Wednesday of the
fifteenth week in Ordinary Time II
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At
that time Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to
little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have
been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows the Son except the Father, and
no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to
reveal him.(Matthew 11: 25-27)
The Father
The work of our Lord as narrated in the Gospels is largely the story of a
gradual revelation by him of who he really is. His public ministry began with a
remarkable testimony by John the Baptist. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. He is the chosen one of God, the one who would
baptize with the Holy Spirit.
Then by means of his preaching and works and personal testimony, our Lord
gradually revealed to the people and to the leaders who he was. As Messiah he
is the Father’s divine Son, son of God and son of Man. But in our Gospel
passage today our Lord speaks of his heavenly Father. Let us dwell a little on
this testimony of Jesus about the Father. First and foremost God is the Father
of Jesus Christ. In his disputes with the leaders of the Jews, our Lord
commonly referred to God as his own Father. The way he expressed this,
including the tone of his voice when uttering the word “Father,” made it
unmistakably clear to the leaders that our Lord was not using the expression in
the way any devout Jew might on occasion refer to Yahweh God as his Father. No,
Christ was saying this in a way that indicated that God was father to him in a
way that was unique. God was his very own father. God had begotten him.
Indeed he came from him, he was sent by him. There was constantly a unique and
ineffable relationship between him and God his Father. St John tells us that
the leaders attempted to arrest Jesus because they could see that, in saying
that God was his own father, he was thus claiming to be equal to God. He was
condemned to death for this. So the first thing we contemplate in our passage
today when we read of our Lord addressing God is that he calls him his Father.
The next thing is that his Father is the Lord of heaven and earth. The Father
of our Jesus Christ is the God of all things, visible and invisible. He is one
and there is no other. All things depend on him. There is but one God and that
God is the Father of Jesus Christ. This is the God who has revealed himself to
Abraham and the prophets, and whose final revelation is in the person of his own
Son.
Our Lord continues. This one only God who is the Father of Jesus Christ acts in
the hearts of men by means of his grace. He reveals himself to the lowly and he
withholds his revelation from the proud. “At that time Jesus said, I praise
you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from
the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for
this was your good pleasure” (Matthew 11: 25‑27).
What things does the Father reveal to those who are like “little children”?
Above all he reveals to them who Jesus is. We remember the occasion when our
Lord asked his disciples who people say the Son of Man is. They told him that
some say he is a prophet, others that he is one of the old prophets come back
again. Then our Lord asked them who they themselves thought he was. Simon
Peter spoke up, saying that he was the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Christ greatly blessed Simon, saying that his insight had not come from any
natural source — flesh and blood — but from the Father in heaven. God the
Father had revealed to Simon who Jesus really is. So, prior to the coming of
the Holy Spirit on Simon on the evening of our Lord’s Resurrection and also at
Pentecost, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son was working by his grace in
the mind and soul of Simon, illuminating him as to the person of Jesus. This
action of the Holy Spirit preceded, prepared and elicited from Simon his act of
faith. As Christ said to him in reply, Blessed are you, Simon. He was blessed,
blessed by God for his faith. There is implicitly here a doctrine from Christ
about grace and merit. Simon merited the praise he received from Jesus for his
faith, but this faith‑filled response of Simon depended totally on the grace
coming from the Father. Such is the work of the Father in the hearts of
Christ’s disciples. Now, while it is the Father who reveals Christ to the soul,
at the same time it is Christ who reveals the Father. No one knows the Father
except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals him. It is Jesus who reveals
the Father to mankind.
Let us learn to place ourselves at the feet of Jesus and ask him to reveal to us
not only himself but the Father, his Father and our Father. At the same time,
let us turn to the Father and ask him to reveal to us his divine Son. Eternal
life is this, our Lord said to his disciples at the Last Supper, to know you,
Father and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And let us be constantly devoted to
the Holy Spirit, for it is by his grace and power that the Son and the Father
enlighten us. Let us resolve to live in the life of the most Holy Trinity all
our days.
Thursday of the
fifteenth week in Ordinary Time II
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Scripture today: Isaiah 26: 7-9.12.16-19; Psalm
101; Matthew 11: 28-30
At
that time Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and
my burden is light.(Matthew 11: 28-30)
The yoke of Christ
There are many intractable problems in the history of human thought, but one
that is especially significant is the fact and meaning — if, man asks, there is
any meaning in it at all — of suffering.
Why is it that man suffers so much? For many it would appear that man suffers
simply because that is how things are. Man is part of a world that proceeds
according to a complex of forces that play themselves out randomly, and
according as man is caught up in this or that set of circumstances, so he
suffers as a result. There is nothing more to it than that. He happens to be
where the earthquake occurs, and so he suffers terribly. He happens to carry
with him the predisposition for cancer and so he succumbs accordingly. Our
world has order to an extent, but it is also to some extent a jumble and if
anyone is caught in the crossfire, he suffers. All is mere coincidence. There
is no evidence of a guiding Hand that has man’s good at heart, no evidence of a
kindly Power that cares for him in the affairs and events of the world. That is
what many make of it. And yet, he is confronted by the claim that there is an
almighty Father whose Providence has his interests at heart. What is to be made
of this, he asks? It is, he thinks, a mystery. If God is the God he is said to
be and who he revealed himself to be, then it is all a mystery. Such is the
perennial problem for suffering man. Man suffers and God is silent — God is
there and he does nothing. This is not the moment to propose a philosophical
response to this understandable reaction to suffering on the part of secular
man. Numerous theists have attempted this. We read of some of those attempts
in the book of Job coming from Job’s friends, and God was not happy with their
efforts. Let us rather ask ourselves this question: what are we to do? Let
secular man, the man who is not very disposed to accept the existence of a
loving Creator, assume for a moment that God does exist and that he sent his Son
among us, and ask, what does God propose that we who are suffering do? Our
Gospel passage today tells us what God proposes: Come to Jesus. In the plan of
God, that is the practical way forward for suffering man.
In our Gospel passage today our Lord addresses those who are weary and
overburdened (Matthew 11: 28‑30). He says
to them, come to me and I will give you rest. He does not speak of “rest” in
every sense. He does not mean that he will necessarily take away the precise
suffering that is afflicting them at the time, but he does promise that he will
give them rest. He may at times take away the particular suffering that is
burdening them. We read in the Gospels of how he did this for very many people
during his public ministry, and after he had ascended to his heavenly Father he
continued to do this. For instance, we read in the Acts of the Apostles how
Peter healed the crippled man in the name of Jesus Christ. So, at times Christ,
does take away the particular suffering that is afflicting a person. But this
is not the essential meaning of his promise because his own suffering was not
taken away even though he asked his heavenly Father that, if it be his will, his
cup be taken away from him. Indeed, he tells us that if anyone wants to be his
disciple — which is to say to come to him and to remain in his company — then he
must take up his cross every day and follow in his footsteps. That path leads
to Calvary. So Christ does not promise the end of suffering, for paradoxically
there may be more suffering. The following of Christ entails suffering. But to
the man who comes to him and who takes up his yoke, the yoke of Christ which is
nothing other than the will of the Father with all the difficulties that this
involves, he promises rest. That is the divine answer to suffering. “Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls.” Union with Jesus in doing the will of the Father
in the midst of suffering, the suffering that the will of God will entail,
brings rest for our souls. Man’s true joy lies in union with Jesus and in
accompanying him on his way. Love for Jesus will make the carrying of his yoke
easy. His burden will be light. This is the testimony of the saints, and the
more the Christian lives in Jesus, the more he discovers this.
If we are suffering, let us go to Jesus and resolve to accept his way, his
teaching, his yoke. He is gentle and humble of heart. Go to the sacred heart
of Jesus and rest in his love. Place your burdens in that heart and reside
there as your rest, the rest for your soul. If you live in his love and strive
to grow in it, you will find that his yoke is easy and his burden light. That
yoke, that burden is the yoke he lovingly carried. It is doing the will of the
Father, and doing it in Jesus.
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Scripture today: Isaiah 38: 1-6.21-22.7-8; Isaiah 38; Matthew 12: 1-8
At
that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were
hungry and began to pick some ears of corn and eat them. When the Pharisees saw
this, they said to him, Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the
Sabbath. He answered, Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions
were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the
consecrated bread— which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the
priests. Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath day the Temple
priests break the Sabbath without being blamed for it? I tell you that one
greater than the Temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, 'I
desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. For the
Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.(Matthew 12:
1-8)
Lord of the Sabbath
At various points in the Gospels we see that a crucial and repeated point of
conflict between our Lord and the scribes and Pharisees was our Lord’s attitude
to the Sabbath rest.
He upheld the Sabbath rest, of course, because it was a stipulation of the Law
of Moses, but he interpreted its practice very differently from the scribes and
Pharisees. He did not allow their authority on this point and on various others
of what he called their human traditions. We read that “At that time Jesus went
through the cornfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to
pick some ears of corn and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to
him, Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” Let us
consider this occasion, not to go into the details of the Sabbath dispute as
such, but as the setting for something far more important, our Lord’s revelation
of who he really was. The first point that our Lord makes in reply to them is
that, at times, genuine need allowed a person to interpret in different ways the
divine law of the Sabbath rest. He cites the example of David who, when he and
his companions were hungry, entered the house of God and ate the bread which, by
regulation, was only for the priests. They understood the intent of the divine
law. Their severe hunger was a more important need in this instance than
reserving the blessed bread for the priests alone. It was lawful to disregard
the regulation because of a legitimate need. So, too, it was lawful for the
disciples to pick ears of corn as they were passing through a cornfield on the
Sabbath because they were hungry. Or again, on the Sabbath day the Temple
priests routinely broke the Sabbath regulations in the course of their duties
and this was understood as perfectly legitimate. Service of the Temple was the
more important need, and the value of the Temple as the house of God overrode
all others. But then came the punchline which the scribes and Pharisees had
altogether missed. Let us consider it.
Firstly, they did not realize the fundamental spirit of the Law. The Law of God
as it came through Moses was the Law of a God rich in compassion and mercy. The
Law was for man, and if the scribes and Pharisees had understood what God’s
words meant — I desire mercy, not sacrifice — they would not have condemned the
innocent. If their minds had been imbued with the mind of the God of mercy they
would never have challenged our Lord for the behaviour of his disciples on this
count. The implication is that he, Jesus, has that mind. He has the mind of
God and he is rich in mercy. We are reminded of St Paul’s directive in one of
his Letters, that we are to let this mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.
