4th Sunday of Year B (Gospel: Mark 1:21-28) The conversion of an extremist

Today I would like to tell you the extraordinary story of a religious extremist who was converted to Christianity. He was Jewish, an expert in everything to do with Judaism and he had made it his goal to wipe out any Christians he could get his hands on. Then, out of the blue, Jesus appeared to him and he converted overnight. But because he had been such a persecutor of Christians, many people were still afraid of him and doubted if this could have really happened. His name was Paul of Tarsus.

We talk about him all the time, but I think we often forget just what an amazing conversion he had. Overnight he went from trying to imprison and kill Christians, to preaching about Jesus and about all that he had done. Jesus appeared to him many other times as well, teaching him the same things that he had taught the other Apostles. It says that after he came to believe in Jesus, he went away for three years and only then did he go to check with the other Apostles if what Jesus had taught him, was the same as what Jesus had taught them and it was.

To me, one of the funniest lines in the Bible is just after Paul has seen Jesus for the first time, Jesus then appears to another man called Ananias and tells him to go and pray with Paul. But Ananias is well aware of who Paul is—a religious extremist, intent on killing Christians—and he says to Jesus, ‘But Lord, do you realize who this guy is?!’ as if the Lord isn’t aware of who he is. What is also amazing about St. Paul’s conversion, is simply that God would use someone who was so zealous to wipe out Christianity, to be one of its boldest preachers. Jesus also chose Peter as the first pope, even though Peter had publicly sworn three times that he didn’t know who Jesus was.

What does this tell us? It tells us that God is quite happy to use ordinary people and even very sinful people. Moses, who led the people of Israel to freedom, had murdered a man when he was young and then fled the country when he realized they knew he was the murderer. They are not the kind of people we would pick to preach the Gospel, but they are the kind of people that God is happy to pick. That also tells us that our sinfulness is not an obstacle to God working through us, even in extraordinary ways. I think often we have the impression that we have to be quite holy before God would work through us, but that is not what the Scriptures show us; in fact the opposite. All God needs from us is an open heart.

 

After Paul was converted, many people were converted through his preaching and he worked many extraordinary miracles and Jesus appeared to him several other times as well. Now you would think that he is now living a holy life and no longer struggling with his own weaknesses, but what he says about his own struggles is quite surprising. He seems to have struggled with some weakness in particular, although he doesn’t say what it was, but this is what he writes about it:

Even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. In order to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. (2 Cor 12:7-9).

God is not put off by our weaknesses and in fact they serve a purpose. As long as we are struggling we are aware of how much we need God’s help and so, frustrating as they are, the Lord allows us to have them, so that He can go on working through us. This should help us never to become discouraged. The Lord is not bothered by the fact that we struggle and in fact our struggles are the very things that can help us to grow and stay close to God.

There is one other thing that St. Paul says in his writings which I think is amazing. When he talks about what he learnt about the mass, he begins with the words, ‘This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn pass on to you: that on the night he was betrayed…’ (1 Cor 11:23). He is saying that what we do here in the mass does not come from human beings. He didn't learn about this from the other Apostles, but directly from Jesus. It comes from God. Jesus revealed this to Paul in another vision. This teaching does not come from human beings, but from God and that is why we keep doing it, because the Lord told us to.

'This is what I received from the Lord, and in turn pass on to you...'

3rd Sunday Year B (Gospel: Mark 1:14-20) The Kingdom of God is at hand

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.’ 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. She called herself ‘God’s pencil.’

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 our openness and willingness. 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 and he had murdered a man when he himself was young and then had to flee the country so that he wouldn’t be killed himself. 

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.

It would be a mistake to feel that 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, or even because we are not particularly talented. It is not so much about what God may call us to do, it is above all to be in relationship with the Lord. God only needs us to be open to his call. If we are open then God will do everything else.

The readings today are about responding to God’s call to us. In the Gospel Jesus calls the first four apostles, Peter, 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.

If we are also called to be disciples, what does that mean in practice? It means that we develop a personal relationship with Jesus. A personal relationship means a real, living, relationship, just like we would have with any other human being. So it means we begin to learn more about Jesus, we speak to him every day, we spend time in prayer listening to him and speaking to him, every day. We find out what he is teaching us through the Scriptures and we try to live that. The surprising thing is what happens when we begin to do this. First of all we may not even be aware that a personal relationship is really possible, but it is. Many people here have that kind of relationship with the Lord, but many more probably don’t and this is what we are being invited to. Why is that so important, because that is when our faith really begins to come alive. Then our coming to mass regularly begins to make more sense. It is no longer just something we have to do because we are Catholic. We come to the mass because we want to worship God and encounter the Lord Jesus in a particular way. The more people respond to Jesus’ call to follow him, to have a real living relationship with him, the more alive the whole parish becomes. Then we realise it is all about serving him and trying to live out his call to us. That is when our faith begins to transform us and this is what we are called to.

