Tag Archives: Catholic Church

Pentecost: Making things a little too black and white!

This is so simple.

It’s nearly too simple for many of us. I suspect it’s much too black and white!

The Spirit arrives into our lives in a very ordered way – remember it’s the Spirit that brings us into intimacy with God.

There are ordered steps and each step builds on the previous step.

If you love me – that’s the first step; if you love ❤️ me… look how he’s phrased it; if…

If you love me, then the second step; you’ll keep my commandments. So the second step is keeping his commandments but you’ll never have one without the other.

Then Jesus repeats himself, making the same point but in a slightly different way.

And then to really push the point home he states that the reverse is true: “Those who do not love me do not keep my words.” Few of us are comfortable with this, typically we’d say; much too black and white!

So, the Spirit does not enter every life, only the lives of those who love Jesus (God), and keep his commandments, his Word.

So we’re given a reason for lack of intimacy with God.

Finally we’re told something of what the Spirit’s presence does; it causes us to remember Jesus teaching, his teaching becomes part of who we are, my identity, your identity, our identity.

He told us it was going to be like this – the parable of the weeds and wheat. Matt 13: 24-30

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Jesus compares good people to wheat and bad people to weeds.

The kingdom is like a field of weeds and wheat. The kingdom of God no less. We’re hardly able to cope with the sinfulness of the Church!

Where is this kingdom? It’s already here, it’s in the Church, the Church that contains, and always will contain saint and sinner.

I have a choice; do I give power to the sinner or to the saint? The weeds or the wheat? “Look not on our sins but on the faith of your Church…” we pray in every Mass.

You’d think that Jesus didn’t teach the parable of the weeds and wheat.

At times you’d be forgiven for thinking that he didn’t teach at all, never said a word.

You’d think he wasn’t betrayed by somebody who shared his table.

You’d think he didn’t die between two thieves.

You’d think he didn’t describe the kingdom for us.

And yet, after all Jesus teaching, we still expect the Church to be different?

You’d think that the incarnation never happened at all!

That’s my point – many people seem to attempt to believe without Jesus Christ and his teaching!

Is it any wonder that so many fall away?

You’d never know that He told us it was going to be like this.

Of course weeds are dangerous if they get out of control.

But the best way to deal with weeds is a reminder that in the end there’s judgment. Dare I say it: Hell! The weeds are thrown on the fire and burnt.

How can there be Mercy without Justice? Justice is the very precondition of Mercy. Mercy is undoubtedly God’s greatest attribute but that presupposes Justice.

Do we really think that God bestows Mercy forcibly? Did Jesus?

God will never – never – superimpose Godself or his Mercy on our freedom.

We must use our freedom to receive Mercy, that’s its purpose.

Divine Justice just is, it’s the default position, but Mercy is our choice, always.

Jesus’ reasons for unbelief – the parable of the sower. Matt 13:1-9

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We hear all sorts of reasons for unbelief.

But every time I read the parable of the sower I’m struck by its reach. Is there a reason advanced for unbelief that’s not included in the parable?

Jesus compares people who hear the word to seed that falls on the edge of a path.

The seed of the word is sown in the heart but there’s no understanding. Where there is no understanding, abandonment follows.

The heart is simply not receptive – receptivity is the precondition of understanding – the heart is not open, and entry through anything that’s closed solidly is difficult. The word simply bounces off non-receptive hard objects and falls away.

Next, Jesus compares people who hear his teaching to the seed that falls on patches of rock. It lacks both rich soil and deep roots.

When confronted with human suffering and human failure including outrageous scandal – scorching sun – the faith of some people withers because it’s not deeply rooted in the rich soil that is Jesus Christ.

Scorching and withering – apt descriptions of human suffering and failure.

That objections to God using this very argument can attract millions of views on YouTube suggests that many have not taken Jesus and his teaching seriously. The God that many refuse to believe in is not the God found in the teaching of Jesus Christ. They dismiss a God unrelated to Jesus Christ!

Next, Jesus compares people who hear the word to seed falling in thorns; falling in the midst of the worries of this world and the lure of riches the seed is choked to death! A strong image, mind. Choked, and common parlance adds “the living daylights out of!”

It’s dramatic, but for most people the choking happens unconsciously. It’s simply that other stuff – the cares of this world (interests that are good and wholesome in themselves) and the pursuit of wealth – take our hearts. For many the interests become false gods.

Is there a source of unbelief that’s not covered in this parable?

It seems that many people attempt to believe without Jesus Christ and his teaching which means they end up struggling to believe at all.

Medugorje – the significance of the secrets

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Like Fatima, at Medugorje Our Lady has entrusted secrets to the 6 visionaries; each visionary is to receive 10 secrets.

