22 May 2005
Holy Trinity - Jesus would offer Himself to be taken into people's hearts
Today is an opportunity to deepen our admiration for God's own and latest handiwork - CHURCH. Just as God is Trinity, so too, is Church - family of the Father, Body of Christ, dwelling place of the Spirit. Church as Trinity, is not only a dogma but first and foremost a universal assembly of people.Our first reading (Exodus 34: 4-6, 8-9) was chosen by liturgical planners to emphasise the intimacy meant to exist between God and people. It recalls a special encounter between God and Moses. Both had gone through earlier, difficult times. Moses had received the commandments from God - then smashed the stone slabs upon which they were written, when he discovered his followers worshipping a local deity, a golden calf. God and Moses met again to negotiate the problem. God insisted He was kind and merciful, full of compassion. Moses begged God to stay always staunch towards these stubborn people. Here we have a very early revelation of God's intention to share Himself with a sinful people. Australian churchgoers need to be challenged to do the same kind of reassessment of God's place in their lives by pondering reconciliation with refugees and our original people.
Our Gospel (John 3: 16-18) is from John, who made it his mission to present Jesus as God's last Word. Whereas Moses had handed over commandments written on stone, Jesus would offer Himself to be taken into people's hearts. Whereas Moses begged for God to always show His face to His people, however sinful they were, Jesus presented Himself as people's food and drink. God was, at least, after such a long and troubled journey of preparation, firmly embedded in the heart of at least one person, Jesus. And, through Jesus, God lives in the hearts of all true believers. The Jews had been taught to pray to God that he would come and condemn human society - the world. Yet, on today's conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, we hear the exact opposite, 'I have come to save, not to condemn'. Anyone of us dedicated to injustice has already condemned himself. In his own lifetime, Our Lord kept trying to save people, especially those apparently beyond salvation. For example, he continued to meet with Pharisees, hoping beyond hope, that they would abandon 'bad' religion to accept him and his Gospel.
Our church, through all the small, valiant local churches, spread internationally, has to present to secular societies, working models of people living the self-sacrificing, Gospel by serving others, not condemning them. This is genuine evangelisation. As I wrote earlier, the Church is a trinity the Fathers family, the Son's body, the Spirit's home.
Sunday 29 May 2005
Body of Christ (Corpus Christi Jesus is remembering John as describing Himself as food and drink for believers
We're indebted to our faith elders, the Jewish people, for recording and protecting the memory of their desert experience. As well as assist, God tested His people during those years, as was His divine right (Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14-16). God's people needed to practice confidence in Him. Much later, God would again be discovered in the desert, this time by Islam. They needed to be convinced that God in the desert was the one and only God - a radical concept. He promised survival and development as a nation-state, an ethnic family, to those who followed His advice, (kept His commandments). They experienced God in the natural desert environment, but also, in faithfulness to God's gift of a moral code. It's interesting that we citizens of a western liberal democracy sense the disaster that awaits us, if we don't learn to live morally, including respect for our natural environment, so threatened by our voracious lifestyle. Hence, the abundance of secular prophets calling for the conversion of humanity to reconciliation with nature. The Church needs to locate itself within the contemporary debate about 'green' issues, so as to breathe 'soul' into that debate. Australians living in rural areas have to face, on a regular basis, the clash between conservation and development. Most Australian's live in the coastal urban areas, however, in sore need of a theology and spirituality, drawing sustenance from a harsh environment.Our Gospel (John 6: 51-58) flows easily from Deuteronomy. Jesus is remembering John as describing Himself as food and drink for believers. This eating and drinking theme is meant to point to the unique intimate relationship between God and Jesus' disciples. That relationship is as intimate as the one between Father and Son! Eucharistic ritual alone will not suffice to sustain this relationship. There has to be a concurrent personal faith commitment to the way of the Lord. A parody of what Our Lord intended is practiced by people who take Holy Communion without grasping the need for total dedication to Gospel values. The earliest Eucharistic assemblies had to be comprised of believers. The Eucharist never was, nor ever will be, a means of spreading the faith. That's the very reason why the early Church reserved its teaching about Eucharist to the baptised (adults) only.
