24th Sunday Year B 2021

 

24^th. Sunday of Year (B)

(Isaiah 50:5-9; James 2:14-18; St. Mark: 8: 27-35)

Jesus specially chose twelve disciples most intimately associated with Himself as His Apostles to be sent out to preach in His name and cast out demons by the power of His Spirit, and the first of these, when their names are listed, is always Simon Peter. 

Most significantly of all, however, Simon Peter was chosen by the Father in heaven to recognize and confess on behalf of all the Apostles that Jesus was the Christ, that is, the long-awaited Messiah from God for Israel:

When Jesus asked them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’, Peter said to Him in reply: ‘You are the Christ.’

We find St Matthew in his Gospel account tells us more of that event :  

Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My heavenly Father.   And so, I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:17–18)

And it is St. John who tells us of words spoken by Jesus to all the Apostles indeed, but pre-eminently appropriate for Peter as chosen by the Father:

The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have come to believe that I came from God. (John 16:25–27)

Now, why does St. Mark make no mention of those words of Jesus to be found in both Saint Matthew and Saint John which so particularly praise Saint Peter??

It was out of the warmth and glow, so to speak, of that deep personal bond between Simon the disciple and Jesus the Master that Peter rebuked Jesus when He began to teach His disciples that:

The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days?

Peter so wanted, out of his love for Jesus, to turn his beloved Master away from what seemed to him a tragic course, that he remonstrated with Jesus in words which St. Matthew (16:22) gives us:

Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to You.”

Words again unreported by St. Mark, why?  Surely because Peter was almost immediately totally ashamed of them when Jesus answered him so deliberately and decisively.  Now Jesus answered Peter not out of human passion, but from divine intensity of purpose; for we are told that He first of all turned away from Peter in order to look at His other disciples before turning back to look Peter in the face and say:

Get behind Me, Satan!  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  

Oh, dear People of God, we are here engulfed in passion most understandably human and by a purpose most mysteriously divine, creating a tension beyond human comprehension but absolutely essential for our divine vocation and formation in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, as children of God.  Jesus’ words, literally, ‘Away, behind Me, Satan’ repeat exactly the words He used at His temptation in the desert at the beginning of His public ministry when speaking to Satan himself.

Peter – God bless him -- seems to have drunk so characteristically deep of Jesus’ medicine correcting him, that the Gospel message he gave St. Mark as his, that is Peter’s, personal awareness and appreciation of Jesus, tells us nothing of Jesus’ exaltation of Peter as reported by St. Matthew and implied by St. John. But Jesus’ correction of Peter had to be told in total clarity because it contains an extraordinary wealth of teaching for us who want to follow Jesus as true disciples.

What hurtful words of Jesus in response to such affectionate concern!  What apparently degrading words, indeed!!  And yet, Jesus is here, giving us His most decisive and immediately-necessary salvific warning, and He chooses also to show us how to distinguish between the sinner, Peter, and the sin, Satan’s deception of Peter.

Consider, dear People of God, WHY did Jesus – as St. Mark alone tells us – on hearing Peter’s words, and yet before immediately answering him, so decisively:

            Turn around and, looking at His disciples, rebuke Peter?

It could only have been that Jesus was fully aware of the effect -- the immediate shock and perplexity – that the words He was about to say would have on those other disciples who looked-up to Peter as their leader; it also showed how much He regretted that He had to deal so publicly with Peter in a manner He would rather have done with Personal sensitivity in private.

And notice, dear friends, how very Catholic are the issues involved here, we are speaking of SCANDAL: Jesus overriding His own natural feelings and those of Peter in order to spiritually protect and guide all of His disciples,  most emphatically teaches them and us about the evil of scandal:

You Peter are (now) an obstacle (a ‘scandalum’, a scandal) to Me (because) you are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  (Matthew 16:23)

Jesus knew full well how esteemed Peter was in the eyes of his fellow Apostles, and how His Father’s choice of Peter to proclaim Jesus as Messiah-come-from-God had confirmed that impression.  That was why Jesus deemed it absolutely necessary for Him to correct Peter immediately and without any possibility of misunderstanding:

He summoned the crowd with His disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and that of the gospel will save it.  (Matthew 16:24-25)

Jesus, as we heard from St. Mark, had been teaching His disciples, the Apostles, that:

The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days;

and Jesus had always insisted that His Gospel was based, not on His own Personal authority, but on that of His Father:

The Father who sent Me commanded Me what to say and speak.  And I know that His commandment is eternal life. So, what I say, I say as the Father told Me.   (John 12:49–50)

Peter was, therefore, as Jesus said:

An obstacle to Me (because) you are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  

Jesus was always perfect God and perfect man, and here, Peter was trying to pull on the human heart-strings of Jesus by his own ‘emotionality’:

God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to You.

