18th Sunday Year C 2022

 

18^th. Sunday of the Year (C)

(Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23.  Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11.  Luke 12:13-21)

 

 

Watching a news programme on the television a few years ago, I saw a picture of a Mosque in Birmingham filled with men worshipping.  Then, and even more now, you could go, to Christian churches, even to Catholic churches, and find them half empty.  Why is this?  Because so many Christians, too many Catholics, are not living their faith today: they are either living for the world, for its pleasures and advantages, or in fear of the world in its denial of God and criticism of the Faith.  The Muslims I then saw filling the mosque, on the other hand, were there, at that time, because they felt themselves to be a minority somewhat under threat, and so they were rallying together round the one thing that, in a somewhat alien country and historically Christian society, most distinguishes them from others and most unites them among themselves, that is their Muslim faith.  It was like that in Ireland over a hundred years ago when Irish men and women, under persecution and oppression, held firm by rallying together round their faith, their Catholic Faith,  which distinguished and sustained them in the face of their Protestant persecutors and British opponents.  The same phenomenon occurred in Poland when Catholic Poles were under atheistic Communist rule.  When oppression more or less ceased in both Ireland and Poland, then the practice of the Catholic faith also began to fall in fervour as men and women, more at ease with an  apparently friendly world, began to enjoy living in the world more than they rejoiced in the practice their faith: with the world an enemy, the faith was a lifeline; with the world apparently friendly, should the precepts of Catholic faith be allowed to disturb that mutual acceptance and the approval of surrounding society?

Today especially, even where Catholics still value their faith, too many are tempted to live at ease with the world in which the ruling society most assiduously claims itself to be doing GOOD, by doing whatever is acceptable to modern men and women, by promoting whatever assimilates the great majority of them into one … a process that used to be  known as finding the lowest common denominator, but which is now regarded as political correctness, enforceable by criminal law.

Those modern Catholic and Christian believers and practitioners of whom I speak do not openly or totally give in to such temptation, but are prepared to make serious concessions to it, and so, they begin to talk about the need to make our faith acceptable to and popular with, modern society where people claim to have a much greater knowledge of science and a much wider understanding of  non-Western cultures than their forebears possessed, and a much greater awareness of and hatred for, racism, colonialism, prejudice, etc. etc., indeed for whatever divides or distinguishes.   In this way some come to justify singular interpretations of the Faith, indeed they seem to feel it their vocational calling to do all they can: watering down difficult teaching and brushing aside unwanted rules, all in order to make their presentation of the Faith as attractive and as easy to understand as possible, for others whom they hope to thereby persuade to accept the Catholic way of life.  People will come to the Faith it is thought and said, if, but only if, they find us nice people not overburdened with troublesome principles; only if they find our message accommodating and comforting, and if the portals of our church are open wide,  welcoming and obstacle free, to all and sundry.

This is a most fundamental and insidious perversion of the Faith.  Jesus tells us quite categorically that it is the Father alone Who draws disciples to Him:

No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. (John 6:37)

The Father draws and gives to Jesus disciples who have come to know Him through the witness of Mother Church and her children, disciples who themselves make Jesus known by proclaiming His Truth and presenting His teaching to all who are sincerely seeking God and His salvation.  But, People of God, how could anyone come to love the authentic Jesus if His followers are intent, first and foremost, on presenting themselves as nice Jesus-people?  How can followers whose aim is to offer a popularly acceptable message, rightly proclaim the teaching of Jesus?  Their want to present their own version of the Gospel, a version adapted to modern ideas and current preferences, not the Good News of Jesus as given us in the Scriptures and proclaimed in the traditional teaching of the Church.    They do appear to be ashamed of Jesus and of His words in the face of the world!

           

Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.   For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her other-in-law;

And that possible rejection of both Himself and of His teaching Jesus foresaw and most deliberately condemned it, by going on to say:

 

He who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who has found his life will lose it , and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.    (Matthew 10:34–39)

This state of affairs comes about because people all too easily think only in terms of this world, as if everything is to be decided here on earth according to human judgements and expectations; and therefore our readings today are providential, warning us, most explicitly, about this folly, by proclaiming that this world is not the be all and end all of life for a Christian or a Catholic:

Here is one who has laboured with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; and yet to another who has not laboured over it, he must leave property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune.

