19th Sunday of Year A 2017

19^th. Sunday, Year (A)

(1^st. Kings 19:9, 11-13; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today’s Gospel reading took place about half-way through Jesus’ public ministry.  A short while before, Jesus and His disciples had been caught in a storm while crossing the Sea of Galilee with Jesus asleep in the stern of the boat.  His disciples -- in great alarm -- awakened Him most urgently and He calmed both wind and waves by words of authority and a gesture of peace.  The disciples had been amazed and said to one another:

            Who then is this?  Even the wind and the sea obey Him!   (Mark 4:41)

     

In today’s Gospel reading, even though Jesus had just miraculously fed the 5,000, the disciples were still unclear about Him – Who is this? – for when Jesus approached walking on the sea towards them as they were struggling under yet another of the unpredictably sudden and quite vicious storms on Galilee, they thought they were seeing a ghost!   Instead, therefore, of taking comfort at the sight of Him, they were even more frightened of Him than they were of the dangerous storm, all of them, that is, except Peter whose particular love for Jesus together with his native courage and personal confidence on the waters of ‘his own’ Sea of Galilee, led him to cry out:

            Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water! 

People of God, when the bark of Peter is struggling today, not now on the Sea of Galilee, indeed, but in storms all over the world, the cry shouted by so many is, ‘Change the teaching of the Church, make it easier for modern people to accept!  Peter had thought he recognized Jesus and wanted to walk to Him and then with Him facing up to the stormy waters; a most laudable desire but one that Peter was not yet quite strong enough in faith to sustain.  You might say that Jesus was only half-way-through training Peter at this point in His public ministry.  But Peter’s love for Jesus, and God’s subsequent special blessings and forgiveness, would eventually lead him to that degree of fidelity he had long aspired to.

 

In today’s storms of all kinds, but more particularly concerning marriage difficulties and gay/lesbian life-styles, the world’s advice and popular cry is not to ‘face the storm along with Jesus’ but rather -- having lost or repudiated their own Catholic faith and Christian upbringing -- to take over from Jesus and seek to calm the storm themselves by setting up secular institutions, changing and distorting the meaning of pertinent Christian words such as ‘marriage’ and ‘love’, ‘fidelity’ and ‘sin’, thus making things easier for those  not committed to faith, and betraying what Jesus taught and Mother Church has always believed and proclaimed!    Mother Church from the very beginning knew of such Greek and Roman sexual habits -- she could neither avoid nor ignore them they were so widespread among the ‘great and the good’, the powerful and the literate, in the Roman world -- but not only did she in no way approve of them in her pattern for a Christian way of living for redemption and eternal fulfilment in Jesus under the power of His Spirit, in fact, she explicitly forbade such practices for her faithful.  How could Catholics so close to Jesus walk in the Spirit according to the flesh??   Compromise and fudges, dear People of God, have nothing to do with doctrinal and doctrinally-connected teaching that is authentically Catholic – universal, for all peoples, of all times and places – which Mother Church’s countless saints and martyrs (many famous throughout the world, but many, many more now un-nameable but not unknown) have lived to the full, being prepared, willing, and even considering themselves privileged, to die for such teaching.

The great fallacy invoked by those who want to obliterate all difference and difficulty is their assertion that Jesus came to convert the whole world.   He did indeed come to evangelize the world, but He was always aware that though many would be called, nevertheless, few would allow themselves to be chosen, few would want to take up their cross and follow Him.   Didn’t He feel it necessary to speak frequently and publicly in parables?   Indeed, He questioned most seriously whether He would find faith on earth when He would return as Son of Man in glory.

Unlike so many prominent Catholics and publicists of today, Jesus was not afraid of allowing former followers to leave His side:

“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me and I in him.”  Then many of His disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”  Since Jesus knew that His disciples were murmuring about this, He said to them, “Does this shock you?  What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?  It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.  But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray Him.  And He said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by My Father.”  As a result of this, many (of) His disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him.  Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.    (John 6:56,60–68)

Dear People of God, St. Paul, in our second reading, felt deep anguish of heart because most of his own Jewish people were failing to recognize, and showing themselves unwilling to turn to, Jesus for the salvation Paul and his fellow Apostles so whole-heartedly proclaimed in the name of Jesus.  And ultimately, it was not to be a storm of nationalist emotion calling all Israelites to arms, not a political earthquake brought about by secret plotters and schemers against Rome, not even the consuming fire of divine justice proclaimed by John the Baptist, that would inaugurate salvation; no, each and every one of Paul’s fellow Israelites, like each and every Christian in the world today, would have to hear and recognize, recognize and respond to with love, love and follow faithfully to the end, that tiny whispering-sound of conscience, of the Father calling to Jesus all who are of good will and longing for salvation:

The LORD was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake, there was fire—but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a tiny whispering sound.  When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave and the LORD spoke to him.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord Year A 2017

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (Year A.)

