6th Sunday Year B 2021

 

6^th. Sunday of Year (B) 2021

(Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; First Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45)

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The teaching contained in our first reading reminds us forcefully that the physical and spiritual good of society as a whole, has unquestioned priority over individual ‘rights’.

Likewise, in our second reading: the individual should, first and foremost, endeavour to serve God, the Church, and the peaceful well-being of society:

            Do everything for the glory of God, avoid giving offence.

From those two very diverse readings we may perhaps have already glimpsed something of what is a fundamental characteristic of any God-fearing, committed Catholic and Christian human-being: namely, a deep-seated, soul-satisfying, natural desire and, indeed, quasi moral imperative, to give oneself to something greater than self – not just to family, to team, or even to country – but to some great good, indeed, to the Personal Good Whom we in Jesus are blessed and sublimely privileged to know as God, our Father.  To what degree that longing develops in the course of our life depends first of all, on our recognition and acceptance of its presence in our mind and heart, and then on our correspondence to the demands it makes, of necessity, upon us individually.

Holy Mass is the supreme offering mankind can make to God in and through His beloved and only-begotten Son, Who -- being God incarnate, that is, both perfect God and perfect man -- seeks to draw us to Himself in order that He might then be able to draw us with Himself to the God Who sent Him, His Father, Who wants us to become, in and through Jesus, His own true children.

Jesus still – to this very day – helps us to make this ‘Holy Mass offering’ to His Father first of all, by His words and His teaching: therefore, the first part of the Mass consisting wholly of prayers, readings from Jesus’ Scriptures -- all of what is called the Old Testament speaks of Jesus -- and the Creed:

             

Jesus said to them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44)

If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me, because he wrote about Me.  (John 5:46)

 

Mother Church does this that we might thereby be inspired and enabled to participate more intimately and fully with Jesus in His own sacrificial commitment to His Father and Personal presence for us, on the altar and in our hearts, which is the ultimate purpose and sublime promise of the Mass.

People of God, do strive, pray earnestly, to understand and take to heart the teaching presented in the Liturgy of the Word at Holy Mass, that you might better love and unite yourself with Jesus as He offers Himself to the Father for you, and when He gives Himself to you for the Father; for that teaching and that offer of Christ, inflaming your personal response and commitment, are the whole substance of salvation.

The words used in the offertory at Mass … bread and wine which earth has given and human hands have made … show that our whole life and work, that is our whole being, is meant to be involved.  The offertory is the time when we willingly and quite deliberately offer ourselves in and with Jesus to the Father, so that we too, just as the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, may be transformed ever more completely into living members of Christ’s Body, loving temples of His most Holy Spirit, and children of God’s heavenly and eternal family.

What therefore, precisely, is salvation, the ‘work of our redemption’?   Look at our Gospel reading:

Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out His hand, touched the kneeling leper and said to him, ‘Be made clean’.

For the Jewish leaders, those public figures – Temple priests and Pharisee sect – figures regarded as learned and feared as powerful by the ordinary people -- leprosy was generally considered to be a sign of God’s punishment; and so, for them, those pathetic words the afflicted had to endlessly and loudly proclaim, ‘Unclean, unclean’, were most necessary, not only to protect others against the degrading, flesh-eating sickness as God intended, but also to protect ‘devout’ Israelites from incurring the contamination of legal and liturgical uncleanness as determined by and specified in a multiplicity of special traditions and pious practices.

By what miraculous power or process did Jesus use to heal this particular courageous victim at His feet?   By the miracle of love!  God’s divine love for us!!  And indeed, the Greek verb translated ‘touched’:

Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand, and touched him,

can also mean ‘embraced’; Jesus may, indeed, have actually embraced him!!

Saying, I do will it.  Be made clean.

What really, ‘substantially’, happened at that very moment, on that day, was that Jesus for our better understanding and appreciation of His future human life and destiny, in a symbolical, but also very real, way took the man’s leprosy onto Himself, in so far as the leper who had previously been obliged to dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp, was made clean, whereas Jesus, we are told in the Gospel reading, after His healing gesture, was obliged to:

Remain outside in deserted places, because, the man spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.

Ultimately, of course, and most literally, Jesus would – by suffering as a man in His human flesh -- take our death upon Himself, to lift from off our shoulders the curse of our sinfulness; and rising as a man in His human flesh, raise us up with Himself to a new possibility and experience of transfigured life.

Today, in our very sick and tormented world, we are the hands whereby Jesus is able to ‘touch’ sick, wounded, and needy humanity … and such contact is established whenever we try to do what Paul advised:

            Do everything for the glory of God, avoid giving offence.

However, we should never be under any illusion that we can glorify God in our own way, however well-intentioned – for example, some priests have thought that their personal popularity as a priest, might ‘brush off’, as it were, on to Jesus Himself!!  At the very best, we are but the hands whereby Jesus contacts men today, it is still His divine love and Personality which alone can make such contact salutary.  Our vocation and glory is to be in tune with the Spirit of Jesus that He might gradually form us in Jesus and guide us along His ways of humble and loving, selfless, obedience to Jesus’ teaching in Mother Church and to His, the Holy Spirit’s call and inspiration.

