24th Sunday (A) 2017

 Twenty-fourth Sunday (A)

(Ecclesiasticus 27:30-28:7; Romans 14:7-9; Matthew 18:21-35)

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Our Gospel reading today is very familiar, but don't let that fact lead you into a semi-dormant, 'we've heard all that before' attitude of mind for, being the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit, even today’s short passage from the Gospel leads us to a fount of ever-flowing, purest, water.  So, let us drink deep now as we direct our particular attention to the first two verses of the Gospel reading:

Peter approached Jesus and asked Him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?"   Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times”.

That is the main part of the Gospel reading, as is shown by the fact that the following parable of the Unforgiving Servant was told by Jesus in order to bring out graphically the meaning of the words He had just spoken; although for Jesus there may perhaps also have been a more Personal desire to show His Father as the king and supreme authority deciding such a fundamental issue, all the more especially because that issue formed so prominent a part of the ‘Our Father’ prayer He Himself gave us all at His disciples’ request:

I say to you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.   That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants…

Why did Jesus answer as He did:

I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy-seven times?

Let me say first of all that this was no mere use of words, neither was it any expression of emotional religiosity, on the part of Jesus: His words are both relevant in their historical, and supremely important in their theological, significance. They were not spoken just to emphasise the need for us to have a forgiving spirit, that would indeed have corresponded partly, but by no means fully, with Jesus’ intentions.   The words He so emphatically used are part of the Scriptures inspired by the Holy Spirit of Wisdom and Truth which have become yet more significantly important and meaningful by their being specially picked out, spoken, and used by the Lord Himself.   We should, therefore, try to recognize as closely as we can, just what attitude Jesus was wanting to instil in, what blessing to bestow on, Peter and Mother Church today and throughout all ages; and to do this, we must follow Jesus by bearing in mind the witness and teaching of the whole of Scripture.

Not seven times, but seventy-seven times, those words are to be found first in the book of Genesis (4:23-24), as one of Israel's millennial traditions:

Lamech said to his wives:  "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my utterance!  For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for bruising me.   If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times."  

According to the Scriptures, Lamech was the great-great-great-grandson of Cain.  In the verses preceding the words I have just quoted we read of great progress being made in the quality of life for the family of Cain: a city had been built by him, and we heard of livestock being raised, of artisans making tools of all kinds from bronze and iron, and -- for times of public rejoicing and personal pleasure -- there were players of harp and flute.  As we would say today, the economy was flourishing.  But, just as we experience today, with the growth of prosperity and greater opportunities to seek and find what is necessary and good but also what is pleasurable and even addictive, there came also an alarming growth in wickedness and sin.  Cain the original sinner had begged God’s protection lest he himself be killed in revenge for his murdering of his own brother Abel, an action he learned to regret.  However, when we look at his great-great-great grandson Lamech, we find him actually glorying in and boasting about the fact of his having killed a man for merely wounding him, even of killing a young man or boy for simply bruising him.  Obviously Lamech, if and when provoked, would not hesitate to kill; and his characteristic violence, once aroused, was unrestrainable to the extent that he recognised no distinction between young and old: indeed, it was his insanely proud boast that whoever crossed him would pay for it, and that he alone, Lamech, not God, would decide both the price to be paid and the person to pay it.  He vaunted the irrevocability of his decision and the inevitability of its fulfilment by invoking and yet, at the same time, managing to downgrade, the traditional tribal and family reverence for the founding father by those words:

If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.

Such devilish pride, coupled with a vicious and vengeful attitude, characterised Lamech, and that was the way he ruled his family; nor was he alone in that, for the society of which he was part developed along similar lines until, eventually, it called for its own destruction by the God-sent flood.

Lamech had been a ‘puss-laden’ boil of pride and violence in the old, pre-flood, world; and we ourselves -- or at least some of us -- have ‘in our days’ seen, heard of, similar things in, for example, Sicilian society and the Balkans, Palestine and Northern Ireland, and with the Tutsis in Africa. And going via Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe, and Idi Amin, we can soon touch back to Stalin's horrendously vengeful cruelty towards his own people and Hitler's totally consuming hatred for all things Jewish.  And yet, most sadly, there are not a few regions in our world even today where like cancerous growths of pride and violence can still be found proudly proclaiming and promenading themselves.

