穿越聖地 : 四福音 (十八集全套)

穿越聖地 : 四福音 (十八集全套)  Drive thru History "The Gospels"

節目: 穿越聖地

本節目從瑪竇、馬爾谷、路加和若望福音記載的地點，探索耶穌故事。Dave走到以色列逾50個古蹟，以新穎方式傳達福音，為聖經真理展示證據。本輯節目細說歷史、考古、地理和藝術，圍繞耶穌出生、講道和復活…

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Episode 1

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/JseGlmeTqqPxrma8-AvSzx7nGH99hbV5

Episode 2

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/JucThreTqHUQbDuX5_-jeH4sMtmc46TC

Episode 3

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/JUCE/ec/J5MnVueTo8qkkpEjIL08yWFZO3wZ1MTk

Episode 4

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/N3MDB2eTrScmnfONKgO9XLGNPdim1ecH

Episode 5

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/pvdHgyMDE6LSxCeJ1hqCPgP10AfEt5ol

Episode 6

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/JvZW1hMDE6p5gL5CG77q8Fvg4nJ9172A

Episode 7

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/55ZW1hMDE6MdTfeqiXeXduuU6yWiHbpJ

Episode 8

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/5jdWRoMDE6j-CQ8SW-w6_lgcUjmPVRbH

Episode 9

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/VjOXlyMDE6V5VfQyw5xh1DQ291HFFRQg

Episode 10

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/Rla250MDE61virj_n7sP_QZZxcHphHuW

Episode 11

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/M5ZnYwMTE6kiLKKqbWHSG4pxBA94jJz1

Episode 12

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/ExdG05MTE6KcOrDdf6Z67PPLHngBxk_k

Episode 13

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/drcXhnMTE6eN8S8Kp52RM3vvgCWCWTGB

Episode 14

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/Z0eTF0MTE6p79AYBDl6PUlSgW6fuTo5U

Episode 15

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/9kZXJhMjE6NZsejGLKpAD1pvH_qCs3qg

Episode 16

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/phcWVnMjE6oS-PcNMCLX4PsWveef3QW5

Episode 17

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/1tcWVnMjE6FjK8va6TG9riYHbPa0cqI9

Episode 18

http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/programs/sublib/Drive+Thru+History%3A++The+Gospels/ec/tuODVvMjE6P81-zzcXvOwyaIQp5rMqds

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.

Sr. Laura 主持信仰重温再慕道聚會

Sr. Laura Chau 是慈友會修女。全職為大學學生作神師。一個月兩次在 St. Joseph 主持信仰聚會。於星期日午餐後。講廣東話。

4TH SUNDAY LENT (B) 15 March 2015

 Fr. Gerard Kelly

Here in this country we all know to be careful of snakes, particularly when we are out in the bush.  We know that many of them have venom that can kill those who are bitten.  We are not surprised then to see people being afraid of snakes.  There aren’t too many references to snakes in the Bible, but those that are there always present the snake a source of evil and death.  The first place we hear of a snake is in the Book of Genesis and the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve.  Here the snake is the one who brings about their downfall and, consequently, the punishment of the whole of creation.  They are expelled from paradise because of the snake.  So, the snake becomes a symbol of evil and sin.  It is a symbol of the break of the relationship with God, but also the breakdown in human relationships, and even the breakdown of the harmony between humankind and the rest of creation.

Another place where we hear of snakes is when the people are wandering for forty years in the desert.  The people had been complaining that God had brought them out into the desert to die, so God sent snakes to punish them.  The snakes would bite people and they would die.  Moses prayed that God might do something to save the people.  So God told Moses to make a bronze snake and to put it around a pole and lift it high so that it towers high over all the people.  Anyone who looks at the snake will be saved.  This seems an odd command.  But let’s think about what is going on.  By lifting the snake high the people are forced to look on the very thing that is bringing evil and destruction on them.  It is as though they are forced to see more clearly the evil around them.  And, of course, this snake would symbolise their own complaining and turning away from God.  But God wanted it to be the way that they would be healed.

It is this scene with Moses in the desert that it referred to in the Gospel today.  However, it is not a snake that is lifted up; Jesus himself will be lifted up.  Here on this fourth Sunday of Lent, we are being invited to begin to contemplate Jesus lifted up on the cross.  We are invited to begin to reflect on the fact that his death on the cross is the source of our being saved, and healed, and offered a secure future.  It seems very simple: we just have to look at Jesus on the cross.

But it may not be as simple as it seems.  It may be that we are so familiar with the image of the cross that it no longer has much of an impact on us.  We no longer see its horror, or the evil that is associated with it.  Think for a moment of what images you have seen recently that do shock you and cause you to pause and ask questions about good and evil.  Perhaps it is starving children who are trapped in refugee camps.  Perhaps it is random acts of killing that we have seen on our TV screens when a lone gunman who gone into a school in the USA.  The cross no longer has the same impact on us.

Just this week I heard one of our Australian bishops talking about a visit a small delegation of bishops made to Lebanon and Syria at the end of last year.  They visited many Christians who had been forced to flee from their homes and towns.  These people had been expelled so quickly that they were not even allowed to take anything with them.  This bishop commented that the cross he wore around his neck was the most powerful thing he had to offer.  The people would come up and touch the cross or kiss it.  In the midst of all that had happened to them the cross was a sign of the hope that they still carried in them.  They had nothing; so all they could do was to trust God.  I am sure too that the cross was also a symbol of the evil that they had experienced and were fleeing.  Jesus on the cross stood in solidarity with them.

In the Gospel today Jesus speaks about light and darkness.  When the light shines the darkness is exposed.  God is the one who shines a light on our world.  Jesus makes it clear that God loves the world, and that God is not condemning the world, but rather offering it salvation.  But to see that salvation we need to look at the cross.