In total ‘opposition’ to modern popular thinking, we – as individual disciples of and witnesses to Jesus -- need to learn more and more to forget human rights accorded by men, in favour of Jesus’ need for selfless, transparent, and patient contacts with humanity today … and that is St. Paul’s prayer for us today:

            Avoid giving offence whether to the Jews or Greeks or the Church of God.

How many however, grasp human rights accorded by men to attack, or disregard Mother Church’s teaching!  How many politically embrace such rights while denying the testimony of their own conscience; or pretend that such rights allow and promote the truest and fullest exposition and understanding of love!!

 

Jesus responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honours Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.' You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition.”  (Mark 7:6-8)

 

 

5th Sunday Year B 2021

 

5th. Sunday, Year (B)     (Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1^st Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39)

 

 

Let me first give you an outline of Mark’s gospel as far as our reading today:  John the Baptist -- sent as Jesus’ forerunner -- was calling for true repentance in Israel when Jesus came to be immersed by him in the river Jordan, and then:

Immediately coming up out of the water He saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending on Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are My beloved Son. In You I am well-pleased.’  Immediately, the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness,

where He overcame Satan in a direct confrontation.  John was then imprisoned and Jesus returned to Galilee to begin His Public Mission by proclaiming the Gospel, His Good News of salvation; in the course of which -- going by the Sea of Galilee -- He came upon Peter and Andrew, James and John, all fishermen there: He called them to follow Him and together with Jesus:

They came to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.

Last Sunday you heard the effect Jesus’ preaching had on those in the synagogue that day: they were amazed at the authority of not only His teaching but also of His Person; for -- before their very eyes -- He had driven out of a man possessed an unclean spirit shouting:

Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!

And now, today’s Gospel reading continues that same story:

On leaving the synagogue, Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.  

Though He had just left the synagogue members talking much about Him at Capernaum and, indeed, throughout Galilee, acclaimed he was not, neither as prophet nor as Holy One of God; in fact, some, in His own at Nazareth, would soon be saying somewhat antagonistically (Matthew 13:54):

‘Where did this man get all this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’  

However, here at Capernaum on leaving the synagogue Jesus went straightway to Simon’s house; and here I want to show you something of the religious significance of that apparently very ordinary happening ... following, I trust, the example of the young St. John Henry Newman writing to his mother about the religious significance of their family, financial, crisis ... an example which today’s leaders of our Church seem unable to follow with regards to our whole world’s pandemic trials: are they, is it, indeed without any religious significance?

Jesus entered the house of him who was to become Peter; and that house, the home of Peter, aptly signifies the future Church that Jesus would soon establish on the rock of Peter’s faith.  Jesus had just left the synagogue not accepted in the divinity of His teaching and Personal authority, and symbolically entered straightway the Church where His humanity manifested His Person and powers immediately,  bringing Him both acclaim and welcome:

Simon’s mother lay sick, and He grasped her hand and helped her up.  Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

There, Mark is telling us of a perfectly understandable event in which Jesus did a service for His disciple Peter by healing his mother-in-law from a fever; but the wisdom of God had far wider horizons in view and so, in this small incident at the beginning of Jesus’ career we can see encapsulated in outline the whole of His life’s work and mission: for the authority and power of Jesus’ word and the grace of His Person were destined to burst the limitations of the Law, the Temple, and the synagogue, and lead inevitably to the glory of His Universal Church. 

Let us consider what followed very closely.  Mark tells us that:

Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.  They immediately told Him about her.  He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.  Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

“He grasped her hand and helped her up”.  That is how we would expect it to have happened and that is how it is translated for modern readers.  But that is not how Mark literally expresses it; his order of events is slightly different, because he writes:

Having come to her, He lifted, raised, her up, having taken her hand.

Mark, you notice, put “raised her up” before mentioning that He took her by the hand.  Let me try to show you why the Spirit guided St. Mark in that choice.

The Greek word Mark uses for the raising, lifting, up of the sick woman is the same verb that he uses for the resurrection of Jesus (Mark 16:6):

The angel said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen!  He is not here.

Likewise, St. Luke; when he tells us of Peter’s first address to the Jewish people, he uses that same Greek word again:

You killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. (Acts 3:15)

And what is more, we also have a liturgical hymn from the very early Church, only a few years after Jesus’ resurrection, which tells us:

All things are made manifest by the light. Therefore, He says: "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light;" (Ephesians 5:14)

and there, notice, the very same Greek word for “rise”, this time is being used for a newly-baptised person rising from sin and being illumined by Christ.

Now, perhaps, we are in a position to begin to understand why Jesus, on leaving the synagogue, symbolically went directly to Peter’s house, that is, to the Church, to “raise up” Peter’s mother-in-law: for “raising up” can only be rightly understood in the Church, because it speaks of, presupposes, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, which, through faith, empowers the waters of baptism to wash away sin and bestow new life for the salvation of mankind.  Jesus did not simply lift her up by the natural power of His right hand; no, He ‘raised’ her by an anticipatory use of the power of His own Resurrection and Ascension.

