Revelation.
Responsorial Psalm 33 links our two main readings: 'Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord'.
Today’s Gospel extract (John 6: 51-58) ends Christ’s discourse about the bread of life.
He had tried, ever so hard, to break gradually to His audience the good news about the bread of life.
Surely, parents at least would have understood the deep meaning of what Our Lord had to say about self-sacrifice. When parents offer bread to their children, they really offer themselves. Especially in times and places where the bread is made at home or bought with money saved with great difficulty, parents are sacrificing themselves for the family.
Indeed, Jesus introduced 'family' into His discourse about the Eucharist, as is clearly demonstrated in today’s gospel emphasis on the Father. John alone conveys this deep spiritual insight.
The eating and drinking of Christ’s flesh and blood is a graphic expression about sharing divine life with the Father through Jesus. Another member of the Family, the Spirit, energises all these sacramental wonders.
So, the Family of God, the Trinity, is not just a dogma for us; it is a living relationship enshrined forever within Eucharistic celebration and sharing.
We’ve heard many times the modern health adage: 'We are what we eat'. Never have those words meant more than in John’s teaching, at great length, about eating and drinking the Body and Blood of the Lord.
Sunday, 23 August, 2009
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time – Covenant – A Relationship Written on the Hearts of the Followers of the Gospel
After Moses’ death, Joshua, with some of the Hebrews freed from
The meeting was called by Joshua at Shechem in central
The tribes, other than Joshua’s, had earlier become inculturated into the dominant ethnic groups already settled in
Regular remembrance of this covenant of Schechem would keep alive the aspiration for unity and fidelity to God during those dark moments after Joshua’s death, that is, during the regime of the Judges.
Unfortunately, the beautiful idea of a Covenant, a solemn agreement between God and His chosen people, deteriorated over hundreds of years into an oppressive system of religious law and order. Our Church, we now willingly confess, has forgotten on occasions that Jesus redefined the Covenant as a relationship, written not on stone but on the hearts of followers of the Gospel.
In today’s Gospel (John 6: 60-69) as at Schechem, we find ourselves at a turning point: will the disciples turn away and join the ranks of unbelievers, or will they give themselves, finally and without reserve, to follow Christ and His ways?
They had to make a decision because Jesus had just warned them of what lay ahead – suffering and death. They, of course, were looking for a political, military messiah. They had been, from birth, infected with the centuries old heresy of nationalism.
Jesus was showing signs of vulnerability. He shocked them with the prediction that He would fail, in His lifetime, to be accepted by most Jews as God’s special agent of change and reconciliation, it would be all downhill, humanly speaking.
Not only the crowd, but even some previous disciples, decided against Jesus. They wanted a religious law and order covenant, not a shocking personal relationship with God through Jesus. There was no doubt in their minds about His intentions.
Had He not gone too far in expressing this promised relationship in the not uncertain terms of ‘eating flesh and drinking blood?’
Peter, on behalf of Jesus’ specially selected apostles, did what Joshua had done at Shechem. He chose Jesus’ way as God’s own way. And, so, the up and down course of church history began.
‘Cross and Resurrection’ spirituality has renewed the Church whenever She has turned away to follow bad religion written on hearts of stone.
[Missing commentaries to be inserted soon]
Sunday, 13 September 2009
24th Sunday of Ordinary Time – I will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the livingMay I remind you again, dear reader, that scripture experts claim, that the book called 'Isaiah' was written by three different people at three different times.Today’s passage (Isaiah 50: 5-9) is from the second author who tells of the suffering involved in working faithfully for God, especially if you are an appointed prophet.Another highlight is the mention of a key Old Testament character known as 'the Suffering Servant'.This term sometimes applies to an individual prophet, like Jeremiah, who we know from his own writings, went through hell on earth. It sometimes describes the predicament of the minority of faithful Jews who, as a collective, can be described as 'the Suffering Servant'.Today’s verses, of course, will be used, above all, to describe Jesus’ own passion and death.The Good Friday liturgy is filled with references to Old Testament prophets, including Moses himself, who were rejected by 'religious' contemporaries who should have known better.Latin American theologians blamed 'institutional sin' for the awful opposition experienced by their own people striving to be faithful to Gospel imperatives.All baptised Christians are initiated prophets. Sacramental programs for teenagers and adults, together with purifying life experiences, will further develop the prophetic calling and mission among church members.Today’ Responsorial Psalm 114 provides a comforting response to second Isaiah’s agony and ecstasy. 'I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living'.And, for this divine intervention, we have today’s response in the words of Psalm 145: 'Praise the Lord, my soul'.Our gospel passage from Mark (Mark 8: 27-35) clearly links Jesus with the ancient prophets. Popular opinion had no doubt; contrary to the official line, that Jesus was in the mould of ancient Elijah and contemporary John the Baptist.At this point, the gospel already foretold the tragic outcome for Jesus, which never ceases to amaze, whenever it confronts us. For the first time the gospel shows the apostles taking seriously the messianic role of their master.'Christ' is a Greek word, which means 'messiah' in Hebrew. (It is not a surname but a title.) When our Lord used the farther description of Himself as 'Son of Man', he was alluding to an Old Testament reference to the Messiah as 'the Human One', or, 'the Son of Humanity'.Jesus just had to try to repair the damage done by centuries of 'bad' religion. The God of Jesus is immanent as well as transcendent. God had become entrapped, so to speak, in legalism and ritualism. That is not where He was meant to be. So, He became flesh and blood and lived among us in the person of Jesus. That way, and only that way, could God and humanity be reunited.Jesus had to be rejected by religious authorities and go to his death because self-sacrifice is the only safe plan to salvation for humanity.Local churches, as well as individuals, have to be faithful to the Gospel; will have to freely accept that suffering is part and parcel of developing the Kingdom.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
25th Sunday of Ordinary Time – The Lord upholds my life
It was extremely difficult for Jews living away from home to live peacefully. The local predominant majority, always non-Jewish, just wouldn’t leave them alone.As an example, today’s first reading (Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20) is set in Alexandria, Egypt, in the first century BC. Jews had been there since the 5th Century BC, Greek thought and culture predominated.
