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31st August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Saturday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time (Matthew 25:14-30): ‘To everyone who has will be given more’.

Saturday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)

Matthew 25:14-30

You have been faithful in small things: come and join in your master's happiness.

Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out. ‘The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more. The man who had received two made two more in the same way. But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ‘Now a long time after, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.” ‘His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.” ‘Next the man with the two talents came forward. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more that I have made.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.” ‘Last came forward the man who had the one talent. “Sir,” said he “I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”’

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 25:14-30

Since you have been faithful in small matters, come, share your master’s joy.

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one– to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’ Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’ His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’”

Reflections (6)

(i) Saturday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

What distinguished the third servant in today’s parable from the other two servants was fear, ‘I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground’. Fear disabled him and prevented him from responding to the trust that his master had placed in him by giving him a significant sum of money as a gift. In the gospels, fear is often portrayed as the opposite of faith or trust. In the storm at sea, Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ (Mt 8:26). The first letter of John declares, ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us’ (I John 4:19). God has revealed his perfect love for us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Because we know ourselves to be perfectly loved by God, we can entrust ourselves to God, taking risks on behalf of God, knowing that if we fail God continues to love us. The Lord’s love frees us to live fearlessly and generously. When Peter started walking towards Jesus across the water from the boat, ‘he noticed the strong wind… and became frightened and began to sink’ and Jesus asked him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ (Mt 14:30-31). When we forget how much the Lord loves us and focus instead on what seems threatening, we easily find ourselves sinking out of fear. If, however, we keep looking to Jesus, ‘the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’, then we will fearlessly ‘run the race that is set before us’ (Heb 12:1-2). The Spirit of God’s unconditional love has been poured into our hearts and, as Saint Paul says, ‘you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry out, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God’ (Rom 8:15-16). It is the Spirit who empowers us to use our gifts generously and courageously.

And/Or

(ii) Saturday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

When Jesus speaks a parable in which there are several characters, the emphasis often falls on the third and final character to be mentioned, such as the Samaritan in the parable of the good Samaritan and the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son. In the parable of this morning’s gospel reading, the focus again falls on the third character, the servant who took the one talent his master had given him and simply hid it in the ground. His reason for doing this was that he considered his master an overly demanding person and was afraid to take any risk with what he had been given. Rather than risk losing what he had been given, he hid it so as to be able to give it back. The other two servants obviously had a different view of their master; they had the freedom to invest what they had been given. They seemed to have understood that their master would not blame them for trying and failing. The master had given them a gift; he never intended to look for it back; he simply wanted them to make good use of what he had given them. We have all been gifted and graced in different ways by God. God wants us to serve one another out of what we have been given. Fear can sometimes hold us back, as it held back the third servant, fear of God, fear of others, fear of failure. It was Mother Teresa of Calcutta who said that God does not ask to be successful, just to be faithful. Jesus is suggesting through this parable that if we have enough trust in the God who loves us unconditionally we will have the freedom to give from what we have received, without worrying too much about success or failure.

And/Or

(iii) Saturday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

When Jesus speaks a parable involving three characters, very often the emphasis falls on the third character. We can think of the parable of the good Samaritan; it is the Samaritan, after the priest and Levite, who is the focus of the parable’s attention. In the parable we have just heard the third servant had a very negative view of his master; he saw him as a hard man, reaping where he had not sown. Because this servant was so afraid of his master, he did nothing with what he had been given. The other two servants, in contrast, had a much more generous view of their master. As a result, they had the freedom to take initiatives and even to take risks with what they had been given. Jesus has revealed a very generous God to us; he has shown God to be someone whose generosity leaves us astonished, who remains faithful even when we are not faithful. Jesus does not reveal a God who is just waiting for us to fail, which is how the third servant saw his master. Rather, Jesus shows us a God who wants us to launch out into the deep and who continues to befriend us whether or not we catch anything. God’s loving fidelity should give us the courage to take risks with what God has given us. Perfect love drives out fear, according to the first letter of John. The assurance of God’s perfect love should drive out the kind of fear that left the third servant in the parable crippled. God who has been generous with us asks us to be generous with what we have received, and then to leave the rest to God.

And/Or

(iv) Saturday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

When we hear the word ‘talent’ we think instinctively of the gifts and talents we have been given. In the world of Jesus a talent was a sum of money. Indeed, it was the largest unit of currency in existence at the time. In telling his parables Jesus always drew from the world and culture of his time. In the ancient world, servants or slaves could often be entrusted with a great deal of responsibility. It wasn’t unusual for a person of wealth who was going on a long journey to give responsible tasks to his servants in his absence. In the story Jesus hold the wealthy man gave quite a lot of his own money, eight talents, to his servants. He wasn’t looking for the money back; he simply wanted them to use it well. The first two servants made good use of what was given to them. The third did nothing with what was given to him. According to the parable what held this third servant back was fear. He was afraid of losing what he had been given and thereby incurring the anger of his master. It seems as if he did not trust his master, even though his master trusted him. In his first letter, Saint John says, ‘there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts our fear’. Jesus has revealed to us the perfect love of God; he has shown us that God is love and as John says in that letter, ‘we love Ibecause he first loved us’. We relate to God and his Son not out of fear but out of love. This loving relationship gives us the freedom to take risks with what the Lord has given to us. We witness to the many ways that the Lord has graced us with courage. The Lord doesn’t look to us to be successful but he wants us to be generous and daring with what we have been given.

And/Or

(v) Saturday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

When we hear the word ‘talent’ today, we think in terms of natural abilities or gifts that people have. In Jesus’ day, a talent was a very large sum of money and that is the meaning of the word in today’s parable. A wealthy person entrusts sums of money to three servants in accordance with their ability. The person who received two talents and made two more was just as successful as the one who received five talents and made five more. Each performed very well according to their ability. The servant to whom the master gave one talent was obviously capable of making one more talent and ending up with two. However, out of fear of his master he did nothing with the one talent he was given. The image he had of his master as a demanding person, reaping where he hadn’t sown and gathering where he hadn’t scattered, may not have been true to the master’s nature. The rest of the parable suggests that the master was a generous man who was willing to entrust his servants with great responsibility. The third servant’s image of his master left him paralysed by fear and incapable of taking any action at all. If he had trusted his master to the extent that his master had trusted him, then he would have been free to do the little he was capable of doing. Perhaps one of the messages of the parable is that the Lord has entrusted us with gifts out of his love for us. He wants us to love him in return by placing what he has given us at the service of others. The first letter of John in the New Testament declares that perfect love casts out fear. Our recognition of the Lord’s love for us gives us the freedom to make use of what he has given us, without being held back by the fear of failure or the fear of our own inadequacies. As Mother Teresa, now a saint, once said, the Lord does not ask us to be successful but only to be faithful. We do our best with what the Lord has given us, knowing that the Lord looks lovingly on our efforts and will work powerfully through our efforts, even when they seem to us to be a failure.

And/Or

(vi) Saturday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

The wealthy property owner in today’s gospel reading is evidently a generous and trusting person. Before departing on a journey abroad, he entrusts very large sums of money to three of his servants, to each in accordance with their ability to make good use of this generous gift. The property owner was not expecting these large sums of money back. He just wanted his servants to make good use of them. Two of the servants, recognizing the generous and trusting nature of their master, felt free to use well what they had been given in the trading market of the day. As a result, they increased the value of the asset they had been given. The third servant did nothing with what he had been given. Rather than recognizing the generous and trusting nature of his master, he was paralyzed by his image of his master as demanding and hard hearted. Fear of his master enslaved him and he did nothing with what he had been given, not even the minimal initiative of placing the investment in a bank to gain interest. What is Jesus saying to us through this parable drawn from daily life of the time? Perhaps Jesus wants us to recognize how generous God has been with each one of us, how much he has entrusted to us. God has given us the greatest treasure of all, his Son. God has also given us abilities that allow us to share this gift of his Son with others, in how we think, speak, act and live. God wants us to respond to his generous and trusting investment in us by living fearlessly out of all that he has given us. We are to be courageous in our witness to his Son. We are to take risks in our efforts to ensure that the riches of the gospel are received by as many as possible. God can deal with failure, even bringing great good out of it. However, there is little God can do with fearful inactivity.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

30th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 25:1-13): ‘The bridegroom is here’.

Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 25:1-13The wise and foolish virgins.

Jesus told this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out.” But they replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.” They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. “Lord, Lord,” they said “open the door for us.” But he replied, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.” So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 25:1-13Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise ones replied, ‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you. Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ While they went off to buy it, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Reflections (13)

(i) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

The parable in today’s gospel reading speaks to us about the importance of being alert to the Lord’s coming. It is a call to be ready to welcome the Lord when he comes, whether it is his coming at the end of our lives, or his daily coming. In the gospels, Jesus once referred to himself as the bridegroom and John the Baptist spoke of himself as the friend of the bridegroom. We are all friends of the bridegroom, friends of the Lord, and he looks to us to be alert to his coming, whenever it happens and whatever form it takes. In the parable, the bridegroom’s coming was unexpected, much later than had been anticipated. Only some of the bridesmaids for ready for the unexpectedly late arrival of the bridegroom; they were prepared for the long haul, having brought sufficient oil with them. As a result they were able to have their welcoming lamps burning brightly when the bridegroom finally arrived. In the darkness, they were ready to light the way to the banqueting room for himself and his bride. We each carry within us a light, a flame that burns brightly. It is the light, the flame, of our faith. It is a flame that can be kept alive by our prayerful openness to the Holy Spirit and that finds expression in the loving service of others. We are called to keep that flame of faith burning within us, for the long haul. Saint Paul certainly kept that flame of faith burning to the end. He could write to Timothy, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith’. Just after children are baptized, the priest says to their parents and godparents, ‘These children have been enlightened by Christ… May they keep the flame of faith alive in their hearts. When the Lord comes, may they go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom’. If we can keep the flame of faith burning for the long haul, we will be ready to welcome both the Lord’s daily coming to us and his coming at the end of our lives. We will be ready when the call goes out, ‘The bridegroom is here’.

And/Or

(ii) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

It is lovely to be met by someone when we arrive home from a journey. To be met by a friendly face is all the more gratifying if our arrival has been delayed. Recognizing the hoped-for presence in the crowd, despite our very late arrival, makes us all the more appreciative of their coming. They have been faithful, in spite of the inconvenience of the unexpected delay. The bridegroom, in today’s parable, who turned up late must have been equally pleased to find that at least some of the bridesmaids were there to meet him with torches lit and to escort him to the wedding banquet, in spite of his late arrival and their long wait. After speaking the parable, Jesus turned to his disciples and said to them, ‘Stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour’. The Lord was calling on them to be faithful to him, especially during those times when he seemed absent and their expectations of him were not coming to pass. When the Lord calls us to be his followers, it is always for the long haul; he looks to us to keep our light burning right to the very end, through the good times and the bad times. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel Jesus had addressed his disciples as the light of the world and called on them to let their light shine so that people might see their good works and give glory to God for them. Keeping our lamp burning, letting our light shine to the end, amounts to doing the good works the Lord calls on us to do, for as long as we are able to do them, so that when he comes he will find us at our post, ready to welcome him.

And/Or

(iii) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus often spoke of the kingdom of God as a wedding feast. It connected in with the understanding of God as the bridegroom and of the people of God as God’s bride, which is often found in the books of the prophets. In the gospels Jesus is sometimes portrayed as the divine bridegroom; John the Baptist is described in the fourth gospel as the friend of the bridegroom. The parable Jesus speaks in this morning’s gospel reading is about the coming of the Lord, of the bridegroom, at the end of time, and the need to be ready for his coming. Of the five bridesmaids assigned to welcome the bridegroom, only five of them were ready with their torches lighting. The parable calls on all of us to keep our own torches lighting so that when the Lord comes at the end of our lives he will find us ready. What does it mean to keep our torches lighting? Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called on us to let our light shine by means of our good works, works of love, mercy and justice. This is what Paul refers to in the first reading as ‘the life that God wants’. It is the kind of life which will keep us ready at all times for the Lord’s coming.

And/Or

(iv) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Many of us are fortunate to have so many good shops around us. If we run out of something we can go to the shops and purchase what we need. The parable in the gospel reading this morning speaks of five bridesmaids who discovered they had run out of oil for their lamps. However, they made this discovery too late. The bridegroom was on the point of arriving. They were at the shops when they should have been part of the procession leading the bride and the bridegroom to the bridegroom’s house for the wedding feast. In the parable the bridegroom is clearly a veiled reference to the Lord who, in the course of the gospels, speaks of himself as the bridegroom. The parable calls on us to have a good supply of oil at all times to keep our lamps burning because we do not know when the bridegroom will arrive. It is a call to faithfulness, to be at our post at all times. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel Jesus addresses his disciples as the light of the world. We are to keep that light burning brightly by our good works, by continuing to hear the word of the Lord and to keep it in our lives. That is the call that is addressed to us every day, and every day we try to respond to it so that whenever the Lord comes we are ready. When does the Lord come? He comes not just at the end of our lives but every day of our lives. At the end of Matthew’s gospel he says to his disciples, ‘I am with you always, to the end of the age’. We need to be ready every day.

And/Or

(v) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

The parable in this morning’s gospel reading reflects a marriage custom in the time of Jesus whereby bridesmaids waited at the bride’s house for the arrival of the bridegroom. When he arrives they go out to meet him with lighted torches and then they escort the bridegroom and his bride to the house of the bridegroom where the marriage feast is ready and the guests are waiting. What distinguishes the five bridesmaids who are described as ‘sensible’ from the other five is that, when the bridegroom arrived much later than expected, they had enough oil to ensure that their torches did not go out. They were able to welcome the bridegroom as was expected of them and escort him and his bride to the bridegroom’s house. In the gospels, Jesus refers to himself as the bridegroom. The parable encourages us to have our torches blazing brightly when the Lord comes to us, whenever that might be. Earlier in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus had said to his disciples, ‘You are the light of the world... let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works’. The parable could be calling on us to keep the light of our good works shining. We are not to allow that light to go out; we need to keep it burning for the long haul. We are to keep the flame of faith which shows itself in good works alive in our hearts to the very end. When the bridegroom, the Lord, comes at the end of time or at the end of our own earthly time, he will hope to see the flame of our loving faith burning brightly. The Lord who comes to us at the end is the Lord who is present to us now. If we are to welcome him with torches burning brightly at the end, we need to open ourselves to the oil of his presence now. We will stay the course only with the Lord’s help. We need to keep opening ourselves to the resource only he can give us if we are to reflect that light back to him at his final coming.

And/Or

(vi) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

One of the mottos of the scout movement is ‘Be prepared!’ Before they went hiking they had to make sure they had all they needed to meet with any unexpected eventuality that may arise. Five of the bridesmaids in this morning’s gospel reading wouldn’t have made good scouts. They weren’t prepared for the late arrival of the bridegroom and, as a result, their oil had run out and they couldn’t escort the bridegroom with their lighted torches as was expected of them. When the procession set off they were at the shops. By the time they arrived back, the moment had passed, the banquet had started and the big heavy doors of the banqueting room had already been locked and no one was going to open them for them. The parable calls on us to be ready with our lamps brightly burning whenever the Lord, the heavenly bridegroom, comes, whether that is at the end of time or at the end of our lives. Just after a child is baptized the godfather is invited to light the baptismal candle from the Easter candle and the priest says, ‘Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly’. As the child becomes an adolescent, at the time of the Sacrament of Confirmation, he or she has to take responsibility to keep the light that has been entrusted to them burning brightly. The parable calls on us to keep this light of Christ, the light of faith, burning brightly, and not allow it to go out completely. Then whenever the Lord comes, be it early or late, we will be ready to welcome him, and the light of our faith will give way to the eternal light of the Lord’s presence.

And/Or

(vii) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Behind today’s gospel reading is a marriage custom that we cannot be fully sure of today. The custom may have been for a group of unmarried young women to go to the family home of the bride on her wedding day and to wait with her for the bridegroom to arrive. When the bridegroom arrives, these women would go meet him with blazing torches. They would then accompany the bride and bridegroom to the bridegroom’s house for the celebratory meal, all the while holding their blazing torches aloft. In the story, five of the ten members of the welcoming group of women discovered too late that they did not bring enough oil to keep their lamps burning for the important role they were expected to play. By the time they bought the necessary oil, the welcoming procession was over, the meal had started and the heavy door of the banqueting room had been shut. In that culture, this would have been a very shameful experience for these women. It would have taken a while for them to live it down. The message of the parable is clear. We need to be ready to meet the Lord, the bridegroom, when he comes, whether that is at the end of time or at the end of our lives or, indeed, in the course of our daily lives. We need to keep the light of our faith burning. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus called upon his disciples to let their light shine, the light of their faith, so that people could see their good works and give glory to the Father in heaven. We let the light of our faith shine when our faith expresses itself in good works, in works of loving service of others. Saint Paul in one of his letters speaks about faith expressing itself in love. This is the faith that burns brightly, and the parable assures us that such faith will leave us ready for the Lord’s coming whatever form that might take.

And/Or

(viii) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

It is lovely to be met by someone when we arrive home from a journey. To be met by a friendly face is all the more gratifying if our arrival has been delayed. The bridegroom, in today’s gospel reading, must have been pleased to find that at least some of the bridesmaids were there to meet and escort him to the wedding banquet, in spite of his very late arrival. The faithfulness of at least some of the bridesmaids was all the more appreciated, because it required foresight and attentiveness. We value faithfulness in others, especially when we know that it has cost them something. We appreciate it when people keep vigil for us, when not to do so would be very understandable. Having finished telling the parable of the ten bridesmaids, Jesus turned to his disciples and said to them, ‘Stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour’. He was calling on us to be faithful to him, to stay the course, no matter how long it is. When he addresses us as ‘the light of the world’, he looks to us to keep the flame of the gospel burning in our hearts and in our lives, so that the light of that flame is there to greet him, regardless of the lateness or strangeness of his coming to us. In the times in which we live, it can be a struggle to keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts. Like some of those in the gospel reading today, we may find ourselves crying, ‘Our lamps are going out’. Yet, the light of Lord’s presence in our lives does not grow dim. He remains faithful to us, to the end. His faithful presence to us will help us to keep the flame of our faith burning even when the times are dark.

And/Or

(ix) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s first reading is taken from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, which is the earliest Christian document to have come down to us, dated to about twenty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. In that reading, Paul says, ‘What God wants is for you all to be holy’. How did Paul understand ‘holiness’? The end of that reading gives us a clue. Having declared, ‘We have been called by God to be holy’, he immediately goes on to speak of God ‘who gives you his Holy Spirit’. In other words, ‘holiness’ for Paul is a life that is shaped by the Holy Spirit, a life that is rich in what he calls elsewhere ‘the fruit of the Spirit’. You are probably familiar with Paul’s portrayal of the fruit of the Spirit, ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control’. This is Paul’s depiction of a holy life, a life lived according to the Holy Spirit. This is our baptismal calling, which flows from our baptismal identity, our Spirit-shaped identity. The parable that Jesus spoke in today’s gospel reading contrasts those bridesmaids who were ready to welcome the bridegroom with their lamps burning and those who were not. To the extent that we allow the Spirit to shape our lives, to bear fruit in our lives, we will be standing reading with lamps burning to welcome the Lord, the bridegroom, whenever he comes. He comes at the end of our lives but also in the course of our daily lives. In all the ways he comes to us, he will be hoping to find that our lives are burning brightly with the flame of the Spirit.

And/Or

(x) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

I am often struck by that line in today’s gospel reading, ‘The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him’. In the parable the bridegroom’s coming had been delayed. Only some of the bridesmaids had enough oil to light their lamps and greet him, in spite of his unexpected delay. They alone were ready to escort him through the darkness with their lamps alight towards the bride’s house. These wise bridesmaids, as they are called, were ready for a possible late arrival of the bridegroom; they had prepared themselves for the long haul. To each of us it could be said, ‘The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him’. The bridegroom is the Lord. In the gospels Jesus spoke of himself as the bridegroom; in and through him, God was renewing the marriage covenant with his people. Every day of our lives the Lord is here, and every day we are invited to go out and meet him. We are called each day of our lives to welcome the Lord’s coming to us, even when his coming is late and unexpected, even though he may come to us in ways that seem strange or foolish from a human point of view. As Paul says in today’s first reading, God’s wisdom is often experienced as foolishness to humans. We are to welcome the Lord each day with our lamps burning, with the flame of faith and the fire of love alive in our hearts. The Lord’s coming to us each day is assured and he looks to us for a faithful and reliable response to his coming. The Lord is here for us, and he asks us to be there for him, like the wise bridesmaids. Like them, we need to be there for him for the long haul. Even when the Lord seems absent, we need to keep the flame of our faith and the fire of our love brightly burning. We can be tempted to give up on the Lord, like the foolish bridesmaids, perhaps thinking he has given up on us. The Lord never gives up on us; he is faithful to us, to the end, and he looks for the same faithfulness in us.

And/Or

(xi) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s parable one group of bridesmaids say to the other group, ‘Our lamps are going out’. Perhaps we can all feel as if our lamps are going out from time to time. The flame of our faith is just about flickering. On one occasion, Jesus spoke about the ‘smouldering wick’. He identified himself with the servant in the prophet Isaiah who did not ‘quench the smouldering wick’. Jesus came to fan people’s faith into a living flame. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul calls on him to ‘rekindle the gift of God that is within you’. Our faith and the love that flows from it needs rekindling, fanning into a living flame, from time to time. Who does that rekindling, that fanning? It is only the Lord who can do it through the Holy Spirit. That is why I like the prayer to the Holy Spirit, ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart and kindle in me the fire of your love’. We could also ask the Holy Spirit to rekindle in us the flame of our faith as well as the fire of his love in our lives. Authentic faith is always a faith that expressed itself in love. In the gospel reading, five of the bridesmaids were not prepared for the delay of the bridegroom; they turned to the other five and said ‘Our lamps are going out’. They couldn’t stay the course when the course turned out to be longer than expected. The Lord looks to us to stay the course, to finish the race, to keep the flame of faith and the fire of love burning brightly within us, to the very end of our lives. If that is to happen we need to keep turning to the Lord and the Holy Spirit who will see to it that we reach the goal of our life journey with our lamps burning brightly.

And/Or

(xii) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

It seems that in the time of Jesus young unmarried women waited with the bride at her family home for the arrival of the bridegroom. Then when he arrived they would escort the couple with lighted lamps to the house of the bridegroom where the marriage feast had been prepared and the guests were waiting for the couple’s grand entry. It was an important task for these bridesmaids to accompany the couple and to guide them through the darkness with lamps burning brightly. It would have been very embarrassing if they didn’t have enough oil to keep their lamps lighting for the length of the procession to the house of the bridegroom. In the parable, five of the ten bridesmaids discovered at the last moment that they didn’t have enough oil for their role of accompanying the married couple. ‘Our lamps are going out’, they cried. Jesus may be saying to us that we need to keep the lamp, the flame, of our faith burning brightly to the very end, and not allow it to go out. At the baptism of a child, when the godfather lights the baptismal candle from the Paschal candle, the priest says to the parents of the child, ‘keep the flame of faith alive in his/her heart’. That is our baptismal calling, to keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts and to allow our faith to show itself in the loving service of others. Elsewhere in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says to his disciples, to us all, ‘You are the light of the world… let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’. We are called to let the light of the gospel shine through us, for the long haul, and to do that we will always need the help of the Holy Spirit, who kindles in us the fire, the flame, of loving faith.

And/Or

(xiii) Friday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading, Paul reminds us of our baptismal calling, which is ‘to be holy’. He describes a holy life as living ‘the life that God wants’. Paul also says that God gives us his Holy Spirit to enable us to live holy lives. In that sense, a holy life is a life that is shaped by the Holy Spirit, a life in which the Holy Spirit bears fruit. In another of his letters Paul portrays the fruit of the Holy Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Holiness finds expression in these qualities. It is significant that ‘love’ appears first in that portrayal of the fruit of the spirit. The other qualities are various ways love is revealed, such as patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The Holy Spirit that has been poured into our hearts is the Spirit of God’s love, and these are all outward expressions of that Spirit. The expression of love that is highlighted in today’s gospel reading is faithfulness. Only five of the ten bridegrooms were faithful to the bridegroom and his bride. They were there with their lamps burning brightly when the bridegroom arrived at the bride’s home, ready to accompany them both to the house of the bridegroom, where the marriage feast had been prepared and the guests were waiting. They faithfully kept watch with their lamps alight, even though the bridegroom was late arriving. Our love for the Lord shows itself in being faithful to him, even during those dark hours when he seems absent and we wonder where he is to be found. Our love for others also expresses itself in a readiness to be faithful to them, in some way, even when they keep us waiting and let us down.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

29th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for The Passion of John the Baptist (Inc. Mark 6:17-29): ‘He brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl’.

The Passion of John the Baptist

Gospel (Except USA)Mark 6:17-29The beheading of John the Baptist.

Herod sent to have John arrested, and had him chained up in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife whom he had married. For John had told Herod, ‘It is against the law for you to have your brother’s wife.’ As for Herodias, she was furious with him and wanted to kill him; but she was not able to, because Herod was afraid of John, knowing him to be a good and holy man, and gave him his protection. When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.An opportunity came on Herod’s birthday when he gave a banquet for the nobles of his court, for his army officers and for the leading figures in Galilee. When the daughter of this same Herodias came in and danced, she delighted Herod and his guests; so the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me anything you like and I will give it you.’ And he swore her an oath, ‘I will give you anything you ask, even half my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the Baptist.’ The girl hurried straight back to the king and made her request, ‘I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head, here and now, on a dish.’ The king was deeply distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he was reluctant to break his word to her. So the king at once sent one of the bodyguard with orders to bring John’s head. The man went off and beheaded him in prison; then he brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Gospel (USA)Mark 6:17-29I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so. Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias’ own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.” He even swore many things to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.” The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Reflections (7)

(i) The Passion of John the Baptist

We know from our own experience that anger can be a difficult emotion to manage. It can lead us to say and do things we might subsequently regret. According to today’s gospel reading, the anger of Herodias, the wife of Herod Antipas, would have led her to kill John the Baptist. He was momentarily saved from her deadly anger by Herod, who, instead, had John imprisoned, knowing John to be a good and holy man. Yet, it was Herod’s rash promise to Herodias’ daughter at his birthday banquet that allowed Herodias to give full expression to her anger. Herod’s promise to her, ‘I will give you anything you ask’, was enough of an opening for Herodias to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Rather than lose face and honour by going back on a promise he had made on oath, Herod now submits to Herodias’ request, made through her daughter. Herod, Herodias and her daughter have been described as an unholy trinity. Because of them, a ‘good and holy man’ was brutally put to death, without even the semblance of a trial. Every generation before and since has witnessed similar callous abuses of power. Yet, this is the world in which we are asked to live out our faith in the Lord, who himself was a victim of such abuse of power. The greater the darkness, the more the light of our faith needs to shine. In the gospel of John, Jesus refers to John as a ‘burning and shining lamp’ (Jn 5:35). His light shone at its brightest in the hour of his execution. Similarly, the light of God’s love shone most brightly through Jesus when he was lifted up on the cross. As people of faith, we don’t get discouraged when evil seems to triumph. Instead, we trustingly turn towards he Lord and ask that the light of his loving presence would shine all the more brightly through our lives.

And/Or

(ii) The Passion of John the Baptist

Mark’s story of the beheading of John the Baptist which we have just heard has caught the imagination of artists and playwrights down through the centuries. The characters in the story are all very memorable. At the centre of the story, even though off-stage, is John the Baptist himself, the courageous prophet of the open spaces who speaks God’s word fearlessly, now confined in Herod’s prison. There is Herod, full of inner conflict, fascinated by John’s goodness and holiness, and, yet, enslaved to the rash promise he made in response to his step-daughter’s dancing. Then we have Herodias, full of vengeful bitterness towards John because of his prophetic word, and, finally, her dutiful daughter, whom tradition has named Salome, the willing servant of her mother’s murderous intent. Between them these four characters display the best and the worst instincts of human nature. John the Baptist was a Jesus figure. Indeed, according to the gospels, some people went on to believe that Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Like Jesus, John proclaimed God’s word, declared God’s purpose for our lives, with clarity and courage. Like Jesus, John was put to death because of his mission. What happened to John was an indication of what would happen to Jesus. John inspires us to be courageous in our witness to the faith; he encourages us to hold on to the values of the gospel and to proclaim them, even when they are out of season.

