Prayers this week:
I call to you all day long,
have mercy on me, O Lord. You are good and forgiving, full of love for all
who call on you. (Psalm
85: 3.5) Almighty
God, every good thing comes from you. Fill our hearts with love for you,
increase our faith, and by your constant care protect the good you have given
us. 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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From that time on Jesus
began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer
many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of
the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord! he said. This
shall never happen to you! Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me,
Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things
of God, but the things of men. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone
would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the
whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for
his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with
his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has
done.(Matthew 16:21-27)
The
Father’s will
In our Gospel scene of today we read that “from that time on” our Lord began to
tell his disciples what he “must” do: “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and
that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Notice our Lord’s use of that word, “must.” It was his mission to suffer
and to die, and so to enter his glory, and thus to open the way to a share in
his glory for all mankind. Our Lord says this is something he “must” do. He
did not mean that he was compelled to do this, because on other occasions our
Lord said that he would freely lay down his life, and would freely take it up
again. The word “must” denotes, rather, the will of his Father and Jesus’
inflexible will to fulfil it. It expresses the complete union of his will with
that of the Father. His food was to do the will of his heavenly Father, he
said. I always do what pleases him, he said on another occasion. He challenged
his enemies, Can any of you convict me of sin? In the vast scene of broken
humanity, there stands forth one Man who is utterly, supremely, and entirely of
himself holy because his person is divine. He is the very source of holiness
and his is the Spirit of holiness. The point here is that he is the one who
beyond all others acknowledged in every way that his Father is Lord and God. I
am the Lord your God, was God’s revelation of himself, and Jesus Christ shows
mankind what it is truly to acknowledge this. Acknowledging this means doing
the Father’s will, whatever be the cost. For this reason he said that he “must”
suffer and die in bearing witness to the truth. He rebuked Simon — who loved
him so much — for he was acting like Satan in trying to dissuade him from his
path of suffering and death. And so he said to his disciples that “if anyone
would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
me will find it.” As we think of all this, let us consider what is implied in
affirming with adoration that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our one and
only God. It implies the resolve to do his will in imitation of Jesus Christ.
It means, further, that we who are Christ’s faithful and members of his body the
Church must guard and continually activate the fundamental virtues of faith,
hope and love that we received at our baptism. These gifts of the Holy Spirit
enable us to place our faith and hope in God, to adore him, and to love him with
all our hearts. By faith we believe in God and reject everything opposed to
what God has revealed of himself as it is explained and taught by Christ and his
Church. Christ’s faithful must reject all deliberate doubt, all unbelief,
anything leading to heresy, any abandonment of the Catholic Faith for another
faith, or separation from the Church. Especially we must guard against any
deliberate doubt about the Church’s teaching. The gift of faith enables us to
guard against all this. By the gift of hope we trustingly await the vision of
God and his grace, avoiding any temptation either on the one hand to despair or
on the other to presumption. So, we believe in God and his revelation, and we
hope in his power and love to bring us to him, all the while aware of our
sinfulness and proneness to sin. By the gift of charity, and on the foundation
of our faith and hope, we strive to love him with all our hearts, showing this
in our resolve to do his will whatever be the cost. We strive every day to
bring the seed of love implanted in us at our baptism to its perfection. It
means repudiating all indifference to God and his revelation. We repudiate
ingratitude, lukewarmness, sloth or spiritual indolence, and of course any
semblance of hatred for God that is born of pride. We who are baptised have
been granted priceless gifts by the Holy Spirit, the supernatural gifts of
faith, hope and love, and these gifts if acted on day by day will unite us to
Jesus and enable us to follow in his footsteps. That path that Christ trod is
the path of acknowledging in every way that his Father and our Father is the one
and only Lord and God. By our life we must bear witness in union with Jesus
that our God is the one and only Lord of all.
Let our reading of the Gospel passage of today (Matthew
16:21‑27) help us to enter into the mind and heart of Jesus our Lord
in his total acknowledgement of his Father and our Father, his God and our God.
The way to God is Jesus. The truth about God and the truth of God is Jesus. He
is the Truth. The life of God that transforms our sinful lives and makes them
holy with a share in the divine life is found in Jesus. He is the Way, the
Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through him. He who sees
Jesus sees the Father. Let us then live in Jesus and live for him, knowing that
by doing this we live in God and live for him.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.2084-2094
(Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God)
To be 'Catholic' means to love your country and to be second to no one in
that love. And at the same time, to hold as your own the noble aspirations
of other lands. — So many glories of France are glories of mine! And in the
same way, much that makes Germans proud, and the peoples of Italy and of
England..., and Americans and Asians and Africans, is a source of pride to
me also.
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Jesus went to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue,
as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah
was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he
has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release
the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. Then he rolled
up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone
in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, Today
this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. All spoke well of him and were
amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. Isn't this Joseph's
son? they asked. Jesus said to them, Surely you will quote this proverb to
me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your home town what we have heard
that you did in Capernaum.' I tell you the truth, he continued, no prophet
is accepted in his home town. I assure you that there were many widows in
Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years
and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent
to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there
were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not
one of them was cleansed— only Naaman the Syrian. All the people in the synagogue
were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town,
and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order
to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went
on his way.(Luke 4: 16-30)
Christ’s
claims
In our Gospel passage today our Lord returns to his home town of Nazareth. On
the Sabbath he goes to the synagogue, as he always had done while growing up and
during his adulthood in the town. He was a person familiar to them all, a
relative, friend, acquaintance, fellow townsman and fellow workman.
Many would have been on close terms with him when he and they were children and
youths. Whatever facilities for formal education there were, he and they would
have availed themselves of them together. They knew him very well. He must
have been an impressive person, but quiet, perhaps reserved in the best sense,
and one who fitted into his social and family environment excellently. He was
exceptional as a son and must have been — quietly and discreetly — an
exceptionally good relative, friend or acquaintance. Here he is back among them
and now with a renown acquired elsewhere. He speaks in the synagogue,
commenting on the reading from the prophet Isaiah. His very eloquence and
gracious delivery astonishes them, perhaps indicating that he had rarely spoken
in the synagogue before, and in any case rarely in public. His address is
absolutely captivating and his stature somehow shines through in his public
words. They are amazed, wondering how he came by this. Perhaps our passage
refers to more than one address given in the synagogue by Christ on the occasion
of his return. The text does not actually say that all his words here were
uttered in the same address, nor that all these responses of the people to him
occurred on the one and same occasion. After quoting the surprised reaction of
the people, “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” St Luke simply goes on to say
that “Jesus said to them, Surely you will quote the proverb to me: Physician,
heal yourself!” These words of Christ may have been uttered over the next couple
of weeks, in the synagogue, and in response to a change over some days from
wonderment to irritation and hostility. Who knows! What is clear is that his
own townsmen, the ones who knew him so well, decisively rejected his claims.
That is a lesson for the ages, and for our own day too.
The point is that everything turned on what Christ claimed to be. In our Gospel
today (Luke 4: 16‑30) our Lord quotes from
the prophet Isaiah and his prediction of the time of liberation to come. It
would be at time of liberation from evil, a time when God’s rule would prevail.
Christ announces to the people of Nazareth that the promised time has arrived.
God’s kingdom was at hand, at the very door, in very truth about to begin. The
implication was that he himself is the one who would inaugurate and establish
it. That is to say, he is the Messiah to come. He is a prophet, yes, but more
than a prophet. Our Lord could see that their very familiarity with him was
presenting an insuperable obstacle in that they refused to accept him as being
any more than they. So he was an upstart. When he proceeded to warn them of
what this attitude of theirs would mean, and of how their story was exemplified
in the story of Elijah and Elisha that he quoted, they not only rejected him but
attempted to murder him. It was an outpouring of the sin that lay deep within,
the pride that would recur during our Lord’s public ministry elsewhere,
especially in the leaders of the people. The issue was, who he claimed to be.
We read in the Gospel of St John that the leaders picked up stones to stone our
Lord, stating that they were doing this because he said God was his own Father,
in this way making himself equal to God. Gradually our Lord revealed who he was
— not only the Messiah, the Son of Man spoken of by the prophet Daniel, but the
very Son of God who had come into the world to take away its sin. Jesus’ own
person is at the centre of our Gospel passage today, and acceptance of the
Church’s message about him, about his teaching, and about the divine plan he
revealed and brought into effect, is the critical issue for each person’s
salvation. For this reason, just before our Lord ascended into heaven he
charged his disciples to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the
nations. Those who believed would be saved. Those refusing belief would be
condemned. He, Jesus Christ, is at the centre of all.
Let us place ourselves in our Gospel scene and listen to our Lord bearing
witness to the truth of his person. Let us in our hearts acknowledge that he is
truly man and truly God. He is the second divine person of the most holy
Trinity, the eternal Son of the eternal Father, united with the Father in the
Holy Spirit. He is our God and our Redeemer. Let us, with Thomas at the end of
the Gospel of St John, gaze on the risen and very human Jesus, and say to him,
my Lord and my God.
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Scripture today:
1 Corinthians 2:10-16; Psalm 144; Luke 4: 31-37
Jesus went down to Capernaum,
a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. They were
amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority. In the synagogue
there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the
top of his voice, Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you
come to destroy us? I know who you are— the Holy One of God! Be quiet! Jesus
said sternly. Come out of him! Then the demon threw the man down before them
all and came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said
to each other, What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders
to evil spirits and they come out! And the news about him spread throughout
the surrounding area.(Luke 4: 31-37)
Christ’s
authority
Time and again in the Gospels we see the people in wonderment at two features of
our Lord’s public ministry: the authority of his teaching and his power over the
world and the underworld. In our Gospel passage today we read how our Lord went
to Capernaum — the town of some of his closest disciples and, it seems, the
base for his Galilean ministry — and on the Sabbath he began to teach the
people.
The Gospels show that our Lord especially taught on the Sabbath when people
would come together in the synagogue, and here in our passage today he does so
again. The people were amazed at his teaching, and we are given the reason.
His teaching had authority. That is to say, his teaching carried with it an
overwhelming air of truth because it was he who was uttering it. There was the
unmistakable sense that it had no need of support or proof from any other
quarter. The impression gained was that this teaching was coming from one who
knew with complete certainty what was true. Any questioning of his authority to
teach what he was teaching was, in the nature of the case, profoundly
inappropriate. Time and again he referred to the Scriptures and appealed to
them, but not as one who was simply a master of Scripture like, say, the doctors
of the Law and the scribes, proving by means of demonstration from Scripture
that his teaching was correct. He did not speak as a leading Scripture scholar
or as one endowed with a special insight into Scripture. Nor did he speak
simply as another prophet. We do not read that people made these remarks about
John the Baptist — even though as a holy prophet he too spoke with authority.
