14th Sunday Year C 2022

 

The 14^th. SUNDAY (Year C)

(Isaiah 66:10-14; Galatians 6:14-18; St. Luke 10:1-12, 17-20)

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In our first two readings we were given an appreciation of the essential character of Mother Church: she is -- and we her children are -- according to St. Paul:

          A new creation.

Recalling St. Augustine’s jubilation for Eastertide, we can truly say that for a new creation there must be appropriately new nourishment, as the great prophet Isaiah himself foreshadow long ago by saying:

Rejoice with (Mother Church) and be glad because of her: Suck fully of the milk of her comfort; carried in her arms … may your hearts rejoice and your bodies flourish;   

for even Isaiah could not conceive of God’s faithful being nourished by the very Body and Blood of His only begotten and most-beloved Son made flesh.

Now, in the Gospel reading we heard of the Lord Jesus sending out seventy-two disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God in His name; seventy-two followers who had learned to delight in their proximity and communion with Jesus and the strength it afforded them: a proximity and joy that should be our present-day experience in Mother Church.

He sent (them) ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place He Himself intended to visit.

Their instructions were both simple and firm: first of all, they were being sent in Jesus’ name, they were not beggars; moreover, they had a clear message to proclaim, they were not to be pleaders or cajolers:

Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’   If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.   Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the labourer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another.

Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’

As you can see Jesus wanted His disciples to be single-minded and sincere: they were not to seek money, but neither should they be embarrassed about accepting whatever the house or town could offer by way of food and drink, for "the labourer deserves his payment".

Jesus likewise desired that they should be humble, but in no way lacking confidence in their mission: for their message was from the Lord, not from their own imagination or fancy.  In His name they were to announce a fact: namely, that "The Kingdom of God is at hand for you"; and to those willing to listen to their message they were to bestow a special Gift from the Lord:  'Peace to this household.'

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today, I read at Mass a passage from the prophet Amos (3:1-8; 4:11-12) which I suggest you read for yourselves if you were not at Mass today, Tuesday of the 13^th. Sunday), because we never hear anything like that in the universal Church these days.

Mother Church today almost exclusively speaks words of peace with and for the world; words expected of her by the powers that be, no matter what evils are openly being committed by men.  Neither does she interpret anything as a sign from God as did the prophets of old!  Has prophetic interpretation come to an end in the Church?  Has God no way of addressing, warning, men other than through channels closed to whatever is not welcome to modern men, be they religious or worldly?  For no matter what portents afflict mankind, even a lethal, world-wide, pandemic lasting for years; or ice-melting on mountain glaciers and in polar oceans, causing sea-levels to rise all over the world; while earth’s temperature rises causing climatic changes threatening food resources and human health;  in all these things Church leaders seem to say only what the world expects them, or their own fears allow them, to say.

Natural, though by no means normal, events which the prophets in our Scriptures thought demanded -- as communications from God -- to be explained and interpreted for the people, provoke no word of warning for our sinful and proud, deliberately-levelling-down-to-satisfy-all world.  Even a presidential promoter of abortion by words and official deeds is allowed to play the part of a ‘Communicating-Catholic’. What would have happened to Mother Church had Saint Ambrose thought in such ways?

Jesus did not want His disciples either to seek people's approval, or to hold back in their proclamation of His Gospel for fear of disapproval, and therefore He assured them:

Whoever listens to you listens to Me. Whoever rejects you rejects Me, and the One who sent Me.”

You can imagine how thrilled the disciples must have been when their mission proved to be a great success: the Lord gave the Word and great was the company of unseen angels contributing towards the accomplishment of the work; the disciples, to their amazement, simply gathered in the harvest.  Despite their initial fears -- arising from the awareness of their own incapacity -- they found that, in all their endeavours for the Lord, they had, most assuredly, been given:

Power to trample on serpents and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy, (so that) nothing would harm (them). 

No wonder then that they "returned rejoicing!”   Why, even the demons had been subject to them in the name of Jesus! They were, indeed, amazed, thrilled, and astounded!!

However, notice what Jesus said in response to their enthusiasm:

Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

And that is what St. Paul had in mind when, as you heard, he wrote:

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 

St. Paul loved to teach his converts that belief in Jesus, together with baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, makes us members of the Body of Christ.  He believed this so firmly, and understood it so concretely, that he could then go on to say that, having become members of His Body, we too, therefore, have been crucified in Him and with Him:

Through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Let us just try to understand what this meant for Paul.  In his contemplation of this union between Christ and the believer, Paul -- absorbed in divine truth and filled with an overwhelming desire to respond to and co-operate with the Father’s calling -- had been led to recognize that:

In Christ Jesus neither does circumcision mean anything nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation.