As far as I know 3 of the visionaries have already received the 10 secrets; 3 have received 9 of the 10.

When all ten have received the ten secrets, the secrets will start to unfold in our life experience.

One of the visionaries, Mirjana, has been instructed to reveal each secret to the priest of her choice – Fr. Peter – and he is to reveal it to the world shortly before it happens (starts to unfold). All 10 secrets will be revealed in this way – before each happens.

This suggests that the secrets will unfold in Mirjana’s life-time, which means their unfolding is imminent because Mirjana is now 55 – or thereabouts – and she can’t live forever!

This is supported by the fact that three of the visionaries are one secret each short of receiving all ten secrets.

What do we know about the secrets?

Like Fatima, they’re highly likely to be the broad outline of the future of the world, and at the same time, they’re the working out of Our Lady’s victory in human affairs – Our Lady is reported as saying that she will finish in Medugorje what she started in Fatima. In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. Triumph suggests a struggle.

Our Lady has permitted the visionaries to reveal that the third secret is a visible and permanent sign on the hill in Medugorje – a sign that will lead many to belief and to conversion.

It will mark a radical and dramatic return to belief, possibly to the Church, to Mass, and to the Sacraments. It’s possible it’ll look like the spiritual life of Medugorje but on a world-wide scale.

We also know that the seventh secret troubled the children greatly and that they repeatedly asked Our Lady about the possibility of it being softened. Our Lady’s response was always the same – pray! We now know that it has been lessened but Our Lady also told the children to never ask about it again saying that God’s Justice was already offended enough!

We can say with some confidence that the unfolding of the 10 secrets will be the working out of Our Lady’s victory in human affairs, in the flesh and blood of human beings, in our history, just as the prophecies made in Fatima became the lived experience of a number of generations.

But, the further we are from God, the more difficult will our journey be… which is why Our Lady has been repeatedly asking us to pray and fast now, that our path and her victory may be eased.

Medugorje – the fulfillment of Fatima

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Every moment is in God’s hands, but it’s texture and substance is determined by us.

In this moment I want to draw your attention to Medugorje and to say simply but forcefully; pay attention to Medugorje.

Pay attention because it marks out the future of the world, it paints a picture of our common future.

It does so in much the same way as Fatima did, in broad strokes. Very broad strokes, and we fill in the finer details.

Fatima painted a picture of the world over a period of 100 years – from 1917 through to the millennium and the following years.

In Fatima Our Lady entrusted 3 secrets to the children.

Firstly, and perhaps many will find it very odd, Our Lady showed the children a vision of hell. The vision confirmed that there is ultimate Justice. I’ll return to this in another blog.

Secondly, Our Lady warned of a future war – World War II – that would break out “if people do not stop offending God” and of Russia spreading error – the error is not so much Communism as the unbelief that goes with it.

Thirdly, the vision of a man dressed in white (the children understood it was a future Pope) climbing a mountain, on the way he passes through a City in ruins, and reaching a Cross, he’s shot.

World War II unfolded with devastating consequences (more than 60 million people perished in World War II).

Unbelief – atheism – has a very strong foothold.

The City in ruins is the Church and the man who is shot is Pope John Paul II.

With the benefit of hindsight we can see that Fatima, which is to say Heaven prophesied a broad picture of the world and the Church we’ve become familiar with, but if you listen to our self-talk, even the self-talk of believers, we speak as if we never heard a word of this. Quite simply, we haven’t been paying attention.

But Fatima also prophesied that “in the end” the Immaculate Heart will triumph.

As John Paul II recovered he asked for the Fatima documents to be brought to his hospital bed.

When he fully recovered he had the bullet that almost killed him encased in the crown of the statue of Our Lady in Fatima.

Shortly after John Paul II was shot the apparitions began in Medugorje.

Just as Fatima painted a broad picture of the past 100 years so Medugorje is now painting a picture of the next 50-100 years.

Medugorje provides the broad contours of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.

Pay attention – it’s our common future.

In my next blog I’ll consider the significance of the Medugorje secrets.

God hung among thieves!

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“To be connected with the Church is to be associated with scoundrels, warmongers, fakes, child-molesters, murderers, adulterers, and hypocrites of every description. It also, at the same time, identifies you with saints and the finest persons of heroic soul within every time, country, race and gender. To be a member of the Church is to carry the mantle of both the worst and the finest heroism of soul … because the Church always looks exactly as it looked at the original crucifixion, God hung among thieves”

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser

Easter Sunday: Without this day death has the last word.

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“Why should the privileges of the true Christian be disclosed to mankind at large?” John Henry Newman.

It’s “the first day of the week (Sunday) and still dark” and Mary of Magdala is up early to visit Jesus tomb. Why? Because she loved him. If she didn’t love him she wouldn’t be there.