The authority with which Christ taught clearly transcended that of all those
with whom the people were familiar. He spoke as one who simply knew the mind of
God and who was able to reveal his word and its meaning. In this sense it was
new and came with a striking freshness. We too must recover a sense of the
authority of Christ as the supreme teacher of modern man.
But there was more. As well as manifesting a striking authority in his
teaching, our Lord showed effortless power over forces of evil. In our Gospel
passage today (Luke 4: 31‑37) this power is
exercised in respect to the underworld, the demonic. One of the interesting
themes in movies of the last half century has been the appearance of movies
about devil‑possession and the work of exorcism carried out by Catholic
priests. At least it shows a sense of the reality of demons and the power of
Christ over them. The movie about the exorcism of Emily Rose was particularly
interesting. However, while it cannot be said to be easy for a properly
authorized priest to exorcise the devil from some unfortunate person, there was
never the slightest difficulty for Christ. He did it easily and repeatedly.
Strangely, demon‑possession seems to have abounded at the time of our Lord’s
public ministry. One wonders whether there was a general sense in the entire
demonic kingdom that here in this man Jesus of Nazareth there was an immensely
powerful and holy person who was going to confront and break their power in the
world. Perhaps the demons in some special way gathered in the locale of Judea
and Galilee at the time. They sensed that there was a force afoot to threaten
them as had no other before. Who knows! But everywhere Christ is reported in
the Gospels to be casting out demons. In our passage today there was, in the
synagogue itself, and during our Lord’s very address, a man possessed by a
demon. It yelled out at our Lord, presumably in fear at what was being said and
at the spectacle of this Man so obviously endowed with authority. The demon
impulsively shrieked out what may have been a common understanding about Jesus
among the demons: he was the Holy One of God. To this point Christ had been
reticent about himself, and the demon perhaps thought he could upset Christ and
throw him off balance by revealing the great secret. But at a word Christ
subdued and expelled the demon. Not only has Christ full authority to teach.
He has authority and power over the underworld. He is man’s Saviour from both
error and evil.
Let us place ourselves in the Gospel scene and gaze on this wonderful Man. He
lived once and he lives now. He is risen from the dead, having by his death
destroyed the power of Satan. That victory is brought to each of us by faith.
If we believe in him and accept his word as it comes to us in and through the
teaching of the Church, then the truth of Christ will dispel the darkness of
error in our lives, and his power will deliver us from the bondage of sin.
Christ is our one and only Redeemer. He is mankind’s Teacher. He is mankind’s
Deliverer. Let us take our stand with him.
That woman in the house of Simon the leper in Bethany, who anoints the Master's
head with precious ointment, reminds us of our duty to be generous in the
worship of God.
All beauty, richness and majesty seem little to me.
And against those who attack the richness of sacred vessels, of vestments
and altars, stands the praise given by Jesus: 'opus enim bonum operata
est in me — she has acted well towards me'.
Wednesday of the twenty second week in Ordinary Time
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Jesus left the synagogue and
went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a
high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked
the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various
kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover,
demons came out of many people, shouting, You are the Son of God! But he
rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was
the Christ. At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were
looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him
from leaving them. But he said, I must preach the good news of the kingdom
of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent. And he kept
on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.(Luke
4: 38-44)
The
Kingdom
Once again, we see our Lord given over to preaching “the good news of the
kingdom of God.” It is in these terms that he explains to the people of the town
that he cannot simply stay with them as they want.
The kingdom of God! It is clear from our Lord’s very actions that the good news
of the kingdom of God which he preached was directly associated with his own
person. Wherever he went the kingdom of God was present and dawning, and it was
good news for all. As soon as he left the synagogue he went to Simon’s house
where he perhaps had chosen to make his dwelling. We read that “Simon’s
mother‑in‑law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help
her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at
once and began to wait on them.” God was showing his presence and the difference
this would make in respect to evil, and there was more to come. We read that
“When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds
of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons
came out of many people, shouting, You are the Son of God! But he rebuked them
and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ”
(Luke 4: 38‑44). It was obvious to all that in
some great sense God was visiting his people. In the person and activity of
Jesus of Nazareth God was sweeping before him the evil he encountered, whether
natural or demonic. What a phenomenon was this Man! Effortless power and
authority was his, and it was wholly directed to what was good. To be with him
was to be safe. To be with him was to be drawn to what was good and holy. To
be with him was to be taken into closer union with God. In him God was
inaugurating his rule. The question was, what would that involve, and how to
enter into it?
The kingdom of God, as Pope Benedict has written in his book, Jesus of
Nazareth, is nothing other than the lordship or rule of God. It is God’s
dominion in the world and in particular over the hearts of men. In the first
instance, then, it consists in sanctity. To the extent that men and women
subject themselves in mind, heart and life, which is to say in thought, word and
deed, to the will of God our Father, to that extent does the kingdom of God
extend. In the prayer our Lord taught us we pray that God our Father’s kingdom
will come. That means that his will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
If our hearts are subject to his lordship, then our words and deeds will
likewise be subject to his lordship, as will our work of every day. The world
itself will become subject to the rule of God to the extent that we his children
become subject to him in every way, for the grace of God will flow from our
hearts to the world of our work and service. More and more will God be all in
all. This begins here on earth and it will reach its culmination and perfection
in heaven. But the all‑important factor in this grand process of the coming,
the establishment and the growth of God’s kingdom is the person of Jesus
Christ. He and he only is the one who establishes God’s kingdom. In fact, the
kingdom of God is present in him. In his very person is it to be found. The
fullness of the Godhead is present in Jesus bodily, as St Paul writes, and when
our Lord speaks in today’s passage of his preaching the good news of God’s
kingdom to the other towns too, he is in effect saying that he must bring
himself to other towns for people to come into contact with him. The kingdom of
God is found in and through him. And this is the grand point of the Christian
religion, that it is by entering into union with Jesus that a person enters into
the kingdom of God. To the extent that we are in union with the person of
Jesus, to that extent we have entered the kingdom of Heaven. To the extent that
we grow in union with the living risen Jesus to that extent does God become all
in all to us.
Thus the ultimate goal of human history is that Jesus Christ be accepted as
Lord, and that this acceptance inform all of human work and activity. There is
a key to all of human striving and a key to the ultimate fulfilment of all
reality. That key is union with the living person of Jesus of Nazareth, risen
from the dead, seated at the right hand of the Father, and present in his body
the Church, of which he is the head. His presence here on earth can be
located. He resides in the Church he founded on the rock of Simon Peter, and he
acts through its ministry, its teaching, its Sacraments and its life. Let us
then live in him and do all we can to bring him to the world.
(E.J.Tyler)
Thursday
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Scripture today:
1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Psalm 23; Luke 5: 1-11
One day as Jesus was standing
by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding round him and listening
to the word of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the
fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the
one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then
he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking,
he said to Simon, Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.
Simon answered, Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything.
But because you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so,
they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So
they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them,
and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When
Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me,
Lord; I am a sinful man! For he and all his companions were astonished at
the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of
Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid; from
now on you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything
and followed him.(Luke 5: 1-11)
The
mission
One of the great questions that has occupied the minds of many scholars in the
past century has been the essence of Christianity. Christianity has had
numerous forms, but what, they have asked, is its essence? This is not the time
to deal with such a question except to discuss a feature of the Christian
religion which must be regarded as of its essence.
I refer to its missionary dynamism. At the essence of the Christian religion
there is a profound impulse to spread, and to spread universally. Other
religions have spread, and some have spread widely. Islam and Buddhism can be
found in numerous countries, but a case can be made for considering each of
these as having spread mainly because of the spread of particular cultures with
which they were long identified. This is a factor in the spread of Christianity
too but from the beginning Christ intended that faith in him be universal. It
is a source of constant inspiration that before he ascended into heaven he
charged his disciples to go to the whole world and make disciples of all the
nations. Their love for and following of him involved a strenuous effort to
bring all others to faith in him. We see the beginnings of this in our Gospel
passage today. We read that when Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered,
Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because
you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so, they caught such a
large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled to their
partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both
boats so full that they began to sink.” This miracle was a sign of the vocation
to which Christ was about to call them. “Then Jesus said to Simon, Don’t be
afraid; from now on you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up on shore,
left everything and followed him” (Luke 5: 1‑11).
Their mission was to follow him and invite all others to follow him too.
Let us notice a few features of this call of Simon and the other disciples.
They were ordinary men and indeed they knew they were sinners. “Leave me, Lord,
for I am a sinful man,” Simon could not help but say. So too do all genuine
disciples of Christ say this. Nevertheless they have the high calling of
sharing in the mission of the Master, which is to bring him to all, and to bring
all to him — in other words to be fishers of men. Furthermore, it was by the
power of Christ that Simon made his catch of fish and it was a striking act of
divine power. So too in the life of the Church, it is by the power of Christ
that the Church and her members strive to bring others to Jesus, and it is by
his grace that their efforts bear fruit. If they spend the whole night, as it
were, catching nothing, yet they will still hope. They know that it is Christ,
the living Jesus, who is working with them. They are not seeking fish but men
and women who have free wills and who are burdened by sin. Grace must penetrate
the hearts of fallen men before there is a turning to God. But Christ is at
work in the life and mission of the Church, and the time will come for the
catch. The great protagonist in the life of the Church is Christ himself and
his divine Spirit. This gives to the Church’s members faith and hope, showing
itself in love, a love that works for the salvation of souls. There is this
further point. The ordinariness of Simon and his friends who left all to follow
Jesus reminds us of the importance of the ordinary Christian in the mission of
the Church. The ordinary person plays an indispensable role in the redemptive
mission of the Church, because where he is, no one else is there to do the work
of Christ. It is in his family, at his workplace, among his acquaintances, that
the work of the Church bringing others to Christ is effected. If he does not do
it, no‑one will. It is to the ordinary faithful that Christ says in all
seriousness: “From now on you will catch men.”
Let us place ourselves in the company of Simon Peter. His successor leads
Christ’s Church in following Christ and in seeking to bring all others into
contact with him. Essential to the work of the entire Church and to the calling
of each and all of her members is the mission to catch men for Christ. It is
Christ who, through his members, is striving to catch them, catch them from the
forces of evil and sin, catch them for life everlasting, catch them from the
fires of hell and thus bring them to an eternity of joy with him.
