First Sunday of Lent (A)

(Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12, 17-19; Matthew 4:1-11)

In our first reading, the Serpent, speaking to the woman in the Garden of Eden, directly contradicted God’s warning against eating fruit from the forbidden tree:

You will not die.  For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

However, when speaking with Jesus in our Gospel passage, Satan considered it wiser not to openly contradict the words spoken by the Father at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan (Matthew 3:17ss.):

 This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Was He indeed God’s Son?   Satan was hesitant, certainly not out of respect for this possible Son of God, but out of a desire to proceed correctly and prove successful.  Therefore, instead, of directly contradicting what the Father had said, as he had done when speaking with that foolish woman Eve in the beginning, he tried subterfuge and cunning; he endeavoured to communicate something of his own doubt, to insinuate some little seed of distrust, into the mind of this quite ordinary-looking man:

            If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

Jesus’ period of testing in the desert had gone on for a full forty days and nights, and the devil apparently thought that a few carefully chosen words of his at the end of it, when Jesus was human-enough to be showing exhaustion, might cause Him to wonder whether His visionary experience at His baptism by John in the Jordan had been as real as He had first thought.  Satan hoped that Jesus -- having been very much alone for forty days and nights and now feeling very weak from starvation -- might be unable, at this moment, to deal with a nagging suspicion at the back of His mind   It would have, let us say, amused, pleased, Satan hugely if Jesus were to try to secretly satisfy His own slight doubt – a fatal fruit of Satan’s sowing – while at the same time proclaiming Satan to be totally wrong in having himself imagined and expressed such doubt! 

            If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

However, Jesus had no gnawing suspicion of His Father to assuage, nothing to prove to Himself, and He – most certainly -- had no intention whatsoever of giving Satan the satisfaction of receiving an answer to his question: throughout His ministry He would refuse to allow evil spirits to testify concerning Him, and He had no inclination to prove His personal identity to their master now.  And if Satan thought that an opportunity to secretly satisfy His natural hunger might influence Him, Jesus made it supremely clear where He found His true nourishment:

He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "

Jesus, the Son of God, sent, as Messiah, to save God's People from their servitude to sin, was being tempted as the early Israelites had been when they were crossing the desert towards the Promised Land under the guidance of Yahweh their God and the leadership of Moses their prophet.   On that journey, Israel of old -- sinful children of their sinful mother Eve -- had behaved as she did: feeling the pangs of hunger, they would not trust God and complained bitterly to Moses  that God was planning to kill them in the desert, openly expressing a longing to return to the slavery of Egypt for the food that was plentiful there.  Later on Moses reminded them of their behaviour saying:

Remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.  So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger.   (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. (Deuteronomy 9:7)

Jesus had shown Himself to be in no way subject to that over-riding solicitude for self which is characteristic of fallen humanity: suffering and trial could not induce Him either to suspect His Father or abuse His gifts.

Therefore, Satan turned his attention from Jesus’ human make-up to His supposedly divine mission, homing in, so speak, on Jesus’ desire to be recognized and accepted as Israel’s Redeemer and Saviour.

Satan had noted Jesus’ reference to the Scriptures and so, continuing his attempt to find out just Who Jesus might be, he took Him to the Holy City, Jerusalem, set Him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and said: ‘Here, on this pinnacle of the world-famous Jewish temple is just the spot to prove yourself and win your people.   Here, you can do something that would resound throughout Israel and be fully in accordance with the Scriptures you quote so lovingly; it would be something whereby the whole Jewish nation could easily recognize that the Lord has chosen and appointed you, therefore:

If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'

Jesus, again unmoved, replied:

            It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'

Thwarted for a second time, Satan showed persistence for he was beginning not only to despise, but also to fear and, indeed, to truly hate this Jesus of Nazareth.  Who was He?  What the hell (a suitable word for Satan!) was He up to?

Today, we, who have as St. Paul says ‘the mind of Christ’, know that Jesus had not come for His own human aggrandisement or satisfaction, nor had He entered upon His divine mission for the well-being of Israel alone: He had been sent by His Father, to save the whole of mankind.  Although Satan knew neither Jesus nor His mission fully, nevertheless, his temptations were diabolically cunning shots in the dark: he seems to have disdainfully thought that any human-being could be tempted successfully, provided that the stakes were high enough.  Therefore he made one further and final attempt to derail Jesus’ mission:

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.

At that moment Satan -- in the fullness of his maniacal pride and ambition --overreached himself, and Jesus, no longer tolerating his presence, responded by a manifestation of His own authority:

Away with you, Satan!

before adding the words of Scripture:

For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'

‘Away with you, Satan!’   Words cannot express the loathing, revulsion, and holy anger of Jesus’ reply … but we can recall that years later, at the very end of His mission (Matt 16:23), He relived once again, and once again rejected with startling vehemence, this desert experience, on the occasion when Peter tried to persuade Him to follow an easier path than that of the Cross:

He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."            

In these temptations of Jesus in the desert we recall, as I have mentioned, Israel’s trials in the desert of Sinai on the way to the Promised Land, in particular the occasion when Moses told the Israelites:

When the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.  You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him. (Deut. 6:10-14)

Now Jesus sums up, and fulfils, in Himself the history and calling of Israel, the Chosen People; but He also prepares for the future world-wide People of God, the Church that would be His Body and Bride, the Church whose Head and Saviour He would be, and therefore these temptations of Jesus in the desert are for both our instruction and our confirmation as His disciples.

