Sunday, March 17, 2024

5th Sunday of Lent Year B (Gospel: John 12:20-33) Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies it remains just a single grain




 

Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.’

 

A survey was done in America a few years ago to see who were the happiest people and why. The survey found that the happiest people were old African-American women. The second happiest people were old Hispanic women. The third happiest group of people were old women in general. Why? Because they had suffered so much throughout their lives. They had grown so much through what they had suffered and now they were generally quite content and very little would put them out. And I notice the same thing with many of the older people in my work. Most of them are quite happy and patient, much more patient that young people. 

 

We always wonder when we see people suffering, why they have to suffer so much, especially at the end of their life. We feel they have had enough suffering and they should be able to relax a bit now. Today, euthanasia is presented to us as a way to avoid suffering, but that goes against what God teaches us. Only God can give and take life. Also, the suffering that people go through can be transformative. Sometimes you can see how it changes people and families. If we deliberately cut that out through euthanasia, we may be depriving someone of a really important step in their journey, only we can’t see it.

 

If you think of times of suffering that you have been through and people go through the most horrendous ordeals. But when you look back, you can often see that it helped us to grow, mature, become wiser, more compassionate, even though we would rather not go through it.

 

We look at death as the end of the life we know and to us this life is everything, because it is the only thing we know. When we are dying we are coming to the end of all that we see as good and worthwhile. But if you imagine what it would be like if we could step over that threshold into the next life and look back. Then we wouldn’t see death as the end of everything, rather as the final and most important step of the journey to heaven. Then we would probably realize how important it is to be ready for that very important step. We would realize that this life is only a preparation for the next life. You could call it a training ground, to learn the ways of God and to choose to love him and follow in his steps, or not.

 




If the next life is forever, then the preparation that we make for it in this life is extremely important. God knows this better than we do, so He helps us to learn in the most effective way possible, which is often through suffering. It’s not that God makes us suffer. Suffering is part of this life, but God uses it to help us to learn what is really important. And you can see in the hospitals, the effect that suffering often has on people. People who sometimes come in arrogant and full of themselves, are soon humbled and realize that they are no better than anyone else, and that they too have to wait their turn.

 

I remember visiting a man who had just been admitted to hospital. He was there with his wife. His wife told me that he was a movie producer and obviously wanted me to realize how important he was. She kept emphasizing how important he was. A few days later he was still there, but was just like all the other patients, having to wait his turn. His earthly importance didn’t make him any more special when it came to his mortality.

 

It says in the second reading, ‘Although he was Son, Christ learnt to obey through suffering’ and that ‘He was made perfect through suffering.’ Christ didn’t want to suffer any more than we do, but he trusted in the Father’s will. If you think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He begged the Father if there was any way that he could avoid going through what was facing him. ‘Father if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will, but yours’ (Mt 26:39). We don’t want to suffer either, but we must also learn to trust that God knows what He is doing. One of the hardest parts of suffering is that we can’t see any point to it, or any good outcome from it. If we knew that it would have a good outcome, that would help us endure, but we can’t see anything.

 

The society that we live in tells us continually that we should have everything as we want it and that we shouldn’t have to suffer. Everything is for our pleasure and our fulfillment, but that’s not what Jesus taught us. He said, ‘Try to enter by the narrow door’ (Lk 13.24). And he said, ‘Anyone who loves his life loses it’. In other words, if you want to follow the ways of God, which lead to heaven, then it will require change, humility and God will teach you how to grow in your spirit, so that when we die, we will be more ready to meet him. That means we won’t always be able to have everything as we want it. We are called to sacrifice, rather than seek self-fulfillment. This generally happens through the ongoing challenges that we face through our life. You who have children know how much sacrifice is involved in raising a family and in being married and in religious life and in any way of life where we try to follow the Lord.

 

It is no wonder Satan offers us so much pleasure and temptation, because he doesn’t want us to get to heaven and this world is the only one in which he can destroy us, by trying to make us choose against God. Jesus called him ‘The prince of this world, a liar and deceiver,’ because he tempts us through this world. He tells us, ‘God doesn’t love you. See how He makes you suffer. God is unjust. If God were really good, He would make your life happy.’ We are in the middle of a spiritual battle and that’s why we need to arm ourselves with the spiritual strength that God gives us.

 




St. Paul writes, ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 6:12). How did he know this? Because God revealed it to him. But if we live as though none of this is real, as so many people do, then we leave ourselves wide open to the workings of Satan and his minions, who are constantly trying to lead us away from God, with worldly temptations and what seems to be the easier way.  

 

How do we fight the dark spiritual powers? Through prayer, reading God’s word, receiving the Eucharist at mass, going to confession and living as the Lord shows us how to live. The Scriptures keep reminding us of what is true and acceptable to God. They are usually the opposite of worldly values and this is why we need to keep hearing them, so that we are not deceived.

 

So I must ask myself, do I want to live what God shows me? It is the narrow winding path, but it is also the path that leads to God. If we allow him to, God will transform us through all that we go through here on earth, the good and bad.

Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it produces much fruit.’

