Corpus Christi Year B, 2024

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,  there are many figures of our Christian Eucharist in the history of God’s Chosen People of old.  From the most ancient times sacrifices offered to the Lord in the Temple were accompanied by a sacred meal, where the faithful partook of the flesh of the victim given in sacrifice.   As you well know, the most famous of all these meals was the Paschal meal, of which Our blessed Lord partook before finally transforming it into His own Eucharistic Offering.

There are, however, other -- less obvious -- anticipations of our Eucharist in Israel’s history. For example, Israel’s traverse of the desert from the slavery of Egypt to the Promised Land, was only made possible thanks to that great historical figure of the Eucharist, namely the manna of the desert. There, God’s food was given directly for Israel’s survival, not even for His own worship: Moses ordered that just one jar of manna be kept as a historical testimony to God’s saving care (Exodus 16:33).  Manna was essentially food of necessity, not of delight.    Likewise, the bread Elijah received from an angel, which enabled him to walk 40 days and 40 nights to meet God on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:4-8), surely foreshadowed the bread our Blessed Lord gives to fortify us for our journey to His Father on the holy mountain of the heavenly Jerusalem.

This line of holy and venerable tradition  reaches its summit, as you might expect, in the Gospel, dear friends, but before coming to that we should glimpse for just a moment at one of the very earliest figures in Israel’s history, Melchizedek, interpreted to us by one of Israel’s latest prophets, Malachi.

That mysterious, ancient, person of Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18ff.), foreshadowed our blessed Lord Himself as the eternal King of Peace: for the Fathers of Holy Mother Church saw in his offering of bread and wine a figure of that PURE OFFERING of which  the Lord Himself speaks in the prophecy of Malachi (1:11), telling us that  He, the Lord, saw the nations of the world presenting incense and pure grain to His name from the rising of the sun even to its setting in Messianic times.

Dear Catholic People of God, how impenetrably mysterious is, and sublimely sacred must be, this reality of our Eucharist, which was foreshadowed, prepared for, over so many centuries, and which Our Lord Himself did not transmit to us without much further preparation by His own words and deeds! 

For Jesus Himself knowingly prepared for and presented to us two striking miracles: one feeding 5,000 followers wanting above all to hear His teaching, and then a second where another 4,000 suchlike were fed; both events being figures of, and immediate preparations for, the great Messianic banquet which is now ours: bread consecrated by the words of the Lord, feeding great numbers of listening-and-self-forgetful followers.  Bread, food, given to fully satisfy many very hungry people, but nevertheless, not fully consumed; bread of life and strength, given LEST (THEY) FAINT IN THE WAY as Our Lord said.(Mark 8:3)

Of such bread we can say that it was given to fulfil an immediate purpose – to satisfy His followers’ hunger -- but not to exhaust its full potentiality; because, after all had eaten to their satisfaction, much more was left to be carefully gathered up.  Jesus’ miraculous bread was ordinary -- five loaves and two fish -- in its origin, super-abundant for its immediate purpose, and sublime in its ‘mysterious residue’ of yet greater promise … enough for how many?   The whole world??

Oh, most blessed, most glorious Eucharist!  Glorious indeed, because It is the Body and Blood of the living, glorified Christ!  Jesus, risen from the dead, triumphant over sin, suffering, and death and resplendent with divine Love and Life; Jesus, present there in all save earthly appearances. Jesus, our All, is present in our Mass in His consuming Filial  love for His Father and His self-forgetting  compassion for all those who believe in Him and obey His words.  Jesus is indeed our eternal Rock and bulwark, our unassailable Citadel and sure Refuge;  do you, dear People of God here present today, want to feel secure in, stake your lives on, His faithfulness; do you want to find your true delight by sharing in His love. 

