3rd Sunday of Lent Year A 2020

Third Sunday of Lent (A)
(Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have readings which Mother Church has put together from diverse books of the Bible to show us something of the wonderful wisdom of our God in His words and works for man’s salvation from times both old and new, in lands both near and far.  Such was, indeed, the intention of Mother Church guided in her choice thanks to the Spirit of Wisdom bequeathed to her in unique fullness by her Lord and Saviour; the Spirit whereby she is able to say to us her children: “read here, feed there, and you will find light for your faith and food for your soul.”

The children of Israel had set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped in Rephidim.  However, since there was no water for the people to drink:

The people complained against Moses, and said, "Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"  So, Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!"  And the LORD said to Moses, "Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go.  Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

The people of Israel were actually being delivered from the slavery they had long endured in Egypt; it had been a long and degrading experience, replete with humiliations and constant supervision, forced labour and frequent beatings, and, above all, with the deliberate and systematic slaughter of their new-born male children.  And yet, here in the desert – suffering at the moment from shortage of food and water -- their experience of slavery had brought them so low, had degraded them to such an extent, that they could only call to mind one aspect of that horrendous time in Egypt,:

Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full!  For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. (Exodus 16:3)

Yes, some of them were looking back with longing for the pitiably few and wretched pleasures of Egypt once again.  They were thinking of becoming slaves again, if only they could enjoy the pleasure of a regular meal; they were beginning to imagine themselves enduring the sufferings, putting up with the countless personal indignities, and overlooking their loss of freedom ... all for the miserable compensation of Egyptian ‘pots of meat and bread to the full’!  They had indeed become true slaves and they were finding it hard to endure being weaned from their slavery by the Lord their God!

Here, surely, we can recognize our own world of today, for although it is true that in our society we do not, generally speaking, find people enslaved to others who are their owners, but nevertheless, we do have so many people who find it too difficult to overcome their addiction to drugs and smoking, abusive sex and drink … to mention but a few of the problems of modern society.  Everywhere, at all levels of society, there are many who spend their lives entirely consumed with the avid search for pleasures of all types; and for such people, despite the fact that their pleasure threatens them with an early and degrading death, it is an addiction that so enslaves them that they are hardly able to imagine or want freedom again, let alone undertake the Christian moral exercise of God-given will-power and self-restraint.  The order of the day is to pronounce psychologically overwhelming circumstances in such cases and invoke socially-approved human counsellors to lead the sufferers through the humiliating process of detoxification and hoped-for (perhaps only temporary?) rehabilitation.

Although such enslavement is a dreadful and extreme form of addiction for a minority of people, nevertheless, many do have pet pleasures, weak points, and selfish tendencies, which, though they cannot prevent them from doing God’s will, still, can and do make it more difficult for them to do that which they approve and admire, or reject what they recognize as wrong.  Therefore, the Sacred Scriptures, even at the most ancient level, are still actual today for their teaching is as relevant for us who are being led by God from our own servitude to the freedom of the children of God, as it was for the people of Israel so long ago; and we can and should both learn from their failings and profit from their experiences, so as to allow God to make our journey across the desert of trials in this world as peaceful, as hopeful, and as fruitful, as possible. 

The Lord said to Moses:

“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

That water would refresh the people and enable those who were courageous and resolute enough to continue on their way towards freedom.

St. Paul, speaking later of that episode from the history of Israel, tells us in his first letter to the new-born Christians and Catholics in Corinth (10:4), that Christ was for them -- as He still is for us -- the Rock:

They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

For the Israelites had been called, by the word of God given to Moses, to turn in faith to the rock on Mount Horeb that would be struck by Moses at God’s command, just as we too -- through faith in the Word of God made flesh – are called to look to Jesus our Rock, stricken on Mount Calvary by order of one to whom Jesus had said:

You could have no authority at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.  (John 19:11)

Saint Paul elsewhere tells us why we Christians are to regard our lives as on earth as a  constant pilgrimage: for, although we are not being led through a barren desert like the Israelites of old, nevertheless, we are in the process of being formed to become an integral part of that holy temple of which Christ already is the corner stone:

On the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself (is) the chief cornerstone in Whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in Whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.   (Ephesians 2: 20 --3:1)

Christ is our rock of salvation: “Strike the Rock” and water, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, will pour forth.  Our Rock was pierced by a lance as He hung from the Cross on Mount Calvary, and from that open wound flowed water and blood, the Spirit and the Sacraments; and when Jesus was on the point of death He bowed His head, and finally breathed forth His Spirit as His last and greatest Gift to His Church.  The Holy Spirit has indeed been most rightly called the Gift of God from the beginning of the Church.

People of God, we cannot walk through the desert of this world’s sin relying on our own, personal, will power: constantly watching our eyes, ears and mouths, in the attitude of “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil”.  Some might consider that a laudable endeavour but it would be a supremely foolish one, because it is totally negative and doomed to failure.  In order to live as children of God, in order to do the Father’s will, we must learn to live our lives with Jesus, to act under the prompting of His Spirit from love, not fear; we must learn to open ourselves up, not shut ourselves off; we need to seek and love all the good not merely try to avoid all that might be bad.  In other words we have to turn to the Rock, Jesus our Saviour, Who has been struck for us, and receive from Him the Gift of His Holy Spirit; for it was by the Spirit Who had led Him into the desert to confront and confound Satan, that Jesus Himself had been able to say:

My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 

People of God, only that same Holy Spirit, the Gift of God, and Jesus’ own dying Bequest breathed upon the Church from the Cross, can enable us, in the name of Jesus, to do the will of the Father Who calls us, in Jesus, to Himself.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus, seated by the well of Jacob at Sychar, asked a Samaritan woman – who regularly came to that well to draw water -- for a drink.  She expressed surprise at such a request because she saw that Jesus was a Jew, and Jews would not normally use a Samaritan’s bucket to draw water.  As you heard, Jesus said to her:

If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is Who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.

