23rd. Sunday Year (C)

Twenty Third Sunday Year (C)

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

Onesimus, though not a Christian, had hoped to gain some advantage by persuading an honoured Christian teacher, Paul of Tarsus, to intercede with Philemon, a Christian, whose slave he was.  Onesimus’ initial confidence in his owner’s friend and “partner” clearly bore fruit, for Paul, having first guided him to become a Christian, then offered to make good whatever loss Philemon might have suffered by Onesimus’ flight. On this basis, Paul appealed to Philemon to receive his slave back into his household as he would receive Paul himself.

Neither Greek nor Roman slavery was usually a permanent state. Most commonly, an owner granted freedom to a faithful slave as a reward for his or her work and loyalty; this was frequently done by the owner’s will at death. While owners could punish disloyal slaves by including in their wills a clause prohibiting the heirs from ever letting them go, there is also much evidence that others, while still living, had a variety of reasons for choosing to set free some of their slaves, not infrequently  about the age of thirty. Thus the question regarding Onesimus was most likely when, not if, Philemon planned to set him free.

The main features distinguishing 1st century slavery from that later practiced in the New World are the following: racial factors played no role; education was greatly encouraged (some slaves were better educated than their owners) and it enhanced a slave’s value; many slaves carried out sensitive and highly responsible social functions; slaves could own property (including other slaves!); their religious and cultural traditions were the same as those of the freeborn; no laws prohibited public assembly of slaves; and (perhaps above all) the majority of urban and domestic slaves could legitimately anticipate becoming free persons.

You will have noticed, I am sure, that Paul, in our second reading, was not like our modern "human rights" promoters and protagonists.  Neither was Peter in his first letter where he writes (2:18-21):

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.  For this is commendable:  if, because of conscience toward God, one endures grief suffering wrongfully.  For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer -- if you take it patiently -- this is commendable before God.  For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.

Now, I do not, in any way wish to detract from the noble work done by many good people for the human rights of the underprivileged and needy, however, there is something we should understand about the unwillingness of St. Paul, and indeed St. Peter, to adopt such an attitude with regard to the public institution of slavery in the situation of the early Church.

Perhaps we should note, first of all and just in passing, that there are some people who will promote good causes for reasons which, at times, are not so worthy as the causes they are promoting.  For example, some will promote a good cause because, basically, they like a good fight, in which case they are not so much promoters as protagonists; others love to see their own ideas, their own opinions, prevail, and to that extent they promote others' rights only in order to express their own ego, exert their own talents, or to extend their own sphere of influence.

However, there are indeed many who promote human rights from good motives and with the right intentions.  Then why not Peter, why not Paul, with regard to the social institution of slavery?  This is worth considering because we can perhaps learn, from both Peter and Paul, why so much apparently being said and done today, nevertheless, and despite many a fanfare of official praise and media proclamation, seems to bring forth little or no good fruit.  Surely it is one of societies' most anxious questions today why so much apparently well-intentioned legislation and so many, much-trumpeted, positive measures taken in society, are seemingly quite unable to stem the slide into ever-greater indiscipline, lawlessness, moral decadence, and even rank corruption?

In our Gospel reading you heard Our Blessed Lord declare:

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.

Our Blessed Lord unequivocally demands that we put Him first in our lives.  And, indeed, since He only wants this in order that we might thereby be enabled to live before God in Spirit and in truth, and to love and serve each other aright, He goes on to show the folly of those who would seek discipleship on any other terms:

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  Which of you, wishing to construct a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?  Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers should laugh at him and say, 'This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.'

Jesus takes this stand because He knows that if He Himself is not first in our lives, sin will, inevitably, continue to rule there.  And the empire of sin is never stagnant.   And when men -- ignoring or attempting to deny the existence of personal and public sin -- pretend, of their own assumed wisdom and presumed goodness, to prescribe remedies for deep social sicknesses, their tragic misunderstanding of human nature only compounds the suffering by deepening social confusion and anxiety, and inviting individuals’ hopelessness and despair.

