Mary, Mother of God 2022

 

Mary, Mother of God (2022)

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Who appreciates Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus the Son-of-God-made-flesh, today?  Very few, indeed, because so many in today’s world love, seek, and delight in pleasure, sex, and even promiscuity in so far as it makes absolutely clear their own individuality, their law-less individuality and independence, their freedom to be what they want to be!   And that, of course, implies doing what they want to do in so far as the society they choose to dwell in can stomach it.

But, notice dear People of God for whom and to whom I am now writing, those last few words: ‘to be what they want, and to do what they want’, can be seen as pre-eminently characteristic of Mary, Mother of God and our mother in God!!

And yet, how different the results of those characteristics in the worldlings I first mentioned, who will end up sick in themselves, sick of themselves, and ‘spewed out of the land’ (cf. Leviticus 18:28) and kingdom of God; whereas in Mary, we find a beautifully human luminary, second only to her beloved Son, in God’s heavenly constellation of beauty, goodness, and truth.

How has our world come to so misunderstand the wonder that was and is Mary, the mother of Jesus?

The reason is because Mary is and always has been, regarded in Mother Church’s teaching as the touchstone for our right understanding of Jesus Himself: and so many today do not appreciate Mary aright because they have not understood Mother Church’s teaching about Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, Who is, she tells us, both Perfect God and Perfect Man.

‘Perfect Man’ means that Mary’s Son was an infant, a little boy, before He became a youth and ultimately attained manhood.  Joseph would have guided the youngster into manhood, but the formative years of infancy and childhood were Mary’s domain to whom the Child had been given from conception: Mary taught Jesus the fundamentals of human life and living!  She had been chosen to teach Him as man for His heavenly Father.

Mary was sublimely wise in her understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures, which are now our Old Testament, writings inspired by God to teach the children of Israel how to become children of God.   But Mary was specially endowed by the Spirit of God to become the mother of the Father’s Word and thus give Him flesh and blood to become perfect Man; consequently, Mary understood the Spiritual truths of Israel’s Scriptures as no other before or after her Son Himself, and she gradually taught her Son in His early years precisely what God had wanted Israel to learn … and even more, because words, even the words of Scripture, can never convey the fullness and beauty of God’s intent, and Mary listened for and to God better than any prophet or priest.

Even in full manhood Jesus could still be taught … about the perfection of  human sympathy and understanding befitting God’s perfect Man … by His human mother inspired by the Spirit of His heavenly Father as we learn from the marriage feast at Cana. 

Jesus had just started out on His public mission after having been baptized by John in the Jordan, and then tempted in the Judean desert by Satan.  He had come to the wedding with several chosen disciples when His mother told Him of their hosts’ dilemma … and her words were not just information, they contained a request, however hidden.   But Jesus, thus recently endowed and proclaimed by His Father for His divine vocation, was initially inclined to act instinctively as a young man most zealous to fulfil the mission entrusted to Him by His Father.  He was not going to be told how or when to use His divine power for simply human purposes! 

Mary however, guided by the Spirit within her and backed-up, so to speak, by the heavenly Father, completed her request in such a way as to give Jesus the opportunity to embrace what was ultimately His Father’s will: that Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry, be fully manifested as the One called to bring ultimate joy and fulfilment for all who would love God and each other.   That ‘initial manifestation’ of a fulness both divine and human that was to come only after His death and Resurrection was, by the Father’s good pleasure, Mary’s maternal blessing for her Son’s future career as our Saviour, our Glory, and our great Joy.

Jesus would always treasure and protect His Father’s wishes for Him above all; friends and relatives might interrupt ‘Your mother and your brothers are wanting to see you’ but Jesus’ answer was henceforth always as fully-grown Man, ‘these who do God’s will and are now listening to My words are my mother and my brothers’.   And Mary would never again put herself forward.  But men and women of today’s truly adulterous generation (Jesus’ words!) must never forget Jesus’ ultimate commendation of His mother to all His true disciples:

                 BEHOLD, YOUR MOTHER!

Respect, love, and treasure her if you would be My true disciple!

 

 

 

 

Christmas: Mass during the day, 2022

 

CHRISTMAS: MASS DURING THE DAY, 2022

(Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18)

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 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today is special, even in this country which no longer believes the Christian faith.  Why is Christmas so very special for us who do believe, who are believing and practicing Catholics and Christians? 

Of course, the supreme reason why Christmas is so special to us is that at Christmas we celebrate the birth -- as man born of the Virgin Mary of Nazareth – of God’s heavenly, only-begotten, Son: born, not of man, but by the power and grace of God’s most Holy Spirit, so that His mother, Mary of Nazareth, at His conception, in His birth was, and subsequently, throughout her life, remained, always a true virgin: the mother of a beautiful Child Who was the most sublime Gift of God.

This absolutely unique Child was perfect God and perfect man, and yet there was for Him, in His human being, a problem: one not recognized early on, but there, nevertheless, at the very centre of His being and gradually-developing consciousness, a question for Himself to solve: who is My father??

His mother always referred to St. Joseph as His father, and St. Joseph always behaved as such: loving, protecting, guiding and teaching the young Jesus through His teens and early manhood.  Jesus saw, He knew, that Mary and Joseph were one for Him, and He loved them both with all His heart, but while Mary was undoubtedly His mother, just as He was her child, the boy Jesus could not quite say that Joseph was His father; because He had an awareness, deep in His being, that God --- the God to Whom He Himself, together with Mary and Joseph, and all Israel, prayed, the God Who had made the whole of beautiful creation where, in which, He lived and played, with which worked as ‘the carpenter’s son’ --- yes, indeed, God Himself, sometimes seemed to say something to Him; something that touched Him so very, very, deeply, something that led Him to think that GOD was the  only One Whom He could fully, most humbly and gratefully, call Father.  

