Palm Sunday Year A (Gospel: Matt 26:14-27:66) God in the midst of chaos

 

I don’t know about you, but something I find very disturbing in our modern world, is the amount of corruption everywhere. Lying and cheating seem to be accepted as normal practice by many. We read about corruption in just about every government and every organisation, including the Church. Struggles for power, people being tortured. It is horrible to read about these things, and we often seem to be so helpless. Where is the loving God we speak about, who brings justice?

 

The readings today paint a similar picture. The only man who was completely innocent and who only did good throughout his life, is betrayed by a close friend, arrested, tortured, given an illegal trial—it was illegal according to their own law—and on the basis of false evidence is put to death. Where is the justice in that? Where is our just and loving God? How could God allow such a terrible miscarriage of justice?

 

And yet out of all this chaos and terrible injustice, God brings about the most extraordinary good for the whole human race, something no one could ever have foreseen, but it happens by means of his suffering. Jesus makes it possible for us to go to heaven when we die. Because of this terrible evil, brought about by human hands, God does something unimaginably wonderful.

 

There is a line in the Exultet—the hymn sung at the beginning of the Easter Vigil—which says, ‘Oh necessary sin of Adam, which won for us so great a redeemer.’ ‘Oh necessary sin...’ If Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, there would have been no need for the Incarnation and so we wouldn’t have Jesus. This event changed the whole course of history. Everything was different after this, but what was really going on at that time was not obvious. In fact no one knew what was really happening. It was only afterwards, when Jesus himself began to reveal it to the disciples, only then did they begin to understand what it all meant and even then it took a while for them to grasp it.

 

So is there a message in all of this for us today, apart from remembering what happened? Can these events still speak to us now? In many ways our modern, so called ‘civilised’ society sounds remarkably like the one Jesus lived in. There was great corruption then and there still is. But there is above all else, a message of hope in all this, that even though there is a lot of evil around us and there always has been, it doesn’t stop God from being present to us, and guiding us through the chaos, as it were. Not only that, but the very difficult events that we come up against, God can and does bring extraordinary good out of, even the worst of situations, but we don’t always see that good. All these events took place for our benefit and that is a reminder that God is just as much with us now as He was then. That is why we go over all these events each year, to remind ourselves what has happened, what God has done for us and that God is still with us, even in the midst of chaos.

 

Having the hope that our faith gives us, makes all the difference in the world. You can see in the faces of so many people, fear and anxiety, because they have nothing to put their hope in except other human beings. That is a sad way to live your life, because people will let us down. God is the only one who will not let us down, even though we may not see that until afterwards.

 

‘Oh necessary sin of Adam, which won for us so great a redeemer.’

5th Sunday of Lent Year A (Gospel: John 11:1-45) Our hope is in the Lord

 

Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)

A few years ago I saw a program about Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), the English physicist who was confined to a wheelchair most of his life because of Lou Gehrig’s disease, but whose brain was working perfectly. He was one of the world’s most brilliant minds. He wrote A brief history of time, attempting to explain the origins of the universe. Apparently it is one of the most bought, but least read books. I bought it and gave up after about 3 pages. At the age of 21 he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease and he was told he had at best two years to live. Up until his death in 2018 he was still doing ground-breaking work in physics, although the only muscle he could still move was one of his cheeks. There was a small sensor beside his cheek, which was attached to a computer. By moving his cheek he was able to speak to people and continue working through his computer. No doubt one of the reasons why he was still alive was his will to live. He had a great determination to keep going.

 

There is so much more to being alive than just physical health, although that is what we all wish for. Many people would consider that life would not be worth living if you were in the physical state that Stephen Hawking was and yet look at what he did.

 

When visiting hospitals I have often seen people who, having lost the will to live, would go down-hill very quickly and die. I also saw people who were told that they would probably not recover, but because they were absolutely determined to keep going, they would recover, often completely against the odds. One of the key differences between those who keep going and those who don’t is something spiritual: hope. If we have hope we can keep going even against the odds. If we have no hope, we may not survive even the ordinary.

 

Several years ago in a housing subdivision called Moyross, in Limerick city, which is an hour south of where I grew up—one of the toughest and most troubled areas of that city—a new group of Religious moved in. They are called the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, which were started by Fr. Benedict Goreschel in the Bronx, New York. They live very like the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s order) in poverty and great simplicity. Apparently, the area has been transformed since they moved in, for the simple reason that they have given the people there new hope. By moving in there, they have shown those people that they are worth something and that in itself has given them new hope.

