24^th. Sunday (A)

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

Our Gospel reading today is very familiar, but don't let that fact lead you into a semi-dormant -- 'we've heard all that before'-- attitude of mind; for, being the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, and even today’s short passage from the Gospel, is a fount of ever-flowing crystal water: no matter how much one may drink from this fount there is always water remaining to slake the thirst of all who come to it.  In other words, in Scripture, and above all in the Gospel, there is always more available than meets the eye.  So, let us now give our particular attention to the first two verses of the Gospel reading:

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

That such is the essential part of the Gospel reading is shown by the fact that the following parable of the Unforgiving Servant is only told by Jesus in order to bring out the meaning of the words He had just spoken:

I say to you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.   Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants…

Why did Jesus answer as He did?  Was it done just to emphasise the need for us to have a forgiving spirit?  Yes, it was; but we should remember that -- because those words are part of the Scriptures inspired by the Holy Spirit of Wisdom and Truth, and, moreover, are supremely important and precious since they were spoken by the Lord Himself -- we must, therefore, try to identify as closely as we can, just what Jesus was seeking to emphasize; and to do this, we must bear in mind the witness and teaching of the whole of Scripture.  Only in that way will we come to wonder with amazement, joy and gratitude, at the wisdom and beauty of Jesus’ teaching, the Father’s Providence, and the grace of the Holy Spirit Who inspires words full of life, significance, and power for all ages past, present, and to come.

“Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” …. those words -- specially chosen by Jesus -- have an enduring significance, for they are first found in the book of Genesis (4:23-24) as part of Israel's millennial traditions:

Lamech said to his wives:

"Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, mark what I say!  I kill a man for wounding me, a young man for a blow.   If sevenfold vengeance was to be exacted for Cain, for Lamech it would be seventy-sevenfold."

According to the Scriptures, Lamech was the great-great-great-grandson of Cain.  In the verses preceding the words I have just quoted we read of great progress being made in the quality of life for the family of Cain: a city had been built by him, and we are told of livestock being raised, of artisans able to make tools of all kinds from bronze and iron, and -- for times of public rejoicing and personal pleasure -- there were players of harp and flute.  As we would say, the economy was flourishing.  But, just as we experience today, with the growth of prosperity and greater opportunities to seek and find pleasure, there came also an alarming growth in wickedness and sin.  Cain the original sinner had begged God’s protection lest he himself be killed in revenge for his murdering of his own brother Abel, an action he learned to regret.  However, when we look at his great-great-great grandson Lamech, we find him glorying in the fact of having killed a man for wounding him, and even of killing a young man or boy for hurting him in some unspecified way.  Lamech, if provoked, would not hesitate to kill; and his character was so vicious that he recognised no distinction between young and old: it was his proud boast that whoever crossed him would pay for it; and he alone, Lamech, would decide both the price and the manner of payment.

Lamech’s viciousness combined with his over-weaning pride to such an extent that even the traditional tribal and family reverence for the founding father no longer meant anything to him:

If sevenfold vengeance was to be exacted for Cain, for Lamech it would be seventy-sevenfold.

Lamech was supremely vicious and vengeful and that was the way he would bring up his family; nor was he alone, for the society of which he was part would develop along those very same lines before, eventually, being destroyed by the God-sent flood.  We see similar things today in Sicilian society, in the Balkans; we see it trying to hold on in Palestine and Northern Ireland; we remember the horrors of that same spirit of vicious revenge between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Africa. And going via Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe, and Idi Amin, we can soon touch back to Stalin's vengeful cruelty towards his own people and Hitler's consuming hatred for all things Jewish.  Indeed there many regions of our world today where the cancerous growth of such vengeful pride and gratuitous hatred can be found.

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

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

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

Lamech belonged to the old world, that world made originally good, very good, by God in seven days.  Peter and the disciples, however, had been cleansed by the word Jesus had spoken to them; they were now being trained to proclaim His offer of redemption to the whole of mankind, and would soon receive the power of a new and heavenly life when the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon the Church after the Lord's Death and Resurrection, enabling them to endow mankind, despite obvious weaknesses and many failings, with a faith and hope destined for heavenly fulfilment. The Flood-waters of destruction and death were to be replaced by the outpouring of the grace of the Holy Spirit of life and Jesus wanted Peter, the disciples -- and He also wants us -- to realize that we must turn our back completely on the old ways, and that we must always have total confidence in the presence and power in our lives of Him Who loves us.

