Sunday 4 January, 2004
Epiphany - 'Lord, every nation on earth will adore you!'
Australian performer Peter Allen made famous the song, 'I still call Australia home'. It's often used as background music for an airline advertisement on TV. An Australian traveller, flying home from overseas, looks wistfully out the plane window. For some strange reason I think of that ad. when I read today's reading from Isaiah (Isaiah 60: 1-6). Home come the Jewish prisoners of war, after many years away, still calling Jerusalem home. But, Isaiah, a genuine prophet, 'sees' something even more exciting. Perhaps he was watching a sunrise over Jerusalem, still a spectacle for visitors today. While the valleys all around are yet enshrouded in darkness, the city walls, already reflecting the glare of the rising sun, appear all bright with light. He also sees non-Jewish people streaming towards Jerusalem. According to traditional Jewish belief, shared by Isaiah, these non Jewish people would be subordinated to the Jewish tribes. Nevertheless, this is a remarkable vision of the first step along the road to Christian universalism, and an appropriate text for the feast of Epiphany. In the first 100 years of Christian history, the Church had to struggle with the problem of centralism versus the rest. The Jerusalem Christians (Jewish) were naturally tinged with the old nationalism. 'They had to give up this narrow idea of centralisation. The Church's central bodies are nothing but a service at the disposal of local assemblies and the source of unity.' (Guide to the Christian Assembly)Responsorial Psalm 71 connects our two main readings: 'Lord, every nation on earth will adore You.'
Isaiah has done us a spiritual favour by reintroducing 'universalism', as part of authentic Judaism. God's people should have seen themselves as the 'mother' of God's plan of salvation for all humanity. That was their unique destiny. They were to be the catalyst which enables, even triggered, God's and humanity's relationship which we know as the kingdom of God. Unfortunately for all of us, the chosen people became inward looking. They saw themselves as the kingdom within which non-Jews should be satisfied with the status of second-class citizens. (If I'm wrong here, please enlightens me!) Matthew wrote to reassure Jewish Christians of their 'kosher' lineage, spiritual inheritance. In today's reading (Matthew 2: 1-12) he has also to reintroduce that, already mentioned, Isaiah's theme of universalism. So, we hear of spiritual outsiders, so far as orthodox Jews were concerned, followers of an ancient Persian holy man, Zoroaster, discovering the infant Messiah where and when the Jewish theologians couldn't find him.
Whether or not today's gospel episode is entirely historical, it's purpose remains unchallenged. Science may some day show the Magi never came to Bethlehem and the star never appeared! Scripture uses legends to advance a good cause. Let us keep to the essential: the child worshipped by the Magi inaugurates a universal kingdom.
Sunday 11 January 2004
2nd Sunday of Ordinary time 'Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations'
Our first reading is from the third part of the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 62:1-5). It is a beautiful section full of comfort and Consolation. Everything had not gone well with the Jews who came home from exile. The miracles announced earlier by Isaiah had not occurred, due to the infidelity of the Jewish leadership. A poor community tried to reorganise itself and to solve all kinds of problems stemming from the fact that during the seventy years of exile, others, less enthusiastic for religious reform, had taken their place, Cyrus. King of Persia, had already done wonders by freeing the Jewish prisoners from Babylonian captivity. He had authorised the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple. He had ordered the return of Temple furniture and equipment stolen by the invader seventy years earlier. What effect, however, could this restoration have on a local community grown indifferent to God? Isaiah sought to sustain the exiles 'courage' by sketching the religious future of Jerusalem. She would receive a new name to signify change. No longer will she be called abandoned but 'spouse'. She would be like a young bride ready for a wedding with her husband, God. The author is actually using a highly important biblical image that would become a prominent Christian symbol: the marriage between God and the spiritual Jerusalem built of 'living stones', the true believers. Here is the basis for our spiritual lives as Church sharing and mutual giving between God and humanity best expressed in the person of Christ.Responsorial Psalm 95 links our two main scripture readings: 'Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations'.