We believe that God wants us to be happy, to live life in all its fullness and that gives us hope, which we to pass on to others, though often we are unaware of it. ‘I came that you may have life and have it to the full’ (Jn 10:10). One of the early Christian writers called Tertullian wrote, ‘The glory of God is man fully alive.’ The more alive we are in every sense, the more we develop our talents and abilities, the more we give glory to God and hope is a big part of being fully alive.

 

I always thought that one of my professors in the seminary was the best teacher. But later I realized that from an academic point of view he wasn’t particularly good, but he was so passionate about his faith, that it got everyone enthusiastic. He had a great passion for God and for life and that was inspiring.

 

When we have hope we are able to work to promote and strengthen married life even when it goes wrong; we continue to work with young people and encourage them not to give up, even when they have messed up through drugs, or alcohol; we continue to work for justice and peace often in very difficult circumstances. Our faith in God gives us hope, which in turn inspires others to keep going. Think also of the hope that Pope Francis has given people by the way he lives. He reached out to many people on the margins, showing them that they were not forgotten. That is exactly what Jesus did.

 

In this beautiful Gospel we hear how Jesus deliberately waited when he heard that Lazarus was sick, in order to work this miracle before everyone’s eyes. He wanted to show them something. He wanted to show them that God has power even over death and that when He allows people to die that it is not the end. Just as Jesus called Lazarus out of death, so Jesus will also call us out of death when we die and we will begin a new and wonderful life with him, unless we have rejected God. We make that choice by the way we live, the everyday decisions that we make. 

 

In bringing Lazarus back to life, Jesus was helping people to believe in him. He is the one who has power over life and death. He is master of all things. He will judge the living and the dead. He was also giving the people hope, showing them that there is a bigger picture that we do not understand. Death is not the end. Physical health is not the end, but a doorway to what we are created for. But having hope is essential if we are to keep going through the many difficulties that we continue to face. Our hope in God and the world to come, gives us strength to keep going even when we are suffering, or struggling, or when everything is going wrong.

 

If we lose hope we may despair. When people believe there is nothing else apart from this world, then when faced with some of the difficulties we face here on earth, sickness, suffering, in justice, sometimes people despair, because they don’t know what to turn to. Sadly that is one of the reasons why there is such a high rate of suicide at this time, because so many people have lost faith and so have no hope.

 

In one of his letters to the Christians in Corinth in modern day Greece, St. Paul wrote the following: “If our faith in Christ has been for this life only, then of all people we are the most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:9). If we think that this life is everything, then we have completely missed the point. But our faith tells us that this life is only a small part of the picture and it is so important that we don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. He also said, ‘Keep your eyes on the things that are above, not on the things below’ (Col 3:2).

 

So often you will hear people say, every day I am still alive is a good day, even when their bodies are old and in pain. I guess it would make you wonder what they believe happens after death. Clinging desperately to life, is a sign of not being convinced of what awaits us after death. If we are convinced that what awaits us is something unimaginably wonderful, then we will long for it, or at least look forward to it. Would you rather be clinging to life in pain and in a world of suffering, than in a world of joy where there is no more pain, or evil, or sorrow? Jesus’ dying and rising was to make sure that we could reach that happiness which awaits us. What greater hope is there than to believe that we will be with our loved ones again, in a place where there is only joy. That’s what all of us want and that is what our faith promises us.

 

Jesus deliberately waited until Lazarus was dead, so that he could bring him back to life before everyone and show us that He is Lord of all things and that He has power to bring people back from death. Jesus is the doorway to heaven and Jesus is the only One who makes sense of our life on earth. That is why we must keep our eyes on him. Make sure that he is at the center of all that we do. When we are confused, or suffering, He is always the One to turn to. He is the only one who can makes sense of our life.

 

‘I have come that you may have life and have it to the full’ (John 10:10)

 

 

4th Sunday of Lent (Gospel: John 9:1-41) Spiritual blindness

 

A question I have frequently been asked, when I visit someone in hospital, is, ‘Why has God done this to me?’ Sometimes they will add, ‘I never did anything wrong.’ I guess the second part is debatable, but many people wonder if sickness is a punishment from God. Jesus answers that question in this Gospel passage. The Apostles ask the same question, ‘Who sinned?’ In other words who is to blame for this. They are presuming someone did something wrong and so this is a punishment, but Jesus says that neither sinned, but in fact this sickness will serve a higher purpose. He says, ‘So that the works of God might be made visible through him.’

