Sundays 23-34 of Ordinary Time, C

Exod 32:7-11,13-14. In the desert, many turned their backs on the God who brought them out of Egypt and fell into idolatry; but Moses begs God's pardon for his people.

1 Tim 1:12-17. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Paul's own conversion is a living proof of the mercy of God.

Lk 15:1-32. Jesus justifies his kindness to sinners by three great parables: the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son.

Theme: "He welcomes sinners and eats with them." While it is Christian to be affable even with people who don't seem to share our moral standards, the Lord also tries to win them back to what is right.

Exodus 32:7ff

The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"

The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."

But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Ps 51:1-2, 10-11, 15, 17

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.

O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Luke 15:1-32

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Then Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.

When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father.

But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe-the best one-and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.

"Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!'

Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"

Intercessions

- for all those who have strayed away from the church that they may find their way home to God.

- for the grace of repentance for the sins we have committed against God and against others.

- for missing people everywhere that they may be reunited with their grieving families.

Thoughts for the 24th Sunday

Lost and Found

I remember many years ago, on a warm and sunny afternoon in August, going into a public house in a tiny village away out in the country to empty a collection box in aid of the foreign missions. What amazed me was that, although it was just before three o'clock, there was not a single empty space in front of the bar. As I began to empty the box one man left his place, a little unsteadily, and pointing to another box with a picture of St Anthony on it, which however was not mine, he said, "I put all my money in there." Having delivered himself of this consoling message to me, he then asked me for an account of St Anthony's life. But alas it was some time since I had read anything about the Saint, and I found myself merely mentioning the popular belief that the key to the recovery of lost property was a prayer to St Anthony. Be this true or not, we have all experienced, from time to time, the relief and the joy of finding something we have mislaid, like the woman in today's gospel finding the lost drachma, whichwas, by the way, the equivalent of a day's wages. And a certain saint has pointed out that God also knows the joy of finding things that have gone lost, as we learn from today's gospel story, the joy at the return of a single soul that has been separated from him. It is a wonderful and amazing thought that the almighty God loves and cherishes each individual soul in such a truly personal way.

The longer version of today's gospel forms a whole chapter, the 15th chapter of St Luke, one of the best known and most consoling chapters of the whole New Testament. In it there are really three parables: the stray sheep recovered, the lost coin found, and the prodigal son welcomed back by his father. All three are intended by Christ to give us an insight into the attitude of God, our Father, towards those who go astray. The sharing of a meal with another person in ancient times was more than an act of courtesy; it denoted acceptance of that person. And Christ, who was God himself become man, not only welcomed sinners, he sat down to table with them and ate with them. This was in stark contrast to the Pharisees, who looked forward with certainty, not to the salvation, but to the annihilation of the sinner. Indeed, instead of the promise of Christ that, "There will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents," the common saying among the strictly orthodox Jews was, "There will be joy in heaven over one sinne who is exterminated before God."

In the parable of the lost sheep and the joy of the shepherd who finds it, Jesus has drawn a picture of the way God deals with the sinner. For the erring person it is a thousand times easier to come back to God than to come home to the biting criticisms of humans. Abraham Lincoln, who was a deeply religious man, was once asked how he would treat the people of the Southern States when defeated and forced into union with the Northern States once more. But instead of threatening vengeance, Lincoln's reply was, "I will treat them as if they had never been away." It is surely the wonder of the love of God that he will not be outdone in generosity and loving kindness by a mere member of the human race. So it is that from the moment God forgives us our sins, it is as if they had never been committed. Indeed to keep on harping back to past sins is to cast doubt on God's forgiveness for them, to regard it as a favour which any moment may be revoked. To keep on harbouring such scruples is where the devil attacks and trs to capture us. Since God is love itself then God's forgiveness is not half-measure but absolute. He will never hold their sins over those he has forgiven, whether by hint, or by word, or by threat.

Finally, all three parables in the long gospel reading today are each saying something different as well. The sheep got lost through its own foolishness, and many a person would steer clear of sin if they reflected seriously on the consequences of their action. The coin was lost through no fault of its own, just as many are enticed into sin by others, and it is these latter whom God will hold accountable. Lastly, the prodigal son went astray deliberately, turning his back on his father. What today's gospel then is saying is that if we throw ourselves on the mercy of God, we will find that his love is greater than human foolishness, greater than the allure of temptation, greater even than the deliberate rebellion of the human heart. May we always find new heart, courage and inspiration in the knowledge of this forgiving love of our God for each and every one of us.

The Spirit of Tom O'Shanter

One of the best-known poems of Robert Burns is the one called Tom O'Shanter. It tells the story of a man who has spent the evening drinking with his friends, and has a narrow escape from the witches he comes across dancing in the old churchyard on his way home. The poem opens with the men settling down for the evening, and giving no thought to the journey through the countryside which they will have to make at closing-time. Nor do they think about the welcome awaiting them when they eventually arrive at their homes Whare sits our sulky, sullen dame, Gathering her brows like gathering storm, Nursing her wrath to keep it warm. Perhaps we have all had the experience of brooding over some injury done to us. We have been insulted in some way or another, and naturally we do not like it. So we go over the incident in our mind, imagining what we will say to the person concerned the next time we meet her or him. It is unfortunate that usually we only think of the crushing reply some time after the incident has taken pace, and will probably never be given the opportunity to deliver it!

Many people find it hard to let go of wrongs done to them. Sometimes the incident was deliberate, sometimes unintentional. But some people go through life harbouring grudges, making themselves miserable because they will not let bygones be bygones, and will not consign to the past things which happened years ago and are over and done with.

Because we can be like this, we can imagine that God is like this too. We picture our account book lying open before God, and God waiting to settle accounts with us some day. Because human beings can be so vindictive, we project this attitude onto God. But is this the kind of God which the scriptures put before us today? It is most definitely not. The scriptures put before us a God who does not hold grudges, a God who is not waiting to get even with us, but rather a god who wants to be close to us, and us to be close to him. The God Jesus presents in the gospel today is like the parent who has lost a child, and cannot rest until the child is safely back in the house.

This is all well when applied to ourselves. But how do we react when forgiveness is extended to others? The man and the woman in the first two parables call their neighbours in to celebrate with them. The father in the third parable throws such a big party that the noise can be heard out in the fields. Are we prepared to join in the celebrations? Or are we like the "sulky, sullen" elder brother who goes into the huff when he realizes that the party is to mark the return of his irresponsible, tearaway younger brother? Do we find it difficult to accept that God offers the same close relationship to everyone, no matter what their past life? I suggest that often we do. But what the gospel tells us today is that we might think like that, but God does not, and that if we are to be truly Christian, then we have to change our attitudes to other people, and to see them as God does.

Jesus shared table-fellowship with those on the fringe of Society, and so showed that God was reaching out to them through him. Who criticized him for this? those who never stepped out of line. Who refused to go into join the party? - the dutiful son who always did what was required and who never asked for any favours.

But if we are like them, there is hope. The story of the "Prodigal Son" actually has no ending. We do not know whether the elder brother goes into the house to join in the celebrations, or whether he stays outside with his self-righteousness. There is no ending, because it is not just a story: it is a challenge. And it is a challenge to each one of us. How would you find the story? Would you go in or stay outside?

Domestic Virtue

God loves the just but does not ignore the sinner, for whom there is always a place in his kingdom. The church is not to be a exclusive club. The Pharisees resent God's broadmindedness. The parable of the lost sheep does not take from the goodness of the virtuous majority but makes the point that entry into the fold is possible for the repentant sinner. The lost coin is important to the housekeeper. Her joy at its recovery is shared because it is deeply felt. The sum may be modest but it matters a lot to her. All are V.I.P.s in God's eyes-even little people.

The parable of the prodigal son is a classic of narrative skill and finely wrought preaching. It is timelessly relevant. We need to know that a loving Father awaits our return home. We need also to be reminded that the same loving Father expects us to forgive one another and to keep in touch with one another. The joy of a son's homecoming was spoiled for the father by the sulking of the elder brother.

Was it "domestic" virtue which blocked the elder brother against sympathy and welcome for his brother, the foolish wastrel? God cares and wants us all to care. Leaving people in isolation is no part of his plan. The elder son was estranged from his father in spite of living under the same roof. He did not share his father's concern for his brother's safety and return to the family. He estranges himself from his own flesh and blood by referring to "this son of yours."

He grieved his father for other reasons too. His lack of good nature, his jealousy and priggishness and preoccupies with himself and his interests. Jesus here asks the steady and dutiful to be open to welcome home the wild ones and the masters. That is how things are done above. If good people cannot rise above self-interest, they are strangers to God who keeps open house for the repentant sinner.

Missing, Presumed Dead

Hundreds of people go missing every year. At any given moment, worldwide there are hundreds of thousands of missing persons. Their families try everything to find them. Descriptions of them are circulated by the police, broadcast by radio and television; their photos are posted at the entrances to supermarkets arid other public places. Even recently one popular breakfast cereal agreed to carry such pictures on their boxes.

Missing people comprise all sorts, children, adults, husbands and wives, singles of both sexes and they come from all types of backgrounds, rich and poor alike. A husband pecks his wife's cheek as he rushes out to work in the morning, but he never gets there or home again. A wife takes her dog for a walk in the park in the afternoon. Only the dog is found, and his secret can never be discovered. The most pathetic are children. A little girl is sent by her mother down the street to do a message and never comes back. A little boy runs out of school with his school bag on his back, and runs into oblivion. A teenager says good-bye to friends after a disco and is never seen again. it is almost as if they had vanished into thin air. Most of them are never found.

Of all the tragedies that beset the family, none causes greater pain than this. It was always said of hell, that the greatest suffering there was the eternal pain of loss. It is what a mother suffers whose child has gone missing. If it had died or been killed she could have mourned it and come to terms with her grief. But there is no relieving this loss. Every time the doorbell sounds or the telephone rings, she thinks her child is returning. She clings onto every reported sighting, no matter how distant or unlikely. She wakes up at night, hearing her child call out. She feels that it is somewhere out there crying out for help and for her, and she can do nothing. And that great healer, time, can offer nothing to kill her pain. "Missing, presumed dead" is not enough to let the healing start. No presumption will release her from her purgatory. Only such a parent can fathom the joy of the father in today's parable at the return of his son who "was dead and has come back to life, was lost and is found."

Churches keep no files on their missing members but by all accounts they are numerous. There is a steady trickle of people who walk away from God's house and never comeback. Their problem, it appears, is not with God, but more often with the company he keeps. Too many scribes and pharisees there who complain that Jesus "welcomes sinners and eats with them." "Church-atheists" is the new term coined to describe them. Some of them return to the church, but probably far less than is generally claimed. Mercifully, most return to God in heaven where we are told "there is more rejoicing over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance."

Lost and found

Today's gospel is a collection of parables about people and things that were lost and found. The story of the Prodigal Son is at the heart of today's gospel, and, in itself, it is a summary of the whole gospel.

Emigration was the norm when I was growing up. One after another my own sisters and brothers left for England or the US. This was a heart wrenching experience all round. As time went on, however, and the first ones began to return on vacation, the joy of that homecoming was enormous. Thankfully, they all were faithful in returning whenever they possibly could. It seemed as if the time of emigration was over, and the time of homecoming arrived. Four of those who left, later got married, and some years later, returned to live in Ireland. Their homecoming made them much more important to us than they might have been had they never left!

Today's gospel tells us about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Any one of these stories would provide more than enough material for reflection. In Jesus' day, the idea of a sheep being lost was a serious situation. A lost sheep would not survive too long out there among the desert wolves. The role of the shepherd was to be willing to die, if needed, in defence of his sheep. Money was not plentiful in Jesus' time, and for someone to lose a coin was also a tragedy. There could be no letup until the coin was found.

All of these stories is Jesus' way of telling us about the happiness in heaven whenever someone turns back to God, and forsakes evil. God wants this more than anything else. He loves us, he longs for us. "Come back to me with all your heart. Don't let fear keep us apart. Long have I waited for your coming close to me, and living deep within my love." Because of our free will, God cannot compel us to do anything. He can wait patiently, or he can hope that we allow him find us. The door of our hearts has but one handle and that is on the inside. He cannot enter unless I open the door.

The Prodigal son "came to his senses." He opened his eyes to see, his ears to hear, and he reached out, and got in touch with reality. The father's welcome was extraordinary. Everything came to a standstill. All stops were pulled out to celebrate his son's safe return. The best of clothes, the best of food. It is interesting to note that the father ordered sandals. Sandals were worn only when people went on a journey. Giving his son the sandals was telling him that he was free to leave again, should he decide to do so. Are you willing to let the Father hug you, and are you prepared to experience that hug? It is there for any of us who turn to him with all our hearts.

A teacher asked her class to rewrite the parable of the lost sheep in a way that would make sense to the rest of the class. One student wrote: Suppose you had just finished typing a 100-page term paper. You had worked long hours in drafting it, and typing it. You were exhausted, but deeply relieved that the job was finished. You were collecting the pages to staple them, and bind them, when you discovered that there was one missing. Imagine the horror, the panic, the sick feeling in the pit of the stomach. You drop the other 99 pages, and begin the anxious search. Everything in you is longing and aching for a sight of that missing page. Without that page, the whole project falls limp. Suddenly, there, away in the corner, is the page. You excitedly push a chair aside, sending the 99 pages on it flying in all directions, and you are on your knees, reaching into the corner to touch and to grasp that page.

25th Sunday of Year C

Amos 8:4-7
Ps 113:1ff
1 Timothy 2:1-8
Luke 16:1-13


Amos Today
Posts of Responsibility

Bribes and Other Things

Filthy Lucre
Dealing with money

Amos 8:4-7. Amos warns that God is concerned for justice and fair play. He parodies the greedy employer waiting impatiently for the sabbath rest to come to an end.

1 Tim 2:1-8. The Christian community ought to pray for everyone, including those who hold public office, and share in Jesus' concern for the salvation of all.

Lk 16:1-13. The tricky manager used his ill-gotten gains to win people's favour, to prepare an escape for himself on the day of reckoning. But "You cannot serve God and wealth."

Theme: We live in a world where many are used and manipulated for the gain of the few. Jesus warns that misuse of money can separate us from God. We cannot be the servants both of God and of money.

Amos 8:4-7

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat." The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Ps 113:1ff

Praise, O servants of the Lord;
praise the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.

The Lord is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?

He raises the poor from the dust,
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.

1 Timothy 2:1-8

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all-this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument;

Luke 16:1-13

 or, shorter version: 16:10-13

Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.'

So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'

And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?

No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Intercessions

- that we may use money, "tainted as it is', to gain eternal life.

- that we may never corrupt others with money or be corrupted by it.

- that we may always be given the grace to choose God before money.

Thoughts for 25th Sunday

Amos Today

It was an age when wealthy business people amassed riches by ruthlessly exploiting and cheating the poor and defenceless, when resort to fraud and swindling was the order of the day, when the law courts showed greater concern for the vested interests of the commercial classes rather than for justice, when city life became corrupt, when landowners were more concerned about the sale of their crops than the observance of the Lord's Day, and when religion had become an empty gesture without purpose, without sincerity, a mere outward compliance with social custom. No, I'm not referring to the ailments of society today, but rather to the kind of moral standards that prevailed in Israel during the time of the prophet Amos, almost 3,000 years ago.

The preaching of Amos has a clearer message for modern day social standards than that of any other Old Testament prophet. He lived during a period when the threat of war was remote, and a cultural, social and economic revival took place in Israel. The expansion of trade and commerce brought about a steady drift from country to city, and small towns in the northern kingdom became overcrowded, just as in most countries this past century. But this prosperity was accompanied by an almost unprecedented degree of social degradation. The fall away from religion especially led to a corruption of justice, to wanton and luxurious living, and to the break-up of social unity. Amos prophesied that Israel would be punished for these crimes, that her wealth would vanish, her houses adorned with expensive ivory would be torn down, and within twenty years all this was to come true when the Northern Kingdom was overrun by the Assyrians, the most hated and feared race in the history of the Middle East.

Writing to Timothy, his disciple, St Paul quotes the proverb which says, "The love of money is the root of all evil." Note it does not say that money is the root of all evil, but rather the "love of money" is. Of course money is necessary, and always was, as a means of exchanging goods in every complex organised society. But through excessive love of money a person can become its slave. Money can become a substitute for God in one's life, to the extent that in one's efforts to acquire more of it one can become, in Christ's own words, "choked by the riches and pleasures of life and fail to reach spiritual maturity" (Lk 8:13). Life is something far more precious than the food we take, the clothes we wear, or the riches we acquire. Earthly possessions are things which are on loan to us. After a brief life span we have to relinquish our hold on them and leave them behind. "Naked I came from my mother's womb," Job said (1:21), "and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away."

Why was the rather strange Parable of the Unjust Steward included in St Luke's gospel, you might ask. And the answer is that it was because of the Church's concern about the proper use of wealth even in the apostolic age. The parable shows us how the steward when faced with a crisis used all his astuteness and worldly craftiness to make provision for the future. A steward's salary took the form of a commission on the sale of his master's goods. This was his only salary. And so in reducing the debtors" bills the steward was not defrauding his master. He was only giving up the commission due to himself. Great wealth however is rarely acquired without some sharp practice, and so Christ refers to money as being tainted. We have to keep reminding ourselves that, by and large, our society, like that of ancient Israel, is organised, not so much for the welfare of ordinary citizens, for the common good, but rather geared towards maximum production and gain for those who invest in it.

If there is love among people, if there is civility and compassion, it is certainly not due to the systems of production in our industrial society, but in spite of them. There will be little reward for us, hereafter; if we are pleasant to others purely for self-gain, for example, to induce them to buy our goods. In our use of wealth therefore we must remain ever mindful of the words of Christ, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful, blessed are those who strive for justice." It is such people who will find true self-fulfilment, who, having left behind this world and all its possessions, will find the greatest reward of all, that of possessing God himself for all eternity, or should I rephrase that and say, that of being possessed by God for all eternity.

Posts of Responsibility

The commentary on the gospel gives a choice to the celebrant in approaching the homily. One could take up the theme of wisdom and our need for it in running our lives. The steward had the position he enjoyed in the master's estate because of his talent for administration. It was a position of trust, with mighty quantities subject to his judgement. The figures mentioned in the parable are big. The volume of oil reflects the produce of about 150 olive trees, and the amount of corn represents the harvest of about 100 acres of land. The ability of the steward is to be presumed from the trust that the master invested in him. Using his gifts, the steward was to make profit for the master of the estate, but by his wasting of the master's goods he looses the trust that was his. His carelessness in the matter of what is another's was the beginning of his downfall. When he is caught out in this fault he is driven further in his dishonesty to tamper with the accounts. He uses his position for selfish purposes. What bega as an attitude of "couldn't care less" develops into downright dishonesty.

Taking this way of telling the parable the celebrant, conscious of the needs of his own community, could take up the responsibility that each owes to his neighbour, whether as employer or employee or members of the same community. Carelessness about one another is the way to contempt for one another and ignorance of another's rights. Carelessness is a easy way to selfishness and to hardness of heart. God has given to each Christian a trust, and lack of responsibility in our dealings with our neighbour is a betrayal of that trust and a short step to actual dishonesty and harm against our neighbour.

The other option for the homilist, is to develop the phrase, "God or mammon." In a modern world with all its emphasis on materialism and comfort this Christian choice is topical. There is a danger of not getting the message to people in a situation where there is grave economic hardship and severe pressure on people to meet their financial commitments. People can react with an attitude that says that it is all fine for the clergy to talk about mammon and the evil of being tied up in money, but the harsh reality of life is that we cannot live without some form of currency, whether notes, coins or the more modern version, the credit card. In this situation it might be helpful to advert to what St Paul says about the topic in Colossians 3:5, "Covetousness, which is idolatry." This could help focus the homily on the kernal point that it is the desire of the heart that rules. If one serves mammon, one's heart is directed towards a material thing, and one is subject to something that is less than human. Covetousnes is such a vice, and with all the pressure of the modern world, promising happiness through the possession of luxuries there is a real need to unmask the falseness of such attitudes. The message of the gospel is One that looks towards the freedom of the heart from every bond, the call of the Christian to be free before his Father in heaven and to serve God, whom to serve is to reign.

