Husband's Happiness
Dynamic or Sterile?
They Have No Wine
Wedding at Cana
Is 62:1-5. Jerusalem lay ruined, grieving like a lonely widow. Yet the prophet announces a future joyful feast for God and his people.
1 Cor 12:4-11. There are many different gifts among us, but they all come from God's Spirit and should be used for the good of all.
Jn 2:1-11. Mary's intervention at the marriage at Cana to save a young couple from embarrassment is a model of how to offer help.
Theme: Like Mary's intervention at the marriage at Cana, we should help without being asked and without fuss or demand.
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples.
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts.
Worship the Lord in holy splendor;
tremble before him, all the earth.
Say among the nations, "The Lord is king!
.. He will judge the peoples with equity."
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who aportions to each one individually as he wills.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now. Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Intercessions
- that we may be sensitive to the needs of others and help them without their knowing.
- that we may always ask Mary to intercede for us with her son.
- for all those who are getting married that God will help them to remain faithful to each other.
- for all those already married, that they may renew their love.
Thoughts for 2nd Sunday, C
Today I want to make just one point. And it will take me five or six minutes to do it. The Scripture passage I've just read for you, the account of the miracle at Cana, occurs only in one of the Gospels - the Gospel of St John. There is no mention of it whatsoever in Matthew, Mark or Luke. Isn't that strange? It must mean that John attached to this miracle a particular significance that escaped the other three.
What was that? Well, John was particularly close, not just to Jesus, but to Mary too. He was the representative, but he was also the individual to whom Mary was given at the foot of the cross. "This is your mother" (Jn 19:27). For a number of years after the Crucifixion, he was Mary's adopted son. He saw at first hand the influence she exercised in the growth of the early Church and in the distribution of graces that contributed to that growth. Now John's was the last of the Gospels. He was higher up the hill than the others and could get a longer view. He was able to put things in perspective that little bit better than the other three. With the benefit of greater hindsight and his privileged experience of Mary's ascendancy, the more Cana receded into history, the more important it became. It was a single incident but it had a universal dimension. It underlined not just Mary's temporary influence at Cana, but her permanent role in the economy of salvation. What she did that day, she does every day. The nudgese gave Our Lord has now become a habit. She has become an incurable nudger. Our Lady of the elbow. John included the miracle at Cana in his Gospel because it encapsulates so beautifully Mary's continuing function as our helper and intercessor. "There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there" (Jn 2:1). There's a wedding in Cana every day. And Mary is always there.
That's the one point I want you to take home with you, that up there in heaven Mary continues to be our helper and intercessor. People sometimes wonder what they are all doing up there in heaven. "What in the name of God are they doing from one end of the day to the other? How do they pass the time?" I cannot give you a complete answer to that. But one thing I can tell you for certain. They are up there praying for us, willing us to be saved, coaxing us along the road that they themselves have taken. Foremost among the prayers, supreme among the intercessors, is Our Lord himself. That much is made clear in the letter to the Hebrews. There we're told that Our Lord, "because he remains for ever, has a perpetual priesthood. It follows, then; that his power to save those who come to God through him is absolute, since he lives for ever to intercede for them" (Hebr 7:24-25). And gathered around Jesus in a chorus of intercession are your people and my people praying us forward and upward on our pilgrim way. But nextto our Divine Lord, and head and shoulders above the rest, is the Blessed Virgin Mary. As mother of God and mother of us, next to her Son and in union with her Son, she is the greatest intercessor of them all. As the one who co-operated most closely with Christ in the work of salvation, she is the one who is most passionately concerned that people should be saved. When Mary went up to heaven, she didn't leave behind her motherly role. She didn't pull the ladder up after her. Once a mother, always a mother. The woman of Cana has changed her location but not her occupation. I suppose I could sum it all up in one sentence and say that when Mary went up to heaven she took her elbow with her. Mary was assumed into heaven, elbow and all!
I don't know what anxieties, what problems you have taken with you to church today. I don't know, but I'm quite sure that there must be something bothering you, something that really concerns you. It may be worry about your health, your children's future, your own job prospects, difficulties within your marriage, or whatever. Whatever it is, take your anxiety to Mary. The thing about a mother is that she cares. In the normal course of events, the last person to disown you, the last person to bang the door on you, the last person to give up on you, is your own mother. What's true of earthly mothers is even more true of Mary. Trust her. "Tá Dia láidir agus tá máthair mhaith aige" (God is strong and he has a good mother.) He gave us the best he knew, the best he could find. She won't let you down.
Ever since I was a child I have loved a few lines of poetry written about Our Lady by a distinguished historian and poet called Hilaire Belloc. In these lines he pours out his love for Mary, his belief in her continuing intercession, in the power of her elbow, his absolute conviction that at the hour of his death she wouldiusher him into the company of her Son. I share his love, his faith and his conviction. I know you share it too. Let these beautiful lines of his be our common tribute to Mary and our collective act of hope:
Lady and Queen and Mystery manifold
And Regent of the untroubled sky,
Whom in a dream St Hilda did behold
And heard a woodland music passing by:
You shall receive me when the clouds are high
With evening and the sheep attain the fold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.
("Our Lady of Czestochowa').
St John's gospel mentions Mary, the mother of Jesus two times: at the marriage feast at Cana, the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus and at the crucifixion, the end of it. That could be a way of telling us that Mary did not only play the passive role of being the physical mother of Jesus; that she was also actively involved with Jesus in the work of our redemption. In today's gospel, we hear of the marriage feast at Cana. Mary, the mother of Jesus was invited, as well as Jesus himself and his disciples. As the wedding feast went on, the wine ran out. Mary went out of her way to intercede with Jesus and Jesus performed what John tells us was his first miracle.
If this was Jesus' first miracle, how then did Mary know that Jesus could do it? Good mothers know their children. They know the hidden talents and gifts of their children. There are many young men and women who have gone on to accomplish great things in life because their mothers believed in them and encouraged them.
Other interesting questions arise from the story. Did Mary know all those thirty years that she was living with a wonder-working Jesus and yet never for one day did she ask him to multiply her bread, turn the water on the family table into wine, or double her money to make ends meet? How come she never asked Jesus to use his miraculous power to help her out but she was quick to ask him to use it and help others? Think of it. If you have a child who has a miraculous power to double money for other kids at school, won't you ask him to double yours at home too? After all, one would argue, charity begins at home. But for Mary and for Jesus the needs of the other comes first.
Take the case of Jesus. He knew he had this power to perform miracles. After his forty days fast in the dessert he was hungry and the devil suggested it to him to turn some stones into bread and eat, but he did not do it. Yet he went out and multiplied bread for crowds of his followers to eat. What are they telling us, both Mary and Jesus? Mary and Jesus are telling us that God's gifts to individuals are not meant primarily for their or their families' benefit but for the service of others. That is what St Paul is telling us in the 2nd reading when he enumerates the many different gifts of the Holy Spirit to different persons and adds that "to each person is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good," not for personal profit.
Today is a good day to ask ourselves: "What gifts has God given me? What am I good at? Am I using these gifts mainly for my own personal profit or for the service of others in the community?" We sometimes wonder why there are no more manifestations of the Holy Spirit like what we read in the Bible. Maybe the reason is that we have grown more selfish. If we began using the little gifts we have for the common good - like the gift of praying, singing, teaching, caring, sharing, encouraging, supporting, motivating, writing, etc. - then these gifts will probably begin to grow and soon we shall begin to see miracles. Concern for others is the beginning of miracles.
One of the latter day saints who worked astonishing miracles was St Francis of Assisi. He was able to do so much because he gave himself completely to the service of God and the good of others. Let us, therefore, conclude with the famous prayer of St Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
"As a young man marries a virgin, so will the one who built you marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you." This marriage imagery at the end of the First Reading, imagery which is so frequently found in the Old Testament, is something we must also keep in mind if we are to understand the gospel account of the miracle at Cana. This account is one of the most difficult passages in the whole of St John's gospel if we are trying to discover what the writer had in mind in writing it. Many scripture commentators today maintain that here we do not have
straightforward description of a marriage at Cana nor a simple account of Jesus' first miracle. Even St Augustine was aware of this when he said, "When one has understood everything that is entirely clear in the gospel, only then will the mysteries which lie hidden in this miracle come to light."
The first thing which strikes us as strange is the fact that the bridegroom is mentioned only once, the bride and the guests never, but that Jesus and Mary appear to be the principal characters. There is further the problem of Jesus addressing his mother as "Woman," and then appearing to refuse her request. Yet he turns water into a huge amount of wine, from seven to eight hundred litres in quantity, despite the fact that the guests had already plenty to drink. Moreover, the chief steward should surely have resented Christ giving orders directly to the employees, who nevertheless respond in perfect obedience. St John says that this miracle was the beginning of the signs given by Jesus, and to unravel its meaning one must bear in mind that John's gospel is full of symbolism, and so too is every part of this Cana account.
"We are all called to the spiritual wedding feast, where Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom," St Bernard once wrote; and in the Cana story that is what Christ really is. If Christ is the Bridegroom in the nuptials here symbolised, who is the Bride? She has to be a specific person, and in John's vision she is, symbolically speaking, Mary, who also is the one referred to by the prophets as "Daughter of Zion," "Mother Zion," "Virgin Israel." So the reason why Jesus addresses her as "Woman." In Mary, and through Mary, Christ is espoused to the chosen people Israel, and as well to the Church, which has now taken on the visible role of Mary on earth. Mary says, "They have no wine." Jesus replies, "What is this for me and for you?," meaning that while Mary is thinking of ordinary wine, he sees the shortage of wine as the absence of God's Holy Spirit from the life of the Jewish people ever since the age of the prophets ceased. Mary seems to be making a suggestion, but most likely did not ask for a miracle.
The symbolism of what Jesus does in response should not escape us. For he takes the water that was used for purification under the Old Law, and turns it into the choice wine of the New Law. St Augustine sees in this choice wine a symbol of the gospel of Christ, his message for the whole world. Mary's last words in the gospels are, "Do whatever he (meaning Christ) tells you," and she addresses them to the servants, whom John refers to by a Greek word that means "ministers" or "helpers" (The word is "diakonois" from which we get the word deacons). In their role these servants are figures of the Apostles and disciples, who assist in bringing the choice wine of the gospel to the world.
To these, as well as to each of us, is addressed Mary's invitation to heed what Jesus is saying. What is the significance of all this for us here and now? We might return again to the conclusion of the First Reading, "as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you." God, in the person of Christ, celebrates his taking on the role of Bridegroom to his chosen people with a symbolic feast. A new covenant, a unique bond is set up between God and his elect, a union which is made manifest in the Church. We speak of it as our holy Mother the Church which gives birth to us, its members. As such we should love it always.
Mary continues to be the image of the Church and the mother of all believers, in each of whom she wants her son to be born again. And as she prayed with the disciples in the upper room after the Ascension, so she is willing, here and now, to point out our needs to her divine Son, for in the order of grace she looks on each one of us with a mother's special concern and love.
This might be a good weekend to pause and reflect on our relationship with God the Father. The first reading is filled with such beautiful imagery of the kind of love we COULD feel in our relationship with God. In the first reading we hear of a God who delights in his people, a God who rejoices in his people, a God who longs to express the kind of intimate, exclusive love one finds in marriage.
We can all ask ourselves if we feel this kind of love; that is if we embrace the possibility of truly being in a loving, personal relationship with our God.
But sin and the feeling of unworthiness creeps up in our minds and in our hearts when we contemplate the possibility of a God who loves us. We see our sins as unsurpassable obstacles around which the Love of God has no power to penetrate. We see our relative existence compared to our all powerful God as being so unworthy of recognition that we cannot imagine God taking the time or energy to love us as individuals.
We have had daydream moments when we imagined God keeping track of all of the billions of individuals in the world and wondering how God could possibly be in a loving, caring, intimate relationship with each person. It boggles our minds and sometimes the darkness of doubt creeps into our hearts about our potentiality to be loved.
Or, perhaps we have gotten caught in the philosophical roller-coaster where we simultaneously attempt to profess the omnipotence of God AND our capacity to make free will decisions. We ask ourselves, are we in a dynamic, loving, relationship with God where I feel God can react to my future, free will decisions? Or, do we ask ourselves: "are we simply a puppet on a string who protects the omnipotence of God by rationalizing that what I view as a future, free will decision is simply the reaction to a choice that God already knows I was going to make before I was even born?
Are we in a dynamic, personal relationship with God or a static and sterile relationship of fear? Do we stay in our familiar, human mindset and estimate our relationship with God on the basis of models of relationships from our lived experience? Or do we try to view our relationship with God from His perspective, as told in the Bible, where unfathomable attributes such as omnipotence operate?
The omnipotence of God and a view of relationship as personal can simultaneously exist. It does not have to be one or the other. However, I believe we do ourselves a disservice when we try to view things from the perspective of God. If we want to feel delighted in, rejoices in, and loved we must view things from our perspective and picture God on a personal level where we are in a one-on-one relationship with Him. All of the relational language that God gives us in the Old Testament is anthropomorphic: love of Father, love of Mother, love of husband, love of a romantic lover. We will follow the lead of God and find which personal relationship will lead us to a deeper feeling of being truly loved by God.
If our poor image of God does not allow us to feel loved, we can aim to change that image. The second reading talks about giftedness, specifically gifts from the Holy Spirit. We are told that to each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. Do we believe that we possess such a gift in our own lives? Have we accepted this gift? Have we opened this gift? Have we embraced this gift? Have we thanked God for this gift?
Many of us live in a world where personal gifts remain hidden, where expressing God-given gifts is suppressed for fear that it will look showy or ego-driven, where a false humility is actually empowered by fear and it causes us to politely return our gifts unopened.
In the Middle Ages, there was an organised group of Irish Benedictines, called the Schottenkloster, who established monasteries in Europe, extending from Germany to Kiev in the Ukraine.
Some traces of their foundation still survive, particularly in Germany. There is a memorial plaque to one of them, St Makarius, in the Mariankirche in Würzburg. He was the founder of the Irish monastery in that city. It is recorded that on the day that his monastery was officially dedicated, he performed a miracle. Lest his young Irish novices be overcome by the grandeur of that occasion, he turned the wine into water. A most un-Irish miracle and, arguably, an unchristian one too. It was the reverse of the Cana miracle in more senses than one. He devalued the wine and diminished the festivities.
The miracle at Cana as recorded by St John in today's gospel, has some surprising details, worth reflecting on. Mary seemed to be the first to notice that the wine had run out. Certainly, the person in charge, the steward, was not aware of it, nor it seems was the bride and groom. That it should happen at all indicates that the newly-weds were not well off. It was the sort of happening that could have caused them enormous embarrassment, and ruined what should have been the happiest day of - - their lives. Weddings, then as now, were events of enormous social importance. It is one of those rare occasions when families put themselves in the public arena to be judged by their peers. Even families who can ill-afford it will splash out for a daughter's wedding. Failure to measure up here might mean that they could never hold their heads high again among their neighbours. Cana was a small, close community. "Remember the day the wine ran out at so-and-so's wedding', would be duly entered in the annals. Mary was wellaware how much was at stake. She approached the only one present whom she knew could do something about it, her son, Jesus. Yet, Jesus had never performed a miracle and there must have been umpteen times when that little family in Nazareth could have done with one. Whenever one was needed there, it was Mary who had performed it. Now, when a neighbour's child was in need, it was up to him. "They have no wine," she said. No fuss. No histrionics. What followed largely explains why Catholics have always had this extraordinary devotion to Mary. How many husbands have said to their wives, how many Sons have said to their mothers, what Jesus said to Mary? "Why ask me? What can I do?" Mary knew, as countless wives and mothers know, they will not be refused. "Do whatever he tells you," she instructed the servants. If the story was leaked, and it must have been leaked - otherwise it would not be read today - it was not Mary who leaked it. Probably it was the servants. "Only the servants who had drawn the water knew." Nbody else knew, not the steward, and mercifully not the bride and groom and their families. And that above all accounts for the charm of this miracle.
It is a marvellous model as to how we should act, when helping others. We should be sensitive enough to anticipate their needs. We should help them without their ever knowing, being scrupulously careful to avoid putting them under obligation to us. And whatever we do, we should never mention it to anyone. Most people who need help don't want other people's charity, and those who most need it are the least likely to ask for it.
Today's gospel sees Jesus begin his mission. Now, for the first time, Jesus can go public, and we begin to discover the power of God at the wedding feast at Cana. Since Christmas, we have been considering the preparation for the work. This is a simple, homely setting. It is obviously among friends. Jesus had been invited to the wedding, as had his mother, and his other friends, later to be called apostles. They were having a good time, when the whole scene threatened to turn sour. Running out of wine at a wedding would be like having the reception in McDonald's today! The hosts would be the talk of the town for generations to come. Mary was a quiet woman, who listened more than she talked. It was probably she who first noticed the predicament, and there was no way she could stand idly by, and let the unthinkable happen. She went straight to Jesus, and, as was her wont, instead of a big long speech, she simply said "They have no wine." Because she was full of grace, totally led by the Spirit, it was almost as f the Father spoke through her, to signal to Jesus that, yes, his hour had come.
Beneath the driest desert there is plenty of water. The problem is that the water cannot get to the surface. This happens here and there, and each oasis is a vital source of life for those who travel the desert. In today's world, there is plenty of food, but while half the world is dying of hunger, the other half is on a diet, trying to get down the weight. We have all known some unique and special person, someone who always had time for others, who had some endless supply of compassion, of love, and of patience. Their presence, and their involvement, was the inspiration that gave hope, momentum, and enthusiasm to all undertakings. For such people problems become challenges and opportunities. I believe in miracles, because I have seen Irish mothers work miracles with limited resources, in the rearing of their children. As at Cana, they might only have water, but somehow, whatever they had, seemed to be enough, because the Lord was always on hand... It's so true when we say that, if you want to get something dne, ask a busy person...
A beautiful and simple story. Grace builds on nature. All they had was water, and whatever any of us has is enough for God, if we make it available to him. Only God can do God things, and a miracle is a God-thing. There are many many things that you or I cannot do, but someone; somewhere else could actually do that thing. A miracle, on the other hand, is something that is beyond the power of human nature, and can happen only when God intervenes and makes it possible. It is an important lesson to learn that I am not God, and that there are many things in my life that are beyond my control, and require a miracle. God becomes God in my life the moment I get out of the way, and stop trying to play God. Notice, in today's gospel, that Mary didn't dare attempt to go the miracle route by herself!
I always think of Mary as constantly living with mystery. In other words, she may not have fully grasped the full implications of where life was leading her. She just kept repeating her YES, and she left the rest to God. This was her prayer from the time of the Annunciation, on the road to Egypt, at Cana, and on Calvary. Her instructions were basic, and simple: "Do whatever he tells you." I am not interested in devotion to Mary, when this puts her on a pedestal, somewhat out of reach of us mere mortals. Rather am I interested in a relationship with Mary, where she travels the journey with me, and, when I come face to face with life's problems, she whispers "Do whatever he tells you." Original sin was one of disobedience, and total obedience was the only antidote for that. Jesus would later say "If you love me, you will obey me, and then you can ask the Father for anything in my name."
What does Jesus tell me? He tells me that he has come that we should have life, and that, apart from him, we can do nothing. He speaks about the Father's love, about his own strong preference for the broken and the lost ones, and that the Spirit he will send will complete his work in us. I could take pen and paper, and write down the exact promises and teachings of Jesus. There is not one might or maybe in the whole gospel. His words are simple, and his word is certain. All he asks is that we believe him, and then obey him. "Fill the jars with water" was a simple instruction. He asked them to do something well within their power, and then, to leave the rest to him. He asked them to act within their limits, but he would not have been free to help them if they set the limits for what he was to do. Do what he tells you, and then get out of the way.
Whatever you have is enough. Stop comparing yourself with others. If you are in a wheelchair, and can do nothing for yourself, then let Jesus have whatever little you have, and he will do the rest. Your silent prayer for others could be the most powerful influence for good. The quiet prayers of totally unknown people brought some of the greatest movements for good in the history of the world about. At Cana it was water; later on it was a few loaves and fish. Whatever you have is enough. There is not one person in this church today who doesn't have the material out of which God can work miracles for others.
John was one of those people who could say "Thank God, I'm an atheist," and never sees the contradiction! He was always attacking Joe about his religious beliefs and practices. Joe took it all in good spirits, because he had his own quiet conviction in his own beliefs, and what he knew of Jesus, and he considered that such attacks were par for the course for those who took Jesus seriously. John was really annoyed that he failed to get a rise out of Joe, and his intellectual arguments were getting him nowhere. One day, in desperation, he tackled Joe about Jesus, asking him if he had ever seen one single sign or evidence of Jesus' presence in his life. He scornfully referred to Cana, and asked Joe about the chances of Jesus turning a-glass of water into wine, if Joe asked him. Joe smiled. He himself had been a chronic alcoholic earlier in life, before he met John, and John was unaware of that. Joe simply said: "I don't want Jesus to turn that water into wine. When I really needed him, I fell on my knees and askd for help, and he turned wine back into water for me. That was miracle enough for me, because it certainly was something I myself could never have done. There was a time when I would have died for wine, and I would have killed for wine, but, thanks to Jesus, all of that hell and misery is completely in the past. The miracle continues, because, today, I'd prefer one drop of water to a whole barrel of wine. No, John, you can laugh and scorn all your like, and it doesn't bother me, because I know that Jesus is with me, and is looking after me."
Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10
Ps 19:7-9, 14
1 Corinthians 12:12-30
Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Does Law Matter?
Church and Poor
Same But Different
Assembly=Church
Synagogue Sermon
Messianic Sign
Neh 8:2-6, 8-10. "The joy of the Lord is your strength." After the return from exile in Babylon, Ezra the Scribe set out to re-establish the Jewish religion, and bring his people back to the law of Moses.
1 Cor 12:12-30. As the body is one though made of many parts so the Church forms many individuals into a living unity in Christ.
Lk 1:1-4, 4:14-21. In the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus identifies with the great prophecy of Isaiah: to bring freedom to the poor and the oppressed.
Theme: Today we celebrate Christ's Mystical Body of which we all, laity as well as clergy, form a part. We should use creatively that vast reservoir of talent that God bestowed on his church.
The priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
(or, shorter version: 12:12-14. 27)
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to he hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.
Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to procaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Intercessions
We pray
- that the church will use that vast reservoir of lay talent -that Christ provides her with.
- that the clergy will yield gracefully to their lay brothers and sisters some of their authority and responsibility.
- for the grace of humility for the church humiliated by recent clerical scandals.
Thoughts for 3rd Sunday, C
In the First Reading and the Gospel today we have the seeds of an argument which, in the early Church, was to scandalise the Jews and even some Christians, and become the reason why St Paul's journeying was everywhere dogged with controversy and hostility. On the one hand we have the famous priest and scribe, Ezra, who led a contingent of Jews back from exile about the year 400 B.C., setting out to revive the Mosaic Law, translating and explaining it to the people, and these in turn showing their veneration for the Law. On the other hand we have Christ, in his hometown of Nazareth, saying that part of his mission is to bring the good news to the poor and proclaim liberty to captives.
What St Paul, from the beginning, regarded as his most essential task was to help people understand Christ's teaching, and so attain this liberty, which he regarded as freedom from enslavement to the Old Law. "Now we are rid of the Law," he wrote to the Romans (7:6), "freed by death (meaning the death of Christ) from our imprisonment, free to serve in the new spiritual way and not the old way of a written law." No wonder the Jews took offence, for they imagined that the Law by itself conferred life, that one's religion consisted in knowing perfectly the Mosaic code of written laws, as well as the thousands upon thousands of oral laws and regulations added on by the rabbis to explain the code. And yet the Law seems to have failed the Jews: in spite of it they, like everyone else, were sinners. The Law gave information; without it, Paul says, he should not have known what sin is. But the Law did not give spiritual strength. For a law as such, Paul contended, even if it proposed the loftiest ideals, can never trnsform a being of flesh into a spiritual being, capable of living the life of God. It is not the Law, but grace, which keeps the virtuous person from being dominated by sin.
Religion for a Christian, Paul would say, is a question of knowing a person, Christ, and of loving and following him. For if sin has lost its control over a person's life, it is due to something radically different from the Old Law, what we might refer to as the law of the Spirit, a law which is no longer part of a written code, but rather a new spiritual force acting from within. "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor 3:17). The gift of the Holy Spirit is what the Christian "receives under the guise of a law" wrote Cardinal Seripando. Indeed the whole of the Old Law could be fulfilled in one word: "You must love your neighbour as yourself (Gal 5:14). "The only thing you should owe to anyone is love for one another, for to love the other person is to fulfil the law. All these: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and all other commandments, are summed up in this single phrase, You must love your neighbour as yourself (Rom 13:8-10)
The spiritual person will almost instinctively avoid offending God or others. But whoever avoids evil because it is against a law has not attained the freedom Paul spoke about. That person alone is free who avoids sin because sin is wrong in itself. Of course Christianity does contain commandments, moral precepts, the teachings of faith. But these are intended purely to avoid moral collapse. So, as long as Christians in the first centuries after Christ received frequent Holy Communion, the Church never obliged them to receive once a year. But when fervour decreased, in order to remind them that one cannot possess divine life without being nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, the Church laid down the law of Easter duty. This law, however, is not aimed at the fervent, because those who are fervent are guided by the prompting of the Holy Spirit within them, and observe the law without thinking about it. Nevertheless, commandments, such as we find in the Catechism, are something that even the just require fom time to time, for we all carry the treasure of God's grace in frail vessels.
Our consciences can be led astray, and the interior call of the Spirit may be drowned out by the urgings of sinful nature. When in doubt we could do no better than follow the advice given to his followers by Fr Charles de Foucauld, the French army officer who, after conversion, became a hermit in the Sahara desert: "Ask yourself in all instances: "What would our Lord have done?", and then imitate him. This is your only rule, but it is your absolute rule."
(Matthew O Cleirchin)
The greater part of the world is in a state of such poverty that it is as if Christ himself were crying out in the mouths of these poor people to the charity of his disciples" (Vatican II, Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 88.)
The poor of the world are constantly before our eyes through the various campaigns and calls for help. But do we take to heart the words of the Council cited above, that it is as if Christ himself were crying out to us. These words are based on Christ's own teaching (cf. Mat. 25:45.) He was sent to bring the good news to the poor (cf. today's gospel reading.) It had been foretold of the Messiah that he would defend the wretched and the poor (Is. 11:4; Ps. 72:2ff..) The poor were especially dear to Christ. Who were these poor?
In Old Testament times these were a class of people of little means who, because of their poverty, were greatly dependent on the whims and fancies of the rich who often oppressed them without mercy.
They were victims of man's injustice (cf. Job 24:2ff.). The prophets were their great defenders (cf. Amos 8:5ff.; Jer. 34:8-22), in the name of the Lord himself whose special care they were (cf. Prov. 14:2f.; 22:22ff.). The law prescribed aid for them (cf. Deut. 15:1-15; 24:10-15) and any truly pious person practised almsgiving (cf. Sir. 3:30 - 4:6). But the powerful rich cared little for the practice of the Law.
Jesus has a consoling message for the poor. It is they who will eat and be filled (cf. Ps. 22:26), who will come together at God's table (cf. Luke 14:21.) They are more aware of their dependence on God's goodness and are more open to Christ's message. This gives them a greater chance of attaining eternal happiness. St Luke, in particular, emphasizes the aspect of real material poverty and contrasts it with the riches of some who because of their wealth will find it difficult to enter the kingdom of God. Things haven't changed much. We still see men enveloped in materialism, seeking ever more and more and becoming less and less willing to share with the poor and needy.
The gospel has the same requirements for social justice as the prophets (cf. Mat. 23:23; James 5:4-6.) The rich have a duty to share their riches with the poor. True Christian care for the poor is an expression of our love for Jesus. It is him we help in helping them (Mat. 25:34-46.)
It is the Church's function to carry on the ministry and work of Jesus, to incarnate his compassion, his forgiveness, his healing and strengthening; it is the call of Christians, his disciples, to imitate his life and assimilate his attitudes. The Church, in doing this, fulfils in him and with him the Old Testament teaching and prophecies. God's love is shown in the care of the needy and underprivileged - the disinherited, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the enslaved. It is the Church that must express this love of God, both through its individual members and as an institution and community.
The poor must be welcomed as members of the parish community. Their personal worth, which is far more important than their financial worth, must be acknowledged. Even more, the Church, expressing God's concern for all, will work wholeheartedly for the relief of poverty and for the removal of its causes, preaching social justice without human respect or fear and giving the example of increasing generosity. Sometimes we may fantasise about what we would give if rich but we are loath to part with what we actually have. The story is told of a conversation between two men, one of whom claimed to be socially conscious. The latter was asked by his friend: "If you had two houses, what would you do with them?" "Keep one and give the other to the state," replied the socially conscious man. "If you had two cows what would you do with them?" "Keep one and give the other to the state," he replied. "If you had two chickens what would you do with them?" "Keep them both," he replied. "Why?" asked his friend. "Because I have wo chickens," was his answer.
If the Church, the Sacrament of Christ, does not give the lead in sacrifice and generosity, then all its preaching will have little effect. Actions speak louder than words. The Church, in its members, must be concerned with the less well off. Are there people in your parish who need help with housing or with the support of the family? Are there people you know whose struggle to make ends meet is driving them to drink, abortion, long overwork resulting in injury to health? These are your concern because you profess to be one with them each time you receive the Eucharist and in them you care for or neglect Jesus himself. To help the needy in our own area or in the Third World is far more important for the Christian than keeping up with the neighbours or maintaining a social standing.
A little over fifty years ago, a young teacher rented a house in my home town and started a secondary school for boys. There had long been one for girls run by the nuns in the local convent. The bulk of the population in this area were small farmers, who migrated seasonally to England to boost their meagre incomes to raise and educate their children. The only secondary school then available for boys was the diocesan college which was situated in another town. Only shopkeepers, teachers and other professionals could afford boarding-school fees. So there was great joy and support for this enterprising young teacher. It was short-lived. The Sunday after the "Academy', as it was grandly called, opened, the parish priest handed down an interdict from the pulpit, threatening to excommunicate all those who sent their children to this school. The reasons given were that it was a threat to the diocesan college and, more importantly, that it usurped the church's prerogative in the field of education. There was consterntion. A protest was started, spearheaded mostly by women. It didn't help that the most vociferous of these were, like my mother, themselves the wives of teachers whose school manager was the same parish priest. Deputations were sent to the bishop. The upshot of the affair was that the bishop instructed the local curate to start another school under the aegis of the church, which, in fact, opened just in time for me to begin my secondary education. As for the enterprising lay teacher, he found a post in a neighbouring diocesan college, where he spent the rest of his life until retirement. If he was embittered by his earlier treatment, he has left no record of it.
Looking at recent newspaper reports of teachers" congresses and parents" associations, and the green papers and white papers issuing from the department of education, it is a far cry from those heady days when the church claimed to be the sole arbiter in educational matters. What is sad to observe is that here and elsewhere, every concession, from communion in the hand to girl altar-servers, had to be wrenched from a reluctant church. Now in lull retreat, she continues to fight a rear-guard action, to preserve zones of interest she has neither the mandate nor the manpower to maintain. If the present crisis of vocations continues, she may not even be able to assure her sacramental mission in the future. And all this with a vast reserve of talent and goodwill in her pews only waiting to be tapped. One might be forgiven the untheological thought that there must be one frustrated Holy Spirit somewhere out there.
I have often wondered why St Paul's vision of the church as the body of Christ, with its different parts, each exercising different functions, never really caught on. Was it because its more egalitarian overtones clashed with the more enduring vertical vision of a hierarchical church? "In the one Spirit we were all baptised," he wrote to the Corinthians, "Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink. Nor is the body to be identified with any one of its many parts. Now you together are Christ's body; but each of you is a different part of it." It doesn't sit well with the more familiar chain-of-command version we are accustomed to.
Thirty years ago, when last the Holy Spirit officially intervened in church affairs at Vatican II, Pope John XXIII spoke of a "new Pentecost." The Council Fathers spoke enthusiastically of collegiality and the active participation of the laity. It seemed the dawn of a new age. The church as the Body of Christ was about to become a reality. Since then the old regime seems to have reasserted itself, at least temporarily. The Body of Christ continues to bleed. If we do not share its responsibilities, we share its ills. Recent disclosures of clerical scandals have brought home to us St Paul's observation: "If one part is hurt, all parts are hurt with it." Perhaps, it is the Holy Spirit's way of teaching us that, like it or not, we clergy and laity alike are all part of the church, the Body of Christ.
That school of dubious origin I mentioned at the beginning has long since passed away. There may be a moral there somewhere.
A theme for this Sunday: the Church as body of Christ present in the assembly. In short, you people are the Church and not the building itself.
We have all been in different churches in terms of architecture. We have marveled at the vaulted ceilings of Gothic edifices, we have been warmed by the exposed post and beam construction of the country church, we have moved by the mosaic images of the modern, round church illuminated by a sky lighted dome.
We all have unique experiences of Church architecture from our unique histories of worship. Nevertheless, in the end they are simply buildings without our parish family filling the pews. (This came forcefully home to me when our parish church was being renovated; the stations of the cross had been taken away for cleaning, the stain glass windows were away for releading, the pews had been removed to be repaired and refinished, and workmen had set up staging throughout the entire interior. A radio was blaring classic rock tunes and the painters were cracking jokes during their tea-break.)
It was when our church community gathered in the church hall for our Sunday Mass that I realized for the first time, deep down, what the Church was. It was its people, regardless of where it worshipped. It was a neat moment.
Even today when I enter our church from a bridged room that connects the rectory and the church the first thing I do after genuflecting is to look to see if anyone is in the Church. Why do I do this? I think it is because of my sense of Church being people and not building. I suspect that you may do the same thing.
Why is this an important point to bring home this Sunday? It can help us begin to appreciate each other more, appreciate our gifts, appreciate how our family works together, and appreciate our many parts but one body.
The mission of Jesus moves on a pace. The Spirit that had come upon him in the Jordan River is still leading him. He had a message to preach, and a way of life to teach. He had moved away from home, and had made such an impression that word about him had got back to his home place of Nazareth. In today's gospel, he returns to Nazareth. We are told that he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, as he usually did. The curious onlookers and hangers-on were concerned that, being at home, and being in the synagogue, he would just be like everyone else, and there would be none of the normal ex- citement and stir that usually followed him wherever he went.
They were not to be disappointed, though. What happened was probably something that went away over the heads of anyone who was not familiar with the words of the prophets. Isaiah had stated clearly the signs that would show when the Messiah had come. Jesus read that passage to them. He then rolled up the scroll, looked around, and announced "Today these prophetic words come true even as you speak." Away back in the desert he had locked horns with Satan. Now, in the heart of their citadel, he was taking on the religious leaders, when he announced that he had come to replace their love of law with a new law of love. This was the beginning of the end for Jesus, but with typical gospel paradox, that end would just be the beginning.
Imagine, if you can, that the powers-that-be are trying everything within their power to discredit someone whom they want to get rid of. In that society Christianity is strictly forbidden, so they decided to go that route. They accused him of being a Christian, and he ends up before the court, to face this charge. The prosecutors dug up an old law that forbade good news being preached to the poor, liberty being preached to captives, or freedom being made available to the oppressed. They went to great lengths to collect witnesses, who would show, beyond all reasonable doubt that this man had, in fact, broken this law. One witness accused him of bringing good news to the poor, but when pressed, he just could not provide one concrete example where this actually happened. The most he might ever have done was to talk about doing it. As each witness came along, not one of them could give a single example of where this man actually did any of the things they had heard him speak of. The prosecution's case collapsed, nd the man got off scot-free, because there wasn't the slightest evidence in his life that he was, in fact, and in act, a Christian.
At the beginning of this gospel, we are told that everyone was pleased with his teaching so far. The next sentence in the story, after where today's gospel ends, says that "All agreed with him, and were lost in wonder, while he kept on speaking about the grace of God." In next Sunday's gospel, we will read about how this present encounter ended up. Not too well, actually, but you'll have to tune into the next episode next week!
Human nature has some in-built resistance to God that is a direct result of original sin. There is some sort of basic rebelliousness within us; some sort of stubborn pride; some inability to accept and to live within reality. This, again, is another form of the poverty, the blindness, and the oppression spoken of in today's gospel. As a human being, I am subject to the law of gravity. By myself it is impossible for me to lift myself out of the quicksand of my own selfishness. If I were the only human being on this planet, Jesus would still have to come to join me, to lead me, to save me, because, by myself, I just don't have what it takes.
Response: The next time you are at a funeral, pay particular attention to the readings, and to the words that are spoken. These are meant for you, and not for the person who has died! What's the point in reading the gospel to a corpse in a coffin? The same goes for today's gospel. The people who were in the synagogue all those years ago are well dead by now! Today's gospel is meant for us, right here, today.
The words of the prophet read by Jesus in the Synagogue are repeated several times in the gospel. Jesus quoted them to the disciples of John the Baptist who came to ask if he were the Messiah, or should they look somewhere else. Jesus told them to look around, and see for themselves that these words were being fulfilled. When he sent out his apostles, he quoted these words, and told them that their lives should give witness to the reality of these words. If someone from Mars arrived here today, and asked "Are you Christians, or will I have to look elsewhere?" could we quote these words, and ask him to look around, and see for himself?
The Old Testament is like radio, the New Testament is like television, and the life of the Christian should be live drama. The value of Christianity lies in its witness. You write a new page of the gospel each day, by the things that you do, and the words that you say. People read what you write, whether faithful or true. What is the gospel according to you? Jesus came to do and to teach. In other words, he did the thing himself first, and then he taught his disciples to follow his example. A good example of this was when he washed their feet at the Last Supper. You and I are asked to live the gospel. You may be the only gospel someone will ever read; they may never buy the book.
A man pulled up at a filling station one day to get some petrol. He asked the young lad attending the pumps "what are the people in this next village like?" To his surprise, the young lad asked him what the people in the last village in which he had stopped were like. The man replied "Oh, they were nice, friendly, and most helpful." "Well, then," replied the lad "you'll find that the people in the next village will be the same." The next man who stopped at the filling station asked the same question. Once again, the young lad asked him how he found the people were in the last village in which he had stopped. "Oh, they were sour, dour, and unfriendly," came the reply. "Well, in that case, you'll find the people in the next village will be just the same."
Even if Jesus speaks, nothing happens unless the listeners are prepared to listen...
Background:
The scene in today's Gospel is not quite as spectacular as the one in the first read, but in a sense it is much more dramatic when it is read from our perspective. Jesus is laying down a claim to be the sign of the messianic age. Though later he would on occasion dodge the question of whether he was the messiah because the role of that person was so badly misunderstood (as a military and political leader), he made clear at the beginning of his ministry that the messianic age, properly understood as a new age of creation, was also beginning. The people in the synagogue must have been thunderstruck. They knew Jesus and liked him, but how could anyone claim to be fulfilling personally the prophecy of Isaiah?
Story:
Once there was a truly great high school basketball team that everyone said would win the city championship without even trying. So they swept through the season without even trying. Why work hard to beat a time that was no big deal. That year there were no big deal teams in the whole city, except our friends. So they won all their games by fifteen points or more and were hailed as the best ever. That came the championship match against a team they'd already beaten twice. However, the other team was all pumped up, the refs were manifestly unfair, and crowd was for the other team. The coach, who had warned them all season about being flat on the wrong day, screamed at them to know avail. Then at the beginning of the second half he screamed at the refs for a blatantly unfair call. The refs threw him out and then the assistant coach who screamed and the refs through him out too. So the only adult on the bench was the second assistant who was just out of college and who had played on the team a couple of years ag (and wasn't truly great) took over. He called time out and said, look, guys, we may be down by ten but we can beat these clumsy oafs and I'm going to tell you how. They're rotten ball handlers. We'll put on a full course press and steal the ball from them every time they try to bring it down. What does he know a couple of guys said as they returned to the court? Who does he think he is? But they put on the press and caught up almost at once and were ten points ahead when the final quarter started. We've got them on the road, guys, the acting coach said, keep up the press. But the guys were fed up with this punks enthusiasm and decided to ease up. What happened. The score was tied with only three minutes left and they were five points down with two minutes left. Let's do the press, someone said. Only by now they were too tired. So they lost by ten points. Moral: You take your prophets wherever you can find them.
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
Ps 71:1-6, 15, 17
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Luke 4:21-30
Treated like Jeremiah
Drawing a picture of God
Love Is...
Paying the Penalty
Radical Vision
Jer 1:4-5,17-19. Jeremiah was one of Israel's greatest prophets. This text tells of his call by God and of his commission as a prophet.
1 Cor 12:31-13:13. In his great hymn in praise of love, Paul sets it at the pinnacle, as the most important virtue of all.
Lk 4:21-30. Although first all spoke well of him, later Jesus shares the typical fate of prophets, rejected by his own people in Nazareth.
Theme: As in St. Paul's famous description of Christian charity, it is the little gestures in our lives that express our kindness, patience, politeness - and joy at the success of others.
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." But you, gird up your loins; stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not break down before them, or I will break you before them. And I for my part have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, against the whole land-against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.
In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a rock of refuge,
A strong fortress, to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God,
from the hand of the wicked...
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
it was you who took me from my mother's womb..
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all day long,
though their number is past my knowledge.
O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
(or, shorter version: 13:4-13)
But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?"
He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Intercessions
We pray
- that we may tune our ears to prophets who are not accepted in their own country.
- that we may show our love for others by our patience and kindness.
- that we may show our love by not taking offence or being resentful.
- that we may show our love by being always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.
Thoughts for 4th Sunday, C
"I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country." If this was true of Elijah and Elisha, as Christ rightly pointed out, then we can say that it was equally, if not more, true of the author of today's first reading, the prophet Jeremiah. We are told elsewhere in the gospel of St Luke that on the first Easter Sunday, when the risen Christ wanted to reveal his identity to the two unbelieving disciples on the road to Emmaus, he went "through all the prophets and explained to them all the passages that were about himself" (Lk 24:27). He must surely therefore have mentioned Jeremiah. And what we can say for certain is that, in his life and person and God-given mission, Jeremiah in many ways paralleled Jesus. But it was not so much by what Jeremiah said, as by the demands God made on him, the kind of opposition and rejection he encountered, that this resemblance arises. We know more about Jeremiah personally, his life, his God-given vocation, his inner feelings, than we do about any other Old Tetament person. He lived during the break-up of the Judaean monarchy centred in Jerusalem, and was still a young man when God gave him the task of calling upon his own people, whom he sincerely loved, to amend their ways.