 

In this case the purpose it served was to bring people to faith. When the blind man was healed, he came to believe in Jesus and so did others because of the miracle they witnessed. The only people who didn’t come to faith, were the priests or Pharisees. They had a narrow understanding of how God worked, and if anything didn’t fit into those categories, they couldn’t be from God. In this case the only thing they could see was that Jesus supposedly broke the Sabbath, because he worked on the Sabbath. Sadly, even with an extraordinary miracle like this, they still weren’t open to the fact that maybe there is a bigger picture than what they could see. They were hardened of heart and so they were not open.

 

Remember the raising of Lazarus from the dead (See John 11)? When Jesus was told that Lazarus was sick, he waited another two days before he went to him. And Jesus said to the Apostles that his death would lead to God’s glory. Jesus deliberately waited so that Lazarus would die. It says that when Jesus got to the home of Martha and Mary, his sisters, Lazarus had already been dead for four days. And then Jesus raised him from the dead, which brought many people to believe in Jesus. His sickness and even death, served a higher purpose. Before he died, I’m sure many people would say, what possible good could come from a persons death? What possible good could come from the torture and killing of an innocent man? And yet it changed everything and won us eternal life, but no one could see that at the time.

 

Sickness is part of the human condition, part of our fallen human nature, but sometimes God also uses it so serve a higher purpose. I have seen it many times where someone in a family has become sick, especially if it is a young person and how it has changed other members of the family. Sometimes it brings people to faith, sometimes it drives them away.

 

If God is good and all-powerful, then there wouldn’t be suffering in the world, therefore God could not exist. That is one of the common arguments against the existence of God. It is an understandable one, because the most difficult thing that most of us struggle with is the mystery of suffering. Suffering is there primarily because of Original Sin. When Adam and Eve rejected God, evil came into the world and suffering is part of that evil. Does God want us to suffer? No, but God allows suffering to be there because it can serve a higher purpose. We may never see that purpose in this life, but sometimes you can see the effect of suffering. People who suffer the most are usually the most compassionate. Even the word compassion, means ‘to suffer with.’ Yet today many people will say that compassion is to alleviate suffering, abortion, euthanasia. Jesus says, ‘Unless you pick up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.’ (Matt 16:24).

 

C. S. Lewis wrote, ‘Pain is God’s megaphone, to a deaf world.’ When we are in pain we begin to think differently and listen differently. It will often shake us out of the trivial, worldly things, that we get so caught up in. You know how an unexpected tragedy changes everything. Everything we thought was so important up to that point often becomes irrelevant. We start to think of the eternal things. What is the purpose of our life? What will happen when we die? And it is important that we do think about these things. The more we address these questions, the more we will be at peace about suffering, because we will see it differently.

 

A few years ago there was a tragedy somewhere in the mid-west, where a couple and their two children were all killed in a small plane crash. As it happened the parents of one of them lived in this parish. They weren’t Catholic, but I visited them just to express my sympathy. Not being Catholic I wasn’t sure how I would be received, but when I met them they were very grateful for the visit, but apart from that, their faith astounded me. Instead of wailing about why God would allow this, they knew it was a terrible tragedy, but they also believed those people were now with God, no longer suffering and they looked forward to seeing them when they died. It was so inspiring to hear them talk that way. They had incredible faith and more importantly, they could see the bigger picture. Our time on earth is short and sooner or later we will cross over ourselves.

 

Another aspect of this, is what we believe happens when we die. If we believe we will be with God in heaven, in unimaginable joy and contentment, with our loved ones, that changes everything. When we lose some, even through tragedy, it means that they have gone ahead of us, sooner than we expected. And even though it leaves terrible pain because of the separation, sooner or later we will also cross over and be with them again.

 

When people grow in their faith, the things of the world usually become less and less important. They realize what really matters and it often creates a longing to be with God. I know so many people like that, who long to be gone, because their faith has helped them to see what is important. If the life after this one is eternal, then the choices we make are extremely important, because they have eternal consequences. That is also why God spells out for us exactly what will lead us to him and what could separate us from him.

 

Also, when people we love die, we often tend to remain focused on the sufferings they went through before death. However, that is the wrong thing to focus on. If they are with God in heaven, then they are experiencing a fulfillment and happiness that we can only dream of for now. That is what we should focus on. Otherwise it would be like focusing on sickness that we have gone through in the past, when we are now completely healthy again.