No earthly power or pride can save us from the destructive power of sin; only the totally gracious gift of God’s Spirit in response to Jesus’ self-sacrificing love on Calvary can bring us salvation.

Paul had been granted the insight that, -- through the power of Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension -- we, who as baptized believers have become members of His Body are a new creation, have also -- by the power of His Spirit -- risen heavenwards with Him.  We still live in, and experience, our weakness on earth; but we are now endowed with a share in Jesus’ heavenly life, a share that enables us to live, henceforth, in a more heavenly way for heavenly prospects.  Paul tells us that if one must boast, one should boast about what the Lord Jesus has done for us on the Cross, in His Resurrection, and by the gift of His Spirit.  Circumcision means nothing: that is, personal pride in one’s own holiness gained by legalistic observance of a written Law, and national pride in the exclusiveness of one’s birth; all that means nothing Paul says.  Uncircumcision too means nothing: the ancient Greeks' boasting in their superior wisdom, the Romans' vaunting of their worldly power, the modern super-powers with their super-bombs and missiles, all that too, ultimately, means nothing.

For a Christian there can be only one cause for boasting: what Christ has done for us and for all who are willing to accept Him as Lord, and to obey His Spirit bequeathed to us in Mother Church, the only power on which we can surely rely:

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit who works all in all; (for) one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. (1 Corinthians 12: 6, 11)

He is, indeed, the Spirit of Glory, Who alone can ensure our names "are written in heaven". 

Therefore, People of God, we are encouraged today, by the prophet Isaiah, to rejoice in Mother Church: the Church Our Lord continually sustains, promotes, and protects through the working of His Spirit, so that, as He originally and enduringly intends, we may ever be able to drink deeply of, and find delight in, the abundance He gives her.

We are encouraged to rejoice in such a way over Mother Church because, as Isaiah foretold, it is in her and through her that:

The Lord’s power shall be known to His servants.

For, though scarred and disfigured by the sins of both high and low: by her hierarchy, by her ‘basic’ priests and ‘common’ people; though mocked and hated, ignored and abused, by a lustful and willful world all around, Mother Church is mankind’s only authentic meeting-place with God, thanks to His enduring faithfulness to us in Jesus.

In her, however, Jesus always meets us on His terms, not on ours:  He lovingly condescends, comes down, to meet with us; we do not in any way compel or require Him.  Above all, He comes thus freely and lovingly when, at Holy Mass, we do what He requires of us ‘in memory of Him’.

And this most sublime fulfilment comes our way today when, in response to His command, we assemble as one on His Sabbath Day, to offer worship, praise and honour, glory and thanks to God our Father.  On this glad occasion we share in the heavenly and eternal liturgy being celebrated by our High Priest and Saviour.  Here, He does indeed come to us Personally, in the Eucharist, and draws us, by His Gift of the Spirit, ever more and more with Himself towards the Father.  He inspires and enflames us with that Love which makes Him one with the Father and the Spirit; that Triune Fire of eternal Love which is the glory and the very Being of God, and which can – O wonder of wonders! -- be shared by us in Jesus as life everlasting.  A communion both total and fulfilling, with what sublimely transcends us: the Almighty God, hidden, yet humble and so very, very, good.  A communion causing us joy ever more fresh and fulfilling; a communion bestowing on us a peace beyond all previous awareness or present conception; a communion where both deep personal contrition and transfiguring delight in God can calmly embrace us and each other.  

 

 

 

13th Sunday Year C 2022

 

13^th. SUNDAY of the Year C

(I Kings 19:16, 19-21; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; St Luke’s Gospel 9:51-62)

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have something about the nature of an authentic Christian vocation in our Gospel reading today, something we need to think about and try to learn from.

First of all, we heard that the Sons of Thunder, James and John, on hearing that the Samaritans of a village they were approaching would not welcome Jesus destined for Jerusalem, wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume them, but:

            Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.         

Jesus had called the two sons of Zebedee, fellow-fishermen with Peter and Andrew, but at the present He was having to be very patient with them because their natural impulsiveness and decisiveness needed to be firmly tempered and gradually reformed for Jesus’ own purposes but, most certainly, without being crushed.

