14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings from St Paul's letter to the Romans we are hearing these Sundays as the Second Reading are a serious challenge to our lives as Christians in 2020. Imagine what it was like for the people of Rome, who had yet to meet Paul, in the First Century!? He tells us: "My sisters and brothers, you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you." (Rm 8: 9) What an incredible mystery! This is only one sentence from that great letter and yet it points out a great mystery of faith. Do we recognize in our daily lives to the fact that God's Spirit dwells in us? Are we slaves to our appetites and pushed by worldly jealousies and desires? In the end we are dealing in life and death in the choices we make everyday. We need to make the choice for life. The conversion experience is not a one off. Each day, as with marriage, as with priestly ordination, as with religious life, as with the single life, we need to make the choice to respond to the Spirit of God that dwells within us. It is through the sacraments of baptism and reconciliation that we actualize the redemption that is at work within us. Let us therefore choose life and do so in the smallest actions of our everyday life: "So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if you live in the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Rm 8: 12-13)

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St Paul, this weekend, speaks of the great mystery of our baptism: "Brothers and sisters: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" (Rm 6: 3) When we think of baptism of infants or adults, as well as our annual renewal of baptism at Easter, we need to make this connection with the sacrificial death of Jesus given out of love for the Father. Baptism changes us just as it brought about change in Jesus. It leaves behind an old life to be given a pledge of the new. This death means we cannot be conformed to this world with all of its sin and pride. It gives us all the promise of glory which makes sense of suffering and helps us to live towards and with others in a way that we could not otherwise do. In other words, baptism makes a capable of agape - self-giving love, in a way that the world cannot. Let us strive, as St Paul exhorts us, to be worthy of the baptism we have received: "Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (Rm 6: 4) "... So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Rm 6: 11)

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Over the period of Covid19 level 4 lock down everyone has had opportunity to reflect on what is "essential." This, of course, varies for everyone but for Catholics we regard Eucharist and prayer as essential. This is the case even if the civil government regards it as irrelevant. There are many needs, physical, mental and spiritual that occupy our minds. The Gospel today gives us a warning about what is most important: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell." (Mtt 10: 28) Without our faith and the hope it offer us as well as the joy it brings us we have no purpose or meaning. This meaning is founded on the love of God and his plan for each one of us. Without it all our earthly possessions are of no value. Have you ever reflected on what it is like to pack up your loved one's possessions after his or her death? They have no value in the absence of the one you loved except as relics to be treasured of the relationship you shared. St Paul tells us: "So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." (2 Cor 4: 16-18) 

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

In the gospel Jesus tells us that he is one with the Father and that the only way to know the Father is through knowing Jesus. He also says: "... for I am gentle and humble of heart." (Mtt 11: 29) Who would believe, from all the other religions of the world with all their terrifying, capricious and demanding images of God, that the ground of Being is in truth revealed as being "gentle and humble" of heart! We can only know this and believe it through encountering, knowing and loving our Lord Jesus Christ. It is he who heals the estrangement of God brought about through Original Sin and opens our eyes to the love of the Father. The Feast of the Sacred heart is the antidote to Jansenism and scrupulous, self-hating religion that denies the warmth of God's loving heart and keeps us from approaching him to accept his mercy for what it really is.

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

The Holy Eucharist is a sacrament of unity yet, we read in today's Gospel: "The people disputed among themselves, saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' " (Jn 6: 52) As with the doctrine from last week, of the Holy Trinity, sadly over the centuries Christians have fought and even killed each other on account of their differences. What is the answer? Does this mean that we should do away doctrine and give all opinions equal value? As The Beatles sang: "All you need is love."? 

We know that even the closest of Christ's disciples struggled with his teaching: "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" (Jn 6: 60)  To get rid of doctrine so is to think of worldly categories rather than enter more deeply into the mystery of the Incarnation. St Paul tells us: "Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor 2: 14) Jesus also says as much when he replies to the disbelieving disciples: "It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6: 63) We cannot reduce the Holy Eucharist to fit our own ideas. We need to focus ourselves on Christ and the entire mystery of his passion, death and resurrection which is made substantially present to us in the sacrifice of the Mass. To receive the Eucharist is an act of faith that places our trust in Jesus himself and the immemorial teachings of the Catholic Church. Jesus asked the twelve, 'Do you also wish to go away?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom can we go? We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.' " (Jn 6: 67-69)

The Holy Trinity

Our God is relational. That is a key message on this feast. He is relational both in his internal aspect and to the universe he created. In fact, the word "God" seems very blunt and impersonal when we reflect on the nature and mystery of  the ground of being who, according to revelation, is "love" and "light." This is why the repeated use of "God" or, even worse, "god" by Christians who wish to avoid male pronouns is intensely annoying. We rejoice to fall God "Father" just as we rejoice to call Our Lady, "Mother of the Church." How can we dare, in our sinfulness, to call God "Father," in any event? It is the Holy Spirit that testifies within us: "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." (Rm 8: 15-17) Let us, on this great feast, not be too distracted by philosophical explanations rather let us rejoice in the God is is personal to us, can relate to us and through his Son Jesus Christ, died for us.