4^th. Sunday of the Year (C)                             

 (Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19; 1^st. Corinthians 12:31–13:13; Luke 4:21-30)

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People of God, in our second reading today taken from St. Paul’s first letter to his converts at Corinth, we heard one of the most famous, the most important, and the most beautiful texts of the New Testament: a text that is famous among Christians above all because of its fundamental doctrinal importance, whilst among unbelievers and nominal Christians it is famous because of its beauty.

We who are disciples of Jesus know that the devil always seeks to camouflage his evil designs into something apparently good by ‘covering’ them with a pseudo-righteousness which is nothing but the fruit of his lying lips.  Today, many in our modern consumer society --  including far too many formerly faithful but now lapsed Christians -- are still be able to bring to mind those words of St. Paul about the supreme worth and beauty of charity, which they prefer to call “love” and, at times, despite years of absence from, or almost total ignorance of Church life and the Catholic Faith, they will tell you in a triumphant tone and with crushing emphasis that “love” is what Christianity should be all about, not religion. And of course, though using the words of Scripture -- “love” is the word used in our popular bible translations today -- they distort the Catholic meaning of those words.  For example, when using that word “love” some relatively few mean nothing more than “being nice to”, “never hurting” people; whereas others, the vast majority, intend the word to include all the sexual excesses and aberrations popular and possible -- provided they are not considered to be criminal -- in today’s no-religion, permissive, and politically-correct modern western society.  Religion, which for the true Christian is the God-given means and channel of learning and expressing supreme love for or charity towards God, has no true significance, according to their way of thinking, being concerned with merely ritual and rites, public pomp and posturing.

Let us, however, who want to be whole-hearted and obedient disciples of Jesus and children of Mother Church, never mix up our apostolic faith and practice with such ‘fashionable morality’.

You will well remember how the Apostle Peter did – out of his own personal love for Jesus -- once speak to the Lord in an overly-worldly way and, we are told, Jesus turned to him immediately and said:

Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. (Mark 8:33)

Now, don’t all pseudo-Catholics and all lapsed non-believers yet politically correct people assure us that true Christianity ought to be all about loving people, “not hurting” anyone? What do you think: was that a “nice” thing for anyone -- let alone Jesus Himself -- to say?  Do you think those words of Jesus “hurt” Peter?  Of course they did, because they were meant to hurt him, in order to heal and protect him.  The fact is, however, that modern humanists who often make use of Christian words, do not really care about Jesus or His teaching: they don’t seek, first and foremost, to be His true disciples, above all, they want to be personally popular and successful on the contemporary stage  And so, when they use the words of Jesus, they do so only in such a way as to win arguments and gain public approval, not to proclaim the saving truth for which Jesus died.

Therefore, let us now turn to our other Scripture readings today and try to learn more about Jesus: His teaching, His attitudes, and His purposes.

We are told in the Gospel reading that, after reading from the Scriptures on the Sabbath in His local synagogue at Nazareth:

Jesus began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  And all spoke highly of Him, and were amazed at the gracious words came from His mouth. And they asked, "Isn’t this the son Joseph?" 

But then, Jesus immediately continued, saying:

Surely you will quote Me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself! Do here in Your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum!' And He said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 

That, however, was only a beginning for He then went on to quote examples from the Scriptures where Israel had not been found worthy of a miracle, and soon:

All the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

How deep was their indignation, how wild their rage!   They even went so far as to:

Rise up and thrust Him out of the town; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, that they might hurl Him down headlong.

People of God, one of our greatest failings today in our Western society, which formerly was proud to call itself Christian, is hypocrisy: it seeks to portray itself as being good without God, multi-cultural, but for the requirements of business barons  and ambitious politicians rather than in accordance with the wishes of the indigenous people, and without having any serious appreciation of, or will to make right accommodation for, religious convictions that have formed our people over many centuries.   Many of those who are influential do, indeed, still take up vaguely-remembered Christian concepts and teachings, they may even seem to quote Jesus, nevertheless they seek but the esteem of men; they obsequiously bend the knee to political correctness but will not bow their head in faith or accept the yoke of obedience to the Word of God.

We, however, who want to be true disciples of Jesus, must always remember the words of St. Paul heard in our second reading as he taught and intended them:

Earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. 