Peter– unbeknown to himself -- was actually trying to turn Jesus aside from His divine love of His Father’s will by ‘stoking up’ His natural, human, dread-awareness of what His Passion would involve!   Here, human ‘soon-to-be-seen-as-mistaken’ passionate emotion is set against divine, timelessly enduring, compassionate love.

As we would expect, Peter in the event, so whole-heartedly drank of Jesus’ medicine that Mark – whose Gospel is generally regarded as giving Peter’s awareness and appreciation of Jesus as distinct from the other Gospels – does not pass down to us words of Jesus’ exalting of Peter; we find those only in St Matthew’s and St. John’s Gospels.

Our present-day Western-world and irreligious society mocks (and too many popularity-seeking Catholics weakly follow suit) the very idea of bad example, scandal, causing supremely real harm of a spiritual nature.    

For Jesus, however, and for all true Christians, dear People of God, it is not enough to have good intentions, as did Peter; it is not enough to have warm feelings of human affection or seemingly sincere love in one’s heart; we have got to learn from Jesus how to love both God and man, how to find that authentic love that wills to walk in and along God’s way, that is -- by the Gift of Jesus’ most holy Spirit -- to know God’s truth, His loving purpose, and saving plan, that we may adapt ourselves to it.  For, if we do not seek His truth, His will, we become all too easily Satan’s ever-useful, perhaps even sometimes favourite, tools.  In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus Himself witnesses to that beginning to happen with Peter!

Jesus saw Satan abusing Peter, using Peter to sow Satanic seeds of spiritual harm, and Jesus could not simply explain the situation to Peter, He had – in order to destroy those seeds from Peter’s heart and the disciples’ minds – to SHOW IN ALL ITS INTENSITY His own hatred of Satan, now presuming to attack Jesus once again, this time through the person of misguided Peter: 

            GET BEHIND ME SATAN!!

Today, dear friends in Christ and fellow Catholics, we are bombarded on all sides by emotionalism: the Pope smiles and embraces a child, he is so good!   If women are shown weeping, whatever questions or matters are involved, those issues are thereby, immediately, prejudiced.  Self-displaying young women and girls are so charming and pretty; surely their parents have every right to be so proud of their good looks despite innocence being discarded and Christian decency being mocked by their manifested beauty.  Children can be badly behaved, but after all they are still children and must be allowed their childhood pleasures and ‘mistakes’ (even through to 16yrs. old or more!!) what is the harm, who am I to correct them, whoever would want to correct them??

Jesus spoke harsh words to Simon Peter, but He spoke them plainly and without the slightest apology.  Why?   Because of the reality, the dreadful reality, of the spiritual harm that could have arisen from scandalous words and a seemingly loving attitude.  His disciples must not think like men but learn to think as God would have them think; they must not speak as men do, but as God wills.  Popularity is no aim for Christians, obedience is Jesus’ Personal example.

Where are we today, People of God?  Disciples are attacked for thinking and speaking to the best of their ability in line with the teaching of God and the Scriptures, the traditional teaching of Mother Church in her Saints and doctors: such doctrine is considered as inhuman for today’s version of humanity where  disciples are called upon  to please the multitude: to think as people think, and speak only what comforts them most.

To whom are these words of Jesus addressed to today?

You are an obstacle to Me (because) you are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do;

to whom are they words of true significance, saving importance, and divine purpose?

Time allows me to add only this, dear People of God:  they mean that to me, and I pray they mean that also to you true disciples of Jesus, and children of Mother Church founded on the rock of Peter by Jesus according to His Father’s will.

