frmartinshomiliesandreflections

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

20th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Thursday, Second Week of Lent (Inc. Luke 16:19-31): ‘At his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus’.

Thursday, Second Week of Lent

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Luke 16:19-31 Dives and Lazarus.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ‘In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his bosom. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” “My son,” Abraham replied “remember that during your life good things came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.” ‘The rich man replied, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.” “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham “let them listen to them.” “Ah no, father Abraham,” said the rich man “but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”’

Gospel (GB) Luke 16:19-31 ‘You received good things, and Lazarus bad things; now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.’

At that time: Jesus said to the Pharisees, ‘There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not do so, and none may cross from there to us.” And he said, “Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house — for I have five brothers — so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” And he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” ’

Gospel (USA) Luke 16:19-31 Good things came to you and bad things to Lazarus; now he is comforted while you are in agony.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Reflections (13)

(i) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

The first reading declares a curse on those who put their trust in man, who rely on the things of the flesh and a blessing on those who put their trust in the Lord, with the Lord for their hope. Who or what do we rely on? Where do we place our hope and trust? To whom or what do we entrust ourselves? The parable Jesus speaks portrays a very rich man who clearly puts his trust in his riches and the luxurious way of life which his great riches makes possible. In a land where most people lived below or just at the subsistence level, such extravagant displays of wealth were truly scandalous. Because he entrusted himself so fully to his great riches, he cut himself off from God, from God’s word spoken by Moses and the prophets, and he cut himself off from those in need, such as the poor man, Lazarus, at his gate. Even the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table would have been enough to stave off the pangs of Lazarus’ hunger. The smallest gesture of generosity would have lifted Lazarus up from his desperate plight. Yet, this rich man was so invested in his wealth and the lifestyle it afforded him that he was completely closed in on himself, deaf to the call of God in the Scriptures and the call of God through Lazarus. He came to realize too late that for all his wealth his life was impoverished. He was rich in the eyes of the world but poor in the eyes of God. In the next life, God did for Lazarus what the rich man failed to do for him. God brought Lazarus to the banquet of the kingdom of heaven, next to Abraham. When we entrust ourselves to the Lord, we will be more sensitive to the Lord’s call as it comes to us through his word and, also, through those who call out to us in their need. Even our smallest acts of kindness towards those in need, the equivalent of scraps, can help to bring the kingdom of heaven closer for others.

And/Or

(ii) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

The parables Jesus tells are intended to make us think and reflect. In the parable we have just heard, two people lived side by side, a rich man in his great house and a poor man at the gate of the house. Yet, there was a chasm between them; whereas the poor man looked towards the rich man for scraps, the rich man did not look towards the poor man but ignored him. The parable seems to be challenging us not to allow a chasm to develop between us and those who, although physically close to us, live in a very different world to the one we inhabit. The rich man in the parable lived in his own world and made no effort to enter the world of the beggar at his gate. We can all insulate ourselves in our own world. The parable challenges us to enter the world of the other and to allow the other to enter our world. That, in a sense, is what Jesus did; he entered our world and invited us to enter his world. We can do the same for each other. When we cross the threshold into the world of the other, into the world of those who are very different from us in all kinds of ways, we may discover that we not only have something to give the other but a great deal to receive as well.

And/Or

(iii) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

The parable in today’s gospel reading is about two men from very different ends of the social spectrum, one very rich and the other very poor. Even though they lived in close proximity to each other, there was a great gulf between them. The rich man treated the poor man as if he was not there, as if he did not exist, even though he was only a short distance away. He refused to notice him. His failure was a failure to notice, to pay attention, and, having done so, to respond to the poor man’s needs. We don’t always notice one another; we don’t always pay attention to one another. Even though we can be physically close to people, there can be, in reality, a great gulf between us. If we fail to notice, to pay attention, the reality that we have ignored for so long can suddenly hit us in the face, as happened to the rich man in the parable. After death, he was suddenly confronted with what he had ignored for so long. Noticing others, paying attention to them, entails stepping out of our own world and attending to the world of the other, whoever that other happens to be. It could be someone in our own home. Being attentive, noticing, is one important expression of authentic love.

And/Or

(iv) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

We can all be overwhelmed by the scale of the problems in our world, in our country and city, especially the scale of the social problems, the extent of the social divide. We can easily throw up our hands and ask ourselves, ‘What can I do?’ Yet, there is always something each of us can do to make a difference. There is always some step we can take, no matter how small, that can have an impact. In the gospel reading this morning, the exceptionally rich man did nothing about the beggar at his gate, when he could so easily have done something. Lazarus would have been happy with the scraps that fell from the heavily laden table of the rich man. Those scraps would have made a huge difference to him. It was within the gift of the rich man to give Lazarus what he needed, but he didn’t bother to do so. Very little was being asked of him, and that little would have made a huge difference, but he neglected to do the little he could have done. We all need to do the little we can do, whatever situation we are confronted with. The little we can do can make an enormous difference. We can never underestimate the power of our giving, even when what we give is very small. It is often not the grand eye-catching gesture that matters so much as the day to day small acts of kindness and generosity. In another place in the gospels Jesus declares that those who give even a cup of cold water will not lose their reward.

And/Or

(v) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

The failure of the rich man in the story that Jesus told was the failure to notice. Although Lazarus sat at the rich man’s gate, the rich man did not notice Lazarus; he passed him by, just as the Levite and the priest passed by another broken man in one of Jesus’ other parables. In the second part of the story, the rich man, now in Hades, finally notices Lazarus who is now in the bosom of Abraham. The rich man notices him because he now sees that Lazarus can be of use to him. With Abraham’s permission, Lazarus could go and get some water to quench the man’s thirst. It seems that the rich man only noticed those who could be of some benefit to him. The gospel reading suggests that we are called to notice others not for what they can give us or do for us but for who they are in themselves. This is how Jesus noticed people. He attended to others not because of what they could give him but because they were precious in God’s sight. In particular, he noticed those whom people tended to ignore, because he understood that such people were especially precious to God. The gospel calls on us to be as aware of others as Jesus was and in the way Jesus was.

And/Or

(vi) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

It is clear that the rich man in the story Jesus tells is one of the elite of Jesus’ day. This was a tiny proportion of the total population, no more than one or two percent. They were so wealthy that they could afford the most expensive of clothing, purple garments and fine linen, and they were in a position to feast magnificently not just occasionally but every day. In sharp contrast, Lazarus was completely destitute. He was just one example of that large percentage of the population who lived well below subsistence level and who were completely dependent on the almsgiving of others to survive. The enormous social gap which the parable describes is not without its modern parallels.  The rich man was so absorbed by his luxury that he lived in his own self-contained world, a world that didn’t intersect in any way with the completely different world of Lazarus, even though he had to walk past Lazarus every day. In the rich man’s world Lazarus was invisible. It is likely that very few of us belong either to the world of the rich man or the world of Lazarus. We are neither fabulously wealthy nor destitute. Yet, we can all become so absorbed by our possessions, by our preoccupations, to the point that certain other people become invisible to us, especially those who are in much greater need than we are. The gospel reading challenges us to break out of our own world and to allow ourselves to be drawn into the world of those whose lives are more vulnerable, more precarious, than ours. The gospel reading suggests that the first step in taking that journey can be the simple act of noticing, paying attention, listening and, in so doing, allowing ourselves to be affected by the plight of the other.

And/Or

(vii) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

The story Jesus tells sets up a sharp contrast between someone who is extraordinarily rich and someone who is desperately impoverished. The rich man wore purple, the most expensive clothing of the time; he feasted magnificently, not just occasionally, but every day. The poor man’s plight is as desperate as the rich man’s condition is sumptuous. He is starving with nothing to eat; he is seriously ill, his body covered in sores; the only solace he gets is from the dogs who lick his wounds. Here is a rich man who is totally self-indulgent, who is so absorbed in satisfying his own needs that he pays no attention to Lazarus whom he must have passed on a regular basis, as he lay at his gate. In the afterlife, God gives to Lazarus what he was denied in this life. Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham; he is reclining on the breast of Abraham at the banquet of eternal life. The rich man has been refused entry to this banquet and can only look on in frustrated longing. God provided for Lazarus in the end, but it is clear that God wanted Lazarus provided for in this life. As Jesus states at the end of the reading, those who listen to Moses and the prophets should know this. We who listen not only to Moses and the prophets but to the teaching of Jesus certainly know this. God calls on us to provide for each other. If we have an abundance, we are to share from it with those in greatest need. This is an aspect of the gospel message that Pope Francis has been emphasizing since he became Pope. None of us may be as wealthy as the rich man or as destitute as Lazarus, but we all have something we can give to those whose need is greater than ours. The parable may be suggesting that our giving begins with noticing, paying attention.

And/Or

(viii) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

Today’s parable reflects the great gulf between the exceedingly wealthy and the completely destitute in the time and place where Jesus lived and worked. The scenario is not without its contemporary equivalents. Jesus in his teaching and in his practice challenged this huge social disparity. In the parable, the physical hunger and thirst of the poor man Lazarus was only satisfied beyond death, at the banquet of life where Abraham was host and Lazarus had a place of honour. Yet, Lazarus need not have waited that long and should not have had to wait that long. If the rich man had given even a little from his abundance, even the scraps that fell from his table, that would have been enough to satisfy Lazarus. Then something of God’s kingdom would be coming to pass on earth as it is in heaven. God will see to it that justice is done in the end, even if beyond this earthly life, but God wants something of his justice to become a reality in the here and now. We all have a part to play in making this happen. We may not be fabulously rich like the man in the parable, but many of us have some surplus that could greatly benefit others. Yet, so often we lack the freedom to share it, because we have come to rely on it, to trust in it. If, in the words of today’s response to the Psalm, we can place our trust in the Lord more, then we will be freer to live in ways that help to make God’s kingdom more of a reality on earth.