Bribes and Other Things

In reflecting on the proper use of wealth, talents, and gifts, the homilist may find it helpful to focus on the proper attitude towards others. It is this attitude that dictates the manner of sharing or hoarding. Perhaps one may describe this proper attitude as one of respecting persons as persons, more specifically, as reflections of our God and so worthy of our concern. The improper attitude is one of regarding persons as things. Cheating people so means increasing our wealth. Bribing people means ensuring our investments.

According to Amos the Israelite entrepreneurs had violated the core of the covenant with Yahweh. This covenant was a relationship between God and Israel and, in turn, between fellow Israelites. In the prophet's view the attitude of the wealthy toward the poor was not interpersonal. Deflating the ephah and inflating the shekel reduced persons to the category of things. Selling the poor person for a price equal to a pair of sandals implied the distortion of values. It is not surprising that Amos proclaimed the end of the northern kingdom of Israel.

According to Luke the parable of the dishonest manager should prompt Christians to use their material possessions prudently. Among the applications of the parable Luke adds that there are two alternatives: serving God or serving mammon. Luke proceeds to make these applications concrete by reciting the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (16:19-31.) The rich man chooses to isolate himself from others in a world of non-concern. Lazarus is not a person, but an object.

Bribes, poor service, shoddy workmanship are perhaps more obvious examples of treating people as things. However, there are more elusive ways in which we insulate ourselves from the real world of pain and so perceive our possessions as purely personal and in no way a communal patrimony. The poor in our local communities, in our country, and on the international scene are indeed worthy recipients of our wealth, talents, and gifts. But they are nameless and so do not impinge on our world of affairs. The thrust of these readings is to dismantle the anonymity and reach out. In this way the poor are recognized as persons and we are, or we become, the honest managers of God's bounty.

Filthy Lucre

I never knew what the expression "filthy lucre" really meant until recently. I always thought it was only a metaphor for money. When I was a curate in a Dublin parish, one of my jobs was to supervise Bingo on a Friday night. Bingo provided half the parish revenue. It fell to me and a few loyal helpers to count the takings at the end of each session. When the count was completed our fingers were black with grime. It always amazes me, in this hygiene-conscious age, how eagerly we grab hold of whatever money we are offered, without the slightest fear of contamination. Yet we have not the faintest idea where it has come from. It doesn't seem to bother us what contagious disease its previous owner had. Yet, more often than not, it shares the same pocket with some dirty handkerchiefs.

When I was at school, there was an essay in my English reader entitled, "The adventures of a shilling." God be with the days when a shilling was a lot of moneys I've always thought since what an interesting series of short stories or TV episodes could be made tracing the history of a ten-pound note or a ten-dollar bill. I think the average banknote has a life-span of about twelve months. After that they are recalled and incinerated. It would be fascinating to follow its history from the moment the fresh crisp note comes off the mint to its extermination in the incinerator, some twelve months later. Every well-worn crease on it, every stain on it, has its own story to tell. God only knows where it has been and what it has done, for good or for bad. It has its joyful mysteries and its sorrowful mysteries. It may even have had its glorious mysteries. Its-last owner could have used it to buy a fix of heroin or cocaine, or bribe a government minister to secure a contract, or buy an official's silence. It could hav been picked from a poor pensioner's pocket. It may have paid a prostitute for her favours. It may even be blood-stained. It may have been a contribution~ towards the bomb that blasted a casual group of shoppers into eternity and blighted the lives of the widows and orphans left to pick up the pieces. And if it feels crisper and cleaner than usual, it may well be that it has just been "laundered" by drug-barons and arms-traffickers. Such are the sorrowful mysteries of a ten-pound note.

It could also have bought medicine for a sick child or education for a gifted one from a deprived background. And all the countless presents it might have bought to bring a little joy into otherwise bleak lives. It could have been an anonymous donation to any of our world's countless worthy causes. It could have been a poor person's contribution to someone more needy than themselves. It could have been to the Third World and back. It could have fed a whole family there for a week.

There is a lot of talk in modern times about devaluation. People complain all the time about the shrinking purchasing power of the money in their pockets and they reminisce ruefully about what their ten-pound note could have bought, even as little as five years ago. But in a real sense money is only devalued by the use we make of it. "Use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends," Christ told his disciples, "and so make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity." We may well be depressed at how little it can buy on High Street, but in the poor back streets of this world, its value never fluctuates.

Oscar Wilde once described a cynic as "one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." A Christian should be the reverse. One who has no interest in the price of anything but knows the value of everything.

Intercessions

- that we may use money, "tainted as it is', to gain eternal life.

- that we may never corrupt others with money or be corrupted by it.

- that we may always be given the grace to choose God before money.

Dealing with money

In today's gospel, Jesus acknowledges the mind-set of the world, and how such people think and act. He acknowledges that this is not all evil, but he points out that there are lessons to be learned from such "worldly wisdom." The riches he offers are so much more precious than the riches of the world, and, therefore, should be handled with much greater care.

Two boys found a purse in a parking lot. It probably belonged to the elderly lady who had just driven out of the lot. The purse contained the lady's name, her address, and a ten-dollar bill. One of the boys said "It's not right to keep the purse and the money. But, before we return it, let's change the ten-dollar bill into ten single dollars." These boys had not yet accumulated the wisdom of the world, which would have prompted something more devious...

Jesus speaks about the wisdom of this world, and he says that it can actually be used for good. "Use your worldly resources to make friends. In this way, your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven." Not everything in the world is evil. It can, of course, become corruptive, if it dominates and controls our actions and our thinking. He speaks of a wisdom, which is so much greater than earthly wisdom. He tells us that we cannot serve God and money. Money is not an evil, but it can take over, and it can preoccupy to the exclusion of all other interests. Money can be a hard taskmaster when it takes control of us. Unless it is treated as a servant, as something to be used for good, it can become a bully, and take over our lives. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." There is no merit in being poor. The merit is in the detachment, and the ability to part with my money, for-the sake of others. At this moment of writing I have just returned from downtown. One of the things that struck me were all those who held heir hands out. Some of them were selling daffodils for World Cancer Day; others were selling a magazine that helps the unemployed; while others were simply begging. It is interesting to stand watching the passers-by for a few moments...

The liar has to have a good memory. Once I begin down that road, it will take another lie to cover up the last one. The man in today's story was dishonest, and, when he was found out to be dishonest, he proceeded to being dishonest in another way. He didn't seem to know how to act uprightly and fairly. His offers to the other servants were not out of any sense of generosity, but simply to save his own skin. He would make a deal with the devil to save himself, and ensure that he would be OK.

There was a company, which built houses, and their business was on a large scale. There is a story told about one of their building contractors, who was approaching the age of retirement. He had become careless and carefree, and his working standards were constantly slipping. He began cutting corners, using inferior material, and taking short cuts. He was quite pleased with himself, and he felt he was on to a good thing here.

As time progressed, so did the standard of his work disimprove. The houses were new, so the faults would not show up straightaway, and he would be well out of the business by then. The time of his retiring arrived, and it coincided with what was possibly the most shoddily built house he had ever built. Imagine his surprise, at his retirement party, when his golden handshake was to be presented with the keys of that last house he had just completed!

26th Sunday of Year

Amos 6:1, 4-7
Ps 146:6-10
1 Timothy 6:11-16

Luke 16:19-31


With Empty Hands
Unpacking the Parable

The Penitent: Contrition

Sprawlers' Revelry

Amos 6:1,4-7. Amos castigates the wealthy who care nothing for the plight of the poor. If it continues, this conduct will bring ruin and exile to the nation.

1 Tim 6:11-16. "Fight the good fight." Following a Jesus was faithful even to the end, so Timothy and all Christians should keep the faith they have professed.

Lk 16:19-31. Mr. Rich looks up from Hades and sees Mr. Poor (Lazarus) sitting at Abraham's side. By then it is too late to change things. It is now that we need to show generosity.

Theme: The parable of "Mr. Rich and Mr. Poor" is a warning for prosperous people in our prosperous countries. Cool indifference to the needs of the poor is against the gospel. If we heed the warning of Amos, conspicuous consumption should be put behind us.

Amos 6:1, 4-7

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria, the notables of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel resorts! Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

Ps 146:6-10

The Lord) keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the strangers.

He upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.

1 Timothy 6:11-16

But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time-he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Luke 16:19-31

(Jesus said to the Pharisees):

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.

In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.'

He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house- for I have five brothers-that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Intercessions

- for generosity to share our teeming table with the world's hungry.

- that we may make greater efforts to persuade our government to increase its aid to the Third World.

- that we may accept a more frugal lifestyle in solidarity with the Third World.

Thoughts for the 26th Sunday

With Empty Hands

One of the problems that the early Church had to cope with was, strangely enough, that of the place in it which should be granted to children. At what age could they be admitted to full membership? What sacraments could they receive? We must remember that in its foundation stage the Christian community was comprised mainly of adults. In dealing with this problem the members took as their guide the attitude of Jesus towards children. Jesus had rebuked the Apostles for keeping the children away from him, and had said that unless they themselves became like little children they would never enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:3). Undoubtedly, what Jesus also had in mind for us was that we all have to come before God convinced of our own weakness and insufficiency, that to gain admission into heaven we must place all our trust in him, as in a loving and gracious Father.

This, of course, was in complete contrast to the attitude of the Pharisees, who loved money and power and the things of this world, and were convinced that by the mere external observance of laws and customs, they could, by their own unaided efforts, secure a place in heaven for themselves as well. They refused to believe in Christ, and even excluded from the Jewish community those who did. "No servant can be the slave of two masters," Christ told them. "You cannot be the slave of both God and money." (Lk 16:15). But the Pharisees only laughed at him. "What is thought highly of by men is an abomination in the sight of God," was his response.

The gospel today contrasts the two attitudes, that of Lazarus, the image of the poor, the downtrodden, those left penniless by the greed of the wealthy and the tax-collectors, and whose only hope was in the mercy of God, and on the other hand that of the rich man, clothed extravagantly, and feasting magnificently every day, self-sufficient, not seeing any need whatsoever to beg for God's mercy.

But deliverance is at hand for the poor, who for a short while share in Christ's sufferings so as to share in his glory. For, as St Paul tells us, "What we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory as yet unrevealed, which is awaiting us" (Rom 8:18). For the man, however, who stores up treasure for himself in this world instead of making himself rich in the sight of God, there comes with death the realisation that his heart cannot be satisfied with mere earthly possessions, that his spirit wants to reach out and be possessed by God, and that it cannot do so because it has become fixed in its ways. As a man lives, so shall he die. But, no matter how far we have strayed, salvation is still available. We can be converted if we but listen to the voice of God's Holy Spirit speaking to us, not only through Moses and the Prophets, namely in the Old Testament, but also through the message of Christ in the New Testament coming to us through the Church. And this Holy Spirit, who will become the dynamic fore of our lives, if we but open ourselves to him, is not the Spirit of slaves bringing fear into our lives. He is the Spirit of sons and daughters who makes us turn to God and cry "Abba, Father," the words used by Christ himself in the. garden of Gethsemane. God looking on us, will see us as his children, and, with Christ, as his heirs, heirs to a place for eterniy in his kingdom. For with such a trusting attitude on our part, neither poverty, nor riches, neither death nor life, nor any created thing whatsoever will be able to come between us and love of God made visible to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Rom 8:39).

Therefore, we should always keep our gaze fixed on our eternal home, which is heaven. How should we set about ensuring that we are on the right way to heaven? Firstly, desire it above all else. "There is one thing I ask of the Lord; for this I long; to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life" (Ps 26). Secondly, use the means God has given us, namely, frequent Mass and Communion, prayer and penance, striving to live a truly Christian life. Thirdly, bear life's crosses with patience, faith, and willingness. Fourthly, "Use this world without becoming engrossed in it," as St Paul says, "because the world as we know it is passing away" (1 Cor 7:31). Fifthly, persevere to the end in faith, hope and love. Take each day as it comes and live it well. The closer we live to God in our daily lives the more intense will our longing be to see him in heaven. With the Psalmist we will find ourselves saying, "my soul thirsts for God, the God of my life. When can I enter and see the face of God" (Ps 42).

Unpacking the Parable

So often we want to find a good story to start off a homily to get people's attention. This Sunday we are fortunate in that we have one already given to us. A attractive approach in preaching this gospel would be to open out some of the details of the parable; one could open by telling a modern story of such a change of fortune. Cinderella is a common fairy tale that has the same basic plot. She is poor and oppressed, but her state is changed by her fairy godmother and then she is enthroned as the Princess. We know how such a fairy tale can enthrall the young of all ages. Jesus used such a story to get home his message. Then the story could be expanded upon, bringing some details that the 20th century listener might not notice. The beggar's name gives us a hint as to his inner attitude. He is called Lazarus, or Eliezer, God will help. The beggar is the man who puts his trust in the Lord and longs for him. The rich man is nameless. He is everyone who closes his heart in the face of the human misery that confrots us daily. The rich man has sumptious food and is clothed in unusually elaborate garments. But his guilt is not mentioned. He did not refuse the poor man anything. He just ignored him. The poor man longed to be filled, but his desire was not fulfilled. The bread that fell was the bread that the guests of the wealthy man used to wipe their fingers clean. It was not even being served to them to be consumed.

The death of the two men provides the storyteller with an opportunity to bring out the contrast between the fate of the heroes. Lazarus goes to heaven and shares company with the great patriarch Abraham, to whom so many promises were made; the poor wretch, whose sad state on earth could have been interpreted as the reward of his sins, is welcomed by the angels of God. The rich man descends to the darkness and emptiness of the grave.

The preacher could stop here and develop a sermon on the ultimate settling of accounts that will level off all social injustices. He could point out the need that we have to be aware of the poor that are on our own doorsteps, and in the global village who can deny that there are people who are severely handicapped by the lack of the necessities of life? In an age of instant communications we cannot deny that they exist. The rich man did not deny the existence of Lazarus, he just ignored it. In the richer countries of this world, conscious as they are of their own economic problems there is an ostrich mentality that wants to ignore the reality of dire need in the universe. The preacher can show that. Cinderella does not alter the real world. Life after death is not an anaesthetic to kill the pain of injustice in the real world.

Another option presents itself by starting off with the state of the rich man in Hades. His dialogue with Abraham does not turn aside from his real privileged position as a son of Abraham. He was a practicing man, a religious one. The story does not try to avoid that aspect. The rich man did not really hearken to the bite in the message of the prophets. Abraham is adamant that the five brothers will not be able to change their way of life if they do not do so through the means of ordinary religious practice. The preacher could underline the falseness of some devotions that stress the extraordinary and do not touch the social implications of the real gospel. The circumstances of each worshipping community will be important in how this gospel of justice in faith is to be preached.

The Penitent: Contrition

(Donal Murray)

The readings manifest the difference between God's ways and ours, Our view of reality is often short-sighted, selfish and false. Professing the truth, therefore, means being ready to change our perspectives and attitudes. Without that change of heart we are unable to be part of the kingdom that will be revealed at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. "We can only approach the kingdom of Christ by melanoia. This is a profound change of the whole person by which one begins to consider, judge and arrange his life according to the holiness and love of God, made manifest in the last days and given to us in abundance" (OP 6a.)

There can be no forgiveness without sorrow. There are, however, different kinds of sorrow, There is the useless self-centred regret at having let oneself down or there is true sorrow which is also a request to be forgiven, a sorrow addressed to somebody. Contrition is sorrow addressed to God and to the Church in the knowledge that God's almighty power is shown in mercy and forgiveness (Opening Payer.) If that contrition is absent then the whole process of reconciliation is an empty sham, and it becomes the kind of hypocritical ritual which the prophets so often condemned (e.g. Amos 5:21-24.) "The most important act of the penitent is contrition, which is "heartfelt sorrow and aversion for the sin committed along with the intention of sinning no more" (OP 6a.)

The call to repent is partly expressed by showing the impermanence and shallowness of the fulfilment offered by wealth and by self-seeking, but it must also be a statement of the Good News that there is a far greater salvation offered by God's love than the tawdry do-it-yourself utopias in which we try to find refuge. The malice of sin is to be measured ultimately in terms of the nobility of the destiny which it rejects. One always repents in order to believe more fully in the Gospel.

There is a close link between this repentance and the celebration of the Eucharist. No only does each Eucharistic celebration open with a moment of repentance but the reality which is celebrated is one that reveals our faith. "The Christ who calls to the Eucharistic banquet is always the same Christ who exhorts us to penance and repeats his "Repent." In Christ, priesthood is linked with his Sacrifice, his self-giving to the Father; and, precisely because it is without limits, that self-giving gives rise in us human beings subject to numerous limitations to the need to turn to God in an even more mature way and with a constant, ever more profound conversion" (Redemptor Hominis 20.)

Today's readings, however, also contain a reminder of how easily one may close one's ears to that challenge. In many cases the slavery of sin is, at least in the short term, a comfortable and easy slavery. That is why the Christian life is always a struggle. The good fight must be fought not just in order to see things clearly but also in order that things once clearly seen may not be lost to view.

Sprawlers" Revelry

It is fascinating to observe, how, as de-christianisation advances in our time, the secular calendar grows. We are all aware now of Father's Day and Mother's Day and all the other days that are designated on certain dates. I suppose we shouldn't really complain, as most of our religious festivals were originally pagan festivals that we christianised. Now, it would seem, the process is being reversed. The latest addition to our secular calendar is Animal Day on the first Sunday in October. I don't begrudge our fur and feathered friends a little bit of special attention as they now occupy an important place in our lives, at least in the West. The statistics for France are revealing and I imagine they are closely matched elsewhere in Europe. There are thirty four million domestic animals in that country, of which ten million are dogs, nine million caged birds, seven million cats, and six million fish in bowls. The other two million include hamsters, white mice, rabbits etc. it is a veritable Noah's Ark. The annul expenditure on these animals comes to 28 billion francs, or fifteen per cent of the total annual expenditure in France. It would seem that dogs and other household pets are no longer fed on the scraps that fall from our tables, as they were in former times. TV adverts for dog-food and cat-food, so often at peak-viewing times, give an indication of how dramatically our pets" eating habits have changed. With what we spend on them alone, we could maintain the two-thirds of humanity who are dying of starvation.

It is ironic that when we listen to today's gospel about Lazarus and the rich man, we tend automatically to identify with Lazarus. We miss the whole point of the story. We, in fact, collectively are the rich man. Apart from spending twenty-eight billion francs on our pets, we have a mountain of beef, a mountain of cereals, a mountain of butter, a lake of wine and a lake of milk, that cost us a fortune to maintain. These are only the crumbs that fall from our table. Amos" warning is aimed directly at us: "Woe to those ensconced so snugly in Zion." The problem about being collectively responsible for the world's starving masses is that we can so easily shrug off our personal responsibility. You may be living in a bed-sitter with few comforts or struggling to meet the mortgage repayments on your home. Yet all the services we benefit from, our public transport system, our education, our health services etc. etc, etc. derive from the rich man's club to which we belong. We dine at the rich man's table.

And much of our wealth derives from the natural resources our forefathers looted from the Third World. We still take their primary resources for a pittance, like the coffee we drink every morning, and sell it back to them at exorbitant prices. And now, adding insult to injury, our ships are plying the seas in search of a Third World country willing to accept our toxic waste. Having robbed them of their riches we are now returning them our rubbish.

Now, at last, we are beginning to wake up to the magnitude of our greed. And not because our conscience has finally got to us. But because we realise that we are fouling our own nest. Our wantonness is coming home to roost. In that memorable phrase of Amos, "the sprawlers" revelry is over." Our world is too small to bear such inequalities. Unless we share our table with the world's hungry, we will all end up in a hell of our own creation.

