6th Sunday Year C 2019

 6^th. Sunday Year (C)

(Jeremiah 17:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the overall message of our readings today is one of trust and hope.  In our first reading taken from the prophet Jeremiah we heard:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

That may sound somewhat strange, as if the same thing were being said twice; there is, however, a difference of emphasis between the two phrases.  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord” stresses the fact that here and now -- in whatever circumstances such a person finds himself and whatever he is trying to do -- such a one, trusting in the Lord at all times, knows that it is the Lord who enables him to respond and face up to the changing situations, difficulties, and trials of daily life; whereas the second phrase ‘and whose hope is the Lord’ is totally centred on the future, centred on the very Person of the Risen Lord Jesus, now glorified in the human flesh He shares with us, and Who finally will come again to call all His faithful disciples to share with Him in the glory of His Father and the Holy Spirit in heaven.

The second reading, taken from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, being centred on the heavenly Jesus is obvi­ously to be related to that second phrase ‘Blessed is the man whose hope is the Lord’, for St. Paul tells his converts:

If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

The Church’s proclamation that Christ is risen from the dead, Paul is saying, should be your sure and steadfast hope for your own future state beyond the grave; because Jesus has already taken our human flesh with Him to heaven, the only question will be about the nature of our personal relationship with Jesus; and for that we now turn to the Gospel reading, where Jesus develops that beatitude of ’trust in the Lord’ proclaimed by the prophet Jeremiah.

Jesus, raising His eyes toward His disciples, said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.  Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man.   Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!  Behold your reward will be great in heaven, for their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.”

Blessed – not that inept word happy -- are those whose trust in the Lord is so great that  here and now, in this demanding, deceptive, and increasingly antagonistic world, their minds are in no  way centred on personal success or popularity in their dealings with the world, for they are well aware that their true peace and joy, their true fulfilment, is only to be found with God and their trying to doing His will in Jesus.  To that end, they are content to have less and, if necessary, to suffer more than others in the course of their daily lives; indeed, some there are whose commitment to the Lord is such that they are able to bear con­tradiction and opposition without ever regarding themselves as misguided or lonely.   Blessed, says Jesus, are such whose trust is, indeed, in the Lord their God. 

I think that, even today, many can still understand and appreciate the meaning of Our Lord’s words and the beauty of the character they portray.  It would indeed be a privilege to know someone like that; and how still more wonderful would it not be for us ourselves to be personally blessed to such a degree that it could be truly said of us, that our trust was wholly in the Lord.

However, leaving aside such personal thoughts and aspirations, those words of Jesus I have just quoted would have been an excellent place for Him to end His short discourse and thus leave a pleasing impression on the minds of His hearers.   But Jesus did not stop there, He went on to add:

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.   Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.  Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.  Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in that way.  

Why did Jesus go on to say those words?  Because, dear People of God, Jesus came to bear witness to the truth and we present-day Christians in a up-to-date and increasingly pagan society are afraid to accept and profess them as God’s truth.  There were very many Jews in Jesus’ days who pretended to be authentic, obedient, Jews for what they could get out of such pretence: the admiration of others, money, authority, and social position.  And why does Jesus, through His Church today, continue to say such words to many who call themselves, or are regarded as, Catholics and Christians whereas, in fact, they are insipid or even treacherous witnesses to Jesus before the world?  Because Jesus’ words were and are for all time and they are most urgently needed today.  Dear fellow Catholics, if at times the immediate words of our pagan legislators and leaders of society seem to bear witness to Jesus’ own words or intentions their overall actions and their most intimate intentions are far from love of and/or obedience to Jesus.  And what is more, there are Catholics and Christians of greater and lesser significance who also cannot comfortably hear, and most certainly cannot proclaim, such words of Jesus as we have just heard – and there are many other like words disregarded for public reading – lest such proclamation provoke hostility towards themselves or the Church!  It could even result in someone saying to them personally: “What’s wrong with being rich?” or “What’s wrong with having plenty; what’s wrong with enjoying a good laugh and liking to hear praise?”  Before such confrontation far too many Christians today become apologetic; they want to slip away quickly before their adversaries go on to add in yet more strident tones: “The trouble with you Christians and Church-goers is that you are spoil sports; most human feelings and pleasures are sins according to you.”  And if, at this late juncture, a few of the more prominent and committed Catholics might, perhaps, still be standing apparently firm in the face of  such hot, self-righteous, indignation from worldly people, they will almost certainly feel it necessary -- more prudent -- to explain Jesus’ words in such a way that their cutting, offending, edge is blunted and softened so that they no longer trouble, disturb, and certainly cannot infuriate, the sensitive ears of those who have left behind former religious and/or pious Christian attitudes for more modern, politically-correct and popularly-acceptable thought patterns.