In fact, this world and our experience of it, is but mankind’s essential preparation for what is to come, a life of either eternal fulfilment or eternal loss:

Then Jesus told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.   He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’   And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”  But God said to him, 'You fool! This night your life will be demanded of you; and then the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?'

The currently widespread persuasion that the Good News of Jesus has to be subjected to our adaptation is an unacknowledged capitulation to modern society’s craven worship of popularity.  Therein is the root error: for popularity has neither role nor authority in matters of faith; indeed, at the best it is irrelevant, while potentially it is most harmful.

There are some disciples in the Church today who follow Pilate rather than Jesus:

Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."  Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" (John 18:37-38)

What is truth? Pilate doubted there was such a thing as truth.  Today, pseudo-disciples give the same thought a different twist: the only true proclamation of the Gospel is one that makes Jesus and His teaching popular, we must therefore study modern  attitudes and practices carefully and sympathetically, so as to be able to make suitable adaptations to the Gospel message that will enable it to win more widespread acceptance.

Now that can never be the authentic Christian, Catholic attitude; we only need to look at and listen to Our Blessed Lord once more to realize that:

Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him Who sent Me. (John 15:20-22)

Today we need to renew our trust in God and in Jesus our Lord and Saviour; we have to stir up more courage on the basis of our faith.  The original apostles, the original Christians who were called Catholics from the very beginning, did not cower before the world's criterion of popularity as so many do today; for example, the gentle, loving, Apostle John  (1 John 4:6) says quite bluntly:

We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

And they had this confidence and strength because they firmly believed what the infallible Faith taught them, as we heard in the second reading:

If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Think on what is above, not of what is on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory.

In other words, they looked forward to a heavenly, not an earthly, fulfilment, and, in order to attain that blessedness they proclaimed a Gospel of Truth, knowing that only divine truth can form a human being in the divine likeness:

The new self is being renewed for knowledge in the image of its Creator.

That very truth required them to preach what would be unpopular at times.  Indeed, the essence of the Gospel message is that we can only find salvation through the Cross of Jesus, Who died for our sins before rising again for our salvation:

(He) bore our sins in His own body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24).

Therefore, even in the early Church, there were those who wanted to preach a Gospel without the Cross, a popular Gospel instead of the Gospel of righteousness.  Of them, the Apostle Paul said with incisive clarity (1 Corinthians 1:18-19):

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." 

And again in his letter to the Galatians (5:11):

Brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offence of the cross has ceased.

People of God, in times of trial we must cling to Jesus all the more closely in Spirit and in Truth, for:

This is a faithful saying: if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him.  If we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.  (2 Timothy  2:11-13)

                                                            (2022)

17th Sunday of Year C 2022

 

 17^th. Sunday (Year C)

(Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13)

 

People of God, our first reading told of Abraham’s powerful intercession with God on behalf of his nephew Lot who had gone to live in the sinful city of Sodom. But it’s significance for Christians is much greater than that, because it enables us to have some appreciation of the infinite power and supreme efficacy of Jesus’ intercession on our behalf: prayer which He makes, without let, for us, on our behalf, in heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory.

However, we must also be aware of the prayer He wants to make with us on our behalf  when we, though ‘not knowing how to pray as we should’, offer up -- with the assistance of His Holy Spirit -- our earthly hopes and fears, secret sighs and sufferings, contrite hearts and heavenly longings, to be transformed by the same Spirit, into prayer that Jesus Himself, in heaven, can take up and offer with us and for us , to the Father.

All this Jesus hints at when, at their humble request, He  teaches His disciples how they should pray when addressing the Father in heaven.

Now, St. Paul pointed to the glorious climax of this saving power of Jesus’ intercession on our behalf by telling us that, through Jesus’ offering of Himself to the Father:

You, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

Dear People of God, through the example of Abraham and His own parables, Jesus wants His disciples to have both perseverance and confidence in their prayer, made in spirit and in truth, in the name of Jesus, and under the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit.

I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you: for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Today, of course, Catholics are often surrounded and alas, sometimes influenced by,  free-thinking, loose talking, self-righteous, people, who assert that these words in our Gospel proclamation are too good to be true:

Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

What basis could Jesus have for making such a promise?

To help them understand, the Gospel account continues with a comparison possibly drawn from daily experience:

If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

Such a son must be in some measure of need when merely asking for bread, the essential of life; or a single fish from Galilea’s plenitude, or again, even a little egg, that might support his life; whatever or however that might be, Jesus was clearly speaking of one praying seriously and with confidence, essentials for any true prayer.

