24th Sunday Year 3 2019

 24th. Sunday of Year (3)

(Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14; 1Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10)

In today’s Gospel reading we are told that Our Blessed Lord was aware – did He just know their hearts or had He heard some whispered words? – however it was, He had become aware of certain Pharisees and scribes criticising His attitude toward a number of tax-collectors and other publicly known sinners who, as distinct from last Sunday’s ‘great crowds’ just traveling alongside Jesus, were in fact:

            All drawing near to listen to Him.

Today, we have to be aware of the dangers of consorting or discussing carelessly with unprincipled people, and Jesus Himself, so long ago, chose not to directly rebuke these, not indeed unprincipled, but most certainly self-appointed custodians of public morals and personally very self-assured and sanctimonious Pharisees, for their antagonistic thoughts and overtly pugnacious attitude:

            This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!

Now Jesus was, at that very moment -- according to the criticisms of the Pharisees and scribes -- giving too much, and too close, attention to those tax-collectors and sinners around Him, whilst neglecting they themselves, a very important group of devout Pharisees and learned scribes; leaving them, as it were, to continue finding their own pasture on the heights of Israel (the desert in our story) under the watchful eyes of friendly shepherds (the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets).

Jesus was not seeking to antagonize the Pharisees and scribes, and so He turned to them and addressed them directly as probable owners of a considerable flock, men, that is, with worldly understanding and good judgement, not mere local, uneducated, shepherds generally lowly esteemed for their religious infidelity:

What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?

Now, for prudent owners -- even though one sheep out of a flock of one hundred is numerically little enough -- nevertheless, one hundred is a perfect number and ninety-nine is not, and so, one sheep, perhaps not so very important of itself, could still be missed as part of the flock.  Addressing them in such a way Jesus could have hoped to draw reluctant assent from even such critically disposed listeners, and He might also have reasonably hoped further that they might -- tacitly at least -- continue to identify with Him when He went on to say:

And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home ... says, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep!

Yes, the Pharisees and scribes could appreciate such a little parable and agree with the sentiments thus far expressed; but there was perhaps one thought that might trouble them somewhat: ‘Who is this fellow comparing us – devout and learned as we are – with mere sheep, not perfect as a flock, without this one lost  sheep?’  And now, Jesus, the Master, showing His divine wisdom, suddenly changed His earthly ‘pastorale’ into a heavenly apostrophe:

I tell you, in just the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.

It was a passing dart that Jesus hoped, indeed, might sting, but again it was not a face-to-face confrontation, for He went on immediately to address another parable to them telling of the deep but simple joy of a woman on finding again  her loved-and-lost coin, with no mention whatsoever, this time, of any righteous people having no need of repentance.

Let us, now, look a little more closely at the wording of Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep:

I tell you, in just the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

He says, in just the same way because of there being a saving shepherd in both cases: the earthly shepherd who had gone in search of the lost sheep and, on finding it, carried it on his shoulders back to the flock; and a heavenly Shepherd, Jesus Himself sent by His heavenly Father as Messianic Shepherd of Israel.  The sinners -- literally ‘flocking’ around Him to hear His words -- public sinners in the Pharisees’ estimation, were men who, at this very moment and possibly to their own embarrassment, were finding themselves drawn by the Spirit to Jesus as a flock seeking guidance and, perhaps, learning how to repent; the Parisees, on the other hand, remained apart, highly critical of what they could not understand.

There however the parallel stops, for Jesus goes on to speak in His last four words of a ‘lost sheep’ which actually participates in its own rescue and return:

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

Now the words of Jesus take on a deeper meaning, more pertinent to the present situation, for the tax collectors – well known to the Pharisees as sinners -- ‘flock’ around  Jesus Who says:

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people – and the Pharisees certainly thought of themselves as righteous – who have no need of repentance, an attitude publicly portrayed by the Pharisees standing apart and critically observing what was happening with the heavenly shepherd at work.

Notice now the difference between a lost sheep and a lost human being, a human person can repent on being ‘found’ by Jesus, which means, of course, that repentance is the result of an encounter with Jesus, an appreciation of and response to the divine beauty, goodness, and truth shining on the  human face of Jesus.  For only the experience of holiness can convict someone of their own sinfulness, only beauty can enable another to appreciate and acknowledge their own ugliness, and only innocence and simplicity can lead a liar to hate their own duplicity.

Now, the greatest charge against the Pharisees and scribes complaining against Jesus was precisely the fact that, by constant and carping criticism, they were their closing their hearts and minds to His patent beauty and truth, goodness and humility; ‘patent’ I say, because recognized and sought out -- against themselves and contrary to their own immediate interests -- by tax-collectors and public sinners.