The woman was puzzled: how could this man give her living water?  You must recall that “living” usually means water from a flowing source, much more appreciated then well-water, even that of the deep well -- the only one source of water in that neighbourhood -- given to her people by Jacob centuries ago, the well where Jesus was now seated and where she had come to draw the water she and her husband (and family ?) needed.  So, she answered:

Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well (the only source of water in the neighbourhood as she was well aware) is deep. Where then do You get that ‘living’ water?

A the thought came into her mind, “Surely he doesn’t think he can show us another well here does he?”

Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"

Jesus always lived in the presence of His Father and He always looked with compassion on humanity enslaved by sin and burdened by suffering.  It was compassion which motivated His Incarnation; and on occasions -- such as when He met the widow of Nain following the coffin of her only son for his burial, or again, when He wept over Jerusalem -- we can glimpse something of the depth of that divine compassion.  He had come as a Jew, but here, in our Gospel story, He meets a Samaritan, a non-Jew, in fact one can say, He meets all of us who are of Gentile origin in this woman.  He is filled with compassion, knowing how sinful mankind strives endlessly and unsuccessfully to satisfy their needs, just as this woman has to come -- day after day, week in, week out -- to this well, always returning to the village with the same heavy load and no prospect of ever being free from the task.  It brought so much into His heart and mind, above all our blind and enduring servitude to sin, that He was, as I said, filled with compassion for her and for us; and so:

Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

Later on, St. John makes perfectly clear what Jesus had in mind here when he tells us (7:37-39) that:

On the last day, that great day of the feast (of Booths, in Jerusalem), Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.  

People of God, our Faith, and the practice of our religion, is not meant to be a great burden such as some of the Israelites considered their rescue from slavery to be in the desert, nor as fruitless and wearisome as the Samaritan woman’s endless journeying to the well to satisfy a need that constantly raised its head again.  Jesus has called us to Himself and He said:

Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  (Matthew 11:28-30)

Israel was refreshed in the desert by water that flowed from the stricken rock.  We too, must turn to One stricken for us, to Jesus, and ask for His Gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus fulfils our request whenever we fittingly receive Him in the Eucharist, for there, Jesus is really present to embrace us Himself and breath anew into us His most Holy Spirit.  Let us therefore beseech that most Holy Spirit of Jesus to rule in our lives, let us ask Him to form us, in Jesus, for the Father.  Oh, dear People of God, fellow Catholics and Christians, if we allow Him to do that in our lives He will indeed make every former burden light, every former task a joy; and above all, He will turn every faint-and-flickering hope of everlasting life and eternal fulfilment into an ardent fire of conviction and love!



             

2nd Sunday of Lent Year A 2020

2^nd Sunday of Lent (A)

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

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In our Gospel reading St. Matthew told us:

A voice out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!"  When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.

Such fear of the Lord on the part of the disciples was traditional in Israel.  They were the Chosen People, the first to be called as such by God, that through them He might ultimately draw all mankind to Himself in likeness and love.  To attain that likeness He was manifesting Himself and His majesty – His intimate awareness of our human hearts and His cosmic power over all creation – and that they might learn from His teaching, those sinful, divisive and selfish, early Isrealites had, first of all, to fear and obey God physically in order that they might then be able to gradually understand mentally and spiritually embrace His teaching in the Law and the Prophets and finally come to love His likeness in a new holiness of life.  Our Blessed Lord Jesus -- God’s only-begotten Son made flesh -- was the Father’s supreme inducement to love Him, and we, as disciples of Jesus Our Lord are now learning from Him by His Spirit and want wholeheartedly to conceive a fear both spiritual and true as an unbreachable safeguard for our life of love as children of God in the Family of God.

We read in the book of Deuteronomy:

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (10:12)

Such were the words of Moses in his last testament given to the People of Israel just before he died on the threshold of the Promised Land.

The Psalmist handed on this tradition, and drew from it the conclusion that those who truly fear the Lord should fear no man:

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the defence of my life; whom shall I dread? (Psalm 27:1)

Let us , therefore, look at this question of 'fearing the Lord' because it is a subject that troubles some traditionally devout Catholics on the one hand, who are inclined to see sin too frequently and fear punishment excessively, while others of a more modern and liberal persuasion claim that the Gospel of Jesus has done away with all memories of such an Old Testament attitude as fear of the Lord, which they, consequently, either ignore or deride, often enough displaying a mistaken and unpleasant attitude of conscious superiority.