 

Suffering will always be a mysterious thing for us and I think we will always struggle to understand it, but that is where our faith is so important. That is why Jesus helps us to make sense of it. If suffering was what changed the course of history, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, then it must be extremely powerful from a spiritual point of view. Padre Pio said that if we understood the power of suffering, we would pray for it. So when you are suffering, keep offering everything to God, for the people and situations you are praying for. It is the greatest thing that we can offer to God.

 

When your children seem to have lost their way, or when there are problems within your family, offer the suffering that it causes you, for them. It is a way of turning it around from a spiritual point of view. And when we offer our suffering to God, God multiplies the generosity of our gift, far beyond what we could ever imagine.

 

‘Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents?

Jesus replied, ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned. It is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.’

3rd Sunday of Lent (Gospel: John 4:5-42) The waters of life

 

 

Any time I go into schools, or get to talk to young people, someone nearly always asks me if I have ever seen an exorcism. When I tell them I have and it is real and something to be very careful of, they are usually a bit shocked. I suppose we tend to associate these things with Hollywood, but they are real.

 

In March 9^th, 2023 in a high school in Columbia, 28 girls were taken to hospital after fainting and anxiety attacks, after playing the Ouija board. The Ouija board was available to them in their school.

 

All around us we see signs for Tarot card reading, fortune telling, psychics, all kinds of alternative healing and other practices that come under the general heading of Occult. We are told to stay away from these things that so many people find fascinating. Why is this? What is so wrong with it? Are we over-reacting because we do not understand it?

 

If the Scriptures tell us to stay away from something, there is a good reason for it. God does not give us rules just for the sake of rules. There is a reason for everything. In the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy it says:

You must not have in your midst anyone who... practices divination, or anyone who consults the stars, who is a sorcerer, or one who practices magic, or who consults the spirits, no diviner, or one who asks questions of the dead. For the Lord abhors those who do these things. (Deut 18:10-11)

 

So what is the problem with these things? Anything that is occult is an attempt to gain knowledge or power of the future. One of the greatest things that God has given us is the gift of free will. All through this life we have the freedom to choose to do what we want, even to reject God, which is quite amazing. God does not reveal the future to us because if He did, it would influence our free will. If I thought there was going to be an earthquake in the city center tomorrow, the chances are I would avoid the city center. If I think I know what is going to happen, I am most likely to make decisions based on that information, but the problem is that then I am not totally free to choose, because my free will has been influenced. That is the main problem with things such as fortune telling, tarot card reading, etc. We think we are gaining knowledge of the future, but this influences our freedom to choose and God wants us to be free.

However, we have no way of knowing whether the information we are given is true or not and perhaps more importantly, where is it coming from? If God deliberately does not reveal the future to us, then the information is not coming from God. So where is it coming from and how can we trust that it is reliable? Exorcists will be the first ones to tell you that the Occult and New Age practices are a doorway to the world of darkness. They are a deception of Satan. We are dabbling in the world of the spirit, without knowing what we are dealing with and make no mistake about it, Satan is very cunning in how he deceives us. He hates God’s creation and wants to lead us away from God wherever possible. Jesus called him ‘The father of lies, and the deceiver.’ And don’t be fooled by the fact that a fortune teller starts of with a Christian prayer, as some of them do. If the Lord tells us that these things are detestable to him, then we would be wise to stay away from them. If what the Lord teaches us is true, then the Occult is a deception and a lie. If Occult practices are true, then Christianity is a lie. Who do you want to believe?

 

I know of a woman who was given the initials of someone she was told she would marry. And she met a man with those initials and she married him, and it was a disaster. Being told this had influenced her. She was now looking for this person, but she was deceived.

 

The former exorcist of this diocese was telling me about a house he was called to, where footsteps kept appearing across their couch. When he asked them a little about themselves, he learned that the woman practiced witchcraft, her daughter practiced witchcraft and she was living with a man who was not her husband. There was nothing he could do unless they were prepared to change their lifestyle and start following the ways of God. One is against the other.

 

If you have dabbled in any of these things it is important to confess them to break any kind of influence they over you, spiritual or otherwise.

 

Now listen to what Jesus says to the woman at the well:

If you only knew what God was offering you and who it was that was asking you for a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.

What is this ‘living water’? First of all it is the life of faith, the path to God, the truth about God, as given to us by Jesus who is the Son of God. He is telling us that what He is offering us is the path to follow, because it is the only path that leads to our happiness and our fulfilment. We will only find fulfilment in him.

