Tag Archives: Jesus

The lost realization that Jesus is God

The disciples struggled to reach the realization that Jesus is God.

We’ve grown up with it – that Jesus is God – it’s cultural, we’re familiar with it, over familiar, but for them it was counter-cultural. It’s a claim that smashed both their religious and civil culture. For them it was nuclear ☢️

It’s an enormous claim, completely off the scale.

They knew from the healings, the miracles, that this man was unique – very special – but they struggled to get to the realization that he is God.

It was just too big for them. It’s huge.

But when they did grasp it that’s all they preached. The church at its beginnings preached nothing else. The early church just stood in front of people and said “Jesus is God!”

That’s why pagan practices disappeared. Once people grasped that Jesus is God there was nowhere else to go – there is nowhere else to go! If Jesus is God, why would they bother with other practices?

We’re part of a number of generations that have lost this realization in its original power, the personal transformative knowledge that Jesus is God.

This is the reason we’re seeing phenomenal growth in all sorts of different spiritual practices, even an interest in and a reappearance of some of the old pre-Christian practices in new forms.

We’ve lost the transformative knowledge that Jesus is God.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time: No need of God means no God in my life

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Luke 6:17,20-26 Happy are you who are poor, who weep, who hunger

Jesus focuses on his disciples, fixing his eyes on his disciples – not the crowd – he tells the disciples that they’re happy… if they’re poor! 😂 You couldn’t make it up 😂 What is that about?

When Jesus uses the word poor he means it very broadly – thus he uses other words like hunger and sorrow to broaden our understanding. He means anything that diminishes the self, breaks us down, anything that might lead us to a profound awareness of our need of God.

Our need of God is all important, no need of God will almost always mean no God in my life!

Thats the danger of wealth in all its forms – again he uses other words to broaden our understanding of wealth, always having our fill, always laughing. Wealth tends to insulate us from our need of God. Affluence is perhaps the greatest enemy of God in our time.

Not always mind, I know very wealthy people with a profound sense of their need of God but they’re mostly older people, people old enough to have known some level of poverty in earlier life, back in the day, and they’ve never really lost a sense that they need God. They’ve never really been completely insulated by their wealth.

But the next generation tends to be well and truly insulated. Again, not always, there are always exceptions.

Jesus says “they are having their reward now” meaning they don’t know anything else and might not… ever!

So, how will the wealthy recover the poverty, the hunger, the sorrow, that releases their need of God? How will they find a need of God if they’ve never really had it?

Hugely difficult 😣

As Jesus said: “Nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. The old is good enough he says.” Luke 5:39

Many years ago a parishioner, a CEO of a multi national, and a very wealthy man, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mind you, he’d never completely lost his need of God… I’ve never forgotten his initial responses; he listed the stuff he dealt with every day, huge stuff he took in his stride, but added after each achievement; but I don’t know how to deal with this.

Over the next few months he fell apart, into shattered pieces, and then we slowly put him back together again. He literally became a new man, the insulation that his wealth gave him was torn away, quite violently, and he became very poor, as Jesus says blessed, because he now knew his need of God. There was nowhere else to go, nothing to hide behind, he was an empty vessel ready to be filled with God.

Sickness as a form of human poverty is always intended to expose, to release, to uncover our need of God. Failure can do it too, addiction, lots of stuff can do it…

Really Jesus is saying; nothing matters… only getting ourselves to him and unless we have a real need of God, a real need of Jesus we’re not likely to get there.

It was the disciples’ need of God, and the peoples’ growing need of God that had them on that level piece of ground half way up a mountain looking for Jesus in the first place.

Thus Jesus fixed his eyes on them and said: How happy are you who are poor – it’s brought you here to me – and yours is the kingdom of God.

It’ll be no different for us.

Jesus cleanses the temple – with God everything is personal

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Jesus makes his way to the Temple and calls the Temple “my Father’s house”

It’s not just another building however splendid – if it took 46 years to build it, it must have been quite magnificent. It doesn’t matter if it’s of architectural value, what matters to Jesus is that it’s “my Father’s house”

It’s personal, it’s God’s personal space… and Jesus feels they’re invading it… running amuck!

We’re not told why Jesus is so irritated but I think we can say confidently it’s because the worship of God has become secondary.

He gets annoyed and clears the place.

That he gets away with this indicates that they’re wary of him, that they sense he has authority, possesses authority, but they don’t know where it comes from.

In our era many have completely lost the sense of this space as the Father’s house, God’s personal space, not just the local church.