But still further difficulties might be found in those following words:

Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened;

These are often said to be patently unreal; far, far, too good to be true!  What if the son were sincerely mistaken about what he thought he needed? … we all know how appearances can deceive, and people -- as well as situations can so easily change!

Jesus, however, then went on to the heart of the matter:

If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will (the) heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

Thinking seriously in this way, the importance of the prayer Jesus had given the disciples would gradually become clearer to them.  The disciples had observed Jesus praying to His Father, and He had put His word ‘Father’ into their mouths in the prayer He gave them, as if He, to Whom they were speaking as disciples of Jesus, was the heavenly and only true Father, Whose children they were to become.

They might then begin to understand something of those mysterious words of Isaiah:

 My word be that goes forth from My mouth, It shall not return to Me void;

for Jesus had put His most revered and  loved word ‘Father’ into His disciples’ mouth so that it might bring about for them a filial relationship like to that of Jesus Himself, in which Jesus’ Father would become their Father, and they His adopted children.

And all that would fit in perfectly with those ‘too good to be true’ words of Jesus:

Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened;

for, even though those praying might be mistaken about what they wanted, He to Whom they were praying is our Father, He knows what all of us really need, and He will always give us the right gift because, as Jesus assures us, He always gives what is in tune, so to speak, with the Holy Spirit to those who ask of Him:

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

The special name of the Holy Spirit is ‘Gift of God’, the mutual ‘Gift’ of the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity.  Being also Their Gift to disciples on earth, He is the Giver and the Dispenser of all God’s gifts because He Himself is the ‘Gift of God’.

People of God, this prayer given to us by Jesus Himself, is rightly called, the Lord’s Prayer, for it opens up to us the heart of Jesus’ proclamation, the soul of His Good News.  The Old Testament prophets had spoken inspired words concerning the doing of God’s will, and the coming of His Kingdom, on earth.  They had proclaimed good news about the rights of the poor and underprivileged, about the need for mutual respect, about honesty and justice in human society and sincerity before God, all matters which had previously been insufficiently attended to in a world where political power, social influence, and religious formality had ruled.  But Jesus did not come merely to teach us to clean up, somewhat, our sin-stained lives, nor simply to encourage and help us wipe away the tears of suffering from our neighbour’s face, His mission was to do what only He could do, REVEAL THE HEAVENLY FATHER HIMSELF to us, reveal Him as His very own and our Father Who wants us to know, love, and serve Him -- in Jesus and by the Holy Spirit -- here on earth, as a preparation for entering, as His adopted yet true children, into His heavenly Kingdom as members of His heavenly family:

Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as in heaven.

This God-given prayer is God-giving, god’s-making, and at the same time, earth-fulfilling, and therefore it continues:

Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.  And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

People of God, we should use the Lord’s Prayer with confident perseverance and with awesome reverence, for it is the supreme prayer of Christians, and this whole episode in the Gospel is signed through and through with the hallmark of Jesus sacrificing Himself entirely for us.  Jesus is now our Head, and we living members of His Body whom the Spirit, God’s Gift to us, is in Mother Church, continually seeking to form us, ever more, in the true likeness of Jesus, so that in Him -- the Son -- we may become ever more truly children of the heavenly Father: living here on earth for the glory of His Name and the greater good of our neighbour until, as members of His in His heavenly kingdom, we can share, by the Spirit, in His glory before the Father Who is All in All.

Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name; Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as in heaven.                                                             

 

 

16th Sunday Year C 2022

 

 16^th. Sunday, Year (C)

(Genesis 18:1-10; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10:38-42)

 

 

 

 Mother Church has set before us today readings from the treasury of her Scriptures which urge us to pay careful attention to the sort of welcome we give to Jesus in our lives.

The Gospel reading told us:

Jesus entered a certain village and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house;

and in the first reading we were told of a theophany in which Abraham:

(Seeing) three men standing nearby ran from the entrance of (his) tent to greet them; and bowing to the ground, he said: “Sir, if I may ask you this favour, please do not go on past your servant.  Let some water be brought, that you may bathe your feet, and then rest yourselves under the tree.  Now that you have come this close to your servant, let me bring you a little food that you may refresh yourselves; and afterward you may go on your way.” “Very well,” they replied, “do as you have said.”