On this, our annual celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ, each Catholic is challenged to approach in faith, hope and love ('worthily', as Paul puts it) the mystery of the Eucharist. When the minister confronts us with the Host and the words, 'The Body of Christ', my 'Amen' means 'yes', I am a member of this Body, ready to be eaten alive, for Him.
Sunday 5 June 2005
10th Sunday of Ordinary Time - It is love that I desire, not sacrifice
Hosea has come down through history as the prophet deceived by his wife, who he never stopped loving, in spite of her infidelities. God, who had called him to speak on His behalf to an idolatrous and materialistic people, wanted His prophet to experience the grief and the shame of a betrayed partner. The prophets reveal a God who feels a love so real and so personal for us that it can be expressed in human words. After being called by God, the prophet received the privilege of feeling and seeing things as God does: Hosea is going to carry the same cross as God's: constantly loving and forgiving a fickle and unfaithful partner.This gift is the holiness recommended to us by the late John Paul 2 and, already, Benedict XVI. Together with this holiness, Hosea would also shout indignation at Israel because of its sin. He began to preach around the year 746 just as twenty years of decadence descended on the Jewish northern kingdom. Today's passage from Hosea (Hosea 6: 3-6) denounces the disconnection between offering sacrifices and doing good. They preferred to offer a few costly sacrifices, chosen by them, rather than to do what God asked of them. It is love that I desire, not sacrifice. (On one occasion Jesus refuted the Pharisees by quoting this saying). Melbourne parishes are called to review their prayer/mission programme in the light of today's reading. Today's Gospel passage (Matthew 9: 9-13) is short, but very important for any parish community. (Of course, religious orders, lay institutes and other spiritual movements will discover equally important things in the passage). Inculturation is a spiritual process strongly recommended by Pope John Paul. It was a basic concept, dear to the hearts of the redemption (liberation) theologians of Latin America. The European church feared that those theologians were drifting towards a Marxist-communist interpretation of human affairs. Nevertheless, you can't play with inculturation without getting your fingers burned. As did Jesus Himself, according to today's Gospel reading. His heart was filled with pity because the locals were like sheep without a shepherd - all over the place, voiceless.
Matthew was talented but politically incorrect. Jesus asks each of us to serve humankind with our own God-given talents. Our vocations directors say we should pray for more priests, religious and other ministers. Of course we should. But normally, every parish has to provide its own leaders / shepherds, pastoral and missionary workers, always too few, inculturated in the local environment. Australians have a money culture. The Bali drug cases prove that: chase the dragon, chase the dollar.
Sunday 12 June 2005
Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - Together, even internationally, we are a priestly family of faith
Now that the liturgical 'high season' of Easter is well over, our new recruits, freshly initiated and baptised, join the mainly born Catholics on a long course of instruction, ending with the feast of Christ the King. The next few months give us all a chance to renew acquaintance with the key concepts of working Catholicism. You and I have to make do with our local Catholic church, which, mind you has its own geometry of love.So, first, to the gospel of the day to check, just briefly, the theme to be read out and proclaimed from scripture and tradition. In the first reading from Exodus, a book all about God's commissioning one ethnic group as His own community of true believers, we hear God giving Moses the ministry of teaching about mission: 'I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation' (Exodus 19:2-6). The Israelites were to be to all nations what their own priests were to them mediators of God's word. It was the beginning of an intimate relationship between God and a select group of people. That relationship would go through good and bad patches, as do all genuine relationships. A small group would carry the torch for this relationship right up until the time of Jesus of Nazareth. Our Church has inherited this commission. Together, even internationally, we are a priestly family of faith.
Our gospel passage (Matthew 9:36-10:8) takes up and develops this theme of this commission. The mission given to the Apostles was a consequence of Jesus' compassion for the crowds. We must realise our identity and share it with all generations and cultures. The mission was, as we have seen, first confined to the Jews, but soon, under the guidance of the risen Lord, was extended to all nationalities. Jesus' understanding of mission flew in the face of the contemporary Jewish concept of mission. He did see Himself as an itinerant rabbi, but not one who gathered and lectured students. Nor did he imitate the Pharisees who dealt exclusively with the elite in matters of religion. Rather, He sought out disciples in their own environments, where they lived and worked, as He did with Matthew, the author today's Gospel.