In this time of Lent we look at the cross in order to see the love of God.  As Jesus said, God loved the world so much that he gave his only son, so that anyone who believes in him may have eternal life.  The more clearly we see the love of God the more clearly we will see the darkness of our own lives.  Lent is a time to shine a light on whatever darkness is in us.  Often we don’t even recognise the darkness in our lives – we don’t see it; we are blind to it.  However, if we listen to the word of God and if we gaze on the cross we will begin to see more clearly what it is that stands in the way of our relationship with God, our relationships with the people around us, and even our connection to the larger creation.  God desires that we learn to love more deeply.  Let us during these weeks of Lent see in the cross the great sign of God’s love for us.  And when we see this love, let us recognise where we need conversion in our own lives.

20th SUNDAY(A) 17 August 2014

Fr. Gerard Kelly 

There are some things that are troubling in the Gospel story that we have just heard.  But there are also things that encourage us.  It can be good to recognise that the gospel can speak to us at a few different levels.

Perhaps the easiest level to appreciate the gospel is to note the attitude of the woman who approaches Jesus.  She is a woman who is determined to be heard and to make sure that Jesus understands her needs.  But she does this with the greatest respect for him.  She is persistent in calling out to him.  Perhaps another way we could express this is to say that she keeps knocking at his door, even when there is no answer.  She is convinced that he will respond to her.  In the end Jesus praises her for her faith.  What was her faith?  Faith can be hard to define.  In the case of this woman, the best way to know her faith is to look at how it was demonstrated.  She begins by falling at the feet of Jesus and addressing him as Lord.  Here she shows that she recognises him as someone who comes from God.  This gesture is basically one of worshipping him.  In worshipping him she acknowledges that he is God and that she is depends on him.  This is why her prayer – and that is what it is – is “help me”.  She knows that her life and her daughter’s life depend on Jesus.  This tells us something about faith, namely that faith is always saving faith.  This woman has an encounter with Jesus who saves – saves her and saves her daughter.

There is an important message here for us.  We learn something of how our relationship with God, in Jesus, works.  We learn a number of very profound things about prayer.  One is that before all else, our prayer is an act of worship.  We worship Jesus as Lord, as did this woman.  In worshipping him as Lord we acknowledge his power to transform our lives and our world.  We also acknowledge our own neediness and our dependence on him.  We also learn that prayer is an honest and direct encounter with Jesus.  The woman was not afraid to keep going back to Jesus while ever her need lasted.  Yes, she was respectful, but this did not stop her from speaking in a forthright manner to him.  We can learn from this that there is nothing that we can’t raise with Jesus in prayer.

This gospel can also speak to us at another level – one that is a little more difficult to comprehend.  We can be troubled by the way Jesus begins his response.  This woman is from foreign territory.  She does not belong to the People of God.  Jesus’ initial response is to say that his message is not meant for foreigners like this woman; it is for God’s chosen people, the Jewish people.  Jesus uses the phrase that he was sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.  It seems that he only reluctantly responds to this foreign woman.  Because she was a foreigner, she would have been considered to be an enemy.

These facts can tell us a few things.  One is that Jesus is in a line of prophets who proclaimed God’s message and called the people of God back to that original relationship God offered them.  God was never going to revoke that relationship.  In fact he wanted to offer a similar relationship to the whole world.  So, his message goes out from the Jewish people to the whole world.  That is how all of us have received it.  Of all the people who appear in the gospels, this woman is the person who is most like us.  So this gospel story today marks an important development in God’s plan.  We learn that his is message for the whole world.

We, then, become part of the new people of God who continue to take that message to the whole world.  The Christian faith is always spreading out.  The most important way that it spreads is by its attractiveness.  Recently, Pope Francis made the important point that effective Christian witness is not bombarding people with religious messages.  We can bombard Jesus with our prayer, but we become witnesses of his message by showing to the world that he is concerned with our doubts, our hopes, our sorrows, our joys, our pain and our needs.  To put it simply: he is interested in our salvation; he saves. 

Just as the story of this foreign woman remains in the Gospel as a witness to us of Jesus’ concern for everyone, so too our own stories of his saving action can show others that he also cares for them.

16th SUNDAY(A) 20 July 2014

Fr. Gerard Kelly

Anyone who has done any gardening probably knows the type of situation that Jesus is talking about in the parable of the wheat and the darnell.  However, they probably don’t act in the same way that the farmer did in the parable.  All the gardeners I know spend a lot of time weeding the garden, making it look good and making sure that there is plenty of room for the plants to grow.  In the parable, the weeds are allowed to keep growing among the good crop of wheat.  I am sure that those listening to Jesus back then were just as shocked as any gardener today would be if we told them to leave the weeds to grow among the plants.

But Jesus wants to make the point that sometimes it is hard to distinguish the weeds from the wheat, especially in the early period of growth.  To stay with the gardening analogy, the fear of any parent allowing their child to weed the garden is that the child might pull out some of the plants as well as weeds.  In Jesus’ time the situation was a little more complex because the roots of the wheat were often intertwined with the roots of the darnell.  Pulling out all the darnell would easily result in the wheat crop being destroyed.

Why does Jesus tell this parable?  It is like all the parables of Jesus: it tells us something about God and the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is growing in the world.  The temptation for a lot of people is to see God’s kingdom as being outside the world and having nothing much to do with the world.  They see it as a type of utopia that might even help them escape from the things they don’t like in the world.  But this is not the kingdom that Jesus preaches.  If the wheat in the parable is a sign of the kingdom growing, then those who think of the kingdom as being outside the world are simply thinking of a perfect field of wheat with no weeds growing anywhere.  But that is not how God works.  The fact that the field contains both wheat and weeds is a sign that the kingdom is taking root and growing in the world – even in the midst of the messy aspects of the world and of life.  The kingdom doesn’t change the world into a utopia, but slowly transforms the world.  Once God’s work is complete then we will see a good field of wheat.  But right now God is patiently at work bringing the kingdom about.  While we live as people of the kingdom even now, we also live with the messy things of the world.

