2nd Sunday of Advent Year C 2021

2^nd. Sunday of Advent (C)

(Baruch 5: 1-9; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6)

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Why all these names of men and places?  Why all these precise details about time in this section of St. Luke’s Gospel?

 

Because, People of God, individuals are most important to God.  Our faith is not based on imagination or legendary tales, but on public facts that occurred and are recorded in human history.  Jesus Christ is the best attested fact of the past: we have immeasurably more information about Him than about any other person in ancient history.

 

But Jesus did not intend to be simply a fact of past history for all time.  He came to offer salvation to all mankind, not only to those of Jewish faith in Palestine some 2,000 years ago, but to us and to all our brothers and sisters throughout time: an offer of salvation leading to eternal life in and with Jesus, before the God and Father of all creation Who shows no favouritism. And therefore, Jesus is with us Personally today in and through His Holy Catholic Church -- of which we are (or should be) most gratefully proud to be members -- fulfilling the promise He made to be with her, to guide and protect her, by His Holy Spirit to the end of time.

 

How are we, individually, to become more personally aware of this saving presence, because, obviously many former Catholics and many, many, more former Christians seem have lost any meaningful contact with Jesus?  How are we to enter into personal contact and communion with Him, now, in a world boasting in its secularity and in its disdain for Christian, and indeed for religious teaching of any sort?

 

John the Baptist was sent by God to prepare the Jews to welcome Jesus with understanding and appreciation; and his message, his preaching, of which we have just heard the introduction from St. Luke’s Gospel reading for today, still performs that same function …. it tells us how we are to first enter into contact, and subsequently how to deepen that contact and communion, with Our Lord.  We heard that John:

 

Went through the whole Jordan district, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 

 

That -- for John sent by God -- is the first step for us towards awareness and acceptance of God’s offer of salvation: a recognition of ourselves as sinners in need of God’s salvation; and a recognition of God, that He is Lord of all, able and willing to save, renew, and restore for eternal beatitude with Himself, all sinners, according to their recognition of and response to the One He is sending them.

 

John went proclaiming:  Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.

 

And that, dear People of God, is the supreme difficulty for our modern world, because modern society likes to think that it is sufficiently holy to do good things without any acknowledgement of Jesus, or help from His Spirit.  And that is why John’s continuing words are supremely relevant:

 

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.  The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

 

That is, every aspect of religious indifference, every vision of pseudo-holiness, every manifestation of, and all satisfaction with, human pride in our society and world, must be brought to see the salvation of God.

The original inspiration of Isaiah made a great impression on God’s Chosen People because we heard how the prophet Baruch -- long before John the Baptist quoted by St. Luke -- made use of Isaiah’s words in that beautiful prophecy we heard in our first reading:

 

Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning, for wrapped in the mantle of justice from God, (He) will show all the earth your splendour.  Look and see your children gathered from the east and the west at the word of the Holy One.  For God has commanded that every lofty mountain be made low, and that the valleys be filled to make level ground, that Israel may advance securely in the glory of God.

 

What Isaiah had originally foretold as preparations to be made for the coming of Israel’s Messiah, Baruch used to envision God bringing His people back from their Babylonian exile home to Jerusalem; before ultimately, John the Baptist used them to speak of the imminent fulfilment of Isaiah’s original prophecy, and the way being prepared for the coming of Jesus the Messiah.

 

Baruch thus showed that Isaiah’s prophecy was powerful enough to bear several interpretations or adaptations, and we today can use it to understand our own calling before God as disciples of Jesus:  called to prepare – by our own conversion and renewal in the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit of Jesus – the way for Jesus’ final coming at the end of time.  Jesus Himself originated the Kingdom of God on earth by His life, death, and resurrection, before bequeathing His own most Holy Spirit to His disciples in Mother Church that she might continue His work here on earth until the time appointed for its culmination and fulfilment in Jesus’ final coming in glory.

 

Until that ultimate manifestation of the glory of God and the obliteration of sin, however, the devil has been and is still able to worm his way into the hearts and minds of many fragile disciples of Jesus to mar, or even totally disfigure, their lives, work, and aspirations.   In that way those wonderful words of Baruch’s prophecy have often been falsely portrayed as fulfilled:

 

Jerusalem, wrapped in the mantle of justice from God, He will show all the earth your splendour: you will be named by God forever the glory of God’s worship.

 

How easy, dear People of God, for those fragile in faith to betray words such as ‘splendour’ and ‘glory’ by pomp and arrogant display; how easy to imitate ‘wrapped in the cloak of justice from God’ with an outward show of humble discipleship cloaking hypocrisy and lustful pride!  So human, to want glory for God along with power for oneself!  So devilish, to pretend devotion and commitment while seeking reputation, pleasure, and profit!

 

It is easy to recall figures past and present -- popes, bishops, clerics and religious -- who have been prominent in such betrayals and transgressions.   But we must never forget, however, those innumerable nominal Christians past and present who, most sadly, lived and are still living their lives largely forgetful of the commandments of God and the teaching of Jesus: abusing Jesus in the sacraments of Mother Church out of human respect, rarely if ever bearing witness to the faith they publicly still profess as so-called Christians, with their hearts and minds fixed firmly on the things of earth.

 

All of us, all like us, are weak in one way or another; so weak, that though we may and should regret, even hate, the ignorance, betrayals, cowardice and corruption that have gone before and are still ripe and rampant around and among us, nevertheless we can never despise or denigrate those persons whose weakness has led them to such faults, for we share their weaknesses if not – thanks to God – their faults and failings,  and we should all be most attentive and grateful to St. Paul for his teaching in our second reading:

 

This is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

 

Jesus is at the right hand of the Father in heaven, never forgetful of us, always interceding for us in all our needs; and we, as His disciples, are called to continue to proclaim His Gospel for the salvation of mankind, in His Name and by the power of His Spirit.  We cannot do this work unless we allow His Spirit to expand and extend, enlighten and inflame, our minds and hearts, so that Jesus may be presented and offered to all those yet to come in a way that will help them both recognize Him and, embracing His truth, respond to, and find joy in, His love:

 

May your love increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

 

People of God, thanks to the Spirit Jesus has bestowed on her, Holy Mass in Mother Church is -- as the prophet Baruch foretold -- the glory of God’s worship; and Mother Church herself is, as St. Paul declared her to be:

 

Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

 

Ultimately, the Spirit will make the glory of Mother Church’s worship perfectly manifest to the whole world, as a faithful reflection of the heavenly liturgy celebrating her God and Saviour.  Let us, therefore, pray that our lives may indeed reflect something of the beauty of her inheritance by our knowledge of her teaching and our appreciation and proclamation of her values.

