3rd Sunday of Easter, Year C (Gospel: John 21: 1-19) Feed my lambs

Some time back I was talking to a friend of mine over lunch and he said to me, ‘Isn’t it a bit arrogant of you Catholics to claim that you have the true faith, when there are so many different religions?’ I surprised myself with what I said to him, I believe it was really the Lord who inspired me. I said, ‘Well the way I see it is this: it is not so much that we claim that we are right as that God revealed himself to his people centuries ago through different people like Abraham and Moses and ultimately through Jesus Christ. And we are simply the ones who follow the way that He revealed to us. We try to follow his teaching and we believe that up to now Catholics are the ones who have kept closest to that teaching.’ That’s not to say that we are right and that others are wrong, but we believe that we are following the way that the Lord put before us as the path to God, if you like. Our faith is like a path that guides us along the way to God. It doesn’t allow us to see very far ahead, but the Lord has assured us that he is with us along the way so that we have nothing to be afraid of. This life is simply a time where we have freedom to do as we like, to learn to love and to freely choose to follow God. This path is what will ultimately bring us the most happiness.

It is interesting how before Jesus went back to heaven after God had raised him from the dead, that he clearly put Peter in charge and told him to look after his people. ‘Feed my lambs, look after my sheep, feed my sheep.’ He was commissioning his disciples to look after his people, all those who would follow his way of life. And this is the purpose of the Church as we know it today, to look after God’s people by feeding us, that is, by giving us whatever will help us to grow closer to God. And so the Church passes on the truth about God, as God has revealed it to us.

But how do we know that the Church is right in what she teaches; couldn’t it just be a few men who are out of touch who are passing on their own ideas? This is also why the Lord gave us the guarantee that he would always be with his Church to guide it. In the first reading St. Peter says, ‘we are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.’ In other words they were being guided by God’s own Spirit. That’s why they were so confident and had such extraordinary courage. That is why today as well the Pope and bishops also speak out boldly and are often very unpopular as a result. They teach the truth that God has revealed. We don’t always want to hear it because it can point things out to us that we may not wish to see. But it is not the Church’s job to be popular, but simply to pass on the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ teaching caused him to be persecuted and eventually crucified, but it didn’t stop him. I already personally know two priests who have been shot dead because of their faith. It will always cause us to be persecuted, but that’s not important. What is important is that we recognise that it is from God and that we do our best to live this way of life. It isn’t easy, but the Lord never said it would be.

As you know the Church tends to get a lot of criticism on an ongoing basis. Some of it is well deserved, but when it comes to teachings about the faith we believe that it is the teaching of Christ that is being passed on. And so although we may not fully understand it we try to accept it as best we can because we believe it is from God. Remember what Jesus said to Peter at another stage: ‘whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’ He also said, ‘whoever listens to you listens to me, whoever rejects you rejects me.’

We will always struggle with much of the Church’s teaching to be sure, everyone does, but the one thing that we can not do is to just pick and choose the bits that suit us, because that’s not how it works. The Lord just asks us to persevere and try to be faithful and we also know that we have the great mercy of God to support us when we fall.

‘Feed my lambs, look after my sheep, feed my sheep.’

2nd Sunday of Easter (Gospel: John 20:19-31) 'Peace be with you'

In December 2005 it was announced on the news that a man called Denis Donaldson, one of Sinn Féin’s top men, confessed to having been a British spy for twenty years. People were totally shocked and amazed that this could happen. The poor man obviously could not live with this any more and so he came out into the open. He then had to go into hiding, and sadly, though not surprisingly, he was killed four months later. God be good to him. I remember thinking at the time that he must now be living in terrible fear. Fear of being hunted down and killed. He had betrayed many, and now he would be afraid of what they would do to him. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.

2000 years earlier on Holy Thursday night, out of fear the Apostles had all abandoned Jesus, who they believed was the Son of God. Judas had betrayed him for money. Peter tried to be faithful, but ended up publicly swearing that he never knew Jesus. They all betrayed him. Now after Easter they are locked in the upper room afraid. Why are they afraid? One: because they could face the same punishment as Jesus since they were his associates. Two: perhaps they were also afraid of what God would do to them. They had betrayed the Son of God. It is a very human response to be afraid of God when we feel we have betrayed him in some way, by the way we live, or by something we have done.

Then something beautiful happens. Jesus is suddenly standing with them in the room and he says: ‘Peace be with you.’ The first thing he does is to take away their fear. There are no words of condemnation for having abandoned him a few days before. There are no words of judgement on how they were unable to be faithful. Instead: ‘Peace be with you.’ ‘It’s alright.’

