2nd Sunday of Lent Year B, 2024

 

(Gen. 22: 1-2, 9-13, 15-18; Romans 8:31-34; Mark 9:2-10)

Our Blessed Lord’s Passion and Death was looming on the horizon and He had already seriously forewarned His disciples of it; but, as in so many other matters, they were not yet able to truly understand and fully appreciate His words.  When the time would come for Him to be taken away from them, Jesus realized that it would be a traumatic and potentially faith-shattering experience for them, His great concern was, therefore, that they should be so prepared that they might be able to endure the grief of losing Him, and even draw spiritual profit from His own steadfast confidence in His Father and love for them throughout His Passion.  He could not spare them that trial, but He would not have them agonize themselves and lose faith in Him because of it.

How then did Jesus go about this preparation of His disciples?  Considering His later Agony in the Garden, there can be no doubt that He prayed most fervently to His heavenly Father about it.   Let us try to learn something of the efficacy of that prayer.

The bond between her Son here on earth and His heavenly Father was something that the Blessed Virgin Mary could not fully appreciate, something that once caused her to exclaim: ‘Son, why have You done this to Your father and I?’  On that occasion, instead of returning home from Jerusalem with the caravan, Jesus -- after having become ‘officially’ a young man-before-God-and-for-God according to the Law -- had remained there in the Temple at Jerusalem.

After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions (Luke 2:46).

Jesus was delighting in His heavenly Father, as He listened to and questioned the doctors of the Law, and the teachers in the Temple, praising Israel’s God.

Years later, as a fully-grown man, and ‘still at home’ as it were, Jesus left Nazareth and went to search out John the Baptist  actively doing God’s work.  That Jesus did this at His Father’s inspiration is confirmed by His Father’s voice sounding from heaven as He rose from the waters of the Jordan after John’s baptism:

You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.

The Father alone knew when and how He wanted His Son to begin His public ministry;  Jesus had first to hear His Father’s call and learn His will by patient, humble, obedience.  

And now, on the mount Tabor’s top, the Father, in answer to Jesus’ supplication, had plans to comfort and confirm His Son by calling Moses and Elijah – representing the whole of God’s dispensation for the sanctification of Israel through the Law and the Prophets – to emphasize for the truly human Jesus that His coming Passion, Death, and Resurrection would be the culmination and fulfilment of all Israel’s hopes, and of all God’s saving plans for His Chosen People and, indeed, for the whole of mankind.  Moreover, Jesus’ chosen Apostles on the Mount with Him would see and experience this glorification of their Lord as the fulfilment of Israel’s Law and Prophets, before hearing God Himself speak Personally from the heavenly Cloud giving testimony to His beloved and lovingly obedient Son.  That those plans and intentions of God were fulfilled is shown subsequently by Jesus own words and those also of His disciples labouring in His nascent Church:

Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, (the risen Jesus) interpreted to them (two of His followers going to Emmaus) what referred to Him in all the Scriptures.

(Peter said): “To Him (Jesus) all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”  (Luke 24:27; Acts 10:43)

Jesus, most certainly, did not lead His three disciples up the mountain to display Himself; He simply knew, as Man, that He needed to pray; He also knew He had little time to prepare even those three specially chosen disciples for what was soon to happen, which is why He took them with Him that they might be near Him – as later in the Garden of Gethsemane -- when He was praying for guidance and grace.

Jesus, following His Father’s lead, was aware that His disciples were, at present, rejoicing in the presence of their Lord: He was the Bridegroom and they were the Bridegroom’s most privileged friends.  However, such present, earthly, joy, though holy, would not be enough to sustain them through the trials that lay ahead of them.  And that, People of God, is something we should notice. Joy in the Lord based largely on emotional experiences would, most certainly, not be enough for Jesus‘ disciples, nor can it suffice for us: their joy, their love, had to be firmly established -- as must ours also -- on Faith, shot-through and made incandescent, with Hope.  Therefore:

Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.  

And, as the three disciples looked on:

A cloud came, casting a shadow over them; and from the cloud came a voice, "This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!"