It all came to a surprising head when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went on their annual pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus was about 12 years old and He was so very impressed by the Temple worship He witnessed and took part in, by the words about God and the Scriptures that He heard from the priests, scribes, and holy people He met there, that He entirely forgot to turn up for the caravan preparing to leave for home, the caravan which, consequently, left without Him: Mary and Joseph having thought that He, Jesus, was with other young people excitedly running hither and thither, helping here and there, as they slowly moved off.

Jesus was, as I said, engrossed with what He witnessed and heard in the Temple and its precincts; but He was even more aware of and engrossed by a far deeper awareness of the One speaking in His inmost being: speaking so secretly, so meaningfully, and so very purposefully, that three days passed by before Mary and Joseph eventually found Him in the Temple precincts still listening, questioning and, occasionally, speaking about God.

As you will remember, Mary reproved her Son with the words:

Son, why have You treated us this way?  Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You!

Those words of Mary were suddenly determinative for Jesus, Who quite deliberately, calmly, and yet so very decisively said:

Why is it that you were looking for Me?  Did you not know that I must be in MY FATHER’S house?     (Luke 2: 48-49)

Mary and Joseph did not understand of course, but they all left together,  with the young Son now being led by that mysterious inner voice as well as – for the present – by the voices of His mother and presumed father, whom He obediently lived with, worked with, and loved in their home at Nazareth.

Mary treasured all these things in her heart for things were never quite the same again: her Son was manifestly growing in wisdom before and, more and more, with God; and also in His standing among local people gradually becoming aware of Jesus’ secret ‘something’.

The decisive moment came when Jesus was near 30 years old.  Still living in Nazareth and working as the son of the carpenter, He heard about His cousin John the Baptist’s work and pondered in His mind and heart on how God seemed to be working with John in that work.  Jesus’ pondering was, however, more listening than thinking; and His listening for that inner voice was always accompanied by His Own prayerful response to, and longing for, Him Whom Jesus now recognized exclusively as ‘My Father’, (cfr. Mt: 23:9):

Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.

After years of reading and learning as He searched the Scriptures for whatever they could tell Him of His Father in heaven; after years of humbly obeying and fitting-in-with the events of His ordinary life and duties in Nazareth; after years of prayerful longing for communion with His hidden Father; Jesus was in no doubt whatsoever when His Father, the Voice in the depths of His own Being, ultimately spoke to Him!

Jesus immediately left Nazareth and went to where John was baptizing in the Jordan in Judea!  Jesus went to meet, hear, respond to His Father now guiding Him to John the Baptist!!

And there, following His guiding voice, Jesus humbly joined the penitents asking for John’s baptism, and finally, coming up from the waters of the Jordan, He heard His Father’s voice from a cloud, and saw the Holy Spirit like a dove come down upon Him (Luke 3:21–22):

After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”

And there, dear People of God, we have the fulness of meaning for Jesus’ birth as the God-given Child of Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth: He comes to be our Saviour, our Redeemer from sin, and to be our Inspiration, showing us the best way to live the new life He has won for us as children of God, seeking to know, love, and serve their heavenly Father to the utmost:

You shall seek the LORD, your God; and you shall indeed find Him when you search after Him with your whole heart and your whole soul.   (Deuteronomy 4:29)

Were those the very words Jesus Himself first took to heart when He began searching and praying to answer that basic question of His Being in human flesh:

          Who is My Father?

 

 

           

 

 

4th Sunday of Advent Year A 2022

 

 Fourth Sunday of Advent (A)

(Isaiah 7:10-14; Romans 1:1-7; St. Matthew 1:18-24)

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you know very well the Gospel account of Mary’s  conception and the birth of Jesus, of Joseph’s loving and protective care for them both, and of the Magi bearing gifts; so perhaps we may today profitably give closer attention to the reason ‘why’ Jesus came among us, as distinct from the manner of His coming.

The simple fact is, that the Son of God became Jesus our Redeemer, out of love for His heavenly Father; He became One of us in order to save us from the fault incurred by Adam and Eve, a stain of the Devil that soiled what the Father had originally esteemed and loved as good – a stain now known as SIN -- which is in us ourselves and, inevitably, in aspects of our social structures,  and which, being the Devil’s spawn,  is always and implacably, actively against us as children of God.

Let us first of all try to appreciate that fact, Jesus did not come as some pagan-type of imaginary deity working miracles, making stupendous changes of whatever sort in human political and social life.  As the Word and Son of God He became Man out of sheer love for His Father, Whose love for the mankind He had originally made in His own image and likeness still endured despite the fact that both Adam and Eve had abused that ‘God-given likeness and freedom of choice’ by sinning.  The Son of  God willed to become a most humble and helpless human-child – Jesus, born of the virgin Mary of Nazareth -- simply and solely to rejoice His Father, by freeing us from the shackles and consequences of the devil’s deception and offering us the opportunity to become wholeheartedly loving and obedient, children of God anew.

Being free to live here on earth for our authentic human fulfilment, and thereby find  eternal happiness, is the supreme Gift Jesus offers and wants to give to each and every one of us this Christmas.  And an ever-greater appreciation of that prospect of freedom and fulfilment is the HOPE we treasure during our Advent preparation and the JOY we embrace and express throughout our Christmas worship and Christian celebrations with our children, friends, and neighbours.

Throughout the whole of the Old Testament period God had been gradually teaching and preparing His Chosen People to recognize and acknowledge sin in their own lives.  If we recall the original sin of Adam and Eve, when God confronted Adam about his part in it, Adam said, ‘It was the woman who gave me the apple to eat’; and when God confronted Eve, she said, ‘It was the serpent who deceived me’.  Neither of them was willing to accept personal fault, and that attitude became characteristic for their descendants to this very day.   The Mosaic Law was given to God’s Chosen People to warn them how to recognize and avoid occasions of sin; and Israel’s glorious prophets were sent to show the beauty and goodness of the God Who was calling them to a better understanding of human life as God had originally intended it: a life rejoicing in His love and delighting in His creation.