27th Sunday of Year C

Habbakuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4

Ps 95:1-2, 6-9
2 Timothy 1:6ff
Luke 17:5-10


Motive, at Prayer

Lord, increase our Faith

The Splendour of Silent Service

Something Precious

His blood and our faith

Hab 1:2-3, 2:2-4. When the prophet complains about God allowing so much injustice to thrive, God promises a day of justice: "it will surely come, it will not delay."

2 Tim 1:6-8,13-14. Like Paul his teacher, Timothy has to accept his own share of sacrifice for the Gospel, and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to pass on the faith, "the good treasure entrusted to you."

Lk 17:5-10. "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed.." we could do great things. We are also urged to serve God from a loyal sense of duty.

Theme: The apostles want Jesus to increase their faith and Paul describes the faith as "the treasure entrusted to you." Beware of the bizarre and the sensational, and don't be duped by modern claims or novelties.

Habbakuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.

Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.

Ps 95:1-2, 6-9

O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tested me,
and put me to the proof,
though they had seen my work.

2 Timothy 1:6ff

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.

Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

Intercessions

We pray

- for the grace to preserve our faith from superstitious practices and beliefs.

- for the grace to guard our faith from ignorance.

- for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith.

Thoughts for 27th Sunday

Motive, at Prayer

"Lord increase our faith," the apostles requested of Jesus in that gospel reading. Elsewhere they asked, "Lord teach us how to pray" (Lk 11:1). And really these two requests were the same. For to pray is simply to think of God, and at the same time to love him, to trust him, to have faith in him. Every prayer then is an act of faith in God, and conversely every time our thoughts turn to God in faith, we are praying to him. Indeed, we can say that it is no more possible to have faith without prayer than it would be to swim without water. But we must always try to have proper motives when we pray to God. For it is possible because of worry, or fear, or undue concern about the success of our day to day undertakings, that we offer up intense prayers, but with an intensity due to our purely human concerns rather than to any thought of God.

We are often trying to win God over to our way of thinking, to have him on our side, in a scheme of things we have mapped out for ourselves. Or again we sometimes look on prayer as a kind of magical last resort, which is always worth a try. There is a story of a clergyman walking along a street with a friend who was a man of considerable scholarship. When they came to a ladder leaning over the sidewalk and against a wall which was being decorated, the friend refused to pass under it. "Surely you don't believe in that superstition, said the clergyman. "No, I don't exactly believe in it," was the reply he got, "but I never throw away a chance of avoiding an accident." Well, that describes the way some of us approach prayer. We don't exactly believe in it, but we never ignore the possibility that it may work. Sometimes it becomes a last forlorn hope. On the contrary, however, our constant plea should be, "Lord, increase our faith. Lord, teach us how to pray."

"When you pray for something," St James reminds us, "and don't get it, it is because you have not prayed properly. You have prayed for something purely to satisfy your own desires" (Jas 4:3). In order to avoid such pitfalls we all need guidance, in particular the guidance of God's Holy Spirit. Prayer according to St Augustine is not a matter of informing God of our needs, but rather of God transforming our inmost thoughts and desires. Prayer is not an instruction of God, but rather the construction of a new heart within us. For true prayer has what may be called a natural effect. It elevates and spiritualises the soul. Gradually, and almost imperceptibly, the person who prays acquires a new outlook, a different set of values, a clearer understanding of what lies behind and beyond the topsy-turvy of our everyday existence. For as speech is the necessary means for entering into fellowship with other human beings, so prayer is the instrument of communing with God.

There is no greater proof of this than the example of Jesus himself. Never before did a human being pray as he did. Even in the middle of a public discourse he would turn to God and address him as Father. Early in the morning he would steal away and go out by himself onto the hillside, his favourite location for uninterrupted prayer. Apparently it was a regular custom of his also, while in Jerusalem, to pray during the night in the Garden of Gethsemane, and that his visit there on the night of his arrest was not his first one. On that particular occasion, as recorded in the gospels, we are told that "being in anguish he prayed the longer." We can learn much as well from his prayer that night. "Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will, not mine be done" (Lk 22:42f). Note that the first part of that prayer was not granted, in other words God did not take away the cup, that is the suffering of a most cruel death which lay ahead. But by being open to the will of God, somthing even greater was to follow for Jesus, namely, his glorious resurrection. "Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain" (Jn 12:24).

The letter to the Hebrews sums it all up this way (5:7-10): "During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to raise him from the dead, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard." And God grant that our prayers, throughout our lives, may be heard also, and that being raised from the dead through the merits of Jesus' prayers we may be united with him for ever in heaven.

Lord, increase our Faith

(Mary Ann Getty)

There is really no "ordinary" time for the Christian. Yet, especially in times of extraordinary pressures, when challenged to go even further, we may often be moved to pray, hopefully if not desperately, "Lord, increase our faith." We merely want to be equal to the challenge. There is a timelessness about the message that pervades today's readings, and that message touches on the ordinary as well as the pressured moments of our lives. Habakkuk, the author of 2 Timothy, and Luke all conspire to impress upon us the tireless courage demanded of the disciple over the long haul and despite opposition. Many of us are not important enough (or at least we are not regarded as sufficiently important) to have true enemies. Most of find ourselves, nevertheless, threatened by the monotonous, apparent Omnipresence and unceasing nature of the usual obstacles to faith in our lives - obstacles such as discord, timidity and a reluctance to forgive other unconditionally for fear that worse could befall us.

Likewise today, we, like Habakkuk, experience great difficulty taking seriously the challenge to entrust our lives to God. Sometimes arrogance, but more often plain common sense inhibits our real conviction that God cares so deeply and loves so surely that anxiety is unneccessary, useless and even contrary to faith. But, even in the face of oppression and violence the prophet insists, the vision has its time, presses on to fulfillment and will not disappoint. The apparently intimidated Timothy has much the same message: three times his mentor reminds him that strength lies in God: God has bestowed... has given, that strength comes from God. The future makes us fearful but the past testifies to God's fidelity. The Christian need not seek security elsewhere but in God, source of all hope and strength.

Not only is the future unknown, but the Christian has been promised a share in the sufferings of Christ and this much we can count on (cf. Phil 1:29, for example.) Nearing Jerusalem, the place that Jesus himself characterized as the killer of the prophets (cf. Lk 13:34), the disciples seem to sense its dangers and somewhat desperately ask for an increase of faith, Jesus seems almost oblivious to their problem, saying first that quantity is irrelevant and secondly that the disciples" expectations of reward are misdirected.

As usual, Jesus' method of speaking in parables both reveals and challenges. A parable provides an example taken from common experience but not without a strange and arresting twist. The impatience of the prophet, the timidity of Timothy and the fearfulness of the disciples are to be contrasted with the studied attentiveness, almost passiveness, of the servant whose only purpose is to "wait on" the Master as he sits at table.

We all get tired of waiting. It is difficult - increasingly so - to be patient. And not only is the delay unnerving, but the forces of oppression seem to be gathering strength and prophets cannot help but wonder, "How long, 0 Lord?" (cf. Hab 1:2; also Is 6:11.) Which introduces another timeless dimension: namely, that of suffering. Suffering is a mystery, especially when we consider its positive and apparently fundamental role in the Christian life. And it can be not only mysterious but even offensive. Folly to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews (cf. 1 Cor 1:23), the cross of Christ represents a challenge to both reason and faith. Although it may take many diverse forms, suffering is neither abstract nor vague. The faithful remain patient, hopeful, courageous and dependable even in the midst of all the threatening and adverse forms that suffering can take.

The Splendour of Silent Service

If they could see me now - I've often found myself wondering what my parents or friends would think of me if they were present at this or that happening, whether creditable or mean. Many feel this need to be judged by others - especially for appreciation or praise. Indeed, it can reach the stage when no good or generous action is done for its own sake; unless there's an audience of some kind to give us credit, we hardly feel it worthwhile. No donation for the poor. A slovenly job when the inspector is not watching. Less affection for the family after the visitors have left. How many things do we dress up with a superficial cosmetic of virtue, "to be seen by men?" Yet only God sees the heart and knows the motive.

Certainly the opinions of others matter to us. What really counts in the long run, however, is how Almighty God sees us - not his "opinion," but his unerring vision, compassionate yet total. Nothing else compares with that judgment; and its simple question is this: have you been faithful in serving? Because of fidelity, the righteous man will live. His life in God's friendship, his state of grace, does not depend on social stature or reputation, but on a much more secret quality. As St. Paul says, a man cannot even fully judge himself. Upon this profound question of righteousness, we can only entrust ourselves to God's mercy, while making an honest effort to serve Him. Then the principle will apply: for those who love God, all things work together unto good.

Unprofitable? A better word might be ordinary. The servants really had done their duty, which was what could ordinarily be expected of them. Quite clearly, the master expected it; in other parables he sternly punishes any servants who let him down, or cheated in their duty. Too often we Christians take a casual attitude towards the service of God. We treat prayer as a casual option, observance of the commandments as a rather burdensome and restricting affair to be periodically neglected, and the practise of positive charity (patience, encouragement, material and moral help) as a rare event for which should always be greeted by congratulations. Taking Our Lord to heart, however, we would regard all these things as normal service. The standards he set for us are much higher than those we habitually live by. What a new complexion things would have if each of us became a willing servant towards God, determined to do each ordinary thing according to His will.

But who will lead the way? If I decided to adopt the spirit of quiet service, and to do things for no other reward than God's approval, would I not be exploited, used and even despised by others? So, while I'm captivated by the ideal, I won't commit myself until many others clearly adopt the same spirit of social responsibility. (So, we have the vicious circle of strikes, wage-demands, inflation and its consequences: hardship for the pensioner and the unprotected; scarcity of jobs for school-leavers.) The rat-race of self-advancement is nobody's fault, and yet it's everybody's. Growth of a new spirit of mutual service can only begin when individuals embrace this ideal for its own sake. "Ask not what your country can do for you...

All impetus to serve God and be helpful to the community comes from the Holy Spirit, who fills us with power, love and self-control. Today when so many are regaining awareness of the indwelling Spirit, we must listen willingly to his prompting, and adopt that fundamental attitude which was in Christ himself, who came not to be served, but to serve, and whose character is well described as the Man for Others. Co-operating with the Spirit's guidance will not always come easy. We have to contend with pockets of deeply-rooted self-interest-like dead trees which need to be cleared away. But, with faith, even these can be uprooted and thrown into the sea...

Ultimately, this is our way to salvation. The just man shall live by his fidelity. When all of life's events are lived, and the Master comes to judge the performance of us all, only those who have given their faithful service will feel at home in his company. And then we will realize that this was the only right way to conduct our lives in God's sight "Well done good and faithful servant," He will say; and we will answer simply it was no more than our duty."

Something Precious

Civitavecchia is an Italian seaport. Recently, it was the scene of a strange phenomenon widely reported by the media. It was claimed that a little statuette of the Madonna had shed tears of blood. The story began some months earlier, when the local parish priest returned from a visit to Medjugorje, bringing with him as a souvenir a little plaster ikon of Our Lady, such as can be found in vast numbers at any of the Marian shrines. He presented it to a young couple in his parish who built a miniscule grotto for it in their garden. One day their little five-year old daughter came running in from the garden saying that "the Madonna was crying." She brought her father out to see. He saw what appeared to be tears of blood streaming from the eyes of the statue. Word spread rapidly and soon people were flocking in their hundreds to get a glimpse of the "bleeding Madonna." The mayor, a former communist, in a scenario so reminiscent of The Little World of Don Camillo, began to devise grandiose schemes for the constructon of hotels, car-parks etc to cater for the anticipated huge influx of pilgrims. The more sceptical parish priest decided to repossess the statue which he consigned to his bishop. He in turn alerted the Vatican who advised him to send the statue to a medical institute for expert analysis. It duly issued a report stating that the red blotches were indeed blood - albeit male. At this point, the procurator of the Republic intervened claiming that the statue was an "incitement to incredulity" and had it confined under seals in a cupboard in the bishop's residence. By this time, following the now-accepted pattern in such circumstances, a number of similar phenomena were being reported from other places in Italy, some involving Madonnas and others the stigmatist, Padre Pio, leading Newsweek to quip, "It's a wonder there's a dry icon in the country."

Without prejudice to the final outcome of the Church's investigation of this phenomenon, it is important to place it in the context of faith which is the subject of today's readings. "The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him; they bear witness that he is the Son of God." So states the Catholic Catechism which goes on to warn that "they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic." The great enemy of faith is superstition, which so often masquerades itself as true faith. Its casualties include not only the gullible, who accept too readily whatever "signs and wonders" are presented, but they also, in this media age, bring true religion into disrepute and reinforce the scepticism of millions.

In today's second reading, St Paul has a timely word on the subject:

Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. You have been trusted to look after something precious; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

His blood and our faith

Jesus speaks of faith as the minimum he expects of us. It is his blood and our faith. Faith is our response to love. It is something that he has a right to expect, and if we have faith in him it is only what he expects and what he deserves.

I taught swimming during my years as a teacher. Whether I called it "faith" or not, I was continually asking someone to trust me. "Let go of the bar. Come on down here into the deep end etc." They had everything they needed to swim - except confidence in me and in themselves. When the breakthrough was made, it was no thanks to anyone. They did what they had always been able to do. They did what both themselves and myself asked them to do.

I grew up making promises. Every New Year's Day, every Ash Wednesday, every Annual Retreat, etc. there were more and more promises. (Probably the same promises of the year before!) It is only in the second half of my life that I woke up to the fact that it is Jesus who makes the promises, because he is the only one who can keep promises. "Heaven and earth will pass away, before my word passes away."

Our faith can grow. Jesus compares faith to a tiny grain of mustard seed, which can grow into a huge tree. I remember getting some grains of mustard seed one time, and they were so tiny that I was unable to pick them up with my fingers. The only way I could control them was to pick them up with a piece of cellotape, and stick them inside the cover of my Bible. I was in the Garden of Gethsemane at the time, so I could look around at the huge mustard trees that surrounded me, and compare them to the tiny seeds. I was also touched by the thought that these same trees were in this Garden for many hundreds of years before the time of Jesus. Something like that helps us to know our place!

It is extraordinary how definite Jesus is about faith; I mean faith that moves mountains. Anything can happen for those who have faith. I said earlier that it is a response to love. It must also be a direct outcome of humility; out of being certain that only God can do God things, and that what I seek is beyond all possibility for me on my own. It is certainly the basis of miracles in the gospel. When Peter had fished all night and caught nothing; when the little woman in the crowd had spent every penny she had for twelve years, and was getting no better; when the man sat at the pool for thirty-eight years, then, and only then, were they ready to concede defeat, and let Jesus take over. "At your word, I will let down the net... If I can only touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed... Say but the word, and my servant will be healed."

Before modern radio and TV became so sophisticated, a telephone operator used to get a call every afternoon asking for the correct time. She was always able to give this information with great confidence. The reason for this was that she always checked her watch, and adjusted it when needed, when the whistle blew for closing time in the local factory.

One day her watch stopped. The telephone rang, inquiring for the correct time. She explained her predicament. Her watch had stopped, and she had no way of ascertaining the correct time until the factory whistle sounded some time later. The caller then explained his predicament. He was calling today, as he had done every other day, from that same local factory, and he had always adjusted his clock, when necessary, to agree with whatever time it was in the telephone exchange.

Be careful in whom you place your trust!

28th Sunday of Year C

2 Kings 5:14-17
Ps 98:1-4
2 Timothy 2:8-13
Luke 17:11-19


Our Freedom, and God's

Grateful People
Going To Mass
Are we thankful?
A Word of Thanks

2 Kgs 5:14-17. When Naaman heeds Elisha and immerses himself in the Jordan he is cured of leprosy, and converts to faith in the true God. He now plans to build a shrine at his home.

2 Tim 2:8-13. Paul continues to remind Timothy that preaching the Gospel is a demanding vocation. But "if we endure, we will also reign with him."

Lk 17:11-19. Of the ten people cured of leprosy by Christ, only one returned to thank him. Commending this man Jesus says, "your faith has made you well."

Theme: Of the Ten Lepers cured by Christ, only one comes back to thank him. We are here celebrating Eucharist - literally "giving thanks." Everyone has much to thank God for and our Mass today is the place to do it.

2 Kings 5:14-17

Naaman the leper went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant." But he said, "As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing!" He urged him to accept, but he refused. Then Naaman said, "If not, please let two mule-loads of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god except the Lord.

Ps 98:1-4

O sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things.

His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.

The Lord has made known his victory;
he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.

He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises.

2 Timothy 2:8-13

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David-that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful-for he cannot deny himself.

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Intercessions

- that we shall remain faithful to the Mass to thank God for all the gifts he has given us.

- that we may always show our gratitude to those who have helped us by their kindness and friendship.

- for those who no longer practise that they may know that they will always be welcome.

Thoughts for 28th Sunday

Our Freedom, and God's

We, in the Western world, pride ourselves in having the highest form of democratic society in the history of mankind, a claim which indeed is debatable. We place great stress on individual freedom and liberty, on the right to do our own thing. Yet how often do we allow ourselves to be swayed by pressure groups, and sometimes have no scruples ourselves about inflicting inconvenience, and hardship, and curtailment of their liberties on others, in order to gain our own ends. We say we do not suffer tyrants and dictators gladly, nevertheless, bearing in mind these trends of our demanding society, is it any wonder that we want to dictate to God himself also. We want him to do things our way, to acquiesce to our demands, and so, to a certain degree, enable us become masters of our own destiny. There are some who even abandon praying because they claim that God has not granted their requests.

This in a way reflects the attitude of Naaman the leper, the army commander of the King of Syria, as shown in the passage from the 2 Kings which leads up to today's First Reading. Hoping to be cured of his leprosy by Elisha, the prophet, Naaman arrived from Syria, laden with gifts of silver and gold and precious garments. The prophet, however, did not even come out to meet him, but rather sent a messenger telling him to wash seven times in the river Jordan. This response left Naaman deeply offended, indignant, and he prepared to return to Syria. Why wash in this particular river, when there were so many larger rivers back home? "Here was I thinking Elisha would be sure to come out to me, and stand there, and wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprous part," he said, and so he set off in a rage.

Things had not gone according to what he had planned. It was only after his servants had pointed out the simplicity of the prophet's request, that he was persuaded to carry it out, and so was cured. And come to think of it, how often do we behave precisely in the same way! Why do I have to go to church, we say, when I can worship God out in the open air on Sundays? Why do I have to confess my sins to a priest, when I can tell them directly to God, and say I'm sorry? Why does God send me crosses and sickness, when instead of being a burden to my family and relations I could do so much good for them? We even find such attitudes among those disciples privileged to see Christ face to face and listen to his preaching. "Why not show us the Father?" (Jn 14:8), the Apostle Philip said to him, instead of just speaking about him; and those who regarded themselves as his faithful followers complained, "Why did he have to speak about giving us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink? This is intolerable language, and howcould anyone accept it?" (Jn 6:52, 60). And they walked with him no more. This is the reaction of Naaman, all over again. It stands to Naaman's credit, however, that he returned to thank Elisha.

But the ways of human beings are not God's ways. God always does things in his own time, and in his own way. He calls us to make an act of faith in him on his conditions, not on ours. So we must be patient. We must cease regarding God as a kind of puppet that should react in the desired way when we pull the right strings. We must allow him play a central role in our lives, while accepting his will in a spirit of adoration. When we are seeking a favour, the New Testament keeps reminding us to do so with prayer and thanksgiving, because God answers every prayer for help, even though it may not be precisely in the way we would wish, since he will only grant what is for our good. We should then make it a habit, especially in every Mass to praise and thank God with all our hearts, like Naaman when he was cured, like the only one of the ten lepers who returned to express his appreciation of God's gift. There is a sadness in the failure of the other nine to say a personal "thank you," for what Jesus had done for the

As Shakespeare wrote in his play King Lear, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." The Eucharist we are celebrating is a reminder to us, never to forget God's greatest gift to us, that of his own divine Son. If, however, we concentrate too much on particular favours sought or received, there is a danger that we may reduce the Eucharist to the level of magical thinking, a means of procuring good turns from God. We should rather rejoice, that through it, our names, as Christ said to his Apostles, are written in heaven.