First of all, we should just regard the facts.   For us human beings fear is an essential part of our make-up: we fear fire because it burns and is always – potentially -- very dangerous for us; we, who have faith, fear God, instinctively, because He, the Almighty, will be the ultimate Judge of our individually sinful lives.  However, our fear of fire does not in any way prevent us from learning about it, to respect and appreciate it; in like manner, fear of God should not paralyse believers but, on the contrary, help them to relate to God in a fitting manner.  All our natural fears: the fainting we experience before the overwhelming power of volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, cosmic powers and the immeasurable abyss of seemingly endless and empty space, and indeed the threat of suffering and death, all these are but faint reflections or intuitions of the supremely sensible ‘fear of the Lord’.   Listen to Jesus:

I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!    (Luke 12:4-5)

We know, as Christians, that Jesus came as our Saviour, and that He was sent to us by the God Who wants to be our Father and to make us, in Jesus, His true children.  This Gospel of grace, proclaimed by Our Lord, is, as I have said, the pretext given by certain un-fearing pseudo-Christians who would persuade us that we should have no fear of God now that Jesus has come.  Jesus, however, did not come to lead us to ignore the reality, the truth, of our relationship with God and most certainly not to mock it; rather He came to help us to understand it, so as to be able to embrace it, and then live it to the full as His disciples.  He Himself, the Father's beloved, only-begotten Son, was the only one – being both perfect God and perfect Man -- who could teach us, as human beings, how to appreciate the Father aright and how to live in filial relationship with and loving response to Him whatever our life situation might be.   Indeed, Jesus came to enable us to realize that the distance that separates us from God and which is at the root of our religious fear of God, is, when rightly appreciated, the ultimate measure of His love for us:

God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love He had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.  (Eph. 2:4-5)

Therefore, taking 'fear of the Lord' seriously we are led both to truthfully acknowledge reality and appreciate something of the love that surrounds us here on earth, and also to learn to entertain hope for the glory, that God tells us, awaits us in our heavenly home.  In that way, our Christian attitude to life is not only realistic, but also supremely positive and fruitful.

It is easy for people, at times, to let themselves slip from 'thinking' attitudes to 'instinctive' ones; and when this happens in the case of religious people, ‘fear of the Lord’, which should be a considered, appreciated, and supernatural fear, becomes degraded to totally natural, 'feeling fear': an anxiety before the God Who is both mighty and awesome in Himself, and mysteriously above and beyond us.  For those in this state of mind, God's exaltation easily becomes suspect, and suspicion of God is the first dose of the devil’s poison; when that happens, God’s exaltation and glory come to be seen as alienation and threat, and the devout soul can then easily fall in the thrall of blind emotion and instinctive fear, rather than walk under the guidance of faith and understanding.

God’s majesty and power, His wisdom and holiness, in other words, His transcendence, is essential and unquestionable for us who believe, but it must be understood in the light and grace of Jesus' Gospel if it is to be rightly appreciated.  God’s might and majesty, His all-seeing knowledge and wondrous wisdom, are various aspects of the One God and Father who first of all called us to Jesus, and Who now offers us a share with Him in the bliss of heaven where Jesus is now seated at His right hand.  Therefore our awareness of the greatness of God should enable us to realise the wonder that Jesus came to help us recognize and embrace:  namely, the wonder that God, so glorious and majestic of Himself, actually loves us; indeed, He has given His only begotten Son to us and for us, and, ultimately, wants to give us, in Jesus, a share in His own eternal blessedness.  Moreover, that glorious God Who is, indeed, so far above us, can see all that would approach to harm us, and He is so mighty that nothing in heaven or on earth can penetrate the loving shield with which He surrounds us; He Who is all-knowing and all-seeing has a compassion for us that is all-embracing: He knows our every thought, our every feeling, even all the secret chemical changes that can affect our physical bodies or the spiritual powers that would invade our personality.  With such a God to defend us we should be supremely confident, as was the psalmist of old who cried:

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  (Psalm 27:1)

This total confidence in Him Who is exalted is not just the stuff of great occasions; those unknown authors of the Psalms and the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth, life, and death on the Cross, show us that the very fabric of every-day living -- replete with every-day situations – can be shot through and through with that same saving thread of total confidence and trust in the One Who, though unseen, is more real than all worldly appearances:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  (Psalm 23:4-6)

Do not fret because of evildoers.   For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.  Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land (that is, His Church), and feed on His faithfulness.   Find your delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:1-4)

When we turn to the New Testament, St. Paul expresses this trust in and commitment to God in sublime words that only a great, great, lover of Jesus could have used:

If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? … It is God who justifies, who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)

And finally, and supremely, Jesus Himself could say on the Cross:

            Father, into Your hands I commend my Spirit.

And so, dear People of God, let us recognize the folly of those who would scoff at the words "fear the Lord"; for their attitude is tragically wrong and reveals both a mind overcast with dark clouds of folly and a heart severely wounded and belittled by pride; for only those who know the fear of the Lord can, in turn, experience the sublime confidence and joy that enable true Catholics and Christians to overcome the world with Jesus: just as, indeed, our father Abraham was enabled, as you heard in the first reading, to leave his pagan background and set out, through unknown and hostile terrain, for the distant land of promise; and just as St. Paul learned never to be ashamed to bear testimony to Jesus but rather was positively inspired to regard suffering for Jesus and the Gospel as the supreme privilege and joy life could offer.

1st Sunday of Lent Year A 2020

1^st. Sunday of Lent (A) 2020

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

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I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere and pure commitment to Christ.   (2 Cor. 11:3) 

‘Sincere and pure commitment’, was indeed the attitude shown by Our Blessed Lord Himself when tempted by the devil after His forty day fast in the desert; and, in order the better to appreciate the wisdom of Jesus’ demeanour and learn from the reckless folly of Eve’s example, let us turn to our first reading and study Eve’s attitude when she met with the devil and talked herself into temptation.