Ultimately God sent His only-begotten Son to complete the work as yet only initiated  through His gift of the Mosaic Law and the Prophets of Israel, a work, a purpose, which had floundered for many years in the Chosen People until the coming of John the Baptist.  John was, Jesus said, the greatest of the prophets; and John recognized himself as having been sent to prepare for, and even point out, the Messiah of Israel, Who would proclaim His Good News of eternal life, and bestow His Gift of the Holy Spirit of God.

However, as in God’s Chosen People of old, there is, a literally devilish resistance to God’s work in today’s world; and the fact, the spiritual reality, of SIN – manifesting itself especially as personal pride and ignorance, lust, hatred and indifference -- which Jesus came to destroy, is largely ignored and even hypocritically denied by society as a whole today. 

It is increasingly recognized that a human being can suffer much from unsatisfactory relationships with other human beings in the social set-ups at work, at home, and at play; and for such sufferers, helpers called ‘counsellors’ are increasingly provided with ‘promotional’ qualifications, so to speak.   But there is no public recognition of human relations with God!  All so-called personality or psychological sicknesses are exclusively referred to those ‘qualified’ counsellors who, as such, profess no spiritual awareness, no aspirations to holiness of life, nor are they given any authentic training in Christian spirituality.  Anyone feeling ‘unsourced’ guilt  sin is just to be told that it is all a matter of psychological crossed-wires or of the ‘genes and juices’ of human physicality.

You however, Jesus’ Chosen People of God, can recognise not only the sin of the world, but also the sins (at least some of them) we all commit personally, and you are well aware of  sin’s baleful, and ever-so-subtle, influence on your daily experience of living life to the full.  When Our Blessed Lord humbled Himself to the utmost before His crucifixion by accepting the full weight of human sinfulness upon Himself, He sweated so profusely that it was as though drops of blood were ‘watering’ the Garden around His kneeling or prostrate figure.

The fact that Jesus comes expressly to take away such a load from us by offering us, in Himself, peace of heart and soul through our restored relationship with God, is the reason why we, as Christians, are so filled with JOY at Christmas!

And in all this monumental campaign against sin, Jesus did not come seeking to accuse anyone, but simply to save one and all!

He came to begin His Father-given task as a child, so beautiful, so helpless and needy, and,  for Mary, so adorable!!  And He ended that task by dying on the Cross -- hated by many who were powerful and ambitious -- for love of us, with absolutely no recriminations.  So, throughout the whole of His life on earth, Jesus sought not to personally accuse but to embrace and save all who were and are willing to hear and respond to the first words and very essence of His Gospel: 

This is the time of fulfilment; the Kingdom of God is at hand; Repent and  Believe the Good News. 

‘Repent’ means turn away from sin, and in order to do that it is necessary to ‘believe’, that is turn towards, aspire to, Jesus’ Gospel or Good News of salvation, offering freedom from the power of sin.  We can appreciate how unique Jesus’ message and offer was if we think that men’s thirst for revenge -- so prevalent in radical groups all over the world --  is a deliberate rejection of and refusal to accept an absolutely essential part of Jesus’ Good News, namely that we must forgive ‘those who trespass against us’ if we want to have part with Him and gain freedom from the dominating power of sin in our lives.

Sin is incontestably manifest not only in the ‘older’ world around us but most sadly,  in the world and lives of even young people, where pride manifests itself so often in a distaste for what is ordinary, and their subsequent desire for excitement to lift them out of the ‘ordinary’ so easily leads them on to criminality and violence, excessive drink, sexual abuse, and drug-addiction. 

 Jesus’ offer of freedom from sin means His lifting from our shoulders all such burdens by His gifts of peace, hope, mutual love and self-respect, all of which are fruits of Jesus’ self-sacrifice and God’s grace in our lives.  Such fruits are redolent with the blood of Jesus and the incense of His Most Holy Spirit, and they cannot in any way be compared with, or imitated by, the political pseudo-blessings bequeathed to us by the  inglorious and bloody French Revolution, though expressed by purely rational ideals of liberty, fraternity. and equality, which convey no God-given grace able to raise us up above our native earthly sinfulness, and which are always themselves subject to changing human interpretations and aspirations.

For us, however, we have Jesus’ own chosen words to make clear for us the purpose of His coming among us:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me: He has anointed Me to bring glad tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.  (Luke 4:18)

He is the Anointed One, sent, come, to bring the Good News of the Gospel proclaiming His offer of liberty, freedom, for all presently held captive by their own sinfulness and spiritually benighted by the darkness and evil in the world around them.

How well Saint Paul understood and expressed our human situation

I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:23–25)

And the final book of the Bible, in tune with St. Paul, joyfully proclaims:

I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed.   (Those who fear Your Name) have conquered (the Devil) by the blood of the Lamb.  Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them.”   (Revelation 12:10–12)

Dear faithful People of God, your rejoicing at this Holy Mass should indicate that you already ‘dwell in the heavens’: only initially, it is true, but the way before you is level, smooth and inviting, and God’s goodness will guide along it to your full calling and ultimate fulfilment as a beloved son or daughter of the Father of us all.

Let us prepare to celebrate Jesus’ coming with, by the help of, Mary who knows supremely well , as our Mother, how best to help us co-operate with God’s Most Holy     Spirit in learning how to become ever-more true disciples of her Son in giving sincere and heart-felt thanks to God the Father, the Giver of all that is good.

3rd Sunday of Advent Year A 2022

 

3^rd. Sunday of Advent (A)

(Isaiah 35:1-6, 10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11)

 

It has often been said that too many Catholics know little of the Bible because of their failure to appreciate the fact that not only do the Scriptures form the basis of our Christian faith and Catholic teaching, but also that the Scriptures are the Word of God to and for each and every individual child of God.  Consequently, even the humblest of Catholics and Christians should be able to establish, sustain, and gradually deepen a personal relationship with God by the help of the Scriptures: for what we find written there can – under the guidance of the Spirit given us -- be of special significance and particular importance for our personal formation as a child of God and disciple of Jesus in a secular and hostile society. 