 

In the Gospel Jesus points out to the woman that she has been married five times and is now with another man. She has been looking for fulfilment in a husband and hasn’t found it. If we hope to find complete fulfilment in another human being, even someone we love dearly, we will be disappointed, because only God is capable of completely fulfilling us, beginning in this life and completely in the world to come. In fact to expect someone else to completely fulfil us is being unfair to them as you are asking the impossible of them. But if we can recognise that the things of this world and even the most wonderful human beings, cannot fulfil us, it takes a great pressure off of us as we won’t be expecting to find fulfilment there.

 

When people lose their faith they begin to look for fulfilment in other places, but they will not find it and so they will never be satisfied. That’s one of the reasons why we see more and more anger in people, because they are no longer looking for fulfilment in the only place that can bring them fulfilment and so they are more and more frustrated. Once we realize that only in Jesus is our fulfilment, then we can enjoy the things of the world, as the Lord intends us to, without letting them take us over.

 

The fact that this woman was on her own in the middle of the day indicates that something is not right. Normally the women would be getting water early in the morning when it’s cool and in groups, but she is being shunned and so she is on her own at the middle of the day. Her search for fulfilment has led her nowhere and in fact has brought her more misery. Jesus is telling her that she will only find fulfilment in him. Water is a perfect symbol of life, because it is the first thing we will die without apart from air. We will only find true life in Jesus.

 

For two thousand years the teachings of Christ have been guiding people on the path to God. The fact that it has lasted this long is itself a sign that it must be from God, especially when you look at the history of the Church, which is nothing to boast about. Yet in spite of that, the message of God is still passed on, through sinful people like me, but passed on none the less. It is there for anyone who wants it. Many things are continually offered to us, but not all of them are good and not all of them will help us. What we believe is that what God offers us—the waters of life—is what will lead us to total happiness, beginning now and fulfilled in the world to come. This is what the Lord is teaching us. Do you believe that? 

 

Sometimes I think it comes back to something as basic as asking ourselves, ‘Do I believe the Scriptures are from God?’ ‘Do I believe that Jesus teaches us through his Church?’ If we believe that, then we need to listen to it. If we don’t believe that, we shouldn’t be here in the first place. God offers us his word to guide us, his Body and Blood to feed us, his forgiveness to heal us, but if we want to follow the path that He is showing us, then we must listen to what he teaches us and act on it.

 

If you only knew what God was offering you and who it was that was asking you for a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.

 

 

6th Sunday Year A (Mt 5:17-37) If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven

 

Why do we talk about sin so much and why is it so serious? Sin is the one thing that can separate us from God for eternity. That is why Jesus often spoke about it. He said,

‘If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out… or if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better to enter life without a limb, than to fall into hell with all your limbs.’

 

So what is sin and what is serious or mortal sin? I have also heard people ask if the teaching on sin has changed, or become too watered down. Is that true? No. Sin is still sin. However, our understanding of these things is all the time changing and hopefully growing deeper, especially as we grow in understanding of how complex we are as people.

 

Before he was made Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger said an interesting thing with regards mortal sin. He said that probably not that many people commit mortal sin, because in order for it to be ‘mortal’—meaning it causes the death of the soul—three things are needed. You must know that it is something very serious, you must deliberately choose to do it knowing it is very serious and you must be completely free to do it. It is not often that all those categories are met, especially the freedom part. All of us are affected by compulsions and are affected by the stresses and strains of what is going on around us and all of that affects our freedom. Sin is always something for us to try and avoid of course, because it is what separates us from God and only in God will we find total fulfillment. If sin didn’t matter Christ would not have had to die for us in order to break the power of sin, but it’s also important that we keep it in perspective or else we can feel overwhelmed by our own weakness and become disheartened.

 

There is also a big difference between falling into sin because of our own weakness and deliberately living a double life. For example, a man (or woman) who is happily married, enjoying his work and life and then one day he meets someone he finds very attractive and he begins to lust after her, knowing that he should not. And he seduces her disregarding his marriage vows and not caring.

 

Now imagine a different scenario where a man is really struggling with his marriage, under great pressure at work and generally finding life very difficult. One day he meets someone who is very understanding, supportive and compassionate and they end up becoming friends. One day they end up sleeping together, but afterwards they are deeply remorseful and realize what they have done is wrong and they must end the friendship. Both of these situations are sinful and adultery, but the circumstances are very different.

 

I think we often forget to take all the circumstances into consideration, but God sees everything and God is always trying to help us, to encourage us. That is one of the reasons why God has given us the beautiful gift of confession, so that we can begin again as often as we fall and maybe more importantly so that we don’t become so discouraged as to give up. Satan is the one who tries to discourage us, to tell us that we are useless, hypocrites, a bad example and that there is no point in trying to live the Christian life, because we are not able. The Lord does the opposite. Jesus is the one who continually helps us to get up again and start over, assuring us of his mercy and compassion.

