7th Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts 7:55-60; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20; John 17:20-26) 

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we were given a picture of the fanaticism which can so easily surface in fallen humankind, for the murder of Stephen was the work of religious fanaticism of which we see some atrocious examples today, in supposedly civilized Pakistan for example.    There are, of course, all sorts of fanaticism: other prominent types today being football fanaticism, pop and rock fanaticism, and the animal rights brand.  Fanaticism is close to hand for fallen mankind, because human nature was made for God, not for itself; man was made to love and serve, know and obey, that is, identify himself with, God, and ultimately to share in His eternal beatitude; and so, fallen men and women are inclined to give themselves in varying degrees, not indeed to God, but to their own prejudices, or to someone, something,  such as a super-star, a football team, or to a violent crusade for dumb animals etc.; Giving themselves to what is not God  the God-given impulse to religious devotion is thereby progressively changed, twisted, poisoned and corrupted, into various types of fanaticism, each of which tries to offer pseudo-fulfilment through the excitement of belonging to a group of similarly motivated enthusiasts, or to the far more dangerous self-exaltation which finds satisfaction in rejection or hatred of what is not self-originated or self-promoting.

Let us now look a little closer at the religious fanaticism shown in the first reading and compare it with the teaching of both the second reading and the Gospel:

All who sat in the council, cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

The present attention of those in the council was fixed on their enemy, Stephen, and at the back of their minds was the insistent problem of their own status with regard to the Roman overlords; they were most certainly not responding to the God they professed to represent.  The words of Stephen should have been answered, if indeed they were defenders of the Law; but, in order to answer they would have had, first of all, to listen to Stephen’s words, and that was something they were not prepared to envisage let alone do:

They cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord.

In so doing, they were in fact giving vent to, satisfying, their own feelings of anger, apprehension and even fear, not defending the Law of the Lord their God.

Human passions are no guide to God’s will: human anger does not serve divine justice nor can human sentimentality transmit God’s goodness; and yet, emotions are part and parcel of our human nature, they are necessary for human actions, above all for human love and divine charity:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. (Mark 12:30)

However, such emotions need to follow the lead of, keep in tune with, a mind guided by faith in Jesus, and able, by the grace of His Spirit, to look at the situation as a whole, not to indulge a mind that is exclusive in its focus because of the weakness of its grasp.  Human emotions should neither be stoked up by prejudice nor smothered by fearful self-interest.

If we now turn to the second reading, we can see how the Christian is called not only to look to Christ, but also urged to long for, pray for, His coming:

I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."  And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Christian, therefore, can only be a truly living member of the Church (the bride) to the extent that, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, he or she is steadfastly looking and longing for Jesus.   Our Blessed Lord became ‘man’ in order that He might love His Father in human flesh, to give back to mankind’s supremely loving Creator the love mankind itself, and even the Chosen People, had so long refused to give Him.  Jesus’ whole purpose was and is to love His Father in our human flesh to the very utmost of His human being which includes  -- thanks to the indwelling power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit --  His own rejection by the Chosen People and His Roman crucifixion.

And  there, dear  People of God,  lies the true beauty and glory of our vocation as disciples of Jesus, when we long and pray for the Holy Spirit to draw us ever more with Jesus into loving the Father: for there we are becoming children again, but now children of God. following the Way of Jesus under the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit, the Bond of Infinite Love uniting and issuing from both Father and Son in ‘love beyond all telling’.

5th Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts 14:21-27; Rev. 21:1-5; John 13:31-35) 

Jesus the Christ was, as you well know and firmly believe, Son of God and Son of Man. As the Son, the Word of God, He shared with His Father and the Holy Spirit in the original creation when God made all things; and that is why -- now that all things are in the process of being made new – the Son become Incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, having been crucified in His flesh and, by the power of the Spirit, raised from the dead, now appeared to His Apostles locked in the Upper Room for fear of the Jews and breathed His Spirit upon them.   His breathing upon them was precisely the sign of a new creation being made. Just as God had breathed on the original creation (Genesis 2:7):

The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 

Likewise Jesus, appearing in the midst of His disciples and having shown them the wounds in His hands and His side, said to them (John 20:19-22):

Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”

 

God is making all things new, and Jesus, the Risen Lord, divinely glorious in His risen humanity, shares in His Father’s work by breathing the Holy Spirit upon His Apostles, thereby making them into the nucleus of that new creation where sin is to be overthrown by the cleansing and empowering presence of God's Holy Spirit.  A new creation indeed: the Family of God, MOTHER CHURCH, work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, where God bestows new life-in-Jesus, and where Jesus calls upon His disciples to love one another by the Spirit He bestows on them, just as He, Jesus, loved those to whom His Father had sent Him.

