23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 The first readings from this and last Sunday come from the Wisdom literature. Being wise, like being humble, is not fashionable today. Often, if we follow reality tv, foolishness is praised as people make a spectacle of themselves to the mockery of others. True wisdom discerns between the shallow and the profound or the significant and the trivial. In God's plan for us personally and humanity, in the Resurrection, a genuine perspective by which to measure life is revealed. This is not a series of maxims or pithy sayings although the words of Scripture do give us wise advice. Rather, it is the person of Christ Jesus who gives us the insight we need. Saint Paul tells us: "He (the Father) is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord'." (1 Cor 1: 30-31) Thus, the key to true humility and wisdom is to be found in relationship with Christ Jesus.  It is through prayer and journeying with Jesus in our everyday lives that we are not going to simply aspire to sporadic moments of wisdom or insight but to integrate God's attitudes and values in a wise way of life so we are not drawn into harmful attachments especially to material things. True detachment and wisdom means we perceive our possessions not as defining us but as being there to serve the purposes of the Lord: "So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up your possessions." (Lk 14: 23)

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 There was a song by Billy Joel called "Honesty" and he sang that it was "such a lonely word. It is hardly ever heard." One could also say that about humility. Yet, that virtue is what we are given to reflect on today: "My child, perform your tasks with humility" (Sir 3: 17) and "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Lk 14: 11) How are we best able to attain this humility? It is certainly not to be found in self abasement and false humility which are really pride in disguise and disingenuous. The key to this important attitude is found in our second reading: "But you have come to Mount Zion..." (Heb 12: 22) It is in the encounter with the mystery of God and the awe that we feel at his love and mercy that we are able to put ourselves into true perspective and know our real significance in the scheme of things. This means that we will not be prone to self promotion or peg our self-esteem on the approval of others. Not for us to "keep up with the Joneses." Our hearts can then be turned to pleasing the Lord. He asks us to imitate God in his generosity with no need of return: "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Lk 14: 13-14)

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

 It is interesting to hear this week about the priority concern of a Jew in the First Century AD who asks: "Lord, will only a few be saved?" (Lk 13: 28) What is the question that someone would ask the Lord in 2022? If you go to funerals and listen to the eulogies there seems to be an automatic assumption that the deceased is "with the angels" or "looking down from heaven." This sentiment disregards any accountability for what the deceased has done or not done during his or her life. St Paul teaches, however: "For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil." (2 Cor 4: 10) Elsewhere in Scripture we have sayings such as: "For many are called, but few are chosen." (Mtt 24: 12) Some people, such as those influenced by Jansenism, take this to mean that very few will enjoy the glories of heaven. At the same time we can read: "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) The response of Jesus to the question today is a warning against presumption. We are not passive in the face of the challenge posed by sin and death. To be saved and live in the freedom that God wants for us, now and for eternity, we need to "Strive to enter through the narrow door." (Lk 13: 24) We need to follow our Lord and Master through the door rather than stand idly by as spectators saying: "We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets." (Lk 13: 26) This parable may have been a shot across the bows to the Jews of Jesus' time and of the first Christians that the Gentiles would listen where they would not but it also has relevance to us today especially if we are smug and entitled in our cultural Catholicism. 

Feast of the Assumption

 In the first reading today we hear that the child to be born of the woman "clothed with the sun" will "rule all the nations with a rod of iron. (Rev 12: 5) In the Magnificat, from the gospel we hear that: "... he (God) has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones... and sent the rich away empty." (Lk1: 51-53) The humble life of the maiden from Nazareth is, in the mystery of the Assumption, participated intimately and fully in the revolution brought about by the life, death and resurrection of her Son. This cosmic altering and transforming reality is not a questions of "ghosts and mirrors." It is the ultimate and complete destruction of the empire of sin and death. This has implications not just at the end of time. It may be gradual but the first fruits of the new creation are already manifested in the body and soul of Our Lady. This process will not stop until the providential will of the Holy Trinity has been accomplished: "Then comes the end, then he (Jesus) hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." (1 Cor 15: 24-26) Thus, the Assumption is not just an historical event but also a sign of God's power to work through the human body, in all its weakness, to bring about his glorious plan. It gives us confidence to ask her intercession knowing that she already shares in the victory that we aspire to: "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us up with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph 2: 4-7) 

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Today's gospel is unsettling. Jesus, at the Last Supper in John's gospel says to the disciples: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you" (Jn 14: 27) and the Risen Lord greets his disciples: "Peace be with you." (Jn 20: 26) This is also the case in the gospel of Luke from which our reading for today is taken: "Peace be with you" (Lk 24: 26) Yet, Jesus says in our present text: "' Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!'" (Lk 12: 31) How can we square the circle? Does Jesus bring division or does he bring peace? 

The key to this I propose lies in Jesus statement about the nature of the peace he brings: "I do not give to you as the world gives." (Jn 14: 27) Peace is not merely the absence of war. The Pax Romana in the time of Jesus, imposed by imperial might, suppressed military conflict but bedded in oppression and suffering for subject peoples. Worldly peace is necessarily limited and contingent. It maintains worldly structures and relationships that are tainted by sin and self-interest. This phony and inadequate imitation of true peace is destined to fail. Speaking prior to his passion Jesus goes on to say: "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father." (Jn 14: 30-31) 

The peace of Jesus is therefore established is the love of the Father which is experienced in the Gift, which is the Holy Spirit. In this peace we know ourselves to be truly loved. Jesus, in his victory over sin and death, reveals God's power over everything that threatens us and we can rest peacefully in his love. Thus: "Jesus answered them, 'Do you now believe? the hour is coming, indeed, it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!'" (Jn 16: 32-33) In a time of low level persecution of the Church in New Zealand, as Christian faith is maligned and marginalized in wider society, let us ask for the peace of Christ so that we may stand strong in faith and witness to the love of Christ and the joy of the Gospel. 

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Today's gospel always prompt from me a smile when we hear about how the lazy slave who knew the master's wishes gets a "severe beating" while the one who did not know the Master's wishes but was also lazy would get a "light beating." I wonder what the difference is between the two? Not that I am up for a beating of any description! It is clear however, in answer to Peter's question: "Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?" that the whole of humanity will be answerable before the tribunal of Christ for what they have done with the talents, gifts and charisms given them. St Paul writes: "For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil." (2 Cor 5: 10) As a result, we need to be alert to our observance of the gospel so that greed, consumerism and self-indulgence do not infiltrate our lives and distract us from our vocation as missionary disciples. As disciples we need to not only listen to the Master but also be prepared to suffer with him. In the letter to the Hebrews we hear: "We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse that he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do no neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." (Heb 13: 10-16)