In the first two of these temptations of Jesus Satan starts off with the words, ‘I you are the Son of God’ endeavouring to stir up suspicion of God’s love and providence.  How many Christians, today, succumb to this temptation!  They fall away from God because they begin to doubt that He is with them, they are not sure He is hearing them, they are unaware of His helping, guiding, hand in their lives.  “I don’t feel anything; He makes no sign.  If only I could be conscious of His presence, if He would only answer I would be satisfied.”  In some such way they begin to demand a sign from God to convince themselves of His Providence over them: some turn away from the true Faith and seek refuge in religious sects which provide them with all sorts of pseudo-divine signs; others try to stir up signs for themselves by rashly setting aside faith and reasonable behaviour and pushing themselves to become neurotically excited and disturbed.  You will see some of these in popular churches doing all sorts of strange antics or excessive practices.  Many more, however, complaining that God is silent in their lives, fall away from the Faith, and, as it were returning to Egypt’s slavery, turn aside to enjoy the pagan life-style of the surrounding peoples, trying to forget their worries and cares, and even their conscience, in a maelstrom of worldly endeavours, comforts, and distractions.  Let us learn from Jesus, People of God, starving after 40 days and nights in the desert: He would in no way make demands of God, nor would He divert His divine calling or abuse His divine gifts in order to get earthly satisfactions for Himself; above all He would never love Himself so much as to entertain suspicion of His Father:

The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.  (John 8:29)

Finally, in the third temptation, notice that Satan does not begin with the words, ‘If you are the Son of God’ because this time at issue is the supreme sin of human, devilish, pride.  Here we have the situation of those who do indeed set out to do the work of God but allow themselves to be tempted to accept just a little help (that is, initially, just a little help) from the devil: they carry on, apparently seeking to do God's purposes indeed, but for reasons other than God alone.  Often enough they allow themselves to become discouraged under difficulties or fearful in the face of opposition; then they resort to making just a few slight compromises and  some minimal accommodations acceptable to popular tastes, all done with the aim of recording success where previously there had only been apparent failure.  Thenceforth, all the high aims and loving purposes avowedly pursued are increasingly subject to their desire for results, good results, successful results, above all, acceptable results.  The ultimate end for such victims of the devil's deceits is that, far from serving God’s plans and the true good of their fellows they serve, they end up promoting, first and foremost, their own hypocrisy; and, far from worshipping God as they started out, they end up worshipping the devil in his very best clothes!  They worship him who will give them humanly appreciable and acceptable success in the work they do apparently for God; they worship him who will enable them to taste the general approval and personal self-satisfaction that comes from wearing easily recognizable tokens of pseudo-holiness!   They both despise and fear the humility, the waiting, the trusting, the hoping, the praying, involved in worshipping God alone. 

The variety of humanity’s life experience and the vagaries of its response to such experience are multiform; and though sometimes, and indeed far too often, they show all too clearly its fallen condition, nevertheless our evangelist would have us never forget that the basic, God-given and God-orientated, aspirations and  possibilities of our human nature are sublime, for when Jesus had successfully overcome His trial on our behalf:

            The devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

 

9^th Sunday, year (A)

(Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28, 32; Romans 3:21-25, 28; Matthew 7:21-27)

What is involved in being a disciple of Jesus?  What rules govern a disciple’s behaviour?  Are there certain actions, certain conventions which, belonging to such discipleship, are characteristic of Christians?

In our society today there are not only many politicians but also many ordinary people who feel themselves obliged to use language that is politically correct – as distinct from what is sincere and true – and to show forth convictions that are publicly acceptable – whatever their moral integrity -- and who, in such ways, find themselves regularly performing before other people rather than living before God.  Such persons, if they like to call themselves Catholics and Christians, seek to do both what is acceptable to people in the surrounding society and what is good before God; and consequently, they find themselves torn between the demands of modern society and the requirements of Jesus’ teaching.  Ideally in fact, they would like to have a written law somewhat similar to the Jewish Law of old: a code which -- though remaining literally prescriptive -- could always be authoritatively interpreted and adapted in ways that would claim to keep it relevant in, applicable to, and sufficient for, succeeding ages.  There can be no denying that it must have been very comforting for the Pharisees to obey their own interpretation of ancient, lapidary, commands, such as we heard Moses give in the first reading:

You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul;   and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

However, the great danger with such religious observances is that the prescribed commandments and practices, being written down in black and white, so to speak, and handed down from generation to generation, instead of being recognized as ways to express love of God, as Moses expressly wanted, can become themselves the aim of one's life, displacing God Himself so naturally that His absence is hardly noticed:

If you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. (Deuteronomy 11:22-23)

Now Jesus did, indeed, give us commands because He approved the Ten Commandments of the Old Law, but He summed them up in the one great command:

YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF. (Luke 10:27)

You might say, ‘but that commandment is found in the Old Testament, the Jews knew all about that’, and you would be correct.  However, Jesus took up that commandment of personal love and gave it immeasurably greater prominence, not only in His teaching but even more so in His own Personal attitude and prayer, where communion with, love for, and trust in, His Father transcended all else.

Nor was that all.   For the Jews, the Law was a treasured, concrete, reality, originally given by God to Moses written on tablets of stone, then subsequently protected, preserved, and transmitted as the Torah, written down with loving precision on their Sacred Scrolls, where it was studied ever more diligently and observed ever more minutely … it was before their eyes, in their hands, subject to their appreciation and application.  In fact, the Torah was THEIRS.