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The Pharisees and the scribes
said to Jesus, John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples
of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking. Jesus answered, Can
you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the
time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days
they will fast. He told them this parable: No-one tears a patch from a new
garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new
garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no-one pours
new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins,
the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must
be poured into new wineskins. And no-one after drinking old wine wants the
new, for he says, 'The old is better.'(Luke
5: 33-39)
Christ
first
People have various images of the religious person. Some imagine him fasting or
engaged in some form of self‑denial, and this, to a greater or lesser extent, is
certainly part of genuine religion. We see fasting in practitioners of the
various religions of the world.
Some imagine the religious person praying, and praying to an unusual degree.
Others imagine him deeply engaged in service to the poor and in almsgiving. In
our Gospel passage today the Pharisees and the scribes, who were
characteristically disposed to be critical of Jesus, came to him with an
objection which perhaps they thought would embarrass him. The disciples of
those who are religious fast and pray, they said, but your disciples “go on
eating and drinking.” Our Lord on at least one other occasion had things to say
about the prayer and fasting of the scribes and the Pharisees. They did it to
attract the adulation of men. That aside, it seems that our Lord’s disciples
were not, at this stage, at all noted for their prayer and fasting — at least
for their fasting. When this point was put to our Lord, he did not deny it. He
did not say, you do not know what they are doing in secret (and he taught that
we ought pray, fast and give alms “in secret”). Our Lord’s answer to the
scribes and Pharisees implies that, no, they are not fasting in any great way
just yet. They will in due course, but at the moment they are not — and why?
They are not fasting because I am with them. Apart from anything else, this
reply alone shows that our Lord was very human and flexible. He says, my being
with them is a cause of great celebration. Let nothing distract them from me
and my words. Let them come to know and love me first, and then the time will
be right for a regime of fasting and prayer. So, as is the case often in the
Gospels, the criticism of the scribes and Pharisees gives our Lord the
opportunity to point to his own person. He is what truly matters and his
disciples must learn this. He transcends in importance all the practices of
religion.
This point is then emphasised. He is no ordinary religious teacher, as are the
scribes and the Pharisees who have their disciples. Nor is he just a prophet
who gathers disciples around him. He transcends all of them. He, in fact, is
the bridegroom of God’s people come among them to prepare for the wedding.
“Jesus answered, Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with
them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in
those days they will fast” (Luke 5: 33‑39).
Yahweh God described himself as the husband of his people, and the prophets,
speaking in his name, time and again appealed to the people to return to him who
had betrothed them. Their unfaithfulness to the covenant was a form of
adultery. Our Lord identifies himself as the bridegroom, the one bridegroom of
the people. He has come, and what is appropriate at this particular point is
that they be with him and rejoice in his friendship and choice of them. It is
interesting that during his public ministry we see our Lord spending a great
deal of time instructing his disciples, sending them out on mission and drawing
them into his friendship, but we do not see him imposing a strict plan of
prayer, penance and almsgiving on them. We get the impression from the words of
the scribes and Pharisees that they and John the Baptist did have their
disciples following such a plan. Our Lord was patient and gradual. The
important thing at this point for him was that they come to know him, love him
and above all truly believe in him. One of the high points of the Gospel is
Simon’s declaration of Christ’s nature and mission. He was the Messiah, the Son
of God. They had to come to know him, for he is the centre of revealed
religion. Once this basis was established, he would come to the matter of
prayer and fasting. Moreover, once he had been glorified the Holy Spirit would
come and lead them to the full truth. The prayer and fasting would come. That
is to say, let first things be first.
Indeed, let first things be first. The most important thing in religion is to
be with Jesus, to know and love him, to serve him and to live for him. He is at
the centre of everything. He is the bridegroom. Whatever we do in prayer,
self‑denial and service of others must have him at the centre. Nothing must
distract us from him and his love and service, for he is the Bridegroom. As the
Bridegroom he is the cause of our joy.
Isn't it strange how many Christians, who take their time and have leisure
enough in their social life (they are in no hurry), in following the sleepy
rhythm of their professional affairs, in eating and recreation (no hurry
here either), find themselves rushed and want to rush the Priest, in their
anxiety to shorten the time devoted to the most holy Sacrifice of the Altar?
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One Sabbath Jesus was going
through the cornfields, and his disciples began to pick some ears of corn,
rub them in their hands and eat the grain. Some of the Pharisees asked, Why
are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? Jesus answered them, Have
you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He
entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is
lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.
Then Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. (Luke 6: 1-5)
The
Sabbath
To the contemporary mind, the objection of some of the Pharisees in today’s
Gospel appears rather odd. We read that “one Sabbath Jesus was going through
the cornfields and his disciples began to pick some ears of corn, rub them in
their hands and eat the grain.” Perhaps the disciples had had a busy morning
with little chance to eat.
Our Lord may have spoken in the synagogue and ministered to the people. His
disciples were hungry and so they picked ears of corn for themselves as they
were passing through cornfields. For merely picking those ears of corn they
were accused by some of the Pharisees of violating the Sabbath rest. The
Sabbath was a linchpin of the life of the chosen people and numerous regulations
had slowly been developed to protect its observance by Jewish society. Of
course, these numerous regulations were absolutely excessive, as Christ pointed
out. Nevertheless, one question we ought ask ourselves in our secular society
is, to what extent do we take the Sabbath, — which for the Christian is the
Sunday — seriously? The observance of the Sabbath by worship and rest from
distracting work is one of the Ten Commandments. We are commanded to make it
the Lord’s Day. Our temptation is not to be like the Pharisees in their
insistence on a multitude of regulations that in effect stifle the observance of
the Sabbath. In fact, our temptation is to ignore it altogether. The majority
of people do not worship on the Sabbath. God is largely ignored on that day.
The institution of Sunday rest from normal everyday work is welcome by most but
simply as a day of suspension of normal routine, with little reference to God.
Even so, many unhesitatingly forego that rest in order to work on some part‑time
salaried job. Our Gospel scene today (Luke 6: 1‑5)
indirectly reminds us of the very important place the observance of the Sabbath
day should occupy in the lives of those who accept God’s Revelation. It should
be observed as the Lord’s Day. What benefits would come from its observance!
But more than anything, our Gospel passage brings before us the figure of
Jesus. The Pharisees criticised our Lord for his disciples failing to observe
the Sabbath in the way this was expected by them. Our Lord answered by setting
before them the example of the great David: he did not require what you are
requiring, he said. This alone ought make you hesitant about what you choose to
insist on. Again, if David felt authorised to determine how he ought observe
the Sabbath, how much more can the Son of Man determine the observance of the
Sabbath. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus, as he does time and
again during his public ministry, places himself at the forefront and claims a
unique and supreme authority. How striking this expression must have seemed to
the scribes and Pharisees! The Sabbath was sacred in all of society, and to
protect its sanctity numerous laws had been instituted. Yet here was someone
claiming to be the Master of the Sabbath itself. Our Lord himself, of course,
observed and profoundly respected the Sabbath. We read that when he returned to
his home town he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. We
read that during and throughout his public ministry he went to the synagogues on
the Sabbath and preached to the people. Here he is claiming to be able and
authorised to determine how the Sabbath is to be lived. He is Lord of the
Sabbath — a title and office which the average scribe and Pharisee would think
as applying to God alone. Yet Jesus used it of himself. We are reminded by our
Lord’s words of his claim to have all authority in heaven and on earth. He is
Lord. We are also reminded that he himself is the heart and soul of the
Sabbath. It is he whom we worship every Sunday, and he is our exemplar of its
observance. We ought make the Sunday the Lord’s day, Christ’s day. Imagine the
spiritual good that will come to both individuals and society if the Lord’s Day
is truly observed!
Anyone who has the ambition to grow in the Christian life must resolve on a
plan. There has to be a plan of life. Central to that plan must be the
observance of the third commandment that we keep the Sabbath Day holy. How are
we to do this? We do it by placing God and his Son Jesus Christ at the centre of
the Sunday. It means participating in worship, which for the Catholic means
participating in holy Mass, and it means refraining from ordinary salaried work
that could distract us from the purpose of the Sunday. Let us resolve to
observe the Sabbath day so as to be able more easily to acknowledge that Jesus
Christ is Lord, and Lord of the Sabbath too.
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Jesus said to his disciples:
If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between
the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But
if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter
may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses
to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even
to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. I tell
you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two
of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you
by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there
am I with them.(Matthew 18: 15-20)
Society
and religion
In our Gospel passage today our Lord speaks of sinning against another, and of
the importance of striving to bring about a conversion from sin. “If your
brother sins against you, go and show him his fault... If he listens to you,
you have won your brother over” (Matthew 18: 15‑20).
Though the immediate context of our Lord’s words would seem to be the life of
the Church, there is a sense in which it applies to society at large. Let us
consider the passage in relation to man’s life in society. The fact is that
society is essential for the fulfilment of our human calling, and basically we
all know this. We need the help of others if we are to develop. We are social,
and we need society to grow in our potential. The more society understands the
various dimensions of a true human development and their relative importance,
the more it will be able to help its members to reach their true potential, as
God intends. The problem is that society all too often considers human
development in narrow and minimal terms. For instance, if the economy is
flourishing, then many think that society has done its proper work. Or if there
is political debate, or action on the environment, or if various other aspects
of material development are being attended to, then again, society thinks it is
doing all it should do for the betterment of man. But if society and its
citizens are to flourish, all must understand that certain dimensions of human
development are more important than others. The physical, material and what we
might call the instinctual dimensions of man’s welfare are of less importance
than his interior and spiritual ones. The most important dimensions of man’s
life, the interior and spiritual ones, must also be helped to flourish.
Numerous examples could be given. Let one suffice here: Faith. Many in society
would relegate the life of faith to the private sphere and make of it a matter
of mere personal opinion. Hence the flourishing of faith is, on principle, left
unassisted by society. It is often deemed that only matters of logical and
empirical verification ought be the object of society’s efforts on behalf of its
members — matters such as housing, material prosperity, educational excellence,
the arts and so forth.
That is to say, the dimension of religious faith is commonly thought to be
outside the concerns of society. But inasmuch as human history shows that
religion is normally at the heart of culture and society, it should be obvious
that man’s betterment will, to a point, depend on what society does to enable
religion to flourish. In society’s goals, thought must be given not only to
means — such as salaries and economic benefits — but to the ultimate ends of
man. If it fails to do this, then individuals will be spiritually impoverished,
and society will decline in its structures and life. In a secular culture,
man’s spiritual and moral capacities and calling can easily be forgotten. To
take an obvious example, the objective fact of sin is ignored in a secular
society. The word “sin” is just not used. Hence the avoidance of sin, and
one’s relation to God, is left to the individual. In turn this means that the
structures and conditions of a society are allowed to develop in ways that
encourage inducements to sin and the denial or at least the forgetfulness of
God. Sin and God are counted as purely private persuasions, and therefore as of
marginal importance for man. The exception to this is the sin that has a direct
empirical bearing: in other words the sin that harms society in an empirical
way. It is when sin is deemed a crime that it is addressed by society. Hence,
inducement to theft does not attract sanctions because it is sinful, but because
it leads to material harm and loss. Religion is protected if it is seen to
benefit society in a tangible way. Of course, there are degrees to which this
is the case in any one society and there are plenty of exceptions to what I have
said, but the point I am making is that a secular society tends to ignore the
ultimate end of man and his most important dimensions. It ignores sin as such,
and is uninterested in the turning away from sin. It allows man’s best
interests and higher dimensions to decline and be forgotten. The result is that
the institutions and living conditions of society can be profoundly corrupted.