Grateful People

A friend of mine was once rushed to hospital with a serious pain in his back, the result of an old football injury. He was successfully operated, and began to make rapid recovery. In fact, so relieved was he at the result of his operation, that he could hardly say enough in praise of his surgeon, the nurses, and even the stretcher-bearers and cleaning-staff. I never again heard him complain about our health services.

At such a time of recovery from illness, it is normal to feel a sense of gratitude for those looking after us. We even tend to feel a new joy in living, and thank God that we have been spared from the kinds of worse ailments that we saw around us in the hospital. I gather from his wife that my friend dropped into a chapel on his way home, to say a prayer of thanks; and he's usually so careful not to show any outward signs of piety! However, the real test of gratitude comes later, when the first sense of relief has worn off. Do we remember then what people did for us? Do we still say thanks to God, for the life we continue to enjoy?

Many Irish people keep up the old custom of inserting "Thank God" at the end of their remarks about fine weather, success in business or at school, safe arrivals and recoveries from illness. It's a good custom, built on a long tradition of faith and prayer. Sometimes, however, we might wonder whether this ejaculation comes merely from the lips, and not from the heart; whether a people truly grateful to God would not show it more in the conduct of life. A grateful people should go a long way in sharing what they have, with the less fortunate. They would hardly be as concerned as we seem to be with private, individual increases in income, while so many are unemployed, and while inflation continues to threaten the survival of elderly people and chronically ill.

One of the most satisfying feelings is to receive a sincere "Thank you" for a service rendered and appreciated. We may not always be able to cope gracefully with the situation; we might even be embarrassed by the warmth of another's gratitude for something that didn't cost us any great inconvenience; but still there's joy in being thanked for things we've done. The contrary also holds, of course: nothing is quite so hurtful as to be consistently taken for granted, without ever a word of thanks or praise. This point can make the difference between contentment and discontent in so many situations-home, office, shop or sacristy

Being human, Jesus must have felt some disappointment about the nine lepers who just took their recovery for granted, and never came back to say thanks. One out of ten was a fairly poor proportion; but then, truly appreciative people, willing to make sacrifice to show their thanks, are rare enough. The story tells us as much about the lepers as it does of Jesus; indeed, more. Who gained the more, when one of the ten came back to thank the Lord? Surely it was the thankful man himself, whose cure was not total: "Your faith has saved you-he is renewed both in body and spirit. The others lost something of their honour, of their human personhood, by failing to give any sign of appreciation. Like the quality of mercy, thanksgiving is twice blessed; "it blessed him who gives and him who takes."

Our assembly for the Eucharist is an occasion for gratitude to God, for numberless benefits, great and small, for life itself and all its opportunities, for faith and the promise of salvation, for relatives and friends, health and employment, the Cross of Christ and the forgiveness of sins. Like Naaman the Syrian, we intend to express gratitude through a worthy sacrifice, offered in worshipful praise.

After Mass, we will bring this thankful spirit into practical social expression in our treatment of others; seeing our life as gift, we should be better able to accept the realities of daily living, and share our blessings with others in a more generous spirit.

Going To Mass

I imagine most priests have had the experience. They call to a friend's house on a social visit and out of the blue they are asked to perform a delicate pastoral mission on some member of the family. It has happened to me.

"Would you ever have a word with Eileen?" her mother whispered to me, taking me aside by the arm.

"What's wrong with Eileen?'

"She doesn't go to Mass anymore."

Eileen was going on nineteen. I had baptised her, like her brothers and sister. They were almost family to me. I was fond of her and, as far as I knew, the feeling was reciprocated. Which was why I didn't feel at all keen on playing the priest with her. Besides, why should I succeed in five minutes where her parents had failed after nineteen years? However, I had no option but to try. A year or two earlier, Eileen had been in the guitar-group at the folk-Mass and couldn't wait for Sundays to come round. Now she had out-grown that.

"What's this about Mass?" I said, when I got her alone for a few moments, trying desperately to sound casual.

"I don't get anything out of it anymore." she said.

For hundreds of years, people have been going to Mass on Sundays and it never once occurred to them that they might "get something out of it." They went because they were expected to or at worse because it was a mortal sin not to go. Whatever their reasons, they went and it was not always easy for them. For centuries in this country they were persecuted for going. There were no churches. Masses were said in secret, in secluded spots, in the open-air with look-outs posted, in all sorts of weather, mostly bad. And those who travelled long distances on foot to attend such Masses ran the risk of fines or imprisonment or worse. At the least, a good drenching. That is what our ancestors could expect "to get Out of it." And for good measure, the Mass was mumbled in Latin by a priest you couldn't hear and would be lucky to get a sight of his back.

I didn't tell Eileen that. Or that the Mass is a thanksgiving - service. The word "eucharist" derives from the Greek verb "to give thanks." It got its name from the gospel description of the Last Supper, where Jesus took bread into his hands and "giving thanks" he blessed and broke and gave to his disciples. We go to Mass for no other reason than to thank God for all he has given us. We all complain, and particularly the young, about the shortage of jobs, the crippling rate of taxation, the almost unbearable mortgage repayments, the growing crime rate or even the price of the pint. We are like the beggar with no shoes who never stopped complaining until he met another beggar with no feet. In this media age, it cannot have escaped even those who feel most deprived, that two-thirds of the world's population go to bed hungry every night. We have an awful lot to be thankful for.

I didn't tell her either about the ten lepers that Christ cured.

And that only one came back to thank him. Plus ça change! The average percentage of those who attend Sunday Mass in what used to be called the "Christian West" remains much the same.

Not much more than one out of ten come back regularly to say thanks. I didn't say any of these things to Eileen because it wasn't the time or the place. Like most priests, I realised that preaching to young adults can be counter-productive. The party line cuts no ice with them. Instead, I talked about myself.

"You know, Eileen," I said, "that for the last twenty years I say Mass at 7 o'clock every morning in a convent for a few elderly nuns. What do you think I get out of it?'

"Then, why do you keep doing it?" she asked.

"Because, like you, I believe in God and I think I should let him know."

"I never thought of it like that." she said.

Are we thankful?

This gospel gives a glimpse into the heart of Jesus, when he receives or does not receive gratitude.

I have the occasional day when I am in a "cleaning mood." The desk gets cleared, the bin gets emptied, and the books are put back on the shelves. Every time I clear the desk I always notice the same thing. I always come across letters thanking me for something I did, said, wrote, or inspired. It is only recently I have noticed that I tend to hold on to letters like that for a while after receipt. Maybe, it's pride, but I like to receive affirmation and acknowledgement for what I do. When that comes in the form of a letter or card, I tend to put those on my desk, and they don't get "binned" until that special day arrives!

The lessons of today's gospel are simple. The ten lepers were total outcasts, and should not have been anywhere near where "ordinary" people frequented. Yet, such was their trust in this man Jesus that they dared to come within shouting distance of him. I could well imagine the horror among the religious leaders, who were so particular to avoid contamination of any kind. "Jesus, Master, have mercy onus." It is not surprising that their cry reached the ears and the heart of Jesus.

His response was immediate. He could have healed them right there, but he proposed a test for them. "Go, and show yourselves to the priests." (In those times, if someone was cleansed of leprosy, that person had to get permission from one of the priests before returning to live in the community). As the men left, they still had their leprosy. They were taking a frightening risk. Supposing they still had their leprosy when they arrived at the priest's house? However, they took Jesus at his word, and he did not disappoint them.

From a casual reading of the text, it appears that nine of the men were Jews, and the tenth was a Samaritan, or a pagan. In other words, there was only one of them who had no "religion." It is interesting to note that he was the only one who returned to give thanks. Is it possible that the others had been brought up in the Jewish religion, and, therefore, they thought that God owed them something? The Samaritan had no doubt whatever that what happened to him was pure gift, and he just had to express his gratitude.

There is a huge fortress on a hill overlooking the town of Weinsberg in Germany. One day, far back in feudal times, the fortress was surrounded by the enemy. The commander of the enemy troops agreed to let all women and children leave the fortress. He also agreed to allow each woman take one valuable possession with her. Imagine the amazement and frustration of the commander when he saw each woman leave the fortress with her husband on her back!

Charity begins at home. The hardest place to practice the gospel is at home in my own house.

A Word of Thanks

Background:

The rules in the Hebrew law about "leprosy" (which covered a wide variety of contagious diseases and not merely what we know today as "Hansen's Disease") were intended to be a crude public health measure. It was necessary to protect the whole village from such infection, so those whose faces were covered with skin lesions were exiled until the infection had passed. In effect they were in quarantine. The local priest was the public health official who pronounced the quarantine over. Not all such diseases were permanent like what we know as leprosy today. Since it was assumed that the lepers were being punished for their sins, their exile was all the more harsh. Small wonder that the cured lepers rushed home to their families and friends. Yet they were thoughtless. Jesus did not need their gratitude, though surely he would have liked it. But they needed to be grateful.

Story:

Once upon a time there was a man who was struck down in his early thirties who was diagnosed with brain cancer. He had a wife and young children and a promising career. Suddenly all of that was swept away from him. He could barely talk or walk. He was in constant agony. His friends and his family, except for his wife and mother, avoided him. The doctors shook their head. It was too bad. He was a nice man and deserved longer life. But there was nothing they could. At last he went to a famous doctor who offered to operate on him, even though everyone else said the tumor was inoperable. The doctor warned the patient and his wife that he could well die during the operation, though he (the doctor) was pretty sure that he would survive and return to health. They decided that they should take the risk. After nine hours of surgery, the doctor came into the waiting room, grinned at the man's wife and said, "Got it!" The man recovered and went on to a happy and successful life. Twenty years later the surgeon died. We sould go to the wake the patient's wife said. I'd like to, her husband replied. But it's on the weekend and I have an important golf tournament!

29th Sunday of Year C

Exodus 17:8-13
Ps 121:1-8
2 Timothy 3:14-4:2

Luke 18:1-8


Ungodliness and Vice

Justice to his Elect

A Persevering People

God Help Me!
Pray from the heart

Exod 17:8-13. "Amalek came and fought with Israel" - Israel's first battle after their exodus from Egypt. Moses prays with outstretched arms on the mountain-top and God gives victory to his people.

2 Tim 3:14-4:2. Timothy stays with the sound doctrine he has been taught since childhood, and is devoted to the reading of the holy Scriptures.

Lk 18:1-8. Like the persevering widow calling for justice from the judge, we are urged by Jesus to pray continually and never to grow discouraged.

Theme: Today Jesus tells us about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. God will see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night, even when he delays to help them.

Exodus 17:8-13

Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.

Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some men for us and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand." So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the sword.

Ps 121:1-8

I lift up my eyes to the hills -
from where will my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.

He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.

The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore.

2 Timothy 3:14-4:2

As for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.

Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'"

And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Intercessions

- that we may never lose confidence in the power of prayer.

- that we may always be faithful to the practice of prayer in our lives.

- that God "will bend his ear and hear our prayer."

Thoughts for 29th Sunday

Ungodliness and Vice

There are two ways, and only two, in which the soul of each person on earth stands in relation to God. It can be living a life of union with God, or be banishing God entirely from the pattern of its daily existence. With regard to excluding God, in chapter one of Paul's Letter to the Romans we hear what happens to a society, when God is completely and deliberately ignored. St Paul gives a long list of the evils which ensue, which signify not only a loss of godliness, but a loss of true humanity as well. Nor is there exaggeration here, because what is written has been confirmed by Roman writers and historians themselves from the period concerned.

The Satires of the poet Juvenal, for example, denounced the luxury of Rome, and the moral depravity of some individuals who set out deliberately to corrupt others, to destroy any innocence and goodness which the virtuous had. Among the monstrous vices of pagans St Paul lists wickedness, by which people become absolutely self-centred and deny the rights of both God and humans; greed, the accursed love of seeking more for self, regardless of the rights of others; viciousness, the complete absence of goodness and tenderness towards others; envy, that twisted attitude which resents excellence of character in others; wrongdoing, spite, treachery, murder, all stemming from the kind of hatred that threatens violence against one's neighbours. People with such vices, Paul says, know what God's verdict is; that all who practice them deserve to die. And yet they indulge in them, and what is worse, they encourage others to do the same. We cannot say that we are above all or any of these vices, for we too are sinners, whoely on Jesus our Redeemer to rescue us from their effects. Indeed we could cite many more which are characteristic of our time, such as personal hatred of God by those who regard him as placing a barrier between them and their pleasures.

How can we be rescued from falling victim to the snares that beget such evil habits? We must always bear in mind that Christ requires our cooperation. Redemption will pass us by if we do not sincerely long to be redeemed. We must cultivate the virtues of faith, hope and love; and especially we must pray, for faith needs to be nurtured at all times by prayer. The necessity of this last is highlighted in today's gospel. I can certainly say that every time I turn to God in prayer, I am making an act of faith, of trust in him; and just as surely, if I do not pray, my faith will become weak and limp and ineffective, even as bodily muscles do, which are never exercised.

One of the Greek Fathers of the Church, St Gregory of Nyssa, in one of his sermons, has left a beautiful passage on prayer. "The effect of prayer is union with God, and if one is united with God, then that person is separated from the enemy. Through prayer we guard our chastity, control our temper, rid ourselves of vanity. It makes us forget injuries, and overcome envy. Through prayer we obtain physical well being, a happy home, a strong well-ordered society... Prayer is the seal of virginity and a pledge of faithfulness in marriage... It is intimacy with God, and contemplation of the invisible. It is the enjoyment of things present and the substance of the things to come." The really important thing about praying is perseverance. "Pray all the time," the New Testament urges us, "asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never grow tired of staying awake to pray for all God's people" (Eph 6:18).

How often do we stop praying because we accuse God of not answering it. But the fact is that a prayer goes unanswered only when we stop praying, having decided that God will not answer us. And Jesus is telling us as much in the gospel story of the widow and the unjust judge. The widow's enemy, against whom she had a just complaint, was probably a rich individual, and she was too poor to offer a bribe to the unjust judge. Although the corrupt judge did not want to antagonise an influential citizen, nevertheless, because of the widow's perseverance he finally gave in to her request. She had never reached the point where she was inclined to say, "What's the use?," and neither must we, when we pray.

Justice to his Elect

(Mary Ann Getty)

One of the realizations that could come from an attentive reading of our scriptures today is that things do not seem to have been easier for that first generation of believers than they are today. Some of the same or comparable problems - perhaps in slightly different configurations - plague us today as threatened the early church. For example, the relationship between contemplation and activity is hard to balance. Christian leaders and ministers have to constantly struggle to make their lifestyle reflect their convictions and so give the example of integrity

Prayer may be described as a concentration on who God is and who we are in relationship to God. Persistence in prayer is a way of developing integrity in our lives. A well-known spiritual principle seems to aptly apply here: Work as if everything depends on you and pray as if everything depends on God. On the one hand, the admonition of 2 Timothy seems to be almost impossible to observe: in season and out of season, welcome or not, the preacher must be faithful in proclaiming the word. The balance is struck by the reminder of the other two readings. Although Moses" arms tired and Joshua's strength waned, God responds to their prayers. Fidelity is God's quality, learned through constant prayer. If even the unjust judge heeds the widow's prayers, how much more does God anticipate the needs of his faithful.

The image of God as protector, defender, even warrior 15 increasingly burdensome for many believers today. In view of the threat of a global holocaust, we are reluctant to identify religious aspiration with the rhetoric of security and defence. There are many historical precedents, however, for changing, improving and developing new images whenever one has worn out its usefulness or relevance. So, for example, when even the notion of the covenant seemed to lose its challenge, Hosea developed the idea of the God/Israel relationship as a marriage indeed even one that was marred with infidelity. One of the roles of the prophet is the development of new images to use in teaching. Since the beginning, the concept of a warrior God was fraught with difficulties, which is undoubtedly one of the reasons why the notion of the holy war was circumscribed conditional and temporary. God would only defend the people in battle under strict circumstances. This difficult balance seems to be symbolized in our reading, by the neessity of Moses" keeping his arms upraised in prayer. Today it is more difficult than ever to salvage any elements which should be preserved from this image of God,

Perhaps spiritualizing the concept helps somewhat to express the idea of its being God's Power on which the believer depends. We "fight:" our "warfare," as Paul says (cf. 2 Cor 10:3-4; 1 Tim 1:18), is not against equal foes but against spiritual forces which seem to be beyond us and which therefore threaten us. The realism of the scriptures teaches us that there is no room for complacency or self-sufficiency. On the other hand, the believing community must not become over-anxious as if we did not believe in a provident and caring God, source of all our strength. The only way to strike a balance is to live a life of prayerful, faithful witness in the midst of a world needy of a God who saves.

A Persevering People

Rome was not built in a day: No great work can ever be achieved without long and patients effort. Look at the art of Michaelangelo, the Beethoven concertos, the cathedral of Notre Dame (How many chisel-strokes to release the Pieta from its marble shroud? How many brush-strokes to transfer the Last Judgment from Michaelangelo's teeming imagination to the sanctuary wall of the Sistine?.) Not just the world's teeming artists and leaders, but everyman, are/is involved in a work of great significance, needing persevering courage to see it through to a successful conclusion; and that work is our salvation. To achieve it, we must co-operate vigorously with God, and in a sense struggle with Him. Today's liturgy invites us to consider two picturesque examples of perseverance in prayer, and the final success that this achieves.

Moses With Upraised Arms: Moses, the man of God, stands on the hilltop interceding for his people who are struggling for their survival in the valley below, attacked by the violent tribe of Amalek. His arms are raised in the classic gesture of intercession (later immortalized in the Cross of Christ, and still used by the celebrant at Mass.) When, out of sheer weariness, his arms begin to droop, Israel fares badly in the battle. With the help of friends he manages to persevere in his mediating prayer, until victory is won. A beautiful prophetic image for Christ, whose prayer continued even when his soul was sorrowful, even unto death. It supports the ideal of intercessory prayer on behalf of others-not, however, in a superficial way or for petty requests; but for matters of life and death, for salvation, release from sin, recovery from depression, strength to cope with problems, perseverance. And when we pray these things for others, we must do so seriously, with a love that is ready for practical service too.

The Widow Who Would Not Quit: This quality of dogged perseverance in order to gain an important target is by no means limited to men. History-and our own experience-shows many examples of obstinate struggle by women to achieve particular aims (Joan of Arc; suffragettes; mothers overcoming all bureaucratic barriers on behalf of family.) The style of campaign may be different; but the perseverance and the courage are just as valuable. Today we have the story of the widow, who kept up her petition until finally she forced the judge to try her case and give her justice. Her situation was that of a poor person under threat, but with the law firmly on her side. There was no doubt about the justice of her case, but the problem was to have it taken into court at all. She stands for the need to pray constantly on our own behalf, as well as on behalf of others. We must recognize the depth of our need (especially for peace, love, grace and salvation), and turn to God in a continual petition to answer our needs. Of cours, God is not unheeding-like the slothful judge of the parable-but often seems to leave our prayers unanswered for a long while. His will, according to Our Blessed Lord, is that we persevere in prayer and never abandon hope. Persevering In Catholic Practise: More than most other societies, our Catholic Church has urged, and continues to urge, the value of remaining faithful to Certain practises: in our case, personal prayer and the community sacrifice of Sunday Mass. Styles of prayer may change, and there may be improvements in the form of our liturgy; but the basic call of the Church remains the same: to keep up the practise of prayer, both public and private; not to let laziness hold us back, or discouragement cause us to lose confidence in the value of speaking with God. Then with persevering prayer as a fountainhead will flow the strength of faith, and continual renewal of charity that we need for conducting daily life in the proper spirit. So, over a long period, and after many failures followed by sincer renewals, we will make a success of the one great project God has set for our lives. Into his presence we will come, a people who have kept faith with Him across the years in the wilderness, and who finally come to rest in the Kingdom which Christ has promised.