Since we are all sinners redeemed by Jesus, since even the best of us are only earthenware vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7):

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us;

and since we are all aware of our own inherent weakness and repeated failings, we can all, surely, to some extent and in some way recognise within ourselves the threat of sinfulness which is, at any given time, ruling in some of our brethren; therefore we are supremely well-placed, and should be well disposed, to show in our lives that forgiveness which is at the root of all God’s dealings with us.   In other words, forgiveness should be our characteristic virtue, and unforgiving vengefulness our most outrageous sin and most comprehensive defeat at the hands of Satan, as we heard in our first reading:

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

Mere creature of flesh, (if) he cherishes resentment; who will forgive him his sins?

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

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

Jesus replied so firmly:

I say to you, not seven times, but seventy- seven times.

This sort of thing goes back to the very beginning and reaches to the very heart of man, Jesus is hinting.  Recognize the signs of your adversary, Satan, whose deceits of old brought about the destruction of those he led astray into pride and viciousness.  You, however, are to be a new creation, and the perfection of the new creation is so great that seven is no longer suitable, only seventy times seven can suggest something of the supreme wonder of heavenly life beginning here on earth for you and in you.  However, the devil is still at work, still trying to undermine and disfigure God's new creation and your souls too.  You have seen in Lamech whither Satan would lead you, therefore be firm against him, forgiving:

Not seven times, but seventy times seven.    

There can be no limit to our willingness to resist the old evils, because there is no limit to the blessings God is now both offering to, and has prepared in the future for, those who, in Jesus, will become His children.   In our battle with the powers of evil we cannot just hold a line, as it were, a short distance from his positions; we have to distance ourselves completely from him because our calling is heavenly.  The devil does not rest in his attempts to corrupt the children of God, but, though we have to be constantly on the watch, we can, nevertheless, have total confidence in the divine power at our disposal, for we are not participants in a stalemate confrontation between great and opposing powers, but sharers in Jesus’ victory which He has already won on our behalf, for us.  

Lord, how often must I forgive?  Not seven times but seventy-seven times.

To help and enable us to do this work -- which alone is befitting the new creation He has made of us, the divine power He has bestowed on us, and the new perfection to which He calls us – He, the One Who loves us, is always Personally present for us in Mother Church, continually abiding with us in our hearts, and sharing with us in our lives, through the gift of His own Most Holy Spirit: the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, the Spirit of our adoption as heirs of the heavenly Kingdom and children of our heavenly Father.

Twenty First Sunday of Year (A)

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

In the first reading we were told of one Eliakim who, in Old Testament times, was given a position not unlike that of Peter in the New Testament and that of our modern Pope: what he opened no one could shut and what he closed none would open because this authority had been given him by the Lord, he had not chosen or acquired it for himself:

I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.

God was to establish him like a tent peg in a firm place, so that the tent would be secure even though the wind might blow hard.

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

Such an elevation of Eliakim would indeed bring glory to his father’s house; and it was there, we are told, that the trouble began:

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

That is a striking picture of the family taking over the man: relatives -- close and remote -- all came to him with their requests and needs and, in that way, the family take over and gradually smother the public servant authorized by God:

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

Shebna had used his acquired authority to feather his own nest, to proclaim his own glory; Eliakim had been placed in authority by the Lord that he might be:

            a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

However, the personal weakness of Eliakim became manifest as he ended up serving not so much the inhabitants of Jerusalem as his own kith and kin… thus repeating the original sin of Adam, who chose to please his wife rather than obey God.

The first reading, as you see, shows how power can both corrupt and corrode.  And yet, the Gospel reading goes on to proclaim the establishment of Peter in a position of immeasurably greater authority and power.  Now, why are we given readings today which are seemingly so opposed?  Surely our modern democratic principles and popular contemporary opinion cause us to ask: can it ever be wise to give any one individual so much power?