Here, dear friends in Christ, we catch a trace of the eternal wisdom of God.  For here, the Person of the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to use words whose fullness of meaning and significance he, Mark, could only partially glimpse; and how wonderful it is for us, in and through the Church by the guidance of the same Holy Spirit, to be able to gradually glimpse more and more of the fullness of God’s truth and beauty!  The Church can never come to the end, so to speak, of God’s wisdom and goodness: there will always be infinitely more truth and beauty beyond our capabilities, as it were, hidden and unspeakable, which makes up the glory of Divinity, uniting Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in a transcendent Unity of mutual love and appreciation.  We should have the utmost reverence for the Scriptures and the deepest gratitude for Mother Church: for it is only from them, in and through her, that each of us can aspire to an awareness at once both deeply humbling and supremely delightful of the saving knowledge and transforming reality of the wonder of our calling to know, love, and serve God here on earth so as to be able to live with, in, and for Him for all eternity.

Mark then went on to tell us something which greatly surprised the disciples:

Rising very early before dawn, (Jesus) went off to a deserted place, where He prayed.  Simon and those who were with Him pursued Him and on finding Him said, “Everyone is looking for You” …

Jesus left His disciples behind to go to pray.  Later on, He would do the same again, for after He rising from the dead, He disappeared from their view by ascending into heaven. And now, we all look -- as did Simon and his companions of old -- for Jesus’ return, which will now be in glory.

Finally, the letter to the Hebrews (7:24-25) informs us that in heaven:

 

Jesus, because He remains forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away.

Therefore, He is always able to save those who approach God through Him, since He lives forever to make intercession for them.

Jesus, in heaven, intercedes, prays -- just as He did on leaving Simon’s house in our Gospel reading, alone, before the Father -- now at His right hand of power, for all those raised by the Spirit to new life, through faith in Jesus’ Name.

And so, God’s wisdom and beauty has foreshadowed for us the full saving work of Jesus from beginning to end, in the events of this one day at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry as recorded for us by St. Mark!

Dear People of God, what treasures the Scriptures hold beneath the surface meaning of their inspired words!!

Finally, let us not fail to take note of what we are told concerning Simon’s mother-in-law:

Jesus raised her up having taken her hand.  Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

She did not serve just Jesus, but all of them.  Is that a prophetic picture of all those truly raised by Christ?  Do they -- and should we likewise -- serve Our Lord and our brethren in Mother Church?  I am sure you know well enough the answer to that question, and may the Holy Spirit of Jesus guide and sustain each of you, in your own work of service as His true disciples.                 

 

4th Sunday Year B 2021

 

 Sermon 64a: 4^th. Sunday of Year (B)

(Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1^st. Corinthians 7:32-35; St. Mark 1:21-28)

 

We have just heard that when Jesus began His Public Ministry the most striking aspect of His teaching was the authority with which He spoke:

The people were astonished at His teaching for He taught them as One having authority and not as the Scribes.

What is this?  A new teaching with authority!  He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him!!

What was the significance those words, ‘A new teaching with authority’?

The scribes usually taught in the synagogues by quoting recognized authorities: after the Scripture reading, they would quote what various rabbis thought about the reading they had just heard.  The Scribes themselves were not direct authorities on the Scriptures, they were merely authorities on what some rabbis had said about the Scriptures concerned.  And those very rabbis quoted were not themselves presented as being decisive authorities, but simply as scholars having generally-accepted ‘authoritative opinions’, opinions, that is, fit to be quoted alongside other such accepted ‘opinionative’ teachings ... pardon the word!

Now Jesus Himself did, of course, have opinions about earthly happenings: for example, about the tower falling at Siloam, about giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; and, indeed, He had very strong opinions concerning the Pharisees and Scribes themselves (!), as St. Matthew tells us:

The Scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.  Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.  They tie up heavy burdens (hard to carry) and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. (23:2–4)

However, when Jesus taught about God, or about God’s will for His Chosen People:

            He taught them as One having authority, most Personal and quite individual, as we have just heard and as St. John tells us even more clearly in his Gospel (8:55):

You do not know Him (God), but I know Him. And if I should say that I do not know Him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know Him and I keep His word.

When speaking of Israel’s understanding of and response to their God, Jesus was surprisingly authoritative in the eyes of ordinary worshippers in the synagogue, because He frequently used words like: ‘Moses says’, ‘the Law says’, ‘the ancients were told’, that you should do this or that, but I say to you .... ‘. He was just as authoritative as regards the Sabbath, saying   the Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath; but it was His attitude to the ever present and pressing social questions and attitudes with regard to divorce and adultery that was most surprising and provocative.  He was equally authoritative concerning true moral virtue in His Beatitudes, but that was less provocative, indeed it was sometimes quite lovely to hear them.  Authority was unmistakeably part and parcel of His very being, concerned as He also was about, and critical of, Israel’s every-day religious culture, with regard to matters such as clean food, multiple washing of hands and vessels, eating ears of corn in the fields ... but, of course, in these matters He was always coming up against the Pharisees!