God Himself, however, was always of another world: His written-down will was well known, but not His Person, nor His presence.  In such circumstances, Jesus could easily have been regarded as nothing more than a truly remarkable man for Whom God was somewhat more real than He was to other men of His time, and as such He might well have been acceptable to, and even welcomed by, the majority of practicing Jews.   Jesus however destroyed that possibility by destroying the ‘abstractness’ of God, for He not only called Him His ‘dear Father’ so insistently and openly, but above all He taught His disciples that:

            The Father and I are One. (John 10:30)

Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. (John 14:9-11)

In this Good News of the New Testament, there is the commandment of love as found in the Old dispensation, but it is no longer directed via a written Law to a distant God – unseen, and indeed unseeable, even for Moses -- but rather to One made totally Personal and present; a love offered to the heavenly Father through the human figure of Jesus in Whom the very Person of the Father manifests Himself and makes Himself present to us.  The Jewish way to God was, and is, through observance of the Law’s prescriptions; for the Christian -- Jesus, Son of man and one of us, Son of God, beloved and only-begotten -- is personally, the Way, the Truth and the Life for all who believe in Him and through Him.   Thus love for God can never be supplanted by or transmuted into a fixation on legal observances; the observance of a  written law cannot be the supreme way for, can never bring about, the ultimate fulfilment of our Christian experience of life.  For the Christian life is, from the first instant of our rebirth through faith, a personal response to the Father’s individual call; a personal love for Jesus the only-begotten Son of the Father and Saviour of all mankind; an expectant awareness of and obedience to the Spirit of Jesus, Who -- as the Father’s Promise and Jesus’ Gift -- is leading us to our fulfilment as disciples of Jesus sharing in His glory with all the saints in the eternal kingdom of the Father.

Communion in and with Jesus, by the Spirit, for the Father is the originating purpose and desired fulfilment of all the hopes, prayers, and endeavours, of the true disciple of Jesus and adopted child of the Father.

Of old, the righteousness of God was manifested in the Law He gave to Israel:

What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today? (Deut. 4:8)

In the fullness of time, however, that same righteousness of God came to be fully and finally manifested in all its amplitude and majesty by the Son of God Himself taking human flesh of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Spirit of God; as St. Paul told us in the second reading:

Now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law, … the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.

And we Christians, being made righteous by receiving -- through faith and baptism -- a share in the fullness of God's righteousness manifested in Christ Jesus, are called to fulfil only one commandment, that of love, for, as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans:

            Love is the fulfilment of the Law.

And this commandment concerns not something to be done, so much as Someone to be sought, the Father; Someone to be lovingly obeyed, Jesus our Saviour; Someone to be joyfully heard and followed, the Holy Spirit.  We should always personally seek the Person, the Face, of the Father, for it is the Father Who originally calls each and every one of us and awaits our response: He calls us to recognise and embrace Jesus His Son, our Saviour and our Brother, so that Jesus Himself might be our constant companion along the way; to trust and obey His promised Gift of the Spirit -- the bond of eternal love uniting the Father and the Son – Who will lead us to where Jesus has taken our human flesh into the very presence of the Father.  For those thus called by the Father and guided by the Spirit to share in the glory of their Lord and Saviour St. Paul says:

Against such there is no law.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  (Galatians 5:23-25)

In Jesus, by the Spirit, therefore, we are always seeking the Father, to know His will, to give Him thanks and praise, as Jesus said in our Gospel reading:

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

On earth we are always pilgrims: always loving yet always longing; always looking upward and pressing forward, yet never having arrived, though knowing the time will surely come.

On the other hand, those who rely on their own performance of a law with specific commands and duties to be fulfilled, look back ever more and more as they grow older, wanting to justify their inevitably increasing weakness by relying upon what they proudly imagine themselves to have already done.  Our Lord gave us an example of such self-deception:

Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

People of God, perseverance in searching to know and love not only the will but the very Person of the Father, trusting hopefully in Jesus as we confidently watch and listen for His guiding Spirit,  that is the true hallmark of God's people, as St. Paul himself confessed:

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you (Philippians 3:12-15).

      

Sixth Sunday of Year (1)

(Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37)

We should be eternally grateful for the gift of faith which we have received because it is the very wisdom of God, a wisdom which can lead us to that heavenly glory for which the Father chose us in Jesus:

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.  (John 17:6 NIV)

This God-given wisdom is not something which the worldly wise can appreciate, indeed, so little did they appreciate it in Jesus -- the Wisdom of God made flesh -- that they crucified Him.  Consequently, we are not surprised that our modern world laughs at us too.  We are not dismayed that worldly men and women think the Gospel message of salvation is rubbish, because Jesus told us that those who are of the world can only understand and accept a worldly message: the truth concerning heaven and our eternal destiny is a closed book to them:

If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but you do not belong to the world, now that I have chosen you out of the world, and for that reason the world hates you.    (John 15:19 REB)

Remember what I said: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have followed my teaching, they will follow yours.  All this they will do on My account, because they do not know the One who sent me.  (John 15:20-21 REB)

Though we grieve, we are not dismayed, at the world’s refusal to accept the Good News of Salvation; indeed, we are thereby made all the more confident, because we know that Jesus foretold this, He forewarned us;  moreover, He also prayed for us that we might be sustained and protected by the Father in the face of such opposition:

Father, I have taught them what I learned from You and they have received it: they know with certainty that I came from You, and they have believed that You sent me.  I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to You … and through them is My glory revealed.  Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you have given Me, that they may be one as We are one. While I was with them, I protected them by the power of Your name which You gave me, and kept them safe.  Now, I am coming to you; I have delivered your word to them and the world hates them, because they are strangers in the world as I am.  (Jn. 17:8-14 REB)

So we have confidence in the face of mockery and opposition, confidence not in ourselves but in the protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit; and more than confidence, we have the soul-satisfying joy of being close to Jesus, for which we give whole-hearted thanks to God.

In our confidence and joy we can never slide into complacency or pride because we are taught that the fear of the Lord is the only beginning of wisdom; no one can become wise without a reverential fear of the Lord:

The fear of the Lord is wisdom; and to turn from evil, that is understanding!  (Job 28:28 REB)

Fear of the Lord is the root of wisdom and the beginning of faith; and because the worldly man cannot appreciate the wisdom of God and, indeed, regards  it as folly, so, therefore, does he ridicule faith while denying the existence or the relevance of God.

Modern men and women practice abominations of all sorts without any apparent qualms of conscience: they are of the world and in their society there is no one to contradict them, no one who does not approve or practice the same or similar things.  And so they laugh, and to a certain extent we can understand their laughter if they think such practices are worthwhile and find  themselves surrounded by like-minded people.  Those we cannot understand, however, are those who come to Church, and, in the Church, secretly laugh at the Word and ignore the Wisdom of God.  They come to worship it would appear, and yet they spurn the authority of God.  Who could be so crass?  It takes a special sort of fool to insult another in their own home, which, even in today’s society is totally unacceptable; but, to insult God in His own House is beyond imagining.