St. Peter and St. Paul, however, faithfully put Jesus first, not only in the letters they wrote but in their whole life and work, above all, in their work of establishing the Church as the Body of Christ.  The Church was being newly born, so to speak, into an alien world, and the very first thing Christians had to understand was that, by living their new lives with unwavering faith in Jesus and full confidence in the strength and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they could now transcend and would ultimately transform their earthly situation.  This new, God-given faith – being, as Jesus Himself put it, like the pearl of great price and the treasure found with great joy in the field – was known by the Apostles to be of such supreme value that they could in no way allow it to be subjected to worldly considerations or made secondary to earthly values.  For those blessed with the gift of faith even the bonds of slavery could in no way be allowed to overshadow the joy of their personal relationship with Christ or inhibit their commitment to and confidence in the power of His Spirit, whereby the lowest and least fortunate, the most despised and worst abused, could work in and for the Church as much and as well as all others, confident that their faith could empower them to joyfully order their lives so as to bear effective witness to Christ and bring about the ultimate triumph of His Spirit.  In those early Christian house-churches there was no distinction between slaves and free, all were equally slaves of the Lord Jesus, and all were totally committed to and equally important for the triumph of the Kingdom of God over the pagan empire of Rome.  Indeed, such was their confidence that even direct opposition and persecution by the imperial power came to be seen as no insuperable obstacle to the new Faith.  However, since such a power could not be openly confronted Peter and Paul therefore considered it their main duty to teach Christian disciples how to rightly worship the Father, in and through Jesus, and to live each day by the light of His truth in the power of His Spirit, thus growing ever more calm and assured in their Christian confidence and love.

That is still of supreme importance for us modern disciples of Jesus; for, if our Christian witness is to be effective before the world, He, Jesus, has to be first in our lives, not our good works, social influence, or personal popularity, :

Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, and with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.  (Mark 12:30-31)

At this, the most basic and most important level, however, many Catholics are failing grievously today. For example, all too often they come to Mass not in a spirit of loving obedience, but in compliance with an unwelcome obligation or out of sheer habit: at best, in order to receive Communion.  Now, the supreme reason for our attendance at Mass should always be a will and a desire to personally encounter God in Jesus, worshipping the Father in the only acceptable way, that is, through Jesus: at holy Mass offering Jesus’ self-sacrifice on Calvary -- and ourselves with Him  -- by the Spirit, to the glory of God the Father.

Moreover, that intention to worship the Father should always be imbued with and embrace a desire to know Him and to follow Jesus ever better.  That is why, at Mass, the Scriptures are read and a homily given: because God's Word is, as Jesus Himself said, our bread of life.  And yet, many Catholics do not appreciate it!

And so, the ultimate reason why our modern society is failing, and why Government initiatives fall so short of producing the sort of society we all want, is shown us by Our Lord's words at the end of our Gospel reading:

Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Here Jesus is speaking as the supreme doctor of human souls, seeking to find out what are the possessions that have taken possession of us, and what, by wrongfully possessing us, thereby harm and lessen us. 

There are some who seem to be willing to endure hardship, suffering, and opposition, and even to go so far as to hate their own life, for Jesus.  And yet, despite all that, there remains something that is still theirs, something that modern man and woman find hardest of all to give up, which defines the essence of their own personal identity and being, namely, their own opinion, their own will, their own reputation.  So many apparently good Catholics, good Christians, fail God and the Church, indeed, fail themselves and the world too, because, deep down, they are not willing to give up their own self-approval and that of others.  That apparently little something is so often held back in their offering to Jesus, and through Him, to the Father, with the result that they have, at every serious juncture in life and in every time of trial, to review once again their own belonging to Him and His Church, to re-negotiate, so to speak, their own agreement with Him and His Church; and only after significant hesitation and delay, will they feel themselves able to accept anew the costs involved and signal their continuing but conditional commitment.  Now to such people, Jesus declares without any concession:

No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.  (Luke 9:62)

People of God, having ourselves been most wonderfully blessed in Jesus and in the Church, and yet, on the other hand, being faced with the ravages of sin bringing shame upon the Church and turmoil and catastrophic suffering all over the world, we should strive to live our lives ever more and more with Jesus for the Father.  Ultimately, the only life worth living for a human being is one of loving gratitude and joyous commitment to the glory of God the Father, in union with Jesus our Lord, under the rule and power of the Holy Spirit.  Only by faithfully walking along that way can we hope to find the fullness of being for which we long.  As the first reading said:

(Only when You) sent your Holy Spirit from on high were the paths of those on earth made straight and mortals taught what pleases you.

     

21st. Sunday of Year (C)

    Twenty First  Sunday of Year (C)          

 (Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30)

Jesus was asked, as you have just heard:

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter and will not be able.”

Notice the question: ‘Lord, will only a few people be saved?’

That phrasing of the question really means, ‘does God save only a few?’, and that, I say, is a typically human, and indeed modern, way of phrasing the question, in that it implies that any blame for human failure to find salvation is to be laid at God’s door, so to speak.

Jesus often refused to answer questions as desired because frequently they were put not simply to learn the truth but rather to help in the justification of the questioner: simplicity and love of truth have never been common human virtues.   And so, here, Jesus responds not to the carefully chosen words but to the real situation and needs of the questioner; He responds as One Who truly loves God and whole-heartedly seeks to do His will; He responds as the only-begotten, uniquely beloved, Son of the Father:

Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will attempt to enter and will not be able.

