CHRIST THE KING YEAR "B"

CHRIST THE KING

Mt. 25, 31-46

 

Introduction:     Our proclamation of the kingship of Jesus is the articulate witness to what is going on within us and in our Christian community, and is our faithful submission to the reign of Christ. The Kingdom of God, brought to us by Jesus, is the highest value a human being can realise.

Our Eucharist celebration today is a thanksgiving for the gift of the Kingdom, the royal priesthood of the baptised. We pray our Heavenly Father to bless us with his mercy that makes us fit to belong.

THE HOMILY

Today’s Gospel is a powerful piece of Scripture.  I’d like to recall that this very passage was proclaimed in the Netaji stadium in Calcutta at the funeral service for Mother Teresa on 13th. September 1997. Mother Teresa used to say that the five fingers of each hand reminded her at the end of each day of the five words which summarises the call of Christ, and that whatever use those hands had been put to in the past few hours  “you...did...it...to...me.”  The call of Jesus to match our lifestyle with faith prompted her to rewrite the Divine Praises. After, “Blessed be Jesus in the Most Sacrament of the Altar,” she added, “Blessed be Jesus in the poorest of the poor.” Whatever Jesus did Mother tried to follow.

            The Gospel makes the point that Christ’s kingship is based not on position, privilege or power but service, love and compassion.....the love that is prepared to lay down even life itself for another.  One day a very ill person was picked up quite routinely from the streets of Calcutta and brought to the Sisters’ house. Mother Teresa happened to be in and she could see that the poor man would be dead in a few hours. What could anyone do for him ?  What did Mother do ? She took out a pair of nail clippers and pared the dying man’s toe nails. Within a few hours it would have made no material difference whether his toe nails were clipped or not. But it would make all the difference for eternity for this man that he was treated humanly,  with compassion. That  is the kingly way !

Like every good teacher and preacher, Jesus preached to himself. He was held to the word by his own homilies. As well as the bridegroom he is the one who watches for the Kingdom’s coming with unfailing oil in his lamp. As well as the master entrusting his property he is the servant who risks everything to gain all.  As well as the king who passes judgement he is the one who first lives by his own laws, who sees his Father’s face in the stricken faces of the suffering, and who is moved by an un-mercenary love. In terms of his own homily he sees humanity hungry and thirsty, estranged and exposed, sick and imprisoned. And he cannot but come to our help. Why ?  Because love is his nature, compassion the divine compulsion. Jesus had to choose daily to be “true to his own name, to his deepest nature, which is always going out of its way, relinquishing itself in unbridled trust and service. And this is the cause of action which crowns him, as it crowns us all  -  with thorns.

The sheer magnificence of the Teacher is that there are almost as many pictures of him as there are minds to works them up. Africans paint him black, Indians brown, Caucasians white, Orientals olive. And they are all on target, for he is personal property of everyone. A certain unknown author wrote this description of the Master that is popular among college students. Beneath the picture of a macho-looking Christ runs this message: “Jesus, also known as Christ, wanted on charges of sedition, criminal anarchy, vagrancy, and instigating overthrow of established government. Dresses poorly, uses carpentry as cover. Has visionary ideas. Associates with common working people, unemployed, drinks wine. Has variety of aliases: Prince of Peace, Son of Man, Light of the world, Resurrection and Life, etc..Full beard, and scars on his hands and feet as result of injuries inflicted by angry mob led by respectable citizens and local authorities.”  Paradoxically, though, no one is surprised that he remains his own man.

This is the Person we come here to salute today on the feast of Christ the King. Call him anything you want  -  Christ the Sultan, Christ the President, Christ the Pharaoh. It matters not at all. He is what he is  -  the Son of God, the Second Person in the Trinity, transcendent Lord of the universe.  Christ is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.

 

PRAYER:  (Charles Kingsley  1819 - 1975):

Lift up our hearts, O Christ, above the false show of things, above laziness and fear, above selfishness and greed, above whim and fashion, up to the everlasting Truth that you are, that so we may live joyfully and freely, in the faith that you are our King and our Judge, and that, so long as we are loyal to you, all will ultimately be well.

Fr. Mervyn Carapiet

 

 

CORPUS CHRISTI YEAR "B"

THE HOLY EUCHARIST

INTRODUCTION:      “Eucharist” itself means Thanksgiving. There couldn’t be a better way of thanking God than by celebrating the Eucharist. Every Mass is a Thanksgiving Mass. No sacrament contributes more to our salvation than this, for it purges away our sins, increases our virtues, and is the pledge of eternal life.

The most Holy Eucharist is the Real, Substantial and Personal presence of Jesus Christ under the symbol of food and as Head of the community.

Let us begin the Eucharistic Lord’s celebration with profound sorrow for our sins and failures.

THE HOMILY

Let me relate an incident in the life of Mother Teresa. On one occasion she was visiting in South America and was walking towards a poverty stricken village, accompanied by a few of her sisters and some press photographers - since by then she was quite famous. As Mother approached the edge of the village, the children out to meet her, screaming with delight, holding and kissing her hands, dancing round her as she walked on. The poor village elders waited to greet her. The press reporters exchanged glances and speculated what these people would ask of her:  some tins sheets for their shanty houses, bags of broken wheat and milk powder, used and oversized clothes from Germany ? So they were flabbergast when Mother reached the group and they extended their hands and said:  “Mother, give us God. Mother, give us God !”

Some years ago, I spent a month in Nainital, staying in St. Francis’ Church, overlooking the lake. One morning, after Mass I stood outside the church by the railing of the church property. Two senior school girls, apparently Punjabi Hindus, walked right up tome and said, “Father, please open the church; we want to see God.”  Their request sounded very sincere, and the point is that it seemed to echo the request the poor of that South American village made to Mother Teresa: “Mother, give us God.” Let’s admit it: under the refinery of riches and the rags of poverty there is a hunger for God, of which the hunger for material bread is but a pale reflection.  God knows about this hunger; he placed it there deep in the pit of our beings. The hunger for divine reality is somewhat continuous with but of a much higher nature than our hunger for food and drink, our craving for appreciation and affection, our desire for immortality. The Holy Eucharist reminds us of that mystery within us that we must always keep open and alive and not smother by gluttony for material food, drink and worldly pleasure.