With such things in mind we can begin, perhaps, to appreciate something of the importance and the significance of Jesus' reply to Peter’s question:

Peter approached Jesus and asked Him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?",  

and we may also learn to admire and rejoice in the wisdom of Jesus who knew both the full beauty and power of the teaching of the Scriptures, and also the full extent of human frailty and sinfulness as it would develop over the succeeding ages. 

Peter and the disciples had been cleansed by the word Jesus had spoken to them and they were to receive new and heavenly life by the Holy Spirit Who would be poured out upon the Church after their Lord's Death and Resurrection; in the meantime, they were being trained to proclaim and proffer His redemption to the whole of mankind, which, despite its own native frailty, was soon be re-destined and endowed anew for heavenly fulfilment in Him. The flood-waters of destruction and death which destroyed the gross evil and wickedness of Lamech and his world, were never to be repeated; men might continue to destroy themselves by their steadfast pursuit of pride and pleasure, but the Flood would be replaced by a far greater outpouring of waters, this time the healing waters of grace from the Holy Spirit of life, Gift of God and most sublime fruit of the tree of Jesus’ Cross.  Jesus wanted Peter and the Apostles -- as He also wants us -- to realize that on taking up their saving mission in the Church for the whole world, they must have total, absolute, confidence in the presence and power in their lives and in the Church of Him Who can overcome the power of any and every future upsurge of evil; as for the persuasion of such evil, there is the beauty and wisdom of divine life and love in Jesus to lead to salvation all those of good will.

We are all sinners redeemed by Jesus, and even the best of us are only earthenware vessels, as St. Paul says:

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.   (2 Corinthians 4:7)

But, being thus aware of our own inherent weakness and repeated failings, we can all recognise and -- in our measure and at any given time -- perhaps even feel traces of the passions and fears ruling, and gradually destroying, some of our brethren. Therefore, we are supremely well-placed, and should be well disposed, to show in our lives that forgiveness which is at the root of all God’s dealings with us: we recognise the evil afflicting some of our fellows and we thank God with all our heart for the fact that His grace alone protects and preserves us.   In other words, forgiveness should be our characteristic Christian virtue, whereas unforgiving vengefulness would constitute for us a most outrageous sin and comprehensive defeat at the hands of Satan, as we heard in our first reading:

Forgive your neighbour the hurt he does you, and when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath (resentment); who will forgive him his sins?

That is why, when Peter questioned Jesus mentioning the number seven which, for the Jews, was a number of completion and perfection since God had created the old world in seven days:

"Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?"  

Jesus replied so firmly:

            I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

This sort of thing goes back to the very beginning and reaches to the very heart of man, Jesus is hinting.  Recognize the signs of your adversary, Satan, whose deceits of old brought about the destruction of those he led astray into pride and viciousness, Lamech above all.  For you are called to be – in Me -- a new creation, and the perfection of that new creation will so great that seven is no longer suitable, only seventy-seven can suggest something of the supreme wonder of heavenly life beginning here on earth for you and in you.  The devil is still at work, still trying to undermine and disfigure God's new creation and your souls too but, having seen in Lamech whither Satan would lead you, be firm against him and strong in Me and, by My Spirit in you, be prepared to forgive whoever may have, wherever and whenever, wronged you,

            not seven times, but seventy-seven times.  

To help and enable us to do this work -- which alone is befitting the new creation He has made of us, and the new perfection He to which He calls us -- He the One Who loves us is always Personally present to us in Mother Church, seeking to encourage and sustain us in our daily endeavours in love of God and service of men through the gift of His own Most Holy Spirit: the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, the Spirit of our adoption as crowned heirs of the heavenly Kingdom and children of our heavenly Father.

23rd Sunday of Year (1) 2017

23^rd. Sunday of Year (1)

(Ezekiel 33:7-9; Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 18:15-20)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.  The readings today offer us both guidance and warning: guidance that we may recognize and appreciate that which is truly important in our Catholic and Christian lives, and warning that we should then know how to protect what we treasure.

