4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B (Gospel: Mark 1:21-28) Understanding the Scriptures

A lady spoke to me one time after mass and told me that she was upset by the second reading, where it said; ‘those who are in mourning should live as though they had nothing to mourn for.  Those who have wives should live as though they had none.’  She was in mourning herself and this reading seemed to be pretty insulting, to say the least.  This week the second reading is a continuation of that same passage, so I would like to try and make sense of what it is about.

If you were to go into a bookshop and pick up a book called Jack and the Bean-stalk, or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, you would know that they were fairy tales and meant to be read in a certain way; the same with a history book or with a newspaper.  We read them in certain way, because they are all different kinds of writing.  Well the Scriptures are the same and they also have to be read in a certain way if we are to understand them properly.

Today if you watch a news program, the reporters will give you as many details about an event as possible, such as the war in Afghanistan or in any other place.  We will be told how many people were there, how many were injured; where exactly it happened, etc.  Most of the people who wrote the books of the Bible do almost the opposite; they are not interested in the details of what happened, but in the meaning of an event.  In other words, they are looking back at things that happened and trying to understand what God is saying to us through those events.  It can be a great help to know that much when we are reading the Scriptures.  The meaning of many of the books of the Bible is not necessarily that obvious.  Part of what is wonderful about the word of God is that it gets us to think.  It is not just giving us blank facts, but presenting us with stories and events and making us ask, ‘what is God saying to us in this?’

Many times I have heard it said to me, ‘the story of Adam and Eve is childish and ridiculous.  Nobody can be expected to believe it today!’  Well that is true if you read it literally, as if they are the details of exactly what happened, but it is not meant to be read literally.  It is a very clever piece of writing which tells us some basic truths about the beginnings of the human race and our limitations as human beings.  The most important thing it tells us is not that God created everything in seven days, but rather that it was God who created and that what God created was good.  The fact that God created the human being last, is a biblical way of saying that the human being is God’s masterpiece, the most important thing that God created, because we were given free will and the ability to love and even reject God.  So if you know how to read the Scriptures, it can make a lot of sense, but othen people read it literally and then it seems to clash with science and of course it doesn’t make any sense.

As priests, part of our job is to explain the Scriptures, but we don’t always do that very well, which is partly why they are not always understood.  In a way that is our fault.

It is interesting how Jesus—the greatest teacher of all—taught the people.  He used stories and especially parables.  His use of parables is wonderful, because the meaning of a parable is not obvious unless you are open to hear it.  You have to think about it and search for the meaning and that is exactly what Jesus wants us to do.  It is a wonderful sign of how much he respects our intelligence and understanding.  He doesn’t just shove his teaching down our throat, but rather presents it to us in such a way that if we are open to it, we will discover what He is teaching us.  For example the parable of the Good Samaritan: Jesus was getting the people to think about and admit that there could actually be goodness, even in someone they hated such as a Samaritan.  Equally if we are not interested, of if we are closed in our heart, then we will probably not get the meaning.  That’s why he kept explaining the parables to the disciples, to make sure that they did understand properly since they were going to have to go on teaching after he was no longer with them. 

So what we are presented with in the Scriptures is subtle and we have to wrestle with it to some degree, but that in itself is a compliment to us.  God wants us to be actively engaged in searching for the truth.  We are not just being ordered what to do as though we were slaves or servants.  Now of course there are also things that God asks us to do such as the commandments, but God also respects and acknowledges our intelligence.

Finally, going back to the passage that I referred to from last week’s reading where St. Paul wrote: ‘Brothers and sisters, our time is growing short.  Those who have wives should live as though they had none, and those who mourn should live as though they had nothing to mourn for...’(1 Cor 7:29)

When he wrote this letter, St. Paul believed that the return of Jesus was about to happen.  Only later on he realised that it would not be so soon.  Meanwhile he was telling the other Christians not to get caught up or worried about the things that affect us in this life, because (as he thought) it was all about to come to an end.  He was telling them to focus totally on the Lord, because nothing else was important any more.  Only if we understand that, does the reading make any sense.

It is tempting to get rid of some of the readings that are more difficult and I know that at times some priests will leave out certain readings and I can well understand why.  However, I think it is also important to remind ourselves that we believe that these writings are the inspired word of God.  They were written by people, but they were inspired by God and that is why we don’t replace them with something else.  They will not always make sense to us (even if you have been studying them for years ) and they may even disturb us, but there is no harm in that.  God has many things to say to us, He says much to us through his word, even though the meaning is not always obvious.  The Lord asks us to be open to him and not to be afraid of what He may say to us.