You must know this beautiful little verse

addressed to the Holy Eucharist:

“Heavenly sweetness unalloyed

Who eat thee hunger still;

Who drink of thee still feel a void

Which only thou canst fill.”

We have all, I’m sure, savoured that sweetness when we received our dear Lord in Holy Communion, and shall continue to do so. Which reminds me of a story in the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. One day at the height of his power as Emperor of France he was at table with his generals. One of them asked him, “My Emperor, what was the happiest day of your life.” Napoleon raised his head and began to think. His generals were hazarding their own guesses: could it be the great victory of the battle of Austerlitz; could it be the day he took France by the force of his personality after his escape from the island of Elba; or was it the royal day of his coronation when he grabbed the crown from the hands of the archbishop and place it on his head ? “H’m” mused Napoleon, “the happiest day of my life ?” “Yes, I remember. It was the day of my First Holy Communion.”  My dear friends, I sincerely feel, that with all his pride and arrogance, that beautiful answer was his entry ticket to heaven when he died on St. Helena.

Let us now focus a little on our dear Lord Jesus himself. When cruel men were weaving the darkest plots against him, he was busy giving them the most precious gift he has. When they were only thinking of setting up an infamous cross to kill him, he was only thinking of setting up an altar to sacrifice himself daily for us. When they were preparing to shed his blood, the same Jesus Christ offered us his precious Blood as the drink of immortality, consolation and happiness. My dear friends, if you are in difficulties and sorrow, he will comfort and lighten your heart. If you are ill, he will heal you or strengthen you.

If the devil, the world and the flesh are battling against you, he will give you the weapons for resisting and winning. If you are poor, he will share his wealth with you for time and eternity. Allow yourself to be wrapped around by his love, and you will see what a loving God can do.

 And I get my cue from St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor of theology, who stated that a clear sign of one’s predestination was a special love of the Holy Eucharist. In other words, if over the years you have developed a loving habit of spending some time every day praying before the Blessed Sacrament, let me assure you that you are marked out for heaven; you’re probably there already; your life on earth is only a shadow, and death makes no difference.

To the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, Jesus said, “I have water you know not of, springing up unto everlasting life.” And the woman said, “Sir, give me this water.” To the people on the hillside he declared, “I am the Bread of life.” And they said, “Sir, give us this bread.” On the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus stood up in the Temple and cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” And to him we reply, “Lord, slake our thirst as only you can.”

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a good amount of Latin poetry extolling the Holy Eucharist, which is still sung in the original. One such is the “Adoro te devote,” the final verse of which goes like this:

“Jesu quem velatum nunc adspicio

Oro fiat illud quod tam sitio

Ut te revelata cernens facie

Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae.”

And that could be our prayer, if you don’t mind my translation:

“Jesus, whom now veiled I see,

I pray that what I so thirst for will be

That I may see thy countenance unfolding

And may be blessed thy glory in beholding”.

MISSION SUNDAY YEAR "B"

MISSION SUNDAY

Mt 28, 16-20

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”

Jesus sends his disciples on a mission that is exactly continuous with his own. A missionary is one who has been sent, sent ultimately by God, like an ambassador or an envoy, who represents his president or king from whom he brings a message, usually of good will. The sender is more important and original than the one sent. The missionaries had great qualities, not some superficial etiquette or surface cordiality. They were giants of the faith, with profound dedication to service and sacrifice. These virtues plunged the missionaries into all kinds of activities and undertakings on behalf of the people with whom they had cast their lot. A missionary is nothing if he or she does not personify Christ. Only a missionary who copies Christ faithfully can reproduce his image in others. An apostle’s life is a tale of friendship with the Lord.

The Church’s mission without frontiers has always had and continues to have the characteristic seal of martyrdom. This is the brave witness to Christ’s paschal mystery. To quote Pope John Paul II, “The celebration of the Jubilee Year 2000 cannot ignore the fact that in our own century the martyrs have returned, many of them nameless, ‘unknown soldiers’ of God’s cause” (TMA 37). “Throughout Christian history, martyrs, that is, ‘witnesses’, have always been numerous and indispensable to the spread of the Gospel” (RM, 45). Martyrdom is solemn proclamation and missionary commitment (VS 93). “It has become the common heritage of all Christians.” Those were the words of the Holy Father, and how true for our own country, where witnessing to the faith is fraught with the risk of physical assault and even death.

Over the years, the missionary tradition of the Church has written wonderful pages of history. Today there are also many missionaries, priests and lay persons, who can consecrate their life to the cause of the Gospel and human development, giving themselves to the poorest, in often difficult and dangerous situations, who are sometimes called to give the supreme witness of martyrdom. The Holy Father salutes all heralds of the Gospel, “especially those who suffer persecution for the name of Christ” (AG 42).

The missionary attitude of not putting any conditions on the proclamation of the Gospel is truly a martyr’s attitude. A missionary’s zeal cannot be dampened by difficulties nor motivated by personal interests and preferences. Mission often demands heroic virtue, courage, perseverance, and unlimited patience when the immediate results cannot be seen, or the work simply collapses.  The unexpected happenings of missionary life cause suffering, but they are fruitful. The missionary has no hero complexes. St. Therese of Lisieux said in her last conversations, “If I were to die at 80 years of age and had been in China and everywhere, I am sure that I would die as small as I am.” To live and die in God’s surprise is the most simple, joyful, and fruitful martyrdom.

My dear friends, you need not have great suffering, only the small thorns of daily life, the unexpected setbacks and irritants. St. Therese said, “Do not lose any of the thorns you find each day. With one of them you can save a soul “ (Letter 72 to Marie Guerin). “Let us not reject the smallest sacrifice. Picking up a pin for love can convert a soul. What a mystery !” (Letter 142 to Leonia).