But there is more to our passage. Our Lord tells the scribes and Pharisees that
if service in the Temple dispensed the priests from observing the Sabbath in all
the details of Jewish tradition, much more so does Jesus himself have the
authority to dispense with this or that detail of Sabbath observance, because
“one greater than the Temple is here.” Consider the impact of these words on the
scribes and Pharisees. Our Lord was claiming to be greater than the Temple,
which was the focus of the soul of the nation. The Temple was the house of God
and it was the heart of national life. But he, Jesus, was greater. What
prophet would have said this? Would John the Baptist have said it? No, but our
Lord calmly said that he had that importance. But there was more to come, and
in the same sentence. He, the Son of Man, was Lord of the Sabbath
(Matthew 12: 1‑8). He, the man Jesus, thus
obliquely alluding to his claim to be the Messiah by using the title Son of Man,
was Lord of the Sabbath. Who was Lord of the Sabbath but God? The object of the
Sabbath was to honour and worship God. The purpose of the Sabbath rest was to
give one’s serious attention to the claims of God. He, God, is the Lord of the
Sabbath. Now here was Jesus claiming to be the Lord of the Sabbath. He then,
was somehow divine.
Let us place ourselves in the Gospel scene and gaze on the person of Jesus as he
calmly, and as it were in passing, makes these claims. He is greater than the
Temple itself. Moreover, he is Lord of the Sabbath. We know what Christ
means. He is the Messiah, the Son of God and is himself divine. He is the
Lord, the Lord of all, Lord of the Temple and Lord of the Sabbath, Lord of the
world and of every man and woman. He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and
all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. Let us then live
according to these wondrous facts.
When we seek God only, we need not be afraid to promote works of zeal, by
putting into practice the principle laid down by a good friend of ours: 'Spend
all that you ought, though you owe all that you spend.'
(The
Way, no.481)
Saturday of the
fifteenth week in Ordinary Time II
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Scripture today: Micah 2: 1-5; Psalm 9; Matthew
12: 14-21
The
Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus
withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick,
warning them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfil what was spoken through
the prophet Isaiah: Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in
whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the
nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no-one will hear his voice in the
streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not
snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put
their hope.(Matthew 12: 14-21)
Humble Christ How
contrary to the spirit of Average Man is the spirit of Jesus Christ! Average Man
reacts with anger and force to injury and the threat of harm, especially if he
happens to have power. The only reason why he may not is if he does not have
sufficient power to overcome the threat. All this is understandable, but how
different is it to the reaction of Christ! In our Gospel today the scene opens
with the Pharisees leaving and plotting how they might kill Jesus.
This is a phenomenon to be contemplated with some wonder. Jesus shows himself
to be of immense and flawless moral beauty. What a treasure to have such a
person in the midst of men, such a force for good, and exercising such divine
power as well! And yet the leaders oppose and wish to do away with him.
Consider what might have been the result of our Lord’s ministry — humanly
speaking, that is — if the leaders of the people, the Scribes and Pharisees, the
Sadducees, the priests and others who constituted the institutional leadership
of the people, had all recognized willingly and with a grateful heart the
mission and ministry of our Lord! What if they had been like the Ninevites in
their acceptance of Jonah. But it was not so. They closed in on him and became
determined to do away with him. But the point to be observed here is the
response of Christ to this hostility. In various other contexts he showed that
he had almighty power. In the face of a deadly storm at sea at a word he calmed
the entire tempest. What earthly power could overcome the resources that Christ
had at his immediate disposal. Let us put the point graphically. What army
could do this? What army could overcome the power of Christ should he have
chosen to use it in any military sense? When he was about to be arrested, our
Lord obliquely referred to this when he said that, were he to ask, his heavenly
Father would send him twelve legions of angels. Again, in the Garden of
Gethsemane just before he was arrested by force, the Temple soldiers who had
come to arrest him fell back in confusion at his word — a hint of what Christ
could do in the face of physical force. But this was not his way. It was not
his spirit. He did not meet force with force. We read in our passage today
that at the scheming of the Pharisees, Christ withdrew.
In the face of personal insults and threats to his person, Christ was meek and
humble of heart. His power was there all along but it was used simply to renew
and restore fallen man. He did not apply supernatural force to overcome
opponents. He withdrew and proceeded to assist those who chose to follow him.
In all of this he was the fulfilment of the Scriptures in their description of
the coming Messiah. “Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, warning
them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfil what was spoken through the
prophet Isaiah: Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I
delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the
nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no‑one will hear his voice in the
streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not
snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put
their hope” (Matthew 12: 14‑21). While
dying on the cross he heard the words of the penitent criminal who was dying
with him, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” They were
remarkable words, and they elicited from Christ a further act of power: “I
promise you, this day you will be with me in Paradise.” He was challenged to
come down from the cross, if he were the Messiah the Son of God. But he
responded humbly and drank of his cup to the full, and in this way exercised his
redeeming power. The almighty power of God showed itself not in Christ
defending himself against insult and injury but in showing mercy. As we place
ourselves in the Gospel scene to day let us not only observe how different is
the way of Christ from the way of man but above all let us draw near to the very
heart of Christ and come to know him. He invites us elsewhere in the Gospel to
come to him and to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. By
placing ourselves close to him and learning from him, we shall find rest for our
souls. Contemplating his example, we ought above all strive to be united to
him. That is the foundation and the source of the impulse to imitate Christ.
It is above all Christ himself whom the Christian seeks.
The four Gospels are the summit of the Scriptures because they present most
clearly the person, the example and the teaching of Christ. By reading the
Gospels we have a privileged means of coming to know Jesus personally and of
drawing near to him in prayer. We are able to draw near to him and be with
him. We are able to sustain our union with him and grow in this union by an
assiduous and daily effort to imitate him at the level of the heart. Our
ambition ought be to let Christ’s mind become the model for our own and, by the
power of God’s grace, gradually to be transformed in his likeness. Let us take
up the Gospels daily with the intention of doing this.
What does it matter if you have the whole world against you, with all its power?
You... keep going!
Repeat the words of the psalm: 'The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom need
I fear? Si consistant adversum me castra, non timebit cor meum. — Though an army
pitched camp against me, my heart shall not be afraid'.
(The Way, no.482)
Prayers this week: God
himself is my help. The Lord upholds my life. I will offer you a willing
sacrifice; I will praise your name, O Lord, for its goodness.
(Psalm 53: 6.8)
Lord, be merciful to your people. Fill us with your gifts and make us always
eager to serve you in faith, hope and love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus
Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
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Jesus
told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good
seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed
weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed ears,
then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir,
didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 'An
enemy did this,' he replied. The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and
pull them up?' 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you
may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At
that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in
bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' He told
them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man
took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet
when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that
the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. He told them still another
parable: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a
large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. Jesus spoke all
these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without
using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: I will
open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the
world. Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him
and said, Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. He answered, The
one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the
good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil
one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the
age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the
fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his
angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all
who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the
kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.(Matthew 13: 24-43)
Faith
One of the very great lives of nineteenth century Australia was that of Mary
MacKillop, the first Australian to be beatified and then canonized. She had
many non‑Catholic friends, including non‑Christian friends.
On one occasion one of these friends spoke to Mary of the admiration she had for
her faith. She herself, she told Mary, could not overcome her scepticism. We
have in those two persons, both friends and both good people — one of them being
a saint — the contrast between faith and its lack. I remember watching a
lengthy interview with an American intellectual who had been a friend of a
Catholic priest. During the course of the interview he narrated how he was once
asked by his priest friend what it was that held him back from Christian
belief. He said that he told the priest that faith was a gift, and that he
obviously did not have that gift. I suspect that he said this with some irony
and as a way to manifest his scepticism and even ridicule of Church teaching.
Whatever of that, while faith is not a divider of friendships it is certainly a
divider in religion. Faith! The Church teaches that faith is a gift from God
and not simply an acquisition gained through personal effort, even though
personal effort prepares the way and disposes a person for its reception. It is
a gift of the Holy Spirit received at Baptism and is a permanent disposition of
the mind and soul. It is a supernatural gift predisposing a person to accept
the person and teaching of Jesus and empowering him to resist the temptation to
scepticism and resistance to God’s authority. If it is nourished and protected,
it will grow strong and lead to holiness. Like any gift it can be neglected and
allowed to die, but with repentance the grace of God can raise it to life
again. It can be deliberately refused prior to its granting. That is to say, a
person can knowingly refuse to believe, and our Lord says that if a person does
this, that person is in imminent danger of damnation. The one who refuses to
believe, our Lord told his disciples, will be condemned, while the one who
chooses to believe will be saved.
Consider an elderly person who all her life has genuinely believed in Christ.
She has been faithful to the practice of her religion, going to Mass all her
life not only every Sunday but virtually every day. Her life has been a life of
prayer and full acceptance of the teaching of the Church which she recognizes to
be both the body of Christ and his living representative here on earth. How are
we to account for this faith and this complete lack of scepticism in her
religion? How are we to account for her acceptance of and obedience to the
authority of God as present and active in Christ’s Church? It is due to the gift
that she received on the day of her Baptism, the gift of faith by which the Holy
Spirit inclined her to belief in Christ. It is an inestimable gift, and without
it she would not have attained the union with God that is hers. She is now
elderly and her life is Christ. She knows that he is her Saviour and her God.
She shows all the signs of one who will die in the arms of her Saviour, although
she would be the first to avow that were she to be deliberately negligent she
could fall away. She is weak, she is a sinner, but Christ is her life. All
this is due to the foundation of her life which is the supernatural virtue of
faith she received at her Baptism. Today we think of our Lord’s parable of the
good seed sown in the field (Matthew 13: 24‑43).
They are the ones who have received the gift of faith and who have lived
according to it. They are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of
the evil one. They are not those who have simply not received the gift of
faith. Rather they are those who knowingly refuse it or who knowingly refuse
whatever light comes from God. If they do not repent, their prospects are
serious indeed. Our Lord speaks of “the fiery furnace, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Those who, having received the gift of faith
either prior to or following on their efforts to be properly disposed, live
generously in its light, will “shine like the sun in the kingdom of their
Father.” The divine gift of faith is the beginning of eternal life here and the
means of gaining life hereafter.
Let us who believe in Christ as the Lord and who accept his body the Church as
his representative here on earth be very conscious of the gift that came to us
at our Baptism. It is the all‑important supernatural gift of faith. It is the
foundation of our practice of religion and union with God. We were blessed with
this gift by the Holy Spirit and enabled to accept Christ readily as our Lord
and our Redeemer. Let us guard and nourish this gift by living according as the
Church teaches, building up a true spiritual life and in this way allowing our
faith to take us to heaven.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.163-165
(Faith as the beginning of eternal life)
Courage! You... can! Don't you see what God's grace did with sleepy-headed
Peter, the coward who had denied him..., and with Paul, his fierce and
relentless persecutor?
(The
Way, no.483)
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Scripture today: Micah 6: 1-4.6-8; Psalm 49; Matthew 12: 38-42
Then
some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, Teacher, we want to
see a miraculous sign from you. He answered, A wicked and adulterous generation
asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a
huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation
and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater
than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this
generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to
Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.(Matthew 12: 38-42)
Dispositions
I remember years ago I
was travelling in a train reading a book and a person came up from behind me and
opened up a conversation on religion. I asked him if he was looking for
information from me on that subject but he said that no, all he wanted was to
debate. He wanted to argue over the truth of the existence of God and of
various other points in religion. I could see that his mind was made up on
these issues and that all he wanted to do was win an argument.