Let us repeat that the most marvellous deed done by God was the marriage between Himself and humanity. That is the real marriage John highlighted when telling of the Cana wedding (John 2 1-11). John's Gospel version, written probably around 90AD, shows an insider's familiarity with the Old Testament and with Jewish religious practices, so we may conclude that whoever was behind this version was of Jewish background. However, there are some indications that he may not have been from mainstream Judaism. John's primary audience seems to have been a group of Jewish Christians experiencing increasing tension with the Jewish religious leadership. The faith of the group may have been wavering as a result of conflict and persecution. The Cana intervention by Jesus' was recorded by John to reinforce the faith in Jesus as Lord among that group of disturbed convert Jews. John's style is unique as he interprets a miracle of Jesus, even a relatively ordinary one, as a sign of the Passover of Christ, still three years away. He places the Cana miracle at week's end. He introduces the spiritual theme of the hour. He deliberately emphasises the matter of wine. He pointed out the inability of Jesus' own family to interpret the miracle appropriately. This is John's specially - to teach us that, in the final analysis, Jesus is the mystery of God made flesh.
Sunday 18 January 2004
3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time 'Your words, Lord, are spirit and life'
Beginning with the decree of King Cyrus of Persia in 538BC, several groups of Jewish exiles came back to Jerusalem from Babylon. They began the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple. Then, foreign 'squatters', who had settled in Palestine during many troubled times, tried to prevent the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. In 458, Ezra came to organise the Jewish community. He imposed the Law of Moses as the basis of a rule binding together all God's people. In 445 Nehemiah came from Persia and rebuilt Jerusalem's walls. He became administrator of Jerusalem for twelve years.Today's first reading from Nehemiah (Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10) records a very important date in sacred history. Until that time Jewish people kept their faith alive through prayers and taking part in Temple services. Decisions and preaching came to them through priests and prophets. They didn't feel the need for Scripture. Anyway, they had no access because the Scriptures were kept in the Temple or the King's palace. Nehemiah records for us the beginning of a religious tradition whereby ordinary Jews will have access to the Scriptures in every city. Their synagogues were built, meeting places where people would gather on the Sabbath to hear God's word, mediate and respond by singing psalms. Catholics have recently been through the same kind of return of Scripture to ordinary parishioners.
Indeed, today we can link our two main readings by singing Psalm 18: 'Your words, Lord, are spirit and life'
We have already remarked how the institution known as synagogue came about. In Israel there was only one Temple, that of Jerusalem, where priests used to offer sacrifices. But in every place where at least ten men could meet, there was a synagogue where every Sabbath (Saturday) a liturgical service, led by community members, was celebrated. It was the done thing for locals to take part in the readings and commentaries on them, so Jesus made himself known by sharing in the Sabbath services in the synagogues of his area, Galilee.
When he did the same thing in Nazareth (Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21), where he had grown up, he was not well received at all! The reading of the day was from Isaiah who was referring to his own mission: God had sent him 700 years earlier to announce God's intervention to bring Jewish prisoners of war back from Nineveh to Israel. But, for Jesus, to comment on Isaiah's test was not a catechism lesson or a look to the past or into the future. Jesus' style was to announce that the present should be lived as the acceptable time of the Lord's coming, the here and now for ordinary people. Our Catholic liturgy of the Word may well be acknowledged as stemming from the synagogue model. However, it superseded that model by showing how actual events in Christian and human experience reveal God's plan for the here and now.
Sunday 25 January 2004
4th Sunday of Ordinary Time 'I will sing of your salvation'
Between Isaiah's last prophecies (690BC) and Jeremiah's call from God (around 626BC) there is a span of 60 years, almost 50 of which correspond to reign of Jewish king, Marasseh. This ruler persistently offended and destroyed the faith of the Jews. Then in 640BC a child Josiah, came to the throne and slowly the embers of faith were rekindled. This is the time when the discovery of the book of Moses' laws brought about religious renewal. But, a few years before that, God had called Jeremiah to leave his farm job and confront the national leadership. We must leave all these things for another day.Suffice it to say that the point of today's first reading (Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19) is Jeremiah's strength. Jeremiah composed today's verses after he had ministered for some time. He had come to know the people's hostility towards him. That is why he compared himself with a soldier confronted by the enemy troops, or a city, under siege. His strength in the face of the enemy didn't flow from a violent personality. Convinced of God's call to him personally, Jeremiah took control of himself and his sensitivity. Later generations of Jews became so impressed with the story of Jeremiah's single-mindedness that they imagined him still interceding with God to defeat their enemies. We know now that Jesus of Nazareth out did Jeremiah in passionate obedience to God's will.
