31st Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Deuteronomy 6:2-6; Hebrews 7:21-28; St. Mark 12:28-34) 

This is the commandment that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you:  that you fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son.

Having elaborated on that stark commandment, Moses then went on to say:

Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might.  And these words I command you today shall be on your heart.

And there, dear People of God, we have an essential aspect of our religion: it is truth founded on the unshakeable rock of reality.  The Almighty, the Unutterable, the Awesome and Majestic, the sustaining Creator of all that is, is -- by His very nature – Fearsome for, and to be feared by, His creation.   However, He is also – for His chosen creation, His Chosen People – One who is to be loved:  with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Dear friends in Jesus, never forget that Catholic saving, truth, is based on reality; that is why God sent His only-begotten Son, His Word of Truth, to come among us, to become one of us through Mary of Nazareth and the Holy Spirit of life and love.  Beautiful imaginations are not saving, truth … they can, for a time and in favourable circumstances, be emotionally inspiring; but never, never, can they pretend to be  ‘life-stakingly’ reliable words,  words bringing peace, for salvation.

Let us consider more closely, more intently, more lovingly, our blessed Lord and Saviour.

I have just said that He was sent among us by His Father; that is how Jesus Himself always preferred to express ‘why, how’ He came among us to be our Saviour.  He came, as One sent by His Father; that is, at His Father’s command.  That does not mean that He Himself had been unwilling to come among us; on the contrary He had wanted to come as our Saviour, but out of love above all for His Father, Who had originally, and most lovingly, created each of us -- as free persons -- in His own image and likeness.  Jesus had wanted His Incarnation to be a work of truth founded on the unshakeable rock of reality, that is, a work founded on the irrefragable truth of His love for His Father and the rock-solid creative love of His Father for His human creation.   The devil’s deceit, had brought about -- through Eve’s disobedience, and Adam’s weakness -- a hurt for the Lord and God of all creation; because, by creating man-and-woman in His own image and likeness,  He had humbly left Himself liable to hurt in this one aspect.  And His beloved, only-begotten Son, willed – with the unutterable majesty and intensity of His divine love for His Father – to right that wrong, restore that hurt, by coming among men as One of them, One Sent -- under obedience -- to form a new, obedient, People of God through faith in Himself; a people willing to be guided and sustained by His most Holy Spirit, the divine expression of the love eternally bonding  the Father and His Son.

Our second reading tells us that Jesus is a priest forever:

Consequently He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

He always lives to make intercession for us in heaven, where He entered as perfect God (triumphant after His resurrection and ascension) and perfect Man (thanks to the human flesh and blood He received from the immaculate Mary of Nazareth).  He thereby opened the gates of heaven for those ‘sheep of His flock’ willing to walk, in the power of His most Holy Spirit, along the way He Himself -- as Jesus of Nazareth -- had already traced out for them.  The way of Gospel truth was written by His chosen Apostles under the inspiring guidance of Jesus’ most Holy Spirit, Who recalled to those Apostolic authors all that Jesus had said and done, all that He intended to be  proclaimed – in His name, by the Church of His choosing and formation -- to the whole of mankind, for their salvation as potential children (in Him, the only-begotten Son) of God the Father.

Let us finally hear Jesus’ words from today’s Gospel reading, which confirm, and give their final consecration to, those words of Moses we heard earlier:

The most important commandment is, ‘Hear O Israel: The Lord  our God, the Lord is one.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.’  

Jesus, the Son of God, had been sent, had come among us as our Neighbour, bringing salvation for all who would believe in Him and allow themselves to be re-formed by His Spirit in the likeness of Himself, as children, adopted of God. Thus, was attained the Son’s ultimate intention of finally restoring the hurt that He, as most-beloved and only-begotten Son, could not bear to see affecting His Almighty, Majestic, and – for all who would come to know Him by sharing in the divine ecstasy of love which is eternal life – most Humble, Father of us all. 

30th Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Jeremiah 31:7-9; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52) 

God’s Chosen People had originally been banished from their homeland because they had – over many generations -- become gradually more and more alienated from God by their sinful behaviour; ultimately, they lost  the Promised Land He had given them.