As they proceeded on their journey someone said to Jesus:

            I will follow You wherever You go!

And Jesus answered him:

Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head.   

Those were words of enlightenment so that the enthusiastic young man could make a better judgement of what he wanted for his future.  Nothing further is heard of him in the Gospel.

However, there is another man they met, and Jesus said, as soon as He saw him it would seem:  Follow Me.

Obviously, Jesus saw something very good in him; something we can only try our best to fathom out what it might have been.

The Gospel goes on and tells us that the young man heard and understood what Jesus had said to him:

            But he replied, ‘Lord, let me go first and bury my father’.

Notice that he answers Jesus immediately as ‘Lord’; from that call of Jesus, the young man knew Jesus as his ‘Lord’.  Others will say ‘I will follow You Lord, but …’   This one, chosen and called by Jesus, says first of all ‘Lord’.

He then went on to ask, as you have just heard, ‘let me go first and bury my father’.

First of all, wanted to do what he considered an important duty, that is, as son, to bury his father.  Now, Jesus above all loved His Father, and that surely made the young man’s request echo deeply in Jesus’ own heart. 

But that was by no means all.  Jesus knew intimately the prophets of Israel, the great ones who foretold of His coming and destiny but also those nearer to His day who spoke of the times He might well experience Personally, and one of them, Malachi, had these words about times soon to come (Malachi 4: 5-6):

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their sons and the hearts of sons to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.

We are well aware that Jesus knew that passage from the prophet, because He told His questioning disciples that John the Baptist had been the Elijah mentioned by the prophet; and now, here before Him at this very moment, was a young man whose heart was indeed being turned to his father, asking Jesus that he might go and fulfil his duty to his recently deceased father.

But there is something yet more, something much more mysterious, for Jesus – giving the permission requested of Him – said:

            Let the dead bury their dead.  But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.

You, young man, whom I have just called to follow Me and who have, indeed, recognized Me as your Lord, you are not one of the dead whom I tell you to let them bury their dead: I have just chosen you because My Father has already chosen you for Me, therefore, I tell you:

            YOU, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.

Now, we know from the Gospel that Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God from the very beginning of His public ministry exclusively, save for the Twelve alone whom:

He (once) called together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (Luke 9:1-2)

We hear no more of that very special young man chosen by Jesus, save that Jesus did Himself say later:

The law and the prophets lasted until John; but from then on, the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone who enters does so with violence. (16:16)

Dear People of God, be well aware that the Father can call, speak to, souls before the call of Jesus reaches them, or sounds meaningfully in their minds and hearts, but that prevenient call of the Father always urges towards Jesus Who most assuredly knows who is being thus sent to Him by the Father,, and why.

We have yet another possible-vocation who said to Jesus in the Gospel today:

I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home. 

He says he will follow, but first ….

Jesus, for him will be Lord, when … 

Moreover, he requests the opportunity to do not an important duty so much as an emotional leave-taking of family and, most probably, friends at home; which in no way relates to an immediate and life-changing vocational opportunity from God.

             

(To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

 

Dear friends of Jesus in Mother Church, so much is done these days in response to people, so little in response to Jesus. People at the best can be ministers, guides, helpers, even a few can be authorities in the way of Jesus … but not to the extent of being reverenced, ‘worshipped’, as the nearest to Jesus for us here on earth.

Jesus is our all and He is ‘available’ to us, and for us, here on earth: we have His Spouse, His infallible Church, our Mother, in which His most Holy Spirit abides; and we have Jesus’ own real, sacramental Presence – His very Body and Blood – in Mother Church’s sacrifice of Holy Mass.

Jesus’ Holy Spirit abides in no individual person however holy … and that means that no individual whomsoever can stand-in for Jesus in our soul and conscience.  Jesus alone merits our all, and that is, in Him and with Him, for the Father’s glory in heaven and His will on earth.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, what a privilege it is for us to be disciples of Jesus, sons and daughters of Mother Church, moved by the most Holy Spirit to walk along the ways of Jesus, outlined for us by Mother Church and her Scriptures, in the hope and anticipation of finding our ultimate home in heaven, celebrating our Father’s feast of love, gratitude, and thanksgiving.

 

(2022)

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

62 (To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:61–62 (NAB)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malachi 4:5-6 (NAB)

Now I am sending to you Elijah, the prophet.  Before the day of the LORD comes,  the great and terrible day; He will turn the hearts of fathers to their sons, and the hearts of sons to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with utter destruction.

