3rd Sunday of Advent Year C 2018

 3^rd. Sunday of Advent (C)

(Zephaniah 3:14-18; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18)

Today is traditionally called ‘Gaudete’ Sunday; now, it is not easy to ‘gaudere’, that is, to rejoice, as our readings encourage us: it is not easy because such rejoicing is not natural, it is supernatural, a gift from God. Let us, therefore, for a short while just think about our human rejoicing and God’s gift.

Most commonly -- apart from family love -- it is success, pleasure, or advantage of some sort, that leads most human beings to rejoice.   But success, pleasurable feelings, and advantageous circumstances or events are all natural experiences, and all of them are dependent upon and subject to so many natural influences, that we can never know just how and when they might be lost or taken away from us: perhaps a disappointment, or an ailment of some sort; again, it might be a disagreement, some vague feeling of unease or foreboding, some unexpected and unfortunate turn of events, and, of course, always human weakness and wickedness, all such things can mar or embitter our success, thwart or spoil our pleasure, deprive us of anticipated advantage without warning.  In countless ways our hoped-for joys of whatever sort – including family joys, alas -- can be turned, surprisingly easily and unexpectedly, into disappointment, sorrow, frustration, or anxiety.

Because of this, we recognize that neither pleasure, success, nor advantage, all of which so often promise to promote human rejoicing, can in fact bring us to that desired state of constant rejoicing recommended by the prophet Zephaniah and St. Paul.

Moreover, natural pleasure, of its very nature, is fickle, repeat it too often and it easily becomes tasteless; and success won or advantage gained, frequently provoke antagonism and animosity in others, which is by no means conducive to our rejoicing.

How, then, should we appreciate and can we hope to attain such full and enduring joy?

With such thoughts and experiences in mind, there have been those who have sought to find, if not rejoicing, at least a measure of peace in mind and heart, by cutting themselves off from the world by philosophical or ascetic practices whereby they aspired to become indifferent to the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ as Shakespeare puts it.  But surely, such practices are non-starters for those who want to know how they can learn to rejoice in this life?

We are on a more promising track if we can rejoice over beauty and truth … but, what are true rejoice-able beauty and authentic rejoice-able truth??   The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and there is both unimaginable beauty and life-serving and inspiring truth to be found in the glory of the world around us and in the heavens above us for those simple ones (before God!) whose eyes are open, whose mind is humble, and whose heart is pure.   But, precisely, how, oh how, are we to attain and develop rightly those qualities of openness, humility, and purity of heart??

We are now, however, and despite all the difficulties, beginning to see that it might be possible for us to rejoice continually in this world, with the help of some blessing that would enable us to accept the trials of life, to transform or overcome them, by directing them to a transcendent end, one not subject to human favour or worldly fortune.  Such a blessing, moreover, must not only help us become more ‘open’, more ‘humble’, and ‘purer of heart’, it must not only afford us strength to accept and overcome the trials of life; it must also enable us to appreciate our new selves, because, such is our nature, that we can only rejoice over something when that something makes us feel or regard ourselves as in some way special, specially blessed.

Here we begin to recognize why the prophet and St. Paul exhort us to constant rejoicing: it is because of our Christian birthright!  Because we belong to Jesus Whose Holy Spirit is forming us in Him as true children of the Father, we have a heavenly inheritance that makes us special, not of our particular human selves, as if we were of ourselves superior to and better than others, but because of the Lord Who died and now lives for us and we in Him, because of the Spirit Who guides us, because of the Father Who calls us.  That is why St. Paul is able to tell us:

            Rejoice IN THE LORD always. Again, I will say, rejoice!

Nothing whatsoever in this world can rob us of that birthright we have received through faith in Jesus, nor of the inheritance being prepared for us personally in heaven by the Father.   Moreover, we rejoice all the more because we will -- by the Holy Spirit now at work in us -- ultimately be integral members of that eternal family where each one is appreciated for their own unique identity by every other member of that family, the family of God.

The early Christians -- those disciples who were closest to the Lord -- had a firm conviction that Mother Church is not of this world even though she exists in this world, because she exists for the Kingdom of God, that is for God’s Messiah and all those who -- thanks to her proclamation of His Good News -- will believe in Him Whom God has sent as Saviour.  In Christ, the Kingdom of God has entered this world and that Kingdom continues both to endure and to grow through the ministry of Mother Church, with the result that, although Christians are flesh and blood of this world, nevertheless, their real life is ‘hid with Christ in God’, and their earthly living is for eternal beatitude.  It was that overwhelming and transcendent joy and confidence that enabled the early Christians -- men, women, and even children -- to lovingly face up to the most atrocious persecutions.  They were indeed special, for, having received a special birthright, they became -- as St. Paul most forcefully puts it -- a new creation:

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

There is, however, a modern, pseudo-spiritual, way of thinking that says it is wrong to regard oneself as special; it is wrong to think oneself different from, and in some way better than, others.  Christians, true Christians -- such thinking goes – should esteem all men as good as, even better than, themselves. 