What is true of the world is also true of our own individual lives.  Part of being human is to have dreams and expectations about life.  We all want what is good; we want the best.  At certain moments in our lives that vision of what is good for us clarifies and we make a resolution to set our course for what will bring that vision to life.  But this does not always last, and we can be overcome by disappointment.  The reality of our own weakness can even lead to a certain paralysis, or we can feel that it is too hard to get up and keep going.  Sometimes this is an intense feeling, but at other times it just seems part of the normal everyday experience of living in our family or workplace or community.  We are confronted by an imperfect world.  We are confronted with the weeds that seem to be growing along with the wheat.

This does not mean that we should simply sit back and not worry about personal conversion or looking for ways to change our lives.  That is not the point of the parable.  The point rather seems to be that God is patient with us.  In the parable, the farmer knows that the crop will produce wheat.  For us, this means that the kingdom of God is definitely taking hold of our world and our lives.  It is this conviction that allows us to transcend weakness and frailty, and not be weighted down by it.  God does not abandon us because of our weakness, but rather uses the very things that are weakest in us and that perhaps trouble us most, to transform us.  This is the great paradox about God.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ time thought that God was only interested in those who were worthy of him – those who were ritually and socially pure.  But Jesus showed time and time again that God was more interested in stooping down to lift up those who were bent over in pain or sorrow or sin.  He loved them.

To appreciate what is going on here we need to take account of the other parables that Jesus tells immediately after he speaks of the wheat and the darnell.  He compares the kingdom to mustard seed.  This is a tiny seed, yet it contains all that is necessary to grow into a huge tree.  In other words, God has given all of us the gift to grow into a kingdom people.  We all have the potential to become the sort of person that God has called us to be.  We have the capacity to love the God who loves us.  Sometimes we may feel that we don’t know how to seek out this God.  St Paul reminds us that the Spirit of God dwelling in us helps us in our weakness.

The parables today invite us to be open to the Spirit of God and to see God’s Spirit at work in our lives and in our world, transforming them.  This is not a call to run away from the world, but to be part of a world that is slowly being transformed in the kingdom of God.  We too are slowly being transformed so that we reflect more clearly the image of God.

CORPUS CHRISTI (A) 22 Jun 2014

Fr Ruben

Jn. 6 L51-58

I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.

Theme: THANKSGIVING, REMEMBRANCE, and FRATERNAL SHARING.

In the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, sometimes called the Feast of Corpus Christi, we note three words that summarize the event --- THANKSGIVING, REMEMBRANCE, and FRATERNAL SHARING.

THANKSGIVING.

Most reason for having big celebrations, and sumptuous meals is THANKSGIVING --- for memorable events like birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries. Precisely, the word Eucharistia in Greek means “thanksgiving”.   We thank the Lord for the gift of human life in Birthdays and the gift of spiritual life in Baptism, which includes us in the family of God, and sharing in his bountiful table called providence.  God gifted us with life and sustains it. Above all he does not want us to die and become fertilizers, but shares with us his divine life.  In fact, he says: I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.  The Eucharist is a Sacrament that guarantees us eternal life, immortal life, life without end.

REMEMBRANCE.

We remember important moments of our life, and history.  And we love to retell these stories to the persons close to us --- especially the stories of our pains and successes, of our failures and triumphs, of our hardships and glory.  Stories intertwine us into a family, and a community.  For God, it is the Calvary Event that binds us most intimately into the body of Christ.  In fact, Jesus says: “No greater love than this that a man should lay down his life for his friends.  And more than just friends, we belong to the family of Jesus.  The redemptive blood of Jesus flows in our bodies for “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”  We become what we eat and drink.

FRATERNAL SHARING:

Like the little boy who was asked to donate rare blood to his sister suffering from leukemia; aft first, he hesitated to give, but he was finally persuaded that only his blood could save his sister. So, even though they quarrel at times, he loves his sister very much. After donating his own blood, he asked the doctor, “when will I die?”  The doctor said, you will not die, but you have just shared life.

In this Eucharistic banquet, we give thanks to the Lord our God for all the blessings we have received from him.  We remember his divine providence for our kettles never run out of rice and noodles, because it is in fraternal sharing, and in family giving where we do not count the costs, and because redemptive love means “no one is too heavy to carry, for anyone can be my brother or sister, father or mother.”

MOST HOLY TRINITY (A) 15 June 2014

Fr Gerard Kelly
Catholic Institute of Sydney

I once heard a story of a Year 2 class of school children who were asked by their teacher to draw a picture of God.  It seems a rather strange request because we would all say that God is invisible.  Anyway, one girl drew a picture of a swan floating peacefully along a river, weaving in and out of the rushes.  The teacher wasn’t happy.  But if we think about it for a minute the young girl may have had more wisdom and imagination than the teacher.  The girl obviously did not think that God was a swan, but the swan did seem to represent for her what God was like.  The image of a swan must have connected with her experience of God.  The image suggested a God who was beautiful and majestic; a God who communicated peace; and a God who was immersed in creation.  The teacher may have been upset, but I think it is a wonderful image of God.

Of course, all images are weak and only convey a small part of the real picture.  They presume some intellectual understanding, but what this child showed was that her understanding of God was connected to her experience of God.  I think this is always the case.  To truly know God we must have an experience of God.  People could study God as an academic exercise, but they might not know God.