Let me now show you how Jesus recalled the Scriptures to John the Baptist in his prison, thereby helping him learn how to face up to the future that lay before him.

John had been told by his father Zechariah:

You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins.  (Luke 1:76-77)

And John had, indeed, tried throughout his life to be faithful to that calling to prepare the way for the Lord Who was to come.  From his earliest years he had lived in the desert seeking not food so much as the opportunity to learn and live the ways of God: ever striving to listen for, recognize, and respond to, His guidance.  Then having entered upon his public ministry, he had preached repentance to the people, who had come in crowds to be baptized by him in the Jordan.  Finally, having publicly rebuked the king himself for his sinful behaviour, he had been put in the dungeon where he now found himself. 

However, despite such fidelity, John had not yet come to know sufficiently well the Lord Whose way he had been preparing, the Messiah sent by Israel’s God to usher in the Kingdom of God.  There had been a time when he thought that Jesus of Nazareth, his own relation, might be the One sent by God; but Jesus had certainly not rallied the mass of the people around Himself as John might have hoped; and now -- perhaps because of his weariness from hunger, pain, and lonely abandonment -- John didn’t know what to think.  It was in some such a state of mind that he had managed to send a message to Jesus saying:

Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?

Jesus well knew John's faithfulness and courage; He knew full well that John was in danger because of his zeal for the Law of the Lord and the well-being of God's People. Was He -- Who later would tell the repentant thief dying on a cross beside Him, that he would, that very day, enter Paradise with Himself -- now going to let John, the greatest of all the prophets, just linger on in prison, unsure and worrysome of the outcome and value of his life’s endeavour, while awaiting a violent and degrading death in lonely isolation?  By no means!  Jesus would, indeed, send help: He would speak to John – who was, He declared,  more than a prophet -- through the words of the prophets so well known to him .

Accordingly He sent John's disciples back to their master with a reference to Scripture which they could easily remember and in which John would find the comfort and strength he needed, if, fully trusting in Jesus, he could open his mind and heart to the grace of the Spirit Who had inspired God’s Word:

Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.

As John considered those words the cloud of dark-unknowing in his mind and the burden of anxiety in his heart would have begun to lift; for those words showed that Jesus was, indeed, taking over from John; and that, as the promised Messiah, He was now preparing to usher in the Kingdom of God! 

The eyes of the blind were being opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;  the  lame were walking, and the tongues of the dumb were singing praise to God.

But those other words of Jesus:

The poor have the Good News – beginning with John’s very own word of proclamation ‘Repent’) -- preached to them;

were even more personally relevant to John.

It was the very last few words, however, that invited, nay, they lovingly warned, John to stand firm in his faith in God, and with confidence in his own calling by God, in order to  embrace the fulfilment of that calling now about to be asked of him:

Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me!

Words exhorting John to take courage from yet another prophecy of Isaiah:

Make your alliance with the LORD of hosts— for Him be your fear and your awe!  He shall (indeed) be a snare, an obstacle and a stumbling stone to Israel,  a trap and a snare to those who dwell in Jerusalem; and many among them shall stumble and fall, broken, snared, and captured.    (8:13-15)

People of God, note carefully, for here we can trace how grace works, secretly and powerfully, upon those in tune with God:  Jesus was offering John a glimpse of the ultimate fulfilment of his own life’s work and Israel’s calling.  As Moses had been given just a distant glimpse of the Promised Land before he died, here John is likewise being given a glimpse of the full majesty and beauty of the One Whose way he -- foremost of the prophets of Israel -- had been called to prepare: God’s Anointed, the Messiah of Israel, indeed; yet, still more, even the very Lord of Hosts Himself.

Jesus was doing for John what He would later do for the repentant thief: that is, urging, encouraging, him to gird up his loins and lift up his head in hope for what was soon to come.

That was indeed the message which none but Jesus could get through to John in his total isolation, a message carried by the Scriptures but only to be interpreted by John's life-long sensitivity to God’s ways, and sovereign willingness to once again commit himself, in response to the grace of the Spirit, to Jesus the Messiah, and to the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel.  John had prepared the way for Jesus, Jesus was now preparing the way for John; preparing him to die as he had lived, the greatest of all Israel's prophets. 

And so, when the soldiers would come to cut off John’s head, they would not find him cowering from fear in the darkest recess of his dungeon cell; but, having confirmed his alliance with the Lord of Hosts, they would discover John having  a profound joy in his heart and a gleam of expectancy in his eyes, with a new uprightness in his stance and a calm strength in his bearing.  All of this would show those executioners that they were not so much taking his life from him, as he, John, was offering it -- through them indeed! -- to Someone they could not see and did not know.

Such was indeed the case: they came, quickly and secretly, they carried out their dread task, and went back to Herod with John's head.  However, they left that dungeon both humbled and puzzled.  What had happened to the man imprisoned there?  They had come to take his life and he had received them as welcome guests, as friends bringing him a gift: what, indeed, had happened in that cell?  The answer was, of course, that John had come to realize that he had, indeed, fulfilled his life’s purpose: he had borne witness to God’s truth; he had pointed out, even baptized, God’s Messiah; and now -- having learnt his ultimate lesson through the words of Jesus and the Scriptures -- he had found the peace and been given the strength to seal his witness and crown his commitment to God in Jesus with his very blood.   

People of God, how will you experience the end of your days?  Will you feel you have fulfilled your life’s mission?  Will you be grateful to God for having guided you to do something worthwhile with your life?

Let us listen to Jesus again as He spoke to the people about John:

What did you go out into the wilderness to see?  A prophet?  Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.  For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.'  Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.