I don’t know about you, but I have often felt that I have betrayed Jesus and indeed sometimes wish I was not a priest, when my own sinfulness gets the better of me. And in case you think I am just trying to be holy by saying this, I am not. I am a sinner. This is one thing that God has left me under no illusions about. Sometimes I think it would be easier not to be a priest as I would not have to deal with what is sacred. I could run and hide, so to speak. Think of Peter when Jesus worked the miracle of the great catch of fish. Peter’s reaction was, ‘Leave me Lord I am a sinful man.’ Yet when Jesus appears to the Apostles, the first thing He does is to put them at ease. ‘Peace be with you.’

Each time in the mass when we recall this wish of Jesus to give us his peace—which is not just a universal prayer for peace, but a reminder of what Jesus said to his followers—He is saying, ‘do not be afraid, because I am not here to condemn you, even if you deserve to be condemned. Peace be with you.’ God only wants us to come closer to him and to know that He is not going to act as we do to each other, with frowns or giving out. He knows what we are like. He knows that we betray him, but He still tells us to be at peace. I for one, find that very comforting.

Think too of Thomas who in his grief at the death of Jesus, would not accept the words of others to convince him that Jesus was alive. When you are grieving you don’t want someone else to give you false hope, because it is too painful. And then when Jesus did appear to him He was so kind in helping Thomas to believe. No giving out, but instead Jesus offered Thomas to put his finger into his wounds, so that he would believe. No condemnation for not being good enough; only encouragement. That is characteristic of the Lord: He always encourages us.

‘Peace be with you.’

Easter Sunday, Year C (Gospel: John 20:1-9) The unexpectedness of Easter

A few days ago I got an email from a friend of mine to say that he and a few others were setting up a group called ‘Count me in’. This is a group of mostly young people who want to stand up for their faith and be counted and to do whatever they can to bring about renewal in our Church in this country. They were starting this group partly in reaction to another group called ‘Count me out’ which, as you might guess, is a group of people who no longer wish to have anything to do with the Church. I must admit I was very heartened to hear of this group ‘Count me in’ especially being started by young Catholics who feel the need to stand up and be counted. As my friend so rightly stated in his letter to me, ‘Though we want very much to count ourselves out from any kind of abuse and cover-up by individual Church members and ministers, there is no way we can count ourselves out from Christ’s Body and from his offer of salvation.’ I was hoping for and half expecting that something like this would happen as the Holy Spirit always moves people at the right time, and as you know yourselves there are many of us who believe in and love our Church in spite of many of the scandals that have been caused.

I can’t help thinking of the time when Jesus gave the teaching about his body and blood, saying that ‘Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you cannot have life in you.’ It says that ‘after this many of his followers stopped going with him.’ His teaching was too much for them. But when he turned to the disciples and said, ‘What about you. Do you want to go away too?’ Peter said, ‘Lord to whom shall we go, you have the message of eternal life.’ That is very much how I feel myself. I am horrified and disheartened by all these scandals, just as I know all of you are, but I also feel, where else would I go? I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is Lord and that he has revealed God to us. Why would I want to go anywhere else?

What has all this to do with Easter you might ask? What is key to the event of Easter is that it was the last thing that anyone expected to happen. As far as the disciples were concerned it was all over. The master had been killed and they didn’t know what to do. It took them quite a bit of convincing to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. When the women first came to them and told them that they had seen a vision of angels who told them Jesus was alive, the Apostles simply didn’t believe them. Then Jesus began to appear to them himself and it still took quite a while for them to really believe.

Either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn’t. If he did, then we have nothing to be afraid of, because it is the Son of God who is guiding his Church, who continues to make himself present in each mass, who continues to minister to his people through the priesthood. If the resurrection of Jesus is not true, then none of us should be here, because everything we believe in is based on the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead.

All that happened at Easter was totally unexpected. The worst disaster—the death of the only completely innocent man—was turned into the greatest event imaginable, an event that changed the course of history. This man Jesus, whom we celebrate, is Lord and he is the one who is guiding us. He is the one we believe in and we must keep going back to his words and his teachings. ‘In the world you will have trouble. But do not be afraid; I have overcome the world.’ Remember too that several of his apostles let him down badly, but it didn’t stop Jesus from using them and from passing his teaching on to us.

For the last months our faith has been severely tested, but let us remember the event of Easter. God turned everything around when people least expected it and in a way that they could never have imagined. This is the God we believe in, who is just as powerfully present to us today. So let us never lose heart or be afraid. God has always been with his people and He always will be.
‘I am with you always. Yes, until the end of the world.’ Happy Easter.

