Sunday 7 August 2005
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time - We know God to be silent - yet, we hear Him
The northern tribes of the Jews, known collectively as 'Israel', had invaded Canaan. It was about 1250 BC. They were led by Joshua. Over a long period of time, these Jews weakened in loyalty to the god who had led them through the desert to this promised land. They intermarried with local unbelievers and even attended pagan worship of local gods or 'baals' at many spots reserved as pagan sacred sites. Surrounded by such collective apostasy (defection), Elijah suffered discouragement, an occupational hazard for prophets. He decided to confront, on Mount Carmel, some pagan priests. He wanted to show his people how ill-advised was attachment to any other 'god', except the God who met Moses on Mount Sinai. Worn out with all the strife, Elijah decided to consult with God on that same Mount Sinai, just as Moses had centuries before. Elijah was glad he didnıt find god in a storm, earthquake or fire as had Moses. It would have confused him. Had he not preached against worship of natural phenomena held in such high regard by those pagans? But, meet God he did in a veiled presence within a gentle breeze (1 Kings 19:9, 11-13)!So with us modern believers. Living, as we do in a secular world, anxious in the face of rapid change, we know God to be silent yet, we hear Him. Like Elijah, we cover our faces and emerge from our most sacred place, the Eucharistic celebration, to tackle our prophetic mission.
Jesus made His disciples get into a boat because, again (Matthew 14:22-23) He was confronted by people who wanted Him to lead a political revolution against a Roman occupying force and a corrupt local government. Even some disciples were keen on this option. It was, after all, perfectly natural for them to think this way. They were Jewish. The idea and hope of a military messiah had dominated the national mind for hundreds of years. This misconception dogged Jesusı steps all the way to Calvary. (A variation of it tempts His Church regularly down the ages.) And so, at this decisive turning point in Jesusı life, we have a dramatic redefinition of His real mission. The role of itinerant rabbi, idol of the crowds, no longer corresponded to the Fatherıs plan of salvation. He, indeed, is a crisis in the life of God Himself. Consequently, Our Lord gave Himself exclusively to the task of intensive training of the Apostles, Peter in particular. He would reveal only to them His messianic power. This would strengthen their confidence in His Walking on the water was directed to this goal. He convinced Peter that He did have messianic powers to conquer Evil (symbolised by the water on which Peter trod). And, He made Peter realise that it wasnıt magic, but faith and trust.
Church leaders at all levels are called to the same degree of fidelity and confidence.
Sunday 14 August 2005
20th Sunday of Ordinary Time We do not own God. He's out there where ordinary people are
Our first reading (Isaiah 56:1, 6-7) comes from a prophetic person known as the third Isaiah. He wrote about 100 years after the Babylonian captivity (720s BC). Predicting that, despite appearances, everything would turn out all right for the devastated Jews, 'third Isaiah' introduced an idea already mooted by the much earlier 'first Isaiah'. This idea was a shock to many Jews who had developed a mean streak of nationalism, probably out of self-defence. This idea was that of universalism. When Martin Luther King's words rang out, 'I have a dream' he was restating Isaiah's prophecy. The people of Atlanta endorsed universalism when they reoccupied the city centre bombed during the Olympic games, 1996. The city centre belonged to everyone, black and white. It was the closest the poor of Atlanta could get to a place of Olympic celebration. Urban terrorism occupied that special place so long as citizens were too afraid to return. And, that's the kind of atmosphere predicted by Isaiah. Jerusalem would no longer be the centre of an exclusive religion. Non-Jews would take their places beside God's first chosen people. Admittedly, third Isaiah still predicted that the pagans would have to accept Jewish ways.God's plan, however, went further. Only Jesus could preach and live true universalism, attracting more and more hostile attention from the Jewish Authorities. But the seed faithfully sown many centuries before, had sprung to life in Jesus of Nazareth and blossoms, producing results, wherever and whenever men and women choose universalism against destructive separatism. So, Jesus was forced to withdraw to the relative quiet and safety of the northern border of Galilee. In fact, he strayed across the border into Syrian occupied Tyre. (Does nothing change? That region, now Lebanon, is plagued with hostilities involving Syria.) It wasn't God's plan that Jesus should preach anywhere other than the area occupied as homeland by the Jewish people. He was to concentrate on training the twelve apostles. They could then cross all borders, territorial and cultural, to bring the Gospel to the whole of humanity. Back to Jesus in Tyre. A local woman, naturally a pagan, heard that a special person, a Jew, was visiting her area. She had a young daughter tormented as they said in those days, by a demon. (In many parts of the world, even today, sickness is explained in the same terms.) This mother begged Jesus, reputed to have healing powers, to cure her daughter. All parents will recognise her feelings of desperation. They will have waited patiently many a time for medical help for their children. Jesus tested this mother a little further, not to torture her but to instruct the apostles who, typical Jews, were racist and supremacist. They thought the pagan woman cheeky, and presumptuous. Only Jews attracted favours from God! Jesus put an end to this religious exclusivism. He healed the pagan child and praised the woman's faith. Church, take notice! We do not own God. He's out there where ordinary people are. We are commissioned to make God's gifts more easily accessible to all His children.