Many have also lost the sense that how we behave here could really irritate Jesus, really annoy Jesus!

This is so important to grasp – with God everything is personal.

I need what Peter has got!

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I’m fixated on Peter.

I’m stuck staring at him as he responds to Jesus walking towards him on the water. I’m looking into Peter’s heart and mind.

More exactly I’m staring at the hold that Jesus has on Peter, how far Jesus has got inside his heart and mind, such that Peter would actually attempt the impossible, that he’d actually step out of the boat and try to walk on water… in the middle of a storm!

I need Jesus to do that to me!

I need what Peter has got 😊

Our Lady of Sorrows – her sorrows are our salvation

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Our Lady of Sorrows is not a very welcoming title.

Indeed, I suspect that for many, a title like “Our Lady of Sorrows” is a complete turn-off.

It doesn’t sit easily with the modern person.

But the church’s celebration of Our Lady of Sorrows is not an attempt to drag us all down, to suck the life out of us, rather, it is an acknowledgement that without those sorrows there’d be no salvation for us, nothing other than the grave.

Her sorrows are our salvation!

Often, increasingly, I see and hear huge statements such as “happy heavenly birthday” – statements that are true, but rarely accompanied by an awareness of the cost to Jesus and Mary. If our loved ones who’ve passed on are to enjoy a happy heavenly birthday it is only possible because of the sorrows that Mary experienced.

So, it is right and fitting that we honour her sorrows because those sorrows are our heavenly birthdays!

Perverting the holy – an ever present danger ⚠️

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Thirtieth Sunday

Luke 18:9-14 The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified

We are privy to the pharisees inner world and so we’re able to see him as God sees him.

He’s using other people, people whom he views as beneath him, to make himself feel good but – and this is what makes it so much worse – he’s doing it by using the holy, by using the Ten Commandments, by using God.

So the ego remains unconverted and in fact the ego is converting (perverting) the holy to suit itself.

From the very beginning this perversion of the holy has been an ever present danger ⚠️ within Christianity – and too often a very real one.

And in the sight of God what he’s doing amounts to abusing the holy, abusing the Commandments and abusing God.

God lives as the ego dies!

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Did you notice that the Pharisee said his prayer to himself… it never reached God!

He believes he’s a step above the tax collector.

It happens!

So when you pray, or when you’re here and take a glance sideways, do you ever think you’re a step above somebody else?

Well if you do… then you can be sure that you’re praying to yourself, and not to God – in a relationship with your own ego but not with God!

God lives as the ego dies!

The ten lepers and glorious human need – the beginning of conversion

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There’s so, so much going on in this piece, apart from simple gratitude.

Jews and Samaritans were enemies and each justified despising and hating the other for political and religious reasons.

So all around there’s dislike, hatred, and division.

There’s another ingredient too – both Jew and Samaritan considered leprosy to be God’s punishment for sin so the lepers were rejected for religious reasons – and obviously on health grounds.

But leprosy introduced an additional fear factor.

So there’s so much in the air as Jesus walks along the border; dislike, hatred, division and fear, indeed terror, the terror of countracting leprosy.

Even the geography is noteworthy, Jesus is walking along the border between the two feuding tribes, Jews on one side, Samaritans on the other, and lepers approach him. This is coming to a head!

He tells the ten to show themselves to the priests. They’re not healed immediately but only as they’re going away. There’s an element of trust as they turn to go find the priests… but is it hope or faith or a bit of both that motivates the ten to keep going? It’s likely they’d try almost anything to be healed so they may be some way from faith at this stage. But something is stirring even if it’s only human need. Glorious human need… the beginning of conversion.

In sending the ten to the priests Jesus is putting it up to the priests; who am I? Take a look – the lepers are healed. Decide about me.

And at least one of the ten newly healed lepers is a Samaritan… ouch 😓… so the leper colony contains both Jew and Samaritan. Isn’t it remarkable that leprosy could unite Jews and Samaritans but in health they were divided and justified that divide by using God?

Jesus is having none of it!

Finding himself cured, the Samaritan leper returns and throws himself at the feet of Jesus. This is an act of adoration due only to God. It’s worship. It’s more than gratitude. Jesus says, “stand up… your faith has saved you!” This is an absolute insult to the Jews!

But what about the other nine? They heard nothing about being saved. Were they healed but not saved?

Yes, it seems just one of the ten healed lepers reached faith.

Good Friday; our words are approximations of eternity.

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Before we begin… a few pointers to help you get the most from our celebration of Good Friday.