God Help Me!

A middle-aged man once came to see me and he told me the following story. He had married in his early forties. His wife was just slightly younger than him. They were much in love and for the first year he was rapturously happy. Towards the end of that time they got the good news. She was pregnant. They were overjoyed at the prospect of a child. It was almost too good to be true at their age. In due course she gave birth to a little boy. But the mother died giving birth to the child. The man disintegrated completely. He took the little baby and left it with his own mother, the grandmother of the child, and fell apart. He went on a drinking spree that went on for a number of years. He totally neglected his home, his farm and his little boy almost as if they had never existed. Late one evening, as he was leaving town on his bicycle, after a long bout of drinking, he was caught in a squally shower of rain so typical of the west of Ireland. He was just opposite the church at the time and he sought shelter in the curch-doorway until the worst of the shower was over. Standing there, he glanced into the church, looking hazily in the direction of the altar. There were, as was common in most churches at that time, two life-size statues standing on pedestals on each side of the altar, one of Our Lord and the other of Our Lady, both with their arms outstretched in greeting. He tried to focus on the one of Our Lord and in what must have been a reflex from his childhood, he muttered a prayer or an exclamation. "God, help me!" Suddenly, he thought he saw the statue beckoning to him.

At this point in the story, I must admit, I became uneasy. Priests tend to attract a certain number of eccentrics, and this was long before the "moving statues" phenomenon. But I was caught now and there was no escape. Mercifully, there was little left to tell.

He lurched up the aisle and before he had gone far, he could see the statue clearly and its hands were as lifeless as the plaster they were made of, the shower had passed. He got on his bike, went to his mother's, picked up his little boy and his life, and since then, has never looked back.

Miracles, even in the most ideal conditions, are extremely hard to prove and, given the self-confessed state our friend was in, this one would surely be a non-starter. But even the mosthardened cynic would be hard put to explain the sudden and dramatic change in his life without God's intervention. It was an answer to prayer, somebody's prayer. Probably his mother's. She must have pestered heaven day and night with her prayers and her tears, like the widow in today's parable. And no doubt, by now she had taught the little lad to pray for his Daddy too. God was only waiting for a nod from himself to unleash his healing grace.

As Jesus, explaining to his disciples "about the need to pray continually and never lose heart', said: "Now will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them? I promise you, he will see justice done to them and done speedily."

Pray from the heart

A simple lesson in prayer without ceasing. There is a way to pray with the heart, which God cannot but hear, and he cannot but answer. To speak from the heart is to speak to the heart. God can read the human heart, and that is more important than any words I might say.

It is early October, and the family were sitting around eating their dinner. For whatever reason, Christmas came into the conversation. In the course of the conversation, the mother asked young John what he wanted for Christmas, and, after a long pause, he said "A bicycle." The months went by, and the word "bicycle" was never mentioned again. Not even when the mother bought roller blades for John at Christmas, with which he was delighted. She had decided that, if he really wanted a bicycle, she would have heard about nothing else for all the weeks coming up to Christmas...

There was something that the widow wanted, and, despite all his toughness, the judge just had to give in to her eventually, because she had no intention of letting go, or giving up. If I met an alcoholic who wants to get sober, my initial question is "How badly do you want it? Do you want it bad enough that you are prepared to do what it takes to achieve sobriety?" I knew a young lad who wanted to work for a particular firm, and they had no vacancies. So we went back there eleven times in one month, until the personnel officer threw his hands in the air, and gave him a job!

Jesus goes on from speaking about the evil judge to speaking about his Father. If even the judge gave in, how much more certainly will our heavenly Father respond to our prayers? As I said earlier, God can read the heart, and he knows whether I really want what I ask. I don't pretend to understand this, because I know parents who, at this moment, are begging for the life of their daughter, and it is not likely that their prayers will be answered. I like to think that God gives us what we ask for, unless he has something better to give us. For these parents, they cannot possibly see how God could have something better to give them than a daughter whom they dearly love.

The prayer that is the subject of today's gospel is the prayer of petition. It is an important form of prayer, of course, but it is not the most important. Prayer of praise is the highest form of prayer; but, of course, that is greatly augmented, when my prayers of petition are granted. There can be some confusion around the whole area of prayer. If my prayers are always prayers of petition, I run the risk of being selfish and self-centred; except, of course, when the prayers of petition are for others. Like one of the ten lepers, I can ask, and, when my prayer is answered, I can return to give thanks.

The persistency of my prayer is always determined by how seriously I seek what it is I pray for. If I want something bad enough, I will pray without ceasing until God answers my prayer, even if that answer be "No." "No" is also an answer to prayer. Be careful what you ask for in prayer, because you might receive it! We often ask for things that are not for our good, and, if God were sadistic and cruel, he would answer such prayers!

A group of botanists were exploring almost inaccessible regions in search of new species of flowers. One day they spied, through binoculars, a flower of great rarity and beauty. It lay in a deep ravine, with perpendicular cliffs on both sides. To reach it someone would have to be lowered over the sheer precipice by means of a rope, and it was certainly a dangerous undertaking.

Approaching a young lad nearby, who was watching them with great curiosity, they said, "We'll give you twenty dollars if you let us lower you down below, to obtain that beautiful flower for us." The young lad took a look down into the ravine, and then he said "Wait here; I'll be back." When he returned, he was accompanied by an older man. Approaching one of the botanists, he said, "I'll go over the cliff, and get that flower for you, if this man holds the rope. He's my father."

Faith is a direct response to love...

30th Sunday of Year C

Sirach 35:15-22
Ps 34:1ff
2 Timothy 4:6ff
Luke 18:9-14


Blessings in Disguise

The Secret of Good Worship

A Humble People
The Great Achievers

Pharisee and Tax Collector

Sir 35:15-17, 20-22. "The prayer of the humble will reach to the clouds." God shows no partiality for the powerful, but listens to the humble heart.

2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18. "I have fought the good fight." Paul, a prisoner in Rome, knows that the day of his death is drawing near. But he trusts that he will receive the 'crown of glory'.

Lk 18:9-14. "Two men went up to the temple to pray." In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector we see two contrasting approaches to God.

Theme: We look forward to the day when Christ will return in judgement. The one thing we know for certain about this judgement is that it will favour the humble, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Sirach 35:15-22

The Lord is the judge,
and with him there is no partiality.

He will not show partiality to the poor;
but he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged.

He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan,
or the widow when she pours out her complaint.

Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek
as she cries out against the one who causes them to fall?

The one whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted,
and his prayer will reach to the clouds.

The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds,
and it will not rest until it reaches its goal;
it will not desist until the Most High responds
and does justice for the righteous, and executes judgment.

Indeed, the Lord will not delay,

Ps 34:1ff

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.

The face of the Lord is against evildoers,
to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears,
and rescues them from all their troubles.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,
and saves the crushed in spirit.

The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Luke 18:9-14

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

Intercessions

- for the gift of humility towards God and each other.

- that we may never "lord it over others."

- that success will never make us proud or contemptuous of those less fortunate.

Thoughts for 30th Sunday

Blessings in Disguise

A sad thing about believers is how often they become divided, embittered and rebellious about certain aspects of their faith, and fail to appreciate the extraordinary about-turns in the religious thinking of humankind, which have evolved from it. For example the supreme penalty for the sinner under the Mosaic Law was to condemn him to death. "Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse," the Book of Deuteronomy said (21:23). Strictly speaking hanging, as we understand it was never part of the Old Testament penal code. Anyone guilty of a grave offence was stoned to death, and the body sometimes displayed on a tree or gibbet as a deterrent to others. And so a gibbet or cross became a sign of infamy and fear in Old Testament times. The law was not able to do anything about a sinner except condemn him to death. But God's Son, St Paul points out, was made sin, made a subject to the Law, and executed on a cross in order to redeem us from this curse of the Law (cf. Col 2:14). Thus it is that instead of lookig on the cross with horror, Christians everywhere, especially on Good Friday, kiss and venerate it.

Looking at today's gospel, we should remember also that the ancient world regarded humility as a despicable quality, a thing to be expected from a cowering, cringing, slavish person; and yet with Christ it undergoes a marvellous reaffirmation. He puts it forward as being one of the greatest of all the virtues. Two men, he tells us, a Pharisee and a publican, both of them Jews, went up to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee, in his own estimation, saw himself as the perfect example of what a true Jewish believer should be. The publican regarded himself as a failure. But God saw further again than either of them, and so, we are told, because he humbled himself, the publican returned home a better person before God, whereas the Pharisee did not. We might say that Christians also fall into two classes: those who are true Christians, and those who are Christian only in name, nominal Christians. But how to tell a true Christian from a nominal one poses quite a problem. For the true Christian, however good he, or she, y be, is not yet perfect either. You may well ask then what, in God's sight, is the quality which distinguishes the one from the other. Part of the answer lies in that story of the Pharisee and the publican, which paints a picture of hypocrisy contrasted with sincerity.

A true Christian, we might say, is one with an abiding sense of God's presence, one who lives in the belief that God is present, not externally, not merely in nature or providence, but in his inmost heart, in his conscience. And this presence of God so lights his inner awareness, that he comes to accept naturally that all his thoughts, his motives, his wishes, his failings, are like an open book before almighty God; and he willingly accepts that this should be so. He enthrones God in his conscience, and when in doubt he refers to him here as to a supreme authority, without trying to argue, or reason, or make excuses, or defend himself. As scripture tells us, "All things are open and laid bare to the eyes of the One to whom one day we must give an account of ourselves" (Heb 4:13). The nominal Christian, on the other hand, tries like the Pharisee, to have within himself an inner sanctuary, from which he would exclude even God himself. And here he attempts to make himself ruler and judge, the one with sole contr over all his own actions. The Pharisee, then, did not really go to the Temple to pray. He went to tell God how well he was performing, what a good fellow he was at doing his own thing, and how confident he was that his observance of the details of the Law placed him on a level far above that of such moral outcasts as typified by the publican.

The plea of freedom of conscience, by which so many people justify their actions nowadays, is also an attempt to dispense with conscience entirely, to ignore God as lawgiver and judge, to be independent like the Pharisee, and disregard the voice of God that speaks within one. But this parable tells us unmistakably that no one who is proud can pray, no one who lifts himself or herself above other people can pray, and especially no one who despises others can pray. For before God we are all one great army of sinning, suffering humanity, and our most recurring prayer should be what is called the "Jesus prayer," a prayer that millions of devout and sincere Christians have offered up fervently since Christianity began, "Jesus, Son of the Living God, be merciful to me a sinner."

The Secret of Good Worship

The story is told that one day Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, visited a prison and talked with each of the inmates. There were endless tales of innocence, of misunderstood motives, and of exploitation. Finally the king stopped at the cell of a convict who remained silent. "Well," remarked Frederick, "I suppose you are an innocent victim too?" "No, sir, I'm not," replied the man. "I'm guilty and deserve my punishment." Turning to the warden the king said, "Here, release this rascal before he corrupts all these fine, innocent people in here!" The biblical saying proves true, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).

Today's gospel is one to which every believer needs to pay close attention. It is the story of two believers, a Pharisee and a tax collector. It is important to underline the facts that both men were believers in the same God, both belonged to the same religion and both worshipped in the same temple. Both men were active believers who participated in temple worship and said their daily prayers. But what do we see? At the end of the worship one of them goes home at peace with God but the other did not. We all, believers in God, need to pay attention to this story not only to learn the secret of offering a worship acceptable to God but also of leading a life of faith that leads to justification and not disappointment at the end of the day.

It will help us to appreciate the point of this parable if we try to understand a little bit more of who the Pharisees were. It often comes to us as a surprise to hear that the Pharisees were, in fact, disciplined and devout men of religion. Pharisees were serious-minded believers who had committed themselves to a life of regular prayer and observance of God's Law. In fact, they went beyond the requirements of the law. They fasted twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, even though the law only required people to fast once a year, on the Day of Atonement. They gave tithes of all their income and not just of the required parts. When the Pharisee in the parable said, "I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income" (vv. 11-12) he wasn't kidding. Few Christians today can measure up to the high moral standards of the Pharisees.

Tax collectors, on the other hand, were generally regarded as people of low moral standards. Because tax collectors worked for the pagan Romans, mixed up with them and constantly handled their unclean money they were said to be in a state of ritual uncleanliness. As far as the religion of the day was concerned, tax collectors were public sinners on the highway to hell. But the tax collectors knew that the voice of people is not always the voice of God. They still hoped for salvation not on the merit of any religious or moral achievements of theirs but on the gracious mercy of God.

Believing in God does not really save anybody. James tells us that the devil himself believes in God and trembles with fear (James 2:19). Rather, what really matters is what people believe about God and how their faith in God affects their view of themselves and of others. The Pharisees believed in a discriminating God who loves good people and hates bad people. People behave like the God they believe in. So the Pharisees quickly learn to love only good people like themselves and look down with contempt on bad people and sinners like the tax collectors. Jesus told this parable against the Pharisees because they "trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt" (Luke 18:9). The tax collector, on the other hand, trusted not in himself or in anything he had done but only in God's mercy. Standing far off, he would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" (v. 13). This is the man who went home at peace with God and not the selfrighteous Pharisee.

Like the Pharisee and the tax collector we too have come to God's house to offer worship and prayers. Like them we too hope to go home at the end of this service reconciled and at peace with God. Then let us learn from the tax collector the secret of worshipping in a manner that is acceptable to God. First, we should not listen to other people or even to our own consciences when they tell us that God is so angry with us that He cannot possible forgive us. Secondly, we must acknowledge our sinfulness and entrust ourselves to the generous mercy of God which is bigger than any sins we might have committed. Finally, we promise God to never to look down on our fellow sinners but to help them in their search for God, just as the tax collector is helping us today in our search for God. Remember, God always opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble

A Humble People

Opposites Attract:

In marriage, and other human relationships we often notice how two unlike personalities complement each other, like the positive and negative sides of a magnetic field. One partner shows a natural flair for leadership, and the other is happy to follow that lead, at least in many areas. Among ourselves, the taking of initiatives will be shared back and forth of course, neither partner being fully passive with respect to the other; but with God there is only one proper relationship: he is the powerful giver, and we the dependent receivers.

This weakness on our side, this dependency towards our Creator and Father, is in fact our way to peaceful strength. As Paul so clearly saw: "when I am weak, then am I strong; I can do all things in him who strengthens me" (2 Cor. 12:10; Phil. 4:13.) The apostles attributed all their abilities and successes (cures, conversions) to the power of God, working through them. Only when we are humble in God's presence can he do great things in us - as Our Lady so well declares, "He casts the mighty from their thrones, and exalts the lowly."

Why Humility?

People often feel awkward about regarding humility as a virtue at all. Is it really a good thing to feel small? Or does it harm our ego and our self-confidence. Perhaps the word "humble" is too often misused, applied without much thought to dwellings that are shoddy or neglected, to efforts that are half-hearted failures, and to characters who adopt a pose of false modesty in order to win approval.

Genuine humillity is nothing more nor less than recognizing our inward truth. It is seeing ourselves at a profound level, in God's presence, with no pretences and no poses. Every individual in the presence of the All-Holy, All-Powerful God comes to recognize himself/herself as weak, imperfect and indeed sinful; and with this comes a deep sense of our need for mercy. In this situation, there is no bribe that we can offer, to distract God's attention from our guilt. There is no pressure we can exert (as we might among ourselves) in order to gain a credit we do not deserve. The only resource that really helps is a humble spirit; only this incentive draws down on us divine mercy, and the grace we need for good living. The Publican felt this need for complete honesty, as he stood in the Temple of God. "Lord, be merciful," he said; and went home with his sins forgiven, and with relief in his heart.

Virtue Spoilt By Pride:

But tell me, what's wrong with this Pharisee, if anything? In many ways he leads an admirable life, and gives good example within the Jewish tradition. If we accept his own version of himself, he kept all the rules, from fasting and almsgiving to honesty and purity. There was real effort there, an admirable commitment to holiness, within his tradition. But this all caused him to forget that he remained weak and sinful, like other people. His reputed holiness becomes the centre of his prayer. He goes so far as to despise others, while giving thanks for his own good qualities. And by this attitude, he spoils the effect of his other virtues. Pride is like a worm, destroying the apple at its core. Indeed, it turns him from speaking to God, to talking about himself. His prayer dies.

Collective Pharisaism? Can we apply this warning to our personal attitude, towards God and towards others? Do we Catholics sometimes take a stance of collective pride, towards those who don't belong to our Church. Of course, we rightly regard ours as the fullest expression of Christ's Church, and maintain that Catholicism defends moral standards, a vigorous liturgical life, and a visible world-wide unity among believers. And we should be thankful for these things, and want to share them with all who are searching for the truth. But isn't there also a niggling temptation to look down on other churches, to disparage their values or under-rate the sincerity of their members? We must guard against any narrow, self-righteous Catholicism, and keep up that respect for other Christian communities that was promoted by our last Church Council. Leave God to judge the merits of other persons and their faiths. It is enough for us to trust in his mercy, recognise our own imperfections, and place our hope in the merits of Crist, applied to us through his holy sacrifice.

The Great Achievers

There is a tradition in rural Ireland for men to congregate at the back of the church during Sunday Mass. In the recent past, it was customary for them to take off their caps, place them on the floor and kneel on them on one knee. Generations of peevish parish priests thundered at them from the altar, in an effort to eradicate the custom. But this was one battle the parish priests of Ireland lost. I don't know when it originated. It has been suggested, with some plausibility, that it derived from the penal times when there were no churches. The Mass-houses and cabin-chapels were small primitive buildings, providing shelter only for the priest and a handful of the faithful. The men remained outside, exposed to the elements, leaving to women and children whatever shelter was available.

My own theory is that it derives from today's gospel.

Whatever about sermons, there can be no doubt that the Sunday gospel has had enormous impact on the ordinary people down through the centuries, especially parables like the Prodigal Son and today's parable about the Pharisee and the Publican (as he used to be called until lately). Incidentally, as far as the Irish are concerned, scripture scholars would have done better to have left the misnomer "publican." People in small rural communities could easily identify with their local friendly publican: the same cannot be said for the tax-collector. They had a great contempt for those few in every village who "put on airs and graces." "The pot calling the kettle black" was their expression for it. They reserved their greatest contempt for those who paraded their religion, the "holier-than-thou" individuals. The "people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else" as Jesus described them. Rural society welcomed any opportunity "to pull them down a peg or two" and relished the odd occasions whe they were "cut down to size." It is always nice to discover that Jesus shares our sentiments.

The virtue of humility has been much down-graded by modem society. It describes a person, who in any other age would have been admired as humble, as having "a low self-esteem." We are encouraged to be self-assertive. One could hardly do better than the Pharisee in self-assertion. He managed to use "I" six times in his three-line prayer. There is a world of difference between self-assertion and self-confidence. Each individual is a unique creation by God. We need no other justification for our self-confidence. Such self-confidence is totally compatible with humility. Self-assertion is the original sin of Adam in the garden. It is the assertion that we no longer need God.

There is a general belief that the great achievers were people with enormous egos. History records some megalomaniacs who left their mark on our world such as Napoleon Bonaparte or Adolf Hitler. Few would claim that they made any worthwhile contribution to civilisation. Those who did were usually people of extraordinary humility. I could cite a Francis of Assisi or in our own time a Mother Teresa of Calcutta but I might be accused of religious partiality. There were other extraordinary saints too like Mahatma Ghandi or Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela whose humility was transparent. And the great intellectual geniuses, whose contributions far surpass all others, such as Socrates, Galileo or Albert Einstein, were humbled by the enormity of their discoveries. Like Socrates they discovered that "they knew that they knew nothing."

