15th Sunday Year B 2021

 

                  15^th. Sunday, Year (B)

(Amos 7:12-15; Ephesians 1:3-10; Mark 6:7-13)

 

 

 

 

This is a momentous occasion for Jesus.  His last words in public had been:

            A prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in                his own house.

He had not been accepted by His own people at Nazareth and that rejection had been symptomatic of the reaction He had evoked in Galilee as a whole, but above all at Jerusalem: there had been some measure of appreciation from a small number of individuals; some occasional, ephemeral, demonstrations of enthusiasm from the generality of people; but always against a background of solid and developing opposition from the religious authorities, both Sadducees and Pharisees, while the ordinary members of the People of God remained largely indifferent.  Perhaps Jesus would have expected that official rejection and religious opposition, but it was the relative indifference shown by His own people at Nazareth, despite His Personal words of acknowledged wisdom in their midst and the good reports of His miracles performed elsewhere, that disturbed Him.  Despite the renown His healings and cures elsewhere had won for Him, His own people would not listen to His authoritative Word of truth because they could not accept it coming from Him.  This personal rejection was deeply engrained in Nazareth society, and Jesus felt it so much, that we are told:

He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.  And He marvelled because of their unbelief.

He left Nazareth and carried on preaching in the villages around but His mind was pre-occupied: He was beginning to appreciate that it would not be He Himself who would bring Israel -- let alone the nations -- back to God: at least, Israel would not repent and be converted back to the Lord in response to words preached by Himself.  The saving message had, indeed, to be His message, for He Himself was the only and ultimate Good News, but others would have to proclaim it for Him after Him; for He, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary, would not prove to be Personally acceptable to His own people in His lifetime.

Faced with such a situation Jesus began to think of His future Church which would proclaim His Good News to the whole world and offer His saving grace to all who would believe in His Name, be they Jews or pagans.  He therefore decided to send out disciples on what we might call ‘a trial run’ and, as Matthew (10:5-6) tells us, only to a strictly limited group of people:

Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.  But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Jesus also gave His Apostles strict instructions regarding the preparations to be made for the journeying ahead of them:

He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff -- no bag, no bread, and no copper in their money belts -- but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.

Nevertheless, these were no random instructions, for they were of such a nature as meant to impress upon the disciples that they were being sent out on a holy mission: for these requirements would equally have fitted them for entering the Temple in Jerusalem.  It was with a similar attitude and a like intention to that of worshippers entering the Temple that they were to embark upon this mission Jesus was entrusting to them, it was to be a holy mission for God’s glory above all.  It was also, undoubtedly, to be for the present and future well-being of those to whom they were being sent because, according to Mark, Jesus:

            Gave them power over unclean spirits,

whereby they would be enabled to go through Israel preaching the proximate coming Kingdom of God and overthrow of the devil’s power, by calling the people to repentance and casting out unclean spirits.

The decision was made by Jesus to send them out, but perhaps He was also wanting to see how His Father would bless the mission as a foreshadowing of the Church, because Jesus was always attentive to even the slightest manifestation of His Father’s will: as, for example, when He prayed all night before choosing His Apostles; and, again, when He chose Simon Peter as Rock because His Father had clearly chosen Simon for a special revelation.

However that may be, it would seem that the short mission of the Apostles to the People of Israel was indeed blessed and turned out to be most successful, for we are told (Mark 6:30-31) that:

The apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. (Whereupon) He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while."

And, it should be carefully noted, it was in that deserted place to which they now headed that Jesus would, a little later, feed the Five Thousand with food foreshadowing the future Eucharist, the supreme source of heavenly refreshment and renewal in His future Church.

As you can see, this sending out of the Twelve by Jesus is extremely significant for us who are His disciples and members of His Body, the Church, and we can learn most by trying to appreciate not only the physical arrangements for food and clothing, not only the spiritual powers He gave the Apostles for their work, but also by most carefully observing the personal attitude Jesus enjoined on them:

In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place.