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

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

For, in the Gospel we find a new ingredient, so to speak, which transforms the peg of the Old Testament into the Rock of the New Testament:

Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.  And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

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

Even Peter’s subsequent personal faults and failings – first, being so strongly rebuked by Jesus’ words, 'Get behind me Satan', and secondly, denying Jesus three times -- far from invalidating the pre-eminence of Peter, even led to a strengthening of his position with regard to his fellow apostles.  On the first occasion, Jesus renewed His choice of Peter for the function, the public function, of Rock for the Church saying:

Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren."  (Luke 22:31-32)

And likewise, after Peter’s three-fold denial of Jesus, St. John tells us that the Risen Lord later appeared by the Sea of Galilee and said in front of six other apostles:

Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these? ….Do you love Me? Do you love Me?

Jesus evidently found Peter’s answer clearly acceptable, for, when he cried:

            Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You!

Jesus immediately responded with words of re-commissioning and trust:

            Feed my sheep.  Follow me.

Now, the book of Revelation tells us that the Risen Jesus, in His heavenly glory at the right hand of the Father in heaven, is constantly making intercession for us, and surely, therefore, constantly interceding for Peter both as Rock and Centre of Unity for the Church.  For we can never forget that Peter's function as Rock for the Church which the gates of Hades will never be able to overpower, is balanced by that other supremely important function as Centre of Unity for the Church, confirming his brothers, in accordance with Jesus' final prayer (John. 17:20-21):

Father, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.        

Therefore, People of God, our readings today help us see clearly just who is the supreme head and ultimate leader of the Church: it is the heavenly Jesus.  True, Peter is the head of the Church on earth, he is the visible head because Jesus wants His Church to be truly, visibly, one on earth; but Peter is only able to be that visible head, because Jesus is the heavenly, ultimate, Head who prays unceasingly for Peter that he may continue to fulfil his function towards his brethren in the Church on earth.

We Catholics do not blindly follow any human being in our lives as disciples of Jesus: in all things we look to, we love, we worship and obey, Jesus, in the Spirit, for the Father.  Ultimately, it is Jesus Who, through Peter, was foreshadowed in Isaiah's prophecy concerning Eliakim, because Jesus is the eschatological figure Who brings glory to His Father's house, as the prophet said:

He will become a throne of glory to his father’s house (23b).

It is through faith and baptism as disciples of Jesus that those who are called to receive new and eternal life are thereby enabled to give eternal glory to the Father, in Jesus, by the Spirit.  This supreme glorification of the Father is to be accomplished by Jesus’ disciples abiding in the unity originally given by the Spirit, in Jesus, at baptism; to be subsequently nourished at the Eucharist, then guided and protected under the maternal solicitude of Mary in the Church.  As Pope Benedict says:

The content of, the ultimate event taking place in, the Eucharist is the unifying of Christians, out of their individual and mutual separation into the Unity of the One Bread and the One Body.  Out of many nations one People is being made through their sharing of the one table.

Jesus knows well that His Church can only fully overcome the powers of Hades by abiding ever more deeply as one in love of the Truth, and for that end He associates Peter, and his successors, with Himself: they are to serve, here on earth, as constant witnesses to, protectors and promoters of, the supreme earthly good of that unity in Truth and Love for which Jesus so ardently prayed:

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.  (Jn. 17:20-23)

Therefore, although we lovingly recognize and gratefully appreciate Peter as head of the Church here on earth, nevertheless, we look beyond him: we confess the Spirit of Jesus guiding, protecting, and sustaining him; we acknowledge the Person of Jesus Who, having gone before him, unceasingly calls him to follow on the way He has gone; and we yearn for the Father the originating source and ultimate fulfilment of our salvation.  Such an appreciation, such a vision, fills us with a gratitude which leads us to cry out in those words of Isaiah:

On this mountain (the new Jerusalem, the Church of Jesus) the LORD of Hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, and the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth.  We have waited for Him and He will save us: this is the LORD, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."  (25:6-9)

         The Assumption of Our Lady           

 (Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1: 39-56)  

Let us hear first of all the official, dogmatic teaching of the Church about Our Lady’s Assumption which we joyfully celebrate today.  The dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1950 is quoted in our modern Catholic Catechism and reads as follows:

The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.