Let me ask you a riddle. What is 750,000 miles long, reaches round the earth 30 times, and grows 20 miles longer each day ? Answer: the line of people without Christ. The answer to the riddle is shot with urgency. We baptised Christians form one Catholic Church. The specific nature of this Church is missionary, otherwise it is an empty grouping of individuals or an afternoon tea party. It is with a mission that we are in the world. You and I must personify Jesus Christ. As a certain missionary has said, “If Coca Cola can put a can of Coke on every table, we can put Jesus in every heart.”

“As the Father has sent me, and I love the Father, so do I send you,” says Jesus to everyone here. Love is the key to mission. We cannot see God, so we love our neighbour, and share with them our most precious possession: the Christian Faith.

PRAYER (Bishop C. K. McKenzie of the United Society of the Propagation of the Gospel)   I am weary of the dark voices crying doom;

I am weary of the fearful voices crying only for their nation;

I am weary of the disinherited voices crying in hopelessness;

let my voice sing the laughter of God;

let my voice sing good news to the poor;

let my voice sing restitution of the oppressed;

 let my voice sing healing of the violated;

let my voice sing the return of the displaced;

let my voice be the laughter of God. Amen.

 

PENTECOST SUNDAY YEAR "B"

PENTECOST SUNDAY Year “B”

God the Father’s work is to create the world. The Son’s mission is to redeem it. And the Spirit’s? Couldn’t think of him being laid off and on the dole!  So let me tell you about the Catholic gentleman who was a perfectionist. He left the Catholic Church because he saw a lot of things wrong with it. (He wasn’t entirely off the wall, since Pope John XXIII called the Catholic Church a church of sinners on pilgrimage). So this perfectionist Catholic went from place to place, looking for the perfect church, entering and leaving them in quick succession as he found them imperfect. He had gotten into the imperfect tense when came the happy day when he did find the “perfect church!” Dreams fulfilled, prayers answered, the search was over. He told the boss his story and concluded: “And now I shall enter your perfect church.” And the boss answered, “Oh, no, you won’t, for as soon as you do, it will become imperfect.”

If any outsider declares that the Catholic Church is packed with fools and charlatans, we can assure him that there’s room for one more. How the Church has survived despite its fractious factions when the Roman and British empires have collapsed; how the Church has survived, what with all its troubles within and problems without can only be answered by the last paragraph of the Apostles’ Creed which we recite every Sunday: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church,” or, more correctly, “I believe in the Holy Spirit who animates the Church, who builds and sustains the Catholic Church, who preserves the communion of saints, who operates the forgiveness of sins, who brings about the resurrection of the dead and honours the pledge of life everlasting.” St. Paul states openly that the divine Spirit dwells in the human body. He is like blood that pervades every millimetre of the body. The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Spirit is its soul. And since the soul has not left the body, how can the body fall apart and corrupt? Today’s feast tells us that the Holy Spirit continues to be present in the church. And, let me add, that presence is a loving presence. Presence without love is as destructive as love without presence.

Apart from baptism, the sacrament of confirmation signals the abandonment and submission to the power of the Spirit; it signals the empowerment that results from the Spirit’s presence. The person who abandons herself to the sway and power of the Holy Spirit is led to live according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. The people who are empowered by life in the Spirit are known by the fruits they bear. Their lives are fragrant with peace, patience, kindness, long-suffering, gentleness, truthfulness, single-hearted love of God and neighbour. The absence of the Spirit is evident by sentiments of hatred, jealousy, envy, greed, lust and despair. With the Holy Spirit in our heart we are sure where are preferences lie.

Take the case of St. Peter. The Spirit would push Peter to Rome to preach the Word and to die for it. That was the best thing that happened to him since it came from deeper and more mature spontaneity, the type of spontaneity that makes you rush to the rescue of children screaming in a burning building or a train crash or bomb blast, the mature spontaneity that makes you speak in defence of someone unjustly treated, to open your heart to a poor person.

That’s the Spirit (with a capital “S”). When we let the Spirit take over our lives, the best is yet to happen.

The famous Protestant charismatic preacher, Rev. Moody, once said, “You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe without lungs, as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God.”

Let me end with another little story.

A little girl was visiting her grandmother in a small country town in southern United States. Grandmother took the girl to a highly charged Pentecostal function. The people got all worked up and expressed their feelings by jumping about and shouting. It was another of those “Holy Roller” services. The little girl asked her grandmother if all that leaping meant that the Holy Spirit was really present. Her grandmother said, “Honey, it doesn’t matter how high they jump; it’s what they do when they come down that will tell you if it is the real thing.” My comment is that it would be good if we were a little more enthusiastic about our faith, but what matters is what we do in everyday life. Does the Holy Spirit have a practical effect on our daily life, and in what way? As someone put it, “We do not need more of the Spirit. Rather, the Spirit needs more of us.”

PRAYER: (Hildegaard of Bingen, 1098 – 1179)

Holy Spirit, the life that gives life,

You are the cause of all movement,

You are the breath of all creatures,

You are the salve that purifies all souls,

You are the ointment that heals all wounds,

You are the fire that warms our hearts,

You are the light that guides our feet.

Let the world praise you.

TRINITY SUNDAY YEAR "B"

TRINITY SUNDAY      Year  "B"

INTRODUCTION       To celebrate the Holy Trinity, let us begin by invoking the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Each time we celebrate this fundamental mystery of our faith, we are drawn more profoundly into the intimate life and love of the Three Divine Persons.  That is why we can only stand in thankfulness (for this is what Eucharist means) and pray God to make us worthy by taking our sins away.

THE HOMILY The Feast of the Holy Trinity goes back to 12^th. Century England and St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Some historians say the great Thomas celebrated a liturgy in honour of the Trinity in his cathedral. So was born the observance. In the 14^th. Century it came to be observed by the whole Church. Belief in the Holy Trinity goes back, of course, to the New Testament; and try, as we might, we would not be able to keep the Trinity in a closet, any more than we can keep love a secret. We open and close the liturgy by invoking those three most holy names of the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit.

A priest was instructing a man for baptism, and taught him the names of the persons of the Trinity. The following week he asked the man to repeat the three names. The man said, “The first is the Father, the 2^nd. Is the Son, and.....excuse me, I can’t remember the name of the 3^rd. gentleman.”  Gentleman, indeed !  We may not be able to enumerate the three Persons, but let us be aware that we are in the presence of pure and sweet gentleness.