 

 

 

 

23rd Sunday Year B 2021

 

23^rd. Sunday (Year B)

(Isaiah 35:4-7; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37)

 

 

 

In our reading from the prophet Isaiah we heard:

Say to those whose hearts are frightened, "Be strong, fear not!  Behold, here is your God, He comes with vindication; with divine recompense He comes to save you."

For a small nation -- conscious of being God’s Chosen People and, despite that, having a long history of suffering as a pawn in the conflicting endeavours at empire building by the surrounding powers in the Fertile Crescent -- such a prophecy of salvation became, as the years passed by and the suffering and humiliation piled up, more and more commonly regarded as fighting talk.  That, certainly, was how many Jews in the days of Jesus, experiencing a long-standing occupation by Roman forces, understood them: they longed for, many even expected, their God to help them overthrow the military might of their hated and despised oppressors.  With such expectations they were pre-disposed to see Jesus’ miracles -- such as His recent feeding the five thousand in the desert -- as evidence that He, surely, was the one for whom they were looking.

However, the reaction of the religious authorities to Jesus, especially that of the Pharisees who were most influential with the people generally, was different.  The Pharisees thought they were well prepared for God’s judgment and the Messiah’s coming thanks to their meticulous observance of God’s Law as laid down in the Torah and as understood and interpreted for daily living by the many oral traditions from their elders.   They regarded the person of Jesus with suspicion, despite His miracles, because He was not one of them, and quite evidently did not consider Himself or His disciples to be bound by Pharisaic traditions.   Moe than that, however, was the fact  that He did not regard the Pharisees themselves as being purified and justified by their meticulous practices:

You nullify the word of God in favour of your tradition that you have handed on.   And you do many such things.  (Mark 7:13)

And so, the prophecy from Isaiah with which we began our readings today serves to highlight the mistaken aspirations of both the ordinary people and of their religious leaders in Jesus’ times: the people, frightened of Rome, were looking for a warrior Messiah, and the blind Pharisees did not appreciate that they themselves needed a Messiah to heal them of a sickness they could not, or would not, recognize:

Say to those whose hearts are frightened, "Be strong, fear not!  Behold, here is your God, He comes with vindication; with divine recompense He comes to save you.  Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.”

Jesus, journeying beyond the confines of Israel in today’s Gospel reading, was teaching His disciples by His ordinary words and every-day behaviour, gradually enlightening their minds and stirring their hearts by the gentle inspiration of His Spirit:

And people brought to Him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged Him to lay His hand on him.

Why did ‘people bring the man’ to Jesus?   Were they perhaps Jewish people living abroad, so to speak, and their friend a pagan whom they hoped might convert to Judaism?  Or did they perhaps bring him because he was a fellow Jew who had not wanted to come to Jesus himself?  Had he perhaps become bitter over the years with this his trial and only came to Jesus ‘under pressure’, so to speak, from good friends?    Whatever the case, sensing His Father’s will behind this unsolicited incident:

            Jesus took him off by himself away from the crowd.

The man was being given the opportunity through his experience of personal closeness with Jesus to overcome his original difficulties or mistaken apprehensions:

            Jesus put His finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.

Jesus was calming down his possible anxieties and stirring up any embers of confidence and trust by doing things not unexpected in those days by one hoping to be healed.

Then Jesus looked up to heaven, groaned, and said to him “Ephphatha!  -- that is, ‘Be opened!”

That glance up to heaven by Jesus and His accompanying groan or deep sigh may have constituted the irreligious man’s introduction to faith in the goodness of Israel’s God or the saving suffering of Jesus, for:

Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

Now, let us look yet more closely at Jesus as we see Him broadly portrayed in this whole seventh chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, for He has so much to teach us: most eloquently by His words and most instructively by His actions.

He had, recently, performed the miracle of feeding the five thousand, and then He discomfited both the Pharisees and Scribes who had wanted to confront Him and His disciples for failing to observe the traditions of their elders.  Jesus had been close, at that time, to being hailed by the common people as the expected Messiah, the longed-for and irresistibly victorious, leader.   That seems to have been in the forefront of His mind, for He went – straightway -- out of Israelite territory and entered the region of Tyre and Sidon where Greek-speaking was prevalent and any worship was pagan.