For Jesus, the question is not whether God saves only a few, but whether men and women will make the required effort to enable themselves to receive what God chooses to offer them.  Many will, indeed, seek to enter the kingdom of God, but they will not strive to enter through the narrow gate; rather, they will present themselves late in the day at some other point of entry they imagine to be more easily accessible.

Our first reading told us of God choosing people from nations of every language, while the second described what would be involved for those thus specially chosen, emphasizing above all their need of serious and even painful training:

My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves, He disciplines; He scourges every son He acknowledges.”    Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?  At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

However, such is the modern, largely self-indulgent, Western society to which we belong that I can already imagine someone saying: ‘Why should we have to suffer like that, why should religion entail suffering?   The answer is given us by Jesus Himself elsewhere in the Gospel:

His disciples were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"   Jesus looked at them and said: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt 19:25-26)

The reason why no man can save himself is simple enough: salvation is beyond all human powers, it is something that God alone can bring about, because it gives human beings a share in divine life, in the eternal blessedness and glory of God Himself, by making them partakers of His holiness.  This we have learned from our Christian faith and formation which teaches us what the original disciples, with their Jewish background, could not begin to understand until they had seen Jesus rise from the dead and subsequently ascend in bodily glory to heaven.  A faith that promises such heavenly glory to weak and indeed sinful human beings obviously entails training; and that training will, inevitably, involve suffering in some way or other since it is a training intended to change us, to raise us up above our earthly limitations, to purge and purify us of our inherent selfishness and sinfulness.

We can recognize all this in the response given by the Master in our Gospel reading to those arriving outside the house after the doors have been closed:

After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’

Only those are recognized for salvation whose origin is known, and we are personally known in that way to the Father if He can see Jesus, His beloved Son, in us: that is, if we, as living members of the Body of Christ, are being formed into the likeness of our Head; if we, as dutiful children of Mother Church, are being guided -- by the Spirit with which she has been endowed -- to follow her teaching and so to  live and walk as true disciples along the way of Jesus Christ, the one and only Lord of Salvation.   Only those thus showing themselves to be sincere disciples of the goodness and truth in Jesus are beloved of the Father.

Of course, all who are left outside, having no appreciation of the holiness and majesty of God, cry out in self-justification:

We ate and drank in Your company, and You taught in our streets.

Dear People of God, those words should give us cause for serious thought, because they are most appropriate for people like ourselves, who, every Sunday, hear the teaching of Jesus in the readings and the homily at Holy Mass before going on to eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion .  Let us pray that our situation be nothing like that of the outsiders of the Gospel parable in whom the old adage, ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ was fully exemplified. 

They confidently proclaimed their familiarity with the Master:

            We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets;

but such protestations merely brought into prominence their hidden contempt for Him, for they had not really given attention to His words heard in their streets, they had never seriously tried to appreciate His teaching in their hearts; nor had their eating and drinking in His presence ever been honest and sincere expressions of their love and longing for personal communion with Him.

Jesus’ answer is given in words of clear and deserved condemnation:

I do not know where you are from.  Depart from Me, all you evil doers.

Many today have little respect for religion and so have almost no appreciation of heavenly matters: instead of the transcendent God they can imagine nothing more than a mythical, white-haired, old man sitting on a gilded throne high above; while natural charm of manner, emotional exhibitionism, and the dynamics of spiritual careerism, are the only signs they consider to be indicative of the holiness engendered by the presence of God’s Spirit of truth and life.  Consequently, it is not surprising that this parable of Jesus and the attitude of the Master of the house can cause vehement complaints of self-righteous indignation from many: ‘Why should religion, discipleship, entail suffering?’

Because self-indulgence and self-satisfaction is prevalent among men and women of all ages the same teaching was given by Jesus on many other occasions and in many other ways throughout His ministry so that there could be no possibility of it being overlooked or ignored by anyone in the slightest degree serious about serving God:

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matt 7:13-14)

Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. (Mk 8:34-36)

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Luke 11:9)

Assuredly, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 18:3)

People of God, in modern society, as we know it, positive words and actions frighten people: leaders of all sorts prefer to be able to avoid responsibility for difficult decisions by saying that events left them with no other option, or that they did all that was humanly possible in straightened circumstances.  This they do, not because they love peace or have a high concern for others, but simply because they want to protect their own back from any possible attack, their own person from any cloud of suspicion or threat of criticism.  Even in religious matters, leaders can feel so vulnerable, so open to bitter criticism, that it is rare today for anything positive to be said if, so to speak, the direction of the wind and the temperature of the water have not been thoroughly tested and suitably allowed for beforehand.

