27th Sunday of Year C 2013

27^th. Sunday, Year C

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

Faith is the centre of attention this Sunday, People of God, for God wills to save us from our sins by making us His children and heirs to an eternal blessedness in Jesus, His beloved, only-begotten, Son, and earthly manifestation of His divine glory.  He wills to prepare us for such a destiny by enabling us to live our earthly lives in mutual love, service, and understanding, despite our native sinfulness, over and above all earthly obstacles and barriers of race, colour or class, poverty or prosperity. He wills us to be strong and free, neither fearing for the future nor despairing over what is present or past, but with joy and firm purpose  hoping all things of His goodness and mercy.  He wills us to be holy for His glory and so transform the world, even though we can only do it ultimately by sharing in the Passion and Death of Jesus and praying God our Father for a share in the glory of Jesus’ Resurrection.

Such is the project set before us and the path we are called to tread as disciples of Jesus and children of God; and without faith we could not take even one step forward, let alone persevere till the end of life’s journey.  Consequently, let us too cry out with the Apostles:

            Lord, increase our faith!

Having heard this cry, with its implicit acknowledgement of our native weakness and inadequacy, the Lord’s answer is first of all encouragement, and then instruction.   He gives us encouragement by insisting that we should never be anxious about the quantity of our faith, because quality alone matters: if you have faith, He says, you can do anything, for even the smallest grain of true faith can do things apparently impossible.  Live your Catholic faith, which is a shoot  of that Faith —one and true –  which has been sheltered and cherished for two thousand years in the bosom of Mother Church for love of Jesus and by the power of His Spirit, being passed on and handed down over the ages, before ultimately being given -- with divine intention -- to you personally.  Live it, and, in your turn, cherish it, for the goodness of that divine intention; and never insult God the Giver by worrying about the size of His gift, because that gift carries along with itself divine life which can so grow and flower -- even in you – as to reflect something ever-new of the goodness and power of Jesus for the blessing of mankind in our world today.  Yes, indeed, live your faith -- live the Faith in you -- by letting it direct and guide the course of your life; do not allow yourself to be continually checking-up on God by looking down to see where your every footstep might be treading; but, always and in full trust, walk, stride, or even run, looking ever forward and upward toward the goal of your aspirations in and for Christ by the power of His Spirit.

The mustard seed of which Jesus spoke, though being proverbially small 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);

is remarkably powerful far beyond its measure.  As for the mulberry tree -- the most securely rooted of all Palestinian trees -- it was much admired for its ability to survive, unshakeable and sure, through all storms.

The Faith, Jesus says, truly lived and loved in your faith, can overcome the most intractable difficulties, were they even such as to bear comparison with the uprooting and transplanting of a mulberry tree:

If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you;

because, it is not you who would do such uprooting and planting, but God Himself (‘it would obey you’), if you have faith.

Now, if and when some such blessing from God happens in our life, we should always remember the spiritual adage, ‘humility preserves what faith and love win’; an adage based on the teaching Our blessed Lord gives immediately -- in our Gospel reading -- to His disciples, telling them, ‘if faith works wonders in your life,  bringing blessings upon your head, deep joy and peace into your heart, do not begin to pride yourselves thereon, thinking that such fruits were given because you had somehow deserved or merited them; no, hear this parable I have for you’:

Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table?

In the Greek and Roman world of that time a slave expected neither praise, preference, nor pay, after having done his work; indeed, when had he finished his work?  Here Jesus tells of one such slave -- arriving back at his master’s house after a hard day’s work in the fields -- being immediately assigned yet another task:

Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat.  Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.  You may eat and drink when I have finished’.

Slaves in the ancient world would not have been surprised at such treatment, because they belonged to a master or mistress who was under no obligation to give them other than food and shelter.  Of course, today society accepts that slavery is wrong; because no one can ever own another human being since we are all equal in dignity, worth and acceptance, before God.  But Our Lord was taking a picture from current life in His days on earth which mirrored forth the basic truth of our relationship with God: God is our Creator and all that we do belongs to Him since all we are, have, and can do, is from Him and ultimately for His good purposes.  