 

Much good is being done in our irreligious, non-Christian, and increasingly God-denying world of today, People of God, but it is being done in the name of enlightened humanity, freed from the shackles of religious oppression!  And all such self-styled benefactors of humanity will not, in any way, accept what they regard as the odious Christian doctrine of mankind’s native sinfulness and weakness; nor will they consequently entertain any idea of -- let alone obey and worship -- a Personal God Who wills to raise mankind up to an eternal and beatifying personal relationship of love with Himself, in Jesus – God made Man for men -- by the Holy Spirit.  And so, despite human good being intended, the root of all evil, human pride is more deeply embedded than ever in the minds and hearts of many of our contemporaries, while those other curses of humankind, the desire for money, the love of power, and the lusts of the flesh are -- in closest accordance with our modern tastes – openly flourishing in glaring vulgarity, along with other, rarely acknowledged, even greater evils and betrayals of the dignity of man, secretly indulged in in our society.

 

God, the very idea of God, demands reverence, obedience, and supreme love; and therefore, there can be no God where human pride and self-love rule.  Dear People of God, such is our modern dilemma, and we should therefore, throughout this Advent season, put all our trust in, and all our prayers along with, those words of Our Blessed Lord Himself when coming into our world (Hebrews 10:7):

 

            Behold, I come to do Your will, O God!  

 

Words which He solemnly recommended to us in the one prayer He bequeathed us in response to His disciples’ explicit request:

 

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

1st Sunday of Advent Year C 2021

 

1^st. Sunday of Advent (C)

(Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1Thessaloneans 3:12-4:2; St. Luke 21:25-8, 34-6)

 

Our Blessed Lord tells us in our Gospel reading for today that, at the end of time and just before the Son of Man returns with power and great glory, the heavens will be shaken on a day that will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.

And how will those alive at that time respond to what is happening around them?  Wondering what will come next, they will be so terrified as to die of fright: dashing here, fleeing there, in frenzied attempts to find some bolt-hole, because all former familiar and safe places no longer offer refuge.

And what about the disciples of Jesus in such days?

Having learnt from His words and trusting in His Spirit they, on the contrary, will strive to remain both calm and confident, because they will understand what is happening: the old regime, under which they were derided and despised by sinful men, dismayed and oppressed by God-less social laws and structures, is coming to its end, and a new order is at hand:  where love, justice, peace, and righteousness, will bear witness to God’s triumph and herald the advent of that salvation for which they have prayed so long and endured so much:

The Son of Man is coming in a cloud (signifying His divinity) with power and great glory!

And striving thus, those true disciples of Jesus will be enabled by His Spirit to stand erect and raise high their heads, looking heavenward with eyes alight with hope and grateful hearts beating apace.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, you who are true, and aspire to become ever-more worthy, disciples of Jesus, surely you hope to find yourselves among those disciples pictured by Our Lord?  The words He uses are, therefore, most important for our guidance and protection, for they show what you and I should aspire to, what we should model ourselves on.

First and foremost, dear People of God, notice and hold close to your heart and firm in your mind, that those told to stand erect as the ultimate reality of cosmic destruction begins, should not now be found seeking to flee anywhere and everywhere to avoid, escape from, the sufferings and trials of life in our present-day world.  Neither should we be deceived by those spiritually sick ones who embrace suicide -- self-murder -- as an instantaneous moment of peace or pseudo-glory before washing up on the shores of imaginary oblivion.  Above all, we should not allow ourselves be provoked by the response to modern life of those despicable fanatics who cherish hatred as an easier and preferred option to that of authentic religious discipline and zeal for God

When the end comes, we Catholics and Christians will need to be found trusting God with a sure and steadfast spirit, and we will only be able to do that if we have gradually built up, over the years, a habit of calmly and confidently committing ourselves to His loving care in the many and various trials and troubles which life inevitably brings.  It is our duty, but much more than that, it is indeed our truest blessing and surest strength, that we learn -- for love of Him -- to fear only one thing: evil, personal sin.

But how are we to attain such a sure and steadfast spirit?  How can we to learn to rejoice in the Lord no matter what distress may rule the world?  By prayer!

First of all, if we do not wish to give way to the world’s fears, we must not yield ourselves to the world’s pleasures, as Our Blessed Lord puts it most perfectly:

Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of life.

We have to grow in the habit of communing with God our loving Father, with Jesus our self-sacrificing Saviour, and with the Holy Spirit, our strength, peace, and hope: a communing and communion to be developed and made ever more truly personal and intimate by prayer that no one around needs know anything about.  Such prayer is a simple expression of our most intimate human feelings … gratitude, fear, joy, hope, wonder and desire … arising in the course of an ever-deepening spiritual relationship with our God, being-lived out as His children in Mother Church, and as disciples and protagonists of Jesus in our flesh-and-blood experience of daily life in the modern and antagonistic world around us.

Prayer is a communing with God, I say, not a talking to Him; neither is it a communication of information He might not otherwise know.  Prayer is essentially an opening-up of self in ever greater trust to the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Who loves us, lives with us, in us, and for us, and Who knows us most intimately because He is ever forming us, from within, into a true likeness of His beloved and only-begotten Son, Jesus the Christ.  For such an opening-up-of-self, for such true soul-revealing prayer, words are not always necessary, but spiritual commitment is its very essence; and it is pre-eminently by such prayer and commitment to Him Who is our All that we will obtain:

The strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent, and to stand before the Son of Man.

And so, dear People of God, Advent – the season in which we prepare for the coming of the Son of Man anew into our lives – is a season during which we should endeavour to grow in calm steadfastness of spirit in the face of increasing worldly tribulations, social tensions, and perhaps, of personal trials too.  Advent is above all, however, a season to nourish spiritual joy of heart on the basis of a firm assurance and unshakeable hope in God’s goodness and grace, by persevering prayer and personal commitment.