Why, People of God, did Jesus not behave in such a way?  Why did Jesus choose to use provocatively hard words, as in today’s particular occasion of Luke’s ‘Sermon on the Plain’, without giving any expla­nation?

It was most certainly not because He didn’t love His hearers divinely; it was not because, as a man, He was irritated and fed-up with people, or that He just couldn’t be bothered to explain His thought.  On the contrary, His words on this occasion were carefully chosen with the divine intent of spurring His hearers to ponder in their minds and search their hearts in order to find for themselves some understanding.  In other words, His failure to explain further was motivated by true love, divine love for the salvation of His listeners.  Modern pseudo-Christian attempted explanations and justifications, on the other hand, being motivated by human sentimentality at the best, or more frequently by self-love, that is, by fear of giving offence, are so weak and insipid to non-believers that they promise them­selves to have done with such people and with any further thoughts about the Faith itself.

Once again, therefore, we come back to the burning question of why it is that Jesus so frequently and consistently differs from us and our modern sensitivities? 

The reason for Jesus’ difference, the reason why the authors of the Sacred Scriptures, the old Prophets, and the New Testament writers Peter and Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are at times so different from us in their attitudes and words, is because too many modern Catholics are, in fact, like the Corinthians to whom Paul was writ­ing in today’s second reading:  the Lord was not those Corinthians’ hope for the future, and too many of today’s believers, likewise, do not put their trust fully in the Lord for our present and future well-being.  Too many, high and low, try ever so hard to please and placate, to be politically correct and socially acceptable even though we have clearly heard the Prophet saying in the name of God:

Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings and seeks his strength in flesh.

Because we, Catholics and Christians as a whole, do not fully trust the Lord, because we – in the sight and hearing of men -- try so desperately to secure our own personal acceptability, therefore many laboriously thought-out and much publicised projects and programmes come to nothing, and have to be returned to the plan­ning board again and again to find out what went wrong the first time, why people did not respond.   And then we hear of yet another approach, an­other new scheme, that will, it is fancied, assuredly bear the fruit we like to desire, and bring the worldly success we so deeply crave.

People of God, it is only those whose hope is THE LORD, who calmly trust in His loving Providence and rejoice in His Personal presence in all life’s circumstances and before all people, who can speak God’s truth when necessary, as did Jesus, without thoughts of self-interest or politics of popularity and power intruding themselves so as to influence, mould, and divert, the Spirit’s lead.  So often words like ‘prudence’ and ‘wisdom’ are desecrated by being twisted so as to protect and disguise their user’s secret fears and  less-than-honourable aspirations: “It wouldn’t be prudent to say that just now”, “we must  be wise in our choice of words, and weigh up carefully the possi­ble effects of speaking out in such a way”; and thus we find ourselves behaving just as did the Pharisees when Jesus asked them about John the Baptist:

The baptism of John, where was it from: From heaven or from men?  And they reasoned among themselves, saying: "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  "But if we say: 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet."  So, they an­swered Jesus and said: "We do not know." And He said to them: "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. (Matthew 21:25-27)

In such a way -- by countless human caveats and cautions -- the influence of God’s Holy Spirit of fire and truth is, in modern western society, impeded and confined, blunted and obscured, before finally being rejected and denied.