 



Saturday, March 9, 2024

4th Sunday of Lent Yr B (Gospel: John 3:14-21) Forgiveness and repentance

 


 

Every time I celebrate the mass there is one line more than any other that seems to stay in my mind. It is the last line of the prayer the priest says over the chalice at the consecration: ‘This is the chalice of my blood. It will be shed for you and for many so that sins may be forgiven.’ That phrase, ‘so that sins may be forgiven,’ is really what the whole mass is about, and indeed what the whole of Jesus life was about: ‘So that sins may be forgiven.’

 

Jesus came among us so that our sins could be taken away, so that we could be healed. That fact alone should give us great courage, because it means that God is totally for us, even when we have fallen into sin. The Lord is not interested in our sin, He is interested in us. He wants us to be healed, to be at peace, to be happy and to reach our full potential. ‘I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord’ (Phil 4:4). And that is also why He challenges us to repent and to keep coming back to God, no matter what happens, because God knows much better than we do that sin is the one thing that can block us from God and God is ultimately our happiness. If we lose God we will also lose our happiness, because nothing else can fulfil us.

 

There is a great story in the Old Testament about King David. It would make a great movie. David—who is now a very powerful king with everything he could ask for—is walking one day on the roof of his house and he sees a beautiful woman in a nearby garden taking a bath. He asks who she is and he is told that she is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. She is married. Because he is king and used to getting his own way, he has her brought to him and he sleeps with her. Some time later she sends a message to him to tell him that she is pregnant. Now he is afraid, because he knows he is going to be found out. So he sends for her husband Uriah, who is away in battle, fighting for him. When Uriah comes, David asks him how the war is going, how the morale is among the men, etc. Later he invites him to dine with him and then he sends him away and says, ‘Go home to your wife and tomorrow I’ll let you return to the battle.’ But Uriah doesn’t go to his house. Perhaps he is suspicious. Instead he sleeps at the door of the palace with the servants. 

 

The next day when David finds out that he didn’t go home to his wife, he invites him again to come and eat with him. This time he gets Uriah drunk and then tells him to go home to his wife, but again Uriah sleeps at the gate of the palace. Now David is getting desperate, so the following day, David sends Uriah back to the battle with a letter to his senior officer telling him to place Uriah in the thick of the battle and then to pull back so that he is killed. So Uriah goes back to the war carrying his own death warrant and he is killed.

 




So we have lust, adultery, lies, betrayal and murder, all committed by the so-called ‘great’ King David. But because God loves David, He doesn’t let him away with it and so he sends the prophet Nathan to David, who tells him the following story.

 

Nathan says to David, ‘There was once a rich man who lived in a city. He had all he wanted: huge farms, many servants etc. There was also a poor man in the same city who had just one little lamb. And he loved the lamb like one of his own children. One day a stranger came to the rich man, but instead of taking one of his own flock for the meal, the rich man took the poor man’s lamb and had it killed instead.’  When David heard this he jumped up in a rage and said, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die.’ And Nathan says to David: ‘You are the man.’

 

Now David is considered one of the greatest kings of ancient Israel and the reason is because of what he does next. When David hears the Prophet Nathan’s accusation he says, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ David was powerful enough to be able to do anything he wanted, but when God challenges him, he is also big enough to confess that he has done wrong and he repents of the sin.

 

It is because God loves us that He challenges us to acknowledge our wrongdoing and repent of it, so that we can remain close to him. The Lord doesn’t want our downfall. On the contrary, the Lord wants us to be able to be at peace, which is why He offers us the extraordinary gift of his mercy and forgiveness through confession and we can have this gift as often as we ask for it, but we must ask for it. Sadly, many have come to see confession as a burden, or as something inflicted on us, a duty, an obligation; but this is to see it completely backwards. Confession is a gift of healing that God has given us, so that we can be free and live in peace, because that is what God wants for us. God challenges us to confess, so that we can be healed. It is for our benefit.

 



The greatest healing ministry of the Church is the forgiveness of sins. ‘You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church... Whoever’s sins you forgive they are forgiven; whoever’s sins you retain, they are retained’ (Mat 16:18ff.). And in St. John’s Gospel after the resurrection Jesus appears to the Apostles and says, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Those whose sins you forgive are forgiven. Those whose sins you retain are retained.’ (Jn 20:22). And now the Lord continues to offer us that forgiveness through the priesthood, which is a wonderful thing because it is a very concrete way of knowing, through another human being, that our sins are completely forgiven. We need that concreteness and God knows that.

 

As we watch the chaos of our own society around us and the evil that seems to continue to grow, the best way we can begin to bring about change is by repenting ourselves. We ask God’s forgiveness for our own sins. That is the way to get ready for the coming of Jesus.  There is no point in pointing out the sins of others if I am not willing to begin by acknowledging and confessing my own sins. That is the way to begin to improve life in our families, our workplaces and our world. We must begin with ourselves.

 

Why do I have to confess to a priest?

God in his wisdom, knows exactly what helps us most and He knows that we need to be held accountable. And so He gave us the priesthood, so that we can make ourselves accountable to one of his ministers and that also takes humility on our part. Who wants to acknowledge to another person that they have sinned? No one, because there is a certain humility needed. But God also knows that that is the only way we should come before him, in humility, acknowledging our own sinfulness. There is no other way we should come before God. And if you find yourself saying, ‘I don’t need to confess to a priest, I can tell God I am sorry myself,’ then you are telling God that you don’t need the gift that He gave us through the priesthood. ‘I don’t need your gift. I can do it my own way.’