And/Or

(ix) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

There is one point where the description of Lazarus in today’s parable overlaps with the depiction of the rebellious son in the parable of the Prodigal Son. It is said to Lazarus that he ‘longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table’. It is said of the rebellious son that he ‘longed to fill himself with the pods that the pigs were eating’. Both men were destitute, Lazarus, through no apparent fault of his own, and the son because of his own selfish decision to leave his family and head out to waste his inheritance on himself. There was one crucial difference between the two men. Lazarus had nowhere to go. He sat at the gate of a rich man, but he could never get beyond the gate. The rebellious son did have somewhere to go. He could go home. When he drew near to the gate of his wealthy father, his father was moved with compassion for him, ran to him, put his arms around him, kissed him and brought him into the house where a feast was prepared for him. There was no feast for Lazarus, not even the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Even though Lazarus and the rebellious son had much in common, the people they looked to for help, both rich men, were polar opposites. The self-absorption of the rich man in today’s parable stands in sharp contrast to the compassionate generosity of the rich father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. The rich man is an all too human figure; the father is a God-like figure. When we listen to these two parables in relation to each other, the call on us is to become less like the rich man in today’s parable and more like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, whenever we are faced with the broken and destitute of our world.

And/Or

(x) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

We were all terribly shocked by the murder of so many worshippers in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last Friday. The man who carried out the awful attack was a self-confessed racist. It shocked the welcoming and peace-loving people of New Zealand. It left the police force and the politicians of New Zealand asking, ‘What could we have done to stop this from happening that we didn’t do?’ When a human tragedy on this scale happens, we invariably ask, ‘Is there something we, as a community, didn’t do we could have done?’ Sometimes the consequences of not doing some good can be as harmful as the consequences of doing some evil? In the parable in today’s gospel reading, the focus is not so much on one individual and a community or on two communities, but on two individuals, one of whom, a very wealthy man, did not do what he could have done, and the other, a destitute man, who suffered the consequences of the other man’s inactivity. The destitute man was looking for very little, just the scrapes that fell from the rich man’s table, but that little would have kept him alive for longer. What the rich man needed to do and could easily have done was very little, but he failed to do it. His failure to do the little that was asked of him and that was well within his ability had fatal consequences for someone else. The poor man died before he had to, and the rich man ended up in dire poverty in the next life. It is a challenging and unsettling parable for us all. It invites us to ask, ‘What am I failing to do that I could easily do, and who is suffering because of that failure?’

And/Or

(xi) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

Today’s first reading from the prophet Jeremiah contrasts two types of people, those who put their trust in things of the flesh, and those who put their trust in the Lord. The prophet is inviting us to ask, ‘Where do we put our trust?’ ��On what or whom do we rely?’ The parable that Jesus speaks in the gospel reading put this contrast in the form of a story. The rich man put his trust in things of the flesh. He lived for himself; his priorities were the satisfying of his own needs. The poor man, Lazarus, put his trust in the Lord; he had no one else on whom he could rely. On the surface, the rich man seemed much more fortunate than Lazarus. In reality, to use the imagery of Jeremiah in the first reading, the poor man was like a tree by the waterside whose foliage stays green even in the heat, whereas the rich man was like a dry shrub in the wastelands. That became clear in the life beyond death. The Lord in whom Lazarus trusted did not let him down, whereas the things of the flesh in which the rich man trusted ultimately failed him. The parable poses the question, ‘In what does true riches consist?’ It suggests that the truly rich person is the one whose trust is in the Lord, for whom the Lord comes first, whose first love is the Lord. Such a person will have something of the Lord’s own awareness of and compassion for those in greatest need, like Lazarus.

And/Or

(xii) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

The story Jesus told was not about two groups or classes of people, but two individuals. Many of the stories Jesus told were about individual human beings. Perhaps Jesus was reminding us that God comes to us in the individual who crosses our path. The Lord calls out to us through the concrete human being with whom I come face to face. When two individuals meet, it can sometimes be difficult to know who the needy one really is. In the story that Jesus told, at one level it is obvious that Lazarus is the needy one. Yet, in reality, the rich man was in greater need. In spite of Lazarus’ misery, his ultimate future was secure. For all the rich man’s good fortune, his ultimate future was anything but secure. In a sense, the rich man needed Lazarus more than Lazarus needed him. Lazarus was assured of salvation, whereas the rich man’s path to salvation was through Lazarus. It was in responding to Lazarus that the rich man would have made it to Abraham’s bosom. When someone who appears to be in much greater need than me crosses my path, I may be the really needy one and that person may be my path to God. We are very much dependent on one another. That is the way God made us, and we often have most to receive from those who appear to have least to give us. It is likely that the rich man in the parable had many friends who shared his heavily laden table. Lazarus seems to have had no friends. However, when he died it was revealed that he had some wonderful friends after all, the angels who carried him to Abraham’s side at the banquet of life. God had always been his friend. The tragedy was that he encountered no angels, no living signs of God’s friendship, in his earthly life. Our calling is to become those angels now, to be living signs of God’s friendship to all who cross our path in life.

And/Or

(xiii) Thursday, Second Week of Lent

In the time of Jesus only a tiny number of people would have had the excessive wealth of the rich man in the parable. He is described as dressed in purple and fine linen, the most expensive cloth of the day. He feasted magnificently every day. The vast bulk of the population in the place and time where Jesus lived never feasted at all. To feast magnificently every day is a vulgar display of wealth in that culture. In contrast to the rich man, Lazarus would have been a familiar figure to people. There were many people who depended on the generosity of others to survive, which is why almsgiving was such an important value in the Jewish religion. Lazarus seems to have been extremely destitute. He had so little that he longed to eat the scraps that fell from the table of the rich man who lived just the other side of the gate. Yet, even though Lazarus was physically close to this extremely wealthy man, he was invisible to him. The rich man walked past Lazarus as if he wasn’t there. However, Lazarus was not invisible to God. When Lazarus died he received the hospitality that was denied him in this life. He was given a place of honour beside Abraham at the banquet of eternal life. The rich man had the opportunity to reveal something of God’s hospitality to Lazarus before Lazarus died but he failed to do so. We are all called to reveal something of God’s hospitable and welcoming love to each other in the here and now. Individuals and whole groups whose need is great can become invisible to us. They may be physically near us, but we don’t see them. It is the Lord who calls out to us through those in greatest need, just as God was calling out to the rich man through Lazarus. Whenever we become present to them in a way that reveals God’s love we are doing God’s good work on earth. We are like that tree, mentioned in the first reading, whose ‘foliage stays green… and never ceases to bear fruit’. In revealing God’s hospitable love to those who are at risk of becoming invisible, we open ourselves up to receiving God’s hospitable love both in this life and in eternal life. As Jesus says elsewhere in the gospels, ‘Give and there will be gifts for you’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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19th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for The Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Inc. Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24): ‘He did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do’.

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 1:16,18-21,24 How Jesus Christ came to be born.

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ. This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do.

Gospel (GB) Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a ‘Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.’

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

Gospel (USA) Matthew 1:16, 18–21, 24a Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him.

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ. Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

Reflections (11)

(i) Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

One of the gospel readings for the feast of Saint Joseph is the story of the birth of Jesus, according to Matthew. It is a little less familiar to us than the story of the birth of Jesus as we find it in Luke’s gospel and which we read on Christmas night. The gospel reading portrays Joseph at a moment of crisis. It could be termed a crisis of intimacy. Joseph tends to be depicted in religious art as an elderly man, more like Jesus’ grandfather than father. In reality, at the time of Jesus’ birth, he must have been a vigorous young man, perhaps still in his teens. The gospel reading describes him as betrothed to Mary. Betrothal is more than what we refer to as an ‘engagement’. As betrothed, he and Mary were legally husband and wife, but they would only live together as husband and wife after their marriage ceremony. The future happiness of this young man is suddenly clouded by an event of which he can make little sense, Mary’s pregnancy. What is he to do in this unexpected and confusing situation? The Jewish Law would have required him to take a course of action that went against all his natural feelings for Mary. In that moment of personal crisis, according to the gospel reading, Joseph experienced God as Emmanuel, God with him. God communicated with Joseph at this difficult time in his life and Joseph was open to hearing God’s word to him, a word that directed him beyond what the Law required, prompting him to marry his betrothed, to take her home as his wife. The story of Joseph reminds us that God continues to communicate with us in the challenging situations of our own lives, including crises of intimacy. There is no personal dilemma that need cut us off from God. God speaks a word of love and wisdom to us even in the most unpromising moments of our life’s journey. Jesus reveals God to be Emmanuel, God with us, and God is with us, guiding us and supporting us, especially in our own difficult family experiences. The gospel reading also suggests that Joseph was not only open to God’s presence but revealed God’s presence to Mary, showing her great care and sensitivity in a disturbing and unsettling moment. Joseph inspires us not only to be open to God’s presence in difficult family moments, but to reveal God’s loving and tender presence to each other, to look out for one another, when events come along that are disruptive and disturbing. Joseph’s care the vulnerable, for the pregnant Mary, and later for Mary and his young son when faced with exile, might prompt us to ask his intercession for all who have been rendered vulnerable today by war.

And/Or

(ii) Feast of Saint Joseph

It is strange how Christian art has tended to portray Joseph as an old man, more like Jesus’ grandfather, than his father. One striking exception to this is a painting of Joseph by the Spanish artist, El Greco. He depicts Joseph as a vigorous young man, with Jesus clinging to his legs. In that painting Joseph is portrayed as a strong figure, trustworthy and protective. This is much closer to the portrayal of Joseph in the gospels than the usual elderly depiction of him. The gospel reading this morning suggests that although Joseph, the young father, was protective of his young son, he also struggled to understand him at times. Having anxiously searched for Jesus with Mary, Joseph finally finds him in temple, only to be told that by Jesus that he must be busy with his Father’s affairs. Joseph was beginning to learn that there was someone else in his young son’s life whom he called ‘Father’, and to whom he had a stronger allegiance that he had to his earthly parents. Joseph discovered early on that he would have to let his son go to a greater purpose than what he wanted for him. As such, Joseph could serve as an inspiration, a reference point, for all parents who have to work through that difficult task of learning to let go of their offspring.