I told him that I was not interested in such a discussion. He could see that
this was true, and so he left me. In the nineteenth century one of the great
apologists for revealed religion was John Henry Newman. He wrote that the
deciding factor in the position that people take up in respect to religion was
where they were coming from, their starting points and what they considered as
the first principles of any such discussion. In this respect, he did not deny
the logical validity of the proofs of the existence of God, but he said that
they fail to convince because of the basic presuppositions that people have —
their first principles. He went further and said that the first principles and
presuppositions that people have in religious and moral matters have their roots
in their moral attitudes. Without knowing it, they do not want to believe in
God or Christ or in the morality of this or that practical matter. They are
coming at the issue with attitudes already set, and those attitudes govern what
they are prepared to accept. Well now, let us consider our Gospel passage today
and see what is happening in the hearts of those who approached our Lord. Some
of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law said to Jesus, Teacher, we want to see
a miraculous sign from you. They were coming to our Lord and in effect saying,
we will believe in you if you give us this kind of proof, the proof of a certain
kind of miracle. But our Lord responded by saying that sin is behind this
request. It is a “wicked generation” that makes such a request of me.
That is to say, they were not in any way open to our Lord’s person and teaching
and all they were doing was trying to put to him tests that they hoped he would
fail in. It meant, ultimately, that whatever he did, they would refuse him.
The problem was where they were coming from, and they were blind to their
condition. I mentioned John Henry Newman and his stress on the importance of
the right moral attitudes and starting points. He wrote further that often
those starting points are hidden from our sight, and we need to pray to God that
he will provide us with the right starting points, the right first principles.
Undoubtedly the scribes and Pharisees were blind to where they were coming
from. They needed to repent. Until this happened nothing that Christ did would
avail in changing their attitude. And so he said to them that no sign would be
given them except himself, he himself and his death and rising from the dead.
They needed to repent. “But none will be given it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a
huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this
generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now
one greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the
judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the
earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here”
(Matthew 12: 38‑42). They would be
condemned for not responding to the presence among them of Jesus, and for not
repenting. Others in the past had repented on seeing far less than what they
were seeing, and had done so with no miracles. They, however, lacked the
fundamental dispositions that were absolutely necessary for an apprehension of
the truth, and so no sign would be given them for it would not avail.
Let us all our lives contemplate the person of Jesus and his teaching. If we
are good soil, his person and his teaching will produce the hundredfold that God
intends. If we are not, if we are the stony path, or the thorns, or the rocky
ground, the seed of God’s word will have little effect. Let us then ask God to
work in us by the power of his grace and grant us the dispositions that will
make faith in Jesus both possible and fruitful.
Be an instrument of gold or steel, or iron or platinum,... big or small, rough
or delicate.
All are useful; each one serves its own purpose. As in material things: would
anyone dare assert that the carpenter's saw is less useful than the surgeon's
scapel?
Your duty is to be an instrument.
(The
Way, no.484)
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Scripture today:
Micah 7: 14-15.18-20; Psalm 84; Matthew 12: 46-50
While
Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside,
wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, Your mother and brothers are standing
outside, wanting to speak to you. He replied to him, Who is my mother, and who
are my brothers? Pointing to his disciples, he said, Here are my mother and my
brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and
sister and mother.(Matthew 12: 46-50)
There
are a number of implications in the short scene presented by our Gospel passage
today that we ought ponder on. Our Lord is talking to the crowd and a message
comes to him saying that his mother and his relatives wanted to speak to him.
The
term "brothers" in this context refers, of course, not to immediate blood
brothers because Mary his mother was ever a virgin, but rather to close
relatives. Consider the ordinariness in which the Son of God made man is
immersed. He is God himself, God’s only Son of the same nature and being as the
Father. Yet he took to himself a human nature, and here we see it being played
out in its family context. Mary his most holy mother, full of grace and entirely
submissive to the word of God, is part of this circle of relatives. Apart from
her, there is no reason to think of our Lord’s "brothers" — which is to say his
close relatives — as being holy in any especially notable way. He and his mother
are part of that matrix of relationships and live out their lives in that very
human and ordinary situation. His relatives' unhesitating request to him that he
come and see them shows how well he submitted to this human and family situation
that flowed from his Incarnation. In this Christ sets us an example, an example
reflected by his mother. We are called to follow and imitate Christ in our
families with all their limitations. We may presume that our Lord did soon
conclude (or interrupt) his converse with the crowds and with the disciples
before him and go to speak with his "mother and brothers". But before he did so,
he made a point to all those to whom he was speaking, and presumably Matthew the
author of our Gospel heard it. "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?
Pointing to his disciples, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers. For
whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and
mother." (Matthew 12: 46-50)
In
these words our Lord is making very clear who is the one who is closest to him.
Imagine having been a close relative of Jesus as he was growing up in Nazareth
and then during his public ministry. The small group of relatives felt they had
a claim on him which itself indicated their closeness with one another and with
Jesus himself. They knew him very well. However, our Lord makes clear that the
one closest to him, the one he regards as especially his brother and sister and
mother, is the one who does the will of his Father in heaven. He points to those
of his disciples who are before him and who have been avidly listening to his
words. They want to do the will of the Father in heaven. So there is a new
family of Jesus coming into being and it consists of those who are one with him
in striving to do the will of the Father in heaven. The Christian knows that he
could well have said to the crowds that in fact there was one who fulfilled this
to perfection, namely his mother who awaited him outside with his relatives. She
would be the mother of his disciples and their great intercessor. We remember
how at the wedding feast of Cana the wine ran out. It was she who approached our
Lord to tell him of this so as to suggest he do something about it. She placed
the need before him and this brought forward the entry of our Lord into his
public ministry. So too now she places our needs before him. We remember how at
the foot of the Cross Mary his mother stood with the beloved disciple who in his
own person represented us. He gave his mother to him and him to his mother. She
became by divine appointment the mother of Christ’s Faithful and the exemplar
within the Church of all who strive to do the will of the Father in heaven. She
is the perfect imitator of Christ in his obedience to the Father. She is our
model and our mother in what Christ says he prizes more than anything: obedience
to the will of the Father. In our Gospel scene today we have a picture of the
seed of the Church of which we are members and to all are called.
Let us
place ourselves in our Gospel scene today before our Lord who is speaking to us
about the will of our Father in heaven. Let us resolve to make the fulfilment of
God’s will the goal of our lives, a goal we seek in union with Jesus, aided by
his grace, and inspired by the example and helped by the prayers of Mary who is
not only his mother but ours. Let us make the will of God the heart and soul of
our daily life, avoiding sin and repenting of it daily.
Christ’s brethren
There are a number of implications in the short scene presented by our Gospel
passage today that we ought ponder on. Our Lord is talking to the crowd and a
message comes to him saying that his mother and his relatives wanted to speak to
him. The term “brothers” in this context refers, of course, not to immediate
blood brothers because Mary his mother was ever a virgin, but rather to close
relatives. Consider the ordinariness in which the Son of God made man is
immersed. He is God himself, God’s only Son of the same nature and being as the
Father. Yet he took to himself a human nature, and here we see it being played
out in its family context. Mary his most holy mother, full of grace and
entirely submissive to the word of God, is part of this circle of relatives.
Apart from her, there is no reason to think of our Lord’s “brothers” — which is
to say his close relatives — as being holy in any especially notable way. He
and his mother are part of that matrix of relationships, and live out their
lives in that very human and ordinary situation. His relatives’ unhesitating
request to him that he come and see them shows how well he submitted to this
human and family situation that flowed from his Incarnation. In this, Christ
sets us an example, an example reflected by his mother. We are called to follow
and imitate Christ in our families with all their limitations. We may presume
that our Lord did soon conclude (or interrupt) his conversion with the crowds
and with the disciples before him, and go to speak with his “mother and
brothers”. But before he did so, he made a point to all those to whom he was
speaking, and presumably Matthew the author of our Gospel heard it. “Who is my
mother, and who are my brothers? Pointing to his disciples, he said, Here are my
mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my
brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12: 46‑50).
In these
words our Lord is making very clear who is the one who is closest to him.
Imagine having been a close relative of Jesus as he was growing up in Nazareth
and then during his public ministry. The small group of relatives felt they had
a claim on him which itself indicated their closeness with one another and with
Jesus himself. They knew him very well. However, our Lord makes clear that the
one closest to him, the one he regards as especially his brother and sister and
mother, is the one who does the will of his Father in heaven. He points to
those of his disciples who are before him and who have been avidly listening to
his words. They want to do the will of the Father in heaven. So there is a new
family of Jesus coming into being and it consists of those who are one with him
in striving to do the will of the Father in heaven. The Christian knows that he
could well have said to the crowds that in fact there was one who fulfilled this
to perfection, namely his mother who awaited him outside with his relatives.
She would be the mother of his disciples and their great intercessor. We
remember how at the wedding feast of Cana the wine ran out. It was she who
approached our Lord to tell him of this so as to suggest he do something about
it. She placed the need before him and this brought forward the entry of our
Lord into his public ministry. So, too, she places our needs before him now.
We remember how, at the foot of the Cross, Mary his mother stood with the
beloved disciple who in his own person represented us. He gave his mother to
him and him to his mother. She became by divine appointment the mother of
Christ’s faithful and the exemplar within the Church of all who strive to do the
will of the Father in heaven. She is the perfect imitator of Christ in his
obedience to the Father. She is our model and our mother in what Christ says he
prizes more than anything: obedience to the will of the Father. In our Gospel
scene today we have a picture of the seed of the Church of which we are members
and to which all are called.
Let us place ourselves in our Gospel scene today before our Lord who is speaking
to us about the will of our Father in heaven. Let us resolve to make the
fulfilment of God’s will the goal of our lives, a goal we seek in union with
Jesus, aided by his grace, and inspired by the example and helped by the prayers
of Mary who is not only his mother but ours. Let us make the will of God the
heart and soul of our daily life, avoiding sin and repenting of it daily.
Well, so what? I can't understand how you want
to give up that apostolic work — unless your motive is hidden pride: you think
yourself perfect — just because God's fire that attracted you and so often gives
the light and warmth that arouse your enthusiasm, should also at times produce
the smoke due to the weakness of the instrument.
Wednesday of the
sixteenth week in Ordinary Time II
Saint for Today: Click
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reading this reflection.
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Scripture today: Jeremiah 1: 1.4-10; Psalm 70; Matthew 13: 1-9
That
same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds
gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people
stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: A farmer
went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the
path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did
not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when
the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no
root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still
other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop — a hundred, sixty or
thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.(Matthew 13: 1-9)
It is of interest to let one’s mind
range over the history of human thought and to think of the methods used by the
great minds and teachers of the centuries. Consider Socrates with his probing
questions, designed to bring forth the meanings that were implicit in accepted
assumptions. He employed what has come to be called the Socratic method.