Sunday 21 August 2005
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time - Lord, your love is eternal
Today's first reading (Isaiah 22: 19-23) is about a disgraced civil servant, Shebna, palace steward of King Hezekiah. The Jews had been dragged into yet another coalition against Assyria between 705 and 701 BC. Isaiah was doing his prophet's job of warning the king and ministers not to rely on alliances. They should get on with the business of establishing God's Kingdom where all citizens, of whatever rank, would live in peace and dignity. God meant the Jews to be a beacon of hope, first in the Middle East, then throughout the world. After the division of the twelve tribes into Northern and Southern Kingdoms in 931 BC Jewish Kings and their relatives were, in the main, interested in what wealth and power they could accumulate for themselves and their families. It is within this context of institutional corruption or sin that Isaiah denounced the indolent and self-serving Shebna. Another public servant, Eliakim, would take his place. Isaiah insisted that this Eliakim must do his duty by working to build national life on just and moral foundations. This would be the way, announced Isaiah to prepare wisely for an unknown future, knowing that God is the one who has planned history long ago. Assyria and Egypt would soon pass away, but the Kingdom of God, built in Jewish minds and hearts, would never pass away.Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
Our Gospel passage (Matthew 16:13-20) flows easily from the aforementioned prophecy of Isaiah. This Gospel incident took place within sight of a dominating landmark, the fortress of Caesarea Philippi. It was built by the Provincial Governor Phillip to copy the grandiose edifices built by the Romans. In its shadow, Our Lord announced that He would make St. Peter the rock upon which New Order, The Church, would be built. First, Peter declared Jesus to be God's special and unique agent, the Messiah. Then Jesus commissioned Peter to be the doorkeeper to the Kingdom. He wasn't Master or Father, he was doorkeeper. In this spirit later Popes would rightly describe themselves as Servant of the Servants. Jesus obviously intended that some in the Church would exercise leadership. Peter and his successors would exercise primary leadership. There would be leadership, or if you prefer authority, also exercised by the Apostles and their successors, the Bishops.
There was no intention of a centralist Church. The Pope and the Bishops together, in a college, as they say, would exercise communal authority. Many other voices from the vast numbers of lay people would be raised over the centuries to help the Pope and the Bishops in their role of doorkeepers. And there would be suffering, in imitation of Christ, to keep the leaders humble and compassionate.
Sunday 28 July 2005
22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: The sign of the Cross Overcomes
Jeremiah was only a boy when called by God, in 626B.C., to be his prophet. He came from a family of priests. He seems to be a depressed person. One of his earliest missions of reform, against irregular worship practices in the Temple, almost got him killed. He was tried for sacrilege and eventually acquitted. However, he never really got over the ordeal.We should read this extract (Jeremiah 20: 7-9) from Jeremiah's prophecy not just as a personal complaint but as a lingering doubt held by the whole Jewish nation about God's expectation for them. Jeremiah was describing the misery of Israel. His own misery is almost palpable in today's text. He felt seduced by God. It was especially painful for him to be ostracized by his own community. He had merely done his duty, as imposed by God. He had reminded people of certain duties and given spiritual witness. Why were these ungrateful people punishing him?