In our readings today we encounter people who had a real experience of God.  Moses went up a mountain to meet God.  And even though he did not see God face-to-face, he encountered God and could come back to the people and tell them that God was inviting them into a special relationship.  In fact, much of the Old Testament in the Bible tells us about that relationship – its high points and its low points.  From all of their experience the people came to speak of God the way we heard in our first reading: a God who is tender and compassionate, rich in mercy and slow to anger, and always faithful.  If you use that sort of language to speak about God, then you have clearly had a profound experience of a loving God.  This wasn’t just a theory about God; it was how they experienced God.

This experience of God reaches its highpoint in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The language of today’s Gospel speaks of God sending his Son.  I think there are a few things to note about this.  The first is that God sends the Son as a sign of love for the world.  There is a real sense in which this is the ultimate sign of love: that God will send his own Son into the world.  But we also need to recognise that the Son responds generously to the Father and loves the Father.  The gospel tells us even more: God’s love for the world has a specific purpose, namely that God wants what is best for everyone.  God promises eternal life to those who believe.  All of this points to how God loves, and what God is like.  Our God is a God of relationships.  The inner life of God is one of relationship as the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father.  More than this: God invites us into that relationship by giving us his Spirit.

So where do we experience God?  Where do we come to know God?  I think that the first place we come to know God is when we come to worship God, because in worshipping God, we engage in communication with God.  We encounter God’s love in Holy Communion, and we also join ourselves with Jesus in his love for his Father. We worship God through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But there are also other places where we experience God every day as we go about our daily tasks, and engage with the people we meet and love.  I believe it is important to make some time each day to step aside and take note of where God has touched our lives during the day.  These don’t have to be great events; they can be things that seem very ordinary.  But unless we take time to identify our experience of God we will never truly know God.  Once we recognise our experience of God we will probably find that it is as varied as it was for the people we meet in the Bible.  We will also no doubt eventually recognise that our experience has much in common with theirs.  We will be in relationship with a God of tenderness and compassion, a God who is rich in mercy and slow to anger, and above all a God who is faithful to that special relationship with us.  We might also know and be in relationship with the God who was drawn as a swan by that Year 2 girl, a God who is beautiful and offers peace.

It is important to know this God.  The more we know and experience God the more we will be helping other people to experience the love and mercy of God.  We all have a special role because we are the people who show the image of God to the world.  We are the people who show others that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son so that everyone may have eternal life.  After all, we are made in the image of God.

2nd Sunday after Easter (A):Divine Mercy Sunday 27th April 2014

Fr. Noel Connolly

This is Divine Mercy Sunday. Mercy has long been a neglected theme in theology but is a key theme in Old and New Testaments. "Mercy is the name for our God, and without mercy we are lost." Rules alone can make us harsh judges and rules were certainly not Jesus’ major concern. Jesus loved according to our need and not according to the amount of effort we put into being virtuous. Witness the prodigal son and the elder brother.

We must remember Jesus’ context. He was born into a Galilee trapped in debt. Most of the people he lived with were poor peasant farmers living on extremely small blocks of land that were barely able to support them and their families. Farming was always risky and then they were cruelly exploited by the landowners who demanded an excessive amount of the crop and by the Romans and the local ruler, Herod Antipas who taxed them to build the cities of Tiberias and Sephoris. They were extremely poor and tried to survive with some dignity and honour as many poor people still do today. A drought or sickness could easily cause these farmers to lose their land and then they were forced to become day-labourers and if that didn’t work beggars or prostitutes. These were Jesus’ friends and acquaintances and that is why they figure so frequently in the Gospels.

Much of their Jewish religion did not help because it concerned the Temple which they would not have had the money to visit or purity laws which they were too poor to keep. They often “sinned” and were strictly speaking untouchable. Yet Jesus often dined with “sinners”, touched and was touched by them. He doesn’t demand formal rites of repentance before they can join him. He understands that those who lack everything are also being condemned to live in shame and without even some honour and dignity. This does not mean that commandments are unimportant, but Jesus understands that spiritual progress takes time and right now they need acceptance, love and confidence. Grace and mercy come before judgement in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus’ experience of God was a God of life, mercy and healing not of worship and law. “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.” [Jn. 10:10] Impelled by the God of life, Jesus went to those whom religion had forgotten, illness had marginalised and poverty dehumanised. Jesus’ God was a God of Life, so a God not of the righteous but of the suffering. Jesus loved according to need not according to effort, virtue or achievement. He didn’t try to reform their religious life but to help them live a healthier life, free from the power of evil and all that dehumanised them.

Sickness was common in Galilee in Jesus’ time. His neighbours and friends suffered many of the diseases of the poor. They were blind, paralysed, had skin diseases or were mentally ill. And as everyone was living on the edge of survival, the sick were often abandoned by neighbours, society and their religion and with no means to earn a living, reduced to begging. Jesus saw them by the roadside and loved them. Abandoned by God and humanity, stigmatised and excluded from community life, they were probably the most marginalised sector of Galilee society. That is why Jesus loved them. His highest concern was for the suffering and most unfortunate. He wanted to show them that God was especially with those who were suffering and abandoned.

Jesus’ healings were the practical demonstration of everything he preached. He not only healed the sick but restored them to relationships, to their families and their community. Jesus was contagious with health and life. The sick and abandoned no longer felt alone and he awakened previously unrecognised energy in people. He revolutionised their understanding of God and of themselves.

That is why Pope Francis insists that, “mercy is the greatest of the virtues, since all the others revolve around it and, more than this, it makes up for their deficiencies. This is particular to the superior virtue, and as such it is proper to God to have mercy, through which his omnipotence is manifested to the greatest degree”. Pope Francis uses the word “mercy” 32 times in his exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel and insists that what “the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle.”