Now Jesus had no such taste for self-preservation, no such fear of what human beings might think, say, or do, in His regard: He served only His Father’s glory and our salvation.  Therefore we should take Him most seriously when He warns us, who, in this world, are privileged Catholics:

There will be wailing and grinding of teeth, when you see yourselves cast out of the Kingdom of God, and (others) come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

We should take notice even more carefully if, within that privileged Catholic society, we are in any way influential, powerful, or leaders -- such as priests, teachers, and parents -- because:

Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

However, although we seriously, indeed anxiously, allow Our Lord’s words to admonish us, we must never forget our primary duty and privilege of filial confidence together with gratitude: we must always take to heart from, and place our trust in, words of comfort such as the following heard in our second reading and echoed throughout the whole of Our Blessed Lord’s life and teaching:

The Lord loves those whom He disciplines; He acknowledges every son He scourges.

To be loved by the Lord, to be accepted as His children, what a privilege!!  Surely,  any passing, earthly, trials and suffering imposed by the Lord Who thus loves us in His beloved Only-Begotten Son, are to be embraced with humble confidence and firm trust by all who would be true disciples of Him Who embraced the Passion and Cross on Calvary with such enduring patience and consuming love for us. 

Son though He was, He (for us) learned obedience from what He suffered; and when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.  (Hebrews 5:8-9)

Having thus been made perfect in His own manhood when He rose in glory to join His Father in Heaven, He now awaits our purification and glorification as members of His Body; a perfection to be brought to fulfilment in us by the Spirit He has given us and the teaching He has left us in Mother Church.                                                                                       

19th Sunday (Year C)

Nineteenth Sunday (Year C)       

  (Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-12; Luke 12:32-48)

This was the saving of the virtuous, for by the same act with which you took vengeance on our foes you made us glorious by calling us to you.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, those words, from the OT book of Wisdom, which refer originally to God’s destruction of the pursuing Egyptian army in the Red Sea in order to bring His People out of slavery, find a two-fold relevance and fulfilment in the New Testament: first of all when Jesus breaks the bonds of sin and death and ascends -- in the glory of the Spirit -- to heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of the Father; and secondly when through baptism, human sins are washed away and the prospect of heavenly life restored to men by the gift of the Spirit of Jesus.  And these two distinct events – where salvation is first of all won and then allowed to exert its saving power -- are made one through our faith in Jesus.

This new life with its promise of glory is, however, but the outline, the beginning and the end, so to speak, of our salvation; the main body -- all aspects of our character and all actions of our making – must, whatever their apparent significance or insignificance, serve to make a coherent and ultimately glorious whole of our lives, and therefore must be penetrated, through and through, by that original gift of divine significance, namely, our faith.

A few words from the second reading explain why faith is so supremely important for our life in Christ:

      Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

Our Christian hope is for those heavenly realities and that heavenly fulfilment put before us by Jesus in promises that resonate to the furthest depths of our being,  made -- as we human beings uniquely are -- in the image and likeness of God,  realities which cannot be apprehended by us here and now, because they transcend us, but which, in the ultimate realization of God’s providential plan, will be our sublime fulfilment in the glory of Jesus.   Nevertheless, such blessings hoped for from God, according to the promise of the Scriptures, can begin to be appropriated by us, even here and now, through faith in Jesus, in Whose divine humanity the fullness of God dwells, by the working of His Spirit in us, through the ministry of Mother Church.  We can, indeed, begin here and now, to truly appreciate such heavenly realities and really apprehend something of the fulfilment they offer through faith, because:

      Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

We must turn to the Gospel, however, to learn an aspect of supreme importance within this broad outline of our salvation.  Jesus there tells His disciples:

Provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.

Now the reason why He tells them to provide a treasure for themselves in heaven is because, as He went on to explain:

      Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Because He is seeking to draw us, in Himself, to heaven where there is no gold or silver, no tight purses or secure safes, He draws attention to our heart -- the seat of human affection and attachment – for which personal love alone is the supreme and exclusive treasure. 

Likewise, when He advises His disciples to:

            Sell what you have and give alms

He is not really interested in seeing us reduced to poverty: He wants us to open our hearts, unreservedly and fully, to receive His Father’s gift of the Kingdom:

            It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom;

He wants us to unreservedly love the promise and the prospect of heaven, where, He assures us, our dearest and most precious treasure -- our heart’s treasure -- awaits us.

And so we have this outline of our salvation:

(In) the saving of the virtuous: by the same act with which you took vengeance on our foes you made us glorious by calling us to you.