Moreover, Jesus also used authoritative power to back-up His teaching and to set men free ... most strikingly when casting out demons ... in order that they might be able to obey His teaching:

What is this?  A new teaching with authority?  He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him!

Why was Jesus so authoritative?  As He said, a house built on sand will crumble, just as a life built on mere opinion is at the mercy of changing tides and times; without light ... without commitment, knowledge, faith, hope ... there can be no purpose, no prospect in life; and above all, Jesus wanted His followers to have that light of life which would lead them to eventually sit at the banquet table in the Kingdom of heaven before His heavenly Father.

Jesus was authoritative in His teaching for our security and well-being:  we can only commit whole-heartedly to the known Truth; we can only stride-out confidently along the known Way, we can only endure securely to the end thanks to Life-giving strength.

Dear People of God, today’s world has whole-heartedly embraced a pseudo-morality of almost total freedom for anyone to be what they want, and to do what they want within the limits of a merely human, criminal, legislation; and in Mother Church today likewise, we must recognize that Jesus’ continuing authoritative attitude is an absolutely essential aspect of His concern for WHO we are, and of Mother Church’s love for God’s People: authority was not just adopted by Jesus, it was and is needed to serve and save God’s People.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know... We Jews know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews!   (John 4:22)

And that Samaritan woman – who had had five ‘husbands’ and was at that time living with one not her husband – was obviously served, and hopefully on the way to being saved, by her first experience of that authority:

She left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men. ‘Come and see a Man Who told me all that I have done, this is not the Christ is it?’

She was able to accept Jesus’ reproof that

            The one whom you now have is not your husband,

and still, was both willing and eager to accept and proclaim His authority by suggesting to herself and the men of her city, ‘Could He possibly be the Messiah? ‘

Our world rejects Jesus’ authority because of His reproofs and will no longer see Him, no longer accept Him, as Saviour because our world’s teaching  (Yes!) leaves its hearers with no idea what ‘salvation’ might mean?  What can be better than what we have already?  Of course, we want more of it, but what could be better??  And yet, what is this pandemic that afflicts us all now, what if other pandemics are to come?  Why??  What if??

Dear People of God, be at peace, Jesus’ teaching then and now (in His Church) is both authoritative for our good and leads to life which is eternal for our beatitude, and those words are not unknown to you:they promise a beauty and joy beyond any earthly measure.

 

 

 

 

 

3rd Sunday Year B 2021

 

 3rd. Sunday of Year (B)                                                                             (Jonah 3: 1-5, 10; 1st. Corinthians 7: 29-31; Mark 1: 14-20)

In the Gospel reading today we have St. Mark’s account of Our Lord’s proclamation to Israel at the beginning of His public ministry; and we can expect that this might well contain something absolutely central to His teaching:

This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel. 

He declares the imminent proximity of that which had been foretold by the prophets and longed for by the faithful for over a thousand years:

“The time is fulfilled" He said, "The kingdom of God is at hand”.

What joy!  God has been mindful of His People and, having seen their distress, is now about to bring them salvation!  What then should they do to welcome Him and embrace the salvation He offers?  

Repent …… and believe in the Gospel!

Notice the order of the words.  “Repent” comes first; then, “believe in the Gospel”:  repentance has to come first in order for us to be able to believe in the Gospel, as Jesus says elsewhere, those who seek the Truth will recognize the provenance of His words.    Israel had learnt from their inability to keep God’s Law as given them through the prophet Moses, something of the reality and nature of the sinfulness alienating them from their God; and such awareness did indeed entitle them to be known as the People of God because it was unique in the world of that time, and enabled them to have a unique appreciation of the transcendent holiness of the one true God.

If Jesus had presented Himself as a charismatic leader come to drive the Romans out of the Promised Land, then there would not have been a call to repentance, the first thing would have been a call to arms: “Aux armes, citoyens” as the French cry in their national anthem; and Jesus would have been merely a somewhat bigger and better version of the king David.

Jesus, however, was the very Son of God made flesh, and He came with a message concerning Israel’s intimate relationship with her God, not her political status with Rome, for in order to hear God’s offer of salvation it was, and still is, necessary to acknowledge and accept the truth of God’s charge of personal sinfulness and personal responsibility.  None can appreciate God’s Truth offering salvation who are not willing to hear His Truth telling them of their need to be saved from sin: their own sin and the resultant sin of the world.  A disciple of Jesus must first of all be willing to repent in that personal and public – root and branches -- way in order to wholeheartedly receive and believe the Good News of the Gospel offering purification from the old and transformation into what is new and Godly, child-like and divine.

John the Baptist required of those coming forward to receive his immersing in the waters of the river Jordan something that modern society can appreciate, namely works; works, however, of a deeply religious significance:

You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.

And when the crowds questioned him, saying, ‘what shall we do?’, he would answer them with examples he considered acceptable to God as signs of their turning away from the sin hitherto too prevalent in their lives:

The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise. (Luke 3: 7-8, 10-11)

Jesus, on the other hand makes no such demand; His first words are quite simply:

Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

The fact is that people can do works from all sorts of motives: they can be trying to influence others, to avoid something else more difficult, to prove their human or individual worth, indeed to prove their own personal holiness.  Today those are the only works our disbelieving world has to offer: works witnessing, at the best, to the personal goodness of those performing them, not works flowing from the fatherly goodness of the transcendent, almighty, and eternal God. 