Such talk, coming ultimately from the Devil, has -- as is usual with the Devil – an over-stretched and twisted grain of truth in it.  The Devil did, after all, quote Scripture correctly to Our Lord in the desert, even though he had no right understanding of the words he so glibly quoted.  It is like that here.  It is true that we Christians are not to think of ourselves, personally, as better than others.  That does not, however, in any way prevent us from considering, and firmly believing, ourselves to be wonderfully blessed by the fact that, of God’s great goodness, we are Catholics and Christians: gifted with the True Faith, whereby we can know Jesus in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist, and receive His Spirit given to us through the sacraments of Mother Church, herself our sure refuge and abiding beacon in this world, as we journey along the way to our heavenly home.

To pretend that good Catholics and Christians should not appreciate such shared gifts and the many individual blessings we have all received is the devil’s talk: talk that would rob us of the ability to rejoice, and would lead us to become ungrateful and unworthy beneficiaries of God’s great and merciful goodness.

What do you think was in Mary’s heart after hearing the angel’s message and receiving God’s only Son into her womb?  The prophet had said:

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!  Sing joyfully, O Israel!   Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!

Can you possibly think that Mary, the supremely holy and truly spiritual human being, thought to herself that it would be wrong to rejoice as if she was in any way special?  The prophet had foretold, and the angel had assured her:

Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!

Can you imagine her saying: “I mustn’t think that He is with me more than He is with other people”?  We know what she felt, we know what she thought:

My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour, for He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant.  For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed, for He Who is Mighty has done great things for me, and Holy is His name.

Again, the prophet had gone on to say:

The Mighty One will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in His love, He will sing joyfully because of you.

Should Mary have closed her eyes and stopped her ears to that prophecy?  Should she have thought it a sin to believe those words “He will rejoice over you”?  Without such a joy and confidence in her heart how could she have faced up to the private trials and public opprobrium of the virgin birth?

Mary should indeed have been filled with confidence in God for she needed to be … she should have been filled with unimaginable gratitude and joy at the thought that God took great delight in her, because she had to be a perfect mother for God’s only Son.

And, for our part, how could we, dear People of God, do what Saint Paul tells us (Philippians 4:9):

The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me THESE DO, and the God of peace will be with you ,

if we were too holy to practice the Apostle’s other most pressing advice to:

            REJOICE IN THE LORD always. Again I will say, rejoice!

We must not allow ourselves to be influenced by those who would condemn such rejoicing on the pretext that it is uncharitable, presumptuous, and proud; for those without faith, those who reject obedience to God, have no right understanding of the words they bandy about, they have no living awareness or appreciation of Catholic truth and the divine beauty reflected in what is spiritually wholesome and salvific. People of God, we can in no way live up to our calling without finding overflowing joy in, and taking supreme confidence from, our Christian blessings. 

John told those who came to him at the Jordan that the hope they had in God must manifest itself in works, and today, Gaudete Sunday, we meet together to give witness to the whole world of the power and beauty of faith and life in Jesus, by the Spirit, for the Father.

Therefore, we need that supreme confidence and joy which led eleven ordinary Galileans, together with the educated Paul, to go out and teach the nations, ignoring mockery and overcoming torments.  We need the strength of which Paul spoke when he declared (Philippians 4:13):

I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.

Dear People of God, do not let yourself be robbed of your birthright, cling to it with both hands, so to speak, and with all your strength of mind and heart.  Hold in contempt the teaching of pseudo-Christians which, far from being imbued with divine spirituality, is tainted and poisoned by human pride and sanctimoniousness.                                                                               

            Rejoice IN THE LORD always. Again, I will say, rejoice!

2nd Sunday of Advent Year C 2018

2^nd. Sunday of Advent (C)

(Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:3-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6)

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John the Baptist, some two thousand years ago, called upon his Jewish compatriots to prepare themselves for the fulfilment of their vocation as God’s Chosen People, by preparing the way for the coming Messiah: a Lamb-of-God Man recognized as such by John, Who would be born of their own immaculate virgin Mary as Jesus of Nazareth, the One now recognized as Jesus Christ, the Lord, God, and Saviour of all mankind.

Today Mother Church recommends that we, her modern-day children, carefully reconsider John’s inspired proclamation because of its great significance for us who, by our Advent discipline and devotion, are now preparing to invite and welcome the same Lord, God, and Saviour, into our very own hearts and minds anew this Christmas.

Some 700 years before John, the prophet Isaiah had spoken of the messianic times to come in Judah by evoking:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.   Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.

For our evangelist St. Luke, John was that voice crying in the wilderness, and John -- the greatest of all those born of woman, as Jesus said – taking up that prophecy of Isaiah, insisted that all those awaiting the imminent coming of the Messiah had to do something to further both the advent of the Messiah in their days and the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy.  And Mother Church, setting Luke’s Gospel message before us today, suggests likewise that we -- each and every one of us who believe in Jesus and  anticipate His Advent blessing this year – do something in accordance with John’s inspired proclamation that we alone can and should do: first, acknowledge with sincere sorrow our too-many personal sins, and accompany it by fruits expressive of such repentance; but above all, however, by awaiting the Coming One with hearts full of gratitude eager to receive and embrace Him as the Only-begotten Son of God, sublimely gifted to us as One of us, the One Who can uniquely enable us, to live fuller and better lives as adopted children of God, His own brothers and sisters.