(Genesis 12:1-4; 2^nd. Timothy 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9)

When a dog looks at the world around it sees all the objects that are naturally visible to our eyes, but only as objects … it cannot appreciate what for us is, often enough, the most wonderful aspect of the world around us: its beauty.

Scripture speaks on one occasion of scales falling or being taken away from before a person’s eyes:

Immediately there fell from (Saul’s) eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. (Acts 9:18)

We might therefore be permitted to say that a dogs’ eyes are ‘scaled’, which prevents them from recognizing the beauty of what they see.

Likewise, it is eminently possible – as we heard last week -- for men to hear words but not recognize truth:

The Lord said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'   "Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and return and be healed."  (Isaiah 6:9-10)

On the mount of Transfiguration the Father opens up a new experience of life and being to Jesus’ chosen disciples, Peter, James, and John; an experience they are only able to bear and begin to appreciate thanks to the fact that Jesus, their Lord, is the subject and focus of all that happens around them.

The world has long known of God but not appreciated Him; mankind has long had some understanding of the words ‘good’ and ‘goodness’, but Jesus quite deliberately assured the rich young man knelt before Him and asking Him most earnestly about eternal life, that true goodness is well-nigh unknown to us:

Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. (Mark 10:18)

O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do.   (John 17:25)

Moses, thousands of years ago, after having spoken with God on Mount Sinai and coming down to the people, found it necessary to:

Put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory (on it), even though it was destined to fade away.  (2 Cor. 3:13)

People of God, how many veils need to be lifted before men can ‘face’ the beauty of the world around us and recognize, love, and praise God its creator as they aught?   How many, many, scales need to fall from our eyes if we are to more fittingly appreciate and truly love what God has given to and for us in the supreme wonder of all creation, Jesus of Nazareth, His very own Son-made-flesh, the promised Christ of Israel, the Lord, God, and Saviour of all mankind??

As regards today’s feast, it is usual to think that Jesus -- having just spoken of His coming death to His disciples for the first time -- decided to lead them up the Mount of Transfiguration for their comforting and strengthening in Him, by letting them see something of His glory.  I do not think that is a fully satisfactory appreciation of the event.

So very often little notice is taken of the Father’s Personal relationship with, and solicitude for, His Son-made-flesh.  Just as -- I believe -- He, the Father, moved Jesus to leave Nazareth and make His way to John baptizing contrite sinners, for the fulfilment of His, the Father’s Own purpose to reveal, prepare, and glorify His Son for His public mission; so here, Jesus did not decide to glorify Himself on the mountain top, even though it be for His disciples’ well-being.  No, it was the Father Who drew Jesus to that mountain-top for Jesus’ own Personal comforting and strengthening with regard to His impending Passion and Death; and also – having chosen to be accompanied by His Own specially chosen disciples -- for Jesus’ pastoral concern with regard to the understanding, wisdom, and strength of the Apostles for their establishment of His future, world-wide, Church and their right proclamation of His Gospel.

The Father’s solicitude and care is so wonderful in the Scriptures and the life of Jesus and Mary, and so very little of it is recognized, admired, and loved.

Jesus had learnt, as man, to know Israel’s God to be His very own Father; that He had learnt from His sublimely Personal affinity and acquaintance with, ever-growing knowledge and existential awareness of, and supremely sympathetic and loving understanding of the words of Scripture and the spirit of Israel’s liturgy and worship.   And, of course, having learnt, as man, to know His Father in all truth, He also learnt of Himself and His own destiny and purpose as man on earth:

Just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I will lay down My life for the sheep. (John 10:15)

That is why now, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father sent both Moses and Elijah to assure Jesus, as man, that He had most certainly learnt aright about God and Himself as Son and Saviour from Israel’s Law and her Prophets.

If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me, because he wrote about Me.  (John 5:46)

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”  (John 1:45)

 He said to them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44)

The ever-faithful St. Paul succinctly proclaimed this truth in his Roman captivity:

They arranged a day with Paul and came to his lodgings in great numbers. From early morning until evening, he expounded his position to them, bearing witness to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets, (saying) ‘Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets.’    (Acts 28:23 and Romans 3:21)

And so it was that Jesus -- fully aware that the ‘world’s situation’ was demanding His Passion and death though being in the most desperate need of the still totally unsuspected glory of His saving love – could descend the Mount with calm resolution about, and unshakeable preparedness for, His own Personal destiny, and with a sure and confident trust that His Father had just most clearly shown His caring will and wise preparation for the Apostles’ proclamation of Jesus' Gospel and the future establishment of His Church among men.