The devil questioned the woman, not the man; obviously, he did that not because his was a ‘sexist’ or ‘racist’ attitude – although he did most certainly despise the human race -- but for the surer success of his own plans.  What were the weaknesses that drew his special attention to Eve: was it that he recognized her as personally being of a wilful, even rebellious, disposition; or was it that he saw native curiosity, perhaps a tendency to conceit and personal vanity, as being prominent in her make-up?  Most certainly she wanted to ‘know for herself about things’, above all, she wanted to be able to form her own judgement concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil concerning which Adam had told her about God’s prohibition.   Such a wilful desire for independence from God and self-determination and self-appreciation seems to have made it possible for Eve to think she could take on, chat with, the devil, and impossible for her to recognize him even when showing himself in his very first words, manifesting himself to be what he is essentially and eternally: namely, the liar, and the most implacable enemy of all who allow him to find a niche for himself in their lives.  How tragically ironic it is that Eve, preparing herself to be so wilful before the Lord seeking to protect her, could be so very, very, simple and stupid before the devil seeking only the downfall of these two privileged dwellers in Eden, despicable human-beings that they were!

Recall again his devilish words, and recognize his endeavours to portray himself as siding with Eve against God in a pretended confrontation he himself was trying his very best to concoct and promote:

            Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?

He knew full well that God had not given any such command: the couple were living in God’s garden and eating its good fruit, the devil’s words were simply a ruse to provoke  Eve and find out precisely what had gone on between God and the couple still walking innocently and unashamedly in His garden before His eyes.

The very fact that Eve responded so readily to the devil was amazing; for, after all, he was evil itself!   Dolled-up, disguised, or whatever word you may like to think, he was nevertheless, himself: on this occasion somewhat of a flatterer, but above all the liar, lying as always in order to destroy.  Neverthless, Eve sensed nothing at all untoward, she just talked with him freely and listened to him carefully!!  In doing so, she revealed both her ambitious nature aspiring far beyond what God had arranged for Adam and herself, and her deep dis-satisfaction with a humble life of simplicity and obedience before God.

Adam, on the other hand, found himself caught up in an already somewhat developed relationship between Eve -- secretly alienating herself from God in her heart-of-hearts -- and the devil, with whom Eve was now in open discussion.  It was a situation of which he was apparently unaware; and surprised , perhaps alarmed, he behaved like a wimp who simply wanted to avoid trouble by going along with his wife rather than actually take upon himself the responsibility of seeing that God’s solemn warning and express command concerning the tree in the centre of the garden was obeyed -- a command originally given to himself before his help-mate had even been created -- both out of reverence for God and love for Eve:

The LORD God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.” 

The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”    (Genesis 2:16-18)

No matter what God had commanded Adam, Eve wanted to know for herself, to be able to form her own judgement concerning that most attractive tree, bearing delicious fruit and – oh! how very intriguing!! -- giving knowledge of good and evil.
  

Such, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, was the situation which brought sin and death  into our lives; and such pride and irresponsibility, such ignorance and indifference, are still haunting and thwarting us as Christians and Catholics today.

Jesus however -- the beloved Only-Begotten Son of God and the culmination and sublime fulfilment of mankind -- in His confrontation with the devil, was not interested in promoting or confirming His own human awareness and appreciation of His Father’s love for Him; and He was most certainly not going to attempt to prove anything before the Devil’s tribunal. He did not need  to test, and convince Himself of, His divine power by changing stones into bread, even though it would have immediately satisfied His gnawing hunger;  nor would He -- by a farcically theatrical display – descend (quite literally!) to demonstrating the reality of the Scriptures’ attestation of Himself and the eternal significance of His mission as the Messianic Son of God to the devil, who was desperately seeking to sow but the smallest seed of doubt and mistrust into Jesus’ mind.

Throughout all this, Jesus would not entertain any wish other than that, in all things, His Father’s will exclusively might be done in Him for the fulfilment of the mission for which He had been sent by His Father: 

My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me, and to finish His work.   

I delight to do Your will, My God. (John 4:34) (Psalm 40:9)

At the beginning of the season of Lent, dear People of God, it behoves us to learn from the tragic failure of faithless Eve and feckless Adam as we, disciples of Jesus, seek to walk more faithfully with Him for the praise and glory of His and our heavenly Father; and Mother Church has given us, in our second reading, a text of Saint Paul that can help to interpret the whole situation for us:

Just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.

With regard to his own converts in Corinth, Saint Paul said that he feared for them lest their thoughts might be, or have become, corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ, and the corruption he feared was, basically, a lack of simplicity in their bearing as disciples of Jesus, a lack most strikingly exemplified for us both in the behaviour of Eve, ambitious and conceited, wanting to know for herself and decide for herself, and that of Adam, indolent and – out of pseudo-consideration for his wife –  not wanting the responsibility of taking hold of the reins, so to speak, to see that God’s will was done.
  

