HOMILY FOR 25TH SUNDAY YR. C

Fr. Tom Ritchie

I had been walking for three hours when I came to the outskirts of the Village of Suau in the Sepik area of Papua New Guinea. I was about to pass the first thatched hut which was apart from the others, when a man hailed me. He invited me to come to his house. When I arrived he pointed out a short length of tree trunk for me to sit on and asked me to wait while he prepared a Kulau for me to drink. He cut of the top of the green coconut and handed it to me. I drank the copious mildly sweet cool liquid. Having thanked him I continued on to the centre of the village where I was welcomed by a group of people. One of them offered me another kulau. I thanked him and said I had already had one.

He asked me if it was the man in the first house who had given it to me. When I said “Yes”, he said that man offers food to eat and something to drink to everyone who comes along. Then he continued in Pidgin: ”Em I gudpela man tru”. “He is a very good man”. He said it with such sincerity that I have never forgotten. Here was a man who had no financial income sharing what he had with anyone who came along who was hungry or thirsty after a long walk.

The Gospel today challenges us to such generosity. Jesus tells us that if we want to store up true riches for ourselves then we must be ready to part with the riches that this world values. We must be ready to share part of our wealth with the poor around us. Often we find it is the poorest people who are most generous and caring.

Jesus tells the story about a man in charge of finances who used his position to make friends by reducing the amount that the debtors owed. Then Jesus said that materialistic people are wiser than spiritual people because they use the opportunities they have to benefit themselves materially. If we are spiritual people we should benefit ourselves spiritually by using our earthly goods for spiritual benefit by generously giving to the poor.

Jesus becomes an investment advisor. Each of us has our possessions that we want to enjoy – our wealth, time, talents, health, life. But Jesus is advising us to invest them; to use them to benefit others, especially the poor. He doesn’t mean just a token, a dollar in a man’s begging bowl, but a contribution that I will feel as inconvenient so that I will need to deny myself something that I would like. Then the poor will be on my side and will welcome me.

There are those who truly believe that greed is a good principal on which to operate their businesses and perhaps their lifes. We as Christians have an opportunity to witness to generosity and the willingness to give freely from all we have. Then we will surely have friends to welcome us to our eternal life.

HOMILY FOR 21ST SUNDAY YR. C

 HOMILY FOR 21ST SUNDAY YR. C

Fr. Tom Ritchie

In today’s Gospel they said: We have been with you. We ate with you. We walked in the street with you. But Jesus said: Be gone! I do not know you. You are not followers of mine. You will see people coming from East and West but you will be left outside.
To carry the name of Christian, to be seen at Church, to be seen praying, to carry rosary beads; these are not enough. What more is needed? A story written by the Russian author Tolstoi helps us understand.

Peter was a bootmaker in a little Russian village. He used to complain that it was easy for the apostles to be saved because they lived with Jesus, but he could not meet Jesus. But this day he had a strange feeling that something was going to happen. Perhaps he would get his wish. It was a cold winter’s day and he was in his shop working on shoes when he saw Nicholas clearing the snow from the foot path. He looked cold so he invited him in and gave him some hot tea.

Later in the day he saw a young woman looking into the warm shop. She didn’t appear to have good clothes and was carrying a baby. He invited her in and gave her steaming soup and bread and warmed milk for the baby. Before she left he gave her the woollen shawl that had belonged to his wife.

As he was about to finish an old farmer’s wife came to pick up her husband’s boots, but she had no money so he told her to take the boots and bring some turnips when the crop was ready. She left with gratitude, and he gathered up the scraps of leather and twine and threw them on the fire. He began to feel disappointed that he still had not seen Jesus. He seemed to hear a voice which said “Did you not see me?” Then the image of Nicholas, and the girl and her baby, and the old farmer’s wife came before his eyes and each time he heard the same voice say: “Did you not know me Peter?”