Its context is the questioner speaking to an individual being questioned and
certainly not to the masses. Plato taught in allegories and other genre, while
Aristotle was noted for his abstract enquiry. The context there was the academy
or a select group of students and disciples. Alexander the Great had been a
student of Aristotle’s. Or again, take the Bible itself, the written vehicle of
the word of God. We see there short treatises of history, narrative, poetry,
numerous quoted sermons of the prophets, abstract dissertations such as Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus, maxims such as the book of Proverbs, and so forth. God used
various forms of communication to express his word in writing. Let that be the
backdrop for our gaze at Christ teaching the large crowds who gathered to hear
him. He preached the word of God — his own word — to them and what did he use?
He more often than not used the story. He would compose a brief story drawn from
the circumstances of their lives to express his point. At times he used what we
might call maxims, such as what we refer to as the Beatitudes: Blessed are the
poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew gives numerous
sayings of our Lord, and weaves them into sermons, such as the Sermon on the
Mount. Undoubtedly our Lord spoke to the crowds in this fashion too. But
especially notable are his stories, or parables, and we have an example of one
in our passage today (Matthew 13: 1-9). They
show how our Lord was close to the people. He knew their world and their daily
situation and he drew them into his teaching by presenting it in a fashion that
was abundantly clear to them. He drew them from the known to the unknown.
Even though the reader of the Gospels
lives two thousand years from the time of our Lord’s utterance of his parables,
his use of the parable renders his teaching luminously accessible. The reader is
able to contemplate the word of God by means of imaginative visualization. John
Henry Newman in his master work on the philosophy of religious faith — A
Grammar of Assent — helped to show the importance of the imagination in
the religious apprehension of God. Our Lord is constantly using the imagination
in his presentation of the word of God. He speaks concretely and in images. The
farmer is going out to sow. He describes the seed falling on various types of
ground and what then happens to it. He describes the seed falling on to good
soil and bearing its fruit. Whether a person is capable of great abstract
thinking or not such a method makes the word of God accessible not only to the
masses who were gathered before our Lord at the time of his speaking, but to the
masses from generation to generation. Each of us who read the Gospels ought use
our imaginations. We ought place ourselves in the Gospel scene, knowing that in
fact Jesus, the risen Jesus is actually near. He sees us and he is with us. And
so in a loving memory of his words and deeds, placing ourselves in his real and
living presence, we contemplate him there speaking and telling his parable. We
give him our full attention, thinking of the details of his story, of the farmer
sowing his seed and of the seed having at times little effect, at times great
effect. We ought enter truly into the story because not only will this be
illuminating but it will place us ever close to our Lord in our hearts. We shall
draw near to him in spirit and our love for him will grow. We shall enter into
his mind, as it were, and progressively make his mind our own. Let this mind be
in you, St Paul wrote, that was in Christ Jesus. Reading the Gospels
prayerfully, and especially entering into his parables, will help us do this.
Let us learn to love the Gospels and the
words of our Lord that are contained therein. Let us especially appreciate our
Lord’s parables, loving to enter into them imaginatively and thus to appreciate
his divine teaching. St Jerome once wrote that ignorance of Scripture is
ignorance of Christ. This applies especially of ignorance of the Gospels.
The Gospels
It is of interest to let one’s mind range over the history of human thought and
to think of the methods used by the great minds and teachers of the centuries.
Consider Socrates with his probing questions, designed to bring forth the
meanings that were implicit in accepted assumptions. He employed what has come
to be called the Socratic method. It is employed by a questioner speaking to an
individual, and certainly not to the masses. Plato taught in allegories and
other genre, while Aristotle was noted for his abstract enquiry. The context
with these great philosophers was the academy or a select group of students and
disciples. Alexander the Great had been a student of Aristotle’s. Or again,
take the Bible itself, the written vehicle of the word of God. We see there
short treatises of history, narrative, poetry, numerous quoted sermons of the
prophets, abstract dissertations such as Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, maxims such as
the book of Proverbs, and so forth. God used various forms of communication to
express his word in writing. Let that be the backdrop as we gaze at Christ
teaching the large crowds who gathered to hear him. He preached the word of God
— his own word — to them and what genre did he use? He more often than not used
the story. He would compose a brief story drawn from the circumstances of their
lives to express his point. At times he used what we might call maxims, such as
what we refer to as the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Matthew gives numerous sayings of our Lord, and weaves
them into sermons, such as the Sermon on the Mount. Undoubtedly our Lord spoke
to the crowds in this fashion too. But especially notable are his stories, or
parables, and we have an example of one in our passage today
(Matthew 13: 1‑9). They show how our Lord was
close to the people. He knew their world and their daily situation and he drew
them into his teaching by presenting it in a fashion that was abundantly clear
to them. He led them from the known to the unknown.
Even
though the reader of the Gospels lives two thousand years from the time of our
Lord’s utterance of his parables, his use of the parable renders his teaching
luminously accessible. The reader is able to contemplate the word of God by
means of imaginative visualization. John Henry Newman in his master work on the
philosophy of religious faith — A Grammar of Assent — helped to show the
importance of the imagination in the religious apprehension of God. Our Lord is
constantly using the imagination in his presentation of the word of God. He
speaks concretely and in images. The farmer is going out to sow. He describes
the seed falling on various types of ground and what then happens to it. He
describes the seed falling on to good soil and bearing its fruit. Whether a
person is capable of great abstract thinking or not, such a method makes the
word of God accessible not only to the masses who were gathered before our Lord
at the time of his speaking, but to the masses from generation to generation.
Each of us who read the Gospels ought use our imaginations. We ought place
ourselves in the Gospel scene, knowing that in fact the risen Jesus is actually
near to us as we pray. He sees us and he is with us. And so in a loving memory
of his words and deeds, placing ourselves in his real and living presence, we
contemplate him there speaking and telling his parable. We give him our full
attention, thinking of the details of his story, of the farmer sowing his seed
and of the seed having at times little effect, at times great effect. We ought
enter truly into the story because not only will this be illuminating but it
will place us ever close to our Lord in our hearts. We shall draw near to him
in spirit and our love for him will grow. We shall enter into his mind, as it
were, and progressively make his mind our own. Let this mind be in you, St Paul
wrote, that was in Christ Jesus. Reading the Gospels prayerfully, and
especially entering into his parables, will help us do this.
Let us learn to love the Gospels and the words of our Lord that are contained
therein. Let us especially appreciate our Lord’s parables, loving to enter into
them imaginatively and thus to appreciate his divine teaching. St Jerome once
wrote that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. This applies
especially to ignorance of the Gospels.
There is work in plenty. The instruments cannot be left to grow rusty. There are
also norms to avoid the mildew and the rust. Just put them into practice.
(The Way,
no.486)
Thursday
of the sixteenth week in Ordinary Time II
Saint for Today: Click
here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are
reading this reflection.
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to return to this reflection.
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Scripture today: Jeremiah 2: 1-3.7-8.12-13; Psalm 35; Matthew 13: 10-17
The disciples came to Jesus and asked,
Why do you speak to the people in parables? He replied, The knowledge of the
secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever
has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have,
even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in
parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or
understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever
hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear
with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For
I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see
but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.(Matthew 13: 10-17)
Reluctant heart
One of the principal interests of British philosophy for centuries has been the
act of knowing. What is it to know, and is what we call knowledge a true grasp
of objective reality, or is it purely a subjective act? Of course, in everyday
life there is necessarily a question as to whether one’s impression of something
is objectively correct or not. But a strong current in philosophy has taken the
question far further and asked if the human mind can ever know anything for
certain or whether all our knowledge consists simply of subjective impressions.
Of course, this has been a philosophical question for over two thousand years,
and we see references to it even in the writings of Cicero. As an aside, I
suggest the answer lies in the idea of intuition and evidence. That is to say,
it is simply evident to us that we can know things objectively. Be that as it
may, another contested issue is the knowledge attained through religious faith.
I believe in the word of Christ, and so I accept his divinity and the trinity of
persons in one God. Because of my faith I attain knowledge that I would not
have, had I lacked faith. Faith takes me to knowledge that is beyond what I
would know had I relied merely on my own reasoning. A question arises: is this
faith simply an intellectual act or does it depend on other factors also?
Faith obviously engages the reason, but is this all there is to it? Does
faith simply involve the exercise of good powers of reasoning that enable a
person to do good research and reach conclusions unattainable for another person
with more limited intellectual capacity? This is important because in
everyday life there are many persons with very good powers of reason who do not
have faith, and others that do. So is more than mere reason required? It
is impossible here to discuss all the factors which may lead a person to faith,
be they rational, the example of others or whatever. But I raise this question
because there is one fundamental factor that appears in our Gospel passage
today. It is the moral factor disposing a person for faith. It shows that
faith requires not just reasoning, but moral dispositions.
In our case today, our Lord is asked by his disciples why he speaks to the
people in parables and not simply and directly. Our Lord had told a parable to
the crowds and had left his audience to ponder on its message, concluding with
the appeal: “Listen, anyone who has ears!” He explained to his disciples
that “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to
you, but not to them.” What does he mean? He explains and quotes the
prophet Isaiah in the process. “This is why I speak to them in parables: Though
seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In
them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never
understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s
heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have
closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their
ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’”
(Matthew 13: 10‑17) The crowds our Lord had
before him hear but they do not really hear nor do they understand because their
heart has hardened. How has this happened? As the prophet Isaiah said, they
“have closed their eyes.” Why have they done this? It is because
they do not want to see, nor do they want to hear, nor do they want to
understand. They do not really want to be healed. “Otherwise they might see
with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn,
and I would heal them.” In their heart of hearts they are reluctant and
unwilling to change. They do not want the healing action of God because of what
it will involve. They do not want to repent. Our Lord could see this moral
reluctance, this unwillingness at the level of the heart and so he kept from
them the full message contained in the parable. He stated the parable and
invited them truly to hear it, those who have ears with which to hear. He
invited them to open their hearts to the word of God and to the grace of God
that prompts the acceptance of it. So in the act of faith there is required a
moral factor. One can love the light or not love it, and this moral
predisposition is of decisive importance for religious knowledge.
Let us ask that God will give us a ready heart. Faith in him is not just a mere
intellectual exercise. It involves a willingness to repent and to accept him
for all that this might involve. What can lead us to this faith and acceptance?
Love. Let us draw near to him and listen to his words, asking for the grace to
love him, to love him who is the true object of the human heart. In a word, let
us resolve to be truly disciples of Christ.
Don't worry
over the financial difficulties which threaten your apostolic undertaking. Have
greater confidence in God, do all that your human means permit— and you'll see
how soon money ceases to be a difficulty
(The Way, no.487)
Saint for Today: Click
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reading this reflection.
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Scripture readings:
Exodus 20: 1-17; Psalm 18; Matthew 13: 18-23
Jesus said to his disciples: “Listen then to what the parable of the sower
means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand
it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the
seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky
places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since
he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes
because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that
fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this
life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one
who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and
understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times
what was sown.” (Matthew 13: 18-23)
Success
One of the intriguing
things about the world and all that makes it up is its yearning for perfection.