These words from heaven were given to root the disciples’ joy-in-the-Lord to the faith proclaimed by Moses and the Prophets, which had guided and sustained Israel over many centuries.  For, throughout Israel’s wanderings in the desert, the presence of God’s glory among them in the Tent of Meeting had been manifested by a cloud descending upon the Tent.  That same cloud had also covered Mount Sinai when the Law was being given to Moses, and it was there at Jesus’ baptism as you have heard; now it was covering the disciples on the top of Tabor, the mountain of Transfiguration, and from it a voice was telling them to listen to the words of Jesus.  The disciples could have no doubt about the voice speaking to them from the cloud:

            This is My beloved Son.  Listen to Him! (Mark 9:7)

It was indeed the voice of the God of Israel, the Father of Jesus their Lord and Master, they were sharing a vision of heavenly glory and they wanted to remain there, basking, as it were, in the glory of Jesus:         

Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here!  Let us make three tents: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

That was not to be.  For the present they had already been given what was necessary: a vision of faith in the heavenly glory of Jesus, and a hope that would inspire and sustain them in an insatiable longing to share with Him in His glory.  Now, to finally galvanize them to put on this new armour of salvation and prepare themselves for the great trauma that lay ahead they were given a command: “Listen to Him.”

Long ago, as the disciples knew full well, Moses had spoken of a prophet like himself whom the Lord God would give to His people (Deuteronomy 18:15):

A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen.

Those very words “Listen to Him” were now ringing in their ears!

The disciples were ready indeed to descend from the top of the mountain; for now their faith -- rooted in that faith which had sustained and guided their fathers for over two millennia -- had been transfigured into Christian faith, and they had been strengthened with hope which no earthly trials could ever take away from them: for now they had a vision of Jesus’ heavenly glory, though hidden as yet from earthly eyes; now, they had an eschatological hope to look forward to; now, they had a divine revelation and commission to hold on to and proclaim to the world. From now on they would be guided and sustained in all their difficulties by a sure and undoubting confidence in the goodness of God, unflinching faith and trust in Jesus’ Person and commands, and unshakable hope in the power of His guiding, ever-present, Spirit of Love and Truth.

People of God, see and learn how to protect yourselves against the snares of the devil rampant in the world of today: delight in the heavenly Jesus more and more.  We are not to be mere moralists, we are called to be lovers and proclaimers of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour who trust in the traditional teaching of His Church and never give up hoping that the goodness of God will lead us -- if we persevere faithfully along the way of the Cross -- to share in the eternal glory of Jesus before the Father.

Trust the faith.  Trust God’s words as did Abraham our father in faith, who, as you heard, was tested by God saying to him:

Take now your son Isaac, your only one whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah.  There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you.

How fearsome and dread did those words sound at first!  How wonderfully, how beautifully, did they echo when the Lord God gave the boy back to his father, resolving to become Himself the Only One Who would offer His only-begotten Son for mankind’s salvation.   How wonderful are the blessings won for us by Abraham’s obedience and trust, he was and is most truly our Father in Faith!

Trust – and defend -- the Catholic Faith, and delight freely and fully, and ever more wholeheartedly, in Jesus our Brother and Saviour; for, as St. Paul explains (Rom. 8:38s.):

Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.     

Again I repeat: trust the faith, delight in Jesus, and thank God for His unfailing goodness.   In that way you will be armed both to resist and to overcome all that the devil and the world can try to do against you:  

For the joy of the LORD is your strength.  (Nehemiah 8:10)  

1st Sunday of Lent Year B, 2024

 

(Genesis 9:8-15; 1^st. Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15)

In the course of history God made four covenants with men: the first was set up through Noah for all time and for the whole of mankind; indeed, for every living animal.  You could call it a ‘NATURAL’ COVENANT (Genesis 9:11):

I establish My covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

The second was a directly, deeply, spiritual covenant with Abraham, his family, and followers, beginning what the late  Pope Benedict XVI called ‘A history of blessings’, for  those called to leave behind all that would divert them from their faith-search for the one, true, God.  It was, and still is, for all ‘men’ of faith like Abraham – Christians, that is, who still call Abraham ‘our father in faith’ in the liturgy of Mother Church, and also certain Muslims and Jews searching for the One, True, God to the best of the revelation they know – all looking forward to the revelation of Him Who is the Man-answering-such-faith, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ (Genesis 12:1-3):

Go from your country, and your kindred and your father's house, to the land that I will show you.  And I will make you a great nation; and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

That second covenant was, is, a COVENANT OF FAITH.