Both accounts told of a sincere welcome being given to divine and angelic visitors.   Abraham, on the one hand, was as attentive as he could possibly have been: 

He took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.

Martha, on the other hand, in our Gospel reading, was not so selflessly whole-hearted:

(She) was burdened with much serving, and Jesus said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.”

What was Martha so anxious about?  First of all, something that perhaps she did not recognize, namely, her desire not only to prepare well for Jesus, but also to be seen to prepare well. 

There was something else and Jesus had noticed that she was not only “anxious” but also "worried" about something.  Now Martha had a sister, a younger sister, Mary, and it may perhaps have been the case that Martha, being the elder, and also a dynamic sort of person, was accustomed to taking or giving a lead, and the difficulty, the "worrying" aspect for her today, was the fact that Mary was not following her lead, for:

Mary sat beside the Lord at His feet listening to Him speak.  

And so, it was not possible for Martha to be whole-hearted in her welcome of Jesus because she was both concerned about her own image, and, at the same time, irritated by what she considered to be her younger sister’s lack of consideration; and being an honest -- even blunt -- soul, could not restrain herself from making known to Jesus what was, indeed, troubling her:

She approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?  Tell her to help me."

Looking again at Abraham, we see that he had been well rewarded for his hospitality and attentiveness; but not only Abraham, for Sarah too had shared fully with Abraham by preparing food for the guests in the background.    Both, therefore, had been rewarded with the promise of a son, the child for whom they had prayed long and hard but who, they had come to think, would never be theirs. 

In the Gospel story, however, although Jesus appreciated Martha's work and solicitude, He considered Mary's attentive love and self-forgetfulness to be of another order, and so, speaking as bluntly as Martha herself had just done, He said:

Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.

Mary’s selfless commitment to, and appreciation of, the Word that Jesus was speaking, was a choice valid for eternity and it won her a blessing that would never be revoked.   Her love for the beauty and authority of Jesus’ message caused her to forget herself; whereas Martha, though she truly loved Jesus, most certainly could not forget herself: she could not humbly work whole-heartedly, as Sarah, Abraham’s wife had done before, when plagued with the thought that she was not being sufficiently appreciated.

Now we are all here at Mass to welcome Jesus -- all of us, I myself, just as much as you – and the welcome we give is, as our readings show, mysteriously significant and important.   Each of us must welcome Jesus, first of all, into our own heart, and then, all of us together, into our parish community and thereby into His universal Church, and finally, let us never forget it, through us and His Church He must be welcomed into our world:

Lord, may this sacrifice which has made our peace with you, advance the peace and salvation of all the world.

At this moment then, the Universal Church and the whole of mankind, are relying, to a certain extent, upon us, and upon the sort of welcome we give to Our Lord: because, the deeper, the more sincere and whole-hearted the welcome, the greater the blessing, for ourselves, for the Church, and for the world.

The apostle Paul, speaking to us in the second reading, said:

I became a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the Word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.

Let us now, therefore, listen carefully to him telling us something of the Word he had been sent to preach to us and for us.  It is, he says:

The mystery hidden from ages and from generations past, but now manifested to His holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: IT IS CHRIST IN YOU, the hope for glory.

So, the apostle was to proclaim the mystery of Christ dwelling in all who become His faithful disciples in Mother Church: to make known the riches of this mystery by enlightening our minds with the prospect of eternal glory promised by Our Lord, and opening up our hearts for the influx of a joyous and inspiring hope through the gift of His most Holy Spirit. 

The question now is, of course, what sort of welcome are you and I giving, even here and now, to Paul’s proclamation and explanation of the mystery of Christ in us and at work in us through His Spirit?

For some misguided, half-hearted, Catholics Mass begins and ends with Holy Communion.  Now how can such people truly welcome Christ in Holy Communion when they ignore Him in His Holy Word, having no interest in the God-given power, privilege, and duty of Mother Church and her priests to proclaim and explain the mystery of Christ in the Scriptures and in us?  How can they welcome into their own lives Him Whom they can't be bothered to understand in His Body, the Church?  Who can be filled with gratitude for riches of which they choose to be ignorant?