This is a most important lesson for us Catholic Christians to learn today; for we are now being called to account for our faith in times when our governments -- the United Kingdom, the United States, and, of course, republican France -- are abandoning or have long abandoned their Christian heritage in favour of self-proclaiming scepticism and rationalism, after having openly supported the arming of rebels in Syria regardless of their sectarian fanaticism and known enmity towards Christians living where Christians have always lived and first proclaimed Jesus as Lord.  

In our account for the faith we treasure, it is not Catholic dogma that needs to be quoted, even though it is the backbone of our life and the substance of our hope; nor the superiority of Christian morality -- though that is undoubtedly the case over the course of history and when sincerely studied and objectively appreciated  What is needed above all for us to give today is an up-to-date and effective ‘account’ of our Faith; our own, personal, living, witness to Jesus in Mother Church: witness, that is, to the contentment and peace, hope and inspiration, each of us, as individuals, finds in our awareness and appreciation of the Person of Jesus Our Lord and Saviour, through our prayer and God’s Gift of His most Holy Spirit;  finding in His quite simple human words truths of eternal and sublime beauty enabling us to appreciate the wonder of creation all around us, to discover the transforming experience of earthly sufferings acceptedfor love of Him, and, above all, to embrace the previously unimagined mystery of human life -- graced for all of good will -- leading to a heavenly home of eternal fulfilment with Jesus in the Kingdom of His and our Father.

Toward that end, let us learn from today’s Gospel, and endeavour -- with those tax-collectors and sinners -- to draw ever closer to Jesus in our appreciation of the fact that the Good News we proclaim is His Good News: Good News embodied in His Person and in the salvation He brings and offers us; Good News to be lived in the power of His Spirit given to us through His Church, for the Father Who sent Him and Who calls us in Him. 

Dear People of God, draw ever closer to Jesus by reading the Scriptures with Him in view, above all read the Gospels which proclaim His words and recount His deeds; draw close, however, not so much by remembering words to be used in arguments but by a whole-hearted appeal to His Spirit, in the Church and within you personally, for enlightenment and power that you might more fully appreciate and better respond to His unique expression of divine love and eternal truth.

23rd Sunday Year C 2019

23^rd. Sunday  of Year (C)

(Wisdom 9:13-18; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33)

Christianity – as commonly confessed by many so-called adherents – is, above all, a religion of love: for neighbour, and even enemies; and yet in our Gospel reading today we have our Blessed Lord directly addressing His past and present followers:

           

If any one comes to Me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life he cannot be My disciple.

That apparent contradiction is surely the sign and measure of our alienation from Him!  

Christians of all sorts search around anxiously these days for more people in Church, and, in that respect, regard themselves as being motivated by the Christian spirit of evangelization.  And yet, again, Our Blessed Lord was not, apparently, over-pleased by the fact that ‘Great crowds were travelling with Him’, for we are told that:

He turned and addressed them: ‘Whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Why such a difference between Jesus and modern versions of Christianity?

First of all, let us give careful attention to the actual life-situation which provoked those words of Jesus: we are told that ‘great crowds were travelling with Him’, and Jesus – responding compassionately to their demonstrative support but merely surface love and commitment -- told them that only those who would follow after Him, behind Him, walking, that is, in His footsteps, along His ways, and learning from Him, could possibly become disciples who might eventually learn to walk -- as the apostles -- with Him.

And there we have a partial answer to the question above, ‘Why such a difference ...?’  which I shall now try to develop.

Too many nominal Christians and pseudo-Catholics these days want and pretend to walk with Him before they have learned to walk behind Him, before they have sought to learn His ways and preferences.  They begin by emphasizing their heart’s passing, urgent, affections to the detriment of real and personal commitment; and they imagine they can love without adapting to the one they ‘love’, without learning how to change themselves so that their ‘commitment’ and ‘love’ might be acceptable.  This attitude of presumed personal worthiness is widespread in modern western society: whatever anyone does – provided it is within the law of the land – is fine, if they want to do it that way; whoever, whatever, people think they are or want to become is right for them, again so long as it is ‘politically correct’.  No other responses to such personal positions are acceptable in our modern society.   

Of course, such an attitude is not the Catholic and Christian ethos at all.  Nevertheless, some -- always too many -- prelates and leaders have been tempted and tainted by such wide-spread ideas, and thus misled, they have begun to conjure up a modern Jesus no longer necessarily based on the Gospel picture, a Jesus more adapted to present popular attitudes and aspirations, desires and hopes.  For that end they tend to evoke and promote-- contrary to Jesus’ Own express example in today’s Gospel reading and frequently elsewhere -- disciples characterised by excitement and emotion, sometimes clap-happy and, of course, infant-hugging, and they regard numbers as a sure sign and measure of success.  They delight most of all in prominently-active members of the Church society, rather than in humble disciples of Jesus who want above all to learn how to rightly obey and faithfully follow Him  wherever He -- by His Most Holy Spirit given to His Church and bestowed on them by His Church -- might lead them, along the way of self-sacrifice for personal love of Him.