For our part, we who come to worship with full intent and sincerity come to learn, to love, and to follow the way God’s word traces out for us; we know it is the way to blessings that:

God has prepared for those who love Him, (blessings) no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind conceived (1 Cor 2:9 NIV).

We come, as the psalmist says, prepared to sow in tears if need be so that we might reap a share in the joy which is eternal; and Jesus shows us how to achieve our purpose, by learning from His example and that of Our Lady.

Jesus expressed His appreciation of God’s Law given to Israel through Moses, by expressly declaring:

Do not suppose that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to complete.  Truly I tell you: so long as heaven and earth endure, not a letter, not a dot, will disappear from the Law until all that must happen has happened.

So that when He went on to add, several times:

            You have heard that it was said to your ancestors …. But I say to you ..

He was in no way contradicting or abolishing the Law but teaching His disciples, His Church, you and me, how to fulfil, complete, the Law and the Prophets.   Jesus’ main grief against the Scribes and Pharisees was:

            These people pay me lip service, but their heart is far from me.

Hypocrites!  Your pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin; but you have overlooked the weightier demands of the Law – justice, mercy, and good faith.  It is these you should have practised, without neglecting the others!  (Mt. 23:23)

Jesus does not want cold, meticulous, literal observance of laws carved on stone, but an obedience that is sincere and attentive to both the letter and the spirit of His commands, for without the vivifying Spirit, observance of the letter only kills.

Mary our Mother is, of course, the very best example of this, for, we are told:

            Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

And she it is who assures us that the following words of her Son are absolutely true and fulfilling for all her Gospel children:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.   For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.   (Matt 11:28-30 NIV)

In this world you will have trouble, (but) have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  Take heart!  I have overcome the world, that in me you may have peace. (John 15:11; 16:33 NIV)

Fifth Sunday (A)

(Isaiah 58:7-10; 1^st. Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-16.)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you take your mind back to our first reading from the prophet Isaiah you will recall the words:

Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over.  Your integrity will go before you and the glory of the Lord behind you.

There, once again -- and following on from last week -- we have the word “integrity” opening the way for that devilishly human pride which bases itself on “my integrity”, my personal, my professional, integrity.  No other versions of the bible that I can find use that word “integrity”; they all, once again, translate the Greek word involved as “righteousness”, a word which speaks, not of us, but of God, for righteousness is God’s prerogative, it is His gift, and the result of His healing.  And that is precisely what the prophet is speaking about when he says, “your wound will be quickly healed over”, for In this reading healing is in question: God wants to heal sinners from the sting of sin and the wound of pride; by His help they will recover, and that recovery will be backed up subsequently by the glory of the Lord.  All is God’s gift, there is no room here for proud assertions of personal integrity; for God’s healing is not like the work of some picture restorer, cleaning away the grime of ages and revealing the original beauty of some painting in all its integrity; on the contrary, by His gift of divine righteousness God is -- for Jesus’ sake -- saving what we have most seriously blemished, and bestowing what we have never known:

Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

This healing of the sting of sin and the wound of pride thanks to God’s merciful gift to us in Jesus, this abiding and sure protection given by His glory which follows us, is the source and the shield of our “righteousness”, that righteousness which makes us, “the salt of the earth”, and “the light of the world”.  And this our light, must shine in the sight of men, not as a witness to our personal integrity, but, as Jesus said, to “glorify your Father in heaven”, whereby we become living members of Him Who summed up His whole life in the words:

(Father) I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do (John 17:4);

living members of Him Who wanted even His final act of dying on the Cross to serve the very same end:

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You (John 17:1).

And so, in order to fulfil our vocation as members of that beloved Son, we have to recognise that we are special, not as a result of our own personal integrity but by God’s special gift to us in Jesus; a gift we have received because we have a special work to do in the world, with Jesus, for the Father:

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

Our realising that “righteousness” is the gift of God thus becomes tantamount to the awareness of our “responsibility” before God: we cannot allow our life in Christ to become tasteless by adopting worldly standards.  If we look closely at Jesus’ choice of words to describe His disciples: ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light of the world’ we will understand that both ‘salt’ and ‘light’ are self-less words, so to speak.  Salt in the ancient world was widely used to preserve food items, and even today to give ‘taste’ to food; of itself salt is nothing.  Likewise, light serves to illuminate whatever is there for us to see and, of itself, apart from the things it illuminates, light is nothing.  That self-less character which Jesus would like to see in His disciples was well exemplified in the first reading, where Isaiah advised:

If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness; if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul; then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.

Paul, likewise, told us that he deliberately centred his converts’ faith on Jesus by making himself and his preaching as unpretentious as possible:

Brethren, when I came to you, I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.  And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Paul, ‘salt of the earth’, sought to preserve his converts by proclaiming and glorifying not himself but Jesus, alone and entirely.

One of the characteristics of some modern, self-styled religious, people is that, first and foremost, they are looking to get something out of religion for themselves, here and now.  They want to hear and experience something new,  something that will, hopefully, free them from the weariness of what they have long been aware of and accustomed to yet have never known or experienced.  They want to feel the power and know the excitement of being swept along by supercharged communal emotions or the surreal, oriental, bliss of being surrounded and lulled by a scented and gently swirling fog of mystery.  Such people are -- possibly unaware to themselves -- centred on their own earthly feelings and experiences, and they find Christianity which speaks of a transcendent God quite boring, especially when the Christian message is proclaimed with clarity to their minds while they are hoping to have their emotions directly addressed with their minds left comfortably disengaged.