He wants us Christians to have warm, joyful, merciful hearts capable of going out into the world, getting dirty and dialoguing with all people especially those who are sick, poor and marginalised. His challenge to us all is, “are we a church capable of warming and healing hearts”. Do we have the compassion that Jesus was famous for? Are we individually and as a community contagious with life?

Easter Sunday 20 April 2014

Fr. Gerard Kelly

We have arrived at Easter after six weeks of Lent.  Finally, over the last three days we have celebrated the Last Supper on Holy Thursday and the Passion and Death of Jesus on Good Friday.  So we should be very ready to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus.

If that is what we have been through, imagine what the followers of Jesus had experienced as they watched him carry his cross, saw him nailed to a tree and then stood back as he was taken down from the cross and buried in a new tomb.  Their world was shattered; his message seemed to have been defeated.  They weren’t expecting anything else to happen.  So when Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb early in the morning, she is probably going to anoint the body with spices as would have been the usual practice.  We are listening to St John’s gospel, and he sets the scene by telling us that it was dark.  The darkness probably captured Mary’s mood.  Then when she arrived she saw that the stone had already been rolled back.  Her first thought is that someone has broken into the tomb and stolen the body.  She runs back to tell the Peter and the other disciple, who both run out to the tomb to see what is going on.

What happens next is also surprising.  When Peter arrives he goes into the tomb and sees that the cloths in which the body of Jesus had been wrapped are lying there.  He must have been puzzled, because this would hardly have seemed the way a person stealing the body would act – why would they unwrap the body?  The mystery only deepened.  Then St John tells us that the other disciple goes into the tomb and that seeing things the way they are, he believed.  This is really the first indication we have that what had happened to Jesus was something quite extraordinary.  The beloved disciple believed that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

After this experience the disciples have to work out what this means.  I think we all have to work it out.  We need to ask what it means for us.  This was such an unexpected experience that those first disciples struggled to make sense of it.  Their early experience told them that what happened to Jesus was something very different to what had happened to Lazarus.  A couple of weeks ago we heard the gospel where Jesus called the dead Lazarus to come out of the tomb.  He came out still bound in the burial cloths and Jesus had to tell some people to unbind him.  There were plots to kill Lazarus, and of course, he would die again.  Jesus is different.  He hasn’t simply been resuscitated.

In the gospel scene there are other hints as to the meaning of resurrection.  The emphasis on darkness at the beginning of the story would have reminded the hearers of the darkness and chaos that set the scene for the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis.  Even the reference to the first day of the week, which of course is the day after the seventh day – in other words an eighth day – would have reminded the people of the days of creation.  It is as though this is the first day of the new creation.  The new creation is the completion of God’s creative action.  The new creation represents God’s victory over darkness, chaos and sin.  The new creation represents the beginning of a new way for all of creation to live in relationship with God.  It means the beginning of a new type of relationship between human beings – where the peace and justice, which are fundamental gifts of God, will permeate the whole created order.

Just as the disciples of Jesus had to learn the meaning of this, so too do we.  It is still unfolding!  The resurrection is still taking effect in our world, even when we might see very few signs of it.  The question for us is: how might we live as the Easter people.  How might we live in this time of the first day of the new creation, even while creation is still waiting to be perfected?

The beloved disciple may offer us a clue.  He saw an empty tomb and some linen cloths, and he believed.  These became signs for him that God had raised Jesus from the dead.  The signs that we have are the sacraments, particularly baptism and the Eucharist.  St Paul reminds us that in our baptism we died with Christ so that we might live with him.  Our life is now hidden with Christ in God.  Through our baptism the resurrection takes effect in our lives; we are part of the new creation.  Likewise, when we celebrate the Eucharist we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In receiving communion we are drawn into his new life.  Very shortly we will renew the promises of our baptism and we will be sprinkled with the Easter water.  We will then receive communion.

Like the first disciples of Jesus we are called to live in such a way that the new life we have received in these sacraments becomes a reality in our day-to-day lives.  We live in a world that is still being created anew in the resurrection.  Even in the midst of the world’s imperfections, we are witnesses to the effect of the resurrection.

7th SUNDAY(A) 23 Feb 2014

Fr. Noel Connolly

Personally I find the readings today extremely challenging. In the first reading from Leviticus we are told not to bear hatred for our brother in our heart, to be open to forgive and not to be vengeful. And in the Gospel we are told to turn the other cheek when someone hurts us.

I used to take these challenges in my stride. By personality I prefer to avoid trouble so forgiving people is easier than fighting with them. Then some years ago I was seriously betrayed by someone close to me. This time it wasn’t easy to forgive because I was hurt in a way that could never be undone.

For a long while I fumed inwardly thinking about what I would do and say to get even. Besides the pain of betrayal I felt that if I forgave the person involved I would be a fool, albeit a Christian fool. He would take advantage of me again and that somehow that would be weak when I wanted to teach him a lesson. I worried for some time about the need to get even, not to let him get away with this injustice. I felt exceptionally righteous.

But after some months of feeling righteous and bitter I slowly came to realise that the bitterness was hurting me more than anyone else. It certainly wasn’t hurting the person I wanted to hurt. He was blithely ignorant of my rage. Then I read in the Book of Sirach. Only the sinner holds on to anger and wrath, and the Lord heals us only when we stop nourishing anger towards another.

Later I read a parable about a Native American grandfather who told his grandson how he felt about a tragedy that had befallen him. He said, I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one. The grandson asked him, Which wolf will win the fight in your heart, Grandad? The grandfather answered, The one I feed.