 

In Matthew chapter 9, we have the account of a paralysed man being brought to Jesus on a stretcher, in the hope that Jesus would heal him. Jesus begins by saying, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’ And the Pharisees say, ‘Who is this man to say he can forgive sins?’ And I’m sure the onlookers could care less about the forgiveness of the man’s sins. They were hoping for his healing. But then Jesus goes on to say, ‘“But to show you that the Son of man has the power to forgive sins,” He said to the paralytic, “Get up. Take up your mat and go home.”’ And the man was healed.

 

Why did Jesus start by saying, “Your sins are forgiven”? because He is showing us that there is a direct connection between our begin healed and the forgiveness of our sins. We tend to focus only on the physical, but we are body and spirit. The two are intimately linked. What happens to one affects the other.

 

 


 

Receiving God’s grace through confession, heals us. One of the privileges of being a priest is to hear confession and to see the change that takes place in people when they confess, especially when they confess serious sins they have been carrying for a long time. You can see the change in their face. A burden is lifted from them. They become more at peace. That doesn’t happen when you tell God you are sorry by yourself. That happens when you confess to a priest and I know because I see it constantly and it is a beautiful thing to see.

 

So often I hear someone confessing a serious sin from their past, which they have been too ashamed to confess up to that point. When they confess it, they often cry and you can see the burden that has been lifted from them. That is the grace of confession, the healing that comes from confession. I’m sure they told God they were sorry for that sin hundreds of times, but it is not the same. They weren’t healed when they did, because they didn’t do it the way God asks us to. God wants to heal us, but we need to listen to what God tells us to do. In the letter of St. James (5:16) he says, ‘Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.’

 

You often hear me talk about apparitions, because they are important and heaven speaks to us through them. One of the things that is always said by Our Lady, is that we need to confess our sins to a priest; not by ourselves, but to a priest, because this is what brings healing and because this is what God asks us to do.

 

We have a psychological need to tell someone about our sins. When you listen to these chat shows on TV or the radio, when people tell the whole world about their infidelities, that is confession. Confessing our sins is part of what sets us free. When we confess to a priest in confession we also receive God’s grace, which you could call divine strength, because God wants to heal us. It is his gift to us. So if you can do one important thing this Lent, go to confession and don’t let the devil tell you that you don’t need to. Satan does not want you to confess, because he knows how powerful it is.

 

This is the chalice of my blood…It will be poured out for you and for many, so that sins may be forgiven.’

 

 


Sunday, March 3, 2024

3rd Sunday of Lent, Year B (John 2:13-25) The commandments are our freedom

 




I grew up in a large family, with three brothers and three sisters. It was a strict enough family and of course most of the time I resented the various rules we were given. I wanted to have things my way, but I wasn’t allowed to have them my way all the time, or there would have been chaos. Now that I am older, I can see the wisdom of a lot of the rules that we were given, but at the time they often seemed unfair, or annoying at the very least. What we were taught served its purpose and helped to form us as children. It helped us to learn that there are basic guidelines that we all must adhere to if a family is to work.

 

A few years ago a friend of mine was at a business conference in Dublin and one of the speakers was saying that as a society we have forgotten some of the basic principles of living, such as honesty and integrity, respect for the human being. He was saying it was largely because of that neglect that we ended up in the last financial crisis we found ourselves in. Honesty and respect for the human being should be the norm and not the exception. If these are the principles out of which we operate, our society will be a lot healthier. 

 

A young man asked me was it wrong to lie? He was an intelligent man too. One of the commandments tells us ‘You must not bear false witness’, that also means, ‘You must not lie.’ That gives you an idea of the kind of confusion that is around us.

 

I know that in the past many people have had bad experiences of an over-demanding Church, which for a while seemed to focus too much on sin and everything that was wrong. I heard an old priest in Ireland joking that in the Church in Ireland of the 1950s, almost everything was a mortal sin and everything else was forbidden! That is not healthy. God wants us to be alive and to enjoy our life on earth. If religion just becomes a series of laws, then something is wrong. The teachings of our faith are meant to help us grow in our relationship with God and grow as people. God’s teachings are there to help us. The most basic of these are the Commandments and the 613 laws that God taught Moses to govern our whole society.

 

Everything God gives us and asks of us, is to help us. God tells us that if we want to do well as a society, if we want to flourish, then we need to stick to these principles: It is wrong to murder, to commit adultery, to steal, to lie, to cheat. We must honour God and keep God at the center of all that we do. And that includes keeping Sunday as a holy day, a day when God is worshiped because God deserves to be worshiped.

 




When the Jewish people remained faithful to God, their society flourished. The Commandments gave them the direction they needed, so that things would work for them as individuals and as a society and that included all kinds of laws for day-to-day living (613 laws), even down to laws as to how to conduct business fairly, so that everyone would benefit. The wisdom in the Old Testament—especially the first five books of the Old Testament which make up the Torah, or Law—is amazing, so amazing that it could only have come from God.

 

The Commandments are essentially a blueprint for living. If we follow these commandments and do our best to live them, we will do well as individuals and flourish as a society. God’s teachings help us to grow closer to him and to become 'the best version of ourselves’ that we can be. That is basically what God told the people through Moses, some 4000 years ago and those principles have not changed. 

