19th. Sunday in ordinary time, Year A 2014

 19^th. Sunday, Year (A)

(1^st. Kings 19:9, 11-13; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33)

 

In our Gospel reading last Sunday Jesus fed the Five Thousand and twelve baskets full of fragments remained over from the original five loaves and two fish, and in that miraculous feeding Jesus was preparing His disciples for the gift of the Eucharist which He was soon to bestow on His Church.  Since that was a time of schooling for the disciples let us look carefully at Jesus' dealings with them immediately after that great miracle of feeding the Five Thousand to discover whether or not He might also have been preparing them for other mysteries soon to be revealed or gifts to be given; indeed, perhaps even helping us better understand our heritage and face up to events in our lives and in our world as Catholic Christians.

Soon enough, Jesus would be taken away from the disciples and His Church, first of all for only 3 days after His suffering and death on the Cross of Calvary, but subsequently -- for ages still unfolding -- by His glorious Resurrection and Ascension into heaven where, bodily glorified at the right hand of the Father, He makes constant intercession for us as St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Christians at Rome.

And so now, immediately after the miracle of the feeding of the Five Thousand – foreshadowing, as we said, the Eucharist -- whilst the crowd were making their way home following the wandering shore line, the disciples, crossing the lake directly by boat, ran into serious difficulties when a sudden storm arose.   Now, Peter’s boat has always been seen as a figure of the Church ever since Jesus first chose to preach from it to the crowds assembled to hear Him on the shores of the lake; and so the threatened boat bearing the disciples this stormy night is easily recognised as foreshadowing the Church that would subsequently carry the Gospel of Jesus across stormy oceans to hostile lands and continents ever new so that all peoples might hear the Good News of salvation.  This sudden and violent storm on the Sea of Galilee was indeed, at the time, a matter of life and death for the disciples; but it was not just a chance happening that had caught Jesus and His disciples unprepared, but rather something Jesus willed to use in order to teach His disciples a lesson which -- as leaders of the Church of Christ throughout the ages to come -- they must never, ever, forget.

The boat was in difficulties that night on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus was not with the apostles.  He was absent, physically, praying on the mountain (as St. Matthew calls it) just as -- after His Ascension -- He would be eternally seated, as St. Paul tells us, at the right hand of the Father in heaven:

Christ Who died is also risen (and) is at the right hand of God making intercession for us. (Romans 8:34)

The disciples, thinking they were alone, were extremely fearful, and it was most important for them to learn that no matter how lonely and vulnerable, threatened and dispirited, they might feel themselves to be, they would never and could never be separated from the protecting love and power of Jesus.  And so -- though rapt in prayer -- Jesus was most surely aware of the danger in which they found themselves; and willing to help them in their need, He approached them walking on the sea.  Whereupon, we are told: 

            They were terrified.  “It is a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear.

Surely, the future apostles of Mother Church were meant to remember this occasion vividly, it was an integral part of God's plan to prepare them for their future: for Mother Church, the barque of Peter -- following, pursuing, mankind wherever they might be found over subsequent long centuries -- would have to endure, and profit from, dangers and threats of all kinds, just as the disciples were intended to survive and learn from this near capsizal on the Sea of Galilee.

People of God, let us admire and give thanks for God's wisdom and love; for just as Jesus had already prepared the disciples for the Eucharist, so now He is gently, but most surely, preparing them for both His own absent-presence in Mother Church and also for the Father’s promised Gift to her of His abiding Holy Spirit.  For, that spontaneous outcry ‘It is a ghost!’ on seeing the figure of Jesus approaching them through the storm and walking over the raging waters contained, in itself, unsuspected potential.  For, whatever the future trials of Mother Church, the apostles were always to remember that security and peace would ever hold sway in Peter's barque so long as God's People could invoke the name of Jesus with faith and love, and -- in confident hope – trustfully commit themselves to the guidance of His Most Holy Spirit.

God never springs total surprises on His servants; He seeks to prepare them to appreciate and embrace His plans for their well-being.   Consequently, People of God, we should always aspire to hear, and hope to learn from, God as He seeks to prepare us to walk ever farther along the ways of Jesus.