LIFE and LOVE!  That is what fellowship with Jesus is all about! LIFE and LOVE, sustained in and inspired by  the Eucharist, that is what Christianity is all about here on earth.

Our closest bond is, humanly speaking, flesh and blood, and God’s new creation is not alien to, or at variance with, deep-rooted natural human awareness.  That bond, however, is made supernatural and becomes capable of sustaining eternal life and love’s ultimate commitment, by our partaking of and sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ!  In Jesus our Lord, Who gave Himself for us and offers Himself to us as food for eternal life, we are made uniquely and supremely one as adopted Children of God: family in Jesus of Him Who is pleased to be our Father.  It is not human family, not shared sufferings, most certainly not racial superiority or hatreds, that can unite us, but only and exclusively our being one with and in Jesus -- the supreme, divine, reality in the whole of God's creation -- by the Spirit, for the Father, and for His plan and purpose to make ‘all things new’.

Dear People of God, the liturgical Sacrifice of the Eucharist and our personal, sacramental, reception of and commitment to the fruit of that sacrifice, is the supreme sign of our saving oneness with Jesus, the supreme seal of our filial embracing of the Father’s good-will for  His adopted children, and the bonding of our human togetherness in mutual reverence and rejoicing.    Treasure your Mass and pray with confidence for Mother Church and our new Pope Leo.

4th Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts 13:14, 43b-52; Revelation 7:9, 13a, 14b-17; John 10:27-30) 

From the book of Revelation we heard:

I John had a vision of a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.  They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches.

That puzzled John the seer, and he was told:

These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

That was in accordance with Jesus' own words to Nicodemus:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)

Multiform cleansing is one of the main purposes to which we dedicate our use of water.  Those, however, who come out of the great tribulation of which the seer speaks, have washed their robes with the only cleansing agent able to wash away the stains of human sin, that is, the Blood of the Lamb; for it is that Precious Blood, poured out for us, which alone gives the power for supernatural cleansing to the baptismal waters of the Church.  As Jesus said:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

People of God: it is a fact of Catholic spiritual awareness that the sacraments of Mother Church are to be regarded as the fruit of the outpouring of Jesus' Blood. 

Far too many parents through succeeding generations have had only tenuous catholic connections; they had their children baptized merely to satisfy their own parents, or, at best, to gratify their own pseudo-conscience ("I would like to have my kids done … then I will feel I have done my best for them"), without having any real intention of bringing up their child in the ways of Jesus according to Mother Church's teaching.  They understand baptism only as ceremonial, where mere water is poured over the child's head, whilst a few words are said, and then all is over and done with.  There was no reverence for the sacrament; no awareness that the water poured out is water empowered by the shedding of Jesus' blood, water which -- as the seer tells us -- enables those dedicated to Jesus to: 

Wash their (souls) and make them spotless in the blood of the Lamb. 

And today we see the full circle turned and renegade Catholics not only disregard the Sacraments but they disregard even Mother Church herself. 

We, however, who have celebrated the love, compassion, power and beauty of the Passion and Resurrection of our Blessed Lord Jesus, must use all bonds of kith and kin, and prayer, to help those missing from our community out of their death lapse of worldly peace – at one with everybody else in worldly pleasures, appearing to enjoy a conscience-less life, forgetful of any and all consequences. … for we have hope for beautiful, good, and holy things to come when the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be Shepherd of those He has brought into the Father’s presence and He will lead them to springs of living water. Yes, Jesus, Our Lord, will be there -- with us and for us -- as Our Shepherd, our Leader, our Glory; and He will lead us along the heavenly paths of eternal life, so that, with Him, all that is truly human in us, far from being smothered or denied, will be glorified as He, our Lord and our Brother, is most fully and beautifully glorified in His sacred humanity.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Who can fittingly speak of the intimacy and tenderness of God the Father's relationship with each and every one of His children redeemed by the blood of His Only Begotten and most Beloved Son?

Now, that life -- Mother Church teaches -- begins here on earth for Jesus' true disciples, but its heavenly fulfilment can only be attained by those who have passed through tribulations of varying degrees chosen by God in His Fatherly goodness to cement their union with Jesus in sincerity, depth, and trust.

These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

3rd Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19) 

There are scholars who see in Jesus’ three-fold questioning of Peter a then recognized Oriental social procedure -- used before witnesses -- when conferring and confirming a ‘legal’ right -- that is, one socially approved and fully binding, on someone other:

            Feed My lambs; tend My sheep; feed My sheep

Therefore, we most probably have here a remarkable instance of Jesus’ great and most compassionate wisdom: He wipes out the memory – in Peter’s own mind and in the minds of the other apostles – of Peter’s moment of weakness and shame and -- and at the same time -- quite dramatically and most emphatically establishes him as head of His nascent Church in accordance with His Father’s manifest will.