And/Or

(iii) The Passion of St John the Baptist

We have a lovely mosaic in our parish church of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Not long afterwards, both of them would be put to death by the power of Rome. Jesus was crucified at the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea, and John the Baptist was beheaded on the orders of Herod Antipas who ruled Galilee on behalf of Rome. Jesus more than likely saw his own destiny revealed in what happened to John. John was executed because he had challenged Herod for acting against the Jewish Law by marrying his brother Philip’s wife. John was a courageous witness to God’s will for our lives. In the story we have just heard, he stands out as a beacon of light against the darkness of the other characters, that unholy trinity of Herod, Herodias his wife, and her daughter. Between them they managed to eliminate what the gospel reading refers to as a ‘good and holy man’, just as Jesus, the ultimate ‘good and holy man’, would be eliminated by another coalition of darkness. It seems to be in the nature of light that it often finds itself shining in darkness. The light of the Lord’s presence shines in our own darkness, in the dark and difficulty experiences of life. Jesus spoke of John as a ‘burning and shining lamp’. John the Baptist is a great inspiration to us to allow the light of our faith to shine, the light of the gospel, even when it is not popular or convenient to do so. Our calling is to allow the light we have received in baptism to shine brightly, in season and out of season. In his first encyclical, ‘Light of Faith’, Pope Francis declares, ‘there is an urgent need to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God’.

And/Or

(iv) Passion of Saint John the Baptist

It is said of Herod in today’s gospel reading that he knew John the Baptist to be a good and holy man. That is a good description of what we call a saint, a good and holy person. Towards the end of June we celebrated the birth of this good and holy man. Today, we remember his death. In spite of the fact that according to our gospel reading Herod knew John to be good and holy and wanted to protect him, he had him beheaded. Having made a rash promise in public to his wife’s daughter from a previous marriage, he felt honour-bond to keep his promise. Instead of protecting John the Baptist, he gave priority to protecting his own honour, even though this meant executing someone whom he knew to be good and holy. Herod betrayed his best self, his deepest self. In contrast to Herod, John was faithful and true to what was deepest and best in himself, even though that meant incurring the anger of the powerful. John was faithful to the call of the Lord, even unto death. Herod heard the call of the Lord through John’s preaching; the gospel reading says that Herod liked to listen to John. Yet Herod was not faithful to that call; he ended up responding to a different, more superficial call, the call to protect himself, his reputation, his honour. Herod’s dilemma is that of every human being, of every believer. The Lord calls from deep within us; we hear that call but we don’t always respond to it. We can end up responding to other calls that can be in conflict with the Lord’s call. John is an inspiration and an encouragement to us to keep responding generously and courageously to that deeper call in our lives, the Lord’s call that sounds from deep with us. It is in responding to that call that we will find life, both here and now and in eternity.

And/Or

(v) The Passion of John the Baptist

Towards the beginning of the Summer on 24th June, we celebrated the birth of John the Baptist. Now as the Summer draws to a close we celebrate his passion and death. We have just read from Mark’s account of the beheading of John the Baptist. It is a very dark story. It comes in a section of Mark’s gospel where Jesus has been doing God’s work. Just prior to this rather grisly story, Jesus sends out the twelve on mission, empowering them to heal the sick and broken. Just after this story, Jesus feeds the multitude in the wilderness, firstly with his word, his teaching, and then with an abundance of bread and fish. Jesus gave life to others in various ways and empowered his followers to do the same. Yet, in the midst of all that life-giving work of Jesus, we have this murderous act, the taking of a good man’s life by a combination of a weak king, a vindictive mother and a compliant daughter, a kind of unholy Trinity. Indeed, this banquet of death where the head of the saintly John the Baptist is served up on a dish is the antitheses of the banquet of life in the wilderness that immediately follows in Mark’s gospel. In the midst of so much light and life, great darkness leading to death is to be found; in the midst of divine goodness there stands Satanic evil. The gospels rejoice in proclaiming the goodness of God made present in Jesus, but they do not shy away from depicting the dark and disturbing side of human nature. In our world today, great goodness and disturbing evil are often found side by side. The energy for good, the energy of the risen Lord’s Spirit, comes up against the powers that deal in death. Our calling is to align ourselves with God’s good work of bringing life in all its forms to the world, in the same generous and courageous way that John the Baptist did. Yes, darkness and evil stalk the land, but we have the Lord’s word that such forces will not win out in the end. We must not allow ourselves to become discouraged or disheartened by them, because God’s good work begun in Jesus is continuing all around us and deep within us, in and through the Spirit of the risen Lord.

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(vi) Passion of Saint John the Baptist

We may be familiar with the expression, ‘speaking truth to power’. It can often be a dangerous business. John the Baptist spoke God’s truth to the powerful Herod, telling him that it was against God’s law for him to marry his brother Philip’s wife, as he had done. For speaking this truth, John incurred the anger of Herod’s wife, Herodias, and her resentment towards John was a factor in John’s unjust persecution. However, the other factor in John’s execution was Herod’s own moral cowardness. The gospel reading says that Herod knew John to be a good and holy man, and that he liked to listen to John. Yet, Herod ordered John’s execution at the request of his wife because he had promised her daughter Herodias anything she wanted. He didn’t want to lose his honour by refusing her unexpected request for the head of John the Baptist. Herod knew he was killing a good and holy man, but his honour and reputation meant more to him. When evil is done, such as the killing of the innocent, it is often due to a combination of factors, a coming together of the moral failings of several people. The opposite is also the case. The doing of some good is often due to a coming together of the moral virtues of several people. There is a coalition of evil in the gospel reading, Herod, Herodias and her daughter, but there is also a coalition of good there as well. There is John the Baptist and also his disciples who ensure he has a dignified burial even if he had an undignified death. When Jesus called people of all sorts to follow him, he was forming a coalition of good to work for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. It came to be called the church. We all belong in that coalition of good. We are called by the Lord to work together to further God’s good work in our world. Sometimes, we will have to do that in the face of the kind of coalition of evil that is there in today’s gospel reading.

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(vii) Passion of Saint John the Baptist

Some of the worst traits of human nature are on display in the gospel reading we have heard. There is the vengeful cruelty of Herodias, Herod’s wife, who wanted John killed because he dared to speak out against Herod’s marriage to her, declaring it to be contrary to God’s Law. There is the rash folly of Herod who gave his stepdaughter the equivalent of a blank check, ‘I will give you anything you ask, even half my kingdom’, and there is Herod’s moral cowardice as he meekly agrees to the beheading of a man he knew to be a good and holy person. Then there is Herodias’ daughter who had no qualms about being complicit in this grizzly crime, bringing the head of John the Baptist to her mother on a dish. It can be tempting to ask, ‘Where is the good news in all of this?’ ‘In what sense is this story “gospel”?’ It is hard to see any light in all this moral weakness and darkness. Yet, the light is there in the person of John the Baptist himself. He doesn’t appear directly in the story because he is languishing in Herod’s dungeon. He is powerless, deprived of his freedom, unable to take any initiative of his own. Without warning, he is beheaded. He is one of so many innocent victims of the brutal use of absolute, unaccountable, power. John’s fate prefigures the fate of Jesus. As John was beheaded by Rome’s representative in Galilee, Herod Antipas, Jesus will be crucified by Rome’s representative in Judea, Pilate. Both were cruelly put to death because they remained faithful to the mission God had given them, regardless of the cost to themselves. The light of integrity shone brightly through them. John would never have put himself on the same plane of Jesus. He once said that he was unworthy to stoop down and untie the strap of Jesus’ sandals. The fourth gospel speaks of John as a burning and shining lamp, whereas it presents Jesus as the light of the world. Yet, John the Baptist is the supreme witness to Jesus and to the God whom Jesus embodies. He calls out to us to be courageous in our own witness to the Lord by all we say and do. Through our lived witness to the Lord, we will allow the light of God’s presence to shine in dark place, as John the Baptist did.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

28th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for:

Wednesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 23:27-32): ‘You are like whitewashed tombs’.

And

Saint Augustine, Bishop, Doctor (Inc. Matthew 23:8-12).

Wednesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 23:27-32You are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.

Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of corruption. In the same way you appear to people from the outside like good honest men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who build the sepulchres of the prophets and decorate the tombs of holy men, saying, “We would never have joined in shedding the blood of the prophets, had we lived in our fathers’ day.” So! Your own evidence tells against you! You are the sons of those who murdered the prophets! Very well then, finish off the work that your fathers began.’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 23:27-32You are the children of those who murdered the prophets.

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”

Reflections (6)

(i) Wednesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

It is clear from today’s first reading that Paul was anxious not to be a financial burden on the young church in Thessalonica, ‘We worked night and day, slaving and straining, so as not to be a burden on any of you’. It was Paul’s policy to earn his keep by working at his trade as a tentmaker, so as to be able to preach the gospel free of charge. Paul is also concerned about some members of the church becoming an unnecessary financial burden on the community, when, in reality, they were well capable of working to support themselves. Elsewhere in his letters Paul says to the members of the church to ‘bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ’ (Gal 6:2), which is the law of love. We are called to help to carry the burden of others, while not becoming an unnecessary burden on others. In the gospel reading, Jesus highlights one way people can become a burden on others, namely, when they give the appearance of ‘good honest people’ but, in reality, are full of ‘hypocrisy and lawlessness’. Elsewhere, Jesus uses the image of wolves in sheep’s clothing. We would all find such people burdensome, as we try to discern whether or not to rely on them and believe what they tell us. At the end of the first reading, Paul writes his name in his own handwriting as a ‘mark of genuineness’. The genuine person is never a burden. Their honesty and truthfulness, their transparency and lack of deceit, is burden lifting rather than burden imposing. Jesus was the supremely genuine person; he revealed God’s truth to the full. He offered himself as the one who can lift our burdens, ‘Come to me all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens’. He wishes to continue this burden lifting work as risen Lord in and through each one of us.

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(ii) Wednesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Image and appearance are important values in our culture at the moment. There is an emphasis on looking well, and people can go to great lengths to look well. In the gospel reading, Jesus highlights the importance of what is within rather than what is without. How people are within themselves rather than how they appear to others is what matters. Jesus himself appeared at his most unattractive as he hung dying from the cross. Yet, that was the moment when the love that was within him was at its most intense. The poor widow who put two copper coins into the Temple treasury looked an insignificant figure contributing an insignificant amount of money. Yet Jesus saw through the unexceptional appearance of this woman to the generous heart within, a heart like his own, and he called over his disciples so that they could learn from her. Appearances can be deceptive. In the case of the scribes and Pharisees in today’s gospel reading there was less there than met the eye. In the case of the widow and Christ crucified there was more than met the eye. The gospel reading this morning encourages us not to work so much on our appearances as on what is within, the quality of the love in our heart.

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(iii) Wednesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus criticizes those same people for being more preoccupied with appearances, what is on the outside, than with what is within, what Scripture call the heart. Today, even more than in the time of Jesus, appearances, image, has become all important. People who have a certain image receive the most adulation, have the biggest following and, often, get the biggest salaries. We are easily taken in by appearances. Jesus invites us to look at little deeper, which is how God looks. As one of the books of the Jewish Scriptures says, ‘we look at appearances, God looks at the heart’. The ‘heart’ in the Jewish Scriptures and in the New Testament is the seat of the emotions, the intellect and the will. What matters to God is the heart, how we feel, how we think, how and what we desire. We are to bring our feeling, our thoughts, our desires into line with how God feels, how God thinks, what God desires for us. Our hearts are to reflect, in some way, God’s heart, which means Jesus’ heart. As Jesus says elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel, ‘Learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart’. It is the Holy Spirit who comes to us from God and the risen Lord who can mould our hearts into images of the Lord’s heart. We pray this morning that this work of the Spirit will be brought to completion in us.

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(iv) Wednesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading Jesus criticizes those who look well on the outside but within leave a lot to be desired. We all know that appearances can be deceptive. There isn’t always a good fit between the person we present to others and the person we are in our heart of hearts. It is clear from the gospel reading that Jesus is more interested in how people are in their heart than in how they appear. He wants his followers to attend to what is within first, their basic attitudes and values, and not to be worried about appearances. If what is within is right, then it will show itself in how we appear to others. Jesus praised Nathanael as a person who was incapable of deceit, or, in an older translation, a ‘man in whom there is no guile’. In other words, there was a harmony between what was within him and what was evident to others. Nathanael had plenty of work to do on what was within, as Jesus went on to point out, but, at least, he wasn’t pretending to be someone he was not. The gospels suggest that Jesus had a very strong aversion to pretence. He looks for openness and honesty, a harmony between who we are in reality and how we appear to others, even if who we are in reality is not yet all that the Lord is calling us to be. The Lord recognizes that we are all on the way; we have not yet arrived; we are pilgrims. He just wants us to be honest pilgrims.

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(v) Wednesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s responsorial psalm is, perhaps, one of the most striking of the psalms in the Book of Psalms. In that psalm, the person praying celebrates the presence of the Lord throughout the whole universe. The psalmist declares that the Lord is present even at the heart of darkness. There is that lovely line, ‘even darkness is not dark for you and the night is as clear as the day’. The Lord penetrates the darkness. He is there at the heart of our darkest experiences; the darkness of life can never extinguish the light of his presence. In the words of Paul in today’s first reading, this is ‘God’s message and not some human thinking, and it is still a living power among you who believe it’. The Lord’s message, the Lord’s word, is a living power; it continues to speak to us today. This psalm remains a living word for us today, especially for those who may find themselves in some kind of darkness at this time, reminding us that even darkness is not dark for the Lord. The more challenging side of the Lord’s message, which we hear in today’s gospel reading, is also a living word among us. There, Jesus accuses the religious leaders of hypocrisy. How they appear to others does not correspond to the reality of their lives. There is a disconnect between the outside and the inside. Jesus always places the emphasis on what is within, on what is in our heart, what it is that drives us and motivates us. Going back to the psalm, the Lord who is present throughout the universe wishes to reside in our hearts above all. That is why we are encouraged to pray that prayer, ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart; kindle in me the fire of your love’. The Lord wants his love to reside in our hearts so that we can each be mediators of his presence in our world.

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(vi) Wednesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

We are familiar with the sayings, ‘All that glitters is not gold’ and ‘never judge a book by its cover’. Both sayings reflect people’s experience that what you see is not always what you get. What looks impressive on the outside may not be so in reality. This is the criticism that Jesus makes of the religious leaders in today’s gospel reading. They present well on the outside but their heart is elsewhere. The English word ‘hypocrite’ that Jesus uses of the religious leaders comes from the Greek word for ‘actor’ or ‘stage player’. Acting is about projecting a different personal to your own real persona and we appreciate that skill when we see it on stage. However, we don’t appreciate it in real life. We like the think that the person who comes across to us is that person in reality. Jesus appreciated people who were true to themselves, even if the self they were being true to left something to be desired. In John’s gospel, Jesus addresses Nathanael, who had just dismissed Jesus because he came from Nazareth, as someone who was ‘incapable of deceit’, or, in another translation, a man ‘in whom there was no guile’. Nowadays we might say of someone by way of complement, ‘what you see is what you get’. At the heart of our calling as followers of Jesus is to be truthful rather than deceptive. Jesus said of himself in the gospel of John, ‘I am the truth’. He revealed himself fully and in doing so revealed God to us. We are called to allow his quality of truthfulness to shape our lives, all that we say and do. This is what Paul refers to in the first reading as living a ‘life worthy of God’.

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Saint Augustine, Bishop, Doctor

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 23:8-12The greatest among you must be your servant.

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one master, and you are all brothers. You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will exalted.’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 23:8-12Do not be called ‘Master’; you have one master, the Christ.

Jesus spoke to his disciples: “Do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Reflections (3)

(i) Feast of Saint Augustine

Today we celebrate the feast of St Augustine. Born in 354 in North Africa of a Christian mother, Monica, and a pagan father, Patricius, he was brought up a Christian although not baptized. His study of philosophy resulted in his renouncing the Christian faith. He lived for fifteen years with a mistress, by whom he had a son. After moving to Rome and then to Milan, he came under the influence of Ambrose, bishop of Milan. As a result of Ambrose’s guidance, and his mother’s prayers and example over many years, he underwent a deep conversion and was baptized in his early thirties. He returned to Africa and was ordained priest and four years later was appointed Bishop of Hippo in the Roman province of North Africa; he remained in that post for 35 years until his death in 430. As a bishop he lived a community life with his clergy. He had a powerful intellect and great mystical insight. Although aspects of his thought have been subjected to criticism, his writings have nurtured the faith life of generations of Christians. His most famous work is entitled the Confessions, in which he describes his own spiritual journey. As bishop he was the upholder of order at a time when the Roman Empire was disintegrating. He witnessed the fall of Rome and at the time of his death, the Vandals were at the gates of Hippo. Augustine’s life teaches us that it is never too late to turn to the Lord: ‘Late have I loved you, Beauty, at once so ancient and so new! Late have I loved you! You were within me and I was outside… You were with me, but I was not with you… You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace’.

And/Or

(ii) Feast of Saint Augustine

Today we celebrate the feast of St Augustine. Born in 354 in North Africa of a Christian mother, Monica, and a pagan father, Patricius, he was brought up a Christian although he was never baptized. As a young adult, his study of philosophy resulted in his renouncing the Christian faith. He lived for fifteen years with a mistress, by whom he had a son. He moved to Rome and then to Milan, where he came under the influence of the great theologian, Ambrose, bishop of Milan. As a result of Ambrose’s guidance, and his mother’s prayers and example over many years, Augustine underwent a deep conversion and was baptized in his early thirties. He returned to North Africa and was ordained priest, and four years later was appointed Bishop of Hippo in North Africa; he remained in that post for 35 years until his death in 430. He had a powerful intellect and his writings have nurtured the faith life of generations of Christians. His most famous work is entitled the Confessions, in which he describes his own spiritual journey. As a bishop he ministered at a time when the Roman Empire was disintegrating. He lived to see the fall of Rome, and at the time of his death the Vandals were at the gates of his own city of Hippo. In those times of great upheaval he showed himself to be the faithful and wise servant that this morning’s gospel reading speaks about. From a very unpromising beginning, Augustine went on to become a great leader in the faith. His life teaches us that it is never too late to turn towards the Lord. In his Confessions, he addresses the Lord in these words, ‘Late have I loved you, Beauty, at once so ancient and so new! Late have I loved you! You were with me, but I was not with you… You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness’. The Lord is not put off by our lack of response; he never ceases to call out to us.

And/Or

(iii) Feast of Saint Augustine

In this morning’s first reading Paul calls on the church in Thessalonica to ‘keep the traditions we taught you’. We have all been entrusted with a tradition, the Christian tradition, which began with Jesus. Over the centuries that tradition has been lived, celebrated in the liturgy, and reflected upon. The saints in particular have made their contribution to that tradition and today we celebrate the feast of St Augustine. He was born in 354 in North Africa of a Christian mother, Monica, and a pagan father, Patricius. Although brought up a Christian, he was never baptized. His study of philosophy resulted in his renouncing the Christian faith. However, after moving to Rome and then to Milan, he came under the influence of Ambrose, bishop of Milan. As a result of Ambrose’s guidance, and his mother Monica’s prayers and example over many years, he underwent a deep conversion and was baptized in his early thirties. He left Italy and returned to Africa where he was ordained priest, and four years later was appointed Bishop of Hippo, a city in the Roman province of North Africa; he remained as bishop of Hippo for 35 years until his death in 430. As a bishop he lived through very troubled times. He witnessed the fall of Rome and at the time of his death the Vandals were at the gates of Hippo. He had a powerful intellect and great mystical insight. Many of his writings have nurtured the faith life and the intellectual life of generations of Christians. His most famous work is entitled the Confessions, in which he describes his own spiritual journey. His own life story teaches us that it is never too late to turn to the Lord, who is always turned towards us and is always seeking us. That truth is beautifully captured in a well known passage from his Confessions, where he addresses God as Beauty: ‘Late have I loved you, Beauty, at once so ancient and so new! Late have I loved you! You were within me and I was outside… You were with me, but I was not with you… You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

27th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for:

Tuesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 23:23-26)

And

Saint Monica (Luke 7:11-17).

Tuesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 23:23-26Clean the inside of the cup first, so that the outside may become clean.

Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who pay your tithe of mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law– justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have practised, without neglecting the others. You blind guides! Straining out gnats and swallowing camels!‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become clean as well.’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 23:23-26But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.

Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”

Reflections (6)

(i) Tuesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

There are many prayers in the letters of Saint Paul. As well as encouraging and directing his churches, Paul also prayed for them. There was a real pastoral dimension to his prayer. The needs and struggles of the churches he established were central to his prayer. There is a good example of Saint Paul’s prayer for his churches in today’s first reading. Writing to the church in the Greek city of Thessalonica, Paul prays, ‘May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father… comfort you and strengthen you in everything good you do or say’. It is a striking prayer and one worth reflecting upon. Paul acknowledges God the Father and the risen Lord as the ultimate source of all that is good in our words and actions. God alone is completely good, but, with the Lord’s help, God’s goodness can be reflected to some degree in everything we say and do. It is through the Lord’s strengthening presence to us that something of his goodness can take flesh in our own lives. In the gospel reading, Jesus spells out this goodness in terms of three basic qualities, ‘justice, mercy, faith’. He was criticizing the religious leaders for becoming obsessed with what is not so important in our relationship with God, the tithing of herbs, and neglecting what is really important, justice, mercy and faith. To act justly is to give to others what is their due as human beings, as sons and daughters of God. To show mercy often means going beyond justice, attending to people’s basic needs irrespective of who they are or what they have done. Faith or faithfulness refers to a loving, faithful relationship with God, finding expression in loving, faithful, relationships with others. Jesus is saying that when it comes to our relationship with God, these are the qualities that really matter. This is the goodness that the Lord desires to find in our lives and that he can bring about in our lives, if we are truly open to his working, the working of his grace, within us and among us.

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(ii) Tuesday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Perhaps we don’t always think of Jesus as having a sense of humour. Yet, the image he uses in today’s gospel reading displays a sense of humour. He accuses the Pharisees of straining our gnats and swallowing camels. A gnat or flee is almost invisible; a camel is big and imposing. The picture of someone straining out a gnat so as not to swallow it while happily swallowing a whole camel is humorous in a zany kind of way. Jesus uses that image to poke fun at those who make a big deal about what is not important while happily ignoring what is important – being scrupulous about paying tithes on herbs while ignoring justice, mercy and faith. Jesus is talking about getting our priorities right, keeping things in proportion. We can all be prone to getting overly excited about minor matters while not attending sufficiently to what really important. On this occasion, Jesus lists what is important as justice, mercy and faith. Justice and mercy concern our relationship with our neighbour; faith concerns our relationship with God. Jesus is saying, what really matters is getting those two relationships right; everything else is secondary. St Paul says something very similar in one of his letter, ‘the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love’. We pray that this would always be our priority.

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(iii) Tuesday, Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading this morning Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for being so preoccupied with unimportant details relating to the tithing of herbs while neglecting the core values that the Jewish Law sought to uphold, such as justice, mercy and faith. The background to what Jesus says here may be the prophet Micah’s understanding of what God desires of us, ‘to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God’. The context of Micah’s statement was the people’s concern about what kind of animal sacrifice should be offered to God. Micah was saying to the people that their preoccupation is wide of the mark; it does not correspond to what God really wants. Jesus stands in the line of the prophets who sought to bring people back to what was really important, what really mattered to God. As disciples of Jesus, we have to keep on returning to the essentials, to what is at the heart of the message of Jesus, what is at the heart of God. It would be hard to find a better statement of hose essentials than that trinity of values given to us by Micah and by Jesus, the exercise of justice and mercy towards others and a humble, trusting faith in God. These were the values which Jesus embodied in his life and in his death. To live by them is, in the language of Paul, to put on Christ, which is the core of our baptismal calling.

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(iv) Tuesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

There were many religious laws and regulations in Jesus’ time. In the gospel reading Jesus criticizes those who give too much attention to the less important laws and regulations and too little attention to what was really important, what Jesus calls the weightier matter of the Law. He names the less important aspects of the Law as the regulations relating to the tithing of various herbs and the more important aspects of the Law as justice, mercy and faith. When it comes to our relationship with God, Jesus wants us to put our energy into getting the basics right. It would be difficult to come up anything more basic than the ‘justice, mercy and faith’ that Jesus refers to in the gospel reading. Justice and mercy have to do with how we relate to others. We are to be just and merciful in our dealings with each other. Faith has to do with how we relate to God. We are to be faithful to God, which means being faithful to Jesus and to all he stands for, even though that may cost us a great deal at times. There is clearly a close link between faith, on the one hand, and justice and mercy, on the other. Faithfulness to Jesus entails showing justice and mercy to others, as he did. When we find ourselves getting very worked up about something in the religious sphere, it can be good to step back and ask ourselves just how basic, how fundamental, the issue in question really is.

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(v) Tuesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

There is a verse in one of the prophets of the Old Testament, the prophet Micah, which many people feel drawn to. ‘What is it that the Lord requires of you but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?’ To do justice is to give people what is their due as human beings and as images of God. To love mercy is to show mercy to others in the sense of forgiving others and serving them in their need. To walk humbly with your God is to be open in faith to God’s purpose and desire for our lives. These three basic attitudes are a summary of God’s will for our lives. It is possible that this text from the prophet Micah lies behind what Jesus calls in today’s gospel reading, the weightier matters of the law, ‘justice, mercy and good faith’. Jesus was accusing the religious experts of his day of being too preoccupied with the less important requirements of the Jesus law, such as what produce should be tithed, and neglecting these weightier matters of the law. That triad of justice, mercy and faith remains a very succinct statement of what the Lord desires from us in our own day. In a sense, those three elements correspond to the two great commandments that Jesus proclaimed. The first commandment, to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength corresponds to faith and the second commandment, to love our neighbour as ourselves corresponds to justice and mercy. These remain the weightier matters of our own Christian tradition. All the other elements of our tradition need to be at the service of these two commandments and these three fundamental values of justice, mercy and faith.

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(vi) Tuesday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus often uses humorous images to illustrate his teaching. You may recall his reference to those who try to take a splinter out of someone’s eye while not noticing the plank in their own eye. We have another such humorous image in today’s gospel reading. He addresses the scribes and Pharisees as blind guides, ‘straining out gnats and swallowing camels’. They pay excessive attention to what Jesus considers to be minor matters of the Jewish Law, such as tithes to be paid on various herbs, while, at the same time, neglecting the weightier matters of the law, ‘justice, mercy and faith’ or ‘faithfulness. Justice consists in rendering to others what is their due, as human beings made in God’s image. Mercy goes beyond justice in graciously bestowing on others even more than their due. The father in the parable of the prodigal son was merciful in that sense. Faith could refer to either dealing faithfully with others or entrusting oneself in faith to God. Faith in that second sense, a faithful relationship with God, is the source and inspiration of the more social virtues of justice and mercy. In that way, the three qualities of justice, mercy and faith would be closely aligned to the inseparable twin commands to love God with all our being and our neighbour as ourselves. In the gospel reading, Jesus was calling on his critics to keep going back to the essential core of their religious tradition. It is a call we all need to keep hearing. We can get so preoccupied with what is relatively peripheral to our faith that we undermine what is essential there. We need to always keep in view the essential trinity that Jesus refers in the gospel reading, justice, mercy and faithfulness.

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Saint Monica

Gospel (Except USA)Luke 7:11-17The only son of his mother, and she a widow.

Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people. When he was near the gate of the town it happened that a dead man was being carried out for burial, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable number of the townspeople were with her. When the Lord saw her he felt sorry for her. ‘Do not cry’ he said. Then he went up and put his hand on the bier and the bearers stood still, and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you to get up.’ And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Everyone was filled with awe and praised God saying, ‘A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.’ And this opinion of him spread throughout Judaea and all over the countryside.

Gospel (USA)Luke 7:11-17She bore me in the arms of her prayer, that you might say to the son of the widow: Young man, I say to you, arise (Saint Augustine, Confessions, book 6, no. 2).

Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst,” and “God has visited his people.” This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.