There were next two temporal covenants given directly for the Godly formation of Yahweh’s Chosen People, made through Moses and David.

The final, fifth, and Ultimate Covenant was for the redemption and eternal salvation of all mankind, established in and through God’s Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, and the abiding Gift of the Holy Spirit of God in His Apostolic Church.

You will probably remember more of the covenant with Moses and the initial People of Israel (Exodus 24:6-8):

Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.  Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. They said, "All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient."   And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words."  

That third covenant required God’s Chosen People to live in accordance with the Law given by God through Moses: it was, consequently, a COVENANT OF OBEDIENCE AND FORMATION … leading God’s People to a level of moral worth far above and beyond that of the Greeks’ constant questioning and moralizing, and that of the Romans so aware and appreciative of power with authority, and technical ability with efficiency. 

The fourth was a personal covenant that God made with David and his house:

When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.  And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before Me. Your throne shall be established forever.  (2 Samuel 7:12,16.)

It Is with this covenant we have the promise of a personal Messiah, a Saviour of kingly line, whose kingdom will endure for ever; this fourth covenant, was a COVENANT OF HOPE AND EXPECTATION.

Finally, we have the fifth and eternal covenant, the ULTIMATE COVENANT for the redemption and eternal salvation of all mankind, made in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, sent by the One God of all previous covenants, to become O/one with us, and thus to draw us to Himself, through faith, that we might -- in His Apostolically established Church -- with Him and by His Spirit come to personally know, love and serve the Father:

He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. (Luke 22:20)

A covenant of love -- divine love -- calling for mankind’s return to the Father of an in-Jesus-Spirit-sustained-love.

People of God, we must clearly recognise the wonderful wisdom of our God, for this fifth covenant includes all that had gone before.  Here water, used in the original and still enduring nature covenant with Noah, is now sacramentally associated with the bestowal of the baptismal life of the S/spirit, for all who believe in Jesus.  Again, as with all true descendants of Abraham our ‘father in faith’, Jesus’ redeemed people are a People of Faith, this time, however, of supernatural, revealed, Faith; a People ever on pilgrimage looking forward to and living for that which eyes cannot see, that which ears have never heard before, that of which the tongue of man may never tell the whole.  Moreover, this new People of God, the house of Jesus, is pledged to obey a teaching foreshadowed, and indeed prepared for, by the Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but now become a law, not of letters inscribed on stone tablets, but of grace poured into men’s hearts by the Spirit of Jesus and Gift of God, that they might respond to God as He wills: in Spirit and in Truth.  And finally, the covenant of hope and expectation in the line of David is most sublimely fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of God made flesh, the promised Messiah become our Saviour and Leader, and Who, by His Death and Resurrection, is able and willing to make of us a chosen nation, a royal priesthood, called to sing more beautiful praises of God than even king David and the Psalmists could bring forth.  THIS COVENANT OF JESUS IS A COVENANT OF FULFILLING LOVE, enabling the Kingdom of God to begin even here on earth by beams of heaven’s merciful glory being reflected back in humble and total love for God by disciples of Jesus and members of His Mystical Body.

After John (the Baptist) was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.’

How wise is our God!  How beautiful is the revelation which Jesus -- originally through His own preaching and now through His Spirit -- makes known to us through Mother Church and the traditional exposition of her God-given Scriptures!  Cleansing water bestowing new supernatural life on disciples and followers called to set out on a pilgrimage from earthly sin and death to eternal joy and divine fulfilment; a pilgrimage along a way not of our own choosing or any merely human imagining, but one marked out for us by God’s beloved Son Who – by His own sacramental presence in Mother Church and the gift of His most Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who believe in Him – continues to call and enable us to follow Him along His way to the Father. 