By the glorious Cross and Resurrection of Jesus, and through our faith in Him, God has called us to Himself.  And we have learnt, broadly speaking, how that glorious calling is to be realised: through the prospect and promises of hope, faith leads us to open our minds, hearts, and lives to the ultimate inspiration of divine charity.  That is the way we are to finally attain ‘our treasure’, our hope, or, as Jesus put it earlier, ‘the Kingdom of God’:

Seek the kingdom of God, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Jesus spoke repeatedly of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven; St. Paul, however, tells us that the Kingdom of God is also the Kingdom of the Son:

He (the Father) has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. (Col. 1:13-14)

Why does Paul speak of the Kingdom of the Son whereas Jesus always spoke of the Kingdom of God?

First of all Paul speaks in this way because, ultimately, Jesus Himself is the Kingdom of God present in our world and in our lives.

And secondly, because the Kingdom of the Son, of which St. Paul spoke, will ultimately to be handed over to the Father, and in that way become the Kingdom of God, the Father.  Listen to Paul’s explanation:

In Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.  Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.  For He (Christ) must reign till He (God the Father) has put all enemies under His feet.  The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. … Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him (God the Father) who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15:22-28)

Jesus is the load-stone drawing the affection of our hearts to God by the fact that He is God-in-human (our)-flesh.  Like loves like: and our shared flesh enables us to respond most deeply to Him Who is God-like-us.  Our response to His promises, His example and call, our faith in Him and our human love for Him, will gently open our hearts to the working of His Spirit Who will then form us gradually in His divine likeness until we come to love God for His divine beauty and goodness.

From this we can see that our personal treasure will ultimately be the glorious Jesus when He returns to make the final proclamation and manifestation of His eternal glory and to hand all that is His over to the Father, so that He, the Father, might be ‘All in all’.

Now we can, as it were, ‘pull all the strings together’ in order to get a complete picture, a full understanding.

‘Treasure in heaven’ is essential, as Jesus Himself said, if our hearts are to be fully, totally attached to heaven.  Faith guides us towards the attainment of our heavenly hope, but faith is essentially commitment directly to the teaching of Jesus and only mediately commitment to the Person of Jesus; love, on the other hand, being, most accurately, the gift of divine charity, commits our whole being immediately, directly, to the very Person of Jesus.  This personal commitment to Jesus – mediated, I say, by faith in His Person and in His word, and directly attained through our sharing in the gift of divine charity -- is absolutely and supremely essential, indeed, it is the only essential, for Jesus is Himself the Kingdom for us.  And this love, being, as I said, a heavenly gift, indeed the Gift of the Spirit, our sharing in Divine Being of union in Charity, transcends our present time and this visible world and takes us into the eternity of God Himself where Jesus will, as we have heard, ultimately hand over His Kingdom to the Father and lead us -- as members of His Body in and with Him -- to love, yes, to love divinely, the Father Himself, as Jesus would have us love Him, for the Father must become, as you heard, ‘All in all’.  

Faith is the ‘substance of things hoped for’; by our faith, in our life of discipleship on earth, we can already gain some experience of what will be our heavenly fellowship with Jesus, before the Father, in the Spirit.  That experience, that fellowship, that love of charity, can and should deepen within us throughout our life on earth, but that can only come about in Mother Church, through our faith in her proclamation of the Gospel, and by the grace of her sacraments, which bestow on us the Spirit of Love and Truth Who unites and binds together Father and Son. 

And then, for all those faithful sons and daughters of Mother Church who thus grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus our Saviour, the words of the Psalmist are most beautifully appropriate and consoling:

Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.  I will deliver him and honour him and show him My salvation. (Psalm 91:14-16)

       

18th. Sunday (Year C)

18^th. Sunday (Year C)

(Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23.  Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11.  Luke 12:13-21)

Watching a news programme on the television, I saw a picture of a Mosque in Birmingham filled with men worshipping.  You can go, on the other hand, to Christian churches, even to Catholic churches, and find them half empty.  Why is this?  Because so many Christians, so many Catholics, are not living their faith today: they are living for the world, for the pleasures and advantages the world seems to offer them.  The Muslims I saw filling the mosque, on the other hand, were there because they feel themselves to be a minority under threat, and so they were rallying together round the one thing that, in a currently alien and historically Christian, society and country, most distinguishes them from others and most unites them among themselves, that is their Muslim faith.  It was like that in Ireland over a hundred years ago when Irish men and women, under persecution and oppression, held firm by rallying together round their faith, their Catholic Faith, which distinguished and sustained them in the face of their Protestant persecutors.  Even more recently the same phenomenon occurred in Poland when Catholic Poles were under atheistic Communist rule.  When oppression ceased more or less in Ireland and Poland, then the practice of the Catholic faith also began to fall in fervour as men and women, living in an apparently more friendly world, began to enjoy living in the world more than they rejoiced to practice their faith: with the world an enemy, the faith was a lifeline; when the world seems friendly, why should the precepts of Catholic faith be allowed to disturb that mutual acceptance and approval of surrounding society?