In today’s readings God tells us that He will send someone to speak to us and teach us about him, and that person is Jesus.  That’s why we continually go back to what Jesus said and taught and we try to understand it, because this is God speaking to us and guiding us through each day.  One thing that it says to us is that God holds us in high regard if God actually wants to teach us and show us the way that leads to him.

‘As soon as the sabbath came Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach.’

3rd Sunday Year B (Gospel: Mark 1:14-20) The call to follow

I remember reading somewhere that when Mother Teresa began her mission in Calcutta, it was only after the 12^th attempt to get permission that her previous Order allowed her to go.  She had great perseverance, you could say, but it was also that the call of God was strong and she was listening.  I also remember hearing that a bishop who knew her before she began this work, said ‘I wouldn’t have put her in charge of the sacristy’, meaning that he didn’t think she was capable of much.  And yet look at what God did through her, not because she was a woman of remarkable ability, rather because she had a great openness to God and that is all God needs.

It is easy for us to get the idea that we have to be particularly talented or special people if God is to be able to use us, but that is not true.  In fact if you read about the lives of many of the holy men and women throughout the ages, most of them are not people that you would probably pick to do anything extraordinary.  God does not need great ability, just an open heart.  That also means that our age, or our physical ability is no hindrance to God.  Moses was called to lead the people of Israel to freedom when he was in his eighties.  A modern day Christian evangelist called Merlin Carothers who has written many books, felt that God was calling him to go back into ministry again when he was in his seventies, and so he did.

We can easily get to a point where we feel there is not much more that we can do because we are getting too old or because our health doesn’t seem to allow us to do much anymore.  But God only needs us to be open to his call.  If we are open then God will do everything else.

The readings today are basically about responding to God’s call to us.  It is a call to respond to God’s invitation, which all of us receive.  It’s interesting too that different people who are called respond in different ways.  In the first reading Jonah took off in the opposite direction when he was called.  But you know the story, he tried to get away from God by taking a ship in the opposite direction, but then he ended up being thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish which eventually vomited him out on a beach.  Only then, after God called him again, did he go and do what he was asked to do, basically because he knew he couldn’t get away.  Jonah was being asked to preach to his enemies, the people of Nineveh.  He didn’t want to preach to them and in fact he was hoping that God would not wipe them out.  At the end of the story when God does forgive them, Jonah goes into a sulk and he says, ‘I knew you would end up forgiving them!’  But God shows him that they deserve a chance too, just like anyone else.

Nearly all of the prophets who were called by God resisted as much as possible.  They were afraid and they felt totally inadequate, but God called them anyway.  Moses even came up with the excuse that he really didn’t have much of a voice so there was really no point in sending him to Pharaoh.  God said, ‘Ok.  Your brother Aaron can speak for you, but you’re still going!’  Apparently Mother Teresa also tried to resist God’s call.  At the beginning of her call she had various mystical experiences of God and she kept saying to God that He should pick someone else, that she really was not the one; but look what happened.

Then in the Gospel reading Jesus calls the first four apostles, two sets of brothers: Peter and Andrew, James and John.  In this case it says that they followed him willingly, giving up their work.  Jesus must have made quite an impression on them.  Perhaps it was the personal contact with Jesus which gave them the courage to follow him.  Either way they did.

Most of us are not called to follow God in the way that Moses, or Mother Teresa or the Apostles were.  But God calls all of us to enter into a relationship with him.  It may not be a dramatic call, but it is very real.  The very fact that we search for God is a sign of that call.  Very few of us end up in religious life because only a few are invited to live this way of life, but all of us are called to be in this relationship with him.  Most people are invited to live that relationship wherever they find themselves, in married life, or in single life, in their work place and at home.  The most important thing is that we respond and no one can force us to do this.  Even if we have been brought up as Catholics and taught about God and the mass, at some stage we still have to make that choice somewhere in our hearts, to believe in God and to accept this relationship with him.  The more we live that relationship the more God begins to shine through us and that is how we tell other people about God, not by the words we speak, but primarily by the way we live our relationship with God.

God is aware that the only place we will find true and lasting happiness is in him, and that’s why He wants us to follow the path that leads to him.  It is not an easy path, but it is the most worthwhile path and the good thing is that all of us without exception can respond, because all God needs is that we are open to him.  It’s not about leaving everything and going to work among the poor, although some are called to that, but for most of us it is just about trying to develop that relationship with God, which is really what will make sense of our lives more than anything else.

‘The time has come,’ Jesus said, ‘and the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.  Repent and believe the good news.’ 