A person who reads about God and debates about God will never suffer the agony of the prophet. Only the prophetic person will experience within his or her soul the pain of a close encounter with God. But the pain is not destructive. It is the pain of love, since God is love.
It may well be that modern Catholics are called, individually and collectively, to experience such pain since, even more than good business management, the mission of prophecy in secular society lies on us as heavy responsibility.
And yet, as our responsorial psalm says, 'My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.' So today's gospel passage (Matthew 16:21-27) shows Jesus of Nazareth taking over where Jeremiah left off. Here we have the basis of Jesus' obedience on the cross, which our eucharistic celebration summons us to share. Peter is once again at the centre of the story. He had just identified Jesus as the Messiah, now he rejects the idea of suffering and death. Jesus turned his back on Peter's criticism as if it was a temptation. What he said then is addressed to his followers of every age: only by following him on the way to the cross will they arrive at full spiritual development. Peter's emotional knee-jerk reaction had to be countered by Jesus in a hard and blunt way. Time was running out. Official opposition to Jesus was growing. Popular support was weakening. Peter had much to unlearn. He, too, had to experience a real conversion, a restoration of mind and heart. That's why Jesus attacked him so forcefully. He meant to teach Peter to seek new directions of thinking and living.
Peter and his successors had to preserve this new attitude for all time to come. Only when office and spirit are given and fulfilled by Christ, only when they are sealed with Sign of the Cross do they overcome evil. The shadow of the Cross has fallen over our Church due to the misconduct of a few Church Officials. We shall indeed suffer but we shall rise again.
Sunday 4 September 2005
23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time: - Responsibility and Forgiveness
Ezekiel was called to be a prophet in extremely dangerous times for the Jewish people. The Babylonian army was preparing to overrun the entire region. To keep watch against attack, sentries were posted at all strategic points and on the ramparts of Jerusalem. Ezekiel used the current political crisis to call his people to accept responsibility for their inaction. He hadn' t been listened to. The enemy was at the very gate. Why should he go on preaching? It was too late. All was lost! Not so fast, said God. A prophet must continue to confront society even if no one listens. Otherwise the prophet will be held responsible for negligence (Ezekiel 33:7-9).There is a salutary lesson in this prophecy for us modern Catholics. We must continue to strive to correct society' s and the Church' s past mistakes. We must also continue the unpleasant but necessary prophetic mission to challenge the present generation, both in society and the Church, to accept individual and collective responsibility for current affairs.
We live in an era, a culture, of conflict. Years ago we scoffed at the ease with which northern Americans used litigation to right wrongs. We laughed too soon. Australians are now catching up fast. How do we implement Our Lord' s directions in our own day and age?
It would seem that Jesus wanted His disciples to launch a new order of reconciliation stressing forgiveness, even in our pursuit of terrorists. Not only did he teach His followers to triumph over personal sin. He also showed them that to forgive another was to triumph over that person' s sin (Matthew 18:15-20). They gradually found out how serious Jesus was about self- sacrifice as the only way to salvation. When Peter stood in front of Our Lord to block the path to destiny, Jesus recognised in his words the same spirit or demon that tested him in the desert.
Church leaders can sometimes impede God' s way forward. That is why they need collegiality as a salutary process in the discernment of the Spirit' s plan for contemporary disciples.
Sunday 11 September 2005
24th Sunday of ordinary time Forgiveness
In today' s first reading (Sirach 27:30-28:7), Ben Sira teaches that it is God alone who judges: the human person cannot take judgement upon himself. What is more, the story of the covenant (for the time being I' m using the word relationship instead of covenant) is the story of God' s unending pardon: we must imitate divine compassion.If Catholics are looking for a noble cause to pursue into the 21st Century, surely forgiveness and compassion fits the bill! First we must practice these virtues among ourselves and then hand our discoveries over to our secular brethren. We have a sacrament of reconciliation. We are called to be a sacrament within secular society.