At the best of times this is a thankless job, but for a man like Jeremiah, with a gentle and affectionate nature, it became an absolute torture. He describes his task as one to "tear up and knock down, to destroy and to overthrow, to be a man of strife and division for all the land." Few people have suffered so deeply as he did, to the extent that in the darkness and agony of his soul he cursed the day he was born. His faith had brought him to the brink of despair. But God revealed that Jeremiah himself needed to repent, to have a new heart put within him, and be guided by God's Spirit speaking to him internally. Only then would he grasp the meaning of God's promise: "I am with you to deliver you." We remember that Christ too was "set for the rise and fall of many in the house of Israel," as Simeon prophesied at the Presentation in the Temple; he would be a sign to be contradicted; he would sweat blood in Gethsemane at the thought of what people would do to him. Jeremiah met with opposition on all sides becaue people did not want to listen to the truth about themselves. They said, they had the Temple and the Ark of the Covenant, the sacrifices and the Law. They saw themselves as being justified before God, whereas Jeremiah maintained that one could walk the streets of Jerusalem and not find a single man "who does right and seeks the truth." The truth was so bitter that Jeremiah was branded a false prophet, a public enemy, even a traitor. This charge was levelled at him especially by the princes who saw the power they wielded under a weak king being snatched away from them if, as Jeremiah pleaded, no resistance was offered to the invading Babylonian army, who were so vastly superior to the defenders of Jerusalem. So he was put in prison several times, even thrown down a deep well by the princes, and left to die in the mud at the bottom. He was rescued at the last minute by a friend in the king's palace - ironically an Egyptian. His enemies did not stop there, and after the destruction, by the Babylonians, of Jeruslem and the monarchy a small group fled to Egypt forcing Jeremiah to accompany them. Although the Bible does not tell us anything further about him, there is a Christian tradition that says he was stoned to death in Egypt.
The Church honours John the Baptist, an OT figure, as a saint, and we can say with certainty that Jeremiah was one of the truly great saints of the OT also. The similarity between him and Christ is striking. If we let this man go on working miracles and winning over people, the Pharisees and Priests said of Christ, "the Romans will come and destroy our holy place and our nation." Their hearts were closed to his message; he was a threat to their power, and Caiaphas, the high priest, saw the solution. "It is better for you that one man should die for the people," he said, "rather than that the whole nation should perish" (Jn 11:48+). And so they plotted his downfall. The only way some people have of blotting out the truth about themselves, of trying to oppose spiritual values, is by using physical violence. This was tried with Jeremiah, this was attempted against Christ, it was pursued against the people of our own country for several centuries. But truth cannot be stopped in that way. It is the task of each onof us to cherish divine truth, and also to hand it on. We are all called by God to imitate Christ and be witnesses to him, each of us in his/her own way.
I read a story once of a young girl who was bent purposefully over her copybook, her pencil poised in a clear declaration of intent. In reply to her mother's query, she said she was drawing a picture." Of what," persisted her mother. "Of God," was the answer. "But you can't draw a picture of God," her mother continued. "No one knows what God looks like." "They will when I have finished drawing," responded the girl with finality.
Jesus Christ drew for us a picture of what God is like. And because he drew it in his own body, soul and spirit the picture as the reality. Our gospel reading points to a essential element of the reality that is God. God is sovereign; he is not subject to our caprice or prejudice. He is the a God of all peoples; he belongs to all classes; no one is excluded from his love.
Jesus drew that picture when he bluntly rebuked his townspeople in Nazareth for their rejection of his message. He pointed to unlearned lessons of the past and so indicated that his own mission too would embrace the Gentiles. And so it was. There is about Jesus and his actions a certain universalism. His disciples come from a range of backgrounds; his mission is weighted in favour of the poor and disadvantaged, yet he dines with the powerful and wealthy; his healing ministry benefits both the poor an the powerful, Gentiles and Jews. It is clear that all people from all walks of life and from all nations will be the recipients of God's saving message.
Yet Jesus' universalism is never bland. There is always a strong hint of challenge about it. It is never a mere acceptance of the way things and people are. It is a challenge to people to be what God wants them to be his image and likeness; and to live in justice, love and peace. So Jesus will reprimand his disciples for their overweening ambition; and he will constantly call on those who are rich and powerful to become like himself and to be of service to the powerless and poor.
The people of Nazareth felt that Jesus should look after them first. Some writers say that the proverb Physician, heal yourself" is much the same as the phrase Charity begins at home." What they failed to understand was that the gospel Jesus brought was not a gospel of privilege; insisting on preferential treatment, they failed to see that with God charity begins wherever human need is found and wherever people have faith enough to receive it. Those who must hear the world of God are those with ears to hear.
The challenge for us is to draw, in our own lives, a picture of God that is in line with what Jesus gave us. A picture in which salvation is always gift but make authentic in our daily living. A picture in which salvation has to do with all of our living. A picture in which salvation is for all people everywhere in God's time. When we have finished drawing our picture, let's hope that God recognises himself in it.
There was, and for all I know, still is, a cartoon which is featured in the daily newspapers. It is entitled "Love is ..." and depicts a scene where a spouse, usually the husband, shows his love for his wife by some thoughtful little gesture. "Love is - remembering her birthday or bringing her flowers occasionally or breakfast in bed at weekends." The list of such expressions of love is endless. It is a nice idea and a reminder to those who have committed themselves to each other for life, that nothing should be taken for granted and every little gesture helps to preserve their relationship. There is probably no more abused word in the English language than the word "love', with the possible exception of that other four-letter word, which dictionaries strangely like to define as "making love" or "the act of love." Nowadays, the word "love" is used almost exclusively to express romantic attachment.
Almost every adult has had some experience of romantic love or has been, at least, brushed by passion, however fleetingly.
They are among the strongest feelings they will ever know in their lives. Girls, in particular, are fed a diet of romance from their first fairytale encounter with "Sleeping Beauty." Their adolescence is filled with dreams of a Prince Charming and his awakening kiss. Such love Stories provide the themes for every film churned out from that greatest of all dream factories, Hollywood. Commenting on the British Royal Family, which has so captivated the world's press, one journalist (incidentally, a woman herself) had this to say: "The love for which disco songs and advertisements and soap operas and magazines preach a gospel is the most irrational ideology ever to hold a civilisation in thrall." It is ironic that the House of Windsor whose survival had been insured for centuries by carefully arranged marriage treaties, seems now about to founder on the romantic vagaries of the heir to the throne.
St Paul preaches a different gospel. His love-letter to the Corinthians has another theme altogether. These same named qualities are not even distant cousins. His is an heroic virtue, not an obsessive infatuation. Like other scripture writers, Paul prefers to define it negatively. What it is, is more often better communicated by what it is not. As in the case of Christ's parables, commentary here seems not only superfluous but even diminishing. His words speak for themselves:
Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish: it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Today's gospel is a follow-up on the gospel of last Sunday. Jesus is back in Nazareth, and he is speaking in the synagogue. When he quoted the prophet Isaiah, it was okay, and went down well, but when he began to speak a few home truths about the religious people of his day, he was in serious trouble. They tolerated Jesus as long as he knew his proper place. He was a commoner whose family was known to them all, and how dare he attempt to preach to them. We are all aware of artists, actors, singers, etc. who had to emigrate before they got a break-through. It is difficult to break Out of the mould among the environment that bred us. No prophet is honoured in his own country. It always amazes me to see people from Japan, USA, Holland, etc. gather for a summer school on the poetry of someone who has limited recognition in the homeland. I often joke that the further away you live, the greater expert you are!
In today's gospel, Jesus is telling them that God cares for all of his people, and that, when it comes to help, he has no favourites. This infuriated his listeners, who considered themselves to have a monopoly on God. They were God's chosen people, and they resented the fact that Jesus was putting them all on the same level. This approach was to get him into a lot of trouble as time went on. He hung around with sinners and outcasts, he touched the untouchables, and he spoke to Samaritans, to pagans, to prostitutes, to anyone he met. He was seen as someone who threatened the basics of their authority and control, and they tried to get rid of him. However, Jesus would die when his hour had come, and he alone would decide when that was.
Brinsley Mc Namara wrote a classic story called The Valley of the Squinting Windows. It is a great read, and is available today, many decades later. He came from a rural area of Ireland, and was well known, because his father was a teacher in the local school. His story was such that everybody in the village recognised themselves among the characters of the story. This led to public outrage in his hometown, while the rest of the country was avidly reading the book! The book was burned in public, his family had to leave town, and, to this day, his name still evokes strong reactions among many of the people of that town. What he wrote was too close to the bone. If he had written a book about the people of some other town, he probably would have been hailed as the local literary hero. To this day none of his descendants would dare return to their roots in that town. They did, in a symbolic way, take him outside the town, and threw him over a cliff.
God has no grandchildren! We are all children of God, products of his creation. If the Jews could be called God's Chosen People, it is simply because it was through them, and from among them that the Saviour, Jesus, would come. This is, of course, a privilege, but I cannot accept a privilege without accepting the responsibility that goes with it. Scripture tells us that he came onto his own, and his own received him not. Jesus posed a serious problem to the religious leaders of his day. It was all a question of control. They were in full control. The Scribes studied and taught the law, the Pharisees applied the law, and the people's role was to observe the law. This law covered every single area of their lives; right down to deciding how many steps they could take on the Sabbath. By doing this, they had God boxed into their system, and he was totally on their side. For Jesus to say that God had conferred special graces on non-Jews, and to give examples of that, was nothing short of blasphemy to the ears of hilisteners. Jesus came to comfort the affected, but he also came to afflict the comfortable. Religion has often shown this ugly side throughout history.
We have killed millions in God's name, just because we decided that God thought about them the same way we did. This was the case away back at the time of the Crusades, when we sent armies from Europe to destroy the infidel, or to force non-Christians to accept the Christian faith, or die. This has lasted down to this day. There is not a war in today's world that does not have some sort of religious connotations to it. It's not so long ago since our Catechisms taught us that outside the Catholic Church there was no salvation!
There is a phrase prevalent today when we say that, if you don't like the message, you can shoot the messenger. This is what happened to Jesus in today's gospel. There are different ways of killing a person. One way is to throw him over a cliff and the other one is to totally ignore him, and he'll die of loneliness. We speak of the loneliness of the long-distance runner, where someone is totally alone, ploughing a lonely furrow, without any sense of communication with others. Many of our greatest people were like that. They did not conform to our norms, to our way of doing things, and, so, they were ostracised, excommunicated, exiled, or burned at the stake. There is only one God, and that is the God revealed in and through Jesus, and it is important that we learn from him about a God who is a loving Father, and rid ourselves of our false gods, or stop playing God ourselves. One of the saddest sentences in the gospel is that "Jesus walked through their midst and passed them by."
Jesus tells us in the gospel that the truth will set us free. He could also have said that the truth can often get us into trouble! The greatest lies I tell in life are the ones I tell myself. It is said that the essence of proper communication is the ability to combine total honesty with total kindness. Under the guise of being honest, some people can be brutal and destructive. I could meet someone today who asks me how I think she looks, and I could tell her that she looks awful, and will probably be dead by the weekend! I am being totally honest, but not kind. On the other hand, to court popularity, or because of moral cowardice, I can give support to something or someone when I know that the cause or the person is totally wrong, unjust, or immoral. Under the guise of being kind, I can be dishonest.
Background:
Jesus patently did not see himself as a political and military leader. Indeed his claims are in striking contrast of the messianic portrait in the reading from Jeremiah which is the first reading today. However, his claims were clearly offensive to his fellow townspeople. Indeed, he might have had less trouble with them if he announced, like several other populist leaders of his era, that he was proclaiming a holy war against the Romans and would lead a march on Jerusalem. As we saw last Sunday, however, his vision of the New Age was drastically different. So he was offensive to his neighbours both because he made and outrageous claim and because the claim was not, as they saw it, radical enough.
Story:
A famous novelist came back to his home town after many years. He had pledged to contribute two million dollars for a new hospital. Many of his friends from his school days were invited to a reception for him and his wife. Some of them ignored the invitation. Why only two million, they muttered. He could have paid for the whole hospital with all the money he has. The rest went to the party, but they were not particularly happy about the whole event. Who does this guy think he is? He'd been a quiet, unobtrusive little guy when he was in school, the kind of person you'd hardly notice. He generally was not invited anywhere. None of the women in his class would have considered dating him if they had been asked, only he never asked.
They had heard rumors that his novels were about the town and about them. They believed the rumors of course, but since they hadn't read any of his books, they didn't know for sure. He had to find a freshman to take to the senior prom! So he'd made a lot of money on his novels? Why did that make him a big deal? OK give the money for the hospital, but you should have given more with all you have, but don't show up in town and expect us to cheer for you. You're not a big deal now and you never were. Nor were they impressed with the beautiful woman he had married. (They had known her an obnoxious freshman.) Anyone can look beautiful if her husband has a lot of money. She was still cheap despite all their money. They didn't join the receiving line, because they didn't want to have to talk to either of them. However, he had the nerve to walk around the room and say hello to everyone and recall incidents from their school days which they never remembered. They tried to be polite but it was hard. Then they went homeand said to their children. He's not a big deal. He never was.
Isaiah 6:1-8
Ps 138:1-5, 7-8
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
Positive Humility
Nature of God's Call
What was God thinking?
In God's Net
Into The Deep
The Very One I Want!
Is 1:1-8. When Isaiah the priest is called by God to be a prophet, at first he feels deeply unworthy. But then, cleansed of sins, he responds to God's call with enthusiasm.
1 Cor 15:1-11. Paul is among the witnesses to Christ's resurrection from the dead. At the same time he admits he is "the least of the apostles."
Lk 6:17, 20-26. Overwhelmed by the miraculous catch of fish, Peter accepts his call to share in the work of Christ.
Theme: When Jesus told Peter to put out into the deep he was encouraging him to have trust. Trust in God is a virtue not only for fishermen but for all Christians. We need it more than ever, today.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"
I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple.
I give thanks to your name
for your steadfast love and your faithfulness;
for you have exalted your name
and your word above everything.
On the day I called, you answered me,
you increased my strength of soul.
All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord,
for they have heard the words of your mouth.
They shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord.
You stretch out your hand,
and your right hand delivers me.
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast-unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Intercessions
- that come what may we will never lose hope in the goodness of God.
- that all those, and particularly the young, who are tempted to commit suicide may be given the gift of hope.
- for all those, particularly the Samaritans, who work with those who are depressed and desperate, that God will bless their efforts.
Thoughts for 5th Sunday, C
"Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful man," St Peter says. And St Paul is so full of remorse for his former religious bigotry against Christians that he makes this confession, "I am the least of all the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle." In such anguished cries we hear the reactions of different people, when God made himself known to them in a clear and special way. And it is evident from what they are saying that their response was one of intense humility in the presence of God, that humility which is the clear attitude of the creature as he/she stands before the all-holy and incomprehensible God.
This awe when faced with the supernatural is exemplified still further when we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. For we see it present in the humble obedience of the child Bernadette, how she scraped the ground until water began to flow, and then, when told to wash herself in this dirty little pool, and even drink from it, she complied with this demand, showing no regard for what others, who witnessed this behaviour, thought. So it is that ever since, millions of people have been drawn to follow the example of Bernadette, and so show their trust in the claim of a little girl of fourteen years that God's own Mother appeared in that grotto. As we read through the Bible, we see how God's gift of faith to people was accompanied by a deep perception of his holiness. For to say that God is holy means first of all, according to sacred scripture that "he is God and not man" (Hos 11:9).
Throughout the Old Testament, there is this idea of the transcendence, the separateness of God from people, the inaccessibility of God to people, the awe-inspiring manner in which God is beyond everything we can associate with people. And this holiness of God communicates itself to everything in God's vicinity. We are told in the Book of Exodus (34:30) that after Moses had spoken with God his face became so radiant that his followers would not venture near him until he had covered his face with a veil. When we are gathered together in the Church we should always remain mindful of the words of Jacob,
"The Lord is in this place, and I never knew it. How awe-inspiring is this place. This is nothing less than a house of God; this is a gate of heaven" (Gen 28:16f).
We should keep in mind also the warning given to Moses from out the burning bush, "Come no nearer; take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground" (Exod 3:5). But the greater our awareness of the wonder, the glory, and the holiness of God, the more overwhelmed we are with the sense of our own unworthiness, like Isaiah, "what a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips" - like St Peter, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Oh Lord" - or like St Paul, "I am the least of all the Apostles. I hardly deserve the name apostle, since I persecuted the Church of God." If we open our minds to the clear light of the presence of God, as did Isaiah, Peter and Paul, then we too will become aware of the existence within us of dark areas from which we try and shut out God, aware of our refusal to allow ourselves be guided, in all that we do, by God's Holy Spirit, which really is being aware of the tendency to evil in all of us, that is the legacy of original sin.
But all this should not discourage us. Let us rather think of God's promise to the prophet Jeremiah, while he was in the depths of despair, "I am with you to save you and deliver you." It is only when we are prepared to acknowledge sincerely all our imperfections that we begin to see our need for a redeemer, our helplessness without God's saving grace. And this is essential for everyone on the road to sanctity, just as it was for Isaiah, and for Peter, and for Paul, from whose example we should take courage as we set out on the road where God's Spirit would lead us.
For Isaiah offered to be God's messenger, Peter who had denied Christ became the vicar of all who would live according to Christ's teaching, and Paul, the arch-persecutor of the first members of the Church, was the one above all who spelt out clearly the heart of Christ's teaching and carried it to the gentiles. "When you call to me, I will listen to you. When you seek me you shall find me," God says to us by way of encouragement (Jer 29:13), "provided you seek me with all your heart."
All three readings today centre on the nature of God's call to men and women in all ages and states of life, and in every different period of history, to serve as witnesses and prophets and apostles of God's Kingdom. Several aspects of this service should be pointed out. First, the initiative always comes from the grace of God. Perhaps it is indirect through a special temple vision for Isaiah, or it can be a direct encounter with Jesus as in the case of Peter. But no matter under what circumstances it comes, the recipient clearly "hears" God's summons. It urges, and it won't go away. Secondly, the hearer is always aware of his or her own unworthiness to assume any role in speaking or acting in God's name, or for the privilege of being close to the presence of God. Finally, we can note how freely and willingly each accepts the call. There is not hesitation because the newly-called apostle or prophet yields to a profound trust and faith in the one who calls.
We can all meditate upon the deep implications of allowing God to act in our lives as the guide and director of our decisions. Paul testifies that great things can be accomplished by limited abilities because it is not the talent of the person that really matters, but the dynamic conviction and power of God's spirit that shines through our words and example. We teach as disciples and apostles much more effectively by the joyful living out of our faith than by all the administrative or speaking skills we may possess. Remarkably, the readings today name persons who are chosen from as august a position as the temple priesthood itself down to a fisherman from a lake shore village, or a stranger on the road far from home. The call comes to every single individual where they actually live and work, and the power of the Gospel message must transform us right in that place - whether it be the workplace, the home or in public service.
One final thought about the message of these scriptures is the breadth of the tasks to which each person is called in the Spirit. The church honours the roles of prophets, apostles to the unchurched, witnesses to the love of Christ, and disciples who reflect on every word of Scripture; as well as many other ministries that serve the community. Can anyone claim that God does not call him or her to offer a personal ministry of service to the church? It seems not. All Christians are disciples and all are called to minister in some special and unique way within the church.
This week we meet some great "call stories". Last week we heard the call of Jeremiah. This week we hear the call of Isaiah and Peter. Further, this week St. Paul makes an allusion to the unworthiness of his apostleship because of his sinful actions before his call (The persecution of Christians).
Here we have a group of people who claim to be too young, too uneducated, too unworthy, and too wretched to be called to do anything for God whatsoever, and two of them were common laborers: Peter the fisherman and Paul the tent maker.
One might ask: "Why these guys? What was God thinking? Well, it is really nothing new for God. Old Abraham is made a new father; young David is made a king, slow tongued Moses takes on Pharaoh, and a young, lowly Jewish girl gives birth to our savior.
It is clear that God does what God wills.
Mary may have been sinless; however the cast of characters that God has chosen throughout salvation history to be his instruments of justice, mercy, love and compassion have been colorful, earthy individuals.
Still, we often do ourselves the disservice, and Satan loves this gimmick, of consistently disqualifying ourselves from ever considering ourselves to be called by God to be his instruments. We may understand intellectually that God has chosen many people like ourselves to be his workers; but it ends there. Spiritually we lower our heads, walk into the darkness, and jump on the ever-revolving merry-go-round of unworthiness that never stops for the hope of being called.
We may say to ourselves: "Where is my burning ember to purify my mouth? Where is my vision? Where is my voice from God? Where is my miraculous conversion moment? All these folks were called in a really big way. Where is my big call? A big call wipes out unworthiness. Wrong.
Over these many postings I have mentioned a handful of key, foundational blocks that I am convinced need to be in place in order to feel loved by and connected to God.