Fraternal charity is of such great importance for us in Mother Church because Mother Church is Jesus’ gift to His disciples world-wide and through all ages: a gift enabling all those whose faith in Jesus would lead them to lovingly obey Him in their lives on earth to attain to eternal salvation.  It is also a gift intended to bestow on them an initial experience here on earth of that heavenly life to which they aspire as children of God, members of God’s family; for, in Jesus’ Church -- as in the heavenly family -- just as each one is meant to receive help from being a member of the whole Body, in like manner each one is meant to share in promoting the good of the whole.  St. Paul puts it this way:

 There should be no schism in the body, members should have the same care for one another.  And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it.   Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.   (1 Corinthians 12:25-27)

Now notice, People of God, the words the Lord spoke to Ezekiel in our first reading:

Son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore, you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me.  When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die!' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

There, the fact that Ezekiel had been chosen as prophet of God for the salvation of God’s People meant that he was also to act as ‘watchman for the house of Israel’; watchman, that is, for the good of Israel, obliged to warn anyone wandering into seriously wicked ways to turn from his or her follies at God’s command.  Notice, that the wickedness of a foolish individual was known to harm not only that individual but also -- subtly perhaps yet most seriously -- to detrimentally affect others of God’s People; others, that is, with potential weaknesses, perhaps also with headstrong tendencies, but as yet, not indulging in deliberate personal wickedness.  That is why Ezekiel -- chosen as prophet for God’s People -- had to speak out against the actions of those sinning people.  So too, parents, who are called to teach –  as prophets – their own children in the ways of God and of the Church, are also seriously obliged to warn their children when their failure to live up to the teachings of Jesus is harmful to themselves, and to others in His Church.

If you do not speak to warn them from their wicked way, they may die in their iniquity; but their blood I will require at your hand.

But what about Mother Church today, isn’t she -- above all – intended by God to serve as the Catholic and Apostolic watchman for the children of God here on earth?   Isn’t she, not only endowed but also obliged -- under pain of dire punishment – to speak out and dissuade the wicked from his way?

Is that warning voice being heard today, People of God, or is it not rather being drowned by the babble of ‘do-gooders’ or the high tones of specialists in ethics calling for sympathy, welcome, understanding and encouragement for all ‘wanderers’ – often enough on the basis of a hidden ‘who are you to condemn others?’ attitude -- and proffering their ‘solution’ as the only true ‘love’ fit for an enlightened modern morality as distinct from the rigidity of outdated religion.  But, take great care here dear Catholic Christians, for such ‘ethical’ love, though its proponents use Christian words, they very frequently abuse those words, and the enlightened ‘love’ of which they so proudly speak is not the Holy Spirit of Love, of Whom Jesus speaks and Whom Jesus alone bestows on His faithful ones!

‘Who are you to condemn?’, that is the unbelieving ‘do-gooders’ constant taunt against simple but true believers in Jesus and His Church.   Now, Ezekiel was called to speak against the wicked in God’s name:

If you tell, warn, the wicked, “O wicked one, you shall surely die”, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt but you shall save yourself.

Notice that Ezekiel, speaking in the name of God does warn of punishment, even of death, he does not, however, condemn: he tells the wicked of their wickedness, he warns them of God’s punishment promised for such wickedness, but God alone condemns those He knows to be worthy of such condemnation.

Our Blessed Lord Himself in our Gospel reading went on to say:

If he (the sinner) refuses to listen even to the Church, then treat him as you would a gentile or a tax collector,

which meant his being shunned by the whole Church community.

Why was our Lord so serious about rooting-out sin -- which He hated -- in the sinner He sought to save?  He hated sin because it spreads the contagion of evil for men’s ultimate destruction.   He hated sin because it would deprive sinners of the blessedness of eternal life as children of God – life in Himself, as living members of His Body, by the Holy Spirit of truth and love -- in the Kingdom of His heavenly Father.  He hated sin also because it actually deprives men, here and now, of some of that ‘foretaste of heaven’ which should characterise their life of learning to know and love aright in His Church on earth, concerning which He had promised His disciples:

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.   And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows Him. But you know Him, because He remains with you, and will be in you.  (John 14:15–18)

See, dear People of God, why the world cannot appreciate Christian life in Mother Church:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you always; you know Him because He REMAINS with you (that is, He abides infallibly in and with Mother Church), and WILL BE in you (that is, in each and every individual who is a living member of Mother Church).

The world cannot accept the Spirit of truth, because it neither sees nor knows Him.

That is how, for all seriously faithful disciples of Jesus and living members of His Body the Church, our life as members of that Body -- where grace abounds (her sacraments), where saving and infallible truth is proclaimed (her doctrine), and where blessed fellowship is nurtured by exalted saints and living exemplars (good friends) – is indeed a divinely planned and lovingly prepared foretaste of heaven, for all who want to love what Jesus loves and hate what Jesus hates (which ‘do-gooders’ are not prepared to do, thinking themselves too good for that!)

