27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

How I dread it when I get the Gospel reading for today on a weekday when the school children are in the church for Mass! Many of them have parents who are remarried divorced or living in all sorts of family arrangements. The children listen to the reading and with the simplicity of the young immediately put 2 and 2 together to make 4. Does this mean my mother is committing adultery? Is my father breaking God's law by living with his new girlfriend? For children who are yet to encounter the complexities of life the Word speaks directly to them. They trust implicitly in what the Lord says and listen with open minds. I cannot deal with the issues they raise apart from their parents and the circumstances of their lives. Nevertheless, their attitude remind us why Jesus can say at the end of the passage the Church gives us: "Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it" (Mk 10: 14)

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Moses says to Joshua: "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them." (Num 11: 29) Moses obedient to the LORD  called seventy men from Israel. Two men, who remained in the camp, prophesied in the camp not in the Tent of Meeting. Can we think of the Sunday Mass as the Tent of Meeting? It is there we encounter the Lord and, indeed, receive him in the sacrament. It is the Spirit who gathers us, speaks to us through the Word and works the transformation that makes what was previously bread and wine the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that in that moment we receive an outpouring of the Spirit and the guarantee of God's presence in our lives. This does not mean however that God is restricted in his saving action to us. We are dependent on him however he does not rely on us. His power and his Spirit extend throughout the world in ways unknown to us. If we cooperate with his grace, however, we know that we shall experience his power and encounter him in all that is good.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

James writes in today's Second Reading: "You do not have, because you do not ask." How many of us are too afraid to ask God in prayer for what we really need? Do we forget that our God is a Father who knows our needs better than any earthly parent and is always ready to give? (cf. Mtt 7: 7-11) Prayer, raising our hearts and minds to God, means that we need to trust God and allow intimacy (into-me-see) with Him. This entails that God sees the whole of me including my desires for things or outcomes which are close to my heart. James warns us however: "You ask and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasure." God knows that self-indulgence and excess are harmful to us as are selfishness and greed. As Father he will not give us what is toxic. It is our flawed nature that distorts our appreciation of our own good. The conversation of prayer helps purify our heart and clear our vision to what God wants and therefore what we really need: "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God." (Mtt 5: 8)

Have you ever been Satan to someone - the "Tempter" - thinking not in God's ways but man's? Often we are called upon to give advice. It can be casually or, in my case, sometimes as a professional. The person seeking my counsel could be a friend, parishioners or workmate. Regardless of who it is I am called upon in some way to witness to my faith and the confidence that I have in it. If I take the easy option or omit some of the teachings of the Church which I feel are unpalatable am I not becoming a stumbling block to the one being counselled. I damage not just him or her but my own faith. I need not speak immediately, unlike the impetuous Saint Peter, since I can, as he did, go from hero to zero. Sometimes the best option is not to wait. I might need to pray over my response and ask of the Spirit or recommend the person who is better qualified than me. In any event I need to tell the truth and listen to what God's plan is rather than to serve my own.