Probably, nobody's contribution to the history of Ireland was more profound or more enduring than that of St Patrick. Yet he was a man of outstanding humility. Who else could have begun his autobiography with the statement: "I, Patrick, a sinner and the least of men." Worlds were changed by people who thought like that. It is no wonder Christ said: "Blessed are the meek, for your shall inherit the earth."

Somebody summed up today's parable in verse:

Two went to pray or rather say, one went to brag, the other to pray. One stands up close and treads on high where the other dares not send his eye. One nearer to God's altar trod, the other to the altar's God.

Pharisee and Tax Collector

If I could get this one right, I would be helped enormously in my over-all understanding and practice of the gospel. It spells out how to come before God, and how not to come before God.

A newly commissioned colonel had just moved into his office. A private entered with a toolbox. To impress the private, the colonel said "be with you in a moment, soldier! I just got a call as you were knocking." Picking up the phone, the colonel said "General, it's you! How can I help you?" A dramatic pause followed. Then the colonel said "No problem. I'll phone Washington, and speak to the President about it." Putting down the phone, the colonel said to the private "Now, what can I do for you?" The private shuffled his feet, and said sheepishly, "Oh, just a little thing, sir. They sent me to hook up your phone'!

My generation was reared in the Holy of Holies! We were given all the rules and regulations, and we were told to remain faithful to those, and not deviate in any way, and that we would so merit heaven. The religion I had growing up was to keep people from going to hell. Spirituality, on the other hand, is the only thing that frees those who have already been in hell. - Ask anybody in recovery from addictions, compulsions, etc. Religion is about externals, it's what we do, and it's about control. Spirituality, on the other hand, is what God does, it is internal, and it's about surrender.

Holiness is to discover that I'm a much bigger sinner than I ever thought I was! The closer I come to God, the more obvious the sin is. It is a long journey from the Pharisee at the front to the Publican at the back. It is a journey of repentance, and of facing up to the truth. It is a journey that Life will provide if I have the courage and honesty to find it. If I still think that I should be still up at the front with the Pharisee, then my life will be riddled with guilt, and I will never find peace.

The Publican knew his place before God. God is the Creator, I am the creature. I am a sinner, Jesus is Saviour. Unlike the Pharisee, I have no right to compare myself to anyone else. All judgement is to be left to God. I can look at the most hardened criminal, and say "There, but for the grace of God, go I." I have no reason to boast whatever. I could have been born to any parents, in any country, at any time. I did not select my sexuality, the colour of my skin, or my religious beliefs. With total conviction, I can stand before God, and pray "Oh, God, be merciful to me a sinner."

Check your own attitude before God. It is like going out into the back garden on a warm sunny day, lying back in a deckchair, and getting a suntan. The only thing you did was to make yourself available; the sun did all the rest. Don't ever over-emphasise the importance of your contribution when you stand before God.

A clergyman had reached the end of his rope, and he decided that he was swimming against the tide trying to get any response from his congregation. He decided to try some other way of life that might give him a greater personal satisfaction. He was disappointed to discover that a job was hard to come by. In fact, he got to the point that he was prepared to take any job at all that came his way. At last, he landed a job in the local zoo. Unfortunately, when he went there, the job was not exactly available just yet, but the manager asked him to consider taking a temporary job, until the other one was vacant. As it happened the chimpanzee had died, and had not yet been replaced. The chimp was a great favourite with the children, and the cage could not be left empty for long. They had a chimp suit, and the man was asked if he would mind getting into the suit, and taking the place of the chimp. All he'd have to do was to roll around a few times, eat a banana, go back in the back for a rest, etc. He decided to giveit a go.

He was an instant success. The children gathered around his cage. Every movement he made was greeted with cheers. He soon discovered that he was now getting much more attention than he ever got in the pulpit. One day, he decided to really get into the act. He jumped up, grabbed an over-head bar, and began to swing to and fro, to the delighted screams of the children. The cameras were flashing, and the crowd was gathering, so he got carried away with himself, and he really began to swing with full gusto. Unfortunately, after one huge effort, his hands (paws?) slipped, and he went flying over the partition - into the cage next door. A huge tiger approached, and, forgetting that he was supposed to be a chimp, he screamed "Help! Help!" to which the tiger whispered sharply, "Shut up, you fool; I'm a minister too!'

We are all the same when we stand before God!

31st Sunday of Year C

Wisdom 11:22-12:2

Ps 145:1ff
2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2

Luke 19:1-10


Saved in Hope
Beyond Redemption?

Small Boys
Eager to see Jesus

Negative Image

Wis 11:22-12:2. A lovely, trustful reflection upon the love of God who is always ready to pardon and who "corrects little by little those who trespass."

2 Thess 1:11-2:2. Paul prays that his converts will live worthy of their Christian calling and assures them of God's help in doing so. Who knows when the second coming of Christ will occur?

Lk 19:1-10. Zacchaeus the tax collector meets Jesus and his life is changed for the better.

Theme: Zacchaeus climbs a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus and Our Lord honours him by coming to stay in his house. We too must make some personal effort if we wish Jesus to come and stay with us.

Wisdom 11:22-12:2

O Lord, the whole world before you is like a speck that tips the scales, and like a drop of morning dew that falls on the ground.

But you are merciful to all, for you can do all things,
and you overlook people's sins, so that they may repent.

For you love all things that exist,
and detest none of the things that you have made,
for you would not have made anything if you had hated it.

How would anything have endured if you had not willed it?

Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved?

You spare all things, for they are yours,

O Lord, you who love the living.

For your immortal spirit is in all things.

Therefore you correct little by little those who trespass,
and you remind and warn them of the things through which they sin,
so that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in you, O Lord.

Ps 145:1ff

I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.

Every day I will bless you,
and praise your name forever and ever.

The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

The Lord is good to all,
and his compassion is over all that he has made.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your faithful shall bless you.

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and tell of your power,

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The Lord is faithful in all his words,
and gracious in all his deeds.

The Lord upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all who are bowed down.

2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2

To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.

Luke 19:1-10

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."

Intercessions

- that we may make an effort to catch a glimpse of Jesus in our crowded world.

- that we may work to overcome the defects in our lives which block access to God.

- for people who are handicapped by their size, that public authorities will be sensitive to their need in designing public amenities.

Thoughts for 31st Sunday

Saved in Hope

"It is in hope that we are saved," the New Testament (Rom 8:24) tells us, a promise that reflects the faith of the psalmist who wrote, "Hope in God, I will praise him still, my Saviour and my God." I remember a certain man who survived a long period of depression by repeating that verse from Psalm 42 over and over again. We might even say that the reason why the people of ancient Palestine, from the time of Abraham onwards, did not succumb to despair was their wonderful hope in God. Situated as they were between Egypt to the south of them, and the numerous empires which emerged to the north of them, they were repeatedly overrun by powerful foreign armies. Yet they never despaired, but rather were convinced that God would be faithful to the promises he had given that he would watch over them as his specially chosen people.

Likewise, we ourselves should renew the hope which God holds out to us, that one day we shall all be gathered together in heaven in the company of our risen and glorified Lord, Jesus Christ. Our knowledge of God in this life is admittedly imperfect; it is confused and partial, drawn as it is from our understanding of creation. But there will come a time when we shall see God face to face. Then the divine Word, in the humanity of Jesus, will look at us with the face of a man. The knowledge that we have now may be imperfect, but then we shall know him as fully as we are known, and we shall be able to return God's personal love, even as people on earth love one another. As scripture says, if our hope in Christ has been for this life only, then we are the most unfortunate of people. For if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ himself cannot have been raised, and then, as St Paul says, "Our preaching is useless, and your believing it is useless" (1 Cor 15:14).

But we believe, from the testimony of the Apostles, that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus. God will bring them with him and so they shall stay with the Lord for ever. With such thoughts as these, Paul urged the first Christians, we should comfort one another. And Paul himself had reason to be certain of what he preached, for in a vision that was granted him he was taken up into the third heaven, although he could not describe his experience in human terms, because, as he stated, "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 2:9). There are three great virtues, faith, hope and love. In heaven faith and hope will be merged in the love of God for ever.

What St John, in his first Epistle, says gives further credence to this. "My dear people," he writes, "we are already the children of God, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is" (1 Jn 3:2). The vision of God, in other words, will change us utterly, and make us Godlike in our understanding of the one who created us. But this "we shall be like him" is a change which, somehow, must begin here and now, and we who entertain the hope of bringing about this change must first purify ourselves, must try and model our lives on that of Christ. We must try and keep the commandments of God, especially that of loving one another, and this not in words and idle talk, but in a real and active way. Furthermore we have to be on our guard against the enemies of Christ and against becoming totally absorbed in purely worldly pursuits and concerns. We find acknowledgement of this in some purely secular surces. "There is another dimension to the plight of those who belong to the "do as you like" society, a moral dimension which we scoff at to our peril. We are now paying for the decline, over many decades, of parental influence, the erosion of family values, and the diminution of community spirit and religion. These must be rebuilt before it is too late" (Sunday Times, 13-7-86.)

At the moment when we depart this world, we will be confronted by Christ, the complete example of what the ideal person, spiritually speaking, should be. We will say yes or no to our divine exemplar, according to whether we have, or have not, attempted to make his set of values ours as well during our life in this world. Let us ask ourselves whether we mean what we say together every Sunday at the end of the Creed, "We look to," or more exactly, "we eagerly await the resurrection from the dead, and the life of the world to come."

Beyond Redemption?

Forgiveness is the obvious theme which unites first and third readings. Some of the following approaches would bring out the themes of the readings.

(1) There can be no opposition between a God of wrath in the Old Testament and a God of love in the New; God is a God of love always. This is the first truth about God which the people of Israel are taught when they begin to learn of God. As soon as they are shown the meaning of his name and nature, when he becomes more to them than a mere tribal protector, it is as a God of love and forgiveness that he reveals himself (Exod 34.) The idea of the wrath of God pouring itself out upon his crucified Son is repugnant; the crucifixion is the highest act of union of wills and of love between Jesus and his Father; it is then that they are most one, not forced apart by a chasm of hate and hunger, however simulated or vicarious.

(2) Particularly in Luke's gospel forgiveness is seen as one of the most prominent aspects of God. Again and again this comes out in the parables, such as those of the Prodigal Son (better named the Forgiving Father), or in God's joy at the conversion of a sinner, imaged in the parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin.

(3) Even stronger in Luke is the theme that no one is beyond redemption. He deliberately takes the most despised outcasts and shows them coming to Jesus, or rather Jesus making a bee-line for them. Samaritans were despised as unclean, so it is the Samaritan leper who returns to thank Jesus for his cure while the other nine make no response, and it is the Samaritan traveller who helps the injured wayfarer after supposedly dutiful Jews have passed him by. It is the tax-gatherer's prayer in the temple which is acceptable, whereas the pharisees's is not. At Simon's house Jesus disregards the censures of the respected in order to welcome with the utmost delicacy the repentance of the woman of evil repute. The greater the sinner the more welcome he is.

(4) This is but one aspect of the theme which is generally so crucial in the gospel, that one cannot earn acceptance. No merits of ours can win God's favour or rewards, but God gives to whom he wills: he invites the poor and outcast to his feast, rejecting the original guests; he pays the last labourers as much as the first; we cannot limit our generosity and say that we have done enough. Rather the initiative in giving and welcoming us comes from God, and we can only respond. In this response nothing that we can do could ever be enough.

(5) The generosity and forgiveness which God shows to us must be the model for our own generosity and forgiveness to others. In Matthew the climax of 18 on relationships within the community is the warning expressed in the fate of the servant who is forgiven and refuses to forgive his fellow-servant. The petition of the Lord's Prayer which is especially emphasised teaches forgiveness of each other as a condition of our own forgiveness. In Luke the lesson is stressed by its position: as Jesus is nailed to the cross he forgives his executioners, and even as he hangs on the cross promises forgiveness to the penitent bandit.

Small Boys

Small boys, as everyone knows, love to climb trees. It is almost as if God created trees for little boys to climb. In the little playgrounds reserved for children in the public parks in cities, municipal planners install contraptions where children can indulge their craze for climbing. There is one in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. In a park like that, with such an abundance of fine trees, it is a poor imitation of the real thing. But it is blessing for little boys whose childhood world is largely confined within the limits of a fifth floor apartment. In the age of the cinema, Tarzan, swinging from tree to tree in the forest, was every boy's hero. He could hardly wait to get home to climb the nearest tree. Sycamores were the best climbing trees, stretching out their broad branches as regularly as rungs on a ladder.

It is probably stretching it a bit far to suggest that our early enthusiasm for tree-climbing is a throw-back to our pre-human origins, when our four-legged hairy ancestors swung from giant trees in primeval forests. It is certainly true that of all the animals, only our ancestors succeeded in getting up on their hind legs and remaining that way. It was their urge to look up that got them eventually to stand up. Their looking up led inevitably to their discovery of God.

Zacchaeus seems to have been a little boy who never grew up. And I'm not referring to his short stature. We all know small men but we would never be foolish enough to mistake them for little boys. More often than not, they tend to make up in self-importance what they lack in inches. They would never dream of behaving in such a delightfully outrageous fashion as Zacchaeus did on that famous occasion in Jericho. Imagine a solid citizen of the social stature of Zacchaeus, who "was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man', exposing himself to ridicule by climbing a tree in a crowded street to catch a glimpse of an itinerant preacher. Small people are sensitive about their height. The last thing they would dream of is calling attention to it. He must have looked funny enough running down the street on his short legs but only a small boy would have climbed the sycamore tree. It was probably the small boy in Zacchaeus that caught Jesus' eye. He had said on another occasion: "Unless you become little childen, you will not enter the kingdom of God." Zacchaeus was taking him literally.

We are all spiritual dwarfs. Our vision is confined to eyelevel. Like Zacchaeus, we cannot see over the heads of the crowd. We see the world around us and our own reflections in shop windows. We have eyes for nothing else. We must figuratively climb a tree to see Jesus. We must make a special effort. Unless we see Jesus we cannot discover God.

Eager to see Jesus

Zacchaeus is anxious to see Jesus, and Jesus rewards him by offering to visit his house, and spend some time with him.

There were some raised eyebrows when John XXIII was elected pope. He was in his seventies, and there was no great hope that he was going to shake the church. One of the first things he did, however, made people sit up and take notice. He went in person to visit prisoners in one of Rome's prisons. He met them as equals, and he chatted informally with each. He even disclosed that he himself had a relative in jail! The work and short pontificate of this man was going to open many doors, and set many prisoners free.

The first thing that is obvious in today's gospel is that Zacchaeus was both anxious and determined to see Jesus. Notice that he was a "big shot" in the town, being a rich man, and certainly not popular with the Jews, as he was at the top of the tax collecting business for a foreign oppressor. He accepted his limitations, and, although he was a grown adult, he reverted to his boyhood days, and climbed the nearest tree to get a good look. He certainly caught the attention of Jesus, much more than he ever dreamed of. Not only did he see Jesus, but he was even invited to meet him, and to have Jesus as a guest in his house.

Jesus responded to Zacchaeus" enthusiasm, and he decided to go one better. He told him to come down out of the tree, and bring him into his house for a while. This sent shock waves through the surrounding religious leaders. Zacchaeus was a public sinner, someone to be despised, and, certainly not someone who would be visited by any self-respecting Jew. Once again, of course, Jesus was consistent, in that he said he had come to seek and to find the lost ones.

Immediately upon entering Zacchaeus" house, we can see the results of Jesus' action. Without saying a word, Zacchaeus is deeply moved, being in the presence of Jesus, and he makes some radical decisions about his life-style, and his manner of treating others. Salvation had come to his house, he was in the presence of the Lord, and his heart was touched in a profound way. He determined to right the wrongs in his behaviour. A personal contact with Jesus always evokes conversion.

Some years ago, the Irish national soccer team became to come into prominence. It was the European Championships, and they were doing well. The whole country was behind them. A man who was terminally ill with cancer at the time, and was in a Hospice here in Dublin, was a totally committed football supporter, and, sick and all as he was, he watched every single game.

When I met him, the Championship was over, and Denis was low, with no interest in anything. He knew he was dying, and he was prepared to speak about it. One day I suggested to him a possibility of what might happen, at the moment of death, when we come face to face with Jesus. He would sit us down in front of a big screen, just like the ones that became so popular for watching the football matches during that summer. He would put on a video called "This is Your Life." He pulls over a chair and sits beside you. The first part of the video is simple enough, but, as it gets on with your life, you become uncomfortable, because you're not sure just what's going to appear next! It takes some time before you become aware of something else that is happening. Blanks begin to appear, some quite frequent, and some quite long. You glance sideways at Jesus, but he is not looking at you, so you cannot get his attention to ask him any questions. It is almost at the end of the tape that you guess for yourself what is happenig. Every time you did something wrong, and admitted it, he pressed the erase button, and it was wiped clean. Even if you asked him now, he would not remember. You then settle back in your chair, relax, and realise that you are in the presence of your Saviour, who came to save you, not to condemn you.

Negative Image

Background:

In many of the Gospel stories, Jesus seemed to be hanging out with people considered unacceptable by the rest of the community, especially by the religious leaders. Not only did a tax collectors occupation carry a negative image, many of them were felt to be dishonest in the way they went about their work. All we know about Zacchaeus is that he was eager to see who this man Jesus was. His eagerness was rewarded in a way he might never have anticipated. Jesus saw him and invited him to dine with him, a sure sign that Zaccheaus was in for much more than he had anticipated. A look and an invitation from Jesus changed this man from the sinner the community thought him to be into a man upon whose house Jesus brought salvation.

Story:

Once upon a time, not so long ago, a top executive traveled to his companys plant in a small city. The plant was a major source of pollution for the city causing damage to the lungs of the workers and of those who lived near the plant. The locals had mounted a campaign demanding a clean up of the area. The cost of a clean up would eat into the company profits. The executives task was to fight the clean up. Needless to say, he was persona non-gratia as anti-company sign and slogans abounded and marches were a daily occurrence. As he took a walk around the town on a Sunday morning, he passed a church with a sing proclaiming that all were welcome, even those who think themselves sinners. Now, our executive didnt want to admit he was a sinner. Still, he was struggling with the evidence of pollution in the town and his companys demand that he find a way to end the anti-company campaign, even if it meant firing the protestors. His entrance into the church caused a stir and whispers against his presence traveled up nd down the aisles. He sat in the last pew, sensing he was not welcome but still wanting to find some peace. The sermon that day centered around the theme of Gods love for everyone and the possibility of forgiveness for all. The concluding hymn was Amazing Grace. The pastor frowned throughout the hymn and then returned to the pulpit thundering "You are not wretches!" As he walked down the aisle to the back exit, he kept pointing at people saying, "You are not wretches!" He stopped at the last pew, poked the executives chest, repeated the chant and then invited the executive to join him in the rectory for breakfast. The congregation was astonished. How could the pastor welcome this man? When the executive returned to his headquarters, he presented a compromise plan worked out at the breakfast meeting. Neither the locals or the company were completely satisfied but both knew that for their interests it was important to keep the plant operating.

32nd Sunday of Year C

2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14

Ps 17:1, 5-6, 8,15

2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5

Luke 20:27-38


Knowing where we are going

Life After Death
All are Alive to God

Immortal Diamonds

Riddle of the 7 Husbands

2 Mac 7:1-2, 9-14. The martyrdom of the seven brothers and their mother is told in inspirational style. They drew strength from their faith in the resurrection.

2 Thess 2:16-3:5. "May the Lord direct your hearts," Paul prays for his Thessalonians, for their courage and fidelity in the faith.

Lk 20:27-38. "Whose wife will she be?" they ask Jesus, to mock his belief in the afterlife. Jesus holds for bodily resurrection because God is God not of the dead, but of the living.