ASK AND IT WILL BE GIVEN YOU (Matthew 7:7).  Yes, ask when this our King of Glory is offering Himself for you  in prayer to the Father at Holy Mass.  Speak then to Him, for a share, however humble, in Him, with Him.    Pray, beseech Him then, for Mass is the supreme time for heartfelt prayer, when your life, your hope, your strength, your desire, your love, your all, is present, and in His eternal act of consummate love wants to draw you to Himself and with Himself, to the Father.  All is yours for the asking at Mass, because Jesus is present for you, for all of us, because He is one of us, one with us. He is so close to us that His very Mother is our Sister, sharing in our humanity and native weakness, but transformed for His purposes by her total obedience and the Spirit’s transcendent and transforming love.

            Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, REJOICE IN THE LORD!  (Phil. 4:4).

 

Trinity Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40; Romans 8:14-17; Matthew 28:16-20)

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

In those words from today’s second reading St. Paul refers to the transcendent blessing won for us by Jesus Our Lord and Saviour: for, by embracing the cruellest punishment the Roman State could inflict – death on a cross -- He destroyed death’s power over us, and, by rising from the dead He restored our Life.

Jesus died for love of His Father ; He suffered on the  Cross for love of us.

That is, by His transformation of the human horror of dying on the Cross into an act of supreme love for His Father and for us, He shattered the tyrannical hold of death over our human experience of life, and now, by His rising from the grave in the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:11) He is glorified in His human flesh, and is able to pour out His Spirit upon His Church to free those who believe in Him from their sins and give them the hope of sharing in the divine life of eternal beatitude which is His, with the Spirit, in the presence of His heavenly Father.

All that is most beautiful and true … for us who believe … but what does it mean for those many who do not believe; who think that there is no such thing as sin for which we are responsible before some imaginary God?

It means that the HIV blood scandal affecting, ruining and destroying  thousands of peoples’ lives; it means that the Post office scandal bringing about even the criminal condemnation of the innocent; it means that both those scandals -- done knowingly by people like you and me -- are parts of ordinary life, they are bound to happen because there is no one, greater than man, who can change human nature.  It means that the gangs smuggling people from one part of the world to another, illegally, and for great profit; that the  drug dealers, mobsters, and wild-ones are just endless variants of our rich human endowment!   And none of this can be changed … for apparently good people did some of these terrible things … none of this can be changed because there is no God, nor is there is any such thing as sin!

Of course there are some who foolishly think that they can distract themselves from the evil they have done and learn to forget it; that they can come, in that way, to have no qualms of conscience at all about the harm they continue to do; and of them the psalmist says:

Sin lurks deep in the hearts of the wicked, forever urging them on to evil deeds. They have no fear of God to hold them back.  Instead, in their conceit, they think they can hide their evil deeds and not get caught.  Everything they say is crooked and deceitful; they are no longer wise and good.  They lie awake at night to hatch their evil plots instead of planning how to keep away from wrong. (TLB Ps. 36:1-4)

However, though they may -- to some extent -- hide their sins from themselves; and though their eyes may refuse to recognize, and their minds to admit, the truth about themselves, nevertheless, God is the One Who sees all and knows all, and He hates wickedness; above all, He hates the wickedness of those who claim to be innocent of wrong-doing:

With You Lord is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.  Oh, continue Your steadfast love to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.     The evil doers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.    (Ps 36:9-10,12;  (1 John 1:8-10)

For all who live in Jesus, by the Spirit, for the Father, the gift of forgiveness of sins and freedom from their former enslavement – their former yielding to fear and temptation -- brings a truly sublime experience of peace and hope.