This is principally a feature of man — but reflected in its varied ways in the
rest of creation.
Winston Churchill once wrote that “To improve is to change. To be perfect is to
have changed a lot.” The point I prefer to take from this remark is that
change finds its truest meaning in the quest for perfection. Change, so evident
in man, is universal in visible reality, and this change is a sign of the
universal quest for perfection. The plant grows, struggles, and finally
achieves its glory in the flowers or fruit it produces. It is, analogously,
seeking its perfection. Animals grow and flourish, and seek their perfection,
such as it is. There is a drive everywhere to be better and to do better. A
person who changes little, even physically, will not attain his potential. So
the question of success and of flourishing in life is a very fundamental
question. We can be successful, or we can fail. The ultimate success is
beyond our dreams — it is heaven forever. The ultimate failure is horrifying —
it is damnation forever. God has made us with a natural yearning for success
together with a natural revulsion at failure. All applaud success, and they
pity or even condemn failure. The issue, of course, pivots on what success and
failure are, because there is disagreement. What matters is what God judges to
be success and failure. In our Gospel passage today our Lord refers to
success. He is painting the picture of a man going out to sow his seed. Some
of the seed is successful, and some a failure. “The one who received the seed
that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He
produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown”
(Matthew 13: 18-23). God sent his Son to
dwell among us so that we might be successful — that we might be like the farmer
who, in casting his seed on the good soil, produces a hundredfold. God does not
want us to be like the seed that failed and produced nothing. Let us ask, what
is it that brings about failure in God’s sight?
Let us consider our Lord’s explanation of his parable, and what it is that
caused the seed to fail in his story. The first lot of seed fell on the pathway
and was snatched up by the birds of the air. The birds stand for the demons.
At the dawn of human history, Satan entered the scene and brought about a great
failure in man. He tempted the woman, who tempted the man, and they both fell —
and the human race has been mired in terrible failures ever since. On one
occasion, our Lord told Simon Peter that he was taking Satan’s part in what he
had just proposed. At the Last Supper our Lord referred to Satan as a Prince.
He was the Prince of this world, and he was advancing, setting up his armaments
for attack. At our Lord’s Passion Satan unleashed an immense blitzkrieg against
the Messiah, and our Lord was left as a burnt offering, the Lamb sacrificed.
While Christ gained an immense success, many do not and the devil is a major
reason for their failure. Judas Iscariot failed. Satan had entered him, as St
John writes. So the devil is a source of man’s ultimate failure. Another
source is man’s own person — the sin that is in him. We read in our passage
that “The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who
hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he
lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word,
he quickly falls away.” He has no root. It is himself that is the cause of his
failure. We may say that this reminds us of man’s propensity to sin and how he
can freely consent to this. From within his own heart come the seeds of his
ultimate failure — he does not choose to be implanted in God and in grace. Let
us call this source of failure “the flesh” — all that is within a man that leads
him away from true success in God. Then there is the world around him, which we
may take as the thorns into which the seed fell. “The one who received the seed
that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of
this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.” The
world, the flesh, the devil — these are the sources of man’s failure.
Let us resolve to fight for true success, and the field is won day by day.
Every advance against the world, the flesh and the devil is a step towards the
success that God wants each of us to have. We shall be successful, or we shall
fail. There is no other alternative. The terrible thing about this is that the
stakes are very high indeed, for we are speaking of either salvation or
damnation. Let us stand with Christ, then! Let us never drift from him, because
in him we cannot fail. Apart from him we shall.
Christ
Himself vouchsafes to repeat in each of us in figure and mystery all that He did
and suffered in the flesh. He is formed in us, born in us, suffers in us, rises
again in us, lives in us; and this not by a succession of events, but all at
once: for He comes to us as a Spirit, all dying, all rising again, all living.
We are ever receiving our birth, our justification, our renewal, ever dying to
sin, ever rising to righteousness.
JHN, from the sermon ‘Righteousness not of us, but in us’ (1840)
Saturday
of the sixteenth week in Ordinary Time II
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Scripture today: Jeremiah 7:1-11; Psalm Ps
84:3-6a and 8a, 11; Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus
told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good
seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed
weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed ears,
then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir,
didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 'An
enemy did this,' he replied. The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and
pull them up?' 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you
may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At
that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in
bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'(Matthew 13:24-30)
Bitterness
I am convinced that one of the most universal of problems is that of bitter
memories. As people grow older, difficult and hurtful memories can crowd their
minds. If they do not learn to control those memories and cast a new and higher
light on them, their lives will be blighted.
Wise counselling can be of immense help, but each person must take his own case
in hand and strive to look on his painful memories in a higher way. Those who
caused the injuries that are being remembered will gradually die off and still
the painful memories can remain unresolved. It is an aspect of the problem of
evil as felt by the individual. There is no simple answer to this and yet those
memories have to be controlled and healed. A few great facts ought be kept in
mind by the one thus suffering. Firstly, the ultimate cause of suffering is sin
— either sin within oneself, or sin outside of oneself. As St Paul writes in
the Letter to the Romans, sin entered the world through one man and through sin
death, and death has spread to the whole human race. So death and all that
leads to death is ultimately due to the sin of man. Christ suffered
incomparably and his sufferings were due entirely to the sin of the world,
outside himself. He was absolutely sinless, and yet he suffered more than any
other. The case is different with us. We cause suffering to others and they
cause suffering to us. But whatever is or has been the suffering — whether
caused by us or by others or by a combination of both (which is usually the
case) — the ultimate cause is sin. While in the first instance, our Lord’s
parable today is about those who are good (the wheat) and those who are bad (the
weeds) and the judgment of God on each, for our purposes here let us make a
further application beyond that made by our Lord. Let us regard the weeds of
the parable as an image of sin, and let us apply it to our hurtful experiences.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But
while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and
went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed ears, then the weeds also
appeared.” (Matthew 13:24‑30) In life, the
wheat grows side by side with the weeds.
There is a tradition in Christian thought that judges man to be wholly and
entirely corrupted and sunk in sin. If by this is meant that by nature there is
no good in man, I deny this to be revealed doctrine. Man is not totally
corrupted. Rather, man is profoundly wounded by sin to the point where by
nature he is subject to ignorance, to suffering and the dominion of death, and
is inclined to sin. There are both weeds and wheat within each man by nature.
While due to the work of Christ grace now abounds the more, nevertheless there
are the weeds of sin. The weeds of sin are everywhere among the wheat and sin
is the common malady. So when a person’s life is burdened by the painful
memories of past hurts, let him remember that the sin which all have inherited
from our first parents is present in his life and also in the lives of those who
have hurt him. Due to this common malady we have been hurt by others and others
hurt by us. Indeed, more often than not, the hurts from which one suffers are
due to sin both in others and in oneself. I think this thought of the common
malady of sin can help those who suffer to be more forgiving of those who have
hurt them. There are weeds everywhere, and as the master of the field in the
parable says, an enemy has done this. That enemy has gained a foothold in every
man and woman, and the result is unhappiness and suffering for all. The one who
has hurt us suffers from this malady too. Sin must be renounced, but due to
this common malady, we all suffer from the hurts and injuries we inflict on one
another to a greater or lesser extent. We share a common burden. In our pain
let us be understanding. There is this further fact that is more important than
all. In the parable, the field which has both wheat and weeds has at the same
time a master, an owner. This can remind us that there is one master in whom we
can trust. In the midst of our hurts we can trust that he will guide our path
to its proper end. His love is active in his providence so let us not only
recall the harsh elements in our life but also the good things which God has
done, the providence that has been at work and which will take us to the end.
All this is to say that we ought remember the fact that while sin has passed to
the whole human race because one man sinned, at the same time God is at work
bringing us to our good.
There is wheat in the field but many weeds as well. An enemy has done this, as
the owner of the field in the parable says. St Paul wrote that God brings
together all things for the good of those who love God. We can trust in him and
looking back on life we can see his providence at work. That is a sign of the
much better things which in the fullness of time God will bring us to. Let us
then be forgiving and trust constantly in God.
A keen and
living faith. Like Peter's. When you have it — our Lord has said so — you will
move the mountains, the humanly insuperable obstacles that rise up against your
apostolic undertakings.
(The Way, no.489)
Prayers
this week: God
is in his holy dwelling; he will give a home to the lonely, he gives power and
strength to his people.
(Psalm 67: 6-7. 36)
God our Father and protector, without you nothing is holy, nothing has value.
Guide us to everlasting life by helping us to use wisely the blessings you have
given to the world. We ask this
through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
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Jesus
said to his disciples: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.
When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he
had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold
everything he had and bought it. Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net
that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full,
the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the
good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end
of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and
throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth. Have you understood all these things? Jesus asked. Yes, they replied. He
said to them, Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about
the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his
storeroom new treasures as well as old.(Matthew
13:44-52)
Salvation in
Christ All
through the Gospels we see our Lord speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven. The
Kingdom of Heaven is God’s lordship over the hearts of men and the world. God’s
rule is found in the first instance and in its fullness in the person of Jesus
in whom, as St Paul writes, is present the entirety of the godhead bodily.
All who enter into union with him enter into the Kingdom of God and Heaven.
This Kingdom is made up of all those who are, to use the expression of the New
Testament and particularly of St Paul, “in Christ.” If anyone loves me he will
keep my word, our Lord tells us in St John’s Gospel, and we — my Father and I —
will come to him and make our abode with him. All those who are in Jesus, with
Jesus in them, are members of this Kingdom. In our passage today our Lord
begins with a description of the dedication with which a person is called to
seek this treasure, which is the person of Jesus Christ and union with him.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it,
he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that
field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine
pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he
had and bought it” (Matthew 13:44‑52). But
this earnest desire of the prospective disciple of Christ is nothing more than a
reflection of the far greater desire of God and of Christ himself. We read in a
Letter of St Paul that though he possessed the glory and the condition of God,
the Son put this aside and became as we men are, and humbler still even to death
on a cross. In other words he “sold all he had” to gain the treasure which is
our salvation in him. Christ gave up all his riches for the sake of the Kingdom
which consists in all mankind being saved in and through him. This is the will
of God — our sanctification, as St Paul writes. The will of God is the
salvation of all, and Christ himself is the one who is par excellence the man in
the parable who gave up all he had for this treasure.
When we speak of the will of God, we must always remember that his will is that
we, each and all of us, be finally with him forever in heaven. Strange to say,
this has been called into question by some currents of Christian thought. Some
would have it that there are some who are predestined by God to live forever
with him in heaven, and others are not thus elected. This is profoundly
erroneous. As St Paul writes in his letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 2:4) it is the
will of the Father that “all men be saved.” It was in order to fulfil perfectly
the universal saving plan of his Father that Christ came. It was a mission that
embraced the entire world of all time. He did not come to establish a Kingdom
like that of so many other kingdoms of this world that are restricted to this or
that region, people, civilization or epoch. His kingdom is meant to embrace all
men of all ages in an eternal salvation. Our calling — and we have had this
calling from all eternity — is to unite ourselves as perfectly as possible to
this intent of Jesus, which is salvation. The stakes are high because there are
ultimately only two alternatives facing every man and woman, and the entire
world. There is only salvation or damnation. There is no middle possibility.