Ask our Blessed Lady to help you, for she is the one who knew supremely well how to prepare for Jesus’ coming, and who communed sublimely with God in her heart; she is now your mother, she will not ignore your cry for help.   Oh! How our ‘televised’ world of today lavishes words of extravagant praise on ‘mums’ of whatever sort, but never turns to Mary with even a semblance of admiration, love, or trust!

We should, however, realise that although God always knows and appreciates our efforts and desires for good, He will never reward our pride and self-esteem with present and immediate success.  He seeks, above all, to bless our dutiful self with a heavenly and eternal reward for all our humble efforts and endeavours, and for that we need first to become true children of Mary, able to say most gratefully with her:

The Lord has looked upon the lowliness of His servant.

 

 

Christ the King Year B 2021

Christ the King (B)                  (Daniel 7:13-14; Apocalypse 1:5-8; John 18:33-37)

 

In our readings today we are given a magnificent portrait of Him Who is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son of God become Son of Man:

As the visions during the night continued, I saw coming with the clouds of heaven One like a son of man.  When He reached the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him, He received dominion, splendour, and kingship; all nations, peoples and tongues will serve Him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, His kingship one that shall not be destroyed.

Behold, He is coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.  All the peoples of the earth will lament Him.  Yes.   Amen.

And Jesus, in answer to Pontius Pilate’s question, pictured Himself as follows:

You say I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.

Jesus is therefore our King, and today we celebrate His saving rule in our lives.  As He told us, He came, as King, to bear witness to -- that is to proclaim in word and deed, by His death as throughout His life – the truth about God and His plan for our salvation.  He came as King in this respect because His proclamation of the truth had to be both authoritative and unambiguous, subject to neither frustration nor failure; and His message of love and forgiveness had ultimately to be heard in all the fullness of its beauty and power by all men.  As King, therefore, Jesus not only proclaims the Truth, He makes the Truth manifest, because He is the Truth:

            I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

That means, that those who have embraced the love that God has for us by believing in Our Lord Jesus’ proclamation and manifestation of that truth by His life and death, His words and works, have God -- Who is love -- abiding in them.

Consequently, we can appreciate that truth is not just words to be heard, it is a revelation of God’s very self, meant to be lovingly believed in order that God’s purpose for it may be fulfilled as Isaiah prophesied:

My word that goes forth from My mouth shall not return to Me empty, but shall do what pleases Me, achieving the end for which I sent it;

So will the Lord God make justice spring up and praise before all the nations (Isaiah 55:11; 61:11);

a fulfilment most beautifully celebrated by the Psalmist (Psalm 85:11) with the words:

Love and truth will meet; justice and peace will kiss.

It was strange, however, to hear the author of the book of Revelation emphatically assuring us that, when our Lord and Saviour comes in His glory:

Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.  And all the peoples of the earth will lament Him.  Yes.   Amen.

His coming will cause all the tribes of the earth to mourn, every eye to lament?  Obviously -- it would seem to us -- those who killed Him will mourn at His return in glory; but why should it be that all will lament, even those who loved Him?  

This will be because of the Truth; since it is, indeed, Gospel truth that all of us, each and every one of us on earth, have sinned:

There is no one just, not one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.  All have gone astray; all alike are worthless, there is not one who does good, not even one. (Romans 3:10-12)

However, those who receive the truth manifested and proclaimed in the Lord’s first coming, lament the evil that was done to Him then, above all they mourn their own part in that evil.  That is, they lament and mourn out of love, out of sympathy, for Him, and out of regret for and displeasure with their own behaviour.  For them, when Jesus’ comes on the clouds in glory, those other words of Scripture will be gloriously fulfilled:

You have changed my mourning into dancing; You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my soul may praise You and not be silent.  O Lord my God, forever I will give You thanks. (Psalm 30:11-12)

Those, on the other hand, who do not receive, do not embrace, that Truth made manifest in Jesus, will mourn simply and solely when He returns in glory: there will be no love for, no sympathy with, Him; nothing more than soul-deadening rejection of Him, and ever greater concern for themselves.

People of God, the kingdom of God, Jesus once said, is among you; and so -- today as every day -- the question, the drama, of truth and its reception is going on around us in society, in our community, and in the secret depths of our very own, individual, hearts and souls.  How do we, how should we, react to God’s truth in Mother Church?

There are those, who seem to think that truth is above all to be appreciated by our minds; as extensively and as accurately as possible.  On the other hand, there are those who think that heart’s love is really all that matters.   Let us consider aspects of those two attitudes a little more closely.

Many Catholics are perfectly content with themselves when they go to Mass and receive the Sacraments on the appointed days, as they have always done; they say they know the faith: they were taught it at school; or they received it in the instruction given them by a priest, say at conversion and baptism, or when they were preparing for marriage; and they gladly fulfil the obligations they originally accepted as part and parcel of the faith, but think no further.  Here we have an example of the proclaimed truth being retained by the mind -- believers doing what they have been taught and accepted -- but no longer provoking a responsive love of the heart for the God and Father originally embraced.  At the head of such disciples as these can be found clerics of all levels who will ‘say’ Mass and give the Sacraments in double-quick time, and present Catholic doctrine and spirituality with words that are, too often, little more than bloodless transcripts of Jesus’ words of life: mere abstract truths or cold mental concepts.

On the other hand, those who think that love is all that really matters are most content when they can give themselves exclusively to devotions or charity, to social involvement or emotional prayers: these have a full heart, indeed, but a mind which is not only relatively inactive, but even scornful of any need for better appreciation or greater understanding of the faith.  These Catholics rarely have any doubts about themselves, they do not experience any need to ask about, search for, deeper understanding of what they say they believe.  Quite satisfied with what they perceive as their own sure knowledge and warm heart, they fully approve of and aver the sincerity of their own actions and intentions.  And yet, how many sects have separated themselves from Mother Church over the centuries because of such disciples’ ignorance of personal maturity in Christ, and self-righteous scandal at others sins and failings!

People of God, Jesus has come to bear witness to the truth for us, and He tells us that:

            Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.