Jesus Himself did all His saving work in Personal humility for total love of His Father and suffering mankind, and in today’s Gospel reading, looking at the ‘great crowds’ around Him, He was wanting such disciples, ultimately willing-and-able by His Spirit, to commit themselves with and in Him, to His heavenly Father in total love and trust.  Today, He is also disappointed as He was then, because so much ‘evangelisation’ is done from intentions rarely free from deep-rooted self-love and ‘faithlacking’ submission to worldly interests and expectations.

Looking back again at the Gospel account, why did our Lord use such an emotive and, dare I say it, ‘objectionable’ word as ‘hate’?

As you probably know, ‘hate’ in that context means ‘put in second place’; and its objectionable connotations are useful because Jesus wanted to strongly -- very strongly indeed – to emphasize the fact that God must always come first; parents, family, even self, always second, never before God. However, we should notice too that Jesus understood such ‘hatred’ to be a cross -- no secret joy or satisfaction -- for human nature; and part, perhaps indeed the essential part, of that cross He immediately went on to refer to when He added, ‘Whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.’

Jesus speaks most earnestly of the need for any one wishing to become a disciple of His, to seriously ‘count the cost’; and yet we, so light-heartedly at times, seek to encourage converts and claim back ‘lost ones’ by the fellowship we fellow-believers can offer them, both as individuals and also by the joy of our family and parochial gatherings: such as the  beautiful simplicity of our baptisms where the innocence of the child so easily takes precedence in the minds of parents and friends over the sublimity of the prayers being offered and the responsibilities being assumed on its behalf; likewise the splendour of our weddings where the present joy and beauty of the bride-to-be and the parents’ ardent hopes for the couple’s future happiness and fulfilment easily take pre-eminence over the lovers’ for-better-or-for-worse commitment to each other before Christ, and the Church’s prayers for the blessing, guidance, comfort  and strength of the Holy Spirit in all the joys and trials incumbent on married life.

Jesus once said (Matthew 23:15) to some Pharisees:

You cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves,

And that should be borne in mind by us today, lest our modern zeal makes new converts twice as superficial in their Catholicism, Christianity, and discipleship as too many of us have long been.

Our Blessed Lord summed up His thoughts in these few words:

Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be My disciple.

 

St. Bede gives us great help to rightly understand these words, for he distinguishes clearly between those called to ‘leave behind, relinquish’ all possessions, and those here called to ‘renounce’ such possessions: that is, those called to take great care that they do not allow themselves to be possessed by their possessions.

What, however, are we to understand with that word possessions?

It does not refer to merely material things, for there are many human spiritual realities we appreciate and treasure: for example, ‘my freedom’ was of great significance in the early years of the Church and, indeed, still is in many parts of the world where Mother Church -- even to this day -- suffers persecution; and there are, of course, the frequently encountered and unworthy memories of such treasured freedom lingering on the lips of those who like to invoke ‘my opinion’ to excuse their public words and actions.  ‘My reputation’, ‘my good name’, ‘my peace of mind and heart’, are also among such ‘possessions’ which a man can value much more highly than merely material things.

Jesus’ words:  ‘If anyone comes to Me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple’; and  ‘Whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple’ seem to refer to personal bonds of love on the one hand and to our instinctive rejection of suffering on the other, and here Jesus’ words were soon to be backed up by His own Personal example and experience whereby they have acquired a most touching intensity of significance and depth of meaning for us.  And as, in our Gospel reading, Jesus looked round to see the crowd excitedly travelling with Him, He would appear to have foreseen what lay ahead of Him and His words were penetrated through and through with that total love and commitment which would lead Him most lovingly to leave His mother a lonely widow in Israel, and take upon Himself the horrible pain and total ignominy of the Cross:

If anyone comes to Me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

The awareness of His Passion and Death was always with Jesus, close to the surface, never to be ignored or disdained, because He needed to prepare Himself for Satan’s final assault and thus to  fulfil His Own longing to give the ultimate expression to His love for His Father and for us when the opportunity came.  Therefore, the crowds light-heartedly travelling along with Him this day stirred His pity and sorrow for their incomprehension of what was truly involved, as would James and John later on stir Him to a similar response:

‘Teacher, grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.’  Jesus answered them, ‘You do not know what you are asking.  Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptised with?’   (Mark 10: 35-38)

Of course, our Gospel story is much more emotive than that episode with the somewhat ‘pushy’  mother of James and John, and her two still young and ambitious sons, for in our Gospel the great crowds seemed to instinctively recognize their shepherd; but were themselves, most sadly, no better than sheep in their following of Him, for they had so very little comprehension of Who He was, what He was doing, where He wanted to lead them, and what were the forces arraigned against Him, and indeed against them.  It was with regard to such a situation that we heard in the first reading:

Scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven who can search them out? 