However, dear brothers and sister in Christ, we must never forget that before Jesus proclaimed His Good News in Israel, before He set about healing the sick, enabling the blind to see, the lame to walk and the dumb to speak, He was first of all led out into the desert -- the devil’s homeland, so to speak -- to fight personally against the power and cunning of Satan.    Why?   Because Satan could not deceive Jesus!

Whereas the multitude of men are largely unaware of Satan’s presence and work in their individual lives and in the social structures they build, in the case of this man – Jesus -- Satan was unable so to disguise and hide himself as to be able to stealthily worm his way into Jesus’ human psyche and gradually corrupt, before ultimately destroying, Him at his own ‘leisure’, pleasure, and will.  Satan was obliged therefore -- even though most reluctantly, for he knew there was something disturbing about Jesus’ ordinary appearance -- to try to overcome Him in a direct confrontation where and when he, Satan, was at his strongest, and Jesus, after His forty-day’s fast, would presumably be at His weakest.

Therefore, we, His disciples, who aspire to further the mission of Jesus in our world today must first of all --under the guidance of the Gospel and in the power of the Spirit -- enter into serious combat against our own personal sinfulness by sincere repentance, a repentance not merely to be pronounced by formulaic words but deeply experienced by a ‘humbled and contrite’ heart, a repentance welling-up in one having glimpsed God in the Person of Jesus, and heard Him in Jesus’ Gospel of salvation:

The Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God (John 16:27).

A whisper -- barely heard in one’s heart of hearts – yet undoubtably known as coming from Him Who is our true and only Eternal Father, calling us secretly and most persuasively to become a child of His now in the Jesus He sent for our salvation, and ultimately a member of His heavenly family by His Spirit of Love.

Let us all, therefore, try to follow Jesus in this Lenten season by making serious efforts both to resist, and – in God’s great goodness -- to overcome, sin in our lives: the surest sign of love for God on earth, and the unshakeable pledge of eternal salvation thanks to the saving Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

6th Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; 1^st. Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45)

Our first reading told us that, in Jesus’ times, after a priest’s examination;

When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or  an eruption or a spot, he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’  He shall live alone.  His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

And, in order to prevent any further contact with ordinary, healthy members of society:

The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, he shall cover his upper lip and shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean.'

As a result, a leprous person was -- in the popular estimation -- as good as dead so far as normal society and normal human contacts were concerned. 

Now this law of exclusion embodies a divine principle, both Jewish and Christian, whereby the good of the whole transcends that of the individual, and the individual good should be conducive to the good of the whole.  This was one of the guiding lights for St. Paul throughout his missionary labours, as we heard in the second reading:

I try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

Today however, this principle is neither clearly understood nor readily accepted.

Consequently, even though the common good is at stake, nevertheless, today, it is mainly religious bodies who alone have sufficient conviction to resist present western hedonistic tendencies such as abortion, and social doctrines presenting homosexuality as an alternative life-style to that of heterosexual love and marriage.  Heterosexual love in marriage is the bedrock of human society, fulfilling the spouses and serving the whole human race through the children they raise as wholesome family members.  Homosexuality, on the other hand, when practised as an optional, sexual life style -- as distinct from friendship, an emotional and spiritual but non-sexual relationship  -- satisfies only the passions of the individuals concerned at the expense of society which is thereby debilitated: professional surrogate mothers, and frustrated: children in unnatural homes -- as experience shows at home and abroad.

The rabbis considered the cleansing of one suffering from leprosy to be as impossible as raising the dead, and a story concerning Elijah (2 Kings 5:6-7) shows how clearly Israel and the ancient world recognized that none but divine power could cure it:

(Naaman brought a letter from the king of Syria to the king of Israel), ‘When the king of Israel read the letter,  he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?’

However, St. Mark in today’s Gospel reading told us that:

A leper came to Jesus, imploring Him, and kneeling said, "If You will, You can make me clean."  Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand, touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean."