One of them is seeing oneself as an instrument of the love and goodness of God.
Here is how it works for me: God is love. God gives us all good things.
If you buy those two premises, and I wholeheartedly do, then it follows that anytime we have an impulse to love or do something good, then we recognize that it comes from God.
The impulse comes from God, the love comes from God, the good things come from God.
The impulse declares us called. The love and goodness flows through us as instruments.
Every tugging, pulling, pushing, and little voice in ones head prompting to do something beautiful for another person is a call.
Every prompting to share something good is a call.
We are sinners. We are characters. Yet, we are still called. We are still instruments. God does what God wills.
If we get stuck in the rut of thinking: "I do these loving actions simply because I am a mother, father, wife, husband, family member, caregiver, teacher, mentor, CEO, nurse, doctor, social worker, etc., and these actions are just expected of me, then we dismiss from where these impulses come from and from where the source of all love flows, God.
An Irish hymn of Sean O Riada, often sung in the liturgy, contains the prayer "I líontaibh Dé go gcastar sinn" - "may we be gathered into God's nets." It is a fine prayer in view of the many other nets that are spread to catch us in these times. There is the delusive net of consumerism tangling us in a mesh of artificial need, and ever increasing worry about ability to pay. We seem to be "pressurised into buying things we don't want, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like!" What about the net of image-building and lots of hype about the success ethic, with its exclusive focusing on the outward self to the detriment of human and spiritual values? Also, the net of drug and alcohol culture, and the net of depression, despair and suicide for those for whom life loses its meaning?
We pray that we may be taken taken up in God's own net where life, even with its faults, holds out a promise of goodness, acceptance and hope. We must also involve ourselves in spreading this net. In the story in John 21 the spread net caught 153 fish - every type was taken in the net. Like Peter we are commissioned to "be fishers of people" and if we spread the net at the command of the Lord we too can take every type of person into God's net of forgiveness, meaning, love and hope. This is our vocation and duty as Christians. To really do it, however, we must make sure we are not trapped in one of the other nets.
The first time I caught a fish, I nearly fell out of the boat, I was so astonished. I'm not a fully-fledged fisherman by any calculation. In fact most fishermen would regard me with disdain. I practise what is called trolling. I row a boat up and down a lake, trailing a line in the water behind me. Even now, I always get a tremor in my spine when I feel a bite at the end of the line. I never cease to be amazed. The odds against catching a fish seem enormous. There I am in a boat, in the middle of a lake, surrounded by a huge expanse of water, into which I drop a tiny little hook. Fish have so much space and depth in which to swim and feed. That it should find and bite my little hook seems incredible. It is not as if you could see them, track them down into a narrow inlet and drop your hook within inches of your prey~
I've always been fascinated by the number of references to fish in the gospel. In Matthew's gospel, Christ says: "The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind." When he miraculously fed the multitude he used fish as well as bread. He even found the money to pay his taxes in the mouth of a fish. Fish figured so prominently in the gospel that the early Christians in Rome, chose the symbol of a fish to designate their tombs in the catacombs. The letters which make up the Greek word for fish, "ichthus" came to signify "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour."
There were a lot of other people in Palestine in the time of Our Lord, besides fisherman. Yet when it came to picking his apostles, he showed a marked preference for them. He made "the big fisherman', Simon Peter, their head. And he reserved his special miracles, such as the transfiguration and the raising to life of the little girl, only for him and his two fishing partners, James and John.
"Put out into deep water', he told Peter. Peter knew, as every fisherman knows, that fish only feed in shallow waters. Jesus was testing him. After a whole night covering the best feeding grounds on the lake, it was asking a lot. But Peter complied, almost as if to humour Jesus. His compliance was amply rewarded. More importantly, he had passed the test. "From now on," Christ told him, "it is men you will catch." (Or as Mark phrased it:
"Follow me and I will make you fish for people.")
The one virtue, above all others, that fishermen need, is the virtue of hope. To cast a small hook into a large expanse of water in the expectation of catching a fish, is an act of hope. And to do it time after time, hour after hour without catching anything, without even the tiniest bite, is to hope beyond hope. It was the one virtue Christ needed in the person he chose to lead his followers. He was, as history has shown, launching Peter into deep waters indeed. But he knew what Teilhard de Chardin expressed almost two thousand years later, that "the world belongs to him who will give it its greatest hope."
Jesus has begun to recruit followers, whom he will inform, form, and, eventually transform, so that they will be able to continue his mission when he returns to his Father. Today's gospel presents a beautiful and simple picture. There is something special about a lakeside, and the presence of the odd fishing boat makes it even more attractive. By now, Jesus had begun to attract crowds, who gathered to listen to his message. (Remember, this was in the days before megaphones, amplifiers, or public address systems!) The nearest thing to a pulpit he could find was a boat, and, so, by pulling out a bit from the shore, his voice would carry much better on the water, and he was free from the pressing crowds.
The next scenario is both simple and central. Peter was beaten, without a fish to show for his work, and, so, the scene was set for a miracle. As usual with Jesus, the result was pressed down and flowing over, as with the wine at Cana, or the baskets of loaves and fish left over after everyone had been fed. Peter made the first of his many many mistakes. He asked Jesus to leave him, because he was a sinful man. That must surely have brought a smile to the face of Jesus, because it was for such sinful people that he had come. Jesus ignored Peter's remark, by implying that you ain't seen nothing yet. He invited Peter and his friends to join him full-time in the mission he was undertaking. There was something magnetic about Jesus, and, immediately, they abandoned ship, and set off down the road with him.
Christianity is about attracting, rather than promoting. Throughout history, we read about founders of communities, of Congregations, of Orders. These were people with a vision. They were dynamic, filled with zeal, and had a powerful sense of mission. Such enthusiasm is highly contagious! Such people always attract attention, and this leads to attracting followers. In recent years, we have seen horrible and grotesque aberrations of this, in the form of cults, that was based on mind control, and that led hundreds to their deaths through suicide pacts. It is the duty of leaders to lead, but it is also their responsibility to know where they're going. Like Moses headed for the Promised Land, Jesus was totally open and definite in the direction of his life. He came to do the Father's will, and he was led by the Spirit. Thank God for the many wonderful leaders and founders with which the Lord has provided us down the centuries. Thank God, for the many such people who are alive and active among us today.
Something worth noting: Jesus is spoken of as teaching rather than preaching. There is a difference. The art of teaching is to bring the learner from the known to the unknown. Jesus speaks of fish, of sheep, of vines, of trees, of water, etc., all of which would be there within the view of his listeners. The Acts begins by telling us that Jesus came to do and to teach. A cynic described education as a process in which information is transferred from the notebook of the teacher to the notebook of the student, without having passed through the heads of either! Jesus spoke and taught from the heart, and what comes from the heart of the speaker always reaches the heart of the listener. In himself, Jesus was the message, and that was what gave weight and power to his words.
The two ingredients for a miracle are present in this story. The first condition is that Peter is powerless, and, despite fishing all night, he has caught nothing. The second condition is that he believes if he lowers his nets at Jesus' word, things will be completely different. This is the common denominator for all the miracles in the gospel.
I said earlier that Peter made a great mistake when he judged himself unfit and unworthy to be in the presence of Jesus. In actual fact, that is correct, if we fail to understand the purpose of Jesus' mission. He came to call sinners, and Peter could actually have said, with much greater accuracy and truth, "Lord, please stay with me, because I am a sinful man." In the past, the church has not been good in its dealing with sinners. With the pulpit thumping, hell-fire, and open condemnation, sinners were left in no doubt that they did not belong! The message that came across to them was "Depart from us, for you are a sinful person." Thankfully, because of the renewal that is going on in the Church, we are beginning to recapture the mind and the message of Jesus.
Language is a strange thing, because it can mean so many different things to many different people. In our language, to fail, to be powerless, to be totally unable to deal with a situation, all of that is weakness, failure, and cause for shame. In God's language, the same situations are extraordinary opportunities for grace, and for God to show his power. Peter had failed. He was a fisherman, and, after a whole night's fishing, he hadn't caught a fish. That is failure in anyone's language, especially in the language of a fisherman. The situation was ideal for Jesus to step in, just as he had done at Cana. He is the God of the hopeless, the God of the helpless, and the God of the powerless.
Jesus came to seek out sinners, and to bring them safely home. If he had a hundred sheep, and one went astray, he would leave the ninety-nine to go after the one that is lost. Peter totally failed to grasp that, when he asked Jesus to leave him. The correct prayer would be Lord, please stay with me, because I am a sinner. Please don't leave me, because, apart from you, I'm totally lost. And, of course, the whole message of Jesus is to reassure sinners that he is always there for them. Peter was only too well aware of his brokenness, and many later episodes in the gospel will point to, and confirm that fact. It is significant that Jesus made Peter head of the apostles. The principal of evangelising is that one sinner tells another, just, as with Alcoholics Anonymous, where one recovering alcoholic helps another achieve sobriety.
I have no doubt that each one of us could come up with something specific in our lives, when, like Peter, we have fished all night and caught nothing. Some area in which we encounter repeated failure. This could be anything from an addiction, to resentment, an inability to forgive, to a scar of mind or memory, which has never healed. This has the potential for a miracle, if I am willing to hand it over. Let go, and let God. There is nothing impossible with God...
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Ps 1:1-4, 6
1 Corinthians 15:12ff
Luke 6:1, 20-26
Way to the Promised Land
The Spirit of the Beatitudes today
Deeper Roots
Identikit Of A Christian
Beatitudes, Core Attitudes
Jer 17:5-8. Trust in human resources is like a shrub in the arid desert; but those who trust in God are like trees growing by the waterside.
1 Cor 15:12, 16-20. To some who were sceptical about resurrection Paul replies, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile."
Lk 6:17, 20-26. Luke's version of the Beatitudes: he gives only four, matched by four corresponding 'woes'.
Theme: Jeremiah warns about putting our trust in mere human resources. Even the powerful and famous often lead us astray. We should put our primary trust in the Lord, and be grateful for his guidance in our lives.
Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
One sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. "Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Intercessions
- for the courage to make the moral choices outlined for us in the Sermon on the Mount.
- that we may seek the love of God above all human achievement.
- for hearts that are grateful, gentle, pure and kind.
- that we may seek and find the true happiness promised in the beatitudes.
Thoughts for 6th Sunday, C
Anyone who has been to the Holy Land, and who has seen the rocky landscape and barren yellow soil of the southern part of it in particular, would regard a description of it as a "land flowing with milk and honey" (Num 13:27) as being rather an exaggeration. Yet such was the report received by Moses from the twelve spies he had sent ahead to explore the country, when he and his followers first arrived at its borders. We must of course make allowances for the enthusiasm of the spies, considering that, since they had left Egypt, they had been wandering in the wilderness of the Sinai desert, which was even less hospitable. The truth is that the Promised Land of ancient times was a place of two extremes - the wilderness of much of Judaea in the south, where few living things could survive, and the extraordinary fertility of Galilee in the north, with its thriving population. And this familiarity with the two extremes in nature was one which perhaps coloured the Israelites" thinking when it came to describing theirown response to God's call.
We find ample illustration of this in Moses" last discourse to his followers (Deut 30:15): "See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, he will bless you; but if you refuse to listen, if your heart strays, you will most certainly perish. I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life," he urged them, "that you may live in the love of the Lord, your God, obeying him, clinging to him."
Here we have the concept of "The Two Ways'- one good, one evil - a concept which figured prominently in the moral teaching of the early Church. It appears also in the gospel reading today, with its four beatitudes and four woes, and in particular in the first reading from Jeremiah, where the prophet links it symbolically with the extremes of nature found in Israel. A curse on the one who trusts only in human resources - he will be like the dry scrub in the parched areas of the wilderness. But a blessing on the one who places his trust in the Lord. He is like the tree planted near water, which never fades, never ceases to bear fruit.
If you open the Book of Psalms, you will find the same idea of the "two ways" - almost the same words - in the first Psalm, which forms today's Responsorial Psalm, and which is a kind of preface to the entire Book, and indeed summarises the whole moral teaching there. The strange thing about today's gospel sermon by Jesus is that it is addressed, not to the crowds, but to the disciples - "Then, fixing his eyes on the disciples, he said," - implying that the sermon is meant for those who have already decided to follow Christ. Jesus warns them not to allow themselves be harnessed to the things of the world.
The same warning was issued many times by the prophets: "Woe to those who add house to house, and join field to field, until everything belongs to them" - in other words, woe to the speculators and those who seek a monopoly of the world's resources. "Woe to those who from early morning chase after strong drink, and stay up late at night inflamed with wine" - that is those who are pleasure seekers. "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who substitute darkness for light" - that is those who subvert morality and seek to lead others astray. "Woe to those who for a bribe acquit the guilty and cheat the good man of his due" - that is those who lack all sense of justice and honesty in dealing with others. Human nature does not change. All these are just as relevant today as when the prophets first proclaimed them (Is 5:8-23).
But as for the people with no lofty aspirations, the poor and destitute, those burdened with sorrows, those persecuted for trying to pursue the ideals of Christ - the only refuge for all these is to place their trust in divine providence; and Jesus says, happy are these people when they do so, because their confidence will be surely rewarded by God. Here Christ has turned upside down accepted worldly standards. If you set out with all your energy to acquire the things which the world regards as valuable, you will in all probability get them. But that will be your sole reward, he says. Whereas, if you set out to be loyal to God and true to the message of Christ, you may be mocked and insulted by the world, but your reward is still to come. And that reward will be joy eternal, and no one will take it from you.
(1) Jesus in the Beatitudes is not expressing a pious wish, something that we would all love to be true, but simply is not so in the harsh cold world outside the Church. As they are presented to us, they are a statement of fact, or more accurately, a statement of the new situation in which we are placed by the kingdom of God. They are, to say the least, controversial. They are a challenge thrown down to us, because so much of what we see contradicts these statements. People who are poor and hungry, people who are weeping are not happy. What Jesus says is that if they really understand the situation they are in before God, they will be glad. Wealth and a full stomach are not a recipe for misery. But Jesus warns those who are comfortable that if they really understood their situation they would not be so happy. The things that are most important are not being poor or rich, being hungry or well-fed. This is a truth that most people accept in a notional way, or as a pious wish. Jesus invites us to begin to base or behaviour on it.
(2) People often feel morally guilty about their use of bad language. They may feel obliged to confess that they have been "cursing." Yet in today's first reading we hear: "a curse on the man who..." This "curse "is really intended as a warning. It is not intended as a prayer that really wishes ill to anyone in particular. What is forbidden most of all by the command not to "curse" is wishing or still worse praying for ill against a particular person - and so committing such an ill against them in your heart. The "woes" here are not curses, but an expression full of the regret, pity and sorrow that Jesus showed when he wept over Jerusalem. Bad language sometimes conveys an element of real wishing for another's ill. More often it may offend against the spirit of the Beatitudes by dishonouring or humanity, by taking from the dignity and respect that is due to other people, and indeed to ourselves.
(3) St Luke has taken some pains to emphasise that Jesus' words are addressed to the poor, the hungry, the suffering now. There are plenty of people in the world who are poor, hungry, and suffering now. Perhaps we are among them? If so the Beatitudes are addressed especially to us. It may still take a mighty movement of faith for us to see that the kingdom of God really does transform our situation. If there is little faith in our lives before suffering touches us, we will find faith hard to summon up when the day comes.
(4) If we cannot honestly count ourselves among the poor, the hungry, and the suffering, we can do more than just take to heart the warnings that follow. We can remember that the beatitudes here are especially addressed to the poor and hungry. We can take up the invitation to do something about the situation of the poor and hungry. We can recall that we, the comfortable people with resources at our command that are denied to others, are called to be the instruments of the kingdom of God, a kingdom that is one of justice, love and peace. For justice, love and peace, there is a price to pay.
In today's passage from Jeremiah, I particularly enjoy the active role of the roots that stretch to the stream. What are we stretching out toward? I also like the reality and honesty of the heat and drought which inevitably comes. Life is like that. Ups and downs. Challenges. Crisis. Tragedy. Nevertheless, when one remains plugged into God who is the source of all love, mercy, and goodness, one will still bear fruit and green leaves. When one plants himself elsewhere, one stands in desolation.
If we find ourselves in a desolate place we can still place our trust in God and trust that God, for whom nothing is impossible, can spring a river of life up beside us at our conversion and by his grace.
A second theme: Have I Thought About Heaven Lately? can take off from the second reading from the letter of Paul to the Corinthians. This homily can simply take on the character of the occasional teaching moment where one reminds the faithful of our beliefs in the afterlife in heaven - and with God. Is this something we ever think of? When have we thought of our own mortality last? When have we thought of heaven last? Do we truly believe that Jesus was raised from the dead? Do we believe that we too shall be raised from the dead? Perhaps it is time in your faith community to ponder these questions to simply keep the minds of the faithful heavenward.
A third theme: Dependence is Not a Sign of Weakness. is a themes that gets played over and over in salvation history. When mankind walks humbly, takes care of the poor, the orphan, the widow, the alien, and is utterly dependent upon God then true happiness and peace ensues. When mankind gets prosperous, fat, lazy, self-seeking, independent, and disregards the marginalized then trouble ensues. True happiness is nowhere to be found. The grace of God is scarce.
In our reading from Luke we read of a number of people who are Blessed. It is by no accident that these individuals are all utterly dependent upon God due to their circumstances - the poor, the hungry, the sad, the despised. They are the faithful, they are the pray-ers, they are the devout ones, they are the trees who weather the heat and drought but who stretch their roots to the water. They are dependent upon God and feel no shame.
This is why those who receive the woes are in danger. They are tempted to feel their false sense of independence and security. They are rich, consoled, filled, happy and popular. It is difficult - but not impossible - to hold on to a sense of utter dependence upon God in these situations. In the version of this text from Matthew, he adds - Blessed are the poor in spirit - meaning blessed are those who may not be materially poor; but who keep their heads on straight materially.
Dependence upon God is not a sign of weakness; rather it keeps one aware of a never ending source of strength.
In the old cowboy films set in the Wild West, it was the sheriff's job to catch the outlaw. Posters were printed depicting the wanted man and hung in saloons, usually with the caption:
"Wanted dead or alive" and offering a reward. Modern police departments have developed a more sophisticated version of this. Where the criminal is unknown, they create what is called an identikit picture, from descriptions they get from interviewing eye-witnesses. A likeness is built up from the size and shape of the mouth, nose and chin, the height of the forehead, the spacing between the eyes etc. The resulting portrait, surprisingly often, leads to the apprehension of the criminal.
It would be interesting to attempt to produce an identikit, not of the physical traits but of the personality make-up (or moral traits) of certain types. Let's pick the obvious one, the one we are most familiar with, the pop-idol, media-mogul, star-athlete, leading politician, TV personality, the one everybody is talking about. Mr Success himself. The one we all yearn to be, model ourselves on, and encourage our children to be. The new secular saint.
He/she must be highly motivated. Money is the great driving force. Money means power. As Cardinal Newman put it:
"All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the multitude of men pay an instinctive homage." To get it and the "good life" that comes with it, he/she must be aggressive, rough riding subordinates, trampling on underlings, ruthless with incompetents, unscrupulous with competitors. Needless to say, an ambivalence towards the law- and an indifference to morality are prerequisites. The rash of corruption scandals presently making the headlines, not only in Italy but right across the globe, leave little doubt about that. Worldly success is rarely achieved with "clean hands." Throw in a few other features, such as pride, avarice, covetousness, anger, and lust, and our portrait is complete.
No modern image-maker or star creator would look twice at someone whose outstanding qualities were humility, compassion, poverty, self-denial and selfless dedication to the service of others. Yet, these, as the Sermon on the Mount outlines for us today, form the identikit of a Christian.
Today's gospel contains what we call the Eight Beatitudes, or the core Attitudes of a Christian. It contains a recipe for living, and for happiness. It outlines a series of choices, and it gives us a programme for living. Up till this time, the world had been in the grip of Satan, "the prince of this world." These new Attitudes, or Beatitudes, are diametrically opposed to the attitudes of the world, or to the teachings of the evil one. Today's gospel is Jesus' Manifesto.
We are familiar with manifestos. They are trotted out during all general election campaigns, held up, and proclaimed as the solution for all our problems. We are also familiar with manifestos that seem to disappear once the election is over. The party in power is called on to "deliver on their election promises." The fact is, however, that, no matter how much good-will and good intentions were involved, you can be sure that corners will have to be cut, that promises will be reneged on, and that several of the programmes will have to be put on hold.
The big difference in the Manifesto in today's gospel is that Jesus' guarantee and promise goes with it, and as well as offering us the Manifesto, he offers us all that it takes to be able to live up to it. That is something that no earthly power could ever hope to achieve, let alone offer. It is central that we understand the new language Jesus uses; in other words, he gives a whole new meaning to words that we use in ordinary everyday worldly language.
The Beatitudes contain the secret of happiness. To be poor in spirit has nothing to do with living in poverty, or without the basic means for normal living. It means that the spirit, the inner me, the real me, is not in bondage to wealth, to greed, or to material things of any kind. I could have a healthy bank account, and be poor in spirit. I don't need these material things to give me a sense of value, and an assurance of worth. I can clearly distinguish between being rich, and being wealthy. A person could be very rich, and have little of this world's wealth. Another person could be really poor, empty, and alone, despite possessing much wealth. -
The hunger that Jesus speaks of has nothing to do with food. It has to do with the hunger for freedom, for justice, for fair play, for equal rights, that continues to drive so many extraordinary men and women in today's world. There is a greater hunger than the lack of food. The deepest hungers in the human heart have to do with belonging, self-worth, dignity, and personal freedom.