Now, in our first reading today from the prophet Jeremiah, God is showing that divine mercy to His People for which many prophets, holy men and women, had long been praying: He is bringing them back to their Promised Land, restoring His gift, and thereby inviting them to return to Him with their whole heart and mind.  This physical returning home was to be an opportunity for them to become once again worthy to be known as God’s Chosen People (Luke 1:74-5):

That we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

However, that physical return had been hard, very hard indeed, leading over desert and stony ways; food and drink being necessarily in short supply since, after having had to pay the prices asked for them, they were then obliged to carry those supplies on their own backs as well as on the backs of the few animals they possessed.  Moreover, backs for carrying were not plentiful since they were returning with some treasured possessions, above all, they were carrying their infants; and there were many who could not carry anything at all because they were either blind, lame, sick, too old, or else heavily pregnant.  For all these reasons food and drink had been strictly limited for a journey that was long, over territory that was difficult, and under conditions of great heat during the day and penetrating cold at night.

Those difficulties, however, had not been the only, nor perhaps the greatest, encountered by the returning exiles; for that trek had been completed in a period of months, whereas there had been other difficulties of rebuilding and restoration which  took years to resolve.  And, above all, having made their return, the very greatest challenge facing them had been that of their own wayward hearts and minds which still had to return to the Lord their God in spirit and in truth.  The physical return home was their great opportunity, but a truly successful return would not to be accomplished without much soul-searching, prayer, and endeavour (Jeremiah 31:9):

With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back.    

That is the experience, even today, of many who, for whatever reason, left Mother Church, and then are led, by the great mercy of God, to return to the fold: their absence has changed them, and, during that absence, Mother Church herself has changed, inevitably, since she is a living Church relating to a world in constant flux.  And even though such changes might, perhaps, only have been slight, nevertheless, they are not imperceptible; with the result that some aspects of Church life may now seem to those returning less familiar, less homely, than before, whilst other changes might even seem to strike a disturbing, somewhat alien, chord.

Changes in ones’ self, changes in the Church, however, are not the only cause of difficulties for exiles returning home: their return can be made difficult and trying by one thing that does not change, human nature: the people they find on returning may not appear to be, and some of them may not truly be, understanding, sympathetic or helpful:

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.  And when he  heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.”  And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

The words of the prophet are, indeed, still very true:

With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back.

Now, it is undeniably the case that all of us -- even those who have never been separated from Mother Church -- are exiles returning to our Father, because all of us can experience something of that alienation from God which sin and worldliness incessantly threaten to bring about in us.  In addition to that, we all have set before us a totally new and unimaginable promise and prospect, for we are now called not to prepare ourselves for something we know, but rather, to allow ourselves to be groomed for the supernatural condition of children of the heavenly Father by the Spirit, Who forms us in the likeness of Jesus by our faith in Him, as the only-begotten Son of God made flesh for our salvation.  

We can only undertake such a pilgrimage thanks to Jesus Christ, our great High Priest.   We were told in the second reading:

Every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf  men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.   No one takes this honour upon himself but only when called by God.

Jesus offered His gifts and His unique sacrifice to the Father for us, and He envisaged not only our redemption from sin but even our being with Him in heaven as He had been with us on earth.  The price for the attainment of such an unimaginable purpose, however, could only be itself unimaginable, unimaginable love -- the love that caused Jesus to offer His life to His Father, from the Cross on Calvary, for our salvation (John 10:17-18):

For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own  accord.  I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.  This charge I have received from My Father

If Jesus was to give supremely human expression to that infinite fulness of divine love enjoined on Him by His Father, it had to be in and through His human body, and inevitably, by His bursting the limitations of that body: totally embracing divinely filial obedience for His Father’s supreme glory and showing unimaginably compassionate love for our human waywardness, both aspects to be glimpsed in and through His crucified Body and His pierced Heart.

In such a way Jesus won for all of us exiles, that first gift of the Spirit: that original inspiration, to start us out on the way back to our Father.