That greater gift, that more excellent way which, as you all know, is at the heart of our Christian faith, is the way of love: but note, such love is not mere social niceness, not mere human charm, not political agreeableness, and most certainly it is not an authoritative expression for popularly acceptable sexuality, it is Christian love, a sharing in God’s own love, and for that reason it is most properly called CHARITY.

Christian charity is, I say, a sharing in Jesus’ love for the God the Father, and then, for His sake, love of the children of God, that is, of our neighbour, a love that seeks to help our neighbour in the ways of God.  Christian charity is love of God even to the forgetfulness of self and to the scorning of worldly popularity, for it is not possible to put God first sincerely, whilst, in practice, seeking worldly esteem and success.

St. Paul assures us that, from this changing world, we can take with us only what will abide to eternity, that is:

            Faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 

Let us, however, consider closely what he recommends and what he warns us against.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

All the gifts Paul mentions there are sublime gifts of themselves … the Corinthians were wanting wonderful blessings … such prophecy, such understanding, such faith ….  indeed, you might go on to say, such love as to bestow all one’s good to the poor (like St. Anthony and many other great saints), such charity as to give one’s body to be burnt (like St. Laurence).  However, in aspiring to such gifts and graces, the Corinthians were being motivated by a devilishly hidden, ‘covered-over’ pride: for, wanting to be personally noticed, publicly praised, esteemed and honoured in the Church, they were not truly seeking to love God supremely.

Paul therefore tries to turn them in the right direction:

Earnestly desire the best gifts. I show you a more excellent way.

He guides them to charity.  But here notice that because of their penchant for pride he recommends the lesser expressions of charity first, those demanded by the second aspect of the great commandment: love of neighbour, a derivative form and expression of charity towards God Himself:

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

With love for our neighbour, and for the love of God, that is, in the fullness of Christian charity, let us ‘put on the whole armour of God’ as St. Paul recommended, since the enemies of Christ … and many ‘nice’ and ‘respectable’ people around us are indeed enemies of Christ, virulent in their attacks on Jesus and His Church in our times.

We should also recall and take to heart God’s words to Jeremiah, the great prophet who most closely foreshadowed Jesus in the contradictions and contempt he had to endure in order to remain faithful to God and help save his people:

My people have forsaken Me; therefore, prepare yourself and arise and speak to them all that I command you.  Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them; for behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land (and) against the people of the land.    They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you to deliver you.

Dear friends in Christ, steel and sympathy, both of them, are inherent to and absolutely essential for true Christian love, a living offshoot of Divine Charity.  Is your ‘love’ worldly: all sympathy and softness professing not Catholic and Christian truth but worldly conformity which, holding you in thrall, promises to assure your public ‘acceptability’ and personal satisfaction? In other words, have you lost that steel demanded by Jesus of all His disciples and exemplified so strikingly in His own visit to, and words in, the home town that wanted to own Him?

         

3rd Sunday of the Year (C) 2019

3^rd. Sunday of Year (C)  

      (Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10; 1^st. Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21)

     

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.            

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, those words of Jesus “a year acceptable to the Lord” made passing reference to the jubilee of the year A.D. 28.  Nearly 2000 years on, we today have some vague awareness of the jubilee tradition in Israel after having ourselves experienced a modern jubilee in the year 2000.  A jubilee year in Israel was meant to be one of renewal and rejoicing: renewal for all who had been wandering from the way of the Lord, and rejoicing for the suffering and needy who were to receive redress for past injuries and help in present difficulties.  Even in modern times and among nations and international organizations overwhelmingly concerned with politics and money rather than with religious issues, nevertheless, in the year 2000 that spirit of jubilee enabled many poor nations to have their debts either notionally wiped out or else substantially reduced.

In our Gospel reading Jesus was just beginning His public ministry, just starting to proclaim the Good News that, through Him, God was offering salvation to His People. Jesus was inaugurating not just one acceptable year, but – as was fitting for what would be the Jubilee of all jubilees – a whole new relationship with God; a relationship whereby Israel, and ultimately the whole of mankind, would be offered freedom from the bonds of sin – the source of all human suffering -- and endowment by the Gift of the Holy Spirit sent to form us in Jesus as children of God, children for whom God would be a true Father, children destined to share an inheritance in heaven with God’s only-begotten Son made Flesh.

