MATHEW GOT UP AND FOLLOWED

MATTHEW 9:9-13

Our Gospel for today is the simple but magnificent story of the conversion of Matthew. I urge you to read it and meditate upon it this week, for it’s about you. The Bible says that Jesus told Matthew, “Follow me.” The call of Jesus is meant to get into your mind, and then past your mind into your body, and then through your body into your life into your most practical decisions. And then we hear that “Matthew got up and followed him.” The verb used here in the Greek is the same verb used to describe the resurrection of Jesus from the dead: Matthew rose. Conversion means a transition into a higher life, arising from a preoccupation with the goods of the world and a reorientation to the things of God. Then we hear what happened after Matthew’s conversion: “And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples.” This deeply annoys the Pharisees, who ask of Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” The answer is that Jesus loves sinners, and he doesn’t require perfection before he approaches them.

FAITH TRANSFORMS

MATTHEW 8:5-17 Faith is transforming

Friends, today in our Gospel Jesus praises the faith of a Roman centurion. How often the Bible compels us to meditate on the meaning of faith! We might say that the Scriptures rest upon faith and remain inspired at every turn by the spirit of faith. One of the most fundamental statements of Christian faith is this: your life is not about you. This is not your project. Rather, you are part of God's great design. To believe this in your bones and to act accordingly is to have faith. When we operate out of this transformed vision, amazing things can happen, for we have surrendered to "a power already at work in us that can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine." This is precisely what we see in the lives of the saints: Mother Teresa moving into the worst slum in the world in an attitude of trust; Francis of Assisi just abandoning everything and living for God; Rose Hawthorn deciding to take cancer sufferers into her own home; Antony leaving everything behind and going into the desert; Maximilian Kolbe saying, "I'm a Catholic priest; take me in his place." This is how faith transforms the Christian life

LEPER HEALING

MATTHEW 8:1-4:  Healing of the leper

Friends, in our Gospel today, we see Jesus healing a leper. The man who knelt before Jesus and begged for a cure was not simply concerned about his medical condition; he was an Israelite in exile from the temple—and hence he was a very apt symbol of the general condition of scattered, exiled, wandering Israel. In curing him, Jesus was, symbolically speaking, gathering the tribes and bringing them back to the worship of the true God. That's why he tells the man, "Go show yourself to the priest." In other words, go back to the temple from which you've been away for so long. The leper here stands, not so much for the socially ostracized, but for the one who has wandered away from right worship, the one who is no longer able or willing to worship the true God. What's so important about worship? To worship is to order the whole of your life toward the living God, and in doing so, to become interiorly and exteriorly rightly ordered. To worship is to signal to yourself what your life is finally about. It's nothing that God needs, but it is very much something that we need.

TEMPORARY TO PERMANENT SACRIFICE

FROM TEMPORARY TO PERMANENT SACRIFICE Hebrews 9:25-26 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. (NIVUK) The principle of sacrifice in the Bible starts with Genesis 3:21: where God killed an animal and skins it to provide clothing for the man and his wife, to cover their shame, after their sin in the Garden of Eden. Sacrifice was a feature of worship prior to the law being given to Moses. Abraham sacrificed: most poignantly being willing to offer his own son Isaac (Genesis 22:1-14) but God commanded that a ram be killed instead of Isaac, setting the pattern for substitutionary atonement. Sacrifices were either commanded by God or occurred in spontaneous worship. All of God's people knew that if they did not sacrifice to Him in the way He prescribed, then they would be cut off from God's people (Leviticus 17:8-9). But as their sinning continued, their sacrifices had to be made over and over again (Hebrews 10:1-3), and even then these could never fully atone for their guilt. For the priests it was quite an industry, as some of the meat from the sacrifice was given to them. In one sense, the tabernacle/temple officials had no interest in stopping sacrifices because they put food onto their tables. Likewise the selling of animals and birds for sacrifice became a commercial enterprise – which angered Jesus greatly (Matthew 21:12-13). What God had intended to open the door to holiness was perverted into self-serving corruption. The death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ marked the fundamental change from temporary and recurrent sacrifices to one permanent and final sacrifice. Christ's sacrifice was one sacrifice for all sins for all time (Hebrews 10:12). It was effective for all those who had trusted in God's grace and mercy through the old covenant, and all who have/will trust(ed) Christ until He comes again. That sacrifice covers all the sins of all the people for all time (www.crosscheck.org.uk). Christ does not need to die again. As Hebrews 10:14 says, "For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy." If that were not true, we would perish. The significance of this single act of obedient self-giving is massive. It means that Christians are fully forgiven people. There is no need to cower away from God's holiness; we need only confess our own unholiness and trust in the efficacy of His poured-out blood. No amount of good works will atone for our misdeeds; only the blood of Jesus. For some it seems impossible that one death 2000 years ago could possibly reconcile us to God today: but it is true. Even though some religious people seem to want to complicate the grace of Christ, its simple meaning remains true (John 3:16). The message of free forgiveness is truly life changing, and we must tell it out so that others can be saved, and freed from the impossible demands of religion by good works or the unrelenting shame of unforgiven sin. Gracious God. Thank You that no other sacrifice than Christ's will ever be needed to secure my eternal destiny. Forgive me when I have not treated this truth preciously, or when I have proudly considered I have not needed much saving; or that I can justify my place in Your presence by my own goodness. Please burn into my heart the preciousness of the blood of Jesus and Your great love in saving me, and help me to tell others. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

JOY OF CHRISTIAN LIFE

Joy of Christian Life
 Periods of sadness, depression and doubts can enter the life of even the most devout Christian. We see many examples of this in the Bible. Job wished he had never been born (Job 3:11). David prayed to be taken away to a place where he would not have to deal with reality (Psalm 55:6-8). Elijah, even after defeating 450 prophets of Baal with fire called down from heaven (1 Kings 18:16-46), fled into the desert and asked God to take his life (1 Kings 19:3-5).