There are also revealing words of Jesus relating to Peter’s future crucifixion:

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.

At this juncture, we should recognize that there is no question of Jesus implying that Peter would refuse to face up to his future crucifixion, only that Peter would not want to go; and, in that regard, we should recall that John tells us that:

Jesus said this signifying by what kind of death he (Peter) WOULD GLORIFY GOD.

Peter was a most wonderful disciple of Jesus and he had come to find no difficulty in acknowledging, admitting, his own nothingness: of himself, he would not want to go on that journey to his crucifixion because he did not love as Jesus – his Lord and Saviour alone could love.  However, he most fully trusted in Jesus that He could, and would, draw Peter after Himself, and that He would help him, Peter, to humbly follow where Jesus his Lord alone could lead.  

Dear People of God, let us most seriously pray for the simplicity of heart to admire Peter’s example; but, above all, at this juncture in time, let us pray for the Gift of a new Peter to guide Mother Church in witnessing and clinging fast to the divine Truth and heavenly Beauty of Jesus’ teaching, by walking ever more closely in the way of His commandments and following ever more joyfully the inspiration of His own most precious example in giving praise,  honour, gratitude and thanksgiving, to God the Father of us all.

2nd Sunday of Easter Year C, 2025

 

(Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35; 1st. John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31) 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Faith invites us to become CHILDREN OF GOD.   That is the essence of Faith: a childlike trust in, love for, GOD-OUR-FATHER.  There are distinctive overtones with the Persons of the Word, and of the Holy Spirit, but these are always consonant with and expressive of that basic childlike awareness and response to God-our-Father. Catholic and Christian Faith can never be understood, interpreted, correctly if that foundational childlike awareness, and response to, the Father is disturbed, disorientated or threatened.

Peter wrote in his first letter (1:8):

Though you have not seen (Jesus), you love Him.  Though you do not now see Him now, you believe in Him;

And with such faith and love we do well, for Jesus came among us, was sent to us, for one, supreme purpose: to free the Israel of God, not just from servitude to their Egyptian overlords as brought about through Moses, or from their servitude to sin as initiated by Moses and the prophets, but in order that God’s saving plan to free the whole of mankind from its universal servitude to SIN, might be brought about through God’s still-Chosen People under its intended leader: Jesus the Christ of God and son of Mary of Nazareth, sent to proclaim:

Repent and believe the Good News I bring.

That is why, dear People of God, after Israel rejected Him as their leader, Jesus, our Risen Lord and Saviour, now equips His Church to serve His Holy Spirit, and bring to fulfilment the Father’s purpose of salvation from sin and death for all men and women of good will.

Our readings today show us who, as Christians and Catholics, we should love,

The community of believers was of one heart and mind.

Everyone one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God; and every one who loves the Father, loves also the one begotten by Him;

And in that oneness of mind and heart -- learning from Jesus to love the Father -- they hated the ‘sin of the world’:

Whoever is begotten by God conquers the world; and the victory that conquers the world is our faith.

‘Sin’, that only God can truly heal, is now, in our deliriously proud and self-centred world, rejected in favour of ‘sickness’ which can be cured by human means.  Mankind today seeks, in that way, to take on God’s work: people do so want both self-approbation and the admiration of others, that they are willing to reject as icy-cold God’s long-term commands, and loll about on the sunlit beach of immediate self-satisfaction and general approbation, anticipating the presumed success of popular treatment for what is totally beyond their spiritually ken.  And of course, all that takes place with the inevitable result that sickness and death continue to reign in ever more degrading disguises, causing ever more unimaginable pain.

However, the words of St. Peter do not speak only of faith which does not yet see, because he continues:    

Even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious …

God’s faithful are already being enriched with blessings still to come; we who believe, can experience -- that is, here and now -- what Peter calls “an inexpressible and glorious joy” in the practice of our faith.  In other words, in faith, we can already experience here on earth  some measure of the joy of divinely P/personal love.  In the words of St. John of the Cross: try to put love -- your personal heart and mind’s intention -- into your practice of the faith, and you will find love: you  will experience a personal relationship with God of “inexpressible and glorious joy”.  Let me give you an example.