Dear People of God, this Good News that Jesus was announcing at that favourable time was something to be celebrated, and in this respect, we should remember how Mary our Mother was urged to respond to God’s offer of a Son-and-Saviour when the angel Gabriel addressed her at the Annunciation.  He began telling her of God’s offer by saying, “Rejoice, Mary, the Lord is with you”, for the Christian message, the Good News of Christ, is not to be merely accepted, it needs to be embraced with sincere and, indeed, wholehearted rejoicing by all children of Mary, and this is something that we Catholics  need to recall to our Christian awareness and make part of our every-day lives.

The Scriptures offer us over the ages a developing message of salvation and ever deepening awareness of the true nature of human faith called for by such divine goodness. In the first reading we heard:

Ezra read plainly from the book of the Law of God, interpreting it so that al could understand what was read.   Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest-scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people, "Today is holy to the Lord your God; do not be sad and do not weep" for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law. He said further, "Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our Lord.  Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength." 

The book of the Law had been lost and it had just been found again.  As the people, gathered together to hear it publicly read once again after very many years, listened to that reading, they were made aware of their past sins and present sinfulness and they wept.  But they were told: “This day is holy to the Lord, do not be grieved.”  Why not?  Because this was a holy people whom God had been preparing for over a thousand years, and they were, at this very moment, showing themselves to be uniquely able -- on hearing what was good and true -- to recognise and bewail their present sinful state and regret the past offences against their saving God and loving Father.  Such tears were those of lost children re-discovering an affinity of love and aspiring to fulfilment through obedience, not those of rebels hating God’s Law though fearing its warnings against all transgressors. 

People of God, all human beings are sinners before God: God alone is holy.  But those who are in the worst state, those who most need to weep, are those who are able and willing to deceive themselves into thinking either that they are good enough of themselves, or that it doesn’t matter whether one is holy or not.  Such people will never humbly weep for their sins here on earth; and, as Jesus warned, should they die in them, they will have to shed many unwilling and bitter tears as a result.

Oh, dear friends in Christ, it is a wonderful blessing to know and appreciate the Gospel proclamation: it gives us an opportunity to choose what is beautiful and true, to opt for what favours life and reject what is false and deadly.  The ability to find joy in, or shed tears over, the Gospel is a cause for very great joy, because it is a sign that God is taking hold of, and claiming, you as His own.  Therefore, let us take to heart today those final words of that passage from Nehemiah:

            Rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength.

People of God, the Gospel can and should be the joy of our lives, and it is up to each of us to appreciate this and to try ever more and more to delight in the Lord.

This is initially a matter of sensible choice and good will:  does a healthy person go around miserable because she cannot eat as many cream cakes as she would like, or because he cannot booze himself silly every night in the pub, or live day after day on a drug-induced cloud nine?  Not at all!  The physically healthy are happy to know what they should avoid so as to safeguard their well-being, and those who are spiritually healthy are happy because they have real life and are able to seek for its true and eternal fulfilment.   Even happier are those who can delight in the goodness and beauty that surrounds us on every hand in God’s good and beautiful creation and among His people imbued with fraternal charity and mutual respect.

Dear People of God, if you want to be true disciples of Jesus, to become true sons and daughters of our Father in heaven, then try to think more and more of those ‘ordinary’ blessings that surround us every day.

What a joy it is to be able to appreciate what is all around us here on earth … the male blackbird singing, flowers blooming and birds popping-up and darting here and there, the trees affording us a galaxy of autumn tints when their dying leaves are most beautiful and inspiring – or chastening -- for humans growing old!   How awesome it can be to look up into the heavens and appreciate, delight in, all that can be seen of nature there as expressive of the beauty, majesty, and power of God, our Father Who made them all and holds them in being, rather than simply observe them as sources of light, resulting from mere chance, which bespeak of nothing other than cosmic separation and of a cold, cold, beauty devoid of any personal significance for us!