The Catechism goes on to explain:

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.

That means that Mary’s Assumption was not achieved of her own power neither was it due to her own merits: it is a gift, a unique share in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, given her thanks to the merits of Jesus Who -- though human in body and soul -- was divine in His Person, the very Son of God made flesh, Who alone could win the victory over sin and death for the whole of mankind.  Having won that victory in the flesh and blood He received from Mary, the Assumption is the expression of Mary’s unique participation in her Son’s triumph and her unique sharing in the redemption He won for all mankind. 

The Assumption is supremely significant because Mary, though the Mother of God, totally unique in her relationship with Jesus and in her share in His work of redemption, nevertheless, remained one with us, one of us, totally human in her body, soul, and personality: Mary of Nazareth our glory indeed, but also our sister.  And consequently, being thus our full sister, her Assumption is a sign of hope for all of us, a sign that we too might aspire, in the Spirit, to share with her in Jesus’ redemptive Resurrection.

Jesus wanted very much to underline the oneness between us and Mary, His Mother, as we can learn from His somewhat startling response to her on a very public occasion:

His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him.  And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You."  But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?"  And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother." (Mark 3:31-35)

Evidently, He willed to make it clear for subsequent generations that Mary was no goddess, nor was she ever to be thought of as being other than one of us.  And yet, as St. John tells us, Jesus -- with what were almost His very last words as He hung, dying, on the Cross -- chose to give supreme emphasis to the reverence and love that all who would be His disciples should have for her:

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!"  Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:25-27)

Therefore, when Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory, it was not simply for Mary herself, for she is our sister whom we might hope to follow; and also, since Mary is our mother too, we can be sure that she will be a constant advocate and most powerful help to us who have been handed over, so to speak, into her maternal care.  In that way we are led to have sure confidence and firm hope that if we are faithful disciples of Jesus to the end, we can and will eventually follow Our Lord heavenward and share in His glory, as she, our sister and our mother, has already done.

The dogma of the Assumption was, as I said, promulgated in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.  It was nothing new; it had been loved, meditated and celebrated in the Church from the earliest times.  It was at the beginning of the 5^thC. that what had been traditionally celebrated as her Dormition or sleeping in earthly death, became rather the celebration of her “birthday”, her birth into heavenly life, that is, her Assumption.  There are apocryphal stories written early in the history of the Church telling of the death of Mary, how her body was buried under the tree of life, and how she was translated into heaven.  Some scholars think these stories arose after the feast started to be celebrated; others, however, think the first of the apocryphal tales go back to the earliest times, and that there was probably an immemorial veneration of the tomb of Mary in Jerusalem by early Jewish converts to Christianity.

Such stories however, although picturesque, sometimes moving, or even instructive, are not the basis of our present faith which rests securely on the ancient devotion and worship of the Church, in accordance with the teaching of the Scriptures and under the perennial guidance of the Spirit.

Whenever the body of a disciple of Jesus and child of the Church is brought into church the night before burial we read the Gospel passage which goes:

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:1-2)

There, at the Last Supper, Jesus was speaking to His sorrowing disciples in order to comfort them in their distress at the thought of His imminent Passion and Death.  Think how Jesus must have willed above all to comfort His Mother in her distress; surely, first and foremost, He would want and will to prepare a place for her!

And where would that place be?  The disciples were distressed that Jesus was going to be taken from them, and so Jesus promised:

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:3)

Who more than Mary longed to be where Jesus was?  Who had persevered so faithfully as Mary at the foot of the Cross and throughout His whole life and ministry?

Again, Jesus prayed most solemnly at the Last Supper:

Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)

Now, who could conceivably long to see the glory of her Son more than His Mother?  Who, more than Mary, could conceivably deserve to see the glory of her Son?