Those who weep are those who love. Grief is the price we pay for love. If you never want to cry at a funeral, then don't ever love anybody. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and he wept at the tomb of Lazarus. These were not tears of despair. They were tears of love, of loss, of longing. They were the tears of the one, who holds out both hands, but the offer is not accepted, or the tears of loneliness and aloneness that fill the vacuum created by the loss of a loved one.
Good, by definition, will always be opposed by evil. Good that goes unchallenged from all quarters can be suspect. Jesus met opposition at every turn, and he tells his listeners that if they follow him, they will experience the same. The world cannot deal with the gentleness of the gospel, the turning the other cheek. Such Christian witnesses often end up as Christian martyrs. We have had many such in recent years, Martin Luther King, and Archbishop Romero being among the better known ones. At this moment, there is someone being killed because of a stance for justice, or for his or her proclamation of the gospel.
Jesus then uses the worldly meaning of wealth, opulence, pleasure, and flattery, and warns that these do not lead to happiness. If wealth brought happiness, then every wealthy person should be happy. Indeed, if health brought happiness, then every healthy person would also be happy. This is compounded by the fact that Jesus is speaking here of eternal happiness. In another part of the gospel, he speaks of people who have already had their reward. In other words, there's nothing much waiting for them when they leave their earthly pleasures behind.
Response: To become a Christian involves learning a whole new language. My failures and falls can be turned into compassion and understanding of others. Love removes all price tags from gifts, and forgiveness is seventy times seven. Richness is not stored in bank vaults, and it's all right for a grown man to cry. Love is the currency, and God is the bank manager, and all loans are gifts, and everything is interest-free.
There are three kingdoms. There is the kingdom of the world, which is a happy bedfellow of the kingdom of Satan, as they espouse the same causes. And then there is the Kingdom of God, which Jesus came to establish. The language of Jesus is different because the priorities and the values are different. In his Kingdom, he is Lord, every human life is precious and priceless, and the Power to live in that Kingdom is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if we are to live in his Kingdom, we must have full awareness of the conditions for doing so. The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory are yours... In other words, if I myself contribute to the power, then, I can easily find myself claiming some of the glory.
Witness-value is at the heart of Christian living. Jesus compares the Christian in the world to leaven that is mixed with flour, to salt that is added to food, to a light that enters an empty room. While still a baby, it was said of Jesus, by Simeon, that he would be a sign of contradiction. He himself said in many and varied ways My Kingdom is not of this world. His whole message was diametrically opposed to the teachings and values of this world. I met a man recently who is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he described his experience in a pub the previous evening. He had to attend the particular function, so he was at ease about entering the pub. It was then that his problem started, however. His work-mates just didn't believe him when he said he didn't drink alcohol. After all, he was in a pub, and, to their way of thinking, that was the reason why people went to pubs! There obviously was a clash of understandings between two different ways of looking at the same thing.
Supposing you took today's gospel as your Manifesto, how would you print it on a wall chart? Do you think it would attract much attention? Please ignore those last two questions(!), and answer the followings. What does the Manifesto, or the Beatitudes, mean to you, in your own life?
Can you think of one time when you actually experienced this teaching at work in your life? When you experienced yourself detached from wealthy or worldly ambitions, and yet you knew you were really rich? How involved are you in your community? In every community, there is a small group who cause things to happen. There's a larger group who watch things happening. And, then, there's the vast majority who haven't a clue what's happening. Are you happy to sit back and let someone else fight for the rights of your community?
Today's gospel is not about laying a guilt-trip on anyone. It is fine to have wealth, to have food, to have pleasure, and to enjoy the plaudits of others. The important questions have to do with where the wealth came from, who is being excluded from the food, or who is being used in my pursuit of pleasure? The problem in today's world is that half the population is dying of hunger, while the- other half is on a diet, trying to get down the weight. There is more than enough food in today's world for all its inhabitants.
A missionary in New Guinea told this story. An old man, a recent convert to Christianity, used to come to the mission hospital every day, to read passages of the gospels to the patients. One day the man was having great difficulty reading. The doctor examined his eyes, and discovered that the man was going blind, and would probably be totally blind within a year or two. After that, there was no sign of the man anywhere within or around the hospital. No one knew what had happened to him. Eventually, a young man found him, and brought the mission doctor to visit him.
The old man explained to the doctor that he was busy memorising the most important parts of the gospels, while he still could see. The Eight Beatitudes were near the top of his list. "Soon I'll be back at the hospital, and I'll be able to continue teaching the patients the most important messages of the gospels."
1 Samuel 26:2ff
Ps 103:1-4, 8-10, 12-13
1 Corinthians 15:45-49
Luke 6:27-38
Upon their Hearts
All-embracing Compassion
Settling Old Scores
Loving Our Enemies
Retaliation
1 Sam 26:2ff. Saul, jealous of the young David, wants to kill him. David gets an opportunity to kill Saul but nobly sets it aside.
1 Cor 15:45-49. Paul's famous parallel between Adam and Christ: to Adam we owe our earthly, physical life; to Christ we owe the life of heaven.
Lk 6:27-38. Instead of seeking revenge on our enemies this Gospel urges us to show forgiveness and compassion towards all.
Theme: Today's Eucharist celebrates Jesus as Lord of compassion and love. If we bear grudges against others, we cannot properly approach his altar. We ask him to rid us of our petty vengefulness.
So Saul rose and went down to the Wilderness of Ziph, with three thousand chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the Wilderness of Ziph. So David and Abishai went to the army by night; there Saul lay sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the army lay around him.
Abishai said to David, "God has given your enemy into your hand today; now therefore let me pin him to the ground with one stroke of the spear; I will not strike him twice." But David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him; for who can raise his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless?" So David took the spear that was at Saul's head and the water jar, and they went away. No one saw it, or knew it, nor did anyone awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.
Then David went over to the other side, and stood on top of a hill far away, with a great distance between them. David replied, "Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and get it. The Lord rewards everyone for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the Lord gave you into my hand today, but I would not raise my hand against the Lord's anointed.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits -
It is he who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
It is written, "The first man Adam became a living being;" the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged;do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."
Intercessions
- that God may rid us of the grudges we bear others.
- that love will dispel the poison of vengeance in our hearts.
- that we may see our enemies in a new light, as God sees them.
- that God may break the cycle of violence in all those places where it flares so hotly.
Thoughts for 7th Sunday, C
There is a famous passage in the OT which says, "See the days are coming, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel." And then it continues, "Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God, and they shall be my people... There will be no further need to teach one another, or say to one another, "Know the Lord." No they will all know me from the least to the greatest." You will find this passage in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 31. The important message contained in it is that people should look into the centre of their being, their heart, in order to discover God, what God wants them to do. One of the great saints who, likely, was influenced by Jeremiah's concept of a new inner covenant with God was St Augustine, who was to make it the basis of his spiritual life. "Do not go outside," he wrote, "but enter into yourself; for truth dwells in the interior person." In his Confessions he tells how he experienced it. "I entered, and with the eye o my soul I saw the Light that never changes lighting up my soul, my mind." From there on he was to put into practice what was revealed to Jeremiah, beginning at chapter 31, verse 31.
It is by extraordinary coincidence that the conversion of Augustine came about originally by his reading of the Epistle to the Romans; beginning at chapter 13, verse 13. This was a most earnest challenge by St Paul to everyone who professed to be a follower of Christ. "Let us live decently as in the day," Paul urged, "not in carousing and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop pandering to your sinful nature, and satisfying its desires." This is down-to-earth and concrete advice, a kind of corollary to be taken in conjunction with the idea of interior being in Jeremiah. The acid test of inner holiness is whether or not it is accompanied by good works, the opposite of all the sins mentioned by Paul.
We must remember that the New Testament was written in Greek, and "carousing" (komos) in Greek was used to describe a noisy band of revellers who rampaged through the city streets at night, demeaning themselves and being a nuisance to others. It sounds familiar today also. Even to the pagan Greeks, drunkenness was a particular disgrace. Although they were a wine- drinking people - they did not have tea or coffee in those days - drunkenness was considered especially shameful, for the wine they drank was much diluted, and was only taken because water was scarce, and moreover dangerous, on account of possible contamination, something which is true to this day in warm climates. Drunkenness, then, was a vice which not only a Christian but any respectable pagan would condemn. Today, the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent, has been designated Temperance Sunday throughout the country. Temperance does not mean total abstinence but rather moderation in indulging our appetites.
In the 19th century, inordinate craving for strong drink was seen as a kind of curse on the Irish, a glaring weakness in our national character. People resorted to drink, during periods of great deprivation and misery, to try and escape their troubles. Nowadays it is by and large an unbridled seeking for earthly pleasure. And while the simple pleasures of life are something we should be grateful to God for, what we must impress upon our minds is that pleasure unlimited and Christianity simply cannot co-exist. "Unless you deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me, you cannot be my disciple," Christ is saying to us as we begin our Lenten preparation for the celebration of Easter. What he is asking of us is not so much total abstinence, but rather temperance, restraint, self-control, virtues which are gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Over-indulgence in alcohol is never a means of escaping life's problems. It merely adds to them. It can lead to break-up in marriages, the disruption of personal relationships, the danger of alcohol-related diseases which after heart disease and cancer is the third most likely cause of premature death among Irish people. The over-riding reason why we should exercise restraint in drinking is that temperance is a virtue. Temperance is not only a duty; it is a test as to whether we are true disciples of Christ or not. On this Temperance Sunday we should pray that we, and others, may cherish this virtue of temperance, and always respond to the warning of John the Baptist, "Be sober and watch. The Lord is near."
(1) Others had said: "do not do to others what you would not have them do to you." That is perhaps the basic law of manners and politeness. Jesus, characteristically, goes beyond this: Do to others... The Christian ethic is positive. It goes beyond "Thou shalt not..." to "Do .... " It is activist. There is the story of the man who appeared at the gate of heaven asking to be let in. St Peter asked him why he thought he should be let in. The man answered: "my hands are clean." "Yes," answered Peter, "but they are empty!'
(2) The Christian ethic always asks for more. Many people are puzzled and confused because Christian moral guides are sometimes slow to lay down a clear minimum which people must achieve to be justified. But Jesus asks for more. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?" What is so special about that? Jesus asks for extra. We told his disciples: "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Yet with those who tried and failed he was full of sympathy and compassion. He will never say "enough," but he will not reject anyone who has failed and comes back to him.
(3) Some people see life in terms of dog eating dog. David had his chance to kill his enemy before his enemy killed him, as Saul fully intended to do. But he held back and he would not take Saul's life. The temptation to violence is an easy one. The world is full of wars and violent confrontations. We yield too readily to our instincts of aggression, whether it is the great aggression where nation confronts nation in a balance of terrir, or violent confrontations between groups of citizens, or violence in the home. Education in peaceful means of solving interpersonal and intercommunal difficulties is one of the greatest needs of our age. The way is open to Christians to start to learn more about non-violent means of solving conflicts and becomes peacemakers.
(4) Compassion is the characteristic of God - even of the "Old Testament God" whom many commentators, following some early Christian heretics, like to portray as harsh and cruel. Our psalm, which comes from the Old Testament emphasises that God is not the seeker of vengeance that many people imagine him to be. He is not waiting and anxious to punish each and every fault, but he is concerned only to remove our sins and to make us one with him.
(5) God's love and goodness, his desire not to reject or to lose us, is shown most powerfully in what he has done for us in his Son Jesus Christ. He has made us into a new creation. He wishes to join us with him for an eternity of fulfilment and happiness. God's compassion for sinful and unhappy humanity is the model of our compassion. St Matthew had said: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Ch. 5:48.) St John said: "God is love" (1 John 4:7.) St Luke's report of Jesus' words is: "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate."
All America is watching it. And much of the rest of the world as well. The major TV networks are paying astronomic sums for the exclusive rights. The trial of a football star who is alleged to have murdered his former wife and her boyfriend. So what's new? Nothing. It's the oldest crime in history, dating all the way back to Cain and Abel. Shakespeare based his finest play - Hamlet - on the same theme, revenge.
Life is full of people with chips on their shoulders, real or imaginary, all waiting for a chance to get their own back. They carry their scars through life, refusing to let them heal until they have settled accounts. Feuds, vendettas and grudges are nurtured in parishes, in streets and even in families. Some are even passed down from one generation to the next. A colossal amount of human energy is expended on settling old scores and exacting vengeance. The lax talionis -'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" - is alive and well and thriving in every human environment. In the corridors of power, in the velvet setting of plush boardrooms, the knives are long and sharp and when the opportunity arises are slipped between pin-striped shoulder blades without a pang of remorse.
It is strange that honour is always at stake when the God of vengeance is invoked. So are loved ones. We owe it to our wives and children. "Getting even" is raised to the level of a virtue. The world has nothing but contempt for the one who turns the other cheek.
What is refreshing about today's gospel is that it recognises us as we are, full of pettiness, exacting hurt for hurt, trading blow for blow. No mushy sentimentality here.
Christ takes for granted what we prefer to ignore. "Who me? Enemies?" And those who hate us and curse us and treat us badly. Loving them is a call to perfection and the reward is great. "You will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked."
A certain monk was praying under a tree beside a river. As he prayed the tide was coming and the river was rising. Then he noticed a scorpion at the foot of the tree struggling for dear life as the surging waves tried to drown it. The monk stretched out his hand to pull the scorpion to safety but each time his hand came near the scorpion tried to sting him. A passerby saw what was going on and said to the monk: "What are you doing? Don't you know that it is in the nature of a scorpion to sting?" "Yes," replied the monk, "And it is my nature to save. Must I change my nature because the scorpion refuses to change its nature?" Today's gospel urges Christians to remain true to their nature of love even when the people around them remain adamant in their nature of hate.
Today's gospel continues the Great Sermon of Jesus from where we left off last Sunday. After speaking about the persecution and violence that will be visited on the disciples, as was done to the prophets of old, Jesus now speaks to the disciples about how they are to respond to the hostility. He begins: "But I say to you that listen..." (Luke 6:27). What follows is not a general code of conduct for all and sundry but a standard of behaviour for those who follow Jesus and listen to his teachings. If Christianity is a superior religion, the way to show it is not by endless arguments and debates about the true religion but by the superior moral behaviour of Christians.
But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. (6:27-30)
What does Jesus mean by "love your enemies?" Does he mean we should have enemies and then, in some mysterious manner, love them at the same time? Or does he mean we should not have enemies at all? Taking into consideration that Jesus is speaking about the disciples and their persecutors, we see that "enemies" here means those who hate the disciples, not those that the disciples hate. Disciples are to hate no one. If by enemies we mean those we hate, then Christians should have no enemies. But if by enemies we mean those who hate us, then we cannot help having enemies. We cannot control how others treat us, we can only control our attitude to them.
The disciples lived in a society that hated them and treated them with hostility. What Jesus is asking them in today's gospel is that they should not return hatred for hatred or hostility for hostility. This is an attitude that the church in all its 2000 years of existence has hardly understood. It took godly men like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr to reawaken Christians to the importance of non-violence as the norm of the Christian response to persecution, oppression, abuse and injustice. Jesus remains the greatest teacher and example of non-violence, for even as they were leading him out to a shameful, public execution on the cross, he was still able to say, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).
We can more easily forgive and offer non-violence to our enemies - those who hate us, not those we hate - by reminding ourselves that they are acting in ignorance and that one day the truth will dawn on them. Non-violence is not limited to social movements; it is required also in family and interpersonal relationships where we can become victims of verbal and physical violence. While we should do all we can to put an end to an abusive situation, the gospel reminds us today that, in the words of Gandhi and King, an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. If there is in our lives a scorpion of hate that delights in stinging us, let us, like the monk, remain faithful to our commitment to love.
Today's gospel summarises something that was new to the religious leaders of Jesus' day. They had a law, which said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In other words, they were expected to strike back at those who harmed them in any way. It is in a gospel like that presented to us today that we see just how radical and revolutionary Jesus' teaching must have sounded back then. Indeed, it is still quite revolutionary in today's world, with our dog-eat-dog mentality. The process of salvation which he had come to establish would be based on forgiveness, and, therefore, to be part of, and to belong to that process must put each one of us right Out there in the front line of tolerance, forgiveness, and love.
There is extraordinary power in forgiveness, gentleness, meekness, and love. "Blessed are the meek" says Jesus, "they shall possess the earth." We have all seen the movies, read the books, or heard the first-hand accounts of the lives of Mahatma Ghandi or Martin Luther King. The bully cannot deal with the power of the one who won't strike back, and, therefore, such people are killed, as the only evident way of stopping them. To err is human, to forgive is divine. We are all familiar with the concept of people being small-minded, big-hearted, narrow-minded, tolerant, bigoted, judgmental, etc. We have seen revolutionaries trying to overthrow the powers-that-be by force of arms. In doing this, many innocent people get killed, and, it often happens that the liberated oppressed become the new oppressors. On the other hand, we have Peace Movements, Civil Rights marches, and candlelight vigils to highlight injustices and oppression. Aggression from one provokes aggression in another. My strength is as the strength o ten, because my heart is pure.
How would the following exercise appeal to you? You sit in front of a mirror; reflect on all of the failures and sin in your life. You take as much time as you need for this. You are going to ask God's forgiveness, you are going to try to make amends wherever possible, and you want to move forward from here. Ask yourself one simple question: How willing are you to give yourself absolution, to forgive yourself totally, before you dare ask God to forgive you? Is there any point in asking God to do something for you that you are unwilling to do for yourself? Guilt is not from God. Rather is it your own inability to forgive yourself. A leading psychiatrist said that he could discharge two-thirds of his patients immediately if he could get them to forgive themselves.
Jesus taught us one simple prayer, which we call the Our Father or the Lord's Prayer. It is a simple prayer, and it is quite short. One of the petitions is where we ask God to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We can rattle off this prayer, and fail to realise the bind in which it can place us. We are putting a condition on God's forgiveness, and that condition is that we are willing to forgive others. Please take time out sometime today to reflect on the ramifications of saying this prayer.
Corrie was a Christian Jew living in Holland during the Nazi occupation of that country. She has written some beautiful books, filled with the spirit of the Christian gospel. One of those books is her own story. She tells of what happened to herself and to her family. One night a man came to their door in great panic and terror. He told them that himself and his family were going to be taken away by the Nazis. The only hope he had was that he might be able to bribe the police, and they might be left unharmed. He begged for some valuable objects to effect the bribe. He was given whatever they could possibly give, and then he left. It was a trick, because he went straight to the Nazi police, and reported them for assisting in his proposed escape. Corrie and all of her family were arrested, and they ended up in a German concentration camp. All of her family died there, and she was the only survivor. Later, when she returned home, she spent a considerable length of time tracking down the man who had betrayed them She eventually did so. Her only reason for wanting to meet him was that, for her own peace of mind, she needed to forgive him. She felt that it was only through forgiveness, and not through resentment, that she could continue to live in freedom.
Sirach 27:4-7
Ps 92:1-2, 12-15
1 Corinthians 15:54-58
Luke 6:39-45
Only Lukewarm?
Purity of lntention
Begin in Your Own Heart
Confirming the Faith
Blind Man's Buff
As others see us
Sir 27:4-7. The sieve, the kiln, the tree: three picturesque images show how our speech reveals the kind of person we are.
1 Cor 15:54-58. If we persevere in God's work, we need not fear death. After death we will share in Christ's victory over sin and evil.
Lk 6:39-45. "Can the blind lead the blind?" Although we should be concerned about others, we cannot offer guidance unless we see the way clearly ourselves.
Theme: Our Lord invites us to take the plank out of our own eyes before we try to take the splinter out of others' eyes. It is good to take a hard look at ourselves and our own shortcomings.
When a sieve is shaken, the refuse appears; so do a person's faults when he speaks. The kiln tests the potter's vessels; so the test of a person is in his conversation. Its fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so a person's speech discloses the cultivation of his mind. Do not praise anyone before he speaks, for this is the way people are tested.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
The righteous flourish like the palm tree,
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
In old age they still produce fruit;
they are always green and full of sap,
showing that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
He also told them a parable: "Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, 'Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour's eye.
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
Thoughts for 8th Sunday, C
(Sir 27:4-7 .... 1 Cor 15:54-58 .... Lk 6:39-45)
In the first part of the Book of Revelation, the Risen Jesus sends a message or revelation to each one of seven churches in Asia Minor. The last of these messages was addressed to the Church in the city of Laodicea. This city stood astride the great road East from the port of Ephesus on the Mediterranean coast, the ancient trade route to the heart of what is now Turkey and countries beyond. Laodicea was renowned as a financial centre, for its commercial enterprise, for its medical discoveries, and especially for its wealth. It was so rich that it did not even need God, and the Christian Church there had the grim distinction of being the only one of the seven Churches about which the Risen Christ had not a single good thing to say. These were his words: "I know all about you; how you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other, but since you are neither, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth" (Apoc 7:15f). Such an awful pronouncement of Jesus contains a apt message for the world tody also; for the spiritual state of much of modern society can be summed up as religious indifference - something which has been described as the least conspicuous yet, the most radical form, of atheism.
