Tag Archives: Jesus

Perverting the holy – an ever present danger ⚠️

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.

Lent: Hey world leaders! Don’t you get it? The kingdom of God is for the future of the earth and its inhabitants.

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Hey world leaders! Don’t you get it? The kingdom of God is for the earth. It’s God’s programme for the future of the earth and its inhabitants. Let me explain.

Is Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God? What do you think?

Is he the Saviour of the world?

We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God who is profoundly interested in our welfare, not just as individuals but as the human race – the body of humanity on the face of the earth at any given time. He’s interested in us collectively, as we evolve.

He came to give us a future. Most of us will think of that future as eternal life – somewhere to go in the end. So religion gets pushed out, worse still, so does God!

But God is equally interested in the human race as we live out our lives on earth. It’s the daily living out of our lives together that’ll decide the future, both temporal and eternal.

This is the significance of the kingdom of God. In Mark’s Gospel (today’s Gospel Mark 1:12-15) Jesus begins his public ministry with the proclamation of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is the rule of God in human hearts, in human affairs. Only when God rules our hearts and our affairs – collectively – can we be sure of a future on earth that won’t end in ruin, in disaster. Thus Jesus call to repentance. The kingdom of God is about peace on earth, it’s about true prosperity. What other purpose could the Incarnation possibly have?

So, we must decide. Is the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth the Christ, the son of the living God? Is he the Saviour of the world?

The kingdom of God is the rule of God in human affairs, the guarantee of our collective future. It’s the politics of God!

If he is, then, logically, the removal of Christ from Irish public life can only mean that the perceived progress associated with his removal is nothing more than the illusion of progress. It’s progress that’ll end in disaster. The kind of progress that came disguised as the Celtic Tiger. All in the name of a republic! There’s no darkness worse than the darkness that comes disguised as light! “if then, the light inside you is darkness, what darkness that will be!” (Matthew 6:23)

Unless, of course, this Saviour intervenes again.

Now that’s an interesting thought. That’d be quite a task! Look what the world wants to do with his original intervention!

It’s Lent; time to decide: Who are we really following?

The Holy Family: Nothing is more important than the family

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The family is the foundation of society. It’s the basic unit of society – the most important. It’s the place where we learn how to love or more generally, how to be in the world.

The launching pad from which we’re all sprung.

The bow from which the arrow is fired.

It’s so important that it’s how God became flesh – in a family.

“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” John Paul II

Everything – economics, markets, Governments, States – must be made to serve the family.

The family begins in the love of a man and a woman, although that’s now being questioned.

To love another person is to seek that person’s good, it’s to desire that the other person becomes the best version of him/herself, to desire that the other person becomes the person that God intended him/her to be. This is the work of the family.

Nothing is as difficult as love. I’m serious. Primarily because we reduce it to one of it’s constituent parts, namely physical attraction. So let’s throw love around a little. What is it?

Actually to love is to become a moral person. Love is not just attraction. Try living in love without faithfulness. It’ll tear your heart out. Suddenly love also means faithfulness. What’s love without justice? I love you, but I’ll walk all over you! Suddenly, love includes justice, acting justly. What’s love without self-control? I’m angry so I’ll knock your head off! Suddenly, love now includes self-control. What about trust, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, truthfulness (honesty and personal integrity), forgiveness? Love is made of many different parts – virtues. Relationships don’t just fail, they fail because people don’t grow in virtue. To love is to become a moral person. A child, tomorrow‘s adult learns the art of love in the family.

In the family we learn to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and mean it, we learn to say ‘please’ or as Pope Francis says we learn to ask “may I”, it’s where we learn to say ‘thank you’, to say ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘forgive me’, where we learn respect for ourselves and for other people, for other people’s property. It’s where we learn to be a father or a mother. It’s where we learn to be moral people – before and above everything else we are moral people; our primary identity – moral people who can choose. Unless we’re moral people we’ll wreck everything! This is what distinguishes us from the animals, this is what makes us human.

Where these qualities are in short supply the family might survive outwardly, but inwardly it’s already a broken family and the people involved may be broken, they may not be whole within and they may reproduce the brokenness wherever they go, not always, but very often, not always because although at great personal cost we can still choose to be otherwise.

Nonetheless, as the family goes so will society go.

Nothing is more important than the family. We’ve got to get this right, and everything must be made to serve the family.

Eighteenth Sunday Year A: Pursuing Jesus on foot without a packed lunch!

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The first thing I should say about the multiplication of the loaves and fish is that it’s not about sharing – as though the real miracle was people shared. That’s a lazy interpretation. It’s a miracle of multiplication, plain and simple.

It’s one of the great signs given by Jesus and intended to cause all those present to ask; who is this man that he can feed thousands out of almost nothing and still have plenty left over?