Dear People of God, let us give most heartfelt thanks to God for our Lord and Saviour come down for us from heaven, and let us express our thanks by striving to serve Him with sincerest love, and with ever greater, ever deeper, understanding of the truth Jesus came to bring on earth:

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

That is the only way modern excitement and presumption of worthiness can become acceptable love for Jesus, if it learns about Him from Mother Church and comes to believe that He is from God, come among men to share God’s truth and bring God’s salvation for all those humble enough in heart and mind to yield themselves to the guidance of His Most Holy Spirit with quiet and patient confidence for the coming of His Kingdom.

 

22nd Sunday Year C 2019

22^nd. Sunday (Year C)

(Sirach 3:17-20, 28-29; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24; Luke 14:1, 7-14)

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Our reading from the book of Sirach was only short but replete with human awareness and divine wisdom, and the opening lines struck me immediately:

            My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a               giver of gifts.

I find those words to be both beautiful and humbling, but they are words to be ‘tasted’ and delighted in when alone and at peace.

Now, it could well have been the case that not a few of the guests at the table of our Gospel’s leading Pharisee knew those words, in the sense that they were aware of them and had read them in their private reading or Scriptural studies, for these guests seem to have been invited for one main purpose: that they – regional/local fellow-Pharisees of the host -- might have an opportunity to meet the increasingly well-known ‘rabbi’, Jesus of Nazareth.  That is why, I believe, we are told:

         On a sabbath, Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,             and the people there were observing Him carefully. 

The point is, however, that those words from Sirach are not easily appreciated and acted upon by those whose lives are fully engaged in the daily preoccupation for prestige and position, and that is why Jesus, in His chosen parable for this occasion, did not use any such traditional human words, but rather chose to develop a sense of  divine wisdom and human accountability wrapped in the following simple words:

Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favour with God.

Although St. Luke only tells us that ‘the people’ were observing Jesus closely, there can be no doubt that the ‘leading Pharisee’ himself was also carefully watching Jesus not only to see whether his dinner was proving the success for which he had hoped but most especially to see how his guests were ‘finding’ Jesus, relating or reacting to Him.

Above all, however, Jesus Himself was also carefully observing His fellow guests, for the Gospel tells us:

Noticing how they were choosing the places of honour at the table, Jesus told a parable for those who had been invited.

The situation is reminiscent of Jesus’ initial meeting with the synagogue members in His home town of Nazareth: everyone here, as had been the case there, was watching and waiting for Him to say something.  Jesus Himself knew just why He had been invited, and having accepted the invitation He intended to go along with His hosts’ hopes and expectations for the outcome of the dinner.

What a drama, where divine wisdom is to be packaged in words expressive of human cunning and self-promotion!

When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honour.  A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man.’

Jesus pictures a wedding banquet, a most important occasion in Jewish society where marriage was considered both as personal fulfilment and ‘national service’, a time for dresses and dignitaries, for boasting and gifts.   On such occasions the still small voice of humility and modesty would be almost totally inaudible even for Jews far better educated in such matters than the pagans around;  overwhelmingly louder would be the ever-popular dictum of self-seekers: ‘if I do not take the best place available for myself, someone else will certainly come along and seize it to promote their prospects; I must make an immediate decision otherwise the opportunity will be lost!’   Such urgent and imperious considerations would rarely fail to convince even those allowing themselves an instant to consider the situation.

This picturing of a wedding banquet would have lulled any suspicions of Jesus’ table companions that they themselves were being ‘got at’.  They all knew the ‘goings-on’ at banquets on such occasions: mother of the daughter and bride-to-be, mother of the son and husband-to-be, facing up to each other in so many secret little ways with words, and mannerisms.  Two fathers carefully and anxiously(?) considering the financial costs involved.  And then the relatives and friends of both parties all waiting to seize their own choice patch to enjoy the celebration and observe all going on there.

Now, all Jesus fellow-guests at this smaller, less colourful, and quite serious dinner would have understood all the elbowing and whispering that went on among those specially invited to such a wedding of which Jesus spoke, and they could well have been rather amused at their own recollections of such occasions.  Nevertheless, they would also have been able to empathize quite deeply with anyone being asked to , ‘Give your place to another man’, or, on the other hand, with him asked to ‘move up to a higher position’; and so Jesus’ parable would, I think, have most certainly stirred their attention to the extent that they were prepared to realize with mind and heart what was to come.

And so, at the summit of that peaceful and absorbing general appreciation of human nature in its amusing, selfish and vulnerable aspects, Jesus added words that, for Jews with their background and training, suddenly become directly personal and much more serious, having indeed divine implications:

                Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

‘Will be humbled’ ... that is, by God, as no Pharisee or educated Jew would fail to understand.