It was a modern way of viewing the freedom of the individual and nobility of the human spirit.
Greeks promoted scientific research and highly valued, human beauty and prowess. (Hence the Games!)
The 'eccentric' Jews were counter-cultural and therefore, unpopular. There were so many things in their lives that were different from local, though imported, customs.
The same is true now, even though in our secular society a strict observer, Jew or gentile, tries not to stand out too much, but cannot hide his or her integrity and enthusiasm. We’re a bit odd. The author of the Old Testament book known as 'the Wisdom of Solomon', sought to rally beleaguered young, expatriate Jewish students to a wholesome appreciation of Jewish tradition.
They had inherited a special knowledge of God, far superior they would be taught, to that of Greek philosophers. I guess the recently published Catholic Catechism and our diocesan RE guidelines are meant to do the same for Catholics immersed in secular society.
Each parish is a community of faith in the God of Abraham, Jesus and the Spirit living in our hearts.
See how appropriate is today’s Responsorial Psalm 53: 'The Lord upholds my life'.
There are some shocks in today’s gospel passage (Mark 9: 30-37). The first is – how fickle the disciples were. Our Lord had opened His heart to them by revealing the fate awaiting Him – torture and execution.
Even so, the disciples fell into an incongruous argument about leadership positions! They seem no more understanding or sympathetic than were the crowds. Yet, their scriptural knowledge must have been, as for most Jews, considerable. It was that body of sacred texts to which Jesus appealed as he unfolded a scriptural argument for the predicted torture and execution of the Messiah. When that failed, and to underline their lack of understanding, Jesus took a small child, helpless and defenceless, and said, more or less, 'This is me, this is how you will welcome me, if you are my followers.'
Researchers tell us children weren’t highly regarded at that time. So, Jesus used a child to teach them about the future – his and theirs. They would have to develop a childlike helplessness in the face of harsh reality. They, like himself, would be dealt with badly. So, they must, in future, espouse the cause of those whom society would deal with harshly.
Here is the second of the shocks mentioned above. Jesus revealed a vulnerable God who needs compassionate men and women to protect Him and His plan of salvation. Whoever expected such theology! Yet it is precisely that theology preached by Jesus and entrusted to the Church.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
26th Sunday of Ordinary Time – God is at work whenever and with whomsoever He chooses
Our first reading (Numbers: 11: 25-29) comes from an Old Testament Book called 'Numbers' because it begins by listing the numbers of Hebrews named in a census taken in the desert during Moses’ leadership.This census, the desert events and God’s statement to Moses, are simply a way of presenting ancient laws, codified and edited much later by Israel’s priests.
There are also some tribal memories relating to the desert experience, like today’s passage about two elders, Eldad and Medad, mysteriously endowed with God’s spirit.
These were two elders who didn’t attend the scheduled ceremony of investiture. Despite their absence, they were filled with the spirit and began, against expectations, to prophesise.
The rest of the reading, by the way, is highly conservative and extremely concerned with protecting the newly established institution against unauthorised activities. So, it is surprising to discover this example of tolerance for spontaneous prophecy.
We can safely conclude that even early in the history of salvation, God shows that His ways are not our ways.
Authorities, civil and religious, are always ill at ease when confronted with 'outsiders' clearly under the influence of God’s Spirit.
In our own day, lay people are more and more called by the Spirit to prophesise, to see through the accumulated masses of rituals and regulations to the very heart of the Gospel way of Jesus.
At the beginning of our gospel passage (Mark 9: 38-43 47-48) we have a parallel to the story of Eldad and Medad, the two elders already mentioned in today’s first Reading Again, we have an example of tolerance. This time it is Jesus disciples who are tempted to ex-communicate a couple of 'gatecrashers'.
Time was running out for our Lord, so He spent a lot of time and effort training the disciples, especially those He wanted to leave in charge of His Church. So, he tackled some of the difficult questions about criteria for entry into the 'Kingdom'.
He taught the apostles to be tolerant of the good Gospel work done outside the control of the apostolic Church.
For us modern Catholics, that means we too must learn to rejoice when other churches perform evangelising works. Of course, we are sad that other churches have lost some of the treasures, theological and sacramental, of the earliest Christian tradition. But, it is wrong of us not to recognise our own need for continuing reform: because numerous Catholics don’t take the Gospel seriously, because many parishioners have not been accustomed to the initiative, leaving the development of local churches to dwindling numbers of clergy and religious.
We must believe that God works somehow through 'rival' churches and, also, through secular prophets!
God is assuredly with us Catholics (one, true Church) but he is also at work with whomsoever He chooses.