Thanks to the supreme prayer of Jesus and His sacrifice of self on Calvary -- the sacrifice made available and effective for all ages in Mother Church’s continuous offering of Holy Mass -- we too can gain a hearing when we pray, as His disciples, ‘Lord have mercy on us.’

Having, in the name of Jesus, gained a hearing, and having begun our return in Him and with Him to the Father, we have to persevere throughout a long, and at times difficult, journey, overcoming -- as did those returning exiles in the first reading -- trials from both without and within ourselves.  Thanks be to God, in Mother Church at Holy Mass, all of us who are, to whatever degree, alienated from the Father by our sinfulness, can draw near and call out to Jesus -- as did Bartimeus on hearing the noise of the crowd -- because Jesus at Holy Mass is close at hand to hear our cries and answer us, as He did so long ago:

Jesus said to him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" And the blind man said to Him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight!"         

What would you have asked for in such a situation, People of God?  What do you, in fact, ask of Jesus today at Holy Mass?  Each of us is making his or her own journey to the Father, and each and every one of us has his or her own difficulties to deal with  and overcome; but whatever our needs and whatever the request we might ask of Jesus, let us remember and learn from what we are told about Bartimeus, for Scripture says that:

Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Is anyone telling you to shut up?   Perhaps it is you yourself, your worldly self, suggesting that you are tired of praying … it never seems to be heard; telling you that you are weary of making efforts which don’t bring any visible results.  Such psychological ‘voices’ may not, however, be all that tends to discourage you, People of God; for in our present situation here in multi-cultural Britain under a positively secular-minded and anti-religious government there is much opposition and ridicule both public and in private, for those who would serve God and conscience first and foremost.  We are now surrounded by people who profess themselves satisfied by what they think they know about life in today’s world, people who think themselves able to do all things necessary to sufficiently advance their own purpose and achieve their own goal; people who acknowledge no realms beyond what their own eyes and mankind’s technical abilities tell them,  no truths beyond their ken.   Consequently, they cannot understand and indeed tend to dismiss or despise those of us who, as Christians, look to Jesus to give us, by His Spirit, sight to recognize what is ultimately true, and strength to walk along His way towards its attainment and enjoyment in His Father’s Kingdom.

Whatever opposition you may encounter, whatever the trials and disappointments you may experience, keep your hopes fixed on Jesus, dear  People of God, like Bartimeus, and pray that despite all, through all, you might be enabled to see well enough to follow Jesus  faithfully along the road that leads ultimately into the presence of the Father; for that drawing closer to Jesus – by endeavour and intention – is, indeed, the grace of salvation.

This process of becoming one with Jesus in love for the Father and in the service of our fellows, is never-ending while we are still on earth, and it is one that can only be accomplished in us by the Holy Spirit guiding, strengthening, and crowning, our co-operation. We are always able to win -- with the Spirit of Jesus -- that fulfilment which the heavenly Father has long planned and prepared for us: our becoming His true, heavenly  children, adopted in Jesus, by the Spirit.  

29th Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45) 

Dear People of God, the essential teaching contained in this Sunday’s  Gospel passage from Saint Mark, is ‘muddied’ somewhat by a question of translation which needs to be considered first of all, because it does quickly lead to a serious issue concerning Catholic spirituality which translators are not necessarily sufficiently aware of.

There are two current translations of today’s Gospel focus:

whoever would be first among you MUST/WILL be slave of all. Whoever would be great among you MUST/WILL be your servant; 

Literally speaking, “must”,  repeated twice, should be translated, more correctly, by the word, “will”.

Let us therefore consider the two different appreciations of what our Evangelist, St. Mark, quotes Jesus as having taught in his Gospel:

Whoever would be great among you will be your servant; and whoever would be first among you will be slave of all.

Notice first of all that Jesus was speaking privately to His chosen disciples, each of whom He knew intimately, both with regard to their own individual character and to their personal love for, and commitment to, Himself.  They were men He, Jesus, was in the very process of training to become His Apostles and the founders of His future Church:

            Whoever would be great among you will be... 