There, as Jesus and His disciples were walking unnoticed and free, they were suddenly accosted by a woman who began to pester Him and His disciples to heal her daughter and provoked that memorable and, I think, divinely beautiful, conversation:

Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.   Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs. (Mark 7:27-28)

Jesus, habitually alive to His Father’s influence , immediately recognized that such an answer was way above the woman’s natural capabilities:

He said to her, "For this saying, go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."

He had not wanted to be lionized by over-enthusiastic Israelites imagining the Lion of Juda crushing Israel’s oppressors, and therefore He had entered this non-Jewish region.  And now, having encountered this Syro-Phoenecian woman so surprisingly gifted by His Father, He decided to continue on His journey going towards the Sea of Galilee indeed, but not directly, rather by a long, circuitous route through further Decapolis territory: perhaps His Father might still have some further purpose for Him there?

And such was indeed the case, because, in our Gospel passage today, Jesus was invited by His Father, to perform yet another miracle: this time upon a deaf-mute man, a providential miracle that would fulfil what the prophet Isaiah had long foretold and would serve to emphasize the holiness and sanctifying capacities of the sacred humanity with which Jesus had clothed His divine nature:

Then will the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.

Jesus always walked before His Father, seeking to know and do His Father’s will at all times and in all things, and during this relatively short journey outside Israel He gave a priceless example for all future Christian apostles, missionaries, and even ordinary, humble yet active, disciples – including you and me hopefully -- to respect and sympathetically adapt themselves to all who they might be privileged to meet, to evangelize, or just spiritually help. 

Jesus brought His immediate disciples back to Israel and God’s Chosen People, inspired and better equipped to follow the example of Him Who, it was said:

            He Has done all things well!                                                                            

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let us now take part in the Holy Sacrifice with like appreciation for what Our Blessed Lord continues to do among us and in Mother Church in our deeply troubled times.

 

22nd Sunday Year B 2021

 

 22^nd. Sunday (Year B)

(Deut. 4:1-2, 6-8; James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

 

Moses was encouraging the People of Israel to enter and take possession of the land God was about to bestow upon them by giving them God’s Law whereby they might prosper in that land and give glory to Him Who had brought them thus far, through all their troubles and despite all their enemies:

What great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon Him?  Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

Notice the priority given by Moses: first, the closeness of Israel’s God whenever they call upon Him; second, no nation has statutes and decrees so wise and just as the law Moses is now giving Israel from their God.  The relationship between God and His Chosen People is determined first of all by the way His people relate to Him in their minds and hearts, communing with Him and calling upon Him in all their needs; secondly by their observance of the Law He has given them for their prosperity and His Glory before the nations.

Let us now turn our attention to Jesus in His confrontation with the Pharisees as we heard in the Gospel reading. 

At that time the politically powerful Sadducees were, by the grace of Rome, the authorities in charge of the internationally renowned Temple worship in Jerusalem, but it was the Pharisees who were the popular spiritual leaders in Israel – the Sadducees were aristocrats way above the ordinary people, lords of all they saw and owned, while the Pharisees were much closer to the peoples’ level, and they were most proud to be recognized as zealous for observance of the Law of Moses rather than for the law of Rome.  Nevertheless, the Law came down to them along with a multitude of oral traditions from elders with the result that their concern for the Law did not lead them to God so much as it made them ever, and ever more, mindful of what their elders had said about the Law.  They communed more with those elders in pride of spirit than with God in humility of heart:

Jesus responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’  You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition

Then Jesus went on to show the absolute importance of that inner turning to, communing with, God …. for only God, thus invited into men’s hearts, could purify them and cleanse us:

From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.  All these evils come from within and they defile.

The Law might regulate external behaviour, but only communion with God in the heart could purify from inner defilement.

Even for Our Blessed Lady, who, as St. Luke (2:19) tells us:

            Kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart,

that heartfelt loving communion with God had to be perfected before she could follow her Son’s Ascension into heavenly glory: she received the Gift of the Holy Spirit, to glorify her within and without in preparation for her Assumption into heaven to be with her beloved Son.