He blessed himself and picked up his bible. It fell open where the words run: “Come you blessed of my Father and possess the kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I has thirsty and you gave me to drink, I was naked and you clothed me……..as often as you did this to one of these least ones you did it to me!”

So his story ends, but not ours. What claim do we have to be called followers of Christ? Is it an empty name so Jesus will say: “I do not know you”. Or do we have a claim on the promises made to those who are merciful, to those who demonstrate that they really love others. We are challenged to look at our lives to see if we really live as followers of Jesus.

12TH SUNDAY YEAR C

HOMILY FOR 12^TH SUNDAY “C”

Fr. Thomas Ritchie

According to the story that Luke tells in his Gospel the climax of Jesus ministry in Galilee comes to be about the identity of Jesus. When Jesus calms the storm the apostles ask “Who is this who speaks and even the winds and the sea obey him?” Herod asks “Who is this I hear such reports about?” Now after the miracle of the loaves and fish Jesus asks: ”Who do people say that I am?”. Then he asks the Apostles: “And you, who do you say that I am?” Peter answered: “You are the Christ of God, you are the Anointed one, you are the Messiah.”

It reminds me of a question that I was once asked. I was working in Papua New Guinea running a course for some national prayer leaders. I was answering questions that they put in a question box. I took out one of the questions which said: “Have you seen Jesus or not?” I asked for the man who put the question in the box and he stood up. Then I asked him if he could explain what he meant by his question. He said that last night some of they had sat around a fire discussing what they were doing here. Then he said that they were puzzled about why we missionaries had left our homes and country and families to come and teach them about Jesus. So they thought maybe we had actually seen Jesus and he had told us to come. So he asked the question, “Have you actually seen Jesus?”

I found the question really challenged me deeply inviting me to look into my motivation and to search my faith in Jesus to find an answer for him. “Yes” I told him “Jesus did send us, but we did not speak to us face to face. He spoke to me in my heart and I believed he wanted me to do this.”

Today I think we are all challenged by this Gospel to look at our relationship with Jesus and to ask ourselves who Jesus is for us. Does he truly have a place in my life, in your life? If we are conscious of leading a good life, being honest, being generous, respecting others, not hurting or deceiving others and all because we believe that this is the way Jesus asks us to lead our lives.

The reason why I live my life with love and generosity is because Jesus lives in me and he loves me and we gather today because that is true for us. We are here to meet Jesus, to spend time with him, to learn from him, to be united with him.

16TH SUNDAY YEAR C

HOMILY 16TH SUNDAY YEAR C

Fr. Tom Ritchie

There are two stories that Luke tells in his Gospel that are found nowhere else. One is Jesus relating the parable of the Good Samaritan and the other is the story of Martha and Mary as we have in the Gospel today. Both of these stories are telling us how disciples of Jesus behave. In the Good Samaritan story we learn that we must be people of compassion like the Samaritan having pity even on our enemy. And in the story of Martha we are taken a step further. It is not enough to have care and compassion such as Martha has in caring for Jesus. We must go further and sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his words.

But there is something else in both of these stories that was not only amazing for the Jews, it was deeply shocking and for most just unacceptable. It was unbelievable that the hero of the story of the Good Samaritan should be a hated Samaritan. An enemy has been given by Jesus as an example to be followed.

And what Jesus said to Martha and Mary was equally shocking. When Martha saw her sister sitting at the feet of Jesus she knew what it meant. Her sister was saying by her action: “I am a disciple of Jesus and I am here to listen to him, to learn from him”. Martha told Mary to go to the kitchen where her place was as a Jewish woman because only men could be disciples. In Jewish writings we can read that the rabbis said: ‘It is better to burn the Torah, the book of the law, than to teach it to a woman”. But Jesus told Martha that while she was busy about many things Mary had chosen the better part and it would not be taken away from her. Jesus did the shocking thing of approving that Mary should be a disciple of his. He accepted her as equal to a man with equal rights to be a disciple.