 

In today’s readings we are reminded that we have a choice. The first reading says, ‘If you choose you can keep the Commandments. They will save you.’ We can choose for God or not, for sin or not. God has given us that freedom and it is ours to enjoy. Hopefully we will use it to choose for good. But even if we do fall, we can turn to God and ask for his mercy. The important thing is that we are striving to live as God calls us to, which is the path that leads us to him.

 

In the Gospel Jesus challenges us not just to live on the surface in a legal way, fulfilling the minimum requirement of what is asked, but instead to live from the heart. If my relationship with God only involves attending mass each week and confession once a year, that is living it at the minimum level. And we know what happens if we live any relationship at the minimum level: it fades away. Why was Jesus so critical of the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the time? Because although they lived the law perfectly, they had lost a sense of compassion and mercy. We can easily fall into the same trap. We can fulfill our religious obligations by going to mass on Sunday and maybe giving to charity, but if the rest of our life doesn’t reflect our faith in some way, then our religious observance doesn’t mean a lot. Here is an example, although it is an extreme one.

 

I went to a conference one time and I heard a lady give her testimony. She shared how God had healed her from terrible abuse she had suffered from an early age, at the hands of her father. She had grown up with incest, abuse and pornography all around her. Her father had even sold her to other men. And yet this family went to mass every Sunday. Obviously there was something seriously wrong there. That is a very extreme example, but Jesus is telling us that just filling outward obligations is not enough. We are called to something deeper than that. 

You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,

You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

 

The same thing can easily happen in religious life; we can life the ‘rule’ perfectly, while becoming monsters underneath, as we have seen happen. It would be better that we don’t live the rule perfectly, but that we learn to be compassionate and merciful, because our love for God is expressed by how we treat the person beside us.

 

Finally, I think the most important thing is that we strike a balance. Focusing on sin too much is not healthy and we can easily feel discouraged and overwhelmed because everyone sins. Our life in Christ is not about sin, it is about the freedom from sin that God has won for us. At the same time pretending that we never do wrong is naïve.  In St. John’s first letter he says:

‘If we say that we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us’

(1 Jn 10). 

 

We will always be sinners, but that is why Jesus came for us. That is what the mass is all about, what the death and resurrection of sin is all about: ‘So that sins may be forgiven.’ Every day we must choose for or against God. That is the freedom God has given us. But one path leads to God and the other to separation from God.

 

If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you;

If you trust in God, you too shall live;

He has set before you fire and water;

To whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.

 

5th Sunday Year A (Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16) You are the light of the world

 

 

Every so often the Lord raises up men and women who live their faith in an exceptional way. It usually seems to be at a time when people really need to be inspired and often when the Church is in crisis. At the end of the 13^th century God called a man called Francesco, or Francis, to live in a radically different way. He was from a town called Assisi in Italy. Francis was from a wealthy family, but he felt that God was calling him to leave everything and follow him and so he did, to the horror of his father who strongly objected. Francis renounced everything and ended up having a show-down with his father in front of everyone on the street. His father gave him an ultimatum. So Francis stripped off all his clothes and walked away naked. Any belongings he had he gave away and went off to live on his own as a poor man, living only for God. Soon afterwards while he was praying alone in a broken down church, he felt God speaking to him from the cross and saying, ‘Francis, rebuild my Church, which as you can see is falling down.’ So Francis started to collect stones and reconstruct that building. However, God had a much bigger project in mind. God was talking about the whole Church. Around the same time pope Innocent III had a dream of a poor man holding up the Church which was collapsing. It was a sign of the role that Francis was going to play. 

 

Not long after Francis began to live in radical poverty, others began to see the kind of simple way of life that he was living and one by one they began to join him. They spent their time looking after the sick, the lepers, praying together, preaching the Gospel and most importantly… inspiring people by the way they lived. Eventually when they had been living this way for a while Francis went to Rome to get permission for this new group to officially become a Religious Order. When some of the bishops were discussing this with the pope, one of them said, ‘It is not possible to live in this kind of extreme way,’ but one of the others pointed out that if it wasn’t possible to live that way, then it wasn’t possible to live the Gospel, since all he was doing was literally living the Gospel. And so he was given permission for his order, which he called the Order of Friars Minor, better known as the Franciscans. Today there are over 12400 priests and religious throughout the world.