Now indeed the rabbi from Nazareth was beginning to show Himself to be such as they had heard Him spoken of!

Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is correct, and you show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth! (Luke20:21)

Notice Jesus’ method, dear People of God.  He shows His listeners first of all, both calmly and without blame, that He knows them and theirs: the wedding banquet served to amusingly highlight conduct they could recognize so easily in others but which had, at first, seemed so far away from their own serious gathering here and now at the home of one of their leading associates.  Jesus’ words however, show that He has observed what had been happening around their dinner table.   He holds back from Personally condemning anyone or anything in particular but the Word of God He quotes is condemnatory, and a sensible tension begins to be felt among those at table as a result.   However, Jesus then continues quietly and gives what those around had secretly come to hear from Him, that is, His own human wisdom hopefully leading them to recognise and gently guiding them to embrace the beauty of the God’s Word:  

Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled!  But the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

 

The Word of God indeed -- introduced by the Lord without any apology for considering it most appropriate for those presently gathered with Him at their host’s table -- contained a warning first, to draw their careful attention, and then, second, a promise both divinely beautiful and alluringly possible!   After such a sudden contrast in the words Jesus used there was a sensibly-felt lessening of tension among all those around the table followed by a period of short silence indicative of unusually serious introspection and  thought.

Jesus next turned His attention to His host whom He had also been carefully observing.

When you hold a lunch or a dinner do not invite your friends or brothers, or your relatives or wealthy neighbours, in case they invite you back; rather invite the poor, the crippled, the blind.  Blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

Jesus, I suggest, appreciated His host, and was aware that the present social occasion he had convened had been incumbent on him because of his prominence as a leading Pharisee and because he was known to have some special appreciation of the ‘untaught’ rabbi’s familiarity with and understanding of the Scriptures.

Notice, dear People of God, there was no warning given to him by Jesus; rather, Jesus bestowed on him teaching about the resurrection of the righteous,  the surety of which teaching was Personal to Jesus, over and above the Scriptures known by the Pharisee, for as yet the Jews had not come to any consensus, let alone unanimity, about the right understanding of the possible ‘resurrection’ passages of Scripture.   This statement of Jesus’ Personal divine wisdom and understanding was a bounteous reward for His host’s present appreciation of Jesus and a spur for his future intentions:

You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

Dear People of God, we hear too often today those words, ‘Who am I to judge?’  Too often today the Word of God is kept hidden out of personal fear and embarrassment, false respect for other peoples’ supposed feelings.  Notice most clearly Jesus’ Own behaviour and remember that we are all members of His priestly people: some of us are ordained priests of Jesus for Mother Church, all of us, however, are one to the extent that we all have a personal calling and varying obligations to proclaim the Word of God to our world in the name of Jesus.   Jesus, as you have seen, Personally observed the situation in which He found Himself as Son sent by His Father, and He dutifully proclaimed the appropriate Word of God for that situation without fear.

All ordained priests of Mother Church and the priestly, catholic, People of God, are, by obligation and/or encouragement  endowed to proclaim in Church and in public, to witness in their homes and workplace, among friends and at  leisure times, the appropriate and necessary Word of God, in the power and virtue of the Holy Spirit.  We, however, are only called to judge (Who am I to judge?) when sin is involved, and then to judge only the sin, not the sinful person involved.   It is God Himself -- of His infinite majesty and wisdom, goodness and mercy -- Who condemns, first of all by His Words of Scripture, those who continue to ignore His Wisdom and defy His Goodness, before His ultimately final and Personal condemnation at the Last Judgement.  

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Catholic faith is most beautiful and true and we all, each in our own way and according to our personal calling should treasure and preserve it for the generations to come as we have so gratefully received it and so graciously learned to love it.   That is our most seriously binding duty as Catholic disciples of Jesus, to witness to what we believe and love.   The most Holy Spirit has come among us to witness to Jesus Who said to His disciples, ‘He, the Spirit of Truth abides with you (in Mother Church) and will be in you (personally).   Dear People of God, if the Spirit is alive in you, you must witness to your Christian and Catholic faith otherwise you yourself are spiritually close to death.

21st Sunday Year C 2019

Twenty-first Sunday of the Year (C)

(Isaiah 66:18-21; Letter to the Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Gospel of St. Luke 13:22-30)

Today’s Gospel reading gave us an account of Jesus’ teaching as He was passing through towns and villages on His way to Jerusalem.  He knew that He was walking towards His death by crucifixion at Roman hands in that supposedly Holy City, and there is noticeable urgency and solemnity about His words and bearing: words that demand our most serious attention and deserve our most sincere and humble trust and compliance, and a bearing that brooks no idle questioning.  Again, His words stress that all of us have but a limited time at our disposal – and how heart-felt were those words on His lips at that time -- so limited an opportunity to prepare well for the coming of God’s salvation, before the door, the gate, opening onto the festive celebration of that coming will be closed definitively, while His very bearing underlines the fact that the only valid title for entry there will involve deep sincerity of heart responding with spiritual obedience to the truth: mere past familiarity with what is holy, mere former acquaintance with the truth will not suffice.