Social sin is neglected.
All this is to say that society for its own sake must be helped to recognize sin
and to convert. Where sin has perverted the social climate, it is necessary to
call for conversion of hearts and for the grace of God to obtain social changes
that may really serve each person and the whole person. Charity, which requires
and makes possible the practice of justice, is the greatest social commandment.
Not only must individuals turn away from sin, but so must society and its
institutions. We who make up the Church ought, in our daily life, strive to
draw the society around us to a recognition of sin and to conversion, so that
society will help man truly to flourish.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no. 1886-1889
(Conversion and society)
How that saintly young priest, who was found worthy of martyrdom, wept at
the foot of the altar as he thought of a soul who had come to receive Christ
in the state of mortal sin!
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Scripture today: Colossians
1:24-2:3; Psalm 61; Luke 6: 6-11
On another Sabbath Jesus went into the
synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shrivelled.
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse
Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But
Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shrivelled hand,
Get up and stand in front of everyone. So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus
said to them, I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do
evil, to save life or to destroy it? He looked round at them all, and then said
to the man, Stretch out your hand. He did so, and his hand was completely
restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they
might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:6-11)
Christ
and sin
Let our minds go back. The Pope is formally invited by the British Prime
Minister to visit the United Kingdom and he accepts the invitation (2010). It
will be a three-day visit, during which he will beatify the great English
Cardinal, John Henry Newman.
He will meet the sovereign, address representatives of all England at
Westminister Hall, and will be the person of the hour during his three-day visit
to the nation. The Pope, in the view of a vociferous minority, is an unwelcome
guest because of all he stands for, and they set about to cause a profoundly
mixed welcome. The British broadcaster Channel 4 appoints a known gay rights
campaigner and one of the founders of the organisation “Protest the Pope,” to
prepare an “objective and impartial” one hour film on Benedict XVI. It is to be
screened at the time of the Papal visit. Everyone knows the ilk of the film
producer and of Channel 4, and it is obvious that the Pope will be cast in an
unfavourable and cynical light. It will encourage controversy and even
hostility to the person of the Pope, no matter what might be the goodness and
magnanimity of Benedict XVI himself. They will, to use the words that appear in
our Gospel today, be looking for a reason to accuse him. It is all part of a
piece in the critical stance of the Guardian, Channel 4 and the BBC itself
towards the Pope and his visit to England. Ah! Benedict is walking in the
footsteps of the Master, carrying the Cross ahead of the other disciples. In
our Gospel today, our Lord enters the synagogue and proceeds to teach. A man
was there whose right hand was shrivelled. There were others there in the
congregation: Pharisees and teachers of the law, and they were watching
carefully what would happen as soon as Jesus finished speaking. Would he
observe the Sabbath, or would he break it by healing — doing work on the Sabbath
Day? Their intent is then succinctly explained. They were looking for a reason
to accuse him, him who is the Son of God made man. There was no sin in him, and
nothing, objectively speaking, to have caused a suspicion of breaking the Law of
God. Yet they watch for a reason to accuse him.
Our Gospel today (Luke 6:6‑11) presents two
great sides. There is the side of Christ and holiness, and there is the side of
sin and opposition to Christ. On the side of sin, the protagonists consider
that they are doing a work for God — this is the obfuscating self-justification
that has blinded their hearts. They seek a reason to accuse him: thus
manifesting the evil disposition of their hearts. Sunk in sin, they think they
are good. They attack the Son of God, him who is all-holy, and wish to accuse
him of being a sinner and a violator of God’s Law. Their great blindness is
culpable. It is their own doing and they will be held responsible for it. I
cannot help but think that their sinful self-justification and blindness as to
the evil of their hearts reflects the outlook of Satan himself. In the cast and
disposition of his will Satan is wholly evil, sunk in terrible and undying sin.
In his dark and culpable blindness he is confirmed in self-justification. He
does not accuse himself in his opposition to God and Christ. Rather, he accuses
Christ. In the Gospel of St John our Lord tells his enemies that their father
is the Devil. They do what their father is doing. In the book of Job, we read
of Satan accusing the just man Job before the throne of God. Satan is the grand
accuser, while the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ, is our Advocate and
Defender. Consider, now, the strength of this sinful disposition and what we
might even call the helplessness of Christ when confronted with it. He could
not make headway with it. “Then Jesus said to them, I ask you, which is lawful
on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? He
looked round at them all, and then said to the man, Stretch out your hand. He
did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began
to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus” (Luke 6:6‑11). In this
scene we see two powers. On the one hand there is the all-holy Power of Christ,
and on the other hand there is the terrible power of deliberate sin. Our Lord
taught that there is even a sin — against the Holy Spirit — that is eternal.
Sin can be implacable. It sought to find reason even to accuse the Son of God.
Sin has been overcome, and it took the death of Christ on the Cross to do it.
Sin has been overcome, but the victory has to be brought to and accepted by each
person in a spirit of repentance and faith. Let us contemplate our Gospel scene
today meditating on the two great sides: Christ and sin. Christ is and will be
the Victor, and we have in our faith the victory over sin and the world. Let us
take our stand with Christ, then, and never make a deliberate overture to sin.
The smile of sin is death.
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One of those days Jesus went
out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning
came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also
designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James,
John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon
who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became
a traitor. He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd
of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea,
from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear
him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were
cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from
him and healing them all.(Luke 6: 12-19)
The
Church
Our Gospel scene today describes a turning point in our Lord’s ministry. John
the Baptist had preached repentance, exhorting the people to prepare for the One
who was coming. God was coming in his Anointed One, and John proceeded to point
to Jesus as this One who was promised.
Christ was baptized and immediately began to preach the coming of the Kingdom of
God. God’s rule was nigh and he authenticated his claim by the miracles he
worked. The Kingdom of God was preached, crowds followed, disciples listened,
and many of them wondered what the Kingdom of God would entail for them. One
question still to be answered was, how was entry into it to be gained? How was
one to become a citizen of the Kingdom preached and revealed by Jesus? Indeed,
what exactly was the Kingdom? In our Gospel today Christ takes a new step. From
his disciples he chose twelve, henceforth to be known as the Twelve and whom he
himself designated his Apostles, or envoys (apostoloi). They were to be
his special companions and were to share in an altogether special way in his
mission of establishing the Kingdom of God. There were twelve of them,
suggesting a new beginning for the chosen people of God, with new patriarchs
reminiscent of the twelve patriarchs of old with the twelve tribes of Israel
that issued from them. It was a new beginning, in a sense a new people
gathering up into itself and fulfilling the old. The new and central factor was
our Lord himself. He is the heart and soul of the Kingdom. Furthermore, to
enter this kingdom one must, in the plan of God, enter this people that was
gathered around Jesus and the Twelve — though of course, for those who, through
no fault of their own, had no way of entering into explicit contact with Jesus
and the Twelve, then doubtlessly God would draw them into his rule in ways known
to him alone. All this is to say that the new step Christ was now taking was to
lay the foundations of his Church built on himself and the Twelve.
Our Gospel passage today (Luke 6: 12‑19)
reminds us of the Church which Christ founded on the Twelve, with Simon whom he
named the Rock at their head. They were founded as one body with him, and at
the Last Supper he would pray that they would all be one as he and the Father
were one. How tragic has been the break‑up of Christ’s faithful with so many,
sincere in their love for Christ, separated from Peter and the Twelve! There are
Christian bodies almost without number separated from one another. Compare this
with what Christ instituted as we see it portrayed in our Gospel passage today.
We ought pray for Christian unity that eventually all may be one in order that
the world may believe that Jesus is the one who was sent. There is a further
point arising from our Gospel passage today. There is a view of the Christian
religion summarised in the caption, Christ yes, the Church no! In the minds of
many, Christ is to be regarded as separated from the Church. That is to say,
while he is accepted, the Church is not. But this is not what is shown in our
Gospel passage today. Christ is united to his Church as it is embodied in the
Twelve. They are chosen to be with him, to be one with him, and to be sent out
as his envoys. He who hears you, hears me, he said. It is through them that
people would come into contact with Christ and his teaching. And so it is in
the plan of God. God’s plan is that the living risen Jesus, now at the right
hand of his Father in heaven, lives also in the midst of the Church which is his
body. The great Reality within the Church is the person of Jesus, just as in
our Gospel passage today the great Reality in the midst of the Twelve was the
person of Jesus. Just as Jesus could not be separated from the Twelve in his
plan, so too the Church cannot be separated from Jesus. The Church is Christ’s
body and his spouse. He is her Head and her Bridegroom. If we wish to live in
Jesus, the plan of God is that we do so as members of his Church.
Let us place ourselves in our Gospel scene today and gaze on Jesus in the midst
of the Twelve. It is a picture of the Church in embryo. The Holy Spirit would
be sent at Pentecost and this Church in embryo would be born, with the Twelve as
its visible foundation. Simon Peter would be its visible head, with Christ the
invisible head and rock. Let us love the Church, for Christ loves the Church
and laid down his life for her. Through the Church we enter into union with
Jesus and live in him.
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Looking at his disciples, Jesus
said: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed
are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep
now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude
you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.
For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are
rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well
fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn
and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their
fathers treated the false prophets.(Luke
6: 20-26)
The
choice
As we think of what Christ says in our Gospel passage today, we ought ask
ourselves what is it that is driving our daily life. What is it that
fundamentally we regard as important and therefore the proper object of our
daily efforts?