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 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 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.

It is only in God that we will find true and lasting happiness and that’s why He calls us to follow the path that leads to him. It is not an easy path, but it is the most worthwhile path and all of us without exception can respond to that invitation, but we have to consciously make a decision to do that. 

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

2nd Sunday of Year B (Gospel: John 1:35-42) Listen

Has God ever spoken to you? Do you wonder why God doesn’t speak to you more? Has God ever spoken to me? Yes; many times, but not in audible words. Often through the Scriptures, sometimes in prayer when something just comes to my mind, or I become aware of something and often through other people, through something they will say, even though they will be unaware of it.

God is speaking to us all the time. A lot of the time we are not aware of it because we are not listening and there is so much noise. Everywhere we go there is noise, music playing, tv or radio on, texts on our phones. It is very hard to find silence and we need silence if we are to listen.

If God spoke to you, what would He want to say to you? If we really believe God created us and that we are being drawn closer and closer to him, then God must have plenty to say to us, but probably not in the way we would expect. Presuming that you love your children, or nieces/nephews, you want to teach them, guide them and encourage them. You want to help them make sense of their lives and point them in the direction where they will hopefully be most fulfilled. Even if you don’t have your own children, there are always people we come across that we want to help in some way, through encouragement, or a bit of wisdom that we have learnt from experience. I am sure that that is also how God speaks to us. Since He created us, He wants to teach us, show us the path that will lead to our greatest fulfillment. He wants to help us make sense of things. Do you ever wonder what exactly Jesus was saying to the people he taught when he walked the earth? I’m sure it is the same as what he teaches us now.

‘But I am so busy!’ There is always time when we are alone and we can turn off the radio or tv and the phone! Think of all the time you spend driving places. Turn off the radio. Get off the phone and listen! Talk to God from your heart and just be with him.

St. Benedict of Norcia lived around the year 500 and he wrote a rule for his monks, which is just known as The Rule of St. Benedict, and it is still used by monks today, 1500 years later. It is basically a guideline of how they are to live from day to day. The very first word of the rule is the word ‘listen’. The second word is ‘carefully’. Listen carefully to my teaching.

We also talk about being ‘obedient’ to God. The word ‘obedient’ comes from two Latin words ob audire, which means ‘to listen intently.’ God is saying to us: ‘Listen carefully, because I have something to say to you.’

Last November at one of the papal audiences, Pope Francis said this:

When we go to mass, maybe we arrive five minutes early and we start to chat with those in front of us. But it is not a moment to chat. It is a moment of silence, to prepare ourselves for dialogue with God. It is a time for the heart to collect itself, in order to prepare for the encounter with Jesus. Silence is so important. Remember what I said last week: we do not go to a show; we go to meet the Lord and silence prepares us and accompanies us [for this].

(Nov 15, 2017, St. Peter’s Basilica)

Did you know that people come here up to an hour before the mass begins, in order to pray? They understand that it is an encounter with Jesus and they are preparing for it.

All of us are different. All of us pray differently and that’s normal. But all of us need silence in some shape or form to be alone with God; to listen to God, sot that the one who created us can speak to us.

One of the most beautiful ways that God speaks to us is through the Scriptures. The Bible is a collection of letters and stories that God has written to us. Everything in the Bible addresses everything in our world today. Everything! Do you have a bible? If not, why not? Don’t you want to know what God is saying to you, because God is speaking to you. Take out your bible, or buy one and read one chapter of one book on a regular basis. It takes about 5 minutes.

God has a lot to say to us, but we must listen.

‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening.’

The Epiphany (Matthew 2:1-12) All peoples of all religions will recognise Jesus as God

 

The feast of the Epiphany is an interesting one. In the Eastern Catholic Churches (the ones with all the icons), it is the main feast of Christmas, sometimes called the Feast of the Three Kings. They give their gifts on today’s feast, just as the kings gave the gifts to the child Jesus. Here we celebrate it as the feast of Christ being recognised by the world. The three wise men, or astrologers, were led to this place where Christ was. They are supposed to have come from different countries. They represent all the peoples of the world since they were not Jewish. It is a way of saying that Jesus’ coming is for all peoples of all religions and race. All people will recognise that Jesus is the Son of God. 