Like the citizens of Laodicea, millions of modern people are neither hot nor cold; they experience no religious stirrings whatsoever, nor do they see why they should trouble themselves about religion (GS 19). They lapse into a form of spiritual stagnation, which is quite remote from both energetic faith and energetic atheism alike, and without the support of the believing community spurring them on to seek Christ, without the guidance that comes from the word of God in Scripture, without the grace that follows from reception of the Sacraments, they become stuck in the rut of their own indifference. Their attitude has become predictable, static, whereas to grow in a spiritual relationship with God demands change, and, as Cardinal Newman wrote in his famous Apologia, to grow is to change and to be perfect is to change often.
Nevertheless, indifference need not continue throughout the whole of one's life. For the human mind deep down is constantly being drawn by God's Spirit, and this being so, it is never quite totally cut adrift from reflecting on the meaning of life, and death, and eternity. When an attempt is made to convert a person who has fallen away from the practice of religion, we can say that the grace of God has been there ahead of that attempt, and conversion is not so much passing on spiritual truths as awakening something within, which has been really present all along. For this purpose God makes use of human agents.
Nowhere do we see a clearer example of this than in the first chapter of John's gospel, where the call of the first disciples of Christ is described. We read how John the Baptist was with two of his disciples when Jesus passed by. John said, "Look, there is the Lamb of God," and this simple remark was sufficient to make the two become followers of Jesus. One was Andrew, and he was instrumental in making his brother Peter a disciple as well, when he said, "We have found the Messiah." Next day Philip was added to the group, because Jesus had said to him, "Follow me." Philip then met up with Nathanael, known also as Bartholomew, and told him of his belief that Jesus was the one promised by Moses and the prophets. When Nathanael dismissed this claim as being ludicrous, Philip said, "Come and see." The brief conversation with Jesus that followed was enough to make Nathanael change his mind completely. In each case a few simple words brought about a life-long commitment.
We are told that when Jesus came to select the twelve Apostles he spent the whole night beforehand in prayer to the Father, as it were to discover the Father's wishes. At the Last Supper, Jesus in his priestly prayer to the Father referred again and again to the Apostles as those whom the Father had given him. The seeds of their vocation had been already sown in them by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus' task had been to call them. Jesus was the agent, who with a few brief words would cause those seeds to germinate and take on new life. God has great plans for each one of us too, if only we remain receptive to his call. And the advice of the Risen Christ to us is that in the conclusion of his message to every one in turn of the seven Churches in the Book of Revelation, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying."
(1) Jesus clearly enough states in the Gospel that we have no right at all to judge others. The Christian life is firmly based on the premise that we are all sinners, that we have no right to judge one another, that we should all be united in a common admission of sinfulness. What is striking about a meeting of reformed alcoholics is this sense of a shared admission of a common weakness. Each of those present is encouraged to take the first step towards reform: admitting that he has a difficulty that he cannot control. Each one is encouraged by the example of others to take this first step. Yet even here a certain anonymity is preserved. Among the general body of Christians our sinfulness is much less obvious and striking in its effects than the addiction that grips an alcoholic. But we find it far more difficult to admit a common weakness. Rather we tend to preserve the impression that we are all virtuous and to claim a right to judge others that we do not deserve.
(2) However, we do need to be able to guide and encourage others. Parents have the responsibility of showing their children, by example of course, but also explicitly in words what the Christian life is and how it is led. The Gospel reminds us that the blind cannot lead the blind, that we need to remove the log out of our own eye precisely in order to be able to help (though not to judge) others. One cannot undertake to guide others until one has a good grasp of the Christian life: one must not only be well-informed, but one must have examined one's life and begun the work of correcting one's deficiencies. Yet even here pessimism is to be avoided. As every teacher knows, you really begin to learn something when you try to teach it to others. Every parent knows that just because he or she becomes aware of the need to teach the children how to live he or she is encouraged to behave in a more Christian way.
(3) Just because a person has achieved a high standard of behaviour does not mean that all is well. God searches the heart. The heart too betrays itself. Sometimes a person who appears virtuous may show in his speech, perhaps by hard and bitter and unforgiving things said about others, that all is not well in his heart. Jesus was careful to warn his disciples about self-righteousness - the attitude of a person who has judged himself and given himself a pass or honours mark and so slips into judging others. A good and sound heart must be based on an interior attitude of self-criticism. It must be based in the conviction that I am a sinner, and not just a sinner in minor and unimportant things, but a person who can only enter heaven by receiving God's forgiveness in many things. If we do not have this conviction we should do a hard thing: we should ask God for it, because it is one of the essential graces of the Christian life.
Today is Quinquagesima Sunday. Fifty days until Easter. According to the same ancient tradition, last week was Sexagesima Sunday, sixty days until Easter. And the Sunday before that Septuagesima Sunday, seventy days until Easter. It follows, that next Sunday is Quadragesima Sunday, forty days until Easter, the season of Lent, forty days of fast. The numbers are rounded and thus do not add up, but they are adequate. And so, once out of Epiphany and its season, the major celebration since Advent, we have our eyes set on the Resurrection, or, better, on the Passion, Death and Rising of the Lord, the most significant event in history.
Having your eyes fixed on time's peak event is healthy. Healthy for its realistic entry into suffering, that through Christ's Passion and Death, we come to know the Rising of the Lord in victory over sin and death.
Otherwise, how cope with the human scene, a scene of world-wide misery of every kind. An unending parade of the tragic. Today. Live. In color.
How deal with it all except in relation to the Saviour of the world, Who entered into suffering and made it redemptive, turned the evil of humankind into an encounter with mercy in His own flesh and blood.
To be sure, in the course of a year, we go through Christian history from its ancient roots in Advent through the Nativity and all the events of His life on to the Last Day and the final, closing Judgment. Not in a mere historical review of course, but a real, if mystical, entry into these profound scenes.
And our relationship to the encounter is a great deal more than mere witness as onlookers. We are participants, for our sins are involved. We had a hand in the Passion. And still do. You may think yourself a mere passive viewer, but you are quite mistaken. Your passive viewing is itself your response to divine events.
And as if a yearly encounter with the salvation story were not enough, we have it daily in the Eucharist. For we know the Mass is the Passion, Death and Rising of the Lord. Now, being put to death by sinners. "What you do to the least, you do to Me" (Mt. 25:40). Christ's Passion, Death and Rising is a transcendent event, surpassing time, in the world until it is all over. The last Mass well be offered when the last sin is done. Christ heals this miserable situation through His mercy, calls us to new life, to rise from the dead, to enter into glory.
In the face of such cosmic realities, it seems rather lame to speak of noting the splinter in your brother's eye rather than being aware of your own hampered vision. Is that to be taken as an answer to the world scene?
It seems so. For if the flaw in your brother is a problem with you, does that not indicate a critical view of your own flaws? For you cannot treat others any way except the way you treat yourself. If you can be savage in your comments on another, no one need doubt you are just as savage with your own heart, revealed in your speech. The beam in your own eye has never been removed in mercy nor the speck you see in your brother's eye.
We need to meet mercy if we are to do mercy to others. Anything less is sheer waste. The sinful heart that has accepted Christ's mercy approaches another in quite a different mode than does the one foreign to it.
Hence, the healing of the world does not begin in some far-off land that we must hasten to help, but in the geography of your own heart. There the sinner is washed in mercy and becomes thereby an instrument of mercy, not merely by his prayers, but in everything he does. For he is a vessel of grace. We cannot heal all the world's problems, but we begin with our own heart if our help is to amount to anything.
For our response is not limited to prayer for the afflicted. We practice justice, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, bury the dead. We forgive injury and do not resort to revenge, to reprisal, to contempt. In our world. Where we are.
It costs nothing and is worth more than anyone can tell. And it is this way the world is healed, with Christ dying daily everywhere and we with Him.
And since the healing process is so slow, as it always is, we need to look ahead to the triumph at the end when Christ, put to death in humankind how many times, rises in glorious mercy. Amen.
The Church's post-Easter liturgical season is a time for confirming of our faith, and it is appropriate that we listen once more to Jesus' teaching to see whether it is maturing in our own lives. Today's readings focus on one essential, "imperishable" attitude that needs to be part of every Christian's life, if he or she wishes to live true wisdom and to put on the immortality of life with the risen Lord (1 Cor 15:54.) It is an attitude that will not come easily, but rather something in which we must "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord... Labour is not in vain" (1 Cor 15:58.)
Called to produce good out of the good treasures faith has placed in the believer's heart (Lk 6:45), each Christian is called to be like the teacher (Lk 6:40.) However, this striving to imitate the Lord can be weakened and stunted altogether when one allows a judgmental attitude to take root in one's life. Constantly criticising others, and always passing judgmental their motives and actions, results from the "power of sin," part of its sting (1 Cor 15:56.) This perishable attitude leads to spiritual death.
Luke speaks of this weakness as a possible error in the life of a Christian. His passage is not addressed to unbelievers but to disciples (Lk 6:40), for the constant concern with other people's faults is sometimes found among the sisters and brothers of faith (Lk 6:41.) When such a disciple sees the speck that is in a brother or sister's eye (Lk 6:41) or self-righteously corrects others without evaluating one's own life, then we have a hypocrite (Lk 6:42), a blind guide (Lk 6:39.)
All four evangelists, in different contexts, deal with the sinful, self-righteous arrogance of believers who pass judgment on the faults of others, while remaining blind to their own. Mark criticises them forcefully, Matthew calls them to reconciliation, and John holds up Jesus as the model - the Son who judges no one. Out of all the source-material offered to Luke for the great sermon, he chooses this as one attitude to beware of.
Luke's warning and pastoral advice may well be appropriate for believers still, and we should be mature enough to examine ourselves on this potential weakness. The problem is not believers passing religious judgment on the possible immorality of unbelievers, but believers passing judgment on believers, sisters and brothers finding fault with each other. The post-Vatican II Church has witnessed polarisation and divisiveness; believers have found fault with other believers" approaches to liturgy, Church structures, forms of renewal. We have seen personal attacks grow out of disagreements about external adaptations, and experienced a schism, the first in a century, filled with recrimination and fault-finding. Some Christian individuals and groups, rather than build on their common faith, have preferred mutual condemnation, as one or other arrogantly claims truth and orthodoxy, zealously wanting to remove a speck from someone else's eye, while missing the log in their own (Lk 6:42.) The experience of Catholicism as also been witnessed in other Christian traditions, as contemporary persecution becomes more and more the mutual persecution of Christians by Christians.
This period of post-Easter deepening of our faith and dedication should lead to a maturity of faith, in which "everyone when... fully taught will be like... the teacher" (Lk 6:40.) This passage on the judgmental attitude of arrogant believers is sandwiched between the teaching on universal love (Lk 6:27-36) and the call to build one's life on the solid foundation of Jesus' teaching (Lk 6:46-49.) Genuine love challenges each one to "be merciful, even as your Father is merciful," and will make the disciple like the Most High who is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish (Lk 6:35-36.) The teaching on the need to build on the solid foundation of Jesus' words reminds the disciple that calling Jesus "Lord" is not enough, we must become like the teacher in his love for all.
Today's readings remind us that we are called to new life with the risen Lord; a life that results both from his gift and our efforts. Part of our effort is to remove obstacles to growth, and one of the most important blocks that festers when left uncured, is arrogant judgment of other believers. Today provides an occasion to examine ourselves in this critical area of Christian life.
Blindness, for children, seems to hold no terror at all. They love even to fake blindness in many of their games like Blind man's buff Maybe it's because they're so terribly afraid of the dark that they always make a game out of blindness. If only blindness could always remain a game children play!
But it's not so. Of all the forms blindness takes among adults, physical blindness is the most uncommon and the least terrible. Look at places, where not long ago a car-bomb went off killing innocent bystanders and maiming many others. Or countries that in our own time have had genocidal massacres. You don't have to look further than the newspapers or your TV screen to see people who are blinded by hate and ignorance, fear and prejudice. The terrorist who sees only the sacredness of his own cause and nothing else. He certainly doesn't see his brother in other men or God in all men. Few countries in the world can claim to be immune from terrorism.
There are those in high places and in places not so high, who cast a blind eye on all the corruption, fiddling and dishonesty that surrounds them. The "clean hands" investigation in Italy represents only the tip of an iceberg. Scandals and cover-ups are confined within no frontiers. The kick-back, the back-hand, the pay-offs are convertible currency world-wide.
Other blindnesses are more pitiable. Those unhappy crea tures whose lives are locked up in blind alleys, from which they can see no way out. Addicts of all kinds but above all those addicted to hard drugs like heroin or cocaine. And the cartels who feed their addictions give a new horror dimension to the expression "the blind leading the blind."
As for the rest of us, who pride ourselves on our sharp eye, our balanced view, our long-term perspective, how blind we are to our own shortcomings. How often we close our eyes to the crying needs of those even in our own immediate circle, not to mention the poor, the old, the handicapped. How often we try to take the speck out of our neighbour's eye, while neglecting the beam in our own. Such is the Blind man's buff we grown-ups play. And the sad thing is that, unlike children, we think we can see.
Of all those who followed Christ, looking for this, that and the other thing, there was only one, a blind beggar called Tim in the city of Jericho, who asked simply: "Lord, that I may see!" Like Tim, we are all blind beggars and his is a little prayer we could all say and often.
Intercessions
- "Lord, that we may see."
- Lord, open our eyes and our hearts to the crying needs of the poor.
- Lord, free our minds from prejudice and hatred.
Today's gospel has some simple clear messages, that are easily understood. Jesus speaks about how it is so much easier for us to see the faults in others, and he gives us a simple test to show whether a person is good or not.
"From what delusions it would free us, if we could see ourselves as others see us!" Point your finger at something right now, and then look at your hand. What you see is that, while there is one finger pointing at something, there are three pointing back at yourself! I remember a friend of mine telling about a confrere who spent one full hour with a camera to get a close-up shot of a bee in flight. My friend considered this a serious waste of time. What he failed to realise, of course, was that while the photographer was busy trying to get a good photo, my friend was standing watching him, doing nothing! At least one of them was doing something!
Jesus is teaching us to know our place. When a pupil considers himself greater than his teacher; when I take the liberty of pointing out to you what I think you should change in yourself,. . In such ways, we are getting too big for our boots, and are out of place. Jesus says that if the student works hard he will become like his teacher.
It's so easy for us to see the faults of others. For years I was wondering what was wrong with other people! Then, one day, I made a simple discovery. I discovered that what was wrong with them is that they were different from me! They all seemed to do things I wouldn't do! Upon further reflection, I discovered that the reason they were different from me is that God, in his infinite wisdom, had made them different from me. For his own good reasons, he decided that one of me was enough, and so he broke up the mould and threw it away!
"Whatever is in your heart determines what you say." There has never been a bomb planted, or a bullet fired that did not begin in the heart of some human being. By the heart I mean the core of our being, that part where we are most ourselves. "A pure heart create in me, O Lord, and put a steadfast spirit within me." On a physical level, we can have angiograms, ECGs, stress tests, etc. all to find out the condition of the physical heart. We ourselves should run a check on that inner being which we call the heart, to ensure that our thinking, our attitudes, and our inner dispositions are life giving and healthy.
Response: Before I offer to remove the speck from my brother's eye, I should have a long hard look at myself in the mirror. Quite often, what I condemn in others can be part of my own behaviour. A parent lecturing a son or daughter about drugs may be a constant user of alcohol, nicotine, etc. I remember seeing a young lad, who had hit his little sister, being lifted off the ground with a smack by a hefty mother, with the warning "I'll teach you not to hit anybody smaller than yourself!'
The best way to lead others is by example. Of course, I can help another remove a speck from an eye, or a resentment from the heart, or a destructive bias from the mind. I can do this by example, when my own behaviour does not contradict the advice I give to others. Others benefit both directly and indirectly, every time I make an effort to cleanse my own heart.
It was a Saturday, and the weather was bad. The mother had gone off for the day, and the father was minding several young children. He was a top business executive, and he was well experienced in management of people, of time, and motion, etc. However, because of the weather, which confined the children to the house, he soon felt the pressure of all the hyper-activity going on around him. He came up with a plan that he thought would solve his problem. He took down a magazine from a shelf, flicked through it, and found a map of the world. He tore out the page, got a scissors, and cut the page into many pieces. He jumbled up the pieces, and put them on the table, and told his ten-year-old to put that jigsaw together again. That would keep him quiet for a while!
He proceeded to make out other assignments for each of the others. In a short while, however, he looked over and saw that his son had completed the jigsaw. He was amazed, and partially annoyed. "How did you do that so quickly?" he asked. "Dad, I didn't know how or where to start. I never saw one of these before. There were lines going in every direction, and I was going to give up. But, dad, guess what? I turned over a piece of the paper and I found that there was a man on the other side. I turned over all the pieces, put the man together, and the job was done'!
Man or woman, you are the person on the reverse side of the world...!
1 Kings 8:41-43
117:1-2
Galatians 1:1ff
Luke 7:1-10
Interceding for Others
The Gospel is for Everyone
Despite Differences
Unconsecrated Ground
Roman Centurion
1 Kgs 8:41-43. Solomon welcomes foreigners to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, so that the true God will be revered more widely.
Gal 1:1-2,6-10. Paul warns against trouble-makers, who preach a different version of the Gospel to that revealed by God.
Lk 7:1-10. "Not even in Israel have I found such faith." Jesus praises the centurion's faith and heals his servant.
Theme: Jesus praises the Roman centurion's faith. The church has adopted this man's words as a prayer just before Communion. We should be open to receive words of wisdom, even from unlikely sources.
"Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name - for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm - when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.
Praise the Lord, all you nations!
Extol him, all you peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Paul an apostle-sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead- and all the members of God's family who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed! Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us."
And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it." When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
Intercessions
- that we may recognise the truth and goodness in other religions.
- that we may never be dismissive of what is sacred to others.
- that we may be given the grace of tolerance.
- that as God's name has been invoked on this house of prayer, we stay close to him always.
Thoughts for 9th Sunday, C
"Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." This confession which we all make before receiving Holy Communion is based on today's gospel story about the Roman centurion. "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you under my roof, but only say the word and my servant shall be healed." This was what the centurion had said, and the fact that this man -
foreigner or gentile, and an army officer - was given the highest commendation by Jesus - "Nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this'- all this must have really infuriated the critics of Jesus, who were listening on. We might even add that hardly anywhere in the Roman Empire could one find an official so concerned about his personal slave as this man. For example a highly respected Roman statesman and moralist (Cato) in ancient times, writing on farm management, strongly advised land-owners that each year they should examine their farming implements and get rid of all those which were faulty or old, and that they should do he same with any of their slaves who were old or sickly. It was the accepted practice in those days that when a slave was past his usefulness he was thrown out to die.
In the light of such indifference to human suffering we should view the action of the centurion in the gospel story. His slave was dear to him and he was prepared to try everything to save his life. He was a deeply religious man, and we know that he donated some of his modest income towards building a synagogue for Jewish worship in Capernaum, at a time when most Romans regarded the Jewish faith as barbarous superstition. He was, moreover, a humble man; he would not even come to Jesus himself. And finally he was a man of faith; even before Jesus performed the miracle, his attitude was "I know you can cure my servant, you need only say the word and he will be healed."
The Jews, on the other hand, who had witnessed Jesus perform even more miracles, persisted in ascribing all of these to the power of the devil. Surprisingly, however, with few exceptions, we can say that as far as those who witness miracles are concerned, nothing lasting seems to be gained, that apart from creating a short-lived sense of wonder, they do not appear to make people better as regards their religious views, or principles, or habits. You might say that a miracle would startle you, but being startled is not conversion, any more than religious knowledge is the same as religious practice.
God offers his grace to us in several other ways, and if these make no impression, the likelihood is that, as in the case of the Jews, miracles will not convert us either. We might ask then, what is the real reason why we do not seek God with all our hearts, and devote ourselves to serving him? Why do people, even after witnessing miraculous happenings, continue to ignore the voice of God that speaks to everyone from within? Sacred Scripture gives us part of the answer when it says, "Take care brothers (and sisters) that there is not in any of you a heart so evil and unbelieving as to turn away from the living God." In other words, we do not serve God, precisely because we lack the heart, the will, and the desire to serve him. We prefer anything to religion as did the Jews at the foot of Mount Sinai, when they grew tired of waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain. They proceeded to erect and adore a golden calf, and afterwards amuse themselves.
Alas, we are no better. How often do we allow ourselves to be seduced by the glitter and attractions of this passing world? We turn aside from the promptings of God's divine Spirit because of our lack of fervour and love in serving him. Oh yes, we keep hoping that we will be converted to God, but at some future date, like the people of Athens whose response to Paul's teaching was, "We would like to hear you talk about this another time," or the young Augustine who prayed, "Make me pure Lord, but not yet." We should keep reminding ourselves of the warning of Psalm 94, recited daily by all who say the Divine Office, "Oh, that today you would listen to his voice. Harden not your hearts." "Listen" is a key word in the Bible. It appears 1,100 times in the OT and 445 in the New Testament. In our prayer to God, especially when celebrating the Mass, not only do we speak to God, but God, in turn speaks to us, provided we listen to the voice of his Holy Spirit within us, and not allow ourselves to be wilfully distracte.