Dear friends in Christ, dear People of God, surely, when we come to our end and look back on our life, we want to humbly acknowledge the righteous judge sent by our loving God and Father, and embrace His presence with gratitude, humility and confident trust as did John?  Surely, none of us can ever envisage ourselves as painfully realizing that our life has been aimless, having pursued no saving purpose nor served any worthwhile cause.  In other words, none of us can ever willingly allow ourselves to be recognized as having been a reed, shaken hither and thither by winds of circumstance?  Who would ever want to risk, in those final moments, seeing oneself and being seen as one having enjoyed being “dressed in soft clothing” and having enjoyed the "good things of life"?

John the Baptist had fulfilled his life’s mission, and great joy, peace and gratitude were his at the end.  You might say, of course, that anyone called to be great -- like a prophet -- would feel they had a mission in life, a purpose to fulfil, and a cause to serve, but such is not the case with ordinary people not endowed with any special talents that they are aware of.  

Listen then to Jesus for a final time, and learn about yourself:

Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Dear fellow disciples of Jesus,  whatever the circumstances, all of us can -- in the power of the Spirit -- bear witness to Jesus: by teaching, encouraging, and correcting your children; by showing honesty in business and speaking the truth in love; all of us can be charitable in our attitudes and chaste in our relationships, steadfast in faith, selfless in service of God and neighbour; all of us can sympathetically share with the humble and those in need, and try to bear our own cross patiently with and for Christ.  Above all, as true children of Mother Church, each and every one of us can, through her teaching and sacraments, come to love our heavenly Father to the utmost of our being in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit.

Dear People of God, you are important enough to God for Him to want to speak to you, to speak with you, personally, in and through the teaching of the Scriptures and Mother Church, and above all by the example of the life, death, resurrection, and the  perennial presence and fruit  of Jesus Himself.  Let Him do this, beg Him thus lead you to fulfil your vocation in Mother Church, and true happiness here on earth and ultimate blessedness in heaven will be yours.

(2022)

 

 

2nd Sunday of Advent, Year A, 2022

 

              2^nd. Sunday of Advent (A)

(Isaiah 11:1-10; St. Paul to the Romans 15:4-9; St. Matthew's Gospel 3:1-12).

 

Advent is the season given us by Mother Church to prepare the way for Jesus' coming:  He wishes to heal our world’s suffering, and for that He needs entrance to the minds and welcome in the hearts and of men and women everywhere, most especially, the hearts and minds of every single Catholic and Christian; for no one is holy before the Lord, and pseudo-religiosity is among the world’s deepest and most painful sores.  Let each of us, as St. Paul said:

With one accord, with one voice, (learn to) glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

at this our Sunday gathering, and pray that His Spirit may rule in us, our families, our society and our world.

In today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah, we heard some words which are frequently imitated today by people of all persuasions:

            They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.

For there are many who, when speaking of themselves, use such expressions as, "I harm no one, I hurt nothing", thereby witnessing to and justifying their own life-styles.  If we try to take their words in the kindest way and on the worldwide scale, we can see what our modern society is claiming, for there seems to be no doubt that our world is, in a certain measure, improving; evidence, perhaps, of some moral progress – largely built on originally Christian foundations -- with regard to human beings, animals, nature,  and even the environment, beginning to be afforded more respect.

In the past, kings, emperors, and rulers have waged dreadful, slaughter-full, wars, often enough for merely personal pride and national advantage.  At other times, when floods came and crops failed, thousands, even millions died, and nothing was done by the rest of mankind.  You might say that was because others did not know what was happening, and that is indeed very true, but it is far from the whole truth, because even in more recent times, the potato famine in Ireland, for example, was known and more or less politically ignored, while the world-wide slave trade was blatantly practiced and protected -- not only by colonial powers -- for profit and power.

Today, however, the nations of the world are regularly urged, and frequently consent, to join together in providing help where and when needed.  Children are no longer used for cheap labour with such impunity as was formerly the case, and the equality of women is more widely recognized and accepted.  In modern societies the poor are supported; the disabled are beginning to be integrated more, and the mentally incapable are subjects to be cared for, not nuisances to be buried in oblivion or otherwise disposed of.   In all such respects our world is, indeed, much improved, and these advances are frequently, but quite wrongly, considered to be the result of purely human endeavour by those who think that to do no hurt, no harm, or even better, to do good, promote ‘freedom’ all around, is the panacea for all our world's needs and the surest guide to human fulfilment.

But all that, which is, it might seem, in such close accordance with Isaiah’s glorious prophecy, was – according to the prophet himself -- to come about by the coming of the Messiah for which Isaiah prayed with such burning hope and which St. John the Baptist in our Gospel reading translated into such blazing expectation, and that expectation, dear People of God is largely unknown today: good people of the world plan and do good things BUT those good things are the fruit of their own minds and hearts, for their friends neighbours, and all others like themselves, they are not thoughts, purposes and plans for God’s People; and as such, our modern do-gooders-of-much-good have no need for any inspiration, grace, and strength coming from any pretended Messiah.   

However, there are other, disturbing, indications, which seem to contradict such a rosy picture.  Never in history have there been such murderously successful leaders as Hitler the racist, Lenin the ideologist, and Stalin the opportunist tyrant, to say nothing of the Far Eastern demagogue, Chairman Mao, and petty African tyrants.  Closer to home and in days of peace, politics and politicians are suspect, being openly mistrusted by large swathes of the population; terrorism is not only practiced but also openly justified, while money is worshipped and thuggery practiced by drug barons and their minions who ruin more lives world-wide than even Hitler or Stalin were able to kill.  Corruption and venality are everywhere to be found infecting iconic sporting events, while terrorism and rogue states such as North Korea, Iran, and Somalia are constantly in media headlines.