Now Jesus willed and wanted all to be done with humility: for love of God and to serve His purposes.  Therefore, He said:

Repent -- root and branches -- and believe – wholeheartedly -- in the Gospel.

It was to be from the depth and sincerity of their belief in Jesus’ Good News and hope in the promises He made, that His disciples would bring forth fruit of good works most acceptable to God.

Salvation is an offer from God of eternal blessedness as a child of God.  The ancient scriptures had long proclaimed that human kind is not -- as Buddhists like to think -- on a level with earthly things, part of, and intimately and essentially bound up with creation around us: for Moses and the prophets told God’s chosen people that humankind had been originally made in the -- subsequently lost -- image and likeness of God. And Jesus, was now come to proclaim and to offer that, in Him -- the Son of God made flesh -- our sin-scarred likeness to God could now be restored and, indeed, brought to its ultimate fulfilment.  Through faith in Him and obedience to His Gospel, mankind will receive His Spirit – the Gift of God -- to free us from our sins and to form us, in Him, as true children of the Father, adopted sons and daughters in Him Who is the only-begotten and eternally - beloved Son made flesh for our sakes.

Today there are many who do not want to hear about human dignity transcending that of the rest of creation, because they do not want to be called to strive for anything other than what they can immediately see, hear, taste and enjoy.  They do not want to aspire for yet higher things, they seek to just enjoy here and now what they have got or can easily acquire.  Consequently, the idea that human beings have a greater, higher dignity than that of the world around us seems a preposterous suggestion, because it is, first of all, an unwelcome one.

God sent His Son -- a divine Person -- to taken on human flesh and become perfect God and perfect Man, thus showing mankind both the possibility and the way to become one with God: 

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

But such oneness cannot be attained by any merely human works, and that is why Jesus did not, first of all, call for works; rather He demanded faith in His own Personal Self and in the truth of His Gospel, whereby human beings might be lifted up to a heavenly level by the sheer goodness of God, in Jesus, through the Spirit.  Heaven cannot be gained by any human excellence or power because heaven is not a place to be found nor a state to be acquired: heaven is a relationship with and presence to the Trinity of Love, into which only Jesus -- the beloved and only-begotten Son -- can lead those who, in faith submit to Him and aspire -- by His gift of the Spirit -- to the promise of heaven as proclaimed by His Gospel.   

Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

In the face of such a new and eternal destiny we cannot continue living as though nothing had changed, as even the ancient and pagan Ninevites appreciated that:

So, Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. 

We have to stop living as if we are simply part of this earth in which all our happiness and fulfilment is to be found.  The blessings of life on earth are indeed, many, because God has made all things good; nevertheless, they were meant for us to use on the way to our eternal destiny and calling, they were not intended to become a drug that would stultify any higher aspirations.  Because we have been fashioned by God in His own likeness, we are supreme over all things of earth, and we are, most certainly, not meant to be ruled by things of earth.  Paul was speaking of this in our second reading:

I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.

Paul is saying that marriage may indeed be for you, that is, it may be of help in your salvation, but do not think that there is nothing better to come than marriage.  Likewise, those who mourn should not fear that their whole life has been totally blighted, their destiny is – still – a destiny to eternal joy and happiness; while those who are happy must not be so foolish as to think that earthly happiness can be compared to the blessedness awaiting those who will sit at the Lord’s Supper in heaven as God’s children, for, as St. Paul tells us: 

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. (2:9)

Some of you have possessions you treasure, Paul adds, but don’t forget that this world will certainly pass away, and, therefore, your greatest treasure should surely be that which endures and will give you joy for ever.  Business and many other aspects of life on earth can be of great interest and can bring about much that is necessary and good for self and for society, but in all your work let your character as a Christian inform that work, do not allow yourself to be deformed by the demands and the practices common in your field of work.

Jesus’ call, ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel’, is an invitation -- most serious and pressing -- to help you first of all recognize and then realise your true worth, your divine calling, and your eternal dignity.  Learn from Jesus, let Him teach you what to hate and avoid, but above all, what to love and whither to aspire: that is the essence of repenting.  If you thus commit yourself to the Gospel, that Good News will lead you to joy and peace in this world, and, for the future, give you an inviolable hope transcending all earthly limitations.

We should not be surprised that the message of the Church is unpopular today, because many are living in such a way that they cannot hear that message; money is worshipped as the supreme goal of human endeavour because it promises alluring pleasure, buys obsequious respect, and provokes envious admiration on all sides.  Moreover, for many today, popularity is second only to money, and  so there can be no excellence accepted where popularity is wanting, and whatever is popular and exciting is considered to be excellent, no matter how tasteless, futile, or degrading it may be.  