Jesus proclaimed His Good News under the inspiration and in the power of His Spirit.  The Holy Apostles, the Fathers of the Church, all the Doctors and Saints -- holy men and women -- who have guided and illuminated Mother Church throughout the ages, have, each in their own degree, done likewise: they have spoken, they have acted, in obedience to and un­der the impulse of, the Spirit of holiness and fire Whom the Lord has bequeathed to His Church.  And we Catholic Christians of today, as a whole and individually, must learn the courage to speak and act in like manner, lest our tainted presentation of God’s Truth, of Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice, of the ‘faith of our fathers’ and of Mother Church’s saints and martyrs, will continue to fail today’s sinful and secular society.

Do not think I am advocating ‘Dutch courage’, or the ‘Gung-Ho’ attitude and tactics of religious fanatics: far from it, I am speaking of that quiet courage and firm conviction which comes from God and is given only to those who:

Trust in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. 

5th Sunday Year C 2019

5^th. Sunday Year (C)

(Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11)

All our readings today conspire to bear witness to what is the most fundamental teaching of Christianity, and of its forerunner, Judaism: the sinfulness of man, his need for and calling to redemption.

When the prophet Isaiah had a vision of God seated on His throne of glory, ‘high and lofty’, where the angels before Him cried out continually ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’, he said:

Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.’

St. Paul, for his part, when expounding his proclamation of the Gospel, wrote, as you heard:

            Christ died for our sins; I am the least of the Apostles.

And In our Gospel reading, Peter glimpsed the majesty of Jesus Who, after having used his boat as a platform from which to teach the crowd on the shore, gave him a miraculous catch of fish, whereupon Peter:

Fell at the knees of Jesus and said: ‘Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!’

The Old Testament begins with the story of creation and the fall of man; Jesus began His public ministry proclaiming ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!’; and on the Day of Pentecost when the assembled crowd were in amazement at what they saw and heard:

They were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?”   Peter (said) to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”   (Acts 2:37s.)  

The sovereign majesty of God convinces those spiritually alive to and aware of His presence that they themselves are unworthy of such proximity because their own sinfulness dishonours His sublime holiness.  Isaiah, who would speak such wonderful words concerning the Suffering Servant and God’s love for His people, considered himself to be a ‘man of unclean lips’, while Paul, the doctor and teacher of the nations, regarded himself as the least of the Apostles, indeed, ‘not fit to be called an Apostle’.   Peter, an expert fisherman on waters he had known and experienced at first hand all his life, sacrificed his own judgment and his own standing before the observing crowd on the shore by putting out into deep water again in broad daylight and doing what they would certainly consider foolish and futile … lowering the nets he had only just made clean once again into the waters at the word of this Holy Man with him.

People of God, anyone who sincerely seeks God, who tries to live in His Presence, instinctively recognizes that they themselves are not what they should be.  In His presence such men as Isaiah, Peter and Paul, felt that there was just something wrong with themselves, something from which none but the One they were approaching or better, Who was approaching them, could heal, cleanse, and thus justify, them.

Now, Adam had been created in original integrity, he was ‘just’ before God; but he subsequently sinned and lost that original justice given him by God, he sinned, and thereby became unjust.  We, as his children, as his descendants, are therefore born unjust; as such we have not sinned personally but have simply been born into a state God did not intend for us, which is why it is called ‘original’ sin, because it has been passed down to us from our human origins.  Only subsequently did we personally become sinners, when we corroborated our unjust state of birth by our own actual sins.  Adam, created just -- thanks to God -- became a sinner; we, born unjust -- thanks to Adam -- subsequently become personal sinners.  Only Jesus, by His own death and resurrection and by the Gift of His Holy Spirit, can restore us, through faith and baptism, from unjust and sinners, into just -- as originally intended by God -- and holy in Jesus.