Finding the tomb empty she runs to find Peter and the other disciple.

Just a few months earlier Mary of Magdala had a very different set of friends.

“They have taken the Lord” she says, using a title that she doesn’t fully understand. How can he be Lord if he ends in death? Death is Lord then! The only man worth calling ‘Lord’ is the man who overcame death – not some guy who can kick a football or host a TV show!

Jesus has brought them together – but for this man Jesus, Mary of Magdala wouldn’t be running to find Peter and the others. Their love of Jesus has bound them together, given her and given them a new set of friends, a new family – the Church.

Peter, if married, has allowed a new person into his life, a person now as important to him as his wife. Every marriage should have him! Every life!

They run, they’re full of emotion, it’s a matter of love and BANG they’re allowed to see because they love him.

They see, not everyone sees, only those close to him. The majority are doing their own thing, elsewhere. So it is to this day. “Why should the privileges of the true Christian be disclosed to mankind at large?” John Henry Newman.

Nonetheless –

Without this day we have no future. Just the denial of an inevitable and approaching doom!
Without this day cancer will often have the last word!
Without this day injustice will often have the last word!
Without this day violence will often have the last word!
Without this day evil has the last word! Without this day death, always and without exception has the last word!

Small numbers on Holy Thursday: A return to our beginnings?

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Here in St. Senan’s Parish (Enniscorthy) numbers attending the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday were small.

Generally, blame for this decline is attributed to a discredited Church. But that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Here’s why: The events of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Holy Saturday Easter Vigil (and Easter Sunday) are not primarily about the Church but about Jesus Christ and more particularly about Christ’s desire to enter into relationship with humankind. Dare I say it; to save humankind! In summary; it’s about people’s relationship with Christ and the work of salvation.

Therefore, if people’s absence on Holy Thursday night was truly about a discredited Church as opposed to their relationship with Christ then you would expect that large numbers of people found other ways to mark the Last Supper on Holy Thursday night.

But can you imagine large numbers of people in Enniscorthy (or wherever) doing that on Holy Thursday night? Isn’t it much more likely that for the vast majority of people Holy Thursday night was no different to any other night?

The truth of the matter is that significant moments in Christ’s life (in which he attempts to influence human affairs) have no relevance for growing numbers of Irish people.

Behind the blaming of the Church the real questions are about Christ and his meaning for peoples lives.

In the failure of many to celebrate Holy Thursday all that’s happening is that Christ is being stripped again, humiliated and rejected. Isn’t it true to say that really it’s not about the Church at all but about taking everything from Christ?

The growing unbelieving world is taking his birthday away from him, making it into something else; likewise his Last Supper, his passion, death and resurrection and if many are not actively taking from him, many are doing it through indifference.

Is this a reason to be discouraged? No. Not at all.

Mother Theresa said; “if you are discouraged it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own powers.” This is God’s work.

We’re merely returning to our beginnings when the vast majority rejected Christ.

But the stone rejected by the builders became the corner stone. He rose again; and he’ll rise again, just at that point when we think all is lost, at that point when it looks like all is lost, as it did in those desolate hours before the resurrection. The future is Paschal.

It does mean however that the Church must radically change how we do things. In the towns and cities we need to move out from the security of our Church buildings. Pope Francis suggests we need to rent a garage or a shed in the densely populated areas and put a priest or a catechist there, celebrate Mass there.

Pope Francis calls this putting things in a missionary key.

Finally, there’s another name for how Christ accepts, embraces and transforms all this rejection of himself – it’s called mercy.

We need to trust it … we’re certainly not going to defeat it!

Jesus has a great big heart! Reflections for Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

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Jesus has got a great big heart!

One of the biggest problems within Catholicism is that we’ve watered down Christ and the Gospel so that more often than not we’re like the man who started to build without first sitting down to work out the cost to see if he had enough to finish the job. When he can’t finish he becomes a laughing stock (Luke 14:28). The result is a city (Church) that always looks half-built, or less than half-built – or like a ruin and the object of ridicule!

The first meaning of Holy Thursday is service – love.

Most of us have grasped that Christianity (therefore Catholicism) is about service – but Jesus has got a great big heart and his understanding of service is considerably more than giving a few hours here and there. It’s nothing like reaching a realization that life has been good so I’ll give something back. As good as that is, it’s not the message of Jesus.

Jesus asks that we lay down our lives! Believe it or not, only then will we know the joy of the Gospel.

In the aftermath of Good Friday the disciples will remember the washing of the feet and begin to see it not just as a general call to service, but also as pointing to the greatest service known to humankind; Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection in which men and women are washed clean of sin (in his body and blood).