Jesus called disciples to join Him in a ministry and mission of mercy and compassion. Going to the aid of the poor, the sick and the sinners was an entirely new concept. These people were all 'sheep without shepherds,' because neither priests, Pharisees nor Rabbis usually consented to deal with such people. What is striking is that Jesus linked the calling of the apostles to special duties within the call to mission. He left the Apostles to further develop, under the guidance of the Spirit, His missionary expedition.
Local Catholic churches have inherited this vocation. Secular societies are where modern Catholics should be found exercising the apostolic mission of pity and mercy.
Sunday 19 June 2005
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time: - God would always protect them spiritually
In 626 BC God called Jeremiah to live dangerously as a prophetic person. Such people can be said, in a way, to foretell the future in the sense that they have a grace of seeing through current affairs. They can tell what will happen if nothing changes. By nature he was a timid soul, so he felt, very deeply unjustified criticism, just as Jesus would much later. Indeed, Jeremiah's outbursts would be repeated by Jesus on the cross.Today's verses come from one of Jeremiah's darkest hours (Jeremiah 20:10-13). He had been reprimanded by the Jerusalem leadership and citizens for daring to denounce their lack of trust in God in the face of impending invasion from Babylon. Jeremiah became deeply depressed. He even threatened not to do God's prophetic business any longer. It was all too much for him. But, he pulled himself together and again reaffirmed his loyalty to god and his mission. He recalled God's ongoing commitment to ordinary Jewish people who depended entirely on God, as Jeremiah himself did when he targeted the leadership.
In those days, the nobility and civil servants of Jerusalem lived as usual, without being concerned about the ongoing crisis of the kingdom. Yet, before long they would all be killed or exiled. The same is also true now: rich countries and people are enjoying themselves and live with indifference on top of a volcano.
Just as Jeremiah experienced great turmoil and personal suffering in the course of his prophetic mission, so would Jesus and those to whom the Gospel mission would be entrusted. Today's gospel passage (Matthew 10:26-33) provides a few of Jesus' instructions to his disciples. After his death and resurrection, they would be forced to leave Palestine, after the roman destruction of Jerusalem in 60 AD, to take the Gospel to all generations and cultures. Our Lord had, as a friend, to warn them of the dangers involved. He anticipated, in the, natural feelings of fear, even cowardice. So he reassured them that God would always protect them spiritually. He hadn't been able to hand on to them everything the Father had planned. And, he knew time was almost up. The disciples would further develop the gospel to encounter, at their spiritual cores, all future generations and cultures. We call this adventure inculturation. (Archbishop Hart calls it evangelisation.) Vatican 2 would reiterate this Gospel imperative, in the 1960's especially in the magnificent decree: 'The Church in the Modern World'. As we now know, that decree didn't produce the desired results, as some of us naively expected. Secular societies, naturally, don't take easily to prophetic criticism of their values. Nor do we to their criticism of us! At his installation, Pope Benedict XV1 announced Jesus' Gospel imperative to evangelise as the driving force of his Pontificate.
Sunday 26 June 2005
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time - See how these Christians love one another
The second book of Kings looked at the progressive decay of the two kingdoms of Jews, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Today' s first reading (Kings 4: 8-11, 14-16), however, isn' t about that. It' s about a childless woman, with an old man for husband, who received the lonely prophet, Elisha, hospitably.Elisha had been called to succeed the great prophet, Elijah. He had left home and friends. His only support was God. You can imagine, therefore, the joy Elisha took in being received so warmly on this recorded occasion. This, so far, may seem just a biblical human interest story. It is, however, much more than that. It teaches a theological lesson about a virtue at the heart of God and the Church. Hospitality is the name we give that virtue.