Jeremiah didn't like his calling but he loved it! The words of our responsorial psalm 70 could well be his 'I will sing of your salvation. In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.'
Jeremiah was a hero, to use modern terms. Jesus was, of course, the hero. We will consider the beginning of his heroic ministry in just a moment. A hero is a person who stands up for what he believes to be right, no matter what. I'm reminded of the Dreyfus Affair to illustrate heroism. In January 1898, the novelist, Emile Zola, wrote an impassionate letter, printed in the Paris newspaper. 'L'aurore' under the heading 'J'accuse' (I accuse). Zola's courageous denunciation of both military and civil authorities, who he accused of lying, resulted to his being tried for libel and sentenced to a fine and a year in prison. Zola escaped, however, and during his brief, self-imposed exile in England, his trial and the ideas he had expressed made the Dreyfus case a subject of worldwide concern.
On a much higher plane than human justice, as recorded in today's Gospel (Luke 4: 21-30), Jesus spoke the truth of his own countrymen in the Nazareth synagogue. He incurred anger and violence from his own neighbours and family foreshadowing his death three years later. In these days of political propriety the Pope stands up for what he believes to be right. Local churches are called to heroic witness not without pain.
Sunday 1 February
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time 'In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.'
Our first reading is from Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8) writing at the time of King Uzziah's death in 742BC. The Middle East was in turmoil. The Jewish people were divided into two kingdoms, north and south, Israel and Judah. Israel, with its own kings, was hostile to the south, even though David's city, Jerusalem, was there. It was all a bit of a mess - the opposite of God's plan for the region.Isaiah took advantage of the chaos to write as if God himself had taken over as King of Kings. The Prophet had a vision of God enthroned in the Jerusalem temple attended by heaven's legendary guardians, the seraphs, fiery spiritual beings. Isaiah was terrified that he would drop dead because he had seen God face to face. He was overwhelmed with the experience of God as the 'totally other', the holiest of the holy. He was also awfully aware of his own unworthiness to even attempt to bring God's word to the minority group of Jews ready to be converted and become 'totally other' themselves. Isaiah's vocation as a prophet to them was his response to what he had experienced of God's holiness. He had met God and was compelled to become missionary. For those of us, who feel called to a missionary life, right now where we are, a close encounter with God, through Jesus, is necessary. It won't be glorious, as for Isaiah, but it will be real through Word, Sacrament and immersion in current affairs.
The rustle of angels' wings is heard again as we sing responsorial psalm 137: 'In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.'
Our gospel is from St. Luke (Luke 5:1-11) who links the call of the first disciples with the miraculous catch of fish. In this way he recalled for his own church community (probably in Greece or Turkey, definitely made up of non-Jewish people) that their contemporary mission was intimately bound up with Jesus' earthly ministry. What a contrast with the picture of God painted by Isaiah as recorded in our first reading! There God is revered as 'totally other'. He is guarded by spiritual, extraterrestrial beings or seraphs.
Here, according to Luke, God, in the human person of Jesus, is totally accessible, rubbing shoulders with commercial fishermen. For them, Jesus presents himself as a veteran fisherman, more competent than they are. He shares his fishing secrets with Peter who, despite fatigue, puts out to sea again. For the Jews, water, especially the sea, represented the awesome power of evil. Our Church is called to engage with humanity, especially in it's dark nights of the human soul. Helping it to rise above evil by seeking a greater measure of equality, more stable peace and a greater opportunity for the world's 'small' people to improve their lot. The Church need have no fear of this mission.