The central theme of all of today's readings is universalism: the fact that God - the one, true God who revealed himself initially to Israel is the God not only of Israel but of all nations, of all humankind.
The homilist might fruitfully remind the congregation of the "history of salvation:" God revealed himself firstly to Abraham and this revelation reached a climax in the Jerusalem temple But God's will has always been to bring all nations together as his one people a Solomon saw, however vaguely, this "plan" of God to reveal himself to all nations. The trouble in the Churches of Galatia had been caused by people who insisted that, to be "first class (Christians at least, the faithful had to subscribe to the prescriptions Of the Jewish law - whereas Paul had preached that once faith In Christ was necessary. According to Paul, all human beings of whatever culture or race - could belong to God, through Christ provided that they believed in the gospel. Faith was the only prerequisite, the only qualification required, to belong to the church the new "people" of God, This is also apparent from today's gospel: the centurion's servant is healed because of the centurion 5 faith, And Jesus' healing is always a sign of the spiritual salvation which he brings to the world. The centurion is an example of all those who come to God, within the "temple" of the Church, through faith in Jesus.
There are many practical applications - for our personal life and for the life of the Church - to be drawn from today's liturgy of the word. The first and most obvious is that there is no room for insularity and chauvinism - let alone xenophobia - in the Christian view of humankind. There are no "foreigners" in God's eyes - before him all human beings are equal and all are called and destined to become his children, members of his one "people."
The gospel and the moral conversion which it demands are profound and far-reaching but also simple and make for the development of all persons as full human beings. Nothing truly human is alien to the gospel, and all human beings, of whatever culture, colour or race, can accept it and, thereby, reach fulfilment, It would be wrong to identify Christianity with any one culture, be it Jewish, Roman or Western European. The basic qualification of the Christian: to believe in God through Jesus Christ can be, and is, found in every authentically human culture. Only on this condition can the Catholic Church be truly "catholic," that is, "universal:" found everywhere.
At this point the homilist might refer to the efforts being made to bring about greater unity between the Christian Churches - the ecumenical movement - and to achieve a better understanding between the different world religions. It should be stressed that today's liturgy expresses our belief that there is only one, true God and that it is the will of this God that all human beings should come to know him. All our efforts to understand "other" religions should not be construed as a dilution of this fundamental truth of our religion.
The true Christian should - in imitation of Jesus - be a welcoming, unprejudiced person. Many societies today include immigrants; many people are forced to emigrate, to flee for refuge from natural or political disasters. The "global village," the "multi-racial society," the "pluralist society" - these are clichés, but they remind us that we are living in a world in which people are experienced as being "different." The Christian attitude to all genuinely cultural differences between people is one of positive acceptance and welcome, not just of "tolerance," in the belief that God himself accepts and welcomes people as they are, and that he gives them healing, salvation and access to his Church, on the one condition that they welcome the gospel preached by his Son and continually communicated to the world through his Church. It is incumbent on the Church to safeguard and to work for the purity of this gospel. In practical terms, this means that all the members of the Church should ensure that they are not bigoed, biased or prejudiced with regard to others but open, hospitable, welcoming and friendly to everyone - just as God has been, and is, to them. After all, the centurion in today's gospel represents, by far, most of the Christians in the world today.
Today's gospel seems to contain an ordinary gospel story, telling of an action in Jesus' life which we would judge to be fairly characteristic: someone needs help, asks Jesus, who comes and gives what is required. Nothing startling there... until we look at who asks for the help and who receives it.
The Romans in Palestine were unwelcome residents, to put it mildly. They were occupation forces among the Jews, a people keenly aware of the meaning of freedom and nationhood. Not only was the presence of the Romans a political insult, but a religious one as well. The Romans were pagan, bringing even on their legion standards images which they worshipped. The Roman general Pompey had, years before, walked nonchalantly into the Holy of Holies in the Temple, a blasphemous act which should have meant immediate death. The Dead Sea Scrolls witness to the hatred which many Jews had for the Romans, and to the hope that God would some day drive them from the land. The presence of Rome in Palestine was offensive to the religious and political sensitivities of nearly every good Jew. And if a Roman's servant was sick, it would cause heart-ache among very, few. But there's no evidence of this state of affairs in this gospel passage. When the servant needs help, who comes and asks Jesus? Not just a group of Jews, but Jewsof some standing in the community. And do they ask because they are afraid what will happen if this Roman monster is turned down? No, they praise this Roman to Christ "He deserves it of you." And Christ himself is not only open enough to come to the centurion's aid; he ends up praising the centurion's faith above anything he had seen in his own people.
This story demonstrates one important job which Christ came to do: he came among us to take groups of people and individuals, all with every reason to hate each other, and to establish understanding between them. In his own lifetime, he did this by loving across every barrier: as a Jew, he loved Romans; as a Jew, he loved Samaritans; as a teacher of religion, he had time for the religionless and the erring; as the only Righteous One, he loved sinners. There was no outsider with Jesus.
But can the same be said about the followers of Jesus? There are plenty of outsiders as far as we are concerned. If we are on one side of a fence, chances are that we don't like many people on the other side; that fence can be social class, skin colour, employment category,
county border, political sympathies... in fact, just about anything that makes people different from each other can be a wall that no human feeling can breach.
One mistake which is tempting to make in approaching this problem is to pretend that the differences aren't there, which approach would be about as successful as trying to enter a room pretending that there are no walls. Only when we know the walls can we find the doors. People in the world will always differ in customs, outlooks, ways of speaking, ways of voting. A world where everyone were the average height and thought the average thoughts would be boring, indeed. Our loving of our neighbour has to recognize these differences, and not be blind to them. Our love must extend to people whom we know to be different from ourselves. It's a major challenge, for it not only means changing our actions (which is difficult enough), but changing our attitudes and evaluations of others. There are few things as deeply rooted as our prejudices.
One area that must be mentioned over all is our religious differences, especially with our fellow Christians. The present divided state of the Church of Christ is the tragic result of the will of man, not of the will of God. As is sometimes noted, the present generation of Christians is not responsible for the fractioning of the Body of Christ: historically, the blame can rest on people, long buried, who didn't care enough or work hard enough to keep all Christians in union with one another. But in another sense, we bear just as much responsibility today. Our prejudices, fears, and suspicions can keep the wounds in the Body of Christ open - our bitterness and lack of forgiveness to past wrongs can assure that the gulf between Christians is kept wide.
Jesus, the one so open to those who are unlike himself, prayed for us who have such great differences among ourselves. When at that Supper, he looked around at those who were with him, he saw Simon the Zealot, who had worked with those who tried to oust the occupation forces (or at least sympathized heavily with them) ; and he saw Matthew, who collected taxes for Rome, a collaborator with the enemy. He saw Peter, whose enthusiastic faith at times virtually bubbled over, at times a little too enthusiastically; and he saw Thomas, whose sceptical approach to things supernatural would become famous world-wide. And looking at these differences, and dozens more, and knowing that there would be many more differences in his followers yet to hear of him, he prayed: "Father, that they all be one." And it seems that this is one prayer in whose answer we have a say.
A large crack appeared· suddenly in the steeple of our church.
It occurred to no one at the time that it might be an omen of turbulent times ahead. Our church seemed then, like the community it housed, as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar. Our parish priest's immediate concern was to find some competent steeplejacks to repair the damage. Scotland, apparently, was the nearest place which could provide such expertise. So one fine day, there arrived in our town a couple of Scottish steeplejacks. As it was deemed a job of long duration, they brought with them their wives and children and found rented accommodation in the town. They were Scots Presbyterians, or as we described them in those pre-ecumenical days, people "who kicked with the other foot." As there wasn't a single Protestant in the entire parish, they were immediately lionised by all and sundry. Then, one day, tragedy struck. One of their little boys was electrocuted in his bath. The town was shattered. The whole population turned out massively to pay their final respects. It was the biggest funeral ever held in our arish. The schools were closed and I lined up with the rest of my classmates to form a guard of honour for the little white coffin that bore Norman's remains to the local graveyard. Somewhere, a Presbyterian minister was found to conduct the service. Norman was buried in a plot of unconsecrated ground in a corner of the graveyard, far removed from the sacred ground where all the Catholics were laid to rest.
I was reminded recently of that sad occasion. When re-reading Shakespeare's Hamlet, I came across the passage describing Ophelia's burial. Ophelia, in a bout of insanity, had committed suicide. She, like Norman, was buried in unconsecrated ground, in the briefest of ceremonies, permitted by the church on such occasions. Her brother, Laertes, appalled by the brevity of the priest's prayers, burst out in anger:
Lay her in the earth; and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, a ministering angel shall my sister be, when thou liest burning.
I think he spoke for everyone at Norman's grave or, at least, for this ten-year old mourner.
I am reminded again of that sad incident in my childhood, when I read in today's gospel about Christ curing the servant of the centurion. They have curious details in common. Both Norman's father and the centurion were foreigners. One was a Scottish steeplejack, the other a Roman soldier. Neither shared the religion of the majority population with whom they lived. Yet one built the Jewish synagogue in Capernaum and the other restored the Catholic church steeple in Swinford. Both deserved well of Christ's favour, as the local communities readily agreed. And I am sure that just as Christ cured the servant of the centurion, he received little Norman into his kingdom. A short time later, no doubt inspired by the overwhelming sympathy shown them in their terrible grief, his family were received into the church. That church has not always shown the tolerance so conspicuous in its Master nor recognised the outstanding qualities of those who do not share its faith. "Not even in Israel, have I found faith like this," hrist exclaimed in admiration of the centurion. "Lord, I am not worthy to have you under my roof," the centurion had told him, "but give the word and let my servant be cured." His words remain, forever enshrined in the Mass, when we are invited to look up a the consecrated host just before we receive communion.
On a recent visit home, I went to the graveyard to look for Norman's grave. There were no violets blooming there. In fact, it was overgrown with weeds. But that unconsecrated plot was no longer isolated from the rest. Most of those, like my mother and father who mourned at Norman's grave, have since joined him in the cemetery. And their graves enclose his with a garland of crosses. As Oscar Wilde wrote about the grave of another outsider:
"God's kindly earth is kindlier than men know."
The story of the Roman centurion has a place of special significance in the gospel.
Several years ago a niece of mine, aged 7, arrived at Dublin airport from New York with her mother. She had been violently sick throughout the flight, and, before she set foot in Ireland, she was already dreading the return flight. Some hours after she arrived, I brought her to one side, and I told her that I was going to entrust her with an important secret, which nobody else must know. Through a friend of mine, I had succeeded in getting a tablet which was guaranteed to prevent travel sickness, but my problem was that it was not available on the public market, and my friend would get into serious trouble if it were known that he had given one to me. This cheered her up no end, and any chance she got during her vacation, she would come to me and whisper that she didn't worry at all now about the flight back home. I left them at Dublin airport for their return journey. I brought her over into a corner, where I slipped her half an aspirin, with a sup of water. Within seconds she was telling me that she felt muh better already! She had a most enjoyable flight home. I use this example to show what can happen when there's faith and trust. The comparison ends there, in so far as the power Jesus used was far removed from the deception employed by me!
This gospel is rich in teachings. One of the first things we notice is the kind of person the centurion was. It was Jews who came to Jesus, because he was so good to them, and he built their temple for them. He was concerned about his servant who was a slave, at a time when slaves were another form of property, to be disposed of at the will of their master. He was truly a remarkable man.
One of the most striking things about the man, of course, was the strong faith he had. How he came to this level of faith we can only surmise. He must have been a humble man, because centurions in his day were people of authority, and things happened because they said so. He considered Jesus so superior to him that he did not consider himself worthy to have Jesus come under his roof. It is interesting to note that, following his example, after all these years, we, too, declare "Lord, I am not worthy..."
"All things are possible to those who have faith" were the words of Jesus to the man whose son was possessed by the demons. "There is nothing impossible with God" was the message to Mary. Jesus pays a remarkable tribute to the centurion "I tell you, I have not found faith like this in all of Israel." The centurion was certainly a remarkable man.
Do I have authority in my life? All authority comes from God. "The greatest among you are those who serve." Humility is the ground-stone of all authority. We are told that Jesus spoke with great authority; in other words, he knew who the author was, because he never said anything unless the Father told him. People in authority positions have a greater responsibility for service. Their authority is based on love and service, rather than fear and power. A husband asked his wife one-time "Do you know how many truly great men there are in the world today?" "I don't," she replied. "But I know that there's one less than you think there is!" As a result of reflecting on today's gospel, I could do well to search my heart for arrogance, pride, domineering, haughtiness, and impatience.
It was a hospital ward. Over in the corner was a man lying on the broad of his back, looking up at the ceiling. He was unable to sit up, or lift his head. Over by the window was another man, who spent most of his time looking out the window. For over an hour every day, the man by the window regaled the other man with graphic descriptions of everything that was happening out on the road. As he spoke about the clouds, the children playing, the vehicles flying past, the other lay there with his eyes closed, trying to imagine in his mind's eye everything the other man was describing. One day, the man was describing a parade passing by, while the other could almost see the band marching and playing. Listening to the descriptions of what was going on outside was the highlight of his day, and it helped him enormously to deal with the frustration of being so powerless.
One morning the nurses came in and found that the man by the window had died during the night. His body was removed, and, later that evening, the man in the other bed asked if he might be transferred to the bed next the window. The nurses readily acceded to his request. After a few days, the man made a Herculean effort, and, with the help of a few pillows, he managed to get into some sort of sit-up position, so that he could look out the window, and see all the things the other man had described to him so often. When he looked out the window he got a great surprise. There was a blank wall outside the window, and there was nothing to be seen. He called the nurse, and asked her how was it that the other man had given him all those daily details, when, in fact, there was nothing to be seen outside the window at all. The nurse replied "He was one of the kindest men I have ever met. He was actually blind, and he did that every day just to help you deal with your boredom."
Like the centurion, a man like that is himself a miracle, and miracles happen wherever they are
1 Kings 17:17-24
30:1, 3-5, 10-12
Galatians 1:11-19
Luke 7:11-17
Moved to Pity
Our Need Of Salvation
The Bereaved Widow
A Mother's Tears
Widow of Naim
1 Kgs 17:17-24. Elijah restores the widow's son to life. As a result the widow recognises Elijah as a true man of God and a prophet.
Gal 1:11-19. Paul insists that the Gospel which he has preached is not his own invention but comes from a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Lk 7:11-17. Jesus restores to life the only son of a widow at Naim. The people recognise him as the one in whom "God has visited his people."
Theme: Moved by compassion Jesus, restored the widow's son, as Elijah had done, centuries before. This miracle prompts hope in the resurrection, when Christ will raise us up on the last day.
After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She then said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!"
But he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. He cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again."
The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." So the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."
I will praise you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up,
and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment;
his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
O Lord, be my helper!"
You have turned my mourning into dancing..
...O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.
But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord's brother.
Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep." Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God has looked favorably on his people!" This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.
Intercessions
- that Christ may restore us to the life of his grace.
- that we may always show compassion for for those who are bereaved.
- that society may take special care of the widow and the elderly.
- that the Lord will raise us up to new life on the last day.
Thoughts for 10th Sunday, C
Among the most touching stories in all the gospels, is the reading we have just heard. In just a few words Luke paints a masterly picture of the poignancy, helplessness, and tragedy of human life. "He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow." This simple statement, when we reflect on it, cannot but touch an inner chord. How often does it seem, that we who were created to be free, to be loved by God, to be happy, are doomed to live in a world of broken hearts, without being able to do much about it, except to try and bring comfort with our presence. "And a large crowd from the city was with her." There is a human helplessness which no one but God can relieve. "When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her," or more precisely, to give the Greek its full force, "he was moved to the depths of his heart for her." "Don't cry," were the only words he spoke to her, and when the young man was restored to life, we read that Jesus "gave him to his mother," the exact same phrase a in the Elijah story of the firs reading.
"When the Lord saw her, he was moved to the depths of his heart for her." This must have been a puzzling assertion for the ancient gentile world. Here we are speaking about God, for the title, "Lord," was reserved by the Jews for God alone, and this is the first time in the gospel narrative where it is applied to Jesus. This idea of God being moved to sympathy for a creature was completely unacceptable to the followers of even the noblest religious cult in ancient times, the Stoics. For they maintained that the principal characteristic of God was apathy, which comes from a Greek word, apatheia, that means being incapable of showing affection or emotion, indifference. But the gospel message is that our God is a God of divine tenderness, reaching out to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Indeed showing compassion is the principal role that God intends to fulfil in history. And in the lives of the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, how often do they reach a stage when they have nothing more to hope for from this huan history of ours but to continue waiting expectantly on God. "I waited, I waited for the Lord, and he stooped down to me; he heard my cry," the Psalms tell us (40:1).
But the manifestation of God's mercy in the healing power of Christ evoked a response in his onlookers quite different from what it does in us. For the people of Christ's own time, who according to their traditions saw the hand of God at work in every occurrence, the miracle was no problem. For them the real problem was that this person, Jesus, whose origins they all knew, should be working miracles at all. Some went so far as to say that his powers came from the devil. On the other hand our attention, here and now, tends to focus on the miraculous action itself. We ask the question what, if in his own day Jesus healed and helped a few, does that signify for all of us today. If on a few occasions, during his earthly life he fed thousands miraculously, what does that mean for the two-thirds of the human race who struggle to survive now?
The answer is not easily arrived at if we stick to purely human reasoning. It can only come at the level of faith, if for example we can see in the action of Jesus, at Nain, God saying "no" to all forms of evil, of separation, of suffering, of deprivation, that lead to human suffering. That is Jesus' message throughout his public life, and it has enormous consequences. We should not expect God to wave his hand, as it were, and solve all our problems for us. Setting out, with God's help, to find solutions ourselves is what confers nobility and greatness on the human race. There comes a time when human offspring have to take on responsibility for themselves, and develop independently of their parents. Likewise with the human race and its creator, except that God continues to sustain the universe, otherwise it would cease to exist. But it is true that God helps those who help themselves.
What God is telling us through this miracle Christ worked is that evil can and will be overcome. Admittedly, despite being able to resuscitate people after near-death experiences, modern medicine has not yet conquered death. But Christ has, and the miracle at Nain is a guarantee that with faith in Christ so will we. So the poor, the suffering, the oppressed, in truth all of us, have sure grounds for positive hope. Our motto should be, "If God is with us, who can be against us?'
(1) Visitation. When, way back in July 1979, it was announced that the Pope would visit Ireland for the first time in our history, his coming brought calls for a spiritual awakening - he seemed to bring God near to us, and God is holy. We know that saints are said to be hard to live with; some of them seem to have had the gift of seeing into people's hearts and consciences in a rather alarming way, at least for most of us. It takes courage to approach holiness and guilt shrinks from the encounter, like the widow from Elijah. God's visitation, if he comes in might and majesty, would indeed be something to be dreaded. But he visits us through becoming one of us, hiding his majesty. In Luke's gospel we feel the joy and gratitude for this visitation. "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited his people" in mercy and graciousness to save them from their sins.
(2) Nain. In the story Jesus takes the initiative; the widow offers only her unspoken need. Jesus acts with such concern and sensitivity that the approach of God's power, though it provokes awe, arouses also praise and faith. If this could be the manner of God's approach to us always! Yet that is precisely Luke's message. Jesus is the image of the Father, sharing in action the love of the Father for us. We only have to place our need of salvation before him. He approaches the spiritually needy as mercifully and with as much concern as the physically needy. Jesus sorrows for human wretchedness, and the only thing he cannot overcome is a refusal to acknowledge the need of God's salvation.
(3) Response. Like the widow we must know that we are in need. We cannot save ourselves. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh" (Luke 6:21.) We must weep for our sins, for our indifference, our lack of perseverance in good intentions, our helplessness to heal the ills of the world around us. God is "visiting" us every day of our lives through Jesus, the risen Lord, coming close to us in love and concern. Jesus visits us especially in the Eucharist. We are called first to accept the gifts of life that he gives us, then to praise him joyfully for the gift. We do not have to be in the charismatic movement to do that.
There are always those who reject God's approach or who postpone acceptance. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem in genuine grief that its response is so poor (Luke 19:44.) I suspect that many of our lives are humdrum and lukewarm because we cannot bring ourselves to the conviction that Jesus has the same love and concern for us that he showed for the widow of Nain and her son. That is the moment of conversion, of turning towards God, that we should strive for in the Mass. Lord, come to me; visit me in your love and stay with me always.
Gospel (Lk 7:11-17.) Following the healing of the centurions servant we now have the raising of the widow's son. Jesus is depicted as following in the line of the great prophets having power, as did Elijah, to bring back people from the dead. The narrative makes much of the tragic nature of the situation: "...a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother and she was a widow." Unlike Elijah, Jesus is not asked to intervene; it is his own compassion which moves him. Also in contrast to Elijah, there is no dramatic prayer or accompanying gesture, just the words to the young man. The people's response is to recognise the fact that, in Jesus, God has visited them, that is, has shown them his saving love.