These days, we have even developed hospitality into a growth industry. Bring on the Commonwealth Games! Our western culture has gone in the opposite direction of suspicion of strangers as well as isolationism. So, today' s reading acts as an antidote. It calls for a cultural change. Otherwise, we Australians run the risk of missing out on discovering the real presence of God in the person of the unexpected guest, eg, unwanted pregnancy or asylum seekers. Modern Catholic parishes will also be rewarded, just like the woman, for hospitality to strangers.
Jesus could feel the growing tide of resentment from the Jewish religious authorities operating out of Jerusalem (Matthew 10: 37-42). He knew they would eventually kill him. So, He felt obliged to both warn and encourage those who would inherit the Gospel mission. They would come under the same pressure He had. That would be the test of their discipleship. If they were loyal to the Gospel, by presenting it undiluted, against all odds, then they should be supported spiritually and materially by the beneficiaries of their preachings and example. If their work cut them off from family and friends, as it so often did, then these disciples should find another friendly family among the early Christian groups. This is the origin of the spirituality of hospitality espoused by Paul and the first founders of the earliest Churches (not buildings but assemblies). It became the most notable characteristic remarked on by contemporaries: ' See how these Christians love one another.'
In our contemporary situation, as citizens of an anonymous, industrial and commercial society, who will revive the glorious, monastic tradition of hospitality? It will be dangerous to do it, but Catholic doors must, once again, be thrown open. Then it will be possible for the individual person to recover identity, in a society where s/he tends to become a statistic.
Sunday 3 July 2005
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time - I will praise your name forever, my King and my God
As in our own day, Jewish people look, always, to the future. Today's reading tells the Jews not to panic. Political peace and material prosperity still seemed to be eluding them. But, it was relatively quiet under Greek rule. They should, as a nation, said Zechariah, be like King David. He never rode around on a warhorse. He was humble, a shepherd more than anything. He relied on God's strength. Solomon, his successor, loved shock and awe. Zechariah predicted (Zechariah 9: 9-10) that a future king, a messiah, would be like, spiritually, both David and Solomon. He would be spiritually humble and obedient to God. He would be, also, a spiritual expansionist, just as Solomon was a builder of impressive political systems. All this reform wouldn't happen overnight, but it would eventually happen. Be patient. Trust God.The opening verses of today's Gospel passage (Matthew 11: 25-30) present Jesus quoting the words of the young men saved from the fiery furnace, according to the prophet Daniel, by their innocent trust in God. The scholars of Babylon had tried to convince the 'children' to renounce God. But, God had revealed Himself to the 'children' and confounded those who thought they knew everything.
Jesus, all His life, befriended Jewish people who, according to the religious elite, were ignorant and immoral. He resented the way priests and rabbis created intolerable burdens of rules and regulations, which ordinary people couldn't carry. The elite never even tried to. By contrast with the intellectualism and legalism of the religious teachers, Jesus turned to the ignorant, as one of their own number. By contrast with the rabbis, Jesus turned to those who groaned under the burden of religious laws, who were made guilty because of these laws. Jesus made Himself one of themselves. He was, Himself, someone who had been accused of faults and sins, but He had liberated Himself from that sort of imposed guilt, and recommended that other victims do the same. Catholics know about sin and forgiveness and reconciliation. It's an essential part of the Gospel package handed on by Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus personifies the link between God and us, a link never to be broken. God knows, there's a lot of guilt about today, much of it within the Church itself. Counsellors and therapists are in great demand. (So, also are lawyers!) Our local churches have a unique ministry and mission in the matter of reconciliation, amongst ourselves and within secular society.