The original sin in Adam, was indeed a personal sin whereby he lost his original justice for himself and for all his posterity; ‘original sin’ in us is an inherited ‘lack’, we are born into a state lacking – thanks to Adam -- the original justice God had intended us to have.  Now, if we look back to Isaiah, Paul, and Peter, we recall that they too felt themselves ‘lacking’ before God … Isaiah knew himself to be of unclean lips; Paul felt unworthy, the least of Apostles; Peter recognized himself to be a sinful man.  What did God make of them?  Isaiah had those ‘unclean’ lips touched with fiery altar tongs and was able to proclaim what has been called the Old Testament Gospel of Christ; Paul ‘least of all’ became the Teacher of the Nations; Peter ‘that self-confessed sinful man’ became Head of the Church, the Vicar of Christ, and suffered on a Cross like Jesus, for His people.

Those glorious witnesses are for our consolation.  Being born in original sin implies no condemnation, necessitates no failure; but it is a weakness, a ‘lack,’ we take to the Lord Who changed water into wine for the newly-wed couple ‘lacking’ refreshment for their guests.  But precisely, that awareness of being lacking, that acknowledged personal need, has ever served to provoke the love and generosity of God and Jesus … it is only when sinners will not acknowledge their need before God, only when they presume themselves to be without sin, when they assert themselves able to look Jesus in the eye without shame, only then do they find themselves having to regard ‘original sin’ as a doctrine to be rejected, denied, and hated.  Hated indeed today to such an extent that the very reality of sin is denied: ‘it is a Christian and Jewish invention’, totally unreal, and most harmful to modern sensitivities which, though they can contemplate abortions and suicide being ‘aided and abetted’, are upset and disturbed  to hear or think of people invoking God’s mercy for sinners, or praising what they call ‘virtues’ that would condemn human sinfulness.

People of God, you who have been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, you who rely not on yourselves but hope and trust fully in the Spirit of Jesus dwelling in you as God’s Gift, in your humble acknowledgment of sin before God be in no way downcast before men: think back to Isaiah of unclean lips, he became the one who cried out before God, ‘Here I am, send me to proclaim Your word’; think of Paul ‘the least’ who could finally say ‘By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me has not been ineffective; indeed I have toiled harder than all of them’; remember Peter, who from being a fisherman on the waters of  Galilee was made into God’s chosen, world-wide, Fisher of Men.

What can God make of you?  That is unknown, but we can be certain that your humility before Him makes it possible that He will make something of you: for His glory, for your salvation and joy, and for mankind’s greater and grateful good.

                  4^th. Sunday of the Year (C)                             

 (Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19; 1^st. Corinthians 12:31–13:13; Luke 4:21-30)

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People of God, in our second reading today taken from St. Paul’s first letter to his converts at Corinth, we heard one of the most famous, the most important, and the most beautiful texts of the New Testament: a text that is famous among Christians above all because of its fundamental doctrinal importance, whilst among unbelievers and nominal Christians it is famous because of its beauty.

We who are disciples of Jesus know that the devil always seeks to camouflage his evil designs into something apparently good by ‘covering’ them with a pseudo-righteousness which is nothing but the fruit of his lying lips.  Today, many in our modern consumer society --  including far too many formerly faithful but now lapsed Christians -- are still be able to bring to mind those words of St. Paul about the supreme worth and beauty of charity, which they prefer to call “love” and, at times, despite years of absence from, or almost total ignorance of Church life and the Catholic Faith, they will tell you in a triumphant tone and with crushing emphasis that “love” is what Christianity should be all about, not religion. And of course, though using the words of Scripture -- “love” is the word used in our popular bible translations today -- they distort the Catholic meaning of those words.  For example, when using that word “love” some relatively few mean nothing more than “being nice to”, “never hurting” people; whereas others, the vast majority, intend the word to include all the sexual excesses and aberrations popular and possible -- provided they are not considered to be criminal -- in today’s no-religion, permissive, and politically-correct modern western society.  Religion, which for the true Christian is the God-given means and channel of learning and expressing supreme love for or charity towards God, has no true significance, according to their way of thinking, being concerned with merely ritual and rites, public pomp and posturing.

Let us, however, who want to be whole-hearted and obedient disciples of Jesus and children of Mother Church, never mix up our apostolic faith and practice with such ‘fashionable morality’.