So how can we overcome these periods of joylessness? We can see how these same people overcame their bouts of depression. Job said that, if we pray and remember our blessings, God will restore us to joy and righteousness (Job 33:26). David wrote that the study of God's Word can bring us joy (Psalm 19:8). David also realized that he needed to praise God even in the midst of despair (Psalm 42:5). In Elijah's case, God let him rest for a time and then sent a man, Elisha, to help him (1 Kings 19:19-21). We also need friends that we can share our hurts and pains with (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). It may be helpful to share our feelings with a fellow Christian. We may be surprised to find that he or she has struggled with some of the same things that we are going through.

Most importantly, it is certain that dwelling on ourselves, our problems, our hurts, and especially our pasts will never produce true spiritual joy. Joy is not found in materialism, it is not found in psychotherapy, and it most certainly is not found in obsession with ourselves. It is found in Christ. We who belong to the Lord “glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). To know Christ is to come to have a true sense of ourselves, and true spiritual insight, making it impossible to glory in ourselves, in our wisdom, strength, riches, or goodness, but in Christ—in His wisdom and strength, in His riches and goodness, and in His person only. If we remain in Him, immerse ourselves in His Word, and seek to know Him more intimately, our “joy will be full” (John 15:1-11).

Finally, remember that it is only through God's Holy Spirit that we can find true joy (Psalm 51:11-12; Galatians 5:22; 1 Thessalonians 1:6). We can do nothing apart from the power of God (2 Corinthians 12:10, 13:4). Indeed, the harder we try to be joyful through our own efforts, the more miserable we can become. Rest in the Lord's arms (Matthew 11:28-30) and seek His face through prayer and Scripture. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Blessed John Henry Newman always insisted that the Christian vocation was one of light and joy. “Gloom is no Christian temper; that repentance is not real which has no love in it; that self-chastisement is not acceptable which is not sweetened by faith and cheerfulness. We must live in sunshine, even when we sorrow; we must live in God’s presence; we must not shut ourselves up in our own hearts, even when we are reckoning up our past sins.” This last phrase recalls Newman’s other words: “We rise by self-abasement.” They indicate that his was no easy optimism, for Newman was alive to the bright and dark side of human nature. “Left to itself, human nature tends to death and utter apostasy from God, however plausible it may look externally.” These are sternly realistic words, and not those of a man who would glibly scatter words about light and joy as a child might fling tinsel for the excitement of the glitter.

FEAR OF THE LORD AND THOMAS MORE

MATTHEW 10:26-33

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus gives us the biblical antidote for fear. What are you afraid of? What do you have to lose? Does it terrify you to think that you might lose your wealth? Your social status? The affection of others? Your health? Your power and influence? Your reputation and good name? Your life? I’ve spoken often of my favorite movie, A Man For All Seasons. What frustrated Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII about Thomas More is that they couldn’t manipulate him. And why couldn’t they do that? He wasn’t afraid. There was nothing they could threaten him with. In time, Henry took away More’s job, status, money, reputation, friends, family, freedom—each time hoping that he would give in—until finally the King took away his life. Everyone else he could intimidate, but not More. And Thomas More’s last words are instructive here: “I die the King’s good servant; but God’s first.” Thomas More did fear someone. He had that holy fear that the Bible speaks of often: the fear of the Lord. There was something he feared losing—and that was intimacy and friendship with God. Compared to that, everything else was straw.

FEAR NO ONE

Fear No One

User's Guide to Sunday, June 25

Sunday, June 25, is the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). Mass Readings: Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33.

“Fear no one,” says Jesus in today’s Gospel.
He doesn’t want us to be secret Christians, hiding our faith from the world, embarrassed that we still believe. He says, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father, and whoever denies me before others I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
He wants us to “proclaim on the housetops” what he has revealed. But we fail at this so often that it can be a little discouraging.
We can fail in the workplace. We are pro-life, we reject gender ideology, and we believe in what marriage has always and everywhere been defined to be — but what do we say when these issues come up at the office?
We can fail in our social life. We may fail to stand up against judgmental gossip, we may fail to say “No” when a bad activity is suggested, or we may even fail to stay chaste in our dating relationships — all because we don’t want to “make a scene.”
We may be afraid of taking a stand with our own children — afraid to say “No” to that toxic friend group, afraid to enforce the home computer rules, or afraid to ban that video game — afraid of insisting on what’s right. Or maybe it’s our spouse’s behavior we refuse to confront.
This is how sin proliferates. “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned,” explains St. Paul. We lost our friendship with God, and now our vanity gets the best of us. We care more about others’ opinions of us than we do about God’s.
But St. Paul also describes how the grace of Jesus Christ can break this cycle — for “the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.”
The graces Jesus offers us can transform our lives.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit that we receive at baptism include fortitude, which “enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions,” says the Catechism (808). These gifts also include fear of God, which “is no servile fear, but rather a joyful awareness of God’s grandeur and a grateful realization that only in him do our hearts find true peace,” says Pope Francis.
These gifts can give us the strength of Jeremiah from today’s first reading — or the strength of Moriah Bridges, the 2016-17 senior class president at Beaver High School in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
At her recent graduation speech, she planned to mention who is most important to her: God. But the school’s administrators made her take those references out. She did, for the most part, but then at the very end of her speech, she added:
“I’ve always been a rule follower. When they said not to chew gum, I didn’t chew gum. When they said not to use your cellphone, I didn’t use my cellphone. But today, in the spirit of defying expectations, and for perhaps the last time at this podium, I say in the righteous name of Jesus Christ: Amen!”