In our Gospel passage today our Lord makes this very clear. “Once again, the
kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all
kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then
they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.
This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and
separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The treasure hidden in the
field, the pearl of great price, is that all men will be saved. That salvation
consists in union with the living person of Jesus Christ who, in God’s plan, is
to be found in the Church he founded.
Let us pray that the will of God our Father will be done on earth as it is done
in heaven. His will is that we, each and all of us without exception, be
saved. The way to this is union with Jesus. The life that God offers, eternal
life, consists in union with Jesus. The truth of it is to be found in him. He
is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and his is the only name by which men can be
saved. Let us then accept him totally together with his saving teaching, and
every day endeavour to bring him to others.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.
2822-2827
(Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven)
An upright
heart and good will. With these, and with your mind intent on carrying out what
God wants, you will see your dreams of Love come true and your hunger for souls
satisfied.
(The Way, no.490)
Monday
of the seventeenth week in Ordinary Time II
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Scripture today: Jeremiah 13:1-11; Psalm
Deuteronomy 32:18-21; Matthew 13:31-35
He
told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a
man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds,
yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so
that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. He told them still
another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed
into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. Jesus spoke
all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them
without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: I
will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of
the world. (Matthew 13:31-35)
The Kingdom
One of the fundamental sentiments driving human history is hope. The range of
things men hope for is beyond number, but they all contribute to the press and
flux of human history. Hope leads to marvellous advances in civilization just
as it also leads to wars and disasters.
The issue is, in what are we placing our hopes and for what are we dedicating
our lives and energies? The story of God’s chosen people as it is presented in
the inspired books of the Old Testament is likewise the story of a great hope:
the hope that God held out to his chosen people. The hope was that God’s
kingdom was coming. In the book of Genesis, Abraham is promised that through
him all the earth would be blessed. In the same book, Abraham’s grandson Jacob
on his deathbed blesses his son Judah. He prophesies that the sceptre shall not
be taken from Judah till the One comes for whom it is reserved. The sceptre
would pass from Judah to him and he would be the hope of the nations. It is an
allusion to the Messiah. David was promised that his kingdom would never end.
So a great Ruler was coming and through him God in some sense would rule the
world. The world would be blessed. Our Lord revealed that this Kingdom had
arrived in him and he, the son of David, was its King. Well now, in our Gospel
passage today our Lord tells us more. The Kingdom is modest in appearance but
certain in its growth and in the blessings it brings. “The kingdom of heaven is
like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is
the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden
plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its
branches.” (Matthew 13:31‑35) Our Lord’s own
life is itself the example of this brief parable. He was born in utter
obscurity: in a stable in Bethlehem. He was pursued, spirited away to Egypt and
then raised in obscurity in Nazareth. Then he was revealed in Israel in his
miracles, his teaching and his holy life. He suffered, died and was buried.
God’s kingdom appears small but its future is beyond compare.
The kingdom of heaven as announced by our Lord is, of course, union with him.
He is the heart and soul of the kingdom of heaven and even if no-one else were
to be living in union with him, God’s kingdom would be on earth in the life and
person of Jesus Christ. But he is for all the nations and all the nations are
called to be his disciples. Being Christ’s disciple brings a person into God’s
kingdom, for it is this discipleship which opens the door to the Kingdom. The
whole world is called to union and friendship with Jesus and to living life
according to this friendship. Thus the purpose of human history is that Jesus
Christ be Lord, Lord of all, Lord of heaven and of earth. He is the Lord of
all, but salvation comes to men by their acknowledging this and living
accordingly. This is the Kingdom of God and this Kingdom has arrived on the
earth in the person of Jesus. The goal of all human history has begun to be
achieved, but it is an immense work and the parable of the mustard seed gives us
a picture of what is involved in this divine process. It may look like the
smallest of all the seeds but “when it grows it is the largest of garden plants
and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its
branches.” This is what will happen, and in the Creed the Christian professes
that of this kingdom there will be no end. This is what is happening in human
history on the large scale and it is what is happening on the small scale in the
life of every disciple of Christ. Within the Christian, by his baptism a
marvellous new and divine life has begun. It may appear very modest to those
looking on and even to the one living the Christian life himself, but it has a
power and a future which gives hope to all. If he is faithful to his Christian
life by daily prayer, by receiving devoutly the Sacraments of the Church, and by
fulfilling his daily responsibilities in his work, this divine seed will grow
and produce so many blessings for himself and for others. It will be a case of
the mustard seed becoming a tree, bringing life and shelter and blessings to
himself and to the world around him, now and forever.
A great hope has come to the world. That hope is the living person of Jesus.
In him dwells the fullness of the godhead bodily. He is the embodiment of the
Kingdom of God and entry into that Kingdom is gained by entry into friendship
and union with Jesus, and then living accordingly. The seed has begun in human
history and in the lives of so many who are disciples of Christ by faith and by
baptism. That seed is like the mustard seed. It will grow to being the largest
and most enduring tree of all. It will be an eternal tree, a tree beyond
compare in its blessings for man.
'This is
the carpenter's son, surely? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary?'
This, which was said of Jesus, may very well be said of you, in a tone half of
astonishment, half of mockery, when you really decide to carry out God's will,
to be an instrument: 'But, isn't this "So-and-so"...?'
Say nothing. And let your works confirm your mission.
(The Way, no.491)
Tuesday of the seventeenth week in Ordinary Time
A/I
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Scripture today:
Exodus 33: 7-11;34:5-9.28; Psalm 102; Matthew
13: 36-43
Then Jesus left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and
said, Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. He answered, The one
who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good
seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and
the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so
it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and
they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do
evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom
of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13: 36-43)
The fundamentals
One of the most impressive members of the English Catholic community during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — between Elizabeth’s outlawing of
Catholicism to the Catholic Emancipation of 1829 — was Richard Challoner
(1691-1781).
He was Catholic bishop for the London district, first and for many years the
coadjutor bishop (1741) and then Vicar Apostolic in his own right till his
death. He was an outstanding bishop in a century difficult for the Catholic
people of England. He was diligent, prayerful and remarkable as an author of
numerous works of spirituality, doctrine and apologetics. His new translation,
based on the Douay Bible, remained the foundation of further Catholic
translations for more than 150 years. In his many published works Challoner was
not distinguished by originality of mind but in his care at passing on in
comprehensive fashion the riches of Catholic doctrine and thought. He did
magnificent work and his Cause for Canonization is being prayed for. The
following century was marked by several English Catholic luminaries, the
greatest scholarly mind among them being John Henry Newman (1801-1890). Newman
was born twenty years after Challoner died, and like Challoner himself was a
convert to Catholicism. Challoner converted at age 13 with his mother, whereas
Newman converted at nearly 45, after a distinguished career as a high-church
Anglican theologian and writer. Newman was a more voluminous writer than
Challoner, and what marked his work was originality. He was as committed to
fidelity to revealed truth as Challoner, but he strove to throw new light on
impasses associated with its reception. Now, I mention and contrast these two
great men of the Church in order to bring out something fundamental that was
common to them. Despite their differing intellectual characteristics, each kept
before them, and represented in their public persona, the great and broad truths
of Revelation. These simple truths our Lord presents in our Gospel today. They
are the coming judgment on each of us, heaven, hell and eternity.
Whatever be our gifts or lack of them, the doctrine revealed by Jesus Christ is
able to be apprehended and realized by all, provided there is the gift of
faith. Whatever be our calling or profession, we just must take these broad and
fundamental truths to heart. Our Lord tells them in the form of his parable,
and then he gives his explanation. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in
the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his
angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all
who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in
the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear”
(Matthew 13: 36-43). As Newman writes at
the end of one of his greatest works — The Development of Christian Doctrine
— life is short and eternity is long. When we come to the end, it will seem
that life has been very short, and we shall wonder what we have to show for it.
By this I mean, what will we have to show God our Judge for it? That is all that
will matter, because every moment, moment by moment, we are inexorably heading
towards this Judgment. It is inescapable. We are answering the questions now
on the exam paper, which will then be judged. Our answers are going into the
book and that book will be opened at the Judgment. Every day, this very day we
are now living, is the paper on which we are writing. To use the imagery our
Lord uses in his parable, are we becoming the weeds that will be pulled up and
thrown on to the fire? There is but one upshot to our lives, the judgment of
God. That is a broad and simple fact which all of us must keep before us, as
did Challoner and Newman, however different they were in cast of mind and in
written work. Beyond the Judgment there is life or death, heaven or hell,
salvation or damnation. If a person forgets these certainties that are before
him — certainties because revealed by Christ — then he is far more to be pitied
than one who is far less gifted than he, but who lives in these truths.
Let us never miss the wood for the trees. As I heard one very good priest once
say, you do not have to have a doctorate to be a very good teacher of religion.
This is because the important thing is to know, appreciate, realize and then
pass on the fundamental truths revealed by Jesus Christ with such luminous
clarity. These truths take us to heaven if we live by them. Truths? Rather,
they are the Truth which is the person of Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and
the Life.
Let us endeavour to celebrate this most holy of all Festivals, this continued
festal Season, which lasts for fifty days, whereas Lent is forty, as if to show
that where sin abounded, there much more has grace abounded.
JHN, from the sermon ‘Keeping Fast and Festival’ (1838)
Wednesday
of the seventeenth week in Ordinary Time II
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The
kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he
hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that
field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.
When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and
bought it.(Matthew 13:44-46)
Our real treasure
One of the very interesting subjects of study is the history of philosophy.
Philosophy is an immensely important discipline and there is not the slightest
doubt that the works of philosophers have had a great impact on the history of
the world. Consider the impact of the thought of Karl Marx and especially his
master work, Das Kapital.
Consider the impact of the thought of Kant or Nietzsche. As an aside, may I
remark that I have often thought that if one wants to see how far the thinking
of the intelligent can stray from common sense, then start delving into the
history of philosophy.
One will come across great philosophers who deny the fact of free will, or the
fact of moral obligation, the possibility of objective knowledge, or even the
fact of an objective world. An associated question is whether philosophical
thought in the main arises from popular thought or whether it drives it. Of
course each would influence the other, but a case in point is one subject of
philosophical thought in our own day. I refer to the question, a live one in
contemporary philosophy, whether it can be maintained that there is any
supernatural realm at all, or whether reality consists exclusively of “nature”
as we experience it. By “nature” I mean that which is broadly open to some form
of empirical test or observation. Of course, one instinctive tendency of man is
to live only according to what is directly experienced and our contemporary
secular culture could be seen as the flowering of this tendency. The naturalism
of much of modern philosophy reflects this, perhaps has issued from it, and yet
undoubtedly it has also shaped and caused it. On the other hand, the majority
of the peoples of mankind have operated with a different perception, namely with
a sense of the fact and presence of the Supernatural in their lives and in the
world. History, anthropology and archaeology would lead us to say that the
voice of mankind testifies to the fact of the Supernatural. That is to say,
what is decisive is where a person begins in his thinking — his basic
assumptions and preferences which, in hidden fashion, form his notions.
