27th Sunday Year C 2022

 

27^th. Sunday, Year (C) 

 

(Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4; 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; Luke 17:5-10)

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My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our first reading from the prophet Habakkuk contained one of the most famous phrases in Scripture:

                The just shall live by his faith.

 

This phrase has been repeated directly and indirectly time and again in the New Testament:

In (the Gospel) is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)     

That no one is justified before God by the Law is clear, for the just man shall live by faith. (Galatians 3:11)       

Now My just one shall live by faith; but if he draws back, I take no pleasure in him. (Hebrews 10:38)

 

As you can see faith was a central and an essential point of Christian teaching for St. Paul. Why is faith so important?  Well, just recall the Gospel reading.  The Apostles -- perhaps after the failure of nine of them to heal an epileptic boy brought to them, a failure, Jesus had said, due to their lack of faith; and also, perhaps, after the other three, Peter, James, and John, had felt themselves so totally overwhelmed on the Mount of Transfiguration where they heard the voice of the Father speaking from the cloud and had witnessed  Jesus conversing with Moses and Elijah – all twelve of the Apostles had come to recognize their need, above all, to grow in faith; and they turned to Jesus and besought Him, saying:    Increase our faith.

Those recent experiences seem to have deeply affected the Twelve, for they had felt compelled to put a very honest and childlike request to Jesus, a request that made it evidently clear that they were indeed in the process of being formed as children of God, destined for spiritual manhood, and so the Lord replied:

 

If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.

 

A mustard seed is the smallest of seeds in the lands of the Bible as St. Mark tells us:

A mustard seed, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth (4:31). 

That you may have a clearer idea of the significance of Jesus' parable, let me now give you a short description of the mulberry tree which could top 35’ (Barnes' notes):

Look, now, at this tree: its ample girth, its wide-spread arms branching off from the parent trunk only a few feet from the ground.  Next, examine its enormous roots: as thick, as numerous, and as widespread into the deep soil below as the branches extend into the air above.  What power on earth can pluck up such a tree? Heaven's thunderbolt may strike it down, the wild tornado may tear it to fragments, but, surely, nothing short of miraculous power could pluck it up by the roots."

The Apostles were only beginning to understand the treasure which was theirs.   In true spiritual childhood they had asked for greater faith to be given them, but they could not be allowed to childishly think that only God’s giving was involved … they had to grow in understanding and realize that all gifts of God require our co-operation if we are to appreciate them aright and profit from them.  They wanted an increase of faith, a greater quantity of faith to put it more concretely, and they were told that, even if their faith was no bigger than the proverbial mustard seed, if they really believed, they could even uproot a mulberry tree and throw it into the sea.

St. Paul, the Lord’s specially chosen Apostle of the Gentiles, did understand this unimaginable power of faith after the Resurrection of Jesus, for in a letter to the Christians at Ephesus (1:18-21) he says:

May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to His call, what are the riches of glory in His inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power for us who believe, in accordance with the exercise of His great might, which He worked in Christ, raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens,  far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.

That is the full understanding of the wondrous power and final purpose of faith, for us: through our faith, the power of God which raised Jesus from the dead unto the right hand of the Father in glory can be at work in us to raise us up in Jesus to the Father.

It is not the quantity of faith we may have, that matters, but its quality.  Having received the initial gift of faith, it is not a matter of our asking, like Oliver Twist, for more to be given us by God; what matters is our co-operating more closely and whole-heartedly with what we have already been given: whether we allow the faith given us to work freely in us, to guide and even determine our lives, or whether we put all sorts of worldly considerations in the way as obstacles to its development; whether, in one way or another, we allow personal timidity and self-centeredness to constrict our heart and inhibit self-commitment in our lives before God.

The Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

Dear People of God, even if our faith be like a mustard seed, we must allow it to work freely and fully in us and it will prove to be an ever-increasing and ultimately irresistible force in our lives until it brings us to fulfilment.

We are told that throughout His earthly life Jesus was being perfected, as a man, until He was totally committed in the fullness of His humanity – at every level and to the fullest extent of all His human powers and potentialities – to His heavenly Father and to us:

Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered.  And when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. (Hebrews 5:8-9)

There was so much He could not appreciate and embrace as a child … only as full-grown man, for example, could He appreciate the loving obedience of suffering and embrace the sacrificial commitment of death … and only when having become absolutely perfect in His humanity, could that humanity serve as the source of our eternal salvation.