And so, the slave returning from the fields and finding another job waiting for him is meant to remind us that there is no limit to God’s claims on us; we can never rightly turn round to Him and say, ‘I’ve done my whack, get somebody else.’  No, we can never rightly refuse His calls, because He is love, creative and all-powerful, doing all things out of love in order to share His love and blessedness with all who will obey Him.  God is never in our debt; while it is our supreme privilege and ultimate fulfilment to be able to respond to all His calls with loving obedience and joyful gratitude. 

Jesus Himself exemplified His own teaching: making Himself like a servant at the Last Supper when He washed His disciples’ feet, and giving Himself up for us in obedience to His Father’s will, even though that will (oh! how hard it was to embrace!) was that He should suffer and die on the Cross.  And even when He comes again in glory, He will rejoice to serve us:

Blessed are those servants whom the Master finds awake when He comes; truly I say to you, He will gird Himself and have them sit at table, and He will come and serve them.  (Luke 12:37s.)

However, until He comes in glory we have to work hard and travel far; and so that we can persevere, we have God’s gift of faith, to be embraced with sincere love and protected by true humility.  And such love and humility, given whole-heartedly, will lead us gradually to appreciate and understand something of the splendour and majesty of God’s gift, as happened to St. Paul most strikingly:

(I pray) that  the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:18-21)

That is the full understanding of the wondrous power and final purpose of Faith, to be embraced by us, and working in and through us; it is that power of God which raised Jesus from the dead unto the right hand of the Father in glory, and it can work in us too, enabling each of us to fulfil our personal vocation and ultimately be raised with and in Jesus to take our seat at the marriage feast of the Lamb, in the presence of ‘Our Father in heaven’.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the prophet Habakkuk, in our first reading, ‘signed off’ with one of the most famous statements in the whole Bible:

            The just one, because of his faith, shall live.

And in our second reading we heard St. Paul call on Timothy:

Beloved (son), I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have … in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.

Accordingly, let us join with the Apostles who, in our Gospel reading, cried out:

            Lord, increase our faith! 

For our appreciation of faith has been sharpened much, increasing in both clarity and depth, through words such as those to be found in the Letter to the Hebrews (10:38) and St. Paul’s doctrinal letter of introduction to the Romans (11:20):

Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.

Because of unbelief they were broken off; and you stand by faith. 

However, perhaps the greatest incitement for us to seek constant growth in faith is to be found in those other words of St. Paul, taken once again from his  letter to the Romans (1:17):

In it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith’.

The righteousness of God, His truth, goodness, mercy and fidelity is revealed to us through, in and by, the Faith of Mother Church; for faith (yours and mine) to love, embrace, live by, die in, and, as many Catholics and Christians are sadly experiencing throughout the world today, die for.

How St. Paul was able, at times, to make dogma light up and blaze with devotion!  May he do for us this day, what he did so successfully for Timothy!

26th Sunday in Year C 2013

 26^th.Sunday (Year C)

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

The rich man – let us give him the traditional name Dives which is simply Latin for ‘rich’ – was a family man, he cared about his brothers; nevertheless he was in hell because he cared only for his family.  He could have helped Lazarus in his most dire need, but never did; perhaps he never thought of it; however, that would not have excused him because he should have given some thought to Lazarus’ great need, at his very gate.  Perhaps he ignored Lazarus because he was simply impervious to and unaware of him, being totally wrapped up in himself and in the present enjoyment and future anticipation of his own pleasures and plenty; if so, that would have greatly increased his guilt. 

However, Dives’ lack of charity is not the point I wish to dwell on today, for I think the answer Abraham gave to Dives’ concern for his brothers has much that can be of profit to us who are seeking to become better disciples of Jesus.

If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.

We should recognize, of course, that Jesus is speaking though Abraham’s name is used in the parable, and so, the ‘someone rising from the dead’ is ultimately Jesus Himself; and thus, the parable gives us a remarkable instance of the continuity between the old and the new in God’s dealings with His chosen people.

Moses and the Prophets were sent to the Chosen People of Israel to convict them of their sinfulness by the offer of worldly salvation -- originally from the slavery of Egypt, and then, through subsequent ages, from the belligerent opposition and persecutions of surrounding nations and ‘world’ powers – subject to their humble acknowledgement of, and faithful response to, not only the formative justice of God’s Law in their regard but also to the paternal warmth and sympathetic awareness expressed in the human words of God’s chosen prophets.