2nd Sunday Year B (Gospel: John 1:35-42) There is the Lamb of God

 

When I was training to be a priest in the seminary, one of the men who studied with me initially was a man by the name of Jarlath Trench.  His grandmother was one of the witnesses or 'seers' who had been in Knock, Ireland and had seen the apparition of the Lamb of God and Our Lady in 1879.  It makes it seem very recent with that connection.

On the Thursday 21^st Aug, 1879, at about 8.00pm the apparition happened at one end of the Church.  And for anyone who is not familiar with it, what the people saw (about 30 people) was an altar in the centre, with a lamb on it and angels floating around it in the background.  Then to the left of the altar was Our Lady, with St. Joseph on one side and St. John the apostle on the other side.  Apparently the light from the Lamb was far brighter than that of Our Lady and the two others.  It lasted for about two hours in all.  We usually think of this apparition as one of Our Lady, but the truth is that the apparition was really an apparition of Jesus, appearing as the Lamb of God on the altar and it was accompanied by Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. John.  This might seem trivial, but it is important because what it is telling us is that Jesus, the Lamb of God is at the centre, and especially for us Catholics it speaks powerfully with the vision of the Lamb on the altar: that is, Jesus coming to us in the mass.  As you know the priest holds up the Sacred Host at Communion and says ‘behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb.’

That apparition which happened back at a time when the people were desperately poor and just recovering from the terrible famine of 1845-50, was a beautiful message of hope from heaven, both to let the people know that God was aware of their suffering and also to remind them of the treasure that they had in their midst.  They may have had almost nothing materially, but God was with them and they had Jesus the Lamb of God coming on the altar in each mass, just as we still have today.  Jesus was at the centre and the strongest light was coming from him, as you would expect it to be.  But where Jesus is, Our Lady and the angels and saints are too.

In the Gospel today John the Baptist, whose job was to get the people ready for the coming of the Son of God in their midst, says: ‘There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.’  Then the disciples start following Jesus, which is exactly what was meant to happen.  These various accounts are there for us not just for curiosity sake, but they are telling us something now as well.  God is still saying to us through the Scriptures, ‘Jesus is the One to follow.’  He is the only One of importance.  Jesus is the Lamb of God who is given to us in each mass.  When we have him we have everything, because He is what makes sense of our life and why we are here.

Finally, when the priest says, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb,’ we all say, ‘Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.’  That short prayer says so much.  So often when we become aware of our unworthiness we can be tempted to think, ‘maybe I should not receive Holy Communion because I am a sinner,’ and people sometimes say this to me.  But this prayer says it all.  Yes we are sinners, and yes we certainly are not worthy to receive the eternal God into our own bodies, but it is God himself who makes this possible.  ‘Lord I am not worthy [to receive you] that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.’  If God is prepared to come to us, we should not be afraid to receive God in Holy Communion.  Of course we do our best to prepare, and if there is something serious then we should try and confess it first, but apart from a serious sin, we go and receive the One who wants to come to us, because this is God’s gift to us.  He wants to be close to us and He wants us to know this and be encouraged by his interest in us.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof,

but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

Starting again

Dear friends,
Happy 2012 to one and all.  I hope and pray that it is a year of great blessing for all of us. 
As you know I was 'off the air' for the last year.  I have been on sabatical and also discerning where is the best place for me to work as a priest.  I now find myself with the Dominicans (Order of Preachers) in Cork.  I have been with them now since last September and if things work out I may well remain here.  For now I hope to resume sharing my homilies with you and anyone who is interested in hearing some more thoughts on the Gospel of each Sunday.  This Sunday's Gospel (15th Jan 2012) will follow shortly.
Wishing you all God's continued blessing and peace,
Murchadh

4th Sunday Year A (Gospel Matthew 5:1-12) Blessed are the poor in spirit

All of us are well used to going to specialists for this and that.  If you go to your doctor and there is something he or she is concerned about, you will inevitably be passed on to someone who has more expertise, because we are always trying to find the answer.  It’s great that we do have so much expert knowledge.

When it comes to spiritual knowledge we have many of the great world teachers: the Buddha, Gandhi, Mohammed, and others.  Jesus is often put into this category of wise teachers.  But for us there is one fundamental difference and that is that he is not just another human teacher, even if a very brilliant one.  We believe he really is Son of God.  God who walked among us in the person of Jesus and taught us about himself.  The same God who is present to us in the Eucharist in each mass.  That means that for us there is nothing more important that we can listen to than what Jesus taught, because this is God speaking to us.  If he wasn’t God then we could just as easily listen to any other wise teacher.