 

 

 

 

Corpus Christi Year C 2022

 

CORPUS CHRISTI (C)

(Genesis 14:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17)

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today’s three readings for Mass give clear guidance for our thoughts about devotion to the Eucharist in Mother Church, among the Catholic faithful, today.

Our first reading, a piece of ancient history or historical tradition, concerned Abram who had just rescued Lot, together with his family and possessions, from four invading kings, perhaps from areas such as modern Iraq or Iran, who had been ravaging Canaan.  Abram, at the head of his victorious forces, was met by Melchizedek, the priest king of Salem (later our Jerusalem) with the words:

Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.  And blessed be God Most High, Who delivered your enemies into your hand.

Melchizedek is a very mysterious figure for us, but he was doing what all priests of ancient times were appointed for and expected to do: bring God’s blessings down upon their people’s needs, and then be channels whereby gifts of praise and sacrifice from men might ascend, and be acceptable, to God.   Melchizedek, a priest-king, had come to congratulate and thank Abram and his men for delivering Canaan from those northern invaders, and he came with bread and wine to refresh Abram’s battle-weary forces.

As a priest bringing bread and wine, of course, we immediately see Jesus in Melchizedek, and our Eucharist in the bread and wine of Melchizedek, and that is the first type of devotion to the Eucharist in Mother Church today to which I wish to draw your attention: communicants who like to consider their reception of the Eucharist at Holy Mass as a sort of reward for the good they have done, or tried to do, previously; they gratefully receive Holy Communion as a recognition of, and reward for, their fidelity.

Our second reading gave us a snippet from St. Paul writing to his converts at Corinth in Greece, where he tells them and us that:

As often as you eat this Bread (which Jesus says is His Body) and drink the cup (which Jesus says is the new covenant in His Blood) you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.

There we have a second type of Eucharistic devotion, one which is very liturgical: many receive Holy Communion as part of ‘being at Mass’: because without that participation their presence at Mass, they think, would be incomplete, not ‘proper’ in some way, certainly not properly ‘fruitful’; indeed, some such disciples might easily come to consider Mass without Communion as not worth continuing with.

Now, we should turn to our Gospel reading where Jesus, surrounded by a crowd of people, had been:

Speaking to them about the kingdom of God, and curing those who had need of healing.  

His Twelve disciples were apprehensively aware that the day had been long and darkness was approaching, and so they came to Jesus saying:

Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions, for we are in a deserted place here.

Jesus acknowledged what they were saying, but said something which, at first sight, seemed rather pointless:

            Give them some food yourselves.

They could find nothing more than five loaves and two fish to hand.

Of course, Jesus was fully aware of the situation and He had only wanted to focus His disciples’ attention on what was needed and what was about to happen; and so it behoves  us also today, People of God, to attend to and learn from Jesus as did the Twelve.

First of all, notice that Jesus had said, ‘give them (the listening people) some food yourselves’.  Today Jesus still expects His priests to give His People, food.

Moreover, He had the people sit down in groups of fifty to receive the food the Twelve would give them … they were not to grab it for themselves, they were to receive it from Jesus’ apostles then, as from His priests today.

We are told next that:

Taking the five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven, Jesus said the blessing over them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.

Whereupon:

            They all (the crowd of five thousand) ate and were satisfied.

Dear People of God, we rightly see that wonderful miracle of Our Blessed Lord as a foreshadowing of the Holy Eucharist in Mother Church today. Could the twelve basketfuls of remnants, collected after the people had eaten, possibly have been a grateful sign of Jesus’ recognition of the Twelve walking with, learning from, serving, indeed seeking to look after him,  that day??

However that may have been, notice this one thing above all, dear friends, on this Sunday when we are considering devotion towards the Eucharist: Jesus gave His blessed bread as food to sustain: not only the crowd that day, but also all His future faithful followers, food they would need if they were to continue following Him and become true disciples furthering His mission.  That is the very basic attitude, the root devotion, we should have towards our reception of holy communion at Mass these days:

We, who are trying to be faithful followers of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, NEED to receive His heavenly gift of His own Body and Blood for our sustenance, strength, and progress, for the furthering of the Kingdom of God in our lives and in the world today.

There can be other devotional attitudes for the reception of Holy Communion at Mass, but they can only be supplementary to what is basic: we need the food Jesus offers us, and we are called to receive it not as an indulgence of any, sort but as the NEED of our Catholic and Christian lives.