For the parent, we could put it this way: what values and goals are my children
gradually picking up from living with me and observing me? Our Lord puts
things dramatically and starkly. He says, blessed are you who are poor, for
yours is the kingdom of God. Our Lord sets forth those who in their mind, heart
and soul choose to seek the kingdom of God , and who in their hearts do not
cling to the things of this world. The kingdom of God is, essentially, the
person of Christ and union with him. St Paul writes that life for him is
Christ. It is Christ, he writes, who lives in him. He, therefore, possessed
the kingdom of God, and all else he saw as refuse by comparison. But woe to
those, our Lord continues, who in their hearts seek only the wealth and joys
that this world offers. That is all that they will have: they have already
received their comfort. Our Lord is speaking of what man chooses to set his
heart upon. Is it to be God, or is it to be what is not of God? In this sense,
our Lord continues his stark contrasts. The one who is blessed is the one who
hungers now, the one who weeps now, the one who is hated now. He is speaking of
the one who does not seek his heart’s satisfaction in the satisfactions and joys
that this world offers, be it wealth, food and drink, entertainment and
popularity. These have a place in the good life, but they must not be life’s
goal and happiness. The disciple sets his heart on the kingdom of God which is
none other than the person of Christ and union with him, following his way and
making his intentions one’s own. In our passage today our Lord places before
his disciples a stark choice between his way and the way of the world and
self‑indulgence. Behind each of these two ways is the sinister figure of
Satan. Ultimately there are two Standards, the Standard of Christ and the
Standard of Satan. We must make a choice.
Making such a choice involves attaching one’s heart to the person of Jesus and
detaching one’s heart from all that in effect takes one’s heart away from him.
Both these elements involve a life‑long struggle. There are plenty of parallels
to this in life. If a spouse resolves to love his married partner with all his
heart, this will involve a great struggle to renounce anything that entices him
to self‑interest. It would be impossible without the help of God’s grace
because man is a fallen and sinful creature. For this reason God has made
marriage between two Christians a Sacrament, provided their marriage is in
accord with the law of Christ. The motive of the struggle will be love for his
spouse. So it is too, in one’s relationship with Christ. One must become
totally attached to him and detached from all that draws one away from him.
This will, of course, be impossible without the aid of grace, that grace granted
by God in Baptism and nourished by the other Sacraments and all that the Church
offers in its ministry. So, depending on and asking for this divine grace, the
disciple of Christ every day strives to live in him and for him. He struggles
against the natural tendency to love of self, expressed in seeking the things of
this world. Our Lord in today’s Gospel speaks of rejoicing in the midst of
tribulation. “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and
insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in
that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven”
(Luke 6: 20‑26). He is expressing it vividly
to show the joy that will come to the person who makes him, Jesus Christ, the
object of his heart’s love. Such a person has a most bright prospect ahead, an
eternity of happiness hereafter, giving to this life a profound and joyful hope
that is denied the person who places all his hopes for happiness in this brief
life. Saint John Fisher, the great bishop of Rochester in England who was
martyred by Henry VIII, always had a human skull before him at his desk,
reminding him that life is very short, and eternity is very long.
In a sense, the words of our Lord indicate that ultimately life is very simple
in its choices. One side of the choice brings blessings, while the other brings
woes. The one side is a choice for Christ, the other for self and this world.
Let us choose to love and follow Christ, for it is there that true happiness
lies.
Thursday of the twenty third
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Jesus said to his disciples:
But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who ill-treat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn
to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from
taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what
belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them
do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even
'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good
to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend
to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even
'sinners' lend to 'sinners', expecting to be repaid in full. But love your
enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything
back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High,
because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your
Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn,
and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and
it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and
running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use,
it will be measured to you. (Luke 6: 27-38)
Christian love Perhaps
the first thing to be said about the teaching in this Gospel passage is that it
sets a very high benchmark. It asks of the human heart the highest standard in
its moral reaction to evil. All through human history an abiding problem has
been the evil perpetrated on the innocent by free persons.
Why do the wealthy oppress the poor? Why does a person kill an innocent person
or harm him in some way? When it comes to natural disasters, or disasters
brought about by human beings (such as an unprovoked attack or war, or a crime
against humanity), why does God himself allow this to happen? It is the problem
of evil that is caused by free persons and allowed by God. Now, let us set
aside the problem of evil seemingly allowed by God, and just consider the evil
brought on or allowed by one’s fellows, for that is the situation addressed by
our Lord’s words today: the injustices caused by one’s “enemies.” What does
Christ say should be our moral response to this? He says, “Love your enemies, do
good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who
ill‑treat you.” Surely no one would deny that the teaching of Christ is truly
exalted. It expects the highest moral response in the heart of the one being
wronged, a response of love for the one causing the injury. The particular
courses of action our Lord then urges are not so much specific things that must
be done in all circumstances. Rather they are vivid illustrations of his lesson
of love for one’s enemies and for those who are inconvenient. “If someone
strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your
cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you,
and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back”
(Luke 6: 27‑38). Our Lord is making his point
in graphic terms that in every circumstance our actions are to be inspired by
love and never by hate or mere irritation, no matter how provoking or unjust the
circumstance. I doubt the equal of this doctrine would be found in all
philosophy and religion.
Some might say that this teaching of Christ is foolish and impractical. But
basically that response is merely utilitarian: it is based on what is deemed by
the objector to be useful. Indeed, many would observe that by the same token a
hateful or irritated response to evil is not useful either. It breeds more
violence and vendetta. If we must be utilitarian, Christ’s teaching about love
filling our hearts in all circumstances, including circumstances of evil, is
surely the key to the happiness and fulfilment of man. Even when evil must be
resisted with force and when justice must be imposed on the wrongdoer — as
common sense dictates that it must — Christ’s teaching about love for one’s
enemies stands. Love must fill the heart of the one who suffers evil, the one
who resists evil, and the one who must impose retribution on the wrongdoer.
Even in a bloody war engaged against an oppressor, love must reign in the heart
of the one thus resisting, and this will necessarily temper and influence the
way that war, that just war, is conducted. Christ wants us to look on our enemy
with love and never with hate. Well now, in practice this can seem
incomprehensible, so we must ask what or who is our model in this, for we need a
model if we are to understand what this striking doctrine entails. Our model is
the Lord Jesus himself. He never failed in love, though, we may notice, he
certainly resisted evil. Who were his enemies? Obviously Satan himself was his
enemy and we see Christ throughout his public ministry driving him out and
resisting him. The scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians
were his enemies, or at least very many of them. He resisted them. Judas, one
of his very own, became his enemy. But the heart of Christ was always full of
love. On the cross we see him offer his final prayer to his heavenly Father in
which he prays for those who placed him there, and who now were jeering at him
challenging him to come down from the cross. Father, forgive them, he prayed,
for they do not know what they are doing. If we want to understand his teaching
of love for one’s enemies, we must contemplate the example of Jesus.
Let us take our stand with Jesus and live in his company. Let us listen to his
teaching and ponder on it carefully, resolving to live it in the ordinary
details of everyday life. When we are hurt by another, or especially when we
remember hurts caused by others in the past, let us remember what Christ teaches
in our passage today, and start there and then with his grace and help to try to
live his doctrine. Let us try to forgive and be magnanimous, with the example
of Christ himself always at hand to inspire us
Friday of the twenty third week in Ordinary Time II
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Scripture today:
1 Corinthians 9:16-19.22-27; Psalm 83; Luke 6:
39-42
Jesus told this parable to his
disciples: Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into
a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained
will be like his teacher. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your
brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can
you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,'
when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first
take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the
speck from your brother's eye.(Luke 6: 39-42)
The
plank
It is a wholesome exercise to consider how much of one’s inner thought is spent
in criticizing others. The average person would be unaware of the degree to
which his thoughts are critical and unkind in respect to the defects and
limitations of others with whom he works or lives.
He is perhaps critical of members of his own family. His thoughts are critical
of those with whom he works, and anger smoulders in his heart. He is angry with
people in the past who have been part of his life. Without being particularly
conscious of it, in his own mind he often condemns others. Again, without being
very aware of it, to a greater or lesser extent he would even be happy to see
such people punished with harm done to them. Now, our Lord has something to say
about this frequent absorption in the defects of others. Consider what he says:
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no
attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see
the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye,
and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye”
(Luke 6: 39‑42). That is to say, what we
usually lack is a sense of our own defects and limitations. We tend to look
benignly on them and diminish their seriousness while criticizing harshly those
of others. We ought, rather, treat others in our very thoughts, alone before
the gaze of God, as we would like them to treat us. One of the striking
features of truly holy people is that they are acutely conscious of their own
faults, sins and limitations. As their lives draw to a close, lives that have
been filled with good works and virtue, they primarily see what they have not
done, or what they have done poorly. They are acutely conscious of their sins
and, because of this tend, to look with forgiveness and mercy on the sins of
others unless it is their work to correct them. Further, they are very
grateful.
One person who exemplified this sense of personal fault was the saintly Catholic
bishop of the London district in the middle and second half of the eighteenth
century. His name was Dr Richard Challoner, vicar apostolic of the London
district who died in 1781 during his ninetieth year. All recognized the
excellent work he had done and the holiness of his life. When he was nearly
eighty he wrote a letter to his old friend, Bishop Hornyold, acknowledging the
gift of a present from his friend. He asks for prayers, and writes “that the
time is near in which I shall be called upon to give up an account of my
stewardship. O dear brother, for our Lord’s sake earnestly pray that in his
great mercy he would forgive my innumerable sins, and prepare me for that great
appearance, in which I have reason to dread the account I must give not only for
myself but for so many others, who through my fault or neglect, are walking on
the way to perdition. Oh! ‘tis a melancholy thing to see the great decay of
piety and religion among a great part of our people, and God grant this may not
be imputed to me by reason of my sins and negligences. Therefore I once more
beg your prayers....” (Bishop Challoner, by M. Trappes‑Lomax, p.227) He
was very aware of what he considered to be the plank in his own eye and so he
was well able to see what was in the eye of others. He lived with the judgment
of God before his mind’s eye. His humility before God was the foundation of not
only his love for God but of his love for others and his merciful attitude
towards them. In those moments of greater clarity when we see with greater
perception our defects and failings, we ought take them to heart, and not
attempt to escape the burden they constitute. We ought endeavour to ground
ourselves in a deeper humility, for in this way we shall be able to assist
others and serve God with greater genuineness.
Let us exercise a strict watch over our thoughts of criticism and irritation at
the defects of others. Let us correct those unkind thoughts by a deeper
awareness of our own defects and sins. Let us remember that, as our Lord’s
words suggest, our tendency will be to be highly conscious of the speck of dust
in our brother’s eye while being oblivious to the log in our own.
Saturday of the twenty third week in Ordinary Time
II
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Scripture today:
1 Corinthians 10:14-22; Psalm 115; Luke 6: 43-49
Jesus said to his disciples:
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree
is recognised by its own fruit.
People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or grapes from briers. The good
man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil
man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of
the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,'
and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me
and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building
a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood
came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was
well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice
is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment
the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.(Luke 6: 43-49)
The
parable
The Church has defined that in becoming man, God took to himself a true human
nature. This meant that he, divine person with a divine nature that he is, in
time assumed to himself a human nature with its human will and human mind.