As we turn directly to Jesus for guidance, we see that -- as distinct from the spineless and accommodating Adam – He took hold of the reins most firmly when the devil offered Him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence if He would but prostrate Himself and worship him.  Up to that moment Jesus, facing questions about His own power, and His position in the Scriptures, had been dismissive of the devil, answering him with but a few chosen and decisively interpreted words of Scripture.  However, as soon as the devil sought to invade His Father’s realm by seeking worship for himself, Jesus immediately revealed the devil’s personal identity and his evil essence by the irresistible power of His own authoritative command: 

            Get away Satan!  It is written: ‘The Lord your God shall you worship’.

In a like manner He gives us guidance with regard to ambitious and self-assertive Eve gladly hearing the devil speak most disrespectfully of God:

You certainly will not die!   No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.

Eve’s evil example and baleful legacy Jesus utterly condemned by His own selfless and absolute commitment to the honour and glory of His Father, the God Who had sent Him, and Whom -- by the Spirit -- He served wholeheartedly to His earthly death, and now rejoices, in the heavenly glory of their mutual beatitude, for all eternity.
  

Of course, Eve gladly listened to the devil because his words expressed what she wanted to hear… he didn’t so much deceive her as proclaim and apparently support her secret hopes and desires in order to stir up her rebellious inclinations.

I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ.

Dear People of God, the New Testament bears repeated witness to Jesus’ preferred understanding of our eternal fulfilment as our becoming, in Himself, children of God; and His whole life gives us constant inspiration, guidance, and spiritual power towards the fulfilment of that purpose.  And so it is that, in our readings today, Mother Church chooses -- as we have seen -- to give us further insight into the authentic make-up of a true child of God, by showing us how Adam and Eve both failed in that respect.

Saint Paul calls to our minds the threat and danger of a corrupted, insincere, commitment to Christ, which consists, he tells us, in a lack of simplicity in our relationship before God our Father and with Jesus our Saviour; and we have seen such a lack of simplicity and transparency at the root of the behaviour of both Adam and Eve, in his spineless acquiescence and her self-centred and ambitious conniving. 

People of God, only simplicity before God allows God’s Gift, the Spirit of Jesus, to work freely in us and form us in the likeness of Jesus for the Father … and it takes both  true humility and significant courage if such a reign of the Spirit is to become a decisive feature of our lives.  For simplicity embraces what is essential and most beautiful in the Christian life: it springs from deep trust and sure hope; it enfolds calm patience and long-sufferance; it requires a pure gaze of self-surrendering love fixed most devoutly on the Lord Himself in all His beauty, if we will but advert to His Spirit addressing, calling, and wanting to guide us throughout the course of, and even to the final dénouement of, our earthly lives for and before Him.

Let us, therefore, aspire to, love and pray for, such a humble but beautiful virtue.  Spiritual simplicity is unknown and indeed inconceivable for the majority of men and women today, but it was most admiringly recognized and treasured by St. Paul as he constantly prayed for, and most ardently aspired to, full maturity in Christ Jesus his Lord and Saviour, both for us and for himself.

7th Sunday Year A 2020

 7th. Sunday, Year (A)

(Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48)

Today’s Gospel reading is, to say the very least, most striking; but who could put it into practice, is it practical?  How did Our Blessed Lord intend His words to be understood and be of most benefit to His disciples?

Obviously, I don’t pretend to answer such questions definitively, but I will -- indeed I should -- offer some suggestions, some observations, to be borne in mind when thinking, and above all when praying, about these and other like words of Our Lord.

It is not to be expected that Mother Church should always and at any given time have a clear and full understanding of everything Our Lord said and did.  She infallibly teaches, and spiritually endows her children that they might appropriately live, the essentials of Christian life; but the broad extent of its ramifications and the wondrous beauty of all the gifts and possibilities bestowed on and available to her through the Spirit of Jesus’ abiding presence with her is beyond measure.  Moreover, she lives by the Spirit and consequently is ever developing in the service and understanding of her Lord, with the result that there is much in her treasure-house that we – ourselves always but little children of Mother Church and sincere, though still fragile, disciples of Jesus – can only gradually become truly aware of and learn to love aright, through a developing awareness and experience of discipleship in this world under the loving guidance of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Who, precisely, is God’s Gift to the Church that He might lead her into all truth.

Let us, therefore, try to recall other teaching and examples given by Our Lord, other truths of Holy Scripture, other examples of God’s saints and doctors; and as we do so, let us prayerfully invoke the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

We can first briefly recall an episode from 1^st. Book of Maccabees (1:41, 43), where a problem, such as occupies us at present, weighed heavily on patriotic and faithful Israelites subject, at that time, to an alien, pagan, power attempting to force them to abandon their  faith and their traditional practices:

The king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, each abandoning his particular customs. All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king, and many Israelites were in favour of his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath.  

Under such threat, the Chosen People living according to, and loving wholeheartedly, the Old Covenant bestowed upon them by God, decided that they must defend themselves and their religion thus threatened with extinction; indeed, later they would feel obliged to defend themselves by fighting, if and when necessary, even on the Sabbath.

However, that took place, as I said, under the old covenant, and is not directly relevant to us who are disciples of Jesus not followers of Moses, although that covenant was Jesus’ background and nurtured Our Blessed Lady.

In the Gospel of St. John (18:22s.), however, we have something unquestionably more pertinent:

When Jesus said this (to the High Priest), one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, ’Is that how you answer the High Priest?’  Jesus answered him, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike Me?’


Now that was a perfect opportunity for Our Lord to exemplify the literal observance of His own words:

If anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well;

but, as you have heard, He did not do so.