You will well remember how the Apostle Peter did – out of his own personal love for Jesus -- once speak to the Lord in an overly-worldly way and, we are told, Jesus turned to him immediately and said:

Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. (Mark 8:33)

Now, don’t all pseudo-Catholics and all lapsed non-believers yet politically correct people assure us that true Christianity ought to be all about loving people, “not hurting” anyone? What do you think: was that a “nice” thing for anyone -- let alone Jesus Himself -- to say?  Do you think those words of Jesus “hurt” Peter?  Of course they did, because they were meant to hurt him, in order to heal and protect him.  The fact is, however, that modern humanists who often make use of Christian words, do not really care about Jesus or His teaching: they don’t seek, first and foremost, to be His true disciples, above all, they want to be personally popular and successful on the contemporary stage  And so, when they use the words of Jesus, they do so only in such a way as to win arguments and gain public approval, not to proclaim the saving truth for which Jesus died.

Therefore, let us now turn to our other Scripture readings today and try to learn more about Jesus: His teaching, His attitudes, and His purposes.

We are told in the Gospel reading that, after reading from the Scriptures on the Sabbath in His local synagogue at Nazareth:

Jesus began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  And all spoke highly of Him, and were amazed at the gracious words came from His mouth. And they asked, "Isn’t this the son Joseph?" 

But then, Jesus immediately continued, saying:

Surely you will quote Me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself! Do here in Your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum!' And He said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 

That, however, was only a beginning for He then went on to quote examples from the Scriptures where Israel had not been found worthy of a miracle, and soon:

All the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

How deep was their indignation, how wild their rage!   They even went so far as to:

Rise up and thrust Him out of the town; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, that they might hurl Him down headlong.

People of God, one of our greatest failings today in our Western society, which formerly was proud to call itself Christian, is hypocrisy: it seeks to portray itself as being good without God, multi-cultural, but for the requirements of business barons  and ambitious politicians rather than in accordance with the wishes of the indigenous people, and without having any serious appreciation of, or will to make right accommodation for, religious convictions that have formed our people over many centuries.   Many of those who are influential do, indeed, still take up vaguely-remembered Christian concepts and teachings, they may even seem to quote Jesus, nevertheless they seek but the esteem of men; they obsequiously bend the knee to political correctness but will not bow their head in faith or accept the yoke of obedience to the Word of God.

We, however, who want to be true disciples of Jesus, must always remember the words of St. Paul heard in our second reading as he taught and intended them:

Earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. 

That greater gift, that more excellent way which, as you all know, is at the heart of our Christian faith, is the way of love: but note, such love is not mere social niceness, not mere human charm, not political agreeableness, and most certainly it is not an authoritative expression for popularly acceptable sexuality, it is Christian love, a sharing in God’s own love, and for that reason it is most properly called CHARITY.

Christian charity is, I say, a sharing in Jesus’ love for the God the Father, and then, for His sake, love of the children of God, that is, of our neighbour, a love that seeks to help our neighbour in the ways of God.  Christian charity is love of God even to the forgetfulness of self and to the scorning of worldly popularity, for it is not possible to put God first sincerely, whilst, in practice, seeking worldly esteem and success.

St. Paul assures us that, from this changing world, we can take with us only what will abide to eternity, that is:

            Faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 

Let us, however, consider closely what he recommends and what he warns us against.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

All the gifts Paul mentions there are sublime gifts of themselves … the Corinthians were wanting wonderful blessings … such prophecy, such understanding, such faith ….  indeed, you might go on to say, such love as to bestow all one’s good to the poor (like St. Anthony and many other great saints), such charity as to give one’s body to be burnt (like St. Laurence).  However, in aspiring to such gifts and graces, the Corinthians were being motivated by a devilishly hidden, ‘covered-over’ pride: for, wanting to be personally noticed, publicly praised, esteemed and honoured in the Church, they were not truly seeking to love God supremely.

Paul therefore tries to turn them in the right direction:

Earnestly desire the best gifts. I show you a more excellent way.

