Fifth Sunday of the Year (A)

FIFTH SUNDAY (Year A)

(Isaiah 58:7-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-16)

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               You are the salt of the earth.

  

With those words, Jesus wanted to impress upon His disciples an awareness of their dignity and responsibility.

You, He says – not the official representatives of the Jewish Synagogue – You who are following and hearing Me, You who are perhaps beginning to order your lives according to My words and not according the traditions of the Pharisees and their Scribes,

            You are the salt of the earth.

Salt was, in those days, obtained from evaporated pools by the shore of the Dead Sea, or from small lakes on the edge of the Syrian Desert which dry up in the summer.  This salt crust, dug from the soil, contained various impurities which, when the salt was dissolved and removed, remained as useless refuse.

Could that be the possibly double meaning of those mysterious following words of Jesus:

But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot; 

a reference perhaps, on the one hand, to the obvious fact that once the original clod of salty earth had lost its salt content nothing but useless refuse remained; while, on the other hand, hinting at possibly disastrous consequences if disciples were to lose their purified saltiness.

However that may be, notice that Jesus’ words do not have the same connotation as our modern expression ‘salt of the earth’.  Jesus’ words are based on literal fact: it was earthy salt, salty soil, which could, indeed, yield life protecting and health preserving salt, but which, for such a purpose, needed to be purified first of all.  Those disciples whom Jesus was addressing as ‘salt of the earth’ were actually following Him around and gladly listening to His words; and they, Jesus was saying, could be purified from their earthy contagions and become pure salt for His  and for God’s purposes, if, that is, their following Him were to become obedience to Him, and if their hearing of His words were to develop into appreciation and understanding of them, and ultimately, to faith in Himself.

Disciples who are true followers, true lovers, of Christ, can never be artificial, hot-house, characters -- the anaemic products of human wit and conniving, pride and presumption – no, they are of the earth, gotten from the  humanity created by God, and found originally ‘good’ in His sight; as such they can be cleansed of supervening sin and become fully and most truly human, indeed, salt of the earth in the way we commonly mean the expression, if and when their sinful impurities are cleansed away by the washing of Jesus’ original Word of God which, even now in our days, is still to be heard in Mother Church, and can be accepted and embraced in the power of His Spirit still bestowed through her sacraments.

            Now, you are clean by reason of the word I have spoken to you. (Jn. 15:3)

Jesus then went on to tell them:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.

 

The picture of a city on a hill- or mountain-top, stems from the message of the Old Testament prophets (cp. Isaiah 2:2–3) concerning the future rule of God:

In days to come, the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills.  All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the LORD’S mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths.”  For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 

From the heavenly Jerusalem -- the city of God set on top of the highest mountain and sheltering the house of God -- the new Law will come; and such a prospect causes the prophet to burst out joyfully (60:1-3):

Rise up in splendour! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you and over you appears His glory.  Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance. 

And in today’s Gospel passage we hear Jesus saying to His disciples:  

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden   Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. 

The light of this city, the city of God, shining, as the prophets foretold, in the darkness of the world, cannot be hidden; that is quite simply impossible, for it is illuminated by the glory of the Lord.  Jesus’ true disciples are authentic denizens of that city and so they too cannot fail to shine out -- or in more modern terms, stand out -- from today’s masses who worship the world and, through their eager embracing of its ethos and compliance with its rules, hope to taste all that it seems to offer them.

Notice however, that the disciples of Jesus do not have to make strenuous efforts to be seen by men; indeed, Our Blessed Lord Himself has warned them:

Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. (Matthew 6:1)

For our purposes, however, a more literal translation from the Greek and the Latin Vulgate, puts it most pertinently:

Take care not to perform your righteous deeds to be seen (you yourself and your righteous deeds) by them.

Our Lord, therefore, said that, on the one hand, our light must shine in the sight of men, but He also told us to be careful not to make a show of our religion, our religiosity, before men … in other words, our works must shine out but we ourselves must not seek to seen and esteemed by men, nor cantankerously ‘stand out’ against them. The light of the city of God shines out by itself, and in the same way, the light of its inhabitants – the true disciples of, and witnesses to, Christ – will not fail to shine and be seen, because they are a light set burning by God Himself, and Our Lord solemnly assures us:

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. 