However, all such considerations are included in, and embraced by, these other words of Jesus:

If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour. (John 12:26)

Mary’s whole life with her Son was, indeed, a life of total and whole-hearted love and service, given directly and personally to Jesus from the moment of His conception.  And even that, however, is not the sum total of Mary’s commitment to and sharing with Jesus throughout her life on earth, for, just as St. Peter, writing to the early Christians threatened with persecution by the Roman State, said:

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Pet 4:14);

so too we are told of Mary that she was blessed with the Spirit of glory and of God resting on her from the beginning of her motherhood, that is, she was blessed with the ability, and called to embrace the opportunity, to share with her Son in His sufferings.  This was made clear to her in the Temple at Jerusalem, when, together with St. Joseph -- and with her heart surely filled with ecstatic joy and gratitude to God – she was presenting her Son to the Lord, a Temple priest, Simeon by name, approached them, and, we are told :

Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34-35)

Yes, Mary would follow her Son unswervingly to the end, until, standing at the foot of His Cross she watched Him die.  Even thus, her sufferings for Him were not over, since she participated most intimately in the early sufferings of His Church.

The fact is that Jesus, in all that He did, carried with Him and worked in and through, the flesh and blood that Mary had uniquely given Him.  She was so intimately one with Him in all that He did, in and through His sacred humanity; and that is why she alone has been so uniquely honoured by the Father that she is now where Jesus is, in heaven!.  Jesus, bearing Mary’s flesh, died, was buried, and rose again; therefore, Mary too, in her flesh died, was buried, and then -- thanks to her Son’s Personal holiness and Divine majesty -- knowing no corruption just as she had known no sin, she was raised to share with Him in His heavenly glory.

People of God, let us, therefore, rejoice on the occasion of this solemn feast, and repeat with heartfelt joy the words of Mary herself:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; for He has looked with favour on His lowly servant.  From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. (Luke 1:46-49)

Having thus praised God in the first outpouring of her soul’s gratitude, Mary then spoke words for the comfort of her children, words which should give us both confidence and courage as we strive to serve and follow Jesus our Lord and Saviour:

He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation.

The Assumption of Mary is still for us, in this the third millennium, a source of inspiration and of hope; for the arm of the Lord is not shortened, His mercy and love are eternal.  What was given to Mary was given her uniquely indeed, but not exclusively, for it was intended also for us, ‘those who fear Him from generation to generation’.  Let us, therefore, as her children, treasure and take to heart the words Elizabeth used to characterize our mother:

Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfilment of those things which were told her from the Lord                                                                

 

Eighteenth Sunday, Year (A)

(Isaiah 55:1-3; Romans 8:35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21)

In the ancient world of the Gospel’s beginning Christians were mocked by the learning of Greece and persecuted by the power of Rome for proclaiming an exclusive, unique, God, Who had taken on human flesh: in which He suffered and died on the Cross before rising from the dead.  And today Christians -- above all Catholics -- are mocked and reviled for proclaiming this Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life for human beings, whereas so many acclaimed philosophers, scientists, and scholars of this world repeat Pilate’s question, ‘What is Truth?’

Now, today’s Mass readings are a most pertinent guide for our situation as Catholic Christians living in an alien society and facing an increasingly hostile world for which the only acceptable criteria for human living are the morals of political correctness and the success engendered by money or guaranteed by popularity.

In Isaiah’s time, as you heard in the first reading, things were much the same: the success many people looked for in life was that of having ‘good things to eat and rich food to enjoy’, whilst worship of the most popular god from the local pantheon was the obvious way to walk easy together with plenty of comforting companions.  But what did Isaiah proclaim in the name of the God of Israel:

            Pay attention, come to me; listen, and your soul will live.

Leave your bawling, easy, and lusty, companions crowding to worship popular idols, turn aside and listen to Israel’s God speaking in the depths of your heart, hearken to the one true God Who alone can give true success to your life,  success which consists not in amassing the things of earthly life -- things which for the most part clumber as much as they sustain bodily existence -- but in embracing real life itself: soul-life, transcendent and eternal life; far above and beyond what is merely earthly.