Theme: In this November season of the dead, we celebrate the God, not of the dead but of the living, in whom all are alive. We are members of the Communion of Saints, linked with those who have gone before us.

2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14

It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and thongs, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors." And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws."

After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again."

As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing. After he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. When he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!"

Ps 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15

Hear a just cause, O Lord;
attend to my cry;
give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.

My steps have held fast to your paths;
my feet have not slipped.

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me, hear my words.

Guard me as the apple of the eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake I shall be satisfied,
beholding your likeness.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere, just as it is among you, and that we may be rescued from wicked and evil people; for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will go on doing the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

Luke 20:27-38

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question,

"Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."

Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."

Intercessions

- for the gift of hope as we look forward to the resurrection from the dead.

- that the saints in heaven, especially those of our own kin who have gone before us, may intercede for us with the Father.

- for the souls of the faithful departed that they may rest in peace.

Thoughts for the 32nd Sunday

Knowing where we are going

We would regard as highly foolish the one who would set out on a journey and never consider where he was going. Yet the pilgrim way we are all following through life is largely a journey into the unknown. For it is a journey of faith, and of hope in God. However, a hope which is already visible is not hope any longer; for how can one hope for what one already sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, then in patience we eagerly wait for it (Rom 8:24f). When we think about it, much of our ideas about heaven and hell stems from a section of Jewish writings, referred to as Apocalyptic literature, which does not form part of the Hebrew canon of scripture, and also from writings and paintings of the Middle Ages, for example Dante's Inferno and Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The Bible tells us that heaven is the vision of God, face to face, and that hell is eternal separation from God; and, apart from that, nothing further is revealed to us. In fact, among the rabbi heaven was another name for God. During this month of the Holy Souls, it is good to recall the sober teaching of the Church about the condition of those who have gone before us, and the kind of assistance we can render to them.

As well as emphasising the existence of Purgatory, the official teaching of the Church simply says: firstly, that for all those who die, while being truly sorrowful for the sins they committed on earth, but without having made full satisfaction for these sins by acts of penance, there is a purification available in the next life; secondly, the Church says that such souls can be helped by the prayers of the faithful who are still on earth; thirdly, the Church tells us that such help is especially available through the holy sacrifice of the Mass. And that in full, is what the Church teaches. There is nothing whatsoever said about the nature of this purification, or about its duration. It is purely popular imagination which has come to regard Purgatory as a kind of hell with a lower temperature, or with the back-door open, so that escape is ultimately possible. There is never a word about fire or any specific torments. Practically speaking, most of our talk about future existence is simply guesswork. The Cure ofArs, St John Mary Vianney, a great mystic, whose days, and even more so nights, were a continuous encounter with the preternatural, was once asked about the future and the hereafter. In reply he simply said, "I know nothing of to-morrow, except that the love of God will rise before the sun."

Our lack of information about what awaits us beyond the grave should not give rise to undue alarm in our hearts, and we have Christ's word for that in the promise he made to the Apostles at the Last Supper. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you. Now I am going to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will return again and take you with me, so that where I am you also may be" (Jn 14:1-3). Reflection on these words, however, should not make us complacent. For we are being continually challenged to make a choice between the call of God coming to us in the person and message of Christ himself on the one hand, and our own selfish cravings on the other. The only thing we must fear is our failure to rise above this self-seeking, because if we shut out God from our lives, we can become no better than Judas Iscariot who, as Jesus himself said, "chose to be lost Sin does indeed bring punishment, but such punishment is self-inflicted, brought about by one's inability to love, or respond to the love which comes from God, and from others. Sinners become locked within themselves, and, cut adrift from God and the believing community, their hearts experience a sense of profound unrest and loneliness.

To repent, to turn again to God is a gradual process, even having recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. If death intervenes, the healing process of what we call Purgatory enables one to be rid of the last traces of selfishness, and so be ready to abide for ever in the vision of God face to face. To have all one's shortcomings laid bare by being confronted with the perfection which is the glorified person of Christ can be an experience of intense anguish for the departed soul. But remember that Christ also will be there to plead for that soul. And by our prayers, almsgiving, pious works, and in particular the Mass, we too can give comfort and support to all such Holy Souls.

Life After Death

The main theme of the readings is life after death. It would be possible to preach on the Johannine theme of eternal life, conceived as union with the Father in Christ, through the life of the Spirit which we already have within us. More appropriate to these readings, however, might be some such points as these:

(1) A sense of history might be imparted by a sketch of the development of the doctrine through the Bible, because all three readings are heavily imbued with the Old Testament. The depth so gained does give a fresh awareness of the privileged position we hold in being favoured with this intimacy with God, and helps one to take a familiar doctrine less for granted.

In the early days of the patriarchs and at least until the time of David there was simply a primitive tribal belief that the dead were somehow re-absorbed into the tribal stock, that they "went to join the ancestors." More developed, but overlapping with this, was the belief in Sheol where the dead person continued to exist in a sort of shadowy non-life of inactivity, a frail life of dust and desolation, cut off even from praise of God. But in the Psalms and the Wisdom literature there begins to appear a conviction that God will not finally abandon those whom he loves, for his promises are everlasting and cannot end with death. The most poignant expression of this comes in Job, where the suffering Job protests against all hope and all reason that somehow or other, at the last, he will see God and be vindicated. But until some two hundred years before Christ these hopes remain mere yearnings, paradoxical hopes against hope. The Maccabean persecution is the first time that the conviction of full, personal survial breaks through firmly and clearly.

(2) The imagery which we have of heaven is compounded partly from Jewish apocalyptic and largely from pagan Greco-Roman legend. So a good deal of it is highly unsound theologically. The flames of hell and the harps of heaven are equally misleading. The central idea of heaven must always be company with God, and its happiness is enjoyment of his person. This is clear both from the yearnings of the psalms and especially from Jesus' argument in today's gospel. The nearest analogy we can reach to the joy of heaven is the joy of love for a person, in a deep relationship which absorbs the whole being. The analogy takes in all the stages of love from the passionate love of a young couple wholly absorbed in each other to the tranquil contentment of the old jubilarians who really think and act as one being. This personal relationship with God is so totally all-absorbing and satisfying that all questions about other aspects of heaven become superfluous, and yet this love too-like an earthly love-must be expansive and gnerous to others; it must therefore take in also those who were loved on earth, and we should not think of someone in heaven as selfishly absorbed in God to the exclusion of love for those left behind.

(3) The Bible insists that it is the whole person that enjoys heaven, not merely the soul. The survival of the soul is a Greek idea built on a false anthropology. The importance of this is that as on earth our salvation is worked out by us as wholes, so in heaven we remain full personalities, not merely disembodied souls. How and where this bodily presence is possible remains a difficult question. The paradoxes are already suggested by the appearances of the risen Christ, physical but not subject to the laws of physical bodies as we know them, for the risen body is transformed.

All are Alive to God

"No one," said the psychologist, "can live the second half of life with exactly the same outlook in which he lived the first." Hopefully, some of our convictions do continue with us throughout our lives. But it is also true that our values and perspective change with the march of time. One thing is sure: the older we get, the more clearly we realise that death is not just a fact of other people's lives, but a personal appointment which not just we but I myself- must one day keep. This growing realisation, nurtured by our attendance at many a funeral, gives each of us a sharper interest in the question: "Can we expect anything after death?", which arises in several ways in our Scripture readings today.

Most of us feel some sympathy with the uncertainty of Hamlet, who brooded anxiously about "the thought of something after death, that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns." We tend to "cling to dear life" as the only sure reality. The scepticism of those Sadducees in today's Gospel still has a hold in many a Christian heart, even when in our creed we stoutly profess belief in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. The thought of the after-life challenges our faith, and yet is one of the fundamental truths of our faith.

That is why we need the heroic example of the martyrs, those men and women so profoundly convinced in their attachment to certain principles, that they were prepared to go to a premature death rather than offend or betray the God whom they loved more than life itself. At one level, today's story of the mother and her sons is one of civil disobedience to an unjust law. But it is more: it's a memorable declaration of hope and trust in God's faithful justice. Those who put their trust in God will have their reward. There is a future life of happiness in store for people who confide themselves to the living God. This is the same belief that sustained the confidence of the apostles - including Paul - and so many early Christians, in suffering martyrdom for the sake of the faith. In later centuries, saints like Thomas More, Margaret Clitherow and Oliver Plunkett, Edith Stein and Maximilian Kolbe, faced their death with the same inspiring faith.

Our Lord Jesus both clearly preached and practised this belief in a life after death. In the Father's house, he said, there are many mansions. He promised a future life to his disciples: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, enter into the Kingdom prepared for you." To the repentant thief on the cross, he promised a place in Paradise. And he faced his own death in the firm hope that he was still in the Father's hands. In one text we read how Jesus "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame of it" (Heb 12:2.)

Explaining to his critics the basis for believing in this future life, Jesus reminds them of that great expression: "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." God is the supremely Living One; and all those who belong to this God will live to him. This is the God we believe in, and it is into this God's hands that we can fully commit our hope for an after-life. In our Mass today, let us lay aside our doubts and our fears as we place our future destiny, and that of all whom we love, in the hands of the living God - for in him all are alive

Immortal Diamonds

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no helpful ease,

No comfortable feel in any member,

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruit, no flowers, no leaves, no birds - November.

There are no leaves on the trees. But there are dead leaves everywhere on the ground. On the pavements. In the gutters. Gusts of wind heap them together in sheltered corners, like mounds of earth on a grave. November reeks of death. Another year is laid to rest.

The liturgy follows the secular season by commemorating the dead in November. When we recite the Creed every Sunday we declare our belief in the "communion of saints." It is a close community, made up of the saints in heaven, the souls in purgatory and ourselves. While living in Paris I shared a building with a little Polish seminary. All their liturgies were in Polish which meant I could not participate with them. During the week, I followed the time-honoured tradition of celebrating a private Mass in one of the little chapels specially designed for that purpose, a custom somewhat frowned upon in more recent times. The centuries-old chapel was saturated with history. Being a historian l was familiar with many of its former occupants. Because I believe in the community of saints, I was never short of a congregation. They were probably so numerous, they were hanging from the rafters!

The Preface in the Mass for the Dead, says "life is changed, not ended." When we die, we change from this life to eternal life. The "forever and ever" which punctuates so many of our prayers is not a happy choice. It conveys the impression of never ending time. But time only exists in this world. It is the measurement of change. The days turn to nights and the seasons rotate. Eternity is a timeless "now', a futureless present. The beautiful hymn Ag Criost an siol (Christ's is the seed), so frequently sung at funeral Masses, describes the pilgrim soul going "from death to rebirth." It reflects well how Jesus expressed it when he spoke about those in the other world who "can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels."

"Now he is the God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive." Thoughts about the resurrection of the body are sometimes best expressed by poets. A priest-poet, Gerald Manley Hopkins, put it like this:

In a flash, as a trumpet crash,
I am all at once What Christ is,
Since he is what l am.

And this jack, joke, poor potherd,
patch, match-wood, immortal diamond,
is immortal diamond.

You and I, and all of us are immortal diamonds.

Riddle of the 7 Husbands

I remember a time in my life, during my student years, when we had "Harte's Christian Doctrine," and "Sheehan's Apologetics" in generous daily doses. My one desire, at that time, was to accumulate so much information that I would be able to confound all the atheists, the agnostics, and all other forms of unbelief! I was on a crusade of conversion, so I needed to have all the answers! Things have changed a lot since then, thank God. If I met the Sadducees in today's gospel, I wouldn't enter into discussion with them at all. "For those who not understand, no words are possible, and for those who do understand, no words are necessary."

Thank God, it was Jesus they met, and not me! He accepted them where they were at, and he taught them about the conditions prevailing in the life to come. We cannot judge it from our limited understanding of life here now. Jesus' teaching is gentle and firm; not berating or condemning. These people just did not believe in life after death, and all Jesus could do was teach them what he knew. Perhaps his words touched some hearts, and left others unmoved. All I know is that it certainly is much easier to believe in life after death than not to believe. I carry that thought in my heart at every funeral I attend.

The example the Sadducees use is exaggerated, and humorous; but it was the best they could come up with by way of a hypothetical case, to test how Jesus would respond. In the afterlife, the Kingdom and family of God will be complete. We will be free of the constraints and appetites of the body that are part of our present experience. We will all be children, and we will all be complete in love, no longer needing human love and lusts to sustain us.

Response: I often wonder if belief in an after-life is not part of the instinctual life of all of us, no matter how some people may try to deny that fact. The most primitive tribe believed in an after-life. They "crossed the Jordan," went into "the spirit world," or entered Valhalla. There is a resilience within the human spirit, which tells us that, even if today is bad, to-morrow will probably be better. There is some sort of inherent resurrection-hope within the human heart.

There are three stages in life. The first is the womb-life. After that comes a breaking, a wrenching, as we enter the womb of life. This is followed by one last wrenching when we break through into the fullness of life. As soon as a baby is born, the only thing we can be certain of is that, one day, this person will die. We are born to die, and, after death, we become what we were created to be. If you ever waken up some morning and your life is exactly the way it should be, don't move, just stay as you are, until the undertaker arrives!

There is a vast chasm between the three stages of life, and, at any stage, it is absolutely impossible to imagine what the following stage might be like. If an unborn baby could hear you, there is not one word you could use that the baby would understand. There is not one thing you could mention - flowers, sun, etc. - which the baby would understand. That is why nobody comes back to tell us. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of any person to imagine what God has in store for those who love him."

33rd Sunday of Year C

Malachi 3:19-20
Ps 98:5-9
2 Thessalonians 3:7-12

Luke 21:5-19


Journey's End
Perseverance
Horizon of Judgment

No Lasting City
Use Time Wisely

Mal 3:19-20. "See, the day is coming, burning like an oven." The Day of the Lord will be a day of judgement; but also of salvation "with healing in its wings."

2 Thess 3:7-12. "Whoever won't work should not eat." Imitating Paul, all should earn their living and not be burden to others.

Lk 21:5-19. Jesus fortells the destruction of the temple and warns his disciples to beware of false prophets and to be steadfast even if persecutions come, for the sake of their faith.

Theme: In those final weeks of the church's year, the liturgy reminds us of the 'last things' and today, in particular, the end of the world. We should live our lives in the light of eternity.

Malachi 3:19-20

See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.

Ps 98:5-9

Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody.

With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who live in it.

Let the floods clap their hands;
let the hills sing together for joy
at the presence of the Lord,
for he is coming to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.

2 Thessalonians 3:7-12

You yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.

For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?"

And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them. "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."

Then he aid to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

"But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Intercessions

- that we may keep a balance perspective in our lives by reflecting on the end of the world.

- that we may never become too pre-occupied by material things.

- that we may never sin against our environment by polluting the air and the streams, or in any way endanger any of the species created by God.

Thoughts for 33rd Sunday

Journey's End

As we draw near to the end of the liturgical year - next Sunday is the last Sunday - the Church is putting this question to each of us: "What do you see as the purpose of your life, of your existence in this world? How seriously should we take the predictions of today's gospel about the end of this world and the day of judgment?" To help us reflect on this, we should keep ever before our minds this one great certainty, that death puts an end, absolutely and beyond recall, to all our works, all our plans, all the seemingly vital concerns which lend a certain purpose to our daily involvement. Every human soul that has cast off this worldly body goes forth into the unknown like a traveller entering into unexplored territory. But, whereas that soul to the rest of mankind seems to be no more, it is only then really beginning to live, to live a new existence for all eternity, hopefully in the presence of God. Cardinal Newman, reflecting on these two lives, the one now and the other hereafter, once wrote, "Fear not hat your life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning." It is at the moment that this new life begins that understanding of our former existence will be revealed to us, that God's plan for each of us, and the role we were given to play while on earth in the spread of his kingdom, will become clear to us. We might well ask ourselves, then, whether we are conscious of playing a part in building up the city of God, the kingdom of God on earth.

The readings in the liturgy of these final Sundays of the Church calendar year are meant to bring home to us the necessity of looking beyond our own immediate preoccupations, worries, troubles, interests, that are largely of selfish concern. And they do this by confronting us in a striking manner with the thought of the four last things, namely, death, judgment, heaven, and hell. People who never look beyond this life criticise the Church for asking its members to reflect seriously on these, but there is nothing morbid about such reflection, nothing that should terrify us. For if we are exiles on this earth, then as we progress through life, we are drawing ever nearer to our true home, which is heaven, a consideration which should fill us, not with sorrow, but, as St Paul pointed out, a heightened longing "to be dissolved and to be with Christ."

To understand fully today's gospel we should remember that Christ, while on earth, made two distinct prophecies, one about the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the other about the second coming of the Son of God at the end of time - what the early Christians referred to as the "parousia," meaning presence or arrival. In the minds of the disciples these two prophecies became fused into one, for to a pious Jew such a catastrophe as the destruction of the Temple could only signify the end of the world. We now know that the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.. It had been the largest and grandest of all the three temples on the site, and also the shortest lived. But it is useless speculating about the second coming of Christ, although the first Christians thought it would happen in their lifetime. However, the message for us in this whole narrative is to be watchful, to allow the thought of what is to come to influence our present behaviour, to bear in mind always that the trials endured in this ie are not to be compared with the glory to come. Nor indeed should we be alarmed by the imagery of wars, earthquakes, famines, stars falling from the heavens. These are OT terms employed by St Luke to denote the coming about of some radical change - in this case the second coming of Christ.

If we love God we need never be alarmed, for perfect love casts out all fear. Whatever lies ahead Christ has already encountered; he has gone in front to prepare the way for us. It is with great trust, then, that we should look forward to the second coming of Christ. For, with his coming, death will be no more, nor mourning nor crying will be any more, for the former things will have passed completely away. In the words of Pope Paul VI, "We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in Paradise form the Church of heaven, where in eternal blessedness they see God as he is, and where, by interceding for us, and helping our weakness by their fraternal concern, they are also associated, in varying degree, with the holy angels in the divine government exercised by Christ in glory. Until this comes about, we must therefore be always ready and prepared. We must watch; we must pray."

Perseverance

The two New Testament readings are concerned with endurance, perseverance to the end in the values of Christianity, in spite of boredom, difficulties and opposition. The first reading adds little to tIlls theme, beyond illustrating the concept of judgment at the Day of the Lord as it occurs in the Old Testament. But both Paul and Luke are teaching about the working out of a Christian presence in the world. Luke accepts the Jewish picture of violent persecution by hostile authorities, and regards it primarily as an opportunity to bear witness to Christ and the gospel. A theme for preaching, then, would be the function of Christian witness in the world.

(1) Pride of place in Christian witness must always belong to martyrdom in the strict sense, that of bearing witness even to the shedding of blood. It seems remote to most of us in the Western world, but in the course of a long life many things can change, and it would be a rash man who would exclude the possibility of having, sometime, to face it. It must have seemed remote to pre-revolutionary Russian Christians or in post-war Uganda. It is in such persecution that the strength of Christianity is ultimately seen, and to those who suffer under it Christ's beautitude is primarily addressed, "Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of right, those who are despised and rejected for the sake of my name." They must be a source of pride to all Christians.

(2) Often less spectacular is the witness to Christian values which is made in political or business life where they seem to be lacking.

Here again this may lead to genuine persecution, at least to mockery at a certain scrupulosity or generosity which can appear as weakness. It can lead to a loss of advancement or a loss of "fringe benefits" gained from a widely accepted dishonesty. This might be classed under the beautitude on those who hunger and thirst for what is right, and it can be the most obvious form of witness to the values of the gospel.