Reflections (2)

(i) Feast of Saint Monica

Today we celebrate the feast of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine. She was born in North Africa in the year 332. She was married to a man called Patricius, who was either a pagan or a very nominal Christian. He lived a very immoral life. However, Monica’s persistent witness to her faith eventually won him over and he was baptized a year before he died. In the words of this morning’s first reading, she made herself an example for him to follow. Her son, Augustine, was an even bigger challenge than her husband. Her son’s irregular life caused her much suffering. Eventually, she gave up arguing with him and turned instead to prayer and fasting on his behalf, hoping that they might succeed where arguments had failed. At a certain point in his life, Augustine went to Rome then on to Milan. Monica followed her son, and it was in Milan that he announced to her that he wanted to become a Christian. After Augustine’s baptism Monica set out with him and some of his friends on the journey back to North Africa, but she died on the way, at Ostia, just outside Rome. Monica’s role in the conversion of her husband and her son reminds us that we are all called to lead each other to the Lord, to support each other on our journey towards the kingdom of heaven. This morning, we pray, through the intercession of Saint Monica, that we would be faithful to that calling.

(ii) Feast of Saint Monica

Today we celebrate the feast of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine. She was born in North Africa in the year 332. She was married to a man called Patricius, who was either a pagan or a very nominal Christian. He lived a very dissolute life and was known to have a bad temper. However, Monica’s persistent witness to her faith eventually won him over and Patricius was baptized a year before he died. Her son, Augustine, was an even bigger challenge than her husband. Her son’s irregular life caused her much suffering. Eventually, she gave up arguing with him and turned instead to prayer and fasting on his behalf, hoping that they might succeed where arguments had failed. At a certain point in his life, Augustine went to Rome to study rhetoric and then went on to Milan. Monica followed her son to Rome and caught up with him in Milan, where he announced to her that he wanted to become a Christian. In Milan Augustine met the saintly bishop of Milan, Ambrose who helped Augustine towards a deep moral conversion as well as acceptance of the Christian faith. He was baptized in the year 387. Monica had followed him to Rome and Milan. After Augustine’s baptism she set out with him and some of his friends on the journey back to North Africa, but she died on the way at Ostia, just outside Rome. In the gospel reading, Jesus says to the Pharisees, ‘You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go in who want to’. Monica was the opposite of that; far from preventing others from going into heaven, she made it possible for them to do so. Her role in the conversion of her husband and her son reminds us that we are all called to lead each other to the Lord.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

26th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 23:13-22) ‘You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces’.

Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 23:13-22Alas for you, blind guides!

Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go in who want to.‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when you have him you make him twice as fit for hell as you are.‘Alas for you, blind guides! You who say, “If a man swears by the Temple, it has no force; but if a man swears by the gold of the Temple, he is bound.” Fools and blind! For which is of greater worth, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? Or else, “If a man swears by the altar it has no force; but if a man swears by the offering that is on the altar, he is bound.” You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred? Therefore, when a man swears by the altar he is swearing by that and by everything on it. And when a man swears by the Temple he is swearing by that and by the One who dwells in it. And when a man swears by heaven he is swearing by the throne of God and by the One who is seated there.’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 23:13-22Woe to you, blind guides.

Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.’ Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.’ You blind ones, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? One who swears by the altar swears by it and all that is upon it; one who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who is seated on it.”

Reflections (7)

(i) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, Jesus is very critical of those who shut up the kingdom of God in people’s faces, refusing to go in themselves and preventing others from doing so. Jesus came to proclaim the presence of the kingdom of God and to invite people to savour the goodness of God’s kingdom, the loving power of God’s presence, here in this present life and, to a fuller extent, in eternity. Yet, some of Jesus’ contemporaries, the experts in the Jewish Law, were trying to close off this wonderful gift to others. Not only have they been rejecting Jesus’ message for themselves but they have been making it difficult for others to accept it. Jesus was often critical of people who were an obstacle to other people coming to faith in him. John the Baptist had done the opposite. He had worked to open up people to the presence of God’s kingdom in the person of Jesus. There will always be those who try to block others from coming to know the Lord and all that he offers and, thankfully, there will always be others who do the opposite, who try to open up others to faith in the Lord and all that flows from it. One of the great services of love we can render others, according to Jesus, is to support them as they try to respond to God’s call through Jesus. Because there will always be those who shut up the kingdom of God in people’s faces, the Lord needs us to keep doing the opposite. He calls us to be a John the Baptist in our day, to live in ways that open people up to the presence of the Lord and the fullness of life that he brings. It is a task that the Lord needs each of us to be engaged in, and there is not more important task in life.

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(ii) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel reading Jesus condemns the Pharisees because they shut up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. In other words, they hinder people from entering the kingdom of heaven, presumably by trying to keep people from following Jesus who came to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of heaven. The gospels suggest that Jesus was critical of those who were an obstacle to people coming to believe in him. He was critical of his own disciples for trying to prevent children drawing near to him, in spite of the wishes of the children’s parents for Jesus to bless their children. Rather than shutting up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, Jesus wants us to open up the kingdom of heaven to each other. We are to bring each other to the Lord, to reveal the Lord to each other, and, in so doing, to support one another on our journey towards the kingdom of heaven. There are many people in the gospels who brought others to Jesus and who can be an inspiration to us. We only have to think of John the Baptist, whose life mission was to lead people to Jesus, to open up the kingdom of heaven to others. We need the support of each other’s faith, each other’s witness, as we journey on our pilgrim way through life.

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(iii) Monday, Twenty First Week of Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for preventing people from entering the kingdom of heaven. They won’t enter themselves and they are an obstacle to others entering. Even a disciple can be an obstacle to someone entering the kingdom of heaven. Earlier in the gospel of Matthew Jesus warned his own disciples about putting a stumbling stone in the way of others, causing others to stumble in their response to the Lord’s call. Jesus was very aware that we can impact each other’s faith for good or for ill. We can help others on their journey towards the Lord or we can put a stumbling stone in their way. We are called to support one another in our efforts to respond to the Lord’s call. We can do this in various ways, by praying for each other, by witnessing to our faith when the opportunity presents itself, and just by being generous in our own response to the Lord. Whenever we try to do what the Lord may be asking of us we make it easier for everyone else to do what the Lord may be asking of them. The journey of faith is a shared one and we are interdependent as we travel it. Yes, we can hold each other back, as Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing in this morning’s gospel reading, but we can also help each other along. The Lord wants to work through each one of us to bring one another to a deeper faith.

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(iv) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

One of the ways we connect with each other is by praying for each other. If we were to look at our prayer, we would probably find that a lot of it is prayer for others, intercessory prayer. We pray for each other all the time, especially when we go to places of pilgrimage, like Lourdes. There are nearly thirty going on pilgrimage to Lourdes from the parish at the beginning of October and they will bring the intentions of parishioners with them and pray for them. At the end of this morning’s first reading, Paul declares that he prays for the church in Thessalonica. I am struck by the content of that prayer, ‘We pray continually that our God will fulfil all your desires for goodness and complete all that you have been doing through faith’. We all have what Paul refers to in that prayer, ‘desires for goodness’. We desire to be good; we want to become all that God is calling us to be. That desire is crucial; it is something God can work with, as Paul says in that prayer, ‘God will fulfil all your desires for goodness’. God needs our desire. Our desire gives God an opening to work in our lives. No matter how many times we fall short, as long as we retain our desire for goodness, our desire to walk in the way of God’s Son, God can work powerfully within us, and, in the words of that first reading, will be able to complete all that we have been doing through faith. A good prayer to make for ourselves is to pray that our desire for goodness would never weaken.

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(v) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

The gospel reading is a series of accusations that Jesus brings against the religious leaders of the time. The first one seems the most serious. Jesus accuses them of shutting up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, neither going in themselves nor allowing others to go in who want to. Jesus is claiming that not only do some of the religious leaders reject his proclamation of the nearness of God’s kingdom, God’s reign, but they put pressure on others to reject Jesus’ message and ministry as well. They are a stumbling block to others coming to faith in Jesus. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus warns his own disciples of the danger of becoming a stumbling block to others who already believe in him. Indeed, on one occasion he accused Peter, the leader of the twelve, of becoming a stumbling block to himself, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me’. The opposite of a stumbling block, which trips us up, is a stepping stone, which helps us to walk in difficult terrain. We are all called to be stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks, to help each other towards the Lord rather than hindering each other from receiving the Lord. In the first reading, Saint Paul sees the young church in the Greek city of Thessalonica as stepping stones. He declares, ‘it was from you that the word of the Lord has started to spread… for the news of your faith in God has spread everywhere’. Paul suggests that other young churches are being greatly encouraged and built up by the faith of the Thessalonians. In every age, we need to help each other towards the Lord by the lived witness of our faith. As Paul goes on to say later in that first letter to the Thessalonians, our earliest Christian document, ‘encourage one another and build up each other’.

And/Or

(vi) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

There was a great sense of togetherness yesterday in the Phoenix Park as a huge crowd gathered to celebrate Mass with the Holy Father, Pope Francis. We had a long walk before we got to the Mass and the sense of togetherness was evident even then. It had the feel of a real pilgrimage. People of faith were journeying together and, then, at the end of their journey, joining together in our most important act of worship, the Eucharist, with Pope Francis presiding. I thought it was a powerful image of what the church is called to be. We are a family of believers who journey together towards the Lord, supporting one another, praying with one another. The church has been through difficult times and even the run up to the Pope’s visit had quite a negative tone to it, especially in the media. In these times, it is all the more necessary that we support one another on our faith journey. In the gospel reading, Jesus is very critical of those who do the opposite. He accuses the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, of shutting up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, neither going in themselves, or allowing others to go in who want to. They reject the message of Jesus and put pressure on others to do the same. They turn away from God’s gift of the kingdom offered through Jesus and they influence others to turn away from it as well. Undermining the faith of others is a very serious matter in the Lord’s eyes. People can do this in all sorts of ways. Our calling is to lead each other to the Lord. This is the heart of our baptismal calling. The celebrations in the RDS, in Croke Park and in the Phoenix Park over the past five days were an example of people of faith doing just that in a very striking way. We were bringing the Lord to each other and bringing each other to the Lord.

And/Or

(vii) Monday, Twenty First Week in Ordinary Time

There is a contrast between today’s two readings. In the gospel reading, Jesus accuses the religious leaders of shutting up the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, neither going in themselves nor allowing others to go in who want to. Not only have they been rejecting Jesus’ message for themselves but they have been making it difficult for others to accept it. Jesus was often critical of people who were an obstacle to others coming to faith in him. One of the great services of love we can render others, according to Jesus, is to support them as they try to respond to God’s call through Jesus. This is what we find happening in today’s first reading. Paul is clearly a support to the young church in Thessalonica as they try to live the gospel message in their pagan culture. He supported them, when he first brought to gospel to them, by living the gospel message that he preached. As he says to them, ‘you observed the kind of life we lived when we were among you’. Now that he has left them, he tells them that he is supporting them by praying for them, thanking God for their faith, love and hope, and, of course, he is supporting them just by writing this letter to them. It is clear from that reading that the young church in Thessalonica are also supporting Paul in his faith. He is hearing encouraging stories about the church’s faith from others, ‘other people tell us… how your broke form idolatry’. The church’s witness is an encouragement to Paul. In these days especially, we need to support one another in the living of our faith. We do not journey to the Lord alone. We need others to bring us to the Lord by their prayer and the witness of their lives, and we are called to bring others to the Lord by our prayer for them and the witness of our own lives.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

25th August >> Fr. Martin's Homilies/Reflections on Today's Mass Readings for The Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) (Inc. John 6:60-69) ‘You have the message of eternal life’.

Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Gospel (Except USA)John 6:60-69Who shall we go to? You are the Holy One of God.

After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

‘It is the spirit that gives life,the flesh has nothing to offer.The words I have spoken to you are spiritand they are life.

‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’

Gospel (USA)John 6:60–69To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Homilies (9)

(i) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

When I go into the primary school classes I am often struck by the questions that the children ask about God. At one level they are simple questions but at another level they can be very profound, questions like, ‘Who made God?’ ‘Will my cat go to heaven?’ I can struggle to come up with answers to these questions that make sense to the children. We all have questions about life and God that we struggle to answer. However, children have a great freedom around asking these questions in public. As adults we can keep our questions to ourselves.

There are lots of questions asked in the gospels. It can be interesting to read the gospels with an eye to the questions that are being asked. Many of these questions are asked by people of Jesus, such as the young man who came up to him and asked, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ or the scribe who asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Like a lot of the questions that are asked of Jesus, these are questions that we could all make our own. Jesus himself asks many questions throughout the gospels, as when he asked the blind Bartimaeus, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ or when he asked the disciples of John the Baptise, ‘What are you looking for?’ Again, we can hear all these questions of Jesus as addressed to ourselves, to which we are being invited to give our own answer.

We find one of Jesus’ questions in today’s gospel reading. It has been described as one of the most moving questions in the four gospels. We are told that many of Jesus’ disciples had just stopped going with him. Having responded to his call to follow him, they walked away, because they found his language about the need to eat his flesh and drink his blood completely unacceptable. They said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ At this very moment when many of Jesus’ disciples stopped going with him, he turned to the Twelve and asked them, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ It was a courageous question to ask. Jesus was taking the risk of being left on his own. Yet, Jesus was respecting the freedom of his closest disciples to walk away, if they chose to do so. He wanted them to stay faithful to him, but he would not coerce them. He wanted them to continue believing in him, but he knew that faith in him was a gift that had to be freely accepted. No one would be forced to stay with him. How would the twelve disciples respond to Jesus’ question? It was Simon Peter who spoke up on behalf of them all, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God’. At this moment when so many of his disciples were leaving him, Jesus must have been very heartened by Simon Peter’s answer.

We can hear this question of Jesus as addressed to each one of us personally ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ We became the Lord’s disciples when our parents presented us for baptism. We confirmed our baptism for ourselves when we celebrated our Confirmation. On that day we made our own personal ‘yes’ to the Lord’s call to come to him, to receive him into our lives as the Bread of Life and to take him as our way, our truth and our life. Yet, as we go through life, we repeatedly need to confirm that ‘yes’ for ourselves. This is especially so because we live in a time when there are less supports for our faith in the Lord and the way of life that flows from our faith. It is said in the gospel reading that ‘many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him’. That is certainly true of today. The Lord and all he stands for has become a very distant horizon for many who have been baptized and confirmed. This makes the Lord’s question to us, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ all the more timely.

Jesus was offering his disciples something very precious in today’s gospel reading, ‘The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life’. All he has been saying about himself as the Bread of life who alone can satisfy the deepest hungers and thirsts of our hearts are Spirit-inspired words that, if responded to in faith, can bring us life to the full. This is true of all of Jesus’ words in the gospels. Jesus doesn’t simply give us the gift of his life-giving words. He also gives us the gift of his very self. He gave us this gift on the cross and he renews this gift of himself to us at every Eucharist. Yet, the Lord’s extraordinary gift of himself needs to be received. We need to continue choosing the one who has chosen to gift us so abundantly out of his love for us. That is why we need to keep making Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question our own, especially in these times, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life and we believe’.

And/Or

(ii) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

The story is told of a man who met an old school friend whom he hadn’t seen for years. There was an attractive woman by his side. Smiling, the man asked his friend, ‘By any chance, is this your wife?’ With a twinkle in his eye, the man replied, ‘Not by chance, my friend, but by choice’. We make choices every day. Some of these choices are deeply significant and shape the rest of our lives, as when a man and a woman choose to give themselves to each other in marriage for life. The more significant the choice we make, the more important it becomes to choose well. For us as followers of the Lord, to choose well is to choose as the Lord would want us to choose, to choose in a way that corresponds to his desire for our lives and for our world.

The readings today focus on significant moments of choice in the life of God’s people. In the first reading, Joshua put a fundamental choice before the people. They must choose either to serve the local gods of the land or to serve the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. Joshua was aware that the people had already chosen the Lord, but he also knew that their choice of the Lord, like every important choice in life, had to be renewed again and again. In the gospel reading Jesus faced his own disciples with a significant choice. They must choose either to follow him or to walk away from him and take another path. Jesus was aware that his disciples had already chosen to follow him, but, like Joshua, he also knew that this was a choice the disciples needed to renew over and over again.

The more significant the choice that we make, the more we need to remake that choice throughout our lives. The decision to serve the Lord, to follow the Lord, is the most significant choice we could make in life. In choosing the Lord, we are choosing a way of life, a way of looking at life and a way of living life. In making such a choice and re-making it over and over again, we are taking a fundamental stance in life, a gospel stance, one that influences a whole range of other choices we will make in life. That is not to say that everything we say and do will always be shaped by that stance. None of us are totally consistent. Yet, we will probably be aware when what we say and do is not in tune with our choice of the Lord, and we will at least have the desire to bring our choices more into line with our choice of the Lord.

It might seem strange to some that this very basic life-choice was initially made for us, by our parents when they brought us to the church for baptism. Yet, that choice they made for us was not any stranger than the many other choices they made for us out of love for us, such as their choice to feed us, to clothe us and to keep us warm. There comes a time in all our lives when we have to confirm for ourselves the choice of the Lord that our parents made for us. One of the key moments we make their choice our own is when we come to the Eucharist. In a sense, at every Mass, the Lord turns and says to us, ‘What about you, do you want to go away?’ At every Mass, we are given the opportunity to say with Simon Peter in the gospel reading, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God’. That is one of the reasons why the church, from earliest times, has given such a high priority to the Sunday Eucharist. It is at the Sunday Eucharist that we re-make the most fundamental choice we can make in life, the choice Jesus put before his disciples, and that Joshua put to the people of Israel. We come here week after week to say ‘Yes’, to say ‘Amen’ to our choice of the Lord.

When it comes to remaining faithful to that fundamental choice of the Lord, we are very dependant on each other. We need the example of each other’s faithfulness. Being with others who themselves keep coming back to re-make that choice of the Lord, helps me to keep making that same choice. The people of Israel must have been greatly supported in their choosing by Joshua when he came forward and said, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’. The other disciples in the gospel reading must have been enormously steadied when Peter stood up and said, on their behalf’, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the message of eternal life’. We need the likes of Joshua and Peter to give a lead, to encourage the rest of us. In a way, we are called to be a Joshua and a Peter for each other, to support each other in the re-making and living of our choice of the Lord. My faithfulness to my choice of the Lord makes it easier for everyone else to be faithful to theirs. My lack of faithfulness makes it more difficult for everybody else. Paul’s words to the church of Thessalonica about 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus is as valid today as it was then, ‘Encourage one another, and build up each other, as indeed you are doing’.

And/Or

(iii) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Most of us were probably baptized as infants. Our parents presented us for baptism shortly after we were born. At some level, they sensed that being christened, becoming a Christian, was a blessing that they should open us up to at a very early age. At baptism we were united with Christ in a special way, becoming members of his body, the church, receiving a share of his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who prompted us to cry out ‘Abba, Father’ to God, as Christ did. In presenting us for baptism our parents were making a very fundamental decision on our behalf. They made that decision for us because they valued their own relationship with Christ and with his church.

I suspect that all of us who are at Mass here this morning are grateful to our parents for making such a fundamental decision for us so early in our lives. As we grew into childhood and then into adolescence and into adulthood, we will have had opportunities to make our own the decision our parents made for us. Your presence here at Mass today is a sign that you have done just that. The weekly Eucharist is our opportunity to renew our baptism, to keep on making for ourselves the choice of Christ that our parents made for us. The Eucharist has always been understood in the church since the earliest days as a sacrament of initiation, the third sacrament of initiation after baptism and confirmation. Of the three sacraments of initiation, the Eucharist is the only one that we celebrate repeatedly. We can only be baptized and confirmed once, whereas we can celebrate the Eucharist on a weekly or even a daily basis. Because the Eucharist is a sacrament of initiation, in coming to the Eucharist we are making a statement that we want to belong to Christ and to his church. Coming to Mass is a public statement that we want to remain in Christ and in his church.

There may be times in our lives when we are unsure whether or not we want to go on making that statement. Many members of Christ’s church find themselves asking at some point in the course of their lives whether or not they want to go on belonging. They can find themselves hesitating, and for a whole variety of reasons. We are given a good example of that kind of hesitation among believers in today’s gospel reading. The evangelist tells us that many of Jesus’ followers found his teaching on the Eucharist intolerable. They could not accept his talk about the need to eat his flesh and to drink his blood. Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist became a stumbling block for them. As a result, the evangelist tells us, ‘many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him’. Even in Jesus’ own lifetime, it seems, not everyone who became one of his disciples went on to remain one. Jesus did not hold on to people against their will. In the gospel reading he even turns to the twelve and says to them, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ He took the risk of loosing his key associates. Even though he had chosen them for a special mission, he waited on them to choose him freely, without compulsion. His teaching on the Eucharist was a moment of decision for his own disciples. It brought to a head where they stood – did they want to stay with him or leave him? Did they want to confirm their initial decision to be his followers or to reverse it? The Eucharist remains that kind of moment of decision today for Jesus’ disciples. Our presence or absence at the Eucharist is making an important statement about where we stand in regard to Christ and his church. Even though there may be people here this morning who wonder about the strength of their faith and who are very aware of the reality of religious doubt within them, your presence here is a sign that at some level you want to make your own Peter’s confession of faith in today’s gospel reading: ‘Lord who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God’. It is as if Peter was saying, ‘If I don’t give my life to you, who or what do I give it too?’

Many of those who were baptized into Christ have ceased to come to Sunday Eucharist, as we know. Yet, many of these do come to Mass at Christmas and Easter, or even just at Christmas. That too is a statement. They have not given up on the Eucharist completely or on Christ and his church, and he has certainly not given up on them. The Lord continues to draw us to himself, even when, like the disciples in the gospel reading, we stop going with him. A little later in John’s gospel, Jesus says of himself, ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. The Lord draws us to himself because he loves us with a greater love. ‘No one has greater love than this’, he says, ‘than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’. Yet, in drawing us he awaits our assent to being drawn. Genuine love is always respectful of freedom. Our assent to the drawing of the Lord can take time to mature and it can involve many twists and turns. Peter who made the wonderful confession of faith in today’s gospel reading went on to deny the Lord publicly. Yet, the Lord gave Peter the opportunity to renew his earlier public profession of faith. The Lord gives us the same opportunity and he will give it as often as we need it.

And/Or

(iv) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

One of the more painful experiences of life is when we offer the gift of friendship to someone and that gift is not really received. We are drawn to someone, for whatever reason, and we feel a desire to befriend them. Yet, over time, we discover that our longing to befriend them is not matched by a corresponding desire on their part to befriend us. We then have to begin to deal with the sense of loss that follows on from that realization. It can also happen that those who do respond to our offer of the gift of friendship and become our friends do not remain our friends. They drift away from us over time, and that too can be a painful experience. At the end of the day, we cannot force our friendship on someone; we can make the offer and then it is up to the other person to freely respond or not. There is a sense in which we are helpless before the mystery of human freedom. We have all had our own experiences of the mystery of the freedom of the other person, and sometimes that experience can bring us a lot of joy; at other times it can bring us heartbreak.

The gospels suggest that Jesus himself experienced that sense of helplessness before the mystery of human freedom. He came to call men and women into a relationship of love with himself, and through him, with God the Father, who sent him into the world. Yet, many did not respond to his call; they saw his offer of God’s friendship as a threat to their way of life. Others did respond to his call, but they did not remain with him. They initially accepted him as the revelation of God’s love for the world, but over time they moved on from him. That is what we find happening in this morning’s gospel reading. Jesus had been speaking at length about himself as the bread of life; he declared that he would soon give his flesh as bread for the life of the world; he invited people to eat his flesh and drink his blood and, thereby, to draw life from him. According to this morning’s gospel reading, some of Jesus’ own followers who had been listening to this long teaching of Jesus could not accept it. ‘This is intolerable language’, they said, ‘how could anyone accept it?’ The gospel reading goes on to declare that, as a result, many of Jesus’ disciples left him and stopped going with him. Here Jesus stood before the mystery of human freedom.

Jesus might have succeeded in holding on to these disciples, if he had gone back on what he had said. Yet, he had to be true to himself, true to what he had received from God. As he says in the gospel reading, ‘the words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life’. Words that are full of God’s Spirit and that are life-giving have to stand, even if it means that the family of disciples that Jesus is gathering about himself is reduced in numbers. Jesus it seems was not prepared to compromise his teaching, his way of life, for the sake of having a larger number of followers. Indeed, the gospel reading suggests that he was even prepared to loose members of the twelve, those of his disciples who were closest to him, rather than compromise his message. He turns to the twelve and says, ‘What about you? Do you want to go away too?’ Although he wanted them to stay with him, he put it up to them to freely choose to stay with him. He did not try to hold on to them against their will. He left himself vulnerable to the mystery of human freedom. He was prepared to stand alone if the twelve had freely chosen to join the other disciples who were moving on from him. The Lord continues to make himself vulnerable to the mystery of human freedom today. He continues to speak words to us that are spirit and life. He continues to offer us the gift of God’s love and life. Yet, he waits for us to freely respond to his offer. He desperately wants us to follow him because he wants us to have life and have it to the full, but he will not force himself upon us. At some point in our lives, we have to make our own free response to the Lord’s question, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Our parents brought us to the church for baptism; we had no choice in that matter. Our parents did that for us because in some sense they wanted what they knew the Lord wanted for us. Yet, there comes a point in our lives when we have to say our own personal ‘yes’ to the baptism that we received, when, in one shape or form, we have to make our own the confession of Peter in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God’. Our coming to the Eucharist on a Sunday is one key opportunity to say our own personal ‘yes’ to the Lord’s call to be faithful to him and his message.

And/Or

(v) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

In our culture success can often be equated with large numbers. A successful television programme is one that has a very large viewing audience. If the numbers watching declines, the programme is in trouble. Democracy is based, to some extent, on the principle of numbers. The candidate with the most votes gets elected. Every political party is anxious to maximize their vote on election day. In all kinds of ways, numbers matter in our society. The schools with the biggest number of graduates going on to University are considered the better schools. If some event that is organized only attracts a small crowd it is considered a failure.

The gospel reading this morning suggests that Jesus was not too concerned about numbers. The gospels for the last four Sundays have been taken from chapter 6 of John’s gospel where Jesus speaks of himself as the Bread of Life and of the need to eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to have life. In this morning’s gospel reading some of Jesus’ own disciples express their unease with this language. ‘This is intolerable language’, they say, ‘How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus is portrayed in that reading as being very aware that some of his followers were complaining. Yet, he did not make any effort to soften his teaching in order to hold on to his numbers. Rather, he insists that the words he has been speaking, all his words, are spirit and life. As a result, the gospel tells us that ‘many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him’. Jesus suddenly lost a whole swathe of his following. From the perspective of the culture of the time and of our own culture he was suddenly less successful. According to the gospel reading, Jesus even turned to the Twelve apostles, his core group, and asked them, ‘What about you? Do you want to go away too?’ He was prepared to suffer a haemorrhage from that core group rather than compromise on the teaching that he had given. It seems that numbers were not important to him. What was important to him was proclaiming the truth as he had heard it from God his Father. On this occasion Jesus held onto the Twelve. Peter, their spokesperson, grasped the moment to declare their faithfulness to Jesus, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life’. Yet, Jesus would go on to lose even some the Twelve. At the time of his passion Judas betrayed him and Peter denied him. If success is to be measured by numbers, by the end of his earthly life, Jesus was a total failure.

The gospel reading this morning, and indeed the whole life of Jesus, shows that the value of something does not bear any necessary relation to the number of people who support it. Popularity is not necessarily a good indication of where truth is to be found. We can be tempted to think that because a lot of people reject some viewpoint that, therefore, it must be wrong. Numbers are not everything. We follow Jesus not because he was or is popular but because, in the word of Peter in the gospel reading, we recognize that he has the message of eternal life, or in the language of Jesus himself in that same reading, we acknowledge that the words that he speaks are spirit and life. We will find some of his teaching very challenging. We may be tempted to say, in the words of some of the disciples, ‘This is intolerable language. How can anyone accept it?’ We may not be troubled so much by his identification of himself as the Bread of Life or his call to eat his flesh and drink his blood. It may be some other aspect of his teaching, perhaps his challenging words in the Sermon on the Mount, to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. Some people react negatively to some of Jesus’ parables. They feel sorry for the older son in the parable of the prodigal son and for the men who worked all day and who got the same wages as those who worked for the last hour in the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. It should not surprise us when we find ourselves struggling with some of what Jesus says. In the language of the prophet Isaiah, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; God’s ways are not our ways. It has been said that Jesus comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. We all need Jesus to do both for us. We need his comforting and sustaining presence when we are afflicted, but sometimes we need his disturbing presence in our comfort.