The next blessing Jesus offers us is inconceivable because He promises that His faithful disciples will share in His own heavenly glory:

Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence, with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.  Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:5, 24)

That is why St. Paul is able to speak of the “glory of the children of God”.  For the present time, indeed, the fullness of that consuming glory is something we cannot conceive, for it is heavenly and transcends all earthly categories or human imagining.  However, we can experience the beginning of that heavenly glory here on earth, because it is given us – even here and now -- to enter into communion with the Father, in the Son, by the Holy Spirit, as you heard in today’s second reading:

All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons (members of the Body of Christ), by Whom we cry, "Abba, Father."  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

That means that we are able to have a share in the Son’s loving relationship with His Father by the Holy Spirit: in Jesus, we too can commune with the Father, speak personally with Him as His children and experience His Fatherly love and care for us, as the Spirit of Jesus -- gently working in our spirit and guiding us along His ways – forms us ever more and more in Jesus’ likeness.  In that way, in Jesus and with Him, we can come to know that we are not left to ourselves and that, whatever our weakness, whatever our need, we will never be left alone:

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has now come, when you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.  Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me. (John 16:32)

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23)

(Father) I made known to them Your name, and will continue to make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26)

Now, that, People of God, is the supreme reason for our whole-hearted celebration of the Most Holy Trinity today: for, thanks to Jesus, we know by faith, and can appreciate, experience  spiritually, something of the Father’s love, the love which completely embraces and surrounds us, the love which always guides and protects us by the power of Jesus’ Spirit working in us and with us

For all these incomparable blessings we are undyingly grateful to Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour, because it is He alone Who both reveals the Father to us and bequeaths to us His Most Holy Spirit:

Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, except through Me.” (John 14:6)

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:26)

And Jesus does all this for us through His faithful Spouse, Mother Church, which continues to do as He originally commanded her:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. 

Pentecost Day Year B, 2024

 

(Acts 2:1-11; Galatians 5:16-25; John 15:26-27; 16:12-15)

Jesus promised His Apostles:

When the Helper comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me.

How was the Spirit to bear witness about Jesus with regard to the Apostles?

He, the Spirit of truth, will guide you into all the truth; He will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.

Notice, People of God, how careful Jesus was to confirm the oneness of divine witness: the Spirit of Truth would not speak of Himself but, taking from what the Father has, He would glorify Jesus:

He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is Mine.

The Spirit leading Mother Church would therefore inspire the Apostles to recall and proclaim all and only what Jesus had taught them in word and deed, and whatever the Father would reveal.  In the Church of Christ, since the Holy Spirit of Truth Himself does not speak on His own authority, most certainly, private individuals cannot do so.  The authentic teaching of Mother Church on faith and morals is divine, both in its authority, and ultimately in its origin, being the sublime truth about God’s intimate nature, and His divine will for the fulfilment of human life on earth, and for mankind’s eternal destiny.  That means, it is a teaching and source of grace to be received most gratefully as an incomparable pearl of great price, to be treasured more than life itself.

How does the Spirit move the faithful in the Church?

Since He guides the Apostles into ALL TRUTH, correspondingly, He guides those who are faithful in Mother Church to appreciate God’s truth, and trustfully guide their steps along ways prescribed by its wisdom, and through delight in its beauty by the lovingly spiritual aspirations of their hearts and minds.  This He does by informing our obedient lives in such a way that we gradually develop an affinity with God’s revelation, and an ability to rejoice ever more and more in its beauty and draw ever greater strength from its truth.   It was of such guidance of the Church by the Spirit that St. Paul spoke in the second reading:

I say: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.   If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Here, these words of Jesus Himself come to mind (Matthew 11:29-12:1):

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light;  

St. Paul, was personally chosen and sent by the Risen Lord  Jesus to suffer and serve as Doctor of the Nations and Apostle of the Gentiles, yet he is commonly regarded as being harsh, unfeeling, and indeed, even exclusive, as exemplified by what they consider to be his teaching in our second reading today: no one can belong to Christ Jesus unless he crucifies all self-indulgent passions and desires … a teaching which many say leads them to reject Christianity.

However, in most cases, that pseudo-reason is more truly to be regarded as an excuse attempting to justify their rejection, not of what is impossible, but of whatever they fear they would find too restrictive and less pleasurable.  For St. Paul does not use those exclusive words ‘you cannot belong to Christ Jesus’, and no modern bible attributes such words to Him; in fact, he actually says:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

And he follows that immediately with the words:

            If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

We should, therefore, understand Paul in this way:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus, (those) who live by the Spirit and walk in step with the Spirit, have crucified the flesh.