Some translators say that here Jesus means ‘must make yourself to be…’ a servant of the others, because His words,  ‘whoever would be great’, imply that to attain  their desire, to show, prove themselves be great, the disciple must DO something that distinguishes and shows him to be that ‘special’!  And surely, we can understand such a trend of thought.

Yes, we can understand that because it is a normal, worldly, way of thinking.  But, precisely, here we are not considering the thought patterns of every-day human beings firmly ensconced in an ordinary worldly situation: we are thinking about men chosen by God first of all to love and follow Jesus; men then being further singled out by Jesus Himself for membership in a unique group known as The Twelve; and finally, they were men who heard carefully chosen words addressed to them alone by Jesus, the ‘Word’ of God and the ‘Wisdom’ of God made flesh.
 
The translation ‘Whoever would be great among you must be your servant’ demands – first of all -- that anyone of them with such a desire must do something to make, to  prove, himself, and thus it presumes a measure of self-seeking and of self-esteem that is most certainly not what Jesus wanted in His Apostles.
Of course, ‘must be your servant’ can mean ‘must become, must be made’, by God, your servant.’ But that is most certainly not the first implication of that translation.
 
On the other hand, our translation ‘Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant’, declares that any one of them with – anyone to whom God has indeed given -- aspirations, hopes, prayers for such greatness, will be brought by God the Father to serve his brethren; either in actual physical service, or in self-sacrificing spiritual humility and fraternal commitment.  Now that is the way Jesus Himself lived in our regard: not choosing for Himself, but being led by His Father, just as our first reading, taken from the book of Isaiah, made so abundantly clear:
 
                It was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put him to grief.
 
                The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
 
And this attitude is incontrovertibly shown by Our Blessed Lord at His agony in the Garden when He said:
 
Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.  Remove this cup from Me; before adding, yet not what I will but what You will. (Mark 14:36)
 
Let us therefore look back at the preposterous request made (according to Mark’s Gospel which vividly records Peter’s preaching) by James and John, sons of Zebedee:
 
                Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You!!
 
Matthew tries to make it more acceptable by saying the request was made by the mother of those two disciples … but the original indignation of their fellow apostles is surely most clearly witnessed to, and justified by, Mark’s account as remembered by Peter.

Therefore, assuming Mark is accurate,  and that James and John did themselves make such an outrageous request of Jesus, the question arises, ‘Why did Jesus treat their request so seriously?’  And surely the answer must be, ‘Because He had something supremely important to teach all twelve of His future apostles from the faux pas of James and John;  He is about to show them something essential for their future Apostolic understanding of themselves and of the ways of their God, His Father.
 
James and John had tried to express, in badly chosen words -- but also quite simply and humbly before Jesus -- what His Father was trying to inspire in them: an divine aspiration, which --  in no circumstances whatsoever -- was to be mistaken as a merely human ambition.

Yes, you will be great because My Father is trying to draw you along, guide you on, His way for you; but His will alone will be done in you, not your will for your own personal renown, not even your will for His renown.  His will, will be done, in you, and it will be done in His way.

Jesus took their preposterous but childishly innocent request seriously, because they were indeed intended to become Apostles for the establishment of His Church and the Kingdom of God, and this folly, this misunderstanding of His Father’s intentions in their regard, needed to be corrected.  Indeed, in a certain measure it was being corrected at that very moment, by the well-deserved embarrassment James and John had to endure when they dropped back -- Jesus usually walked in front of His Apostles -- to rejoin their indignant fellow Apostles, whom they had earlier, so symbolically, left behind in order to go ahead and talk privately with Jesus. 

Jesus however, although once again walking alone, ahead of His Apostles, noticed what was going on behind Him and we are told:

He summoned them, and said to them…. WHOEVER WISHES TO BE GREAT AMONG YOU WILL BE YOUR SERVANT; WHOEVER WISHES TO BE FIRST AMONG YOU WILL BE THE SLAVE OF ALL.

They would all have learnt so much about themselves and about God’s will for them from those words of Jesus!