And/Or

(iii) Feast of Saint Joseph

This morning’s gospel reading gives us a mini portrait of Joseph. We are told that every year Joseph and Mary used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. Joseph, along with Mary, was a devout Jew. The Temple in Jerusalem had an important place in his life. It was the place where God was believed to be present in a special way. Like many faithful Jews, Jesus went up to the Temple in Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts, such as the Feast of Passover. On this occasion when Jesus was twelve years old, little did Joseph know that Jesus would be crucified by the Romans on the feast of Passover about twenty years into the future.  In bringing his son with him to Jerusalem for the great feasts, Joseph was initiating his son into his own Jewish faith, passing on to his son his own religious traditions, beliefs and practices. Joseph was called by God to be a human father to Jesus, to be the best father possible for Jesus. This was a great privilege, but the gospel reading suggests that it was also a very particular challenge, one that made great demands on him. That challenge for Joseph is captured in the exchange between Mary and Jesus. Mary says to her son, ‘see how worried your father and I have been, looking for you’. Jesus replies to her, ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’ Jesus spoke as one who had another Father than Joseph, a heavenly Father and it was the affairs of his heavenly Father that had to take priority over the concerns of his earthly father. This must have been very difficult for Joseph to come to terms with. He had the responsibility of overseeing the upbringing of Jesus and, yet, he had to learn that his son did not belong to himself or to Mary but was subject to a higher authority than theirs. The gospel reading said, ‘they did not understand what he meant’. Joseph is portrayed in the gospel reading as faithful to his calling to care for Jesus, without fully understanding what was going on in the life of his son. Joseph can be an inspiration to all of us, who are also called to be faithful to the Lord without always fully understanding the Lord to whom we seek to be faithful. Like Joseph we are called to give our heart to the Lord, even though our reason may never fully understand him. 

And/Or

(iv) Feast of Saint Joseph

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph. We know relatively little about Joseph. In the gospel of Matthew, when Jesus preached for the first time in his home town of Nazareth, those who knew him asked, ‘Is not this the carpenter’s son?’ Jesus was known to them as the son of the carpenter, the son of Joseph. Joseph had a skill which not everybody in Nazareth had; he could make useful things from wood. He used his skill to provide for his family, including his son Jesus. Jesus would go on to provide for many people in the course of his public ministry. He gave everything he had, including his very life, for God’s people, for all of us. Yet, before Jesus could provide for others, he needed to be provided for, and Joseph played a key role in providing for him. With Mary, Joseph made it possible for Jesus to get to the point where he could leave home a fully formed adult and begin in earnest the work that God gave him to do. Jesus was able to do his work in Galilee and Judea because Joseph did his work in Nazareth. Joseph’s work might seem insignificant compared to the work Jesus went on to do and still does as risen Lord. Yet, Joseph’s work was just as important because without Joseph’s work, Jesus would not have gone on to do the work of God. Joseph teaches us the importance of doing what we have to do as well as possible, even if what we are doing seems of little significance in the greater scheme of things. We are all interdependent. If we do what we have to do as well as we can, we make it easier for everyone else to do what they are called to do. Everything we do has greater significance that we realize. We all have vital roles to play within God’s greater purpose. We are all called to do God’s work, at every stage of our lives, each of us in our own particular way.

And/Or

(v) Feast of Saint Joseph

Joseph does not appear in the gospels during the public ministry of Jesus. His presence in the gospels is confined to the first two chapters of Matthew and of Luke which concern the birth and early childhood of Jesus. Yet Joseph is referred to during Jesus’ public ministry in relation to Jesus. Later on in Matthew’s gospel the people of Nazareth ask of Joseph, ‘is not this the carpenter’s son?’ Apart from that detail about Jesus being a carpenter we know very little else about him. However, this morning’s gospel reading from Matthew describes Joseph as a ‘man of honour’, or a ‘just or righteous man’. He is just in that he lives as God commands him to live; he does the will of God and, so, is a good and compassionate man. When he hears God call him to take Mary home with his wife, he does so, in spite of his earlier confusion as to how best to deal with Mary’s expected pregnancy. He is portrayed as someone who seeks God’s will in the complex situations of life. He does not always know how best to act but he leaves himself open to God’s guidance and direction and faithfully responds to God’s promptings. He lives that call of Jesus that is to be found later in Matthew’s gospel, ‘Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness’.

And/Or

(vi) Feast of Saint Joseph

There is a wonderful painting of Saint Joseph by the Spanish artist El Greco. In it Joseph is a vibrant young man and the child Jesus is holding on to one of his legs. The sense we get from that painting is of Joseph as a strong, warm, noble presence in the life of the child Jesus. He had a very important role to play in the life of his young son. He may well have died before Jesus began his public ministry because he only appears as a character in the gospels in the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke, when Jesus is a child. Joseph reminds us that the Lord often asks us to play some important role in the life of another for a period of time. Jesus moved on from Joseph because he had to be busy with his Father’s affairs, his heavenly Father’s affairs. Having played his vital role in the life of his son, Joseph had to let him go. When we have played the role in the life of another that only we can play, very often we too are then asked to let them go, and that can be painful as it must have been for Joseph. It is very often there that love meets the cross.

And/Or

(vii) Feast of Saint Joseph

Joseph is often depicted as an old man in Christian art and sculpture. Yet, he was obviously a very young man at the time of Jesus’ birth, as young as Jesus’ mother Mary, the woman to whom Joseph was married. It can’t have been easy being the father of such a special child. This morning’s gospel reading portrays something of the struggle that being the parent of Jesus entailed. When Jesus’ parents eventually found him in the Temple after much anxious searching, Mary said to her young son, ‘See how worried your father and I have been?’ In reply Jesus said, ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs’. When Mary referred to ‘your father’ she meant Joseph; when Jesus said ‘my Father’ he meant God. Luke suggests that because Jesus belonged to God from an early age, his parents had to learn to let him go much sooner than would have been the norm. Joseph had to learn that his son had another Father, a heavenly Father, to whom he was totally dedicated. Yet, Joseph remained a full father to his son in the earthly sense, fulfilling all the roles that would be expected of a father in that culture. Very early into his son’s life, Joseph had to learn to love his son while leaving him free for whatever God was asking of him. In that sense, we can all look to Joseph as someone who embodies a love that is generous without being possessive, faithful without being controlling.

And/Or

(viii) Solemnity of Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph has a somewhat low profile in the gospel story. He doesn’t feature at all during the public ministry of Jesus. He is present in the gospel story only in the context of the childhood of Jesus. This may suggest that Joseph had died before Jesus began his public ministry at the age of thirty or so. Yet, Joseph must have been a hugely significant figure in the early years of Jesus. In the Jewish culture of Jesus’ time, it was the father who passed on the religious traditions to the children. It was the father who taught the children how to live in accordance with God’s will as revealed in the Scriptures. This role of the father is reflected in the earliest document of the New Testament, the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians. There Paul compares his role in the church of Thessalonica to that of a father in a family, ‘we dealt with each of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God’. It was above all from Joseph that Jesus would have received instruction in his Jewish faith. Through Joseph, he came to know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus, of course, was no ordinary child. He had a unique relationship with the God of Israel; he understood himself to be the son of Israel’s God. This must have complicated Joseph’s task of bringing up his son in the practice of the Jewish faith. This is evident in today’s gospel reading from Luke. When his parents eventually find the boy Jesus in the Temple, his mother says to him, ‘See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you’. Jesus replied, ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’ By ‘your father’ Mary meant Joseph. By ‘my Father’ Jesus meant God. The gospel reading suggests that from an early age Jesus’ heavenly Father had a greater influence on him than his earthly father. This must have left Joseph confused and disturbed at times. According to today’s gospel reading, Jesus’ parents ‘did not understand what he meant’ when he spoke about being busy with his Father’s affairs. Joseph struggled to discern God’s will for his son. He came to see that what he wanted for his son was not necessarily what God wanted for him. He had to learn to let go of his son to God’s greater purpose for him. We can all identify with Joseph’s struggle in this regard. We too sometimes struggle to surrender to God’s purpose for our lives and for the lives of those who are close to us. God’s way of working in our own lives and in the lives of others can seem a mystery to us and, sometimes, like Joseph, we have to learn to let go to a mystery we do not fully understand.

And/Or

(ix) Feast of Saint Joseph

The image of the twelve-year old Jesus sitting among the doctors of the law in the Temple, which we find in today’s gospel reading, is a striking one. It doesn’t say that Jesus was teaching these doctors of the law. Rather, he was listening to them and asking they questions. He was receptive to what they were saying. No doubt Jesus was also receptive to what Joseph said to him. In the Jewish family, the father was the one responsible for passing on the religious tradition to the children. Joseph may not have been a doctor of the law, but he was a teacher within his own home. Yet, the gospel reading suggests that at twelve years of age, Jesus was moving on from receiving the wisdom of his superiors to taking his own path in life. Having travelled with his family from Nazareth to Jerusalem, for the feast of Passover, he decided not to travel back with them, apparently without informing any member of his extended family. Mary and Joseph ended up searching for him everywhere. Eventually, they decided to head back to Jerusalem where they did eventually find him in the Temple. Their disappointment in Jesus and the distress he caused them is very evident in the question Mary put to him. Yet, his answer to their question caused them a different kind of distress. ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’ They didn’t understand what he meant. By, ‘my Father’s affairs’, the boy Jesus was not referring to his father Joseph, but to his heavenly Father, God. If Jesus was learning from the doctors of the law, Joseph had his own lesson to learn from his young son. He was beginning to realize that his influence on his son would have to take second place to God’s influence. He and his wife, Mary would have to learn to let Jesus go to God’s purpose for his life. We can learn from Joseph that gentle art of letting go, of surrendering those we cherish to God’s purpose for their lives, even though it may leave us with a great sense of loss. Joseph learnt to allow God to be God in his own life and in the life of his Son. We pray for something of that same generosity of spirit that Joseph clearly had.