There, all of us are afforded hope, since it is by our living and walking in the Spirit, Paul says, that the Spirit will crucify for us ‘the flesh with its passions and desires’.  Of course, we have to co-operate with the Spirit by following His lead, but that is a far different prospect from having to set about -- off one’s own bat so to speak -- crucifying our human flesh.  For the fact is that, of ourselves, we cannot crucify our flesh in any saving way, as St. Paul himself tells us:

Things done according to the precepts and teachings of men have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, and asceticism, and severity to the body, but (such practices) are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:22-23)

The great fault of lapsing, faint-hearted, Catholics and Christians today, the great mistake of the voluble critics of Mother Church’s moral teaching today, is the fact that they ignore, indeed they know nothing about, the presence -- the active presence and power -- of the Holy Spirit of Truth and Love in the lives of Jesus’ true disciples and faithful children of Mother Church today.  We, of ourselves, can do nothing that leads to salvation.  Jesus, the Risen and Ascended Lord, sends the Spirit from the Father precisely to enable us to do what He commands in order that we might be gradually raised up, in Him, and ultimately  take our place, in Him and with Him, before the Father. 

This is exemplified for us by the Apostles who had received a commission and a command from the risen Jesus to proclaim His Good News to the whole world, for they first went back to their fishing, awaiting Jesus’ promised Gift of Power from on High.  They only set out on their mission of evangelisation after they had received that Gift of God, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of holiness and power, on His very first outpouring upon the Church, as we heard in the first reading.  The Apostles themselves could do nothing – of themselves -- until He, the Gift of God, came into their lives, enabling them to live in the power and holiness of the Risen Lord Jesus for the glorification of His name: He will glorify Me through you.

People of God, we should -- on this wonderful day of celebration and hope -- beg the Holy Spirit to come down upon us; we should whole-heartedly beseech Jesus to send His most Holy Spirit from heaven into our lives ever more and more, for He alone is our sure strength and our true joy in this shallow world of worldly promises become lies and disillusionment, of earthly beauty become emptiness and dismay.

First of all, we need to learn from the Spirit how to love Jesus aright; for, only by trying to follow Him and not yielding to our own ‘wantings’ and fears, will we be enabled -- by the Spirit -- both to obey His commands with a measure of joy, and walk in His ways with due perseverance.   In that way, we will gradually find Jesus more and more truly lovable, because of our growing conformity, likeness, to Him; and thus, appreciating Him more, we will be able to hear more clearly His Spirit speaking intimately in our hearts and guiding us along ways that are increasingly personal to our relationship with Jesus.  We will, of course never be led to desert the common way of His commandments-intended-for-all, but we will have the great delight of finding ourselves growing in personal intimacy with the Lord and heart-felt responsiveness to His Spirit.  Indeed, we will gradually become aware of the presence of the Father Himself in our lives, for Jesus did indeed promise that supreme delight and joy as St. John (14:23) tells us:

Jesus said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

People of God, this day is the birthday of the Church, it is the day which commemorates and renews the birth of heavenly hope in our hearts and of ‘practical’ power in our lives: for the Spirit offers us all a goal and an eternal destiny of glory and joy as children of God in the Body of Christ, our very own Lord and Saviour, for the ultimate glory of Him Who is the Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Luke 10:21).                                        

7th Sunday of Easter Year B, 2024

 

(Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; 1 John: 4:11-16; St. John 17: 11-19)

I have given them Your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I ask that You keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.  For their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus, spoke those words to His heavenly Father Whose work for Him on earth was about to be triumphantly completed … prayed them for His beloved Galilean disciples, soon to be Apostles with world-wide authority and charism, but now, at this moment, facing the greatest trial of their lives … and twice, most emphatically, He said to His Father:

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Dear friends, do you think that the Church is proud of, treasures, those words today?   Do you think that Catholics high and authoritative,  are effectively teaching, and seeking to exemplify, for  their flocks … words, which are Jesus’ own characterisation of His chosen and beloved disciples, and as such. should be treasured above all ‘they are … just as I’?