The teaching and the life of Jesus will always challenge us at some level of our being. There may even be times when we will feel like walking away from it. That is why it is so important for us to keep renewing our response to the Lord’s presence and invitation. The Eucharist is the primary moment when we commit ourselves again to the Lord’s vision for our lives; it is our weekly opportunity to make our own those words of Peter in today’s gospel reading, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life’.

And/Or

(vi) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Terry Anderson was an American journalist who was held captive in Lebanon for seven years during the civil war there. In spite of everything he went through, he continued to be a man of deep faith. He subsequently wrote a book of poems on his experience entitled Den of Lions. In one of those poems he describes a Eucharist in a Lebanese prison. ‘Five men huddled close/ against the night and our oppressors/ around a bit of stale bread/ hoarded from a scanty meal/ and a candle, lit not only as/ a symbol but to read the text by./ The priest’s as poorly clad/ as drawn with strain as any,/ but his voice is calm, his face serene’. The poem concludes, ‘The familiar prayers come/ straight out of our hearts./ Once again, Christ’s promise is fulfilled; his presence fills us./ The miracle is real’. His poem is a truly remarkable profession of faith in the Eucharist in an hour of great darkness.

This morning’s gospel reading is the conclusion of that long teaching in chapter 6 of John’s gospel on Jesus as the Bread of Life. Towards the end of that teaching Jesus says, ‘my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them’. Jesus is declaring there that he wants to give us the gift of his flesh and blood, the gift of himself. He gave that gift of himself to all humanity on the cross. At every Eucharist he renews this gift of himself to us. Saint Paul declares in his first letter to the church in Corinth, ‘As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes’. Paul recognized very clearly the intimate connection between the Lord’s self-gift to us in his death on the cross and his self-gift to us in the Eucharist. It is evident from Terry Anderson’s poem that those five men in that Lebanese prison also deeply appreciated the extra-ordinary gift they were being given in that simple Eucharist. That same self-emptying love of Jesus on the cross was sacramentally present to them in the Eucharist. This is a love through which Jesus gathers people into communion with each other and with himself. It is fitting that one of the terms we have come to use for the Eucharist is ‘Holy Communion’. Through the Eucharist, we are brought into a deeply spiritual communion with each other and with the Lord.

The Eucharist is an extra-ordinary gift from the Lord to us, and, yet, today’s gospel shows that some of his own followers were slow to receive this gift. They struggled to accept Jesus’ self-gift of his flesh and blood. ‘This is intolerable language’, they said, ‘How could anyone accept it?’ When Jesus spoke of himself as the Bread of Life he had initially met opposition from the Jewish religious authorities. Yet, now, the opposition was coming from his own disciples. The gospel reading goes on to tell us that because of Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist, ‘many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him’. I often think that this is one of the more poignant verses in the gospels. It can resonate with some of us because there may have been times in our lives when we felt like walking away from the Eucharist. We can do so for a whole variety of reasons. Perhaps, like the disciples in the gospel reading, we cannot quite bring ourselves to believe in it.

Jesus was helpless before the decision of some of his disciples to leave him. He is profoundly respectful of the mystery of human freedom, even when that freedom expresses itself in ways that are not in keeping with his desire for us. When faced with the Lord’s gifts, we can always turn away. At its deepest level, faith is a gift; it is due to the working of God’s grace in our lives. Yet, at another level, faith is a choice. The Lord has chosen us first and having chosen us he keeps on investing in us. Yet, he waits for us to respond to his choice of us with our own personal choice of him, a choice we make not just as individuals but within a community. That is why in today’s gospel reading, after many of his disciples had ceased going with him, he turns to the twelve and says, ‘What about you? Do you want to go away too?’ It is a question that is addressed to all of us; it calls on us to make our own personal choice of the Lord who has chosen us. In response to that question, we can do no better than make our own the answer of Peter, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life’. We give expression to that answer of Peter every time we come to the Eucharist. Our decision to come to the Eucharist every Sunday is a very concrete way of choosing the Lord and all he stands for. In that sense, the Eucharist is both the sacrament of the Lord’s giving of himself to us and of our personal and communal giving of ourselves to him.

And/Or

(vii) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Terry Anderson was an American journalist who was held captive in Lebanon for seven years during the civil war there. In spite of everything he went through, he continued to be a man of deep faith. He subsequently wrote a book of poems on his experience entitled Den of Lions. In one of those poems he describes a Eucharist in a Lebanese prison. ‘Five men huddled close/ against the night and our oppressors/ around a bit of stale bread/ hoarded from a scanty meal/ and a candle, lit not only as/ a symbol but to read the text by./ The priest’s as poorly clad/ as drawn with strain as any,/ but his voice is calm, his face serene’. The poem concludes, ‘The familiar prayers come/ straight out of our hearts./ Once again, Christ’s promise is fulfilled; his presence fills us./ The miracle is real’. His poem is a truly remarkable profession of faith in the Eucharist in an hour of great darkness. Some of us will soon be on our way to a celebration of the Eucharist in a very different setting to that Lebanese prison. We will gather with 500,000 others in the Phoenix Park with Pope Francis as the main celebrant. Yet, it is the very same Eucharist that we will be celebrating as was celebrated in that Lebanese prison.

Just before today’s gospel reading, Jesus had said, ‘my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them’. Jesus is declaring there that he wants to give us the gift of his flesh and blood, the gift of himself. He gave that gift of himself to all humanity on the cross. At every Eucharist he renews this gift of himself to us. It is evident from Terry Anderson’s poem that those five men in that Lebanese prison deeply appreciated the extra-ordinary gift they were being given in that simple Eucharist. That same self-emptying love of Jesus on the cross was sacramentally present to them in the Eucharist, to us at our Eucharist in this church this morning. This is a love through which Jesus gathers people into communion with each other and with himself. It is fitting that one of the terms we have come to use for the Eucharist is ‘Holy Communion’. Through the Eucharist, we are brought into a deeply spiritual communion with each other and with the Lord.

The Eucharist is an extra-ordinary gift from the Lord to us, and, yet, today’s gospel shows that some of his own followers were slow to receive this gift. They struggled to accept Jesus’ self-gift of his flesh and blood. ‘This is intolerable language’, they said, ‘How could anyone accept it?’ Just prior to our gospel reading, when Jesus first spoke of himself as the Bread of Life come down from heaven, he had the Jewish religious authorities strongly objected to his language. Yet, now, the opposition was coming from his own disciples. The gospel reading goes on to tell us that because of Jesus’ teaching on the Eucharist, ‘many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him’. I often think that this is one of the more poignant verses in the gospels. It can resonate with some of us because there may have been times in our lives when we felt like walking away from the Eucharist. We can do so for a whole variety of reasons. Perhaps, like the disciples in the gospel reading, we cannot quite bring ourselves to believe in this extraordinary gift of the Lord to us.

Jesus was helpless before the decision of some of his disciples to leave him. He is profoundly respectful of the mystery of human freedom, even when that freedom expresses itself in ways that are not in keeping with his desire for us. When faced with the Lord’s gifts, we too can always turn away. At its deepest level, faith is a gift; it is due to the working of God’s grace in our lives. Yet, at another level, faith is a choice. Yes, the Lord has chosen us first and having chosen us he keeps on investing in us. Yet, he waits for us to respond to his choice of us with our own personal choice of him, a choice we make not just as individuals but within a community. That is why in today’s gospel reading, after many of his disciples had ceased going with him, he turns to the twelve and says, ‘What about you? Do you want to go away too?’ It is a question that is addressed to all of us. In response to that question, we can do no better than make our own the answer of Peter, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life’. Peter spoke on behalf of the others who had chosen to stay; he speaks for us all. We give expression to that answer of Peter every time we come to the Eucharist. Our decision to come to the Mass on Sunday, wherever it is celebrated, expresses our desire to of keep on choosing the Lord and all he stands for. The Eucharist is not only the sacrament of the Lord’s giving of himself to us but also of our personal and communal giving of ourselves to him.

And/Or

(viii) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

We make all sorts of choices every day of the week. Many of them are not all that significant. Nothing much would change if we made a different choice. There are other choices that shape us for life, such as a man or woman’s choice of their future spouse, or our choice of a friend, or our choice of the course of studies or a career. These are fundamental choices that shape a lot of our other choices. There is an even more fundamental choice we have to make in life, which is the choice of the value system by which we will live. That level of choice can bring us into the realm of the spiritual or the religious. The choice we make at this deepest level of our being impacts on every other choice we make, everything we say and do. As believers who belong to the family of the church, our deepest choice is of the Lord. In the course of the gospels, Jesus says, ‘you did not choose me but I chose you’. The Lord has chosen us in love and we have responded to his choice of us by choosing him.

When did we make our choice of the Lord? We might find it hard to identify a particular moment when we made that fundamental choice. Our parents made that choice for us when they brought us to the church for baptism. As we got older, we had to confirm their choice for ourselves. We can associate the confirming of our parents’ choice with the Sacrament of Confirmation, when we claim our baptism for ourselves. Yet, as we go through life, we have to continually confirm our own choice of the Lord. We can drift from the Lord and his way, for all sorts of reasons. It is not always the case that we consciously turn away from the Lord and his community of faith, but he ceases to be a presence for us. We can then discover that there is something missing in our lives, and we come back to the Lord as the one who gives meaning and direction to our lives. The more fundamental the choice, the more we have to keep renewing it, especially in those moments when it is put to the test.

We find such a moment in today’s gospel reading. Jesus had been offering himself to his disciples as their Bread of Life who had come down from heaven, inviting them to eat his body and drink his blood. Those who had earlier chosen to follow him found this teaching difficult to accept. ‘This is intolerable language’, they said. They found that they could not confirm their earlier choice of Jesus. In the words of the gospel reading, ‘many of his disciples left him, and stopped going with him’. The Lord’s loving choice of them hadn’t changed, but they could not respond by continuing to choose him. When people leave a closely knit group, as the disciple of Jesus were at that time, it can have an unsettling impact on everyone else. Others can find themselves asking, ‘Why am I staying if so many are leaving?’ Jesus brought this question to a head for his remaining disciples by asking them, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Peter spoke up on behalf of the others, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life’. Peter and those for whom he spoke recognized that, even though Jesus’ teaching was challenging, his words had a life giving quality; they were words of spirit and life. They were shaped by the Holy Spirit who brings life to all.

There are moments in all our lives when the Lord can say to us, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ The Lord has chosen us out of love, but he wants our choice of him to be free. He wants it to be rooted deep within us. He recognizes that living by his values, following in his way, allowing his words of spirit and life to shape our lives, requires a deliberate choice on our part, a choice that needs to be regularly confirmed. Our faith, our relationship with the Lord, is a gift. He has first loved us; he has taken the initiative towards us in love. Yet, faith is also a human choice, a graced choice. The Lord who has chosen us waits for us to choose him and to do so over and over again. In today’s first reading, Joshua said to the people, ‘Choose today whom you wish to serve’. That is the fundamental choice before which we all stand throughout our lives. Whom or what do we wish to serve with our whole lives? Jesus who has given his whole life to us calls on us to give our lives to him, to love him with all our mind, soul, heart and strength. Choosing the Lord, in this fundamental sense, will involve choosing those whom the Lord has gathered around himself, the community of believers, the church, in all its frailty and weakness. In choosing to stay with Jesus, Peter was also choosing to stay with the other disciples, one of whom, Judas, would go on to betray Jesus. Today’s gospel reading invites us to hear the Lord’s question, ‘What about you?’ as addressed to each one of us personally.

And/Or

(ix) Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

We make choices every day. Some of these choices are deeply significant and shape the rest of our lives, as when a man and a woman choose to give themselves to each other in marriage for life. The more significant the choice we make, the more important it becomes to choose well. We carefully consider our significant choices, such as the choice young people make when they fill in their CAO form, or the choice people make when it comes to a place to live.

The readings today focus on significant moments of choice in the life of God’s people. In the first reading, Joshua put a fundamental choice before the people. They must choose either to serve the local gods of the land or to serve the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. Joshua was aware that the people had already chosen the Lord, but he also knew that their choice of the Lord, like many of the most important choices in life, needed to be renewed again and again. In the gospel reading Jesus faced his own disciples with a significant choice. They must choose either to follow him or to walk away from him and take another path. Jesus was aware that his disciples had already chosen to follow him, but, like Joshua, he also knew that this was a choice the disciples needed to renew over and over again.

The more significant the choice that we make, the more we need to remake that choice throughout our lives. The decision to serve the Lord, to follow the Lord, is the most significant choice we could make in life. In choosing the Lord, we are choosing a way of life, a way of looking at life and a way of living life. In making such a choice and re-making it over and over again, we are taking a fundamental stance in life, one that influences a whole range of other choices we will make in life. That is not to say that everything we say and do will always be shaped by that fundamental stance. None of us are totally consistent. Yet, if we are in any way self reflective, we will probably be aware when what we say and do is not in tune with our choice of the Lord, and we will at least have the desire to bring our lives more fully into line with our choice of the Lord.

It might seem strange to some that this very basic life-choice for the Lord was initially made for us by our parents, when they brought us to the church for baptism as infants. Yet, that choice they made for us as infants was not any stranger than the many other choices they made for us out of love for us at that age; we were simply not able to choose for ourselves. There comes a time in all our lives when we have to confirm for ourselves the choice of the Lord that our parents made for us. One of the key moments we make our parent’s choice our own is when we come to the Eucharist. In a sense, at every Mass, the Lord turns and says to us what he said to Peter, ‘What about you, do you want to go away?’ At every Mass, we are given the opportunity to say with Simon Peter in the gospel reading, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God’. That is one of the reasons why the church, from earliest times, has given such a high priority to our presence at the Sunday Eucharist. It is at the Sunday Eucharist that we re-make the most fundamental choice we can make in life, the choice Jesus put before his disciples, and that Joshua put before the people of Israel. We come to Mass Sunday and Sunday to renew our baptismal choice of the Lord. Past choices need to be kept alive by renewed commitment.

When it comes to remaining faithful to that fundamental choice of the Lord, we are very dependant on each other. We need the example of each other’s faithfulness. Being with others at Mass who themselves keep coming back to re-make that choice of the Lord, helps me to keep remaking that same choice. That is why our presence at Sunday is important for everyone else. The people of Israel must have been greatly supported in their choosing the Lord by Joshua who came forward and said, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’. In the gospel reading, the disciples must have been enormously steadied when Peter stood up and said, on their behalf, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the message of eternal life’. We all need the likes of Joshua and Peter to give a lead, to encourage the rest of us, when our own faith may be faltering. There are times in life when our faith in challenged, when we are tempted to wander off, as some of the disciples did in the gospel reading. It is above all then that we need each other’s witness, each other’s faithfulness. In that sense, we are all called to be a Joshua and a Peter for each other, to support each other in the re-making and living of our choice of the Lord.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

24th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for The Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle (Inc. John 1:45-51): ‘You will see greater things’.

Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Gospel (Except USA)John 1:45-51You will see heaven laid open, and the Son of Man.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, the one about whom the prophets wrote: he is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.’ ‘From Nazareth?’ said Nathanael ‘Can anything good come from that place?’ ‘Come and see’ replied Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael coming he said of him, ‘There is an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit.’ ‘How do you know me?’ said Nathanael. ‘Before Philip came to call you,’ said Jesus ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ Nathanael answered, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.’ Jesus replied, ‘You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ And then he added ‘I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.’

Gospel (USA)John 1:45-51Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Reflections (10)

(i) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Bartholomew, one of the Twelve, is traditionally identified with Nathanael, who features in today’s gospel reading. Initially, Nathanael pours cold water on Philip’s witness to Jesus, whom Philip has come to recognize as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Nathanael’s refusal seems to be based on a kind of small town prejudice. We subsequently learn in John’s gospel that Nathanael was from Cana, which is not far from Nazareth. When Nathanael asks, ‘From Nathanael! Can anything good come from that place?’ he displays a dusty opinion of this neighbouring small village. Yet, Nathanael’s initial refusal of Philip’s witness to Jesus was not the end of Nathanael’s journey. He subsequently had a change of heart and responded to Philip’s invitation to come and see Jesus. However, Jesus had already seen Nathanael even before Nathanael’s initial dismissal of Philip’s witness. Jesus had a relationship with Nathanael before he had a relationship with Jesus and when Nathanael realized this he confessed his faith in Jesus as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, ‘You are the King of Israel’. He was continuing to make progress on his journey of faith. Jesus assures him that he will make further progress into the future; he will see ‘greater things’. He will come to recognize Jesus as the meeting place of heaven and earth, the one on whom the angels of God are ascending and descending. Nathanael’s journey of faith can speak to our own journey. The Lord is relating to us even when we are not relating to him. Our initial resistance to the Lord’s call need never have the last word. He continues to call us to come and see. If we respond in any way to the Lord’s call, he will affirm us in our journey and he will continue to open up new horizons on for us our journey of faith, until we come to see and appreciate him as God with us, the one through whom God’s love comes to us.

And/Or

(ii) Feast of St Bartholomew, Apostle

Bartholomew has traditionally been identified with Nathanael who features in this morning’s gospel reading. He is portrayed in that reading as someone who journeyed in a very short time from great scepticism to great faith. His initial response to Philip’s witness to Jesus as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah was to ask, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Elsewhere in John’s gospel we are told that Nathanael was from Cana in Galilee. Cana was not that far from Nazareth, and wasn’t all that different from Nazareth, but, obviously the people of Cana did not think much of the people of Nazareth. Philip was not put off by Nathanael’s apparent resistance; he simply said, ‘Come and see’, and in fairness to Nathanael, he came and saw. Jesus was not put off either by Nathanael’s resistance, because as soon as he saw Nathanael he complemented him, ‘There is an Israelite who deserves the name incapable of deceit. It was Jesus’ positive reception of Nathanael which brought Nathanael to make his great act of faith, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel’. The gospel reading suggests that Jesus could look beyond the negative in people to see and to name what was positive. The Lord sees and names the good in us, and if we could become more aware of how the Lord regards us, we too, like Nathanael, would grow in faith.

And/Or

(iii) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Today we celebrate the feast of St Bartholomew. He has been traditionally identified with Nathanael who features in this morning’s gospel reading. Nathanael dismissed Philip’s initial witness to Jesus with the dismissive words, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Nathanael had a dusty opinion of Nazareth and had no expectations of it. In this regard, he was probably not alone. Yet, in response to Philip’s persistence, Nathanael did make his way to Jesus. Upon seeing Nathanael Jesus paid him a high compliment. In spite of the fact that Nathanael had been dismissive of Jesus initially, Jesus was anything but dismissive of Nathanael. This is a reminder to us that the Lord is always generous in his way of perceiving us. Even when we are less than generous towards him, he remains generous towards us. The Lord’s generous vision of Nathanael changed Nathanael in some way. From initially dismissing Jesus, he went on to confess him as the Son of God and King of Israel. Jesus’ generous vision of Nathanael brought out the best in him, and can bring out the best in us. In a similar way, when we are generous in our way of seeing and relating to others, we too can help bring out the best in them. That is our calling as followers of the Lord who is full of grace and truth.

And/Or

(iv) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

We know very little about Saint Bartholomew, but he has been traditionally identified with Nathanael who features in today’s gospel reading. According to the last chapter of John’s gospel, Nathanael was from Cana in Galilee, which was not very far from Nazareth and much the same kind of place. Yet, when Philip announces to him that they identified Jesus of Nazareth as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, Nathanael responds by asking ‘Can anything good come from that place?’ An example perhaps of small town rivalry! Nathanael started off dismissing Jesus on the basis of where Jesus was from. However, once Nathanael met Jesus for himself, his view of Jesus completely changed. He declared in Jesus’ presence, ‘You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel’. The gospel reading suggests that there is no substitute for a personal encounter with Jesus. Without that personal encounter, Nathanael would have continued to dismiss Jesus outright. Through Philip, the Lord called Nathanael to ‘come and see’. It is because he came and saw, and met with Jesus for himself, that Nathanael ceased to be a sceptic and became a disciple. The Lord is constantly calling on us to ‘come and see’, to meet with him in a very personal way, one to one, rather than just knowing about him by hearsay.

And/Or

(v) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Bartholomew is listed as one of the twelve apostles. He has tended to be identified with Nathanael who features in this morning’s gospel reading. Nathanael starts off being very sceptical about Jesus, ‘Can anything good come from that place – Nazareth?’ However, he finishes by making a great confession of faith, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel’. Yet Jesus goes on to tell him that although he has journeyed from scepticism to faith he is still only at the beginning of his journey of faith. Jesus promises him, ‘You will see greater things... You will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending’. Nathanael will eventually come to see Jesus as the meeting point of heaven and earth, the one in whom God has taken flesh. Nathanael had made great progress on the journey of faith but he will make even further progress. His initial movement beyond scepticism was inspired by the witness of one of the disciples of Jesus, Philip, who shared his faith with Nathanael and encouraged him to meet Jesus in spite of his scepticism. We are all on a journey of faith. On that journey there may be a moment or many moments of scepticism. Yet, the Lord keeps calling out to us and promises us that we will see greater things. If that is to come to pass, we need people like Philip to support us on every step of our faith journey and we in turn need to be a Philip to others on their faith journey.

And/Or

(vi) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Bartholomew has been traditionally identified with Nathanael who features in our gospel reading this morning. Jesus pays him a lovely compliment, ‘Here is an Israelite, incapable of deceit’ or ‘in whom there is no deceit’. Jesus admired his openness and honesty. Even his dusty opinion about Nazareth, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ was, at least, an honest opinion; it was what he believed. Nathanael went on to recognize that his honest opinion about Nazareth was a mistaken one. He came to see that Jesus from Nazareth was none other than the Son of God and the King of Israel. It takes a generosity of heart and spirit to recognize when we have got it wrong, to recognize that our opinion of some person or place has been shaped by our prejudices rather than by reality. Nathanael’s honesty and generosity of heart can be an inspired to us on this his feast day. The final word of the gospel reading, however, is given to Jesus, not to Nathanael. It takes the form of that wonderful promise Jesus makes to him, ‘You will see greater things... You will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending’. We may have a certain insight into Jesus, a certain appreciation of him, like Nathanael, but Jesus assures us that there is so much more to see and appreciate. In our relationship with Jesus, we are always only towards the beginning of our journey. There are always ‘greater things’ to see.

And/Or

(vii) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Bartholomew is listed as one of the twelve apostles. He is traditionally identified with the figure of Nathanael who features in this morning’s gospel reading. When Philip shared with Nathanael his emerging faith in Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael dismissed it with the remark, ‘can anything good come from Nazareth?’ Yet, this dismissive, sceptical attitude would not go on to define Nathanael. There was some little openness in him, because when Philip went on to say to him, ‘Come and see’, Nathanael did come and he saw for himself. When Jesus saw Nathanael, he drew attention not to his initial dismissive attitude but to his openness, ‘an Israelite who deserves the name, incapable of deceit’. Jesus admired his honesty; there was no pretence in him. As a result of his meeting with Jesus, Nathanael goes on to make his confession of faith in Jesus of Nazareth, ‘you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel’. Nathanael had moved from scepticism to faith. Yet, Jesus assures him that he is still only at the beginning of his journey; he has only begun to see. Jesus promises him, ‘You will see greater things... you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending’. He will come to recognize Jesus as the meeting point of heaven and earth, as God in human form. Like Nathanael, we are all on a journey. The Lord invites us to ‘come and see’, no matter where we are on that journey, and, if we do manage to see something of the Lord, he promises us that one day we will see greater things than what we now see.

And/Or

(viii) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Bartholomew, who is only mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, is often identified with Nathanael who only features in the gospel of John. One of the striking aspects of the portrayal of Nathanael in this morning’s gospel reading is his openness and willingness to change for the better. When Philip tries to share with Nathanael his emerging faith in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, Nathanael initially dismisses Jesus out of hand on the basis of where Jesus is from. However, when Philip persists, Nathanael goes with Philip to meet Jesus. Then when Jesus addresses him as a person incapable of deceit, Nathanael makes a great confession of faith in Jesus, ‘You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel’. Jesus reminds him that he is not yet at the end of his faith journey; he has only begun to see, ‘you will see greater things’. Yet, we sense that Nathanael, having travelled so far in such a short time, will continue to make progress. He is an encouragement to us all that change for the better is always possible, for all of us. We all have the potential to grow in our relationship with the Lord and to allow him to shape our lives ever more fully. Nathanael would not have made the progress he made without the initiative that the Lord took towards him, initially through the person of Philip and then in a more direct and personal way. The Lord continues to take the same initiative towards us; he continues to call us into a deeper relationship with himself; he never gives up on us; he knocks on our door in various ways. All he asks is that we have that same openness to respond to the Lord’s initiative towards us that Nathanael had. If we have that openness, then, like Nathanael, we too will change for the better, we will begin to see greater things.

And/Or

(ix) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Bartholomew is mentioned in the list of the twelve apostles in the gospels. He is traditionally identified with Nathanael in today’s gospel reading from John. Nathanael was initially very dismissive of Jesus, wondering if anything good could come from the village of Nazareth. He poured cold water on Philip’s witness to his faith, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law...’ Yet there was something about Philip’s witness which prompted Nathanael to go with him when Philip said, ‘Come and see’. Nathanael’s own personal encounter with Jesus led him from his initial dismissive attitude to a sharing in Philip’s faith, ‘You are the son of God, you are the King of Israel’. This was still only the beginning of Nathanael’s journey. Jesus informs him that he will see greater things. Yet, he had already come a long way from his initial scepticism. The story of Nathanael in today’s gospel reading reminds us that faith is a journey of coming to see the Lord more clearly and of following the Lord more wholeheartedly. Even if, like Nathanael, we start in a very inauspicious place, a place of doubt and scepticism, the Lord continues to call us, and he calls us in and through each other, as he called Nathanael through Philip. No matter where we are on this faith journey, the Lord continues to say to us, what he said to Nathanael, ‘you will see greater things’. We are always on the way until that eternal day when we see the Lord face to face.

And/Or

(x) Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

The reason we read this gospel reading featuring Nathanael on the feast of Saint Bartholomew is because they have been traditionally regarded as the same person. There is something quite attractive about the portrayal of Nathanael in that gospel reading. His initial response to Philip’s breathless witness to Jesus seems very gruff and dismissive, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ We are all familiar with the tendency to dismiss someone on the grounds of where they come from or who their parents are. Prejudice is always with us and can even lurk in our own hearts. Yet, Nathanael didn’t allow himself to get stuck in his prejudice. He thought better of his initial dismissal of Jesus and he went on to respond to Philip’s gentle invitation to come and see Jesus. We are being reminded that it is not where we start that matters but where we end up. We are all capable of having a change of mind and heart for the better, especially when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. This freedom to move to a better place is a quality that Jesus recognized in Nathanael and appreciated. When he sees Nathanael coming towards him, he pays him a wonderful compliment, identifying him as a man ‘incapable of deceit’. Where we are now is more important to the Lord than where we have been in the past. Once Jesus engaged Nathanael in conversation, he made further progress, publicly declaring Jesus to be ‘the Son of God’ and ‘the King of Israel’. He has come a long way from where he started; from dismissing Jesus on the basis of his home village, he now confesses him in a striking way. The Lord invites all of us to keep travelling that same journey of deepening our relationship with him. Wherever we are on that journey, he will say to us what he went on to say to Nathanael, ‘you will see great things’. Nathanael still had a long way to go on his journey towards Jesus and that is true of us all. The journey of coming to Jesus, seeing him with our heart and mind, staying with him and witnessing to him is a life-long journey. It is one of the great journeys of life and the Lord travels it with us, constantly calling us to come further and to see more.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

23rd August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 22:34-40): ‘On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets too’.

Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 22:34-40The commandments of love.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 22:34-40You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Reflections (10)

(i) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading, the Pharisees try to disconcert Jesus with a question, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ It was a serious question that required a considered response. Jesus had no hesitation in answering it. Indeed, he gave more than he was asked. The Pharisees asked for the greatest commandment in the Law. Jesus responded by giving the two greatest commandments in the Law. Jesus not only declared them to be the two greatest commandments but announced that ‘the whole Law and the Prophets also’ hang upon them. The Law and the Prophets constituted almost all of the Jewish Scriptures at that time. Jesus was making quite a claim for these two commandments. He was affirming that everything in the Jewish Scriptures can be reduced to God’s double commandment to love. Everything else is a commentary on this commandment. Only God is to be loved with all our heart, soul and mind, in other words, with all our being and life energy. God has loved us into being and God’s love sustains us in being in this life and beyond, and only God is worthy of our total and complete love. The first reading from Ezekiel reminds us that God’s love is a life-giving love, a love that breathes new life into our dry bones and dried up spirits. When we respond to God’s love by loving God with all our being, we become fully alive. Jesus insists that this complete love of God is inseparable from loving others as if they were extensions of ourselves. God’s life-giving love for us is to flow through us to embrace others, including those who are very different from us, even our enemies. We are to love others in the way God loves them. There is a wonderful vision here of God’s purpose for our lives and if we were to surrender to it God’s kingdom would come on earth.

And/Or

(ii) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The motivation underpinning the question that the Pharisees ask Jesus in this morning’s gospel reading left a lot to be desired. Yet, even though the motive for asking the question was suspect, the question itself was a very good one. There were considered to be over 600 commandments in the Jewish Law at the time of Jesus. Devout people asked the question, ‘Was there any one commandment that should stand above all the others?’ In answer to the question of the Pharisees Jesus gave more than he was asked for. He not only gave the most important commandment but what he considered to be the two most important commandments. What is common to both commandments is the word ‘love’. God is to be the primary object of our love; God alone is to be loved with all our being, all our heart, soul and mind. Jesus seems to have been unique in linking this primary commandment with another commandment which was found in a different place in the Scriptures to that first commandment, the love of the neighbour. Jesus seems to be saying that those who truly love God with all their being will be caught up into God’s love of others, will love others in the way God loves them. Jesus is the one human being who fully embodies the two fold love. His love for God was so total, his loving communion with God was so complete, that he became the perfect expression of God’s love for others. In these days when so much suffering can be inflicted on others in the name of God, it is good to be reminded of these two inseparable commandments. They are the essence of our baptismal calling.

And/Or

(iii) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

At the time of Jesus there were considered to be 613 commandments in the Jewish Law. In theory all the commandments were to be observed with equal diligence but, in practice, it was recognized that some commandments were more important than others. According to today’s gospel reading, the question that the Pharisees put to Jesus, ‘Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ was intended to put Jesus to the test. It was asked in the hope that Jesus would make some damaging statement. However, Jesus’ reply could hardly be faulted. He gave not just the greatest commandment but what he considered to be the first and the second commandment. He brought together two commandments which had not rarely been brought together in this way before. He declared that the heart of all 613 commandments was the commandment to love. Our love is to be directed in the first place to God; it is only God who is to be loved with all our being, all our heart, soul and mind. No one else is worthy of such all embracing love. Yet, Jesus declares that such total love of God is inseparable from the love of our neighbour who is to be loved as we love ourselves. Our love of neighbour and of ourselves is to be a reflection of God’s love of our neighbour and of ourselves. In loving God with all our being we are caught up into God’s love of us all. In going towards God in love, we go from God in love towards others and ourselves. Jesus declares that everything in the Scriptures, in the Law and the Prophets, hangs on those two great and inseparable commandments.

And/Or

(iv) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospels several people ask Jesus questions. Sometimes the questions reveal an openness to Jesus, a desire to learn from him. At other times the questions are more confrontational. The question put to Jesus in this morning’s gospel reading from Matthew is more like this latter type. We are told that a scribe asked Jesus a question to test him. The question, ‘Which is the greatest commandment in the law?’ was meant to trip Jesus up. The scribe may have hoped that Jesus would give an answer that would show him up in a bad light. In his answer Jesus gave more than he was asked for. He not only gave the greatest commandment but the second greatest commandment as well. The first commandment is a quotation from the Book of Deuteronomy. God is to be loved with one’s whole being, heart, mind and soul. No creature, not matter how noble, is to be loved in this way. The second greatest commandment, to love our neighbour as ourselves, is a quotation from the book of Leviticus. Yes, God must come first, but there is no true love of God without love of neighbour. We cannot claim to be honouring God if we dishonour another human being in any way, no matter how different he or she might be from us. Jesus brings together these two commandments from different parts of the Bible, in a way no one else had done before him. He shows us very clearly that the way to God always passes through other people. Elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel Jesus identifies himself with our neighbour, especially the vulnerable and broken neighbour. To that extent the way to God always passes through Jesus.

And/Or

(v) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

People can ask questions for different reasons. In this morning’s gospel reading we are told that the Pharisees ask Jesus a question to disconcert him. In other words, their question was not really a genuine question; it was a kind of a trick question intended to put Jesus on the spot. Yet Jesus appears to have treated the question, ‘Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ as a serious question because he gave it a very considered reply. He didn’t exactly answer the question he was asked. He was asked for the greatest commandment of the Law, but he gave the greatest and the second greatest commandment of the Law, implying that both were inseparable. The commandment ot love God with all one’s heart, soul and mind and the commandment to love the neighbour as oneself belong together in the mind of Jesus. They belong together but they are not on the same level, one is more important that the other, one is first and the other is second. The love of God with all our being is prior to and somehow undergirds our love of neighbour. Jesus seems to be saying that we cannot really love our neighbour fully unless we give first place to God in our lives. Yet, our failure to love our neighbour is a sign that God is nor our first and most complete love.

And/Or

(vi) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The question that is put to Jesus in this morning’s gospel reading - ‘Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ – was with a view to disconcerting him. Jesus was being put to the test. Yet, in spite of the questionable motivation behind the question, Jesus took the question seriously and gave his questioners and all of us an answer that is worth pondering. Although he was asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus’ answer put two commandments side by side. The first commandment was the core of the prayer recited by observant Jews several times a day, called the Shema. The Hebrew word Shema means ‘Hear’. The prayer is called after its first word, ‘Hear O Israel the Lord you God is one...’. In a similar way, the prayer that we might pray several times a day as Christians, the Lord’s Prayer, is often referred to by its first two words, ‘Our Father’. The combining of this commandment with the commandment to love our neighbour seems distinctive to Jesus. For Jesus to love God with all one’s heart and soul and mind is inseparable from the love of neighbour in the way that God loves them. Elsewhere Jesus defines ‘neighbour’ in a very inclusive way as embracing all of humanity, including even our enemy. Jesus declares that the whole Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Love is the key to interpreting all the requirements of the Law and the prophets. Jesus shows us by his life and death what loving God with all our being and loving the neighbour as ourselves looks like. He not only shows us what such love looks like, he also pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we may be empowered to love in the way that he does.

And/Or

(vii) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The Pharisee who questioned Jesus in today’s gospel reading claimed to be looking for the most important commandment out of the hundreds that were in the Jewish Law. However, Jesus did not reply to his question by giving him one commandment, but two, what he called the greatest or first commandment and a second commandment that ‘resembles it’. It seems that Jesus did something very original here. He took two commandments that were in different books of the Jewish Scriptures, the first commandment that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, which is in the book of Deuteronomy, and the second commandment, ‘you must love your neighbour as yourself’, which is in the book of Leviticus. Jesus brought these commandments together in a way that was unique to him. What is common to both commandments is that little word ‘love’. It is as if Jesus is saying, ‘if you really want to get to the heart of God’s Law, what it is that God wills for our lives, it is love’. Love is the centre of the Jewish Law. It is also, of course, the centre of Jesus’ message. If these two commandments to love are the most important of all the commandments in the Jewish Law, Jesus insists that one of these commandments to love is more important than the other. The first and most important of the two is to love God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind. In that first commandment, we are being asked to give God first place in our lives. God alone is to be loved with all our being. This involves acknowledging our dependence on God, recognizing how much we receive from God and then offering all that back to God in love. Jesus implies that this love of God is the inspiration and foundation for our love of others, a love that has something of the quality of God’s own love for humanity.

And/Or

(viii) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The first reading from the prophet Ezekiel is full of drama. The Lord through the prophet is speaking to a people who keep saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead’. Any one of us can feel a little like that at certain moments of our lives. We feel dried up; we seem to have lost hope; we sense that we are only half alive, as good as dead. The Covid pandemic has perhaps led to more people feeling like this than usual. It can be a disheartening, dispiriting time. In our first reading, the Lord promises his people that he will raise them from their graves; he will put his spirit within them and they will begin to live again. The Lord makes the same promise to all of us when we feel only half alive and drained of hope. At such moments, the Lord invites us to come before him and to open our hearts to his life-giving spirit, the Holy Spirit, who will enable us to live again. I like that prayer to the Holy Spirit that we pray on Pentecost Sunday, ‘Holy Spirit, Lord of light… Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour they dew’. The people of Israel in the first reading were like dry bones scattered in a valley, but the Lord wanted to breathe life into those dry bones, pouring the dew on his Spirit upon them. The Lord always stands ready to breathe life into us, by pouring his Spirit afresh into our lives. His Spirit will always led us out towards others in love, lifting us beyond our tendency to turn in on ourselves in despondency. The Spirit will move us towards that love of God with all our being and the love of neighbour as ourselves, which Jesus speaks about in the gospel reading and that shaped his own life. When we allow the Spirit to generate the Lord’s own love within us, then we will begin to come alive again. We will discover the Lord’s own joy, which is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit working within us.

And/Or

(ix) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Life can be very complex and we often feel the need to cut through all the complexities to what is essential and truly valuable. In the time of Jesus, the Jewish religion had become a little complex. There were many laws and regulations governing all sorts of areas of life. The question that was put to Jesus at the beginning of today’s gospel reading was looking for what was essential and valuable in the midst of all this complexity, ‘Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ In other words, ‘What does it all boil down to in the end?’ In answering that question, Jesus found it necessary to give not just the one greatest commandment of the Law, but the greatest and the next greatest commandment of the Law. He couldn’t really boil the Jewish Law down to one commandment, but he could boil it down to two commandments. However, the two commandments have something essential in common. They are both commandments to love. In a way, Jesus was saying that all the laws and regulations of the Jewish religion can be boiled down to the commandment to love. Yet, for Jesus, there is a primary love and a secondary love. Our primary love is due to God. Only God is to be loved with our whole being, all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. God is deserving of such love because that is how God loves us. God loves us with all God’s being, and we are to love God with all our being. However, for Jesus this total love of God is inseparable from the love of our neighbour and our neighbour is every human being, regardless of their race, religion, background, or way of life. We are to love others in the way God loves them. It is our loving relationship with God that empowers to love others in this God-like way.

And/Or

(x) Friday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The question that the Pharisees put to Jesus in today’s gospel reading was intended to put Jesus to the test, ‘to disconcert him’. They asked him which of the many commandments in the Jewish Law was the greatest one. Jesus sails through the test, giving his answer from the Book of Deuteronomy (6:7). The greatest commandment is to love God with all one’s being. There is nothing more important than this. Only God is to be loved with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind. Only God is to be loved in this complete and radical way. Jesus goes on to give more than he was asked for, not only the greatest commandment but the second greatest commandment, which he takes from the Book of Leviticus, the commandment to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. Jesus is saying that the love of God with all our being entails loving all those whom God loves, and in the way that God loves them. Jesus understands ‘neighbour’ in the second commandment as every human being, regardless of how different they are from us, even if they see us as an enemy. Jesus brings these two commandments together in his own life. He lived both commandments to the full. Because he loved God with all his being, he was caught up in God’s love for all of humanity. In is only in the power of the Holy Spirit that we will be able to live these two commandments as Jesus did. We begin by opening ourselves up to the Spirit of God’s love whom God wishes to pour into our hearts and it is this Spirit that enables us to love God with all our being and our neighbour as ourselves.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

22nd August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for:

The Feast of the Queenship of Mary (Inc. Luke 1:39-56)

and

Thursday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 22:1-14).

Feast of the Queenship of Mary

Gospel (Except USA)Luke 1:26-38'I am the handmaid of the Lord'.

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

Gospel (USA)Luke 1:26-38You will conceive in your womb and bear a son.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Reflections (6)

(i) Feast of the Queenship of Mary

This feast is a relatively recent one in the church. For centuries Mary had been venerated as Queen of the angels and the saints. It is depicted, for example, in some very early mosaic works in the apse of the great Basilicas. Jesus is portrayed as King of heaven and earth, and, alongside him, Mary is portrayed as Queen. In 1955, at the end of the Marian Year, Pope Pius XII gave formal expression to this popular belief of the faithful, by promulgating this feast of the Queenship of Mary. He placed it on this date, 22nd August, to stress the connection with the feast of the Assumption. Like that feast, this feast of the Queenship of Mary proclaims the very special union between herself and her Son in heaven. The church understands this special relationship between Jesus and Mary in heaven as the continuation and deepening of their special relationship on earth. In the gospel reading, Mary consents to be the mother of Jesus, God’s Son. She carried Jesus in her womb for nine months, and, having given birth to him, she nursed him as only a mother could. No other human being had such a deeply personal relationship with Jesus from the first moment of his existence. Before she conceived Jesus in her womb, she conceived him in her heart, through her faith, by surrendering herself to God’s purpose and desire for her life, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let what you have said be done to me’. When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, according to Luke’s gospel, Elizabeth declared Mary blessed because of the child she was carrying in her womb, but then went on to declare Mary blessed because of her faith, ‘Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was said to her by the Lord’. Mary inspires us to keep growing in our faith, to keep giving ourselves over to God’s purpose, God’s desire, for our lives, so that Christ can live in us, as he lived in Mary, and so that we become people who bring the Lord to others as she brought the Lord to us. Christ who lives in us in this earthly life will then draw us into a deeper relationship with himself in the life beyond this earthly life.

And/Or

(ii) Feast of the Queenship of Mary

During the Middle Ages Mary was venerated as Queen of the angels and saints. Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Queenship of Mary as a memorial of the universal church at the close of the Marian Year of 1955. The memorial is placed on this date, August 22, to stress its connection with the feast of the Assumption, exactly a week earlier. The gospel reading for today’s feast tells us that if Mary now reigns with her Son in heaven, it is because she gave herself over to God’s purpose for her earthly life, as did Jesus her Son. There are many call stories in the gospels and in the bible as a whole. Today’s gospel reading is the story of the call of Mary. According to the passage, Mary displayed a whole range of responses to God’s approach to her. Initially, she was ‘deeply disturbed’, and then she questioned, ‘How can this come about?’ It was only after an interior journey that she finally surrendered to what God was asking of her, ‘let what you have said be done to me’. The reading suggests that Mary’s response came at the end of a period of struggle. There will always be an element of struggle in our own dealings with the Lord, in our own efforts to respond to the Lord’s call. Mary’s response of total surrender to God’s purpose for her life did not come easy to her and does not come easy to us. However, in our struggle to live in harmony with God’s purpose for our lives, we all have the assurance of Gabriel’s words to Mary, ‘Nothing is impossible to God’. What may seem impossible to us is always possible with God’s help. We can all come to make our own the words of Saint Paul, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain’ (1 Cor 15:10).

And/Or

(iii) Feast of The Queenship of Mary

Today we celebrate the memorial of the Queenship of Mary. Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Queenship of Mary as a feast of the universal church at the close of the Marian Year of 1955. The feast is placed on this date, August 22, to stress its connection with the feast of the Assumption, exactly a week earlier. We find this link expressed in the joyful mysteries of the rosary, with the fourth mystery being the Assumption and the fifth mystery being the Coronation of Mary as Queen of heaven. Today’s gospel reading, the Annunciation to Mary, is the first joyful mystery. That first joyful mystery in Mary’s life underpins the fifth joyful of her life. If she reigns with her Son in heaven it is because she first shared in his complete surrender to God’s purpose for his life. As Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, ‘not my will but yours be done’, Mary said in Nazareth, ‘let what you have said be done to me’. That surrender to God’s purpose did not come easy to Jesus in the garden; he had first prayed ‘Take this cup from me’. It did not come easy to Mary either. According to today’s gospel reading, she was initially deeply disturbed and full of questions. Today’s feast invites us to share in Mary’s willingness to both seek out God’s purpose for our lives and to surrender to it. This surrender won’t always come easy to us, no more than it came easy to Mary. Our own small purposes can get in the way of God’s greater purpose for our lives. Yet, Mary can help us to be as open and responsive to God’s will for our lives as she was, which is why we need to pray, ‘Mary, pray for us, sinners, now, and at the hour of our death’.

And/Or

(iv) Feast of The Queenship of Mary

During the Middle Ages Mary was venerated as Queen of the angels and saints. Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Queenship of Mary as a memorial of the universal church at the close of the Marian Year of 1955. The memorial is placed on this date, August 22, to stress its connection with the feast of the Assumption, a week earlier. When people of faith gave Mary the title of Queen of heaven and earth, it was their way of saying that Mary is worthy of our veneration and that she deserves our honour. We honour and we venerate Mary. We don’t worship Mary. Only God can be worshipped, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We honour Mary as Queen because of who she was in her earthly life, because she was a woman of deep faith. Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel conveys the core of her faith, ‘Let what you have said be done to me’. The gospel reading suggests that Mary had her reservations about what God appeared to be asking of her, ‘How can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ The angel Gabriel went on to say to her, ‘Nothing is impossible to God’. Mary came to accept that what she herself could not bring about, God would bring about. She then gave herself over to God’s purpose for her life, trusting that God could bring his purpose to pass. It could be said that Mary allowed God to be God in her life. This is the essence of faith. The person of faith does not try to manage God or to shape God to his or her purposes. Like Mary, we surrender to God’s purpose for our lives and we allow God to be God of our lives. In honouring Mary as Queen, we ask her to intercede for us, to pray for us, so that we can be as open to God’s desire for our lives as she was.

And/Or

(v) Feast of the Queenship of Mary

This memorial of Mary is relatively recent in the history of the church. Pope Pius XII prescribed this feast for the universal church at the close of the Marian Year in 1954. It is placed on this date, 22nd August, exactly a week after the feast of the Assumption, to stress the connection of Mary’s Queenship with the Assumption. Even though the official declaration of the Queenship of Mary as a memorial is relatively recent, the appreciation of Mary as Queen of heaven has a very long tradition in the church. I am reminded of some of the wonderful and very ancient mosaics in the apse of some churches in Rome depicting Jesus as king and Mary as Queen seated beside each other. The beautiful mosaic in the apse of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome comes to mind. Depicting Mary as Queen alongside her son as King was a way of showing honour to Mary for the person she had been in her earthly life. The gospel reading this morning depicts her as saying ‘yes’ to God’s desire for her to be the mother of his Son. Out of all women, she was chosen to give birth to a son who would also be the Son of God, who, in the words of today’s first reading would be a ‘great light’ in the darkness, a Wonder-Counsellor, a Mighty-God, a Prince of Peace. The church came to appreciate from its earliest days just how significant Mary’s ‘yes’ to God’s purpose for her life was for all of humanity. It was because Mary surrendered to God’s purpose for her life that God’s purpose for all our lives could come to pass. It was Mary’s faithful response to God’s word spoken by Gabriel that made it possible for us all to become people of faith. Her ‘yes’ created the opening for God’s Son to be given to us all and for us to respond in faith to this wonderful gift. Mary was pivotal in God’s saving purpose and, so, the church believed from earliest times that she must have a special place in heaven, alongside her Son. Today, we honour Mary as Queen of heaven. We are also reminded that our own ‘yes’ to the Lord’s call, just like Mary’s, can have important consequences for good in the lives of others. Even if in a lesser way than was the case with Mary, the faith of each one of us is instrumental in helping others come to faith and in nurturing the faith of others.

And/Or

(vi) Feast of the Queenship of Mary

During the Middle Ages, Mary was venerated as Queen of the angels and saints. Pope Pius XII prescribed this memorial of the Queenship of Mary for the universal Church at the close of the Marian Year in 1955. It is placed on this date of 22nd August, a week after the feast of the Assumption, to show its close association with that feast. It is a feast that celebrates Mary’s exalted place in heaven. Mary’s exaltation bears out the truth of Jesus’ saying, ‘those who humble themselves will be exalted’. In today’s gospel reading, we find Mary humbling herself. In her conversation with the angel Gabriel, she shows an open, questioning, spirit. She asked herself what Gabriel’s greeting could mean. In response to Gabriel’s extraordinary news, Mary asked, ‘how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ She didn’t claim to know everything. The kind of questioning, searching, spirit that Mary displays is a sign of humility. It stands over against the attitude of those who claim to know more than they actually do. Mary’s humble spirit is finally and fully revealed in her surrender to God’s purpose for her life, even though she doesn’t understand it fully at this moment, ‘Let what you have said be done to me’. These words reveal Mary’s willingness to allow God to have his way in her life, rather than insisting on her own way. In the beatitudes, Jesus would declare those with such an attitude to be blessed, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth’. Indeed, Mary could be described as a woman of the beatitudes. She shows us the path we are all to take. If we enter into her humble attitude, allowing God to have his way in our life, we too will be exalted by God. We recognize Mary’s Queenship most fully when, like her, we give ourselves over to God’s gracious purpose for our lives.

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Thursday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 22:1-14Invite everyone you can to the wedding.

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.” So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 22:1-14Invite to the wedding feast whomever you find.

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Reflections (5)

(i) Thursday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The parable in this morning’s gospel reading is the story of a king who was determined that there would be a full house for the wedding banquet of his son. When two lots of servants got nowhere with those who had already said they would be there, the king sends out his servants a third time to the crossroads of the town to bring total strangers to the banquet of his son’s wedding. We can hear in the story an image of the persistence of God who continues to call even when people seem deaf to his call. The Lord does not give up on us, even when we give him good reasons for doing so. He continues to call out to us. The first reading from the prophet Ezekiel suggests that God not only continues to call us but that God is always at work in our lives. God’s call is not just something external but God works from within. In that reading God promises to cleanse us, to give us a new heart, to put a new spirit within us. God will certainly do his part. The conclusion of the parable in the gospel reading suggests that we also have to do our part. Some of the guests were asked to leave because they were not wearing a wedding garment. In other words, they were casual about the king’s invitation. God is not casual in our regard. He invests heavily in us and he looks to us for an appropriate response. Our lives are to bear fruit worthy of God’s investment.

And/Or

(ii) Thursday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

An invitation is not a command. We receive many invitations in life, either verbally or in writing and we probably ignore or decline a good number of them. We are free to accept an invitation or not. God’s way of relating to us is shaped more by invitation than by command. The parable Jesus speaks in the gospel reading this morning is about God’s invitation to all of us to the banquet of life. In the story, the king who invites chosen guests to his son’s wedding banquet does not cancel the meal when those who were invited all refuse; instead he invites a whole new group. That aspect of the story speaks to us of God’s persistence. When the human response to God’s invitation is not forthcoming, God does not cancel anything; he simply intensifies his invitation. God continues to work to ensure that as many as possible approach the banquet of life. This banquet is in a sense embodied in the person of Christ who is the bread of life. The second part of the parable reminds us that saying ‘yes’ to the God’s invitation is not something we do once and then forget about. We have to say ‘yes’ to God’s invitation everyday day of our lives. In the language of the parable, we have to keep putting on the wedding garment. Having been clothed with Christ at baptism, we have to keep clothing ourselves with Christ and all he stands for, day by day.

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(iii) Thursday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s parable Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God as a wedding feast to which people are invited. The great feast is a frequent image of the kingdom of God in the gospels. It is an image which suggests God’s gracious and generous hospitality. The Eucharist can be understood as an anticipation of the banquet in the kingdom of heaven. At the Eucharist we not only look back to the Last Supper but we also look forward to the banquet of eternal life. At the Last Supper Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom’. In the parable in this morning’s gospel reading, many of those who had been invited to the wedding banquet and who had already agreed to come turned down the invitation at the last minute, just when everything was ready. Even some of those who did respond to the invitation did not take the event seriously as was clear from their inappropriate dress. God invites and he persistently invites, even after many refusals. Yet, it is up to us to respond. Our presence at the Eucharist is a sign that we are responding to the Lord’s invitation. Yet, we have to keep clothing ourselves in the right way, clothing ourselves with Christ, as Paul says. We are send out from the Eucharist to put on Christ, to put on the one whom we have received and who desires to live in and through us.

And/Or

(iv) Thursday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In the time of Jesus it would have been considered a great honour to be invited to a wedding banquet, especially if the person doing the inviting was a king and if the invitation was to share table with his son, as in the parable in today’s gospel reading. Most people lived simply by today’s standards. Invitations to banquets did not come along every day. When they did come along, they presented an opportunity to eat in a way that was not the norm. Most people who received such an invitation would have jumped at it. However, in the parable Jesus tells the invitation to the wedding banquet of a king’s son was turned down by several people, with violence against the king’s messengers thrown in. This was foolish behaviour by any standards. Why turn down the gift of a great feast, insulting the host in the process? There was everything to be gained and nothing to be lost by saying ‘yes’ to the invitation. Jesus may be reminding us that we can all say ‘no’ to God’s invitation, in spite of the fact that God’s invitation is always with our best interests in view. God calls us through his Son to nourish us in body, mind and spirit. God’s call is always a call to life in its fullness. There is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained by responding positively to this invitation of the Lord. Yet, we can all allow God’s invitation to pass us by. Each day is an opportunity to respond with renewed energy to God’s invitation to sit at table with his Son, to enter into communion with his Son and to allow his Son to cloth us with himself, with his values and attitudes.

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(v) Thursday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Perhaps what people missed most during the Covid pandemic was the opportunity to gather around a table and to share a meal with family and friends. Important occasions like birthdays, weddings, significant anniversaries, retirements and so on could not be celebrated at a gathering where food was served. The gathering of family and friends around a table is something we all value. When Jesus spoke about the kingdom of heaven, he frequently drew on this cherished human experienced of the shared meal. He once spoke of the kingdom of heaven as a banquet to which people from north, south, east and west would come. In the parable Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. Many people were invited to this special feast. It would have been a great honour to receive an invitation to a royal banquet. However, in the parable as Jesus tells it, those who had originally said ‘yes’ to the invitation to this royal banquet turn around and say ‘no’ on the day of the banquet itself, just when, in the words of the gospel reading, ‘everything is ready’. It would have shown great disrespect to the host to have a change of mind and heart at the last minute. Understandably, the king was angry. The parable suggests that God can do the inviting, but God cannot force a response to his invitation. We need to be attentive to the God’s call and invitation and respond to it in gratitude, because it is a sign that God values us and honours us. God’s invitation is never in doubt. God keeps inviting. In the parable, when those originally invited said ‘no’ at the last minute, the king sent out an invitation to as many as could be found, so that his wedding hall would be filled. God’s banquet of life will not be cancelled. The only question is whether we will respond to God’s invitation. Each day of our lives we try to respond to God’s call and invitation, by putting on the wedding garment, in the language of the parable, by clothing ourselves with the attitudes and values of the Lord.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

21st August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 20:1-16): ‘Why be envious because I am generous?’

Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 20:1-16Why be envious because I am generous?

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his vineyard. Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place and said to them, “You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage.” So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same. Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing round, and he said to them, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?” “Because no one has hired us” they answered. He said to them, “You go into my vineyard too.” In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first.” So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each. When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each. They took it, but grumbled at the landowner. “The men who came last” they said “have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day’s work in all the heat.” He answered one of them and said, “My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius? Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you. Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous?” Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 20:1-16Are you envious because I am generous?