The apostle Paul said that, being acutely conscious of his own personal weakness, He proclaimed the mystery of God ‘in fear and much trembling’, desiring above all that his people's faith should rest on the power of God, not on the wisdom or cleverness of men who can speak words that are almost salacious in their ability to delight and sway their hearers.

But there, you might think, is something that needs further explanation:

Paul speaks of the power of God, and displays of power are, surely, just what our worldly religious people want to see and experience?

Yes, that is indeed the case.  But the power of God of which St. Paul speaks is never displayed: it is, indeed, sometimes exercised for the encouragement and benefit of people in particular circumstances hearing the testimony of God for the first time, or, striving – under difficulties -- to live according to His teaching.  However, God's exercise of power on such occasions and for such people is not a display of spiritual fireworks to make all who witness it gape, but rather a rare  and short-term intensification of what is God’s continuous and invisible battle in and through the Church for the minds and hearts of men and women of all times and all cultures against the abusive and tyrannical rule of Satan over this world; for there is no power other than that normally unseen power of God’s grace in Jesus’ Gospel through the Church that can rescue mankind from their fallen, sinful, state.  Today, in our affluent society, we see the awful consequences arising for ordinary individuals when society as a whole acquiesces under the power of Satan and opts for the wages of sin: ever more and more disgusting and degrading exuberances of evil appear in our midst against which the miserable fig-leaves of human self-righteousness and the rule of politically-correct law are powerless to control, let alone redress.

People of God, Christians, above all Catholics, have to try to be salt of the earth and light of the world.  Salt was used, as I said, in the ancient world to preserve food from corruption; and those disciples of Jesus who do not resist the corruption of evil, have become like tasteless salt, as Jesus said:

good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

Likewise, a light is meant to show the way, to lead in the right direction. Catholics who do not, in any way, lead along that way, but always follow, consistently excusing themselves saying that 'what everyone else is doing can't be that bad', are not true Catholics, not authentic disciples of Jesus, at all, and too many of them, sadly, end up indulging themselves in the pleasures of darkness: they follow the pagan majority into fornication, divorce, adultery, and contraception; they steal, they malign, and they lie.  Indeed, there are some who do such things and then parade their personal integrity – and consummate their sin -- by receiving the Eucharist with oodles and oodles of hypocrisy but no confession, no contrition.

People of God, be simple and sincere before God in all your dealings, and do not fail to be quietly but totally confident in Jesus’ promise that, because you are His disciples, you are indeed the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and all the witness that you bear for Jesus will, ultimately, bring forth fruit both ‘pleasant and desirable’ for God’s people.  Do not be eaten up with concern for yourself and your standing among men, but rather, trying to be true to Jesus and His teaching in Mother Church, trust in God and allow Him to take care of you, for He is the unfailing Shepherd of His flock.  In that way the prophecy of Isaiah will be verified in you and for you:

Your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.  Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'

Fourth  Sunday (Year A)

(Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13; 1^st. Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12)

Once again, People of God, we have the Sermon on the Mount for our Gospel reading.  We are given it again because it is indeed a compendium of the Good News brought by Christ to promote glory to God in the highest and bring peace on earth for all men of good will.  However, it is to be approached today from the point of view of the accompanying readings  from the prophet Zephaniah and St. Paul’s first letter to the Church he founded in Corinth.

Our reading from the prophecy of Zephaniah started with the words:

Seek the LORD, all in the land who live humbly, obeying His laws; seek righteousness, seek humility; it may be that you will find shelter on the day of the LORD's anger.

Notice the subtle difference between the translation before you which says “Seek integrity”, and the version I have just quoted which prefers: “Seek righteousness”, which is also the choice of all the other versions I can lay my hands on.  The difference is this: “integrity” is very frequently used today in the phrase “personal integrity”, meaning, “true to oneself”.  The modern understanding of personal integrity requires that a man or woman speaks his or her own mind and behaves according to his or her own feelings or opinions with an open and probably somewhat bullish "I am what I am" attitude; in doing so they may speak of their own ‘conscience’ but by that they do not usually mean to imply that they are being obedient to God in such words or actions.  On the other hand, the translation “righteousness” is not, in its essence, in any way personal to us, it is personal only to God, and “seek righteousness” means “try to put on the holiness of God”, it requires that we learn from Him what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is beautiful.  In order to “seek righteousness” we need to be prepared to die to ourselves and our opinions, to our own passions and sinful inclinations, and learn how to walk in the ways of Christ by the power of His Spirit, in order that, walking along such ways, we may, gradually, become ever more truly children of God.  True to Him Who is our heavenly Father, not to our own pseudo-integrity and sinful selves.

The great gulf between the translations ‘seek integrity’ and ‘seek righteousness’ becomes especially clear when we realize that the greatest sinners are often  those who are most proud of their own personal integrity, which, approximating to the supreme sin of personal pride, is the Devil’s own pseudo-virtue and totally opposed to God’s righteousness.  That is why the prophet Zephaniah declared in the name of the Lord (3:11):

I shall rid you of your proud and arrogant citizens, and never again will you flaunt your pride on My holy mountain.   I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people and they shall trust in the name of the LORD.  

And to confirm this vision of a purified Israel, Zephaniah’s prophecy ends with words evoking the thought of Mary:

Sing, O daughter of Zion!  Shout, O Israel!  Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! (3:14)

Mary the supreme daughter of Zion and purest flower of Israel; Mary, the handmaid of the Lord, beloved of God because of her humility!  With her, how far we are, indeed, from the modern understanding of personal integrity which makes the hearts of so many people today totally unresponsive and indeed seemingly impervious to God’s offer, in Christ, of true righteousness, because such divine righteousness can only enter the hearts of those prepared to hear with faith and respond with humility to Jesus’ Gospel call:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  (Matt 4:17)

St. Paul in today’s reading taken from his first letter to the Corinthians tells us:

He who glories, let him glory in the LORD;

for, as he explains:

            no flesh should glory in (God’s) presence.