Of course those words need to be understood aright as Jesus intended them that is, but the question is not that deep, rather it is a surface question of whether the Church generally even averts to those words in her dealings with our world today?  What do you think?   I think not.

            They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world

Those are not antagonistic words, they are words of supreme Christian love!

Jesus was shortly to undergo the horrific Roman crucifixion to save the world; to save the world by changing the world through the gift of His most Holy Spirit of truth and love whom He would bestow on the world through those very disciples, those most true disciples, of whom He said:

            They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

So much has been and is still being done in our times to accommodate the Church to the world, that an occasional word of witness can in no-way make up for the, by now ingrained, attitudes of cosying-up, wanting to be popular, wanting to make Jesus popular!!

Dear People of God, we will soon celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, please, pray God, that He may grant us grace to facilitate the Spirit’s coming by wanting what Jesus is sending Him for, to form us in the like of Himself meaning wholeheartedly those words:

            They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Ascension of Our Lord Year B, 2024

 

(Acts 1:1-11; Eph. 1:17-23; Mark 16:15-20)

In our second reading Paul said that, having heard of the Ephesians’ faith in the Lord Jesus and love for the saints, he had not stopped giving thanks for them and was constantly asking God to bless them with the Gift of the Holy Spirit so that:

The eyes of (your) hearts may be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to His call,

Today’s feast makes clear what St. Paul had in mind, for surely the Apostles’ very posture as they watched their Lord’s ascension showed most manifestly the hope that fill3ed their hearts and minds:

They were looking intently at the sky as He was going, (when) suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.  They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?

Their hope was clear indeed: to follow Jesus to heaven, to leave behind this world where beauty does indeed abound, but not without deception and suffering; where knowledge, though constantly increasing, can never be comprehensive; and so, being unable to throw off that invisible companion of ignorance, does not always or necessarily lead to peace, understanding or wisdom; and where -- because all things have but their day before passing on -- though much is promised, no true fulfilment can be found.

Our hope, dear friends in Christ is, likewise, to know and to share in the riches of the God’s glorious inheritance promised to all who remain steadfast in faith and love for Jesus: those saints glorious in their courage under persecution and torture, to those saints, strong and faithful though, at times, but slight in body and tender in years;  those saints, whose perseverance was not sustained by hatred or bravado but characterized by humility and forgiveness; to those saints, whose goodness towards the poor and needy, the homeless and sick, the outcasts and despised, inspired many thousands of followers over centuries of darkness and cruelty; again,  those saints, whose wisdom has been such as to enlighten the whole world, and others whose humility and artlessness characterized them as true children of God.

Yes, we know something of God’s glorious inheritance among His Saints here on earth and how we admire them!  And yet, theirs is not the glory to which we aspire: they do indeed inspire us, but their glory is God’s gift to them, it is theirs, personal to their unique relationship with their God and Saviour.  We, however, aspire to share the glory of Jesus Himself, for we are members of His Body and in Him children -- adopted children -- of the heavenly Father, called to share in Jesus’ glory, that glory of which Jesus spoke when He said:

I glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work that You gave Me to do. Now glorify Me, Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world began.

Concerning such glory, our share in such an inheritance, even St. John the beloved disciple could say nothing:

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  Everyone who has this hope based on Him makes himself pure, as He is pure.

We hope for heaven, we admire the saints, but we aspire to share in the glory of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, to Whom the Father has called us and in Whom we are made children -- adopted children in Him -- of the Father, as St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans (8:17):

If children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

And there, dear People of God, is the rub: provided we suffer with Him.

Who wants to suffer for being Catholic and Christian when there is so much to hand that promises joy without violating our Catholic conscience? 