Dear People of God, as we consider the history of Mother Church past and present, we can surely appreciate the superhuman task that faced and still faces the Twelve Apostles and their subsequent episcopal successors: the establishment of a cohesive Catholic Church: one in faith, morals, and obedience, throughout history and for all mankind.  They would indeed have the Holy Spirit, ‘Gifted’ them by Jesus, abiding with them as a Body, and forming them individually to become each a true member of that Body of Christ, for the glory of God the Father and the salvation of all men and women of good will.  But what immense difficulties would subsequently arise through those who -- like James and John, though not so innocently as they -- would mistake  their own ambitions for God’s inspiration, for God’s inviting and guiding grace?  How many souls would, do, and will, suffer from the overweening pride of individuals in powerful positions: be they bombastic, arrogant, and ambitious prelates or scheming, harsh and unbending, mother superiors!

Undoubtedly, however, the single most important task for Mother Church today is the defence, purification and exaltation of Christian family life; and the supreme need in Catholic spirituality is for all Catholic parents to assume family responsibility and exercise shared and loving parental authority; and -- forgetting themselves --  to draw ever closer to Jesus, humbly and patiently centred on doing the will of God the Father: becoming ever more able to discern and distinguish His will from their own, and His glory from their own reputation, regardless of the blame or acclamation of men.
 
Dear People of God, let us aspire with all our heart to love Jesus for the Father and to serve Jesus by His Spirit, in the Church called to Jesus by His Father for the salvation of men and women of good will.  Let us not seek a self-called Church of human choice, strong in numbers and bolstered by popularity, but barren of fruit born of God’s grace and bereft of His uniquely saving presence.

28th Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30) 

My dear People of God, we heard in the second reading:

The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart;

and that passage, taken from the Letter to the Hebrews -- one of the very earliest of the Epistles, and written by ‘only God knows’ who, according to the great scholar Origen - - gives us a remarkable insight into the teaching and witness of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, speaking uniquely the Word of God.  Dear fellow disciples of Jesus,  let us all, for this short time together, listen to and learn from Him.

The rich young man in our Gospel reading had, lived a devout life according to the Law of Moses; but he now learned that his appreciation of the word ‘good’ was somewhat superficial and perhaps even somewhat blasphemous, when Jesus said to him:

            Why do you call Me good?  No one is good except God alone.

This young man had given his life thus far to fulfil his Jewish desire to be holy in accordance with God’s Law given to Moses for the children of Israel, and therefore Jesus  took him seriously, immediately; and Jesus’ words are serious, potentially determinative for our spiritual better-being.

As the new People of God, we are called, by those words of Jesus, to recognize that we do not learn from ordinary life what is spiritually important for us.  We can be called by God in the course of our ordinary life, but we don’t learn from popular films, from pagan do-gooders in social media, much less from the faith-less majority around us.  At the very best, we can only occasionally pick up, from ordinary life, some nugget that might be of spiritual help, if our spiritual awareness appreciates and begins to chew over what we have just picked up, just come across.  Whatever is truly good and determinative for our personal relationship with God; whatever will help us to experience a life of authentic human fruitfulness, peace, and joy; and embrace our death; all that is from God’s grace and His P/personal calling (“No one can come to me unless My Father …” ) and all that will – if lovingly followed – lead us  to our ultimate share in the divine fulfilment of eternal life in the family of God.  

Now, the young man in today’s Gospel, considered himself to be “good” but Jesus’ words were meant to disabuse him of that idea:

            Why do you call Me good?  No one is good except God alone.

We are now studying Jesus’ teaching about God, and there is, perhaps, among some of Jesus’ Catholic disciples today, a serious mis-understanding about the ‘Trinitarian Love’ uniting  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the One Godhead we worship.  That love is a reciprocal love between those three divine Persons, a Love for each One, calling forth a like love in return from each one.   Our ultimate human destiny is not just our being present at a heavenly feast where God loves all present there. God’s love for all those human beings brought by the Spirit ‘through Jesus’ to the banquet of heaven is the Father’s reciprocal love demanding an appropriate reciprocal love.  There are no mere human beings at the feast in heaven, there are only human persons, loving with a divinely reciprocative love, the God and Father Who has invited them as His guests to  be present there.  The reciprocal love of God is the beatific life of heaven in the Godhead Itself; and also – in its right degree – among the human guests and all invited to that feast.

