15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today we have the parable of the Sower of the Seed. It must have been an important story for the Early Church as it is found in all three of the synoptic Gospels with the parable and its full interpretation, as an allegory, along with it. Surely, having seen the power of the Word proclaimed by Jesus, the first evangelizers were disappointed when converts fell away from the faith or failed to yield the fruit that they were capable of? I can identify with that as I see the Gospel proclaimed Sunday after Sunday, the work of the Catholic schools and that of devout parishioners who do their best to serve God yielding such a meagre harvest of faith. It is important that we realise that the power is not in us but in the Word. We are there to sow and to be generous in our sowing even as we know the soil is thin in places and society full of perils. The fact that the Word is not received is not due to our failings or any shortcoming in the message. It is up to the actions of the Evil One (Mtt 13: 19), trouble of persecution (v. 21) or the cares of the world and the lure of wealth (v. 22). This should not distract us because if we look closer we can also see a great harvest in those who hear the Word and understand it (v. 23). Let us also be alert, not just to the positive stories of faith, but also to the fruit that is or is not evident in our own harvest. Am I producing the fruit of the Kingdom?

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the Gospel Jesus points out: "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit." (Mtt 7: 18) Consistent with that Jesus, who liberates, reconciles and heals, does not inflict burdens on people. his programmatic statement in the Gospel of Luke is: "... he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. he has sent me to proclaim release to captives and recoveray of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." (Lk 4: 18-19) When he tells us, as he does today, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Mtt 11: 30), we have to believe him. If the practise of my Catholic faith and reception of the sacraments brings me dread, anger and disquiet it is not of the Lord. The desolations of the good spirit, as described by the Jesuits, are their not to oppress us but to call us back from our sinful ways. Perhaps, if my practise of the faith leads me to feel pessimistic and upset, I need to listen more attentively to the Gospel and ignore judgemental, critical and negative voices who,  behave like the lawyers Christ condemned, saying: "Woe also to you, lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them." (Lk 11: 46) 

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me," says the Lord. How can that be when we are sinners and he is the Way, the truth and the Life? As long as we live out of our ego and strive to assert it in the world we are not going to live as he did, speak as he did and pray as he did. St paul tells us, "But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." (Rom 6: 8) Our identification with Christ is the key to how the world with treat us. This means we need to die to ourselves: "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." (Mtt 10: 39) Only when our lives are conformed to Christ and we are united to him as our heavenly bridegroom can we truly says that the promises given in the Gospel will be true for us.

Sacred Heart of Jesus

How is it that people defy Jesus? He says: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Mtt 11: 29) In this age of individualism we accept no yoke and will not learn. In the song "My Way" the lyrics state: 

For what is a man, what has he got?

If not himself, then he has naught.

To say the things he truly feels; 

And not the words of one who kneels.

The record shows I took the blows -

And did it my way!

In the contemporary mind there is an heroic aspect to the defiant and self justifying individual who lives a lonely life on a lonely planet in a lonely Universe. There is no rest. The person plaintively demands: "You must accept me as I am!" What a contrast to the lives of the saints! They endure burdens, suffering and persecution and through it all they are sustained by the one who has loved them. The heart of the Lord feels for all humanity not just as an abstract but for each and everyone, epecially the small ones - those who trust in him. Lonely and crushed we may be at times but we are never alone and never unloved. What a contrast to the sentiments of "My Way"! St Paul, about to be martyred for the faith wrote: "At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen." (2 Tim 4: 16-18)

 

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Gospel today counsels against fear: "Have no fear ... Do not fear ... rather fear him who ... So do not be afraid ...". If one of the major messages of Jesus Christ was against us being afraid why is it, over the centuries, fear has been a domiant feature in catechesis? Why were children and adults instilled so much with fear so as to ensure their practise of the faith and compliance with religious rules? I think it is because fear is used routinely in other areas of life. It is quicker and easier to get someone to do what is the correct thing to do by frightening them rather than the long and difficult road of persausion and love. Yet, Christ goes by the latter option. On the way to Emmaus he listened to the disciples, walked with them and taught them again the Good News. St John writes: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love." (1 Jn 4: 18-19) If we wish to mature in faith and be perfected in love we need to conquer fear and trust solely in God's mercy and love which is revealed fully in Christ Jesus. After all, the Lord assures us: "So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Mtt 10: 31)

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Jesus says in today's Gospel: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I willl raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink." (Jn 6: 54-55) The Eucharist is for eating and drinking! He does not ask, primarily, that we worship his Sacred Body and Precious Blood. That is a consquence of understanding the enduring character of the Eucharisti species. No, he wants us to eat and to drink. This I think is because by eating and drinking we are united to him: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." (Jn 6: 56) It is not, therefore, a question of nourishment but of Communion. The reception of Eucharist binds us more perfectly to him and to one another. As we hear from St Paul: "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." (1 Cor 10: 17) I prefer to think of the Eucharist less as a reward for moral probity and more as a instrument and sign of Covenant. None of us can ever be worthy of the Eucharist yet the attitudes and desires of those who wish to be true disciples of Christ are essential to a fruitful partaking in the mystery of Christ's Body and Blood. The behaviour of the disciples towards each other, St Paul tells us, is relevant to how we receive Eucharist: "When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord's supper. For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!" (1 Cor 11: 21-22) There is no room for individualism, political division or class distinctions in the Mass. By eating and drinking we are made one and that unity means we treat one another as brothers and sisters of the one family.

Trinity Sunday

As Christians we must resist any temptation to think of God as impersonal. Jesus states: "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight. But even the hairs of your head are counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Lk 12: 6-7) The nature of God as Holy Trinity is mysterious and sublime but always intimate and personal. Likewise, we should never become pessimistic and think that this triune God is a vengeful and punishing God looking to catch us out. John has told us "God is love" (1 Jn 4: 16) and Paul that God: "... desires everyone to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim 2: 4) Likewise, in the Gospel today Jesus reassures Nicodemus: "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (Jn 3: 17) Jansenism is a heresy that is a form of Catholic Calvinism. It is a pessimistic, austere and judgmental theology that thinks only a small portion of humanity will be saved. On this special feast let us honour joyfully the magnanimous, loving and merciful God, revealed in Christ Jesus, who desires the whole of humanity to receive the salvation he has in store for us.