St. Paul, in his first letter to the Christian community he had founded at Corinth, says in two places (11:1 and 4:16):

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.  I urge you, be imitators of me.

Again, in his first letter to the Thessalonians (1:5-6) he writes:

You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.  And you became imitators of us and of the Lord. 

What kind of man, then, was Paul who set out to instruct the first Christian communities not only by his teaching but also, and quite explicitly, by his personal example?

We can, first of all, turn to St. Luke’s account concerning Paul in the Acts of the Apostles:

The High Priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by Paul to strike him on the mouth.  Then Paul said to him, ‘God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall!  Are you sitting to judge one according to the Law, and yet, contrary to the Law, you order me to be struck!’    (23:2-3)

Again, there was a remarkable opportunity for the literal fulfilment of Our Lord’s advice, but St. Paul did not subscribe to such a literal interpretation it would seem.

On another occasion, he even made – or wanted to make – provision for the deciding of grievances between brethren within the community at Corinth (1 Corinthians 6:1, 5), so as to avoid the scandal of brethren choosing to sue each other before pagan judges:

When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?   Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood? 

And so, it would seem that, in the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord was intimating – not illustrating -- what sort of spirit should guide and determine the behaviour of members of God’s kingdom being inaugurated by Jesus.  And it is, consequently, quite possible that we are wrong to look for precise instructions as regards our own personal behaviour in particular cases: if someone strikes you on the cheek, do this; or, if another seeks to take your tunic, do that; or again, if someone were to order you to go one mile with him, do this.

Perhaps Our Lord – being in a position to use but a very few human words to indicate and promote the spirit that should motivate all His followers throughout the world and throughout all time – was really preparing them to learn how, under the leading of His Spirit, to rightly decide for themselves how to act in all the various circumstances of life as true disciples of, and faithful witnesses to, Himself.   In other words, He was preparing them to gradually acquire the ability to recognize surely and respond appropriately -- sponte sua -- to whatever guidance His Spirit might give them in order that they should bear true witness to their Lord and Master, give glory to their heavenly Father, and attain thereby the end He has eternally planned for them.

For such an interpretation of Our Lord’s words we can again turn to St. Paul when, speaking elsewhere about himself, he did not hesitate to say:

I think that I have the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 7:40)

In his letter to the Romans (12:17-21), Paul thus interprets his Lord’s teaching:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.   If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.  Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”   Rather, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”  Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.

Let us therefore, once again, consider together Our Lord’s Gospel words.

‘Whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also’ .... now, such a slap was back-handed and above all an insult;

‘Whoever forces you to go one mile go with him two’ ... any Roman soldier could legally oblige a civilian to carry his military ‘gear’ for one mile.

Think on these things and surely the almost instinctive response of one thus humiliated and oppressed, would be to respond with a measure of vehemence, ‘NOT ME!’, to insist on his personal pride, his own dignity; and perhaps even with beggars one could well imagine someone saying, ‘Do you think I am a fool?’  All instinctive ways to insist on, bolster, one’s ego, to assert one’s OWN SELF. 

Now THAT I suggest is what Jesus was wanting to eradicate in His followers, that deep pride and selfishness was what these words of His were meant to sift out from among those crowding around Him who were waiting and longing for, and would so easily – and indeed tragically  -- follow, a militant Messiah, an authoritarian, self-assertive leader and warrior!!eHHH  H

There we have, I believe, the essential point of Jesus’ teaching given us in the Gospel for today --- but that does not mean that a literal interpretation is absolutely excluded; indeed, it could be that, as we follow the Spirit, He might choose to lead one -- become both sufficiently docile to His call and responsive to His influence -- to a literal understanding and fulfilment of Our Lord’s words, and thus literally turn the other cheek, give to those who ask, more than comply with the unjust demands made on him.  Such a possibility would seem to have been at the back of St. Paul’s mind when, after making arrangements, so to speak, for lawsuits between Christians to be judged within the community, he went on to say:

It is, in any case, a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?   (1 Corinthians 6:7)

However, until we are at the desired level of union with God, Jesus’ literal words can be understood more broadly while, nonetheless, still engendering and expressing the essential spirit of Christ and His Kingdom.  Thus -- far from possibly crushing the broken reed – they will advantageously establish us on a sure basis of humility that alone can open up and solidly support a future full of hope and God-given possibilities.

For a final, and perhaps a more truly comprehensive appreciation of Our Blessed Lord’s intentions, let us turn back to the Gospel reading again, for there He gave what was most certainly His supreme teaching and desire for us:

Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect!

And such perfection He said was to be found and expressed in:

Loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you.

All those other gestures -- turning the other cheek, handing over not only one’s tunic but also one’s cloak, going two miles rather than the one demanded – are only pleasing and acceptable to God in so far as they are pure expressions of Christian love.  At times, and under suitable circumstances, they could, indeed, be supremely authentic expressions of Jesus’ guiding Spirit in our life; at other times however -- times, that is, of our own choosing -- they could be nothing more than human gestures betraying spiritual ambition and self-exaltation.

A true mother will always be prepared to sacrifice herself for her child’s good; but at other times she might be quite strict and unyielding, as was once the case with me in my childhood.  It seems I was insistent on wanting to put pepper on my dinner myself.  My mother explained that she had already put enough on for me; but, nevertheless, I wanted to shake the pepper out myself.  She finally gave way to my insistence and indulged me.  I shook out pepper with gusto and then, of course, did not like the result.  Then my mother showed her true love for me by insisting that I ate what was before me!!  I don’t think I ever made the same mistake again!