 

You might wonder what difference could one man make, in a little known town in Italy, to the whole Church, which was going through a time of terrible corruption. But what he did was inspire, which is more important than any physical work that he did.

 

Today, over 800 years later, people are still inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, because we still need to be inspired. There have been others like him too, a modern-day example being St. Teresa of Calcutta. What is especially important about these people is not so much the work they did, as the effect they had and continue to have, on others. They usually become renowned all over the world, because they inspired people. They preach about God by the way they live more than by anything they could say. The saying, ‘Let us go and preach the Gospel and if necessary, use words,’ is attributed to St. Francis.

 

The Missionaries of Charity in India at least, spend a lot of their time bringing people in off the streets who are dying. They clean them up as best they can and allow them to die with dignity. Most of these people would be Hindu or Muslim, but they don’t try to convert them. That is not what they are called to. They are called to bring the love of God wherever they find themselves, among the poorest of the poor. They say more about their faith in God by what they do than by anything they could say. There is a story of one man they found who was in a particularly bad way. It took them several hours to clean him up and then he said to them:

‘All my life I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for.’ Mother Teresa went on to say: ‘It was so wonderful to see the greatness of a man who could speak like that, who could die like that, without blaming anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - that is the greatness of our people.’

 

In the first reading today we are called to look out for those around us who are in need and there are always plenty of people around us in need, often hidden. Some time back I was talking to a man in Sarasota who was homeless. He told me that he had served in the military, he had also done time in prison and now he was homeless. He also said: ‘You know, doing time in prison is one thing, but trying to survive on the streets of Sarasota is quite another.’ It’s not what you would expect to hear. While helping the poor materially is really important, respecting the dignity of each person is just as important. The way we look after people and treat people is how we tell the world what we believe in. It is not even about giving great amounts; it is about giving what we can with love and treating those around us with great respect, whether we like them or not and regardless of what they believe in, where they come from, even if they are legal or not. The first thing we are called to do is to take care of the person standing in front of us. The political side comes second. That is how we tell others about God.

 

In this Gospel Jesus says, ‘You are the light of the world… the salt of the earth.’ When we live by the teachings of Jesus, we give hope to the people around us, because we show them that they are not forgotten. We become a light in the middle of a world of darkness and selfishness, which tells us only to take care of ourselves. Our world tells us that the only one who matters is me, that I am satisfied and have all I want. God teaches us the opposite. It is not all about me, it is about giving of myself to others. There is nothing wrong with having wealth. In fact it is a great blessing, but the Lord expects us to use it properly. What we have has been entrusted to us, to use well.

 

Think of how small grains of salt are and yet they can bring out the flavor of a meal. They affect their surroundings. We affect our surroundings, for better or worse. Is my focus only on myself and my family? If it is, I am not living the Gospel. That doesn’t mean we have to give away everything we have, but the Lord is telling us that we must also remember those around us who are in need. When we have enough, God is giving us the opportunity to share with others and if we don’t, we will be asked why we ignored them, because we are accountable for our actions and for using all that God has given us. ‘Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me’ (Matt 25:40). If we ignore the needs of those around us, we are ignoring Jesus. His words.

 

You may argue, ‘I worked hard for my money.’ I’m sure you did, but who gave you the intelligence, the opportunities, the health, the success?

 

Last week I was talking to a good friend of mine, who is quite wealthy. He was telling me that he had given away a large amount of money to a particular university. He said he couldn’t get over how much joy it gave him to do that. Not many people are in a position to do that, but that’s not the point. The point is that all of us can do a certain amount and we have an obligation to do so.

 

I’d like to finish with this prayer which you have probably heard before.

  

Anyway

From a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, the children’s home in Calcutta.

 

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spent years building, may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help, but may attack you if you help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

 

(from the book, ‘A Simple Path’)

 

 

‘Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds

and glorify your heavenly Father.’

4th Sunday Year A (Gospel Matthew 5:1-12) Why I am a priest

 

 

Today I would like to share with you something more personal than I usually would. I would like to tell you why I am a priest. Not how I became a priest, but why I am a priest. I suppose it’s something you probably don’t think of very often, but people often ask me why I became a priest.

 

First of all I believe that God called me to be a priest. There was a real sense of God calling me in this way and it was a persistent call. Although it was something both exciting and wonderful, it was also something scary and painful. I knew it would mean that I would not get married, which is a natural attraction for anyone. When people asked me if I did not want to be married, what I always say is that the calling to be a priest was stronger than the calling to be married, even though both were there. And that calling continues to be there.