Such considerations should lead us to think that perhaps our world’s apparent moral progress is not the same thing as real spiritual progress; and that is indeed the case, for morality is not holiness: mere morality can mask supreme pride, whereas holiness is not possible apart from fundamental humility.  The Scribes and Pharisees were most moral, despising the licentiousness and cruelty of both Roman and Hellenistic society; and yet you will remember from the Gospel reading that John the Baptist said some seemingly cruel words to the Scribes and Pharisees coming to him for baptism:

            Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

What was John targeting with such severity?  It was their racial pride, their presumed personal righteousness:

            Abraham is our father. (John 8:39)

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' (Luke 18:11-12)

What then is the Christian truth about our world's progress? 

It would seem that, to a large extent, the progress, which has been noted, is due to greater public awareness:

Then He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us.' "  (Ezekiel 8:12)

You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.   (Ps 90:8)

Harm and hurt are more readily done in the dark.  And so, while the light of day and the glare of public awareness can guide and promote human sympathy as they also expose and dissuade criminality, only the light of God’s grace discovers the pride and self-love which lie so often hidden in the depths of men's hearts, and which so frequently stain their most noble efforts and motivate their most abominable crimes.

Today we have instant publicity, world-wide awareness, and therein a primary reason for our apparent moral improvement; the counter indications, on the other hand, show that wide-spread within human society today there are latent forces capable of causing terrible harm and great hurt, forces which, far from being fundamentally changed by the threat of possible exposure, are merely more cunningly disguised and more deviously promoted in pernicious freedoms.

What did the prophet Isaiah say about not harming, not hurting, on God's holy mountain?  Listen:

They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

Hurt and harm, destruction and death, he says, will only come to an end, as distinct from being ignored or brushed under the carpet, when mankind is filled with knowledge of the Lord, when men and women are willing to humble themselves before God and seek to direct all their intentions along the way of the Lord Jesus, for the glory of Father, and the good of their neighbour.

Our modern do-gooders, however, and those who so confidently proclaim that they do no hurt, no harm, to anyone, often enough have no intention of obeying or glorifying God in what they do: rather they believe that the good they do, proclaims their own righteousness and humankind’s moral sufficiency without any dependence upon a God, a Faith, or a Church.

Until men and women of today come to recognize the true nature of the sin that is to be found not only in human actions but also in the human heart, there is no chance that any number of sincere endeavours will effect any real change to our world; and until it is recognized that salvation only comes with repentance, and as a gift -- from God alone, through Jesus, by the Holy Spirit -- no amount of self-justification will be able to bring peace to the heart of humankind.

We can all appreciate the peace pictured by the prophet Isaiah:

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.   The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den.    They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,

But the prophet solemnly told those who heard him that One alone, the promised Messiah, could bring about that state of affairs on earth:

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.  The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.    His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.  

People of God, let us recognize where we should look for salvation and fulfilment: it can only come to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Apart from Him, even in those who seem to be the best of human beings, sin is never absent, only not seen, not publicly appreciated as such; and the best works of merely human sincerity and concern have no power to promote that salvation which is human-kind's supreme good and which can come only as a gracious gift from God our Father in the name of Jesus, His Son and our Saviour.   

             

First Sunday of Advent Year A 2022

 

      1^st. Sunday of Advent (A)               

      (Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44)

 

 

 Advent has come round once again and I can well imagine that many of us who are mature adults might be thinking how the time since last Christmas has flown; and that, dear People of God, is what I invite you to consider today: how quickly the last year has passed by! 

I ask you as disciples of Jesus to do this because it is so easy for people to live through their whole life and, when it comes to an end, find themselves not only surprised -- the years having passed like a dream, as the poet puts it – but also quite unprepared for what awaits them.  That is why, in God’s Providence, the Church’s liturgy has periods of preparation – Advent and Lent -- that recur annually and thereby remind us: “Look, another year has gone by!   How many more do you think you have?  You need to prepare yourself for what might soon be coming.”

Today’s readings serve that purpose by reminding us of the ultimate significance of our life here on earth and how supremely important it is for us to make good use of the time at our disposal.  These readings have two main themes: first of all, they evoke the joy of pilgrims going up to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and praise in the hope and expectation of messianic times to come. 

Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.

In those words from the prophet Isaiah we can sense the excitement and anticipation of those pilgrims journeying to meet Him Who, they believed would guide them and their people along the way of salvation.

And then, in our Gospel reading, Our blessed Lord tells us of the need to be well and truly prepared for that final, solemn, meeting with the Himself when He comes, as Son of Man in heavenly glory, to judge the nations and reward His faithful servants:

Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken one will be left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.  Therefore, stay awake!  For you do not know (when) the Lord will come.

Surely our Christian faith and expectation should stir up in us -- who today are living in a war-besmirched and fear-oppressed world -- a similar confidence and determination as that which filled the hearts and minds of those ancient pilgrims in Israel who, as they walked along, encouraged each other with those words of exhortation:

            Come, house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

As Christians, and above all as Catholics, we are, as St. Peter said, a privileged People: for we have already -- in a far truer sense than those pilgrims could ever have imagined for themselves -- reached Jerusalem, the dwelling-place of the Most-High, because we have the privilege of being children of Mother Church, and in her, the letter to the Hebrews (12:22-24) tells us:

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant.

Therefore, being so privileged, we should come -- each and every Sunday -- with even greater joy and expectation to the house of the Lord,

            (Who) will teach us His ways, (that we may) walk in His paths.

The Jerusalem which Isaiah foresaw was a figure of Mother Church, where the faithful disciples of Jesus already enjoy a share in heavenly life, and are being continually guided, by her liturgy and sacraments, towards the fullness of Christian maturity that will ultimately enable them to attain the celestial Jerusalem and there join the  assembly gathered there -- the Church of the righteous made  perfect -- as fully living members of the Body of Christ, children of God in the only-begotten Son, able to be presented to, and  stand in the presence of, Him Who is the God and Father of us all.