So, as Jesus walked steadfastly towards Jerusalem with crowds thronging round Him -- as would Roman soldiers soon be doing for a far different purpose -- someone cried out, perhaps like a modern-day reporter trying to get an exclusive statement:

            Sir, will there be only a few saved?

Jesus, as was His wont in such cases, gave no direct answer; even Peter, later asking a question of Him concerning his friend and junior Apostle John’s destiny, would find Jesus -- though both were well-loved and highly regarded disciples of His -- tight-lipped and disinclined to indulge irrelevancies, saying, ‘How does that concern you?’  Today, His reply was equally direct but also more enigmatic:

Strive to enter through the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be able.

Essentially Jesus’ answer would the same in both cases:  How does what you are asking about concern YOU?

The big difference however is that now it is the Jesus Who is about to suffer most dreadfully responding; later, when replying to Peter, it would be the risen – no longer under pressure – Jesus.   And so, whether under great stress or at victorious ease Jesus’ attitude is the same and His words are, therefore, all the more important and reliable: ‘Try your best now …  your very best’, because only your best will be good enough to enable you to enter by the narrow door.  Notice, our Lord gives no false impression, no glossy picture, no facile encouragement, the way to salvation is a narrow door.  He does not opine, He knows, and therefore He says ‘it IS a narrow door.   Salvation concerns eternal and heavenly glory, peace, happiness and fulfilment, it CANNOT come cheap!

Many will attempt to enter but will not be able because they did not make their attempt seriously enough, had no true love for God: 

‘I will think about it later … I really don’t want to think about it at all, so I’ll put it off now and maybe I’ll be taken by surprise, I really would like to die not having to think! 

Others are satisfied by what people generally think; especially they like to think on the voluminous words of praise for the dead heard on TV, telling how the dead persons had been, every one of them, truly wonderful persons!  Now that sort of language is understandable to a degree as an expression of lost love from bereaved ones ... but for anyone willing to live their life thinking, embracing, hoping for, relying on, such generous insincerity about themselves when dead is supremely foolish; lavish specious praises clothed in no-longer-believed-in Christian terms mean so very, very, little: ‘He would help everyone; would give to anyone in need; never hurt a single person; all who knew her loved her and had nothing but good to say about her ….’

Yet others like to indulge their vaguely remembered Christian thoughts about God: surely, He is good, forgiving, Christians and especially Catholics are always speaking about that!  How then could He not accept me at the last minute if I arrange things so as to be able to make a final attempt to say and possibly do the right thing? But Jesus, Who was a supremely sincere Man warns against any such detestable faithlessness and insincerity:

After the Master has locked the door, then you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’   He will say, ‘I do not know where you are from’

Of course, their retort is immediate:

            You taught in our streets ... we ate and drank in Your company!

It was true, they had often heard Him teaching, but they had, in fact, never given it much thought, they had always seemed to have more important things on their minds in those days; they had indeed shared in the food and drink at religious festivals, but they had been present at such festivals for worldly motives and had never gone away spiritually refreshed; what they had received had been nothing more than ordinary food and drink for them.

But now, they know that they can never receive a God-given understanding that fills and rejoices saintly Christian minds, they can never share meaningfully at those religious festivals of yore, never know the spiritual hope those celebrations nourished:

            There will be weeping and grinding of teeth!

Notice, dear People of God, that ‘grinding of teeth’.   That is not the weeping of true repentance but a weeping from blind frustration and hatred as those locked outside outside peep into the festal hall and see

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God.

Those, of course, are their own ancestors, their own teachers ... and it is they who should be there with them, but instead they can see strangers from all over the world happy and fulfilled there.  Oh, how dreadful!  Those unworthy and wretched strangers and foreigners are filling their places!  Yes, they grind their teeth, an imitation of some snarling beast, because all pretence is now lifted up, taken off, and thrown away, and they are beginning to show their true colours with very bitter, bitter, tears and blind fury: children of the devil by their very own free-will-in-all-things design and purpose, no children of the God Whose love they ignored, Whose will they rejected, and Whose eternally fulfilling purpose and plan for them they so miserably despised and ultimately rejected.

Jesus tells us, dear People of God, that this can happen to anyone who does not, that is, refuses to believe; and that, on the other hand, all things are possible for God with those who, seeing the vision of His beauty in Jesus, God-made-man, believe:

Those who are now last will be first, and those who are now first will be last.