(3) But these two forms of witness are at best empty and at worst hypocritical if they do not grow out of the witness to the principles of the gospel in a Christian's own personal life. It is a witness that Christ has overturned the values of this world and shown them to be radically insufficient, that the gospel's demands stand in opposition to the world's values of self-seeking and self-satisfaction. Here the martyrdom imposed is a matter of self-discipline rather than external, and is expressed in the myriad small decisions of life, whether to lend a helping hand, whether to appear foolish in order to save another, whether to forego an advantage that another may reap it, whether to be honest at some cost to oneself, whether to carry out a routine duty when it seems particularly tiresome and pointless, whether simply to carry on in the face of boredom and depression. It is in these decisions and in the joy which we put into them that the true witness to Christ occurs, and here also that is most fully at wor the endurance in which Luke says we will win our lives. For it is a long-term, unglamorous policy, although it is often the human witness to Christ which is most effective of all.

To return finally to the gospel's apocalyptic imagery: it can be the glorious image of the powerful Christ who will come to save and free his people from hardship and persecution that can provide the impetus to perseverance in these kinds of witness to his message.

Horizon of Judgment

Most people have a dawning realisation that our life is short, and that each of us will face the moment of death, within a limited number of days and years. Last Sunday, we thought about the after-life, and how Jesus calls us to entrust the future into God's hands. But how seriously should we (or can we) take the predictions of today's Gospel about the end of the world and the day of judgement? It is a difficult problem to know what to believe about the Last Day. There are various sects and groups who claim to know the exact date of the Lord's coming. And the failure of previous predictions does not appear to unduly discourage them from setting yet another date for Armageddon.

People have every right to be wary of wild-eyed street-corner orators whose delight it is to utter threats and warnings in God's name, about catastrophes about to befall the world. We should note how Jesus warns against believing too readily in such predictions. Even though he himself used the idea of the coming day of judgement as a motive to turn people's hearts back to God, he also said that about the day and the time of this event, "no man knows, not even the Son, but the Father only."

Still, there are too many references to the Final Judgement in our Holy Scriptures for us to easily dismiss it as just a figure of speech. And indeed, spiritual people have found important benefits in keeping the Judgement-Day as part of the horizon against which we look at things and assess them at their real value. Seeing our problems, our successes and our wishes in the light of eternity - sub specie aeternitatis - often puts them into a new and different light, and one which helps us to judge as God sees things.

But can we really follow the classic devotional advice once favoured by preachers, to "always live as though each day may be your last?" For most people, it is probably neither possible nor desirable to regularly centre that much attention on the final things. Sobering and spiritually purifying on occasion, yes; but most days, one must be like Martha in the Gospel story who was fully occupied with her daily work, busy with many things. That's also the practical advice given by St Paul to people in his day who spent their time excitably looking out for the Lord's return, and gave up caring about such ordinary tasks as planting and harvesting the crops, keeping up with their business or doing the housework. "Go on quietly minding your own affairs. And if anyone will not work, neither let him eat!'

We believe and hope, then, in a future coming of Christ as Judge, to establish God's justice on the earth. But we must leave the timing of all this as God's mystery, about which it is useless to speculate. The tasks of the present are real and challenging enough to demand our full attention. And the cutting edge of the prayer "Thy Kingdom Come" is not really a focus on something to wait for, but on building up that part of the Kingdom which God expects from us in the here and now.

No Lasting City

It was on 9 November 1989 that the infamous Berlin Wall came tumbling down. It was a concrete symbol of what Winston Churchill had described as the "Iron Curtain', which for almost fifty years had divided Europe into two ideologically hostile camps. It was the era of the "Cold War." Most people then, or at least the more optimistic, always believed that some day Europe would be reunited and this wall of shame would come down. But when it happened, it was so sudden that everybody in the East and West was taken completely by surprise. Some of the Communist dictators, like Honnecker in East Germany, had not even time to clear their desks and hightail it, before the day of retribution was upon them. Now, so few years later, even souvenir-hawkers cannot find "a single stone left on another" to sell to eager tourists at the annual commemoration.

Everything in this world, sooner or later, comes to an end. And the world itself will come to an end. In these dying weeks of the year, with the winter gloom upon us, the liturgy recalls for us the "last things." Last Sunday, it was death and resurrection; today it is the end of the world. "The time will come," Jesus told his disciples, "when not a single stone will be left upon another: everything will be destroyed."

Scientists tell us that it all began with a "big bang" and it's all going to end with a big bang. There can be few now who doubt that this world of ours will come to an end some day. If modem science proves nothing else, it proves that the world is already dying. Whether its ailment is terminal or reversible is open to debate. But the signs are ominous. The thinning of the ozone layer, the shrinking of the polar ice-caps, the pollution of the air and the oceans are symptoms of a disease that might well prove fatal. Environmentalists at least are alarmed. Species of plants and animals are disappearing constantly. They are fighting what seems to be a losing battle. Great mammals like the elephants in Africa and the deep-sea whales are now on the danger list. The Amazon Forests, the "lungs of the world" because they produce so much oxygen, are threatened by de-forestation. The earth is dying because we are killing it. "Increase and multiply" our Creator told our ancestors when he entrusted this world to their cae. Instead, in our greed we have preferred to "decrease and make die." Chernobyl, it seems, was but the tip of an iceberg. There is a whole series of aging and ailing nuclear reactors waiting to explode and spread their poisonous fumes into our atmosphere.

This doomsday scenario is not intended to frighten anybody, less still to spoil the enjoyment of Sunday. The message is simply that we live our lives sub specie aeternitatis, in the light of eternity. Not only are we ourselves going to die, but the world itself is going to disappear. That is what is meant by "putting everything into perspective." Problems we all have, more or less pressing, but ultimately, as St Paul put it: "We have here no lasting city." Malachi expresses it more vividly: "The day that is coming is going to bum them up, says the Lord of hosts, leaving them neither root nor stalk."

Use Time Wisely

In today's gospel, we are told about the future, about the end of the world, about the end of our own lives. In recent times there have been several cults totally preoccupied with the final days. In a few cases, when the end did not come as they expected, we have had mass suicides. If the end of the world wasn't coming, then they decided it was the end for them. It's a great pity they didn't listen to the final few sentences in today's gospel.

You cannot save time; you can only use it wisely and well. Each moment is unique and unrepeatable. Time and tide wait for no one. That is why the present moment is so precious. To look at the ruins of the Temple in Jerusalem today is to see, in effect, what Jesus speaks of in today's gospel. This, too, shall pass. Life is fragile; handle with prayer. We get one shot at life; there is no dress rehearsal therefore it is vital that we reflect on life itself, as we live it.

There has hardly been a generation on this earth that did not consider the possibility that the world would end in their day. I remember this being a particular worry of my own, as a child. The wars, the earthquakes, the widespread destruction were all present. All the signs of which Jesus speaks have been present on many an occasion. I have one life to live. My task is to get on with that life, and leave the rest of the world to God. I could die with thousands of worries unfulfilled.

We often hear of some people referred to as "doomsday prophets." They are completely negative and pessimistic about everything. They may call themselves Christian, but they certainly are not children of the resurrection. "All will be well, and all manner of things will be well," the words of Julian of Norwich, is the conviction of the Christian. I cannot hope to understand anything of the end of the world, or anything to do with it, nor need I have such understanding. I have now, and I can say my "yes" of now, and that is the only "yes" in which God is interested.

God was the composer of the music of the universe. He wrote a symphony of heavenly music, all in perfect harmony. To the birds of the air he entrusted the panpipes. To the long grasses he entrusted the strings. To the clouds and the oceans he entrusted the percussion. He allocated sections of the orchestra to all parts of his creation. There was one section of his creation that he chose to treat differently, i.e., human beings. He had gifted them with reason and intelligence, and, therefore, there was no need to write a score for them, as they would know how to blend and harmonise, without receiving instructions.

The music began, and it was heavenly. The harmony was enchanting, and the sheer beauty of it all was breath taking. Things continued like this for some time. Then, one day, there was a shrieking discordant note, that shattered the harmony of the universe. This was followed by complete silence. "What was that?" whispered the trees. The birds replied "that was people. They refuse to continue in harmony with the rest of us, and they have decided to do things their way." "What will he do now?" whispered the grasses. "He may tear up the whole score. He may write a new one. One thing is certain, he cannot pretend it didn't happen, because that discordant note will reverberate throughout the universe for all eternity."

34th Sunday:
(Feast of Jesus Christ, Universal King)

2 Samuel 5:1-3
Ps 122:1-5
Colossians 1:12-20

Luke 23:35-43


Prince of Peace
The"King" Metaphor
Kingdom of Justice, Love and Peace
Reigning with Christ

2 Sam 5:1-3. David of Bethlehem has already been anointed as king by Samuel. Now the leaders of the northern tribes also swear loyalty to him so that he becomes king of a united country.

Col 1:12-20. A hymn to Jesus, "image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" who is also the living head of the Church.

Lk 23:35-43. The inscription on the cross, "This is the King of the Jews" is truer than Jews or Romans knew. Jesus is the King who leads us to paradise.

Theme: On the last Sunday in the liturgical year we honour Christ the King. It is a timely year-end call, to renew our loyalty to Jesus and to his gospel.

2 Samuel 5:1-3

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, "Look, we are your bone and flesh. For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The Lord said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel."

So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.

Ps 122:1-5

I was glad when they said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the Lord!"
Our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem-built as a city
that is bound firmly together.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord;

It was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
For there the thrones for judgment were set up,
the thrones of the house of David.

Colossians 1:12-20

We give thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-all things have been created through him and for him.

He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Luke 23:35-43

And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Thoughts for 34th Sunday

Prince of Peace

At the trial of Jesus, Pontius Pilate put to him the direct question, "Are you the king of the Jews?" And St John's gospel has Jesus replying, "Yes, I am a king. I was born for this. I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth, and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice" (Jn 18:37). But he also pointed out that his kingship was not of this world. Today it is only with great difficulty that we can begin to understand the original meaning of the kingdom of God, or the Rule of God. To the modern mind the concept of kingly rule has become associated with authoritarianism and suppression, but not so in OT times. The kingdom of God is non-political and non-national. In ancient Israel, justice consisted, not so much in applying the law fairly, but rather in maintaining help and protection for the weak, the poor and the helpless. If the justice of God operated in the world it would hopefully usher in peace between nations, between individuals, and within each individual.

Left to their own resources, humans were seen as incapable of attaining this peace and justice, since life was constantly threatened, freedom suppressed, justice trampled underfoot. To remedy this a completely fresh start was necessary, something which God alone could initiate. This new element is what is meant by the kingdom of God, a kingdom which would bring liberation from the forces of evil, and reconciliation between divided peoples. Although Christ denied that his kingdom is of this world, nevertheless his kingship is a real power, which will be revealed at the end of time. It is interesting that people who are vested with purely earthly power are at a loss when confronted with this power of Christ. Their reaction quite often has been, and still is, to strike out blindly, using abuse, or even physical violence against what they regard as a threat to their power. For power, in a vulgar sense, is by and large recognised only by winning in a confrontation.

We should always remember that Jesus' death and resurrection is the supreme example of evil being overcome by offering no resistance to it in any physical way. In the course of its history Israel learned, through bitter experience, that belief in the Lordship of God contrasted sharply with the world as it was around them. The result was the formation of a new vision of life hereafter, where those who had suffered in the cause of truth here in this world would be rewarded. Jesus himself promised that those who are ready to leave earthly possessions and relatives for the sake of his name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life (Mt 19:29). Furthermore, Jesus gives another twist to this hope in things to come by saying that a transformation is already taking place: "Blessed are the eyes which see what you see. For I tell you many prophets and kings longed to see what you see and did not see it, to hear what you hear and never heard it" (Lk 10:23).

Christ spoke of the kingdom of God in parables, in every one of which a mystery lies hidden. For example, to Jews the mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds, the most insignificant of all things. Yet out of it comes a huge tree. God's kingdom comes in a hidden way, even in spite of seeming failure. But, as with the mustard seed, this small beginning holds the promise of a magnificent ending. "I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us," St Paul wrote (Rom 8:18). At first sight there seems to be a contradiction between the present and the future in Jesus' references to the kingdom. The kingdom is here and now, we are told, and yet we are asked to look forward and in the Our Father pray, "Thy kingdom come." Jesus gives the answer to this. "The kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, "Look here it is," or, "There it is," because the kingdom of God is within you" (Lk 17:20f).

That is to say, here and now, God is at work within each of us, and putting before us a choice, a choice to let Jesus give direction to our lives, a choice which will determine our own future also. For each person Christ's kingdom begins with an inner renewal, a spiritual rebirth. It is only by this personal reformation that we can help in the spread of the kingdom, and also bring about a renewal of the society in which we live. "I tell you most solemnly," Christ warned, "unless people are born again of water and the Holy Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5).

The "King" Metaphor

Background:

This is a medieval feast which uses the metaphor of "king" - a powerful one in those days - to describe the role of Jesus. Today the implications of such a metaphor are harder for us to comprehend, though the fascination with the late Princess of Wales suggests that we still like royalty and royal families - though perhaps we don't quite understand any more the tragedy that is inherent in royal leadership. In fact, the kingdom which Jesus preached was the kingdom of his Father in heaven, a kingdom of forgiving love with no royal trappings at all, a kingdom which had always been there but which now (through Jesus) were beginning to recognize for the first time. The kingdom of Jesus is summarized in the words of the Our Father - forgive us as we forgive. No matter how many times we say that prayer, the meaning seems to allude us. We expected to be forgiven, but we don't want to forgive.

Story:

Once upon a time a young man grew up bitterly angry at the girl down the street. He was bright enough but slow spoken and shy. She was quick-witted andfunny. He said and did stupid things, he was tongue tied in class and stumbled on the playground. She made fun of him. He was terrible in sports. She laughed at him. He resented her popularity and her intelligence and her success. It was not right that she was so good at everything and he was so bad. Then the boys noticed how pretty she was and they all chased after her. The girls sort of like him, but she said he was a nerd and they all agreed. Then his family moved away. He was glad to leave the neighbourhood. He hated everyone in it and especially he hated her. In his new neighbourhood he was treated like everyone else. He stopped stumbling, he thought more quickly. He got good marks in class, he became popular. It was all her fault that he had not been popular in the old neighbourhood. She had ruined the early part of his! l! ife. Some day he'd get even. Thn, when he went to college, he met her again. She was beautiful now and friendly to him. She didn't seem to remember how cruel she had been. He thought she'd be an interesting date - maybe some day even more than that. She kind of thought the same thing. But he turned his back on her and ignored her. Thus did he get even.

Kingdom of Justice, Love and Peace

In the second reading Paul speaks of Christ as one who, at the end of time, will hand over the kingdom to God the Father. The Preface of today's Mass repeats the statement but highlights the nature of the kingdom as a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice. love and peace. Such a kingdom is not to be merely a future reality. but is to be worked for in the present. The kingdom is the goal of our hope, but it is also in our midst, in the process of becoming. Today's gospel tells us how we are to work for the fuller coming of God's kingdom among us. The kingdom of God comes whenever justice is done for the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the oppressed. To behave in this way is to imitate the Shepherd-King himself who is presented in the first reading as one who rescues from Situations of alienation, who feeds, gives rest, heals and makes strong. Today's homilist could highlight ways in which we are each called to work for the coming among us of God's kingdom.

St Augustine, in commenting on the Lord's Prayer, says: "So it is the grace of living the right way that you ask for when you pray:

"your kingdom come."" To pray "your kingdom come" is to pray to become a person of the Beatitudes, someone who mourns for the injustice in the world, who hungers and thirsts for justice, and is prepared to be persecuted for the sake of justice, a person who is merciful and a peacemaker. To live the Beatitudes is to usher in the kingdom of God.

We are soon to begin the season of Advent, during which the attitude of waiting will be emphasized. To wait on God is to remind ourselves that everything does not depend on our own efforts. Yet, the last Sunday of the liturgical year suggests that our efforts are Important. We cannot simply wait passively for the coming of God's kingdom. We must work for its coming, despite the risk and cost to ourselves. Jesus sent out his disciples to preach the message: "The kingdom of God is at hand." Our way of life, our life-style, our set of values must proclaim that same message. The Spirit of the Lord has come upon us to anoint us "to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18.) Such a mission is not an optional extra, but an integral part of our Christian calling. It is not a task to be left to "professionals" but one entrusted to each individual disciple. Far from being optional, today's gospel reminds s that our ultimate destiny is dependent upon our remaining faithful to this task.

The way to serve Christ our King is to work for the coming of his kingdom. In working for the relief of the deprived, the oppressed and the outcast we are serving Christ in person, because he fully identifies himself with all those in need. Those in the gospel reading who were excluded from God's kingdom were guilty of the sin of omission, It was the sin of the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side the side farthest from the battered body of the traveller. The disciple of Christ the King cannot afford the luxury of saying "I keep myself to myself" or "I do nobody any harm." To be deaf to the cries of the oppressed is to be deaf to Christ. To be blind to the agony of those about us is to be blind to Christ. To take Christ as our Shepherd involves becoming a shepherd to Christ present to us in the sufferings and deprivations of others.

Reigning with Christ

A boy was not doing too well in the public school. So his parents got him into a Catholic school to see if he would improve. Immediately the boy stopped watching TV and playing computer games and spent all his time in studies. At the end of the year he was the best student in class. His baffled parents asked him what happened. "The first day I went to school," he explained, "and saw that man hanging up on the cross, I knew you couldn't fool around here and get away with it."

The sight of the crucified Christ might have spurred our young man to success, but the crucifixion, humanly speaking, depicts failure. It signals a brutal and disappointing end to the life and work of Jesus. When Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46) his God did not take him down from the cross. When he cried, "Eli, Eli," and the bystanders waited to see if Elijah was coming to save him, nothing happened. One of the thieves crucified with him even challenged him, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" (Luke 23:39) and he was still hanging there. By every observable, measurable, human standard, the crucifixion was a disappointing end for Jesus whom we acclaim today to be our King.

But Jesus has said that his kingdom is not of this world. By this he means to say not simply that his kingdom is not localised in this world but that the ways and standards of his kingdom are not the ways and standards of the world around us. One of the first people to appreciate this mystery is the repentant thief on the cross about whom we read in today's gospel. Choking with the pains of crucifixion and imminent death, he turns and says to Jesus, his fellow convict hanging on the next cross, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). Unlike the other convict who asks to be delivered from the cross, this holy criminal knows that success in God's kingdom is measured by a different set of standards. He knows that to get into the kingdom of Christ one has to be saved not from the cross but on the cross.

How often we, followers of the Crucified, make the mistake of the unrepentant thief, of seeking to vindicate ourselves by a show of power, wealth or connection!

A certain knight dragged himself back to the king's court after a narrow escape from a wearisome campaign. The king ran out to meet him. "What is wrong, Sir Erasmus?" asked the king. "My Lord, the king," answered the knight, "I have been out fighting your enemies to death." "Which enemies?" asked the king. "Your enemies on the western border," replied the knight. "But," countered the king, "I have no enemies on the western border." "Well," replied the disillusioned knight, "now you do." In his zeal for the king, the knight has been going about sowing seeds of enmity and discord in the kingdom whose peace and harmony he was supposed to safeguard.

Aren't we often, like this knight, so different from our King? As soldiers of Christ when shall we learn to fight with the same weapons used by our Master? What weapons did Jesus use to wage the spiritual war of the kingdom of God? He used the weapons of Truth and Love. The truth of the word of God is a sharp sword against all the forces of the enemies of the kingdom. Salome, the mother of James and John wanted to add her financial power to propagate Jesus' teaching. Jesus turned it down. The people wanted to make Jesus king, and so to prop up the power of his words with the power of royalty. Jesus ran away. The sword of the word of God, wielded with love and meekness as Jesus did is all that we need to spread the kingdom of Christ on earth.

As we celebrate the kingship of Christ today, Jesus invites us as he did 2000 years ago: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart" (Matthew 11:29). Today is the day to ask ourselves how far we have responded, as individuals and as a community, to this invitation to cultivate the mind of Christ in our dealing with one another, especially in our dealings with those we perceive to be different from us. This is the way to show in our daily lives that Jesus Christ in indeed our king: by trying to live out in our lives the gentle, loving spirit of Christ.