They were not to move about from place to place despite the fact that that could very easily have happened.  For example, modern, good, kindly and considerate, Christians on such a mission would think -- and secretly praise themselves for thinking thus – that it would be only right and proper for them to move from house to house so as not to be too much of a burden on any one household.  However, it is clear that Jesus here is telling His Apostles to be in no way apologetic for needing and accepting some help on their mission.   Indeed St. Matthew insists on this point, for according to him, Jesus said to His missionaries:

Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out.  And when you go into a household, greet it.  If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. (10:11-14)

Let me make it clearer: Jesus is saying, “Inquire who in the town is worthy to shelter you.  Have every confidence because the blessing you bring with you is God’s blessing of peace, but it is only for those who are worthy.”

That blessing of peace for the host household was quite special; however, it was by no means the only blessing the Apostles carried with them, for we are told:

They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.

Many in that town or city would, indeed, have had good reason to rejoice at the Apostles’ coming.  But, as yet I haven’t even mentioned the greatest blessing the Apostles brought with them, the blessing for which not just some would rejoice … no, the supreme blessing being offered by the Apostles was to be for all in that town or city: it was the blessing of having the Good News preached to them and being given the opportunity to believe in the name of Jesus and, through repentance, have their sins forgiven:

            So, they went out and preached that people should repent.

These were truly Apostles of peace: peace, first of all, for the members of the household that would charitably shelter them; and then, a much more wonderful peace to all who, hearing their preaching and believing in Jesus, would repent of their sins!  Peace before God, that is, peace with God, to all repentant believers.  These Apostles were those of whom the prophet Isaiah had spoken (Isaiah 52:7) hundreds of years ago:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Surely, we can appreciate why such Apostles, men with such a message and such blessings to bestow, had to be in no way apologetic, for they would come bearing such gifts! And yet, they must be in no way proud or avaricious, because the gifts they brought would be gifts of God: gifts of His gracious giving alone, theirs, but to humbly bestow.

People of God, we who are privileged to be Catholic Christians today should in no way apologize for our belief in God; likewise, we should never try to make ourselves appear more understanding and sympathetic than God Himself whether by our words or by our attitudes.  Sad to say, however, such posturing seems far too common today among those who try to win human approval for Jesus or His Church by apologizing, by watering down, explaining away, whatever they fear to be too strict or too demanding in the Gospel.

Do you think that I am being too critical of modern tendencies?  I will prove to you that I am not, because Mark goes on to tell us what was Jesus’ Own final piece of advice, indeed His final command, to His Apostles going on mission; a command many, very many, seemingly good people of today -- people modern society considers icons and admirable people -- would never condone, indeed would condemn, today:

Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that city!

That, of course, forces us to ask ourselves the question: “Who is right, the Gospel or some of the popular modern presentations of, or substitutions for, it?”   Or, to put in another way: “Who are Christians today, who are you and I, following?  Is it, as indeed it should be, Jesus and His Gospel as proclaimed by His Church; or is it what many modern pseudo-religious and “wanna-be-popular” figures like to present as the only truly acceptable, compassionate, and all-embracing, modern Good News ... not from God whom they do not believe in, but from your elected political representatives, people with power but personally hidden from view, who indeed want to offer you all that is for your good and their own?

Now, of which Church are you a member dear friends, the Church that has suffered and endured throughout the centuries following the teachings of Christ our Saviour under the guidance of His most Holy Spirit gifted to us; or some pleasing, comfortable, dispositions of modern morality, acceptable to all because including all in their very own and individual wills and ways, and also very popular with the young who know so little of life yet seek excitement so diligently, a morality whose tenets are fully in line with “EU values, principles, and law”,  to quote EU threats against Hungary of late?

Ours is a time of decision, dear People of God, and may Mother Church’s truth be our guide, her sacramental grace our strength, in Jesus our Saviour, by the Spirit Who is God’s Gift of Life to us, for the Father Who is Lord of all.

