Pentecost

Today is a very special day for the Church. Born from the side of Christ, as he lay in the sleep of death on the Cross, the Church was and is today manifested to the world as a society of disciples transformed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Using, individually and collectively, divinely bestowed charisms and gifts members of the Church share the joy of the Gospel in all nations and cultures of the world. At Vatican II the fathers taught: "The Church, consequently equipped with the gifts of her Founder and faithfully guarding His precepts of charity, humility, and self-sacrifice, receives the mission to proclaim and establish among all peoples the kingdom of Christ and of God. She becomes on earth the initial budding forth of that kingdom. While she slowly grows, the Church strains toward the consummation of the kingdom and, with all her strength, hopes and desires to be united in glory with her King." (Lumen Gentium, 5) 

Pentecost is, therefore, not an isolated historical event. It is a process by which the Kingdom of God is established in the world. It invites humanity to be united as one family, in all its diversity, worshiping in the one Spirit: "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and we were all made to drink of the one Spirit." (1 Cor 12: 12-13) How, you may ask, are we to do this? It is by testifying the power of God in our own lives which speaks to the heart of every human longing regardless of race, social status or way of life: "Amazed and astonished they asked, 'Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own language?... In our own languages we hear them speaking about God deeds of power'." (Acts 2: 7-8, 11) 

Let each of us be renewed today in our commitment to serve the Gospel in our words and deeds. The peace in our hearts, present despite the anxiety of Covid-19 and economic anxiety bears testimony that we are bearers of the Spirit and heirs to the community gathered in the Upper Room. Thus, we can make the commission given by Jesus our own: "Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the father has sent me, so I send you'." (Jn 20: 21)

Feast of the Ascension of the Lord

The feast of the Ascension of the Lord has two major impacts on the life of the Church. The first is that we know that our future is to be with the Lord and that where the Head has gone the body will follow. The second is that our task is not, as a result of the Lord passing beyond our sight, to stand gazing and waiting for his return. Instead, we are made more keenly aware of the imperative to engage in the mission that he has left us as Church to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. We, in fact, become an extension of the Incarnation. We are now his presence to the world and the more obedient to his commandment to love the more apparent this will be. Such a challenging mission, however, is not given to us using our human capabilities. That would be impossible. That is why he promised us the Holy Spirit and why the feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost are so intimately connected. Not only must we celebrate today that Jesus has ascended to glory but also we need to pray fervently for the Holy Spirit to come upon us so that we can worthily and fruitfully participate in the mission of the Church.

6th Sunday of Easter

Today I am drawn to reflect on God's call for each one of us. Jesus says: "You did not choose me but I chose you" (Jn 15: 16) The initiative clearly belongs to God. He not only summons us into existence but continues to call us us onward to realize the gift of our life. Furthermore, we have  guardian angel given us as a spiritual help. Thus, our God is not an impersonal, life force or vague notion of "love" rather he is a personal, intimate and loving Father who longs for us to return his love. Our presence Mass speaks of our gratitude as we join ourselves with the great sacrifice of love made by Christ at the Last Supper and on the Cross. How mysterious is this love! It is not dependent on the Church or the sacraments. Rather, it is the sacraments that actualize that love and give it voice. Wherever the Church goes the love of God has preceded it. We find this to be the case with Peter and his encounter with Cornelius: "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" (Acts 10: 47) As we continue our journey as missionary disciples let us be comforted by the thought that wherever we are called we know that the Lord has prepared the way before us.

5th Sunday of Easter

Have you noticed how the disciples in the New Testament are not super heroes? Frequently, fortunately for us, they get it wrong, misunderstand Jesus, clash among themselves and even more fortunately, ask questions which we would have asked had we been there at the time. If this was a series of myths, propaganda and make believe surely the followers of Jesus would have been shown in a much better light?! In the First Reading we hear of tension in the community: "... the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews" (Acts 6: 1) and Church leaders feeling overloaded: "It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables." (Acts 6: 2) - sounds familiar? In the Gospel Thomas plaintively says to Jesus: "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" (Jn 14: 5) and Philip tries to resolve his doubts: "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." (Jn 14: 8) Again, have we not all be in that space? Poor Jesus! He wearily replies: "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?" (Jn 14: 9) Two thousand years on and would Jesus say the same thing to us as we struggle to come to terms with the challenges of our time as well as our own lack of faith? In a time of crisis and uncertainty we need to be reminded not just who Jesus is: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14: 9) but also who we are: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" (1 Pet 2: 9) and the mission that has been entrusted to us by God: Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Go through Jesus Christ." (1 Pet 2: 5) As we emerge from the Covid-19 restrictions let us be renewed in our determination to give witness to our faith and the joy it brings us and holds out to others. As we await the great feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost, bringing with them the promise of the Holy Spirit, we can be filled with gratitude and hope. The promises of the Lord are true and his power real: "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father." (Jn 14: 12)