 

Throughout the centuries the people continually strayed away from the Commandments and worshipped false gods and when they did this their society began to fall apart and their enemies began to gain the upper hand, like what we see happening around us. Then they realised what they had done and they asked forgiveness from God and tried to be faithful again. The Bible is essentially a collection of stories showing this. The people continually strayed away from God, get into trouble, then realise their mistake and ask forgiveness and God always helps them back on their feet, helping them that God must be at the center.

 

Another thing that has not changed is that we are still very good at coming up with reasons why we don’t have to keep God’s Commandments. People have always been good at coming up with excuses, but ultimately we are going against the very thing that will help us. 

 

We talk a lot about freedom in our country and all the people who have fought and laid down their lives so that we can be free and thank God we do enjoy great freedom. But true freedom comes about when we choose what is good. Doing anything we want sounds like freedom, but if it is without God given laws to guide us, then it usually means we lean towards what is sinful. Living by the principles God gives us is what leads us to true freedom. Choosing to live a life of sin may seem like freedom, but in fact it is a kind of slavery, because what is sinful will ultimately destroy us and it does not bring happiness. Saying that we must abide by laws may sound like we are not free, but in fact that is what leads us to the greatest interior freedom. No laws lead to chaos, both in our society and as individuals.

 




God’s creation has an order to it. We can see in nature that there are certain natural laws that make everything work. The planets must follow a particular order or they will crash into each other. Traffic has to follow a particular order, or there is chaos. As human beings, we also have to follow a particular order, or there is chaos. God is the one who shows us exactly what that order is. When our society decides that we no longer need God or the order that He gives us, it leads to chaos.

 

If God is pushed out, something else will take its place. Communism is a perfect example. Communism denies God and the state takes God’s place. Everything must obey the state and the human being has no worth or value, so it can be disposed of at will.

 

Adolph Hitler based his new world order on replacing the Ten Commandments, with a ‘higher order,’ his order, a man-made order.

This is what we are fighting against… the curse of so-called morals… against the so-called ten commandments.’[i]

 

This was why he wanted to destroy the Jewish people, because the Ten Commandments were given to the world through them. As long as they existed, they were a threat to him, because they brought the Ten Commandments.

 

Jesus spoke about this in the parable about a demon being cast out:

When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it roams through arid regions searching for rest, but on finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning it finds it swept and clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself, who move in and dwell there and the last condition of that person is worse than the first. (Luke 11: 24-26)

 




Notice how it says when the spirit returns it finds things have been put in order. What Jesus is saying is that if God is not there, there is a void and something will fill that void.

 

In an actual exorcism, if a person who has been freed of any kind of evil does not replace that evil—whether it is actually something demonic, or just destructive behavior like an addiction—the evil will just return. The various twelve-step programs show this. If someone is to overcome an addiction, they have to replace that addiction with a healthier behavior, or they will just relapse. The same thing happens on the bigger scale too. If God is taken out of society, evil will take its place. There won’t just remain a void.

 

This will mean that I can’t have everything my way, but we must choose who it is we wish to serve. If God asks us to keep Sunday holy, what takes priority, worshipping God, or something else? If we live by the Commandments it will make us different from many others, but it has always been that way and that is where we must decide who it is we wish to follow. 

 

It is tempting to say, ‘I’m sure God doesn’t mind,’ or ‘God will understand.’ But if God doesn’t mind, then why did He give us the commandments in the first place? Why did Jesus get angry when he saw how the temple was being turned into a business instead of a place of prayer? There is nowhere in Scripture where it says God doesn’t mind and all that Jesus taught shows us that God certainly does mind.

 

God revealed himself to the Jewish people as a moral God, who will hold us accountable for our actions. That was unique in ancient Israel. Before this there was never an understanding of God being moral, or interested in our well-being. 

 

It keeps going back to the same thing. God created us to share in his happiness. God shows us how to live so that we will enjoy that happiness, but we still have to choose who we will serve.

 

I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before me.’ 

 



[i] Herman Rauschning, "Preface," The Ten Commandments: Ten Short Novels of Hitler's War Against the Moral Code, ed. Armin L. Robinson (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1943), xiii.

 


Saturday, February 24, 2024

2nd Sunday of Lent Year B (Gospel: Mark 9:2-10) God speaks in the cloud

 



 

I have often heard people say that the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son is so horrific that maybe it shouldn’t be read at all. It is meant to be horrific. The point is that God asks the unthinkable of Abraham, but more importantly Abraham trusts God even though it makes no sense to him. Child sacrifice was common at that time. Not only was it horrific that he should be asked to sacrifice his child, but it was also through this only child that God had promised him many offspring. So, nothing at all made sense. Not only that, but it was a three-day journey to where he was to make the sacrifice, so he had three days to think it over. It wasn’t a spontaneous response. Abraham suddenly finds himself in a situation of complete darkness, where nothing was right, nothing made sense, but Abraham trusts God and then everything changes at the last minute. God put Abraham ‘to the test’ not in the sense of seeing if he was good enough—God knew how much faith Abraham had to begin with—but because He wanted to stretch that faith to its full capacity. It also shows that human sacrifice is not acceptable to God.