That is, everyone who is of the truth hears now, listens for, God’s voice calling throughout the whole of their life: HEARS day-long, alert at whatever hour to HEAR from and respond to Him they love and need above all.  And even though what they hear is not always to their immediate liking, even though the message they hear may at times, be about their own sinfulness and failings, nevertheless, even such words of the Lord are heard and embraced with reverence and contrite love.

So, People of God, on this feast of Christ the King let us open both our minds and our hearts to Him in His Gospel proclamation, which continues to be heard to this very day in our most modern world through Mother Church’s liturgy and life.  It is a proclamation of faith not just to be remembered as ammunition for argument, we need to appreciate and love it, by committing ourselves to live by it and for it and GROW in it; only thus will we allow it to fulfil God’s purpose in our lives.  Jesus assures us that for God, Truth and Love are one; let us also recall those other words of His to the effect that what God has joined together in life-commitment, none of us should ever try to separate.

                                                         

33rd Sunday Year B 2021

 

33^rd. Sunday (Year B)                                                                                        (Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32)

 

 

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Scripture readings today we are encouraged to consider something the world prefers to ignore and wants to forget, something the world fears to such an extent that it will not even entertain the possibility of it: namely, the coming Judgement.

However, we Catholic disciples of Jesus, being well aware that He once said (Mt. 24:35):

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away;

are today both reminded and reassured by Jesus’ words in our Gospel reading, of the eternal truth of Christian teaching concerning the judgement to come, in which the righteous will be recompensed and the wicked punished.

The prophet Daniel, continuing our first reading, spoke (12:10) words which we find verified by our own experience and that of Mother Church in our world today:

Many shall be refined, purified, and tested, but the wicked shall prove wicked; the wicked shall have no understanding, but those with insight shall.

It is, indeed, a fact today that we see all around us “the wicked proving themselves wicked”: we find that wisdom and understanding, far from being valued and sought-after, are mocked and disregarded, while the most abominable practices are openly flaunted and accepted; indeed, they are even being covered over with a cloak of pseudo-respectability, to such an extent that some simple Christians and even some Catholics, are troubled, as Jesus foretold:

False messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect.   (Mark 13:22)

In our Gospel reading Jesus again mentions “the elect” as you heard:

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and then He will send out the angels, and gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

Who are these “elect”?   Daniel told us in those words: "many shall be refined, purified, and tested”, because the elect are those faithful disciples who throughout their life on earth are being formed into a likeness of their Lord through the sacraments of Mother Church and by the gifts and guidance of the Holy Spirit, whereby they are enabled to walk perseveringly and faithfully along the way of Jesus. 

Indeed, a notable part of the purging and purifying of the faithful elect is accomplished by the sufferings they have to endure in order to remain true to Jesus despite the allurements and trials of life; and today mockery is one of the great trials Christians have to endure for Jesus, in particular, mockery of Jesus’ teaching about a future judgement. 

Now Jesus speaks of the coming of that judgement day when He says:

After that tribulation (the appearance of false messiahs performing their signs and wonders), the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Constantly hearing and learning of primeval powers at work in our own sun and the Milky Way around us, in the immense galaxies light years upon light years distant from us, we can imagine something of the calamitous nature of such pre-judgement events; but much more immediately instructive has been the calamitous advent of Covid19 all over the world, the end of which is not -- despite massive programmes of vaccinations and scientific studies -- yet in view, nor is its potential and ultimate magnitude able to be envisaged.  Indeed, over and beyond even such a threat, is the possible religious significance and warning behind Covid’s occurrence: for our Scriptures repeatedly interpret such past events in Israel’s history – that is our history as People of God – as the result of worldly sin, in the lives of those called to be holy.

For the psalmists of old, the heavens spoke of the glory of God: in those days, there were few facts available other than those our human senses could immediately discern; however, being filled with the gifts of humility and wisdom, the psalmists were able to understand and interpret aright what enduring facts were known to them.  Today, however, for many moderns, what appear to be facts are so multitudinous and often so tenuous that the human mind is overwhelmed as it seeks to co-relate them into a real and comprehensible whole.  Moreover, where faith has been lost and pride acknowledged as an acceptable guide, many falsely interpret what they have correctly but only partially observed, with the result that their reading of the heavens proclaims not the Glory and the Goodness of God, but rather the purposeless, chaotic being of powers ever-beyond present human awareness and ultimate comprehension.

Our probes into the secrets of nature extend ever farther and deeper and yet, scientists find it increasingly difficult to gain an understanding of them that can embrace and unify such an immense diversity of facts new and old.  Newton came up with such an understanding -- which we call a hypothesis -- which seemed to embrace and unify the then known facts, and caused scientific circles great rejoicing.   Later, Einstein came up with another explanation, another new hypothesis, which again rejoiced the minds of scientists, and again led many to think “Now we can explain all things.”   The flow of new facts, however, continued and continues, and not all fit into even our very-latest hypotheses and so, today we are increasingly aware that we experience and are aware of so very, very, little of the totality of what is real. 

Think of it in this way: when it is light, we see; and we then think that light shows us everything.  Normally, however, we only experience ordinary light, while science tells us that such ordinary light contains many, many, different wavelengths, each revealing different objects, such as infra-red light, ultra-violet rays, X rays, all opening different views of what we had thought we knew well enough.

And so, scientific understanding is always playing catch-up with the latest discoveries, and the fact is,  that only religious truth can give us an appreciation and a right understanding of ultimate reality: science can only hope to explain something of what is naturally experienced; it cannot apprehend, let alone explain, what is supernatural; and so, it cannot speak to us of the ultimate significance and purpose, the final destiny, for which God in His goodness has created our own selves and the universe we inhabit at His behest. 

Now, Judgement Day will be one of the most supremely majestic of supernatural events;  it will be the supreme manifestation of the power and holiness of the Lord and Master of creation, and, as the letter to the Hebrews told us in the second reading, only Jesus, the Incarnation of God’s creating Word, is – by the power of His Spirit -- able to lead us through that Judgement to salvation:

(Jesus) offered one sacrifice for sins and took His seat forever at the right hand of God; now He waits until His enemies are made His footstool.  For by one offering He has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated. 