The three gifts they bring are symbolic. Gold is the symbol of a king. Jesus is a king, King of kings and the master of the whole universe. The use of frankincense is a sign of recognising a divinity or God. Jesus is Son of God, the second person of the God-head. And myrrh is a perfume that represents the suffering He will go through to win eternal life for the human race. The symbolism of the three pagan kings is that all peoples of all religions and nations will recognise that Jesus Christ is Lord and that we only have eternal life through him. 

It might seem a bit arrogant of us to say that all people will recognise that Jesus is the Son of God. That seems to imply that we are right and that everyone else is wrong, but that is not the case. People of different religions have very different understandings of God and God speaks to all people through the different religions. Even for those who never come to know Jesus in this lifetime, they still have eternal life won for them by the death and resurrection of Christ and eternal life is still offered to them through him, just as it is to us. When they die they will see this at once. They will know immediately who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

Although we lost the possibility of eternal life with God through what we call Original Sin, God regained the possibility of eternal life for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We can accept or reject this gift individually and we do this through our faith. All people are offered this possibility regardless of whether they come to know of God in this life or not, but it is not as if there is a kind of neutral ground for those who do not believe. We accept life with God when we die which will be our total fulfilment, or we lose it forever and that is the choice we must make.  

This is also where our conscience is so important, because even if we never hear of God during our life, God speaks to us through our conscience, giving us a basic understanding of what is right and wrong. Our faith and the teachings of Jesus through the Church give us a better understanding of what is right or wrong. All of the decisions that we make throughout our life are bringing us closer to, or driving us farther away from God.

We Christians are the people who recognise that Jesus is the Son of God and has done all these things for us. We consider ourselves blessed that God has made himself known to us in this way, but it doesn’t mean that we have a better chance of going to heaven than anyone else. That depends completely on how we live our life. When we die we will realise that all this is really true. And when other people of different religions die, they will also recognise that Jesus Christ is Lord. What is important for them is to live their faith as well as they can just as it is for us. If they do this, God will also draw them closer to him and bring them to holiness, just as He will with us if we remain open. 

Meanwhile we pray that all peoples will begin to recognise that Jesus Christ is Lord even in this life, because this is the truth which God has revealed to us Either way we try to respect people who believe differently to us, and remember that they are also children of God.

Every knee shall bow

in heaven, on earth and under the earth

and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)

Feast of the Holy Family (Gospel: Luke 2:22-40) Our imperfect families

My family: L-R Eoin, Me, Eadain, Donnchadh, Mom, Gormlaith, Dad, Fionnuala, Cathal

My family lived in Dublin until I was six years old. One time when I was about five I was brought to a party of a school friend, but for some reason I decided that I didn’t like the party and that I wanted to go home. I figured that the best way to do this was secretly. So I told my friend that I would hide out in the garden and that he should come and try to find me after a few minutes. I then made my escape and headed home. The only problem was that I had no idea how to get home. So I headed off and asked a post-man how to get to York Road, in Dun Laoghaire, where we lived. He looked at me suspiciously but told me where to go. When I finally arrived home I found a big police motorbike in the front drive.  Everyone was out looking for me. My poor parents were not the better for this experience.  Family life is not easy.

This is a feast day which I think can often make us feel disappointed with our own families, although we don’t admit it, because it seems to tell us that our families are not what they should be. Things go wrong and we drive each other crazy. Someone gets into trouble and lets the family down. Marriages don’t always work out. We are afraid what others will think of us.

Then we are presented with the ‘holy family’, who we imagine were living in bliss all the time. That is not reality. They were poor. When Jesus was born they were homeless. Then with a new baby they had to flee to Egypt to escape an attempt on the child’s life and became refugees. When Jesus was brought to the temple, Simeon told them he was destined to be a sign that would be rejected. He would not be a ‘success’. Later they lost him for three days. Can you imagine the stress of losing one of your children for three days?