Why am I speaking of this? For the simple reason that our basic world view
or notion of reality will profoundly affect what we choose to dedicate our lives
to. Christ our Redeemer has come and has taught that the kingdom of heaven is
to be our life’s goal. That kingdom is present and embodied in him, and entry
into it is attained by union with him and living life accordingly. But how
could a person possibly take this seriously — and it is a matter of life or
death in eternity — if he thinks that there is nothing beyond what can be seen
or felt, if his basic philosophy is naturalism? In his case, his treasure has to
be this world. The only thing he thinks exists is this world. The problem is
usually a little more complex than this. Most accept that there is a
Supernatural — whatever be the views of many philosophers — but they do not
think it is as real as the Natural. Their world view is to a fair extent that
of philosophical naturalism, but it has bets both ways. The problem with this
is that this mixed and inconsistent notion will, as with any basic assumption,
profoundly affect what we choose to dedicate our lives to. This in turn will
affect what we end up taking with us when our time of life has drawn to its
close. What treasures will we have when life is over? Will it be a
treasure of this world only, the treasure that naturalism proposes for us, or
will it be a treasure that we can take with us? The only treasure we can
take with us when we pass from this life to the next is the treasure Christ came
to give us. That treasure is the kingdom of heaven
(Matthew 13:44‑46), which is Christ himself and union with him. St
Paul wrote that in Christ is to be found every heavenly blessing. For this
practical reason the view of philosophical or practical naturalism is absurd.
In our Gospel passage today our Lord tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like
a treasure hidden in the field. It may be hidden from direct sight, but it is
most surely there. It is the treasure that God has brought to the world and all
life’s efforts must be expended to gain that treasure, for life is short and
eternity is long.
So what is it to be? Our Lord says elsewhere that no man can be the servant of
two masters. Is it to be God, or is it to be simply this life and what this
life offers? The command of God is clear: we are to love him with all our heart,
mind, soul and strength, and for love of him to make his will the basis of our
daily life. That is to say, we are to live firmly convinced of the
Supernatural, that Supernatural which has been revealed by Jesus Christ, and
which is brought to us each generation by his body the Church. Therein lies our
true treasure.
Love our
Lady. And she will obtain for you abundant grace to conquer in your daily
struggle. And the enemy will gain nothing by those foul things that continually
seem to boil and rise within you, trying to engulf in their fragrant corruption
the high ideals, the sublime determination that Christ himself has set in your
heart. — Serviam, I will serve!
(The Way, no. 493)
Thursday
of the seventeenth week in Ordinary Time II
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Scripture today: Jeremiah 18:1-6; Psalm
146:1b-6ab; Matthew 13:47-53
Jesus
said to the disciples: Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was
let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the
fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good
fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of
the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and
throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth. Have you understood all these things? Jesus asked. Yes, they replied. He
said to them, Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about
the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his
storeroom new treasures as well as old. When Jesus had finished these parables,
he moved on from there. (Matthew 13:47-53)
The End
I suppose ever since the establishment of the press and daily tabloids the news,
whether community, national or international, has been prominent in daily life.
We all think of the news. As far as the press is concerned the news is a very
marketable product. But a further question is, what do we do with the news — or
more exactly, how do we think of it? I think that for most it is just like a
recreational diversion. It keeps life interesting and is a break from the grind
of daily work. But many do reflect more deeply on the flow of human affairs,
and some engage in deeper thought still. They philosophize about the course of
human history.
Now, there is a question that ought occur to those who follow the affairs of men
and choose to reflect on it, and it is this: how will it all end? By this I
mean, how will the course of history end? This is not just an academic or
theoretical question because any end of a thing has significance for the
present. We do things now in view of what we expect of the future. If we know
what is ahead then we act accordingly. The end of history is a question which I
think rarely occurs to most people for they tend to think that history will
simply go on and on with the rise and fall of regimes and civilizations. But it
will not be like this because God has revealed that the history of mankind and
the world will come to an end, and that end will constitute a new and final
beginning. In our Gospel passage today, our Lord gives a simple parable drawn
from everyday life in which the fishermen at the end of their catch sort out the
good fish from the bad, and the bad they throw away. Our Lord tells us that
“this is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and
separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”
(Matthew 13:47‑53). The emphasis of our Lord’s teaching here is on
the fact of hell, a place of eternal punishment for the wicked. The great point
of our Lord’s parable here is that at the end of history as at the end of life
there is the judgment of God, and those who have done evil and have not repented
will be “thrown away”, which is to say will be condemned to hell.
So we do know where history is heading. We do know what the climax of history
will be. It will not be an unending flux and flow of regimes, hegemonies and
civilizations. It will not be an unending and futile struggle for dominance
among powers that wax strong and then decline in a form of old age. It will all
come to an end and that end will be the judgment of God on all peoples. It is
described in more detail in the twenty fifth chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel, the
same Gospel as our passage today is drawn from. In that chapter the King takes
his seat on his throne of glory, and that King is Christ, the King of kings and
the Lord of lords. He will divide the sheep from the goats and the goats on his
left will be sentenced to everlasting fire, while the sheep on his right will be
received into everlasting bliss. The agnostic, the atheist and the religiously
indifferent look on this as mythical but it comes from the word of the Son of
God. It is he himself who will be the central protagonist. Every man and woman
in human history will see that day and will be drawn inexorably to one side of
the division or the other. It will be unavoidable. Which side it will be will
depend entirely on how he or she lived in the flux and flow of human history.
Then eternity will begin and it will be either heaven or hell for each and all,
an eternity of happiness or an eternity of misery. Those who have lived before
this great event — necessarily by far the majority — will no longer be just
spirit, but body and spirit once again. Then of Christ’s Kingdom there will be
no end. There will be only one kingdom and one King and Lord. All other
kingdoms will have gone, and those not in this Kingdom will be buried in
unspeakable misery forever. This is the end of history and it means that it is
ultimately this which all ought be preparing for. The purpose of life and of
history is to prepare well for the final day when all will be judged and either
admitted to the eternal Kingdom of heaven and God, or cast outside of it
forever. Now, this Kingdom has begun here on earth and it consists essentially
in union with Christ, and he is found in his body the Church.
What I have said is not a fairy tale. It comes from the mouth of Christ
himself. Christ has taught more about the Last Things facing man and the world
than any other human teacher. If we want to know what the future holds, study
the teaching of Christ on the Judgment of God on each individual after his or
her life, and on the world as a whole at the end of time. Study what he says
about what follows this Judgment. Let us then live in the light of these final
realities because they are awesome, terrible, unavoidable.
(July 25) St James
the Greater
This James is the brother of John the Evangelist. The two were called by Jesus
as they worked with their father in a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus
had already called another pair of brothers from a similar occupation: Peter and
Andrew. “He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and
his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called
them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and
followed him” (Mark 1:19-20). James was one of the favored three who had the
privilege of witnessing the Transfiguration, the raising to life of the daughter
of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemani. Two incidents in the Gospels describe the
temperament of this man and his brother. St. Matthew tells that their mother
came (Mark says it was the brothers themselves) to ask that they have the seats
of honour (one on the right, one on the left of Jesus) in the kingdom. “Jesus
said in reply, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that
I am going to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We can’” (Matthew 20:22). Jesus then
told them they would indeed drink the cup and share his baptism of pain and
death, but that sitting at his right hand or left was not his to give—it “is for
those for whom it has been prepared by my Father” (Matthew 20:23b). It remained
to be seen how long it would take to realize the implications of their confident
“We can!” The other disciples became indignant at the ambition of James and
John. Then Jesus taught them all the lesson of humble service: The purpose of
authority is to serve. They are not to impose their will on others, or lord it
over them. This is the position of Jesus himself. He was the servant of all; the
service imposed on him was the supreme sacrifice of his own life. On another
occasion, James and John gave evidence that the nickname Jesus gave them—“sons
of thunder”—was an apt one. The Samaritans would not welcome Jesus because he
was on his way to hated Jerusalem. “When the disciples James and John saw this
they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume
them?’ Jesus turned and rebuked them...” (Luke 9:54-55). James was apparently
the first of the apostles to be martyred. “About that time King Herod laid hands
upon some members of the church to harm them. He had James, the brother of John,
killed by the sword, and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he
proceeded to arrest Peter also” (Acts 12:1-3a). This James, sometimes called
James the Greater, is not to be confused with the author of the Letter of James
and the leader of the Jerusalem community. (AmericanCatholic.org)
click on
centre arrow
Scripture today: 2 Corinthians 4:7-15; Psalm
126:1bc-6; Matthew 20:20-28
Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came
to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favour of him. What is it you
want? he asked. She said, Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at
your right and the other at your left in your kingdom. You don't know what you
are asking, Jesus said to them. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink? We
can, they answered. Jesus said to them, You will indeed drink from my cup, but
to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those
for whom they have been prepared by my Father. When the ten heard about this,
they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said,
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high
officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants
to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first
must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.(Matthew 20:20-28)
James and John
Our Gospel passage today begins with the focus on two of our Lord’s best
disciples. That they were among his best is shown by the fact that on various
occasions our Lord took them and Simon apart from the others to accompany him on
special occasions.
We remember how when our Lord was taken to the house of the little girl who had
died, he took with him Simon Peter and the two brothers James and John. In
their presence he raised her from the dead. We remember how in the Garden of
Gethsemane our Lord took with him Peter, James and John apart with him and in
their presence (though they fell asleep) he underwent his Agony prior to his
passion, sweating blood as he prayed to his heavenly Father. We remember how St
Paul refers to them as the pillars of the infant Church in Jerusalem. So they
loved Jesus greatly, and our Lord had a title for the two brothers: they were
“sons of thunder.” This may have been a genial nickname our Lord gave them
because their ardent commitment to him — they once asked our Lord if they could
call down on a Samaritan village fire from heaven because of its rebuff of him
on their way to Jerusalem. So here we have the two brothers, James and John
together with their mother, approaching Jesus. The mother in this case speaks
on behalf of the three and it is a great favour she and they are asking. She
asks for first places at his side for her sons when he comes in his glory. Let
us notice our Lord’s love for them shown in the interested way he asks what she
wants of him. Let us notice as well their love for and faith in Jesus. He was
the Messiah. There was no doubt about this in their minds. The Kingdom of God
was coming, and he was the Messiah‑King. They want to be intimately associated
with him in this, right up front, before all others. There was a certain
personal interest in this request, but above all there was love and resolve.