 

The year I entered the seminary was the year when all the sexual abuse scandals began to break in Ireland. It started with my own bishop having had a child years before and it got steadily worse with all the other scandals. This made all of us in the seminary think a lot about why we were there. After I was ordained the scandals continued and the atmosphere in our society (in Ireland) was very difficult to work in as a priest. I know it was the same here in the US. Because of the way the media presented it, almost every priest was considered a pedophile, which was very difficult, as you can imagine. Why would I want to be part of an organization that tried to cover up such terrible scandals? The reason is simple, I believe.

 

I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord; that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the trinity who took on human flesh. I believe that this same Jesus sacrificed himself for us so that we could go to heaven when we die and be with our loved ones again. I believe that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, not in a symbolic way, but that it really and truly is the body and blood of Christ. Since I believe that is true, there could be no more extraordinary miracle to be part of as a priest. I always consider it the greatest privilege that I have as a human being and as a priest. It is always an honor and a privilege to be allowed go to the altar and celebrate the mass, even when I’m half asleep on a Monday morning, or when I humanly don’t feel like doing it. Sometimes it scares me when God reminds me that I am a sinner and struggle like everyone else and yet He allows me to do this for you his people, because He wants us to be able to receive him in Holy Communion. For all of us, that is an incredible gift. I do not understand it, but I believe it.

 

I also believe that God speaks to us through the sacred scriptures. God actually speaks to us in a very personal way and God has much to say to us. The scriptures were written by human hands, but they were inspired by God and that is why we never replace them with anything else. That is also why I continue to read them over and over again. What could be more important to hear than what God has to say to us?

 

I consider being able to hear confession as another great privilege. To be God’s instrument to bring his forgiveness and mercy to people is a wonderful thing, to see God healing people through me. That people will come to me as God’s instrument, is both humbling and wonderful to me.

 

As a priest I am called to people when they are sick and dying, to be at their bedside, even though I often do not know them and they will tell me things that they will not even tell their own families. I am asked to be there when families are going through great joys and sorrows.

 

Is it difficult? Yes. I have struggled with it every day since I was ordained 27 years ago. Twice I almost left. In fact one time I thought it was all over and I had even told people that I was leaving, not because I wanted to, but because I thought that I couldn’t handle the stress of it anymore; the daily hostility I was experiencing and the sense of isolation I felt in some of the places I was working. Yet each time the Lord called me back and showed me that He would take care of it and He did.

 

The prophets struggled in the same way and what they wrote is comforting. When the prophet Jeremiah is feeling unable to go on he says:

[The] word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (Jer 20:9)

 

Another time when Jeremiah is on the verge of giving up, God pushes him to go on, not just to take a vacation, but to continue.

Therefore this is what the Lord says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you.” (Jer 15:19-20)

 

I always find it comforting to see how most of the people who were called by God, tried to resist. They didn’t feel able, or qualified and they knew it would mean persecution.

 

The prophet Elijah was considered the greatest of the prophets. After working an incredible miracle of calling down fire from heaven to show up the false prophets of the pagan gods, Elijah then has to flee for his life, because the queen threatens to kill him. He travels a day’s journey into the desert and then he sits down and says, ‘I have had enough Lord, take my life, I am no better than my ancestors.’ He wishes he was dead. But instead of God telling him to take some time off, he wakes up to find food and drink beside him and an angel telling him to eat, as he will need it for the journey ahead. God pushes him to keep going.

 

It is normal for any of us to become discouraged every so often, but God is always the one to strengthen us and help us to keep going.

 

In the second reading today it says:

God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,

and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,

and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,

those who count for nothing,

to reduce to nothing those who are something,

so that no human being might boast before God.

 

In a mysterious way God seems to delight in calling and working through the nobodies of this world, so that it is all the more obvious that it is God at work and this is something He continually shows me.

 

The apostles were no different. St. Paul writes, ‘But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.’ (2 Cor 4:7)

 

What inspires me the most? Your faith and every priest I know will say the same thing. My lifestyle as a priest is conducive to being close to God, although that doesn't necessarily follow, but most people's lifestyle isn't. Working in the secular world can be a lot more difficult and that's why your faith in spires me.

 

My faith keeps changing and growing and the path is often difficult, but I believe it is the most important path we will ever be asked to follow and so by his grace I will continue. I would like to finish with this quotation where St. Paul is talking about his own life.

I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him. (Philippians 3:7-8)