20th Sunday Year C 2019

20th Sunday Year (C)

(Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have a much-ignored aspect of Jesus' teaching set before us in our Gospel reading today, so let me recall His words for you:

Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.

And not, indeed, any ordinary sort of division, such as east against west, black against white, or rich against poor, for example; but the most fundamental division:

For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two and two against three.  Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

How do these words of Jesus fit in with all the modern cosy talk about setting aside all differences, forgetting whatever can separate people and concentrating wholly on being comfortably one, and reasonably happy, together?   Jesus' words, of course, do not fit in with such an attitude to life.   And yet, there are very many people -- even many Christians -- who seek to shape a world in which they hope everybody will able to live together with anybody, in peace, pleasure and prosperity, a world from which they want to root-out whatever differentiates, not just set it aside as unimportant but root it out as fundamentally wrong in comparison with the great good of human superficial oneness. They envisage a world built on and governed by only such principles and such standards as all can readily accept and freely agree on.

These visionaries, however, know little about human nature and care nothing about human destiny, and their prescription for life in modern society leads quickly into a situation where the lowest common denominator always prevails:

ABORTION has to be OK because many want it and most of those who don't want it are afraid of seeming to be unkind or inconsiderate, and, of course, a silenced baby is less of a load on one’s back than a screaming woman threatened with motherhood!;

CRIME is bad, of course, but punishment can seem to be so unloving, indeed, as many say, at times, so vengeful, therefore, let us tone down serious thoughts about justice, about past and future victims, about the effective protection and authentic good of society, and devote more – novel! -- thought and more publicly-appreciable efforts to transform the criminal to become not, sadly, a morally better person, but a more socially manageable and less troublesome one;

MARRIAGE between one man and one woman is by far the best, of course, especially for the children of such a union, but surely any sort of loving relationship has to be regarded as wholly acceptable, because, after all, marriage does make serious demands on the married couple, while other relationships are much easier and allow the life-styles of those with different ideas and/or idiosyncratic psychological make-up to appear as totally acceptable and equally commendable.

This ever-burgeoning option for no divisions, no trouble, no distinction, is the easy, popular, beginning of a landslide that can soon develop into a headlong and, ultimately irresistible avalanche capable of destroying human society like the herd of Gadarene swine in the Gospel story; for moral indifference gradually breeds citizens who regard society as nothing more than the milieu where they can hope to find and publicly practice their own type of personal pleasure, and make most personal profit from contacts with others.  In the wilderness thus created, attitudes such as individual and social responsibility and civic pride soon come to be regarded as follies of the past; whist anarchy is seen, by a growing fringe, as the modern vision which alone can offer full personal expression and radical human freedom for everyone.

And so, while the doctrine of "laissez faire" as the French say, or "let things be" as we might put it, can never, admittedly, build-up or establish a truly human society, nevertheless, the common, man-in-the-street, understanding of Christian charity would seem to be totally against those strange words of Jesus:

"Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division."

Let us now face up to this difficulty instead of trying to ignore it, and we will find that the solution leads to a better understanding of human life and its possibilities. 

The demands of charity are real, and for Christians they are supreme, but we can never rightly appreciate those demands until we have first come to understand the true nature of Christian charity.

First of all, is it always and necessarily opposed to division?  If we think of charity as just getting on with other people, then, obviously, Christian charity as expressed in those words of Jesus is incompatible with modern social and secular ‘oneness’.  Charity, however, is not just a matter of getting along with people: it is a supernatural gift from God, a sharing in the love which is the very life of the God Who made us for Himself; it is the living bond that unites Father and Son in the Holy Spirit and can transform our fallen humanity into one capable of sharing something of Jesus’ heavenly beatitude.  Christian charity is a gift of God, a sharing in heavenly love come down to earth, because the Father sent His beloved Son among us, here on earth, to save us from our sins: the Son Who, in the power of His Holy Spirit, enables us to begin to live here on earth as children of God for a heavenly fulfilment according to principles that are divine.

Those who promote "laissez faire" or "let things be" do not recognize, do not acknowledge the reality of,  ‘sin’ nor do they seek to promote morality; they think only in terms of criminality and ‘political correctness’:  they think that human agreement and oneness is the all-important aim, an aim which is totally based on human, man-made, laws and regulations.  We Christians, on the other hand, hold that "oneness in Christ" and the promotion of God’s law which is inscribed in the very make-up of humanity is the only possible solution for the real needs of mankind, the only viable programme that can lead to authentic personal fulfilment and a truly human society.

Now this understanding of Christian charity as an anticipatory participation in divine charity can -- under certain circumstances -- involve and even require earthly division:

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:37)

There can be times and circumstances when we must put God first and loved-ones second: a choice that can indeed bring about division in family life and in society.  And yet, such earthly division must never be allowed to break the rule of fraternal charity even here on earth, for whilst Jesus unequivocally demands:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37);

He also, at the same time, tells us that there is a second commandment which is like the first and which demands that:

            You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:39).