And for us Catholics, obedience to the Church, regular reception of the sacraments, will produce little where our heart is not open to welcome and cherish the Gift of God’s Holy Spirit there.  The Spirit is God’s Invisible Gift to each of us, and only a personal, spiritual, response to His majesty and power, wisdom and love, a response that God Himself sees and appreciates before ever it strikes human eyes or ears, can provide a fitting return gift to God on our part.

An ever-present -- usually secret -- sickness among not a few Catholics who try to be worthy of the name, is a feeling of being burdened, even suffocated, by recommendations, prescriptions, regulations, that seem to threaten us with failings here, faults there, sins, indeed, which -- even when small -- are considered to be significant because leading to others more threatening and serious.   It is a sickness that results from spiritual ignorance and robs sincere religious observance of any spontaneous joy.

Where is the freedom of which St. Paul spoke so ardently:

For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery?  (Galatians 5:1)

How can it be that when the Christian life for some seems so unfree, oppressive, that St. John can write:

No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him.   (1 John 3:9)

Such an anomaly is due to that against which Moses warned the People of Israel, that about which Jesus accused the precious and proud Pharisees: it is something that for today’s more humble and sincere Catholic sufferers might be described as ‘taking one’s eye off the ball’.

For Christians are not meant to struggle alone in their imitation of Jesus; we are called and expected to allow the Spirit of Jesus to guide us along the way He alone knows, even to carry us – unknown to ourselves -- along that way.  We are not meant to be ever looking out for sins and occasions of sin: rather we are intended to keep our minds on God who is our Father, really and truly, our Father Who wants to show Himself as such for us.  We should fix our hearts on Jesus Who died for love us and rose in glory for us; we should set our hopes on the Holy Spirit of Jesus, given to us, the Spirit Who will form us secretly indeed but sublimely in an authentic likeness of Jesus for the Father.

People of God, we are not called to be rich in worldly consolations and satisfactions: we are believers whose faith and provisional experience of God are strong enough to fill us with a desire for that of which Jesus has spoken and for which He has given us His promise.  We are not individuals confident in our own ability and strength: we are called to be disciples who find our comfort and strength in the Spirit Jesus has given us and the hope which He inspires within us.   Above all we are children; children of God who know most surely that there is a Father Who has already spoken to us, and Who is still drawing us to Jesus; a Father Whom Jesus has assured us we can, in Him, call ‘Our Father’, a Father Whose heavenly kingdom will be our eternal home.

We are a people called to gratitude for God’s innumerable blessings and gifts, not to complaisance in our own achievements; a people called to confidence in His goodness, not to pride in our own self-sufficiency; a people called to aspire to and hope for the supreme joy of His loving presence, not to selfish anxiety and fear for our present freedom from trial and trouble, and the certainty of our future eternal safety.

Dear People of God, let us learn in prayer to look for and praise God’s wondrous beauty; re-discover and constantly remember His many blessing to you personally over the years; and never be surprised at His enduring and ever-erupting goodness in your lives.

                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21st Sunday Year B 2021

 

                21^st. Sunday of Year (B)                      

 (Joshua 24:1-2, 15-18; Ephesians 5:21-32; John 6:60-69)

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Our Gospel passage today, People of God, refers to the Eucharist, and Jesus is there addressing certain Jews who, quite understandably found the thought of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus as repulsive and unacceptable.  Jesus said to them:

Does this offend you?   What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

In today’s Mass, however, the Gospel has been joined with a passage from St. Paul who has become a “bête noir” for modern feminists who regard his teaching as being degrading for women.  But then, those feminists themselves, what sort of women are they, women who aspire to confrontationally show themselves as equal to men in everything: be it dutiful -- as members of special forces trained to be expert killers, or “laddering-it-up” alongside a fellow fireman to a high blazing building with burning beams and collapsing walls, and depending on their partner’s sheer strength perhaps at  times, or as pugilists tough as nails and expert at hurting and even harming, or maybe, and to prove their absolute equality, be it criminal, such as gang activities or filthy language?  

Christian, Catholic, women, on the other hand are members of a Church and aspire to a society where men and women are always regarded as equal in personal dignity and most social activities, but also as complementary to men in others aspects of their lives, and social aspirations?