Look to the responsorial psalm for the link between the two main readings: The Lord is kind and merciful; slow to anger and rich in compassion.
Today' s Gospel (Matthew 18:21-35) has Jesus tackle one of the thorniest problems confronting the human family conflict! In Jesus' times Jews were certainly taught to forgive. But, there was a scale to be observed. Each village rabbi had his own interpretation of this scale of pardon, e.g., if a daughter offends a parent, how often is she to be forgiven by the parent. There were schools of interpretation among the rabbis. Some agreed on a common scale, some varied their interpretation.
Peter, who still thought of Our Lord as an itinerant rabbi, asked about his going rate to cover disputes between brothers. Should he forgive a brother seven times (a very generous rate)? Jesus took this opportunity to teach his Gospel value of limitless forgiveness. He used his favourite teaching method, the parable, this time about a king (we can sense a reference to God) who forgave an immeasurable debt. There is no scale of pardon for Christians, no eye for an eye, no seven times for a brother, but an impossible to imagine, seventy times seven!
We must learn to forgive others as God has forgiven us. We may be unable to forget, even with post-trauma counselling, but we must forgive. Catholics celebrate sacramental pardon. They must also individually exercise a ministry of pardon, especially today when secular society is drowning in a culture of conflict, litigation and suspicion.
Sunday 18 September 2005
25th Sunday of ordinary time - An expedition of Discovery
According to this parable (Matthew 20:1-16), latecomers were paid the same lump sum as the early birds. Jesus used a village social security office as part of this parable. Men gathered there waiting for work to be offered. The latecomers were everyone other than the Jews the gentiles, the others - the Australians, for example. The Kingdom of God has been developing in Australia as long as human beings have been here. The Spirit has been at work in hearts and minds since creation. The Church came with the first fleet. Aboriginal people had a unique relationship with God through their own culture. There is a fashionable lobby at work to convince Australians that the old ways of dealing with God are the best. But, we immigrant Australians are the latecomers. We have our own ways, one of which is to expect new revelations of the Spirit to speak to each generation. Here in our parish, a previous aboriginal stamping ground, we Catholics are on an expedition of discovery to uncover new religious treasures. That is the Jesus way. We must not hoard the deposit of faith. We must develop it.The following editorial was taken from a 1982 parish newspaper. 'See your personal faith as an expression of Isaiah's dream. All parishes have patron saints. Sometimes that means nothing to local people except an identification tag. Often, parishioners know nothing of their patron's life and death and, so, cannot be expected to colour their lives with that saint's brand of Christianity.' What a pity! A patron can personalise a local church's view of itself and the world around it. Our two giants of Christian strength, Peter & Paul, have made it easier for me, at least, to find a focus for South Melbourne pastoral and missionary strategies. Ordained for the old church but destined to work in the new already inclined me towards ambivalence. Orthodox and unconventional is the style I personally adopt. To do the church's thing in one's own way is the best combination I can propose. In a nutshell, Peter kept the faith, Paul made sure it was shared around especially among people previously thought to be ineligible. The faith has been preserved here in South by staunch and loyal Catholics. But each generation has to find its own expression of Catholicism. This book (Isaiah 55:6-9) illustrates that never-ending search for the contemporary presentation of the Word of the Lord. Peter was blessed with a rock solid conviction that Jesus had conquered sin and death. Paul couldn't rest until everyone everywhere had heard the name and had been shown the way.
25 September 2005
26th Sunday of ordinary time Remember, O Lord, Your Mercy
Ezekiel, a young priest, shared exile in Babylon with thousands of other Jews. He wrote in the late 500s BC. The best and brightest citizens were taken away in waves. The perpetrators had a primitive view of justice. Individuals received no mercy though personally innocent. If you were a member of a tribe, a family, an ethnic group, you were guilty by association.The whole of chapter 18 (Ezekiel 18) is a skilful lesson in a revealed truth that God rewards and punishes only those personally responsible. Ezekiel knew that the exile would end, sooner or later, and that spiritually reconstructed Jews would return home equipped to rebuild the Kingdom of God in Palestine. They, with their new-found enthusiasm for good religion, would reform Judaism and prepare the nation to receive the promised Messiah. The torch carried by the true believers would survive in families and groups until the voice cried out in the wilderness and another reform began on the banks of the river Jordan, 600 years after Ezekiel, but like one long night in God's time.
