14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Occasionally, in order to ensure we have our priorities in the right order, we need to apply a "litmus test." Such a test shows us without ambiguity what is most important in a world that can be confusing and complex. The greatest "litmus test" for how anyone encounters reality is: "Did Jesus rise from the dead on Easter Sunday or not?" Since the resurrection is the centre of history and the meaning of the universe the conquest of Jesus over sin and death is the matter of supreme importance not just for Christians but everyone: "... Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth." (Rev 1: 5) Reflecting on the Roe vs Wade legal decision in the United States of America, which is primarily about the endless tussle between federal rights and state rights, I think that the "litmus test" is surely: "Is abortion  the killing of an innocent human life or not?" Again, the answer to that question determines the rest of the debate. Likewise, in the Second Reading for today, St Paul tells his Galatian congregation: "For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!" (Gal 6:15) He also told the Corinthians: "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Cor 5: 17) If we substitute circumcision with any number of issues we face in the Catholic Church, for example, standing or kneeling during the Eucharistic Prayer, where to put statues in the church, to use Latin or not, etc, we find that we have a "litmus test" for us, too, in 2022. We can argue about all of those and other matters till the cows come home but if the Gospel has not transformed us it is all a waste of time. If we are so transformed by Christ and conformed to his example and life of service and self-sacrifice in the Holy Spirit then the answer to all of these other questions will come more easily and they may well fade into insignificance. St Paul also gave us the "litmus test" of love which can guide us in our day to day trials so that we do not lose sight of our Christian calling: "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries ad all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." (1 Cor 13: 1-3)

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Today we hear of a series of rejections given to Jesus. It is not uncommon in our own time to see or read of people rejecting Jesus, although often they are not rejecting a true picture of our Lord but a parody. What I think may be of use is to reflect on the reaction of James and John: "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Lk 9: 54) Sometimes I hear of people who experience judgment and anger when they come to a Catholic Mass. The regular parishioners do not have to say or do anything particularly "off" but they manage to communicate something which is the opposite of the "joy of the Gospel." Even worse they can go so far as to tell people off. This is often the case to do with the behavior of their children. Yet, the person doing the telling off is the same one who would wonder aloud why there were no young families or people in church! Notice that James and John use the expression "us" rather than "you." They think that they have the authority and power to call down the wrath of God. Jesus, I suspect, mocks this pretension by giving them the nickname "Boanerges - Sons of Thunder." (Mk 3: 17) Jesus response is, in fact, to tell them off. All of us who are regular and I would hope devout Mass attendees need to be alert to our hearts so that we are not poisoned by resentment against those who have yet to discover the beauty of the faith so as to practice it more regularly. The key is not to call down fire from heaven upon them but to communicate to them in all sorts of ways, especially through our hospitality, the love of Christ and the largeness of heart of our holy Mother the Church.

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Today we hear about the paradox of what it means to be a Christian. On one hand we hear of the honour: "... in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized in to Christ have clothed yourself with Christ" (Gal 3: 26-27) while on the other we hear of the suffering: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Lk 9: 23) The cross is not a one off event. We are to take up the cross "daily." We not only journey with Jesus, in the sacred liturgy, from Galilee to Jerusalem and from there on to Christ the King but also in the minutiae of everyday life with all of its frustrations and failures. Thus, baptism is not  one off event that has us somehow magically transformed rather it is an entry into a life, informed by and guided, in the Holy Spirit, that imposes  now standard of what it means to love. Peter tells us: "Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God." (1 Pet 1: 22-23) This gives us pledge not of temporal but heavenly glory that gives us the hope of a life that unites the whole of humanity in one great family with God s its Father: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave of free, there is no longer male nd female; for all of you re one in Christ Jesus. nd if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." (Gal 3: 28-29)