O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know You sent Me.  (John 17:25)

That calm assurance was to be the hallmark of the Transfiguration for He solemnly advised His three Apostles on their approach to their brethren and the people:

                Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.

17th Sunday of the Year (A) 2017

 17^th. Sunday of Year (A)

(1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52)

Our readings this week, my dear People of God, give us great cause for gratitude and hope.  Just think of those words of St. Paul that you heard in the second reading:

Those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers; and those He predestined He also called; and those He called He also justified; and those He justified He also glorified.

God foreknew each one of you baptized Catholics here present and predestined you to be conformed to the likeness of His Son.  How do we know that?  Because God the Father called you to faith in Jesus and -- through the waters of baptism -- to become a member of His Body the Church, where you have been endowed by the Gift of God’s Holy Spirit and were washed clean of all your sins.  Thus justified, you have also been glorified, for that outpouring of the Spirit of Christ into your soul is the beginning of a life-long process of glorification whereby the Spirit of Jesus will lead you ever further along the way of Jesus to the Father.  Every time you receive Jesus in Holy Communion and open yourself up to Him in loving gratitude and prayer, that glory, which is the presence of His Spirit in you, will shine ever more brightly for the glory of the Father.  You and I, each and every one of us, known and loved by God the Father before time in Jesus, are thus destined for eternal glory if, by the Spirit, we persevere faithfully in Jesus and His Church!

What degree of glory will be ours?  That we do not know.  But we do know that Mary, a girl from Nazareth, is now Queen of Heaven and of all the Angels, Principalities, and Powers.  Our own degree of eternal glory will depend on God’s plan for us: notice that, dear People of God, egalitarianism is not on God’s agenda for us, His universal goodness is essential to it!  It will also depend, of course, on our commitment to His Person and His will during our time on earth.  Our glorification has already begun; that we know because we love Jesus Who is in heaven and we hope for, look forward to, His heavenly promises, with the result that although subject to temptation here on earth, we are not ruled by the earthly lusts of our flesh, nor do we allow ourselves to be dominated by that earthly pride which would drive us to seek earthly success, power, and prestige above all else.  As yet, we cannot see the final result of our struggles, or the fullness of our on-going glorification, but St. John assures us that, when Christ is revealed in all His glory at the end of time, we too, who now are members of His Body and being led by His Spirit, shall be like Him and share with Him in His glory:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.    (1 John 3:2)

What we have to do, therefore, throughout our life on earth, is to remain faithful to Jesus.  That will most certainly demand effort at times, because we have to be tested, formed, and found worthy of God’s gifts and promises; but St. Paul reassures us, as you heard in that second reading:

We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.

That means, that in all the events of our life, no matter how unexpected, painful, and puzzling they may be, God our Father is at work: seeking to form us by His Spirit -- through those experiences -- in the likeness of His Son, our Saviour, so that we might ultimately be able to share His glory.

Surely, therefore, dear friends in Christ, we should, indeed, regard ourselves as having found a treasure, a pearl of great price, and we should carefully listen to and try to gratefully appreciate, Jesus’ parables in today’s Gospel reading:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.   Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

There, Jesus puts before us two individuals: one, an ordinary man and chance-finder, the other, a business man and professional-searcher; two very different people yet with the same characteristic attitude, for, when they find or track down something of supreme value they both want to make it their own at whatever cost, both of them willing and glad to give all they have to acquire that treasure, such a pearl! Now, all of us here are in a similar position, for Jesus is the treasure, the pearl beyond compare, revealed to us by the Father:

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

Why has the Father drawn us to Jesus?

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.   (John 3:16)

The Father has called us to Jesus, since, without His saving grace we would be lost in, overpowered by, the initial attractions or the ultimate horror and desolation of sin:

Whoever does not abide in Me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.   (John 15:6 NRSV)

Yes, Jesus is indeed the treasure, the pearl of great price, and each of us knows where He is to be found for our ever-greater delight and sustenance: in the life and sacraments of Mother Church, above all the Eucharist, and in her Scriptures.  Only the Spirit of Jesus, given in fullness to Mother Church, can reveal to us -- in and through her worship and teaching -- the wonder of Jesus' saving  life and love; only the Spirit of Jesus can enable us to share in the life of Jesus through the sacraments given us in Mother Church as sources of divine life and conduits of saving grace; only the Spirit can gradually fill and transfigure the thoughts of our minds and the aspirations of our hearts through the Scriptures which enshrine Mother Church’s most treasured remembrances of Him Who lived and died among men for their salvation.