It is common among practicing Catholics these days to more or less forget about this obligation to open up the way for the Lord in their own hearts and minds, and consequently their lives as Catholics and Christians can so easily settle DOWN and become somewhat stagnant:  too many basically faithful children of Mother Church limit themselves to holding firmly to the Faith they were originally taught, taking care they do not betray or fall short of it.  In fact, however, since Jesus the Prince of Peace and Light of the World, is wanting to come anew into their refreshed lives this Christmas, they should desire above all to grow in that Faith and embrace anew the Love that enwraps it: Jesus’ Own love for us all, and the love of many martyrs, confessors, and fellow faithful Catholics who have treasured and handed the Faith down to us over centuries.

Again, many devout Catholics are regular in their observance of Sundays and holydays, and they intend to receive the sacraments well.  However, though they do these things regularly, which is good, they also tend to do them routinely, which is not so good.  For, having done these practices, which they often call duties -- duties which can be counted and ticked off as having been done for this week or for this month -- they then tend to wait for the Lord.  They do not often think to undertake more personal heart-and-mind approaches, which are not things that can be called duties, but are endeavours to respond to God’s secret invitation, to answer God’s Personal call, to them personally.

In such ways, far too many Catholic disciples of Jesus hear Mother Church calling them in the name of God, from without themselves, but do not seem to hear God Himself whispering within themselves, from that secret and most holy sanctuary which is their own soul.  Thus, they confine themselves to mediocrity: because they are, in fact, coming to a halt, settling for obligations and duties -- long known and recognized -- being faithfully observed each year, but going no further, no deeper. Now such a ‘coming to a halt’, at whatever level, is mediocrity for one called to let the Holy Spirit lead him or her throughout their life to become more like Jesus, ever more truly a child of God.

Other people might think highly and speak well of such a person, because he or she may have stopped at, and apparently remained at, a relatively high level, so to speak, when compared with others.  But that’s just it, God doesn’t compare one with another: if you stop, at whatever level, you will begin to stagnate, and that is, for you -- in the eyes of God the Father Who is calling you and the Holy Spirit Who wants to lead you further along the way of Jesus -- settling for mediocrity, settling for something less than God wants of you, than what God wants FOR YOU.

Paul was very proud of his converts in Philippi and he acknowledged that not only were they indebted to himself, but that he too was indebted to them for the assistance they had given him in his need.  He prayed for them as special friends:

And this I pray: that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment.

Now, that should be the programme for all of us: for our love can abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.  Don’t think that is not for you, that you can’t do that.  Of course you can’t!!  But God can and He does want to do it for you, to bring it about in you.  You might not, indeed, be the reading, the studious, type, you might not be a deep thinker, but that does not exclude you from taking up God’s invitation: because it is a special invitation to you by Him Who knows you best of all; it is an invitation to lead you to the fullness of your vocation, to give Jesus all your love, in your uniquely personal way.  If you are not a reader, not a deep thinker, O.K., don’t feel any need to force yourself into long periods of tedious and fruitless study or reading.  Do what you do best.  Perhaps you like to be with people rather than with books: try, then, to do your best to be with Jesus more.  I don’t necessarily mean kneeling in Church, you might have too many duties and tasks for that: then, just try to be more with Him in your mind and heart: just as you are so often with your children or your grandchildren in your mind and heart.  If your life seems burdened with other people’s troubles, then mention those troubles to Jesus, ask His help, ask Him to bless yourself and those in need.  Some people find they can’t keep their attention on prayers which tend to become just empty words: among them, however, some might find great peace in just being in Jesus’ presence in the Church without saying anything: content and happy simply to know that He is there and they are in His presence.  I can’t go through all the ways of deepening love for Jesus here, that is spiritual direction, much ignored today, but be quite sure of this, you are invited, called, urged by God the Father, Who wants to help your love for Jesus, His Son, to abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight: not knowledge of facts or insight into problems, but personal knowledge, awareness, appreciation, of the Person of Jesus, that is, understanding of, and empathy with, commitment to, Him.  Knowledge and insight of this sort will enable you to grow just as St. Paul wanted his beloved Philippians to grow:

That you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.

Some people, even some good Catholics and Christians, try to set good works for others at variance with, or as a substitute for, deep personal holiness, oneness with Jesus.   They tend to think that they ought to be doing something for Jesus, some good work, some visible, tangible, work that helps to free at least one corner of the world from its overwhelming burden of suffering and sin: work of that nature, they feel, is much better than just ‘becoming holy’.