A yet greater Catholic and Christian blessing it is, dear People of God, to have peace in your heart with a good conscience; to be humble before God, and to believe that He is using all the daily events of life -- be they big or apparently insignificant -- to help, guide, and draw you towards Himself.  And, above all, it is an incomparable blessing, to be able to look forward to eternal life: relying, not on any proudly asserted personal merits, but on God’s infinite mercy, and His unfailing, and indeed already experienced, goodness towards us personally  in Jesus; to know that eternal life will be home, where the beauty, the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of the Infinite God will fill all the members of the Father’s heavenly family with delight and unending bliss, because He wills to be for us the most perfect of Fathers and to share His glory with us in Jesus.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been given much, but there is much more to come … Jesus is with Mother Church to the end of time.  Jesus is with Mother Church, in her, for YOU.  In her and through me His priest, He is saying to you personally today, The Spirit of the Lord has been given to Me, for He has anointed Me, He has sent Me to bring the good news to you, to set you free, give you new sight, to proclaim a blessed season of your Father’s favour in which He wants you to become, in Me, His true child. 

Want that, People of God, want, in this season of favour, to become a true child of your heavenly Father in Jesus, and you are well on the way, as the Psalmist (37:4) assures us:

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Therefore, think more on the things of God, and less on the things of this world; think on God and learn to delight in Him.   And, trusting in His goodness, seek to know His will and try to do it joyfully.  In that way, you will surely share the confidence of St. Luke who wrote His Gospel, as he tells us:

So that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.

2nd Sunday Year C 2019

 2^nd. Sunday (C)

(Isaiah 62:1-5; 1^st. Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-11)

In today's Gospel we are shown Jesus bringing joy to a young couple threatened with deep, present, embarrassment and enduring sorrow, and we note that Jesus' blessing came into their lives through Mary. 

He commonly does the same today in and through Mother Church, His Mystical Body, which works, suffers, and prays for the blessings of His grace and truth to be bestowed upon all mankind, and for the establishment of God's Kingdom here on earth; as He Himself had foretold when He said to His disciples before His Ascension (John 14:12):

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father

Jesus is now seated at the right hand of His Father in heaven where He is totally devoted to glorifying His Father and bringing about salvation for us His brethren still on earth: for Jesus is, indeed, totally and gloriously selfless.

I go to My Father, and whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:12-13)

In the first reading Isaiah showed the Lord God’s will for Israel’s salvation through prophetic words that Jesus later applied to Himself at the beginning of His public ministry (Luke 4:18); words which are now being realized for us today in and through Mother Church by the Spirit of Jesus:

For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.   

Now let us look back at Mary in the Gospel reading and see how God made her glory shine out like a burning lamp to guide us to salvation:

When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." 

Jesus did not think it a matter that concerned Him Personally: He had just been proclaimed and ‘installed’ as Son of God and Israel’s Messiah and was on His way to Galilee (with five newly-chosen disciples) to begin His Public Ministry; He did not want His Father’s commission being prejudiced by His mother’s personal concerns, by her emotional involvement in human affairs …

(He) said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come."

However, God the Father had a particular appreciation of Mary who had devoted herself totally to the welfare of her Child – His Word made flesh -- by nourishing Him, protecting Him, and above all, by teaching Him all she knew of God: opening up her own mind and heart to her Child in order that He might learn first how to pray and then how to respond to His heavenly Father as a true Israelite, indeed, as the Chosen One of a Chosen People.

Now Mary is about to be rewarded, acknowledged, for what she had done for God's Son throughout His childhood years: she is to be inspired to help her Son hear and recognize His heavenly Father’s call to begin His public ministry of salvation on this uniquely appropriate occasion.

Of course, Mary did not, indeed she could not, know what Jesus Himself was unaware of; nevertheless, God the Father willed to honour her -- the humble handmaid and perfect mother His only-begotten Son -- by inspiring her to set Jesus out upon the work for which His life with her had been preparing Him and for which His heavenly Father had destined Him.  How did Mary, under God's inspiration, do this? Very simply, as you would expect:

            His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."

That was indeed simply said, but it was certainly not to be expected.  Jesus had apparently declined to have any part in the embarrassing shortage of wine, but Mary, the humble handmaid of God, gently insisted:

            Whatever He says to you, do it.