Throughout creation life engenders life, life alone nourishes life …. What has never been alive can never serve to nourish and sustain the living.  Our Blessed Lord brought new life for mankind; He is the unique source of that hitherto unknown life which is able to promote the fullness of humanity and share in the goodness of divinity.  That is why we are not ashamed to say that we eat the Body and drink the Blood of Christ:

Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.    Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.  For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me and I in him.  (John 6:53-56)

Jesus’ humanity was being irrevocably perfected throughout His life on earth because He was, from beginning to end, the only-begotten Son of the eternal Father being led by the Holy Spirit to the fulness of humanity; and a like process of perfecting cannot begin in us until we become children of God through faith in Jesus.  It is our faith which sets that process going; you can say faith is that power of perfection in our life which leads, under the guidance and power of Jesus’ gift of the Spirit, to eternal glory in heaven.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not only treasure, but let us also understand the nature of, our faith: it is a vital power of personal communion, becoming more and more fulfilling as we let it take ever greater control of our lives.  It is not an inert parcel of something which can be given and received in bigger or smaller portions and which -- remaining the same as when originally given -- might cause us to ask: ‘Give us more, please.’  No, our faith is a living process of dialogue, appreciation and commitment, which of its very nature goes on and on (if indeed we let it and follow it) until we reach the perfection of our being and the fulfilment of our personal identity.  Although nothing can resist it -- it could uproot even a mulberry tree, transfer a mountain into the sea -- we ourselves, however, can slow it down; indeed, we can even stop the process of its growth by our indifference, ignorance, worldliness and sinfulness. 

Let us turn to St. Paul again, as you heard him speak in the second reading

 

Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us.

 

Paul urges us to co-operate with the leading and protecting power of God’s Holy Spirit and learn to delight in and work with our treasure-trove of ‘faith and love in Christ Jesus’:

 

Therefore, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the laying on of my hands.  For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power, love, and self-control.  So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for His sake; but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.

 

We are not to repeat the failure of those in the time of the prophet Habakkuk who in the weakness and hopelessness of unredeemed humanity cried out:

 

Why do You let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife and clamorous discord, yet You do not listen, You do not intervene.

 

The time of rest, the time for rejoicing over the ultimate conquest of evil is not yet.  Jesus Himself is indeed in heavenly glory, but we His disciples still have work, much work, to do for Him -- for His Body, the Church – here on earth:

 

Prepare something for My supper, and gird yourself and serve Me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink

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It is for that purpose we have been gifted with "the faith and love that is in Christ Jesus"; let us then aspire, with sure confidence and firm hope, to the fulfilment of His promise:

 

Blessed are those servants whom the Master, when He comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that He will gird Himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.  (Luke 12:37-38)

 

 

 

26th Sunday Year C 2022

 

26^th Sunday Year (C)

(Amos 6:1, 4-7; 1^st. Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31)

 

 My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the readings given us by Mother Church today we are presented with a parable of Jesus speaking as the Messiah to Israelites called to be God’s Chosen People,  a parable which is also striking in its evocation of life in our modern Western world: not by its picturing for us the unbridled luxury of a few totally self-centered, rich, individuals of old, but by mirroring the far deadlier unrestrained moral self-sufficiency, so wide spread and blatant in today’s Western society, where God is denied, religion mocked, and Christianity despised, because its roots go deep into our Western psyche, and are feared because they are still capable of stirring peoples’ conscience:

Woe to the complacent in Zion!  Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches, they eat lambs taken from the flock, and calves from the stall!    Improvising to the music of the harp, like David, they devise their own accompaniment. They drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the best oils.

St. Paul, speaking as a Roman citizen to members of the Church of Jesus he himself had been sent to instruct, likewise, had that sort of morally unrestrained life-style in mind when, earlier in the letter from which our second reading was taken, he taught his converts:

Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires which plunge them into ruin and destruction; for the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.   But you, man of God, avoid all this ….  Compete well for the faith; lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called. 

Now Jesus in His parable had named the poor man Lazarus, but gave no such name to the luxuriously rich man, almost as if He would not dignify with a name one leading such a life:

There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day, and lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores which the dogs used to come and lick.

And Jesus brought His parable to its climax after both the rich man (whom we have traditionally named Dives) and Lazarus had died, by revealing to us where such revelling in luxury and pleasures ultimately leads:

The rich man cried out: ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.  Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am suffering torment in these flames.'  Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime, while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here whereas you are tormented.’

The rich man did not call out to God to save him, he was not devout in the least; nevertheless, he still regarded himself as an Israelite and still remembered Abraham.  However, not even Abraham was willing, let alone able, to help him: ‘You want to warn your five brothers, you say?"

            They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.