Dear People of God, fraternal charity can only be found where sin is hated as Jesus hates it; and the devil’s ruse is to try to mix-up the contours of sin, so that no one is clear where or what sin is, thus enabling his faithless minions to claim to have nothing but ‘love’ in their minds and hearts for all men and for all life-styles, provided, of course, that such life- styles are backed by a suitable measure of popular support.  That, dear People of God is the resultant work of all those who speak for what they call ‘good’  while they themselves know no God good enough to deserve their love, no God holy enough to evoke their worship, no God majestic enough to demand their obedience.   All such faithless ‘ethicists’ have lovely, neat, ideas and visions of how modern irreligious people should live in a society they proclaim to be better than any Christian society, one where anything and everything sufficiently popular is allowed, and nothing, other than self, is loved.

Jesus, however, shows us very clearly where the first line of defence for the supreme good of fraternal charity lies:

If your brother sins, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. 

This was Jesus' consistent attitude in such matters; indeed, we are told earlier in St Matthew's Gospel that Jesus said on another occasion (5:25-26):

Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him. 

Here Jesus speaks clearly and authoritatively to whoever of His people may have been wronged in any way: DO NOT HOLD GRUDGES.    And that one command would solve so many modern problems all over the world!!

Later, Jesus went on to envisage what we might call an ultimate situation:

If he refuses to listen even to the Church, treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax-collector.

That is, he was to be shunned by the whole community. 

Now, the fact that Jesus countenances such a drastic, final, recommendation shows us in all clarity that fraternal charity is of the utmost importance in Mother Church: it is the cement of the Church and the most immediate fruit of the presence in the Church of Jesus’ Most Holy Spirit of Love and Truth, and it shows most clearly that Jesus was no ‘do-gooder’ … He was, and is, the only true Saviour from sin and eternal death, and, as such a Saviour, He wills to condemn all those who choose to refuse His saving grace for themselves and obstruct it for others.

Next in our Gospel reading we have those words:

Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

St. Caesarius of Arles writing (6^th. Century AD) to individual churches says: “From the moment you begin to regard your brother as a publican, you have bound him, so to speak, here on earth.  However, take care to bind him with justice.  Then, when you have become reconciled with your brother, having brought him back to the right path, you have in fact “loosed” him on earth and he will be likewise “loosed” in heaven.”  We are all members of the one Church; we all, in our degree, live the one Christian life in the power of the one Holy Spirit.  We all, in our degree, bind and loose as does Peter in his degree.”

We are all, indeed, called to be living members of a prophetic, priestly, and royal People of God making up the one Body of Christ.

Because the Holy Spirit of Jesus is the life blood of the Church which lives because He has been poured out upon her; and since fraternal charity is the fruit of the Spirit's presence among us, cementing us together as members of the one Body of Christ; we must all recognize that harm done to Mother Church is a wrong done to Jesus Personally, and to all those who seek to love Him individually.  Now Jesus has such love for the Church that He has promised to remain present with her to the end of time, He gives His Holy Spirit to her in fullness and indefectibly, and He calls her His Body: and it is because of that supreme love of Jesus for Mother Church that St. Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 3:17):

If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

The root of Jesus’ love for the Church is His love for each and every one of us, and the root of His love for us is His love and zeal for the honour and glory of His Father Who created us.  In Mother Church we are all, in various ways, responsible for promoting the well-being of the whole, but that responsibility is not to be regarded as an obligation in the sense of a burden that weighs down heavily upon us, so much as an abiding and inspiring proof of Jesus’ love and respect for each and every one of us in our personal identity and ability.

So, my dear People of God, through all the years of our earthly pilgrimage, let us understand aright and then never forget the words of St. Paul urging us to keep our eyes on that which is so supremely important for the well-being of all, and for the good of each and every one of us:

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.

      

22nd Sunday of Year A 2017

22^nd. Sunday of Year (A)

(Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27)

I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.   Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Perhaps it will be clearer if I were to re-position the two sections of that paragraph from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in this morning’s readings:

I urge you brothers, by the mercies of God, do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect; (thus, may you be able) to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.