And so, the psalmist said today:

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Dear People of God, Our Lord is the font of all goodness, beauty, and truth for us; isHis sublime words, however, can only be truly appreciated in the context of Mother Church’s living tradition and teaching, and only carried into appropriate effect under the olHoly Spirit’s discerning wisdom and sustaining power.  Jesus’ teaching, Jesus’ words, are meant to prepare us for eternal life, to adumbrate the spirit with which we should be imbued as children of God: all forms self-assertion, self-reassertion are unbecoming and wrong for true children of Him Who supremely loves, guides, and will, most sublimely, reward them.

Let us, therefore, give heartfelt thanks to God for Mother Church; and -- ignoring our native pride and forgetting our self-solicitude – let us, with her, open up our hearts and minds, and commit our very selves, to the guiding Spirit of Jesus ever interceding on our behalf with the heavenly Father Who, in His great mercy and loving kindness, calls and draws us by His Spirit and wills to ultimately crown us in His Son with a filial share in their triune glory and eternal beatitude.  And let us hold clearly and firmly to what is the essential aspect of today’s words of our Blessed Lord, they are meant to indicate to us the extent to which we should be prepared to go IF the Holy Spirit of Jesus living in, ruling over, and freely guiding, our lives should thus want us to follow Him.   It is not a matter for previous cogitation – subject to the devil’s snares and our own native weakness – rather it could only be the immediate, calm, and most humble response of total trust and confident obedience to Him Who is our all.

6th Sunday of the Year A 2020

 6^th. Sunday of Year (A)

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

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As we look around our society today we see some amazing things not only happening, but increasingly being accepted as part of normal modern behaviour.  We hear constantly about ‘racism’ of all kinds and the banter of centuries in the United Kingdom is now racist for a people becoming more and more neurotically sensitive and over-feminised by the calls to talk, talk, about one’s ailments, feelings, and needs!! We hear about babies being ‘acquired’ and fostered by gay or lesbian couples, a baby girl with two men or vice-versa; we know of groups of people lavishing much effort and showing great compassion for suffering children, whilst our society --- as a whole --- is most assiduously putting the very youngest to death for the most selfish of reasons.  Children are so very decisive and divisive: being well loved by some parents willing to lavish money on their offspring yet failing to form a deep loving relationship of shared life, experience, and understanding with them; we hear of mothers who find their children more of a troublesome care than a personal joy, and of others who are less than willing to devote their own selves and their personal financial and sporting careers to their child’s human and personal formation, development, and well-being.  Today, most paradoxically, children – the beautiful fruit of God-blessed human sexual and married love -- can easily be regarded and treated almost as a commodity or even as an alien invader.

Along with such attitudes to children we also read of people in modern society who so love animals that they will threaten -- even maiming or killing -- others who do not subscribe to their radical, not to say fanatical, way of thinking; and it is part of very ordinary, world-wide practice, for subversive organizations to bomb, maim, and kill fellow human beings – ordinary, uninvolved and innocent, people -- in order to draw attention to their particular causes without any sense of guilt, let alone compassion. Even in our own towns and villages, some young people, perhaps, will have little compunction about stabbing or kicking someone near to death if they become involved somewhere in violence; while city yobs will not scruple to mug, beat, rape and kill old and defenceless men, women, and even children, to satisfy their rampant passions of all sorts.

Sorrowfully recalling these things, and many others like them, to mind, we wonder at times what is happening to our world.  How have people come to behave in such ways?  How can a sheep, cut-in-half and preserved in a glass tank, be plugged as human art but not recognized as God’s marvellous creation?  How is it that an apparently formless group of bricks or concrete blocks can be piled up by some supposedly-gifted but also possibly disturbed mind, and then be put forward and even sponsored for the admiration of the more or less normally gifted and balanced public?

How difficult, how very difficult it must be to bring up young people, and for young people themselves to grow to authentic maturity, in such a society!   Who can protect, guide and sustain them in right ways?   How can they not learn to walk in accordance with all that goes on around them?

And so, very many people today say about their own faults and failings, ‘I couldn’t do anything else, I had no choice ..’  Sin, personal fault, is no longer acknowledged, accepted, ‘it’ has always been caused by someone else, ‘it’ has always been forced on the culprit.

Such thoughts occupied the mind of the author of our first reading who wrote:

Do not say ‘It was the Lord’s doing that I went astray.       Before each person are life and death, stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.  Great is the wisdom of the Lord, His eyes are on those who fear Him, and He knows every human action.