In that respect the words of St. Paul we will study today can be introduced by those words of Our Blessed Lord already mentioned in another context:

It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words My chosen Apostle Paul speaks to you in My name are spirit, and they are life.

Dear People of God, the devil’s sin is pride, and the easiest way for him to lead human beings astray is to give them a shot or two of pride in the arm so to speak ... the families’ honour ... giving as good as you get ... etc.; and consequently, we Catholics need to beware of those who strive to make themselves prominent, and be careful whom we choose to support or follow.  

Let us, therefore, consider today’s reading from St. Paul, who, as St. Luke tells us about the Apostles in general:

            Never stopped (both) teaching and proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus. (Acts 5:42);

And notice first of all that there, in today’s reading from St. Paul we have his proclamation of Christian life in Christ, by one who could say of himself as the one sent by the risen Christ to proclaim His truth:

We have the mind of Christ.  (1 Corinthians 2:16)

We have here Paul’s advice not a direct command received as such from, and handed down in the name of, Jesus:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord: as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands. (Ephesians 5:22, 24)

Today’s feminists say, of course: what woman could accept that?  Are we therefore to assume that they also think it degrading for Mother Church to be subject to Christ?

Paul had never been put off, dismayed, or disheartened by the pride of pagans disputing with him or setting themselves up against him:

I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a constraint on you; I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by God’s mercy is trustworthy. (1 Corinthians 7:35, 25).

Other passages in his letters show that Paul knew precisely what he was teaching:

To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light (for all) what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church.    

Pray for me, that speech may be given me to open my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel.   (Ephesians 3:8–11, 6:19)

Paul was, therefore, most deliberate when he made this his proclamation of Christ, the Messiah, and went on to say:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her, nourish and cherish (them), just as the Lord does the Church.

This time, it is the lads around us -- the boys -- who respond immediately with: what man would want that? The feminists hate what they see as the humiliation of woman in Christian marriage, while the boys hate the bondage and responsibility that Christian family life would thrust upon them.

Yet, before we go on to look more deeply into this situation, we should remember that marriage is optional, in the sense that anyone is free choose to live by preference a celibate life which is, indeed, recommended in the Scriptures; moreover, in marriage itself the choice of partner is also preferential, indeed, totally free.  But, whatever choice is made, it must be lived as a Christian option for us who will to love and serve Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Now, in all this where does Our Lady stand?

Feminists -- as a whole -- pay her little attention, they certainly have little admiration for her lowliness:

My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, Who looks on the lowliness of His handmaid.

As for the boys … few of them would be ashamed to say they admire, perhaps even love the Virgin Mary, above all as Mother of Jesus, Mother of the Church (if they are still ‘practicing’), and as their Mother …  but, they might add with genuine humility, that she is too good for them, somewhat in the style of St. John of the Cross who, as a little boy, dirtied by playing outside and, if I remember correctly, struggling in some water, did not want that lovely lady (Mary) who appeared to him, to grasp hold of his dirty hand.

Mary has always been seen in the Church as a litmus test for adventitious doctrines as they relate to the Person of Jesus and His teaching.  Now, the modern ‘boys’ have no doctrines, whereas the feminists do most certainly have doctrinal intentions, contesting and ‘doctoring’ certain passages in the Scriptures, and life-changing attitudes very closely aligned with those of abortionists.  As a result, whereas ‘the boys’ are known as poor Catholics, our modern feminists – on the whole – can be hardly recognizable as Christians or Catholic at all.

If those views – of the feminists and the ‘boys’ -- were the only possible interpretations of St. Paul’s teaching it would be very difficult indeed to understand how it has come about that Christianity has raised the status and dignity of women immeasurably more than any other religious faith.  How could a religion preaching the so-called humiliation of woman in marriage ever have lifted up the status and confirmed the dignity of women, as has the Catholic Church in the love, ‘worship’, and honour she willingly and gratefully gives to the Virgin Mary as mother of her Lord and Saviour?  On the other hand, if the bondage of responsibilities and chastity were so objectionable and unsatisfying for men -- as the boys say -- how could it be that the Christian family life has for many centuries shown itself to be the bed-rock of Western, indeed world-wide, democratic society?