There, we can recognise the faith which sustained the leper; for, risking public disapproval and official punishment, with humble confidence and firm faith he sought out Jesus and begged Him: ‘If You wish, You can make me clean’.  In response, Jesus  reached out and, touching the man said, “I do will it”; whereupon the man was completely cleansed of his leprosy.  Jesus’ very deliberate touch restored the leper’s contagion!  Holiness curing the contagion of sin! The very essence of Jesus’ Gospel of Good News and salvation!!

If we continue to look more closely at Jesus, trying to understand and learn from His human attitude, it can be of much help and might save us from many errors.

Our modern Western society is so ostentatiously committed to human rights -- the rights of the individual -- that the good of the whole is easily overlooked; and individuals become, in ever-growing measure, out of control, to the detriment of both the security and the cohesion of society as a whole.  This is the case because individual rights are only valid – as we have noted --  to the extent that they are conducive to the well-being of the whole of society, and the validity of this principle is being vindicated in our day by the fact that now, at last, the social evil of abortion is becoming manifest to all, as the European birth rate is unable to support the continuing viability of its member nations: several of which are dying out, dying on their feet, so to speak.   Again, lack of discipline in our schools – due in no small degree to the doctrinal application of so-called human rights of children who are, as yet, unable to truly appreciate that rights and duties are inevitably co-related -- is leading to an educational and social crisis; because any educational system that is not able to teach its children and students self-control and personal responsibility by the imposition of recognized and necessary discipline cannot produce true citizens.  Indeed, such a system is liable to turn out an ever-growing number of young adults who are a potential danger to their neighbours and to society as a whole, because their emotions are not sufficiently subject to their control, and the only rights they are aware of are their own ‘personal’ rights, rights which -- they like to think -- should in no way be restricted or overruled by any ‘supposed rights’ of the larger body of society. 

And now, taking up our Gospel reading again, we heard there, that Jesus -- having cured the man -- warned him sternly not to tell other people about it; however:

            The man went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news. 

One can easily think-up excuses for the man cured; but, in fact, his publicising of the cure made things much more difficult for Jesus, because it meant that:

Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but (had to be) out in desolate places.

Before this incident it was the leper who had been obliged to remain in deserted places;  but now the former leper was free to mingle with men, while Jesus had to behave as if He were the leprous one, being unable continue His saving mission in the towns, and villages of that area.

That incident is again a helpful insight for us in our understanding of Our Blessed Lord Who later on, dear People of God, would even become ‘sin’ and ‘a curse’ for our sakes!!

For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.   (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, by becoming a curse for us -- for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is  hanged on a tree”.    (Galatians 3:13)

Jesus had come to cure the whole of Israel -- and ultimately the whole of mankind -- from the supreme uncleanness of sin, but the cleansed-leper was only able to think of his own cleansed body.  Jesus had cured him, and he felt he had to tell others of what had happened to himself; and, as a result of such forbidden praise, we are told that: 

Jesus could no longer openly enter a town.

Of course, people today like to think that because the man was obviously so grateful to Jesus, so happy in his new-found health, he is therefore not to be blamed.  But in fact, although that man’s ignorance of Jesus’ overall purpose is perfectly understandable and blameless, nevertheless, the fact that He ignored Jesus’ express command to ‘keep quiet’ turned out to be positively damaging for others: because He -- the Healer, the Master -- was no longer able to continue His healing, saving, mission in that vicinity.

Dear People of God, what unknown harm do our sins, our failures to obey the Lord’s commands in our lives, cause for others in need of God’s saving help and strength?

At this point we should call to mind Our Blessed Lord’s words which explain His own Personal attitude in all such matters of obedience, an attitude that would lead Him to embrace death out of loving obedience to His Father and for our salvation:

I know that His (My Father’s) commandment is eternal life!   (John 12:50)

Jesus came to take away the sins of the world, and our personal needs and desires are but elements, however important to us, in God’s overarching universal purpose, and they must, therefore, be subject to its requirements.