At the Easter Vigil we heard the story of our father Abraham journeying with his son Isaac to a place the Lord would show them where Abraham was to sacrifice his beloved son to the Lord as he had been told to do.  You can imagine the deep grief and deadening sorrow in Abraham’s heart as he walked along with his son by his side who was asking him; “Father, I am carrying the wood for the sacrifice, but where is the victim to be sacrificed on the wood?”  Now Isaac, the son to be offered in sacrifice, was a figure of Jesus whom the heavenly Father would send to offer Himself for us in sacrifice on Calvary.  Abraham,  was he, somehow, a figure of the Father in heaven?  Indeed, he was!

Think of the joy, then, dear People of God, of our heavenly Father this Easter on receiving back His beloved Son, glorious in His Easter rising.  And then realize what joy YOU can give to the Father by offering your participation in today’s Mass -- most especially when receiving Holy Communion -- by offering Jesus back, glorified, to His Father; to be at His Father’s right hand for ever in heaven.  Try to delight in giving such joy to your heavenly Father, by doing what only you can do: personally offering Jesus back to His Father here in this Mass -- in your Holy Communion above all -- and you will begin to experience something of that “inexpressible and glorious joy” of which Peter spoke.

People of God, there are two aspects to our faith: obedience and joy, the one protects us and the other delights us.  God wants to receive the one and give us the other because obedience is meant by Him to lead to a personal relationship of total fulfilment for us.  Indeed, ultimately it will lead to a Personal relationship in Jesus with the Father that will be overflowing with fulfilment for us in the Holy Spirit.  That is already beginning to take place if we live our faith with personal commitment and love, and that is why Peter says today:

Even though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Easter Sunday, 2025

 

(Acts 10:34, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; Saint John’s Gospel 20:1-9) 

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, on this glorious day let us look at one verse in our Gospel passage which speaks volumes about our Risen Lord.

You heard how John and Peter ran to the tomb and how John glanced inside and saw that there was no corpse there:

Stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths there but he did not go in.

Next Peter came up and, characteristically, went straight into the empty tomb and, we are told:

He saw the linen cloths there, and the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

Now Peter, an older, and much more experienced and emotionally-developed man than John, was the disciple who loved Jesus most, which explains his immediate entrance into the tomb.  What he saw caused him thoughts so intensely personal that he did not open his mouth to chat with, indeed not even to comment to, his younger companion, fellow-disciple though he was; no, Peter just slowly left the tomb and walked away quietly, lost in deep, absorbing, thought: not about where Jesus might be at that moment, not about how, in what manner, had He risen to life again and left the tomb, those facts were ‘un-knowables.  But, what was much more immediately intriguing for Peter (earthly head of the new-born Church) was why had his Lord so deliberately folded the face-cloth which had been placed around His head to preserve His dignity – even though that of a corpse -- by preventing His jaw from sagging in death?  Why had Jesus so lovingly rolled up what He had just so decisively removed from His head? This commanded Peter’s attention, because it determined Peter’s future role in Jesus’ Church.

Jesus had, by that simple, as it were 'personal toilet' act, deliberately intended to show that His mouth was free in order that His disciples could be absolutely certain about the fact that He was now able to continue, and bring to fulfilment, His mission of proclaiming the truth for which His Father had sent Him as Man on earth to save mankind.

Jesus had, at His trial, told Pilate (John 18:37):

For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.

Never again would He be silenced; and His so lovingly detaching and deliberately folding the face-cloth from His head and mouth was His first symbolic-statement on rising from the dead, that His faithful disciples, throughout the ages, would continue to proclaim HIS truth, under the guidance and protection of HIS Spirit, to all mankind, in and through His Church! 

Be sure of this, dear People of God, there can be bad popes, infamous clerical figure-heads – bishops, priests, religious, scholars, able to write best-selling books or address crowds of followers – yet, despite all such possible dangers to Jesus’ Church, JESUS’ RISING, and  His deliberately final gesture -- taking-off and carefully folding the head cloth -- signified ‘to all who are of the truth’ that His mouth is now perennially free to proclaim both His saving truth for all sinners, and His beatific truth about His heavenly Father, in Mother  Church; a glorious work that He does by His most Holy Spirit of Truth and Love, sacramentally one with all who love, and live for, Him Who was sent, by His Father for their salvation.

Palm Sunday Year C, 2025

 

(Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14 – 23:56) 

We are gathered together here in solemn preparation for the Easter Passover of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ and, on hearing St. Luke’s account of our Lord’s Passion and Death we have been struck by the horror of His sufferings and by His wondrously patient endurance.  Embracing the Cross, on the left hand by His total commitment to us and, on the right hand by His absolute trust in and love for His Father, He was, ultimately Himself, resting in the peace and joy of total fulfilment as our Redeemer, and as the lovingly obedient, only-begotten, Son of the heavenly Father.