Paul is there reminding his Corinthian converts that God had not chosen them because they were particularly wise, or politically important, nor because they came from noble families; indeed, he said, it was because God wanted to shame those who are wise and strong in the world’s estimation -- those most proud of their personal standing, achievements, and integrity -- that He chose what is foolish by human reckoning: the weak, and those whom the world regards as common and contemptible.  Not, indeed, that God loves ignorance or lack of moral fibre; but rather that He wants to give us true virtue, heavenly wisdom, and divine strength, gifts that will free us from the chains of sin and allow us to fulfil our authentic selves by becoming, in Jesus, God’s true children.  In order to change the old stale water of our stagnant lives into best wine God must first of all get rid of the illusory human righteousness involved in the phrase “personal integrity”; for it is only when that has been shown up in all its deceitfulness can He then make us, as Paul says, members of:

Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God -- and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

People of God, observe how wisely, how lovingly, Mother Church tries to lead us to a true and fruitful understanding of Jesus in the Scriptures!  These two readings from Zephaniah and St. Paul are essential if we are to be able to understand and try to live the message of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.  It is our human pride, our human self-esteem, which so blinds us that we are rendered unable to recognize what is true and what is false, what is real and what is illusory, what is ours and what is of God.  The gentle, who do not fight for power, the merciful, who are unwilling to condemn, the peacemakers, who refuse to malign others, such people cannot prosper on a diet which feeds “personal integrity”, because they find it poisonous.  Neither can the worldly man of great personal integrity understand what he regards as the weakness of those who do not fight for power, the indecisiveness of those who are unwilling to condemn, the flabbyness of those who, in order to preserve peace, are loath to speak ill of others.  And, of course, the worldly man, eager to assert and stand up for his own personal integrity, is bound to be somewhat disgusted with what he would regard as the insipid and servile attitude of those whom the prophet so lovingly mentioned in our first reading:

the remnant of Israel will do no wrong and tell no lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths.

Of course, the words of Jesus at the end of the Beatitudes are absolutely alien to those who pride themselves on their personal integrity; they are not so much mysterious words, as utterly ridiculous words depicting a somewhat despicable attitude:

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

For us, however, those are words of the utmost moment to which we must give some special attention.

‘Blessed are you when they … ‘   Who are they?  Up to now Jesus has spoken about ‘those who mourn’, ‘the meek’, ‘those who hunger and thirst for righteousness’, ‘the merciful’, ‘the peacemakers’, ‘those who are persecuted for  the sake of righteousness’ …. But, then, all of a sudden, He speaks of they  who do the hateful things:

            Blessed are you when they insult, revile, and persecute you.

Who, I ask again, are these they?

Surely Jesus must be referring to some, perhaps many, who have already begun to show such hostile, contemptuous,  to Him and His disciples.  And they are with us today, aren’t they, most confidently showing their faces and proclaiming their opinions and opposition for all things Christian and Catholic.  You should notice, therefore, People of God, why you, we, Catholics and Christians generally, are the butt of so much ribaldry and the objects of so much antipathy and distaste, it is because of Jesus:

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

The opposition, mockery, and loathing shown to Christians and Catholics will not be because you are John Soandso, Margaret Whatshername, Mr. This or Mrs. That, but simply and solely because you are a Christian.   You as an individual are, in the world’s estimation, lost in hatred of Christ … and that is why Jesus said ‘Blessed are you’ when such things happen because that is the sort of Catholic and Christian you are called to be, totally Jesus’ …. Living in the Church which is His beloved Spouse and supreme Witness, by His own Body and Blood whereby He nourishes us and the Holy Spirit He bestows upon us; proclaiming, loving and living the Faith and Hope which His words have generated within us; aspiring towards our only Father Whose Kingdom is in Heaven and Whose lordship extends through all the earth and by Whose loving Providence countless brothers and sisters who have witnessed before us are awaiting and encouraging us in our pilgrimage of testimony.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

For all who, as authentic disciples of Jesus and children of Mother Church, have abandoned the sordid garments and worldly aspirations of personal integrity, and have put on, instead, the righteousness of Christ, those words are, indeed, both eternal and true; words that lead us to confess the truth about Jesus together with the very first disciples -- Peter and the holy apostles -- who said:

Lord, You alone have the words of life.

Second Sunday of Year (A).

(Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; 1^st. Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34)

In the first reading, taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard that God, speaking of the promised Messiah, said:

It is too slight a task for Your, as My Servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the survivors of Israel; I shall appoint You a light to the nations so that My salvation may reach earth’s farthest bounds.

Out of all the nations on earth, God had specially formed, cherished and taught, one people, which became known as Israel, God’s Chosen People.  By the time of Isaiah that teaching and cherishing had been ongoing for over a thousand years, and Isaiah himself was one of a line of prophets sent by God to His Chosen People to form a Servant worthy and able to take His name and His saving Word to the whole world.  Israel, however, could not be the definitive Servant of God’s salvation because Israel herself was, in her degree, also sinful; rather, she would be the stock from which that Holy Servant would ultimately rise Who would be uniquely able to fittingly reveal the Name, proclaim the Word, and show Himself to be the Salvation, of God for the whole of mankind.

By means of the Old Testament covenant God ultimately prepared a people able to bring forth the wondrously holy and sublimely beautiful Mary of Nazareth, of whom we read in the Song of Songs (2:1):

            I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, a lily among thorns.