In today’s readings we have the Beatitudes, which are the beginning of what is known as the Sermon on the Mount.  The Sermon on the Mount is really the very heart of all that Jesus was teaching his disciples and is teaching us today.  The first two lines of the Gospel which just seem like lines of introduction actually say something quite important.  It says that Jesus 'sat down' to teach.  For a Jewish Rabbi to sit down and teach was to give his official and most important teaching.  In another translation it also says 'then he opened his mouth' and began to teach.  This was also an ancient way of saying that what he was about to say was all important.  And finally, the original Greek says that ‘this is what he was  continually teaching them’.  So what follows is both the ongoing teaching of Jesus, and also the most important thing that he taught his followers.  This is the very heart or core of the teaching of Christ.

I only want to comment on the very first line of the beatitudes which says:

‘How happy (or blessed) are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’  

The word ‘poor’ here actually refers to the destitute poor; those who have absolutely nothing.  Jesus is not saying that it is good that they are poor, rather they have happiness if they recognise their own helplessness and rely on God for everything.  That is the key part, and in fact it applies to all of us.  The key thing is that we realise that it is only in God that we find everything.  If we come to know this, then nothing, not even destitute poverty, can take from our happiness, because God is our security and nothing and no one can take that from us.  The reason why the poorest of the poor are ‘blessed’ in this sense, is because they will be much more aware of how much they need God than anyone else, because they have nothing else.  As you know it is often only when we are in dire straits that we turn to God.  But if we live in a constant state of helplessness then we will be totally aware that only in God can we find happiness and that is the key to coming closer to God.

In modern English it might say, 'O the happiness of the person who has realized his own utter helplessness and who has put his whole trust In God, for only this way can he render to God that perfect obedience which will make him a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.'

All of the Beatitudes are essentially pointing to the same thing: that in God is our complete fulfillment.  Therefore if we realise this, no suffering on earth can take from it.  Knowing this gives us a 'happiness' or 'blessedness' unlike earthly happiness which comes and goes.  But this happiness is permanent and untouchable.  What God offers us does not pass and will not fade, because only God is permanent and no suffering in this life can take God from us .

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A (Matthew 4:12-23) Repent and believe the Good News: the search for happiness

One thing that everyone in this church has in common is the search for happiness.  Everyone wants and hopes to find happiness.  We may have very different ideas as to what happiness is, but we are all looking for it.  The biggest problem seems to be where to find it.  We will look for it in a partner, through children, through work.  When we fall in love we may think we have found it.  But if we persevere in a relationship we will realize that while it is great to have this other person around, they won’t fulfill me completely either, because they cannot.  I am asking the impossible of someone if I expect them to completely fulfill me, because only God can do that.  Hopefully our happiness will begin in this life and we will have many happy times, but total fulfillment is in the next life.  I think that even to accept that much is a big step in the right direction.

When Jesus began his public ministry one of the first things he said was, ‘repent and believe the good news’, or in today’s Gospel it says ‘repent for the kingdom of heaven is close at han.’  We usually understand the word ‘repent’ to mean, ‘ask forgiveness for sin and do some kind of penance.’  That is certainly part of what it means, but there is also more to it than that.  It can also be understood to mean, ‘change the direction in which you are seeking happiness.’  ‘Turn around and look in the right place.’  Jesus is telling us that we certainly aren’t going to find happiness if we look in the wrong place, which sounds obvious enough.  And then he also says, ‘and believe the good news.’  What is the good news?  It is the message that God is interested in us and that God has created us to be happy, but we will only find that happiness in God.

You know the way it says in many of the Gospel passages, ‘Jesus was speaking to the people when a man came up who was sick…’ or ‘Jesus was preaching the word to them, when…’  What was Jesus saying to the people all those times that He preached to them?  No doubt He was teaching them about God and about how God relates to us and explaining why God invites us to follow a certain path and what that path involves. That path is the one that leads to God, which is where we will find happiness.

Now part of that path is the need to turn from sin and to ask for forgiveness, because sin is what will come between us and God and can prevent us from finding that happiness.  That is why Jesus was so strong about the need to turn away from what is wrong.  ‘If your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off... or if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out!  It is better to enter heaven without one hand than to lose that happiness.’  This is an exaggerated way of speaking, in order to make a point, just like we say, ‘I’ll kill you if you do that again!’  Jesus is saying, ‘don’t let anything cause you to lose the happiness that God has for you,’ because nothing is worth it.