Jesus, our Lord and God-given Saviour to guide us through the desert of this sinful world, Jesus the all-holy Son of God made man, has even stronger words for us His followers and disciples, as your heard in the Gospel reading, words of both warning and most solemn promise, words that both challenge and inspire:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Such words of Jesus were regarded exclusively as words of warning and threat by the Pharisees and Scribes of Jesus’ time, who preferred their position of authority among the Chosen People to the prospect of God’s Kingdom coming among them where all men and women of good-will would be able to know and love God and attain the salvation and fulfilment He promised. The Pharisees and Scribes interpreted and adapted the Law given to Moses according to their own human traditions and they were most unwilling to look forward to blessings ... even though they were promised by God Himself ... because their own present advantages of power and prestige filled their hearts and minds.  That is why Jesus went on to tell us:

I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

People of God, we Catholics are in a fluctuating and transitional situation today.  We have experienced times when it was widespread among Catholics to imitate the Scribes and Pharisees by looking upon God’s commandments as more of a warning and threat than as an opportunity, a challenge, and a promise.  In their days the Pharisees had, with great effort and industry, built up a hedge as they called it, a hedge of human prescriptions and practices which were meant to preserve the children of Israel from failing in their observance of the commandments of the Law as understood by the traditions and teaching of their Pharisee leaders and self-appointed guides along God’s ways.  Jesus spoke with feeling about such people and practices saying:

They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. (Matthew 23:4)

There he was sympathizing with those thus burdened; at another time He openly attacked the Pharisees for concocting such loads for others (Mark 7:6-8):

Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honour Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.  They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'  You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

So too in the Church at particular epochs the commandments of men have been brought in to shore-up, so to speak, the commandments of God and of His Church: practices of devotion were thought up and recommended to, urged upon, others, which again were meant to protect the commandments and prevent sin of course, but which also in practice ended up by stifling others.  The result was that many, especially of the young, either rebelled or gave up in ‘despair’.  That situation then provoked a reaction from some well-meaning clerics and teachers of various sorts who tried to help the lapsed or lapsing return to the practice of the Faith by watering-down Mother Church’s moral law.  Unfortunately, at times they went on to not only make lighter the load of human commandments and, but also to water down those of God: and today we, as a result, many find themselves in a state of flux, not knowing when to be firm and unyielding or how to adapt and develop.

There are two great commandments in our practice of the Christian and Catholic way of life.  The one was much cited in past centuries, and was first given us in the Scriptures, where Samuel said, in the name of the Lord, to the errant king Saul:

Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice.

Today, that command still remains as valid as ever for Pope, priests and people, for each of us and for our children.

The second great commandment was given us by the example of the Lord Jesus and from His words, but expressed perhaps most memorably for us by St. Paul (1 Cor 13:11-13) when he wrote:

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The legitimate developments of modern theology help us towards the fulfilment of this commandment of love by strongly reminding us that we, being made in the image of God, are free; indeed, we are essentially made for freedom.  In this, modern theology is only restating words from our Lord Himself Who said to some Jews aspiring to follow Him as His disciples:

If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  (John 8:31-32)

So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)

This teaching of Jesus was reiterated with emphasis by St. Paul in his 2^nd. letter to the Corinthians (3:17) and also to the Galatians (5:1):

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

However, we must be aware, dear People of God, that the word “freedom” is both much misunderstood and widely abused today, and therefore we must be careful to understand aright the true Christian appreciation of freedom: its whole purpose and meaning is to enable us, both truly and fully, in both a human and divine way, to love and serve God in and above all things, and our neighbour as ourselves; and in so doing, to enable each of us individually to become our own authentic self as planned, willed, and loved, by God.

That is the great challenge and promise of our life here on earth, to learn -- despite the morass and chaos brought about by our sins past and present – how, under the guidance and power of the Spirit of Jesus, to love God the Father, and become in Jesus, His true children.  And in order to fulfil that glorious privilege and calling we have to hold firm both to God’s commandments and to our divine endowment of freedom.  We cannot become children of God by disobeying His commandments, commands Jesus did not come to abolish but to fulfil; we cannot walk in the ways of Jesus by ignoring His teaching in the Scriptures opened up to us by His Church, for we are only brought to life in Jesus by the Spirit as members of His Body, the Church.   We must therefore, hold firm to God’s commandments in His Church.  We must also hold firm to our freedom with regard to the customs, the popular practices and persuasions, of men: for we have been made free for God: we can choose among human prescriptions as we will, but always and only with this one aim and aspiration in mind: to learn love God with our whole mind, heart, soul, and strength in Jesus and freely by the Spirit. 

Notice that I say learn to love God, because none of us, of ourselves, knows how to love Him aright.  That is one of the reasons Mother Church has been given to us and we to her: we have to learn how to love God as He wants to be loved, and we can only learn that with our brethren in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and our Mother, and which, as such, alone is permanently endowed with the presence of the Holy Spirit of Love.  For the Spirit alone, the Holy Spirit of Love, given us by Jesus and working in and through Mother Church can be part of the life of each one of us, can make us holy in Jesus for the Father.  Human practices can help but they may also hinder, and they can never make us holy.  Holiness is loving God in self-forgetfulness; true sanctity is delighting in God above all and in all.  It is a gift, a grace, from the One who is Personally the Gift of God.  That is the only way in which our righteousness can and will surpass the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees as Jesus demanded.  Their righteousness was admirable in many respects but it was a legal, human, and ultimately, a self-contrived righteousness.  Our righteousness, to be authentic, can only be received as a gift from the Father, given by the Spirit, to those whose supreme desire is to be found as His true children in the kingdom of heaven, in Jesus, His only-begotten and most beloved, Son.

As Moses was leading Israel across the lonely desert, guided, protected, and nourished by God alone, towards the Promised Land where Israel would be surrounded by pagan powers and pagan practices, he wanted so much to guide and protect his people, that he said to them shortly before his death:

See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me; observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations.  Be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not let (these laws and decrees) slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. (Deut. 4:1, 5-9)