Today's responsorial psalms links, as usual our two main scripture passages: 'Remember your mercies, O Lord.' The gist of our gospel (Matthew 21:28-32) is this. When a person recognizes his or her error and changes his or her ways, God is prepared to forget his earlier lapses and remembers what he has done now. The tax collectors and prostitutes accepted by Jesus had this experience of reconciliation. We need to remember that Matthew's gospel was probably written in Antioch, Syria, for a pretty wealthy Christian community struggling to establish itself in the face of hostility from local orthodox Jews. Matthew was very hard on the Jewish religious leadership for inciting persecution of the Christian minority. In this context, today's passage makes more impact.
Matthew recorded Our Lord's criticism of the Chief priests and the authorities. Well educated, as they were in the Law of Moses, they rejected John the Baptist's call to conversion, even though it was a reaffirmation of the core message of the revered prophets over seven centuries. Instead, despised elements of Jewish society, prostitutes and money grabbing tax collectors, with little or no grasp of Jewish religious education, jumped at the opportunity to turn from sin and follow the Gospel. There's a cautionary tale here for modern Catholics, especially us clerical, religious and lay leaders.
With respect, many of us persist in putting the new wine of the Gospel, for example, Vatican 2 insights, into old wineskins, outdated and arbitrary institutions and procedures, and then complain when the old wineskins burst and the new wine is lost to a whole generation.
Sunday 2 October, 2005
27th Sunday of ordinary time- The Church God's Vineyard
All that follows casts light on current affairs.The ancestors of the Jews of Isaiah's time were semi-nomadic. After the settlement in Palestine, about 1200 BC, the Jews still tended flocks of animals but, also, planted vines to produce grapes. Vineyards became a rich source of imagery for prophets whose mission was to regularly call the Jewish people back to God and His ways.
In today's first reading (Isaiah 5:1-7) we have one of the strongest and finest examples of this prophetic use of the vineyard as image of the Jewish people in their intimate relationship with God. Here we have God portrayed as their loving 'husband'. The Jewish religion had become formalized with a heavy burden of regulations governing worship and morality. Isaiah wrote about God's impatience that His chosen people were unable to be fruitful, after hundreds of years since the first heady days of King David. Isaiah foretold the disastrous consequences of preferring a narrow nationalism to an all-embracing spiritual mission to build the Kingdom of God on earth. The vineyard would, unhappily, lie in ruins until the faithful minority would gather around a future Messiah, hundreds of years away. The covenant or relationship would become so intimate then that the Messiah could say 'I am the vine, you are the branches'.
Psalm 74, our responsorial psalm, links our two main scripture readings, 'The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.'
At the time when Jesus preached today's parable, the relevant circumstances were those of the contemporary economy. I'm grateful to Maertens and Frisque for the following insights. The country was divided into huge estates which belonged mainly to foreigners. The Galilean and Judean peasants, who rented these lands, displayed, under the influence of zealot propaganda, a lively opposition towards such owners. It's improbable that Jesus had in mind the modest vineyard of Isaiah 5. Killing the heir was one sure way of getting possession of the land it went legally to the first occupant after vacancy caused by murder.
Jesus was confronting the religious and secular government of the Jewish people. He had often preached that his Good News would fall on their deaf ears and be taken seriously by the 'little ones' of Israel. The rich and powerful would indeed kill the owner's son but they would not inherit the vineyards. It would become the workshop of the new Israel, the Church. The Church wouldn't own the vineyard (Church history provides many misguided attempts to do so) but would work in God's vineyards. Christians must remember we are not greater than the vineyard. We are a part of it.