Therefore, where father or mother, son or daughter, would try to lead in ways that turn from God, from Jesus' teaching, then indeed Jesus brings division, for:

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Matthew 10:37).

In all this, however, it is not racism -- contemporary society’s ‘bete noir’ -- or personal ill-feeling that divides, but solely love for Jesus, love for that Jesus Who will never allow us to forget what we owe to our heavenly Father, our earthly parents and family, or set aside love for our neighbour.  In all this, it is simply a matter of the greater love prevailing in circumstances where a lesser love, though not followed, is nevertheless, not to be denied.

In other words, where love of God transcends all other loves, it can embrace and transform any earthly divisions.  Modern ideas of social oneness, a human society without any distinctions, on the other hand, are unable to express divine love, and without that divine content they cannot truly express or fully promote Christian brotherly love or authentic human well-being.  Because of this Christians are always obliged to seek, first and foremost, not human oneness, but love of God.

Because of His supreme love for the Father Jesus, to the end, evoked division:

One of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us!" But the other, answering, rebuked him saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?  Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!"  And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."  (Luke 23:39-43)

Jesus walked the way of the Cross, and today there are too many Christians who fear that way, and who consequently try to persuade themselves that they are doing right when they distort Christian teaching in order to promote human agreement.

Jeremiah provoked opposition and division as you heard in the first reading.  In the beginning of his career as prophet of God he had been afraid to speak divisive words, even though the words were God's Own words.  God took him the by the scruff of his neck, so to speak, and told him (Jer. 1:17):

Therefore, prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them all that I command you.   Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them.

In other words: ‘Be afraid, and I will give you reason to be afraid!  Now stand up prepared and ready for whatever comes!’  Such indeed is the message many Catholics need to hear today, that is, many of those who, from fear of human opposition and human divisions, would rather try to water down, change, Catholic teaching in order to accommodate modern attitudes and bring as many as possible into the pseudo-fold of comfortable conformity.   These attempts can only fail because their promoters are seen to be both faithless and also very, very proud, since it is God the Father alone Who brings those He has called, to one true fold of Jesus:

            No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him.

Our job, as disciples of Jesus in Mother Church, is to show Jesus to the world, and for that purpose Mother Church has been guaranteed the presence of the Holy Spirit to lead her into all truth about Jesus and to form all men and women of good will by His grace through her sacraments into a likeness of Jesus.  The loyal handing-down of divine truth, and the gracious lifting-up of her children as disciples of Jesus for the Father, is the whole function and purpose of the Spirit-guided-and-endowed Mother Church in this world; and we, her children, must never directly seek or try to promote whatever fosters human disaffections, because Jesus has commanded us, quite unequivocally:

You shall love your neighbour as yourself. (Matthew 22:39)

Nevertheless, on the other hand, we are not to fear unsought divisions overmuch, because human differences that arise out of love of God can be healed, for all men and women of good-will, by that very love of God. 

Therefore, as disciples of Jesus, we must always bear in mind the words we heard in the second reading:

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith Who, for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

The great Greek doctor of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, lived in the 4^th century, and because he was famous as a preacher -- being popularly known as the golden-tongued one (that is what Chrysostom means) -- was raised to the supreme dignity of patriarch in the imperial city.  Nevertheless, he refused to curry favour by preaching what the emperor and his courtiers wanted to hear, and consequently was banished, and ultimately died in exile for His witness to Christ.  This great saint, I say, who so eminently practiced what he preached, commenting on these words of Our Lord:

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned?  It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men, (Matthew 5:13)

says in one of his sermons:

Jesus tells His disciples “unless you are prepared to face up to opposition, you have been chosen in vain.” Do not fear evil words, but do fear lest you yourselves should share in the pretences of others, for then, “You will become like tasteless salt; trodden under foot, and despised by everyone.”  However, if you resolutely refuse to back down before them, and then hear people speaking against you, rejoice; for this is what salt is for, to sting the corrupt, and make them smart!   Of course, they will blame you but that won't harm you, on the contrary, it will be a testimony to your firmness.

We who are Catholics today do not have to face up to Emperors and their cronies, as did St. John Chrysostom, but we do face a world both fearful and hostile where there are too many Catholics we need ‘to make smart’.  For, we have been given a wonderful privilege -- the true faith -- and we are called to be witnesses before the world to the truth of Jesus.  Let us resolve, therefore, to show our gratitude for God's great and gracious Gift by trying to prove ourselves more faithful to our calling: witnessing to the Faith, neither fearing opposition nor currying favour, and loving God first and foremost at all times and in all circumstances.