Jesus is the only Saviour: God-made-man, His word is Truth and His power to save is almighty and eternal.  The mockers who think they know, will be made a stool for His feet; and, for their mockery and boasted worldly wisdom, there will be on Judgement Day, a judgement awesome in its inevitability and power, and glorious in its unforeseeable beauty:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by not pass away.  But of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 

Now, People of God, we are not really concerned with science here, we want to learn how we can survive that coming judgement and find eternal blessedness, for, as our readings today warn us, when the Judgement Day comes:

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, others to everlasting reproach and everlasting disgrace.

Now, is the time of trial: even at this very moment, the process of choosing and preparing the elect is going on all over the world, going on in you and me.

But the wicked shall prove wicked; (they) shall have no understanding.

It has always been so, the wicked rejoice in their wickedness and they convince themselves that nothing will happen to them; they surround themselves with others who think as they do, distracting their minds with projects, and silencing their consciences with pleasures.  Nevertheless, for those who seek to live before God and are willing to be guided by the Scriptures,

Many shall be refined, purified, and tested (as I have said by the grace of the Holy Spirit and the light of Jesus’ teaching in Mother Church) and those with insight shall (have understanding).

There lies our vocation, People of God: whilst we have the time, we are called to seek understanding and urged to live wisely, for (Daniel 12:3):

Those with insight shall shine brightly like the splendour of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.

Therefore, dear People of God, do not let yourselves be troubled by scoffers who ignore the teaching of truth; who walk, indeed run, merrily, along ways that lead to destruction.  Let Mother Church guide you, let the Spirit of Jesus lead you, to righteousness and insight; for then you will come to know -- even here on earth -- something of the plenitude of peace and fullness of joy promised by Our Lord, before ultimately sharing in His transcendent glory when those other words of Jesus find their fulfilment:

They will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then He will send out the angels and gather (His) elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. 

 

32nd Sunday Year B 2021

 

32^nd. Sunday (Year B)

(1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44)

 

The Temple in Jerusalem and the synagogues spread throughout the country were two very distinct aspects of the worship of God in Israel.  The ‘latest version’, so to speak, of the Temple was -- in Our Lord’s time -- the magnificent, world-famous, Herodian Temple in Jerusalem, built by Herod -- a non-Jewish Procurator of Judea -- to curry favour with his Jewish subjects.  As a building, it was Herod’s pride and joy, meriting him the appellation ‘the Great’: it was indeed both the glory of Israel and the envy of nations world-wide.  But it won no favour for Herod with his Jewish, Law-observing subjects, despite the fact that they used its splendour as the national centre for official Jewish, centuries-old, sacrificial worship carried out in accordance with the Law given by God to Moses.  The synagogue, on the other hand, was a more recent institution: a humble, local centre in Jewish towns and villages everywhere, a religious centre for devout, non-sacrificial, worship of Israel’s God, serving the exigencies of the Law -- especially the Ten Commandments -- given by  God, through Moses, as a covenant with Israel, a covenant to be known, understood and loved, by the people thanks to the Scribes knowledge and understanding of the Torah itself, the inspirations of God-sent prophets, and the witness of Israel’s history of blessings, unfaithfulness, suffering, penance and renewal.  The synagogue was, moreover, a house of mutual comfort and strength in local communities throughout the country and wherever Jews had been sent or congregated together.

Priests served in the prestigious Temple in Jerusalem where, every year, hundreds of thousands would come from abroad to worship at the great festivals: worship centred on the glorification of the God of Israel and the offering of satisfaction -- according to the Law -- for Israel’s national sin and for the sins of individuals. Scribes were scholars, more to be associated with the quiet synagogue assemblies where worship was directed expressly to the spiritual advancement of the Jewish people in their understanding of, and obedience to, God’s will and purpose for His Chosen People, as expressed in the Torah or Law.

Robes were both acceptable and required for priests; they were something of an affectation for Scribes:

Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honour in the synagogues, and places of honour at banquets.  

The Priests were dressed as God’s servants and ministers for public ceremony and religious splendour.  The Scribes, however, outside the capital Jerusalem, were local teachers, helping the ordinary people in their understanding of the Law and the virtue needed to obey it.   Affectations in Scribes – like wearing those long robes mentioned in our Gospel reading -- easily developed into ostentation, and, since personal expenditure was needed to sustain it, it does not surprise us to learn that the Scribes were keen on money.; however, the criminality deserving of Jesus’ promised ‘severe condemnation’, only came when such love of money led them so far astray as to take advantage of the most vulnerable in society:

They devour the houses of widows.

From then on, their religion became nothing more than an empty shell:

Reciting lengthy prayers as a (mere) pretext.

The Temple Priests, the Scribes and their close associates the Pharisees, were all worshippers of the one true God of Israel in their diverse ways, and so too -- but in a non-religious way -- were numerous wealthy Israelites (remember the rich young man who came to Jesus?) who, believing their riches were a special gift/reward from God put, as today’s Gospel reading tells us, generous donations into the Temple treasury.  It was  these latter worshippers whom Jesus, in order to teach His disciples what He considered to be most important, compared with the unknown widow, who also ‘donation-worshipped’ God but in a truly sublime way: without any ostentation, and without any reservations either, putting her whole living in the collection box of the Temple:

Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.   Many rich people put in large sums.  A poor widow also came and put in two mites, which make a quadrans.  Calling His disciples to Himself He said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.  For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."

She required no respectful greeting, she sought no special honours.  Unnoticed and unappreciated, probably quite unknown, she treasured what the wealthy donors only appreciated, and what the Scribes were at times tempted to abuse, God’s goodness and majesty; and the money those treasured to their own ruin, she -- totally forgetful of herself -- converted into divine currency: unfeigned charity, to her own great reward.

Jesus pointed her out as a model for admiration and imitation to His disciples, and through His Church He still puts her example before us, His present-day disciples, and that deserves our most careful notice and deep consideration as Christians and Catholics.

Modern critics of religious attitudes and others proud to think of themselves as radicals, faced with those two semi-parabolic stories from the Gospel would most likely conclude, first of all, that religious persons, as such, should not be given official marks of respect, places of honour, because their prayer – public and private – is probably hypocritical and certainly deluded; while from the second story they will not dream of celebrating the woman’s self-forgetfulness and total dedication to God but rather condemn her for thus jettisoning her life-resources.