Of course, when they put it in that way to themselves, they are loading the dice for their own purposes, because, comparing supposedly generous works for others with the implied selfishness of oneself trying to become holy before God is totally wrong.  True holiness is the most unselfish state possible, it is entirely God centred: true holiness is love of God that leads to total forgetfulness of self, and such self-sacrifice in the likeness of Jesus, is only authentic and true when it is a spontaneously free gift, brought about indeed by the Holy Spirit, but allowed, accepted, embraced, and whole-heartedly followed, by the recipient. Such holiness is most un-common and no easy option.  True holiness, it was, that sustained the early martyrs suffering persecution under the Roman Empire; and still today continues to manifest itself in the lives of those enduring and dying for Jesus under modern fanatical or totalitarian regimes, or those saddened and oppressed by their own compatriots’ rejection of Jesus’ demanding love for easier and more pleasing worldly and/or fleshly options:

The time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth. (2 Timothy 4:3–4)

God can always find many people to do things for Him; for many there are, who will do good things for motives that are not so good, such as self-approval or public appreciation; frequently, the very relief of working at something that occupies their mind and distracts their heart is enough for them.  Indeed, there are those to be found, as St. Paul himself experienced (Philippians 1:15–18), who will even do good things for evil reasons: 

Of course, some preach Christ from envy and rivalry, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment.  What difference does it make, as long as in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed? In that I rejoice. Indeed, I shall continue to rejoice.

Therefore, let us turn back to our second reading where St. Paul spoke to the Philippians of:

Their fellowship (with him) in the gospel from the first day until now.

In that spirit of loving appreciation and gratitude he prayed most especially that:

(Their) love (might) abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment.

Dear People of God, our fellowship with St. Paul in proclaiming Christ in today’s hostile world requires that work of us which he so persuasively urged his friends at Philippi to undertake in all confidence.  It is, precisely, our essential part in the missionary work of Mother Church today; and ultimately, only such a partnership of the whole faithful Christian people in the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel will lead to the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy:

All flesh shall see the salvation of God.   

1st Sunday of Advent Year C 2018

1^st. Sunday of Advent (C)

(Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1Thessalonians 3:12 - 4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36)

Our readings today are all concerned with the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of time, to do away with sin and subject all things to Himself for the glory of His Father. 

Now, it is not possible to speak of the events of those latter days using ordinary language, for they will be events unseen before and beyond all human anticipation and imagination; that is why, in the Old and New Testaments -- even when Jesus Himself is speaking  -- the language used is of a special character, called apocalyptic language, full of strange and extreme events: cosmic at times in their size and impact, always awesome and usually terrifying for mere human beings.  Therefore, because those times will be, so to speak, divine times, when the divinity of Jesus and the supernatural majesty and power of the all Holy God are revealed, they will be – for the ungodly -- times of deep darkness and great distress, such as only nature’s primeval powers can now inspire:

There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars; on the earth nations will be in dismay.   People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

In the first reading, we heard:

In those days Judah shall be safe, and Jerusalem shall dwell secure; this is what they shall call her: ‘The Lord our justice.'

Jerusalem will be safe because her inhabitants will be clothed with justice -- the supernatural God-given gift of righteousness -- says the prophet Jeremiah.  That is what St. Paul had in mind in our second reading taken from his first letter to the Thessalonians:

Finally, brothers and sisters, we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us how you should conduct yourselves to please God – and as you are conducting yourselves – you do so even more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

Mere human beings, who have refused to live in a way pleasing to God, and who consequently, are not clothed with the righteousness of the Lord, will be unable to survive the manifestation of divine holiness on the day of His coming.  We are forewarned about this, dear People of God, every returning summer for, whether we have good eyes or weak eyes makes no difference, all of us can be blinded by the direct glare of the noon-day sun.  Likewise, immediately before the coming of the Lord, personal confidence, courage, riches or ability, self-pity or overflowing rage and anger, will be of no comfort when primeval, instinctive, terror strikes the human heart at the sight of the tumultuous seas, mountainous waves, or rivers of flaming volcanic lava in full spate.

Only those prepared by sincere conversion and divine endowment, fortified by prayer and personal love of God, will find themselves able to survive those days, as Jesus warned us:

Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent, and to stand before the Son of Man.

Since this will be the situation when God comes to bring time to a close and to destroy sin from the face of the earth; and most especially, when you think that we only have one life, that is one chance, and whoever gets it wrong cannot come back and try again, it is surely amazing that many put their trust in merely human self-appointed and self-opiniated, teachers, gurus, prophets, and guides!  Divine holiness, majesty and power will be manifested; all-seeing knowledge and inscrutable wisdom will be deployed; and yet, you find some devilishly proud and presumptuous people saying to others who are, incredibly, foolish enough to listen to them: “Follow me, do what I am doing, see how I am enjoying myself!  It won’t be that hard at the end … you just go to sleep, that is the end of everything, there’s nothing after that!”  Issues that have exercised human minds and involved human hearts and consciences from man’s beginning, which have provoked a morally unanimous religious awareness, appreciation, and response from humankind, are challenged and called into question by individuals whose pride is overwhelming and whose life but a fleeting shadow.  They come out with teachings which, seemingly human, are ultimately devilish: sexuality is not something given by nature but something to be 'more or less' genetically arranged according to personal preference; homosexuality is an equal option for life alongside marriage between a man and a woman; or again, there is no right and wrong, there is no truth, it is only a matter of social or political correctness and human upbringing; what used to be called ‘sin’ is but the result of genetic disturbance; and human life has no other dignity than what we accord it.