                                                        

 

 

           

 

14th Sunday Year B 2021

 

 14th. Sunday (Year B)

 (Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2nd. Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6)

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We have here a most important Gospel reading: important, that is, for our right understanding of the vocation and spiritual life of a committed Christian; and it is prefaced by two remarkable readings from the prophet Ezekiel and St. Paul.

Let us, first of all, listen once again to our reading from the prophet Ezekiel:

Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against Me…. You shall say to them: ‘Thus says the Lord God!’  And whether they head or resist --- for they are a rebellious house --- they shall know that a prophet has been among them.

Things were apparently so bad with the Chosen People in those days, that the prophet was not being sent to comfort God’s people like Isaiah, not even being sent to convert delinquents, since it was doubtful whether any would be converted -- whether they head or resist -- but simply to proclaim God’s word, and thus to impress upon the people that there was a prophet – a spokesman chosen by God -- in their midst, and to force Israel to recognize that though they had often failed Him, He would never fail them.

Witness to the truth, to God’s truth!   That is the prophet’s – and a Catholic priest’s -- first and supreme function, as Our Blessed Lord said of Himself and His mission when being questioned by Pilate:

For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world: to bear witness to the Truth.  (John 18:37)

Not to convert, first of all, but to bear witness to God’s truth; conversions will come later, as Jesus went on to say:

          Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. (ibid.)

In the reading from St. Paul, we heard again about this contradictory aspect of God’s word … be it God’s activity or His spoken message.  Paul had received an abundance of revelations and was in danger of becoming too proud, and therefore a thorn in the flesh was given him.  That was God’s word in action, you might say a word of contradiction indeed, which Paul most certainly did not like, but – as ever with God – it was a word to save him.  And so, although Paul pleaded earnestly with God that the thorn might leave him, God’s reply was something which, initially, Paul found hard to understand because it was so much at variance with his own, human, way of thinking …

My grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in weakness.

Paul wanted to do great things for God, but he had to learn that God alone does great things, for the glory of His Name and for our salvation.  Consequently, He would only allow Paul to do great things for His glory in such a way that, at the same time, Paul would be learning – unforgettably – the truth about himself: that he could do nothing, of himself, for salvation.  And so, Paul eventually came to rejoice, for example, in his own inability to make great sermons, because experience gradually taught him that when he went forward in faith – obeying God’s call and trusting in God’s help -- then, despite his own inability, God would work wonders through him and for him.

Jesus, the Word-of-God-made-flesh, Himself came among us as Lord and Saviour and -- in accordance with God’s message to Ezekiel -- both His Person and His spoken words proved unacceptable to sectarian pride, and less than pleasing to human hopes; with the result that, as you heard in our Gospel today, Jesus did not convert many at Nazareth because His fellow townspeople had no faith in His Person and were not impressed by His words.  Nevertheless, Jesus successfully carried out His mission and fulfilled His Father’s purposes in Nazareth for He bore witness to the truth and exemplified those sublime and prophetic words given to Isaiah:

 My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD.  (Isaiah 55:8)

People of God, so often today great things are desired of the priests of Mother Church: they are exhorted at times by their bishops, they are frequently expected by their Catholic people, but above all, so many priests themselves want, desire, and consequently seek, to somehow make Jesus popular.

That, however, is not a Catholic priest’s primary function: he must first of all bear witness to God’s truth, learnt in all its integrity from Mother Church; and that truth has then to be, must be, vivified in himself by his own faithful appreciation of, and loving response to, God’s Personal activity and goodness.  Vivified, however, not taken over by that personal experience; so that in his preaching and teaching as a Catholic priest, the Truth of God and of Mother Church may be proclaimed with God-given conviction and truly human understanding and sympathy.

Conversions will, in God’s mercy and great goodness, follow, for:

Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.

There is something here for all in God’s flock … something to help us live our faith more fruitfully.  For we must recognize that God’s word may – at times – seem to be a contradiction to us: creating a decisive tension within us, or simply jolting us out of our complacency.  And that is its proper purpose and function: to touch and open-up new depths in, and reveal the very roots of, our God-given being to the saving influence of His grace, and thus to lead us to a richer Christian fulfilment as witnesses to the beauty and goodness of God, and ‘exponents’, so to speak, of a more authentic human life.