God lights the lamp of Christ’s disciples in order that it may give light to all the children in His house, and our endeavour should be that in everything we may be true to the soil from which we are dug – God’s original creation and the unity of Christian fellowship – and true to the purifying word of Christ, so that we:

(may) be found in Him, not having any righteousness of (our) own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith. (Philippians 3:9)

What a sad comment on our times it is to think that those words of St. Paul can be interpreted today in a way he would not recognize because the ‘law’ of which he spoke was originally the law of God.  Today, however, in our Western, God-declining and self-worshipping, democratic societies, people acknowledge and children are taught only a ‘law’ emanating from governmental authority and supported by popular acceptance; societies in which people increasingly dare no longer publicly acknowledge, or perhaps no longer even appreciate, a moral difference between right and wrong, only acknowledging what is legal and permitted, as distinct from what is unlawful and unapproved, unsafe and unpopular.

Let us look a little more closely at those who were addressed as ‘You’ in Jesus’ words?  Crowds had come to Him and we are told that:

When He saw the crowds, He went up the mountain, and after He had sat down, His disciples came to Him. 

Then He pronounced what we call ‘The Beatitudes’ speaking in general of ‘those who mourn’, ‘the meek’, even ‘those who are persecuted’ but He only became directly personal in His words when He said:

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of Me.

That is the ‘You’ to whom He then went on to say, ‘You are the salt of the earth.’  And so, even those suffering persecution for the name of Jesus (alas, how many of them there are in our days!) are called upon to keep their ‘saltiness’, that is, their native human one-ness with and love for their fellows, including even their persecutors, and also, and indeed above all, keep and strive ever more devoutly to deepen and strengthen their fidelity to the purifying word of Christ, as they witness to Him thanks to God’s abiding Gift of the Spirit of Jesus, ever with us and for us in the proclamation and sacraments  of Mother Church.

That was the model Paul himself gave, as we heard in the second reading:

When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. 

There we can understand why Jesus told His disciples, ‘Take care not to perform your righteous deeds to be seen by them’, because our witness – limited though it be – must be the work of, and should promote:

Not human wisdom but the power of God

active in us, and through us in the world and in the hearts of people around us.

And the very best way to fulfil that our vocation begins, every week, here at Mass in the house of the Lord, where we bring our human minds and hearts before Him, to be enlightened by His teaching, inflamed with His very presence, and endowed and empowered by the abiding Gift of His Most Holy Spirit.

   

The Presentation of the Lord 2014 Year A

        The Presentation of the Lord   

                          2014 Year A

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,” and to offer the sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.   

Mary did not just have to fulfil that dictate of the Lord as did every other mother of a new-born son in Israel; she was not even merely called to make most special thanksgiving for such a miraculous Gift as her virgin-born Son; she was, in fact, being called upon to thank God in the name of the whole human race for sending His very own Son as one of us: come to free us from the original sin of Adam and Eve with its ensuing bondage to Satan -- that is, from sin and death -- and to open up heaven’s portals once again for us with the prospect of eternal beatitude as sons in the Son called to the marriage feast of the Lamb in the Kingdom of the Father.

However, such a bare statement of the immense responsibility resting upon the young virgin from Nazareth is not adequate for you to understand sufficiently the supernatural significance and spiritual beauty of what was taking place.  

The Lord of all creation -- the magnitude of which, being revealed to us daily ever more and more by the Hubble Space Telescope and Voyager Spacecraft, defies our comprehension -- the All-Mighty One, and God of Israel’s ancient fathers, the All-Holy One enthroned in the highest heavens and worshipped by all the angelic hosts … He Himself had risen in divine majesty, wisdom and love, to help and to save mankind, because He had originally made and formed it in His very own image and likeness.  He had come to rescue it from the degradation, stain and stink of sin, from the hubris of Lucifer’s personal pride mirrored in the Eve’s deliberate choice of the delightful and seductive fruit, and Adam’s pathetic compliance with his wife to the forgetfulness of His God.  

If God had come with pomp and power to destroy Satan and his hoards, that would at least have manifested to angels and to men something of His incomparable glory, and the irresistible power of His holiness.  But He did not do that.  He took our plight and the hubris of Satan so seriously that, in order to totally condemn Lucifer and most lovingly reclaim what was His alone, He divested Himself of all that divine glory, power, and majesty so coveted by Lucifer: He  came in humility (no pride!), in weakness (no power!), and dependency (no authority!). 