4th Sunday of Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday

This Sunday, on account of the gospel and the collection taken up by the Church for the support of the National Seminary, is called Good Shepherd Sunday. The focus of Jesus in the gospel for the day, however, appears to be not only on himself as the Good Shepherd, but also on the sheep: "They will not follow a stranger but will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." (Jn 10: 5) People are waiting to hear Christ and his message. he calls them out from despair, loneliness and isolation. The loving rule of Christ is not an imposition. Likewise, the role of the ordained in the Church is not a diminution of people's freedom or a limitation on their practice of the Christian life. Rather, priests, in particular, are there to minister the sacraments to believers and to assist people to know Christ and to make him known. Unfortunately, the experience of sin shows that even ordained ministers can be a counter sign. The answer to such problems is not for clergy to become more like laity. Priests only become better priests by imitating more closely and faithfully the one whom they represent every time they celebrate the sacraments - Jesus Christ. Priests need to speak and act so that people can hear the Good Shepherd whose presence and voice they are waiting for and this way act as gatekeepers: "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his sheep  by name and leads them out." (Jn 10: 3) I encourage all parishioners to help their pastors through different ways of affirmation and constructive criticism so that their priests are encouraged in their ministry and more conformed to the person of the Good Shepherd.

3rd Sunday of Easter

The disciples on the way to Emmaus are not in "lock down." Nevertheless, staying in their "bubble," they head off for an unknown future. I wonder if it is a married couple or is it a couple of friends who have been their with Jesus "from the beginning"? They do not keep a "social distance" from the stranger who joins them on the road. Instead, they open their hearts to him and relate their dashed hopes: "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." (Lk 24: 21) They may not be confined with the rest of the disciples back in Jerusalem, in the Upper Room, but in their minds they remain imprisoned by fear and their insufficient/inadequate idea of who the Messiah is and what he could do. In fact, the Resurrection reveals that he is able not just to save Israel but to redeem the whole of humanity from sin and death. The disciples only get to grasp this, intellectually, when the stranger leads them once again through the Scriptures starting from the very beginning: "Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into glory?" (Lk 24: 26) Yet, the impact of the Resurrection a and what it means for them as disciples is only brought home to them at the "breaking of the bread." (Lk 24: 35)

Living in 2020 we, too, have heard of the Resurrection and we, too, have often had disappointments about the Church and our Catholic faith. In lock down, with no access to the sacraments, we have had opportunity to reflect and even to read the Scriptures or to follow Masses on line as they are live streamed throughout New Zealand and the rest of the world. Throughout all of this we have had Christ walking with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. I pray that when we get the chance, we will be able to gather with other disciples at Sunday and weekday Mass, as well as other sacraments, with a new perspective. In this light we will be able to see how our faith has guided us even in the lowest moments of boredom, anxiety or despair and how important our Communion is to each of us. We will then understand even more clearly the disciples when they said to one another: "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" (Lk 24: 32)

Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy

Why should we make a big deal of the rising from the dead of a builder/tradesman's son from Nazareth? The world seems in 2020 to have continued with the rise and fall of empires, pandemics and all the other ills of human society. As the saying goes: "the more things change the more they stay the same." Most people in New Zealand seem to no longer to believe in God let alone his Incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. In such a setting should we simply abandon our fanciful ideas and join with people wittering on about Easter eggs and Easter bunnies? The answer is given for us in today's Second Reading: "... he (God) has given us a new birth into a living hope though the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: a birth into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you...". (1 Pet 3-4) Let us be mindful, today, of how beautiful and joyful this inheritance is and how it sustains us in this covid 19 crisis. 

On this day Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, comes into our lockdown rooms where we live in anxiety and trepidation about the damage the pandemic is doing to our people, our economy and our Church. He says: "Peace be with you." (Jn 20: 19) It is then that the disciples, as do we, see his wounds which testify to his love for us and the extremes of his Passion. This, however, is not the end of the story. We do not stop at the wounds. Jesus then says: "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." (Jn 20: 21) We not only have an inheritance for eternity but a mission! We do not set out to bring the Good News of Christian hope to the world without support, however, since Jesus immediately gives them all they need to accomplish the task at hand: "When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'." (Jn 20: 20) With these gifts of living hope, peace and the Holy Spirit we can encounter with confidence whatever challenges the future throws at us.