The first thing we ought draw from this scene is the example of a loving resolve
to follow Christ through to his glory together with a profession of this to
Christ himself.
But of course they did not, as our Lord immediately pointed out, know what they
were asking. The mysterious plan of God was that the path to glory was through
suffering. The Son of Man had to suffer so as to enter his glory. Why was this
so? We are not told. Nor does our Lord explain to the two young disciples
before him why this was so. He simply says, You do not know what you are asking
for. Then he puts the question to them directly: Can you drink the cup that I
must drink? They answered unhesitatingly: We can
(Matthew 20:20‑28). This was a magnificent response, for it said
that they were prepared to follow him wherever he chose to go. The wonderful
thing was that it drew from our Lord the assurance that they would indeed drink
his cup. Our Lord could see that they had it in them to follow him in his path
of suffering through to the end. But of course that would not be so
immediately. At the arrest of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane they all
fled, even though John then followed our Lord during his passion, but quietly.
He stood with Mary not far from the cross as Christ died. James was not there.
Nor was Peter who during the Last Supper likewise professed his readiness to
follow our Lord whatever might be the cost. But they and Simon too would in due
course follow our Lord to the end, with the aid of the Holy Spirit who would be
sent to them all. Here in our scene today our Lord assures the two that they
would drink his cup. So they were true disciples, even though they had a long
way to go in the purification of their faith and love and understanding. There
was another among the Twelve to whom our Lord would not have given the answer he
gave to the two brothers. That was Judas: he would not drink of the cup of that
Christ would drink. He left Christ when it became apparent that the Messiah he
had chosen to follow, and to whom he had been called, was a Suffering Servant
and that his Kingdom was not of this world.
Our Gospel today reminds us of what it means to be a follower of Christ. The
disciple of Christ recognizes Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
He loves Christ who lives now in glory and he knows that the following of him
means drinking of the cup that he drank. This means being united with Christ in
making the will of God the object of every aspect of life. Let us pray for the
grace so to love Christ that we will be able to drink of the cup from which he
drank. This is the path that leads to being with Christ in his glory.
Don't let
the lack of instruments stop your work: begin by making the best of what you
have. As time passes, the function will create the organ. Some, who had seemed
useless, turn out to be useful. The rest have to undergo a surgical operation, a
painful one perhaps — there were no better 'surgeons' than the saints! — and so
the work goes on.
(The Way, no.488)
Saint Martha Martha,
Mary and their brother Lazarus were evidently close friends of Jesus.
He came to their home simply as a welcomed guest, rather than as one
celebrating the conversion of a sinner like Zacchaeus or one
unceremoniously received by a suspicious Pharisee. The sisters feel
free to call on Jesus at their brother’s death, even though a return to
Judea at that time
seems almost certain death. No doubt Martha was an
active sort of person. On one occasion (see Luke 10:38-42) she prepares
the meal for Jesus and possibly his fellow guests and forthrightly
states the obvious: All hands should pitch in to help with the dinner.
Yet, as Father John McKenzie points out, she need not be rated as an
"unrecollected activist." The evangelist is emphasizing what our Lord
said on several occasions about the primacy of the spiritual: "...Do
not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your
body, what you will wear….But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his
righteousness" (Matthew 6:25b, 33a); "One does not live by bread alone"
(Luke 4:4b); "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for
righteousness…" (Matthew 5:6a). Martha’s great glory is her simple and
strong statement of faith in Jesus after her brother’s death. "Jesus
told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me,
even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me
will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I
have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one
who is coming into the world’" (John 11:25-27).
Scripture commentators
point out that in writing his account of the raising of Lazarus, St.
John intends that we should see Martha’s words to Mary before the
resurrection of Lazarus as a summons that every Christian must obey. In
her saying "The teacher is here and is asking for you," Jesus is
calling every one of us to resurrection—now in baptismal faith, forever
in sharing his victory over death. And all of us, as well as these
three friends, are in our own unique way called to special friendship
with him.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
click on
centre arrow
Scripture:
Jeremiah 14:17-22; Psalm 79:8, 9, 11 and 13; John 11:19-27 or Luke
10:38-42
Many Jews
had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their
brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet
him, but Mary stayed at home. Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had
been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God
will give you whatever you ask. Jesus said to her, Your brother will
rise again. Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the
resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection
and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and
whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
Yes, Lord, she told him, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of
God, who was to come into the world.(John
11: 19-27)
Martha
Our passage from the
Gospel of St John today, which is selected by the Church for the memorial of St
Martha, is a gem. It is so instructive about our Lord himself, and about Martha
whose words are given to us. The Gospel tells us that our Lord loved Lazarus,
Mary and Martha.
They were very close to our Lord indeed, which itself shows that they themselves
were truly his disciples and on the way to holiness. We may assume that they
were great Christians in the infant Church, though there is no indication that
they were among its leaders. In this sense they may be regarded as models for
the lay member of Christ’s faithful. Furthermore, it is interesting to notice
that it is Martha who is honoured as a saint in the Church’s liturgical year
(today) — which is not to say that the other two were not saints, but they are
not celebrated formally as such. This too is instructive. All are called to
holiness of life, even though not all of the saints in heaven are held up
formally by the Church as canonized models. Martha is honoured as a saint, even
though in Luke’s Gospel (10: 38‑42) our Lord gently corrects her in her busy and
distracted service of him, and praises her sister Mary for what she is doing at
that point. Martha is a great disciple of Christ and it is clearly the
magnificence of her faith in our Lord which St John holds up before the reader
of his Gospel. As the one reporting the event, he would have heard her
testimony. So let us contemplate the scene. She had sent for our Lord because
her brother was gravely sick. She loved her brother, as did Mary her sister.
Our Lord having arrived, she came to him and said that if only he had come
earlier her brother would now be alive. This profession of faith drew from our
Lord a request for greater faith: Your brother will rise again, he said. She
responded by saying that yes, she knew that he would rise at the final
resurrection (and let us remember that the Sadducees, for instance, did not
believe in the resurrection). But our Lord was asking for more than this. He
wanted faith in himself and made a claim that is unique in all of the
Scriptures: “Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in
me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:
19‑27)
No prophet or priest or king had made such a claim, made here before
one who represented so well the faith of the Chosen People. Life is to be found
in him and he gives eternal life to the one who believes in him. We remember
how our Lord stated that he had come to give life, life in abundance. He told
his disciples that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. St John writes in the
prologue to his Gospel that in him was life and that life was the light of men.
There is nothing more precious than life, and what a prospect it is to be able
to receive the gift of eternal life, life that will never end. This gift of
gifts is present in the man Jesus because he is not only man but God, the Son of
God. He came among us to share with us the life that resides in him as its
source. I am the resurrection and the life, he states. He who believes in me
will live, even though he dies. Our Lord declared this to Martha and asked her
if she truly believed this. Yes, Martha responded with all her heart, I do
believe this, and she went further: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the
Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” She knew that the Jesus
who was her friend and the friend of her sister and brother was the promised
Messiah, and what a Messiah! He was nothing less than the very Son of God.
Martha had attained the fullness of Christian faith. St John tells us at the
end of his Gospel that the very purpose of his writing it was that the reader
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing this he
may have life in his name. Martha professed exactly this: she believed that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who gives life to those who believe in his
name. Her faith was magnificent, open, unhesitating and undoubtedly it was
typical of her brother Lazarus and her sister Mary as well. It accounts in good
measure for the special intimacy that marked their relationship with our Lord.
Martha is a splendid example of what we might call the ordinary lay Christian
who has that faith in Christ which God asks for. Undoubtedly just as she
professed it before our Lord himself, she went on to profess it in her life
before others.
The person of Jesus is the answer to the need of man because fundamentally the
need of man is for life, life in abundance, eternal life, a share in the life of
God. Man is subject to death because of sin, the original sin he inherits and
the sin he himself commits. This subjection to death and all that leads to
death springs from the sin which holds him in its power. But God has sent the
answer to this, and that answer is the living person of Jesus, risen from the
dead. Christ asks that we believe in him and that we base our life on that
belief. Martha’s example shows us the way.
At
that time Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to
little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have
been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows the Son except the Father, and
no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to
reveal him. (Matthew 11: 25-27)
Then by means of his preaching and works and personal testimony, our Lord
gradually revealed to the people and to the leaders who he was. As Messiah he
is the Father’s divine Son, son of God and son of Man. But in our Gospel
passage today our Lord speaks of his heavenly Father. Let us dwell a little on
this testimony of Jesus about the Father. First and foremost God is the Father
of Jesus Christ. In his disputes with the leaders of the Jews, our Lord
commonly referred to God as his own Father. The way he expressed this,
including the tone of his voice when uttering the word “Father,” made it
unmistakably clear to the leaders that our Lord was not using the expression in
the way any devout Jew might on occasion refer to Yahweh God as his Father. No,
Christ was saying this in a way that indicated that God was father to him in a
way that was unique. God was his very own father. God had begotten him.
Indeed he came from him, he was sent by him. There was constantly a unique and
ineffable relationship between him and God his Father. St John tells us that
the leaders attempted to arrest Jesus because they could see that, in saying
that God was his own father, he was thus claiming to be equal to God. He was
condemned to death for this. So the first thing we contemplate in our passage
today when we read of our Lord addressing God is that he calls him his Father.
The next thing is that his Father is the Lord of heaven and earth. The Father
of our Jesus Christ is the God of all things, visible and invisible. He is one
and there is no other. All things depend on him. There is but one God and that
God is the Father of Jesus Christ. This is the God who has revealed himself to
Abraham and the prophets, and whose final revelation is in the person of his own
Son.
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Christ
Himself vouchsafes to repeat in each of us in figure and mystery all that He did
and suffered in the flesh. He is formed in us, born in us, suffers in us, rises
again in us, lives in us; and this not by a succession of events, but all at
once: for He comes to us as a Spirit, all dying, all rising again, all living.
We are ever receiving our birth, our justification, our renewal, ever dying to
sin, ever rising to righteousness.
Let us endeavour to celebrate this most holy of all Festivals, this continued
festal Season, which lasts for fifty days, whereas Lent is forty, as if to show
that where sin abounded, there much more has grace abounded.
seems almost certain death. No doubt Martha was an
active sort of person. On one occasion (see Luke 10:38-42) she prepares
the meal for Jesus and possibly his fellow guests and forthrightly
states the obvious: All hands should pitch in to help with the dinner.
Yet, as Father John McKenzie points out, she need not be rated as an
"unrecollected activist." The evangelist is emphasizing what our Lord
said on several occasions about the primacy of the spiritual: "...Do
not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your
body, what you will wear….But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his
righteousness" (Matthew 6:25b, 33a); "One does not live by bread alone"
(Luke 4:4b); "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for
righteousness…" (Matthew 5:6a). Martha’s great glory is her simple and
strong statement of faith in Jesus after her brother’s death. "Jesus
told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me,
even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me
will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I
have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one
who is coming into the world’" (John 11:25-27).