Jesus, however, came not to convict, but to invite and to save.  He called for disciples in the name of His Father, the God of Israel; inviting them -- as Son -- by the very beauty and goodness of His Person and His truth, to love and learn repentance, as did Peter (Luke 5:8) when, making a remarkable catch of fish:

He fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.’

Thus were they to find and share, in their heavenly Father’s home, an eternal salvation, to be won by the power of Jesus’ self-sacrificing love for God and man. 

‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets’ ... Why should they not listen to them?  In so far as they would not accept their conviction as sinners, they could not listen to, that is, embrace and respond aright to, Moses and the Prophets; with the result that, through indifference they ignored, or else, through pride and self-love, they rejected, such admonitions and warnings as were given them.

How then could they possibly accept even the most loving invitation and call of Jesus, a self-sacrificing (how they hated such a thought!) Son of Man and of God; One willing to die (though, indeed, on their behalf and for their sins) before taking up His life again in accordance with His Father’s command?

Neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.

In the history of the Church there have been many who have welcomed or sought extraordinary ‘spiritual’ experiences; not necessarily experiences of someone rising from the dead, but certainly something out of the ordinary and something they could experience and perhaps lead or induce others to experience it (or seek to experience it) too.  That is how so many of the religious sects which abound in the world today first began.  Finding the traditional Church too boring, having too little devotion and too much formality, being too institutionalised, or whatever the fault or the criticism might have been, they sought new and ‘spiritual’ experiences outside the Church.  And then that sect, in its turn, became, inevitably, more of an institution, with greater organization and less spontaneity in the eyes of critics, who were dissatisfied thereat and once more went off, on their own, in search of, or following after, personal experiences; and soon, another sect, an offshoot this time from a previous sect, was born.  There are literally hundreds and possibly thousands of such Christian sects (and no doubt Muslim, Hindu etc. sects) in the world today.  

One could say, perhaps, that the indifference of the many who refused (or just failed) to listen to Moses and the Prophets in old Israel, and of the many ‘nominal only’ Catholics and Christians in the world today, is really the popular, ordinary, manifestation of perennial and pervading dissatisfaction; not only with religion, but also with whatever is considered as institutionalised; indeed with life itself.

Dissatisfaction, however, can be found a great blessing rather than a great temptation or subtle sickness; but, if it is to turn out as God’s work, the true nature of such dissatisfaction must be closely observed and humbly recognized.  Dissatisfaction with oneself can be the source of untold blessings from God; dissatisfaction directed against the Church and ones’ brothers and sisters in the Faith is the devil’s work; dissatisfaction with ‘institutions’ and/or with life itself is probably incipient or rampant sickness, unless it is the result of sufferings endured, indeed, but not in any way humbly accepted or positively ‘absorbed’.

God-given dissatisfaction with one’s own self in the Church, whilst recognizing that the Church herself is God’s gift, guided and protected by His Spirit, can force us to seek to delve deeper into that Spirit-guided teaching which the Church proclaims, can constrain us to approach more seriously and sincerely the Sacraments whereby the Spirit flows into our lives, and in so doing can lead us to change our own attitudes, overcome our own lassitude and half-heartedness, and enable us to see more and more of the true beauty and glory of God’s wisdom in the Church’s teaching and learn something of the presence and power of the Spirit Who alone can raise us up to more intimate life in and with Christ. 

In the Church we have indeed Moses and the Prophets, but we have more, much more: we have Jesus, the Christ and the beloved, only-begotten, Son of God, Who, through His Apostles and in the power of His Holy Spirit, still speaks to us today.  If we do not listen to Him and learn from His Spirit, no miracle, no extraordinary ‘spiritual’ experience can be of any help. 

Do you feel dissatisfied, unfulfilled, in your life as a Christian in Mother Church at times?  Let that feeling be a blessing from God by recognizing it as dissatisfaction with yourself, and as a call from the Father for you to turn, away from yourself, to Christ, His Son, your Saviour:

In Whom (Colossians 2:3) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;

a call to seek a deeper personal relationship with Him, to understand and love ever more and more, His words brought to mind in their integrity by the Spirit in Mother Church’s teaching; for that has always been the prayer of Paul and the  Apostles:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling (of you), what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (showing what He can make of you), and what is the surpassing greatness of His power (to protect and prosper you) toward us who believe.  (Ephesians 1:18-19)

Beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on you guard lest, being carried away the error of unprincipled men, you fall from you own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.  (2 Peter 3:17-18)

26th Sunday of Year C 2010

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 some strong word-pictures made all the more striking by their resemblance to modern-day excesses in our Western society:

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 had that sort of 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.  Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  Compete well for the faith; lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called. 