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Reflections (9)

(i) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In a prayer to God, Saint Augustine once said, ‘Late have I loved you, Beauty ever ancient and ever new’. Compared to others, he came to God late in life. He was one of the latecomers, like those in today’s parable who worked only for the last hour of the working day. Yet, God was as generous with Augustine as he had been with those who came to faith much earlier in life. Augustine had an overwhelming sense of God’s gracious and merciful love for him. The parable Jesus speaks upsets a lot of people, because it seems that those who worked all day were treated unfairly, receiving the same wage as those who only worked for the last hour. Yet, as the landowner says in the parable, he has given those who worked all day the wage that was agreed, which was a just wage, because a denarius was considered a day’s wage at the time. The landowner wasn’t unjust to those who worked all day. He was just extremely generous to those who worked for much less than the full working day. He gave everyone a day’s wage, a living wage, so that they could feed their families. He didn’t work on the basis of strict justice. His generous nature exploded the boundaries of strict justice. In this parable Jesus was saying something to us about God. It is in God’s nature to be extremely generous with us, whether we have strictly deserved it or not. God’s ways are not our ways. God is like the father in the parable of the prodigal son who threw a feast for his rebellious son who came home very late indeed. This is good news to rejoice in, rather than disturbing news to be upset by. Saint Paul expresses this good news in his own way, ‘For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9)

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(ii) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Most of us react instinctively against any form of behaviour that we consider to be unfair or unjust. If we think we are being treated unfairly, unjustly, we can feel especially irate. It is probably that instinct in us that leaves us feeling a bit uneasy about the story that Jesus tells in this morning’s gospel reading. We can easily sympathize with the complaint of the workers who bemoan the fact that those who only worked an hour got the same wages as those who worked all day. Yet, whereas those workers were operating out of the category of justice, the employer was operating out of the category of generosity. He wasn’t unjust to those who worked all day; he paid them what he agreed with them. He was simple extremely generous to those who only worked an hour. Perhaps Jesus was saying to us through this parable that God’s generosity cannot be contained within the categories of human justice; it explodes those categories. God does not deal with us according to our efforts, on the basis of what we deserve. There is nothing calculating about God’s generosity. Perhaps we are all encouraged to identify with those who worked only an hour; we are all, in a sense, latecomers. The parable assures us that God’s generosity will surprise us and leave us humbled.

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(iii) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

This is one of the parables of Jesus that people often react negatively to. There is a feeling that the workers who worked all done were hard done by because those who worked for the last hour were given the same wage. However, in the world of the story, the employer did not treat those who worked all day unjustly; he gave them a day’s wages for a day’s work. The surprise in the story is that the employer was exceptionally generous with those who worked for an hour, giving them a day’s wages as well. No injustice was done to anyone, but some of the workers were the recipients of a surprising and extravagant generosity. Just began this parable, with the phrase, ‘the kingdom of heaven is like...’ The world of God is reflected in the world of the story; the character of the employer reflects God in some way. Jesus appears to be saying that God’s generosity will always take us by surprise. God’s way of dealing with us breaks the bounds of what humans would consider just and fair. What God does for us far exceeds what we might do for God. God does not relate to us on the basis of what we have earned or deserved. God’s generous love is pure gift; it is not a reward for labour rendered. We serve the Lord from one end of the day to the other not to gain or earn his love but in grateful response for the love already given to us long before we could do anything.

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(iv) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Sometimes in the parables that Jesus speaks people behave in ways that others would find surprising or even foolish. The behaviour of the father in the parable of the prodigal son comes to mind. He gave an extraordinary welcome to a son who had done nothing to deserve it. The reaction of his older brother in the story is in keeping with how many people would have reacted if that had happened in real life. This morning’s parable of the workers in the vineyard is a little bit like that parable. The behaviour of the owner of the vineyard would have been considered very strange and even foolish in Jesus’ time; he gave a day’s wages to workers who only worked one hour. Many people tend to react to the parable somewhat negatively even today. Just as we often feel sorry for the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son, we tend to feel sorry for the workers who worked all day and yet got the same as those who worked for an hour. Yet, the workers who worked all day got a day’s wages for their work, which is what the vineyard owner promised them. What is strange and unsettling is that those who worked for only an hour also got a day’s wages. Jesus began this parable with the words, ‘the kingdom of heaven is like...’ The parable is saying something about how God relates to us. Jesus is saying that God is extraordinarily generous. There is nothing calculating about how God relates to us. God’s giving is not dependant on our doing. There can come a time in our lives when, for one reason or another, we can’t do a great deal. Jesus seems to be saying that this has no impact on how God relates to us. God does not ask us to be deserving but to be receptive, and then to share what we receive from him with each other.

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(v) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Most of us when we hear that parable identify with the complaint of those who worked all day in the heat of the sun and, yet, end up getting the same amount as those who work for the last hour of the working day when it was much cooler. It offends our sense of justice. The employment culture today would hold strongly to the principle of equal pay for equal work and no one could dispute that principle. That was also the understood way of proceeding in the time of Jesus. Jesus must have known then that this parable would be provocative and that his hearers were likely to identify strongly with the complaint of those who worked all day. What, then, was Jesus at? He may have wanted to get across that God’s justice is of a different order to human justice. God does not give in exact proportion to what we have earned. His giving breaks the bounds of human justice. His generosity cannot be contained by human categories of justice. The question that concludes the parable suggests as much, ‘Why be envious because I am generous?’ The landlord understood that the man who worked for the last hour was as much in need of a day’s wages to feed his family as those who worked all day. Jesus seems to be suggesting that God relates to us on basis of what we need rather than what we deserve. God’s favour, God’s gift of salvation, is, ultimately, an unmerited free gift. This is good news for all of us. At the end of our lives, and throughout our lives, we can entrust ourselves to the Lord’s generosity, knowing that it will exceed all our expectations.

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(vi) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The reaction of the workers to the landowner’s very generous treatment of the men who worked for only the last hour of the working day reminds me of the reaction of the older son in the parable of the prodigal son to his father’s very generous treatment of his younger son. In both parables the reaction is one of righteous indignation that someone was receiving far more than they deserved. The younger son had wasted his father’s property in a self-indulgent lifestyle and yet he was treated like the lord of the manor. The last group of workers had only worked one hour and yet they were given a whole day’s wages. In both parables we find it easy to identify with the reaction of the older son and the reaction of those who did a heavy day’s work in all the heat. Somehow both parables seem to offend our sense of justice, our feel for what is fair. The father in the first parable was extremely generous towards his wayward son; the landowner in this morning’s parable is extremely generous towards the men who worked only one hour. There is a quality of generosity and mercy here that seems to shatter our sense of justice. Yet, this is precisely the message of these parables. God’s generosity, God’s mercy, is not simply a bigger version of human generosity and mercy. It has a completely different quality, one that leaves us scratching our heads. At the end of the day that is good news for us all.

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(vii) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel reading contains one of those parables of Jesus that leave us feeling a little uneasy. The complaint of those who worked for the whole day in the vineyard seems very reasonable to us, ‘you have treated those who only worked one hour the same as us’. This certainly doesn’t correspond to modern employment practice. It would be unheard of for two people doing the same work to be paid the same wage if one worked all day and the other worked for one hour. Such practice would have been just as unacceptable in the time and place of Jesus. Jesus must have known that his parable would leave people feeling uncomfortable. This is not the way the world works. Perhaps that is the very point of the parable. Life within God’s kingdom does not work as the world does. The parable ends with the vineyard owner’s question, ‘Why be envious because I am generous?’ It is a question that goes to the heart of the parable’s meaning. Jesus is declaring that God is generous in a way that goes way beyond the norms of human justice. God’s way of relating to us is not based on human merit. Jesus reveals God to be someone whose boundless mercy and generosity can appear scandalous to many, including those who thought of themselves as religious. This is the God revealed by the father in the parable of the prodigal son. The son did not deserve the welcome he received, no more than those who worked an hour deserved a day’s wages. Jesus declares that God does not treat us on the basis of what we deserve. God’s favour is freely bestowed on those who are unworthy of it. It is an unmerited free gift. We are called to receive this gift in all humility and to allow this grace to shape our lives. We are to freely give to others as we have freely received from the Lord.

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(viii) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Some of the parables of Jesus can be unsettling because they don’t seem to play by the rules that govern most human relationships. In the parable of the prodigal son, some wonder why the father was so generous towards someone who had shown himself a thoughtless and self-indulgent rebel. Many people have the same reaction to today’s parable. They grumble alongside the labourers in the parable who worked all day, asking why those who worked for one hour should be receiving the same payment as those who have borne the heat and burden of the entire working day. They feel as if those who worked all day have been unjustly treated. Yet, by means of this story, Jesus was perhaps showing that the God whom he called, ‘Father’, was not a God of strict justice, as humans normally understand it. God’s generous spirit was so great that it couldn’t be confined within the limits of strict human justice. In the parable the landowner gave a day’s wages to those who worked for a day; they received a just wage, the wage that had been agreed upon at the beginning of the day. However, the landowner chose to be exceptionally generous to the men who worked only an hour, giving them a day’s wage too. He chose to pay all the workers a living wage, even if they hadn’t earned it. Jesus reveals a God who wants to be as generous as possible with the gift of salvation, the gift of life. God does not relate to us on the basis of what we have earned or deserved. God relates to us out of a generosity which is more than human; God gives us life in abundance as a free gift. What we have done to earn it is not ultimately decisive. Rather than being disturbed by such a parable, it can be heard as good news for us all. God relates to us in this generous way to inspire us to be as generous in our dealings with each other as God is with us.

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(ix) Wednesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

When we read a story, like some of the parables of Jesus, we often identify with one of the characters in the story. Most people on hearing the parable in today’s gospel reading identify with the workers who worked from daybreak in the landowner’s vineyard, doing a day’s work and getting a day’s pay, which at the time was a denarius. We share their upset and annoyance when at the end of the day those who had worked three hours, six hours, nine hours, eleven hours, less than themselves received the same allowance, one denarius. Like the workers who had worked a full day’s work, we grumble at the unfairness of it all. Surely, a person’s pay should be in proportion to their work - less work, less pay, more work, more pay. Jesus must have known that this parable would disturb people’s sense of justice, so what was he getting at? Perhaps the key to the parable is to be found in the final statement of the landowner. He told the people who had worked all day that he had treated them justly, giving them a day’s wage for a day’s work. However, he had decided to give ever worker a day’s wage out of the goodness of his heart. Jesus was saying something to us about God here. God does not relate to us on the basis of strict justice. In that sense, God’s ways are nor our ways. God bestows his favour, his love, his mercy, on all, including on those who have done little to deserve it. God does not ask us to work for his love. God’s love is given freely to us all. What he asks is that we live out of that completely free gift, by loving others in the same lavish way that God has loved us. In the best of human relationships, love is freely bestowed; it doesn’t have to be earned or deserved. True human love, like God’s love, transcends the limits of strict justice.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

20th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 19:23-30): ‘For God, everything is possible’.

Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 19:23-30It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ When the disciples heard this they were astonished. ‘Who can be saved, then?’ they said. Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he told them ‘this is impossible; for God everything is possible.’Then Peter spoke. ‘What about us?’ he said to him ‘We have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life.‘Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.’

GospelMatthew 19:23-30It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Reflections (7)

(i) Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus’ image of a camel passing through the eye of a needle has been spoken of as an example of comic exaggeration. The person with the plank in their eye would be another example. Jesus often used such comic exaggerations to get people’s attention and perhaps to shock them out of a sense of complacency. When Jesus said to would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, the astonished disciples ask, ‘Who can be saved, then?’ Jesus’ reply, ‘For people, this is impossible; for God everything is possible’, suggests that the attaining of salvation is primarily God’s doing rather than our doing. It is more God’s doing than our doing. We can only enter into the life of God with the help that God alone can give us. We need to depend fully on God to enter the kingdom of heaven, opening ourselves up in our poverty to his gracious working on our behalf. This is where Jesus sees the problem with excessive attachment to wealth or possessions. If we seek our security in wealth or possessions, we will cease to rely on God who alone gives access to salvation, to life in abundance. If we place our security in God, in the Lord, then, according to Jesus in today’s gospel reading, we will be abundantly repaid in this earthly life, and also inherit eternal life. We will find a joy that earthly goods can never give and we will be on the path to eternal joy, a sharing in the Lord’s own joy.

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(ii) Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In yesterday’s gospel reading the rich young man found it impossible to follow Jesus because of his attachment to his possessions, in spite of his great desire to inherit eternal life. That is why Jesus goes on to say in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of an needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of kingdom of heaven. This stark statement of Jesus left the disciples astonished and led them to ask the almost despairing question, ‘Who then can be saved?’ They seem to be saying, ‘it must be nearly impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom o heaven, not just that rich, good man who approached you’. Jesus cuts across their negative thinking with a very hopeful statement, ‘for men this is impossible; for God everything is possible’. Jesus is saying that arriving at our ultimate destiny is more God’s doing than our doing; it is due more to God’s grace than to our efforts. In the language of the letter to the Ephesians, God’s ‘power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine’. It is above all when we are low in ourselves and feel the journey is too much for us that we need to remind ourselves of this great truth. Saint Paul declared in a letter from prison, ‘I can do all things in him who gives me strength’. We need to keep putting our trust in the resources the Lord is always giving us and which we need so much.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus is often depicted in the gospels as saying something that leaves his disciples astonished. What he said was often out of character with what the disciples would have heard from others. The gospel reading this morning gives us an example of the astonishment of the disciples at something Jesus said. The disciples were astonished because Jesus had said that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples’ very likely assumed that riches were a sign of God’s favour which is how they were often understood in the Jewish Scriptures. However, Jesus was aware that too many possessions can come to possess us, and become a kind of god. One of the sayings of Jesus in the gospels is, ‘You cannot serve God and mammon’. What the disciples saw as a blessing Jesus saw as a temptation and a danger. This insight of Jesus led the disciples to ask a kind of despairing question, ‘Who can be saved?’ They seem to be saying, ‘if those we thought blessed by God might not enter the kingdom of heaven, what about the rest of us?’ In response to his disciples’ despairing question, ‘Who can be saved?’ we have one of those sayings of Jesus which can give us great encouragement, ‘For God everything is possible’. Jesus seems to be saying that God can find a way of touching the hearts even of those who, like the rich young man, are possessed by their possessions. Jesus is declaring that God’s ability to draw us to himself cannot be underestimated. Even a small opening in our lives will be greatly exploited by God.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Across the four gospels, people ask Jesus a whole variety of questions. In the gospel reading this morning, in response to Jesus’ comment on how riches can be a block to entering the kingdom of heaven, the disciples ask the question, ‘Who can be saved?’ In that culture, riches were considered a sign of God’s favour. The disciples are wondering if the rich, those who have enjoyed God’s favour, struggle to get into the kingdom of heaven, what chance do others have of being saved? Jesus has a much more sanguine view of riches and possessions, than the disciples. He is more aware than they are that possessions can come between us and God, especially if we allow ourselves to be possessed by our possessions. If we belong completely to our possessions, whatever form those possessions take, then we cannot belong to God, and we will not be open to receive the gift of the kingdom. However, Jesus declares to his disciples that even though, in theory, it is not possible for those who are possessed by their possessions to enter the kingdom of heaven, everything is possible for God. God can enable even those who have no openness to him to enter the kingdom of heaven. The statement, ‘for God everything is possible’ is a very reassuring one. What is beyond what we can do is never beyond what God can do. This reassuring word does not make us complacent, but gives us hope when we find ourselves in situations which appear hopeless.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

There are a number of verses in the New Testament that I found myself going back to from time to time because they convey a great deal, at least to me. One of those verses occurs in today’s gospel reading, ‘For people this is impossible, for God everything is possible’. A somewhat similar saying occurs in Luke’s account of the annunciation where, in response to Mary’s question, ‘How can this be?’ Gabriel answers, ‘Nothing is impossible with God’. The context of the saying in today’s gospel reading is that of the rich young man who came to Jesus looking for the path to eternal life but went away sad because he was possessed by his possessions. How can such a rich man enter into eternal life? It is possible, Jesus declares, but only with God’s grace, God’s help. In our own lives we can sometimes find ourselves up against impossible odds. We wonder how we will get through some test, how we will keep going. In such circ*mstances, the saying in this morning’s gospel reading can be a great encouragement to us, ‘for God everything is possible’. Saint Paul knew the truth of that, and he expressed that truth in his inimitable way. In his letter to the Philippian, he declares, ‘I can do all things through him who gives me strength’. There are times when we all need to fall back on that conviction.

And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus spoke the words in today’s gospel reading immediately after the scene where the rich man refused the call of Jesus to follow him because of his riches. Jesus goes on to say that attachment to wealth can hinder us from entering the kingdom of heaven. When possessions become our god, we no longer need to rely on the true God, the Father of Jesus. Jesus was aware that over reliance on our possessions can get in the way of our reliance on God. God can become superfluous, unnecessary. Yet, if we are to reach our ultimate goal of life in God’s kingdom, we desperately need God. That is very clear from the little exchange between Jesus and Peter in today’s gospel reading. In response to Peter’s question, ‘Who can be saved?’ Jesus answers ‘for men this is impossible, for God everything is possible’. It is only with God’s help that we can reach the goal God desires for us. In this matter, we are not self-sufficient; we rely on God throughout the whole course of our lives. We cannot afford to entrust ourselves to, put our reliance upon, anything less than God.

And/Or

(vii) Tuesday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus uses many memorable images in the gospels and one is to be found in today’s gospel reading, that of a camel passing through the eye of a needle. Needles in the time of Jesus, as today, had a tiny opening and camels were very large animals. To say that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven is to say that a rich man entering the kingdom of heaven is impossible. The kind of rich man Jesus has in mind is one who is possessed by his possessions. There is a striking portrayal of such a person in one of the parables of Luke’s gospel, the parable of the rich fool as it is often called. When riches become someone’s god, they cease to be aware of the true God, the God whom Jesus proclaimed. Feeling satisfied with their material possessions, they fail to appreciate their need of God and are unresponsive to the gift of the kingdom that God is offering. We can only receive God’s gift of life in its fullness if we are aware of our need of that gift. If we don’t experience thirst, we will never drink. Elsewhere, Jesus speaks of the poor in spirit and declares that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such people. This is the attitude of coming before God in our need, in recognition of our dependence upon God. Jesus declares in the gospel reading that God can create this necessary attitude even in those to whom it seems foreign and impossible. When Peter asks, ‘Who can be saved, then?’ Jesus replies, ‘for men, this is impossible; for God everything is possible’. There are no hopeless cases from God’s perspective; God is always at work to create in us that poverty of spirit which creates the necessary opening for God to give us the riches of the gospel.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

19th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 19:16-22): ‘What more do I need to do?’.

Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 19:16-22If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own.

There was a man who came to Jesus and asked, ‘Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said, ‘Which?’ ‘These:’ Jesus replied ‘You must not kill. You must not commit adultery. You must not bring false witness. Honour your father and mother, and: you must love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?’ Jesus said, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

Gospel (USA)Matthew 19:16-22If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and you will have treasure in heaven.

A young man approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Reflections (12)

(i) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel reading features a ‘young man’ who comes to Jesus. We always admire idealism in young people, and this young man was clearly striving for the ideal of a good life. He asked Jesus, ‘What good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ It is clear from his exchange with Jesus that he was already living a good living. He had kept the four commandments that Jesus quoted that had to do with relating to others, including the commandment found outside the ten commandments to love one’s neighbour as oneself. Yet, there was a longing in him for more, ‘What more do I need to do?’ We all experience something of that ‘more’ deep within us. We have a longing for God that moves us to live in ways that bring us ever closer to God. Jesus responded to the young man’s longer for more by calling him to become his close disciple, following him in the way that Peter, Andrew and others had done. That would have meant moving on from his great wealth, giving it to the poor, and this was a step too far for him. His inability to respond to the call of Jesus, to the deepest longing of his heart, left him sad. The Lord is always calling on us to take a further step that will bring us closer to his will for our lives, whether we are young or not so young. That step will be different for each one of us. We find our deepest joy in responding to the Lord’s call to grow in our relationship with him and in the living out of that relationship. The more generously we answer the Lord’s personal call, the happier we will be. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to give us the freedom to take the path the Lord may be calling us to take in response to that longing for ‘more’ in our lives.

And/Or

(ii) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

There is something appealing about the young man in today’s gospel reading. He was an earnest young man who was serious about finding the path that led to eternal life. His question is a serious question, ‘What good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ In his reply Jesus named a number of commandments, all of which have to do with how we are to relate to other people. Jesus indicates that the way to life for ourselves entails relating in a life-giving way to others. This young man was not satisfied with Jesus’ answer because he felt he was already doing what Jesus was asking for, and, yet, he knew there was more he could be doing. When Jesus revealed what this ‘more’ would involve for this particular young man, it again had to do with his relationship to others, in particular the poor, the needy; Jesus called on him to sell what he had and give the money to the poor. This was a step too far for him. Jesus did not make this particular demand of everybody he encountered. Yet, for all of us, the path to life, the path of life, will always be the path of love, of loving relationships with others. By his teaching, by his life and his death, Jesus shows us what relating in a loving way to others looks like.

And/Or

(iii) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The young man who approaches Jesus in the gospel reading this morning is a very religious man. He had kept all the commandments of the Jewish Law since his youth. Yet, his spiritual yearning was not satisfied. He almost put it up to Jesus to give him a bigger challenge. However, when Jesus did make a call on him, the young man couldn’t respond to it. In one of the most poignant verses of the gospel we are told, ‘he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth’. There was something he needed to let go of to take the path that would have brought him true joy, but because he couldn’t let go, he experienced sadness. Sometimes there can be a relationship between the sadness we might feel and our inability to let go of whatever it is we are tenaciously holding on to. The young man held on to his possessions because, at some level, he must have felt they would bring him happiness and life. We can hold on to people, to circ*mstances, to whatever, in the conviction that therein lies our happiness, our security. In reality, our true happiness and peace lies in letting go of whatever it is that is holding us back from responding to the call that the Lord is making on us in the here and now.

And/Or

(iv) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The young man in this morning’s gospel reading is clearly a very well intentioned person and also a very good living person. He has been faithful to the commandments that Jesus cites. Yet, he senses that is being called to something more, and, so he probes Jesus with his question, ‘What more do I need to do?’ For all that, when it comes to the personal call that Jesus addressed to him, he could not answer it. For this particular young man, the call to follow Jesus required him to let go of his great wealth. Jesus was asking him to put his trust in God rather than in his great wealth. He could not bring himself to do this, and, so, he went away sad. He could not live with the answer to his own question and, as a result, he remained deeply dissatisfied. Jesus addresses a personal call to each one of us; it will take a different form for each of us and will have different implications for each of us. However, whatever form Jesus’ call takes for us, it will always involve the call to find our security in God as Jesus reveals him to us, rather than in anything we possess or achieve. Our ultimate treasure is to be found in heaven, not on earth. As Jesus says elsewhere, it is God we are to love with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. Only then will we have the freedom to hold everything else lightly.

And/Or

(v) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading this morning we have the story of a good man who wanted to be better. He had kept all the commandments of the Jewish Law faithfully, but he had a sense that this was not enough. He felt called to something more, and, so, he said to Jesus, ‘What more do I need to do?’ We might find ourselves being able to identify with this man. There are times in our lives when we too might experience in ourselves a strong desire to go beyond where we are, to grow in our relationship with the Lord, to be more generous in the doing of his work. In one shape or form we find ourselves asking ourselves this man’s question, ‘What more do I need to do?’ In the gospel reading, this man could not live with the answer that Jesus gave to his question. Jesus asked this particular man to do something he didn’t ask everybody to do. He was to sell his possession, give his money to the poor and then to set out along the road after Jesus, as Peter, Andrew, James, John and others had done. One of the saddest verses in the gospels comes at the end of our reading, ‘when the young man heard these words he went away sad’. If we ask the Lord the young man’s question we cannot anticipate how the Lord will answer us. Yet, the Lord has some purpose for our lives which will always take us beyond where we are in some sense. We find our happiness in yielding to the Lord’s purpose for our lives. If we do so, we can be assured that he will give us all the grace and strength we need for the journey.

And/Or

(vi) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Many young people are receiving their exam results at this time. They are thinking about the options that are open to them on the basis of those results. ‘What college should I go to?’ ‘What course should I do?’ It is a time of searching and seeking for them. No doubt many of them will look for guidance and advice so as to make the best decision possible. Today’s gospel reading puts before us a young man who is clearly a seeker and a searcher. Indeed, he is struggling with one of the bigger questions of life, ‘What good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ Questions don’t come much bigger than that. He is asking ‘What does it mean to live a good life?’ ‘What is the path to true and lasting happiness?’ Human beings have always asked this fundamental question. We have probably all asked it of ourselves at some time in our lives. In response to his question, Jesus directs him to his own Jewish tradition, the commandments of the Jewish Law. It is always worth exploring our own religious tradition; there can be a great deal more there than we realize. Yet, this young man knows his religious tradition well, and he is still searching. ‘What more do I need to do?’ Finally, Jesus points to himself as the goal of the young man’s search, ‘Come, follow me’. This was a bridge too far for the young man; it would have involved letting go of his many possessions, which he couldn’t do. His journey to Jesus ends in sadness; the happiness, the life, he searched for eluded him. Jesus offers himself to all of us as the goal of all our searching, as the answer to our deepest questions. He assures us that in following him, in walking in his way, we will find genuine life, true happiness.

And/Or

(vii) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The gospel reading today presents us with an idealistic young man. He wants to be sure of possessing eternal life, and he asks Jesus what is the one good deed he must do to ensure his entering into eternal life. He is clearly a young man who took his religion seriously. He tells Jesus that he has kept the commandments that Jesus quotes to him. Jesus declares that this is sufficient to enter into life. The conversation could have ended there. Yet, this young man ensures that the conversation does not end here by pressing Jesus further, ‘What more do I need to do?’ He senses in himself that he is capable of even more than what he is already doing. Jesus respects his desire for ‘more’ and there and then calls on him to sell what he owned, give it to the poor and become one of that group who follow Jesus in a very close and personal way. If he wanted ‘more’, Jesus would give it to him. However, the young man couldn’t live with Jesus’ answer to his second question. He was too attached to his possessions to be free to do what Jesus invited him to do, and a great sadness came over him. We can probably all find within ourselves the same longing to be better, to do more, that was so evident in the life of this young man. After all, our hearts are restless until they rest in God. Yet, like this young man, we too often find that within ourselves obstacles to the Lord’s call to grow towards that more we so desire. We discover that we are not as free as we need to be. Attachments of various kinds hold us back. We don’t yet have the glorious freedom of the children of God, in the words of Saint Paul. We need to keep praying to grow in the freedom to fully become the person the Lord is calling us to be.

And/Or

(viii) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Many of the questions that are put to Jesus in the gospels are with a view to testing him. However, the question which a young man puts to Jesus in today’s gospel reading is very sincere, ‘Master what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ It is the question of someone who wants to do what is good, the right thing, and, thereby, secure his ultimate salvation. The question, ‘What is the path to life?’ is an important question for all of us. Jesus answers this man’s serious question from within the Jewish tradition that they share; he quotes the second half of the ten commandments which deal with how we relate to others, and he then adds to them the second of the two great commandments, ‘you must love your neighbour as yourself’. Jesus is saying to this man that the way to life is the way of love. For us as Christians, it is Jesus who shows us what the way of love looks life by his teaching and his life. When we ask a serious question of someone, the answer will not always satisfy us. Clearly, this young man was not satisfied by Jesus’ answer. ‘What more do I need to do?’, he asked. In response to this second question, Jesus calls this young man to follow him on his journey, just as Peter, James, John, Matthew and others have done. This would have involved for this young man leaving his many possessions so as to follow physically in the footsteps of someone who had nowhere to lay his head. He couldn’t bring himself to do that; he was too attached to his possession. His possessions possessed him. The realization that he wasn’t free to answer the call of Jesus left him sad. He was a good man, but he discovered he wasn’t free to do what the Lord wanted of him. Many of us may find ourselves in that same place. We are fundamentally good people, but some excessive attachment in our lives holds us back from answering the Lord’s call as generously as we might. Before that realization, we need to keep praying for a greater share in the freedom of the Holy Spirit, the freedom that Jesus displayed to the full, the freedom to go where the Lord is calling us to go.