One can indeed find treasures of wisdom and pearls of beauty in the various religions and traditions whereby men and women have sought and served God throughout human history.  However, the one supreme treasure, the one pearl precious beyond all compare  is Jesus of Nazareth -- God's supreme revelation of His very own Being of Love, in His only begotten Son-made-man, by His Gift of the Spirit of them both – Who is to be found uniquely in the Catholic and Christian Eucharist and in the Scriptures of the Universal Church which is His Body, and which is unfailingly sustained and infallibly guided by God’s Holy Spirit to lead mankind into all truth about eternal life and salvation.

The question now is: what are you doing about that treasure, what efforts are you willing to make to ensure that that pearl offered you may indeed become yours for all eternity?

Pope St. Gregory the Great tells a story which goes something like this: imagine someone going on, let us say, a journey on the Orient Express, travelling in luxury towards some wonderful destination, let us imagine, Venice.  It is a long journey; deliberately so, because the trip is meant to embrace many places of great interest along the way: places of beauty such as mountain villages and places of curious attraction, such as ancient bazaars.  Let us further imagine that the train stops at some of these places and, on one particular day, allows passengers to alight in order to visit a bazaar, a most famous one, during a two-hour stop by the Orient Express.  One of the passengers goes from stall to stall, into one bar or boutique after another; he haggles here and there for bargains to take back, and in this delightful process forgets all about the ultimate destination for which he had set out on this long, expensive, journey!  He forgets about Venice, the uniquely situated and wonderfully adorned city of history, culture and beauty, he forgets all about the friends awaiting him there, and loses himself in that smelly bazaar, distracted by little trinkets peddled by the hawkers there, and he misses, indeed forgets all about, the train.  What a fool! 

People of God, so many Christians, so many Church members, are like that foolish traveller, allowing themselves to be distracted from seeking the Lord by the pleasures and cares of life.  Others there are, who once were true servants of the Lord, but who -- over time – disastrously allowed themselves to lose their early fervour.  We saw this in the life of King Solomon -- beloved of God -- as we heard in the first reading:

In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of Me and I will give it to you.”  Solomon answered: “O LORD, my God, You have made me, Your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act.   Give Your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge Your people and to distinguish right from wrong.   For who is able to govern this vast people of Yours?”

The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request.

So, God said to him: “Because you have asked for understanding so that you may know what is right— I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.

Again, the Lord advised him:

If you live in My presence as your father David lived, sincerely and uprightly, doing just as I have commanded you, keeping My statutes and decrees,  I will establish your throne of sovereignty over Israel forever.

However, King Solomon did not persevere in following the Lord’s statutes and commandments, becoming distracted from God’s ways by his successes, by the loves of his life, and by the praises lavished on him:

When Solomon was old his wives turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD his God, as the heart of his father David had been.   The LORD, therefore, became angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice.

People of God, the gospel-treasure hidden in the Scriptures, the pearl at the centre of Church life, is Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, now become our glory and our Saviour, and Who will be our sublimely rich reward:

I rejoice in Your Word like one who discovers a great treasure. (Ps. 119:162 NLT)

The Father has called us to Jesus, to His Word, giving us His Holy Spirit to guide, support, and sustain us in our search for Him Who is our Light and our Salvation, Whose Truth and gift of Self is indeed our very Life.  Let us not, therefore, be led astray by earthly pleasures or worldly worries; let us not be deceived by the earthly security promised by money or by popularity; neither let us be put off by the earthly anxieties or trials which are an unavoidable part of our Christian life and calling today.  We are on a journey and our destination is eternal glory as children of God in Jesus; we must press on to the end, we must persevere in seeking Jesus, because that is the hall-mark of a true Catholic and Christian.  Otherwise, if the Spirit is no longer able to move us in Jesus towards the Father, then we might become like those nominal Catholics mentioned in our third parable today, caught and become bad fish in the Church’s net:

The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, (and) which, when it was full, they drew to shore; (there) they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away.

People of God, such is not the destiny before us who sincerely love Jesus; it is for us to persevere, seeking for and walking with Jesus, as the prophet Micah (6:8) advises:

You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: only to do right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.

Finally, dear Catholic and Christian people, notice something that is in every one of our Sunday readings and which it is absolutely essential for us to know and advert to today, for it totally distinguishes us as believers in Jesus from all those non-believers who proclaim so loudly and preach so fervently their pseudo-philosophical and politically-popular ethics, namely the existence,  the importance, and indeed the ultimately decisive reality of divinely distinguished GOOD as distinct from BAD, of RIGHT from WRONG:

O Lord my God, give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to distinguish right from wrong.

We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.  (NLT)

The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea.  When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets, what is bad they throw away.  Thus it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.