In that way, there is no danger of any modern fanatics -- who abound on every hand -- thinking they can present themselves as Christians whilst committing suicide and the slaughter of innocents for political ends, and for a diabolically- misunderstood idea of the ‘glory of God’.  Moreover, we can thus see more clearly the nature of our worship and love of God:  that it is truly Christian – human and divine –  first, by our trying to discern and do the will of God in our physical pilgrimage through life, that we might then – having been perfected by God through that loving obedience to His will in our life –  be able to offer the living and dying sacrifice of ourselves in the truly spiritual worship of sincere love of, and total trust in, God.

Oh! dear People of God, how utterly important it is for us to:

Be transformed by the renewal of our mind, that we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Our good life is not to be a mere living-out of generally accepted and, of course, popularly approved, ethical propositions and standards … so many non-believers today pride themselves on doing that!!   No, we Catholic Christians are called to know (as best we can) and to love (whole-heartedly) the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ; and in Him, by His Gift of the Holy Spirit, to learn how to love God the Father Who sent Jesus, as our own Father now calling us to Himself as His adopted children in Jesus.   Our faith is, indeed, a calling to personal love of God, and how ironical it is that the unbelieving world of today likes to understand its acknowledged faithlessness as a gateway to acceptably promiscuous (in both form and content!) human adventures in physical ‘loving’, as distinct from the Christian vocation of love which, being divine, is able to embrace and ultimately totally transfigure what is human and ephemeral, into what is divine and eternally fulfilling, in one word, into something CHRIST-LIKE.

Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God.

Just recall Our Blessed Lord in last Sunday’s Gospel.  Having previously heard Bartholomew (Nathanael) call Him ‘Son of God’ and ‘King of Israel’, He had gently ‘smiled that off’ as being too much based on too little; on the other hand, however, when He heard Peter declare ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ He immediately, without the slightest hesitation, recognized His Father speaking in and through Peter, and totally committed His own life-and-future- death’s work in obedient response to His Father’s recognized involvement.

That, dear People of God, is the most sublime example and model inspiring St. Paul’s exhortation today, ‘Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God’; and oh, that we might attain to some sharing in such love and discernment!   As Jesus said:

Father, the world has not known You; but I -- man Myself -- have known You!

And Jesus’ whole desire and prayer is that we, though weak and ignorant human beings of ourselves, may, as His true disciples, come, in His Church, to that humble ‘discernment’ of which St. Paul speaks:

Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God.

How we are to be thus transformed, and how our mind is to be thus renewed, however, can only be learnt by humble discipleship from the font of traditional wisdom contained in the teachings of Catholic spirituality.  It is not something we can do of ourselves, for it is a precious gift of God; but it is something for which we can dispose ourselves to receive from the goodness of God, by entering upon the ways of traditional spirituality distilled for us over two thousand years.

The essential beginnings for such spiritual renewal are given us in today’s psalm:

            My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God!     ASPIRE TO GOD.

            Your kindness is greater than life; my lips shall glorify You.   THANK GOD.

            You are my help, and in the shadow of Your wings   INVOKE GOD’S HELP,

               I shout for joy.                                                           AND REJOICE IN HIM.

            My soul clings fast to You;                                BE FAITHFUL, PERSEVERE,

            Your right hand upholds me.                                  CALMLY CONFIDENT.   

           

Time is now, as in so many ways throughout life, pressing upon us, but for all who sincerely begin to search for their spiritual renewal on the basis of today’s teaching, there is no doubt that God will notice their efforts and will not be found slow in coming to meet them as did the father embracing his prodigal son in Jesus’ unforgettable parable.

           

           

21st Sunday of Year A 2017

 21^st. Sunday of Year (A)

(Isaiah 22:19-23; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20)

In the first reading we heard of one Eliakim of whom it was said:

When he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.

That statement is mirrored in our Gospel passage where Jesus said to Peter:

Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

However, that mirror-likeness of structure would seem to be the strongest resemblance between those two statements.  For, the authority given to Eliakim had been the politico-religious authority of demoted Shebna, whereas the authority bestowed on Peter was essentially spiritual, indeed, one might even say heavenly, given by Jesus responding to His Father’s inspiration of Peter:

          I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.

Simon Peter, speaking in the name of all the Apostles had answered Jesus’ question, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ by a most categorical statement:

          You are the Christ the Son of the living God.

Now Nathanael from Galilee had earlier spoken every bit as decisively as Peter on hearing Philip tell him about Jesus, when he said, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’  On meeting Nathanael, Jesus in turn had said, ‘Here is a true Israelite.  There is no duplicity in him.’