And/Or

(ix) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Year

The young man in today’s gospel reading clearly has a very good heart. There is something very appealing about him. He had very good values and had a clear goal in life. He wanted to live in such a way that he would inherit eternal life, life in God’s presence. He kept the commandments God gave to Moses, including the great commandment to love one’s neighbour as oneself. Yet, he wasn’t satisfied. ‘What more do I need to do?’, he asked Jesus. There is such a thing as a holy restlessness. We are conscious of a ‘more’ we haven’t yet attained. We sense the Lord calling us beyond where we are, even though where we are is good. We can point to good things we are doing and, yet, there are moments when we wonder if we are answering the Lord’s call as fully as we might. A questioning restlessness creeps into our overall feeling of satisfaction with ourselves, with our relationship with God and others. Like the young man, we are drawn by a sense that there is ‘more’. Jesus took the man’s searching question seriously and called him to a follow him in a very radical way, which entailed giving away all his great wealth. He was too attached to his great wealth; he couldn’t respond to Jesus’ call and a sadness came over him when he realized he couldn’t reach towards the ‘more’ that he so desired. We are all held back in different ways from responding to the Lord’s call to follow him more fully, to become an even more authentic disciple than we are. The young man’s struggle is the struggle of us all. At the very least, we need to remain alert to that deep desire within us for the ‘more’, even though we struggle to follow through on it.

And/Or

(x) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The question the young man asked Jesus in today’s gospel reading, ‘What good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ was a question of great importance to him. Here was a serious young man who wanted to live as well as he could, in a way that was in accordance with God’s will. It is clear from his conversation with Jesus that he was already living a very good life. Jesus put before him the commandments that have to do with how we relate to others, and he could confidently say that he had kept all these commandments. Yet, he felt there was something more he could be doing, ‘What more do I need to do?’ It is admirable when people who are living good lives want to live even better lives. We sense that desire within ourselves. We may be living well, in ways that are in keeping with God’s desire for our lives, but we sense there is another step we could take. We could launch further out into the deep. We could be more generous in response to the Lord’s call. That realization can leave us a little unsettled, just as the young man was unsettled, in spite of all his good qualities. This form of feeling unsettled is ultimately something good. It brings home to us that the Lord is always calling us beyond where we are in some way. In the gospel reading, the young man couldn’t respond to the Lord’s call to him to go beyond where he was. In his case, it would have involved letting o of his great wealth, giving it to the poor and following Jesus in a very radical way. As a result, he went away sad. The Lord’s call to us to go beyond where we are, to grow in our relationship with him, will take a different form for each one of us. The ‘more’ the Lord is calling us into will always take account of our own unique circ*mstances and situation in life. If we can discern what that call of the Lord means for me personally and respond to it, then we will find life, both in the here and now and in eternity.

And/Or

(xi) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Sometimes, when people ask Jesus a question in the gospels it is with a hostile intent. They are trying to trap him or trip him up. However, the question of the young man in today’s gospel reading comes from a good place within him. He wants to know what path he must take to be assured of eternal life. When Jesus directs him towards the second half of the Ten Commandments that have to do with how we relate to others, the young man asks, ‘I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?’ He is clearly a very idealistic young man. He is already living a good and loving life, but he senses that there is more he could do. He feels a call to go beyond where he is. We can all experience that same call from time to time. We sense that we are living a reasonably good life and, yet, we also sense that we could live a better life, a more generous and loving life. There is a sense in which the Lord is always calling us beyond where we are. If we are spiritually alive and aware at all, we will experience a certain restlessness. We subsequently discover that this young man had great wealth. In the time and place of Jesus a relatively small proportion of the population had great wealth. When Jesus responded to the young man’s question, ‘What more do I need to do?’ with the invitation to sell his many possessions, give the money to the poor and follow him as he goes from place to place, the young man lacked the freedom to respond. In a sense, his possessions possessed him and he went away sad. We can all lack the freedom to respond to the Lord’s call to take the next step in our relationship with him. We can be held back in all kinds of ways, by all sorts of excessive attachments. Yet, the Lord keeps calling and we need to keep praying for the freedom of the Spirit, the freedom to respond to the Lord’s continuing call to us.

And/Or

(xii) Monday, Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Young people are often searching for the right path to take in life. They want what is best for themselves, for others, for the world. The young man in today’s gospel reading displays something of that spirit. He was searching for the path of life. He asked Jesus what good deed he had to do to possess eternal life. He was clearly a man of faith who believed that God was setting before us a path that would lead to the fullness of life beyond this earthly life. We don’t have to be young to have that searching spirit. We retain something of it throughout our lives. If we are true to what is deepest in us, we will want to take a path that is life-giving for ourselves and for others in this life and that will bring us to eternal life. The young man’s question was a serious one and Jesus treated it seriously. The answer Jesus gave him was initially from his own Jewish tradition. Jesus told the young man to keep the commandments, especially those that concern how we relate to others, which can be summed up in the single commandment, ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. Jesus was saying that love is the path to life. Jesus would say the same to us today. It is in loving one another as the Lord has loved us that we will find life. Yet, this young man felt that he had kept this commandment of love and he pushed Jesus to challenge him a little more. However, when Jesus did so, calling on him to renounce his great wealth, give it to the poor and then join Jesus’ small band of close followers, he baulked. It was a step too far for him, and he went away sad. As well as the general calling to love others with the Lord’s love, given to us all, the Lord has a calling that is personal to each one of us. It will be different for each of us, reflecting our personal circ*mstances and capacities. Every day we try to listen carefully to that very personal call of the Lord, so that we can answer it with the Lord’s help, with the strength that he alone can give us. This will be our own personal path to that fullness of life which the Lord desires for us all.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

18th August >> Fr. Martin's Homilies/Reflections on Today's Mass Readings for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) (Inc. John 6:51-58): ‘Whoever eats me will draw life from me’.

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Gospel (Except USA)John 6:51-58My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

Jesus said to the crowd:

‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,for the life of the world.’

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:

‘I tell you most solemnly,if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,you will not have life in you.Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my bloodhas eternal life,and I shall raise him up on the last day.For my flesh is real foodand my blood is real drink.He who eats my flesh and drinks my bloodlives in meand I live in him.As I, who am sent by the living Father,myself draw life from the Father,so whoever eats me will draw life from me.This is the bread come down from heaven;not like the bread our ancestors ate:they are dead,but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

Gospel (USA)John 6:51–58My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

Jesus said to the crowds: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Homilies (7)

(i) Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

One of the verses in Patrick Kavanagh’s well-known poem, ‘A Christmas Childhood’, goes as follows, ‘A water-hen screeched in the bog, Mass-going feet Crunched the wafer-ice on the pot-holes, Somebody wistfully twisted the bellows wheel’. He is nostalgically looking back at the Christmases of his childhood in his native Monaghan. I have always been struck by the line in that verse, ‘Mass-going feet crunched the wafer-thin ice on the pot-holes’. There may be less ‘Mass-going feet’ these days that there were when Patrick Kavanagh wrote his poem. Yet, many of us still feel drawn to gather to celebrate Sunday Mass, as we are doing here this Sunday.

Why do we come to Mass on a Sunday when there are many other things we could be doing? Perhaps in the past, people went to Mass because it was something everybody did. There was an element of cultural and family pressure. That is certainly not the case today. You have come to Mass this Sunday because you have chosen to do so. In many ways it is a counter cultural choice. It is going against the general trend. People may ask you, ‘Why are you still going to Mass on a Sunday?’ It is a question that is worth asking and pondering over. Perhaps today’s gospel reading points us in the direction of an answer. There Jesus calls on us to eat his flesh and drink his blood and promises us that if we do so we will draw life from him. His language of eating his flesh and drinking his blood is quite startling and provocative. The question people asked in the gospel reading is an understandable one, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ Jesus is clearly referring to what we have come to call the Eucharist. His words point ahead to the last supper, when he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘This is my body’, and when he took a cup of wine, blessed it and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘This is my blood of the covenant’. In speaking of his flesh and blood, his body and blood, he was referring to his whole self, who he was and what he stood for. He gave his whole self to us out of love for us on the cross. At the last supper he gave his whole self to his disciples under the form of bread and wine, in anticipation of the gift of himself he would make the following day on the cross. At every Mass, the risen Lord continues to give us the gift of his whole self. There is no greater gift he could give us. He gives us this gift of himself to nourish us spiritually, just as a baby is physically nourished their mother in the mother’s womb. As the unborn child draws life from the mother, so, in the words of Jesus in the gospel reading, when we receive him in the Eucharist we draw life from him, just as he draws life from God his Father. The life that we draw from him is not just physical life but the life of God, a life that endures beyond this earthly life.

Why do we go to Mass, especially on a Sunday? We go because the Lord has left us this wonderful gift through which he continues to give himself to us in love so that we may have life and have it to the full. We go because we recognize that we need this gift to sustain us on our journey of faith, just as the unborn child needs the mother’s flesh and blood for physical sustenance. The Lord gives himself to us in the Eucharist to nourish our relationship with him, to sustain that relationship in a world where that relationship is so often put to the test. He renews the gift of his whole self to us at every Eucharist so that we can renew the gift of our whole selves to him. In the words of the gospel reading, through the Eucharist he comes to live in us, so that we can continue to live in him. The only reason we come to the Eucharist is because we have personally chosen to be in relationship with Jesus and we want that relationship to be sustained and nourished. We gather at the Eucharist as a community of disciples, all of us at different stages of our faith journey. Our relationship with the Lord is personal and unique to each of us. Yet, wherever we are on that journey, we all have a place here. We are all welcome here. The Lord wants to give the gift of his whole self to all of us because we all need the spiritual sustenance that only he can give. Like the Woman Wisdom’s feast in the first reading, the invitation is extended to all from the city’s heights.

The Lord gives his whole self to us in the Eucharist to empower us to bring his whole self to others. We receive the Lord’s body in the Eucharist so that we may be his living body for others. We are sent forth from the Eucharist to live lives that redeem the present age, in the words of the second reading, lives that allow the Lord to be present to all whom we meet.

And/Or

(ii) Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

It can be tempting to give out about the age in which we live. We can be very aware of the shortcomings of our time and culture. We often complain of falling standards in all walks of life. We are conscious of a breakdown in community, a decline in moral values, a fracturing of family life. The increase in the suicide rate, especially among young men, is disturbing evidence that many people experience our times as devoid of meaning. We could easily get discouraged about our contemporary society.

I was struck by the statement of Paul at the beginning of the second reading, ‘This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it’. In his letter to the Romans he says something similar: ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’. Paul was well aware of the dark side of his own culture. Yet, that reality did not discourage him. He was convinced that the lives of believers could redeem the age in which they lived. We don’t often think of ourselves as redeemers. We tend to reserve the term ‘redeemer’ for Christ. Yet, Paul is prepared to extend that term to all those who have been baptized into Christ. He recognizes that the Lord working through us can redeem the time, the age, in which we live. In so far as we are in relationship with the Lord, our lives can make a difference for the better. We can never underestimate the extent to which the Lord can make us a force for good, a source of life and light, in our world. Jesus addresses his disciples in the gospels as the light of the world and the salt of the earth.

As Christians we recognize that if the Lord is to work in a redeeming and life-giving way through us, we need to keep our relationship with him alive. That call to a close relationship with the Lord is strongly present in the readings this morning. In the first reading, the Wisdom of God calls on people to come to her so as to eat the bread and drink the wine of her teaching. In the gospel reading, Jesus, the true wisdom of God, goes further and calls on his disciples, not only to come to him, but to eat his flesh and drink his blood. This kind of language must have seemed a bit shocking at the time. We can sympathize with the Jews who asked, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ Indeed in the verse immediately following where our reading ends, some of Jesus’ own disciples say, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Yet, in spite of the hostile reaction to his words from the Jews, and even from some of his disciples, Jesus did not try to speak in a way that was more acceptable to his hearers. The language of eating his flesh and drinking his blood was not up for negotiation.

The call of Jesus to come to him raises no hackles, but his call, ‘Eat me’, still has the power to make us sit up a bit. In calling on us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, Jesus shows us just how deeply he wants to be in communion with us. It is the Eucharist that makes possible that depth of communion between us and the Lord that he desires. The Lord wants us not merely to come to him, but to consume him. He wants us to take him into ourselves, to really digest him, in the sense of making our own his outlook on life, his values, his attitudes, his way of relating. In absorbing him in this way he promises that we will come to share in his very life. As Jesus says in the gospel reading, ‘Whoever eats me will draw life from me’. Jesus gives himself to us as food and drink so that we may live with his life. Whenever we eat food, the food becomes part of us; it lives in us, but when we receive the Lord in the Eucharist, he does not become part of us in that sense. Rather we become part of him; we live with his own life. This is a life that never ends. ‘Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life’.

The Lord offers us this level of communion with himself so that our own lives may redeem the times in which we live. The life that we receive from the Lord in the Eucharist is to flow through us and enhance and ennoble the world of which we are a part. When we say ‘Amen’ before receiving communion, we are not only saying ‘I believe this is the body of Christ’, but we are also saying ‘Amen’ to the Lord dwelling in our lives so that he may carry out his life-giving mission in the world through us.

The Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life. Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter on the Eucharist puts it this way, ‘The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift – however precious – among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of himself in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work’. We receive the Lord’s gift of himself in this Eucharist so that his saving work can continue in our world through our lives. He comes to us as food and drink in the Eucharist so that the age in which we live might be redeemed by our presence and our lives.

And/Or

(iii) Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

You may remember that we had a sister from the Medical Missionaries of Mary speak at all the Masses a few Sundays ago. I was struck by her comments about the good work that various church agencies were doing throughout the world. I was reminded of what she said by a verse in this morning’s second reading where Paul says, ‘This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it’. Paul was clearly of the view that the lives of those who have been baptized into Christ are capable of making a difference for the better to the world in which we live. He is reminding us that as members of Christ’s body, we can all bring something of Christ’s life-giving love to others. We may be inclined to think, ‘What difference could I make?’ We may feel that we are not good enough to make a real difference for the good in our world. Yet, even if we can be slow at times to take ourselves seriously as people who can redeem the age, the Lord does take us seriously. He has great work to do in and through us, if only we make ourselves available to him, and if only we trust that, in spite of our many weaknesses and failings, he can and will work powerfully through us.

The Lord wants to work through us, but before he works through us, he gives himself to us. The Lord equips us to share in his redeeming and life-giving work. He gives himself to us so that we can then give him to others. That is the message of this morning’s gospel reading. Jesus speaks there of giving us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. It is hard to conceive of a more striking way for Jesus to speak about giving himself to us. In fact, Jesus’ way of speaking was so shocking that many of those who were listening to him could not take what he said seriously. According to our gospel reading, some asked, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ Even some of Jesus’ own disciples, according to the evangelist, found this language of Jesus intolerable. Immediately after where our gospel reading ends, we are informed that some of Jesus’ disciples said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’

The teaching of Jesus in this morning’s gospel reading is challenging. It can be as difficult for us today, two thousand years later, as it was for some of Jesus’ contemporaries to take fully on board his insistence that we eat his flesh and drink his blood. Jesus gave his flesh and blood for the life of the world on the cross. He gave everything he had for the life of the world - such was his love for the world, his love for all of us. Jesus not only gave his flesh and blood on the cross for the life of the world, but according to our gospel reading he wants us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. This is clearly a reference to the Eucharist. The flesh and blood that Jesus gave for us on the cross he gives to us at every Eucharist, under the form of bread and wine. At the last supper, on the evening before he died, Jesus took bread and said to his disciples, ‘take and eat. This bread is my body, my flesh’. He then took a cup of wine and said, ‘take and drink. This wine is my blood of the covenant’. At the last supper, Jesus gave his disciples his flesh to eat and his blood to drink, under the form of bread and wine. The Lord who gave himself totally for us on Good Friday, gives himself totally to us at every Eucharist. That has been the faith of the church since that first Holy Thursday and Good Friday. According to this morning’s gospel reading, he gives himself to us in the Eucharist so that we can draw life from him. ‘As I draw life from the Father’, he says, ‘so whoever eats me will draw life from me’. In the Eucharist we draw from the Lord’s risen life, and that is why he can say, ‘anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life’. We generally think of eternal life as life after death, buy according to today’s gospel reading, eternal life can also be ours before death. We begin to share in the Lord’s own life here and now when in faith we receive the Lord in the Eucharist.

In receiving the Lord in the Eucharist, we are at the same time receiving all that he stands for; the values by which he lives; we are receiving his teaching or, in the language of the first reading, his wisdom. Just as in the first reading, the Wisdom of God says ‘Come and eat my bread’, in the Eucharist, Jesus, the Wisdom of God, says, ‘Come and eat my flesh and drink my blood’. The Eucharist calls on us to imbibe the Lord fully, to take into ourselves all that he is, all that he lived and died for - his values, his attitudes, his mind and heart. If we do that, then our lives will redeem the age in which we live. The Lord will continue his redeeming and life-giving work through us.

And/Or

(iv) Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

After people have moved into a new house or do some refurbishment on their home, they often have a little celebration in the house to which they invite people. Once the house is ready to their satisfaction they open it up to others and provide some refreshments. We often call it a house warmer. It is as if the house needs a good presence of other people to be properly launched. When you look at today’s first reading you find something similar happening. We have this woman by the name of Wisdom. She builds herself a house, clearly a very elegant house; it has no less than seven pillars. She then throws a feast of fine wine and good meat and sends out her maid servants into the streets to gather people to her table. In that reading the building of a house, the making of a feast, the invitation to come and eat and drink, is an imaginative way of speaking about God as the wise host who invites all of humanity to learn from his wisdom. It is interesting that God is portrayed as a woman in this reading, Woman Wisdom.

That image of Woman Wisdom who says, ‘Come and eat of my bread, drink the wine I have prepared’ finds an echo in the figure of Jesus in the gospel reading who declares, ‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever’. Like Woman Wisdom Jesus invites us to come and eat of his bread, but unlike Woman Wisdom he declares himself to be that bread. We are to eat of him, to drink of him. More specifically he calls on us to eat his flesh and to drink his blood. This goes far beyond anything Woman Wisdom calls for in that first reading. Jesus’ language of eating his flesh and drinking his blood is shocking in many respects. We can sympathize with those who object, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ We cannot hear this language without thinking of the words of Jesus to his disciples at the last supper when, taking bread, blessing it and breaking it, he gave it to them saying, ‘Take, eat, this is my body’, and taking and blessing a cup of wine he gave it to them, saying, ‘Take, drink, this is the new covenant in my blood’. He gave himself to his disciples, his body and blood, under the form of bread and wine. The last supper became the first Eucharist. We cannot but hear the language of the Eucharist in this morning’s gospel reading, the Eucharist which we are now celebrating together.

We invite people to our home and we place food and drink before them and we invite them to eat and drink. Jesus invites us to his table and he puts himself before us as food and drink and invites us to eat and drink. In language that is very daring Jesus declares himself to be our food and drink, the one who can satisfy our deepest hungers and thirsts, our hunger and thirst for life. Jesus declares in that gospel reading, ‘anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life’. We tend to think of ‘eternal life’ as a life that only begins after death. Yet, it is clear from the gospel reading that by ‘eternal life’ Jesus does not just mean a life that begins after this earthly life ends. He understands eternal life as a life that we can begin to experience in the midst of this earthly life. That is why he says in that gospel reading, ‘as I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me’. Just as in the course of his earthly life, Jesus drew life from God, so in the course of our earthly lives we can draw life from Jesus through our communion with him in the Eucharist. The life Jesus drew from God and we draw from Jesus is eternal life; it is the life of God. Here and now through our communion with Jesus in the Eucharist we can enjoy a first taste of eternal life. What is eternal life only the life of God, the life of Love, of a love that is unconditional and eternal? It is that life which we begin to taste in the Eucharist, because the Eucharist is the celebration of God’s love for us in Christ. In the Eucharist God’s loving gift of his Son is made present over and over again. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

We come to the Eucharist to draw life from the risen Lord to draw God’s life from him, God’s love. We are then sent from the Eucharist to be channels of that life, of that love, for each other. We come to the Eucharist hungering and thirsting for life, for authentic life, the life of God, the love of God, and we are sent out from the Eucharist as life givers, as agents of God’s life and love within our homes, our society, our world.

And/Or

(v) Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Last Sunday I spoke about Francis Xavier Van Thuan who was archbishop of what is now Ho Chi Min City. For thirteen years he was imprisoned in North Vietnam, spending nine of years those in solitary confinement. On one occasion, a copy of the New Testament was smuggled into the prison for the Catholic prisoners. To ensure that they could all share God’s word, the prisoners ripped the New Testament into little sheets which were then distributed among the prisoners. Each prisoner memorized by heart the sheet that he or she received. Every sunset, the prisoners took it in turn to recite aloud the part that they had memorized. Archbishop Van Thuan recalled after his release from prison how moving it was to hear the Word of God recited with such strength of faith in the silence and the darkness. He said that no one could doubt at that moment the presence of God in his Word. I was reminded of that story again by a verse in today’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, ‘This may be a wicked age but your lives should redeem it’.

Paul was aware that the values of his surrounding culture were in many ways hostile to those of the gospel. He knew how easy it was for members of the church to be influenced by those values. Yet, he also knew that they could witness to the values of the gospel in that culture by how they lived. In doing so, as Paul puts it, they could redeem the age in which they lived. It might seem strange to think of ourselves as redeemers. We acknowledge Jesus as the redeemer. ‘To redeem’ is ‘to set free’, to deliver from all forms of enslavement. We look to Jesus as the one who delivers us from all that works against what Paul calls the glorious freedom of the children of God. Yet, Paul was very aware that Jesus wanted to continue his redeeming, liberating, work in and through his followers, the church. The church is the Lord’s body, where the Lord’s redeeming work is to find expression in every age. In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul says, ‘do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’. We are to be faithful to the gospel even in environments where it is being rejected so that the Lord’s work of redeeming the age can continue through us.

Those prisoners in Ho Chi Min city were victims of a culture that denied religious freedom. Yet, they found their own way of standing up against it. When an unexpected opportunity came their way to feed their faith, in the form of the smuggled New Testament, they seized this opportunity with courage and imagination. They devised a way to ensure that everyone could feed on the God’s Word, the Bread of life. They knew that here was bread that could nourish their spirits, and satisfy their deepest hungers and bring freedom even in their imprisonment. When Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, ‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven’, he is saying that he alone can satisfy the deepest hungers of the human heart, the hunger for a love that is unconditional and all forgiving, for authentic freedom. One of the ways he comes to us today as Bread of Life is through his Word. The church speaks of the lectern from which the word of God is proclaimed as the table of the Word. In feeding ourselves on the Bread of the Lord’s Word, we create an opening for the Lord to continue his redeeming work in us and through us, his work of overcoming evil with good.

The prisoners’ action of tearing up the New Testament into sheets and passing around the sheets so as to ensure that every prisoner could have a personal encounter with the Lord’s word reminds me of what happens at Mass with regard to the consecrated bread. It is broken into small pieces so that all can share in it. The prisoners broke the bread of the word because they had no access to the bread of the Eucharist. We are fortunate to have access to both. The prisoners entered into communion with the Lord and with each other in and through their breaking of the bread of the Lord’s word and their sharing it. This is something we can all do whenever we gather to share and hear the Lord’s word. Unlike the prisoners, we can also enter into communion with the Lord and with each other in and through our breaking of the Eucharistic bread and our sharing in it. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus offers us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. This is an even deeper form of communion with the Lord and with each other than is possible through the sharing of the bread of the word. Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist to nourish our faith, hope and love. He gives us himself, under the form of bread and wine, so that we can more truly be his body in the world. He draws us into this very intimate form of communion with himself and with each other so that our lives are empowered to redeem the age in which we live.

And/Or

(vi) Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Francis Xavier Van Thuan was archbishop of Saigon, now Ho Chi Min City. For thirteen years he was imprisoned in North Vietnam, spending nine of those years in solitary confinement. On one occasion, a copy of the New Testament was smuggled into the prison for the Catholic prisoners. To ensure that they could all share God’s word, the prisoners ripped the New Testament into little sheets which were then distributed among themselves. Each prisoner memorized by heart the sheet that he or she received. Every sunset, the prisoners took it in turn to recite aloud the part that they had memorized. After his release from prison, Archbishop Van Thuan recalled how moving it was to hear the Word of God recited with such strength of faith in the silence and the darkness. He said that no one could doubt at that moment the presence of God in his Word. I was reminded of that story by today’s second reading where Paul says, ‘This may be a wicked age but your lives should redeem it’.

Paul was aware that the values of his surrounding culture were in many ways hostile to those of the gospel of the Lord. He knew how easy it was for members of the church to be influenced by the values of the pagan culture. Yet, he also knew that they could witness to the values of the gospel in that culture by how they lived. In doing so, as Paul puts it, they could redeem the age in which they lived. It might seem strange to think of ourselves as redeemers. ‘To redeem’ is ‘to set free’, to deliver from enslavement. We look to Jesus as the one who delivers us from all that works against what Paul calls the glorious freedom of the children of God. Yet, Paul was very aware that Jesus wanted to continue his redeeming, liberating, work in and through his followers, the church. The church, the community of disciples, is the Lord’s body, where his redeeming work is to find expression in every age. In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul says, ‘do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’. We are to be faithful to the gospel even in environments where it is being rejected so that the Lord’s work of redeeming the age can continue through us.

Archbishop Van Thuan and the other prisoners were victims of a culture that denied religious freedom. Yet, they found their own way of standing up against it, of redeeming the atheistic culture around them. When an unexpected opportunity came their way to feed their faith, in the form of the smuggled New Testament, they seized it with courage and imagination. They devised a way to ensure that everyone could feed on the God’s Word. They knew that here was bread that could nourish their spirits, satisfy their deepest hungers and bring freedom even in their imprisonment. When Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, ‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven’, he is saying that he alone can satisfy the our spiritual hunger, the hunger for a love that is unconditional, for authentic freedom. One of the ways he comes to us today as living bread is through his Word. The church speaks of the lectern from which the word of God is proclaimed as the table of the Word. In feeding ourselves on the Bread of the Lord’s Word, we create an opening for the Lord to continue his redeeming work in us and through us, his work of overcoming evil with good.

The most privileged way the Lord comes to us as living bread is through the Eucharist. The prisoners’ action of tearing up the New Testament into sheets and passing them around so to ensure that every prisoner could have a personal encounter with the Lord’s word reminds me of what happens at Mass with regard to the consecrated bread. It is given out in small pieces so that all can share in it. The prisoners broke the bread of the word because they had no access to the bread of the Eucharist. We are fortunate to have access to both. The prisoners entered into communion with the Lord and with each other by breaking the bread of the Lord’s word and sharing it. This is something we can all do whenever we gather to share and hear the Lord’s word. Unlike the prisoners, we can also enter into communion with the Lord and with each other in and through our breaking of the Eucharistic bread and our sharing in it. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus offers us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. This is an even deeper form of communion with the Lord and with each other than is possible through the sharing of the bread of the word. Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist to nourish our faith, hope and love. In the words of the first reading, Jesus says to us, ‘Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared!’ He gives us himself, under the form of bread and wine, so that we can more truly be his body in the world. He draws us into communion with himself and each other to empower us for our task to redeem the age in which we live.

And/Or

(vii) Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Recent statistics show that the percentage of Catholics in Ireland who go to Sunday Mass is in decline. The same pattern is to be found in many other countries of Western Europe. There are probably many complex reasons for this, such as, secularism, disillusionment and anger with the church, loss of faith, poor quality celebration of liturgy. When going to Sunday Mass is no longer the norm, even among baptized Catholics, it invites the question, ‘Why do the rest of us go to Mass on Sunday?’ ‘Why do I go to Mass on Sunday?’ Today’s gospel reading gives us an approach to answering that question.

When Jesus speaks in the gospel reading about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, the reference is clearly to what came to be called the Eucharist. At the last supper, Jesus identified his body or his flesh with the bread that he took, broke, blessed and gave to his disciples. He identified his blood with the wine that he took, blessed and gave to his disciples. He was giving his body and blood, his flesh and blood, his entire self to his disciples, under the form of bread and wine. He called on his disciples to ‘do this in memory of me’, to keep doing what Jesus had done at the last supper, his words and actions, so that he could continue to give himself fully and completely to all future disciples under the form of bread and wine. That is why Saint Paul, writing about twenty five years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, could say, ‘the cup of blessing that we bless is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?’ Paul is clearly referring to the Eucharist as it was being celebrated and understood within a few decades of Jesus’ life. In taking the bread that has been blessed and broken and the wine that has been blessed we are entering into communion with the body and blood of Jesus, we are uniting ourselves with the risen Lord.