He who acted by nature divinely began to act and function humanly as well. He
thought and willed as a true man, a man of a particular culture, background and
mental constitution. His divine person became embodied with particular human
features. God acquired a human face. As St Paul writes in one of his Letters,
in Christ the fullness of the godhead resides bodily, and this meant with
precise human characteristics. He was of a certain height, he had definite
facial features probably very like those of his mother, his voice had a certain
timbre and accent, his hair was of a certain colour, and he thought in a certain
way. This limited human presence meant that God made himself truly one of us.
The fact that this very human person claimed to be the infinite God posed a
great test of faith. Consider the way our Lord in his manhood thought. His
words in the Gospels do not suggest that he engaged in much pure abstract
metaphysical thought, nor did he explain things metaphysically or abstractly.
He was not an Athenian Greek but a Hebrew, for this was not the Hebrew way. Of
course he could have cut through and immediately grasped anything of
metaphysical bearing but that is not how he seems to have thought, humanly
speaking. How then did Christ think and teach? Considering his sayings as they
are given to us in the Gospels, he seems to have inclined towards metaphor and
analogy. He immediately saw numerous connections with other similar things and
used that similarity to explain his revelation. Profoundly immersed as he was
in the Scriptures, he thought concretely and analogically. Beware of the yeast
of the Pharisees, he observed when on the Lake with his disciples. The
disciples thought he was talking about bread, but the “yeast” was their
teaching. I make this general point about the Incarnation to introduce Christ’s
use of parable.
Our Lord is known especially for his parables. He constructs stories drawn from
real life. To make his doctrinal and moral point, he makes use of its
similarity to certain elements of ordinary life that are familiar to his
hearers. Take our Gospel passage today. “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor
does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognised by its own fruit.
People do not pick figs from thorn‑bushes, or grapes from briers. The good man
brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man
brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the
overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6: 43‑49).
Our Lord did not grow up in academies, nor was his family, community and world
that of, say, the Athenian schools, but of the backwater village of Nazareth.
His world was that of ordinary work, the daily life of his small family circle,
his relatives, and the ordinary farming life of his relatives and
acquaintances. It was all very concrete and it is in these concrete terms that
the great God who became man for our salvation, chose to teach the human race
the way of salvation that consists in union with him. In our Gospel passage our
Lord takes an obvious truth from everyday life, that no good tree bears bad
fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. His audience all knew this and his
use of this everyday truth immediately drew their minds and hearts into a
fundamental teaching. What matters is the moral constitution of the heart and
soul of man, man’s very heart. Let us notice even the word, “heart.” It is a
classic expression, of course, but concrete and easily visualized. It is a
metaphor referring to the very soul of man, the essential and immaterial core of
his person. Christ says that the soul of a man ought be a “good tree” bearing
“good fruit.” He asks that we bring our religion to the very core of our persons
so that not only our actions but their very source, our “hearts” be good. More
than anything, it is at that level that our Lord wants us to be his disciples.
A religion genuinely of the heart will not only manifest itself in deeds, but
those deeds will be the proof of a religion of the heart.
Let us immerse our minds and hearts in the very human character of our Lord’s
person. He is God but truly man. His teaching is so very accessible because it
is cast and conveyed in such human and concrete terms. His parables are of
undying interest and effectiveness, including the two brief parables of today.
Let us be good trees bearing good fruit, or to put it another way, let us be a
house built on rock, hearing Christ’s word and putting it into practice.
Prayers today: Give peace, Lord, to those who wait for you and your prophets who
will proclaim you as you deserve. Hear the prayers of your servant and of your
people Israel. (Sirach 36. 18)
Almighty God our creator and guide, may we serve you with all our heart and know
your forgiveness in our lives. 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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Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my
brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you,
not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is
like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the
settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he
was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children
and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees
before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.'
The servant's master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go. But
when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow- servants who owed him a
hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe
me!' he demanded. His fellow- servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be
patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he went off
and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other
servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told
their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant
in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I cancelled all that debt of yours because
you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow- servant just as I
had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured,
until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat
each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.
(Matthew 18: 21-35)
Forgiveness
The child has good parents, but his father is strict, harsh and domineering. As
he grows up, he argues sharply with his father, and is often resentful. He
experiences the normal conflicts of everyday life at school and as he continues
his studies for a career.
He enters upon his profession and encounters difficult superiors and at times
unfair work colleagues. He too causes suffering to others, but he is far less
aware of that than he is of the suffering others cause him. In other words,
life brings its share of hurt and damage to him. This is not the sad thing,
because it is to be expected. This is a fallen world, and it is not bent on
co-operation with man. The sad thing is that he has allowed resentment and
anger to take root. Just out of sight in his mind’s eye each day are the
injuries he has suffered all through life. No-one realizes it, but anger is
seething below the surface of his imagination. He has an angry soul, even
though he is prudent and street-wise enough not to show it to others. He knows
that an angry man is not one to attract the goodwill or friendship of others, so
he hides his anger and resentment day by day. His anger at the hurts inflicted
on him over the years, with certain persons of the past being the special focus
of that anger, prevents him from being happy, but no-one else knows this.
Actually, he practises his Christian faith well and carefully. He goes to daily
Mass and keeps God’s commandments. He is a good and religious man. But he has
not forgiven those who have injured him. He often remembers that Christ has
warned that to the extent we do not forgive others their wrongs against us, to
that extent will our wrongs against God not be forgiven either. It worries him
from time to time, but he says to himself that he has time to deal with this.
The trouble is that he never seems able to deal with it. He never really
forgives. Moreover, he notices that he rarely says sorry to others. He rarely
apologizes. That is to say, while never really forgiving, he rarely asks others
for their forgiveness, because he seldom acknowledges the wrong that he has done
to them.
All this is something he sees, and others do not. He sees that he is
unforgiving, and so does God who sees all. But he loves God and he truly wants
to serve him. He is assiduous in his daily work and strives to be a good
husband and a dutiful and loving father. He tries not to be harsh to his
children as his father was harsh to him. He is prayerful and he receives the
Sacraments regularly. But he cannot seem to forgive. He finds himself
re-living the painful scenes of his past and acting out deeds of revenge on
others in his solitary imagination — even though the main actors are now dead.
He resolves time and again to forgive, but it seems beyond him. Ah yes! My dear
friend, it is beyond you indeed! It is one of the greatest struggles of human
history — the struggle to forgive and to resist the desire for revenge.
Countless souls are living out this battle in their hearts and being overcome in
the process. They never forgive. They never turn the tide of resentment in
their lives. This is one of the most important challenges of life, and it is a
most important part of the true education of a human being — education in
forgiveness. If it is not met, the heart of man — his true spiritual centre —
will fail. If he forgives, he will flourish. Look at the world! It would not
be surprising if an alien, having visited and about to depart, were to say that
planet Earth is an angry place. Anger wells up from some deep wound in the
heart of the world. The world hurts and is in flames, and its fire is never put
out. The fire has to be put out, but we seem to have no way of doing this. If
all we had were human reason, I do not think large numbers would attain clarity
on the matter of forgiveness. Nor would many truly forgive. God has become
man, though, and has laid it down that forgiveness is a foundation stone of the
following of him. We must forgive, and as we read in today’s Gospel, we must
forgive from the heart (Matthew 18: 21-35).
Moreover, he gives the Holy Spirit. Through our Baptism, our Confirmation and
the Sacraments, together with our daily prayer, he, the Spirit of God, brings us
the grace that makes it possible.
At heart, you don’t want to forgive? Ah yes, God understands, but he commands
that you do forgive, and forgive totally. A tall order? Yes, but God requires
it. So, first recognize in yourself the problem. Alcoholics Anonymous has its
programme for overcoming its problem. A man must recognize his powerlessness,
and then turn to the divine Power that is greater than himself and on which he
can rely. So too, man must recognize his powerlessness to forgive all offences
from the heart. Then he must entrust his heart to the Holy Spirit, asking the
grace to want to forgive, and then to forgive. This prayer must be kept up,
together with the struggle each day. He must, with God’s grace, choose to
forgive, and keep forgiving. Let us make it our ambition to depart this life —
which may come any day and suddenly — having forgiven all.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
2838-2845 (Forgive us)
Monday of the twenty fourth week in Ordinary Time A/I
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When Jesus had finished all his words to
the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave who was ill and
about to die, and he was valuable to him. When he heard about Jesus, he sent
elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave.
They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying, “He deserves to
have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for
us.” And Jesus went with them, but when he was only a short distance from the
house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself,
for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not
consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be
healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come here, and he comes; and
to my slave, Do this, and he does it.” When Jesus heard this he was amazed at
him and, turning, said to the crowd following him, “I tell you, not even in
Israel have I found such faith.” When the messengers returned to the house, they
found the slave in good health. (Luke 7:1-10)
Religion
of faith
I remember years ago there was a television series that portrayed, if I
remember, a drama of espionage. I think the title of the series was “Cold
Warrior,” and each episode was short but intense. The central character was
efficient in his crime fighting and at one point he was asked if he was
religious.
He said that he believed in a higher Power. The actor said his piece well, and
it showed what we might call the respectability of this restricted form of
religion. This kind of religion, a religion that acknowledged a higher Power,
prided itself on being rational — that is, it presented itself as the fruit of
reasoning. It was not extravagant, and above all it did not depend on mere
faith. It was a modern form of deism, but scaled down from the deism of two
centuries ago. This higher Power had no real impact on the life of the
character in the series — it was just a private persuasion which he never gave
expression to, unless formally consulted. Life could carry on without
dependence on religion, for God was just a higher Power to which one rarely had
pressing recourse, and, anyhow, the competent man could manage his life quite
well on his own. For the last couple of centuries religious agnosticism has
been growing in respectability in society — the position that one cannot be sure
about the existence and nature of God, while the most respectable form of
religion in a public sense would seem to be deism. It is silently assumed to be
the common denominator among religions, and accepts the being of God as the
Orderer and Origin of the world. It is the religion of reason, and because it
is of reason it has a good name among observers of religion. Christian faith
does not have the public respectability of a detached and rational deism. Now
all this, if we but stop and advert to it, involves an obvious abandonment of
the priorities of Jesus Christ. In the teaching of Christ, faith is given the
obvious priority, and in particular, faith in himself. How would our Lord
compare acknowledgement of a higher Power with faith in himself? It hardly needs
saying that for our Lord the public and respectable deism of modern secular man
— as instanced in the above statement of the Cold Warrior — will not do.