In our first reading we heard of Elijah who, of all the prophets, was the man for the big occasion.  Didn’t he -- on Mount Carmel -- call upon the Lord to send down fire from heaven to consume the sacrificial offering he had previously carefully prepared by thoroughly soaking it with barrels of water?  Didn’t he subsequently order the slaughtering of the 450 prophets of Baal who were Queen Jezebel’s favourites?  Again, didn’t he revive from death the son of a widow of Zarephath before inflicting a drought upon Israel that went into its fourth year?  Hadn’t he called down fire upon the soldiers of faithless king Ahaziah, before finally himself having been taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire?  And in today’s first reading, he is seen again in a typically unique and climactic situation as he seeks to learn about his own future from the Lord:

A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord; (and) after the wind there was an earthquake, and after the earthquake, there was fire.

In all these manifestations of primeval power, however, the Almighty Lord was not present. They were natural representations of the titanic events that had been part and parcel of Elijah’s life and had ruled his mind and heart thus far.  But now they had to be put behind him in order that he might be exposed to the sustaining root and divine height of his own and indeed mankind’s mystery: his personal nothingness and impotence, along with the indisputable fact of being loved by and responsible to the Living God.  Elijah had therefore to empty his mind and calm his spirit, to wait humbly and listen more closely than he had ever done before, because the Lord willed to communicate with His prophet through nothing more than:

            A tiny whispering sound;

the voice of the Lord being carried – so slight it was -- as it were on the breath of a floating sigh (as one scholar, desirous of the utmost accuracy, poetically expressed it).  Only in that ever-so delicately tense and yet most tranquil moment of self-less and attentive awareness in the depths of his own conscience was Elijah able to hear and recognize the Mighty One of Israel addressing him.  Here we have the first Old Testament foreshadowing of the Christian teaching on individual conscience; a first intimation in the life of one who was one of Scriptures greatest extroverts, and of such significance that it would be enhanced and extended by another great prophetic figure, Jeremiah who says (31:33–34):

This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place My law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be My people.    No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know Me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.

Here we should immediately recall that humble and immaculate virgin -- Mary of Nazareth -- who alone would hear the Angel Gabriel’s message of salvation in the depths of her own personal conscience and awareness.  That was not due simply to the fact that the angel was to be sent only to Mary; rather is it the case that Mary would be – in her own time and subsequently throughout time -- the only one in the whole of Israel, and ‘a fortiori’ in the whole world, able to hear such an angelic voice, able to appreciate and respond to such a sublime vocation.  Mary was and is unique: the only woman possessed of a heart and soul so humble, so devout, and, indeed, a conscience so pure, sensitive and tranquil, that the divine message would be clearly heard by her and freely allowed to bring forth its Fruit in her and through her.

People of God, just as the Lord prepared His disciples for life in, and leadership of,  the Church, so is He always ready to guide all who are striving to be His faithful servants in Mother Church.  However, it is a far too common failing among such disciples that they are not sufficiently strong in faith or humble enough in character to be able or willing to wait and listen for long.  Many of them find listening wearisome, and quickly reject it as fruitless; whereas others become so anxious in their waiting that they are irresistibly primed to pre-empt rather than attend to any still, small, voice addressing them.  Nevertheless, God will only speak Person to person when His words are able to be heard and understood, and likely to be appreciated and obeyed.

It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to My Father and learns from Him comes to Me.  (John 6:45)

Truth and beauty go together; and holy Catholic living -- like Christian parenthood -- is to be seen as an art rather than a science.  It is not merely a matter of factual knowledge and practiced techniques, but rather a loving appreciation of and response to spiritual reality, which is only known in the fullness of its integrity when its beauty is appreciated and its truth humbly embraced.   In that sense we are called to become true artists!   True artists have, at times been secretly admired because of their selfless commitment to their art irrespective of whether they have monetary reward or popular success; and that characteristic of certain great artists unconsciously relates them to, and directly reminds us of, the sublime virtues of divine love, spiritual sensitivity, and personal humility in the life of Mary, the supreme Christian artist.