 

An athlete won’t reach his or her full potential unless they are pushed to their limit. A good trainer should see the potential in them that they are probably unaware of themselves and if they are a good trainer, they will push them so that they will reach their full potential. Sometimes God does the same with us. He knows what we are capable of, more than we do ourselves and sometimes He stretches, or pushes us to the limit, because God wants us to reach our full potential as human beings. The more we remain open to God, the more He will draw us to himself, bringing us deeper and deeper in our faith, but that always happens through times of crisis.

 

Did you ever notice that sometimes when you pray for a situation to get better, it gets worse first? There is a temptation to panic and not pray any more, but if we believe that God is listening to us and helping us—and Jesus tells us that God always hears and always answer us (Matt 7:7-8)—then we persevere in prayer and we try to trust that the Lord will bring the best out of the situation, even though it often doesn’t make sense to us. That requires faith, and it’s not easy, but that is how faith grows.

 

Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, but in the end he didn’t have to go through with it. Because he was willing to do anything that God asked him and because he showed his remarkable trust in God, the Lord said that He would bless him greatly:

I will shower blessings on you, I will make your descendants as many as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore.

 






2000 years later God sends his Son, who takes on human flesh and allows him to be sacrificed for the human race. The Father allowed his Son to be sacrificed. He did go through with it. It says in the second reading that because Jesus went through with it, the Father would not refuse him anything. That is why we can have such confidence when we pray to Jesus. It says in the second reading that Jesus now intercedes for us before the Father in heaven. If Jesus, the Son of God, is interceding for us before the Father, then what could we be afraid of as long as we remain open to God? Not only that, but we also have Our Lady interceding for us. Is Jesus going to refuse his mother anything? Is the Father going to refuse Jesus anything? And these are the ones who are interceding for us.

 

In the Gospel the three disciples Peter, James and John are granted this wonderful and terrifying vision of Jesus, the Son of God, in all his glory. Try and picture Jesus with his garments suddenly becoming bright as light and his face like the sun. You can’t even look at the sun, but this is what they saw. Moses and Elijah were also there. How did they know it was them? Because they were given infused knowledge at that moment. They symbolised everything in the Old Testament, as we know it. Moses represented the Law, the Ten Commandments and all the teachings that came with those Commandments and Elijah represented all the prophets and all they taught. It was showing that Jesus was the fulfilment of everything that had been taught/revealed up to that point.

 

Why were they given this privilege when none of the others were? This happened just before the Passion, when Jesus would be tortured and killed before their eyes. Peter, James and John were also the three who would be with him in the Garden of Gethsemane watching him fall apart with fear. They were going to need great strength not to despair themselves, but what is especially worth noting is that after the vision was over they suddenly found themselves in a cloud where they could not see anything. Only then did they hear the voice of the Father speaking to them: 

This is my Son the Beloved.  Listen to him.’

 




God spoke to them when they were in a cloud. Have you ever been on a mountain when a cloud suddenly descended? It’s quite frightening because you cannot see anything. You have to stop and wait. Sometimes it is only when we are in a ‘cloud’ or darkness/confusion that God will speak to us most powerfully. When we cannot see the way forward, and we cannot get any clarity on what to do, then God will show us what the next step is, but often He will only show us the next step, not the whole path ahead. This brings us back to the need to trust that God knows what God is doing when He leaves us in the dark. We are often left in the dark, especially with regard to our faith. That just seems to be how it works. Think of when someone dies. We are left with so many questions and so few answers. We don’t understand, but God asks us to trust. God asked Abraham to trust him, because God knew he would be able to, even though He seemed to be asking the impossible. We are only shown one step at a time, if even that.  If He doesn’t show us the path it is because we don’t need to see it, only the next step.

 

At this time we are also hearing more and more voices pulling us in different directions, even within the Church. It can be distressing and give you the impression that everything is falling apart. It isn’t. It is sad to see disunity, but we don’t need to listen to those arguments, we only need to listen to what Jesus taught. That’s why we keep going back to the Scriptures and the official teachings of Jesus which come to us through our Church.

 

This is my Son, the Beloved.  Listen to him.’

 


Sunday, February 18, 2024

1st Sunday of Lent. (Gospel: Mark 1:12-15) The temptations of Christ

 

Wilderness of Judea

 

Since I was ordained a priest almost 26 years ago, one of the temptations for me has been to wish that God would do more spectacular things through me, which would convince people of the presence of God. I believe that God does extraordinary things through the priesthood, most of all by becoming present in each mass when the bread and wine becomes the Body and Blood of Christ, but as you know it happens in a very humble and hidden way. It is not spectacular and if you don’t believe in it, then it just seems to be some kind of a strange religious ritual. So why doesn’t God do something more spectacular to help us believe?

 

The account of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness is an explanation as to why God doesn’t do more extraordinary signs and wonders to convince us of his presence. This is an extraordinary story because it must have come directly from Jesus himself, since no one was with him during this time of temptation. At some stage he must have told his apostles what happened there and what he had to go through. 

 

Jesus was about to embark on his public campaign to teach people about God and to win people over for God. For any campaign you must choose the weapons you are going to use. Jesus must have been aware that he had extraordinary powers, otherwise Satan wouldn’t have tempted him to use them. There would be no point in tempting any of us to turn stones into bread, because we know we couldn’t do it anyway. So this must have been a very real temptation for Jesus, to misuse his power.