How Lucifer despised such dispositions and whole-heartedly loathed the One thus coming against him -- as David had done with his sling and stone against Goliath – wearing such contemptible apparel; He was coming uniquely as Father, Sublime and Supreme, in the Person of His beloved and only-begotten Son, to lift up those called to become His true, adopted, children:

I bent down to them and fed them, for I am God the Holy One in your midst, I will not come in wrath.  (Hosea 4:9)

There is a famous sermon by Saint Bernard celebrating Our Lady’s ‘Fiat’ in response to the angel Gabriel’s message at the Annunciation, in which he pictures angels and mankind imploring the Virgin to say but that one word and  thereby save so many from such great distress; he has individuals coming one after another to the forefront with ever more urgent words of heart-felt concern for those who she alone is in a position to help… say, pronounce, whisper, declare just that one word, o holy maiden, please, let it but come from your lips and God will be glorified and mankind saved.

Mary’s ‘fiat’ at the Annunciation was, indeed, of ‘stellar’ significance and importance, but Mary’s situation today, presenting her Son to God in the Temple at Jerusalem is of like consequence; for who can thank God for His great goodness to us other than Mary, the Immaculate Virgin and Mother of God’s true Son?   She was only young, very young we would think, and what she knew rationally we cannot know; but -- of God’s great goodness -- she was totally pure and humble before the Lord, incomparable in her faith and responsiveness to God’s leading, while her human heart was aflame with love for the Child God had given her, and her mind and sensitivity totally attuned to His every need and intention.

Jesus’ ultimate death on the Cross on Calvary was the total commitment of His humanity to paying the price for our redemption and to giving human glory to His beloved Father; and Mother Church has, since then, searched endlessly to understand, appreciate, and praise Him for the sufferings He thus endured to win us salvation. She has searched and will continue, unrelentingly, to search yet deeper, that she might ever more appropriately proclaim and respond to His love stretched out on the Cross for our sake.

But the Divine Condescension involved in the Incarnation, whereby, wherein, God, in Jesus, was humbled, humbled Himself, to a humanly inconceivable degree, to a sacrifice of self, so to speak, both awesome and alarming in its totality … who could praise God for that?  Only Mary’s sinless humility, only her boundless gratitude to God, only her completely unreserved awareness and confession of her own nothingness and indebtedness, only her boundless love for and commitment to Jesus, her Son and God’s Son, could give appropriate – that is, no mere human could possibly give more -- thanks for that divine self-emptying decided and entered upon in order to triumph over angelic and human pride and win love through incomparable love!!

             Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful; give thanks to God’s holy name.  

With my whole being I sing endless praise to you.   O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.  (Psalm 30:5,13)

So, in our celebration of this feast of the Presentation of the Lord, let us with Mary look much deeper than the charm (surely irresistible!!) of this Baby, let us look and, perhaps, tremble with awesome awareness and deepest gratitude before our God of such unimaginable goodness and love.  Let us also be aware that Jesus’ living-out of His divine Sonship in human flesh will, inevitably, lead Him, for love of His Father and for us, to His embracing the crucifixion of His human flesh on Calvary; but ultimately and most gloriously it will lead Him to the, so to speak, combined and complete self-emptying, when, Risen and in glorified, heavenly Flesh, He ultimately and most sublimely gives Himself with His Most Holy Spirit to us and for us under the appearances of simple bread and ordinary wine.  Oh, the Goodness of God!!!

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2014

 3^rd. Sunday (A)

(Isaiah 8:23 - 9:3; 1^st. Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12 -23)

Today’s readings speak to us of the joy God’s People experience when the ultimate yoke – no longer that of slavery or of foreign occupation and oppression, but the yoke of sin, the rod of Satan -- is lifted from their shoulders by the proclamation of the Good News brought by Jesus and given to His Church:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.  You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as men make merry when dividing spoils.

 

Jesus, as you heard in the Gospel reading, intended to make His apostles “fishers of men” by associating them with Himself in the work He was about to begin after John’s apprehension and imprisonment:

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, He withdrew to Galilee.  He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea.  From that time on Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Notice how strongly God impressed upon the great prophet the joy that would be occasioned by this ultimate preaching of Gospel freedom, for he repeated himself several times: ‘abundant joy’, ‘great rejoicing’, ‘rejoice at harvest’, and, ‘as men make merry when dividing spoils’!  And all those differing expressions striving to promote fitting awareness and appreciation of that one transport of delight he heaps together in a short and simple sentence:

 You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as men make merry when dividing spoils. 