As in the case of today’s cured-leper, that steadfast and unnoticeable-to-men obedience which God wants above all, calls for a moral strength, a humble selflessness, and a devout faith of a much superior order, which, far from meeting with human praise, can often enough lead  to disapproval and judgemental words, “how ungrateful!”.

Because we are so very self-centred, we need to constantly remind ourselves that none can cure mankind from the malady of sin but Jesus the Christ, sent by God His Father for that specific purpose; and, that Jesus -- though now in heaven -- is ceaselessly at work by His Spirit in and through His Church; and if we want to be His co-workers, we have to resolutely seek only His glory, await patiently His will, proclaim always His goodness.

In His time Jesus was regarded as a rebel because He was never intimidated by the expectations of contemporary popular thinking nor by the pressures of self-serving officialdom; and we, as His disciples, should likewise practice independence from the pagan attitudes of people around us whilst maintaining, with Him, a right humility before lawful authorities established for the good governance of society.  Throughout His life Jesus recognized His Father as the exclusive Ruler over all the decisive events of His life on earth, as the only Guide for all His Personal attitudes, and as the supreme Goal for all His Personal actions and decisions.  And so for us, the true good of the individual, though included in God’s plan for the good of the whole, is nevertheless subordinate to that good of the whole. And that balance is an integral and necessary part of the true and ultimate good prescribed and wanted by God the Father and proclaimed by Our Lord Jesus Christ; a good that we, as living members of His Body, have to seek, work and pray for, in the power and under the inspiration of His most Holy Spirit of Truth and Love. 

5th Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1^st. Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-398)

Simon and his companions searched for Jesus and, on finding Him, they said:

“Everyone is looking for you.” 

He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”

We can appreciate from that passage of the Gospel that Jesus considered His preaching to be of supreme importance; and that most probably led that great disciple of Jesus, St. Paul, to make this otherwise surprising declaration in his first letter to the Corinthians:

            Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. (1:17)

Throughout His public ministry Jesus’ preaching was a cause of astonishment to those who heard Him.  They reacted in this way both because of the content of His preaching -- many, for example, would say after hearing Him:

            Where did this man get this wisdom? (Matthew 13:54),

and also, because of the manner in which He addressed them, as you heard in last week’s Gospel passage:

The people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Now, this was not just the reaction of simple people perhaps too prone to religious excitement, it was also the response of the Temple guards – servants of the chief priests and Pharisees -- notoriously untouched by any such religious sensitivities, as St. John tells us in his Gospel (7:46):

            The officers answered, "Never has a man spoken the way this Man speaks.”

Indeed, St. Mark tells us (11:18), that the religious authorities themselves -- proud aristocrats and determined enemies of Jesus -- had a like appreciation of His preaching:

The chief priests and the scribes began seeking how to destroy Jesus; they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.  

When the scribes -- learned in the Law and in the Jewish oral tradition -- addressed the people on some brief passage of the Law, they frequently did little more than string together a few quotes, taken them from earlier authorities or currently influential teachers, without themselves making any personal statements or commitment.

With Jesus, however, it was quite different: He might, indeed, quote on occasion, but only from the Scriptures;  other than that, He might proffer His own observations on everyday events and occurrences of human life, or make Personal references to the wonder and beauty of the natural world around, before finally -- by the fullness of the Spirit that was in Him -- delivering a teaching uniquely based on His own Personal authority, that was both sublimely expressive of God’s presence and purpose in the Scriptures, and yet most harmoniously in tune with nature, and with the experiences, the religious expectations  and aspirations, of ordinary men and women.

His was, indeed, an absolutely unique authority on, and interpreter of, divine realities, as both St. John (3:11-13) and St. Matthew (11:27) tell us:

Truly, truly, I (Jesus) say to you, We speak of what We know and testify of what We have seen, and you do not accept Our testimony. No one has ascended into heaven, but He Who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.

All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 

Now, St. Paul, by virtue of his God-given vocation as Doctor of the Nations, recognized and appreciated the absolute necessity of this aspect of Jesus’ teaching, as we can tell from the advice he gave to Titus (Titus 2:15), an early convert of his whom he later established as head of the church in Crete:

Say these things.  Exhort and correct with all authority. Let no one look down on you (because of your youth).