Sunday 10 July 2005
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time - God's forgiveness transcends the boundaries of human justice
Israel was beaten on its own soil by the Babylonians. To rub it in, Babylon deported the best and brightest Jews to Babylon. Isaiah wrote after their repatriation to Israel His work, that is human progress; God is active there and then nevertheless. They reminded the Jews that, despite the chaos spread everywhere in the wake of such national disruption (compare and contrast our own western societies after September 11 2001), God still pinned His hopes for universal salvation on His chosen, even if devastated, people. Even when human weakness, even sin, appears too great, God's forgiveness transcends the boundaries of human justice, because He is also merciful. So, today's few verses (Isaiah 55:10-11) are full of optimism, a timely antidote to the pessimism lying in wait for timid Catholic hearts. All diocesan and parish pastoral planners read Isaiah! There are thousands of work-ready lay Catholics, around Australia, living proof that God's word has been successful, despite some appearances, over 200 years of Australian Church development.As today's responsorial psalm says: The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
And, so, to our Gospel according to Saint Matthew (Matthew 13:1-23). Faced with the apparent failure of His preaching, Jesus wanted to share with His hearers God's optimism, already referred to by Isaiah. His work would finish well. When the seed He planted found a good plot of ground, it would be extraordinarily fruitful. To understand the parables of Jesus is to try to become this productive soil. To quote Willy Barclay in his Gospel of Matthew 'Humanly speaking, Jesus had very little success. The doors of synagogues were shutting against Him. The leaders of orthodox religion were His bitterest critics and obviously out to destroy Him. True, the crowds came to hear Him, but there were so few who were really changed, and there were so many who came to reap the benefit of His healing power, who came only for what they could get.' Today's parable of the sower and the seed applies very much to our own contemporary Church. There's good and bad in our Church. We've always known that. (We confess collective sin every time we assemble for weekend Mass). It may have taken some of us a long time to accept that scandals occur in Church, just as do innumerable acts of heroic virtue. We don't have to accept this situation passively. But, we do need patience, another thing altogether. And, we do need to leave final judgment to God alone. Secular society is in great need of a Church, humble and, always, self-reforming, loyal to the Gospel
Sunday 17 July 2005
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Lord, you are good and forgiving
The writer of Wisdom knew that Judaism ran the risk of becoming isolated and fossilised. Yet, he also believed that the spirituality of his ancestors was the world's most intelligent and compassionate to date (Wisdom 12:13. 16-19). At the time the Book of Wisdom was written, most Jews were expatriates, dispersed among unbelieving gentiles, finding themselves in a situation not unlike that of their ancestors in Egypt, so long ago, or the descendants of the patriarchs in Canaan. They could wrap themselves up in a ghetto, physical or mental, to protect themselves against infection from the surrounding spiritually unclean environment. Or, they could practice tolerance and moderation towards others, just as God himself obviously did. However, the writings of Wisdom literature fell mainly on deaf ears. Judaism, even that practiced by Jewish, émigrés, was generally, recessionist and suspicious of others. (So often our Church has tendered to be the same). At her best, however, our Church imposes tolerance on her members and absolute solidarity with all men, women and children.Responsorial psalm 85: Lord, You are good and forgiving.
Matthew's two short parables about the grain of seed and the yeast emphasise the contrast between the lowly beginnings of the Kingdom and the great future promised (Matthew 13:24-33). In the long parable about the weeds is a lesson in patience intended for those who are shocked by the slowness of God's justice and the parables moderate tone regarding evil. Why judge others, when we have the present time to, ourselves, produce results. The patience shown by Jesus with his adversaries, the Pharisees, and those disciples chopping and changing allegiances, troubled the apostles. They feared the opposition of the Pharisees and the defection of the wavering disciples. They wanted Jesus to inaugurate a sect of pure and steadfast believers. (This turned into one of the most influential para-Christian cults known as Gnosticism romanticised recently in the Da Vinci Code. Jesus opposed this view by teaching, as in today's parables, that God delayed judgment so sinners would have ample time to repent. He, also, forbade the apostles to usurp God's prerogatives by judging others, by misusing the power of the keys given to Peter and the Apostles. The Jews, indeed, did expect the Messiah to exercise power and judgment. Jesus made them uneasy and, eventually, hostile by preaching gradualness and tolerance. Only that way, said Jesus, could God co-operate with the fragile freedom of men and women. Even some contemporary Catholics accuse our Church of substituting a 'social welfare' mentality for strength in the face of modern evils. They should re-read the Gospel.