Dear People of God, life for us believers, is a wondrous mystery:  what is its true meaning; has it an ultimate purpose?  Mysterious too are the essential elements of life as we experience it:  what is love; how can one find happiness and peace of heart; why is life so tasteless without hope; what is justice, where is truth??  Again, why do we feel, inside, that some things are wrong; and why – having done such things, even though in secret -- do we feel disturbed, ill at ease, indeed, under threat???  Such mysterious questions as these are of vital importance, because both reason and experience teach us that life is problematical: money cannot buy happiness, worldly success or renown cannot guarantee peace of heart, nor can present pleasure foster future hope.

Here then, as we begin the season of Advent, we are urged by Mother Church to do some serious thinking.  We are bid look into our hearts to sound those hidden depths that we so rarely penetrate in our everyday life and activity, for only there can we find some appreciation and understanding of the mystery of our make-up as persons, as individuals who have been made divinely special.  For all of us do believe that we are special: none of us can tolerate injustice done against us, and we all hate lies and love truth as they affect our lives.  Who is there that does not know that life inspires hope, while death, on the other hand, provokes despair?  Inexplicably, we feel ourselves made for life, even though all things else are made and are content to die.

People of God, we Catholics are Christians -- the original and authentic Christians -- called to bring the Gospel, the Good News, to the whole world, throughout time.  And the message we are commissioned to bring is that Jesus Christ is the only answer to the mystery of human existence and the supreme hope for our human destiny: He alone can bring peace and hope into our hearts and minds, together with the strength to live and love aright both in society and as individuals.  Above all, we are to proclaim Jesus Christ as the only One Who can raise us up to aspire to a heavenly destiny; one that will be truly ours -- in and with Jesus, by His Spirit -- a destiny before God the Father which will be the glorious and eternal fulfilment of all our possibilities, powers, and longings.  Our teaching is certain and clear:

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

I and My Father are One. (John 10:30)

How those who say: “follow me; do what I am doing; listen to me, I know”, how such people despise their brethren!  Why do I say despise?  Because they dare to imagine that the miserable prospects they offer can possibly fulfil a human being: pleasure, usually basic or even animal; success, though, even at its highest, is only for a very short time and, of itself, has no moral value; popularity, which -- basically shallow -- can only be sustained by craven conformity.

Jesus alone fully loves and truly appreciates us: He raises us to a life that is eternal and sublimely beautiful, a love that is fulfilling and divine. Indeed, He offers us a fulfilment that can penetrate to and transfigure the hidden and most intimate depths of our human and personal being.  That is why Catholics offer their whole selves to Jesus with no if’s and but’s: for example, when they marry, they offer the whole of that marriage – for better for worse, humanly speaking -- to Jesus, in the belief that, through Him and by the grace of His most Holy Spirit, their faithfully-lived Christian union will serve their own eternal destiny, mankind’s continuity and growth, and God’s loving plan of salvation for the world:

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father.  No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. (Luke 10:22)

Because the Father Who calls us to Jesus has committed all things to Him, so we too, who answer the Father’s call and come to Jesus as His disciples, commit all things to Him: there is nothing secret in our lives where He cannot enter, where He does not rule.  All ‘ours’, all of ‘us’, is for Jesus so that in Him we might be totally for the Father, and that we might thus come to find our eternal fulfilment in the glory and joy of His kingdom truth and love.

To that end we live in accordance with the teachings of Jesus and by His Spirit given us in Mother Church; for the Good News of Jesus comes down to us through her proclamation and teaching in all its original fullness of integrity and purity; and by her sacraments the Spirit of Jesus is sprinkled in blessing upon all that we do and are: body and soul, mind and heart, work and aspirations, yes and even our humiliations and sufferings endured for love of Jesus.

In all such ways does God’s Providence and Love govern, sustain, and guide our lives that we might ultimately be made able to humbly accept and whole-heartedly embrace what is sure to come:

(You) will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.   

Christ the King Year B 2018

Christ the King, Year B (26.11.00)

(Dan. 7:13-14 / Apoc. 1:5-8 / John 18:33-37)

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Today, dear People of God, we are gathered to celebrate Jesus Christ our King, Son of God, Lord of Creation, and Our Saviour.   And today, Mother Church reminds us how Jesus replied to the questions of Pilate -- then Roman Governor in Judea -- regarding His Kingship:

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.  Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me."

           

Jesus is King, and as King He bears witness to the truth; indeed, bearing witness to the truth is the distinctive sign and ultimate purpose of His Kingship.