Passion (or Palm) Sunday, Year C (Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:56) The greatest healing ministry of the Church is the forgiveness of sins

I think that it’s good to hear an account of the passion every so often. It’s very powerful. While Jesus walked the earth as a man he healed many people. And he said that when he left, his followers would do even greater works, or miracles. So how come we don’t see more people healed of different illnesses? Is the Lord not being faithful to his promises?

God does actually continually heal people, but there are more spiritual healings and miracles than physical ones. Why? Because the spiritual is more important than the physical. Our physical bodies are only going to last a certain length of time anyway. That’s not to say that they’re not important, they are, but our spirits, or souls are going to live forever. So what happens to our spiritual selves is much more important than what happens to our bodies.

The whole reason for the passion was to break the power of sin and death that we were under. Through his sufferings he made forgiveness available to us, and he made the mercy of God available to us. That was the whole purpose of his death and resurrection. God still wants us to have this forgiveness, so that we can be free from our sins, so that we needn’t be burdened by guilt and fear. Guilt, fear and shame are all consequences of sin. When we do wrong, guilt and shame usually follow and the Lord wants us to be free of these so that we can get on with our lives and not be carrying around big burdens. And so this is the greatest healing ministry of the Church, the power to forgive sins, which Jesus entrusted to his priests, as a gift for all of us, so that we could be healed.

As human beings we have a deep psychological need to confess to another person what we have done wrong. And you can really see this today on a lot of the chat shows on radio and TV. The strange thing is that people are confessing in public, to the whole nation. I listened to part of the Gerry Ryan show one morning and I was amazed at what I heard. He was talking to a woman who knew that her husband was seeing another woman. A few minutes later the other woman came on the phone and began to confess to all that they were doing together, to the whole country! I couldn’t believe it. Whatever about telling your sins to a priest in secret, what about telling the whole nation?! And this is what is happening because one way or the other, we need to tell someone when we have done something wrong. And the Lord knows this and that’s why he gave this power to his priests so that it would be there for all of us. It is his gift to us so that we can be free. That’s why he said to the apostles, ‘those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’ This is the greatest healing ministry in the Church.

Now one difficulty that we’re up against is that Satan knows how powerful this forgiveness is, and so he works very hard to convince us that we have no need to confess to anyone, especially not a priest! And he has convinced many people that confession is a burden, something that we ‘have’ to do, something that the Church has 'inflicted' on us. And he reminds us of just how sinful priests are anyway, (just as sinful as everyone else). And he whispers to us, 'why should you confess to a priest, he is a sinner.' Why does he do all this? To keep us away from the healing power of God. He knows that unforgiveness is one of the biggest obstacles between God and us, so he will do everything to convince us not to confess. He doesn’t want us to have what God has made available to us. He is 'the deceiver, the father of lies,' as Jesus called him.

What if the priest is not a holy man? Does that affect whether or not you are fully forgiven, even if the priest is a terrible sinner? Not even slightly. God would never make his forgiveness depend on the holiness of the priest. It doesn’t matter how good or bad the priest is, God works through him just the same. The forgiveness is just the same, because it is God who is working through the priest.

One other thing. When I was in the seminary and we were being given some direction about hearing confessions, a Franciscan priest who was teaching us said: ‘what do you do if you are brought to court and you are asked to give evidence that you heard in confession? If you refuse to give the evidence you could go to prison. Are you allowed to break the seal of confession?’ Do you know what he said? He said, ‘no, you keep your mouth shut and you go to prison.’ That’s how seriously we take the seal of the confession. I was impressed when I heard this, as this is how I believed it should be.

The forgiveness of sins is God’s gift to us, which He makes available to us through his priests. Don’t let anyone deprive you of that gift which God wants you to have.

5th Sunday of Lent, Year C (Gospel: John 8: 1-11) So that sins may be forgiven

Each time I pray the mass there is one line that strikes me more than any other. It is when the priest prays over the chalice and says ‘this is the cup of my blood... it will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.’ This phrase is what sums up the whole celebration of the mass. The blood of Jesus was shed so that sins could be forgiven. This forgiveness is offered to us until the end of time. It is up to us whether we accept it or not.