 

The first thing Satan tempted him with, was to turn stones into bread. ‘If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread’ (Mat 4:3). Jesus was starving after having fasted for forty days. What harm would there be in doing this? He was being tempted to find satisfaction in material things. ‘Give people the material things that they want and they will love you.’ But Jesus said, ‘No. Man does not live on bread alone.’ The human being is not satisfied by material things alone. Jesus was saying, ‘I am not going to try and win people over by offering them just what they want.’ We are much deeper than that and we can only be fully satisfied by God because we are spiritual and not just physical.

 




The second temptation that Jesus was presented with, was to work signs and wonders for the people. Satan said to Jesus, ‘Throw yourself down from the temple since God will save you’ and he even quoted Scripture: ‘They will hold you upon their hands lest you hurt your foot against a stone’ (Mat 4:6). If Jesus started doing this then no doubt he would have thousands of followers in no time, as we are always intrigued by signs and wonders, but Jesus also rejected this, because he knew that the way he had to take was the way of service and the way of the cross, which would win people over heart by heart. You cannot buy love and that is why Jesus chose the humbler way, and left it open to us to see what God offers us and then to freely choose to follow him or not.

 

The third temptation was to compromise with evil: Satan said to Jesus, ‘Worship me and I will give you all this worldly power.’ This is a big temptation for most people. When you hear people say, ‘The Church needs to get with the times,’ they usually mean, the Church needs to ‘adapt’ (compromise) some of its teachings to meet the more difficult moral demands of our age. It is always a temptation for me as a priest to water down the teachings of God so that they are easier to hear. But that is not what we are asked to do and when Jesus was tempted this way, He rejected this too. He was being tempted to compromise with evil just a little bit, so that it would be easier for people to be convinced. But right is right and wrong is wrong. We must not compromise the ways of God. It is better to struggle with the truth, than to try and change it to suit ourselves. The teachings of God don’t need to change; we are the ones who need to change.

 

You can see at this time how groups within the Church are trying to compromise the Lord’s teaching, with accepting and blessing gay marriage and other ideas and incredibly the justification is that because of psychology and sociology ‘we know better now.’ To say we know better now, is saying that God’s word is wrong and that is a contradiction.

 

A lot of this started in Germany after many of the sexual abuse scandals, and they decided to look at what needed to change in the Church to win people back. Sadly, they started to do exactly what Jesus was tempted to do, that is, compromise with evil, change God’s teaching, so that it would be more appealing to people.  

 




One of the reasons why it is so important to keep reading Scripture each week, is to make sure we are not straying from the Lord’s teaching. God’s voice may seem to be quiet, but it is not, everything is spelt out for us in Scripture.

 

In St. John’s Gospel after Jesus worked the miracle of feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread, He then gave the teaching on the Eucharist and said, ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have life within you’ (Jn 6:53-56). It says that when He said this, many people stopped following him (Jn 6:66). What is interesting is Jesus’ reaction to the people walking away. He didn’t do anything. He let them walk away. He didn’t change anything He had said, because this was truth. The only thing He did was to ask the disciples if they were going to leave as well. No doubt the disciples didn’t understand it either, but they believed He was speaking truth and so they remained, but Jesus did not change anything He said.

 

At this time in history, we see so much of our society turning away from God and as a result our morals are slipping fast. This is the time for us to double down on what we believe is right and not give in to the temptations of our time. God’s truth is eternal and never changes. It does not need to change to make it easier for us to accept. We need to change to accept his truth. There is no middle ground when it comes to truth. We either accept it or reject it. Again and again Jesus said you are either with me, or against me. ‘Choose today life or death, blessing or curse.’

 

Moses said to the people, ‘This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live’ (Deut 30:19).

 





Recently I came across an article about a lady by the name of Dennita Miskimen, a teacher in Virginnia. She was just about to retire in 2022, having worked as a public school teacher for 23 years, when she once again met a drag queen walking down the corridor of her school. That was the final straw. She quit her job, which meant losing her pension, took out a loan and with great difficulty set up what is called the Little Red (Barn) Schoolhouse. It is a private nondenominational school, where they teach reading, writing and math. They say the pledge of allegiance, pray and teach the constitution and there is no LGBTQ or Critical Race Theory taught. Already their reading and writing standards are way ahead of public schools and there is a waiting list to get in. She is hoping to make it a franchise throughout the country. She felt God calling her to do this and she listened. (See the link below)

 

It is people like her, who refuse to give in to the immoral standards of so much of the public system, who will rebuild this country. She is a woman of faith and took a stand at a great risk to herself, just like all the people the Lord has called throughout the centuries. I wrote to her to thank her and sent her a donation.

 

The Lord is calling us to do the same. We must not compromise what we believe, or water down what God has taught us. What God teaches us is truth  and it is what works and we have to choose for or against it, just as Jesus taught.

 

Once again the devil took him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their magnificence. “Everything there I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

“Away with you Satan,” replied Jesus. “The scripture says, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only you shall serve.’” (Mat 4:8-10).