Let me, therefore, recall to your mind the first reading in which the Lord performed a great miracle for Elijah and a starving woman of Zarephath:

“Do not be afraid,” Elijah said to her. “Go and do as you propose.   But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son.”

Here is another story concerning Elijah, the great prophet who appeared to Our Lord together with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration:

The king sent to (Elijah) a captain of fifty with his fifty men. So, he went up to Elijah sitting on the top of a hill. And he spoke to him: "Man of God, the king has said, 'Come down!'"  So, Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men." And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

(And exactly the same happened a second time.)

Again, he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and pleaded with him, and said to him: "Man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight.  Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up the first two captains of fifties with their fifties. But let my life now be precious in your sight."  And the angel of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." So, he arose and went down with him to the king. (2 Kings 1:9ss.)

The king was showing total disregard and disrespect for the God of Israel and disdain for His prophet, who was to be dragged like some malefactor into the king’s presence.  The Lord, however, wanted Elijah to be shown respect and you have heard the result.  The Scribe liked, and in his way demanded, respect; Elijah expected and accepted it.  Why was one so very right and the other totally wrong?

The Scribe was wrong in his attitude because he sought and delighted in respectful greetings for his own person!   Elijah wanted respect as the Lord’s prophet not for his own person: “I am the prophet of the Lord, the God of Israel, Who has chosen me.  Have respect for the Lord’s prophet.   But as for myself, I am no better than my fathers.”

Elijah had the personal courage and reverential love for God to demand respect as a prophet of the Lord God of Israel in the face of royal autocracy; and when an unknown, God-guided widow, had the humility and devotion to freely accord him great respect, he was able to save her and the whole of Israel in time of drought and famine:

She said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar, and a little oil in my jug.  Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die."  Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you propose.  But first make me a little cake and bring it to me.  Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son. For the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'"  She left and did as Elijah had said.   She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well.   The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the Lord had foretold through Elijah.

How long might that famine have continued in Israel had that destitute widow not shown such respect for God’s servant?

The two women in today’s readings were prodigal with themselves in their respect and reverence for God; for the widow of Zarephath, God, through Elijah, most wonderfully rewarded such respect and reverence; as for the ‘poor widow’ in the Temple, we have heard how Jesus appreciated her gift, and we have undoubting faith that God, the Father of Jesus, with like appreciation, rewarded and glorified her beyond measure.

Now let me quote words of Jesus uttered before our Gospel story:

Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and that of the Gospel will save it.    (Mark 8: 3-35)

There Jesus expresses in general terms, for all His future disciples, what He had admiringly allowed one particularly chosen and uniquely endowed woman to exemplify.  Our trouble today is that some disciples are in danger of seeking to rob the Faith of any mystery, or any demands, above ordinary understanding; to apologize for whatever cannot be immediately and easily explained.  God’s words, however, are words of divine wisdom and sublime truth, expressing heavenly, eternal, love, and we should not try to turn them into milk, saccharine, and water, with pseudo, popularity-seeking, ‘explanations’.  We must never forget Jesus’ further words:

Whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.

We have been given but one prayer of Jesus and in it He emphasizes, from the very beginning, what is the essential aspect of prayer for Him as a model for our prayer, and it begins:

            Our Father Who art in heaven, HALLOWED BE THY NAME!

This is a most important lesson for us when many have lost respect for anything said to be holy.  Today, for example, some young people have no respect for the elderly, but idolise pop stars who are regularly doped and/or drunk.  Others will wholeheartedly cheer footballers who are paid many millions, but they jeer -- as fat cats -- business leaders who earn much less though providing work for many needy people.  Likewise, in family life today, parents are too frequently judged merely on the basis of their personal character, while children are over-indulged as children.  As a result, many young people judge their parents and show them little or no respect, while childhood is reckoned to excuse selfish, wild, and destructive behaviour.  That is quite wrong.  A mother or father is due respect from their children because of their parenthood even though, as persons, they may not be as good as they should be.  Obedience due to parents comes to an end with adulthood; respect for parents should never come to an end because they were instruments of God in the birth of their children, and as such, are holy.  Likewise, Mother Church, the holy Scriptures, priests and religious, the sacred vessels and the church building, all deserve respect in varying degrees, because they belong to God, they do God’s work or serve God’s purposes.

God’s love is ever warm to succour, His power is ever ready to save.  Today, we must remember, however, that there can be no justice among nations, no equity in society, no peace in our homes or in our hearts, when respect for God is ignored; when His institutions – e.g. marriage and the family – for human development and fulfilment, harmony in personal relations, and for order and  balance in the natural world, are all sacrificed on the altar of self-exaltation and worldly advantage, where personal, acceptable, pleasure, and spiritual ignorance, are the accepted criteria for popular living.

Nevertheless, despite all temporal trials, disappointments and setbacks, our Catholic aspirations and expectations, our Christian prayers, will not wilt with time, nor will they prove futile and false for, as our reading from the letter to the Hebrews assures us:

It is appointed that Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second tome, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.

                    (Adapted 2021)

 

All Saints 2021

 

ALL SAINTS

(Revelation 7:2-4,9-14; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12a)

 

 

Our readings today give a wonderful panoramic view of the heavenly celebration for the triumphant Lamb of God and the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God.

The first reading told of a great multitude from every nation, race, people and tongue present at that heavenly gathering; and despite such disparity all those blessed guests were to be found as one singing exultantly:

Before the throne and the Lamb, wearing white (festal) robes and holding palm branches in their hands, (as) they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation comes from our God, Who is seated on the throne and from the Lamb.

Our Blessed Lord Himself, very early in His public ministry, aware of what lay before Him, showed how He himself envisioned the glory of His heavenly destiny while facing up to the reality of what would be His earthly experience.

            Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Speaking to a crowd gathered round Him hoping to find salvation after the difficulties of life, He addressed and encouraged the poor in spirit, the meek, and the clean of heart, those courageous and strong under persecution, and yet others burning with zeal for righteousness, with those very words sustaining His own heart in peace and love before His heavenly Father:

            Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Jesus died for all mankind; He was indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the one supreme and sublime Model for each and every individual formed in the image and likeness of God.  And all of those called by the Father who have learned to love and obey His Son-made-flesh, reflect the myriad aspects of the plenitude of Jesus’ divinely human being, all so different and yet all so complementary, because Jesus’ love of the Father finds expression through, and reigns supreme in, all of them.  And that same love of Jesus continues to draw all men here on earth to Himself through His Spirit at work in and through Mother Church, His mystical Body.