And/Or

(x) Feast of Saint Joseph

In the first reading, Saint Paul refers to Abraham as ‘the father of all of us’. For Paul, Abraham was the father of all believers because he was a man of faith who trusted in God’s word of promise. Just as the Jewish people look back to Abraham as their father in faith, so too can we who believe in Jesus. Today, we celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph. As a man of faith, deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition, he certainly would have looked to Abraham as his father in faith. Joseph was unique among the spiritual children of Abraham in being the father of Jesus whose relationship with God was of a different order to Abraham’s relationship with God. According to the gospels, Jesus was known as ‘the carpenter’s son’. There are many titles for Jesus in the gospels and in the rest of the New Testament, but the title, ‘the carpenter’s son’, is, perhaps, the most human. Joseph provided for Mary and his son Jesus by working as a carpenter. He helped to provide a stable home for Jesus where Jesus could grow in ‘wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and people’, according to the gospels. Joseph seems to have died before Jesus began his public ministry because he never features in the story of Jesus’ public, adult, life in the gospels. By the time Jesus began his public ministry, Joseph’s work was done. Mary, we know, lived on at least until the feast of Pentecost at which the Holy Spirit came down upon her and the disciples. Joseph reminds us that the Lord has some work for all of us to do. Very often, our work, like Joseph’s, consists in creating a space for God to work in the life of someone else. That work will often involve a letting go of others, a letting be. That is what we find Joseph being called to do in today’s gospel reading. He had to let Jesus go to God the Father’s work in the life of his young son. ‘I must be busy with my Father’s affairs’, Jesus said, meaning God, not Joseph.

And/Or

(xi) Feast of Saint Joseph

On the 8th December, Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter called “With a Father’s Heart”, in which he recalls the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To mark the occasion of this Apostolic Letter, Pope Francis proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from 8th December 2020, to 8 December 2021. In his Apostolic Letter, the Pope describes Saint Joseph in a number of very striking ways - as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows. He wrote the letter against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which, he says, has helped us see more clearly the importance of “ordinary” people who, although far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every day. In this, the Pope says, they resemble Saint Joseph, whom he describes as “the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence,” and, yet, played “an incomparable role in the history of salvation.” It is true that Joseph is a discreet presence in the gospel story. He doesn’t feature at all during the public ministry of Jesus, suggesting that he may have died before Jesus began his public ministry. However, he was there during the crucial formation years of Jesus’ life. Like any parent, he worried about his young son growing up. In today’s gospel reading, we find Joseph and Mary worried when they discovered their son was lost. When they finally found him, the young Jesus said to them, ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’ When Jesus said, ‘my Father’, he was referring to God not Joseph. Joseph had to learn to let go of his son Jesus to God his heavenly Father’s plan for his life, even though that often left him confused, as in today’s gospel reading, ‘they did not understand what he meant’. Joseph had an important role to play in Jesus’ life, but he had to let him go to God from Jesus’ early years. Joseph’s life reminds us that we all have some role to play in God’s greater purpose. There is something we can do, no one else can do. We are often called to be a Joseph figure for others, being there for them but knowing when to let them go to God’s purpose for their lives.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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18th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Tuesday, Second Week of Lent (Inc. Matthew 23:1-12): ‘You have only one teacher, the Christ’.

Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 23:1-12 They do not practise what they preach.

Addressing the people and his disciples Jesus said, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say; but do not be guided by what they do: since they do not practise what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them? Not they! Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels, like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, being greeted obsequiously in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi. ‘You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one master, and you are all brothers. You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.’

Gospel (GB) Matthew 23:1-12 ‘They preach, but do not practise.’

At that time: Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practise. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honour at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the market-places and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 23:1-12 They preach but they do not practice.

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Reflections (12)

(i) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

Jesus is very critical in this gospel reading of those religious leaders who impose unnecessary burdens on an already burdened people through their strict interpretation of the Jewish Law. Jesus had earlier called on those who were overburdened to come to him, promising them rest, declaring that his teaching, his interpretation of God’s will for our lives, was not burdensome. Most people carry burdens of one kind or another. Those burdens can be greatly increased in certain settings, such as the setting of conflict and war. Jesus is clear in this reading that our relationship with God is not intended to be another burden on a burdened people. Jesus allowed himself to be burdened by the constraints of the human condition. Among the burdens he carried was the burden imposed by those who were hostile to all he stood for. Jesus was at his most burdened as he hung from the cross on Calvary. He carried our burdens so that he could help us to carry our own burdens. He released into the world the power of God’s love, the power of the Holy Spirit, which is not an oppressive power but a life-giving, enabling, power. Saint Paul was very burdened as he wrote to the church in Philippi from his prison cell. Yet, he could say to that church, ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me’. The Lord strengthens us to carry our burdens so that we, in turn, can help to carry the burdens of others. As Paul writes to the churches of Galatia, ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ’. The law of Christ, is the law of love, and love is the fruit of the Spirit. It is not about burden imposing but burden lifting.

And/Or

(ii) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In the gospel reading Jesus refers to the Pharisees as those who tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders. In contrast, Jesus had said earlier in Matthew’s gospel, ‘Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest’. Jesus’ work consisted in lifting unnecessary burdens from people’s shoulders rather than laying such burdens on people’s shoulders. Most of us have to deal with burdens of one kind or another as we go through life. Some burdens are necessary and unavoidable; they are the burdens of love, the burdens that come to us from giving ourselves to others in one way or another. Jesus is critical of those who impose unnecessary burdens on others. We can all be guilty of doing that from time to time. Rather than imposing unnecessary burdens on others, our calling is to help carry each other’s burdens, to make life less burdensome for each other. In doing that we will be acting in the spirit of the one who said, ‘Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest’. The Lord helps us all to carry our burdens, both the necessary and inevitable ones and the unnecessary ones. As St Paul knew from personal experience, he is strength in our weakness, and in times of weakness we can turn to him for strength.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In the gospel reading this morning Jesus contrasts the attitude of the religious leaders of his day who wanted and expected to receive various forms of honour with what should be the attitude of his own disciples, namely the readiness and willingness to serve others. As Jesus says towards the end of that reading, ‘the greatest among you must be your servant’. Jesus defines greatness in terms of service of others. Rather than looking for honours from others, Jesus puts before us the ideal of honouring others by serving them. Rather than trying to attract attention to themselves, like the religious leaders of his day, Jesus calls on his disciples to give attention to others. It is those who humble themselves in the service of others who will be exalted, whereas those who exalt themselves and look for honour for themselves will be humbled. Jesus gives expression to his teaching in his own life. Paul says of Jesus that he emptied himself taking the form of a servant and that he humbled himself, even to the point of death, death on a cross. We are called to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Lent is a time when we try to enter more fully into the mind and heart of Jesus.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

This morning’s gospel reading shows a reserved attitude towards titles among the followers of Jesus. Matthew portrays Jesus as anxious to ensure that the community of disciples is a community of brothers and sisters, in which all members stand on the same level before Christ, their Lord and Master, and before God, their heavenly Father. ‘You have only one Master and you are all siblings’. Paul understood very clearly this vision of church as one spiritual family in Christ and under God. Even in the letters where he speaks of himself as the spiritual father of the church he addresses the members of the church as his brothers and sisters. As Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, in virtue of our baptism we are all one in Christ Jesus. This morning’s gospel reading brings home to us that in the presence of Christ we are all learners, we are all pupils, because he alone is the authentic Teacher of us all. Together we look to him to show us the path that leads to authentic life.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus seems to speak against the kind of distinctions within the church which would place one person above another. Because we all have the one Father, who is God, and the one Teacher or Master, who is Jesus, then we are all children of the one God and pupils of the one Teacher. We are all brothers and sisters under God and learners under Christ. At the end of the day, we are all looking in the one direction, towards God and towards his Son. We may have different gifts and different roles within the church but fundamentally we are one. We share in the one relationship with God and with his Son. In virtue of our baptism we are one in Christ, in the words of Saint Paul. Within the church there should be no room for seeking after honours or status or position. This is what Jesus criticized the religious leaders of his day for. What we can seek within the church is the opportunity to serve others in whatever way we can with whatever gifts we have been given. In that gospel reading Jesus defines greatness within the church in terms of service. We serve after the example of the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve, who came not to receive honour and status but to empty himself for others.

And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus rules out the making of sharp distinctions between his disciples, regardless of their role in the community of believers. He declares that there is only one Master and one Teacher, who is himself, Jesus, and there is only one Father, his and our heavenly Father. Before God and Jesus we are all brothers and sisters and we are all pupils. There are differences within the church. Paul speaks of the church as the body of Christ with a great diversity of members, all of them gifted by the Spirit in a different way. Yet, although there is great diversity among us, there is also great unity and equality there too. Before God and before Christ we are equal. We all come before the Lord in our ignorance and in our need. The Lord’s Prayer is given to us all to say. We are all equally in need of daily bread, forgiveness, God’s help in time of temptation. In today’s gospel reading Jesus was very critical of the religious leaders who acted as though they were more important than others, those who sought out the seats of honour and expected to be greeted as if they were the superior of others. We all have to keep on learning the lesson that it is as brothers and sisters that we journey towards the Lord.

And/Or

(vii) Tuesday, second Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus is very critical of the religious leaders of his day because in various ways they work to draw attention to themselves and they go out of their way to be honoured, to receive honour from people. Jesus calls on his disciples to have a very different stance towards life. They are not to look for honour or recognition for themselves because there is only one who is worthy of honour and recognition and that is God, more precisely, God our heavenly Father and his Son Jesus whom God sent as our teacher and master. Jesus says, with reference to himself, ‘you have only one Teacher, the Christ’. If there is only one teacher within the family of the church, then everyone else is a learner. Having just one teacher, namely the Christ, has a levelling effect on everyone else and leaves no room for some people to promote themselves as deserving of greater honour and recognition than others in the community. We are always learners before the Lord and we continue to learn from him. The conclusion of the gospel reading suggests that the most important lesson to be learned from Jesus is that greatness within the family of faith consists in self-emptying service of others.

And/Of

(viii) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

In the gospel reading, Jesus warns against giving more honours to religious leaders than is appropriate. Jesus was not opposed to some form of leadership among his own followers. Jesus appointed Peter as the rock on which he would build his church and entrusted to him a share in his own teaching authority. However, elsewhere in the gospels Jesus makes clear that he understands leadership in terms of service, the kind of service that involves becoming as humble as a child. In this morning’s gospel Jesus implies that a religious leader is not in any sense above those he has been asked to lead or guide. As Jesus declares, we are all brothers and sisters, regardless of our role in the church. We are all spiritual siblings and that is because we all have one Father who is in heaven and we all have one Teacher who is Jesus. We all stand under God the Father and his Son. We are all looking in the one direction, towards God our Father and Jesus our teacher. We are called to be a support to one another as we strive to live as sons and daughters of our common heavenly Father and as we try to live out the message of our shared Teacher.