Today then, even where Catholics still appear to value their faith, many are tempted to live for the world: they do not openly or totally give in to the temptation, but, not infrequently, they make serious concessions to it.   Now, these concessions have to be justified in some way or other, because these people want to regard themselves as practicing and true Catholics, and so, they begin to talk about the need to make our faith acceptable to modern people who, they say, now have a much greater knowledge of science and a much wider understanding of other, non-Western, cultures than their forebears possessed. In this way some modern Catholics come to justify singular interpretations of the Faith by claiming that the practice of faith must be made more popular: indeed they seem to feel it their vocational calling to do all they can - watering down difficult teaching and brushing aside unwanted rules - in order to make their presentation of the Faith as attractive, as pleasing, and as easy to understand, as possible for others whom they hope to thereby persuade to accept the Catholic way of life.  People will come to the Faith it is thought and said, if, and only if, they find us nice people not overburdened with troublesome principles, if they find our message accommodating and comforting, and if the portals of our church are open wide,  welcoming and obstacle free, to all and sundry.

This is a most fundamental and insidious perversion of the Faith.  Jesus tells us quite categorically that it is the Father alone who draws disciples to Jesus:

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. (John 6:37)

The Father draws and gives to Jesus disciples who have come to know Him through the witness of Mother Church and her children, who make Jesus known by proclaiming His Truth and presenting His teaching to all who are sincerely seeking God and His salvation.  But, People of God, how could anyone come to love the authentic Jesus if His followers are intent, first and foremost, on presenting themselves as nice Jesus-people?  How can followers whose aim is to offer a popularly acceptable message, rightly proclaim the teaching of Jesus?  Their want to present their own version of the Gospel, a version adapted to modern ideas and current preferences, not the Good News of Jesus as given us in the Scriptures and proclaimed in the traditional teaching of the Church.

Now this state of affairs comes about because people all too easily think only in terms of this world, as if everything will be decided here on earth according to human judgements and expectations; and therefore our readings today, warning us, most explicitly, about this folly, proclaim that this world is not the be all and end all of life:

Here is one who has laboured with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; and yet to another who has not laboured over it, he must leave property. This also is vanity and a great misfortune.

In fact, it is but the essential preparation for what is to come, a life of either eternal fulfilment or eternal loss:

Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.   He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’    And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”

But God said to him, 'You fool! This night your life will be demanded of you; and then the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?'

The currently widespread persuasion that the Good News of Jesus has to be subjected to our adaptation is an unacknowledged capitulation to modern society’s craven worship of popularity.  Therein is the root error: for popularity has neither role nor authority in matters of faith; indeed, at the best it is irrelevant, while potentially it is most harmful, in matters of faith.

There are some disciples in the Church today who follow Pilate rather than Jesus:

Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."  Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" (John 18:37-38)

What is truth? Pilate doubted there was such a thing as truth.  Today, pseudo-disciples give the same thought a different twist: since the only true proclamation of the Gospel is one that makes Jesus and His teaching popular, therefore we must study modern attitudes and practices both carefully and sympathetically, so as to be able to make suitable adaptations to the Gospel message that will enable it to win more widespread acceptance.

Now that can never be the authentic Christian, Catholic attitude; we only need to look at and listen to Our Blessed Lord once more to realize that:

Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. (John 15:20-22)

Today we need to renew our trust in God; indeed, we have to stir up some courage on the basis of our faith.  The original apostles, the original Christians who were called Catholics from the very beginning, did not cower before the world's criterion of popularity as so many do today; for example, the gentle, loving, Apostle John  (1 John 4:6) says quite bluntly:

We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

And they had this confidence and strength because they firmly believed what the infallible Faith taught them, as we heard in the second reading:

If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Think on what is above, not of what is on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory.

In other words, they looked forward to a heavenly, not an earthly, fulfilment, and, in order to attain that blessedness they proclaimed a Gospel of Truth, knowing that only divine truth can form a human being in the divine likeness:

The new self is being renewed for knowledge in the image of its Creator.

That very truth required them to preach what would be unpopular at times.  Indeed, because the essence of the Gospel message is that we can only find salvation through the Cross of Jesus, Who died for our sins before rising again for our salvation:

(He) bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24).

Therefore, even in the early Church, there were those who wanted to preach a Gospel without the Cross, a popular Gospel instead of the Gospel of righteousness.  Of them, the Apostle Paul said with incisive clarity in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:18-19):

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." 