 

 

Teacher Opens Own Schoolhouse, Teaches Bible, Reading, Math on Seeing Drag Queen in Public School | The Epoch Times

 

Thursday, February 8, 2024

6th Sunday Year B (Gospel: Mark 1:40-45) Beethoven and the mystery of suffering

 


One of the most difficult things that all of us have to face is the mystery of suffering. Why do people suffer? Why do good people, or children suffer? If God is all good and all powerful, then there shouldn’t be suffering. This is one of the most common arguments that people use to dismiss the existence of God. It is a mysterious thing and there is no simple answer, but there are different ways of looking at it.

 

Suffering was not God’s original intention for us, but because of the Fall, the initial rejection of God, suffering came into the world. But God in his goodness also uses it to help us grow. It seems to be one of the most powerful ways that we are purified, brought closer to God, grow in our spirit. It was the path that Jesus took to win heaven for us again, which means that it must have a value that we don’t understand. Padre Pio used to say that if we understood the value of suffering we would pray for it. Jesus says ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me’ (Matt 16:24).

 

We ask, ‘What good could possibly come from suffering?’ What good could possibly come from a man being illegally sentenced to death and crucified? And yet the suffering He went through changed the course of history forever.

 

The spiritual power that is in suffering is something that we can constantly offer to God, in atonement for our sins, for the conversion of others, for all the people we are praying for. Instead of complaining, offer it to God and I think we will be astonished what God did through the generosity of us offering our suffering.

 

Leprosy


Today we are given one of the many encounters of Jesus healing someone who had the terrible disease of leprosy. Apart from the fact that leprosy was physically so horrible, with a person’s flesh literally rotting on their body, it also had the added pain of excluding them from the community because of the fear of contamination. Anyone who had leprosy had to live outside the community. Notice how it says in the Gospel that when Jesus heals this man he ‘sternly warned him not to tell anyone,’ but in the man’s enthusiasm he couldn’t help himself and began talking about it everywhere.  Because of this people realised that Jesus had been in contact with a leper and so he could now be infected himself. It says that then Jesus had to stay outside the towns ‘in places where nobody lived.’ It’s possible this was because of the fear of infection, but probably also because so many people were coming to him.

 

I’m sure there were many thousands of people in Jesus’ time who also needed healing, but who didn’t ever get to meet Jesus.  Jesus healed those people who came to him and asked for help, but that would have been relatively few. Do you ever wonder why the Lord allowed so many others to remain sick, or why He allows us to be sick?  Is it possible that any good can come out of the sicknesses we have to go through?

 

There is a beautiful story about the composer Ludvig Von Beethoven (1770-1827). Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany and he had quite a sad life. He suffered from a great lack of affection, because his mother died when he was very young and his father was an alcoholic who used to beat him. His father eventually died as a drunk on the streets. His biological brother never helped him either and on top of it all, symptoms of deafness started to disturb him, leaving him nervous and irritable. There was however, a German prince who became his benefactor and was like a second father to him, but then the prince died and between his deafness and loneliness, he went into a terrible depression and eventually began to wonder whether there was any point in him going on living.

 



At that stage Beethoven could only hear using a kind of horn-shaped trumpet in his ear. He always carried with him a notebook, so that he could write and communicate with others, but many didn’t have the patience for this and so he began to feel more isolated and alone. Feeling that nobody understood him or wanted to help him, Beethoven withdrew more and more into himself and avoided people. He became so depressed that he prepared his will, saying that maybe it was better for him to commit suicide, but then God’s providence intervened. 

 

A young blind woman who lived in the same boarding house where Beethoven had moved to, told him one night, shouting into his ears: “I would give everything to see the moonlight.” Listening to her, Beethoven was moved to tears because he realised that he could see and he could compose music and write it on paper! A strong will to live came back to him and led him to compose one of his most beautiful pieces: “Mondscheinsonate” – “Moonlight Sonata”.

 

In its main theme, the melody imitates and resembles the slow steps of people, possibly of Beethoven himself and others, carrying the coffin of the German prince, his friend, patron and benefactor. Some music scholars say that the notes that repeat themselves, insistently, in the main theme of the 1st movement of the Sonata, might be the syllables of the words “Warum? Warum”? (Why? Why?) or another similar word. Years later, having overcome his sorrow, Beethoven wrote the incomparable “Ode to Joy” from his “Ninth Symphony”, Beethoven’s magnum opus, which crowned the life work of this remarkable composer.

 

He conducted the first performance himself in 1824. By then because he was totally deaf and he failed to hear the applause. One of the soloists gently turned him around to see the hall full of a wildly cheering crowd. It is said the “Ode to Joy” expresses Beethoven’s gratitude to life and to God for not having committed suicide.  All this was thanks to that blind young woman, who inspired in him the desire to translate into musical notes, a moonlit night. Using his skill, Beethoven, the composer, who could not hear, portrayed through this beautiful melody, the beauty of a night bathed by the moonlight, for a girl who could not see it with her physical eyes.

 


We do not know why we have to suffer, but I have no doubt that more good comes out of it than we realise. No doubt the blind girl who inspired Beethoven could never have imagined that any good could have come from her being blind and yet look what happened. She inspired Beethoven not to give up and to go on to right some of his most beautiful music. 

 

I am sure that when we get to heaven we will be amazed at how many parts of our life that don’t seem to make any sense now, will all fit together. 