Now, that gives us something to ponder; because we are, or want to be, disciples of Jesus, and He has told us: 

Everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. (Luke 6:40)

As Christians and above all as Catholics, we are very much aware of truth because we believe that there is a definitive truth about Jesus – sent by His Father for mankind’s salvation – a truth, about His Person and His Good News of salvation, to be learned and passed on to future generations; just as it has been handed down to us, by Mother Church, from past generations and ultimately, indeed, from Jesus and His Apostles themselves. 

Jesus is the Truth and He became incarnate, became a man, in order to bear witness to that Truth which He was and which He proclaimed.  That being the case, we can -- with gratitude and admiration -- recognize that Jesus’ Church’s cannot change Gospel Truth, the Good News, to suit changing worldly preferences or satisfy popular demands.  You will remember that, when Jesus established Peter as the rock on which He would build His Church, He said that:

            The gates of Hades will not overcome her.

What did He mean by that?  How could the gates of Hades, Satan’s dominion, overcome her?  Listen!  Jesus once told us about Satan, the devil, when speaking to some Jews:

You belong to your father, the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a LIAR and the father of lies.  (John 8:44)

So you see that “the gates of Hades”, the kingdom of the devil, the father of lies, could only attempt to overcome Jesus’ Church -- our Mother -- by leading her away from Jesus the Truth into falsehood.  That can never be!  Mother Church was established by Jesus to proclaim and bear witness to His truth and to nourish with His food her children, those called by the Father to become disciples of Jesus, and those whom Jesus Himself characterized by the following words:

Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me. (John 18:37)

Jesus is the Truth; Mother Church proclaims and protects the truth about Jesus our Lord and Saviour; we, children of Mother Church, who listen to Jesus’s teaching and eat His Food and drink His Blood, are on the side of truth.

Pilate said to Jesus. "What is truth?"

In our modern society there are many who deny that there is such a thing as objective truth, all is relative to current political attitudes and our personal needs and desires.

There are many, many more who, like Pilate, don’t know what truth is and don’t bother themselves about the question, trying to fill their lives with pleasure and activity of all sorts; and they act in full accord with the devil’s constant endeavour that the question of truth should never be allowed to impinge itself on our human, God-given, conscience, lest thereby God Himself gain entrance into our lives.

Let us now think of Jesus as revered and foreseen in a vision by the prophet Daniel as you heard in our first reading:

He – One like a Son of Man -- approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence and was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (7:13-14)

That same Jesus, we learnt from the second reading, is also:

The Alpha and the Omega, Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty.

Jesus -- the coming Lord of Glory -- is Truth, and His Kingdom, in all its majesty, power, and authority, is founded on truth; and we too, His disciples, have all been drawn to Him by the Father of all Good that we might learn of and be formed by the truth of Jesus and -- in our turn and by His Spirit -- ourselves become witnesses to the ultimate truthfulness  of God, to the beauty of His creation and the loving wisdom of our salvation.

Truth is our life as Christians and Catholics.  How do we live it?  Is it just a matter of trying not to tell lies?  That, of course, is absolutely essential.  The devil is the father of lies, we cannot serve him.  But we can only come to share in the Kingdom of God with Jesus our King if truth rules in each and every aspect of our lives as Catholics. 

When God chose some slaves to become His own Chosen People to fulfil His purposes on earth, He recued them from the objective evil of slavery and oppression and gave them a Law of objective truth to form them aright for His purposes through His servant Moses.   That Law demanded that the Chosen People learn -- first and foremost -- to practice OBEDIENCE, religious fear and awe, vis-a-vis their ‘Choosing God’, and also to gradually learn, as His Chosen People, to trust Him Who was leading them through desert wastes towards the Promised Land.

On being given that land -- their own, Promised Land -- the Chosen People (Luke 1:74-75):

Being freed from the hands of their enemies might serve the Lord their God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all their days.

That initial and salutary obedience, that modicum of growing trust – having been learnt though painfully at times -- enabled them to:

Serve the Lord their God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all their days.

Notice the change: they are now to SERVE; no longer ‘obey’ first and foremost, but serve wholeheartedly, which is, indeed, a far, far, better form of obedience:

in holiness and righteousness before Him all their days.

Moreover, the written Law was no longer their only approach to God; in their own Promised Land they were given Judges and Prophets to protect them from their enemies and to inspire them in their understanding of and response to the God Who was calling them to become ever more truly His Chosen People for His purposes and their well-being.

So, we are far from the original Chosen-People-making, Obedience-above-all, disciplinary relationship with the One Who was calling them; now they were expected, being helped and inspired, to Serve Him with ever deeper understanding and appreciation, with an ever more grateful and confident – yes, self-sacrificing when necessary -- trust.

Fleeing slaves having become God’s Chosen People were still being called by their God to become what???   Children of God!!!  Yes, adopted children of the omnipotent, all-holy, all-knowing and eternal God, through the gift of His beloved and only-begotten Son to His Chosen People’s supreme flower, the Virgin Mary of Nazareth, to become Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, for the salvation of all mankind:

For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me."