We need to be clear in our minds about the difference between emotion and devotion, for they are not the same, nor are they necessarily found together.  Emotions express and affect our natural feelings, whereas devotion is the sign and measure of our supernatural commitment; moreover, our emotions are largely instinctive and self-centred whereas devotion is subject to our will and centred on God.  Devotion benefits greatly when backed-up by the appropriate ‘power’ of emotions; however, devotion is not necessarily diminished by the absence of emotions; indeed, devotion can be at its greatest when deprived of them.  Emotion, alone, is of no worth, its function is to assist what is more worthy than itself; devotion, on the other hand, is always solely and supremely commendable before God

Dear People of God, we are sinners and God alone is holy.  All the good we have, or can have, is His gift to us.  Therefore, we must never be surprised at our own possible weariness, dryness, or lack of emotional feelings, even on occasions like today, for that is a true  picture of us, for we are, of ourselves, barren and fruitless.

As Catholic Christians, however, our attention and expectations are centred on God.  He is good, and He has given His own Son to save us from our sinfulness.  What we have to try to do is what the Suffering Servant, in the first reading, shows us:

Morning by morning He, the lord God, awakens; He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, I turned not backwards.

Jesus, that is, woke up prepared to accept whatever His Father–of–Infinite-Wisdom–and-Love has planned for Him.   That seems simple enough for even us to understand, and beautiful enough for even us to imagine we would love to be able to accomplish it.  But oh! It is a course  that could and can only be lived out by One who was -- for love of His Father and for us -- totally self-less, patient beyond all measure, utterly committed to His calling as one sent by His Father, ONE  WHO NEVER EVER GRUMBLED against what His Father, in His infinite wisdom, knowledge, and love would or might ever, ever, ask of Him.

And that, indeed, is what we are, in fact, doing here today: we have put ourselves in Jesus’ way, waiting and listening in case He might possibly turn His gaze to see us and speak to us as He did to blind Bartimaeus, or even come to dwell a little with us as He did in the case of Zacchaeus.

However, we do most directly and earnestly beseech Him that whatever He does, He might lead us,  by His indwelling (thanks to Mother Church and Holy Mass) most Holy  Spirit, to greater and more sincere, more self-sacrificing, love for the heavenly Father, and thereby make us more worthy disciples of such a sublime Son Who put on human flesh that He might -- in our flesh and for us -- love the Father Who originally created our flesh as an expression of the divine goodness, bounty and beauty, of its Creator. 

5th Sunday of Lent Year C, 2025

 

(Isaiah. 43:16-21; Phil. 3:8-14; John 8:1-11) 

Today’s gospel passage is famous, exemplifying, as it does, what is certainly the most popular, and perhaps the best-loved, aspect of Jesus: His compassionate understanding of our human weakness.   Let us learn therefore by taking a closer look at it.

After having ostentatiously proclaimed the charge against the adulterous woman, the scribes and Pharisees then asked Jesus to tell them the best way of dealing with her.  Jesus; by way of response, we are told He then:

Bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger.

Notice that in His compassion Jesus did not look the woman straight in the eye; He was not seeking to cause her further embarrassment.  He would look her in the eye later when offering her His saving grace and giving her a final warning.

The main purpose of the scribes and Pharisees, some of whom were experts of the Law,   was to ensnare Jesus in legal technicalities; He was their principal target, and that is why:

            When they continued asking Him, (Jesus) raised Himself up.

The woman was publicly humiliated; the scribes and Pharisees, on the other hand, were standing there, spiritually proud and secretly malicious: Jesus wanted to both knock down their pride and thwart their malice, and so, standing up and facing them, He said:

            He who is without sin among you, let him first throw a stone at her .

Those erstwhile accusers melted quietly, away one by one, until Jesus was finally left alone with the woman who was still standing for all to see, and to her He simply said:

            Neither do I condemn you.  Go, and from now on do not sin any more.

Now, dear  friends on Christ, what is for us the real meaning and significance of Jesus’ actions here?  Recall what the prophet Isaiah said in our first reading:

See, I am doing something new! for I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for My chosen people to drink, the people whom I formed for Myself, that they might announce My praise.

What would this NEW THING be? The scribes and Pharisees had recognized aright that the woman taken in adultery was a sinner.  What they did not understand, however, was that this woman’s ‘Law-lessness’, was a symptom of the sinfulness of the whole of God’s People, from which none of those present was exempt: she and they, ‘God’s chosen people’,  were still slaves, not, indeed, to Egypt, but to wilful SIN.  The scribes and Pharisees could not understand what the prophet Isaiah had foreseen: he had spoken of a new thing, a new act of God.  God’s new act would bring about a new creation, a new People of God able to sing a new song, expressing both the beauty and goodness of divine glory and human salvation.  How?  