Sunday 8 February 2004
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time 'Happy are they who trust in the Lord'
How to be happy? This question haunts humanity. There is a choice, according to Jeremiah (Jeremiah: 17: 5-8), to be made: to seek happiness through our own human resources, or seek it in God. Judgement will not wait; to trust in ourselves is to end in an arid, spiritual wilderness, the collective dark night of the soul. To trust in God is to secure enduring spiritual productivity. Jeremiah suffered much personally for trusting God alone. You may know his story - called by God to challenge his own people, especially the leadership to return to God's way of doing things, Jeremiah was denounced by his own as a traitor and public enemy number one! He was tortured, imprisoned, chased out of town, ending up in Egypt. A hit squad, sent by his own compatriots, found him there and killed him.No wonder Jeremiah is compared, during Holy Week with Jesus himself. To both Jeremiah and Jesus could the taunt be directed: 'He trusted in God. Now let God come and save him.' So our first reading recommends sacrificial trust as a spiritual priority. A person who trusts himself first and foremost wraps himself in security blankets like health, wealth and worldly wisdom. A true disciple of God may appear naked to others but is spiritually safe, wrapped up in God.
Our responsorial Psalm 1 echoes the sentiments of Jeremiah: 'Happy are they who hope in the Lord.'
Today's Gospel according to St. Luke (Luke 6: 17, 20-26) carries on the theme already struck by Jeremiah and Psalm 1: 'Happy are they who trust in the Lord'. You may be shocked by Luke's language in this passage. He records curses as well as blessings. It's a literary device or procedure often used in Old Testament writings. Luke recorded the beatitudes as Jesus proclaimed them to the people of Galilee.
According to Luke, Jesus addressed the whole assembly of common people, speaking as one of them. Like the prophets, he spoke boldly and clearly: 'You, the poor, are the first beneficiaries of the promises of God. Rejoice, because God is giving you the great message and you shall be the ones to transmit the secrets of God's mercy to the world.' For Luke, God blessed the materially poor for the very reason that they were totally dependent on others and on circumstances. They were in the best position to experience the kindness of God. He would watch over them as a parent, a father God. This gospel is the scriptural foundation for the recent pronouncement that the Catholic Church has to opt for the materially poor first. Matthew's version of the beatitudes was not so hard on the affluent. He called for a spiritual poverty, not a material poverty. Catholicism has to be open to both.
Sunday 15 February 2004
7th Sunday of Ordinary Time - 'Love your enemies'
David shocked Abishai, an impulsive military companion, by not taking the advantage of surprise to kill King Saul (Samuel 26: 2, 7-9.12-13. 22-28). Saul, the first king of the Jews, was so erratic and self-seeking that David had left the royal court. He formed a band of freedom fighters to defend God's chosen people against tyranny. But, he believed, against all odds, that Saul had been appointed by Samuel the prophet and was therefore God's appointed despite his poor performance. He spared his rival and placed all his trust in God.In this way he foreshadowed the Messiah, Jesus the merciful, who would preach love of one's enemies. In those days, before ballot boxes and elections, rivals in the leadership stakes knew that the loser would be killed and his family and friends wiped out. So, David's magnanimity really was heroic and a sign of his friendship with God. We must learn that God chooses agents who are not yet perfect. There is a trend in western democratic society to expect perfection in leaders, political, religious and corporate. But, the place of David in salvation history flies in the face of modern western attitudes to leadership. God is present not only where there is perfect love and accomplished virtue. We find him where there are no more than the rude vestiges of faith, hope and love, as in David's case. The ordinary people loved David and so did God!
Remember, too, that Jesus of Nazareth would not be insulted when hailed as the person most like David, the spiritual descendant or 'son'of David. Admiration at David's magnanimous gesture towards Saul is nothing when we're confronted with Jesus'code of conduct towards 'outsiders'. Remember that Jewish people had been brought up with national pride as virtue number one. They were born God's people; therefore, they were 'good'people. All others, were not born God's people and were therefore, not 'good'people. They were 'enemies', 'gentiles', 'outsiders', 'sinners'. So it was Jesus living dangerously when he taught that Jews should love their enemies (Luke 6: 27-28). He was not just compiling a new list of virtues to be practised within a family, a profession or a club. This is not Jesus'little book of social graces.