Such joy -- joy at God’s saving intervention freeing Israel from slavery in Egypt and from Assyrian terror – was, as Isaiah portrays it, most real and truly intense for those faithful ones who lived through it and cherished the memory of it.  However, Isaiah being a truly great prophet, is also allowed to foresee and foreshadow God’s ultimate future intervention that would bring an end to not only Israel’s, but also the whole of mankind’s, slavery and oppression under the yoke of sin, for all who will truly embrace the Good News of Jesus and the eternal salvation God offers in and through Him.  How wondrous will that joy be for all who will live for it!!  Israel of old had lived through temporal saving events; we, the true Israel of God, are called to know inconceivable joy by living for eternal salvation in accordance with Jesus’ Good News. 

For that purpose and to that end, Jesus chose special disciples -- twelve in all -- to be intimately associated with Himself in His life and work and, in particular, to be witnesses to His resurrection. These men became known as ‘apostles’, a designation highlighting their oneness with Jesus, Himself the apostle and high priest of our confession as the letter to the Hebrews tells us (3:1).  Ultimately, after the defection of Judas Iscariot and the adoption of Matthias, they were known and revered as ‘the Twelve Apostles’, or simply as ‘The Twelve’, who would continue Jesus’ work by establishing and consolidating His Church -- among both Jews and Gentiles throughout the world -- by their authoritative preaching and witnessing, in the power of His Spirit, to the fullness of His Truth (Mark 16:15): 

Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

 

St. Paul -- the Apostle of the Gentiles and Jesus’ supreme disciple according to the measure of his sufferings for Christ – emphasized the nature of his apostolic calling when he declared:

Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning. (1 Corinthians 1:17)

Now, People of God, bearing in mind Isaiah’s prophecy of joy and those authoritative words of St. Paul, do you, in this modern age, rejoice to hear the Gospel preached?  Being aware that you need salvation, do you truly want to hear the Church and her ministers’ proclamation of Jesus’ saving Gospel?  Without doubt, there seem to be many in Church on Sunday who are not deeply conscious of their need; for, being more aware of the person of the priest than attentive to Jesus, their appreciation of a sermon depends largely on its length, not on its content.  They much prefer a short -- even a very short -- homily, and when that is the case, they leave the Church positively congratulating themselves on their good fortune.

The great prophet Isaiah foretold joy, gladness, rejoicing, for God’s People privileged to hear God’s Word; and yet, for many today, there is no awareness of privilege, but rather of obligation, weariness, and tedium.  What does that mean?  It cannot mean that Isaiah was wrong or mistaken; God inspired him.  What does it mean then?  Is it not, perhaps, a lamentable but undeniable fact that too many apparent Catholics cannot be regarded as truly living, that is vital,  members of Christ’s Body, but are rather more or less uncommitted hopefuls, perhaps hangers on, or even, in some cases and for whatever reasons, pretenders?

However that may be, for those who are sincerely committed in their faith and persevering in their practice, those who, deep down, acknowledge and confess their need of and desire for the salvation offered by Jesus in the Gospel and in His Church, it most probably means that they are immature members of God’s People.  As St. Paul put it to his converts in Corinth:

Brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.  I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal.  (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)

Children don’t want food at times, it is not sweet enough, it does not look sufficiently attractive; their criterion for food is what is pleasant, not what is nourishing.   In a similar way, today, too many physically adult people do not truly appreciate the Word of God which the prophet foretold would bring such rejoicing to God’s People; it fails to call forth joy in, it does not meet with appreciation from, a people surrounded and satiated with what is expressly made and presented so as to be found pleasant and comforting, easy and popular.

Of course it is often said that the preacher fails to make the homily interesting, he is so intellectual, or so dull and unchallenging, and indeed it might well be true in some cases.  But just think: what if your father or mother had just died and the preacher was saying some words about them, or if your son or daughter was getting married and again the celebrant was mentioning them in his address, would not you be interested and indeed most attentive, even though the preacher was not brilliant, even though his words – of themselves -- were dull and uninspiring?  Words about your father or mother, about your son or daughter, could not fail to be of interest to you; you would hang on to every one of them.

Why then are the words of the Gospel, why then is preaching about Jesus and His offer of salvation, so wearisome for many?    Today we heard that:

Jesus went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.