What does it mean to be washed clean of sin?

I did not die on the Cross for you to bear the burden of your sin.

It means that Jesus didn’t die on the Cross for you and I to bear the burden of our sins. I’d like you to really think about that, meditate on it… St Paul says “that for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:7). A parent might be prepared to die to save the life of a son or daughter, but would you be prepared to die for a notorious criminal?

So instead of condemning the already condemned man, like we often do, Jesus does the opposite, he seeks to take the condemned man’s place in prison, or in the electric chair, or wherever! What do we think he’s doing on the Cross?

Can you see it?

At once he identifies with both the guilty and the innocent, guilty perpetrator and innocent victim. So whom exactly is Christ excluding? Nobody. Awesome!

I want you to see something else. Jesus never says wrong is right or right is wrong, he upholds a moral standard that applies to and judges all men and women, but instead of condemning those who fall short, what does he do? He lays down his life, literally, he offers his body and blood that they might be saved (which itself implies ultimate Justice) which is the exact opposite of what so many Catholics have done in recent years – they’ve run away believing that righteousness is on their side. This is not the path of Christ. Followers of Christ redeem with their lives! They become like Christ – hung among thieves!

Of course, all this implies that there’s ultimate justice; a final putting to right of wrongs. Indeed, mercy is justice transfigured by love. Unless we want to live in a meaningless universe, this is how it has to be!

Mass is long because our love of the Saviour is short!

The second meaning of Holy Thursday is the Eucharist – Holy Mass. The Last Supper is the DNA of Holy Mass. Jesus identifies his body with bread and his blood with wine. Try to capture something of the intensity with which Jesus took the bread and wine and offered it to his disciples. He knew he was ‘going away’ and he was giving them the means by which he’d stay with them. Catholicism is not primarily a moral code, an ethical system, it’s a person; Jesus Christ, who offers himself to us in Holy Mass; his life, body and blood, soul and divinity, his suffering, death, resurrection and glorification – everything.

The third meaning of Holy Thursday is the priesthood, but priesthood as being like Christ, as laying down your life, as the literal offering of your body, the pouring out of your blood, the willingness to exhaust yourself on behalf of God and man, to give everything, not a few hours here and there, to hold nothing back, to have no ‘me’ and no ‘mine’, only to have Him!

Because if you have Him you have everything. And you know what? He’s worth it!

Fifth Sunday of Lent: Life without death would drive us mad!

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As we approach Easter, appropriately enough, the question of death and resurrection surfaces.

So what does Jesus teaching around these issues look like?

Well, from today’s Gospel we’ve got: “If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live.” I’d like you to note something – even though he dies he will live. I’m placing emphasis on; even though he dies. What’s the alternative?

From elsewhere we find Jesus attempting to open the hearts and minds of the people to something greater: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more.” Luke 12:5

It’s a crisis situation. Lazarus is seriously ill. There’s a level of panic – family and friends need to be informed. Among Lazarus’s close friends is Jesus and so they send for Jesus – the man you love is ill, come quickly. Quickly – because if you don’t hurry he’ll be dead!

Yet Jesus doesn’t respond with any sense of urgency – he obviously doesn’t view death as the absolute human disaster – and doesn’t depart until two days later and by the time he arrives Lazarus is already dead for four days. When he arrives both Martha and Mary ‘mark his card’ so to speak: “If you had been here our brother would not have died.” Isn’t this the accusation that man fires at God all the time?

Martha and Mary have faith in Jesus – the faith comes from their close friendship. But while they have faith, it is faith that still has to grasp the full meaning of Jesus Christ and the human person, i.e., the immortality of the soul.

This is the big one – if Jesus can’t overcome death he’s useless to them – and to us!

Yet this is not Jesus definitive act. He calls Lazarus from the dead, gives him back to Martha and Mary, and we can only imagine the excitement of life in the years thereafter … until next time! Lazarus gets to die twice! Lazarus resurrection is not true resurrection, it’s unfinished business.

Try imagining life without death. “Time becomes madness if it cannot reach fulfillment. To be able to go on forever would be the hell of empty meaninglessness. No moment would have any importance because one could postpone and put everything off until an empty later which will always be there.” Karl Rahner.

Karl Rahner with Joseph Ratzinger

Lazarus resurrection is a very poor reflection of Jesus resurrection, a dim reflection of Easter. Jesus resurrection is very different. After rising he’s no longer bound by time and space and he doesn’t wander aimlessly about the earth looking for meaningful employment! He ascends. There’s completion, fulfillment.

Death, in a truly Christian understanding, far from being the absolute human disaster, is the gateway to fulfillment, to completion. If you and I could go on without death we’d go absolutely mad! We’d choose death in sheer desperation!

“If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live.”