Let us then pray wholeheartedly that we may learn the ways of the Lord and come to walk in His paths in accordance with the second theme of our readings today:

Stay awake!   For you do not know on what day your Lord will come;

for, not only do we not know the day of the Lord’s coming, but we have even been warned, quite explicitly, that it will take place when we least expect it:

The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.  

That final advent of the Lord will, indeed, be the supreme moment of faith, with no further time to pretend!!

St. Paul, that most faithful apostle of the Lord Jesus, explains what this means and how we should set about doing what Jesus requires of us in preparation for that meeting:

Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.  Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts.

We human beings are creatures of habit: we can do something one way, and then, by repetition, allow it to become first of all a tendency for us, and then finally develop into a firmly fixed habit that we do almost instinctively.  Now, in God’s Providence, the liturgy of Mother Church each year invites, indeed, urges us, to observe Advent as preparation for the celebration of Christmas, the birth of Christ; just as she also gives us Lent to prepare for the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord.  And she does this because, without repeated observance of such seasons of preparation, we might easily drift into a habit of unthinking observance of feasts of great moment for the Spirit at work in our lives, instead of establishing a truly Christian habit of preparation that will enable us to appreciate, celebrate, and profit from, the enduring goodness of the Lord.

Consequently, People of God, I urge you to use this Advent well: try to form a habit of welcoming the Lord into your life.  We have a month in which to start a new habit, or in which to strengthen a habit we have already been trying to build up over several, perhaps many, years.  The whole point is that if we do not have a habit of recognizing, welcoming, and gratefully responding to Jesus, a habit diligently practised and firmly established over years of observing the Advent preparation for Christmas, then when He comes, unexpectedly, at the end of our days, we might find ourselves unable to welcome Him.  Be sure, People of God, one cannot live a forgetful life and then, when suddenly challenged, come out with the right response or show the right attitude.  His coming at the end will be quite unexpected, there will be no time to collect our thoughts and weigh up what should be our attitude; we will find ourselves responding instinctively, at that unprepared moment, either in accordance with the character we have carefully built up by faithful devotion over the years, or with an attitude thoughtlessly allowed to develop over years of selfish, careless, and faithless living.  And that response will, for better or for worse, prove to be our final response and our last opportunity: a violent person, under pressure, will always react violently; a weak-willed person, under threat, will always be craven; a faithless disciple will always prove himself a hypocrite.   No wonder Jesus said:

Blessed is that servant whom his master finds doing (right) when he comes.

Recognize yourselves, People of God: sudden trials, sudden and unexpected threats, leave us neither the time nor the ability to act in an unaccustomed manner: to be found doing the Master's will when He comes, we need to have seriously formed good habits and the right instinctive attitudes.  Advent is an opportunity given us by Mother Church to try to establish the supremely good habit of recognizing and welcoming the Lord into our lives this Christmas.  Therefore, the way we prepare during the course of this Advent could be the mirror image of our state of preparedness when He comes – suddenly -- to settle accounts with each of us personally at the end of our time of preparation and formation in Mother Church. 

God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God;

the Psalmist tells us (53:3); and, most deliberately, the same Psalmist (53:4), immediately assures us that God found none:

Every one of them has turned aside; there is none who does good, no, not one.  They do not call upon God.

That was the situation, even in Israel, before Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour, came to redeem us; and that is still the situation of so very many today who turn away from, reject, Jesus.   They will not acknowledge a transcendent God; but yet, as weak men – and of course women – they indeed need a ‘god’ of their own making: a ‘god’ who condones power and pleasure-that-‘harms no one’; who lauds good works redounding to doer’s praise and self-approval; a ‘god’ who delights in our moral indifference, and most generously offers and recommends to men the option of suicide, an escape which is ever-available and never to be questioned.  Thus, deniers of Jesus and the true God, find pride and take pleasure in their sins, while the only law they support – based on no moral convictions other than popular approval -- inevitably fails, repeatedly, both to give justice to the suffering and abused, and timely protection for the weak and needy.

Those who thus rejoice in the world they have made, have not understood the probationary nature of our life experience on earth, where both the wonder of God’s creation – so beautiful with all its natural powers and sublime human potential -- and the nature and depth of mankind’s spiritual needs, seem irreconcilable for them.

So, dear People of God, use Advent to prepare to welcome Jesus fittingly: try to recognize all those occasions, both great and small, clear and only glimpsed, where truth and beauty, goodness and love, sympathy and help, power and fragility, fear and wonder, impinge on your consciousness and invite you to respond to God somehow present there, and may your Advent character of awareness, gratitude, trust,  peace, and joy further Jesus’ Kingdom of faith, hope, and charity in your souls.

 

Christ the KIng Year C 2022

 

 Christ the King (C)

(2 Samuel 5:1-3; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43)

 

 Today we are invited to rejoice in Christ our King, the Son of God made flesh.  We should be aware that throughout the New Testament the many mentions of "the God", for example, “the God of our fathers", "the God of the living", "may the God of hope", and other such expressions, all refer to God the Father, He is "God" because the Father is the source of all. 

However, because He is Father, always and eternally, therefore He always and eternally expresses His Fatherhood in His Son, His co-eternal Son, for without His Son He would not be Himself, that is, He would not be the Father.  The Father withholds nothing from His Son, as Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper:

All things that the Father has are Mine (John 16:15)

(Father), all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine. (John 17:10)

And therefore we heard in the second reading that:

            He (the beloved Son) is the image of the invisible God.

The Nicene Creed proclaims in our Mass the eternal relationship between Father and Son in the one Godhead: He is God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.   Therefore, in the one God, the Son is the essential, total and complete, expression of the Father's very being. 

Creation, on the other hand, is not essential to God; it is a choice He makes and, though it is an abiding choice of His will, it is only a partial expression in space and time of His infinite wisdom, goodness, and power.  Nevertheless, as true Father, He loves creation as He made it (Genesis 1:31):

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.