People of God aspire to know Catholic truth and beg for grace to love it.  Strive to become sincere artists of humble, Catholic and Christian, living.  And to that end, be ever more and more desirous of hearing and learning from the still, small, voice of the Spirit of Jesus which can sound in and through all the daily happenings of your apparently ordinary life in Mother Church.   But take care lest you make the same mistake as St. Peter, who, setting out – perhaps, as was his wont, over-exuberantly -- to answer the call of Jesus over the waters, did not keep his eyes fixed on Jesus: in an instant of anxiety he turned his eyes to the boiling waters instead of walking steadfastly and trustfully towards Jesus Who was calling him.  Trust when broken, be it ever so slightly, cannot be taken up again at will; repentance and a rescue -- Lord save me! -- is required which only Jesus can ratify and effect:

Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.  Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:3-4)

The voice of conscience is too often tied up -- well-nigh exclusively -- in the minds of some modern Catholics, with situations predominantly imagined as unpleasant, threatening, disturbing: situations involving commands obeyed or disobeyed, investigating right and wrong, and, usually, apportioning blame; situations always uncomfortable for weak humans aware of their insufficiency.

However, in God’s gift – for conscience is a gift of intimacy with Himself -- there is also to be found an awareness of and joy in what is so supremely beautiful and sublimely true as can be communicated to us in no other way with such sensitivity as of that tiny whispering sound calling to be heard, understood, and embraced, in the depths of a tranquil, trusting, and most grateful conscience.

            Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening.

                          

 

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year A. 2014

18^th. Sunday of Year (A)

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

Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy?  Heed Me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. 

People of God, some of you will, I am sure, have known times when your were aware of being strangely unsatisfied, perhaps even feeling profoundly empty, despite having many comforts and interests of various kinds; and at such times, when you were lacking inside, all that was outside seemed to somehow make no difference.  

For many sufferers such occasions, experiences, of self-questioning, can be dealt with in only one way: they try to forget them, distract themselves by amusements and activities of all sorts, anything that will enable them to put those disturbing thoughts aside for a time until, hopefully left behind, they are forgotten altogether.  However, for people who believe that their life’s destiny is in God's hands, and its daily course a gift from His loving Providence, those moments of realized personal emptiness need to be understood, because God could be trying to teach them something by such feelings of personal dissatisfaction; which, if not understood and embraced, might leave them unable to follow God as closely as He would wish; nor could their happiness in Him ever become deeply rooted, for it would always be vulnerable to unexpected and unwelcome recurrences of that strange and deeply disturbing awareness of personal emptiness and possible futility.

If, however, you do begin to think along the lines suggested by the prophet Isaiah:

Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy? … 

then, you may recall other occasions that have stirred up similarly deep questions in your mind.   For example, have you ever come across someone who, though having nothing much going for them on the outside -- little money and few home comforts, not particularly popular or talented, and perhaps with more than their share of family trials – yet, on the inside they seemed to be deeply happy: content in themselves and at peace with life in general, its future prospects, and their neighbours around.  How are we to understand that: little or nothing on the outside, but rich inside?

Of course, if such people were ill-educated and quite content with knowing nothing; if they were idlers, happiest when doing nothing; or perhaps if they were thoughtless people, content with never looking beyond the present moment; then one might well say, “They may appear to be happy, but I would never want that sort of happiness”, and having said that, never think of them again.  Such people could – with good reason -- be regarded as being superficially happy.

However, the ones I have in mind, those whom you may have been lucky enough, or better, whom you may have been blessed enough, to come across, are in no way superficial, for, though having little to boast of or rejoice in on the outside, yet, they are profoundly happy inside.  Now, that is something remarkable, for the unthinking attitude of the superficially happy embraces living for what they can get out of life’s personal experiences and all that happens around them, and in that sense they are centred on themselves and cannot endure aridity or live through and profit from sufferings, least of all can they contemplate death other than – at best -- as a kind of sleep where thoughts are gone and experiences are none.

The profoundly happy ones of whom I speak, however, are most truly and completely happy since their minds appreciate truth, their hearts love what is beautiful, and -- above all -- their souls are confident in the goodness of God and humbly aspire to future blessedness with Him; and being thus centred on what is over, above, and beyond themselves and their earthy limitations, they are already close to being spiritually dead to themselves and their own interests, and therefore remain steadfast through present trials and difficulties, and hopeful and trusting beyond the certainty and proximity of their own physical death.