And/Or

(ix) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

The words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading suggest that preaching can be a dangerous business. It leaves the preacher open to the criticism that Jesus levelled against the religious leaders of his day, ‘They do not practice what they preach’. Those who preach need to see themselves as preaching to themselves as much as to others. We are all pilgrims on a shared journey of faith. None of us have arrived; we are all on the way. Hopefully, we are all trying to help each other on this shared journey of faith, with each of us giving from what we have received and receiving from what others have been given. This egalitarian vision of church is reflected in the words of Jesus in the second part of today’s gospel reading. He tells us that we are all brothers and sisters with one heavenly Father and with one Lord and one Teacher, Jesus. Behind this lies Jesus’ vision of his followers as a family. Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus speaks of his disciples as his brothers and sisters. Within this family, Jesus declares that there can be no room for attention seeking, much less honour seeking. Rather, within this family of faith, loving service of others is the golden norm. ‘The greatest among you must be your servant’. As a church, we still have some way to go before this vision of Jesus for his followers comes to pass. Yet, the important value is to keep this vision of Jesus in our sights and to keep coming back to the path he sets before us whenever we stray from it.

And/Or

(x) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

It is evident that the church, since its earliest days, has not taken some of the words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading literally. Jesus calls on his disciples not to allow themselves to be called teachers, since they have only one Teacher, the Christ. We have no difficulty in referring to those who teach, including those who teach the faith, as teachers. Jesus also calls on his disciples not to call anyone on earth their father, since they have only one Father, in heaven. Again, we have no difficulty to referring to male parents of children as fathers, and within the Roman Catholic tradition, priests are often referred to as ‘father’. It is likewise the case that the teaching of Jesus elsewhere in the gospels has not been taken literally by his followers. However, that is not to say that Jesus’ words are not without relevance and meaning for us today. There is a sense in which we have only one teacher, Jesus, and, we have only one Father in heaven. Because Jesus is our one Teacher, we, his followers, are all his pupils, including those of us who might be teachers. We all look to him to teach us about God and about how God wants us to live. Jesus speaks in the gospels with an authority that no earthly teacher has. Because God is our one Father, we, Jesus’ disciples, are all sons and daughters of God. We share in Jesus’ own relationship with God as Father, and, as a result, we are all brothers and sisters of Jesus. Regardless of our role or position in life or in the church, we are all equally privileged to call God our Father and Jesus our brother. We were given this privilege at baptism through the power of the Holy Spirit. This shared privilege makes very relative whatever distinctions of role, rank or position that may exist between us.

And/Or

(xi) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

Jesus is critical of the religious leaders of his time because their teaching, their interpretation of the Jewish Law, is unnecessarily burdensome for people, ‘They lay up heavy burdens and place them on people’s shoulders’. Jesus was aware that many of his contemporaries felt burdened by religious obligations. In contrast to the religious leaders, Jesus calls out to people, ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’. Jesus was saying that his teaching, his interpretation of God’s will, far from burdening people will give people rest. What does Jesus mean by ‘rest’ here? He is not referring to inactivity or sleep, clearly. There is a line in the psalm, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ which might help us to understand what Jesus means by ‘rest’, ‘near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit’. The restful waters revive and energize those who are drooping. The teaching of Jesus is rest-giving in the sense that it energizes and enlivens us. His word is life-giving, not burden imposing. Certainly, the teaching of Jesus is demanding, even more demanding than the Jewish Law, but what Jesus asks of us corresponds to the deepest desires of our heart, and in coming to him and submitting to his word, that deepest desire will be satisfied and, as a result, we will be revived and energized. Jesus did not come to burden further an already burdened people; he came that we may have life and have it to the full.

And/Or

(xii) Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

We haven’t tended to interpret Jesus’ words in today’s gospel reading literally. He says, ‘you must call no one on earth your father’, and, yet, we speak of our male parent as our father, and within the Roman Catholic tradition, priests have been called ‘father’. Jesus also says, ‘nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers’, and, yet, we refer to those who impart knowledge in our classrooms and lecture halls as teachers. Also, Saint Paul speaks about the presence of teachers in the first local churches. Yet, the prohibition of the titles ‘father’ and ‘teacher’ is really in the service of a more fundamental point, namely, ‘you only have one Father, and he is in heaven’, and ‘you only have one teacher, the Christ’. We are all sons and daughters of one heavenly Father and we are all pupils or disciples of one Teacher, Jesus. This makes for a very egalitarian understanding of church. Even those with a teaching role in the church are pupils of Christ, and all of us in the church, regardless of role, are sons or daughters of God. We are all trying to sit at the feet of the Master and we are all trying to live as children of our heavenly Father. There should be no vying for positions within the church, because, in virtue of our baptism, we all have the same relationship with God and with Jesus, and, anyway, as Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, greatness in the church is defined in terms of service, ‘the greatest among you must by your servant’. Within the church, we are called to serve one another in various ways, so that we enable one another to be faithful disciples of our one Teacher and faithful sons and daughters of our one heavenly Father.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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17th March >> Fr. Martin's Homilies/Reflections on Today's Mass Readings for

Feast of Saint Patrick (Inc. Luke 5:1-11)

And

Monday, Second Week of Lent (Inc. Luke 6:36-38)

Feast of Saint Patrick

Gospel (Ireland) Luke 5:1-11 They left everything and followed him.

Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.

Gospel (GB) Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 ‘Your peace will rest upon him.’

At that time: The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace be to this house!” And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the labourer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.” I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.’ The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’ And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

Gospel Luke 10:1-12,17-20 Your peace will rest on that man.

The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him, in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit. He said to them, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest. Start off now, but remember, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. ‘Whatever house you go into, let your first words be, “Peace to this house!” And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you. Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. ‘Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is set before you. Cure those in it who are sick, and say, “The kingdom of God is very near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not make you welcome, go out into its streets and say, “We wipe off the very dust of your town that clings to our feet, and leave it with you. Yet be sure of this: the kingdom of God is very near.” I tell you, on that day it will not go as hard with Sodom as with that town.’ The seventy-two came back rejoicing. ‘Lord,’ they said ‘even the devils submit to us when we use your name.’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.’

Homilies (5)

(i) Feast of Saint Patrick

Every year in the run up to Saint Patrick’s Day, I try to read again the two short documents that have come down to us from Saint Patrick, his Confession and his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, a chieftain based in western Scotland. Something of the spirit of the man still comes through in those writings. In his Confession especially, he shares something of his personal story with us, how, as a sixteen year old, he was violently taken captive from his comfortable home and carried across the sea as a slave to Ireland. It is hard to imagine the impact of such a traumatic event on a young adolescent. Torn from the people he loved, he found himself among strangers whose language he didn’t understand.

Yet, as he writes his Confession in his older years, looking back on this experience he can see how the Lord brought great good out of it. On his own admission, at the time of his captivity he had turned away from God, even though he had been brought up in a Christian home, with his father a deacon of the church, and his grandfather a priest. It was in his captivity, when everything had been taken from him, that this young man’s dormant faith came to life. As he writes, ‘When I had come to Ireland I was tending herds every day and I used to pray many times during the day. More and more the love of God and reverence for him came to me. My faith increased’. He uses a striking image to express this spiritual awakening, ‘Before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he not only pulled me out but lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall’.

Patrick may not have had a very virtuous youth but the Lord had great plans for him. In today’s gospel reading, Simon Peter is very aware of his own sinfulness. He says to Jesus, ‘Leave me; I am a sinful man’. The Lord didn’t leave Peter, because he had great plans for him, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will catch’. The Lord has plans for each one of us. We can sell ourselves short, but the Lord never sells us short. He sees not just the person we have been but the person we can become with his help. All he asks is that we open up our lives to him. Sometimes it is at those moments when we are at our lowest ebb that we can find ourselves seeking the Lord in earnest and opening up our lives to all he wants to do for us. This was certainly the case with Patrick. As he says at the beginning of his Confession, ‘I cannot be silent… about the great benefits and grace that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in the land of my captivity’. We can all find ourselves captive in some way, and, whereas the Lord would never wish that for us, he can work powerfully in our lives through such experiences.

The great benefits that Patrick received from the Lord in his captivity weren’t just a blessing for himself. They would bring great blessings to others as well. After his relationship with the Lord was rekindled in captivity, he became very attentive to the Lord’s guidance, to what the Lord might be saying to him. Having spent six years as the slave of a native farmer, he sensed the Lord calling him to run away and head for a boat about two hundred miles away. It was a dangerous thing to do, because the punishment for a runaway slave at the time was severe. Yet, Patrick responded to what he sensed the Lord was calling him to do, and, eventually, after many dangerous adventures, he made his way home to his family again. He continued to listen to the voice of the Lord, the promptings of the Spirit. Then, just like Amos in today’s first reading, he heard the call of the Lord to leave his home and native land, and return to the land of his former captivity, this time not as a slave of a human master but as a servant of the Lord. It is worth listening to Patrick’s description of his call from the Lord, ‘One night I saw the vision of a man called Victor, who appeared to have come from Ireland with an unlimited number of letters. He gave me one of them and I read the opening words which were: ‘The voice of the Irish’. As I read the letter I seemed to hear the voice… “We ask you holy boy come and walk once more among us”’ After studying to become a priest, he came back to Ireland. Where he remained faithful to his mission, until his death many years later. Now, as he says himself, he was a ‘stranger and an exile for the love of God’. Looking back on his mission towards the end of his life, he could write, ‘The good news has been preached in distant parts, in places beyond which nobody lives’.

Patrick’s life shows us that when we allow the Lord to enter our lives more fully, not only are we blessed but others will be blessed as well. Whenever we allow the Lord to touch our lives, we create an opening for the Lord to touch the lives of others through us.

And/Or

(ii) Feast of Saint Patrick

We are very fortunate that the story of Patrick has been preserved in two short Latin letters which he himself wrote in his old age, a letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, the leader of a tribe in Wales, and his own Confessions. In these invaluable documents, Patrick describes himself as a Briton of the Roman nobility who was kidnapped from his family villa by pirates and taken to Ireland when he was about sixteen. His grandfather had been a priest and his father a deacon, so Patrick was raised in a Christian home. However by the time of his capture at the age of sixteen, he had lost his childhood faith and had become an unbeliever. He writes, ‘I was only a young man, almost a speechless boy, when I was captured, before I knew what I ought to seek out or avoid’.

Nevertheless, several years of brutal slavery in Ireland turned him into a fervent believer. During that traumatic period of exile and slavery he had a spiritual awakening. His time of exile was a spiritual watershed in his life. Looking back on his life before this conversion moment, he says that he was ‘like a stone stuck deep in the mud’. Continuing with that image, he speaks of his spiritual awakening as a time when the Lord ‘in his mercy lifted me up and raised me on high, placing me on top of a wall’. In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, it is interesting that Patrick speaks of this turning point in his life as an experience of the Lord’s mercy. He had a strong sense that it was the Lord rather he himself who brought out this change in him. He writes, ‘I must not conceal the gift of God that he has given me in the land of my captivity’. He found in himself a great need to pray, ‘In a single day I would pray a hundred times and the same at night, even when I was in the woods on the mountain’.

This spiritual awakening had enormous consequences not just for Patrick but for so many others in the land of his captivity. After several years of brutal slavery in Ireland, he heard the voice of God telling him to flee back to Britain. Against all the odds, he managed to escape to Britain and eventually made his way back to his family. However, after some time he heard the voice of God again calling him to return to the land of his captivity to proclaim the gospel to the very people who had enslaved him. He did not set out on this mission immediately but trained for the priesthood, possibly in Auxerre in Gaul. He was quickly appointed bishop and sent on his mission to Ireland. The sense we get from his writings is that he gave himself wholeheartedly to sharing the gift of faith he had rediscovered with those who had never heard of Christ. He writes in his Confessions, ‘I spent myself for you all... I travelled among you everywhere risking many dangers for your sake even to the farthest places beyond which no one lived. No one had ever gone that far to baptize or ordain clergy or serve the people’.

I always try to reread the two writings of Patrick that have come down to us as we approach his feast day. Every year something new in them strikes. The gospel reading for the feast of Saint Patrick this particular year made me more sensitive to one feature in particular of Patrick’s writings. In the gospel reading Peter has an overwhelming sense of his own unworthiness, ‘Depart from me, Lord; I am a sinful man’. Simon Peter seems to have had a realistic sense of his own past and present failings. Yet, this did not deter the Lord from calling him, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will catch’. Patrick also had a very strong sense of his own limitations and of his failings. He begins his letter to the soldiers of Coroticus with the sentence, ‘I am Patrick, a sinner and a very ignorant man’. He begins his Confessions in a similar way, ‘I am Patrick, a sinner and a very unsophisticated man. I am the least of all the faithful, and to many the most despised’. At one point in his Confessions he shares an experience of temptation, using a striking image: ‘While I was sleeping that very night, Satan greatly tempted me. I will remember the experience as long as I am in this body. Something like a huge rock seemed to fall on me so that I couldn’t move my arms or legs’. S little further on he writes, ‘He is strong who tries daily to turn me away from my faith and the pure chastity that I have chosen to embrace to the end of my life for Christ the Lord. But the hostile flesh always drags me toward death, to those enticing, forbidden desires’. He is very honest about his personal struggles to remain faithful to the Lord’s call. There is a great realism about his writing. Yet, those struggles did not discourage him. They brought home to him his total dependence on the Lord. He ends his confessions with the acknowledgement that ‘any small thing I accomplished or did that was pleasing to God was done through his gift’.

Patrick, like Peter in the gospel reading, is an encouragement to us all. He reminds us that the Lord does not ask us to be perfect before calling us to share in his work. He can work powerfully through us, weak as we are, if, like Patrick, we have a generosity of spirit and a recognition of our dependence on the Lord for everything.

And/Or

(iii) Feast of Saint Patrick

Some time ago I climbed Croagh Patrick for the first time in the company of my sister, Catherine, and brother-in-law, Patrick, who died a few years ago on the feast of Saint Joseph. They both lived in Southern California. Patrick, who was from the United States, was determined to climb Croagh Patrick. He was recovering from cancer at the time, and, in spite of a very bad back, he wanted to make this climb in thanksgiving for having come through his surgery and treatment so well, and, also, as a form of prayer of petition for God’s ongoing help. We managed to get to the top, just about. The Croagh Patrick climb is one expression of the cult of St. Patrick that has continued down to our time. We venerate Patrick today because he spent himself in proclaiming the gospel on this island, bringing Christ to huge numbers of people.

It is evident from his two writings that have come down to us that Patrick came from a reasonably privileged background. His father was a town counsellor who had a comfortable house with many servants. Patrick says that he was born free, of noble rank. Then suddenly, his personal and communal landscape radically changed. At the age of sixteen, he was taken captive with others and brought to Ireland. As he says, he found himself among strangers. Gone were his comfortable home, his loving family, his freedom. He was now a slave, with no rights or protection. He was lost, without friend or future. It is hard to imagine the impact of such a traumatic experience on one so young. Yet, as he wrote his Confession in his old age, he recognizes the great gifts that came to him during this painful and lonely time of exile. Although his grandfather was a priest, and Patrick had been baptized, he acknowledges that as an adolescent he ‘did not know the true God’. He said he had turned away from God. However, in exile, while herding sheep in all kinds of weathers he had the most extra-ordinary spiritual awakening. Looking back, he speaks of the ‘great benefits and graces the Lord saw fit to confer on me in my captivity’. He speaks of the Lord’s ‘wonderful gifts, gifts for the present and for eternity, which the human mind cannot measure’. He goes on to say, ‘my faith increased and the spirit was stirred up so that in the course of a single day I could say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night’.

Many years later, he finally broke free of his captivity and made his way home to his family. Having been profoundly touched by God in the years since he left his family, he was now sensitive to the presence and the call of God in his life. Some years after returning home, he heard the Lord’s call to return to the land of his former captivity to preach the gospel. He trained for the priesthood and arrived back in Ireland, this time as a free man, or, perhaps more accurately, as the Lord’s slave or servant. He speaks of himself now as a ‘stranger and exile for the love of God’. He writes of ‘the people to whom the love of God brought me’. His mission in Ireland was fraught with dangers and difficulties of all sorts, including at times opposition from leading members of the church in Britain who had authorized his mission to Ireland. Yet, his two writings are full of a strong sense of God’s protective and guiding presence in his life. He was very aware of all the Lord was doing through him, in spite of setbacks. He writes, ‘I am very much in debt to God, who gave me so much grace that through me people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed’. He asks, ‘What return can I make to God for all his goodness to me? What can I say or what can I promise to my Lord since any ability I have comes from him?’ Writing towards the end of his life, Patrick could see the many ways the Lord had worked powerfully through his painful experience of exile as an adolescent. Because of that traumatic experience of loss, the gospel was brought to what Patrick calls ‘the most remote districts beyond which nobody lives and where nobody had ever come to baptize, to ordain clergy or to confirm the people’.

Patrick’s life teaches us to be attentive to the ways that the Lord may be surprisingly present in situations of great struggle that seem devoid of any value at the time. Whereas it is never the Lord’s desire that misfortune should befall us, when it does come our way, he is always there with us, working among for our good and the good of others. Perhaps our very vulnerability at such times can make us more attentive to what the Lord may want to say to us. Patrick’s experience of exile made him alert to the Lord’s call at different moments of his life. Our own experiences of exile and loss, whatever form they may take, can help to make us more alert to the Lord’s loving purpose for our lives.

And/Or

(iv) Feast of Saint Patrick

I was reading a little booklet on St Patrick recently, written by a Jesuit, Fr Edmond Grace. He says in it that he had been living in New York for almost a year when he stopped one day at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. In it he found a woman in deep prayer, looking up at a statue of Saint Patrick. The woman was African-American and he wondered why she might be praying to St Patrick. The answer came to him as he stepped outside the Cathedral. The woman was praying to a man who had been taken by force across the sea and condemned to a life of slavery, just as her ancestors found themselves taken as slaves in the hold of a ship across the Atlantic. He would escape from slavery in the land of his exile, but he returned to live among the people who had enslaved him to preach the gospel to them, because he wanted them to know the strength of God’s love for them. Fr Grace came to see that the woman had a message for him. We Irish may have a claim on Patrick, but we do not own him. He belongs to everybody who wants to love those who have done them wrong. Patrick was a reconciler, a bridge builder. As we witness the terrible war in Ukraine, we sense Patrick’s relevance. Bridge builders are desperately needed on both sides of that conflict, if those who want to pursue this war to its bitter are not to have their way.

Patrick wrote his Confession towards the end of his life to explain himself to his people back home, to let them know ‘what kind of man I am, so that they may perceive the aspiration of my life’. It is evident from the Confession that he came from a privileged background. His father was a town counsellor, as well as a deacon of the church, who had a comfortable house with many servants. Patrick says that he was born free, of noble rank. Then suddenly, his life was turned upside down, as indeed have the lives of the people of Ukraine in the last couple of weeks. At the age of sixteen, he was taken captive with others and brought to Ireland. He found himself among strangers. Gone were his comfortable home, his loving family, his freedom. He was now a slave, with no rights or protection, without friend or future. It is hard to imagine the impact of such a traumatic experience on one so young. Yet, writing in old age, he recognizes the great gifts that came to him during this painful and lonely time of exile. Although his grandfather was a priest, and Patrick had been baptized, he acknowledges that as an adolescent he ‘did not know the true God’. However, in exile, while herding sheep in all kinds of weathers he had a spiritual awakening. He writes of the ‘great benefits and graces the Lord saw fit to confer on me in my captivity’. He says, ‘my faith increased and the spirit was stirred up so that in the course of a single day I could say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night’. Patrick found shelter in God’s hands.

Six years later, Patrick says he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Soon, you will go to your own country’, and then, a short while later, ‘Look, your ship is ready’. He knew his time had come to escape. After three days sailing and several weeks travelling through deserted country, he eventually made his way home to his family. However, the twenty two year old was a very person to the sixteen year old who had been taken captive. Having been profoundly touched by God in the years since he left his family, he was now sensitive to the call of God in his life. Sometime after returning home, he heard the Lord’s call to go back to the land of his former captivity to preach the gospel. It was indeed a call to set out into the deep, in the words of today’s gospel reading. After training for the priesthood, he arrived back in Ireland, this time as a free man. He speaks of himself now as a ‘stranger and exile for the love of God’. He writes of ‘the people to whom the love of God brought me’. His mission in Ireland was fraught with dangers and difficulties of all sorts. Yet, he had a strong sense of God’s protective and guiding presence in his life and of all the Lord was doing through him. He writes, ‘I am very much in debt to God, who gave me so much grace that through me people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed’. Looking back, Patrick could see the many ways the Lord had worked powerfully through his painful experience of exile as an adolescent. Because of that traumatic experience of loss, the gospel was brought to what Patrick calls ‘the most remote districts beyond which nobody lives and where nobody had ever come to baptize, to ordain clergy or to confirm the people’.

Patrick’s life teaches us to be attentive to the ways that the Lord may be powerfully at work in the darkest of times. In the darkness of the war in Ukraine, the light of the Lord’s presence is very evident in the generous response of so many people to those who have lost so much. Whereas it is never the Lord’s desire that misfortune should befall us, when it does come our way, he is always there among us, working to bring new life out of death, light out of darkness. There was nothing good in itself about Patrick’s being taken into slavery to a strange land; it was not God’s will for him. Yet, the Lord worked through Patrick’s dire situation to prepare him for a mission that would allow the light of the gospel to shine in the land of his captivity. Patrick’s experience invites us to trust, to hope, that the Lord is working to bring some good out of the human suffering that is often inflicted on others by those in positions of power. 

And/Or

(v) Feast of Saint Patrick

As many of you know, a well associated with Saint Patrick for many centuries is to be found a short distance from the church, just off Mellowes Road. He may well have spent some time in the Finglas area. Saint Patrick doesn’t just belong to the Irish. His two writings that have come down to us can speak to people of any nationality. It is those writings that give us access to the life of Saint Patrick and the kind of person he was.

I was reading a little booklet on St Patrick recently, written by a Jesuit, Fr Edmond Grace. He writes he had been living in New York for almost a year when he stopped one day at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. In it he found a woman in deep prayer, looking up at a statue of Saint Patrick. She was African-American and he wondered why she might be praying to St Patrick. The answer came to him as he stepped outside the Cathedral. She was praying to a man who had been taken by force across the sea and condemned to a life of slavery, just as her ancestors had been taken as slaves in the hold of a ship across the Atlantic. Patrick escaped from slavery, but he returned to live among the people who had enslaved him to preach the gospel to them. He wanted his former captors to know the strength of God’s love for them. Fr Grace came to see that Saint Patrick had a message for this woman, and that Patrick belongs to anyone who wants to love those who have done them wrong.

Patrick wrote his Confession or Testimony towards the end of his life to let people know ‘what kind of man I am’. He tells us that he came from a privileged background. His father was a town counsellor and a deacon of the church, who had a comfortable house with many servants. Patrick says that he was born free, of noble rank. At the age of sixteen, he was taken captive with others and brought to Ireland. He found himself among strangers. Gone were his comfortable home, his loving family, his freedom. He was now a slave, with no rights or protection, without friend or future. It is hard to imagine the impact of such a traumatic experience on one so young. Yet, writing in old age, he recognizes the great gifts that came to him during this painful time of exile. Although his grandfather was a priest, and Patrick had been baptized, he acknowledges that as an adolescent he ‘did not know the true God’. However, in exile, while herding sheep in all kinds of weathers he had a spiritual awakening. He refers to the ‘great benefits and graces the Lord saw fit to confer on me in my captivity’. He says, ‘my faith increased and the spirit was stirred up so that in the course of a single day I could say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night’. In this time of great vulnerability, Patrick came to know the Lord’s great love for him. Sometimes our own valleys of darkness can open us up to a sense of the Lord’s loving presence in our lives. As Mary says in her Magnificat, God ‘raises the lowly’.

Six years into his captivity, Patrick says he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Soon, you will go to your own country’, and then, a short while later, he heard the voice say, ‘Look, your ship is ready’. He knew his time had come to escape. After three days sailing and several weeks travelling through deserted country, he eventually made his way home to his family. Having been profoundly touched by God in the years since he left his family, he was now sensitive to the call of God in his life. Sometime after returning home, he heard the Lord’s call to go back to the land of his former captivity to preach the gospel there. After training for the priesthood, he arrived back in Ireland, this time as a free man. He speaks of himself now as a ‘stranger and exile for the love of God’. He writes of ‘the people to whom the love of God brought me’, and ‘the love of Christ gave me to them to serve them humbly and sincerely for my entire lifetime. His mission in Ireland was fraught with dangers and difficulties of all sorts. Yet, he had a strong sense of the many ways the Lord was working through him. He writes, ‘I am very much in debt to God, who gave me so much grace that through me people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed’. Through him, he says ‘the gospel was brought to the most remote districts beyond which nobody lives and where nobody had ever come to baptize, to ordain clergy or to confirm the people’.

Patrick’s life teaches us to be attentive to the ways that the Lord may be powerfully at work in our darkest moments. Whereas it is never the Lord’s desire that misfortune should come our way, when it does come our way, he is always there beside us, working to bring some good out of what has befallen us. Patrick also teaches us that the Lord can work powerfully through us in spite of our many failings. Patrick was very aware that, in the image of the gospel reading, he was a mixture of wheat and weeds. He begins his Confession, ‘I am Patrick, a sinner, the least of all the faithful’. Yet, like Pope Francis, he had come to know that he was a loved sinner, loved by God. We are all loved sinners and the Lord wants to work through each of us to bring others into the embrace of his love. We can all make our own Saint Patrick’s prayer in his Confession, ‘I ask God for perseverance, to grant that I remain a faithful witness to him for his own sake, until my passing from this life’.

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Monday, Second Week of Lent

Gospel Luke 6:36-38 Grant pardon, and you will be pardoned.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.’

Gospel (USA) Luke 6:36-38 Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Reflections (10)

(i) Monday, Second Week of Lent

If you were listening to this morning’s first reading, you may have been struck by the note of confession in it. It was in fact a communal prayer of confession. The whole people were acknowledging their sinfulness before God. ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we have betrayed your commandments… we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God’. This public act of confession on the part of the people of Israel is one that we, the church, can easily make our own. We know that we too have failed, as individuals and as a community. Yet, it is to such individuals and to such a community that the Lord issues the challenging invitation in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate’. Jesus is calling on us to be nothing less than God-like. He knows of what we are made; he knows that we are prone to sin, and, yet, he keeps calling us towards the highest ideals. He continues to give us a calling in keeping with our identity as people made in the image of God. He pays us the complement of putting a noble calling before us, in spite of our repeated failures. He also gives us the means to respond to that calling, by pouring the Holy Spirit into our hearts. He gives us a great resource as well as a great calling. We pray that we would draw on that resource in a special way this Lent so that we may be faithful to our calling.

And/Or

(ii) Monday, Second Week of Lent

Most of us work on the basis of what seems like a common sense principle that the more we gather the more we have, the more we take in the more we possess. In the gospel reading Jesus speaks out of a very different principle which seems to be the polar opposite of that common sense principle, ‘give, and there will be gifts for you’. In other words, the more we give away the more we will possess. It is in giving that we receive. Indeed, Jesus declares that our little giving can result in an abundant receiving, a ‘full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap’. Many people will have come to appreciate from their own experience the truth of that piece of paradoxical wisdom of Jesus. We gave generously of ourselves to others and in the process we discovered that we received more than we gave. It is not the case that we give in order to receive, but, rather, in giving without seeking to get back something in return, we discover that the Lord gives to us far more than we gave away.

And/Or

(iii) Monday, Second Week of Lent

We all have a tendency to hoard, to hold onto things, some more so than others. In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus encourages us to do the opposite, to give away. He makes the paradoxical statement that in giving away we discover that we receive more than we gave. In the words of the gospel reading, a ‘full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap’. Jesus speaks as one who was in the process of giving everything away, giving his life for others, for all of us. In giving his life, he received back a fuller and richer life, not only for himself, but for all of us. Sometimes we may feel that we have nothing to give. In reality, we all have a great deal to give. At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, Jesus mentions the qualities of compassion, a non-judgemental attitude and forgiveness. They are all forms of giving. In showing compassion, in being slow to judge, in offering forgiveness, we are giving nothing less than ourselves. The gift of self is the most precious gift we can give, and it is a gift we can all give. In giving ourselves away in these ways, and in other ways, we create an opening for the Lord to give to us. It is in giving in these ways that we receive from the Lord’s abundance.

And/Or

(iv) Monday, Second Week of Lent

When Jesus says towards the end of this morning’s gospel reading, ‘the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back’, he is declaring that the more generously we give of ourselves the greater the opening we give to God to be generous with us. It is as if our generosity increases our capacity to receive God’s generosity. You often hear people say that what they give to some cause or project or some group of people is very little compared to what they receive in return. Jesus used several images to express this profound truth of human experience. He spoke of the seed which when it falls to the ground and dies bears much fruit. Jesus is declaring that our efforts to die to ourselves in the service of others will ultimately leave us more alive. The gospel reading today indicates that such service of others will often take the simple form of a refusal to judge, an unwillingness to condemn and a readiness to forgive. These forms of self-giving can be as generous in their own way as the physical energy we might spend on behalf of others.

And/Or

(v) Monday, Second Week of Lent

In the gospel reading this morning Jesus calls upon us not to judge and not to condemn. He did so in the knowledge that judging and condemning others can sometimes come all too easily to us. In judging and condemning others we can easily forget that we are not paragons of virtue ourselves. In contrast to judging and condemning others, Jesus calls on us in our dealings with others to be compassionate and to grant pardon. These are contrary attitudes to judging and condemning, and Jesus implies that there are much more in keeping with how God relates to us than judging and condemning are. It seems that God is much more in the business of showing us compassion and granting us pardon when we seek it, than he is in the business of judging and condemning us. As people made in the image of God we are to be as compassionate and as pardoning as God himself. Jesus of course was the perfect image of God and he gave expression to God’s compassionate and pardoning love in the most complete way possible. The gospel reading assures us that when, like Jesus, we are God-like in our dealings with other, then we open ourselves to receive an abundance from God.