Considering these aspects of our world today, surely, People of God, the present unpopularity of Mother Church is proof that her teaching and her life are a condemnation of much evil that is done in our midst.  Let us take heart, therefore, from Jesus’ words recorded in the Gospel (John 16:33 and Matt 24:35): 

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.  

 3^rd. Sunday of Year (B)                                (Jonah 3: 1-5, 10; 1^st. Corinthians 7: 29-31; Mark 1: 14-20)

 

 

In the Gospel reading today we have St. Mark’s account of Our Lord’s proclamation to Israel at the beginning of His public ministry; and we can expect that this might well contain something absolutely central to His teaching:

This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

He declares the imminent proximity of that which had been foretold by the prophets and longed for by the faithful for over a thousand years:

            “The time is fulfilled" He said, "The kingdom of God is at hand”.

What joy!  God has been mindful of His People and, having seen their distress, is now about to bring them salvation!  What then should they do to welcome Him and embrace the salvation He offers? 

            Repent …… and believe in the Gospel!

Notice the order of the words.  “Repent” comes first; then, “believe in the Gospel”:  repentance has to come first in order for us to be able to believe in the Gospel, as Jesus says elsewhere, that those who seek the Truth will recognize the provenance of His words.    Israel had learnt from their inability to keep God’s Law as given them through the prophet Moses, something of the reality and nature of the sinfulness alienating them from their God; and such awareness did indeed entitle them to be known as the People of God because it was unique in the world of that time, and enabled them to have a unique appreciation of the transcendent holiness of the one true God.

If Jesus had presented Himself as a charismatic leader come to drive the Romans out of the Promised Land, then there would not have been a call to repentance, the first thing would have been a call to arms: “Aux armes, citoyens” as the French cry in their national anthem; and Jesus would have been merely a somewhat bigger and better version of the king David.

Jesus, however, was the very Son of God made flesh, and He came with a message concerning Israel’s intimate relationship with her God, not her political status with Rome, and for in order to hear God’s offer of salvation it was, and still is, necessary to acknowledge and accept the truth of God’s charge of personal sinfulness and personal responsibility.  None can appreciate God’s Truth offering salvation who are not willing to hear His Truth telling them of their need to be saved from sin: their own sin and the resultant sin of the world.  A disciple of Jesus must first of all be willing to repent in that personal and public – root and branches -- way in order to wholeheartedly receive and believe the Good News of the Gospel offering purification from the old and transformation into what is new and Godly, child-like and divine.

John the Baptist required of those coming forward to receive his immersing in the waters of the river Jordan something that modern society can appreciate, namely works; works, however, of a deeply religious significance:

You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.         

And when the crowds questioned him, saying, ‘what shall we do?’, he would answer them with examples he considered acceptable to God as signs of their turning away from the sin hitherto too prevalent in their lives:

The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise. (Luke 3: 7-8, 10-11)

Jesus, on the other hand makes no such demand; His first words are quite simply:

            Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

The fact is that people can do works from all sorts of motives: they can be trying to influence others, to avoid something else more difficult, to prove their human or individual worth, indeed to prove their own personal holiness.  Today those are the only works our disbelieving world has to offer: works witnessing, at the best, to the personal goodness of those performing them, not works flowing from the fatherly goodness of the transcendent, almighty, and eternal God.

Now Jesus willed and wanted all to be done with humility: for love of God and to serve His purposes.  Therefore, He said:

            Repent -- root and branches -- and believe – wholeheartedly -- in the Gospel.

It was to be from the depth and sincerity of their belief in Jesus’ Good News and hope in the promises He made, that His disciples would bring forth fruit of good works most acceptable to God.

Salvation is an offer from God of eternal blessedness as a child of God.  The ancient scriptures had long proclaimed that human kind is not -- as Buddhists like to think -- on a level with earthly things, part of, and intimately and essentially bound up with creation around us: for Moses and the prophets told God’s chosen people that humankind had been originally made in the -- subsequently lost -- image and likeness of God. And Jesus, was now come to proclaim and to offer that, in Him -- the Son of God made flesh -- our sin-scarred likeness to God could now be restored and, indeed, brought to its ultimate fulfilment.  Through faith in Him and obedience to His Gospel, mankind will receive His Spirit – the Gift of God -- to free us from our sins and to form us, in Him, as true children of the Father, adopted sons and daughters in Him Who is the only-begotten and eternally - beloved Son made flesh for our sakes.

Today there are many who do not want to hear about human dignity transcending that of the rest of creation, because they do not want to be called to strive for anything other than what they can immediately see, hear, taste and enjoy.  They do not want to aspire for yet higher things, they seek to just enjoy here and now what they have got or can easily acquire.  Consequently, the idea that human beings have a greater, higher dignity than that of the world around us seems a preposterous suggestion, because it is, first of all, an unwelcome one.