 

 



Sunday, February 4, 2024

5th Sunday Year B (Gospel: Mark 1:29-39) Teaching before healing

 

 

It is interesting that 2500 years ago when the first reading from Job (7:1-4, 6-7) was written, they were asking the same questions that we still ask today? ‘Why do we have to work so hard? What is the point of it all? Why is our life often so difficult? Why is it that good people often suffer so much for no apparent reason?’ Throughout the centuries people continually ask the same questions. Sometimes it takes a dramatic event like a tsunami or an earthquake, where thousands are killed in an instant, to make people ask themselves these questions. One minute all those people were just getting on with their daily lives, the next minute the tsunami struck and they were gone. If we can suddenly be snatched away like that, then what is the purpose of our being here?  Is there any purpose, or is it all chance? The Lord teaches us that there most certainly is a purpose to our being here and nothing is by chance.

 

During his life on earth Jesus continually worked extraordinary miracles—just as we read in today’s Gospel—and as a result thousands of people were drawn to him looking for healing, just like we do today when we hear of someone who has been given a gift of healing, but this was not the main purpose of Jesus’ being here. Jesus was happy to heal people because he had great compassion for people, but primarily he wanted to teach people, to teach us about God and about the reason why we are here. When you think about it, all the people he healed and even brought back to life from the dead, they all eventually got sick again and died. So he wanted to teach us that we are loved by God and we are not here by accident; that our life has a purpose and is going somewhere; that it is worth keeping going even when we are suffering, and above all the mission of his life was to die for us so that we could get to heaven when we die.

 

When the disciples found him alone, praying, the first thing they told him was that everyone was looking for him. There was so much work to do, so many people to heal. But look how he responded: ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ That is why I came: to preach and teach. But why is it so important to teach us? Wouldn’t it be much better just to heal us? Physical healing is important and Jesus knew that, but he also knew that if we have meaning, if we have purpose, that is much more valuable to us. 

 



What is also interesting is the way that He taught. He mostly used parables. The reason why that is different is that a parable does not always give you a obvious explanation. It points you in a particular direction, but you must go on searching for the truth if you are to discover the meaning. Why is that important? Because it engages us in the work of searching for and discovering the truth. It makes us think and also use our imagination. In other words, he didn’t just shove a set of teachings down our throat and say ‘that’s it.’ He invites us to search for the truth.

 

When I began my ministry as a priest I worked as a hospital chaplain, I remember meeting a man who had been suffering for most of his life. He had had operation after operation and he was in pain most of the time. But when I met him he was smiling and he said, ‘Father I have so much to be grateful for.’ It was very humbling to hear this. Why was he grateful? Because he had faith and he had purpose. He understood that his life had meaning and that it was going somewhere. He believed that this life was not everything and that it was worth persevering, despite his difficulties. Having that purpose is what makes all the difference and that is what our faith gives us. It doesn’t take away the pain, but it helps to make sense of why we are here. It reminds us that God does want us to be happy, that that is what He created us for. It also reminds us that it is worth putting up with the various struggles we have to go through, because they are often what make us into better people. The suffering will not last forever. Sooner or later we will cross over to the next world where our happiness will be complete, unless we have rejected God. Having that hope is what makes all the difference and that is why Jesus kept moving around and teaching people, so that they would have the strength to keep going especially when times were more difficult.

 




The rate of suicide is increasing at a frightening rate at this time. The reasons for it are often complicated, but I have no doubt that one of the reasons is that people have lost faith. If you have no faith, no sense of purpose, then where do you turn to when you are suffering, or when everything seems to have gone wrong? When we do have faith, it changes everything. We know that there is a reason why we were created and there is a purpose to us being here. We have the strength to keep going, even when we are struggling, because we know that no matter how bad it gets, it is temporary. We also know from our faith that suffering is part of the journey. We look to Jesus. His path was the path of suffering. The struggles we go through have the potential to make us into better people, depending on how we respond to it.

 

Why were we created? Just as our natural instinct is to share our joy with other people—think of weddings, birthdays, the birth of a child—in the same way God created us to share in his happiness. But He also gave us this time on earth to learn to love or not, to choose for God or not. We have the freedom to accept or reject God, just as children have the freedom to love or reject their parents. It is heartbreaking when they do, but sadly it happens quite often. You cannot force someone to love you.

 




To understand that we were created out of love and have a purpose, gives us an inner strength that nothing else can replace. Our greatest mission is to serve God and love the people around us, wherever we are planted. Earthly honors are great and we should strive to use our talents to the best of our ability, but loving people is more important than anything else, because in doing that we imitate God. Jesus’ life was a life of love, service and self-sacrifice. We are called to the same.

 

It also says that Jesus continually went off to lonely places to pray. He kept turning to the Father to receive the strength and direction that He needed for his mission. It also says that before He chose the Apostles, Jesus spent the whole night in prayer. That tells us that that is where we need to turn too, that is, to God in prayer. Our life may not be easy, but God offers us the strength and direction we need to face it. And we can never say that we are on our own on this journey. Jesus is present in the Holy Eucharist which we can receive every day if we wish. All the guidance we could ask for is handed to us in the Scriptures.

 

Meanwhile we will continue to pray and look for healing and it is right that we do, but it is also good to remember that the hope we have in God is worth more than any physical healing, because that is what will keep us going. 

 

Rising very early before dawn, He left and went off to a deserted place where He prayed.’ (Mark 1:39)