If you have ever been blessed to meet and to recognize such a truly happy person, or, if not, if ever you have been blessed personally by God so as to have occasionally felt, to have become unmistakeably aware of, a sense of emptiness welling up  from the depths of your being, then the message of Isaiah should echo within you, prompting you to look closer at yourself saying: 'Am I spending my money on what is not bread, my youth and my strength, year in year out, for what does not satisfy? 

Having asked yourself that question you will be eager to hear the next words of the prophet:

Heed Me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.

At that point, however, you might be inclined to answer both your own self-questioning and the prophet’s exhortation by some such words as: ‘Very well, you prophet of 2600 years ago, I am listening, speak to me now about my soul’s need, about the emptiness I sometimes experience, tell me of the fullness of joy that I seek’.

Isaiah continues (NRSV):

Incline your ear, and come to Me; listen, so that you may live.  I will make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast, sure love for David.

 

Notice how insistently the prophet repeats ‘incline your ear’, ‘listen’!   Again, however, you might find that more puzzling and frustrating than helpful: ‘How can I hear you, the everlasting Lord, on Whose behalf Isaiah has made promises which both intrigue and delight me.  How can I listen and come to You Who are in heaven above, invisible, untouchable, unknowable?’

Isaiah has done his best; but now we need the Apostle Paul -- brought up and trained to fully appreciate Isaiah’s teaching and testimony before becoming, as the Lord Himself said to Ananias, a chosen instrument of Mine to carry My name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites -- to give the only full answer to our questions in today’s second reading:

What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?   No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

There St. Paul teaches that the richest fare of which Isaiah spoke, the fullness of joy that we seek, is only to be found in the love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord from which nothing in the heavens or on the earth can ever separate us.

Let us now, therefore, turn to Jesus Himself in our Gospel reading where we heard of Him feeding hungry people, people like us,  in need and wanting sustenance:

When it was evening, the disciples approached Him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”  (Jesus) said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.”  But they said to Him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.” Then He said, “Bring them here to Me,” and He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.  They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over —twelve wicker baskets full.  Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children. 

From that episode we can gather that the fullness of joy to which Isaiah referred with those words 'eat well, eat what is good', can only come to us by literally eating the food given by Jesus, His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist.  Moreover, the prophet tells us that not just any sort of eating will do, for he made it clear how we should eat in such a way as to benefit our soul: 

Heed Me (says the Lord), and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare; 

Now those few words of the prophet are most important for us today but they need to be understood according to the teaching of St. Paul and Mother Church, for far too many Catholics seem to think that receiving Holy Communion, 'eating well', is the one and only key to our religion and to eternal life.  That is quite wrong.  We need also to heed the teaching of Paul and Mother Church concerning Jesus in the Eucharist, for Holy Mass is far more than Holy Communion.  The Mass is, first and foremost, worship of God, the sacrificial offering of Himself by Jesus the Son (and hopefully by us His disciples too) to the Father.  Holy Mass is glory to God in the Highest before it is gift -- Holy Communion -- to men and women of good will.  When Jesus comes to us in Communion, that is not an end in itself: Jesus comes to us, for a few moments, in Communion in order to communicate His Spirit to us, the Spirit of Holiness, Who is to remain with us, abide in us, enlightening and guiding us to worship the Father as He would have us do, with our whole lives in, and together with, Jesus:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always.  (John 14:16)

We, therefore, have to receive Holy Communion in such a way as to open up our whole life and being to the Spirit of Jesus, for then, and then only, will we experience what the prophet and the apostle foretold and promised: our soul enjoying good things and thereby truly and fully living: experiencing and sharing – by the Spirit -- in Jesus’ abiding love of, and total commitment to, God the Father.

(Jesus said)  Whoever believes in Me, as scripture says: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’”  He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in Him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:38-39)

People of God, learn to live by the Spirit bequeathed to us in Mother Church by Jesus: He alone can form us, in Jesus, for the Father, since He is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, and He alone loves the Father and the Son in the fullness of Truth and Love.  When He the Spirit, becomes for us, in our lives, what Jesus promised (John 4:14): 

A spring of water welling up into eternal life;

only then, having learnt to yield ourselves unreservedly to the Spirit's guidance,  will we know the fullness of joy and peace for which God made us and for which Jesus redeemed us.