All peoples, nations and men of every language (will) worship Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

Now, if we are to be authentic disciples of Jesus, we have to endeavour to understand the ramifications of truth.  For example, can anyone who is always worrying about self be recognized as an authentic disciple of Jesus?  To love Jesus means also, surely, to trust Him.  Again, if, when trouble comes along, a disciple repeatedly turns to human beings for help and consolation without recourse to Jesus in prayer, can such a disciple be considered an authentic disciple?  We have to be true disciples.  Again, if we never speak up for Jesus, His teaching, and His Church, no matter what people say against Him, can we be considered authentic and true disciples?  Can parents who leave the teaching of their children exclusively to the school, without ever themselves speaking of Jesus with their children, be regarded as authentic Catholic, Christian, parents?

We have to serve Jesus sincerely, seeking Him first and foremost, we cannot allow worldly riches and prosperity, human popularity or approval, personal pride or idle indifference to rule and determine our lives.  Trying to be authentic, treasuring and seeking the promise of heaven above all, we should allow the Holy Spirit to authoritatively guide our lives and resist the corrosive influence of the spirit of the world around us.

People of God, Jesus is King and He is calling us to share with Him in the joys of His Kingdom and that ultimate aspect of Jesus’ truth for us, DELIGHT IN HIM, needs expression in our lives.  We are not just to speak the truth, to witness to the truth, we must love the truth of Jesus, and that delight in God must begin to shine in our lives here on earth if we are to eat with Him at His Father’s banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven as children of light.  Each and every one of us must think for ourselves: is Jesus indeed my King, first and foremost in my life?  Does His will rule me?  Do His love, His goodness, His beauty and truth, DELIGHT ME?     

You have been called by the Father, because you have come to Jesus in the Church.  However, the way we all have to travel is long and it can be steep and hard in places, and we, in our frailty and weakness, can so easily begin to slumber along the way; forgetting our original calling, we can begin to find our delight in present, worldly, experiences and pleasures.  Future heavenly promises can then come to seem unreal and our faith unrewarding.  That is the devil’s work.  He is THE liar.  The pleasures you are turning to are only for a time and they become inevitably less and less delightful as the years go by, and you can be robbed of them by so many unforeseen events and circumstances.  Heavenly promises, on the contrary are eternal, they seem small, like the mustard seed, to begin with, but grow ever more wonderful over the years and ultimately not even death itself will be able to rob you of them.

Look to yourselves, therefore, dear People of God: take legitimate pride in your calling, but above all, in your King.  You are called to become like Him Who is the Truth: so, persevere in truth, be His true disciples and the truth will make you free and you will be enabled to dine and to reign with Him in His Father’s heavenly Kingdom.

33rd Sunday Year B 2018

 33^rd. Sunday of Year (B)

(Daniel 1:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14; St. Mark 13:24-32)

For us Catholics and Christians there is a mysterious cohesion between ourselves and creation around us: all given life or brought into being by the One true God, with what is material and temporal serving and supporting all spiritual degrees, and with our own supreme spirit polarized towards God and eternal life.  As a result of this, things of earth and temporal events can stir our spiritual awareness, they can help us understand and appreciate something more of God’s mysterious presence for us in the world and our experience of it, and thus live ever more conaturally and delightfully with Him and for Him.

This year of 2018 is coming to its end and that fact leads  Mother Church to call upon her children to think appropriately about the end of this world, the ‘great and final end’ which we prepare for individually by the way we face up to all the little ‘ends’ we experience throughout life , and for which God’s People have been gradually prepared over many centuries by His grace at decisive junctures of their history.  Nevertheless, the readings Mother Church has given us for today sound very strange to our ears and we find it difficult to understand much of them, although they do make a deep impression on us with awesome words concerning events great and even cataclysmic; and yet, for all that, full of hope for all who believe in and love the Lord Jesus.

Those words of Jesus:

In those days, after that tribulation the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken;

had been used earlier in the Old Testament times predicting the ruin of nations hostile to Israel, as we find in the prophecy of Isaiah (13:10) foretelling the ruin of Babylon:

For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light;

and again, when the same prophet speaks of the downfall of Edom.

After Isaiah, another great prophet Ezekiel spoke in similar tones of the forthcoming destruction of Egypt:

‘When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.  All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you and will set darkness on your land’ says the Lord. (32:7-8)

The prophet Joel (2:28-33) used like words to proclaim the ‘Day of the Lord‘ when the Holy Spirit would be poured out on believers in Jesus before the wrath of God ultimately destroyed sin and sinners:

And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy … The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.  And whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape as the Lord has said, survivors whom the Lord calls. 

And now, we find Jesus using that same type of language to foreshadow God’s final purifying of His People when evil will be purged away and God’s true servants revealed:

And they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; and then He will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.