Notice how Abraham explained the reality of the situation to Dives:

'My child, remember that you received what was good (from God) during your lifetime, while Lazarus likewise received what was bad (from men); but now he is comforted here whereas you are tormented.’

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s sinful and adulterous world as Jesus called it, the God we worship is holy and just, and the gifts He gives us are -- all of them – good; they are all blessings: strength or beauty, intellectual or physical capabilities, simplicity or strength of character, a sensitive, understanding, and calm nature, or an independent and courageous spirit.  However, if, in the course of our earthly life, we choose to use sinfully these good things -- these blessings received -- be it by totally absorbing ourselves in personal enjoyment of them as did our rich man (why should we name him?) who never even noticed Lazarus lying at his gate in abject poverty, or by diverting them from their original and primal purpose of giving glory to God and service to our fellows, into instruments for individual aggrandizement and advantage, personal pleasure, moral license and licentiousness, then such misuse will meet with punishment after death.

Strength is debased by the bully and the thug; beauty is sullied by the siren or the tart; intelligence is abused by the criminal, and individual character inevitably debased by excesses of pleasure, moral license, licentiousness and irresponsibility.

Mother Church and our society have suffered long from the gentle-Jesus people who have made our Christian, Catholic, Faith seem spineless, toothless, and totally unable to inspire or challenge anyone.  Just as, in the Old Testament, there was no way back for Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage -- even though he pleaded with tears to his father Isaac; so too, in Jesus' New Testament parable, there is no repeal for Dives in hell, nor a hearing for his prayer on behalf of his brothers.

Money, of itself, is not evil; but it is, as Jesus said, "a tainted thing".  Jesus spoke of money in that way because, for the most part, the making of much money comes from dishonest practices and leads to sinful living.  But for an age such as ours, where ideals are so low and worldly goods seem so attractive, we should perhaps allow as much as we can and condemn only what it totally unacceptable.   Therefore, let me simply repeat the Christian and Catholic teaching: money and money-making are not intrinsically evil; indeed, honest making of money can bring the great blessing of employment for others, while money personally possessed can be used to benefit others in need, as Jesus Himself had just said:

Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. (Luke 16:9)

However, People of God, we Catholics should not allow ourselves to be deceived, neither should we deceive ourselves: a life spent trying to get, enjoy, and pile up riches of whatever sort – especially money, pleasure and power -- is an evil life. There are many, who -- vaguely recognizing this in the vestiges of their conscience -- try, by token gestures and chosen words, to deceive both themselves and others; however, to these Jesus says:

You … justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (v. 15)

There are others, less devious perhaps, but more pathetic, who like to think there is safety in numbers; and, clinging to that gentle-Jesus sort of attitude I mentioned before, they cloud their minds with such thoughts as: "I am not the only one doing as I do; surely all those others, some well-known people and more important than me, can't be condemned too!"

The answer is, of course, that we do not know who will be condemned, but we do know for certain that Jesus did once say (Matthew 7:13-14):

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Our present-day situation of faithlessness and indulgence, self-righteousness and pride, moral lawlessness and violence, may well have been favoured and furthered by the efforts of those who have, for years, been trying to make the Faith into milk and water instead of solid food for the soul.  Indeed, it may well be, that many more seekers of the one true God would have been enabled to see, appreciate, and even embrace, Catholic truth and Christian faith, had it been adequately presented and offered to them, had the teaching of the Church not been made to appear so insipid and uninspiring, so spineless and undemanding, by those who seemed to consider it their special calling to rescue the Lord’s cause by personally larding His message so as to give it more popular appeal. 

People of God, we are a people whose recent development is marked out most, clearly by the changes in our appreciation and understanding of the Latin word "caritas” and our translation of it as “charity".  "Charity" originally meant divine love; it was God-given, sublime and inimitable, justifying all who whole-heartedly and humbly embraced it.

Our translation of the word was then changed to "love", and it’s meaning was understood as, first of all, human love: the love of Christian friendship and married love, a limitation and watering-down, but not a betrayal, of the original meaning.

Then, however, because a downward slope easily becomes slippery, the meaning gradually came to embrace any sort of human sexual relationship, even the most aberrant.  Today, it is confidently used to designate any-and-every indulgent feeling: be it that of parents who ‘let their children decide for themselves’ in all things; or of the abortionist ever willing to help any girl or woman in trouble real or imagined; or of those who promote the right to assisted death to help the sick and elderly.  Ultimately, it has attained its apogee as the favourite word for people who find words, concepts, such as public morality, individual self-control, personal humility and patience, faithfulness, and supremely, self-sacrifice, to be unsympathetic and inhuman, totally unacceptable to describe their modern way of life. 

You … justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

People of God, we should try to appreciate and love our Faith: its truth, its strength, and its beauty, ever more and more; we should try to appreciate it in order that we might come to love it with our whole mind and heart and give it ever fuller and freer expression in our lives, by refusing to accommodate ourselves to that pervading shallowness of modern society, which regulates itself in accordance with the lowest common moral denominator, thus smothering the true light of faith and the real beauty of love, just as it enervates the sure strength of self-discipline, and the deep joy of self-sacrifice for what is good and above self, as it meets us as we walk, in Mother Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, along the way of Jesus, to our heavenly home with the one and only Father of us all.                                                                                                                     

 

 

25th Sunday Year C 2022

 

 25^th. Sunday of Year (C)                     (Amos 8:4-7; 1^st. Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13)

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The parable given by Our Lord in today’s Gospel reading is  surprising in that He seems to approve of what appears at first hearing, to be dishonest behaviour. 

To quote a modern scholar: “Quite probably the steward was cancelling his own sizable commission.  He probably had been used to taking a cut at both ends, first by overcharging clients and second by embezzling his master’s goods.  Now the steward was giving his cut to others. Moreover, such unprecedented generosity in the name of the rich master would be received with gratitude and everyone would praise him (the master) as a hero and a benefactor.’

It had been what we might call a ‘very dodgy business’ but, taking everything into account, the master himself was satisfied to let things stand as they were, due to the fact that, although a considerable sum of his own money was missing due to his steward’s secret dealings, nevertheless, he, as master,  was secretly very pleased to find that he had gained a great deal in the people’s improved appreciation of himself.  And so, although somewhat reluctantly, he decided that it was best for him to accept his former steward’s conniving:

The master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.

Jesus Himself then went on to add in the same vein:

The children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

What Jesus wanted to commend to His disciples was the steward’s concern for his future.  Deeply involved in financial matters on behalf of his master, and not always to his master’s  greatest advantage – hence the ‘squandering’ charge brought against him -- he decided that he would have to indulge in even more ‘dodgy business’ when he realized that he was about to lose the job he would not be able to find again.   His one and only aim and purpose in life now was to provide, somehow, for his future.

Jesus, therefore, went on to picture a disciple of His engaged, likewise, in the dealings involving ‘unrighteous mammon’ -- for somebody has to manage the finances of today’s wicked world -- yet having sufficient Christian faith and personal acumen to behave himself in such a way as to help him find a welcome into the ‘heavenly home’ which was the aim of his Christian calling.

Jesus needed to speak in this startling way in order to draw attention to a great failing that still affects far too many Christians and Catholics today, who have no real desire or longing for heaven.  They are usually most positive with regard to the good things of this world – they want them now, as many and as much as possible; but they are, at best, only negatively positive as regards heaven.  They do not desire heaven, it does not attract them enough for that; but they are afraid to lose it because they have been told, and they believe, that it is the only place of joy hereafter, and so they keep the rules that are supposed to ultimately lead to heaven.  The joys of earth are concrete and well known, but the joys of heaven are very distant, they think; they quite rightly realize that heavenly joys are very different from and, they would say much ‘better’ than, those of earth, but they have never appreciated, thought on, prayed over, their faith enough to begin to positively long for those ‘better’ joys.

Jesus, therefore, I say, took up the ‘dodgy’ parable of the unscrupulous steward once again saying:

            I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth

‘I tell you, yes even you who are working with (someone else’s) dishonest wealth, I tell you, a committed disciple of Mine can do even such work without becoming dishonest himself; a true disciple of Mine can use his or her financial talents to work for the good of those suffering because such a disproportionate amount of the world’s wealth has become ‘dishonest wealth’  in the possession of so relatively few hands in today’s ‘adulterous and sinful world’.

As I have said, too many Catholics and Christians have too little spiritual ambition, or better put, too few spiritual aspirations, and they tend to justify  this lack of both love and hope by convincing themselves that they are not capable of doing all that seems to be necessary to attain a special place at the  heavenly banquet.  They have picked up this impression from stories told of fabulous saints who seemed able to do the most prodigious feats of courage and endurance, and give expression to the most ardent compulsions of love and faith; and, not understanding that such feats were the gift of God rather than due to the saint’s personal spiritual prowess, they considered them to be far above their own limited powers, and way beyond any hopes they could reasonably be expected to cherish for their own Christian fulfilment.

Thus Jesus was led to propose an alternative attitude:

He who is faithful in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and he who is dishonest in very small matters  is also dishonest in great ones.