It is true there is often a fight going on inside our hearts between our righteous but vengeful, angry side and our loving, forgiving side. And if we keep running over the hurt or injustice in our minds and keep planning how we can get even then we will feed the vengeful side of ourselves and we will live bitter, unhappy, self-preoccupied lives.

It is this preoccupation with ourselves and what has happened to us which keeps us from seeing life from other peoples’ point of view, which prevents us from forgiving and which isolates us in our misery.

Many years ago in Ireland I was challenged to always look at issues that angered me from the other person’s point of view, to try to put myself in their boots or rather mind. I lost a lot of my anger when I tried to see the situation from their point of view even if I still didn’t agree with it. Another elderly Jesuit who had held many important and responsible roels told me that when he felt anger he always prayed for the people he always angry with. Not for God to correct them but for whatever they wanted and needed, for their growth.

But I think the Native American’s words about not feeding our anger apply not only personally but socially. It applies in our families and in our communities. Strangely our families and our church a local communities are where we find our greatest support and our major hurts. We think we know one another and we remember too much.

But it also happens on a political level.  Unfortunately our politics her in Australia are becoming increasingly angry. There is real venom in our national debates about all the major issues, the need for a carbon price, refugees, and the economy. Too many of us are feeding the vengeful, righteous, angry, violent wolf. So that constructive debate, openness and respect for the other’s point of view is near impossible. This kind of anger will only polarise us more, make everyone miserable and prevent the constructive dialogue we need to solve our problems.

We must try to contain our anger no matter how justified it seems. We must not feed the vengeful side of ourselves but encourage the compassionate, reasonable, respectful and open side. This is the way to happiness. There is only bitterness and a narrow world in front of the person who cannot forgive and cannot respect others. So while politics must necessarily be competitive and our debates rigorous there is something dangerous and destructive about the present level of anger in our public life. We have to stop feeding it.

Presentation of the Lord (A) 2 Feb 2014

Fr. Lito

In this episode, the temple becomes the meeting point of promise and fulfilment. The Old Testament, represented by Simeon, welcome the New Testament, represented by Jesus, who is also destined to be the new temple, where God can be worshipped in spirit and truth. It is a gracious meeting in which the Old recognizes the New as the embodiment of God’s faithfulness to promises made in the past. The evangelist Luke shows the continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament through Simeon’s peaceful exit to give way to god’s new offer of salvation in the person of Jesus.

I personally make out the following reflection points from the Gospel:

•   Jesus, the word-incarnate, is forever the Father’s firstborn. The Mystery of the Incarnation is a self-emptying. Jesus poured himself out to humanity and he left the glory of the father in order to save us. But during his earthly ministry, he remains connected to the Father. He is eternally the Father’s.
•  Jesus, the word-incarnate, is icon of primordial obedience. Jesus came as one who is greater than Moses – greater than the laws and the traditions of Israel. However, in a gesture of humility and obedience, he lived under the conditions of the law. He is truly an Incarnate, inculturated God.
•  “When the parents brought in the child Jesus… he took him into his arms and blessed God…”

I am particularly touched by these words of the Gospel. I believe that this is also what God wants us to do in this life. Let us take the story of the birth of Jesus as truly the father’s personal gift for each of us. Let us take Jesus into our arms and ask: What does this gift of Jesus mean for me/us?

Jesus is bringer of peace  /  Jesus is God’s faithfulness – one who fulfils God’s promise  /  Jesus is salvation  /  Jesus is revealing light  /  Jesus is the glory of God  /  Jesus is a sign of contradiction  /  Jesus is one who reveals the thoughts of many hearts.

Which of these words of Simeon speaks in your heart and life when you speak about taking Jesus into your arms?

Lord, in you, God has shown his faithfulness to us. Now in you, we are empowered to be faithful to God. Amen.

Christmas Day 25 December 2013

Fr. Gerard Kelly

The day has finally arrived!  For all of our planning for Christmas and preparation for its celebration, the time has now come.  This is the day to celebrate.  It is no longer just a list of things to do, or anxiety that all will work out well.  It is here and we are celebrating it.

The account of Jesus’ birth as we heard it in St Luke’s gospel also has this sense that the time has finally arrived.  After generations of waiting for the Messiah, something has happened.  Luke is quite particular about the details of how Jesus came to be born.  He locates it at a particular time, when a major census was being taken.  He locates it at a particular place, Bethlehem.  Today we celebrate that moment, that event.  Something happened long ago, back then.  Today we remember it.

As we hear the story of those events, like generations before us, we are fascinated to know their full meaning.  After all, this Jesus who was born went on to shape the course of world history.  His birth was a religious event like no other.  He is called Emmanuel, which means God is with us; he is called the Saviour.  His birth leads to an outpouring of praise of God.  Another way of saying this is to speak of God entering into human history.  God takes on human flesh like ours, a human nature like ours.  This is what makes Christianity unique: our God has visited us.  No other religion speaks this way.  Christmas points to the great gift God has given to the whole of creation.

If this is how God has acted, we will want to know how this gift was received.  The Christmas story tells us this.  We all know those famous words, “there was no room in the inn”.  Because there was no place for Mary and Joseph to lodge, they were forced to find a shed on the fringes of the town.  Think of the meaning of this.  God enters the world on the margins rather than at the centres of power.  I wonder what things might have been like if God had entered the world at the centres of power.  Might not the people there have thought that they could manipulate God for their own ends?  And in the end, might this gift of God among us have remained un-received in the world?  In fact, throughout history many have tried to manipulate God.  They claim God for their cause, and create God in their own image.  But Jesus was born on the margins, and from there God offers a precious gift to all people.  Jesus is this gift.  As one who is truly human, he is for us a model of authentic human living.  As one who is truly God, he foreshadows the divine life in each of us.  As St John puts it in his letter, “we shall be like him because we will see him as he truly is.”

