18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Jesus Christ is the centre of history! His resurrection destroyed the dominion of inevitable and everlasting death and opened the path to eternal bliss through divinization into the life of the God he referred to as "Abba, Father." Without the gift of this life, mediated through his passion death and resurrection and made substantially present for us in the holy Eucharist everything is indeed "vanity of vanities." Riches, in particular, which consume the minds and strength of so many are a mirage. Physical and sensual satiety cannot mask the meaninglessness of a life without Christ. Jesus tells us: "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." (Lk 12: 15) St Paul advises: "Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry." (Col 3: 5) We need to to be alert to the temptation to conform ourselves to the values of this age for our Lord is uncompromising. We should not be found in the company of those Pharisees you loved money: "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God." (Lk 16: 15) 

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 The gospel message today is not only about what to pray, as we see with the Lukan version of the Our Father, but also our attitude to God as we pray. We do not know in detail how St John the Baptist thought of God but we know that he expected a fiery judgement. The image that Jesus uses, that of a Father who surpasses in generosity and love all human fatherhood, inspires confidence. Christian prayer is a cooperation with grace. We cannot think that we can bribe God or impress Him with our virtue or our righteousness. This, as we know from St Paul, is impossible. As a Pharisee of the Pharisees he gave it a good go, so much so, that he persecuted the followers of "The Way." He recalls in his letter to the Philippians: "If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of the Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless." (Phil 3: 4-6) In coming to know Christ, Paul finds that he discovers truly the love of the Father and who it is to whom he has been praying for the whole of his life, yet with the wrong attitude. This revelation transforms him in a radical way. He cannot remain in his of way of prayer because his attitude to God and reality has been fundamentally altered: "Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings be becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead." (Phil 3: 7-11) Thus, a truly Christian attitude of prayer conforms us to Christ and brings us to experience something of the love that the Father has for the Son and the Son for the Father, in the Holy Spirit. We cannot return to the old ways predicated on pleasing an unpleasable God or placating a remorseless and punishing Father.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Today's gospel speaks of the hospitality given by Mary and Martha to the Lord. This is a curious episode because there is no mention, as there was at the wedding fast of Cana, of the presence of any of the Apostles. It is an intimate domestic encounter where friends catch up after a period of absence. It is also speaks of the all too familiar tensions that can arise in family life over who does what. Just as Jesus elevated the wedding feast of Cana to become one of the signs of the inbreaking of the Kingdom, leading eventually to the sign of the resurrection, so too he takes this moment to teach his friends and us a lesson about the spiritual life. As I see it, Jesus is not just a guest to be fed and watered. He is also the host because he feeds Mary and Martha with his teaching. This is the point that he makes to Martha who is so intent on being the host that she forgets to be a guest. What ever we "give" to God we receive so much more from his hand. In fact, anything we do "give" him is derived from what we have already received from his hand. The mind of God and his generosity are beyond us but if we sit at his feet and listen to the Word we know that we will continue to be shaped by his love and filled with joy at his wonderful gifts. St Paul wrote: "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 'For who ha known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor' 'Or who has given a gift to him to receive a gift in return?' For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen." (Rm 11: 33-36)

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Today, in the gospel reading, a lawyer asks: "... what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Lk 10: 25) I find the word "inherit" to be a strange one. To me it speaks of a passive attitude as I wait, as the prodigal son does when he says: "Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me." (Lk 15: 12) Even worse, the term may suggest entitlement. The lawyer possibly has a magical mentality where all he has to do is keep the Torah and he will "qualify" for eternal life in the sense of ticking the boxes of a questionnaire. Jesus does not deny the purpose of the Law since, in answer to the lawyer's summary of it, he answers: "... do this, and you will live." (Lk 10: 28) It is interesting that Jesus responds by using the words that the lawyer uses and thereby draws out the hidden agenda behind the question. The sting in the tail, using the lawyer's summary, is: "And who is my neighbour?" (Lk 10: 29) Then follows the classic parable of the Good Samaritan. The lawyer is obliged to acknowledge that the one who fulfilled the Law was in fact someone who was outside the Law. All the lawyer can say is "The one who showed him mercy." (Lk 10: 26) The Lord's response to this: "Go and do likewise" (Lk 10: 27) reveals to us that the key to eternal life lies not in fulfilling prescripts of the Law but in showing mercy to others. It can be added that in order to show mercy I must have an awareness of the law otherwise how can I know when and to whom I am to show mercy? St Paul tells us: "... but sin is not reckoned when there is no law." (Rm 5: 13) Thus, eternal life is arrived at not just in knowing the law but having received it, to live it out in mercy towards my neighbour so that the intention of the divine will is fulfilled. In doing so I will become aware of my own need of mercy or of the mercy that I have received from God. I am brought to act towards others out of gratitude and joy since I am no longer slave to my own inability to keep God's law perfectly: "But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. the end is eternal life. For the wage of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rm 6: 22-23)