The flip side of this is that it means we have sinned, and we sin continually. That is what God has taught us. If you think you haven’t sinned, or don’t sin, remember these words from the first letter of St. John: He says, ‘If anyone says they have not sinned, they are calling God a liar.’ Pretty strong words, but he meant it. And you can see why, because if we say we have not sinned then there is no reason for the death and resurrection of Jesus. Then there is also no reason for the mass. If we haven’t sinned, then the mass is meaningless. In each mass we become present to the death and resurrection of Jesus and then we can actually receive his body and blood, so that we can be united to the Son of God in the most intimate way possible, receiving his body into our own body.

Now I know that most people will acknowledge that they are sinners. That is a good start, but God also asks us to confess our sins to a priest, the sins that we are aware of. Why? So that we can be reconciled to God in a very concrete way, through another human being, one who is specially appointed to do just that. God acts through the priest in a unique way, offering his forgiveness, guidance and encouragement. Do you want to know why God does this through a priest? I don’t know; ask God! But we believe this is what he did. This is what Jesus said to his Apostles:

'If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven;
If you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained' (John 20:23).

'Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you, rejects me' (Luke 10:16).

Why is it so important that we are reconciled to God? Because only in God will we find complete fulfilment. God knows that, but the difficult part is that we cannot see that properly. In fact we are even suspicious of it. If we could see what being fully united to God meant, we would do everything to stay as close to God as possible. Sometimes people are given a particular grace to see the importance of this, and they go to the ends of the earth to make this known to others as well. One such person was St. Paul. In the second reading he says:

'I believe that nothing can happen which 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' (Phil 3:8-9).

After he had this profound encounter with Jesus who appeared to him, he was completely changed and he spent the rest of his life telling people that this man Jesus, who had been killed, had risen from the dead and was the Son of God; and boy did he suffer for it. He was put in prison several times; many attempts were made on his life; five times he received the 39 lashes, three times he was shipwrecked, etc. But nothing could stop him because God had allowed him to see that everything was worth being united to God.

‘So what are we supposed to do', you might say. 'We can’t see how important this is.’ Even though we do not see this so clearly ourselves, we listen to the accounts of those who have experienced it—because God is speaking to us through them—and we push on in the same direction. But we would be foolish to ignore the way that is pointed out to us and one of the most important ways to be reconciled to God, is to confess what we have done wrong; not just to acknowledge it, but to actually confess it.

Remember this beautiful Gospel today; the woman caught in adultery. There was no condemnation on Jesus’ part, only compassion. According to the law they were entitled to stone this woman to death, and they believed that the law came from God. But Jesus turned the situation around and showed them that they were in no position to condemn someone else. Neither are we.

So going back to what I said at the beginning. The blood of Jesus has been shed so that our sins may be forgiven. How do we accept that forgiveness, by asking for it through confession. This is God’s gift to us, so that we can be healed. It is not something forced on us or inflicted on us. Rather, it is an extraordinary gift that God has given to us, so that we may be healed and so that we may draw closer to the only One who can fulfil us.

‘This is the cup of my blood... It will be shed for you and for all, so that sins may be forgiven.’

St. Patrick's Day, 2010

'I am Patrick, a sinner, unlettered, the least of all the faithful, and held in contempt by a great many people…'

Today as we celebrate our patron saint I think that we can often have romantic ideas of Patrick, his work and how everyone listened to him and became Christian when he preached. I’m sure the reality was quite different. From the little he wrote he gives us a stark idea of how difficult it was and most importantly, how the only reason he came to Ireland was because God called him. It wasn’t his own idea. He explains how he was called:

I saw in a vision of the night a man coming as it were from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, with countless letters, and he gave me one of them…and as I was reading the beginning of the letter aloud I thought I heard a voice…and they cried out as with one voice: ‘We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk once more among us.’ And I was greatly troubled in heart and could read no further.

[God] came powerfully to my aid when I was being walked upon… for many were trying to stop this mission of mine; they were even talking among themselves behind my back, and asking: ‘Why is that fellow thrusting himself into danger among a hostile people who do not know God’

Daily I expect to be slaughtered, or defrauded, or reduced to slavery or to any condition that time and surprise may bring.

Patrick himself was very strong in emphasising how it was God who gave him his faith, and how it was God who called him to Ireland. He says that when he was brought here first as a slave at the age of 16 he did not know the living God. But God began to make himself known to him and taught him to fast and pray. Then later in his life after he had become free and returned home, he got this call to come back here to teach our ancestors about God.

I heard recently on the radio someone say that before Christianity, there was a great nation of Celts here which the Church destroyed, as though the Church came along and wrecked the place. But that cannot be true as the Irish were obviously hungry for God, or they would never have been so completely converted. And they must have recognised in Patrick’s preaching something of the truth, because the truth is always attractive.