Today, our alien society and hostile world, along with their proclamation of success and popularity as the only criteria for a worth-while life, also assert that there is no god greater than mankind itself, there is nothing ‘higher’ than human thought and aspirations.  And that is where the terror of secularism shows itself, since those who find themselves unsatisfied with occasional helpings of success or a padding of popularity are warned to like it or lump it since there is nothing else on offer … jump on to the band-wagon or else be left behind in your loneliness: there is no God Who wants to speak with you personally; there is nothing special about you that cannot be seen and appreciated by society around you; the only message for you is society’s message, in which the peer-pressure of schooldays is undisguisedly perpetuated and fulfilled.

Isaiah spoke of the God of Israel Whom no man could ever see and survive; a God, therefore, unseen indeed but not unknown, since He had been active in Israel’s history for over a thousand years; indeed, it was He Who had made Israel into a nation.  In our second reading, however, this true but unseen God has taken on human flesh, becoming incarnate in Jesus Christ; and, it is on His behalf that St. Paul offers for our aspirations not a pottage of worldly success or social popularity, but that supreme blessing for the human heart and mind, which is the abiding love of the God Who made us and the Lord Who saves us:

Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ …. Nothing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.

St. Paul offers us there a shield, a helmet of salvation, for our present situation:

Even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes or being threatened or even attacked …. These are (but) trials through which we triumph, by the power of Him who loved us.

From that you can appreciate why the spirits that rule our modern world and technological society are ever more hostile to Jesus: for He exercises power they will not acknowledge, because it is greater than anything they themselves can muster.  Moreover, it is a power He exercises through people who appear to be nothing: because they fear, obey, and love, the God Who speaks with them in the depths of their conscience, Who mysteriously touches them in their daily experience of life, and Who has Personally triumphed over all the torments of the Cross and found life eternal.

Yes, People of God, we are increasingly regarded as aliens in today’s world and modern society because we are a peculiar People of Faith: faith in the God of conscience and Love; the God Who rules in our minds and hearts and reigns from the Cross.

However there is something that makes us yet more mysterious and suspicious to secular influences around us, for our Faith in God and Love for our Saviour is imbued with an unbounded Hope which springs up confidently within us from the Gospel proclamation you heard:

Jesus said to His disciples: There is no need for them (the hungry) to go: give them something to eat yourselves.  He took the five loaves and two fish, raised His eyes to heaven and said the blessing.  And breaking the loaves He handed them to His disciples who gave them to the crowds.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps; remaining, twelve baskets full.  Those who ate numbered about five thousand men, to say nothing of women and children.

There, of course, we see foreshadowed the Holy Eucharist in Mother Church, that sacrificial offering and sacramental banquet we are now in the process of celebrating.   Holy Mass is, indeed, the source of our Hope, since here Jesus’ Self-sacrifice is our offering to the Father, and His Holy Spirit is the abiding, sacramental Gift of the Father and bequest of the Son, through Whom God’s life and power are at work in Mother Church and in our individual lives.  And not in our lives only since Jesus’ disciples gathered up 12 baskets full of food left over, food suitable and sufficient for all God’s People (symbolically the 12 tribes of Israel) throughout time.  And the divine life and power nourished by such food can neither be negated by human weakness nor thwarted by our sinfulness, because the Spirit is unfailingly able to raise up children of Mother Church who will not bend the knee to Satan; children whose Faith, Hope, and Love allow the Spirit to form them in the likeness of the Jesus Who said:

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.  (John 16:33)

Seventeeth Sunday of Year (A)

(1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52)

Our readings this week, my dear People of God, give us great reason for gratitude, great cause for hope and joy.  Just think of those words of St. Paul:

Those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers; and those He predestined He also called; and those He called He also justified; and those He justified He also glorified. (NAB)

God foreknew each one of you baptized Catholics here present and has predestined you to be formed in the likeness of His Son.  How do we know that?  Because God the Father called you to faith in Jesus, and -- through the waters of baptism -- to become a member of His Body the Church, where you were endowed by the Gift of God’s Spirit and once washed clean of all your sins.

Now, those are verifiable facts of your lives, and objective proof -- for faith -- that God the Father has called you and predestined you in Jesus.