That is, aspirations for heaven are not to be fed with great gestures: great gestures are another ‘dodgy business’ much like unrighteous mammon, they can so easily lead to spiritual pride.  On the contrary, the only truly healthy food for heavenly longings is faithfulness in the little things of life.

Now this teaching is exemplified in a saint so much appreciated and acclaimed as is St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, and yet,  it still asks for more than most are prepared to give.  For so many people have a secret ‘yen’ to be recognized and accepted as being someone, in some way, special, and indeed special in their human selves today, that is, as they are here and now.  To be so content with God as to be perseveringly satisfied with and faithful in what is least, demands a dying to self, a crucifying, which very, very few are willing to wholeheartedly embrace.  They long to see something resulting from their endeavours, to feel something happening in their prayers; for, though they might be able to accept others not recognizing them, they want, at least, to be able to think highly of themselves.  And so, they continue, at best, to limp along the ways of discipleship, and Mother Church finds herself being robbed of the fruit of her children’s growth in discipleship, and having, far too often, to see the holiness and vitality, the beauty and truth, of Jesus’ Gospel being given only the pseudo-worship of words that in no way give full expression to the power and glory of the Spirit Who is ever trying to lead her and all her children by surer and more authentic routes along the way of Jesus.

People of God, let us look to Jesus, and pray for His Holy Spirit again!  By so doing we should be able to restore our hope and renew our love, and we will, thereby, help revitalize Mother Church.  For Jesus Himself was abandoned by His few disciples, was generally regarded as a failure, and was publicly subjected to derision and contempt; and still He persevered, despite His repeated falls, in carrying His Cross all the way to Calvary for love of His Father, Who had sent Him here on this earth for our salvation.  We are, and aspire to become ever more truly, His disciples, and surely therefore, we can seek nothing better, desire nothing more, than that His Spirit should lead and sustain us along the way of Jesus especially in our loving attention to those little things of life recommended by Our Lord Himself as the surest way towards our heavenly home.

                                                                                     (2022)

           

 

24th Sunday Year C 2022

 

 24^th. Sunday Year (C)

(Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; 1Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10)

 

 

People of God, you may have felt today's first Gospel parable to be rather difficult to appreciate and perhaps even somewhat unfair:

I say to you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

However, the second word-picture Jesus went on to paint for us was much easier to understand.  In it, we learned of a woman who had lost a notable part of the little wealth she had, one of her ten coins, and we were told that:

When she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbours together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!'  Likewise, Jesus said, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Why therefore did Jesus deliberately choose to make His first, and therefore more important little parable, more difficult to understand and perhaps even seem somewhat unfair?

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

Was he trying to shock us, to jolt us?  And if so, why? 

Jesus spoke of what He knew, “joy in heaven"; what, however, does ‘joy in heaven’ mean for us who have no such heavenly experience?

Catholic theology tells us that heaven is where God is, as the All in all; and where the Holy Spirit of love -- proceeding from the Father to embrace the Son, and, flowing back from the Son in acknowledgment of His Father -- is the bond of unity whereby the three Divine Persons are one God.  The Father's love for the Son in the Spirit is the originating source of all joy in heaven and life on earth.

Behold!   My Servant (My Son) in whom My soul delights!   I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. (Isaiah 42:1)

Now, the Father willed to make manifest that love for that His Son now become incarnate when, at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, He declared in the hearing of John the Baptist: 

This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased; (Matthew 3:7)

and then again once more – this time on the Mount of Transfiguration – the Father’s voice rang out from an overshadowing cloud and said to Peter, James, and John:

This is My beloved Son, listen to Him! (Mark 9:7)

For His part, Jesus -- speaking to the intimate circle of His Apostles -- several times mentioned the bond of love uniting Himself to the Father:

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.

The Father and I are One.  (John 3:35; 10:30)

So, People of God, there is only one Holy Spirit of love, one joy, one rejoicing, in Heaven, it is the love of the Father, rejoicing, delighting, in His Son; it is the love of the Son responding wholeheartedly to the Father, by the Spirit.

Therefore, when we hear Jesus say:

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance,

He is speaking of the Father's rejoicing because one sinner has come to repentance through Jesus; that is, because one sinner, by acknowledging and repenting of his own sin and turning to Jesus, has rejected his own self-righteousness and has become – by the Spirit -- clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.  The Father rejoices in heaven over one such sinner who has thus been reformed into the likeness of Christ and has become, thereby, a son in the beloved Son.