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 This feast is distinctive for being the only solemnity of the Lord which always occurs on a weekday. The significance of it can be seen in the number of statues of the Sacred Heart which are to be found with many, if not all, Catholic churches in New Zealand having one. Arising from the visions of a nun in 17th Century France, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, this feast serves to remind us of Jesus as the personification and incarnation of the mercy and love of God that he has for us personally. It tilts against the pessimism of the heresy known as Jansenism. This heresy is a form of Catholic puritanism or Calvinism. It is a very negative and pessimistic theology which places undue emphasis on judgement and the salvation of only a few souls. We know from Scripture that God is generous and looks not to condemn but to save: "This is right and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the Knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim 2: 3-4) As missionary disciples in 2022 we are called to embrace and communicate the joy of the Gospel. Let us use this feast to get in touch with the mercy and love of God which flow from the heart of Jesus Christ: "But God proves his love for us in that while we still sinners Christ died for us." (Rm 5:8) 

Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

 The best way, I think, to sum up this feast is that it reminds us that the Holy Eucharist is what the Church says it is. When we come forward o receive Holy Communion we are told: "The Body of Christ" and "The Blood of Christ." To this we affirm a personal "Amen" which echoes the Great Amen we make at the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer. Furthermore, I hold that this feast needs to be seen in tandem with the Feast of the Word of God which recently was promulgated for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Since the Mass is comprised of the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist, in one unified celebration, the two are necessarily linked. In the former we are told: "the Gospel of the Lord" to which we reply "Thanks be to God." In that we affirm that the words spoken are not simple literature but the living Word inspired by the Holy Spirit to feed us with the truth about God. Likewise, the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist are no longer that but become something different. That process is fittingly called, according to the Fathers of the Council of Trent, "transubstantiation." The entire eucharistic celebration, therefore, is the deployment of tangible elements transformed by God and used by Him to mediate his presence and life to us. This has implications not just for us who are present to the celebration but for the whole world. In the gospel for today we hear: "And taking the five loaves and two fish, he (Jesus) looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd." (Lk 9: 16) Like the disciples on that day we are called to cooperate with Jesus in feeding the world, not just with food and drink for sustenance, but also with the sacrament of his Sacred Body and Precious Blood which is food for eternal life. 

Secular Maxims in Time of Trial

 In the Bible there are many wise sayings both in the gospels, the wisdom literature and elsewhere. Every now and again I am reminded of various, often humorous, contemporary sayings, which can be deployed in times of trial. Below I put a selection of these in no particular order which are designed to assist people especially in times of anguish, failure or trial. Readers of this blog do not usually leave comments however I invite you to submit sayings of your own to share with us all if it suits.

 - love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe

 - the best revenge is a happy life

 - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger

 - today is the first day of the rest of your life

 - never tell on yourself

 - just keep putting one foot in front of the other

 - the Sun will come up again tomorrow

 - if life gives you lemons make lemonade then go find someone whose life as given them vodka and have a party

 - you can't hang ten on a lemon

 - cry and you cry alone; laugh and the world laughs with you

 - always be on your own side

 - there is no cure for stupid

 - birds of a feather flock together

 - the fish rots from the head

 - how do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans!

 - if something is worth doing it is worth doing badly

 - if you are not good enough without a gold medal you will not be good enough with one

 - a man's got to do what a man's got to do because if a man don't do what a man's got to do what a man's got to do won't get done

 - the climbing of every mountain began with a first single step

 - the art of life, is using what happens to us and not controlling it (sent in by S. Seconi)

last of all, from St Paul

 - Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice (Phil 4: 4)

Feast of the Holy Trinity

  Jesus says in the gospel for today: " 'I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now'." (Jn 12: 12) This is so true! The mystery of God is so great and his love for us so amazing that words cannot suffice. Even if Jesus was to teach the apostles and us in plain language the fulness of his message we could not understand it. That is why the Gospel must be proclaimed not just using the written word and speech but also in music, art and architecture along with every other expression of human longing. The mystery of the Holy Trinity has be treated by the great saints at length, for example, De Trinitate which took St Augustine many years to write, some say as many as thirty. The ecumenical councils of the Church and the creeds we pray on Sundays and solemnities testify to the greatness and importance of this foundational mystery. Let us ponder today the Holy Trinity and contemplate the implications of this wonderful doctrine for our own lives. To do this we must be open to the Holy Spirit who we celebrated last Sunday: " 'When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come'. " (Jn 16: 13)