From the beginning of His public ministry Jesus had used the title ‘Son of Man’ when speaking of Himself and now, in the words just quoted, He identified Himself for the first time as the ‘One seen in a vision’ by another late and great prophet, Daniel (7:13-14):

As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; when He reached the Ancient One and was presented before Him He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, His kingship shall not be destroyed.

In Daniel, the Son of Man heads the Kingdom of the Saints which is to supersede the heathen empires of the four beasts (Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome). Jesus now, therefore, showing Himself to be the Son of Man in Daniel’s prophecy, enables us to appreciate the fact that, in Him, humankind finds its supreme glory and God’s People its sublime Head, while God’s Kingdom knows the irresistible beginning of its definitive establishment:

And then He will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.

This process is now going on before our very eyes, so to speak; for the Church is being purged of evil-doers whose secret sins are now being both made manifest and publicly rejected; while former hangers-on, members not by virtue of their love of and faith in Jesus but for reasons of social acceptability and personal advantage, are now freely abandoning her for those very same reasons.  Indeed, even at this moment, we ourselves gathered here are all part of it, for God the Father has called us here today as the Body of Christ, to celebrate and acclaim the glorified Lord as our Head.  He brings us together from all corners of the globe as the Church of Christ, called by the Spirit, to become ever more truly the fruitful Spouse of Christ for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.

People of God, recognize where we find ourselves at this juncture in time: the process for the purification of God’s People and the establishment of His Kingdom has begun, since Jesus has risen from the dead; He is to be seen and heard, known and received by those who love Him in His Church; and all this is leading to a final denouement in which Jesus will be seen by all mankind whether they love Him or not.  He will appear, not humbly as Bread and Wine totally given over to our need and service, but in all His glory as the Son of God, Redeemer and Judge of all mankind.  At present the words of today’s second reading are being fulfilled:

He offered one sacrifice for sins, and took His seat forever at the right hand of God; now He waits until His enemies are made His footstool;          

and we all, in the bosom of Mother Church, are being ‘led to justice’ as the first reading put it, being instructed in virtue and wisdom as we learn to lead our lives in conformity with Jesus’ teaching and come to know truly – in fact and in experience -- something of the infinite beauty and boundless goodness of God our Father.

It is a fact that today we see all around us the wicked proving themselves wicked; we find that wisdom and understanding, far from being valued and sought after, are derided and disregarded, while the most abominable practices are openly flaunted and accepted; indeed, they can even be found covering themselves over with a cloak of pseudo-respectability, to such an extent that some simple Christians and even some Catholics are troubled, as Jesus foretold:

False Messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect.

In our Gospel reading Jesus again mentioned ‘His elect’ as you heard:

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and then He will send out the angels, and gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

Who are these ‘elect’?  Daniel told us in those words (12:10): many shall be purified, cleansed, and refined, because the elect are those faithful disciples who are being formed into a likeness of their Lord through their experience of and response to life under God’s Providence by the sacraments of Mother Church and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, whereby they are encouraged and enabled to walk perseveringly and faithfully along the way of Jesus.  A notable part of the purging and purifying of the faithful elect is accomplished by the sufferings they have to endure and embrace in order to remain true to Jesus despite the allurements and trials of life; and today mockery is one of the great trials Catholics and Christians have to endure for Jesus, especially mockery of Jesus’ teaching about a future judgement.

Now Jesus speaks of the coming judgement when He says:

After that tribulation (the appearance of false messiahs performing their signs and wonders) the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

We can imagine something of the calamitous nature of such pre-judgement events because today we are not unaware of the primeval powers at work in our own sun and Milky Way, and in astounding galaxies above and beyond us: galaxies that defy counting and involve powers and occupy space beyond human imagining.  In fact, we have learnt and are still in the process of learning so much from the heavens that some scientists imagine the heavens as the source of the knowledge of all times, past and future.

For the Psalmists of old, however, the heavens spoke resoundingly of the glory of God.  In those days, though there were few facts available other than what our human senses could immediately discern, the Psalmists -- being filled with God’s spiritual gifts of humility and wisdom -- were able to understand and interpret aright what basic facts were known to them.  Today, on the other hand, for many moderns the facts are so multitudinous and often so tenuous that their minds are overwhelmed as they seek to co-relate and then co-ordinate them into a comprehensible whole; and where faith has been lost or rejected, and pride acknowledged as a reliable guide, many falsely interpret what they have correctly but only partially observed, with the result that their reading of the heavens proclaims not the Glory and the Goodness of God, but rather power for no purpose, majesty with no significance, and beauty alien in its cold irrelevance.

Therefore, dear People of God, do not let yourselves be troubled by scoffers who ignore the teaching of truth, who walk, indeed run merrily, along the ways that lead ever further from God.  Let Mother Church guide you, let the Spirit of Jesus lead you to righteousness and insight; for then you will come to know, even here on earth, something of the plenitude of peace and fulness of joy promised by Our Lord, before ultimately sharing in His transcendent glory and sublime joy:

When all things are subjected to Him (and) the Son Himself (is) subject to Him Who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be All in all.  (! Corinthians 15:8)