Do you remember the Gospel reading just a fortnight ago?  There, Jesus told a parable about a landowner wanting to cut down an unfruitful tree whilst the gardener pleaded:

Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future.  If not, you can cut it down.

Jesus knew it would be Himself Who would fertilize the fruitless tree of God’s planting with His most Precious Blood; and that the orchard tree of the parable figured the whole root and stock of sinful Adam, represented today by the adulterous woman,  the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, and the surrounding crowd of faithless onlookers. 

We are now in a position to understand the whole picture.  How could Jesus condemn this woman for whom He was soon to give His life on the Cross?  In fact, it would be easier to save her because she had just been made aware of and, we trust, ashamed of, her sinfulness.  Jesus was going to give all sinners, like her, one last chance -- such was the very purpose of His life, death, and Resurrection: He would loosen the bonds of sin by pouring out His own Most Precious Blood in sacrifice on Calvary.  His final words on both these occasions have the same significance:

It may bear fruit in the future. If not, you can cut it down.

Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.

The scribes and Pharisees, refusing to recognize and unwilling to admit their own sinfulness, thereby made it much more difficult for Jesus to set them free. For their own sakes, therefore Jesus tried to make them realize and admit the truth about themselves:

Let the one among you who is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her.

Many sinners today neither have nor want a clear understanding or true knowledge of Jesus and His teaching; they are stuffed up with pride at their supposed ‘human right’ to live as they see fit, and find delight in their lustful ignorance of God and the reality of sin.

But we, Catholics and Christians, most grateful disciples of Jesus, must never forget that  our God is a God of both Truth and Beauty; and that, as physical beauty is built upon the sure basis of a good bone structure, so spiritual beauty calls for a firm foundation of obedience to God’s will and Christian truth.  The Goodness and Holiness of God are likewise co-ordinated, for His love for us can only be fully realized by calling us upwards, out of our earthly condition, towards Himself as ‘sharers’ in the holiness of His Son.  He, in no way, intends to allow us to live for an earthly destiny: Jesus was sent, and He still intends, to lead His own, with Himself, heavenwards to their Father.   Remember what the prophet Isaiah in our first reading said:

I have formed My chosen people for Myself that they might announce My praise.

That is indeed our ultimate calling and privilege in Jesus: to sing the praises of God in heaven for all eternity, in ecstatic joy, blessed peace, and total fulfilment, with Jesus our  saviour, by His most Holy Spirit our most intimate Guide and ‘other self’, to Him Who is our Father.  And so that we ourselves might attain to the Resurrection from the dead,  and live, praising God for all eternity, Paul tells us:

Forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

Let us also, aspiring to maturity in and with Christ, adopt this attitude with him, the  self-styled ‘unworthy Apostle’,  who nevertheless proved to be the greatest sufferer-for-Christ of them all. 

4th Sunday of Lent Year C, 2025

 

(Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) 

For long, long years, after the ever-present threat of beatings at their place of work, the Israelite slaves found that the short nights at home with the provided ration of Egyptian food had been the sole, and most deeply consoling opportunity, for them to experience human peace and bodily rest. That partial satisfaction of their hunger together with a few snatched hours of sleep and family communion was the only joy to which they could aspire.  Long years of such slavery meant that those Israelite slaves found the thought of freedom decidedly un-attractive if it involved long struggle with as yet unknown dangers, and loss of regular food, to attain it.  Consequently, during the trials of their desert journey they were, at times, much tempted to return to captivity once again for its regular provision of life’s basic necessities.  Only after years of guiding, supporting, strengthening, by God on their way through the desert, did the Israelites learn to recognize their new-found freedom and appreciate their own personal human dignity; and only at the very end of that long journey to the Promised Land, was the Lord able to say to Joshua, those most beautiful words:

Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.

In our second reading St. Paul spoke of himself as an ’ambassador for Christ, imploring us to be reconciled to God’.   Now, the elder son in the Gospel parable had a somewhat similar office of reconciliation to fulfil with regard to his younger brother remaining in the family, but he, obviously, had been unable to prevent his younger brother claiming the money his father had planned to give him later on, in lustful dash for immediate pleasure in a distant  country where – unknown -- he could feel free from notice and responsibility.