And again in his letter to the Galatians (5:11):

Brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offence of the cross has ceased.

People of God, in times of trial we must cling to Jesus all the more closely in Spirit and in Truth, for:

This is a faithful saying: if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him.  If we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.  (2 Timothy  2:11-13)

 

     

15th. Sunday, Year (C)

15^th. Sunday, Year (C)

(Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37)

In our readings today we have an embarrassment of riches, and so it is a matter now of picking out one or two jewels, for in no way can I pretend to open up to your gaze the beauty and wealth of all that we have just heard.

In the Gospel we were told of a Scribe, an expert in the Jewish Law, who approached Jesus in what is, truly, the only way in which Jesus can be rightly approached:

            "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

That should be our attitude at this very moment as we try to understand and learn from the Gospel, before going on to offer Jesus' self-sacrifice to the Father, and then finally, in Holy Communion, surrendering ourselves to Jesus that He might draw us with Himself to the Father:

            Lord Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus replied by asking the Scribe what the Law had to say about the way to eternal life and he responded without hesitation:

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbour as yourself.'

Jesus had nothing to add to that.  However, the Scribe -- not wanting to seem foolish for having asked a question to which he already knew the answer -- went on to justify himself and also pay Jesus a notable compliment by asking Him:

            And who is my neighbour?

Yes, he was an expert in the Law who knew well the words of the Law, but here he was asking Jesus to tell Him what the words really meant: that was the humility of a man sincerely seeking to find the way to eternal life. 

With our modern proliferation of books and skill in information technology, it is easy for people to be satisfied with knowing about the words of Scripture while appreciating little of their meaning and spiritual significance.  Too often today self-styled experts and militant proselytisers attempt to show off their knowledge of the Bible by writing or reciting words: words are their favourite medium, for they trip so very easily off the tongue or pen, one after another, so easy to count and multiply.  Spiritual appreciation, on the other hand, is a much more demanding than mere facility with words: it requires that understanding which only comes from respect for, and submission to, the whole of God's revelation; it involves humility, patience, and prayer.

            Lord, who is my neighbour?

Jesus, in answer to this learned man's humility, told him a parable -- or perhaps He made use of a real-life incident -- about one whom today we call the Good Samaritan, and another who had fallen into the hands of thieves.  This unfortunate victim -- probably a Jew and possibly a priest -- was going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  It was the most public road in all Judea and the only road between those two cities for thousands of priests and Levites who, after having served in the Temple at Jerusalem according to a fixed rota system, would then return home until their next period for service.  For about twelve thousand of these priests and Levites Jericho was thus their chosen place of residence, while the Temple in Jerusalem was their destination for work and worship.   Despite being much used, this road was extremely dangerous for travellers, twisting and turning through rocky desert, and -- in the course of about 20 miles -- falling steeply some 3000 feet from the chill heights of Jerusalem to the near tropical depths of Jericho.  Jesus’ parable, therefore, when it told of a traveller falling into the hands of robbers, was recalling an all-too-frequent occurrence that many had suffered before and many others would continue to experience in the future.  The bandits of the Judean desert did not scruple to kill at times, but in this case, having robbed the man, they were content to leave him, wounded and helpless, by the side of the road. 

Now, a priest, making the same journey from the Temple in Jerusalem down to Jericho, came upon the wounded man, and:

            When he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

Then a Levite, having likewise completed his rota of service in the Temple and returning back to his home in Jericho:

When he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the opposite side.        

Both the priest and the Levite would have recognized the victim as a neighbour, a fellow Jew, indeed, perhaps as a fellow priest or Levite.   And yet, both of them, out of considerations for legal purity or for their own personal reasons, passed him by.  Finally, a Samaritan arrived on the scene.

Now, Samaritans were regarded as enemies by the Jews, and, generally, Samaritans had a like opinion of the Jews.  In this case, however, the Samaritan of whom Jesus spoke, having chanced upon the wounded man:

was moved with compassion at the sight.  He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.  Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him.  If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back' 

Jesus was indeed revealing the meaning of the word "neighbour" to the Scribe: for His story showed that an enemy could -- should the occasion arise -- show himself to be a true neighbour; and consequently, it raised the question whether or not Jewish national pride and religious exclusiveness could have any further role to play in God's coming Kingdom that would transcend all such human boundaries and limitations.

The passing priest and Levite had the word of God on their lips, as Moses said:

            The word is very near to you, already in your mouth.

That word they could repeat, discuss, dispute about, and perhaps use to display their learning.  It was so easy, on such occasions, to forget that Moses had gone on to say that the word was also:

            in your heart, that you may obey it.