Holy Mass starts at the very beginning of our assembly when we first ask God to free us from our sins.  We do that so that we may be able to celebrate the whole Eucharistic offering aright: first of all by hearing God's word with our ears, as it is read, and then appreciating it with our minds and embracing it in our hearts as it is proclaimed in the homily.  After having thus welcomed Christ in His Word we are thereby enabled and called to fittingly offer ourselves, in Him and with Him, to the Father for His glory and the salvation of mankind, before finally receiving Jesus and welcoming His Gift of the Holy Spirit into our very hearts and lives in Holy Communion.   That is the mystery of the Catholic and Christian life: CHRIST IN US through the Eucharist and Scriptures of Mother Church, and through our openness to the guidance of His most Holy Spirit in our lives.

It is particularly important for us today, however, to give attention to the welcome we accord to the Word of God, to Jesus in the Scriptures proclaimed by Mother Church.  Commonly, these days, people want short readings and almost demand short sermons; and it nearly always raises an easy and rather cheap laugh if this attitude is made into a sort of joke: "If you can't say what you want to say in five minutes, it's not worth saying".   This was not the attitude of the early Church, as can be appreciated from the following account to be found the Acts of the Apostles of a church meeting led by Paul at Troas:

On the first day of the week when we gathered to break bread, Paul spoke to them because he was going to leave on the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.  There was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill sinking into a deep sleep as Paul continued talking, and overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was picked up dead.  Paul went down, threw himself upon him, and said as he embraced him, “Don‘t be alarmed; there is life in him.”  Then he returned upstairs, broke the bread, and ate; after a long conversation that lasted until daybreak, he departed.  And they took the boy away alive and were immeasurably comforted. (Acts 20:7-12)

Obviously, what is prolonged for no good reason is not welcome.  On the other hand, however, no one, having some treasured possession, is ever content to look at it, rejoice in it, mention and show it to friends, just once, and then take further delight in it.  Now the Scriptures are like a field that contains countless hidden treasures.  If you are computer-wise you will be aware of some programmes where certain words or links are signalled, which, if you press on them, up pops further information, further enlightenment.  Holy Scripture is something like that.  A Scripture reading might seem, at first, to be just a long sequence of not very interesting words, phrases and sentences, but, by the grace of God, any one of those sentences or phrases, indeed almost any one of those words, can be found to contain so much that is beautiful beyond measure.  Now, the only way to discover such treasures contained in the Scriptures is, by learning from the wisdom of Mother Church, and entering into a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit of Jesus, allowing the Him, Who first inspired those sacred words, to reveal something of their meaning to you.  If, however, you do not prayerfully approach the Scriptures, you will hardly be able to patiently hear them proclaimed, and most certainly you will not want to respectfully listen to explanations of them.  When that is the case, then the Holy Spirit will in no way lead you to find the treasures the Scriptures contain, for did not Jesus Himself once say to His Apostles (Matthew 7:6):

Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine.

However, those who do reverence the Scriptures, receive a blessing from the Lord Who spoke through the prophet Isaiah saying:

On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.   (Isaiah 66:2)

They are the ones who, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, discover and delight in the hidden treasures of the Scriptures; for them, the words of the Scriptures are revealed as words of life, as Jesus Himself said:

It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'   (Matthew 4:4)

That is the manna God offers us His People as He leads us through the desert of this world to our home in heaven; it is the food we need for a journey which can be long, the food meant to be our comfort and strength here on earth while it leads us to eternal peace and joy in our heavenly home.  May all of us gathered here today be enabled to receive and experience it as such, through the loving kindness and mercy of God our Father, Jesus our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit Who is God’s Gift to each and every one of us in Mother Church.

 

15th Sunday Year C 2022

 

 15^th. Sunday, Year (C)

(Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37)

 

 

In our readings today we have an embarrassment of riches, and so it is a matter now of picking out one or two jewels, for in no way can I pretend to open up to your gaze the beauty and wealth of all that we have just heard.

In the Gospel we were told of a Scribe, an expert in the Jewish Law, who approached Jesus in what is, truly, the only way in which Jesus can be rightly approached:

            "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

That should be our attitude at this very moment as we try to understand and learn from the Gospel, before going on to offer Jesus' self-sacrifice to the Father, and then finally, in Holy Communion, surrendering ourselves to Jesus that He might draw us with Himself to the Father:

            Lord Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus replied by asking the Scribe what the Law had to say about the way to eternal life and he responded without hesitation:

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbour as yourself.'