Unfortunately, preachers and teachers sometimes reduce weighty doctrine of compassion to a personalist moralism. Many listeners preferred to hear him espouse a policy of hatred and revenge towards foreigners like the Roman occupation army, the Samaritans, indeed, anyone other than Jewish people. His parables were an iron fist in a velvet glove aimed at his errant nationalist compatriots. He knew that to change unjust social institutions you must start with self, family and friends. That is why He attracted opposition early from family and friends in Galilee and nationalists in Jerusalem. We moderns are living in a culture of conflict. Justice and mercy are not popular. Litigation and revenge are reaching state of the art ranking. Catholics have a mission to break that cycle.
Sunday 22 February 2004
8th Sunday of Ordinary Time - 'Why don't people listen?'
About 200 years BC, many Jews were more attracted to the culture of the Greek invader than they were to their own ancient religious culture. Sirach launched a campaign aimed at restoring Judaism as the most intelligent and humane religious culture ever known (Ecclesiasticus 27: 4-7). He also insisted that the law of God led people to a more responsible personal and social life. He appears to have run a successful household with servants and to have been good at business. In the end, however Sirach had to confess that it was the sacred books and the lessons of experience that taught him the secret of success. In today's short reading, Sirach analyses the role played by speech in a person's life. Speech was about all they had, in the days of Sirach, as a means of communication. It revealed a person's force and vitality, his spirit and his purpose. Speech belonged to a person's innermost core. Not so for us moderns, at the dawn of the super-highway of information! Our modern culture, so much influenced by publicity and propaganda, alienates speech. Hugh Mackay, well known writer and commentator on Australian social affairs, has sought to reverse this trend in a recent book: Why don't people listen? We may have to relearn the art of communicating with family, friends and neighbours. Sirach was right for his own day and ours.Today's gospel passage (Luke 6: 39-45) is somewhat mixed text. It is part of a longer section of teaching material meant for non-Jews. Remember, that Luke's version of the gospel was meant for gentiles, the outsiders, not brought up in the Jewish religious tradition. According to Luke Jesus directed these words to the disciples. They had to learn and endorse gospel values before they could honestly pass them on to others. Briefly, leaving aside Luke's vivid imagery, a person who wants to guide others must herself/himself be clear-sighted. One who wants to judge or criticise others must be humble and sane in her/his own regard. A person can only give what s/he has, and the quality of one's heart can be known from one's deeds. That is why secular society, represented by the courts, is so strong in condemning church officers found guilty of conduct unbecoming teachers of morality!
Commentators point out that Luke may be warning would-be disciples about the spiritual health hazard involved in sharing one's material possessions. He stressed this gospel value much more at length in his Acts of Apostles. Disciples in the early, post-Resurrection, churches were faced with heroic decisions in sharing their possessions. In the old Aussie vernacular it was a case of 'Put up or shut up.' Only disciples watered, like spiritual trees, by the grace of God could practise such moral heroism. Morality and spirituality, for Christians, go together or not at all.
Sunday 29 February 2004
1st Sunday of Lent - 'Be with me Lord, when I am in trouble'
Each Sunday in Lent, the first reading calls to mind some important stage in salvation history. Today's text (Deuteronomy 26:4-10), from Deuteronomy, written by priests in about 700 BC, sketches the broad outline of this unique story.Let me pick out the 'peak experiences' proclaimed in it. From the Patriarchs (wandering Aramaeans) we learn of Joseph going into Egypt for food and shelter. From the time of slavery in Egypt - Moses leads out the chosen people. From the period of Judges or desert leaders - Joshua leads the Hebrews into the promised land. During this whole long story, there are many temptations and the chosen people often fail the test.