As regards the two other devotional, eucharistic, ‘attitudes’ previously mentioned, both need strengthening, purifying, by a more personal relationship with, towards, Jesus, giving Himself as Lord, giving His Personal Self as Saviour, to us; not just as, a supposed reward, not even as the summit, the crown, of our liturgical offering, but as a Person, our sublime Lord and Saviour, wanting to establish, build up, an intimate and uniquely personal relationship with each of us, whereby His Spirit might guide, rule, and form us as authentic disciples of Jesus, and fulfil us as adopted -- in Jesus -- children of God, able to rejoice wholeheartedly at Our Father’s heavenly banquet.

(2022)

Trinity Sunday Year C 2022

 

Trinity Sunday (C)

(Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; St. John 16:12-15)

 

 

What is happiness for a human being?  How is it to be found?   Can it be ultimately, definitively, acquired?

In answer to that last question ‘can happiness be ultimately acquired, gained for oneself?’ the Christian answer is ‘No!’; but, according to the Christian promise, it can and will be given by God to chosen ones, and we can be among those who will receive it from Him.

Let us now turn our attention to the other questions: what is happiness for a human being and how is it to be sought?   My answer is short and all the more sure because it is short: happiness is to live in harmony with and accordance to our fundamental make-up, and to aspire to our ultimate fulfilment.

In our first reading from the book of Proverbs we heard of the remarkably close relationship that exists between mankind and the rest of creation:

Thus says the Wisdom of God: The LORD possessed me, the beginning of His ways, forerunner of His prodigies of long ago; from of old I was poured forth, the first, before the earth.  When He established the heavens, I was there; when He made firm the skies above, when He fixed fast the foundations of the earth; when He set for the sea its limit.   Then was I beside Him as His craftsman, and I was His delight day by day, playing before Him all the while, playing on the surface of His earth, and I found delight in the human race.

Obviously, for Scripture, creation was indeed a joyful work of wisdom and love!!  The wisdom of God rejoiced supremely we are told:

Playing on the surface of His earth (where) I found delight in the sons of men.

There we can sense how close are the bonds uniting us with the whole of creation: bonds of deep sympathy and joyous compatibility, bestowed on us by God Who created the whole universe -- with mankind as its crown -- through His beloved Son, the Wisdom of God, by His nurturing and hovering Spirit of love.  Son and Spirit, the Father’s two creating hands!

Moreover, such bonds with creation are not just the indirect result of God’s creative activity, they are directly willed by Him for our well-being and creation’s greater glory; for man, as lord of earth and of the universe, was made indeed to be the channel of God’s presence and grace for creation:

The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.  The Lord God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name.  (Genesis 2:15,19)

God blessed them, saying: “Be fertile and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.”  (Genesis 1:28)

Behold the richness of our human make-up, conditioned by so many and such varied, original and joyous, bonds: bonds of root compatibility with the whole of inanimate creation; bonds of appreciation for all living sources providing for the food and furtherance of our society; bonds of gratitude for all animals serving us and claiming our stewardship before God!!

Dear People of God, we are not wrapped up in our own selves; we are opened-up, so to speak, by our very position in creation!  Selfishness is not in harmony with, nor is it according to, our original, fundamental, make-up; and going in that way against the very grain of our being, can never bring us happiness; no, not even on the natural level. 

Our faith proclaims that we, unlike the rest of creation, are not made for a merely natural destiny; being specially created in the image and likeness of God, we are endowed with a supernatural potential and calling to share in the divine life of mutual love and commitment: 

God created man in His own image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.  (Genesis 1:27)

Given, therefore, along with today’s serious, and indeed pressing, concerns for our present environment, and the life of future generations of men and women here on earth; the wide-spread alarm at the ever greater incohesiveness of human society  world-wide, let us look more closely at the relevance of the teaching we have just reviewed with regard to that ab-original concern of human-beings, "How is true happiness to be found today? 

Disciples of Jesus, children of Mother Church, dear People of God, our Faith teaches us that we are called to find our fulfilment by sharing, eternally, in the happiness of the eternal and infinite God Who made us, the God Who is One and Three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three divine Persons in the One Godhead: a plurality of Personal relationships both simple and spontaneous, sublimely beautiful and pure, yet rich beyond any measure or compare.