Being born outside the town, Jesus was first revealed to the shepherds.  This first revelation of Jesus marks the beginning of a pattern that will unfold during his ministry.  He reaches out to the lowly, and the poor.  He encounters human misery, human frailty and weakness.  His actions will bring out the best in people.  He will lift them up so that they can live with all of the dignity that comes from being the sons and daughters of God.  The shepherds are the first ones to receive this gift of God.  Look at how this happens.  They search out this child they have heard about, and then they tell of his birth to others, astounding them with this news.  This too will become a pattern for Christian living.  The spiritual life of the believer entails seeking out our God who comes to visit us.  It involves seeking him out in the midst of shepherds’ fields, as it were.  In other words, seeking him out where we live our lives, and not in some imaginary world where we would like to live.

In the fields where the shepherds were – in this ordinary place – the angels of heaven sang their praise, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours”.  They re-affirmed what we have already learnt about the birth of this child.  Heaven and earth meet; the world is beginning to be transformed.  Their message is one of peace – peace for the whole of creation.  This peace is not just an end to violence – and wouldn’t that be a wonderful gift in so many parts of the world and even on our own inner-city streets!  This is a peace that takes root deep in the human heart.  For each of us, it is a peace that springs from right relations with God and hence a deep sense of contentment with who we are.  Only a peace that is deep-seated in the human heart will provide the foundation for the peace promised to the world by the choirs of angels.

Yes, the day has finally arrived.  Christmas is here.  Today we remember and celebrate what God has already done in the world at the birth of Jesus.  Today we receive a remarkable gift from God.  God’s gift is never exhausted.  May the peace we experience this Christmas sustain our faith and hope that Jesus is truly our Saviour, the Saviour of the world.

4th Sunday Advent (A) - 22 December 2013

Mt 1:18-24

Fr. Ruben Areno, SSP

What am I suppose to do?

This is the question that Joseph, and many of us ask of ourselves when we are confronted with making a difficult decision in life.  What am I suppose to do today, next week, next month, or next year?

St Ignatius of  Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Congregation, proposes three ways of making a discernment in answering that question. What am I suppose to do?

First method is to lists down the disadvantage and advantage why not or why yes you should do it.  The negative way, what are the factors and the conditions that prevent you from not doing it? The positive method, what are the plus advantages and projections for growth & development when you say yes you will do it?  After putting it on a balance scale, you finally sense the weight of the matter that will give you peace of mind when you decide on it.

The second way is to ask the experts, counselors, mentors, spiritual directors.  In the ways of the spirit, there are spiritual masters and directors with whom we can ask for advise.  These mentors, teachers, and spiritual guides can clarify us as to the purpose and goals upon which our actions are directed.  Since we cannot see all angles of reality, we need someone who will act as a mirror to clarify, to confront us, to make us accountable and responsible for the actions that we are about to take.

Third, when the decision is really difficult, St. Ignatius would say: “at deathbed situations, would you do the thing you are about to do, and face the Lord at the last judgment.” 

After passing through these ways of discernment we can truly say along with St. Joseph, that we are doing the will of God, and trying to abide by God’s plan in our history.

Daily we make decisions.  We also have to possess the readiness and disposition to act spontaneously at any given notice.  Readiness is virtue of Mary and Joseph to be at the service of availability for God.

To picture it for us, here is a story: Chin Lin has a small restaurant. Everyday before all the customers come, she would do a short meditation and picture all the customers coming in.  Then, she would write small notes and put them inside the fortune cookie. People would find the message or exchange it among themselves. One particular couple, after reading through the message, ate the message together with the cookie.  In the days when we participate in the Holy Mass, we hear the message from Scripture and break bread with Jesus.  The Word of God and the Eucharist are our daily bread.  We hear the word of God and put them into practice, and Word makes his dwelling amongst us.  Merry Christmas to all.

3rd SUNDAY ADVENT (A) 15 December 2013

Fr. Gerard Kelly

During this season of Advent we don’t just think about the birth of Jesus at Christmas, but we spend a lot of time listening to the Old Testament prophets, especially the prophet Isaiah.  His was a voice that called out to the people, sometimes challenging them, sometimes consoling them, but always urging them to think about the future.  We’re probably not as unfamiliar with this as we might think.  Prophets would urge the people to hold out until there was a new king or a new leader, or to wait until a drought ended and rains came, or just to wait until it was summer and the flowers would bloom.  Often the future they were speaking about was very close.  Our world also thinks in these terms, whether it be waiting for the dollar to fall or the draught to end or a government to change.

But the prophets were also capable of speaking of a bigger vision.  When Isaiah spoke of the wilderness and the dry lands exulting he was thinking of more than just the breaking of a drought.  Here was a vision of a new earth, marked by the abundance of water, and teaming with life.  It was as if God would re-fashion the earth and make it anew.  This new creation would also extend to human beings.  The blind would see, the deaf hear, and the voiceless would get a voice.  This was a vision that would not just encourage the people, but also strengthen their trust in God.  It was a vision that looked beyond a new leader or a new season.  It was a vision that looked to God ruling the earth in justice.  This did not mean, however, that the leaders were not important.  Isaiah was expecting the leaders to model their lives on God and to rule as God would rule, thus helping to usher in this new world.

Now Isaiah spoke nearly three thousand years ago.  Does he have anything to say to us?  I think our age has a fundamental problem with this type of prophecy.  We want something that seems to be better grounded in the present.  People who dream of a new world where the blind see, or where there is no more war, are often accused of having their head in the clouds.  I think Isaiah would respond to this by saying that unless there is a vision for the future we are doomed to a life of mediocrity or even misery.