There was more than one message in the stories Jesus told and in what Jesus did and said. In the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus challenged the Jews to accept all races as equal and in his dealings with Martha and Mary Jesus challenged the Jews to accept women as equals with men. And these stories challenged the early Church and they challenge us. In the early church it is evident that women had many positions of responsibility. But as time went on the male dominated cultures prevailed and for most of two thousand years women have been forced into inferior positions in most cultures where Christianity existed. Today the challenge of Jesus is being heard and Pope Francis is reminding us in so many ways that we are to accept and welcome everyone of different cultures, of different beliefs, women and men, Gay people, atheists, everyone.

The Gospel of today challenges us all to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him – to be his disciples. And it reminds us to accept everyone as equals especially women and men. It is wonderful to see that there has been growth in our cultures and in the church but we still have a long way to go to fulfil the challenge Jesus has given us.

4TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

HOMILY FOR 4TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

Fr. Tom Ritchie

Behind today’s Gospel lies the image of a first Century Palestinian shepherd. In Palestine in the time of Jesus, sheep were kept mainly for wool and milk, they were not slaughtered for their meat. The shepherd therefore knew his flock well, giving names to each of the sheep. They recognised his voice and followed him alone. The author H. V. Morton writing back in the 1930’s describes the way a Palestinian shepherd speaks to his sheep. In his book “In the Steps of the Master” Morton writes:
“Sometimes the shepherd speaks to his sheep in a sing-song voice using a weird language unlike anything I have ever heard in my life… Early one morning I saw an extraordinary sight not far from Bethlehem. Two shepherds had evidently spent the night together in a cave with their flocks. The sheep were all mixed together and it was time for each of the shepherds to go his own way. One of the shepherds stood some distance from the sheep and began to call. First one, then another then four or five animals ran towards him, and so on until he had countered his whole flock.”

It would seem that little has changed over the centuries. It was a scene that Jesus undoubtedly was familiar with when he said: “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me.”

In many parts of the Catholic Church today it is called ‘vocation Sunday’. Vocation comes from the word ‘vocare’ meaning ‘to call’. Who or what are we called to be? In the past it has been associated with a call to ministry in the Church especially as a Priest, Brother or Sister. But for me it is much broader. When the Jewish Rabbi Yusya was growing old and was soon to die his students gathered around him and one of them asked him if he was afraid to die. He said: “I am afraid what God will ask me.” “I do not fear that he will ask me why I did not live like Moses. But I do fear he will ask me: “Why were you not Yusya?”

Each of us has our own special calling in God’s plan. We are the sheep who know in our hearts the voice of the shepherd. We need to quieten ourselves to hear that voice. It is important for each of us to give ourselves some quiet time of prayer where we can listen to the voice of the shepherd.

Most of us have answered calls in our life often without being conscious of the call. Looking back in my life I can see the call that I answered to be a Franciscan and a Missionary. You may see the call in your life to your husband or wife, to your family, to faithfully serve others as a teacher, a nurse, an engineer. But Jesus continues to call us to respond to new situations from day to day. God calls each of us in different ways.

We need to open our ears and open our hearts to hear the ways that God is calling us to follow him in loving and showing our care for others. For most of us it is in our families that we are called. But for many of us it is also through the people that we serve in different ways.

What is so important is for us to hear the way the shepherd is calling us. It is usually through the circumstances of those who are suffering or in need that we are made aware of the call to be the person God wants us to be.

There was an aboriginal girl called Shirley living in Sydney from 1924 to 98. She became pregnant and had a baby but had no husband. One day she saw some young people sleeping in the street. She took them to her house and fed them. She heard a call and she responded. She spent much of her life visiting Aboriginals in Jail. She went on to dedicate her life to caring for homeless youth and became an outstanding example of love and care for others. She raised 60 abandoned children. Many called her Mum Shirl. When she died she was honoured with a funeral from St. Mary’s Cathedral. She listened to the voice calling her and responded with her whole heart.