Our time on earth, dear friends in Christ Jesus Our Lord, is given us to learn how to begin loving that way … that is why Jesus was sent among us, why Jesus became one of us, and why He left us His Most Holy Spirit, and this most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass when He Himself returned home.   And Jesus had that process of learning for heaven in mind, when He said to the young man in our Gospel reading:

You lack one thing:  go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.

Those words pierced the young man so deeply that, we are told that:

 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

He went away because he had just been brought to realise how much he loved his earthly possessions: they were real, his heavenly aspirations were, in comparison, imaginary. As yet, the exercise of those earthly possessions meant more to him than his heavenly rituals and aspirations.  And so, he went away sorrowful because he knew that he was thereby turning away from the best option, for the call of Jesus to personal discipleship was, he realized, though not a command, certainly a wonderful offer, a supreme opportunity.  Nevertheless, he could not turn his back on his money and all the good things of life on earth that it afforded him: above all, perhaps, that prominence which brought him the esteem and subservience of others.

Recall now, dear friends, how we began Mass.  You will remember that we said, “Lord, you were sent to heal the contrite”, “You came to call sinners”; for Jesus is continually calling all -- be they contrite or sinners -- to open their hearts and minds ever more and more to the healing power of His word and His love.

The Word of God proclaimed at Mass to the contrite, is:

living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart;

and, as such, it is meant to pierce each and every one of us.  And, having penetrated the manifold layers of human sinfulness, self-satisfaction, and personal ignorance, to thereby enable each and every one of us to see our own sinfulness more clearly, just as it did with the rich young man.  That young man had to be shown the depth of his attachment to money in order that he might appreciate and be able to respond to a higher vocation in life here on earth, namely, with Jesus, to learn to love the Father above all else, and in Jesus to attain to eternal life and glory before the Father in heaven:

 Sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.

Now, Jesus does not say the same words to every person who turns to Him for salvation. The Word of God, which Mother Church proclaims here at Mass and throughout her liturgy and public ministry, can be of special significance to any and every one of us who hear it aright: it can, at any stage in our life, open us up to ourselves anew, showing us how much His healing is still needed in our lives, and enabling us to respond to a further call and closer embrace from Jesus.

Remember, Jesus does not look bleakly at us with a cold eye and critical appreciation, for we have already been lovingly called and guided to Him by the Father:

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

Therefore, Jesus loves us, just as He loved the rich young man, as we heard:

Jesus looking at him, loved him.

Jesus loved him because He saw what He could make of that young man if he were to become a disciple and learn how to love aright and give glory to the Father.  The Word of God had penetrated to the core of his being for his greater blessing; if only he could have accepted that Word, and the revelation of his present self generated by it.

People of God, never turn away from God’s Word heard or read in the Scriptures and in the teaching of the Church because it makes you feel uncomfortable; because Jesus does not seek or plan our ultimate discomfiture.  He loves us and wants only to help us love and glorify the Father with Him; He wants to lead us to the fullest realization of our divine potential, and to that end we must never forget what we heard in the second reading:

No creature is  hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account.

Like foolish children, we simply do not know either the truth about ourselves, or what is truly good for us.  All things are “naked and open to the eyes of God”, and His holy Word comes to us, at times, to cut us to the quick and thereby help us first to realize, and then hopefully to embrace, what is best for us, for:

The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow;

it is, however, only piercingly sharp at those times when God wants, by that Word, to help us, as Scripture says: to discern the thoughts and intentions of (our own) heart;

And this He does to  fulfil the words of the prophet Malachi (4:2)  who declared in the name of the Lord:

For you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

People of God, if -- as yet -- you don’t truly appreciate the dignity of your calling as a Catholic disciple of Jesus, then allow the Word of God to be active in you, do not reject its occasional piercing, penetrating, and yet healing, smart.  Remember the advice given us in the first reading from the book of Wisdom:

The Spirit of wisdom came to me;  I chose to have her rather than light, because her radiance never ceases.