You are also being glorified; for that outpouring of the Spirit of Christ into your soul was the beginning of a life-long process whereby the Spirit of Jesus seeks to lead you ever further along the way of Jesus until ultimately you are endowed with a God-given share in the glory of Jesus before the Father.  For example, every time you receive Jesus in Holy Communion and open yourself up to Him in loving prayer, commitment and obedience, that glory, which shines with resplendent brilliance on the face of Christ, is reflected onto you, and gradually remains shining more and more brightly on you for the Father.  You and I -- each one of us known and loved by God the Father before time in Jesus -- are thus destined, through time, for eternal glory if, by the Spirit, we persevere faithfully and humbly in Jesus and His Church!

What degree of glory will be ours?  That we do not know and it is probably the wrong sort of question to ask, because the glory of Jesus -- the glory we hope to be allowed to share -- is not an objective, measurable, quantity of which we can be vainly proud, but a quality, a change of heart and mind, a totally selfless and self-sacrificing love, in Jesus, for the Father.

We do know that Mary – given to us as our Mother by Jesus from the Cross on Calvary – was a simple girl from Nazareth, and is now Queen of Heaven and of all the angels, principalities, and powers; and we believe that, because we love Jesus and hope for, look forward to, His heavenly promises, our glorification as her children has begun.  And our faith is confirmed by the fact that, although subject to temptation here on earth, we do not allow ourselves to be ruled by the earthly lusts of our flesh, nor to be dominated by that earthly pride which would drive us to seek earthly success, power, and prestige above all else.  As yet, we cannot see the fullness of our on-going glorification, but St. John assures us that, when Christ is revealed in all His glory at the end of time, we too -- members of His Body being led by His Spirit -- shall be like Him and able to share in His glory:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (I John 3:2)

What we have to do therefore is to remain faithful to Jesus in the response we make to our experience of life; for, as St. Paul reassured us in our second reading:

We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

That means, that in all the events of our life, no matter how uninspiring or perhaps unwanted, however puzzling or even painful they may be, God our Father is at work: seeking to form us, by His Spirit, in and through those very experiences, into the likeness of His Son so that we might ultimately be able to share His glory.

Surely, therefore, dear friends in Christ, we can both gratefully appreciate and joyfully respond to Jesus’ parables in today’s Gospel reading:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.   Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

There, Jesus puts before us two individuals: one, an ordinary man and a chance-finder, the other, a business man and a professional-searcher; two very different people yet with the same characteristic attitude; for, when they find or track down something of supreme value they are both able to appreciate it enough to want to make it their own at whatever cost, both of them willing and glad to give all they have in order to acquire such a treasure, such a pearl!

Now, all of us here are in a similar position, for Jesus is the treasure, the pearl beyond compare, and the Father Himself evokes our appreciation of Him:

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

Why has the Father drawn us to Jesus?

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.   (John 3:16)

Yes, Jesus is indeed the treasure, the pearl of great price, and each of us knows where He is to be Personally found and revealed in all His glory: in the Scriptures and Sacraments of Mother Church; and in our sincere experience of, and faithful response to, Life as God offers it to us.

Only the Spirit of Jesus, given in fullness to Mother Church, can reveal to us, in and through her teaching, the fullness of Jesus' saving truth contained in the Scriptures; only the Spirit of Jesus can share the life of Jesus with us through the Sacraments given us in Mother Church as sources of divine life and conduits of saving grace.  One can indeed find treasures of wisdom and pearls of beauty in the various religions and traditions wherein men and women have sought and served God throughout human history.  However, the one supreme treasure, the one pearl precious beyond all compare, is Jesus -- God's supreme revelation and gift of His very Self – and He is to be found uniquely and supremely in the Christian Scriptures and Catholic Sacraments of Mother Church, unfailingly sustained and infallibly guided, by the very Spirit of Jesus.

Our final consideration today -- our response to life – brings Prayer to our attention.

You know about that treasure in the field of the Church, that pearl of great price in the Eucharist, but what efforts are you willing to make to ensure that the treasure available to you, the pearl being offered you, will indeed be yours for all eternity?