It was faith that Christ sought, faith in the chosen people, and faith in those
beyond the chosen people. There are two protagonists in our Gospel passage
today, the centurion and Jesus Christ whom he approached. We do not know the
beliefs of the centurion but he was a friend of Judaism, for he assisted in the
construction of — and even built — the synagogue of those who approached our
Lord on his behalf. One does not get the impression that he was a believer in
the true religion, the religion of the Jews. He approximated to it, perhaps,
liked and admired it, perhaps, but beyond this we cannot be sure. We may even
say that he was probably a monotheist under the influence of Judaism — believing
that there was a single high and holy Power who was accessible by worship. What
he thought of the expectation of a Messiah we have no way of knowing. All this
is mere speculation, but what is quite clear is that he had great faith in the
goodness and power of Jesus Christ. There was nothing Jesus could not do, and
Jesus was a good and holy man, one far above himself in personal worth. He
already had great faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that impressed our Lord
greatly, for it was this faith that our Lord was looking for among his own
countrymen, the chosen people. On this basis, a person could go further when a
fuller revelation of himself was made. Our Lord turned to his countrymen and
said that this centurion had greater faith than they. The point is that it is
faith that Christ seeks in man, not just a religion of the reason that looks
askance at faith. He asks for trust in his goodness, his power and his word.
Moreover, this faith in the centurion was not the complete faith that our Lord
would come to expect, the faith that Simon Peter professed before our Lord on
behalf of the Apostles. But it was faith in process, and admirable as far as it
went. This faith was found in the centurion — for the Spirit of God is at work
among the peoples. We ought esteem faith in Jesus Christ — as far as it goes —
that people beyond the community of Christ’s faithful are found to have.
The Jewish friends of the centurion, and others besides, told him of Jesus
Christ. This led to his faith in Christ as far as it went. It was a true,
genuine, excellent, though of course limited faith. But it began with the words
about Jesus Christ that he heard. Let our words about Jesus Christ be heard
among our fellows in the world around us day by day. If they are heard, there
will be more and more of the ilk of our centurion who will believe. Their
belief will be limited initially, but Christ may praise it highly. It will lead
them to Jesus Christ, and with that encounter will come the faith that brings
salvation.
(September 8) Birth of Mary
The Church has celebrated Mary's birth since at least the sixth century.
A September birth was chosen because the Eastern Church
begins its Church year with September. The September 8 date helped determine
the date for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 (nine months
earlier). Scripture does not give an account of Mary's birth. However, the
apocryphal Protoevangelium of James fills in the gap. This work has no historical
value, but it does reflect the development of Christian piety. According
to this account, Anna and Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They
receive the promise of a child that will advance God's plan of salvation
for the world. Such a story (like many biblical counterparts) stresses the
special presence of God in Mary's life from the beginning. St. Augustine
connects Mary's birth with Jesus' saving work. He tells the earth to rejoice
and shine forth in the light of her birth. "She is the flower of the field
from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the
nature inherited from our first parents is changed." The opening prayer at
Mass speaks of the birth of Mary's Son as the dawn of our salvation and asks
for an increase of peace.
We can see every human birth as a call for new hope in the world. The love
of two human beings has joined with God in his creative work. The loving
parents have shown hope in a world filled with travail. The new child has
the potential to be a channel of God's love and peace to the world. This
is all true in a magnificent way in Mary. If Jesus is the perfect expression
of God's love, Mary is the foreshadowing of that love. If Jesus has brought
the fullness of salvation, Mary is its dawning. Birthday celebrations bring
happiness to the celebrant as well as to family and friends. Next to the
birth of Jesus, Mary's birth offers the greatest possible happiness to the
world. Each time we celebrate her birth we can confidently hope for an increase
of peace in our hearts and in the world at large.
"Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light,
kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe
rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father's immaculate bride buds forth
from the stem of Jesse" (adapted from Byzantine Daily Worship).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Micah 5: 1-4 or Romans 8: 28-30; Psalm 12; Matthew
1: 1-16.18-23
A record
of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father
of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother
was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the
father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon
the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of KingDavid. David was the father of Solomon, whose
mother had been Uriah's wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the
father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the
father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father
of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time
of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father
of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of
Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the
father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud
the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father
of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was
born Jesus, who is called Christ. This is how the
birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married
to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child
through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and
did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce
her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take
Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy
Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfil
what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child
and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel — which means,
God with us.(Matthew 1: 1-16.18-23)
Mary our
help
It was on the first day of the week, the Sunday, that the early Church came to
celebrate as the Sabbath, rather than the last day of the week as was the Jewish
practice. This was because it was on the first day of the week that the Lord
rose from the dead. The Resurrection was thus the first specifically Christian
feast day.
The last day of the week was the Jewish Day of the Lord when all rested and
worshipped God. But gradually other feasts of the Lord Jesus came to be
celebrated, including his birth. It was natural to celebrate the birth of the
Messiah especially in view of the extensive Scriptural accounts of this in both
the Gospel of St Luke and that of St Matthew (Matthew
1: 1‑16.18‑23). Likewise, by extension, the Church came to celebrate
the birth of Christ’s mother, the virgin Mary. It was the most natural thing to
do in view of the constant love and veneration with which she has always been
held by Christ’s faithful. So today (Sept 8) we think of the birth of Mary. We
know nothing of the circumstances of her birth and practically nothing of her
life prior to the announcement to her by the angel of her calling to be the
mother of the Messiah. The Church in celebrating her birth each year invites
all of Christ’s faithful to contemplate yet again the figure of Mary. It is as
if the Church seeks out whatever occasions are possible to gaze on her who is,
by God’s design, our common mother. So let us, on this her birthday contemplate
her in light of the Church’s teaching. She is God’s creature and, like each of
us, constantly dependent for her very existence on God’s creative intent. God
holds her always in his hand as he does with every creature. But marvel of
marvels, she who is a creature of God, has by the divine decree become the
mother of God, mother of God the Son made man, and because of this, her dignity
is beyond every other creature. She who is the mother of God has been given to
us to be our mother too. Our mother is great indeed.
Let us consider what more the Church teaches us about her. She is not only the
mother of God (formally defined to be such by the early Church) and is not only
our mother and model, but she is utterly sinless. She is sinless by the grace
of God and her own cooperation with that grace. The Church teaches that she
was, by the power of God’s grace and in view of the redemption that would be
wrought by her divine Son, kept free from original sin from the first moment of
her conception. She was immaculate in her conception, and this we celebrate on
December 8. St Luke tells us that the angel Gabriel greeted her as full of
grace. This fact characterized her being, and the same could be said of her at
her conception and birth. She was full of grace from the first moment of her
conception, and that fullness was ever increasing with her own human and
spiritual growth. The Lord was with her constantly, forming her into the mother
he wanted for himself. We are born of our parents, and we have no say in the
mother we are granted. She, whoever she is and whatever be her moral state, is
our mother and therefore worthy of our love and gratitude. But God had every
say in the choice and nurturing of his own mother. She, Mary the wife of
Joseph, was not only God’s personal choice as mother, but was God’s special
work. He created and formed her to the perfection she attained. He produced of
this free creature a spotlessly holy mother who knew not any sin, but whose holy
soul freely sped constantly to God. In every possible sense the Lord was with
her. She was blessed among women and always did the will of the Father. She is
the help of Christians and there is no more powerful intercessor after her own
Son our High Priest. She shares in his intercession for us. She is our Mother,
our Model and our Help, just as she was for her own divine Son who was born of
her and grew up in her love. Due to her sinlessness, the Church teaches it as a
dogma of the Faith that she was taken body and soul glorious to heaven at the
end of her mortal life, and this we celebrate on August 15.
The
Christian life is a life of love for, veneration of, and following of Jesus.
Mary whose birth the Church celebrates today is our help in living this
calling. She is our mother, given to us when Christ entrusted his mother to his
beloved disciple during his last moments on the Cross. Behold your mother! That
is what he says to each of us. She is the one who more than any other helps us
love and serve Jesus. Let us entrust ourselves to her care, resolving to hear
Christ’s word and in every way, no matter what the cost, to put it into
practice.
The humility of Jesus: in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, on Calvary. But more humiliation
and more self-abasement still in the Sacred Host: more than in the stable,
more than in Nazareth, more than on the Cross.
That is why I must love the Mass so much ('Our' Mass, Jesus...)
(September 14) The Triumph of the Cross
Early in the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor
Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ's life.
She razed the Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the
Saviour's tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre over
the tomb. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has
it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed
a dying woman. The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a
Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century,
according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container
and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed
above Jesus' head: Then "all the people pass through one by one; all of them
bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads,
then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on." To this
day the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation
of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica's dedication.
The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor
Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in
614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry
the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until
he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.
"How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light,
not darkness; Paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord, like
a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby
our wounds. A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life" (Theodore
of Studios). (AmericanCatholic.org)
Jesus said to Nicodemus: No-one
has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of
Man. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Son of Man
must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through
him.(John 3: 13-17)
The
Triumph
It has often been pointed out how important for a true education is the study of
history. One wonders, though, how many who read history ever gain a philosophy
of history. By that I mean an understanding of the basic factors that underlie
and shape the course of the history of man.
Karl Marx and his chief philosophical source, Hegel, had a philosophy of
history. History, they thought, is driven by a struggle between a position and
its counter position, issuing in a settlement or synthesis between the two,
triggering the rise of a new antithesis. Thus the dynamic of struggle continues
and it shapes the course of human affairs. In this scheme, various accounts are
given of what the struggle is over. Marx, for instance, thought the struggle
was between the class that possessed capital and the class that had only
labour. The upshot of the struggle would be a classless society, a common
proletariat which together possessed everything. But no. To see the
fundamental struggle of history as that between capital and labour is
superficial. A philosophy of history must begin with what the enlightened
conscience of man knows to be the first and true object of struggle: sin. Man
must struggle against sin, especially his own. The moral imperative of human
history is the triumph of what is good and holy. This moral struggle includes
what man in his conscience also senses: the fact of a holy God who does not
condone sin and who calls man to work for the triumph of what is good. That is
the meaning of history. But man also discovers and easily sees that victory in
this pre-eminent struggle is beyond his fallen and wounded powers. As St Paul
writes, all men are under the power of sin. Enter, then, the good news revealed
by the all‑holy God, the God whom the conscience knows to be the foe of all the
sin in man and the world. God has come to man to break the power of sin and to
bring about the triumph of holiness in the heart and soul of man. This is what
history is all about and God himself is the chief protagonist in the struggle.
The amazing thing about it all was the means whereby God prevailed. Just as the
victory was unique, so were the weapons of victory unique. The weapon was not
apparent success, but apparent defeat.