People of God, you know that all of us, through faith and baptism, are already, as John said in the second reading, called children of God:

See what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called the children of God!  Yet so we are!

Such great proof of His love the Father has given us: surely, we not only can, we should, we must, have total confidence in Him!  That is what John wants to fill our hearts and minds with as we ponder ever anew those words of his:

What love the Father has bestowed on us!!

Of course, while we are still in this world we will experience the troubles of the world; indeed, as John said, we are likely to experience more troubles in some respects, since:

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

And, while that did not trouble John, who could surely say along with St. Paul:

For to me, life is Christ and death is gain (Philippians 1:21);

nevertheless, for many Christians and Catholics today, the fact that our modern society does not acknowledge Jesus, that our faith and practices are mocked, our teaching contested and rejected, that does trouble them.  It troubles them because they want to live a not so-explicitly-Christ-life as did John and Paul, but a little more worldly life, made happy with family and friends, opportunities, abilities and hopes.  Their faith, at present not strong enough for them to see death as anything other than a most painful loss, nevertheless affords them that measure of hope and love needed for a possible future of faithful discipleship.

That desire to live a happy, worldly, life can, however, so easily, almost irresistibly, lead us astray: to protect what we have, to get what we want, we plan and we plot as if all depended on ourselves; we aspire and we seek to be acknowledged and appreciated by others, and so we strive to live the sort of life they put before themselves, setting aside, then forgetting, and ultimately omitting the ideal of a life of Christian sincerity based on the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.  Our fear of death and loss thus so often and so easily leads us to want a Gospel which promises everything and demands little or nothing, which is satisfied with soft and easy options which do not rock our worldly boat nor disturb our worldly conscience which helps us think and say some nice words about Jesus and the Church, but never seriously challenges us with calls to commit ourselves or risk our peace for His sake.

These and other similar, very human, sentiments have, surely, at some time or other, tempted all of us, and so St. John wishes to strengthen us against any such compromises or betrayals by words of encouragement (I John 3:2-3):

Beloved, we are God’s children now, what we shall be has not yet been revealed.  We know that, when it is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.            Everyone who has this hope based on Him, makes himself pure as He is pure.

We have received, John says, a wonderful proof of God’s love for us by allowing us to be called His children; and the reason we can be called God’s children is because we have faith in God’s Son who died and rose again for us, and hope in His Spirit, given to ever abide with, enlighten, sustain and strengthen Mother Church, and also to work in all her devout children forming them ever more in the likeness of Jesus with love for the Father. John wants us to realize that when Jesus comes again to establish the definitive Kingdom of God He will come in glory -- heavenly, divine, glory -- and then, amazingly, we shall be found like Him, able to share with Him and in Him.  Dear People of God, let this hope rule in your hearts and minds, as John urges:

Everyone who has this hope based on Jesus (and His Spirit) makes himself pure as He (Jesus) is pure.

That hope of ultimately sharing with all the saints in the glory of Jesus, and as members of the Son, being eternally blessed as children of the heavenly Father; that hope, based on the stupendous power of the Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead and has made Mary Queen of heaven above all angels and archangels, that sure and consuming hope, John says, will protect and purify us from our human weakness and personal sinfulness, and from the evil of the world which will not accept us because it would not acknowledge Jesus.

People of God, today’s celebration is a further call from Mother Church to renew our Christian and Catholic hope; today’s celebration is a reminder that the saints in heaven are awaiting us and praying for us, praying that our time on earth will be like a pilgrimage leading to the heavenly shrine, indeed a pilgrimage leading to our eternal home.  People of God, today’s celebration is a reminder to each and every one of us that we should not hope for, nor expect, a happy life according to the world’s appreciation, but rather that our life on earth may afford us a training that will enable us ultimately to participate with our whole mind, heart, and soul, in a heavenly life of beauty, truth, and love, of which we are simply neither capable nor worthy at present.

Dear People of God, we should most earnestly beseech the Most Holy Spirit to penetrate our life with that love and obedience Jesus ever showed toward His Father, and empower us,  even here on earth, to:

Rejoice in the Lord always.  I shall say it again, rejoice!  Your kindness should be known to all.  The Lord is near.  Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.  Then the peace of God, that surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  (Phil. 4:4-7)

One of the great secrets of Mary is her relationship with the Holy Spirit of Jesus.  Jesus was raised from the dead in His mortal body in the glory of the Spirit.   When He ascended to heavenly glory Mary longed and prayed for His Spirit to fill her anew and guide her so that she might be with her Son, where He had gone … such loving desire, such humble awareness of her absolute need, opened her up – so to speak – totally to the Spirit, allowing Him to guide her, form her, glorify her in every detail of her being without the slightest resistance or obstruction whatsoever … thus did He lead her to become Queen of Heaven.   My dear people of God,  we too, as children of Mary, have to deeply long for, earnestly pray for, totally open ourselves up to, the Spirit of Jesus that He might freely and fully work in us for our eternal and heavenly life.   More we cannot do; less will not suffice, for the Spirit alone can form us in Jesus, for the glory of the Father.

30th Sunday Year B 2021

 

30th. Sunday (Year B)

(Jeremiah 31:7-9; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52)

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Jesus only used those words:

                Your faith has saved you

on four occasions: with Bartimaeus in today’s Gospel; with the woman suffering from a 12 years-long haemorrhage (Mt.9:22; Mk. 5:34), with ‘Mary’ the sinful woman cured in the Pharisee’s house at a meal being held in Jesus’ honour, and with the grateful Samaritan healed of his leprosy (Lk. 7:50, 17:19). 

However, in our Gospel reading it was not the miracle performed for Bartimaeus that is of central importance for us today but Jesus Himself Who – despite the noise of the surrounding crowd and those who were shouting down the beggar’s cries -- heard that cry for mercy and recognized the faith behind it.