Have you noticed that once again we have put the wrong sort of question: speaking about getting instead of giving?   Life’s greatest question, surely, must be: how can we give our whole selves – mind, heart, soul, and being – to Jesus, God’s priceless pearl, given for us in a love transcending time?

Pope St. Gregory the Great tells a story which goes something like this: imagine someone going on, let us say, a journey on the Orient Express, travelling in luxury towards some wonderful destination, let us imagine, Venice.  It is a long journey; deliberately so, because the trip is meant to embrace many places of great interest along the way: places of beauty such as mountain villages and places of curious attraction, such as ancient bazaars.  Let us further imagine that the train stops at some of these places and, on one particular day, allows passengers to alight in order to visit a most famous bazaar during a two-hour stop by the Express.  One of the passengers goes from stall to stall, into one bar or boutique after another; he haggles here and there for bargains to take back, and in this delightful process forgets all about the ultimate destination for which he had set out on this long, expensive, journey!  He forgets about Venice, the uniquely situated and wonderfully adorned city of history, culture and beauty, he forgets all about the friends awaiting him there, and misses, indeed forgets all about, the train.  What a fool! 

People of God, so many Christians are like that, allowing themselves to be distracted from seeking the Lord by the pleasures and cares of life.  Others there are, once faithful servants, perhaps true lovers of the Lord, who -- over time – have allowed themselves to gradually lose their early fervour and love for Jesus.  We saw this in the life of King Solomon, as we heard in the first reading:

In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”  Solomon answered: “O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act….  Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.   For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”   The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request.  So God said to him: “Because you have asked for this—not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies, but for understanding so that you may know what is right— I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you.  In addition, I give you what you have not asked for, such riches and glory that among kings there is not your like.  If you live in my presence as your father David lived, sincerely and uprightly, doing just as I have commanded you, I will establish your throne… over Israel forever.

However, King Solomon did not persevere in loving and following the Lord; he allowed himself to be distracted by his worldly renown and successes – that is by his self-love – and by the many fleshly loves of his life:

When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God, as the heart of his father David had been.  Adoring Astarte, and Milcom; building a high place to Chemosh, and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites, on the hill opposite Jerusalem, he did likewise for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.   The LORD, therefore, became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.

People of God, the Father may not have appeared to us but He has called and still does call us to Jesus; and the Holy Spirit – the Promise of the Father -- has been given to Mother Church and to us, to guide and support us in our search for Jesus, in our endeavours to centre our life on Him.  Let us not be distracted, led astray, by earthly pleasures; let us not be deceived by the temporal security promised by money or perhaps by sought-after popularity; let us not be put off by the troubles and difficulties which are an unavoidable part of our calling as disciples of Jesus, our Lord and Master.  We are on a journey and we must press on to the end, because that is the hall-mark of the true Catholic and Christian.  And this is where Prayer demands our attention and commitment,  for prayer is co-extensive with life itself for a Christian whose search for Jesus, whose endeavour to find, love, and respond to Jesus, in all life’s encounters and activities, is often called his, or her, spiritual life, his or her prayer life.  Prayer cannot be limited to longer or shorter periods on one’s knees before the Blessed Sacrament or in private …. Rather, it is like a mountain range hidden under the great ocean of life which appears as, culminates in, an island …. That beautiful island of prayer is only real and substantial insofar as it is the culmination of an apparently hidden but extensively solid foundation and support.  Prayer is indeed, as the old catechism beautifully put it, ‘a raising of the mind and heart to God’; but it is more than that, it is a sharing of one’s life with Jesus, by the Spirit, before and for the Father.

You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of  you: only to do right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.  (Micah 6:8 NAB)

Prayer is the engine, set and maintained in motion by the power of the Spirit, carrying us along Jesus’ way to our heavenly home, without which we quickly become like those merely nominal Catholics mentioned in our third parable today, who find themselves caught like bad fish, idly and perhaps unwillingly, in the Church’s net and thrown away.  Let us rather follow the advice of the Psalmist:

Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.  Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face continually, remember His wonders which He has done.  Glory in His holy name.  (105:3-5)