We are up against the difficulty of the world around us telling us that we will not be happy if we don’t live a certain way, or if we don’t have certain lifestyles.  And we are bombarded with these ideas day and night.  But who are we going to listen to:  the Son of God, or our society?  God is telling us to make sure we look for happiness in the right place, so that we won’t be disappointed.

They say that 96-98% of the population suffers from addiction to something.  What is addiction but the search for happiness gone badly wrong, where we become obsessed with something thinking that we will die without it, or be totally unhappy without it, be it alcohol, drugs, work, or whatever.  The interesting thing is that the only program that is known to really be effective in helping people to overcome addictions is the twelve step program.  That program is the Christian life in twelve steps.  Even just the first few steps:

1. We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol (or sin)—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves (God) could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. (Repentance)

 The truth is that all of us are addicted to sin.  We are all drawn to what we know is not good for us and will probably lead us further from God.  And what God is telling us is that this is not a problem if we continually turn to him.  He is the way out and the way forward and most importantly, it is in him we will find happiness.

 Make sure you look for happiness in the right place.

‘Repent and believe in the good news.’ 

Baptism of the Lord (Matthew 3:13-17) God among us, as one of us

I had the privilege of living and studying in Rome for three years.  It was a great experience although not easy either.  Living in a different culture can be quite a strain as just about everything you can think of is done differently.  People think and behave in a completely different way.  You cannot take anything for granted and you also find it is easy to insult people without realising it.  It gave me a lot of sympathy for people who come here from other countries and try to settle down.  It can be quite a strain.  One thing it also taught me is that it is important to do as the locals do.  ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, as the saying goes.

It is a strange thing that Jesus came to John for Baptism.  Up to that point the Jewish people themselves never went in for baptism.  It was only for those who were converting to Judaism from another religion.  But then John the Baptist began telling the people to come for baptism as a sign of repentance and a new beginning.  And then something very unexpected happens.  Jesus himself lines up with the other people and comes to John to be baptised for the forgiveness of sins.  As soon as John sees Jesus he recognises that he is the one sent by God, the one John himself had been preaching about without realising it.  And of course he says to Jesus ‘I can’t baptise you; you need to baptise me!’  But Jesus convinces him to let it be that way, who knows why exactly.  Perhaps one of the reasons was that Jesus is showing us that he is here as one of us, walking among sinners and living as one of us, doing what all the people were doing.  It is a very powerful way of Jesus showing that he is with us in everything, although of course he is without sin.  But it says that Jesus is not afraid to identify with us as we are, in our sinfulness and not just coming among us as a great powerful leader who everyone bows to.  Instead he lives and walks among his people as one of them. 

The way of God is not the way of the world, which is a way of power and making your presence felt.  Instead it is an almost hidden way which can be easily missed.  He is also showing us that God’s power is accomplished through the path that involves suffering.  This is something we find very hard to understand, because we instinctively draw back from any kind of suffering.  However, it is through the cross that Jesus atones for all human sin and reopens the way to God for us.

Just after Jesus is baptised a voice is heard saying ‘This is my Son the Beloved; my favour rests on him.’  This simple sentence says two very important things about Jesus.  The first part: ‘This is my Son the Beloved’ is also found in Psalm 2:7 which the Jewish people knew referred to the Messiah.  The second phrase: ‘My favour rests on him’, is from the prophet Isaiah 42:1, which refers to the ‘suffering servant’, the one God would send to free his people through suffering.  So this sentence is saying that Jesus is the Messiah and that he will free his people from their sins through suffering, and not by the ways of the world.

If an adult came to me today and said they wanted to be baptised, I would say ‘wonderful’, but first they would have to learn about the Christian faith.  Then when they had learnt enough about it they would be baptised.  Obviously you don’t commit yourself to a way of life that you know nothing about; it wouldn’t make any sense.  When we baptise an infant—and we do it because we want them to belong to God from the beginning of their life—we baptise them on condition that they are taught about the faith as they grow up.  Otherwise it would be hypocrisy.  Being baptised is a way of saying that we know we are sinners and we want to belong to God and accept all that He has done for us. 

Most of us here were baptised when we were infants and someone else spoke on our behalf.  But now we are adults and we must take responsibility for our own faith.  Although having to follow a particular path as a Christian may not always seem that attractive, remember Jesus coming for baptism himself.  He accepted the culture and traditions of his time and lived in it.  We too are being called to accept this particular path to God and all that it involves.  It is not always easy to do this, and God knows there are many things about it which can be very frustrating, but it is the path that God has shown us and so let us not be afraid to keep going and do our best to live it as well as we can.

This is my Son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased