REFLECTION FOR THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Have you ever heard someone say “I’ll follow, God, but when I am ready to do so,” or words to that effect? Plainly put, if we say this, we are saying that we have important things to do, and God will just have to wait until our business is sorted out. In the language of modern youngsters, it assumes the form “God is there for us.” Both of these ways of speaking are contrary to the way God works. When God calls, he moves on past us, and if we are not quick to follow him, we may never be given another chance. We follow God when He calls us, not the other way round. And it is we who are “there” for him, not the reverse. In the words of Elijah the prophet, “O rest in the Lord; wait patiently for him.” It is we who wait for his call, not he who waits for our response.

Scripture is filled with examples of people who have responded immediately and unconditionally to his call, from the boy Samuel’s words, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening” to the response of the apostles when Jesus says, “Follow me.” We are told that “at once they left everything and followed him.”

In today’s First Reading we are told of the consequences of Abraham’s response to God’s call. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, when God first calls Abraham, the whole story is framed with these words: “God said to Abraham, ‘Go!’…and Abraham went.” His response is an immediate and unqualified “Yes!” Similarly, when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is to bear Jesus, the Son of God, Mary’s answer is “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” Another unqualified “Yes!”

In the case of both Abraham and Mary, there are enormous difficulties and dangers. Each of them has to take a bold step into the unknown, a leap of faith, as it were. Both have questions. Neither can see how it is to happen, Abraham to father a child by a ninety-year-old wife, Mary to bear a son without a human father. But both accept God’s call in faith, for, as Gabriel says to Mary, “nothing is impossible to God.” To both, God makes promises of the blessings that will ensue. Neither accepts because of the blessings promised, but because of their implicit trust in the God who calls them.

What is God calling us to do? It may be something big; it may be something very small. But to each of us, whether the task is great or small, he still says “Follow me.” Do we have the courage or faith to follow him? Are we prepared to lay aside everything to carry out the task to which he has called us? Do we allow ourselves to be daunted by the seeming impossibility of the task, or the cost to ourselves which may be involved? We must always remember a few important things. First, that whatever God asks us to do, is the best thing that can possibly happen to us. Second, that it is impossible for us to give more to God than he gives to us. Third, that all that we have which is good, is given to us by God in order to use in our service of him. And finally, and most importantly, the reassurance that the angel gives to Mary at the Annunciation, that “nothing is impossible to God” is as true for us as it was for her. If we really have faith in God and respond freely, generously and promptly to his call, then whatever he asks us to do, no matter how daunting it may seem, must succeed.

Fr Phillip.

REFLECTION FOR THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Much of Jesus’ teaching is in the form of parables, stories with a message. He did this for one simple reason; it was a way of teaching a sometimes difficult or complex message in a way that is easily understandable and simple. Try summarising the message of any of his parables in one sentence and you will soon see quite how difficult it is.

We often miss the point of Jesus’ parables, because we try simply to extract a moral message from them, instead of seeing the full picture of what Jesus is teaching us. For example, in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, where those who have worked only one hour are paid the same wage as those who have worked a full day, is often interpreted as meaning no more than “we must not grumble or be envious.” If we extract no more than a superficial human message from Jesus’ parables, then we missed the point completely. In understanding Jesus’ parables, we must always remember that each parable has a double message. It tells us something about God, and in doing this, it also tells us something about ourselves. We need to recognise the God-figure and the “us”-figure in every parable.

In today’s Gospel, for example, there is far more to the story than “be kind to your neighbour” or “don’t be a hypocrite.” We too often look no further than the behaviour of the Samaritan as compared with that of the Priest and the Levite. The first thing to recognise is that, in the actions of the Samaritan, we see God. A Samaritan and a Jew were deadly enemies, yet in the story it is the Samaritan who shows compassion towards the injured, even dying, Jew. In real life, we are sinners, and sin place us in a state of enmity towards God. Sin has wounded us, and because of it we are in danger of losing our eternal life. God is the one who, out of compassion for us, saves us from eternal death by sending his Son to die in our place and rise from the dead to bring us to eternal life, in the words of Paul, while we were yet his enemies.”

What does this parable tell us about ourselves? As we have already seen, that we are doomed to eternal death unless God himself comes to our aid. We, wounded and dying spiritually because of sin, can do nothing to save ourselves. Salvation can come from God alone.

Secondly, and finally, it tells us that God’s compassion and mercy is given to us, not for ourselves, but so that we may be his ministers to all who need it. So often, those who need it most are those whom, under everyday circumstances, we might avoid. But God’s love and mercy is for all, not only those whom we find congenial. In the introduction to the parable the Scribe asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus turns the question on its head: “Whose neighbour are YOU?” The parable answers that question by showing that anyone who is in need of God’s compassion and mercy is our neighbour. This parable, then speaks of God’s mercy and compassion towards each one of us, so that we might in turn be his agents of that mercy and compassion in his work to “lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of thy mercy.”

Fr Phillip.

REFLECTION FOR THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written during a momentous era in the story of the Christian Church. Jesus had risen from the dead, and had ascended to his Father; the Holy Spirit had descended. The Church, under the leadership of the Apostles, appointed by Jesus, had been founded, and was preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ: He is risen, he is Lord, he has ascended, he will come again, repent and believe in the Good News. Such was the force and conviction of the Apostles’ preaching, under the power of the Holy Spirit, that converts could be numbered in thousands at a time.

Yet Christianity had still one great step to take. Up until now, it had been a small but growing branch of Judaism, consisting largely of Jews who had become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah; Jews who nevertheless kept the Old Covenant, the Jewish Law, and who believed that one had first to be a Jew in order to become a follower of Jesus Christ. This was the position of Peter and the Apostles in the beginning. Jesus’ great commission, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News…” barely begun to be preached to the Gentiles in any significant numbers.

It was at this point that God chose the most single-minded, narrow of Pharisees to become his Apostle to the Gentiles, the man who believed that the Jewish Law could make him perfect, to proclaim that, since salvation in Jesus Christ is sufficient, it has swallowed up the Jewish Law, which no longer applied.

It was inevitable that Paul’s teaching should come into conflict with Peter’s. In any other human situation, in the face of such a dispute, the new religion could have been torn apart. In this case, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the initial conflict transformed Christianity into what it has become today; a world-wide, universal faith embracing all the peoples, races and cultures of the earth. The outcome of the dispute was the very first Church council, the Council of Jerusalem. The Apostles, meeting together much as their successors did in Rome in the 1960’s, considered the issue of Gentile Christians which confronted the Church, and, in union with Peter as head, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, came to a conclusion regarding the Gentiles. With a few conditions, Paul’s position was vindicated, and Christianity was opened to all of us in the Church today.

Paul’s conviction was grounded in the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ death as a blasphemer, a cursed death to a Jew, was to Paul the Pharisee a terrible stumbling block. But to the convert Paul, it was the only possible way to salvation for us. Look at his strong language: “The only thing I can boast about is the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” Jesus’ cross colours everything, redeems everything, gives everything meaning. The cross, for Paul, is everything; without it we are nothing. The world crucified Jesus, and through the crucifixion was saved; Paul wants to conform himself to Jesus Christ in every respect, especially in his suffering and death.

The cross of Jesus Christ unites us, too. We are all sinners, standing before God in equal need of redemption. Paul recognised this as the most important fact in human history. It is salvation through the death and Resurrection of Jesus and not the Law, which brings us together as one, which gives meaning to our existence. Peter agreed, and so have all the Church’s councils ever since. Without Paul we might not even be Christian, for we are the Gentiles to whom he preached faith in Jesus Christ. It is our task to believe implicitly in the faith he taught us, to live it, and to hand it down faithfully to the next generation. May God bless and strengthen us in this task, and may he make each one of us faithful witnesses to his Word and work in the world.

Fr Phillip.