To comprehend God is out of the question. To worship Him is the need of the heart.  A priest was sitting in an airport departure lounge waiting for his flight. A fellow passenger, wanting to kill time, struck up a conversation. Said he, “Father, I believe only what I can understand. So, I can’t buy your Trinity. Maybe you can explain it to me.”  The priest out down the New York Times he was reading. “Do you see the sun out there ?”  “Yes.”  Very well it’s 83 million miles away. The rays coming through the window are coming from the sun. It’s a very cold day. And the warmth we are enjoying comes from a combination of sun and rays. Well, the Trinity is like that. God the Father is that blazing sun. His Son is the ray he sends down to us. Then both combine to send us the Holy Spirit who is, in this context, the warmth we feel on our bodies. If you can figure out the workings of the sun, the rays and the heat, it will help you get a faint idea of the Trinity. And as for trying to understand the Trinity, it’s like staring wide-eyed into the noonday sun in order to understand it. All you get for your efforts is a serious headache and blinded eyes, requiring aspirin, eyes drops and a pair of Ray-Ban.” So the priest turned to the fellow passenger and asked, “You get the point ?”  The man muttered something about catching a flight and took off.

Neither St. Augustine, nor St. Thomas Aquinas of Paris University nor Mr. Albert Einstein could comprehend the Trinity. St. Paul mentions the Trinity 30 times in his letter. In chapter 11 of the Book of Job, the old man says, “Can anyone penetrate the deep designs of God?” Who said that God has to tell us everything?

He tells us only on a need-to-know basis. Take it on faith and you’ll muddle through somehow.

You and I should have no difficulty buying into a God who loves us passionately, a Son who is willing to die for us, and a Holy Spirit who helps us become saints. The Father played creator and was overjoyed that the world turned out so attractively. The Son played redeemer to put everything right again in the wounded world by stretching out his arms on the Cross. The Spirit played sanctifier and joyfully made room in the heart of each of us for the entire Trinity as large as they are. Today the Trinity invites us to keep playing with this delightful game of life and love. And why not ? We have nothing to lose but our chains.

The 14^th. century Italian poet, Dante Alighieri, expressed his thought on the Triune God in verse. His Italian runs off the lips like honey:

“O trina luce, che in unica stella.”

And for the benefit of the very young children, I translate into barbaric Anglo-Saxon: “O triune light, which in a single star contents all upon whom it shineth.”

PRAYER        O God, Father, moment by moment you hold us in being; on you we depend. O God, eternal Son, friend and brother beside us, in you we trust.

O God, Holy Spirit, life and love within us, from you we live.

O God, beyond us, God beside us, God within us; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three Persons in one God, we adore you, we thank you, we love you.

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

MATTHEW 28:16-20

Friends, here is the curious thing about the Trinity: at one and the same time, it is the most extraordinary and the most ordinary of Christian doctrines, simultaneously the most inaccessible and the most obvious.  On the one hand, there is a highly developed, technical language regarding this great mystery. On the other hand, the most ordinary Catholic simply and regularly invokes the Trinity every time he crosses himself. Our Gospel for Trinity Sunday is taken from the very end of Matthew’s Gospel. The risen and glorified Lord speaks to the new Israel of the Church: "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me." This is not an ordinary prophet speaking. This is the very Word of the Father, the exact replica of the Father’s being. Jesus then tells them to go forth and to do the work of gathering in, of drawing people into the very dynamics of the divine life. Now, how all of this fits together theoretically is indeed a fascinating question, but we should never allow the arcane language of theology to obscure the revolutionary meaning of the Trinity: it is a summons to mission, a call to action.

SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR "B"

SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR

Cycle B:1 Cor 6, 13 15:  THE BODY

Introduction:     We have a duty to bear witness to Christian morality by our exemplary lives. There are times when we Christians are not the holy people that God expects. We have scandalised others by our petty quarrels and immoral lives. We may well have scared people away from Jesus. Let us ask pardon for this.

The Homily: I would like to comment on the 2nd. reading of today. It’s about the human body. The Corinthians argued that you can eat what you want, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” So, they said, you can have sex with anyone you want, because the body was made for sex as well as for food. However, St. Paul has far more reverence for the body than this. He reflects that we are members of Christ’s body, and that our bodies are his. We are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6,19) and the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6,16). Can you imagine – the Holy Spirit making use of your body as if it were a church ? Can you imagine it? Just think of it. Your body is a church in which God is pleased to dwell. This is the way to glorify God in our bodies.

When we die, our bodies are prepared for burial. The body is not a piece of outworn clothing, which has been cast so that the soul can be free. The body is much more than that for a Christian. There is nothing that befalls the soul in which the body does not take part. We receive impressions of this world, but also of the divine world partly through the body. Every sacrament is a gift of God, conferred on the soul by means of physical actions: the waters of baptism, the oil of chrism, the bread and wine of communion are all taken from the material world. We can do neither good nor evil except in conjunction with our body. From the first day to the last, the body has been a co-worker of the soul in all things, and is, together with the soul, the total man.  The body remains marked, as it were, forever by the imprint of the soul and the common life body and soul had together. Linked with the soul, the body is also linked through the sacraments to Jesus Christ himself.

I’d like to remind you that God worked out our salvation in the body of Christ. The body of Jesus is very really the physical material out of which God fashioned our salvation; and we would do well to unite our bodies to his in order to allow his salvation to flow into us. More than that.  Think of all the skills and excellences you have acquired through the use of your body and all the labour that they entailed. Will all that be exposed to futility and waste at the time of death ?  Certainly not !  Our body may be made of dust, but it is star dust. God will never allow our body to be junked.

The Resurrection of Christ tells us that our bodies are pointing in a special direction, an eternal consummation in God.  The idea of consummation makes you think of marriage. Quite correct. The eternal consummation we look forward to is the Marriage Feast of the Lamb; the very same Lamb pointed out by John Baptist in today’s Gospel.

            Without physical life, there can be no well-being and development.  God has fashioned the human being in such a way that when all the components work in harmony, we enjoy good health and happiness.  The body is meant to work, but also meant for enjoyment, appropriate pleasure, to be touched and held, caressed, celebrated and surrendered.  And yet there is something mysterious about the body.  You have your body and yet you don’t. If I asked you, “Are you your body?” you’ll probably answer “Yes, and No.” There’s something more, something that you can’t quite explain.  You are your body and yet you’re not.  Here is a mystery calling for reverence for the unknown and proper use of the known; calling for appreciation and not exploitation.

            You can glorify God in your body, praying God to take possession of it like a temple. So your body can become a sacrifice acceptable to God, taking care to respect our bodies and other peoples’.  We can never treat another body merely as a sexual object.  The body is for the Lord, ultimately.  But St. Paul goes on to say: “...and the Lord is for the body.”  The Lord is for the body.  Since the birth of Christ, God has a body like ours, affirming and healing our bodies and so preparing them for heaven.

PRAYER  (Janet Morley)

O God, satisfy the hunger of our bodies for food and shelter, health and human touch.  Satisfy the hunger of our spirits for dignity and freedom. Satisfy the hunger of our minds to understand our world, the reasons for the pain, the ways we are connected to each other.  Satisfy the hunger of our hearts that all who share the earth with us shall share our satisfaction.  And satisfy the hunger of our hands to help you make it so through Jesus Christ.

 

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR "B"

SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR "B"

Cycle B:1 Cor 6, 13 15:  THE BODY

Introduction:     We have a duty to bear witness to Christian morality by our exemplary lives. There are times when we Christians are not the holy people that God expects. We have scandalised others by our petty quarrels and immoral lives. We may well have scared people away from Jesus. Let us ask pardon for this.

The Homily: I would like to comment on the 2nd. reading of today. It’s about the human body. The Corinthians argued that you can eat what you want, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” So, they said, you can have sex with anyone you want, because the body was made for sex as well as for food. However, St. Paul has far more reverence for the body than this. He reflects that we are members of Christ’s body, and that our bodies are his. We are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6,19) and the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6,16). Can you imagine – the Holy Spirit making use of your body as if it were a church ? Can you imagine it? Just think of it. Your body is a church in which God is pleased to dwell. This is the way to glorify God in our bodies.

When we die, our bodies are prepared for burial. The body is not a piece of outworn clothing, which has been cast so that the soul can be free. The body is much more than that for a Christian. There is nothing that befalls the soul in which the body does not take part. We receive impressions of this world, but also of the divine world partly through the body. Every sacrament is a gift of God, conferred on the soul by means of physical actions: the waters of baptism, the oil of chrism, the bread and wine of communion are all taken from the material world. We can do neither good nor evil except in conjunction with our body. From the first day to the last, the body has been a co-worker of the soul in all things, and is, together with the soul, the total man.  The body remains marked, as it were, forever by the imprint of the soul and the common life body and soul had together. Linked with the soul, the body is also linked through the sacraments to Jesus Christ himself.

I’d like to remind you that God worked out our salvation in the body of Christ. The body of Jesus is very really the physical material out of which God fashioned our salvation; and we would do well to unite our bodies to his in order to allow his salvation to flow into us. More than that.  Think of all the skills and excellences you have acquired through the use of your body and all the labour that they entailed. Will all that be exposed to futility and waste at the time of death ?  Certainly not !  Our body may be made of dust, but it is star dust. God will never allow our body to be junked.

The Resurrection of Christ tells us that our bodies are pointing in a special direction, an eternal consummation in God.  The idea of consummation makes you think of marriage. Quite correct. The eternal consummation we look forward to is the Marriage Feast of the Lamb; the very same Lamb pointed out by John Baptist in today’s Gospel.

            Without physical life, there can be no well-being and development.  God has fashioned the human being in such a way that when all the components work in harmony, we enjoy good health and happiness.  The body is meant to work, but also meant for enjoyment, appropriate pleasure, to be touched and held, caressed, celebrated and surrendered.  And yet there is something mysterious about the body.  You have your body and yet you don’t. If I asked you, “Are you your body?” you’ll probably answer “Yes, and No.” There’s something more, something that you can’t quite explain.  You are your body and yet you’re not.  Here is a mystery calling for reverence for the unknown and proper use of the known; calling for appreciation and not exploitation.

            You can glorify God in your body, praying God to take possession of it like a temple. So your body can become a sacrifice acceptable to God, taking care to respect our bodies and other peoples’.  We can never treat another body merely as a sexual object.  The body is for the Lord, ultimately.  But St. Paul goes on to say: “...and the Lord is for the body.”  The Lord is for the body.  Since the birth of Christ, God has a body like ours, affirming and healing our bodies and so preparing them for heaven.

PRAYER  (Janet Morley)

O God, satisfy the hunger of our bodies for food and shelter, health and human touch.  Satisfy the hunger of our spirits for dignity and freedom. Satisfy the hunger of our minds to understand our world, the reasons for the pain, the ways we are connected to each other.  Satisfy the hunger of our hearts that all who share the earth with us shall share our satisfaction.  And satisfy the hunger of our hands to help you make it so through Jesus Christ.

 

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR "B"

Second Sunday of Year "B"

John, 33 – 42: “You are to be called Cephas”

What does it mean to have an encounter that changes your life? Simon must have guessed that if Jesus claimed the right to call him by a new name, this meant that a relationship with him was a call to become someone different from the man he had been in his own eyes and in the eyes of others. The way that Jesus looked at him was probably enough by itself to justify his mysterious right to destine Simon to become someone other than who he thought he was. Jesus demonstrated that he understood Andrew’s brother completely: “You are Simon the son of John.” Jesus was calling him specifically to become someone else while still remaining himself. In an instant Simon realised that the entire distance between who he was and this “Cephas, Peter” he had to become was mysteriously bridged by the depth of those eyes, so gentle and so terrible, that were fixed on him. They were gentle because Simon had never felt so understood, accepted and forgiven. They were terrible because Simon had never understood so clearly how important his life and freedom were. Jesus was asking for everything he had, and it would have been so easy to tell him no and slip away from him forever.  He didn’t even have to say “yes” or “no”. He simply had to follow him. Jesus gave him no explanation, no plan. The only perspective he had to offer was the gaze that he fixed on him, seeming to cast him out toward a boundless future in which his new name – Simon Peter – would find its full meaning and completion. (The Simon of nature became the Peter of grace).

Dom Mauro Giuseppe Lepori, Cistercian Abbey of Hauterive near Fribourg, Switzerland.

 

 

THIRD SUNDAY OF YEAR "B"

THIRD SUNDAY OF YEAR   Cycle  B

Jonah 3, 1-5,10; 1 Cor 7,29-31; Mark 1,14-20

Repentance, Detachment, Faith

Talk about being a Jonah. Jonah is a ticket to bad luck. If an accident takes place, there must have been a Jonah around. The original prophet Jonah was an angry man. God told him to go to Nineveh in Assyria and preach repentance. But Jonah the Jew was a narrow nationalist and wouldn’t lower himself preaching to a town of pagans, dirty, smelly uncircumcised people. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a by word for cruelty and violence. Even the prophet Nahum said it was (and I quote) “a bloody city, full of lying and looting.” Jonah, sent to call Nineveh to repentance, would rather God destroyed the city, a bunch of nasty of foreigners. One feature of a narrow nationalism is the assumption that God is on our side and that he should smite our enemies, and he will. That formula is still being applied today. “Kill them all to solve your problems”  It was used in Rwanda where 800,000 fellow humans were systematically massacred in the space of 18 months. Hutus and Tutsis, most of them baptised Christians, killed each other in a frenzy of mutual hatred. Interestingly, the massacres were carefully planned with the help of native Roman Catholic priests. So kill and be at peace.  To lift the gloom, let me tell you about the man who placidly went to confession and said, “It is 22 years since my last confession.   I have no sins to confess.” The priest was baffled. “You must be having some sins. Don’t you have some enemies ?”  The man answered, “No not at all. I killed them all.”

So to come back to our Jonah. He didn’t want the Ninevites to repent. But God wanted them to; wanted to show them mercy. The author of the book of Jonah wants to show us that God’s mercy crosses boundaries, be they national, religious or ethnic. In the end it is not just Nineveh that repents. It is also our poor angry Jonah, who learns at last that mercy is greater than judgement, and that God accepts the repentance even of Israel’s enemies, whom he also loves.  So the story of Jonah has a happy ending.

In the New Testament we learn how the disciples are called from one form of life to another. They are called in a way that radically interrupts their present way of life. Jesus just marches up and says to them: “Follow me.” They follow him at once, leaving family, friends and work.”  Here the call is to a rupture with the old life, with their place in the world.

Some of our faith experiences confirm and even deepen our perception of the good things in our life  -  our loved ones, our search for justice, our enjoyment of feasts and parties, art and music. Faith does not demand a sudden break with these, necessarily. It does invite us to link them to God. Faith invites us to discover how all these things can be integrated into our total self-giving to God.  Yet there are times when the Gospel seems to demand change, rejection of certain features of our lives. Discipleship can be both confirmation and loss.

In today’s 2nd. Reading St. Paul stresses the loss. He is convinced that the present  world has little time to run, so he recommends his hearers to keep their distance from engagements with the world  -  marriage, buying and selling, and so on.  While today we may see the end of history still a little way of  -  especially as we have survived the millennium  -  we can still learn from Paul.  Faith does require that we recognise that we will lose everything, all that we have and those we love, but if we hold on to that Resurrection Faith, all will be recovered in a new, transcendent and eternal way. It requires a certain surrender of these goods; as Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God.” Once we seek that first and foremost, the other goods of our lives will become part of that end, part of our sharing in that kingdom already here on earth.

PRAYER        Lord Jesus, you are the good news. You are the key to existence. You are the cornerstone of my life. You are the inexpressible joy and fullness of life. Fill my heart with a living sense that the Gospel is the best news I can hear, and grant me the grace to embrace it today.

Today is the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Presbyter, Religious and Doctor of the Church.

Born near Aquino (Italy) about 1225, Thomas became a Dominican in 1244, and died on his way to the Council of Lyons in 1274. Educated in Monte Casino, Naples, Paris, and Cologne, he is regarded as one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Church. Even though Aquinas’ writings faced ecclesiastical opposition in his time, the substance of his life’s work has endured as an authentic exposition of Christian teaching and carries unique official approval. He is remembered for his modesty, the prayerfulness of his personal life, and the abiding influence of his thought.

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF YEAR "B"

FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR   Cycle B

Mk 1, 21 - 28: Jesus’ Teaching Authority

The story is told of the elderly woman who was ill. Some churchgoing folk came to see her. They sat and chatted with her for a while. They got up to go, and they said: “We sure will be praying for you.” The sick woman replied, “Thanks, but I can do my own praying. But if you really want to help me, you can wash the dishes in my sink and then take out the garbage.”

Today’s Gospel of St. Mark describes not only the opening of the teaching ministry of Jesus but also his first recorded miracle.  We are dealing with a Gospel double header.  Mark is feeling a generous mood. He is giving us two for the price of one.  The clever game plan of the Master was to get as many invitations as possible to speak in the synagogues of Galilee. Today it is in “Caphar Nahaum” or Capharnaum in English.  Mark’s Gospel tells us Jesus preached in synagogues seventeen different times. The first thirty years of his life Jesus worked with his rough woodworking hands. Now He was about to work with his golden tongue.  Unhappily for us, Mark does not tell us in this particular gospel passage what exactly Jesus taught; just the fact that he taught. We cannot fault Mark for that. The blame must be laid at Peter’s door. Peter was an eyewitness or, better perhaps, a ear witness. And it was he who dictated his memoirs to Mark. Peter does tell us, though, through his obedient secretary Mark, that his Master Jesus blew people’s minds with His teaching. Whatever the message was, it hit his audience like a grenade launcher. Obviously, it was not the usual canned stuff that we are so often fed with, and fed up with, and which we ourselves often peddle. The words of Jesus must have danced across the air waves, electrifying the world around him. He taught with personal authority and not as the scribes taught.  What do I mean by this?

Well, the scholars of the day would preface their remarks with such lines as: “Rabbi Hillel says,” or, “it is commonly taught,” or, “it is alleged.” But that young rabbi named Jehoshua, in English Jesus: he did not tell his audience what others were teaching about life and death issues.  Rather, he tackled those bread and butter issues off his own bat. One did not hear him saying, “It may be”, of “I suggest that you, etc...”  Rather, the people always heard lines like these: “Amen, amen, I say to you...”  “I tell you most solemnly,”  “You have heard it said, but I say to you.”  In short, Jesus required no authority beyond himself. He was his own backup. All the previous prophets came down from the mountain to speak to the people on the slopes. Jesus Christ spoke from the mountain summit, a place occupied strictly by Yahweh.  My dear friends, we need to be attentive, intelligent, reasonable and responsible; either you put Jesus down as a Johnny-Know-it-All or call him your Supreme Master. His audience felt chills run up and down their spines as He spoke. They sensed they were standing in the presence of God. Even his enemies had to admit that this young fellow spoke good sense and that he was sure about what he said.  And that drove them stark raving running mad.

At this point St. Mark slips a fast ball right by us.  The Christ is half-way into his talk when a fellow rudely interrupts.  The fellow has no time for Jesus’ insights; he just wants his health returned.  Do check out.  Jesus does not lay the guy out for bad manners. He does not say, “See me after my talk,” or “Tell your hard luck story to one of my disciples.”  No!  He stops his talk in mid-sentence and cures the sick man.  What message is Mark E mailing us?  Firstly, the Master is backing up his teaching with a strong display of divine power; a sign that God’s liberation and healing have reached us. The demonic is something that traps men and women, something that diminishes our lives, our meanings, and our freedom.  Secondly, Jesus reveals that He is as much interested in people’s bodies as He is in their souls.  The Lord Jesus endorses the dictum: “Before you can put grace into people’s souls, you must first put food into their bellies.”  That’s the way to peace.  Our Lord was not afraid of getting involved in the nitty-gritty of people’s lives. He went the distance with those He encountered. So let’s wash the elderly woman’s dishes and take out her garbage.

PRAYER (after Thomas a Kempis, 1380-1471. 91 years)

Grant, Lord, to all who learn and those who teach them,

the grace to love that which is worth loving,

to know that which is worth knowing,

to value what is most precious to you,

and to reject whatever is evil in your eyes.

Give them a true sense of judgement,

and a wisdom to see beneath the surface of things.

Above all, may they search out and do

what us pleasing to you,

through Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Life Messages

1) We need to approach Jesus for liberation: Jesus did not use his authority and divine power to rule and control people. He came to set people free. Hence, let us approach Jesus with trusting faith so that he may free us from the evil spirits that keep us from praying and prevent us from loving and sharing our blessings with others. Jesus also frees us from all the “evil spirits” of fear, jealousy, envy, addictions, compulsions, selfishness, anger, resentment and hostility. May he free us from all those spirits which make us deaf, dumb, blind, lame and paralyzed, physically and spiritually.

2) We need to use our God-given authority to build up lives. Many people with authority have made lasting impressions on our lives either for good or bad. Perhaps it was a grandparent, an uncle, or a parent, who loved us and cared for us. Perhaps it was a Sunday school teacher who encouraged us in our faith and exerted a positive impact on our lives. Perhaps we remember the kindness as well as the firm discipline that a schoolteacher gave us. Teachers are powerful because they change and mould lives. Hence, let us all become good teachers like Jesus and use our authority to mould young lives in the right way



  Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B). Mass Readings: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalms 95:1-2, 6-9; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28.

We have been waiting a long time to hear Jesus Christ. Sunday’s Mass describes why.
Today’s Gospel uses intense language to try to convey just how electrified the crowd was by what Jesus had to say. “The people were astonished by his teaching,” says the Gospel. “What is this? A new teaching with authority.”
You can imagine where the people were before they heard Jesus. They were laboring under Roman rule, with all that we know about that: paying taxes to a government that does objectionable things, crucifixion notably among them.
They were hungry for an authentic expression of their faith, something better than what was offered by the Sadducees, who had cozied up to the Romans, and the Pharisees, who “tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but will not lift a finger to move them.”
They knew well that they could expect something more. God had promised he would send an authentic teacher to them one day in today’s first reading: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him.”
When Moses first reported those words to the Israelites, they were revolutionary. Before that, people understood the divine to be mysterious gods in the universe that they had to struggle to avoid or to somehow control.
A personal God who joined in their struggles was something new. They saw this in Jesus.
When confronted with demonic possession, Jesus does none of the arduous and extensive exorcism procedures of the day. Instead, he simply says: “Quiet! Come out of him!” And the demons obey. This is clearly a new thing on the earth: a holy man greater than the prophets, able to master the supernatural, and coming to his people.
Here in the 21st century, we are in much the same situation as the Israelites were so long ago.
We don’t live under Roman rule, but we do live in a land that often merely tolerates our religion, while demanding we pay taxes to a government that does objectionable things, legalized abortion chief among them.
We don’t have Sadducees and Pharisees, but we do have competing voices from the extremes of religious experience, one shouting, “Relax your standards and accommodate with the world!” and the other shouting, “Nothing is ever good enough!”
Interrupting both comes the one and only authentic voice of God. You can hear him in the words of St. Paul today: “I should like you to be free of anxieties.” And you can hear him in the Psalm, which says, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
After all the bad alternatives, Jesus Christ has come at last.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF YEAR "B"

FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR    -  Cycle  B

Mark 1, 29 39

The Irish author, Frank O’Connor, recalls a touching childhood incident in his autobiography entitled “An Only Child.” Here is the incident, as he relates it. One Christmas, Santa Claus brought him a toy engine. Later in the day when he visited a crib in a convent, he was distressed on seeing the Infant Jesus without toys, whereas at least he had something.  He asked the nuns if Jesus did not like toys, and was told that He did, but that His mother was too poor to afford Him any. Frank knew that his mother, too, was poor, but at Christmas she always managed to buy him something, even if it was only a box of crayons.  Frank says that he distinctly remembers climbing into the crib and putting the engine between the outstretched arms of the Baby Jesus. He probably also showed the Babe how to wind it as well, or how else would the Child manage. Frank remembers too “the tearful feeling of reckless generosity” with which he left the Infant there in the nightly darkness of the chapel, clutching the toy engine to his chest.