He guides them to charity.  But here notice that because of their penchant for pride he recommends the lesser expressions of charity first, those demanded by the second aspect of the great commandment: love of neighbour, a derivative form and expression of charity towards God Himself:

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

With love for our neighbour, and for the love of God, that is, in the fullness of Christian charity, let us ‘put on the whole armour of God’ as St. Paul recommended, since the enemies of Christ … and many ‘nice’ and ‘respectable’ people around us are indeed enemies of Christ, virulent in their attacks on Jesus and His Church in our times.

We should also recall and take to heart God’s words to Jeremiah, the great prophet who most closely foreshadowed Jesus in the contradictions and contempt he had to endure in order to remain faithful to God and help save his people:

My people have forsaken Me; therefore, prepare yourself and arise and speak to them all that I command you.  Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them; for behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land (and) against the people of the land.    They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you to deliver you.

Dear friends in Christ, steel and sympathy, both of them, are inherent to and absolutely essential for true Christian love, a living offshoot of Divine Charity.  Is your ‘love’ worldly: all sympathy and softness professing not Catholic and Christian truth but worldly conformity which, holding you in thrall, promises to assure your public ‘acceptability’ and personal satisfaction? In other words, have you lost that steel demanded by Jesus of all His disciples and exemplified so strikingly in His own visit to, and words in, the home town that wanted to own Him?

         

3rd Sunday of the Year (C) 2019

3^rd. Sunday of Year (C)  

      (Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10; 1^st. Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21)

     

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.            

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, those words of Jesus “a year acceptable to the Lord” made passing reference to the jubilee of the year A.D. 28.  Nearly 2000 years on, we today have some vague awareness of the jubilee tradition in Israel after having ourselves experienced a modern jubilee in the year 2000.  A jubilee year in Israel was meant to be one of renewal and rejoicing: renewal for all who had been wandering from the way of the Lord, and rejoicing for the suffering and needy who were to receive redress for past injuries and help in present difficulties.  Even in modern times and among nations and international organizations overwhelmingly concerned with politics and money rather than with religious issues, nevertheless, in the year 2000 that spirit of jubilee enabled many poor nations to have their debts either notionally wiped out or else substantially reduced.

In our Gospel reading Jesus was just beginning His public ministry, just starting to proclaim the Good News that, through Him, God was offering salvation to His People. Jesus was inaugurating not just one acceptable year, but – as was fitting for what would be the Jubilee of all jubilees – a whole new relationship with God; a relationship whereby Israel, and ultimately the whole of mankind, would be offered freedom from the bonds of sin – the source of all human suffering -- and endowment by the Gift of the Holy Spirit sent to form us in Jesus as children of God, children for whom God would be a true Father, children destined to share an inheritance in heaven with God’s only-begotten Son made Flesh.

Dear People of God, this Good News that Jesus was announcing at that favourable time was something to be celebrated, and in this respect, we should remember how Mary our Mother was urged to respond to God’s offer of a Son-and-Saviour when the angel Gabriel addressed her at the Annunciation.  He began telling her of God’s offer by saying, “Rejoice, Mary, the Lord is with you”, for the Christian message, the Good News of Christ, is not to be merely accepted, it needs to be embraced with sincere and, indeed, wholehearted rejoicing by all children of Mary, and this is something that we Catholics  need to recall to our Christian awareness and make part of our every-day lives.

The Scriptures offer us over the ages a developing message of salvation and ever deepening awareness of the true nature of human faith called for by such divine goodness. In the first reading we heard:

Ezra read plainly from the book of the Law of God, interpreting it so that al could understand what was read.   Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest-scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people, "Today is holy to the Lord your God; do not be sad and do not weep" for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law. He said further, "Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our Lord.  Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength." 

The book of the Law had been lost and it had just been found again.  As the people, gathered together to hear it publicly read once again after very many years, listened to that reading, they were made aware of their past sins and present sinfulness and they wept.  But they were told: “This day is holy to the Lord, do not be grieved.”  Why not?  Because this was a holy people whom God had been preparing for over a thousand years, and they were, at this very moment, showing themselves to be uniquely able -- on hearing what was good and true -- to recognise and bewail their present sinful state and regret the past offences against their saving God and loving Father.  Such tears were those of lost children re-discovering an affinity of love and aspiring to fulfilment through obedience, not those of rebels hating God’s Law though fearing its warnings against all transgressors. 

People of God, all human beings are sinners before God: God alone is holy.  But those who are in the worst state, those who most need to weep, are those who are able and willing to deceive themselves into thinking either that they are good enough of themselves, or that it doesn’t matter whether one is holy or not.  Such people will never humbly weep for their sins here on earth; and, as Jesus warned, should they die in them, they will have to shed many unwilling and bitter tears as a result.

Oh, dear friends in Christ, it is a wonderful blessing to know and appreciate the Gospel proclamation: it gives us an opportunity to choose what is beautiful and true, to opt for what favours life and reject what is false and deadly.  The ability to find joy in, or shed tears over, the Gospel is a cause for very great joy, because it is a sign that God is taking hold of, and claiming, you as His own.  Therefore, let us take to heart today those final words of that passage from Nehemiah:

            Rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength.

People of God, the Gospel can and should be the joy of our lives, and it is up to each of us to appreciate this and to try ever more and more to delight in the Lord.

This is initially a matter of sensible choice and good will:  does a healthy person go around miserable because she cannot eat as many cream cakes as she would like, or because he cannot booze himself silly every night in the pub, or live day after day on a drug-induced cloud nine?  Not at all!  The physically healthy are happy to know what they should avoid so as to safeguard their well-being, and those who are spiritually healthy are happy because they have real life and are able to seek for its true and eternal fulfilment.   Even happier are those who can delight in the goodness and beauty that surrounds us on every hand in God’s good and beautiful creation and among His people imbued with fraternal charity and mutual respect.

Dear People of God, if you want to be true disciples of Jesus, to become true sons and daughters of our Father in heaven, then try to think more and more of those ‘ordinary’ blessings that surround us every day.

What a joy it is to be able to appreciate what is all around us here on earth … the male blackbird singing, flowers blooming and birds popping-up and darting here and there, the trees affording us a galaxy of autumn tints when their dying leaves are most beautiful and inspiring – or chastening -- for humans growing old!   How awesome it can be to look up into the heavens and appreciate, delight in, all that can be seen of nature there as expressive of the beauty, majesty, and power of God, our Father Who made them all and holds them in being, rather than simply observe them as sources of light, resulting from mere chance, which bespeak of nothing other than cosmic separation and of a cold, cold, beauty devoid of any personal significance for us!

A yet greater Catholic and Christian blessing it is, dear People of God, to have peace in your heart with a good conscience; to be humble before God, and to believe that He is using all the daily events of life -- be they big or apparently insignificant -- to help, guide, and draw you towards Himself.  And, above all, it is an incomparable blessing, to be able to look forward to eternal life: relying, not on any proudly asserted personal merits, but on God’s infinite mercy, and His unfailing, and indeed already experienced, goodness towards us personally  in Jesus; to know that eternal life will be home, where the beauty, the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of the Infinite God will fill all the members of the Father’s heavenly family with delight and unending bliss, because He wills to be for us the most perfect of Fathers and to share His glory with us in Jesus.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been given much, but there is much more to come … Jesus is with Mother Church to the end of time.  Jesus is with Mother Church, in her, for YOU.  In her and through me His priest, He is saying to you personally today, The Spirit of the Lord has been given to Me, for He has anointed Me, He has sent Me to bring the good news to you, to set you free, give you new sight, to proclaim a blessed season of your Father’s favour in which He wants you to become, in Me, His true child. 

Want that, People of God, want, in this season of favour, to become a true child of your heavenly Father in Jesus, and you are well on the way, as the Psalmist (37:4) assures us:

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Therefore, think more on the things of God, and less on the things of this world; think on God and learn to delight in Him.   And, trusting in His goodness, seek to know His will and try to do it joyfully.  In that way, you will surely share the confidence of St. Luke who wrote His Gospel, as he tells us:

So that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.