Similarly, in today's Gospel, Jesus is found in a desert overcoming all diabolical tests and preparing to offer Himself to God as the greatest success of salvation history. People living at the time Deuteronomy was written, were stunned by the overwhelming power of nature. But, they had matured spiritually to believe their one and only God to be master of nature. God revealed Himself, they believed, in natural phenomena, as well as in prophets, priests and kings. So they carried on an ancient pagan tradition of offering fruits, grains and animals to God. They did nevertheless purify this tradition by using a ritual to seal the covenant relationship mutually accepted by God and themselves. .
Responsorial Psalm 90 joins our two main readings: 'Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble'.
Thanks to Jesus, Christians can meet weekly to celebrate the perfect ritual of His and our self-sacrifice. When he was on the Cross, outside Jerusalem, Jesus would encounter temptations like those recorded in today's gospel (Luke 4: 1-13). As in the desert, at the start of his campaign, he would conquer those temptations, and Evil itself, by faith in the Father.
Luke, writing for non-Jewish converts, did not see Jesus as a symbol of the chosen people in the desert. Matthew did, and his similar desert episode, designed for converts from Judaism, is heavily weighted with Sinai desert inferences. Luke's version is meant to portray Jesus as the faithful servant and Son of God. As Jesus told Satan more than once, God's strength alone was all he needed there in the desert, throughout his ministry and at their fateful meeting on Calvary, outside Jerusalem. Luke's convert community needed this reassurance that Jesus did overcome hostility to his mission by faithful obedience and, so, free all men and women held captive by Satan. He demonstrated that communion with God while in the grip of the human predicament can be achieved when we reject the various values elevated by secular society to the status of 'gods'. Churches today are called to celebrate and preach this victory won by Jesus, embodied in heroic Christian lifestyles.
Sunday 7 March 2004
Second Sunday of Lent - 'God's glory shone out of Jesus himseIf'
About 10,000 years ago, a change began to occur in humankind. People began to gather together in greater numbers in the fertile plains. The first civilisation had been born.After that everything happened relatively quickly. Five centres of civilisation appeared on earth. Then 3500 years before Christ, in the geographical area known as the Middle East, where the biblical people, ancestors of Jews and Palestinians alike, would be born, two empires were being formed. One was Egypt, the other Chaldea from which Abraham would come centuries later. Eighteen centuries before Christ, a number of nomadic tribes left Chaldea with their flocks to go and live in Egypt.
Among those tribes on the way to Egypt were some very prominent families whose leader was Abraham (Genesis 15:5-12,17-18). For him, however, there was more than hunger driving this march. God had mysteriously called Abraham to 'father' the spiritual renewal of the human race. God had designed humans as partners - not slaves, His or anyone else's. He needed a minority, at least, within society, of people who had met Him in a personal way. Abraham had, indeed, met God in a personal way, and God wanted to bind the two of them in an unbreakable relationship or covenant. Of course, the customs of those times, described in today's reading, are strange to us. God kept His promise. Now, all true believers are called sons and daughters of Abraham.
Today's gospel (Luke 9:28-36 ) continues the theme of covenant. The details are strange to us but not to the Jews, brought up steeped in the Old Testament. This incident, according to Luke, marks the beginning of Jesus' fateful journey to Jerusalem. The Jews just could not bring themselves, en masse , to convert to Jesus and his gospel values. He, too, sensed that his earthly mission would end in apparent failure. Even his miracles were short-term successes in view of the long-term aim of establishing the Kingdom of God in Jerusalem. He would have to sacrifice himself in the Father's cause, to ignite the flame of faith in the hearts of true believers.
Only three of the disciples were spiritually mature enough to accompany him in a night's prayer, allegedly on Mount Tabor. This mysterious scene, a mystical happening during prayer - shows that Jesus is above all the prophets who went before - be they a Moses or an Elijah - whose prophecies and deeds he fulfils. Just as the Father had revealed Himself to Abraham, so now He revealed Himself to anoint Jesus as Messiah. God's glory shone out of Jesus himself. There was to be no room for doubt, even during the darkest hour of torture, trial and execution. As we modem disciples celebrate together our Sunday liturgy of Word and Eucharist, we also proclaim that we are spiritual children of Abraham, our father in faith.
Read this Sunday's reflection or reflections from other Sundays by Father Maguire