St. Peter made this very clear in his address to the rulers, elders, and scribes gathered in Jerusalem, as did St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians:

Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.  This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'   Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:10-12)

Indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. (Philippians 3:8-9)                                                                         

Jesus gave us two parables: the first being most relevant to His Public Mission as Incarnate Lord and Saviour; and the second, more suited to the continuing mission of holy Mother Church. In the first parable, one sheep, led astray by the devil, wandered off from the flock; in the second, one coin was lost by a woman who should have kept it more carefully.

The one sheep, led astray by the devil’s hatred and cunning, could not have lived long in the desert.  Jesus -- the very Son-of-God-made-flesh – came, was sent, to save mankind from spiritual disaster: for they were sheep intended for divine pasturing, sheep so very, very, dear to God the Father, made – as they were -- in God’s own image and likeness.                  

I say to you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

Being found by Jesus, means repentance for the sheep thus lost through sin.

The woman who had lost one of her coins, did her utmost to find what was lost, as Mother Church also – grieving souls lost through scandals of all sorts -- does her very best, by the grace of her worship and sacraments, by the prayers of her faithful, by the guidance and help of her saints and doctors and the fellowship of our guardian angels … to find what she should not have lost.

When she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbours together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!'  Likewise, Jesus said, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The first parable tells us of the repentance of a sinner on seeing the face of, hearing the voice of, Jesus, the Saviour sent by His Father for this very purpose; the repentance of one humbly obeying the Holy Spirit of Jesus and learning from Him our Helper to recognize, rejoice in, yield himself to, Jesus, our Saviour indeed, but also my very own, Lord and Saviour.

The second speaks of repentance in the Church, sinners turning back as sorrowful children to the embrace of their loving Mother, pictured most truly by her who suffered a sword’s thrust in her own soul, Mary of Nazareth, Mother of Jesus, our dear Lady, our most loving Mother.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, John the Baptist, prepared the way for Jesus by preaching in the wilderness of Judea:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 3:1-2)

And Jesus Himself began His public ministry in a like manner:

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."           (Matthew 4:17)

And this call to repentance by Jesus was so urgent and so essential that He once declared in Jerusalem:

Unless you repent, you will all perish. (Luke 13:5)

Repentance means much more than just sorrow for the past; it requires a change for the future, as John the Baptist had told those who came to him:

Bear fruits worthy of repentance. (Luke 3:8)

Jesus took up from John and advanced to where John could not go.  He showed clearly what John's vague words "fruits for repentance" really meant, for the theme of Jesus' public ministry was: “Repent and believe the Good News” (Mark 1:15).   God gives us the grace of repentance for our pride-tainted, sin-scarred, lives, by bestowing on us the supreme gift of faith, whereby we aspire to live our future in loving witness and obedience to the Person and teaching of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, as sons in the Son, by the Spirit, for the Father.

People of God, all this is implied by, and contained in, those "shocking" words of Jesus:

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

We have rightly gathered here today to praise and glorify our God for His wondrous goodness to us in Jesus.   And, having begun to appreciate the beauty of His wisdom, we must also seek to learn from His truth; for the fact is that Jesus came, as He Himself said, to call not those self-styled, so-called, virtuous ones, approved and accepted by worldly standards, but those who were -- in their own eyes and before God -- sinful and desperately sick.

People of God, we are not holy, none of us; let us therefore learn from divine wisdom and accept that God rejoices not in our holiness so much as in our spirit of repentance; and that the only holiness that rejoices the Father is likeness to His Son, Jesus: a holiness which comes as a gift from the Spirit of Holiness Himself, and in which we can only share (not earn!) by means of true faith and loving commitment to Jesus.

Our first Catholic and Christian duty is to come before God in a spirit of repentance and to offer Him the only acceptable worship, the worship Jesus first offered on our behalf and for our salvation on Calvary, the worship He continues to offer -- Personally in heaven and sacramentally at every Mass here on earth -- the worship of His own self-sacrifice of love.  We should never come to Mass in order to get for ourselves, even though we hope to receive Holy Communion.  We must always come to Mass to offer: Jesus, in the first place, for our sins and the sins of the world, and then ourselves -- in and with Jesus -- to the Father, for His glory.  Only then can we fittingly come forward to receive Holy Communion in order that we might have grace to live out the offering we have just made.

People of God, if we allow the wisdom and truth of God to lead us to repentance and faith, then -- through the sacraments, above all through the Mass and the Eucharist -- God’s power and majesty can be effective in, and even through, our lives.

Therefore, let us praise our God today, let us admire and acknowledge the wisdom of His words and the beauty of His truth as contained in the Good News of Jesus; let us proclaim and give expression to the power and majesty of His saving grace; let us then finally thank Him for His goodness, putting all our hope and trust in the power of His Spirit at work in our lives.   Such worship is the wedding garment that will give us the right to take our seat at the heavenly banquet; it is the token of all those who belong to the flock of which Jesus is the true and only Shepherd of God’s chosen flock

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

    

 

 

23rd Sunday Year C 2022

 

23^rd. Sunday Year (C)

(Wisdom 9:13-18; Letter to Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33)

 

 

Onesimus, though not a Christian, had hoped to gain some advantage by persuading an honoured Christian teacher, Paul of Tarsus, to intercede with Philemon, a Christian, whose slave he was.  Onesimus’ initial confidence in his owner’s friend and “partner” clearly bore fruit, for Paul, having first guided him to become a Christian, then offered to make good whatever loss Philemon might have suffered by Onesimus’ flight. On this basis, Paul appealed to Philemon to receive his slave back into his household as he would receive Paul himself.

Neither Greek nor Roman slavery was usually a permanent state. Most commonly, an owner granted freedom to a faithful slave as a reward for his or her work and loyalty; this was frequently done through the owner’s will at death. While owners could punish disloyal slaves by including in their wills a clause prohibiting their heirs from ever letting such slaves go, there is also much evidence that others, while still living, had a variety of reasons for choosing to set free some of their slaves, not infrequently  about the age of thirty. Thus the question regarding Onesimus was most likely when, not if, Philemon planned to set him free.

The main features distinguishing 1st century slavery from that later practiced in the New World are the following: racial factors played no role; education was greatly encouraged (some slaves were better educated than their owners) and it enhanced a slave’s value; many slaves carried out sensitive and highly responsible social functions; slaves could own property (including other slaves!); their religious and cultural traditions were the same as those of the freeborn; no laws prohibited public assembly of slaves; and (perhaps above all) the majority of urban and domestic slaves could legitimately anticipate becoming free persons.

You will have noticed, I am sure, that Paul, in our second reading, was not like our modern "human rights" promoters and protagonists.  Neither was Peter in his first letter where he writes (2:18-21):

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.  For this is commendable: if, because of conscience toward God, one endures grief suffering wrongfully.  For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer -- if you take it patiently -- this is commendable before God.  For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.

Now, I do not in any way wish to detract from the noble work done by many good people for the human rights of the underprivileged and needy, however, there is something we should understand about the unwillingness of St. Paul, and indeed St. Peter, to adopt such an attitude with regard to the public institution of slavery in the situation of the early Church.

Perhaps we should note, first of all and just in passing, that there are some people who will promote good causes for reasons which, at times, are not so worthy as the causes they are promoting.  For example, some will promote a good cause because, basically, they like a good fight, in which case they are not so much promoters as protagonists; others love to see their own ideas, their own opinions, prevail, and to that extent they promote others' rights only in order to express their own ego, exert their own talents, or to extend their own sphere of influence.

However, there are indeed many who promote human rights from good motives and with the right intentions.  Then why not Peter, why not Paul, with regard to the social institution of slavery?  This is worth considering because we can perhaps learn, from both Peter and Paul, why so much apparently being said and done today, nevertheless, and despite many a fanfare of official praise and media proclamation, seems to bring forth little or no good fruit.  Surely it is one of societies' most anxious questions today why so much apparently well-intentioned legislation and so many, much-trumpeted, positive measures taken in society, are seemingly quite unable to stem the slide into ever-greater indiscipline, lawlessness, moral decadence, and even rank corruption?

In our Gospel reading you heard Our Blessed Lord declare:

If anyone comes to Me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

Our Blessed Lord unequivocally demands that we put Him first in our lives.  And, indeed, since He only wants this in order that we might thereby be enabled to live before God in Spirit and in Truth, and to love and serve each other aright, He goes on to show the folly of those who would seek discipleship on any other terms:

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  Which of you, wishing to construct a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?  Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers should laugh at him and say, 'This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.'

Jesus takes this stand because He knows that if He Himself is not first in our lives, sin will, inevitably, continue to rule there.  And the empire of sin is never stagnant.   And when men -- ignoring or attempting to deny the existence of personal and public sin -- pretend, of their own assumed wisdom and presumed goodness, to prescribe remedies for deep social sicknesses, their tragic misunderstanding of human nature only compounds the suffering by deepening social confusion and anxiety, and fostering  hopelessness and despair among individuals.

St. Peter and St. Paul, however, faithfully put Jesus first, not only in the letters they wrote, but in their whole life and work; above all, in their work of establishing the Church as the Body of Christ.  The Church was being newly born, so to speak, into an alien world, and the very first thing Christians had to understand was that, by living their new lives with unwavering faith in Jesus and full confidence in the strength and inspiration of His most Holy Spirit, they could now transcend and would ultimately transform their earthly situation.  This new, God-given faith – being, as Jesus Himself put it, like the pearl of great price and the treasure found with great joy in the field – was known by the Apostles to be of such supreme value that they could in no way allow it to be subjected to worldly considerations or made secondary to earthly values.  For those blessed with the gift of faith even the bonds of slavery could in no way be allowed to overshadow the joy of their personal relationship with Christ or inhibit their commitment to, and confidence in the power of, His Spirit in their lives; whereby, the lowest and least fortunate, the most despised and worst abused, could work in and for the Church as much and as well as all others, confident that their faith could empower them to joyfully order their lives so as to bear effective witness to Christ and bring about the ultimate triumph of His Spirit.  In those early Christian house-churches there was no distinction between slaves and free, all were equally slaves of the Lord Jesus, and all were totally committed to and equally important for the triumph of the Kingdom of God over the pagan empire of Rome.  Indeed, such was their confidence that even direct opposition and persecution by the imperial power came to be seen as no insuperable obstacle to the new Faith.

Nevertheless, that imperial power could not be openly confronted, and therefore Peter and Paul , guided by the Spirit of Jesus their  Lord and Saviour, considered it their main duty to teach Christian disciples how to rightly worship the Father, and live each day by the light of Jesus’ Gospel truth in the power of His Spirit, thus growing ever more calm and assured in their Christian confidence and love.

And that, dear People of God, is still of supreme importance for us modern disciples of Jesus; for, if our Christian witness is to be effective before the world, He, Jesus, has to be first in our lives, not our presumed good works, supposed social influence, or desired personal popularity, :

Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, and with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.  (Mk. 12:30-31)

At this, the most basic and most important level, however, many Catholics are failing grievously today, for all too often they go to Mass out of mere habit or, at best, to receive a little-understood Communion. For those Christians envisaged by St. Paul and St. Peter, the supreme reason for our attendance at Mass should always be a will to give humble worship and most grateful praise and thanksgiving to God our Father by personally offering ourselves with Jesus in the sacrifice of Holy Mass -- Mother Church’s re-presentation, for God’s People of today and all ages  to come, of Jesus’ unique self-sacrifice on Calvary -- by the Spirit of Jesus ever abiding in the her and refreshing us anew at every such Mass, to the glory of God the Father.

Moreover, that intention to worship the Father should always be imbued with and embrace a desire to know Him and to follow Jesus ever better.  That is why, at Mass, the Scriptures are read and a homily given: because God's Word is, as Jesus Himself said, our bread of life.  And yet, how many Catholics hardly listen to its solemn proclamation, and make little effort appreciate a sermon, or address, given to explain it!

And so, the ultimate reason why our modern society is failing, and why Government initiatives fall so short of producing the sort of society we all want, is shown us by Our Lord's words at the end of our Gospel reading:

Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Here Jesus is speaking as the supreme doctor of human souls, seeking to find out what are the passions or possessions that have over-powered and taken possession of us, and which always harm, gradually lessen and demean, and ultimately seek to destroy, us. 

There are, however, some disciples of Jesus today who seem to be willing to endure hardship, suffering, and opposition, and even to go so far as to hate their own life, for Jesus.  And yet, despite all that, cling hard to something that is still theirs, something that modern man and woman find most difficult of all to give up, something which, for them, defines the essence of their own personal identity and being: namely, their own opinion and their own will.

So many apparently good Catholics, good Christians, fail God, the Church, and indeed, themselves too, because, deep down, everything has to pass the test of their own self-approval and that of others; with the result that they feel the need, at every serious juncture in their faith-life, to review once again their own belonging to Jesus and His Church; to re-negotiate, so to speak, their own agreement with Him and His Church; and only after significant hesitation will they feel themselves able to accept anew the costs involved and signal their continuing but conditional commitment.  Now to such people, Jesus declares without any concession:

No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.  (Luke 9:62)

People of God, having ourselves been most wonderfully blessed in Jesus and in the Church, and now being faced with the ravages of sin bringing shame upon the Church and turmoil and catastrophic suffering all over the world, we should strive to live our lives ever more and more with Jesus for the Father.  Ultimately, the only life worth living for a human being is one of loving gratitude and joyous commitment to the glory of God the Father, in union with Jesus our Lord, under the rule and power of the Holy Spirit.  Only by faithfully walking along that way can we hope to find the fullness of being for which we long.  As was said in the book of Wisdom:

(Only when You) sent your Holy Spirit from on high, were the paths of those on earth made straight and people learned what pleases you.