Sunday 9 October 2005
28th Sunday of Ordinary Time: The Church - God's vineyard: I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life
During the last millennium BC, the status and performance of the Jewish monarchy deteriorated into chaos. Consequently, as we hear today from Isaiah (Isaiah 25:6-10), God's chosen people were called to return their throne to God or disappear from His story, as had all other human monarchies. Isaiah foretold a glorious reinvestiture of God as King. Without the help of audiovisuals, three-dimensional pictures or rap around stereophonic sound, the prophet used powerfully the only tool available - words! The status of the person enthroned was judged by the quantity and quality of the food and drink provided. Isaiah leaves nothing to the imagination in that respect. And the banquet would be open to all, not just Jews! This is a special theological insight provided by Isaiah. It's a preview of the mission of the kingdom - launched by Jesus - universal, catholic and apostolic.Responsorial psalm 22 provides the link between our two main Scripture readings. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
We know now that the 'house of the Lord' isn't the temple in Jerusalem, St Peter's in Rome or, even, our own local church. It's a 'house' of living stones, true believers or disciples, and is filled with the invisible Spirit. However, not everyone, even religious people, wants to live in the house of the Lord as described above. The same misguided idea that dogged the spiritual development of the Jews, that God was with only special people in special places at special times, handicaps many a Catholic even today.
Now to the first part of today's parable (Matthew 22:1-14), which echoes the controversies between Jesus and the Pharisees: their hostility to God's messengers and to Him would exclude them from the eternal banquet. Consequently, all manner of people would be invited to share in the glorious banquet of spiritual 'goodies'.
Matthew had a wide experience of early Christian communities. He realised, unlike Luke, that material poverty had little to do with justice of the kingdom. He insisted more, for that reason, on moral performance and on right relations with God. He reminded Christians, then and now, that being born into the Church does not guarantee salvation. Conversion and self-reformation must always be an essential part of individual and collective church life. This is what is meant by the puzzling, to some of us, second part of the parable about the rejection of the man who sought to 'belong' without putting on the garment so kindly provided by the host for the needy
Sunday16 2005
29th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Give to the Lord Glory and Honour
Conflict in the Middle East seems to be ageless. It's on and off as I write and you read. It was off for a while in about 550 BC. King Cyrus of Persia was enormously successful in battle. He had conquered Babylon. His first act was to liberate prisoners of war held there, including Hebrews.In today's first reading (Isaiah 45:1,4-6) Isaiah, himself a prisoner, praises God's plan even though he was not Hebrew. This is the only place in the Old Testament where a non-Jew is called the anointed one of God just like David, a Jewish legend, if ever there was one. This was an incredible compliment for the Jews who reckoned Yahweh was theirs and theirs alone.
Thus, we are asked to recognise the work of God being done in society by people not of our persuasion. Jesus Christ acted through those who did not yet believe in Him. 'Political and cultural changes, though they appear at times to be against Church interests, may destroy many superstitions and false gods' (Christian Community Bible).
Back to Cyrus. His intervention, doing the God of Israel's work, without even knowing it, was remarkable in its own style, especially in those bloodthirsty times. Cyrus did not reduce Babylon to a heap of ruins. The men were not massacred. The women were not violated; the children were not hurled against rocks. The occupation of Babylon was achieved without the shedding of blood.
Psalm 95 links the two main readings, 'give the Lord glory and honour'.
Our Gospel passage (Matthew 22:15-21) deals with the entrapment tactics used against Jesus by a coalition of Herodians, Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew records for us Jesus' admirable way of dealing with the thorny question of paying taxes to the foreign Roman state. It shows Jesus as apolitical. For him, you could be a good citizen, (no matter who is in government) and, also, a God-fearing person. He reckoned if you used the goods and services provided by the state, you had an obligation to contribute through tax payments.
From the beginning of European occupation of Australia, Catholics have had to spell out their relationship with civil authority. (Today, Muslims do!) They did so pretty successfully until the question arose of loyalty to the British crown, especially during two world wars. A problem also arose when Catholic leaders in Australia fought for the right to Government support for church schools. We are in for another period of soul-searching as Australians sort out their preferences in the coming debate about Iraq. Catholics can live with 'Yes' or 'No' vote in the light of today's Gospel.
Read this Sunday's reflection or reflections from other Sundays by Father Maguire