Jesus had nothing to add to that.  However, the Scribe -- not wanting to seem foolish for having asked a question to which he already knew the answer -- went on to justify himself and also pay Jesus a notable compliment by asking Him:

            And who is my neighbour?

Yes, he was an expert in the Law who knew well the words of the Law, but here he was asking Jesus to tell Him what the words really meant: that was the humility of a man sincerely seeking to find the way to eternal life. 

With our modern proliferation of books and skill in information technology, it is easy for people to be satisfied with knowing about the words of Scripture while appreciating little of their meaning and spiritual significance.  Too often today self-styled experts and militant proselytizers attempt to show off their knowledge of the Bible by writing or reciting words: words are their favourite medium, for they trip so very easily off the tongue or pen, one after another, so easy to count and multiply.  Spiritual appreciation, on the other hand, is a much more demanding than mere facility with words: it requires that understanding which only comes from deep reverence for, and humble submission to, God's revelation; it involves humility and patience, prayer and open-ness, devout sensitivity and loving obedience to the P/personally secret guidance of the Holy Spirit.

            Lord, WHO is my neighbour?

Jesus, in answer to this learned man's humility, told him a parable about one, whom today we call the Good Samaritan, encountering a man who had fallen into the hands of thieves.  This unfortunate victim -- probably a Jew and possibly a priest -- was going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  It was the most public road in all Judea and the only road between those two cities for thousands of priests and Levites who, after having served in the Temple at Jerusalem according to a fixed rota system, would then return home until their next period for service.  For all these priests and Levites, Jericho was their chosen place of residence, while the Temple in Jerusalem was their destination for work and worship.   Despite being much used, this road was extremely dangerous for travellers, twisting and turning through rocky desert, and -- in the course of about 20 miles -- falling steeply some 3000 feet from the chill heights of Jerusalem to the near tropical depths of Jericho.  Jesus’ parable, therefore, when it told of a traveller falling into the hands of robbers, was recalling an all-too-frequent occurrence that many had suffered before and many others would continue to experience in the future.  The bandits of the Judean desert did not scruple to kill at times, but in this case, having robbed the man, they were content to leave him, wounded and helpless, by the side of the road. 

Now, a priest, making the same journey from the Temple in Jerusalem down to Jericho, came upon the wounded man, and:

            When he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

Then a Levite, having likewise completed his rota of service in the Temple and returning back to his home in Jericho:

When he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the opposite side.

Both the priest and the Levite would have recognized the victim as a neighbour, a fellow Jew, indeed, perhaps as a fellow priest or Levite.   And yet, both of them, out of considerations for legal purity possibly, for personal and family reasons, or because they simply did not want, or did not even dare, to get involved with him, passed him by.  Finally, a Samaritan arrived on the scene.

Now, Samaritans, though closely related, were regarded as enemies by the Jews, and, generally, Samaritans had a like opinion of the Jews.  In this case, however, the Samaritan of whom Jesus spoke, having chanced upon the wounded man:

Was moved with compassion at the sight.  He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.  Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him.  If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back' 

Jesus was indeed revealing the meaning of the word "neighbour" to the Scribe: for His story showed that that neighbour might turn out to be someone most unexpected; and consequently, it raised, for this Scribe, the question whether Jewish national pride and religious exclusiveness could have any further role to play in God's coming Kingdom that would transcend all such human boundaries and limitations.

The passing priest and Levite had the word of God on their lips, as Moses said:

            The word is very near to you, already in your mouth.

That word they could repeat, discuss, dispute about, and perhaps use to display their learning.  However, it was so very easy, on such occasions, to forget that Moses had gone on to say that ‘the word’ was also:

            In your heart, that you may obey it.

Now, there have always been worldly men able to use the Word of God as a weapon for personal advancement on earth, and those who use their facility with the Word of God in such a way need only to apply their natural talents and human techniques in order to win earthly patrons and stir up simple supporters, by making and championing short-term and shallow judgments in tune with popular sentiments.  On the other hand, those using God’s Word as a guide to our heavenly home, have to humbly ask and long for, patiently knock and wait for, and lovingly pray with sincere devotion to, Him Who is infinitely above us and Who judges the hidden secrets of each and every human mind and heart. Only then will they be enabled to proclaim and manifest something of His divine truth and heavenly beauty before men.