Such apparently strange behaviour on the part of Mary was enough for her Son.  Jesus immediately recognized His Father at work in Mary’s insistence, just as later He would recognize His Father’s influence on Peter confessing that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God:

Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. (Matthew 16:17)

So too here, at this symbolically joyful wedding feast, Jesus recognizes His Father’s influence on and gift to ‘insistent’ Mary: inspiring her to give her Son a mother’s blessing as He began His work of salvation: a work already fully planned by His loving Father and whole-heartedly embraced by His obedient Son, a work that would lead by way of the Cross to His most glorious Resurrection.  God would not take Mary's Son from her: He had not done that to Abraham, He would not do that to Mary.  Mary, however, being greater than Abraham, was uniquely privileged to bless her Son’s future mission by helping Him choose this most appropriate occasion of love, commitment, and joy for His first miracle.  Isaiah's prophecy was being fulfilled in Mary herself, the supreme member of Mother-Church-new-born:

You (Zion) shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.  (Isaiah 62:3)

Mary's own words too had been prophetic:

My soul magnifies the Lord, for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for He Who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name.

Today, the gradual fulfilment of that will of God, of that abiding desire of Jesus, is carried on through the gift of their Holy Spirit as St. Paul told us:

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

Paul assures us that we are all called -- as living and obedient members of Jesus’ Mystical Body the Church -- to share in the work of bringing Jesus’ Good News to all mankind:

To one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

St. Paul could make only a small choice, because the gifts of God cannot be numbered and no one is left un-gifted.  Some of those gifts are, indeed, beyond our imagining: for example, how could anyone have imagined that the Father would inspire Mary to persist even though Jesus appeared to want to know nothing further about the matter?

People of God, all who are serious disciples of Jesus must be convinced that He does want to use and ultimately glorify each and every one of us in Himself.  We for our part, however, must -- first of all -- want Him to do this with our lives; and then we must learn to listen for His Spirit and respond without delay to His promptings; only in that way can Isaiah's prophecy come to greater fulfilment in us and in our days:

            Nations shall behold your vindication, and all kings your glory.

God has already done some of this for Mother Church: the greatest empires and the mightiest kings have, over two thousand years, come -- in all their power and magnificence -- and gone, despite all their cruelty and cunning.  Mother Church has withstood and outlived them all.

Those other prophetic words, however:

You shall be called by a new name, bestowed by the mouth of the Lord, 

have urgent need of fulfilment in modern times through all who have been baptized in Mother Church as children of her fruitfulness: all, that is, who have been made a new creation through water and the Holy Spirit, a new creation with the new name of children of God in Spirit and in Truth.  Because these modern times are times of great sinfulness and proud ignorance God wants this work to continue more urgently by the Spirit:

There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all: the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

People of God, despair neither of God nor of yourselves.  Some there are who say they are not gifted enough to do anything for God.  That is an attitude of mock humility, because it contradicts the words of Scripture for, as St. Paul tells us, to each one a manifestation of the Spirit is given; indeed, such an attitude is sinful, since it would blame a supposed lack of generosity on God’s part to cover up one’s own personal selfishness or indifference. There are others, however, perhaps more humble and sincere, who are tempted to think that because they have done nothing remarkable, therefore they have done nothing.   They should not, however, mistake human estimation (even their own) for God’s appreciation, for Jesus tells us (Luke 16:15):  

            What is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.

Mary knew that she had done nothing of herself, nevertheless she also believed:

He Who is mighty has done great things for me, for He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant.

Mary was acutely aware of her lowliness; she never tried to make herself anything other than what she was before God.  Mary did not seek to make herself known or appreciated by men: her desire was to do God's will, to be truly His handmaid; and it was for that reason that she was so prompt to hear and obey God at the wedding feast at Cana   It was Mary's selflessness that made her the wonder she is: she always heard, recognized, and responded to God the Father working in and through her by His Spirit for her Son.   Of this Jesus was well aware as is shown by the fact that, as He was speaking on one occasion, a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him (Luke 11:27-28):

"Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

People of God, God can do anything with those who are humble, those who truly seek Him first and foremost in their lives and who are willing to trust Him in all things.  Ask Mary to pray for you; beg the Holy Spirit to guide you; thank God for His goodness to you in Mother Church and in your own personal, living, relationship with Him.  Do these things and the Holy Spirit will be with you to form you into an ever more close and true likeness of Jesus; let Him thus raise you, and all you may influence, to a closer proximity with Him Who is the Lord and Father of us all.