It might seem irreverent to compare today's liturgy to the flashing, multicoloured lights at a disco. But there is a similarity. God's love for us is a many-splendour thing." A few of its numberless facets flash out from the texts of this Mass. We can catch a glimpse of some of its characteristics. God's love is life-giving, supporting, compassionate, transforming, healing. It touches individuals, it radiates to vast multitudes. That is the comforting message from our Celebration.
However, there is a challenge too. We are called upon to allow God to "raise us beyond the limits that this world imposes, so that we may be free to love as Christ teaches" (Alternative opening prayer.) Here and now am I willing to allow God that freedom of action?
God's love transforms people. Paul is an outstanding example. He himself reminds us that at one time he was a source of death and destruction. When touched by God's live he responded and he was transformed. He became a channel of God's life and love to the Gentiles. Like Paul we are called to be revealers and channels of God's love. The most effective method is to love as Christ teaches. Participation in the Eucharist enables us to do that. When we share in the Mass God's love increases in us. "There also springs up within us a lively response of love. We not only love; we ourselves begin to love" (The Holy Eucharist, 5.)
Bereavements figure prominently in the readings. They point to an area in which we could be channels of God's compassionate and healing love. Elijah did something to help the grieving mother. Jesus was moved with compassion at Nain. He performed a miracle and turned mourning into joy. These stories are more then reports of past events. Christ is present. He has spoken to us in the gospel. When he speaks he expects a response. On this Sunday, what is he asking of us? He asks us to introduce him to somebody who is in particular need of his compassionate, healing presence. We have heard the word of the Lord. Has the message been received and understood?
Very often our expression of sympathy is just a momentary thing. Grief lasts longer than the funeral. When we are bereaved we need ongoing after-care. Sustained sensitive contact with the sorrowful demonstrates loving concern. More importantly our gesture can enable the broken-hearted to experience for themselves that our God is the Father who wipes away tears from all faces.
There is a story attributed to Oscar Wilde, which takes up where today's gospel ends. It runs something like this:
One year later, Jesus came once more to this town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people. When he was near the gate of the town it happened that there was a woman sitting on the roadside weeping bitterly.
When the Lord saw her he felt sorry for her. "Do not cry," he said. Looking up, the woman saw Jesus standing there and· began to weep even more loudly. "Why do you weep so?" Jesus asked the woman. "Because of you," the woman answered. "I curse the day I met you when I was burying my only son and you brought him back to life. Now I wish he was dead." "Why do you speak so?" Jesus asked the woman. The woman answered, "When my son came back to life, his fame spread throughout Judaea and all over the countryside.
Many people came to do him homage. Before, he had been a dutiful son to me, his widowed mother. Now, his head was turned and he squandered all my savings on wastrels and harlots who fawned upon him, abandoning me on the wayside with neither son or home." When Jesus heard these words he was astonished and, turning round, said to the crowd following him, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found ingratitude like this."
The moral of this story, according to Wilde, was that nobody, not even God, should interfere in other peoples" lives.
Wilde's theology fell far short of his undoubted literary skills. In the gospels there is no miracle which is futile, trivial or unwholesome. Nor are there miracles which inflict punishment on anybody. Christ's miraculous intervention in our lives, albeit extremely rare, is always benign. In the case of the bereaved widow, the gospel expressly mentions that "he felt sorry for her."
His motive was to heal her pain, not to replace it with another. The motive of this miracle was compassion: its message was God's victory over death. All the miracles of Jesus are the prelude to his own resurrection, which was the decisive triumph of the power of God.
Suffering was to bring Oscar Wilde deeper insights into the compassion of God. Falling from grace, the once literary lion of glittering London society became a social outcast, committed to Reading gaol. In his prison cell, he began to wonder:
For who can say by what strange way Christ brings his will to light.
Lodged there among the dregs of human society and after a long and painful odyssey, he came like the broken-hearted widow of Nain, to experience the compassion of God:
Ah! happy they whose hearts can break And peace of pardon win.
How else may man make straight his plan And cleanse his soul from sin?
How else but through a broken heart May Lord Christ enter in?
In this account of the heart-touching story of restoring life to the dead son of the widow of Naim, is to be found a truly beautiful insight into the heart of Jesus.
"Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart," says Jesus. He also was kind-hearted. We are familiar with the phrase "Oh, my heart went out to her." Jesus was in that situation on many an occasion. He was always ready to weep with those who wept. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that Jesus was the most kind-hearted person that ever walked on this earth.
When I was growing up, we were familiar with devotion to the Sacred Heart. In the picture, the heart of Jesus was presented at the front, and there were rays of warmth and love shining forth from it. In our language of today he was "all heart." Witnessing human suffering, and seeing others marginalised touched him deeply. That is why he always sought out the outcast and rejected of society. When Jesus saw the poor widow, we are told that "his heart overflowed with compassion." There was no way he could pass her by. Her situation just drew a response from him.
We are told that great fear swept the crowd. They were in the presence of some awesome power, and fear is a normal response in such circumstances. They were obviously not afraid of Jesus, but being in the presence of such a person must surely have greatly heightened a sense of their own powerlessness. As they themselves put it "A mighty prophet has come among us. We have seen the hand of God today."
One night a man had a dream. He was walking along a beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. In each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, the other belonging to the Lord. When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints, and that, every time that happened, he was at the lowest and saddest times of his life. This really bothered him, and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord," he said, "you said when I decided to follow you, you would walk with me all the way. Why, then, in the most troubled times of my life, are there only one set of footprints? I don't understand why you should leave me when I needed you most." The Lord replied "My precious precious child, I love you, and I will never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I was carrying you
2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13
32:1-2, 5, 7, 11
Galatians 2:16, 19-20
Luke 7:36-8:3
Only as Gift
Forgiveness and love
Love and forgiveness
Shifting Responsibility
Friend of Sinners
2 Sam 12:7-10,13. When challenged with his sin by Nathan the prophet, King David readily admits it and repents... and is forgiven.
Gal 2:16,19-21. Jesus has become the very centre of St. Paul's life - to the extent that he feels spiritually "crucified with Christ."
Lk 7:36-8:3. In the house of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus praises the sinful woman for her wholehearted repentance.
Theme: Today's Scriptures describe two major examples of repentance. Even if the notion of sin is almost extinct, we are invited to accept personal responsibility for our wrong-doing and seek God's forgiveness.
7 Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; 8 I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
13 David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan said to David, "Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord
imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,"
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
We know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.
But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him-that she is a sinner." Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak." "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly."
Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "our faith has saved you; go in peace."
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
Intercessions
- that we may recognise and acknowledge our sins, as king David did.
- for the grace of repentance for our sins, like the woman praised by Jesus.
- for God's forgiveness for the sins we have committed.
- for a true and genuine purpose of amendment.
Thoughts for 11th Sunday, C
As we read through the gospels, one question bound to arise is, why was Jesus so considerate and forgiving towards the wayward and the sinners, and yet so seemingly harsh and critical towards the upright Pharisees, who were regarded by many as pillars of the Jewish religion, but whom he called "whited sepulchres," excellent and becoming on the outside, but full of corruption within. Part of the answer must be that the Pharisees saw moral goodness as being a person's own creation, coming entirely from his or her own behaviour, without need for divine assistance or forgiveness. God's principal task, they felt, was to watch over those who observed all the details of the Mosaic Law, and reward them, while sending punishment on all offenders against the Law. This explains their attitude towards sinners, whom they shunned and despised. They were blind to the fact that we do not, and cannot, create our own goodness.
St Paul in his Letter to the Romans (7:15,21) keeps on coming to this point, and indeed puts into words what most of us feel, on occasion, about our own conduct. "I cannot understand my own behaviour," he says. "I fail to carry out my good intentions; I do the things I hate. In fact this seems to be the rule, that every single time I want to do good, it is something evil that comes about." And he goes on to say that he can only be rescued from this dilemma, by cultivating a loving trust and faith in Jesus Christ. Be guided by the Holy Spirit, he advised others, not by the Law, and you will never yield to self-indulgence (Gal 5:17). The core of the Christian message, then, is not so much demands, and commandments, and laws. Rather is it the grace of God, the forgiveness and love of God, the Spirit of life, which Christ alone can bestow on us. For St John also, the meaning of sin is precisely this lack of faith and trust in Jesus. And faith in Jesus is an admission of the absolute need of our whole being for Jeus, an accptance of the claims of Jesus, a willingness to come to Jesus and throw ourselves on his mercy. This is the whole point of today's gospel reading. Love flows into our hearts from the experience of being forgiven by God.
The extraordinary English mystic of the 14th century, Dame Julian of Norwich, who lived most of her life as a recluse in a cell attached to a Church, saw the following of Christ as a succession of failures, of falling down, picking ourselves up and falling flat again. "We need to fall," she wrote, "and we need to see that we have done so. For if we never fell, we should not know how weak and pitiable we are in ourselves. Nor should we fully know the wonderful love of our maker." And indeed no one, but no one, is barred from God's forgiveness. In the first reading we had the repentance of king David, and in the gospel that of a lowly and anonymous public sinner. No matter how terrible the sin, God is ready to look upon it as if it had never been committed.
The acknowledgment of our need for God's mercy and pardon will have tremendous consequences for ourselves, in that it will give birth to the love of God within us. This is made clear by the fact that today's gospel concentrates, not on the unexpected and unexplained forgiveness of the sinner, but on the sinner's response of gratitude towards Christ. The woman's sins were forgiven because she loved much, because she had faith in Jesus, because she was aware of her own shortcomings, and saw Jesus as the one who could, and would, deliver her from them. Jesus, also, was prepared to bring his message and his healing grace to the so-called good people too, like Simon, but found it harder to get through to them. We, therefore, should examine ourselves, this day, and see how much of the attitude of the Pharisees we have got. Do we regard ourselves as being in little need of forgiveness, because if so, Christ assures us, we have little love for God. "It is the one who is forgiven little who has little love," was his rbuke to the Pharisee.
We should see this Mass we are celebrating for what it is, God's generous and loving gift of himself to us. The ones who are good for making excuses are seldom good for anything else, and we see how King David did not offer excuses for having brought about the death of Uriah after committing adultery with his wife. "I have sinned against God," he openly admitted, and God forgave him. Let us too sincerely admit the need we have for forgiveness from such a forgiving and compassionate God.
(1) The homily might concentrate on good and bad associations with the sacrament of reconciliation, i.e. on the experience of receiving God's forgiveness, which is at the same time the gift of his life and love, the binding of the repentant sinner to himself, rather than the feelings of guilt and anxieties and arithmetical gymnastics. Any confessor will realize that it is so much easier and more satisfying to deal with the "big" sinner who acknowledges guilt frankly and is overjoyed by receiving forgiveness, than with the dulled conscience like David, or the "good" person not conscious of sin like Simon. Perhaps the preacher's role at this Mass is to help the Davids and the Simons to find in themselves the response of the sinful woman. The Mass should be a conversion experience for us, a turning to God.
(2) Explain that God's gift of forgiveness involves God's gift of himself. It is an enriching of our lives with his love and his truth. We are splendidly gifted by a generous and compassionate God. We do not merit the gifts. Thank God we do not get what we deserve! What is lacking in so many of us is a response of gratitude and love for the gifts we receive. We put no heart into it. Jesus is our guest, and we treat him decently enough, but as nothing special. Like Simon, we miss the meaning of what is happening. Lord, teach us to stand at your feet, to listen to you, to reach out to you in love, to rejoice that you meet us with such patience and understanding.
(Conor O'Riordan)
"God is love," (Jn 4:8) God loves us He proved that he loved us by sending his Son to die for us even while we were sisters. God's love for us is universal and personal. Each of us can say "the Son of God loved ME and gave himself for ME." Through faith and baptism we are united to Christ. A loving union with God has been established. We are no longer slaves to sin. Nevertheless we are exposed to temptation. If we give in to temptation we sin. Sin destroys or weakens the loving union with God. Sin is much more than breaking commandments. Violation of a legal code can indeed be a serious matter, Rejection of God and of the love which he offers is something much more serious. Our personal sins do. something to our personal relationship with God.
God does not change. He is always the God who is He always loves us. He hates sin but he is constant in his love to the sinner. God does not treat us as our sins deserve "for he knows of what we are made," (Ps. 102.) There are many great signs indicating it. God's immense desire that sinners be reconciled to him The Eucharist is the greatest. In the Mass the Church offers the sacrifice of reconciliation which restores man to friendship with God The sacrament of penance is the Church's celebration specifically designed to focus attention on the abiding presence and action of Christ the friend of sinners. The ultimate purpose of the sacrament is" to restore or deepen our loving personal relationship with God and to" enable us to commit ourselves completely to him.
David, Nathan, Simon and the sinful woman are all dead and gone. Yet their attitudes are relevant. They provide us" sinners with a kind of check list. How do we respond to God's love for us? What do sin, forgiveness and the sacrament of reconciliation mean to us?
All we have comes from God. He gives it as sheer gift because he loves us. An ungrateful off-hand attitude towards affluence, success or any of his gifts can mislead us. We may come to feel that we can ignore God. Ingratitude is sinful. It can lead to other sins. When that happens we should follow David's example and admit that we did wrong. Whatever our sin, it displayed a degree of contempt for God, We should say "I am sorry." Heartfelt sorrow is the most important act of the penitent. It has the effect of releasing God's forgiving love. It enables us to experience the sentiments expressed in the responsorial psalm.
Were it not for Nathan would David have been forgiven? We don't know. His action can serve to remind us that we baptized belong to a reconciling community. We are required to help one another to admit our sins so that we may be forgiven. Sometimes it takes great courage to call sin, sin.
The sinful woman had her sins, her many sins forgiven. She had received mercy. She shed tears of thankfulness. Her other actions seem strange and extravagant. They were an awesome, wordless exchange of profound love at deep level between the Sinless and the sinner. We may well be amazed at her display of gratitude. If indeed we are, could it be an indication that we lack a sense of awe at the wonder of God's forgiving love? Have we become indifferent to sin, unconcerned at our need of forgiveness? If we are humble enough to learn from the grateful woman we still never again regard our "confession" as a mere matter of form or as a soothing psychological exercise. The sacrament of penance is an act of worship, a celebration. It is something sacred which must never be cheapened.
Simon and the woman met Jesus. The woman was aware of her need for forgiveness. She was humbly grateful when she was for-given. She benefited from the meeting. On the other hand the Pharisee's complacency blinded him to his own need of forgiveness. He remained aloof, enveloped in conceit. Jesus could not get through to him. The drama in his own house was a non-event for Simon, We belong to one of the categories portrayed by Simon and the woman. The sacrament of reconciliation will be a non-event in our lives if it is approached with a Simon-like attitude. It will transform us if we approach it with the attitude of the sinful woman.
The same forgiving Jesus is present and active in the sacrament of reconciliation. Our sins small or great, few or many are forgiven by the sheer might of God's great love. Through the Church we ask for forgiveness. Through the Church we receive it. For the sacrament to be effective it must take root in our lives. We too, must express gratitude to God. We do so by living a life saturated with love of God and neighbour. Love is the only return God asks of us. Needless to say that love will become visible through good works of all kinds.
Nowadays, television frequently reruns old Hollywood films, often in black and white. And strangely enough, there seems to be to be a fairly sizeable audience for them among the young. Whenever Hollywood chose a Catholic theme, and that was not often, it seemed to be particularly fascinated by the practice of confession. The relationship between the penitent in confession and the priest has always intrigued non-Catholics, and nothing more so than what is called the "seal of confession." A priest may never "break the seal of confession', that is, he may never reveal what he has been told in confession, even to save his own life. This was the stuff that thrillers were made from. Murderers were believed to have revealed their crimes to a priest in confession, who had to carry this terrible secret, forbidden ever to reveal it. Even Catholics believed when I was a young priest, that all priests were bearers of such secrets. I think it largely accounted for the mystique attached to priests then. Now I wonder what h young, Catholic or not, make of such films. Most young Catholics who are not familiar with confession, have never heard of the seal of confession.
When I was young, in what I now tend to think of as "the age of sin', confession loomed large in our lives. Every Saturday, at least up to my early teens, I was ordered to go to confession, and was often asked that evening, usually by my mother, "was I at confession?" We all knew then about the seal of confession. Priests then were distinguished between those who were approachable and those who seemed to take personal offence at our little peccadillos. We didn't know which to fear most, the wrath of God or of the priest. Sin, mortal and venial, dominated religion. Occasions of sin abounded. For some, confession itself was one. When the change came, it came none to soon and I for one shed no tears for the demise of those sin-full times.
But there is a profit and loss in all change. Nobody today, who reads a newspaper or watches a television news, can be unaware that sin is alive and well, and thriving as never before. They chronicle day after day "man's inhumanity to man', ranging from atrocities in Bosnia to massacres in Rwanda. But sin is never mentioned. They speak of "crimes against humanity" or "human rights violations." The sense of sin is dead or well on the way towards extinction.
We have become observers rather than participants in the human tragedies of our times. We tut-tut from the comfort of our armchairs as the problems of our world are relayed into our homes. We have shifted responsibility from the first to the third person. It is "they" and "it" rather than "I" who must accept the blame. We have institutionalised sin. It is the fault of governments, totalitarian regimes, big business etc. etc. etc. We are the victims of the system and we wallow in our inability to do anything about it. But just as "i" is the middle letter of "sin','I" is the centre of sin. And that is the message of today's readings. David had taken Bethseba, Uriah's wife and what was much worse had placed Uriah in the front line of his army where certain death awaited him. Confronted by the prophet Nathan, David accepted responsibility for his crime: "I have sinned against the Lord." The tears of Mary Magdalen, moved Christ to say: "Her sins, her many sins must have been forgiven her, or she would not have shon such great love." David and Mary Magdalen accepted their guilt. Today's Psalm says it all:
But now I have acknowledged my sins: My guilt I did not hide.
I said: "I will confess my offence to the Lord."
And you, Lord, have forgiven the guilt of my sin.
God and sin, good and evil, are reverse sides of the same coin. One does not exist without the other. Those who have lost their sense of sin may be well on the way to losing their sense of God as well. The first step we take towards God is a step away from sin. Like the Prodigal we begin our return to the Father with a recognition of our sinfulness: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you."
Today's gospel tells the moving encounter in the house of a Pharisee between Jesus and a sinful woman. It gives us a "close-up" view of the friend of sinners in action.
I knew a Religious Sister some years ago, who was retired, and who was free to use her time as she pleased. Every morning she set off with a shopping bag, and no one seemed to know where she was going, and what she did all day. She never spoke about her work, and nobody asked her. One day she was knocked down and killed by a car as she attempted to cross a busy road.
Her funeral took her community completely by surprise. Every "drop-out," wino, and homeless person in Dublin arrived at the convent for her funeral. She had been their friend, and they came to pay their own tribute to her. It was quite a revelation for her community, who were embarrassed, humbled, and profoundly moved by the outpouring of grief they witnessed.
The setting is perfect. It is the house of a Pharisee, one of the religious leaders, who placed total emphasis on a love of law rather than a law of love. Such a house was certainly no place for a public sinner to show her face. She was outside the pale, and must not be associated with by a religious Jew. It is almost as if Jesus had prearranged the scene, to enable him stress the whole purpose of his mission. He frequently said that he had come to call sinners, and to befriend them.
Not only did Jesus befriend the woman, but also he even allowed her minister to him. There was something about him that stirred a profound reverence within her, and she showed that reverence and respect by the anointing with oil, which was the highest expression of reverence one could show to another. Jesus had a ready-made, real, living object lesson right there, and he took full advantage of it. He was aware of the shock and horror among the onlookers, and he used the occasion to drive home a central point of his teaching.
Response: To try to get some sense of what Jesus is about, it is essential that I get in touch with my own brokenness and sinfulness. There is little point in speaking about a Saviour to those who are not convinced that they are sinners. This woman is an extraordinary lesson to us all. Yes, of course, she was a sinner. Even she herself would not deny that. She also, however, had a deep awareness of what kind of person Jesus was. She came into his presence with confidence, and without fear of being rejected. What an extraordinary lesson!
Pouring out her tears, and pouring the precious ointment, was a powerful example of an outpouring of the heart. It was a letting-go of much pent-up emotion, pain, suffering, and loneliness. Her tears were as precious as her ointment. Even using her hair to dry his feet was a symbol of doing what she could with what she had.
Graham Greene wrote a powerful novel called "The Power and the Glory." It involves a priest who decided to remain with his flock, despite the great danger of the persecution of Catholics in that country. Whether it was the pressures of his situation, or just an inherent personal weakness, he took to the bottle, and was alcoholic. He was in his prison cell. It was the morning of his execution. He was lying on the floor, reaching out in vain to an empty brandy bottle that was just beyond his reach. Suddenly, the situation in which he was, swept over him like a tidal wave. Here he was about to face his Maker. This was not going to be the kind of death he had hoped or prayed for. He was a failure, an alcoholic, a disgrace to his calling. He tried to mutter an Act of Contrition, but the words just wouldn't come. From where he was now, it was easy to see that his life would have been so much better, and his death so much more peaceful, if he had only made an effort to be a saint, instead of a drunk, and a failure. At that moment he believed that the only thing that should ever have concerned him was his attempt to become a saint. It all seemed so simple and easy now that it was too late. All he would have needed was a little courage, and a little self-control.
He must have been filled with amazing joy at the hug of welcome he received when he came face to face with Jesus.
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