The elder brother could only accept his brother’s return out of reverence for his father … but he seems to have had difficulty in accepting his father’s extreme joy at his younger son’s return home. Nevertheless, the old man remembered his words to his first-born -- ALL THAT I HAVE IS YOURS – so that, although the elder brother could not appreciate or share in, his father’s overflow  of paternal emotion, he ought – mindful of  his father’s firm remembrance, and his own resultant security -- to have made himself accept his brother’s return with respect because of the almost inexpressible joy it gave his father.      

The elder brother in Jesus’ parable seems, indeed, to have given good example to his younger brother in so far as he was always obedient and respectful to their father; and,  In that respect, he is something of a model for senior Catholics today who obey the commandments of God and Mother Church consistently enough, but who can never stir-up enough zeal to give  personal witness to Jesus and the heavenly Father, by showing and sharing their joy and delight, their peace and hope, in the Faith, with others,.

Many young people find such passionless obedience given, they think, more out of fear than love, unattractive; and being unable to fathom the difference between servile fear and the reverential fear, and filial love, of God, they compound their own lack of wisdom by totally ignoring what they cannot easily understand

Failure to delight in the Lord is usually a fault in the believer; don’t we have age-old popular songs telling us to ‘Count your blessings one by one’?  In fact, it can be truthfully said that, no ‘good’ can be suitably appreciated apart from the human instinctive practice of recalling, reviewing, and rejoicing over what has been gained or granted.  And the Psalmist (105:3-5) recalls this human, psychological, fact when he so urgently tells :

Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!   Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!   Remember His marvellous works which He has done. 

People of God, I suggest that, on this ‘Laetare Sunday’, you dedicate yourselves to spiritual rejoicing, By that I mean, that you should try, first of all, to look honestly at yourselves and recognize, remember, and delight in, the many blessings you have received over the years, and even begin to look to the promises given us concerning our future in Jesus.

Finally, may we – as the Psalmist said -- be God-graced so as to transfigure our old, private and hidden, obedience, into public confession of, and praise for, God’s great goodness,  since:

Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come!                        

3rd Sunday of Lent Year C, 2025

 

(Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12; St. Luke 13:2-9) 

Our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel reading warrant serious attention because He chose them both seriously and deliberately; and they demand, considering the state of our blatantly sinful world, our most serious consideration:

            I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!

We may learn how very seriously  Jesus viewed what would be such a travesty of God’s saving desire. by the fact that, He first of all doubled-up on His original account of the tragedy of the Galileans by recalling those Jews so surprisingly killed at Siloam, and then repeated emphatically His own words: IF YOU DO NOT REPENT, YOU WILL, ALL, PERISH AS THEY DID. 

PERISH AS THEY DID: People of God, notice that Jesus is saying that, for those of His hearers who remain unrepentant, death WILL come upon them just as unexpectedly and disastrously as it had befallen those Galileans and Judeans He recalled.

What does that word ‘repent’ mean in that context? 

Our first reading was all about Moses himself having to understand more deeply the sublime HOLINESS of God before speaking, in His name, to the enslaved Israelites; our second reading from St. Paul to the Corinthians was a warning against spiritual self-satisfaction, attending only to the formalities of Christian worship while ignoring the duties of Christian morality and witness in their daily living; as for Jesus in our Gospel passage, you have heard how He warned explicitly about the lack of repentance and humility before God, and of the dangers inherent in a fruitless Christian life:

He told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’  He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; (by My Gospel Truth, My  saving Death and life-bestowing Resurrection), it may bear fruit in the future. If not, you can cut it down.’”

Bearing all these aspects in mind, we can say that ‘repent’ means ‘a change of  mind’: a TURN-FROM careless, unthinking, evil ways, a TURN-TO serving, looking for and responding to, the God of all holiness and goodness.  Indeed, ‘repent’ can be regarded as being on a level with Jesus’ deliberately provocative warnings such as:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

There, Jesus’ teaching is to be understood according to His other words such as: love your enemy; or, If your leg, arm, eye hinders you in God’s service, cut it off, pluck it out: Intentional exaggerations to emphasize a most important spiritual teaching:

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  (Matthew 10, 34-39)

Dear friends in Christ, ‘Repent’ can be accurately understood as the decisive effort a disciple needs to make in order to understand more, appreciate better, and more humbly try to adopt into his own style of life, all of those words of Jesus where He demands first place and supreme love for God and for Himself as Son sent by the Father, and our, His disciples', total death to selfishness.

We are all called to Our Lord, to Holy Mass each Sunday, as was Moses called in the first reading, Moses! Moses!  Moses answered, Here I am Lord as he walked towards the burning bush:

God said, ‘Come no nearer!  Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’

Moses had been drawing close to God from curiosity:

I must go turn aside to see this great sight why the bush is not burned.