27th Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-12) 

Moses gave permission for a man to divorce his wife; however, Jesus declared:

           Because of the hardness of your heart (Moses) wrote you this commandment.

The Law had been given through Moses to prepare the People of Israel both to receive and  to embrace the Lord and Saviour of mankind when He should come, and this they did, supremely through the Virgin Mary of Nazareth.  However, the Israelite leaders, because of their wilful hardness of heart, refused to acknowledge the Saviour sent by God, and consequently, the vast majority of the people were not able to embrace or even recognize the Lord when He came.

Jesus, the Son-of-God-made-flesh was sent by His Father to live among God’s Chosen People with the immediate aim of leading back to His Father those who were wandering from the God they acknowledged but did not truly obey, because of the dominion that Satan held over their lives. Jesus’ ultimate purpose, however, was to call the whole of sinful mankind to the God they did not yet know -- though He was the One God Who created them -- as to their loving Father, by His (Jesus’)’re-making’ of them, through His Spirit, into fully adopted children of God.

For this end, Jesus did not base His teaching on the Law of Moses; for -- although He did not deny the validity of the Law for those to whom it had been given through Moses -- He nevertheless, deliberately chose to by-pass the Mosaic Law by invoking the Father’s original law of creation for His, Jesus’, disciples -- the new Children of God and His future Church -- the law eternally enshrined in their original make-up, by recalling that:

From the beginning of creation. ‘God made them male and female’. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'.  So they are no longer two but one flesh.

He then answered in perfect fulness the Pharisees’ initial question about the current standing of Moses permission for divorce contained in the Law:

What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

 

We can see clearly that Jesus had only one purpose in mind: to awaken and to save true Children-of-God for His Father, and in fulfilment of this He showed Himself adamant, admitting no compromises, even though Moses had set a precedent.  Jesus’ Gospel was not to be in any way preparatory for something that might come later: His Gospel was and is definitive, and its sole function was and is to form true children-of-God, those whom the Holy Spirit would lead to believe in Jesus  and then go on to guide them to love their heavenly Father, as members of the mystical Body of Jesus; that is, as adopted children nourished by the teaching, and by the very Body and Blood, of the Father’s only-begotten Son-made-flesh.  Jesus could not envisage spurious children-of-God: only those given to Himself by the Father and formed according to His Gospel teaching by His gift of the Holy Spirit, would be able and fit to follow Jesus into the kingdom of heaven and, indeed, into the very presence of His and their heavenly Father

This attitude and purpose of Jesus was made devastatingly clear by His subsequent words which removed any possibility of misunderstanding or prevarication concerning the supremacy of divine truth with regard to political, social, or personal, expediency:

Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

Those words were spoken to His disciples in private: they were the ones who would teach Jesus’ future disciples after He had gone, and there had to be no hesitancy or uncertainty over a matter of such importance, a matter that so clearly brings mankind’s weakness into possible confrontation with the exigencies of fellowship with God, as members of the Body of Christ, Who is Himself bonded as One in union with the Father, by the truth and love of their most Holy Spirit.

Moses had allowed the Jews a certain relaxation because they had been subject to a Law which was meant to help them become aware of their own sinfulness and frailties and acknowledge their need of a Saviour; and in fulfilling such a function the Law allowed a degree of licence while  bestowing a measure of holiness.  The Gospel, however, is concerned with the ultimate degrees of holiness, because it was and is meant to bring believers into union with Jesus, and into the family of the heavenly Father as His truly-adopted-children-in-Jesus, by the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.  Likewise, the fullness of the Holy Spirit could only be given to God’s Church in order to protect and promote the fullness of truth in all its purity: for only such fullness and purity of truth could lead human beings to an appreciation of, and gradual sharing in, the fullness of heavenly glory which is divine charity.  Previously, under the Mosaic dispensation, certain compromises could be made for human weakness and ignorance, since the Law was still preparatory, what would be definitive was yet to come.  The Gospel dispensation, however, is to be the final and immediate preparation for fellowship with God.  Under the Gospel law, never would believers in Jesus work alone, for they would always be endowed with, empowered and enlightened by, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Holiness, and thus enabled to walk the ways of holiness leading into the presence of Him Whom Jesus addressed in prayer as ‘Holy Father’.  It is for such reasons that Jesus commanded:

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

People of God, today we are given an opportunity to appreciate something of the divide that many are continually attempting to set up between our modern Church and the intention and will of Jesus.  Today, emphasis is placed, so often, on numbers and ‘compassion’.  Teaching, it is claimed, has to be adapted in order to bring more people into our churches; it should be relaxed, not only in unessential details of traditional Church law and discipline, but even in matters of doctrine, so that the Church doctrine might be more easily understood, and more accessible and welcoming to modern attitudes and mores.

This emphasis on numbers, this desire for popularity -- which is the true project modern ’compassion’ pleaders have in mind -- is far different from Jesus’ attitude with regard to those who thought His doctrine unacceptable:

Therefore, many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"         (John 6:60)

After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.  So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"  Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:66-68)

The Gospel message of salvation is, indeed, for the whole of mankind, but the mystery of human freedom is still relevant.  In Jesus’ own time and among Jesus’ own native people only a relatively small number accepted Him, and so no one knows, nor can anyone ever know, how many will ultimately respond positively to God’s offer of salvation.  Therefore, the attention of the Church should, must, always be turned to authentic doctrine, rightly understood: Jesus’ teaching, as Jesus meant it then, and as Jesus wills it to be heard and understood by mankind today.  Teaching can never be undermined by thoughts and fears about numbers nor must it ever be subjected to the prevalent preconceptions, prejudices and passions, of modern society.  Gospel truth has always to be the pure air we breathe not mere words to be argued about; it is not a commodity put at our disposal, to be watered down, topped up, coloured or flavoured, as we think best suited to current times and requirements.  Mother Church deals – so to speak – in God’s teaching, she dispenses God’s grace; no mere men, no individuals however authoritative, can ‘fiddle’ with what is not theirs, and what is for all men of all times.

There is only one Who can guide us into the fullness of Gospel truth: the Holy Spirit bequeathed to His Church and to be poured out on His Body, by Jesus.  The Good News of Jesus was first proclaimed by His own voice and understood by His own divinely-human mind; no merely human mind is either able to adequately understand its fullness or profundity, or to appreciate its wisdom and beauty; and that is why He gave His Holy Spirit to guide His Church into all truth:

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and 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.  All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-15)

Therefore, the Gospel message can only be rightly understood and proclaimed by those imbued and endowed by the Holy Spirit: is not to be grasped like some apple from a tree by intellectual prowess. Gospel Wisdom can only be experienced, gradually known, and most humbly loved; and, this can best come about in the life of the Church which we are called to serve: above all, by serving the Lord Jesus Himself, in and through her, by faithful obedience and humble perseverance, in love. There are, alas, far too many in positions of prominence whose primary concern seems to be that they should be able to make their own mark, with the result that they are always seeking to adapt what has been handed down over centuries in order to demonstrate their own gifts by attempts to popularize and debase the straight and narrow, the light of life, and the gift of the Spirit.  They would have the Body and Blood available like French fries and Coca Cola; heaven would be easily accessible to all, indeed, it would be unavoidable, since for them, hell would no longer exist, being totally out of consideration in their system.  God, however, might prove a problem for them, since He twice left the Jewish Temple because of the human sinfulness of faithless guides and pastors.

People of God, the Church of Christ, our Mother Church, can never be diverted from her purpose, because she is protected by the promise of Jesus and His gift of the Spirit.  But the work of the Church can be thwarted for a time, and that is why the Spirit -- Who leads men and women of good will towards Jesus’ heavenly promise -- also needs men and women of good will to defend and extend the Church.  Let us, therefore, pray for Mother Church, let us love the beauty of her God-gifted truth and the splendour of His grace at work in her.  Let us disdain the tawdry presentations of those who offer us what is cheap and worldly; for that heavenly promise made to us by Jesus is beautiful beyond human measure, and was won for us at the cost of His most Precious Blood.