Firstly, it’s not just the person of Jesus that’s rejected, it is God’s truth! He is Truth in human flesh. It’s also Truth – absolute Truth – that’s rejected.

Secondly, I’d like you to notice in the opening lines of the Gospel that when they go to arrest Jesus they don’t know who they’re looking for. He’s not a big name in society!

Thirdly, I’d like you to notice that the State and the religious leaders do their best to get rid of Jesus, but in their best efforts to get rid of him they’re actually fulfilling God’s will! The wisdom of man is foolishness to God!

But most of all I’d like you to notice that Jesus suffering is redemptive. If you redeem something you give something away to get something back. God gave his Son to get us back… “to ransom a slave you gave away your son!” (Easter Proclamation: Exsultet).

This is the Mercy of God. Mercy is the heart of God and it’s the heart of the Gospel. Mercy means that there is ultimate Justice! For only if Justice has been transgressed can anyone be merciful. To put it in legal terms; only if a ‘law’ has been broken can anyone be merciful. So if God is merciful then there is an absolute law, God’s law, by which we are all judged.

If we think of what it means to be merciful ourselves we know that to be merciful costs. It’s difficult. Perhaps some of us are so hurt that we cannot be merciful, and if we are to be merciful it will be like crucifixion. There you have it… there you have it in your own experience; the seeds of the eternal. Therefore if God is to be merciful, God must suffer. Only if we live in a meaningless universe can it be otherwise – only in a world where words are empty and meaningless, meaning only whatever we want them to mean at any given time. But unknown to ourselves our words are approximations of eternity.

Here’s a way to get inside God’s Mercy. He died without sin for you. He died without sin on your behalf. Therefore you will die without sin if you allow Jesus Christ to ‘wash’ you. If he died without sin for you, that means you’ve done it! Put it this way: If you owe a debt and can’t pay, what happens? Now supposing someone else pays the debt on your behalf, what happens? You’re free! Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? How does he take them away? By taking them on himself.

Here’s an exercise for those who struggle with guilt and at the same time a lesson for those who think that there’s no sin at all – two extremes to be avoided, everything is a sin (broadly equates with the past) and nothing is a sin (broadly equates with the present): Focus on the figure of Christ crucified on the Cross… Now imagine him calling your name… “Paddy, Paul – whatever your name – I did not die on the Cross for you to bear the burden of your sin.”

When that comes as grace, you’ll cry!

Fifth Sunday of Lent: Jesus answers the Greeks and Stephen Fry too!

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“If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too.” John 12:20-33 / Caviezel, Passion of Christ

In the Gospel today (John 12:20-33) we find Jesus turning toward Calvary.

The position he’s faced with equates to something like a diagnosis of terminal cancer without a morphine pump – without any kind of pain relief, comfort or consolation, nothing but the reciprocal love of his Father!

He takes the tsunami of human suffering that’ll soon crush him, and he uses it to teach us. All that’ll happen to Jesus is not just about him, it’s equally about us, it also represents human suffering and ultimately the death of every single human being.

The first thing Jesus does is place death in a far reaching context. Jesus describes death in terms of the necessity of a wheat grain falling on the ground and dying before it can reach its full potential. Death is not final but the necessary door to fulfillment.

Next, he says that if we serve him we must follow him. It’s easy to miss the brutal quality of this command. Jesus issues it while speaking of his suffering and death; “wherever I am my servant will be there too.” It’s as good as saying; you’ll have your share of human suffering, you’ll have your agony in the garden, your scourging at the pillar, your crowning with thorns, your crucifixion, you’ll follow my path – and children will get bone cancer! Thus the Greeks who “should like to see Jesus” get their answer, as does Stephen Fry; you’ll see me but don’t expect that you’ll be spared suffering and death.

Next, he echoes the cry of every person facing suffering and death but he does so while adding the extra dimension that places death in a momentous context. He puts this human cry in the form of a question to God: “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?” After all, I’m only 33 and there’s much I still want to see and do. He answers his own question: “But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour.” He presents us with the inevitability of death, with the necessity of death if we’re to reach the fullness of our potential. Significantly he then adds, “Father, glorify your name!”

The Risen Christ. “If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too.”

This is a question we all face. What if we cure everything that brings death; what’ll we do then? Where will we go? How will we control the population of the earth? State controlled fertility and euthanasia? Most importantly how will we cope with living endlessly?

Imagine if time can’t reach fulfillment. We’ll go mad.

The message of Jesus is that time does reach fulfillment, for each one of us, through him, with him and in him, and the door to this fulfillment is death, death in him.