God’s mercy and goodness is also the focal point of the prophet’s celebration of Israel’s deliverance from exile in Babylon of which we heard in the first reading; a temporal deliverance as it turned out due to Israel’s recurring and abiding sin, but, nevertheless, one both foreshadowing and preparing for Jesus’ definitive salvation:

Behold, I will bring them back as an immense throng from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, the mothers and those with child.  They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them.  I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble; for I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.

Jesus’ compassionate understanding is likewise emphasized in the second reading where we were told that, as our High Priest:

Taken from among men (being born a human being of the Virgin) He is a priest forever, able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring.  

Now that is the key for our understanding and appreciation of today’s readings, and we can learn much from a short study of Bartimaeus’ attitude and actions.

Jesus heard Bartimaeus’ cry because Bartimaeus was centred totally on the Person of Jesus: deaf to words of abuse from the crowd, he was ‘locked onto’ the Person of Jesus; and if we recall the other members of the quartet who were addressed by Jesus with the words ‘Your faith has saved you’, we will recognize that all of them were -- each in their own way – likewise, locked onto Jesus: the woman with the incurable haemorrhage working her way through the surrounding throng, the Samaritan grateful beyond measure, going back into possible danger in order to thank Jesus before going home; and Mary oblivious to the disdain, scorn, and indeed contempt being shown her, as she wept for her sins before her Lord.

The obvious ‘next step’ would be for me to say, ‘that is how we should pray … locked onto Jesus, wholeheartedly and personally’, which would be undeniably true; but I am not sure how helpful it would be to state the obvious so bluntly.  For Bartimaeus – as indeed all the other three persons mentioned – had most compelling motives and/or pressing situations spurring them on to meet with Jesus; we, on the other hand, often start our prayer ‘from cold’ so to speak, having just set aside our previous business, trying to forget recent distractions, feeling tired and weary towards the end of the day.  How can we motivate ourselves à la Bartimaeus?

The clearest guidance he offers us is a most important consideration for all seeking Jesus: the need to be independent of public -- ‘peoples’ -- opinion.  It is, indeed, a ‘dogma’ of classical spiritual teaching that dependence on a crowd is inimical to the moral well-being of whoever would be a serious disciple of Jesus.   This is contained in those remarkable words of Jesus to His Father:

I gave them Your word and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.  Consecrate them in the truth.  Your word is truth.  (John 17:14, 17)

Jesus’ disciples can have perhaps any number of relationships, connections, with the world but they cannot belong to the world any more than Jesus did, and even Bartimaeus, a beggar who depended largely on the ‘world’ for his daily food, stopped begging from passers-by in order to cry out loudly for Jesus’ attention, despite  criticism from those he would normally have hoped to please, and even from certain of Jesus’ disciples whom he might have hoped would support him: Bartimaeus had no concern for any sort of ‘public opinion’, either for him or against him, in his relationship with Jesus, and in that he is a splendid example for all aspiringly-true disciples of Jesus.

There is something else that can be helpful for us as regards Bartimaeus’ healing.  To human eyes, he just happened to be humbly positioned by the roadside with his begging bowl as Jesus was passing by:

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, sat by the roadside begging.  On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out.

Now, when we want to pray, it is most helpful and – out of reverence – essential, to put oneself, deliberately as best we can, in the way of Jesus, so to speak.  Bartimaeus was indeed just sitting there; but he had, perhaps unwittingly, put himself in the right place, where he was able to hear Jesus Who, passing through the town, was not directly looking for Bartimaeus, but just happened to be in his vicinity.   Such patient, humble, hanging around, in a ‘place’ where Jesus might come near – perhaps even stumble over us, so to speak -- is essential for prayer. Our Lord does not follow a book of appointments, nor is His attention restricted to approved times and favourable opportunities; He hears, infallibly and whenever, anyone and everyone who -- like Bartimaeus -- wholeheartedly cries out to Him in acknowledged need, with confident faith, humble persistence, and sincere reverence.

There is yet another aspect of Bartimaeus’ nascent relationship with Jesus that we should note: he recognized and committed himself to Jesus as someone quite wonderful, most exceptional, despite the fact that it was common knowledge that Jesus was regarded by His own townspeople as nothing very special, was openly mocked and contradicted by the official holy ones of Israel, the Pharisees, and actually hated by the authoritative ones, the Sadducees and the Temple authorities.   The fact is that a truly Christian faith was dawning in Bartimaeus, a faith which now -- having being cherished for almost 2000 years in the bosom of Mother Church -- we ourselves are most wonderfully privileged to embrace in full, and through which we believe that the Nazarene invoked by Bartimaeus was and is the very Son of God, sent by His Father as Saviour among men.  Though now, He has apparently left us Personally and is seated in glory at the right hand of His Father in heaven, that divine transcendency  enables Jesus the Nazarine to be abidingly and uniquely present with us as Lord and Saviour in Mother Church and in her Eucharist: that Church which Saul (later to become Paul) persecuted causing the voice of the risen Lord to say to him: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME?’; that Eucharist which Jesus Himself commanded us to receive saying: ‘He who eats ME, shall live because of Me.’

Both the Church and the Eucharist are called Jesus’ Body in the Scriptures; and we should ever more clearly realize that we are worshipping here today because we believe that Mother Church -- despite whatever individual scandals may momentarily disfigure and betray her – is the mystical Body of Christ  and that we are only truly and fully Catholics and Christians in so far as we are living members of that mystical Body; and that the Holy Eucharist -- the sacramental Body and Blood of Christ -- is the unique, ultimately sublime, Personal presence of Jesus  our God, Lord and Saviour, here on earth, for our salvation. 

Dear People of God, never be complacent or careless with regard to such truths and treasures; seek to know and appreciate the Faith ever more, and try to deepen your love and reverence for Our Lord in the Eucharist as the Holy Spirit inspires you.

We human beings are made for lasting and loving relationships, but above all for the  one lasting, loving, and personally unique relationship that authenticates who we are ... and that one, unique, relationship is, for our part, only ours in Jesus, by the Spirit, with the Father.  For God’s part, He alone, our Creator, is supremely alive and loving, beautiful and truthful, good, Holy and humble enough, so to speak, to have Personally unique relationships with all those who, guided by the Spirit, come to Him in Jesus.

And there a Sunday sermon must end where more explicit spirituality waits to take over.