Sunday 24 July 2005
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Self reform is far better than reform imposed
Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba who implored her dying husband to make Solomon king, before conspirators enthroned another. Today's reading (Kings 3:5 7-12) is meant to teach an important spiritual lesson about priorities. Solomon, young as he was, felt the need to consult God about his royal commission. He knew that God was the one and only true King. Therefore, the weight of his position as vicar of god of earth was a heavy burden for a young, inexperienced person. He was concerned with his responsibilities and didn't want the people to be robbed of their great expectations of him. In those days, as now, it was wise to plan for a long, comfortable life, devoid of troubles and not too demanding. Maybe that's what's meant by Solomon's wisdom.But, God granted Solomon more than he wanted. He gave the young king the virtue of discernment, absolutely essential for anyone looking to govern well. May our own Leaders, church and civil, be blessed with the wisdom of Solomon. Especially, now the Coalition controls both 'houses', may our federal politicians seek wisdom.
Responsorial psalm 118: Lord, I love your commands
Matthew's gospel (Matthew 13: 44-52) provides two parables, Jesus' preferred teaching method. The first insists that each of us, sooner or later, has to make a decisive choice about what we want most from life. Jesus showed us by what He said and did, that He had chosen to do His Father's will nothing less than that would do. Faithful followers of the gospel must make sacrifices, be converted, on the way to achieving that special relationship with God, presented by Jesus as 'the pearl of great price'. Some spiritual writers go further into the parable. They see God as the one who makes the sacrifice, who strips Himself of divinity, as St Paul says, to become one of us. From this point of view, it is God who pays the price to take possession of the human family.
The second parable applies very much to our Catholic Church today. There's good and bad in the Church. It may have taken some Catholics a long time to accept that scandals occur in our Church, just as do heroic acts of virtue. We don't have to accept, passively, this situation. We do need to be patient. We do need to leave judgement to God. But, we need, also, to be alert, Our Church has always accepted that we are a Church of sinners and saints. Self-reform is far better than reform imposed. Secular society needs a humble, self-reformed Church.
24 July 2005
18th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Šwith 'the makings' already in their possession
Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians, had decided to take on the Babylonians. The prophetic person (we call Isaiah 2) was moved by God to prepare the exiles for their redemption, their liberation (Isaiah 55: 1-3). They were to be the catalyst for the revival of authentic Judaism, back in Jerusalem. They had been devastated, as are all victims of a diabolical process known as ethnic cleansing. A modern comparison would be aboriginal people today, if you accept that they have become displaced and alienated, taken away as babies and children from their natural communities. (Some Australians disagree).Isaiah 2's message was Good News, which in Greek is translated as Gospel. To his fellow refugees, the prophet proclaimed this first Gospel, a prelude to the complete Gospel of Jesus. He invited them to have renewed faith in God who was in charge of history, despite appearances, especially through Cyrus, the Liberator. He called them to hope. They must prepare to return to Jerusalem, rebuild it and make it the place where all humankind would meet God. He never tired of showing them the love and tenderness of the Lord, so similar to that of a mother.
We can only imagine the grief experienced by Jesus as the news that His cousin and colleague, John the Baptist, had been executed by weak Herod. He took His disciples across the lake, just as Moses had led his followers across the sea of reeds. Matthew intended to present Jesus as the new Moses (Matthew 14: 13-21). Our Lord would reinstate the Mosaic Law as the spiritual heart of Judaism. That law was not to pass away, to be ignored, but would need refinement, if it was to be of use in ordinary people's lives. The people who followed Jesus and the disciples, across the lake, were like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus had to teach all concerned, disciples and crowd alike, that they had to form a new community of faith, an assembly or church, dependant on one another for spiritual nourishment. That wouldn't come from outside or on high as in the case of Moses bringing enlightenment from Sinai. Jesus, on the contrary, ordered the disciples to feed the people with 'the makings' already in their possession. But, He first showed His primary and ultimate relationship with God by raising His eyes to heaven and blessing the loaves.
Our Church needs to restate its primary relationship with God, through Jesus, and the equally important identification with those who hunger and thirst for spiritual food. All of us, together, are the Church, not just our officials, who themselves need to hunger and thirst for justice and peace.
Read this Sunday's reflection or reflections from other Sundays by Father Maguire