The ‘repentance’ God so urgently required of Moses was shown as he drew nearer to the bush:

            Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

We too should present ourselves at Sunday Mass with a sincerely repentant attitude; not necessarily  an emotional one, however; that is, a sincere intention to worship God as best we can; to try to  learn more of His glory and goodness, wisdom and beauty; to seek His will, His way forward for us, as we hear the Scriptures read and the homily delivered; and, above all,  we should be most intent and committed in offering Jesus’ self-sacrifice of love through the ministry of His priest: most humbly  joining our own sacrifice-of-self with that of Jesus, to His Father, for the praise and glory of His most holy Name.

Finally, it is most desirable for us to leave Holy Mass not only with a repentant and grateful heart, but also with a certain awareness of how we can make progress in our efforts both to please, and draw ever closer to, the God and Father Who so loves us.

Saint Paul gave us such advice adapted to our every-day living:

DO NOT GRUMBLE; You are trying to put yourself into God’s hands; God is now --- if you will let Him -- arranging your life; learn by patiently, consistently, persistently,  trying to do His will as best you see it in those unexpected – but not infrequent -- times of apparent ‘nothing-ness’ or perplexity;  and, whoever thinks he is standing secure, take care not to fall.

Do you fear that all these warnings might make life burdensome and tiring for you?  Dear friends in Christ, His warnings are not against you, they are to protect you, and they are covered in the saving, fertilizing, blood of Jesus, so that they may:

           Cultivate and fertilize (your souls) that (they) may bear fruit for the future.

Rescue us and lead us into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey,

our very homeland, where the Father is waiting to embrace us as did the all-forgiving father in Jesus’ parable:

 This son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ (Luke 15:20–24)

The ‘boy’ had suitably repented …. so may we all do likewise, in Jesus, by His most Holy Spirit, before the Father.

2nd Sunday of Lent Year C, 2025

 

(Genesis 15:5-12; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28b-36) 

In today’s Gospel reading, God the Father -- speaking from a cloud -- told the disciples Peter, James and John:

          This is My Son. My Chosen One; listen to Him!

There was to be no heavenly – mysterious and potentially terrifying -- voice from a cloud addressing the new Israel, but the earthly words of Jesus alone would be all that could be desired or would be needed. 

There, indeed, we have the first of all commandments for Christians, a command which Jesus Himself confirmed:

If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:15)

But there is more in the Father’s words beside the commandment to ‘hear’ Jesus; there is also a most intimately Personal invitation or call – This is My chosen, My beloved, Son, hear Him – to hear Him in such a way as to learn to love Him as well as to obey Him; the implication being that the only true knowledge of Jesus (‘hear Him’) is that which results, fulfils itself, in love for Him.

Our ‘Father’ in faith (God’s gift) was and is Abraham, our ‘Mother’ is Mary (Jesus’ gift) immaculate in faith and body.

Abram (willing to sacrifice his own beloved son at Gods command) put his faith in the Lord, Who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

Described by St. Paul as one whose ‘citizenship is in heaven’, Abram was subsequently named Abraham and, as befitting our Christian awareness of him as our ‘father in faith’, he lived St. Paul’s exhortation in today’s second reading, in the most exemplary manner:

          Stand firm in the Lord.

People of God, let us closely observe and carefully imitate both Abraham and Mary.  Yes indeed, let us keep our eyes firmly on Abraham whose admirable faith in God was  confirmed by the Lord’s mysterious and fiery self-manifestation exemplifying His acceptance of Abraham’s sacrifice; let us keep our eyes even more firmly fixed on Mary, whose supreme faith in God’s promise was confirmed both by the beautiful mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation brought about in her womb, and by the consummate mystery of the His Passion, Death, and Resurrection given us for our confirmation and constant growth in the faith we have received from God the Father Who first drew us to Jesus.

Today, God renews His choice of us by calling us anew to ‘hear’ His Son -- Who speaks clearly and surely to us in and through His Church -- and on hearing Him, to love Him by His Spirit, now gifted us in Mother Church by God for that very purpose, that we might in some measure become consumed with the Father’s own love for His Son.  Only in the fulness of an authentic Divinely-Human Faith is the Christian Way able to communicate its awareness of, and response to, the fulness of Divine Goodness in Jesus.  Therefore our Catholic – original and universal experience of Christianity -- is founded on literally (humanly) unimaginable promises and mysteries which are literally (humanly) unfathomable.   There, indeed, lies an inescapable tension, but it is one designed not for our destruction but for an ever-continuing and harmonious development of all our human capabilities originally given us as the ‘image and likeness of God.