God sent His Son -- a divine Person -- to taken on human flesh and become perfect God and perfect Man, thus showing mankind both the possibility and the way to become one with God:

            I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

But such oneness cannot be attained by any merely human works, and that is why Jesus did not, first of all, call for works; rather He demanded faith in His own Personal Self and in the truth of His Gospel, whereby human beings might be lifted up to a heavenly level by the sheer goodness of God, in Jesus, through the Spirit.  Heaven cannot be gained by any human excellence or power because heaven is not a place to be found nor a state to be acquired: heaven is a relationship with and presence to the Trinity of Love, into which only Jesus -- the beloved and only-begotten Son -- can lead those who, in faith submit to Him and aspire -- by His gift of the Spirit -- to the promise of heaven as proclaimed by His Gospel.   

            Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

In the face of such a new and eternal destiny we cannot continue living as though nothing had changed, as even the ancient and pagan Ninevites appreciated that:

So, Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.

We have to stop living as if we are simply part of this earth in which all our happiness and fulfilment is to be found.  The blessings of life on earth are indeed, many, because God has made all things good; nevertheless, they were meant for us to use on the way to our eternal destiny and calling, they were not intended to become a drug that would stultify any higher aspirations.  Because we have been fashioned by God in His own likeness, we are supreme over all things of earth, and we are, most certainly, not meant to be ruled by things of earth.  Paul was speaking of this in our second reading:

I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.

Paul is saying that marriage may indeed be for you, that is, it may be of help in your salvation, but do not think that there is nothing better to come than marriage.  Likewise, those who mourn should not fear that their whole life has been totally blighted, their destiny is – still – a destiny to eternal joy and happiness; while those who are happy must not be so foolish as to think that earthly happiness can be compared to the blessedness awaiting those who will sit at the Lord’s Supper in heaven as God’s children, for, as St. Paul tells us:

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. (2:9)

Some of you have possessions you treasure, Paul adds, but don’t forget that this world will certainly pass away, and, therefore, your greatest treasure should surely be that which endures and will give you joy for ever.  Business and many other aspects of life on earth can be of great interest and can bring about much that is necessary and good for self and for society, but in all your work let your character as a Christian inform that work, do not allow yourself to be deformed by the demands and the practices common in your field of work.

Jesus’ call, ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel’, is an invitation -- most serious and pressing -- to help you first of all recognize and then realise your true worth, your divine calling, and your eternal dignity.  Learn from Jesus, let Him teach you what to hate and avoid, but above all, what to love and whither to aspire: that is the essence of repenting.  If you thus commit yourself to the Gospel, that Good News will lead you to joy and peace in this world, and, for the future, give you an inviolable hope transcending all earthly limitations.

We should not be surprised that the message of the Church is unpopular today, because many are living in such a way that they cannot hear that message; money is worshipped as the supreme goal of human endeavour because it promises alluring pleasure, buys obsequious respect, and provokes envious admiration on all sides.  Moreover, for many today, popularity is second only to money, and  so there can be no excellence accepted where popularity is wanting, and whatever is popular and exciting is considered to be excellent, no matter how tasteless, futile, or degrading it may be. 

Considering these aspects of our world today, surely, People of God, the present unpopularity of Mother Church is proof that her teaching and her life are a condemnation of much evil that is done in our midst.  Let us take heart, therefore, from Jesus’ words recorded in the Gospel (John 16:33 and Matt 24:35):

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. 

 

2nd Sunday of the Year (B) 2021

 

 2nd. Sunday of Year (B)                            

             (1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19; 1 Corinthians  6:13-15, 17-20; John 1:35-42)

 

Let me begin by giving some background on Eli, the high priest who received the boy Samuel into the service of the Temple.

A man of God had recently come to Eli and said to him:

Thus says the LORD: “Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt as slaves in Pharaoh's house?  Did I not choose them out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before Me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?  Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honour your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?” (1 Sam. 2:27-29)

Eli was a failure as high priest, and for that he was under threat, as the messenger from the Lord went on to make clear (v. 31):

Behold, the days are coming that I will cut off your (arm) strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.

However, that sword hanging over his head did not express the full horror of his situation, for the man of God had yet more words of the Lord for Eli:

Any of your men whom I do not cut off from My altar shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart. And all the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age.  Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them.  Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever.

Eli’s two sons would soon die together, along with many of Israel’s defeated army; and those of his descendants who remained would only blind his eyes with tears and burden his heart with grief before they too died in the prime of life.  What a terrible punishment for Eli!  It was, indeed, one given to match the magnitude of his sins: both as high priest who dishonoured the Lord in his service at the altar, and as father who – loving his sons more than the Lord – pandered not only to their desires but also to their sins.

Today, parents so often think they are good parents because -- choosing to follow the most popular and least troublesome way -- they seek to make their children happy here and now, as they themselves want to be happy: they want to be surrounded by a sunny atmosphere, full of childish laughter, giggles and kisses, an atmosphere that engenders warm feelings about themselves and confidence in their standing in other peoples’ eyes, for surely everyone will see that their children are happy and have plenty.  Eli was a good father according to such standards: his sons would have said that they were very happy; after all, they got plenty of what they wanted and they were sharing their father’s honour as priests in Israel.  However, unknown to themselves, they were walking to their death and would never -- to his dying days -- afford him any comfort or consolation, let alone true joy or deep gratitude.

