13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Jesus says to the leader of the synagogue: " 'Do not fear, only believe.' " (Mk 5: 36) This begs the question of each one of us today - what am I afraid of in letting God into my life? Each of us needs healing according to our individual weaknesses and sins. Yet do I turn to God in our need? Do I need to wait until I am truly desperate to avail myself of Jesus' saving power? Why not turn to God now and ask our heavenly Father so that his will may be done in my life? After all he has promised: "Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened" (Lk 11: 9-10) and: "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Lk 11: 13) If we are afraid and struggle in faith, let us imitate the determination of the leader of the synagogue and the woman with the hemorrhage. Not deterred by the crowd or the laughter of the onlookers these two individuals place their trust on Jesus and strive to come close to him. This opportunity exists for us today in the sacrament we receive today - "Do not fear, only believe."

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 St Paul tells the Corinthians: "From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view. Even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way." (2 Cor 5: 16) Everything we hear in the New Testament is told through the lens of the resurrection. Jesus was vindicated by the heavenly Father, as the Son of God. This informs all the oral traditions which informed the Gospels as well as the New Testament letters. These are all suffused by the knowledge that the subject of these documents, Jesus Christ, is who he said he was. Thus, the lowly son of the virgin from Nazareth is thus present to us as the one who has conquered sin and death: " 'Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of Hades' " (Rev 1: 17-19) This power is manifested in our gospel today: " 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'" (Mk 4: 41) Jesus is primarily present to us not in human form but in the Gospel and the sacraments. It is there that we "know" him. Let us therefore not be confined in our thoughts to the historical Jesus, even though that is still relevant, but rather let us encounter Christ in his Church and in the Holy Eucharist above all.

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 The Gospel today speaks of the mysterious power of life in the seed. Even with modern science the ability of seeds to grow into beautiful plants and flowers is truly amazing. The power, indeed, is in the seed but the seed still needs to be sown and cultivated if it is to bear the optimal result. So too, our baptism sows the seed of faith in our infants or is planted and cultivated by those who are baptized as adults. Either way it takes effort and commitment. Nevertheless, the Gospel is brought to fruition by its own power. As we hear in the Gospel of Luke: "So you also when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, '' 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done.' " (Lk 17: 10) Since it is true that: "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded" (Lk 12: 48) we need to be mindful of St Paul's words when he says: "So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him (the Lord). 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: 9-10)

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 St Paul tells the Corinthians: " 'I believe, and so I spoke' - we also believe, and so we speak." (1 Cor 4: 13) So it is for us when we are prompted as missionary disciples to witness to our faith. We start from a position of faith, having encountered Christ, and also experienced something of his power. If we are to communicate the Gospel we need to have undergone a conversion experience in making both a choice for Christ Jesus and seeing the subsequent impact of such conviction in our behaviour: "But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered." (Mk 3: 27) Through the sacraments and other pious practices we restrain our disordered desires and learn obedience to the law of Christ, which yields the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is only then that our testimony to the joy of the Gospel can gain credibility for we witness to God's power to save. As a result, we do not rely on our own strength but on that of God as St Paul: "And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God." (1 Cor 2: 3-5)

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 The feast we celebrate today is intimately connected, I would say, to Divine Mercy Sunday. Both feasts focus on the verse: "Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out." (Jn 19: 34) The historical veracity of this is corroborated by the Shroud of Turin. However, why is it so significant? The evangelist saw it as the fulfilment of Scripture and as verification of his eyewitness account of the crucifixion: "He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he know that he tells the truth." (Jn 19: 35) Subsequently, St Margaret Mary Alacoque and St Faustina Kowalska saw in the phenomenon the outflowing of Christ's mercy. In their visions of the risen Christ they experienced God's mercy not just for themselves but for the whole world. We can also connect this with the water that flows from the side of the Temple (Ezk 47: 1-12) and the Patristic theology of Jesus as the Second Adam who has the Church born from his side as he hung in the sleep of death on the Cross (CCC 766). From death comes life and from shame and condemnation, mercy. This great mystery is revealed to societies who are starved of mercy and despair of forgiveness. Let us take advantage of this feast day to renew our trust in Christ's mercy and strive to show something of that mercy to others.

Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

 This feast of the Lord in Ordinary Time should not be taken out of context. The record of the Last Supper given us by St Mark in Gospel is within the Passover meal which itself is part of the Jewish calendar of liturgical feasts. The Second Reading places Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross in the context of the Jewish high priest entering the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. It depicts Jesus, who was not of a priestly family, entering the presence of the Father as a new high priest: "He entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption." (Heb 9: 12) The miracle of transubstantiation we witness at Mass takes place within the context of the Word, the people and the priest, making up the spiritual matrix of the People of God we call Church. Christ is present substantially in the Holy Eucharist and that is what we rejoice in today. Let us never take it for granted or be scandalized by our own sins such that we turn away from this precious encounter with our risen Lord. Let us also allow the fruits of this mystery to diffuse throughout our Church, schools, colleges, families and wider community: "so that God may be all in all." (1 Cor 15: 28)

Feast of the Holy Trinity

 The editors of the Lectionary preface today's First Reading with the phrase: "Moses assembled the people to remind them how the Lord had spoken out of the fire while they stood at the foot of the mountain." This serves to remind us, gathered at the foot of the cross, of the revelation given to us in Christ Jesus. Gathered in the Holy Spirit, God speaks to us through the Scriptures and communicates himself through the sacrament of the Eucharist. The elders or Israel, too, ate with the Lord: "Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. God did not lay his hand on the chief men of Israel; also, they beheld God, and they ate and drank." (Ex 24: 9-11) What a precious gift we have in the holy Mass which reveals God's self to us! Such a mystery can only be entered into through the Holy Spirit whom we celebrated last Sunday at Pentecost. Our prayer goes beyond ourselves, for it is the Holy Spirit taking us through Christ Jesus to know and love God as our heavenly Father: "When we cry 'Abba! Father!' it is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. In fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." (Rm 8: 15-17)