So why are they presented to us as a model? Perhaps because they had their priorities right. God was at the center of this family. It was the right environment for the person of Jesus to grow and mature. Jesus had to grow up as a person just as all of us do, learn to be responsible, learn the Jewish traditions and that takes a long time. It involves a lot of learning for each of us, and a lot of patience and sacrifice on the part of our parents, but how we are formed is vital. There is an African proverb which says, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ We all have a part to play, even if that is just encouraging those who are struggling. If there are young families around you who are struggling financially, especially one parent families, look out for them. There is a couple I know who were telling me recently that at one stage, because one of their children was sick, they lost their home in order to pay hospital bills. The husband told me that for several months they lived on next to nothing. We never know how people are struggling and we must look out for each other.

We know almost nothing about the first thirty years of Jesus’ life, but no doubt it was very important for his growing and maturing as a person, and to help him be ready for the mission that He lived out for the last three years of his life, teaching people about God and sacrificing himself for us.

The main role of our families is to provide a safe, loving environment for us to grow up in, so that we will blossom as people and learn how to deal with the world. None of us come from perfect families, but that doesn’t matter. It is easy to become discouraged, thinking about how things might have been, or should be, but the bottom line is that we are the way we are. We come from the kind of imperfect families that we come from. The path through our lives often takes unexpected turns and things can work out a lot worse than we had intended. Does it matter? Not in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord is not the one to say ‘You should be different’. That is what people will say, but that is not what the Lord says. He is the one who always encourages, reassures and gives us new strength to keep going.

Think of all the people that Jesus came across in the Gospels. He took them exactly as they were, including many people who were causing public scandal. It didn’t matter what faith or cultural background they came from. He always showed great sensitivity to their dignity. Satan discourages, but God always encourages. What is important is not how we should be, but that we remain open to God. If we are listening and open, then the Lord can lead us forward. All God needs is our openness. The Lord knows well that we often mess up, but that doesn’t matter. Everything that we go through plays a part in forming us as people. The only thing that is important is that we are willing to get up again, to begin again and turn to the Lord for help as often as is necessary. 

Let us give thanks to God for the families that we grew up in, no matter how they are.

Christmas 2017 (John 1:1-18) The Word was made flesh and lived among us

Several years ago on Christmas day after I had celebrated the two morning masses, I went to visit some friends, took a short walk and then went back to my house looking forward to a nap as I was exhausted. When I opened the front door I was horrified to see water pouring down through the ceiling. The pipes had burst!  So I spent most of the rest of the day trying to mop up the house. Compared to many people I know I got away lightly, but it still did a lot of damage. However, in spite of the damage, one of the things it made me realise was that you don’t really need very much. I still got a Christmas dinner, I had a place to stay and I was warm enough. What more could I ask for? We will always have inconvenience and problems, but if we have the basics we are ok and most of us have a lot more than just the basics.

One of the things that I find beautiful about the feast of Christmas is what the feast says about us as human beings. God didn’t sort everything out before He took on human flesh and came among us. He came into all the inconvenience, injustice and chaos that is all around us all the time and he was born into a human family with all the ups and downs that goes with any family. Mary and Joseph were away from home because of the census that was being taken and then Mary ended up having to give birth in a far from ideal place: a stable or cave. It must have been very upsetting, especially for Joseph whom I sure felt frustrated at not being able to provide a better place for his wife to give birth to their first-born. Soon afterwards they had to flee the country as refugees because of a death threat. There were difficulties from the start, and yet God was happy to come right into the middle of all that.

 

Perhaps what is easiest to overlook is the significance of God taking on flesh. He didn’t take on the nature of an animal, or of an angel, but of a human being. We are not animals, but we are not angels either and we are not meant to be. The Word became flesh, and that tells us that we are good as we are. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to improve, but we are meant to be ‘flesh’. I think many of us have grown up with the idea that spirit is good, but flesh and all to do with it is bad. However, that is not what God teaches us; in fact, He is telling us the complete opposite by taking on human flesh. This is how we are meant to be and not only that but in our flesh as we are, we imitate God, especially in the way we love.

The beginning of St. John’s Gospel, which we read on Christmas morning, tells us a few wonderful things. It is speaking about the person of Jesus, God the Son, which it calls the Word. It says that the eternal Word—who becomes Jesus—was there from the beginning. God the Son has always been there. It also says that apart from him we would not exist at all. We only have life because He is there, which also means that our life has no meaning apart from him. Then it says a most encouraging thing for the times that we live in. It says that Jesus (the Word) is the Light that shines in the darkness and ‘the darkness could not overcome this light.’ In other words, no matter what happens in the world around us, no matter how much evil there appears to be, it will never be able to overcome Jesus, who is God. God is stronger. God will have the last say. 