Jesus says something very similar to Paul in the gospel reading. He declares that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood in the Eucharist live in him and he lives in them. Through the Eucharist there is a deep communion between ourselves and the Lord, a mutual indwelling. Jesus goes on to say that because of our deep communion with the Lord through the Eucharist, we can draw life from him. ‘Whoever eats me will draw life from me’. That is one of the reasons we go to Mass, to draw life from the risen Lord, a life that impacts on us here and now, and also endures into eternity. Jesus is talking about the life of the Spirit, the life of God, a life that enhances our human living and endures into eternity. It is because Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist to give us life, in this sense, that he speaks of himself in the gospel as ‘the living bread which has come down from heaven’ or, more simply, the ‘Bread of life’. We probably don’t appreciate the importance of bread in the time and place of Jesus. Today, as we wander around a supermarket, we can buy any kind of food we fancy, provided we can afford to do so. I can choose a menu every day from a vast array of options. In this world of full consumer choice, it is difficult to grasp the full significance of Jesus describing himself as the Bread of Life. In the biblical world, including the world of Jesus, the key to life was ready access to grain which can be turned into bread. Grain meant bread and bread meant life; its absence meant famine and death. Everyone understood and felt their dependence on bread. When Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life, he is presenting himself as the heavenly equivalent of bread. To survive in this life, people needed access to God. Jesus was saying that to survive in the presence of God, to survive spiritually, we need to rely on him.

It is clear from the gospel reading that many of Jesus’ listeners did not recognize their reliance on him for spiritual survival, did not accept his claim to be the Bread of Life. ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’, they asked. We come to Mass because we recognize Jesus as our Bread of Life. At some deep level, we know that we need to be in communion with him if we are to be spiritually alive, and, therefore, fully alive as a human being. We recognize our dependence on Jesus for true life, for what he calls elsewhere, life to the full. We come to Mass not because of custom or culture or, much less, coercion, but because we want to respond to Jesus’ wonderful invitation to come to him and eat of his flesh and drink of his blood so that we may draw life from him, the same life that he draws from the Father. That is the statement we are making every time to go to Mass, whether the Mass is a small gathering of people in a room or the huge gathering that will take place in the Phoenix Park next Sunday. We are then sent out from Mass to bring something of the Lord’s life we have received to those we meet. We are sent to become bread broken for others by reaching out to others in love.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

17th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 19:13-15) ‘Let the little children alone’.

Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 19:13-15Do not stop the little children coming to me.

People brought little children to Jesus, for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer. The disciples turned them away, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children alone, and do not stop them coming to me; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’ Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

Gospel (USA)Matthew 19:13-15Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After he placed his hands on them, he went away.

Reflections (7)

(i) Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

I always read this gospel reading on the occasion of a baptism because it seems so appropriate for baptism. When children are baptized, the Lord is welcoming them into his family, the community of believers we call the church. They are being greatly blessed and graced by the Lord. In today’s gospel reading Jesus wanted to welcome the children whom the parents brought to him for a blessing, but the disciples were turning the children away. Perhaps they thought that Jesus only had time for adults. However, they complete misread Jesus who replied to them, ‘Let the little children alone, and do not stop them coming to me’. Jesus wanted children to be central to the life of the community he was gathering about himself. He would want them to be central to the life and worship of the church. Jesus goes on to declare in the gospel reading that the kingdom of God belongs to them as much as to anyone else. They have the same right to receive the gift of the kingdom of God as adults. Jesus wants them to be blessed by God who is working powerfully through him. The risen Lord wants us all to open up the riches of the gospel to children. Unlike the disciples in the gospel reading, he wants us, his disciples today, to bring children to himself for prayer and worship. He wants us to help children to come to know him as a friend, so that they can draw strength from his loving presence to them all through their lives.

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(ii) Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

I have always been struck by the little scene in this morning’s gospel reading of parents bringing children to Jesus. It is a gospel reading I always use on the occasion of baptism. When parents bring their children for baptism they are doing what the parents in this morning’s gospel reading are doing, they are bringing their children to Jesus. Most of us are here this morning because our parents brought us to Jesus on the day of our baptism. It is strange that Jesus’ own disciples should try to turn the children away from Jesus. They probably reflect the cultural attitude of the time which regarded children as without status or significance. This was very much at odds with Jesus’ own attitude. He not only insisted that the children be allowed come to him, but he declared that children have a privileged place in God’s kingdom. ‘It is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs’. By implication, they should have a central place in the life and worship of the community of his followers. Jesus’ words and actions in today’s gospel place an onus on all of us to do whatever we can to bring children and young people to Jesus, to open them up to the riches of the gospel and of the whole Christian tradition. As a sign of how central children are to God’s kingdom and to the community of believers Jesus went on to lay his hands on them in blessing. We are all called to be channels of the Lord’s blessing to our children.

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(iii) Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary time

We often ask people to pray for us and people ask us to pray for them. In this morning’s gospel reading, parents bring children to Jesus so that he may lay his hands on them and pray for them. Parents always want what is best for their children and, recognizing Jesus as a man of God, they wanted to open their children up to God who was at work through Jesus. It is strange that Jesus’ disciples would try to prevent this from happening, turning the children away. In the time of Jesus, children were way down the pecking order; they were without rights or status. Perhaps the disciples thought that these children were not ‘worthy’ of Jesus’ attention. If so, they had a great deal to learn about the values of the kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim. Jesus insisted on allowing the children come to him. He identifies them as those to whom the kingdom of God belongs in a special way. In the upside down world of God’s kingdom present in Jesus, those who have little or no status or importance in this world have a special place in the kingdom of God. St Paul was true to the teaching and actions of Jesus when he stated in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong’. In the previous chapter of Matthew’s gospel to this morning’s reading, Jesus had told his disciples that they would not enter the kingdom of God unless they become like little children. Jesus seems to be saying that when it comes to our relationship with God, those who appear to have least of what the world considers important can have most to teach us.

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(iv) Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Parents bring children for baptism to most parish churches, just as in this morning’s gospel reading parents bring children to Jesus for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer with them. On that occasion the disciples attempted to turn the children away and, as a result, Jesus had to rebuke them. Clearly their attitude towards children and Jesus’ attitude towards children differed. The disciples may have felt that children were not important enough for Jesus to bother with. Yet, Jesus’ words show that he wanted children to be at the centre of the life and prayer of the community of disciples, ‘Let the children alone, and do not stop them coming to me’. Not only did he want children to be at the centre of the church’s life but he also declared that adults within the community have a great deal to learn from them, ‘it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs’. Children’s instinctive openness and trusting nature models for us how we are to relate to God. It is to those with an open heart and a trusting spirit that will be able to receive the gift of the kingdom from God.

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(v) Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The gospel reading we have just heard is the reading that is often proclaimed during the liturgy of baptism. In that reading parents are presented as wanting to bring their children to Jesus, but the disciples, of all people, turn the children away from Jesus. Jesus immediately rebukes his disciples and publicly declares that children are not to be stopped from coming to him. The Lord wants children to come to him; he wants them to relate to him and he, in turn, wants to relate to them. In the gospel reading he relates to them by placing his hands upon them in blessing. When parents bring their children for baptism, they are responding to Jesus’ desire for children to come to him. Children have a natural curiosity about what Jesus refers to in the gospel reading as ‘the kingdom of heaven’. By nature and by instinct they are open and responsive to the Lord and all he has to offer. It is greatly to be regretted if, like the disciples in the gospel reading, we do or say anything to cut across that openess. Whenever any of us do anything to open up the treasures of the gospel to children, we are doing what Jesus wants and desires us to do.

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(vi) Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel reading parents bring children to Jesus for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer of blessing. Parents instinctively want what is best for their children. They recognize Jesus as someone through whom God is working in a life-giving way, and so they bring their children, their loved ones, to him. In our own times, parents who have an appreciation of Jesus and his message and life will have the same desire to bring their children to him. They recognize Jesus as God’s unique gift to us and they want that gift for their children because they want what is best for them. When parents try to bring their children to Jesus they often meet with obstacles of various kinds. In this morning’s gospel reading those obstacles take the form of Jesus’ own disciples who tried to prevent parents from bringing their children to Jesus. The disciples are resisting the desire of the parents for their children. In the midst of this struggle, Jesus is not a passive spectator. He insists, against his disciples, that the children be allowed to come to him. The gospel reading assures us that in our own struggle to bring our loved ones to the Lord, and to bring ourselves to him, the Lord is always working with us. The strength of his desire for us to meet with him and, thereby, find life will overcome the various obstacles that are placed in our way. We need to trust that the Lord will find a way of bringing people to him, in spite of the resistances that may be there, of whatever kind.

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(vii) Saturday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Very often in the gospels we find Jesus and his disciples at odds with each other. We have a good example of that in today’s gospel reading. Children were brought to Jesus, presumably by their parents, for Jesus to lay his hands on them in blessing. The disciples turned them away and Jesus has to rebuke them, calling on them not to stop children from coming to him. Why the disciples would try to stop parents from bringing their children to Jesus is not clear. What is clear is Jesus’ insistence that children be allowed have free and complete access to him. He is upholding the dignity of children and declaring that they are to have a central place in the community’s life and worship. Whenever parents or grandparents or teachers bring children to Jesus in any way, they are doing something that the risen Lord delights in and strongly desires. As a community of faith, we have a calling from the Lord to open up the treasures of the gospel to our children and our young people. We have to keep searching for new and creative ways of doing this. Jesus goes on to declare that not only are children to have a central place in the community’s life, but that as adults we have something to learn from them. It is to such as these children, Jesus says, that the kingdom of God belongs. He is suggesting that, if we are to enter the kingdom of God, we need something of that trusting and open response to the gift of the gospel that comes natural to children.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

16th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 19:3-12): ‘They are no longer two but one body’.

Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 19:3-12Husband and wife are no longer two, but one body.

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test him they said, ‘Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’They said to him, ‘Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?’ ‘It was because you were so unteachable’ he said ‘that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife– I am not speaking of fornication– and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’The disciples said to him, ‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.’ But he replied, ‘It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’

GospelMatthew 19:3-12Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.” They said to him, “Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?” He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.” His disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” He answered, “Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”

Reflections (10)

(i) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus turns to the opening chapters of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, when he is put on the spot by some Pharisees regarding the question of divorce. The Jewish law made provision for divorce. The only issue of debate among the religious leaders was the grounds for divorce. One school of thought favoured very lenient grounds; another school insisted on much stricter grounds. However, both schools followed the Jewish Law in asserting that it was only the man who could initiate divorce proceedings, whatever the grounds. The woman was not free to do the same. The divorce laws gave a freedom to men that it did not give to women, and it left women very vulnerable to being cut adrift by their husbands, for the flimsiest of reasons. In that context, Jesus’ teaching on marriage was intended to protect women. It reminded men of their obligation to love and honour their wives as they would their own body. Jesus went back beyond what the Jewish law allowed to God’s original intention as expressed in the Book of Genesis, according to which husband and wife are to become one in love, faithful to each other all the days of their lives. It is a wonderful vision for married life and, yet, we all know from experiences that people’s marriages don’t always reflect this vision of Jesus. Some marriages irretrievably break down. Jesus has a desire for all our lives, whether we are married or single; it is that we would love one another as he loves us. We don’t always live out of that vision of Jesus, but it is always worth striving towards, and if we open ourselves to the help of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord’ love, we will be empowered to give expression to this vision, at least from time to time. Whenever we do so, the kingdom of God is at hand.

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(ii) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading Matthew gives us Jesus’ teaching on marriage and celibacy. Even though within the Jewish tradition the Book of Deuteronomy allowed for divorce, Jesus refers back to the original intention of the Creator as expressed in the Book of Genesis, according to which the union between man and woman in marriage was to be enduring. We are all only too well aware that marriages break down. Many of us will know that from our own families. Yet if the church is to be faithful to the teaching of Jesus it must keep promoting God’s vision for marriage as the giving of a man and a woman to each other for life. Jesus also acknowledges the value of celibacy, for those to whom it has been granted, for those who have the graced capacity for celibacy from God. Jesus declares that it is a value given with a view to a greater value, God’s kingdom. It is to be lived for the sake of that kingdom, to further the coming of God’s kingdom and the doing of God’s will. Whether married or single we are all called to work together in the service of God’s purpose for our world and our lives, as revealed to us by Jesus.

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(iii) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The opening verses of today’s gospel reading are often chosen as the gospel reading for a wedding Mass. They give us Jesus’ vision for married life, which goes back to the second chapter of the Book of Genesis, the first book in the Jewish Scriptures. According to this vision, a man and woman become one body in marriage, understanding body as the physical expression of the whole person. This vision of two individual lives becoming one shared life is what couples who come to be married in church aspire to, which is why this gospel reading speaks to them. Even though, in practice, those who come together in marriage do not always stay together, the vision for marriage that Jesus articulates remains God’s will for married life. Not everyone, of course, gets married or is called to marriage, as Jesus acknowledges in the concluding part of our gospel reading. Indeed, Jesus himself was not married. Married or single, we are all called to bring the Lord’s love into the world, to love others in ways that build communion or community. Insofar as we allow something of the Lord’s love to become flesh in us, the Lord will be able to continue his work through us. He once described that work as gathering together the scattered children of God, building communion among people.

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(iv) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading, the religious leaders are presented as testing Jesus. They were aware that his teaching often went much further than the Jewish law required, even, at times, to the point of undermining the Jewish law. On this occasion the Jewish leaders wanted to test how faithful Jesus was to the Jewish law on marriage. They suspected that Jesus’ teaching would go against what the Jewish law permitted in relation to marriage, namely, divorce in certain circ*mstances. Their suspicions were well founded. Jesus’ teaching on marriage was more radical than that of the Jewish law. He called on men and women to marry for life, and went back to the book of Genesis to support his teaching. We are all aware that many marriages do not last for life; relationships break down, and people go their separate ways. That is the reality. The gospels show that Jesus knew how to accept the reality of people’s lives; he engaged with people as they were. He relates to all of us in the concrete situation of our lives. Yet, he also shared God’s vision for human life, including married life. He proclaimed that vision while continuing to relate in a loving way to all who could not reach it, for whatever reason. That includes us all, because none of us lives up fully to the values Jesus proclaimed and lived. There will always be that two-fold aspect to Jesus’ relationship with us; he loves us where we are, but keeps calling us beyond where we are.

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(v) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Very often in the gospels Jesus is presented as taking a much more relaxed attitude to the Jewish Law than the religious leaders of the time. He is much less strict about the Sabbath law of rest than they are, for example. Jesus heals on the Sabbath, even though this would have been considered work and, therefore, a violation of the Sabbath Law. When it comes to marriage and divorce, however, Jesus seems to have taken a more strict line than the religious leaders of the day. They understood, from the Book of Deuteronomy, that a man could divorce his wife, although a woman could not divorce her husband. This was the interpretation of the Law that was in vogue in the time of Jewish; it left women very vulnerable. Jesus, however, goes back behind the Book of Deuteronomy to the Book of Genesis and declares that God’s original will was that a man and a human who become one flesh in marriage should not then go their separate ways. His vision of marriage was of a faithful relationship which reflected God’s faithful relationship with his people. Jesus must have been as aware as we are today that, in reality, many marriages did not last. When that happens, people have to manage their lives and find love as best they can. We can certainly never judge. Yet, in faithfulness to the teaching of Jesus, the church has to keep on proclaiming his vision of two lives becoming one in marriage, in a self-giving love. At its best, such a love is an ‘incarnation’, with a small ‘i’. It is God’s love in human form. In that gospel reading Jesus also speaks of the single life, those who are single for the sake of kingdom. That is a different expression of God’s love in human form.

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(vi) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus’ teaching on marriage in this morning’s gospel reading was not the standard understanding of marriage in the Jewish world at that time. The Pharisees who put a question to Jesus to test him took it for granted that divorce was permissible in certain circ*mstances, as was clear from the Book of Deuteronomy. Jewish men were allowed to divorce their wives, although Jewish women could not divorce their husbands. The only question was on what grounds a Jewish man could divorce his wife. This is why the Pharisees asked Jesus if a man could divorce his wife ‘on any pretext whatever’, as some Jewish teachers held. However, in his response to their question Jesus showed that he did not accept their premise that divorce was permissible and the only issue was on what grounds. Instead Jesus went back beyond the Book of Deuteronomy to the Book of Genesis to show that God’s original intention for marriage was that a man must cling to his wife so that the two become one body for life. Jesus’ teaching on life-long fidelity within marriage would have been considered quite radical at the time. In the gospel reading, even Jesus’ own disciples declare in response to Jesus’ teaching, ‘if that is how things are between a husband and wife, it is advisable not to marry’. Jesus believed that a man and woman were capable of a love that lasted until death. The teaching of Jesus, not just in this area of marriage but in other areas as well, must have seemed too demanding, too idealistic, to many of his contemporaries. Yet, Jesus’ vision for human living, whether it is married life or single life, always appeals to what is best in us. The way of life he puts before us may be demanding but he assures us that it is what we were created for and, therefore, it is the path of life.

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(vii) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading, Jesus upholds both the value of life-long fidelity in marriage, and the value of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The Jewish tradition did not place great value on celibacy, and divorce was quite common and acceptable. The Pharisees quote from the Book of Deuteronomy which was the basis of the Jewish divorce law. That law in the time of Jesus was very much weighted in favour of the male. Men could divorce their wives but wives could not divorce their husbands. One school of thought within the Jewish tradition held that husbands could divorce their wives on any pretext whatever. A second school held that husbands could divorce their wives only on certain pretexts. That is why the Pharisees ask Jesus the question, ‘Is it against the law for a husband to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’ Their question took divorce for granted; they simply wanted to know which of the two schools of thought Jesus favoured. In his answer, Jesus went back beyond the Book of Deuteronomy to the Book of Genesis, to what Jesus considered God’s original intention, ‘a man must leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two become one body’. In highlighting the value of life-long fidelity in marriage, Jesus could be understood as protecting women in marriage from being cast aside at the whim of their husbands. Jesus proclaims the value of a love between a man and a woman that is constant and faithful unto death. We are all aware that marriages break down. Most families in this church, including my own, are aware of this reality from personal experience. There will always be a tension between the ideal and the real, between the goal and what is reached. Jesus wants us to live with that tension and not collapse it. He keeps holding before us the value of a human love that is a reflection of God’s faithful love, whether such love finds expression within marriage or in the single life.

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(viii) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The gospels show that Jesus was often tested by his opponents. They sought in various ways to trip him up. We have an example of that in today’s gospel reading. The Pharisees put a thorny question to Jesus, ‘Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’ There was a school of teachers of the Law who held this view; a man could divorce his wife for any reason. There was another school of teachers who held that a man could only divorce his wife on certain grounds. Jesus was being tested as to which school he favoured. It is simply presumed that it is the man who divorces the woman. There was no provision in Jewish Law for a woman to divorce her husband. This left women in marriage rather vulnerable. As often when Jesus is asked a testing question, he doesn’t answer directly. Instead, he goes behind the divorce law which is to be found in the Book of Deuteronomy to God’s original intention for marriage, which is be found in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. When a man and woman marry, they are one body, one flesh. In other words, a husband is to treat his wife as if she were himself, and the wife is to treat her husband as if he were herself. Man and woman are equal in marriage; they belong to each other equally. This original intention of God for marriage was much more enlightened that the current divorce law, regardless of how that law was interpreted by the two schools. Jesus speaks here as the authoritative interpreter of God’s will for marriage. We can broaden that out and say that Jesus is the authoritative interpreter of God’s will for our lives in regard to every issue he speaks about. He is the one who lights up God’s purpose for our lives and our world. That is why, as followers of Jesus, we always read the Jewish Scriptures in the light of Jesus’ teaching and way of life.

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(ix) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading, Joshua reminds the people of Israel of the many ways they have been blessed and graced since God first called Abraham. The land they had recently entered with its towns, vineyards and olive groves was not the result of their own efforts but was much more by way of a gift from God. We all need to be reminded of how much we have received, the extent to which we have been graced by God. The more aware we are of the giftedness of life, the more thankful we will be. Saint Paul often called upon the first Christians to be thankful. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, which is the earliest Christian document that has come to us, he says, ‘give thanks in all circ*mstances’. We are to live out of a sense of gratitude to God for what we have received from God. We express our gratitude to God in prayer but also in life, by our willingness to give to others out of what we have received from God, by seeking to love others in the way we have been loved by God. In the gospel reading, this is the kind of love Jesus calls for within marriage. For a couple to give to each other as they have received, to love one another as they have been loved by God, is to be faithful to each other for life, as God is faithful to us throughout our lives. Married love has the potential to be the greatest living sign of God’s faithful love. Not everyone marries, of course, as Jesus recognizes at the end of the gospel reading. Those who are not married can equally reflect the faithful nature of God’s love in the way they live, through the love of friendship which they extent to others, and through their loving service of the community. Regardless of our state in life, we are all called to acknowledge how much we have received from God, and to give from what we have received.

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(x) Friday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The teaching of Jesus on marriage in today’s gospel reading can seem very challenging and uncompromising today, especially in the context of the high proportion of marriages that do not last. His vision of marriage can seem far removed from the reality of married life for many couples. Yet, perhaps it is precisely because so many marriages do not last today that the teaching of Jesus on marriage is all the more important. Jesus calls for a love between husband and wife that is faithful and enduring, a love that lasts in good times as well as bad, a love that is generous and ready to forgive. His vision of how a man and woman are to relate to each other in marriage is shaped by his insight into how God relates to all of us. God loves us with a faithful and enduring love. God’s love for us never changes; it lasts through good times and bad times in our lives; it is a love that is generous and ready to forgive. This is the quality of God’s love that is reflected in today’s first reading from the prophet Jeremiah. In that reading, the Lord accused his people of breaking the covenant he made with them. Yet, in spite of that infidelity, the Lord promises them, ‘I will remember the covenant that I made with you… I am going to renew my covenant with you… you will be reduced to silence when I have pardoned you for all that you have done’. Jesus calls on married couples to relate to one another in the way God relates to us. That call is addressed to all of us, whether we are married or single. We are to love one another in a way that reflects how God loves us. Maximilian Kolbe whose feast we celebrate today is a wonderful example of God’s love in human form. As a celibate man, he laid down his life in love for a married man, a father of a family. As Jesus says, ‘no one has greater love than this’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

15th August >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Inc. Luke 1:39-56): ‘Of all women, you are the most blessed’.

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Gospel (Except USA)Luke 1:39-56The Almighty has done great things for me.

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’And Mary said:

‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lordand my spirit exults in God my saviour;because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed,for the Almighty has done great things for me.Holy is his name,and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.He has shown the power of his arm,he has routed the proud of heart.He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy– according to the promise he made to our ancestors–of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back home.

Gospel (USA)Luke 1:39-56The Almighty has done great things for me; he has raised up the lowly.

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”And Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;my spirit rejoices in God my Saviorfor he has looked upon his lowly servant.From this day all generations will call me blessed:the Almighty has done great things for me,and holy is his Name.He has mercy on those who fear himin every generation.He has shown the strength of his arm,and has scattered the proud in their conceit.He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,and has lifted up the lowly.He has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.He has come to the help of his servant Israelfor he remembered his promise of mercy,the promise he made to our fathers,to Abraham and his children forever.”

Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

Reflections (2)

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mary’s assumption points to our own heavenly destiny, the glorification of our whole humanity in heaven. Her earthly life reminds us of our baptismal calling. In today’s gospel reading, Mary physically carries Jesus in her womb to Elizabeth, her older cousin. As disciples of the Lord, we are all called to carry Jesus to others. Our baptismal calling is to become bearers of the Lord’s presence to all, to allow the Lord to live in us so that he can speak and act through us. Mary gives expression to our own baptismal calling. As the first disciple of her son, she shows us what it means to answer the Lord’s call. Mary could bring the Lord to Elizabeth because, at the moment of the annunciation, she gave herself over to God’s purpose for her life. She consented to allow God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to overshadow her, to take hold of her. Insofar as we give ourselves over to God’s purpose for our lives and allow the Holy Spirit to overshadow us, we too will become people who bring the Lord to others. It is the Holy Spirit who brings the Lord to birth within us.

When Mary reached her destination and greeted Elizabeth, we are told that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary’s way of relating to Elizabeth helped Elizabeth to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We too are called to relate to others in ways that help them to become filled with the Holy Spirit, that open them up more fully to the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The Holy Spirit at work in our lives can bring the Holy Spirit to life in the lives of others.

In response to Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth, in the power of the Spirit, declares Mary blessed because of her faith, ‘Blessed is she who believed’. Mary’s faith showed itself in love, in a journey of loving service to her older, more vulnerable, pregnant cousin. She shows us that genuine faith always expresses itself in loving service of others. When we give ourselves over in faith to God, we open ourselves up to his Holy Spirit and the primary fruit of the Spirit is love. As Saint Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, ‘the only thing that counts is faith working through love’.

Just as Mary’s presence filled Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth’s way of relating to Mary filled Mary with a spirit of prayer. Because of the way that Elizabeth welcomed Mary, Mary was moved to pray her great prayer, the Magnificat. The content of Mary’s prayer shows her to be a woman who hungers for a new justice on earth, where the lowly are exalted, the hungry are filled, and oppressive powers are overcome. Mary shows us that genuine faith expresses itself not only in love but in a hunger and thirst for God’s justice on earth.

If Mary’s earthly life of loving service and prayer shows us the shape of our own faith journey, her assumption reveals our ultimate destiny beyond this earthly life. The feast of her assumption celebrates her full embodied sharing in the risen life of Christ. She gives us hope that, in the words of today’s second reading, ‘all will be brought to life in Christ’. As one who now shares fully in the Lord’s risen life, we can confidently turn to her, asking her to pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, so that we too can come to share in the Lord’s risen life to the full.

We need her prayers, because our faith, and all that flows from it, is often put to the test. Mary’s faith, her relationship with the Lord, was certainly put to the test. That is one of the messages of that strange first reading from the Book of Revelation, which is so full of symbolism. When the woman adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, with twelve stars for a crown was about to give birth to her child, the red dragon stood in front of her so that he could devour her child as soon as it was born. However, God protected both the woman and her child. There will always be forces hostile to our faith in the Lord and to our efforts to give birth to the Lord in our lives. That is why Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’. He foresaw our struggle. We need a faith that perseveres through the struggles of life. On this feast of Mary, we can look to her as a woman of persevering faith, who remained faithful to her Son, standing by the cross as she watched him been cruelly put to death. She is a prayerful presence on our own faith journey, helping us to persevere in faith, until our faith in her Son gives way to seeing him face to face.

And/Or

(ii) Feast of the Assumptionof the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today’s feast celebrates Mary’s full sharing in the risen life of Christ. In the words of Mary’s prayer in the gospel reading, ‘the Almighty has done great things for me’. This feast also reminds us that the Almighty wants to do the same great things for all of us. In the words of today’s second reading from Saint Paul, we are all destined to ‘be brought to life in Christ’. Paul wrote to the members of the church in Philippi, ‘I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion’. God has brought his good work in Mary to completion in heaven. God’s good work was well underway in Mary before she came to share in Christ’s heavenly glory. We can see evidence of God’s good work in her in today’s gospel reading. When her older cousin, Elizabeth, was pregnant with John the Baptist and in need of support, Mary set out and went as quickly as she could from Nazareth to the hill country of Judah, even though Mary was pregnant herself with Jesus. According to the gospel reading, she ended up staying with Elizabeth about three months. God’s good work in our lives shows itself in the kind of loving service that Mary showed to Elizabeth. Whenever we go on a journey to support someone in need, God’s good work is coming to pass in us. In response to Mary’s opening greeting, Elizabeth asked, ‘Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?’ Mary physically brought the Lord to Elizabeth. We are all called to bring the Lord to others by our goodness and kindness, and whenever we do so we are honouring them. God’s good work in Mary also found expression in her prayer, which has come to be known as the Magnificat. Mary was a woman of prayer as well as a woman of loving service. Her loving service of others flowed from her life of prayer. Whenever we give time to God in prayer, God’s good work is finding expression in our lives. Our calling is to keep opening ourselves up to God’s good work in our lives, expressed in loving service of others and in prayer to God, so that God can do for us what he did for Mary, bringing his good work to completion in our lives, by leading us to share fully in Christ’s risen life.

Fr. Martin Hogan.