Today we celebrate the triumph of the Cross of Christ over sin in the world
(John 3: 13‑17). Sin has been conquered at its
root, and this victory must be brought to the heart and soul of each person.
Today we think of how it was done. God sent his Son to the world to take away
the sin of the world, and he did not do this by the normal human means of
triumphing over evil. In normal human affairs, the progress of sin is forcibly
resisted. The perpetrator is resisted by force in some sense and this will
always make up part of the answer to sin. But it is not the main answer.
Christ endured opposition, hostility, rejection, humiliation, and finally a
brutal passion and death. The astonishing thing is that he submitted to this as
the divinely intended means of victory in the struggle against the sin of the
world. It was precisely by means of his rejection and death that he prevailed
in the struggle. He triumphed by means of his death on the Cross. He prevailed
precisely by being defeated by his enemies, and he freely submitted to this
defeat because he knew that it was by being rejected, by suffering and by being
put to death in obedience to his Father’s will that he and those who placed
their faith in him would enter into glory. The abundant life he had come to
give flowed as a direct result of his death on the Cross, all because of his
obedience. We see a token of this in the manifest results of the preaching of
the infant Church. With Pentecost there was an outpouring of grace leading to
very many conversions. There is a further implication of this. It is that if
we follow in his footsteps, if we suffer with him and if in daily life we die
with him by denying ourselves, in him our efforts too will prevail. A disciple
of Christ may suffer in doing God’s will and in bearing witness to Jesus and his
teaching. But even if it seems that he has been a failure in terms of influence
over others, his oblivion and seeming defeat will be the seed of a new
outpouring of divine life in the world, and a new advance against sin. In his
life, just as with Christ, the cross will triumph. The humble servant of Christ
who suffers in obedience will shine like the sun, as our Lord says.
The lesson of the triumph of the Cross is the most important lesson of all, if
human history is to be understood. Sin was and is overcome by means of the
Cross of Christ. Let us then resolve to be united to him, and united to him in
his sufferings. This is the grace to be prayed for and when suffering comes,
let it be borne in union with the one whose sufferings redeemed the world from
sin. Whatever be the suffering, let it be suffering in union with Jesus for the
sake of God and his holy will. If this is the suffering that we bear, it will
be the source of victory. By means of Christ’s Cross, man is able to triumph in
the true struggle, the struggle against sin.
(September 15) Our Lady of Sorrows
For a while there were two feasts in honour of the Sorrowful Mother:
one going back to the 15th
century, the other to the 17th century. For a while both were celebrated
by the universal Church: one on the Friday before Palm Sunday, the other
in September. The principal biblical references to Mary's sorrows are in
Luke 2:35 and John 19:26-27. The Lucan passage is Simeon's prediction about
a sword piercing Mary's soul; the Johannine passage relates Jesus' words
to Mary and to the beloved disciple. Many early Church writers interpret
the sword as Mary's sorrows, especially as she saw Jesus die on the cross.
Thus, the two passages are brought together as prediction and fulfilment.
St. Ambrose in particular sees Mary as a sorrowful yet powerful figure at
the cross. Mary stood fearlessly at the cross while others fled. Mary looked
on her Son's wounds with pity, but saw in them the salvation of the world.
As Jesus hung on the cross, Mary did not fear to be killed but offered herself
to her persecutors.
John's account of Jesus' death is highly symbolic. When Jesus gives the beloved
disciple to Mary, we are invited to appreciate Mary's role in the Church:
She symbolizes the Church; the beloved disciple represents all believers.
As Mary mothered Jesus, she is now mother to all his followers. Furthermore,
as Jesus died, he handed over his Spirit. Mary and the Spirit cooperate in
begetting new children of God—almost an echo of Luke's account of Jesus'
conception. Christians can trust that they will continue to experience the
caring presence of Mary and Jesus' Spirit throughout their lives and throughout
history.
"At the cross her station
keeping,
Stood the mournful mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, his sorrow sharing,
All his bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword has passed."
(Stabat Mater) (AmericanCatholic.org)
Click on centre arrow
below to play the video:
Scripture today: Hebrews 5: 7-9; Psalm 30; John 19: 25-27 or Luke 2: 33-35
The child's father and mother
marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to
Mary, his mother: This child is destined to cause the falling and rising
of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that
the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your
own soul too.(Luke 2: 33-35)
Near the cross of Jesus
stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary
Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved
standing near by, he said to his mother, Dear woman, here is your son, and
to the disciple, Here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took
her into his home.(John 19: 25-27)
Mary
Our first possible reading, from the Gospel of St Luke
(Luke 2: 33‑35), places us at the beginning of our Lord’s life in the
company of a most holy group of persons gathered around him. For the Catholic
Christian, this scene ought instil in him an undying respect for the Jewish
people for we have here the flower of human history.
Jesus Christ is the Jewel of all jewels of mankind. No other can be compared
with him. He is beyond compare because he is a divine Person who became man,
the Saviour of the world and the fount of holiness. Now, he is a son of David,
a descendent of Abraham, a Hebrew. He is the glory of the Jewish people. By a
singular grace, his mother Mary was preserved free from original sin. By the
grace of God and her own cooperation she remained sinless and was taken body and
soul to heaven at the end of her mortal life. She is the mother God and the
mother of mankind in the order of grace. She too is the glory of the Jewish
people. She too was a descendent of David, a Hebrew. Her husband Joseph was
most holy and is declared by the Church to be the protector of the universal
Church. He was the intimate of his foster‑son, Jesus the Messiah. He was a
Hebrew. Then there is in our Gospel scene Simeon, a man given over entirely to
God and at this point uttering a prophecy about the child and his mother. Soon
they would be joined by the holy prophetess Anna. It is a beautiful scene, so
stamped with holiness and yet humble and ordinary. In my view, this small group
ought be considered the pride of the chosen people of what the Christian calls
the Old Testament, a group that at the same time takes us into the New
Testament. It ought lead the Christian to look with admiration and affection on
the Jewish people. But now, today the Church invites us to gaze in particular
on Mary and to listen to the words of Simeon as he pronounces his prophecy about
the child. He tells the holy couple that the child will be the salvation of the
chosen people and of the Gentiles. But there is something new in his inspired
utterance. It is that he will be the object of contradiction and suffering.
Furthermore, his blessed mother will share in the suffering.
We can imagine the joy that had filled the heart of Mary the mother of Jesus, a
joy shared by her husband Joseph. Her son was the promised One. Wondrous
things had been revealed to her about him by the Angel Gabriel. The throne of
David would be his and he would rule over his House for ever. All that God had
promised through the prophets would be fulfilled through him. He was the joy of
the ages. But now, Simeon gives her and Joseph more information from God. She
and her son would suffer profoundly and a sword would cut through into her very
soul. It would be a living death. Suffering would be an intimate part of the
child’s mission and work as Messiah. It would be suffering stemming from
opposition, hostility and rejection. She, who was now as mother more intimately
involved with him than any other, would continue to be intimately involved with
him in his mission, and more than any other. This would mean suffering with
him, suffering with him more than any other, a suffering of the soul. A sword
would be driven into her very soul and it would be at the sight of her son’s
suffering. That was the prophecy. Our second Gospel option for today takes us
to the end of the child’s life and is drawn from the Gospel of St John
(John 19: 25‑27). Jesus is hanging on the
cross offering himself to his heavenly Father for the sins of mankind, and Mary
is nearby, utterly united with him in his suffering. The nails were driven into
his hands and feet, and with each blow a sword was driven into her very soul.
As he hung there dying, she was virtually dying of sorrow with him. As his
heart was filled with love for the Father and for all mankind, so was hers. As
he would not have had it otherwise than drink this cup, than be baptized with
this baptism, nor would she. As he is the Man of sorrows, she is the Mother of
sorrows. He suffered that we — and she too — might have life in abundance. She
suffered in union with him, and in this she is not only our mother but our
model. She leads the way as the Church’s first and greatest member, indeed as
the Church’s mother and model. As she suffered, so we are called to suffer with
him and so to rise with him. In Christ, she is the Help of Christians.
Let us who wish to be Christ’s disciples understand that where he has gone, we
ought aspire to follow. If we wish to follow in his footsteps we must renounce
ourselves, take up our cross every day and follow the path he has taken. Mary
his mother and our mother shows us the way. A sword pierced her soul, and the
generous Christian will share in that. As St Paul writes, if we share in
Christ’s sufferings, we shall share in his resurrection. Let that be our hope.
What a source of grace there is in spiritual Communion! Practise it frequently
and you'll have more presence of God and closer union with him in your life.
chief priests and teachers of
the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord! he said. This
shall never happen to you! Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me,
Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things
of God, but the things of men. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone
would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the
whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for
his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with
his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has
done. (Matthew 16:21-27)
To be 'Catholic' means to love your country and to be second to no one in
that love. And at the same time, to hold as your own the noble aspirations
of other lands. — So many glories of France are glories of mine! And in the
same way, much that makes Germans proud, and the peoples of Italy and of
England..., and Americans and Asians and Africans, is a source of pride to
me also.
begins its Church year with September. The September 8 date helped determine
the date for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 (nine months
earlier). Scripture does not give an account of Mary's birth. However, the
apocryphal Protoevangelium of James fills in the gap. This work has no historical
value, but it does reflect the development of Christian piety. According
to this account, Anna and Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They
receive the promise of a child that will advance God's plan of salvation
for the world. Such a story (like many biblical counterparts) stresses the
special presence of God in Mary's life from the beginning. St. Augustine
connects Mary's birth with Jesus' saving work. He tells the earth to rejoice
and shine forth in the light of her birth. "She is the flower of the field
from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the
nature inherited from our first parents is changed." The opening prayer at
Mass speaks of the birth of Mary's Son as the dawn of our salvation and asks
for an increase of peace.
century, the other to the 17th century. For a while both were celebrated
by the universal Church: one on the Friday before Palm Sunday, the other
in September. The principal biblical references to Mary's sorrows are in
Luke 2:35 and John 19:26-27. The Lucan passage is Simeon's prediction about
a sword piercing Mary's soul; the Johannine passage relates Jesus' words
to Mary and to the beloved disciple. Many early Church writers interpret
the sword as Mary's sorrows, especially as she saw Jesus die on the cross.
Thus, the two passages are brought together as prediction and fulfilment.
St. Ambrose in particular sees Mary as a sorrowful yet powerful figure at
the cross. Mary stood fearlessly at the cross while others fled. Mary looked
on her Son's wounds with pity, but saw in them the salvation of the world.
As Jesus hung on the cross, Mary did not fear to be killed but offered herself
to her persecutors.