God asked Patrick to do a job, a very definite one, which meant a lot of personal sacrifice on his part. He asked Patrick to teach the Irish people about himself, about God, so that they might know the one true God and Patrick agreed. For 1600 years that faith has been passed on, including through many very difficult times, and it is thanks to the sacrifices of thousands of men and women that this same faith has been passed on to us today.

Down through the centuries scandals have also been part of our history, and I think it is good to put it in perspective, because there will always be a certain amount of scandal, because as long as people are people we will let each other down. However, it is also important to mention that God is bigger than all of that, and our faith is bigger than all of that too. In 50 years time this period might get a mention in history as being a difficult time in the history of the Church in Ireland, but it will largely be forgotten, because the people then will have their own troubles. With that in mind, let us not be afraid when we hear of scandals, even though they are terrible, but remember that God is bigger than all of that, and God is the one in whom we put our trust.

Meanwhile God is also asking us to continue to pass on the faith that He has blessed us with and we will largely do that by the way we live, not really by anything we say. And perhaps we will only get to plant seeds of faith, just as Patrick did, by praying for those who come after us and witnessing to what we believe in as well as we can. Perhaps we won’t see the fruits of it in our lifetime. Patrick probably saw very little of the fruits of his work, but he responded to God’s call and we are being asked to do the same.

'I am Patrick, a sinner, unlettered, the least of all the faithful, and held in contempt by a great many people…'

4th Sunday of Lent, Year C (Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) The Prodigal Son

How do we talk about God? It is extremely difficult for us, if not impossible, because God is completely beyond our understanding. St. Thomas Aquinas was a great genius and wrote one of the greatest ever works of theology called the Summa Theologica. Towards the end of his life he had a vision of God or heaven, and after that he stopped writing and he said ‘it’s all rubbish, we haven’t a clue!’ This is one of the reasons why Jesus spoke in parables, to try and give us some idea of what God is like. A parable doesn't tell you something directly, but makes you think. You will realise the truth in the parable if you are open to hear it. Today’s parable of the Prodigal Son is a particularly beautiful one.

This story could also be called ‘the parable of the forgiving father.’ We usually tend to focus on the rebellious son who basically told his father that he wished he was already dead and so he wanted his inheritance now. Having insulted his father as much as is possible, he eventually comes back in hard times to ask forgiveness. Now the son is looking at all he has done wrong, all the sin, all the insults to his family. The father looks right beyond the sin and just loves his son. He doesn't condemn him, he doesn't ask for an apology, he doesn’t do anything that you would expect him to do. He just celebrates, and loves his son. Maybe it should be called ‘the parable of the foolish father’.

This teaches me something about God in a very practical way. When I think of myself before God, I tend to do as the younger son did; I usually think only of the sins I have committed and my failings rather than my strengths. But from the parable I realise that God’s approach to me is very different. God is not interested in my sin, or my weakness, or what I could have done better. He is interested in me as a person, and He rejoices and celebrates every time I come back to him, especially if I have drifted away from him. God rejoices in the child before him, like you would with a toddler. You don’t focus on what a small child has done wrong, you just see the child that you love.

Then there is also the older brother. In many ways I think most of us are probably more like the older brother than the younger. We probably haven’t done anything too outrageous; we may even have been quite faithful to our duties all through our life. But we may well despise those who have apparently walked away from God, and especially those who obviously do what is wrong. It is easy for us to resent the fact that God loves them. This is exactly what the Pharisees (who were the religious people of the time) were doing. They said, ‘why is this prophet hanging around with those people. They are disgusting, they do everything wrong and they know it.’

However, through the parable Jesus is showing us that that is not how God sees things. God does not act as we would. It may be understandable from our point of view, but we are in no position to judge the heart of another person. We can judge their actions as right or wrong, but we cannot judge their heart. Only God knows what causes another person to act as they do. This was what the older brother did. He judged his brother and his father's actions. He resented the father’s forgiveness. But the father also loved him, forgave him and reached out to him.

God is not interested in what we have done wrong. His desire is just that we are reconciled to him so that we can enjoy all that He has done for us and all that He has created for us. His design for us is that we find happiness. This is the mercy of God that we trust in. That is also why in the second reading the Apostles are at pains to point out that we have already been reconciled to God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. There is nothing we can do that God hasn’t already forgiven, as long as we turn to God and ask for that forgiveness. That is why we talk about forgiveness and repentance so much, especially during Lent, because this is what God is asking us to do.

'The appeal that we make in Christ's name is: be reconciled to God.'