Ultimately, it is love for the Person of Jesus Who died not only to save us from the slavery and punishment of our sins, but also to offer us the joy of becoming a true child of God worthy to be embraced as such by the Father; and, through that love of Jesus, a gifted awareness of the sublime beauty, holiness and goodness of God made known to us through Mother Church’s proclamation of the Gospel, that can enable us to embrace the sufferings inherent in life today.

That is what the Apostle finally prayed for us in our second reading today:

May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens.

In Mother Church our eyes are nowadays enlightened to know that the Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead up to the right hand of the Father in heaven has been given to us, sent to us from the right hand of the Father by Jesus. He is the Spirit of the Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord, and the Spirit of Pentecost; the Spirit who fills our minds and hearts with joy, hope and confidence, supremely, at these times; He is -- at Jesus’ behest -- the Spirit at work in our lives, forming us in the likeness of Jesus for the Father.

What are the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in His Saints?  They are indeed some sharing out of the glory which Jesus had with the Father before the world began, the glory which is His now at the right hand of the Father.  We do not know what our share will be; we do know it will not be that of any saint known to us because it will be our own sharing with Jesus, in Jesus, by the Spirit, before the Father:

We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is; 

in accordance with the sincerity of that prayer we all surely intend daily: ‘Lord Jesus, please help me love You more, show me something of the beauty of the Father’.

6th Sunday of Easter Year B, 2024

 

(Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1^st. John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17)

In our first reading we heard what is possibly the most famous, and surely the least controversial, of all the fundamental statements made in the New Testament about God:

            God is love  (1 John 4:16)                                

That statement of just three words from St. John’s first letter, are unique to St. John, they cannot be found elsewhere, not even in St. John’s own Gospel!!  And yet, as I have just said, they are the most commonly appreciated words of the New Testament, in fact they encapsulate  Gospel teaching  for both those who care not-one-jot for the rest of God’s Good News, and for those who appreciate them not commonly, but with the deepest Gospel appreciation and Jesus-bonding love.

For many, multitudes indeed, commonly rejoice in those words not because they want to delight in, learn more about, their meaning and significance for their own spiritual life in the service of Jesus before the Father, but to use them as a springboard that enables  them to assert that all love is divine, and that all earthly forms of loving, including even the most blatantly sensual and at times disgusting, are acceptable;  and indeed are authentic, expressions of God’s love – which, most certainly, is not true.

Such opponents of Christianity, such searchers for ‘freedom to sin’, latch onto a popular difficulty for the correct doctrinal understanding of those words I have highlighted:

God is love.                  

The original Greek text in the New Testament says that God is agape; the Latin Vulgate, old and new, always translates that with ’God is caritas’; and, for their part, our older English bibles translated that into ’God is charity’.  However, when the clarity of the word ’charity’ was clouded by the saying, ’there is nothing so cold as charity, then our English bibles began to translate ’God is agape’, with ‘God is love’.  As a result, we now have the situation where another worldly expression ’making love’ -- used almost universally for sex between adult men and women, not excluding, of course, these days’ sex between gays, lesbians, and others -- unavoidably resonates St. John’s words ‘God is love’.  So that, whereas formerly, although the word ‘charity’ was maliciously characterised as cold and unfeeling, it, nevertheless, always carried with it an aura of divine involvement.  Now, ‘love’ in the modern translation, inevitably brings with it implications that are both sordid and unchristian; and even though -- at its very best -- it can occasionally evoke what is beautiful in human relationships, hardly ever does it suggest what is divine.

There is however, another, not dissimilar, difficulty connected with the popular understanding of our Gospel reading today.  Jesus, as you heard said:

I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.