And yet, when at that their first meeting Nathanael went on to declare to Jesus:

          Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the King of Israel!

Jesus did not think Nathanael had been inspired by His Father even though his words were very much like the subsequent words of Peter; indeed, He would seem to have thought Nathanael believed too much too easily, for He somewhat casually said, ‘You will see greater things than this’.

With Peter’s statement, however, the situation was totally different; for, on hearing it, Jesus immediately recognized a revelation by His Heavenly Father behind Peter’s typically enthusiastic and decisive words, and He therefore most solemnly declared:

And so, (because of My Father’s revelation to you) 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.  I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

People of God, the ‘rock’ supporting Jesus’ Church is Peter-confessing-Jesus-as Son-of-God.  That is Peter’s supreme function in Mother Church, to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, and nothing must be allowed to detract from or overshadow that function for which Peter was chosen by the Father and confirmed by Jesus for His future Church: confessing and proclaiming, Jesus of Nazareth as Son of God, to all the world.

The history of Eliakim shows what could hinder any Pope’s fulfilment of his office.  Eliakim’s elevation brought honour for his family; we are told the Lord said:

          I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honour for his family.

It was there that the trouble began:

On him shall hang all the glory of his family: descendants and offspring, all the little dishes, from bowls to jugs.

The family began to take over the man: relatives of all sorts came to him with their requests and needs and, in that way, the family began to gradually smother the public servant authorised by God:

On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg fixed in a sure spot shall give way, break off and fall, and the weight that hung on it shall be done away with; for the Lord has spoken.

The Old Testament examples of Shebna and Eliakim thus enable us to espy something of the wisdom of God of which St. Paul spoke in the second reading, a wisdom that never ceased to astound him the more he considered the wonders of God's saving Providence:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways!

For, despite the vagaries and duplicities of, the hidden and dark corners to be found in, the human mind and heart, the Gospel shows us a new ingredient, so to speak, which will transform the peg of the Old Testament into the Rock of the New Testament: that is, Jesus’ Personal choice of Peter and promise to His future Church, made in totally loving and trusting response to His Father.

The new, transforming, ingredient is to be found in the fact that Peter was given authority ‘in the name of Jesus’: since Peter -- inspired by the Father -- had proclaimed his faith in Jesus as Messiah and Son of the Living God, Jesus would build His Church on that Rock of His Father’s inspiration of Peter’s faith and confession.  Only Peter was chosen by Jesus as the foundation stone, the Rock, on which to build His Church, because of His Father’s revelation/inspiration given uniquely to Peter, and also because of Peter’s unhesitating and wholehearted response to that inspiration.  Both Jesus, and the Father Himself, are thus to be seen behind Peter.

Therefore, People of God, our readings today help us see clearly just who is the supreme head and ultimate leader of the Church: it is the heavenly Jesus.  True, Peter is the head of the Church on earth, he is the visible head called to proclaim Jesus as Son of God and Saviour, and called also to strengthen his fellow apostles in their proclamation of the Gospel, thus making Jesus’ Church truly one on earth.  But Peter is only able to be that visible head, because Jesus is the heavenly, ultimate, Head Who prays unceasingly for Peter that he may – despite bad Middle Ages and Renaissance popes -- continue through time to fulfil the rock-like function of prime proclaimer of Jesus as Son of God and mankind’s Saviour towards his brethren and to Mother Church on earth.

The proclaimer of Jesus as Son of God and Saviour is not called to be a specialist in liturgy, or one given to philosophical considerations concerning the Gospel, he is not necessarily an ethicist responding to mankind’s moral dilemmas and errors as he sees best.  No, although Popes may and indeed have been any of those things earlier, their subsequent  Petrine calling supersedes all such talents and propensities.

Our Gospel passage shows with supreme clarity that Peter, that every Pope, should strive to be, first and foremost a proclaimer of the Person, the truth and the beauty, the inspirational glory and power, the comforting and saving love and compassion of Jesus.  Any failing in the desired fulfilment of that unique vocation, even when done sincerely for love of another aspect of service in the name of Jesus, can bring dissension and doubt into the Church.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, dear People of God, let us therefore today give heartfelt thanks for St.  John Paul II the latest manifestly faithful Peter to grace our lives and strengthen our confession, and let us whole-heartedly pray for our present Pope Francis and pope-emeritus Benedict in all their many needs and aspirations.