As you can see, so much depends on how you look at things.  That is why we heard in the first reading that Joshua, the leader of the Israelites after Moses, said to the assembled people, “Make up your minds”:

Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt.  And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."  So, the people answered and said: "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods.

Our troubles today are largely the result of people who publicly say they don’t want to forsake the Lord, but who, in their hearts, neither hold Him in fear, nor are they willing to discipline themselves so as to serve Him obediently in sincerity and truth.

Jesus, in the Gospel reading, knew some such people who found His teaching hard because they were unwilling to commit themselves entirely to Him:

When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?   It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  

What if you see the Son of Man ascending to heaven?  Can’t you understand where I am leading you?  You will see Me ascend as your leader to the place where I am to prepare a place for all who will follow me.  I am not preparing My disciples for a mere seventy or eighty years of life in this sinful set-up we call our world; I have been sent to help you become children of God, able to live for ever in an eternal home prepared for you in My Father’s Kingdom!  But for that, you have to be willing to trust Me.

Just as there are many rooms in the Father’s Kingdom where Jesus is preparing to receive His faithful disciples, so too, here on earth, there are many ways of learning discipleship and some, indeed, are better than others, as both Mary and Martha learnt; but all acceptable ways necessarily involve loving God and one’s neighbour, serving and following Jesus by obeying His Spirit in the Church. 

Whatever way we choose, the whole of our life as Christians is a time of preparation for our heavenly home, a preparation whereby we are gradually purged and cleansed of our sins and formed in the likeness of Jesus by His Holy Spirit.  It is not a time for the pre-eminent pursuit of worldly pride or pleasure, nor is it a process we can -- at any time -- monitor and appraise for our own satisfaction.  The progress of life on earth for a disciple of Jesus is a spiritual work, a work carried out by the Holy Spirit; and it is a faith work, a work that can only be done for those who live by faith in Jesus Christ and in that way open themselves up to His Holy Spirit thus allowing Him to prepare them as children of God destined for heaven.

And so, marriage -- the Christian life-sharing and potentially child-bearing relationship between man and woman -- is a most important relationship for the training of God’s heavenly children.  It is not, and cannot be, a relationship which is private to the two concerned, for that would be a mere a free-love association.   Christian marriage is the union of man and woman offered to Jesus, to be lived in accordance with His teaching and guidance as handed down to us by His Apostles and Mother Church: it is a human relationship offered to God for His glory, for Him to guide so that it serves the salvation of the spouses, helping form them for His heavenly family.  Every blessing comes to us through the Cross; consequently, in all Christian living, including marriage, there is experience of the Cross of Jesus; but as we see in Jesus, the Cross is ultimately something which a Catholic disciple can learn to embrace with his Lord for love of the Father, and thus it becomes something that can lift us up from this earth to heaven.

Just to put it briefly in answer to the feminists and to the lads: Christian marriage is meant to help a Christian man and woman grow in humility on the one hand, and in true love on the other hand, both of which demand total, responsible, self-commitment and willing self-sacrifice.  To enable them both to achieve this, the Christian bond of marriage bestows a share in divine love, and a gift of grace which gives those who want to receive it strength to live in a way which is more than human; and that is precisely why the feminists and the lads cannot understand Catholic marriage and Christian love, because it is for those destined for heaven, not for those satisfied, or seeking to be satisfied, with whatever renown, success, satisfaction, pleasure or prestige, they can win or grab for themselves in this largely pagan world.

In all this, however, argument is of limited value, for as Jesus said:

Therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.

That does not mean that the Father denies anyone the opportunity or the ability to come to Jesus, but simply that He will not force it upon anyone; while those who do come to discipleship, must realize that it is a gift of God, not their own work.

In His days in Palestine, Jesus’ message displeased many:

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

Contrary to the impression given in these our times by some of His disciples both high and low, Jesus does not depend on human backing, He does not find it necessary to count “bums on seats” -- as the saying goes -- before He can trust His Father.  For, just as of old:

He said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to go away?",

even so today, He looks and listens for those true disciples who can wholeheartedly repeat and confirm those words of Peter:

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.