For, left to ourselves, we tend to spend so much of our lives in superficial pleasures and distractions which empty us of character; and those God-given contradictions, where God can seem so absent, are meant, at times, to help us realize that we are needy individuals, and to make us look below the surface, deeper than the obvious, in order to find the true meaning and purpose of our life.  Faith is the Christian faculty that enables us to believe, recognize, and hopefully to respond to God’s presence in and throughout the whole of life; and we respond aright by trying to do what is right and true, by affirming what is good and beautiful, and by dedicating ourselves, perseveringly, to life in all its fullness -- spiritual as well as bodily, eternal a well as natural -- because of His call which those aspects of life express for us.

For example, how often good Catholic parents experience anguish and anxiety as they see their young people wandering away from religious practice and the Faith itself.   And yet, if they will embrace it aright, this experience can be a great opportunity for them, as with Saint Paul, to glorify God and to draw even closer to those they love despite the sorrow and suffering involved.  As good Catholic and Christian parents -- despite finding themselves in such a situation – they can yet persist in loving their children and trusting God: trying to draw God to their children, by constant prayer and hopeful confidence; and their children to God, by ever deeper (and perhaps yet more costly!) love and patience.  As silent witnesses to God, where words of exhortation and instruction cannot be given because they would not be accepted, such parents who continue to unite God and their children through their own love and suffering for both, are then, themselves, being conformed very closely indeed to Christ on the Cross with one arm outstretched to men and the other to His Father, uniting them both in the great love of His most Sacred Heart. 

Let us then, People of God, take confidence; because life’s most bitter moments, its most searching trials, when met with faith and embraced with trust in God, can be experienced as encounters with His holy word, His saving will; indeed, as His Self-revelation to you for a P/personal fellowship with Him throughout your life.  They are contradictions like the Cross, meant to result in our resurrection as newer and fuller human beings and more authentic Christians … men and women all the more capable of joy and fulfilment for having lived through such troughs of sorrow and trial.  For that to happen one thing is absolutely necessary: faith in Jesus first of all, faith in His Most Holy Spirit ever recalling Jesus’ teaching to the mind of Mother Church; and deep gratitude for our own personal awareness and experience of God our Father’s everlasting goodness.

Dear People of God, Catholic and Christian, seek true humanity, full and free; seek confidently and unswervingly the authentic meaning of life: its true beauty, worthwhileness, and purpose.  Seek, in a word, God, revealing Himself in His Son, through His Church unique and universal, and in you, by His Spirit.

May this Holy Mass bring about for us who participate in it with faith the great miracle of our resurrection from the shallows to the fullness of all our possibilities, human and divine; the fullness for which He created us and towards which He ever guides and ‘upgrades’ us through sorrow and joy, in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.    

13th Sunday of Year B 2021

 

Thirteenth Sunday of Year (B)

(Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24.  2^nd. Corinthians 8:7-9, 13-15; Saint Mark 5:21-43)

 

Today’s Gospel emphasises the importance and the fruitfulness of a personal awareness of, and relationship with, Jesus.

We were told there, as you heard, that:  

When Jesus had crossed again (in the boat) to the other side (of the Sea of Galilee) a large crowd gathered around Him, and He stayed close to the sea.  One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing Him, he fell at His feet and pleaded earnestly with Him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.”  He went off with him, and a large crowd followed Him and pressed upon Him.

 

Now Saint John (John 4:46–48) has a similar story about a father seeking Jesus’ help for his son:

 

(Jesus) returned to Cana in Galilee, where He had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to Him and asked Him to come down and heal his son, who was near death.   Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” 

And so, the synagogue leader pressed through a large crowd surrounding Jesus by the sea and fell at Jesus’ feet; whereas, the royal official simply went to Jesus and asked Him.