Like all Jesus’ miracles the feeding has a much deeper meaning. If he can satisfy the physical hunger of thousands out of five loaves and two fish then he can satisfy humankind, full stop!

It points to a much deeper satisfaction and the Church with the benefit of hindsight (apart from its obvious connection with Moses) understands it as prefiguring how Christ satisfies his followers by sharing himself with them in the Eucharist.

Sadly many people – many Catholics among them, particularly cradle Catholics – do not understand the deeper meaning that Jesus can satisfy the human heart. Actually it’s an over-abundance of satisfaction symbolised by the baskets of scraps left over after “they all ate as much as they wanted…”

Thus they look at the Church, particularly the Mass, the summit of the Christian life and like the disciples looking at the loaves and fish they look at the bread and wine and think there’s not enough there, we must go elsewhere – corresponding to the disciples “send the people away and they can go to the villages…” Is this not the root of the vocation crisis?

But Jesus says “there is no need for them to go…”

There are just a few more points to note.

The people were fed because they pursued Jesus relentlessly, even out to a lonely place; “he withdrew by boat to a lonely place… but the people… leaving the towns went after him on foot.” But they didn’t just go after him, they stayed with him, time was lost, “the time has slipped by so send the people away” before they fall down with hunger! They were so taken in their pursuit of Jesus that they never thought of taking a packed lunch!

Does your participation in the Eucharist look anything like the participation of the thousands in this Gospel passage?

When you and I start following Jesus like that he’ll start feeding us too!

The cover of Mike Aquilina’s book ‘The Mass of the early Christians’ pictures a mosaic found in the remains of a Byzantine church in Tabgha, Israel. It’s a fifth century mosaic of the loaves and fishes which was a favourite symbol of the Eucharist in the Patristic era.

The spiritual life is littered with big holes that carry the name ‘looks like’ and multitudes fall down them. It looks like the Church is dying but it only looks like it. Actually the near death experience of the Church will allow other events to happen in the world. We live in a very ordered universe. It’s a war for God’s sake!

God’s unconditional love; don’t confuse it with salvation.

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Prayer is the condition attached to getting to know Jesus better.

I don’t like using ‘unconditional’ to describe God’s love – if I use it I always qualify it. Of course that sounds like a condition, doesn’t it?

Here’s the problem:

If God’s love is unconditional then there was no need for Christ’s work of salvation. There was no need for the incarnation, no need for the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. No need for Pentecost or the Church. Everything is flat-lined and Jesus becomes not the Christ, but a nice guy!

Don’t confuse the message of Christ with psycho-babble!

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” John 3:16

The condition is belief in him.

“If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

The condition is keeping his word because we love him.

“As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.” John 15:4

There’s a condition attached to bearing fruit.

If God’s love is unconditional it doesn’t matter how we live, not a jot! There’s no need for prayer, repentance, conversion – nothing! Ultimately it means there is no such ‘state’ as hell – there can’t be, certainly not if God’s love is unconditional. That’s not basic Bible theology, that’s psycho-babble!

People often think that God’s unconditional love and salvation are the same thing, indistinguishable. That’s what I’ve been doing here, confusing the two! So, let’s get it right.

To say that God’s love is unconditional is to say that God always holds out the possibility of salvation – his mercy – to every man and woman even though they may be living in the depths of depravity.

In other words God’s unconditional love is the very possibility of salvation, it offers humankind the opportunity to be saved but God’s love doesn’t save us without our co-operation. God’s unconditional love requires our free response if it is to fulfill its purpose.

God can’t save me without me and I can’t save me without God!

This seems to be the only reasonable sense in which God’s love can be considered unconditional.

A Lenten exercise inspired by St. Patrick.

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Homily Notes. Luke 10:1-12,17-20

Today’s readings are about bringing Jesus and the Gospel to others – going out. The psalm captures it well: Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.

Today’s Mass Preface tells us that St. Patrick did just that:

For you drew him (St. Patrick) through daily prayer
in captivity and hardship
to know you as a loving Father.
You chose him out of all the world
to return to the land of his captors,
that they might acknowledge Jesus Christ, their Redeemer.

We all need to be a little bit like St. Patrick.

However, I’m always amazed by our reluctance to be missionaries – by the ability of the baptised to place the Church outside themselves.

Why did he baptise you (he – meaning Christ)?

He wants you to be his missionary, his eyes and ears, hands and feet.

We need to get this – as God’s baptised we no longer represent ourselves and our own interests, we represent Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. In every encounter, in every person we meet, in every transaction, in every detail of our lives you and I represent Christ.

We’ve got to take this call seriously – don’t wait for others, not even me!

So let’s do something really practical. This week, pick one day, and deliberately represent Christ in every detail of your day. Focus on it – you’re no longer just working for yourself or your employer, you’re working for Christ.

Say to yourself: Today, I represent Jesus Christ and the Gospel.