Uniquely endowed, she it was who would welcome and nurture the Son-of-God- made-man as foreshadowed again in the prophecy of Isaiah:

Rain righteousness you heavens, let the skies above pour it down, let the earth open for it that salvation may flourish.  (45:8)

In Jesus, not only the Chosen People are called to become children of God in the beloved Son of God, but also the Gentiles -- who for millennia had walked in darkness and lived under the shadow of death -- are to be evangelized, invited, and empowered, to turn from their former ways and embrace the Good News of Jesus brought to them by the universal Church founded upon the Apostles.   The proclamation of the New Testament is, indeed, God’s offer of salvation to all nations through faith in Jesus the Spirit-anointed-Saviour Who brings ‘glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to men of goodwill’, for mankind is to become one again in Jesus, sharing, as adopted children, a heritage in the Kingdom of the Father, a heritage which the only-begotten-Son won for them by shedding His blood on the Cross of Calvary, a heritage for which the Spirit bequeathed by Jesus will prepare them. 

We should be filled with gratitude, People of God, as we think on this: God trained the Jewish people for 2000 years, and then, in His immense mercy and goodness, put us -- in Jesus -- alongside and together with those He had chosen and cherished for so long!!  As St. Paul told the Christians of Rome (Rom. 11:16-17):

If the root is holy, then the branches also are holy. And you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in to share the rich root of the olive tree.

Let us now turn to today’s Gospel passage where you heard John the Baptist, the forerunner of the promised Messiah, revealing Jesus to the Jewish people:

“I did not know Him; but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that He might be made known to Israel." John testified further, saying, "I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon Him.  I did not know Him, but the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, He is the one Who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'  "Now I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God."

You remember the scene, surely, when Jesus was coming up from the waters of the Jordan used by John for his baptism?  It was then -- when Jesus was dripping with water -- that John saw the Spirit coming down upon Jesus in the form of a dove, -- the symbol of peace -- here signifying the peace between God and man, and among men, which Jesus, the promised Prince of Peace, would bring about.

Think of that scene, People of God, and then remember the words Jesus was later to say to Nicodemus, a leader among the Jews:

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

Water and the Spirit: what did they mean for the Jews and the Gentiles, both called in Christ, the Saviour of the whole world, to become God’s children?  Listen, and wonder at the wisdom, the beauty, and the goodness, of God; for, in order to save mankind from the bonds of sin and death, God had to convict mankind of their sinfulness, in order that they might turn from sin, reject it, and embrace -- gratefully and wholeheartedly --  God’s offer of eternal life in Jesus.

The Chosen People, had, over thousands of years, become a supremely spiritual and moral people; and yet, although they had been given a Law which was holy, they had, in their observance of that Law, become ever more reliant on their own efforts: they had come to think that they were able to observe that Law by themselves and imagined they could, in that way, prove themselves worthy to be  the Chosen People of God.  They came to regard themselves as having been chosen, not out of God’s boundless mercy, but because of their own particular spiritual superiority and ability; to believe that God had been right in choosing them, because they, above all other nations, had the strength of will and moral character to keep His Law.  There, People of God, we recognize the sin of the Jews: spiritual pride.

In this scene by the Jordan where John was offering a baptism of repentance, the Jewish people were being told that it was only by God's free gift of the Holy Spirit -- to be given through Jesus the Lamb of God -- that they could practice a holiness acceptable to Him Who is the all-holy One: only by God’s Gift, which is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, could they become holy; and the Spirit was wholly Jesus’ to give, which is why the Spirit was to be seen descending and resting upon Jesus as He came up out of the waters.

The Gentiles on the other hand, although they had risen to great cultural and social heights in the ancient empires, and more recently in the glories of Greece and the achievements of Rome, nevertheless, they had become morally degenerate despite all the truths they had glimpsed, the beauties they had created, and the grandeur of the social fabric they had established.  They had sunken into all sorts of moral abominations and for this the Jews despised them, despite being subject to Rome’s omnipresent military power.

St. Paul, himself born and reared as a strict Pharisee, expressed this awareness of the Jews with regard to their conquerors when he wrote to the Romans:

Although they (the Gentiles) knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. …. God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.  (Rom 1:21-32)

There you have the Gentiles’ sin: wallowing in abominations for which they needed to become repentant if they were to be washed clean; a cleansing symbolised by the water dripping off Jesus as He came out of the waters of the Jordan. 

Water and the Spirit for the cleansing of Jews and Gentiles: water and the Spirit, whereby Jesus would assume and redeem the sins of the world!  The whole of human life had been infected with the sin of Adam from its lowest depths to its highest achievements: social life, intellectual vigour, and spiritual aspirations, all had been stained by the Gentiles’ lust for pleasure and power and the spiritual pride of Judaism; all had to be convicted of sin in order that forgiveness and fulfilment could be offered to all.

People of God, as we recall these truths, let us rejoice with the deepest gratitude to the Father Who sent His beloved, only-begotten Son as:

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world;

let us have generous appreciation for that people specially chosen of old to prepare the coming of Him Who -- as the Glory of Israel and Light of the Gentiles – now offers peace and salvation to all who believe in His Name; let us, finally, open our hearts to embrace His gift of the Spirit Who -- as the eternal bond of love between Father and Son -- wills to make us members of the heavenly Family and eternal Kingdom of God the Father.      

The Baptism of the Lord (A)

(Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts of the Apostles 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17)

Our readings today began with the Lord saying through the prophet Isaiah:

Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights;

and they ended, as you heard from the Gospel of St. Matthew, with the voice of the heavenly Father declaring:

            This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

There can, therefore, be no doubt about the focal point of our celebration today: we must look at, and learn to appreciate, Jesus, the Father's beloved and only-begotten Son, His chosen Servant in Whom His soul delights. 

Notice, first of all then, that the Father does not proclaim Jesus as did John the Baptist by declaring:

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

At the Baptism in the Jordan, the Father does not say "this is your Saviour" nor any other such introductory words making reference to Jesus’ saving mission.  No, the Father’s proclamation relates Jesus to Himself, expressing His delight in His Son-made-flesh; and thereby the Father would seem to  invite us to learn, first of all, to delight in Jesus because of Who He is, not simply because of what He does for us:

            This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

The canonization of saints can be somewhat misleading: because it has to be shown that any candidate for canonization had practiced Christian virtues to a heroic degree, people can easily think that holiness demands, first of all, the practice of virtues.  That in turn leads some devout people and even spiritual teachers to consider the pursuit of the spiritual life to be a matter of drawing up a list of virtues, practicing the first until it is mastered, then going on to the next virtue, and so on; meanwhile, of course, always avoiding any trace of sin.  That can lead to a very strange image of and negative attitude to, Christian living: indeed, it can lead to a very unattractive and somewhat inhuman way of life.