What a beautiful expression of childlike giving expressed in that splendid line, “the tearful feeling of reckless generosity.”  That’s how the grown up Jesus must have felt during his public ministry, especially when he ministered to the sick and the hungry. The healing miracle described in today’s Gospel was done on a Saturday. Since Jesus was an observant Jew, He had spent the whole morning in the synagogue. The site of the miracle was “Caphar Nahaum”, in English, Capharnaum, perched on the lake of Galilee. The ruins still exist.

 The Teacher seemed to love Capharnaum more than his hometown of Nazareth. Not surprisingly, since his home boys of Nazareth tried to kill him. Neighbours like those no one needs. Since Capharnaum was Peter’s hometown, he wisely invited his new Employer home for lunch of fresh fish straight from the lake. They were looking, no doubt, to a relaxed meal and a restful Sabbath afternoon. But they are greeted with the news that Simon’s mother-in-law is in bed, running a temperature. This is bad news, not because they wouldn’t get their lunch, but sudden fevers could carry an elderly person off in a matter of hours. The sheer ordinariness of the domestic scene draws us into the story. Peter turns to Jesus. Jesus rises to the occasion. He goes to the sick woman, takes her hand and helps her up. Cured of her fever, she helps serve the mean. This may be the first time in recorded history that a son-in-law wished his wife’s mother a long life. And she may have been the first mother-in-law in history who felt she owed her son-in-law something.

If bad news travels fast, so also happily does good. St. Mark puts the case succinctly: “The whole town came crowding round the door.” The cool-hand Jesus moved among them and cured their sick. St. Mark’s word picture allows us to still see the running sores, smell the foul odours of the terminally ill, and hear the horrible groans. This was a scene made for the genius of Rembrandt, the painter. His sick are painted in dark colours and Jesus the barefoot doctor is bathed in bright lights. You can check it out and buy a good print.

Jesus got to bed late; he was tired. But early Sunday morning the crowds were all over Peter’s front lawn, stepping on his nets and breaking his mother-in-law’s flower pots. They wanted a repeat performance. But the Master had left at dawn. The cures of yesterday were not to be repeated today, for reasons best known to him.  Peter formed a posse and gave chase. They found him, Mark says beautifully, in a lonely place praying. Somebody has said with sharp wisdom: “Through prayer Jesus gained what people sought from him.”  Peter exclaimed, “Everybody is looking for you !”  But such was not the Lord’s plan. Like the poet Robert Frost, he had miles to go and promises to keep before He would sleep. He got off his knees, brushed that famous seamless robe and moved out to the next town. We can see how His sphere of action expands; after healing Peter’s mother-in-law, he heals all those who come to the house, and then goes through the whole of Galilee. He spends time in prayer, but this leads him to more action, and an eagerness to reach more people, both to preach and to heal.

There are a handful of lessons we can draw from this account. Perhaps the paramount one is the willingness of Christ to put himself out far and wide to help the needy. Jesus’ popularity as a healer and teacher gradually leads to his own redemptive suffering and death. Although we Christians may receive healing, the Gospel is not simply a way to avoid pain and suffering. We need also to take up our cross. We need to spend time in prayer everyday, and fill our minds with the truths of the Gospel.  We may sometimes feel, like Job in the first reading, that life is dreary, “Nasty, brutish and short” (to quote a phrase from John Hobbes). Christ’s mission, like ours, is to show the ways of God with man. We have seen him among friends and strangers, bringing health and salvation in the ups and downs of their lives, and by doing so he was knocking the hell into the kingdom of Satan.

 We need to hold fast to an invincible hope that Satan is already conquered by Christ and now has only limited power. We can experience Christ’s victory over evil every day if we turn to him, and we can rejoice that at the end of time the devil and his conspirators will be vanquished once and for all.

PRAYER:  (John L. Belle and Graham Maule)

We cannot measure how you heal

Or answer every sufferer’s prayer,

Yet we believe your grace responds

Where faith and doubt unite to care,

Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,

Survive to hold and heal and warn,

To carry all through death to life

And cradle children yet unborn.

In Matthew he says: “Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse lepers; drive out demons. Without cost, you have received; without cost, you are to give.”

Christians have taken that call seriously from the beginning.

St. Basil the Great is known as a Father of the Church — he was a great spiritual writer. But he was also a great hospital chief of staff. He created one of the first hospitals, which was praised for its “care and order.”

St. John Chrysostom is known for his beautiful sermons, but also for his beautiful hospital, “well-supplied with physicians and attendants for the sick and cooks.”

As the beautiful old movie Monsieur Vincent powerfully shows, it was St. Vincent de Paul’s Daughters of Charity who founded the first hospital system, with nuns serving as nurses. They brought their hospitals to America in 1809.

The healing of disease is good in itself — but it also points to a higher reality. Physical healing is a sign of the moral and spiritual healing we get from God. Without him, we are unwell spiritually — weak or dying. With him, we are restored to our full stature in Christ.

That’s why the Church pairs this Gospel with St. Paul’s declaration, “Woe to me if I do not evangelize.” Woe to us if we do not heal people spiritually.

But the Church also pairs this Gospel with a first reading from Job describing the difficulty of life on earth. “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?” asks Job. “He is a slave who longs for the shade.”

The life he is describing is the life of a sick person, especially one who does not get cured.

As the Church points out, “even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1508). This becomes a different sign for us.

If being made well physically is a sign of God’s power, being kept ill is a sign of human weakness — a reminder that we are to rely not on our own power, but God’s.

Even when we stay sick, we can take comfort in God. “Christ took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.” When we are well, we imitate his wholeness; when we are sick, we imitate his weakness.