Sunday, 7 January 2007

Feast of the Epiphany - Lord, every nation on earth will adore you!

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 the 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 enabled, 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 enlighten me!)

Matthew wrote to reassure Jewish Christians of their 'Kosher' lineage, spiritual inheritance. In today's reading (Matthew 2:1-12), he was 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! Scriptures use legends to advance a good cause.

Let us keep to the essential: the child worshipped by the Magi inaugurates a universal kingdom.

Sunday, 14 January 2007

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations

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' by '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 Christ.

Responsorial Psalm 95 links our two main scripture readings 'Proclaim his marvellous deeds to all the nations'.

Let's repeat that the most marvellous deed done by God was the marriage between Himself and humanity. That's the real marriage John highlighted when telling of the Cana wedding.

John's gospel version (John 2: 1-11), written probably around 90 AD, 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 were 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 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 specialty - to teach us that, in the final analysis, Jesus is the mystery of God made flesh.

Sunday, 21 January 2007

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Your words, Lord, are spirit and life

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 would 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, meditate and respond by signing 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 (or reciting) 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, where he had grown up, he wasn't well received at all! The reading of the day was for 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 Nineveveh 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 (Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21).

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, 28 January 2007

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time - In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord

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 becoming '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 activist.

For those of us, who feel called to a activist, 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.

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 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 its dark nights of the human soul. Helping it to rise above evil by seeking a greater measure of equality, more stable peace, a greater opportunity for the world's 'small' people to improve their lot. The Church need have no fear of this mission. Despite Dawkins, God is with us.

Sunday, 4 February 2007

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 becoming '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 activist.

For those of us, who feel called to a activist, 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.

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 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 its dark nights of the human soul. Helping it to rise above evil by seeking a greater measure of equality, more stable peace, a greater opportunity for the world's 'small' people to improve their lot. The Church need have no fear of this mission. Despite Dawkins, God is with us.

Sunday, 11 February 2007

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Happy are they who trust in the Lord

You may know this 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 (Jeremiah: 17: 5-8) 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 I echoes the sentiments of Jeremiah: 'Happy are they who trust in the Lord.'

You may be shocked by Luke's language in this passage (Luke 6: 17, 20-26). 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 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, the materially poor were blessed by God for the very reason that they were totally dependent on others and circumstances. They were in the best position to experience the kindness of God. He would watch over them as a parent, a fathermother God.

This gospel is the scriptural foundation for the regular 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.

Let us keep to the essential: the child worshipped by the Magi inaugurates a universal kingdom.

Sunday, 18 February 2007

7th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Love your enemies

But, he believed, against all odds, that Saul had been anointed 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, even Osama, according to a Melbourne suburban Church notice board. 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 is no more than the rude vestige 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'.

Jewish people had been brought up with national pride as virtue number one. They were born God's people and were therefore, not 'good' people. They were 'enemies', 'gentiles', 'outsiders', and 'sinners'. So it was Jesus living dangerously when he taught that Jews should love their enemies (Luke 6: 27 - 38). He wasn't 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.

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, 25 February 2007

1st Sunday of Lent - Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble

Today's text from Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 26: 4-10), written by priests in about 700 BC, sketches the broad outline of this unique story. Let me pick out the 'peak experiences' proclaimed in today's text. 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 (Luke 4:1-13), 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.

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 temptation like those recorded in today's gospel. 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, didn't see Jesus as a symbol of the chosen people in the desert.

Matthew did, and his similar desert episode, meant 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'.

Church today is called to celebrate and preach this victory won by Jesus, given to us embodied in heroic life-styles, Christian or not.

Sunday, 4 March 2007

2nd Sunday of Lent - God' s glory shone out of Jesus himself

Among those tribes on the way to Egypt were some very prominent families whose leader was Abraham. 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 (Genesis 15: 5-12, 17-18). 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, many 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 Torah (Our OT). 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 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 modern disciples celebrate together our Sunday liturgy of Word and Eucharist, we also proclaim that we are spiritual children of Abraham, our father in faith.

Sunday, 11 March 2007

3rd Sunday of Lent - God often waits on a person in this or that desert of life

Briefly, he had been born a Hebrew but brought up Egyptian, ironically ending up working in Pharaoh's administration. His Hebrew background providentially caught up with him one day. On an official visit to the Hebrew slave precinct, he remonstrated with a cruel Egyptian foreman, killing him. The Hebrews didn't thank him for that. They were punished. Moses was on the run. He fled into the desert. Moses married into a nomadic family, descended from Abraham, and led by a priest Jethro, who followed the religious customs of Abraham's free descendants.

God often waits on a person in this or that desert life. During those times, apparently so harsh and empty, God prepares His servant, while heart and generosity remain intact despite circumstances. So it was that God commissioned Moses to return with wife and son, on a donkey, to Egypt, to do battle with Pharaoh, over the detention of the Hebrews. Jesus of Nazareth, 1000 years later, came out of Egypt to do battle with the evil empire, which had enslaved so many good people.

In today's Gospel (Luke 13: 1-9) we are informed about an incident, a current affair, when some locals report to Jesus that Roman soldiers had massacred some Galileans holding a violent demonstration in the Temple precinct. His audience expected Jesus to call for an immediate and bloody reprisal against the Romans. He refused. Instead, he challenged the informers to take stock of themselves and their own attitudes. Once again, and many times thereafter, he refused to accept the role many Jews wanted to thrust on him. They had long expected a military Messiah. They wanted to know if Jesus was their man and up to a fight.

He, on the other hand, wanted to know if his compatriots were willing and able to give up their mistaken view of reward and punishment, taught to them relentlessly at home and in the synagogue. These misguided people were brainwashed to expect reward and punishment in their life. They knew precious little of life after death. Jesus wanted them to know that only God discerns the real good and bad in people.

The parable of the fig tree reinforced His message. God is patient and concedes the time to change for people willing to convert fundamental attitudes. Our parishes are called to be learning centres of mercy and forgiveness not fear and discrimination.

Read this Sunday's reflection or reflections from other Sundays by Father Maguire