In the book of Revelation Jesus says,

I am the First and the Last, the Living One. I was dead, but now I am to live forever and ever. I hold the keys of death and of the underworld (Rev 1:17b-18).

All things are subject to God and yet he was pleased to come among us as one of us, to teach us about God, about the afterlife, about how we should live and of course to die for us. If God was prepared to come among us in this way it means that we must have enormous worth and value in his eyes. This also means that we are not just here by accident, but for a definite reason.

So although the world around us may seem to have lost its way, God is with us just as much as ever. God doesn’t need to make it all perfect to be with us. He didn’t when Jesus was born and He doesn’t have to now either. Instead He shows us a different way; the way of love and the way of sacrifice, which may seem to be insignificant, but is in fact the more powerful way. Earthly rulers need to show how strong they are, but God does not. God is powerful enough to be able to work quietly in the background, mostly unnoticed. ‘He came among his own and his own didn’t recognise him.’ It didn’t matter and it still doesn’t matter, because He is with us no matter what and He goes on teaching us no matter what. He will continue to teach anyone who is willing to listen, that we were created by God and at the end of our time on earth we will return to God if we are open to it. That is the purpose of our life and the reason why we are here. For our duration on earth, we simply do our best to follow the path that He points out to us.

‘The Word was made flesh and lived among us.’

4th Sunday of Advent Yr B (Luke 1:26-38) Nothing is impossible to God

Before I became a priest I worked in sales  for a couple of years. In one of the places I worked I overheard a conversation between two people about Christmas. One of them was speaking about Mary conceiving by the power of the Spirit and how it was impossible. She said, ‘It’s a nice idea, but I mean it’s just impossible!’ and she dismissed it as not true.

Is it impossible? Medically and scientifically it is impossible. According to the laws of nature it simply can not happen. So why are we expected to believe this story? Mary herself had the same reaction to the angel. She said, ‘But how can this be, since I am a virgin?’ It seems that she didn’t intend to have children, or else why would she have said that since she was already legally married to Joseph, but they weren’t yet living together, which was part of the Jewish culture.

What the angel said to her was, that this would happen by the power of God. God would intervene in nature’s natural course and to prove it to her, or as a sign to her, he told her about the miracle that God had already performed for Elizabeth, who was too old to have children and who had been barren. Elizabeth was now six months pregnant with John the Baptist, even though she was too old to have children. So the angel was saying to her, ‘I realise that this is impossible by your way of thinking, but that doesn’t mean God can’t do it and Elizabeth is the proof.’ So Mary said, ‘OK, I accept,’ even though she didn’t understand how it would happen and that’s what faith is. When we can no longer understand something, then we have to believe it or reject it. But why should we accept such an idea? Because we believe it comes from God. God presents us with these mysteries and invites us to believe, on his authority. God is the one asking us to accept it.

Image from the Hubble telescope

Several years back I was asked to do the wedding of a friend of mine. We were in elementary school together and now he is a pathologist. I asked him if he would be receiving Holy Communion, as I never like to presume. He said he would like to, but that he didn't believe in the resurrection of Christ. He said that he could not accept it as a scientist. He wasn't trying to be offensive, but he was just telling the truth. I admired him for his honesty. Every other day he is doing autopsies and he is being asked to believe that a man who died came back to life after three days! He knew that it was scientifically impossible, but we are asked to go beyond what we understand as being possible, because God asks us to.

There are many parts of our faith which we question and because we can’t understand them it is tempting to disregard them. We don’t understand what happens in the mass, how it is that Jesus becomes present. We don’t understand how Jesus could be God and man. We say that to call something a mystery, is a cop-out. What we are saying is, ‘Since I can’t understand this, it must not be true.’ How small minded we can be. I don’t understand exactly how my car engine works, or how the computer works, or how nuclear power works, but I know it works and I take it on someone else’s authority and because of the evidence.

Christmas isn’t just a nice story. It is a true story, a lot of which is beyond our understanding, but we believe it because God asks us to accept it on his authority. There is nothing wrong with believing something even if you don’t fully understand it. That’s what faith is. We have faith that what God is telling us is true.

In today’s readings, God’s promises from centuries before are starting to be fulfilled through Mary. God promised David almost a thousand years before Jesus, that He would send a great king, whose reign would last forever and in the Gospel, this is the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise. Christmas is about God being faithful to his promises.

I do not understand, but I believe.

‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary. Let what you have said be done to me.’