This same theme was taken up again in our Gospel reading, where Jesus, in His parable of a luxuriant rich man with a poor beggar at his gate, names the poor man Lazarus but gives no name to the rich man, almost as if He was too disgusted to dignify with an honourable 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.

Jesus brought His parable to its climax after both the rich man (whom we have traditionally referred to as ‘Dives’ from the Latin word meaning ‘rich’) and Lazarus had died, thereby 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.’

Why did Jesus give a parable with Abraham as the heavenly figure?  Perhaps, because He was, at that time, speaking to some Pharisees; for earlier we are told:

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, derided Jesus. (Luke 16:14)

It would seem, therefore, that Jesus was saying to them: ‘You who trust in your descent from Abraham and yet love money so much, it is not I who will ultimately condemn your behaviour.  No, it will be Abraham -- in whom you trust and boast -- whom you will find both unwilling and unable to help you when you come to reap your retribution of punishment for pleasure and humiliation for pride.’  For Jesus has Abraham answer Lazarus’ appeal on behalf of his brothers, with the words:

            They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.

Once again, in another confrontational encounter with certain Pharisees, Jesus invokes Moses in much the same way as today He mentions Abraham:

Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you -- Moses, in whom you trust, for he wrote about me. (John 5:45)

So, attacking His pharisaic adversaries root and branch – proud descendants of Abraham and dedicated adherents to the Law of Moses – all who heard Jesus learned that those who would give their lives over to selfish pride, pleasure, and plenty, would ultimately pay the price, no matter who they might now seem to be.

Moreover, notice how, in the parable, Abraham explained 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, those words are also for us.  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, attractive personality or strength of character, a sensitive and understanding nature or an independent and courageous spirit.  But if, in the course of our earthly life, we choose to put these good things to sinful use -- 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 society -- into instruments for personal aggrandizement and individual advantage, then such misuse will meet with sure 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 personal charm betrayed by the fraudster.

Mother Church and our society have suffered long from the gentle-Jesus people who have made our Christian, Catholic, faith at times seem spineless, toothless, and totally unable to inspire or challenge anyone.  And yet, 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, not even 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 indulgence.  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)

Nevertheless, 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 money, is an evil life. Some, there are, 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 who, clinging to that gentle-Jesus sort of attitude I mentioned before, cloud their minds with such thoughts as: "Surely all those other people can't be condemned!"  The answer is, of course, that we do not know who or how many will be condemned, but we do know for certain that Jesus once said:

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. (Matthew 7:13-14)

People of God, we are a people whose recent development is marked out clearly by the changes in our appreciation and understanding of the Latin word "caritas” and our translation of it as “charity".  "Charity" originally meant heavenly love; it was God-given and was inimitable.  The word was then changed to "love", and it’s meaning was understood, first of all, as noble human love, the love of friendship  and married love; then, because a downward slope easily becomes slippery, the word ‘love’ in popular use gradually came to signify the sexual expression of all sorts of human relationships, even the most aberrant. Finally today, it is used to designate any and every emotional exuberance: be it that of parents who ‘let their children decide for themselves’ in all things; or of the abortionists ever willing to indulge any weeping prospective-mother by having her child pay for her ‘mistakes’; or of those promoting the right to assisted death for the sick and elderly regardless of the threat such a ‘right’ could easily become for others selfishly considered ‘old and useless’.  For all such people the words discipline, self-control, sacrifice, patience, trust, and supremely, faithfulness, are almost dirty words, said to be unsympathetic and inhuman, certainly inadmissible and totally unacceptable as descriptions of a 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 our Faith -- in the integrity of its truth and beauty, its strength and sheer goodness -- ever more and more.  We should try to appreciate it better in order that we might come to love it more, indeed with our whole mind, heart, soul, and strength, so that we might give it free and full expression in our lives by refusing to accommodate ourselves to that pervading shallowness of modern society which, for so many, smothers 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.