For such a fulfilment there is need of constant development for us, from the very origin of our spiritual life: development through our natural experience of personal life and social commitments, such as obedience, gratitude and love, co-operation and friendship; development through our willingness to share in working for the bettering of social life; above all, development through our gradual awareness of and response to the mercy and goodness of God calling us, drawing us, to His beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour, that we might find in Him an introduction to what will be eternal blessedness for us.  Life eternal, a life-experience totally unimaginable without Jesus, a life for which we are called to become  our truest selves in Him Who was sent to be One among us for a time, One with us and for us eternally.

Jesus has taught us that, in accordance with the faith and commitment we show in answer to our divine calling, we can begin, even here on earth, to experience a foretaste of the blessedness of heaven:

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full; (John 15:11)

My Father, Who has given (you) to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch (you) out of My Father's hand.  (John 10:29)

Therefore, since our eternal blessedness is bound up with the Three Persons in One God selfishness is once again found to be, fundamentally and totally, opposed to any aspirations for our true happiness here on earth; for, the intimate life of the Holy Trinity in which we -- in Jesus by the Spirit -- are called to ultimately participate, is a mystery of love, life, and commitment. 

Life, the glory, of the Most Holy Trinity is the expression of what is a divinely mutual and totally comprehensive knowledge:

No one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him; (Matthew 11:27)

together with what is the only possible response to such comprehensive knowledge of divine Being and Beauty, namely, a transcendent love and commitment, as manifested in human flesh by Jesus in His Passion:

The hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. (John 16:32)

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,   

When Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit."  Having said this, He breathed His last. (Jn. 17:1; Luke 23:46)

Love, based on knowledge of the truth, and issuing in commitment, is ultimately the best guidance that can be given to humanity in its supreme quest for happiness. 

People of God, even in everyday, ordinary, experience, those who are committed are also to some extent admired or even envied, because, having a purpose in which they can lose themselves, they become more or less free from the stifling bonds of self-concern.  The unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in what we call the Holy Trinity, is the supreme Christian mystery: total love, based on comprehensive knowledge, evoking total commitment, and issuing into eternal Life and fullness of Being.  We are called to share in that Divine Blessedness as members of the Son and members of that Body of which He is the Head.  In Him, by His Spirit, we are destined to see the beauty and experience the majesty of the Father in all truth, and in a beatific response of love to that Vision to be, by the Spirit, entirely committed in total self-forgetfulness to praising the glory of the Father, and thereby come to the fullness of our life and being in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1)

People of God, our human nature, created by God for Himself, has, indeed, been vitiated by sin but it has not been destroyed; and so we are always liable to have what Wordsworth has described as ‘intimations of immortality’: insights, in this case, into ourselves and the realities of our life and calling, which far surpass in their penetration and perceptiveness all our normal surface observations and awareness.  Our deepest human longings for that freedom and fulfilment which alone can give us true happiness can be penetratingly clear, but too frequently that clarity of vision becomes clouded over when we turn to our own devices, and experience the deceits of men, or discover the vanity of the world’s easy promises.  We should learn today, and never again forget, to appreciate the treasures of our faith, and above all to look with ever deeper admiration, reverence, and awe, to the Holy Trinity -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- for that inspiration, enlightenment, and power, that will enable us to seek aright in this life and ultimately to receive in the next, God’s Gift transcending all earthly imaginations and desires: the Gift that will transfigure and glorify the whole family of God and establish for all eternity  the Kingdom where God is All in All.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pentecost Sunday Year C 2022

 

PENTECOST SUNDAY (2022, Year C)

(Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23)

 

 

No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, those words of St. Paul are special to me not only because of what they express but also because of what they embrace.  Jesus had said earlier (John 6:44):

No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draw him;

and so, we now know that no one can come to Jesus and learn from Him unless the Father first of all draws him, and then the Holy Spirit enables him to say “Jesus is Lord”.  That is, the goodness of the Father draws us to Jesus in order that subsequently, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we might confess and proclaim, Him.

The Father does not draw anyone to Jesus and just leave it at that. The Father, the Son (the Word of God), and the Holy Spirit, are One for Jesus the incarnate Word: the Father draws us to Jesus that we might, as true disciples, learn by the Holy Spirit to confess Jesus as both Lord (God) and Saviour.

Now, all that is mirrored in Jesus’ very first words to the disciples after having risen from the dead, and while they were still keeping behind locked doors for fear of the Jews:

Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent Me, so I send you: receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.