Advent is a time to allow ourselves to listen to the voice of the prophet.  As soon as we do this we will find ourselves asking questions – questions like: when will this happen?  How long must we wait?  How do we get ready?  What are we to do in the present time?

I think these are the sorts of questions that John the Baptist faced as he sat in his prison cell.  He wanted to know who Jesus was – not just if he was new political leader, but if he was God’s anointed one, the Messiah.  In his state of imprisonment he probably wanted to know what his future might hold.  Perhaps he wanted to know if Jesus might be able to get him released.  Jesus sends back a message – it almost seemed to be in code.  He simply tells the messengers that the blind see again, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed.  This was a message that probably put John’s imprisonment in some sort of perspective for him.  God’s reign was breaking in to the world, the new creation was groaning as it came to birth.  I guess that as John heard these words his own fate took on a particular meaning as he sat in his prison cell.

We have to face our own questions for our own time.  Perhaps the first question is, “which voices do we listen to?”  There are voices calling out to us from everywhere.  Advertisers promise us health and beauty and prosperity and happiness – if only we buy their products.  These voices promise us immediate gratification or even instant success.  They fit well in an age when we want things right now.  Ours is not an age that displays a lot of patience.  We are probably becoming less and less able to formulate a long term vision for ourselves or for our society.  Jesus puts the question: what did you go out into the wilderness to see?  This is a question also for us: what do you want to hear when you listen to the prophets of today?

The words of St James can challenge us to think about this.  He urged people to be patient, and to wait for the long term.  He used the analogy of a farmer who waits for the rains to come and for the crop to grow.  For us city-dwellers who are probably more used to the speed of email and are frustrated if it takes any longer than a couple of seconds, to speak of waiting for something seems to be more and more irrelevant.  Yet, the message of St James is important.  This season of Advent gives us a lesson in patience, teaching us how to wait, and how to keep our focus on the great vision of a new creation.  It teaches us to think beyond the next few weeks or even the next few years.  It reminds us that if we allow the vision of the prophets to shape our lives then we will truly be participants in the coming to birth of the new creation and the new humanity that John the Baptist saw, symbolised in the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lepers being cleansed and the poor having the good news preached to them.

Christ the King (C) 24 Nov 2013

Fr. Noel Connolly

Today is the last Sunday of the Church’s Year. Unlike the secular calendar which begins on January 1 or New Year’s Day, the Church’s calendar begins next Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent. So this Sunday is the Church’s official end of the year.

Endings are always a time for review, for looking back over the year with all its joys and hopes, its concerns, sorrows and anxieties. It is extremely important if we want to be reflective, prayerful and grateful Christians that we frequently look back over life to count our blessings and reflect on our anxieties, our failures and all the things we wish had never been.

In celebrating the Feast of Christ the King, the Church is proposing to us the context in which we should review the year namely the confidence that when all is said and done, when we reflect on our lives we recognise that Christ is our King. He is the ultimate value in life and he loves us and will protect us.

In today’s readings we are given different images of Kingship. In the second reading we have the beautiful theological image of Jesus as “the first born of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and earth were created ….. Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers – all things were created through him and for him.” And “all things will be reconciled through him and for him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by death on his cross.” In this one reading we have the two great contrasts in God’s power or kingship. He is king of all in heaven and on earth but his kingship is not like that of worldly kings. His is a different type of power. It comes not from lording it over others but from service and ultimately from his death.

This contrast is strongly emphasised in comparing the first reading and the Gospel.  In the first reading from the book of Samuel we learn of how David was anointed King of Israel. Before Saul and David Israel’s only King was God. Israel was a group independent tribes united only by their common faith and history. Whenever they were attacked a charismatic leader would emerge who would unite them to fight off their enemies. But as their enemies got more powerful and sophisticated, many Israelites came to Samuel their priest and elder and asked him for a King. Samuel was reluctant to give them a King. He recognised they needed a king to defend themselves against the better organised and united Philistines but he warned them that a king would need a standing army and for that he would collect taxes and conscript their sons. He would also need a capital and servants and most likely he would be corrupted by greed and hunger for power and lead them away from God. In that he was prophetic. Israel survived because of their kings but the rest of the Old Testament is a history of good and bad kings and the prophets who challenged them when they were unjust or unfaithful.

Luke’s Gospel paints an entirely different picture. It portrays Jesus as King, but a King on the Cross. Instead of lording it over others Jesus would be servant to all. He spent most of his public ministry trying to warn his disciples about the dangers of power and to wean his disciples away from the idea of an all-powerful God. Whenever they got carried away with the idea of making him a King he would warn them that he must die.

We all want God to be powerful. We want a God who is in charge, who will fix our problems, who will give us clear directions, and rescue us from our crises. But Jesus shows us a God who reveals his love in rejection, darkness, failure & death. In today’s Gospel the soldiers and even one of the thieves taunt Jesus to prove that he is God by coming down from the cross. That is the worldly understanding of power, the ability to do whatever you want, to get out of all kinds of trouble, to save ourselves. But God’s power is contrary to human power. It is found in love and forgiveness, in patient suffering, in service of others especially the weak and the poor. Jesus proves he is God not by coming down from the cross but by staying on the cross and loving till the end. On the cross the contrast between the different concepts of power is clear. Rome seemingly has all the power. It can kill Jesus. But Jesus has the power to love, forgive and save. The Romans are forgotten and Jesus still lives.

God’s love is vulnerable & contrary to human power. God is active in pain, suffering and ambiguity. Jesus never evades suffering. And God normally doesn’t interfere and take us out of our crises or even our suffering. But he does love us and will always be with us. He will support and protect us. That is the kind of King Jesus is.

So on this last Sunday of 2013. We look back over the year to count our blessings and reflect on our anxieties, our failures and all the things we wish had never been. We entrust everything to Christ, our King.