In modern parlance, ‘joy’ is frequently -- indeed normally -- mixed up with, understood as, ‘pleasure’ or even ‘excitement’.  Now, there is no true comparison between those three words.  In the Christian understanding ’joy’ is spiritual, whereas ’pleasure’ is sensual; and excitement can be anything leading to frenetic emotion: one feels pleasure, one is carried-away by excitement, one can only peacefully experience joy.  Pleasure can be bought or procured, whereas joy is only to be received as a gift, a privilege, given – in its most sublime form -- freely from above, evoked in such words as, ‘Thanks be to God’.

Jesus loved the Father; and before leaving the Upper Room to face His enemies and impending death His final words were:

That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do; arise, let us go from here.   (John 14:31)

He desired above all to lead His disciples to a relationship with the Father like to His own.   Jesus’ love for the Father was and is ‘agape’, and the Father’s agape caused Him to send His Son on earth to free mankind from the deadly burden of their sins.  That agape-inspired gift of self-sacrificing love on the Father’s part led His Son to embrace the Cross for the redemption of our sinfulness , and thus pour out that divine, agape-inspired-love into our lives by the Gift of His Spirit:

 God’s love (‘agape’) has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.   (Romans 5:5)

In that way the love which originates with the Father comes down to earth:

In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us (with agape) and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

However, though come down to earth in and through Jesus, agape is never earthly, it remains divine; and, by the unique inevitability characteristic of divine power, it ultimately recalls, brings back, restores, the Son to oneness with His Father:

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

Thus, the whole aim of our Christian life, the whole purpose of Catholic spirituality, is to allow that full tide of agape -- brought down, and given to us, by Jesus through His Holy Spirit -- to rule in our lives, as St. Paul testifies:

If we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are in our right mind, it is for you, for the love (agape) of Christ controls us.  (2 Corinthians 5:13-14)

If agape is allowed to move us likewise, it will draw all, who are one with and in, Jesus, back to the Father; and that will be for our most sublime joy, for Jesus’ relations with His Father were characterized, as He said, by joy, and He wanted that joy to be shared by His disciples also:

As the Father loves Me, so I also love you.  Remain in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy might be complete.

Notice there, dear People of God, when so much emotional waffle is swilling around in presentations of Catholic faith and Christian discipleship in a vain search for easy religion and a popular Jesus, that Jesus -- in the words quoted from today’s Gospel -- associates LOVE, COMMANDMENTS, and JOY; where the link-word holding true love, divine love, ‘agape’, and humanly experienced Jesu-joy (‘My joy’), is the word ‘commandments’, and the obedience it calls for.

Jesus’ essential significance for the world’s salvation is summed up in His revelation of the Father, and in His gift of the Holy Spirit Whom He bequeathed to His Church; from these, spring the joy and fulfilment of Christian life and the irresistible power of Christian agape so definitely witnessed-to in some of the most essential aspects of the Gospel message:

            Rejoice Mary, the Lord is with you.

The angel said, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.   (Luke 2:10-12)

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.    (John 14:27)

Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.        (John 16:33)

Dear People of God, in order to experience the beautiful truth, the unutterable joy, and the supreme power of the Christian way of life, that is, in order to benefit from the fullness of revelation and grace in Mother Church, we must learn to swim in and along with the tide of divine agape which determines her whole being: sustaining her unwavering hope and preparing her for eternal glory.  We must come to know and love the Father; and, as you are well aware, no one can draw near to the Father except through Jesus, because Jesus alone gives us the Spirit, Who is the bond of agape between Father and Son:

There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these Three are One. (1 John 5:7)

Embrace therefore, People of God, the Gospel proclaimed by Mother Church, that, knowing the Truth and delighting in Jesus, you may receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit Who can fill you with that unique love which is divine Agape.  Allow that Holy Spirit of agape to rule your life in Jesus, and He will guide you along the way to the Father, bearing fruit for the Father and experiencing something of Jesus’ own peace and joy here on earth, before ultimately -- in heaven -- sharing in the eternal blessedness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to Whom belong all glory, praise, and honour, now and for ever.

Peter said, ‘God shows no partiality: in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him.’

Jesus says, ‘If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.’