However, that is enough about Eli for the moment, People of God, for now I want to bring something else to the forefront of your attention, hopefully for your guidance and consolation.   Recall what you heard in the Gospel reading:

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”   The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.

One of those two disciples, Andrew by name, went to tell his brother about Jesus:

 Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.   He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed).   Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Kephas” (which is translated Peter).

What great blessings have been called down upon John the Baptist because he guided those two disciples of his to Jesus!  Likewise, what praise and thanksgiving has been accorded to Andrew subsequently for bringing his brother Simon Peter to Jesus?

Now, who do you bring to the Lord?   Perhaps you are thinking that you do not have the words of the Lord in your mouth like John: very well then; but do you have a brother or sister like Andrew?  You don’t have a brother or sister?  Neither do I.  But that does not mean that we are not to be zealous for the Lord, that we are not called -- not able -- to help people to God.  Look again at Eli.  He was a failure; indeed, one might say, a disgrace: having betrayed the Lord as High Priest, having brought dishonour on his father‘s house, and been found miserably wanting in true care for his own children and grandchildren.  Yet even such a wretched failure as old Eli was still obliged, and therefore still able, to help others to the Lord; and, in the event, he did ultimately manage to help someone to God, the child who -- for Eli’s blessing -- grew to become the great prophet Samuel.  Listen again to that story:

The lamp of God was not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was.  The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.”  He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.” “I did not call you,” Eli said. “Go back to sleep.” So, he went back to sleep.  Again, the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “You called me.” But he answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.”   At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet. The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.” Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth.   So, he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Now you can clearly see that no one can truthfully say that they are unable to help another, some other, to the Lord.  Unless we are irremediably dead before our time -- spiritually dead though walking on our feet -- we can, by word or deed, by prayer or advice, by teaching or example, still be of help to one sent us by God.  That is why we are called, that is why we are able and obliged, at all times and in all circumstances, to help spread the Kingdom of Jesus. 

It is above all priests of the Lord, together with parents of God-given children, who are at the focal point of our readings today.  A priest must preach God’s truth for God‘s people, not seek favour and approval for himself; he must guide those who hear him in the way of Jesus as taught by Mother Church, not blindly follow the presently prevailing, politically correct, attitudes of those whose mind and heart are set upon the things of this world rather than those of heaven.  Parents, too, are to look carefully at themselves in their attitude to, and teaching of, their children.  Sometimes it seems that parents are more intent on enjoying themselves by delighting in their children, rather than serving their children’s true good by guiding and teaching, correcting and supporting, those entrusted to them by the Lord.  Such parents must realise that they can indeed, at times, be condemned in their children.  And yet, on the other hand, they should not condemn themselves prematurely: John the Baptist could not force his disciples to follow Jesus, neither could Andrew force Simon to come back with him to Jesus. 

In like manner, parents are not always able to positively guide their children when they are older: when adults they will go where they want, while their parents can only watch, pray, and perhaps advise where advice might be welcome.  The example of Eli, however, shows that there are some parents who can, indeed, be condemned in their children for having seriously failed to guide, correct, and discipline, them in their infancy, childhood, and early years; condemned, because they failed, ultimately, to truly love those children.  Eli gave his boys plenty of food, plenty of freedom, and plenty of influence; those sons then went on to provide themselves with plenty of pleasure, bringing upon themselves an even greater measure of disgrace.   Eli, however, was personally involved in these later developments because he had neither taught nor disciplined them as children, neither had he ever prevailed upon himself to remonstrate with them as they grew older.  It was for that guilt that he suffered much, as you have heard; and there are parents today who will likewise suffer much because of their guilty indulgence of both themselves and their children.

Finally, let us turn to St. Paul’s teaching in the second reading:

The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body.  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, Whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been purchased at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.

Women’s liberation supporters can be heard saying a woman’s body is her own to do with as she wills, and so they condone and promote abortion.  Young men, and women too, think that life’s pleasures are their direct birth-right, not the God-given concomitant of responsible love.  As a result, they can easily think that getting married is too expensive, indeed perhaps a dangerous knot to tie when still relatively young.   They may, therefore, be inclined to live together outside of marriage, with no promise of life-long love and no binding acceptance of responsibility; and some will, indeed,  then go on to use their baptized, God-given, bodies -- intended to be shrines of life and Temples of the Holy Spirit -- to promote death: the physical death of infants in the womb, and the spiritual death of themselves.

People of God, you belong to God because you are members of Jesus His Son Who died for you and Who lives in you by His Spirit.  Bear witness to Jesus whoever you are, wherever you are, however you can; even if all else seems to be lacking to you, praise and serve Him in your body, with your body which is always present to you, and always able and waiting to do good work.  It has been given you as a means for the physical expression and realization of your own unique personality and spiritual calling.  And though, at times, your mind might be dull and your heart dry, with no penetrating thoughts or warm inspirations, your body can and will still enable you to serve God by giving timely, instinctive, warning for all ‘erring’ into sinful ways; and when put to its proper and worthy use, help you express pure love, give true glory to God, and ultimately find the salvation Jesus has won for all of us and wants, above  all, to bestow upon each and every one of us.