20th Sunday Year A 2017

20^th Sunday of Year (A)

(Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28)

            God has delivered all to disobedience that He might have mercy on all.

Or, as another eminent translation words it:

God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that He may be merciful to all.

But where are we today, People of God, when ‘disobedience’ is denied, and sinfulness is not recognized?  Jesus came to the Jewish people proclaiming ‘Repent’, and the word meant something to those who heard Him as members of God’s Chosen People, trained by God over thousands of years.  However, they were, ultimately, only willing to understand it in relation to liturgical faults and failings, they would not accept the fulness of Jesus’ teaching offering them eternal salvation for acknowledging their failure as sons and daughters of a heavenly Father wanting their hearts and minds in total love and humble obedience, not merely their sacrificial offerings of bulls and goats, sheep and oxen.

Today it is much worse: the word ‘repent’ has no meaning at all with people who have rejected their Christian heritage and can no longer no longer relate to Him Who said:

                        Why do you call Me good?  No one is good, except one.  God!

That is why Jesus did not go around ‘doing good’; doing, that is, His idea of good:

            I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

In today’s Gospel event, He did actually cure the woman’s daughter but only after He had been able to admire His Father’s wisdom and grace behind the woman’s persistence and humility.  Jesus did His Father’s will, did that only for which He had been sent, the only ‘good’ He knew was His Father’s good, planned for Him, Jesus, to fulfil for God’s glory and men’s salvation.

Today, any and every Tom, Dick and Harry, any and every Jill, Jennifer and Jane, think they know, and often loudly claim they know, what is good without turning to God for guidance … for what God is there for the great majority of 21^st century Westerners other than the gods of health, wealth, success, pleasure and power??

Scripture tells us (Romans 5:12) that suffering and death came into our lives through sin:

Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned.

Jesus, as the Saviour sent by His all Holy, Wise, and Loving Father, came to destroy sin, the root of all human suffering, for all who would be willing to give their lives into His hands, to walk along His ways through their earthly life by the power of His most Holy Spirit so as to be made worthy children of God, able to live in eternal life as members of the family of Him Who is the Father of all.

The aim of ‘do-gooders’ (meant neither mockingly nor contemptuously) in our world today is to try to combat only suffering and death; and yet all of them know as professionals or experienced practitioners, that no ailment, disease, no suffering of any sort, let alone today’s previously unheard-of ailments, can be tackled without knowledge and deep understanding of their cause or causes.

Sadly, the great majority of the learned and leaders in today’s society are too proud to turn to God for their own healing from sin and consequently are incapable of truly relieving mankind’s ever-increasing -- both in threat and in number -- sufferings, anxieties, and tragedies.

The Canaanite woman turned to Jesus in her desperation; none in her little world were able to give her demonized daughter any help.  She had heard of Jesus being described as Son of David, words that meant nothing to her but obviously meant much to those Jews she knew who spoke thus of Jesus.  There was no other to whom she could turn, so, turn she did to Him Who ignored her, to Him Whose disciples tried to send her away, to get rid of her.  Ultimately it was those very disciples themselves who turned to their Lord asking Him urgently:

            Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.

Jesus had not changed since His earlier words, but the woman had changed: still humbled by her need, and still persistent in her love for her dear daughter, but somehow as she pushed closer towards Jesus and began to cry directly to Him Personally saying:

            Lord, help me!

She found herself no longer troubled by those disciples and began to feel a certain measure of confidence and hope, for His words though uncompromising, somehow provoked her to hope, they did not crush her down into yet greater despair.  He said:

            It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs!

She remained humble (something beyond modern self-righteousness!!) but now strangely more confident, and somehow at peace, because she felt she now knew something about Him she was facing, a majestic Man indeed, but humble; yes, a humble Man familiar with the peasant’s table and the family’s dogs:

She said, “Please (notice, she is still humble!!), Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

The self-righteous modern turners-away-from-Jesus-and-His-Church should hear that Canaanite woman with shame and tears, for she had heard the silent voice of the Father Who calls to Jesus, and having learned from Him was blessed to find Jesus turning to her and addressing her directly:

“Woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”  And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.

Dear People of God, what can bring our western spiritual wilderness back to life with the refreshing waters of the Spirit of Jesus?  Will it require the suffering, agony, and ‘despair’ of the Canaanite woman, or will the smouldering coals of former faith help some to remember that:

            God has delivered all to disobedience that He might have mercy on all.