Since the Son is the total, co-eternal, expression of the being and nature of God the Father whereas creation is but a partial, temporal, expression of His goodness and truth, we can, nevertheless, understand there being a special relationship between the Son and creation, as we heard in the second reading:

He -- the image of the invisible God -- is the firstborn over all creation.  For in Him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers -- all things were created through Him and for Him.

Moreover, we can now appreciate why it should be the Son Who was sent by the Father for our salvation; for, though outwardly seen as a mysteriously humble figure known as Jesus, the son of Mary of Nazareth, the same letter to the Colossians tells us that:

            In Him dwells the whole fullness of the Deity bodily;

and therefore we can and indeed should endeavour to see something of the glory of the Father, manifested to us in the beauty, the truth, and the goodness of His Son through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It was the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the bond of love between Father and Son in the one Godhead, Who guided, strengthened, and sustained, the incarnate Son; Who -- having become one with us in all our powers and potentialities, even to the extent of sharing in our native human weakness, though without sin -- would be led to the full maturity of His human nature, through His appreciation of, love for, and response, to His heavenly Father, by the Spirit.

This was publicly manifested, as you will recall, at the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan (Matthew 3:16-4:1):

After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 

The beloved, only-begotten, Son of God, the Lord and Saviour of all mankind, willed to become one of us and be brought to perfection in His fleshly existence for our sake and for love of His Father, Who eternally loves mankind as He originally made it.  Because of our sins, that perfection in human flesh could only come through suffering as the letter to the Hebrews tells us:

It was fitting that He, for Whom and through Whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the Leader of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10)

And we see the true nature of Christ's glory in its earthly manifestation, as we glimpse His goodness and His humility, His patience and His fortitude, His faith and love:

Now since the children share in flesh and blood, He likewise shared in them, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.   (Hebrews 2:14-15)

This He was able to do because:

Though He was in the form of God, (He) did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.  Rather He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and being found human in appearance, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

And when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. (Hebrews 5:9)

Let us, therefore, raise up our minds from things on earth to have a look in faith at the heavenly beauty of Him Whom the prophet Malachi, in the name of God, described as the "sun of righteousness":

For you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. (Malachi 4:2)

For this Son-of-God-made-man was revealed in all His beauty by rising from the dead as the prophet Isaiah also had foretold (Isaiah 33:17):

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty, they will see the land that is far off.

Indeed, only the beauty of the risen Christ enables us to raise our eyes in hope to the promised land of our heavenly home with Christ.  As the prophet Zechariah had foretold:

On that day the Lord their God will save them, for they are the flock of His people.  What comeliness and beauty will be theirs!  (9:16-17).

What beauty must be His since He offers such comeliness and beauty to His faithful flock!  What beauty is His Who, rising like the sun, is able to bestow such blessings on those who formerly:

Sat in darkness and in the shadow of death? (Psalm 107:10)

To understand a final aspect of the glory of Christ the King let us now just consider Him in heaven.  There, He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and there we can recognize His eternal goodness, truth, and faithfulness; for, we are told that, in heaven, He is eternally solicitous for our well-being:

It is Christ Jesus, Who died, yes, Who was raised, Who is at the right hand of God, Who indeed intercedes for us. (Romans 8:34)

He is always able to save those who approach God through Him, since He lives forever to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

What way to God will those prayers of Jesus open up for us?  What guiding power will enable us to walk faithfully and perseveringly along that path?  Let us carefully attend to Jesus Himself on the Cross and learn His ways.

The people stood looking on (and) even the rulers with them sneered saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself”.   (Luke 23:35)

But Jesus did not save Himself.

One of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” (Luke 23:39)

He was the Christ, He knew He was the Christ, but still, He did not save Himself.  Why?

Listen yet more closely:

Then (the other criminal hanged with Him) said to Jesus, “Lord”, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”  And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23: 42-43)

Jesus, so calmly and faithfully certain what was to happen to Himself, did not promise that He would take the former thief with Himself into Paradise, “you will be with Me” He said; in other words, ‘He Who will receive Me into Paradise will draw you there with Me’.  Notice most carefully Jesus’ total commitment to and trust in His Father and in the Spirit Who was working in Him for the Father’s glory, for that, dear People of God, is -- for all His true disciples -- the royal way of Jesus from this world to the next as children of God.

All the conceits of our human sinfulness have gradually to be set aside until we are totally convinced that we can neither grab the fruit of tree of Paradise, nor can we merit heaven for ourselves.  Such fruit is given only to those who -- through faith in Jesus, and in the fear of the Lord -- become increasingly aware of His Gift of the Spirit at work in their lives and who humble themselves with heartfelt gratitude beneath such gentle yet sovereign goodness: those who pray for, and are willing to wait for, His lead in all things; those who sincerely seek to distinguish aright between His guiding and their own passions and fears, between His enlightening and their own imagining, wishing, and wanting; and finally, those who will then commit themselves totally in an endeavour to follow His lead as closely as their trust in Him, and death to themselves, will allow.

And here we should just glance back at our first reading:

All the tribes of Israel came to David saying: “We are your bone and your flesh.  In times past you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in; and the Lord said to you, ’You shall shepherd My People Israel’”.

Yes, dear People of God, Jesus Christ is Our Shepherd and Our Lord, He has been, is, and will be, with us in and through all the vicissitudes of life; whenever we turn to Him, He is, has been, and will be waiting and available; indeed, tracing our way for us, He has gone before to turn the dark shades of our death into the glowing portal of the heavenly home  which is even now being prepared for us. 

Lord Jesus, trusty Friend and Brother, dear Lord and Saviour, King of all creation and only-begotten Son of the eternal Father, may our celebration today further the rule of Your Spirit in our hearts and minds, promote Your Lordship over our society and our world, hallow the name of, give eternal praise and glory to, Him Who is and will be ‘All in All’. 

                                                                                                (2022)