In fact, however, Christian holiness can only be characterized -- fundamentally and essentially -- as loving God, whole-heartedly and supremely, at all times and under all circumstances; avoidance of evil and the practice of virtues following necessarily and even naturally from that all-absorbing love.

First of all, therefore, that such love may reign in our hearts and in our lives, we must learn to appreciate the Person of Jesus presented to us by the Father; and then -- in Jesus and by the power of the Spirit -- we must learn to listen and follow as Jesus, in His turn, reveals the Father to us in all His majesty, faithfulness and truth, beauty and goodness.  Thus we might begin to learn how to love the Father with Jesus' own love, being shared with us through the Spirit, for in that way we are called to become adopted -- but authentic, and true -- children of the Father, in Jesus, by the Spirit.

Let us, therefore, look anew at today's readings.

Isaiah told us, in the first reading, about the Servant:

Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations;

while Peter told us in the second reading:

You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power.

Both passages clearly relate to Jesus' experience in the Jordan at His baptism by John.  After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him.  In that way we know that Isaiah's prophecies about the Servant were, indeed, prophecies about Jesus. 

Now, John had not wanted to baptise Jesus, as you heard:

John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?"

Jesus, however, would have none of that: He had come to do His Father's will ("all righteousness") which meant that His life could not be lived in accordance with merely human standards nor be subject to merely human judgements, however holy those setting such standards or making such judgements:

Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness." 

Isaiah had foretold the mission the Father had in store for Jesus:

            He will bring forth justice to the nations.

Few words, but words full of meaning, because "justice" means the truth about God and God's truth for us.

But Isaiah devoted more words to telling us how the Servant, Jesus, would go about His work; in other words, telling us something about what sort of Person the Servant would prove to be:

He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street.

There would be no taking advantage of simple people by bombast, nor any haranguing of emotional crowds: He was to proclaim His message of justice, calmly, truthfully, and with full respect for His hearers.

Isaiah then went on to show us another aspect of God's Chosen Servant -- the Son, in Whom the Father delights -- when he said:

A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish.

And so, although anointed with the Spirit and with power, Jesus would be characterized by His gentleness to and, once again, His respect for, His people.   St. Peter confirmed this in our second reading:

Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Nevertheless, since He had been given the mission to bring forth true justice on earth, He would inevitably meet with opposition in a sinful world, and this prospect led Isaiah to give another characteristic of the Chosen Servant and Beloved Son:

He will not be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice in the earth.

Neither breaking what is bruised nor extinguishing what glows but dimly , He Himself would be neither disheartened nor crushed by His experiences of life in a sinful world.  He would, indeed, experience similar trials to those we experience, but He would live through them as the Son beloved by His Father, as the Servant upheld by His Lord. In that way Jesus would be like us, one with us and able to understand us but, nevertheless, the One who would faithfully bring forth justice, the One Who would not falter in His mission:

            until He has established justice in the earth.

People of God, that means, Jesus will never give up in His endeavours to help us appreciate the Father's goodness and love, never give up in His endeavours to raise us up to become worthy children of such a Father.

Today, however, there are many who try to proclaim Jesus’ love by telling us how much He empathizes with us in our sufferings because He too has suffered, and how His whole purpose is to bring us comfort and joy, peace and love, now.  And they leave it at that, being unwilling or afraid to speak of any further suffering to be borne or efforts to be made by those who want to belong to God.

That is a travesty of the full truth: a comforting little half-truth, easy to speak but deadly in its effects, for it would leave us no longer looking up to, and striving for, heaven; but resting here on earth, satisfied with ourselves and our immediate prospects. 

The true Jesus, on the other hand, we are told:

Will not be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice in the earth;

that is, until He has established true justice in the hearts, minds, and lives of you and me, and of countless others like us throughout the whole world, who will listen to His Good News and learn to fight the good fight to leave behind the tinsel glitter of this world, the insidious delights of the flesh, the opinions and esteem of men, and our very own self-solicitude and pride, in order to follow His compelling love and win a new and better home in heaven.

People are not always willing to learn to lift their eyes to heaven, because the devil abuses their weakness and ignorance so that they know neither their own needs, nor the goodness of God to be found in His power presently at work in our lives and in His wondrously beautiful and fulfilling promises for our future.  But through Isaiah, God tells us clearly of the Lord:

I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind yes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.

Although we are indeed blind and prisoners, only the proud can resist God's gift of such a Saviour, Who intends indeed to free us from our sins and enlighten our ignorance by drawing us, as the prophet Hosea foretold:

            With cords of a man, with bands of love  (Hosea 11:4)

And this Jeremiah told us with even more striking words:

Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you and you shall be rebuilt. (Jeremiah 31:3-4)

So, People of God, let us resolve this very day to allow God to rebuild our lives as He draws us with the cords of man and bands of love, and let us seek anew to appreciate and love more and more the Jesus recommended to us in our Gospel reading:

After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

However, we should not be dismayed or disheartened when difficulties arise or trials overtake us.  The establishment of true justice in our darkened minds and unruly hearts, and in our lives formed by years of worldly conformity and self-indulgence, is both absolutely necessary and supremely sensitive, and can be as painful as it is demanding.  Nevertheless, the rewards are immeasurable greater than any such costs; for a room in our Father’s house, and a place at His eternal banquet, are already being prepared for us: a room where we will be at home, a place that will both befit us and give us honour among our fellow guests.

Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you and you shall be rebuilt …..                                 

in Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, for the Father.