Today, the proclamation of the Gospel by public preaching is frequently mocked by those who foolishly and proudly ‘think they know it all’; or by others (more important ecclesiastically?) who think they have reasons more compelling than Our Lord’s own express example.  Nevertheless, public proclamation through authoritative Sunday  preaching  is absolutely essential for Mother Church, and it should not be abandoned for fear of jibes or unpopularity!   The authority so desirable in Mother Church’s preaching can only come from enlightened faith based on her witness to authentically Apostolic and Catholic Christian teaching: a faith which has been gratefully received, wholeheartedly believed over thousands of years, and is now -- even in a paganized West -- so deeply loved and revered that it has to be most reverently handed on to subsequent generations in the fulness of its wondrous beauty and divine truth.  Such authority in priest-and- people’s Catholic proclamation and Christian witness cannot be based on some stirred-up, emotional novelty, justified by any ‘paternal assurance’ of personal, compassionate, inspiration; it must come from a total commitment to what is traditional and transcendent in Mother Church, and yet, what is essentially part of, and indeed the only key to, our deepest human self, made in the image and likeness of God.  This total commitment to the God proclaimed by our faith can only come about to the extent in which we realize that our duty and glorious calling  as Catholics and Christians is to know the God of our proclamation p/Personally:

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. (Isaiah 11:9)

This knowledge is not just some awareness of certain facts about God, the Scriptures, or about the Church; it must aspire to be a deeply personal appreciation of and love for God Himself, as manifested to us in the Person of Jesus Christ, witnessed to us by Jesus’ revelation of the Father, and confirmed by His Gift of the Holy Spirit in Mother Church.  This is a knowledge that can only be received by those who consistently and perseveringly seek to follow their Lord’s own example of commitment and love as shown by His constant communing with His Father in prayer:

Rising very early before dawn, He left and went off to a deserted place, where He prayed.   

It is the lack of such loving knowledge of, communion with, and whole-hearted response to, the Personal God Who deigns to dwell within His faithful servants, that bedevils the proclamation and the witness of Catholic priests and Christians today.

In the book of Hosea (4:6; 6:6) we are told:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest.

I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

The world’s ‘religion’ today is above all a proclamation of self-sufficiency and mutual self- approbation: ‘we can do good of ourselves without any God’.  And because God is rejected as not-necessary, there is no authority able to give peace, strength, and coherence to the common man’s experience of life, all we have is woke doctrines and human (especially feminine) sensibilities.  The laws that would govern the nations all too often give expression to the lies and deceits of unconsciously ludicrous pride (as above) and corrosive self-interest; and the laws that would govern our own society is, at the best, only a series ‘ad hoc’ solutions quite unable to cure the root-ills of an irreligious, no longer God-fearing, nation.  For an ever-growing number of individuals there is no rudder to guide or govern their personal lives: only the  compulsive pressures of profit, the personal passions of pleasure, and social aspirations for power and popularity, all leading to an experience of Job’s words:

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to an end without hope.

Nevertheless, let us, People of God, take to heart the words of the great prophets:

He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him; so, let us know, let us press on to know, the LORD. (Hosea 6:2-3)

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. (Isaiah 11:9)

Above all, of course, we must learn from Our Blessed Lord Himself (John 10:15):

As the Father knows Me, I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

You (Samaritans) worship what you do not know; we  worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.   (John 4:22)

This is eternal life, that they should know You the only true God, and the One Whom You sent, Jesus Christ.  (John 17:3)

        I do know Him (God) and I keep His word. (John 8:55)

 

The Son of God knew His Father’s infinite goodness-and-love for what He had originally created in His own likeness, and – loving Son that He was -- He willed to suffer in His humanity for love of us, and to die as Man for love of His Father, thus becoming Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Word of God, born of the Virgin.

 

Dear People of God, let us pray that our Blessed Lord and Saviour may give authentic authority to both the preaching and proclamation of Mother Church and of us, her, individual, witnessing priests and people, in our troubled world of today.