People came to Him -- spontaneously and enthusiastically -- in their spiritual need and with their physical infirmities; can it be that for those coming to Church and finding themselves bored to death with the readings and the sermons, that Jesus is not interesting because they are not aware of their need of Him; because they are in no way convinced of the spiritual poverty and moral weakness waiting to betray all of us in times of trial and distress; because they are not even disturbed by the rampant power of evil threatening the peace and stability of our society and of the whole world today?   In other words, can it be that, deep down, they think Jesus’ Good News is not really as good as the worldly pleasure and prosperity they find themselves presently enjoying and which they like to think is assured for them or will be available to them in the future ?

Certainly Jesus saw a deep-rooted malaise in the hearts and minds of the satisfied and self-contended Jewish leaders in His time:

He said to them, "Those who are well do not need of a physician, but the sick do.   I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17)

He was addressing deeply religious people, but people who were also very human in their willingness and ability to ignore what they did not want to recognize; a people using literal observance of the Law and contempt for the Gentiles – above all their Roman occupiers -- to bolster their spiritual morale.  Today also, Catholic and apparently religious people have practices and distractions that help them avoid, or put-off, any disturbing awareness of their own deep needs or personal insufficiency: for some of them, reception of Holy Communion is one such practice; for others, a quota of good works provide a very comforting shelter.

Perhaps the modern ease of approach to the Eucharist combined with an aversion to hearing the Word of God preached and proclaimed is, in some measure, due to a failure to understand the true relationship between the Word of God in the Church’s proclamation and worship of Jesus, and the Incarnate Word of God -- Jesus Christ our Saviour -- present in the Eucharist.

Most Catholics want to receive the Eucharist, even frequently, believing It to be the key to Eternal Life as Jesus said (John 6:53-54):

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.   Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.   

However, Jesus also said on that very occasion:

It is the Spirit that gives life; while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.  But there are some of you who do not believe.   (John 6:63-64)

The fact is that our Catholic Faith does not in any way practice or promote magic.  When Jesus speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood He is referring to His whole Person and Being: it is the whole life and death, the whole Risen Being, of Jesus the Incarnate Son of God, that offers nourishment for eternal life: eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus is intended to signify and bring about the deepest personal commitment to and oneness with the Person of Jesus, Who lived, died, and rose again for us and for our salvation.   We cannot just join the queue to receive Holy Communion and think that thereby eternal life is ours … that is little more than magical thinking.   Our reception of the Eucharist, is intended to be part of our active participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the sublime expression, fulfilment, and confirmation of our sincere desire for oneness of mind, heart, and soul, with Jesus, through the opening up of our inmost selves to the influx of His heavenly Gift of the transforming Spirit.

Likewise with good works so approved by many who show little respect for the Word of God proclaimed in the Church.  The fruit of good works is, indeed, required, as John the Baptist demanded of those coming to him for baptism in the Jordan, but only as the expression and consequence of the personal commitment of faith and obedience to Jesus:

“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”   Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the One He sent.”  (John 6:28-29.)

People of God, some want to approach Jesus but only from a position of strength, so to speak; to draw near to Him, indeed, but confident in their own goodness.   They do not want to feel, to be made aware of, their own emptiness and need. And yet, without that saving awareness no one can turn to God as Saviour.

You have been called and chosen by God for salvation, otherwise, you would not be here; and though I am now admonishing some, I have no desire or intention to discourage any, for I am urging all to recall those words of Jesus: 

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  (Luke 11:9-10)

People of God, the word of God has gone forth from the prophet's mouth:

You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as men make merry when dividing spoils.  

Those words -- the Scriptures assure us -- will not, cannot, return to God fruitless: and God's faithful people will always rejoice both in His living Word and in His Eucharistic Presence.  Whether we will be found among them is up to each one of us: but none should try the childish practice of blaming others for what is personal indifference.  If you are looking and longing for God, then, whether the sermon is poor or the liturgy long should in no way cause you to close your mind or seal your heart.  If the words spoken are a sincere expression of the truth about God, and if the liturgy is celebrated with reverence, you should and can participate and worship, love and learn: and, being humble and faithful enough to learn, you will, soon enough, be granted to rejoice with all the blessed; because the God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – in Whom you believe and trust is, indeed, awaiting you in the Eucharistic celebrations of Mother Church, where He will not fail to  comfort, strengthen and enlighten you, by His Presence and by His welcome in both Word and Sacrament.