The depth of Jairus’ faith was most clearly shown by his publicly falling at Jesus’ feet despite the general disapproval of Jesus by the Pharisees and their Scribes so active and important in the synagogue ‘movement’ so to speak.  That humble act of faith by Jairus could easily have cost him his reputation and authority in the synagogue.

The royal official, on the other hand, would seem to have simply approached Jesus privately and asked Him to heal his son, thereby meriting those words of Jesus:

            Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

 As a result of that healing, however, Jesus’ name would be proclaimed in royal palaces that were no fit places for Jesus’ Personal preaching, which was for the poor and needy, the sick and lowly, but above all for the repentant and faithful.

Now let us look more closely at the woman who had suffered from hemorrhages for 12 years, an illness which had ritually prevented her from being able to worship in the temple and even, perhaps, in the local synagogue.

Like Jairus, she pushed through a crowd to get close to Jesus, but, because of the nature of her ailment, she made no public gesture.   Now desperate after many notable figures in medicine had failed her and cost all her money, and yet with a true faith in the holiness and power of Jesus -- the only One, she now realized, Who could possibly help her– she simply touched His cloak, possibly just the hem of that long garment.

That, however, was too much like magic for Jesus Who immediately made it known that He was acutely aware that someone had purposefully touched His garments.  He turned around to face the crowd, and looking deliberately at those nearest to Himself, He thus compelled the already deeply anxious and now most nervous woman to reveal herself to Him and make known the whole truth.

Jesus then said to her both privately and ‘sotto voce’:

Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.

Oh, Lord Jesus, gentle and accommodating Saviour, how true of You are those prophetic words (Sirach 42:21–23):

Perennial is His almighty wisdom; He is from all eternity one and the same, no need of a counselor for Him! How beautiful are all His works even to the spark and the fleeting vision!

Yes, dear People of God, that was but a momentary incident absolutely unknown to the crowd, and even now -- for us recalling it to our memory -- it is but a very short glimpse of Jesus’ tender solicitude, “Daughter, your faith has made you well”, and gentle encouragement, “go in peace and be healed of your disease”, for a woman so long alone, anxious, and so deeply embarrassed.  There were very few people to whom Jesus could have shown that aspect of His humanity and divine love: for Jairus in his moment of trial it was simply “Do not be afraid; just have faith”; for the daughter of Jairus, it was “Talitha koumi, little girl arise”; while for both parents, it was that very practical advice, “Give her something to eat”.

What about you, my dear fellow Catholics and Christians?  Has Jesus, has God, ever spoken, whispered, words of importance, or tender concern, words of guidance both encouraging and possibly life-changing, to you?  If so, then treasure those words for the rest of your life, for they were and are words of life for you.

If not? Why not, do you think?  All I can say is that such words of Jesus are expressions of a certain closeness, loving concern, intimate awareness.  If you have never heard the like yourselves that cannot be Jesus’, God’s, fault: we have all just heard that Jesus on earth did speak to some people in such a way, and we all know that God our Father in heaven and the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, are capable and do want to be that close to us, for us: Jesus is our Saviour, God is our Father, the Paraclete is the Spirit given us expressly to divinize us and whisper in our very hearts!!  And yet you have heard nothing, never sensed anything, somehow never even thought or guessed that Jesus, the Father, or the Spirit within you has ever said or intimated anything to you for your guidance and help??

In such a situation I must just urge you never to forget those words of Jesus to the woman of Samaria:

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.   (John 4:24)

Those are words to think on, work at, and above all, pray over.  For the Holy Spirit given us makes us Christians, and He ever recalls Jesus’ teaching, for Jesus said ‘I am the Truth’.  And the relationship He, the Spirit, establishes in us, Faith, is a P/personal relationship : a relationship, on our part, of humble obedience; a relationship of steadfast, ever-clinging-on, trust; a relationship of heart-warming and supremely committed love.  A relationship on God's side expressed by a most loving Fatherly embrace, and an invitation to sit at the table set for the heavenly  feast of God's family and kingdom.