In that way the Risen Lord showed Himself to be indeed the Lord and Master they had lovingly known and obediently followed; and He now confirmed His identity by means of the wounds of His body and the words of His mind and heart …. There was no room for doubt after such testimony!

‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ … such was to be their personal endowment when Jesus Himself would no longer be with them (Jn. 14:16-17):

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.  But you know Him because He abides with you (in Mother Church), and will be in you (personally as true disciples). 

Thus the gift of the Spirit was for their sanctification and peace in Mother Church and for their personal guidance, strength, and comfort as disciples of the Lord.  There was also, however, to be a special dispensation for them as Apostles: the Holy Spirit would inspire, support, and sustain their endeavours for the continuation of Jesus’ public ministry by their world-wide proclamation of Jesus’ Gospel of Salvation, and the Apostolic establishment of Mother Church as citadel and source of sacramental life and divine truth:

I have told you this while I am with you.    The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name — He will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you. (14:25-26)

They had to wait and pray in Jerusalem for a short while before receiving that promised gift of the Spirit … praying with Mary above all, and looking back to those days, months, and few years spent with the Lord: thinking over all that He had said and done in their presence, and wondering where the Spirit might lead them for Jesus’ glory. 

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together, and suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.   Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.    And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Whom, what, did they proclaim?   The mighty acts of God manifested in Jesus, and proclaimed in the Good News of Jesus!

You knew that of course; but notice how they proclaimed Jesus: IN THE SPIRIT! 

Mother Church has never proclaimed Jesus merely as One attested by trustworthy historical records; her memory of Him is also and has always been her abiding experience of Him as the living Lord in heaven, and our loving Saviour still present to and working with His Church on earth through His most Holy Spirit.  And what exultation must have thrilled the hearts and minds of the Apostles when the Spirit came upon them in the presence of the assembled Church for the very first time, to inaugurate that abiding presence and power!

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.   At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.  They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?  Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language?   We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travellers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”   They were all astounded and bewildered, and said to one another, “What does this mean?”

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us give heart-felt thanks for, and lovingly meditate on, God’s Gift of the Holy Spirit Who is ours in a truly special way on this most holy day in Mother Church, for there is supreme comfort, confidence, and joy for us in the presence of the Spirit.

Above all, He is the Advocate, Strength, Light, and inalienable Hope and Peace of Mother Church, for He abides in her; but also, there is comfort in the Spirit for all true disciples wanting to know, seeking to serve, and longing to experience, Jesus as their very own Lord and Saviour. Only the most Holy Spirit can lead us, in conformity with the Scriptures, along the ways of Jesus to serve and help fulfil His saving purposes for our world today, and also to form us individually in the likeness of Jesus that we may find true joy in a personal relationship with Him.  For what deeper comfort and joy can there be, than that of becoming more and more one with Jesus, Perfect Man and Perfect God, the most beloved Son of His God and Father, and of thus discovering ourselves in Him as truly adopted children of the heavenly Father, fulfilling our deepest personal being and our highest spiritual aspirations.

But there is yet more, for there is also earthly power and purpose available for us in the Spirit; because each of us is offered, and can have, abilities and gifts able to respond to and conspire with such power.  All our hopes and aspirations can, in that way, find true fulfilment in the prospect and purpose the Spirit opens up before us: all that God has prepared for those who love Him here on earth:

 

To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.  To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues.   But one and the same Spirit produces all of these.

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ that is yours, mine, and every faithful Catholic and Christian’s vocation:

            To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. 

And to discover, re-discover, confirm, and fulfil, that vocation it is necessary, above all, to let God speak to you; do not crowd His voice out, do not let His voice be crowded out by activities, thoughts and/or fears; that is exactly what so many do in order to avoid hearing God’s voice in their deepest heart and conscience, they are too busy, too occupied, too worried or fearful, to LISTEN.   They use such preoccupations as excuses; but those are truly foolish and futile excuses, because God most certainly does speak and can be heard by all who will to listen; and He wants to speak words of love and salvation to all.  To that end He has given His only-begotten and truly beloved Son Who, by the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit (Mary of Nazareth listened to Him!) became Man … perfect Man.  And today, God offers and sends anew His most Holy Spirit to all who will, like Mary, allow themselves to hear and listen to his words of love and fulfilment, promise and peace – as calmly and quietly as they can, and with what love they have -- shutting out, not God this time, but the clamour of self and the world subject to the devil’s mockery, bombast, and lies.

(2022)