The Word of God is meant to be ever at work in our lives, as the prophet Isaiah, speaking in the name of the Lord (55:11) tells us:

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

The Scribe, as a Jew, preferred to limit the word "neighbour" to his fellow Jews; but, nevertheless, He felt uneasy about it and so he asked Jesus, "who is my neighbour?" whereupon Jesus showed him that it was not possible to limit the significance of God's Word according to human expectations or prejudices.  Nevertheless, despite such teaching, when -- at the end of the parable -- Jesus asked:

Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbour to the robbers’ victim?

the expert in the Law still could not bring himself utter the words "the Samaritan", so ingrained was his Jewish prejudice!  He could only prevail upon himself to say:

            The one who treated him with mercy.

We are like that in so many ways, and that is why the same prophet Isaiah proclaimed

The Lord says, ‘on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word’. (66:2)

We cannot determine or fix beforehand where the Word of God will lead us; Isaiah says we should tremble -- perhaps even thrill -- at the sound of it, because the Word of God is meant to work in us, and -- by the power of the Holy Spirit -- to change us, in accordance with whatever plans God has for us: it is a harbinger of beauties as yet unseen and of possibilities as yet unknown.

As we heard in the second reading all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and that is why we cannot try to restrict the effect of His Word in our lives.  We are called to become children of God in Jesus and, if we are to be found in His likeness, we must allow ourselves to be formed by His Spirit according to His Word.  We must allow His Spirit to lead us wherever He wills if we are to reach the blessings prepared for us, blessings we cannot even begin to imagine of ourselves, let alone prepare for.  The Spirit alone knows the depths of God, He alone is Holy and Wise, and we must trust ourselves to Him.

There are still today many who seek to control the effect of the Word and the work of the Holy Spirit of God in their lives.  Like the Jews of old, they want to form themselves according to their own fancies or in accordance with ideas of goodness and holiness popular in society around them.  Today, for example, most people's idea of Christian goodness enables them to recognize and appreciate work done for the poor and for children in need; a life devoted to prayer, however, especially as a monk or nun in relative solitude, seems alien to them, perhaps, even inhuman.  Modern ideas of sanctity usually involve soft words and attractive, pleasant, attitudes; on the other hand, clear doctrinal teaching and firm discipline in moral matters is thought to be unacceptably rigid and unsympathetic.  And so, many modern pseudo-disciples of Jesus may be found trying to interpret the guidance of His Holy Spirit along broad, loose, lines acceptable to modern ideas of human rights, the freedom of individuals, and God’s accommodating goodness.  However, holiness of this sort is just as false and inadequate as, and probably much less sincere than, the exclusive holiness of the Scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' times.

People of God, listen to the Word of God as proclaimed by Mother Church, not that glibly quoted for popular acceptance by frequently self-appointed and self-taught gospellers.  Beg the Holy Spirit to lead your life along the way of Jesus, to form you in Jesus’ likeness, and then try to answer God’s call to faith, trust, and love with a humble simplicity of mind and heart; do not allow your own prayerful thoughts and conscientious actions to be distorted or determined by the selfish pride, prejudices, and fears, or above all, by the excitement of modern society.

The Spirit first led Jesus out into the silence of the desert and then along the most unlikely way of the Cross: the disciple of Jesus is not greater than his Master; he or she too, must be open, willing, and obedient, enough to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.  As Jesus said (John 3:8):

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Finally, let us look at what is perhaps the greatest jewel hidden in the field of today’s readings: Who was, Who is, the Good Samaritan?   How could he just postpone, or at least seriously interrupt his journey to spend a night at the inn, where he was not likely to have been popular as a Samaritan?   Why was he alone able to deal with the man’s wounds?  Why did he not just pay the hotelier extra for that first day’s extra care, as well as for subsequent days’ care, ‘bed and board’?     Was the Samaritan a real person or a possibly-real person, or was he, in actual fact, a picture of Jesus Himself?  For He interrupted His journey by His suffering and death on Calvary; He alone, by His Gospel provides essential medicine for fallen man.  Jesus did, indeed, continue His journey to His heavenly home and thus definitively cured man’s grievous wound by committing him to the care of His Church, the inn and hotelier for all seeking true rest and eternal life, by saving faith and baptismal grace.

Today we are invited to humbly rejoice in the wonder and mystery of Jesus; we are invited to think over, meditate on, His goodness, His wisdom, and the challenge His sublimity offers our understanding and appreciation of His oneness with us.  A Sunday can pass by quite quickly chewing such cud!