Now, sinful, worldly, men have always been able to use the Word of God as a weapon for personal advancement in an earthly kingdom, despite the fact that God had originally given it as a guide to our heavenly home.  Those who use their facility with the Word of God as a weapon for earthly advancement need only to apply their natural talents and human techniques in such a way as to win earthly patrons and stir up simple supporters by making and championing short-term and shallow judgments according to popular appearances and personal advantage.  On the other hand, those using God’s Word as a guide to our heavenly home, have to ask, knock, wait for, and pray to, Him Who is infinitely above us and Who judges the hidden secrets of mind and heart: only then will they be enabled to proclaim His truth and manifest His beauty before men rather than promote their own popularity and success.

The Word of God is meant to be ever at work in our lives, as the prophet Isaiah, speaking in the name of the Lord tells us:

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (55:11)

The Scribe, as a Jew, preferred to limit the word "neighbour" to his fellow Jews; but, nevertheless, He felt uneasy about it and so he asked Jesus "who is my neighbour?" whereupon Jesus showed him that it was not possible to limit the significance of God's Word according to human prejudices.  However, when -- at the end of the parable -- Jesus asked:

Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbour to the robbers’ victim?

The expert in the Law still could not bring himself utter the words "the Samaritan", so ingrained was his Jewish prejudice.  He could only prevail upon himself to say:

            The one who treated him with mercy.

We are like that in so many ways, and that is why the same prophet Isaiah proclaimed (66:2):

The Lord says, ‘on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word’.

We cannot determine or fix beforehand where the Word of God will lead us; Isaiah says we should tremble -- perhaps even thrill -- at the sound of it, because the Word of God is meant to work in us, and -- by the power of the Holy Spirit -- to change us, in accordance with plans God has for us: it is a harbinger of beauties as yet unseen and possibilities as yet unknown.

As we heard in the second reading all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and that is why we cannot try to restrict the effect of His Word in our lives.  We are called to become children of God in Jesus, and if we are to be found in the likeness of Jesus we must be formed by His Spirit according to His Word.  We must allow His Spirit to lead us wherever He wills if we are to reach the blessings prepared for us, blessings we cannot even begin to imagine of ourselves, let alone prepare for.  The Spirit alone knows the depths of God, He alone is Holy and Wise, and we must trust ourselves to Him.

There are still today many who seek to control the effect of the Word and the work of the Holy Spirit of God in their lives.  Like the Jews of old, they want to form themselves according to their own fancies or in accordance with ideas of goodness and holiness popular in society around them.  Today, for example, most people's idea of Christian goodness enables them to recognise and appreciate work done for the poor and for children in need; a life devoted to prayer, however, especially as a monk or nun in relative solitude, seems alien to them, perhaps, even inhuman.  Modern ideas of sanctity usually involve soft words and attractive, pleasant, attitudes; on the other hand, clear doctrinal teaching and firm discipline in moral matters is thought to be unacceptably rigid and unsympathetic.  And so, the modern disciple of Jesus will frequently be found trying to interpret the guidance of the Holy Spirit along broad, loose, lines acceptable to modern ideas of human rights, the freedom of individuals, and God’s gentle and accommodating goodness.  However, holiness of this sort is just as false and inadequate as, and probably less sincere than, the exclusive holiness of the Scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' times.

People of God, listen to the Word of God as proclaimed by Mother Church, not that glibly quoted for popular acceptance by frequently self-appointed and self-taught gospellers.  Beg the Holy Spirit to lead your life along the way of Jesus, to form you in Jesus’ likeness, and then try to answer God’s call to faith, trust, and love with a humble simplicity of mind and heart; do not allow your own prayerful thoughts and conscientious actions to be distorted or determined by the selfish pride, prejudices, and fears, of modern society.

The Spirit first led Jesus out into the desert and then along the most unlikely way of the Cross: the disciple of Jesus is not greater than his Master; he or she too, must be open, willing, and obedient, enough to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.  As Jesus said (John 3:8):

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.  

Finally, what is perhaps the greatest jewel hidden in the field of today’s readings:  

 Who was, Who is, the Good Samaritan?   How could he just postpone, or at least seriously interrupt his journey to spend a night at the inn, where he was not likely to have been popular as a Samaritan?   Why was he alone able to deal with the man’s wounds?  Why did he not just pay the hotelier extra for that first day’s extra care, as well as for subsequent days’ care, ‘bed and board’?     Was the Samaritan, in fact, a hint at Jesus Himself?  He interrupted His journey by His suffering and death on Calvary; He alone could provide essential medicine for fallen man.  Jesus did continue His journey to His heavenly home after having cured man’s grievous wound and then committed him to the care of His Church, the inn and hotelier in the story.