And/Or

(vi) Monday, Second Week of Lent

The paradox at the heart of the call of Jesus is very succinctly expressed in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘Give and there will be gifts for you; a full measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap’. Jesus seems to be saying that when we give we receive back much more than we give. I am sure many of us will have had that experience. Whenever we give of ourselves generously to someone or to some cause, we discover that we receive back more than we give. We can easily think that if we give we will lose; we might be taken advantage of; the more we give, the more people will expect. We can be tempted to be very calculating and cautious in our giving. However Jesus assures us that if we give generously without looking for anything in return, we will in fact receive back a great deal, much more than we have given. Our giving creates an opening for God to be generous towards us. Saint Paul expresses that conviction of Jesus very simply in one of his letter, ‘the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully’.

And/Or

(vii) Monday, Second Week of Lent

The first reading from the Book of Daniel is one of the great acts of sorrow to God for sin in the Bible. It is prayed on behalf of the whole people. It is a prayer that expresses both a great sorrow for sin and a great confidence in God’s mercy, ‘we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God mercy and pardon belong, because we have betrayed him’. Humility and trust are very clearly revealed in the prayer. We need both when we come before the Lord, the humility to acknowledge that we have not always lived as God calls us to live, and the total trust in God’s mercy which is always stronger than sin. In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks of God as a compassionate Father. There is a close connection between compassion and mercy. When we feel with others and for others, it is easier to forgive their failings towards us. When we suffer with them, when we enter into their situation, then forgiveness comes easier to us. God suffered with us, entered fully into our human situation, through the incarnation of his Son. As Christians, we have an even clearer understanding of God as compassionate and merciful than the writers of the Jewish Scriptures because we believe that God became like us in all things, except sin. In the gospel reading, Jesus asks us to be as compassionate and as merciful as God is, which will mean being slow to judge, slow to condemn others. We live in a culture where there is so often a rush to judgement. Jesus calls on us to take our lead not from the culture but from God who never rushes to judgement.

And/Or

(viii) Monday, Second Week of Lent

The opening words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading are, ‘Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate’. Another translation expresses this as, ‘Be merciful as your Father is merciful’. Jesus makes two statements in that short exhortation. He is making a statement about God, his Father, declaring that God is compassionate or merciful. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus paints a striking image of God as compassionate and merciful in the figure of the father who welcomes his rebellious son home. The second statement Jesus makes in that short exhortation is a statement about ourselves. We are to be as compassionate or as merciful as God is. We are to become the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. Jesus is asking us to become God-like. It is a very striking and challenging call. Jesus revealed the compassion and mercy of God most fully. In that sense, in calling us to be God-like, Jesus is calling on us to become Jesus-like. It is our fundamental baptismal calling and we spend our whole lives trying to answer that call and to live it. The call may be demanding, but in the gospel reading Jesus highlights the blessings that come to us when we live out that calling. If we give in the way God gives, in the way Jesus gives, compassionately and mercifully, there will be gifts for us, ‘a full measure… will be poured into our lap’. People often search for this full measure, what might be termed fulfilment. Jesus declares that it is not those who seek this full measure directly who find it, rather, it comes to those who seek something else. It is those who seek to give generously of themselves, in the way God has given to us, who will find this full measure.

And/Or

(ix) Monday, Second Week of Lent

The last line in today’s gospel reading is quite thought-provoking, ‘the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back’. Normally, we would think that the more we measure out of something, the less of it we will have. However, in the logic of the kingdom of God, the opposite is the case, the more we measure out, the more we will have. Jesus seems to be saying that the more generous we are with what God has given us, the more we will experience God’s generosity. It is not that God waits to see how generous we are before deciding how generous to be with us. God desires to be extravagantly generous with us all. However, just as the amount of water we can draw from a tank depends on the capacity of the container we use, in a similar way, the amount of God’s generous love we can draw upon depends on our capacity to receive it. The more generous we are with others in love, the more we expand our capacity to receive God’s love. In the words of Jesus in the gospel reading, ‘give and there will be gifts for you’. The giving that expands our capacity to receive from God can take various forms, according to the gospel reading. It can take the form of a readiness to be merciful or compassionate towards others, or a willingness not to judge or condemn others too quickly. Whatever form our giving to others in love takes, Jesus assures us that we will be the richer for it.

And/Or

(x) Monday, Second Week of Lent

Today’s first reading from the prophet Daniel is one of the great communal prayers for forgiveness in the Jewish Scriptures. The people as a whole declare, ‘we have sinned, we have done, wrong, we have acted wickedly… We, the people of Judah, the citizens of Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away’. Everyone takes responsibility for the failure of the nation, the people. When something is clearly wrong in society or the church, it can be tempting to place the blame on some individual or some group. It is somebody else’s fault, not mine. The kind of prayer we heard in today’s first reading acknowledges that everyone is at fault and each person has to take some responsibility for what has gone wrong. That sense of all of us having failed in some way is a healthy antidote to placing the blame on others. In the gospel reading, Jesus calls on us not to judge or condemn others. He was aware of the tendency of us all to see the problem as residing only in others and not also in ourselves. A realistic sense of our own failings can act as a break on our tendency to condemn others too quickly. That communal act of confession in the first reading doesn’t just focus on the sin of the people, it has an even stronger focus on God’s loving kindness, ‘to the Lord our God mercy and pardon belong’. That conviction of God’s mercy and pardon gives the author the confidence to publicly acknowledge the sin of the whole people. Our primary focus too is to be on the God of mercy and pardon, and that focus gives us the confidence and freedom to acknowledge our failings, our sins, before him.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

16th March >> Fr. Martin's Homilies/Reflections on Today's Mass Readings for The Second Sunday of Lent (C) (Luke 9:28-36): ‘They saw his glory’.

Second Sunday of Lent (C)

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Luke 9:28-36 Jesus is transfigured before them.

Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. Suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were Moses and Elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they kept awake and saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As these were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ – He did not know what he was saying. As he spoke, a cloud came and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples were afraid. And a voice came from the cloud saying, ‘This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him.’ And after the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. The disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had seen.

Gospel (GB) Luke 9:28b-36 ‘As Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face was altered.’

At that time: Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah’ — not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!’ And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

Gospel (USA) Luke 9:28b–36 While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying, his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying. While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.

Homilies (6)

(i) Second Sunday of Lent

Each of us has a unique face. The unique face each of us has is not set in stone. Our face changes; it communicates what is happening within us. If we have a sadness deep within us, it will show on our face. If we have hope in our hearts, it will show on our face. We are celebrating a Jubilee Year of Hope. Every human face is very revealing of what can be in a person’s heart.

The face of Jesus revealed what was in his heart too. His disciples must have noticed when his face changed, when it expressed his happiness or his sadness, his compassion or his anger, his distress or his hope. It is said in today’s gospel reading that as Jesus was at prayer on a mountain, the aspect of his face changed. Something happened deep within him while he prayed and it showed on his face. Indeed, according to the gospel reading, not only his face changed, but his clothing became brilliant as lighting. We are told that Peter and his two companions saw Jesus’ glory, seeing him as they never saw him before. It was as if Jesus’ prayer brought him closer to God and to the world of heaven, and it showed on his face, and on his whole person. Jesus in glory speaks to us of our own heavenly destiny. Saint Paul in the second reading says that the Lord Jesus will transfigure our earthly bodies ‘into copies of his own glorious body’. That is why our faith is always a hopeful faith.

In prayer, Jesus heard God call his name in love, addressing him as his beloved Son. Peter, James and John heard God say to them on the mountain, ‘This is my Son, the Chosen One, listen to him’. On the mountain, Jesus had a wonderful experience of God his Father’s love for him, and it transfigured him. Perhaps Jesus needed this strong sense of God’s loving presence at this time, because shortly before going up the mountain he had been telling his disciples that his mission would have to bring him to the city of Jerusalem, where he would be crucified. Indeed, according to the gospel reading, Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus on the mountain about his passing, his coming death. Shortly after coming down the mountain, we are told that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. He could now make that difficult journey, in a spirit of hope, in the knowledge that God’s love for him would endure beyond death and would bring him through death into glory.

In prayer, Jesus heard God his Father call his name in love and it transfigured him. Whenever we hear our name spoken in love by someone, we too are changed for the better. Knowing that we are loved by someone can have a transforming effect on us. It often gives us the strength and the hope to keep going in difficult moments. In that sense, we can all have our own transfiguration moments, when, not only our faces light up, but our hearts light up as well, when we become more hopeful. Such moments will often be times when we have a deep sense of being accepted, welcomed and valued. At such times we might find ourselves saying with Peter, ‘It is wonderful for us to be here’. We find it easy to remember those moments. In more difficult times we can find ourselves going back to them in memory and continuing to draw life from them. There is always something of God in such moments. It is God who is speaking our name in love through those who love us in an unconditional way.

There are also moments in our lives when God will want to speak our name in love to us in a more personal way. These are the times when he calls us up the mountain of prayer and invites us to come into his presence in a more focused way. We all need such prayerful moments in our lives, just as Jesus did. On the mountain, God said to Peter, James and John, ‘Listen to him’, ‘Listen to my Son’. It can be good to step aside from our daily activities at times just to be present to Jesus, our risen Lord, and to listen to him. We don’t necessarily have to say anything. It can be just the prayer of our presence, the prayer of opening our hearts to the Lord’s loving presence to us. Such prayer moments when we hear the Lord call our name in love can transform us in some way. We can find light in times of darkness, hope in times of distress, strength in times of weakness. These moments of prayer give us little glimpses of our final destiny, when, in the words of the Psalm, ‘we will see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living’. This will be our final and most wonderful transfiguration moment. Just as Jesus’ prayerful moment on the mountain when we was transfigured anticipated his final transfiguration at his resurrection, so our moments of prayer can also be small foretastes of our own final transfiguration, filling us with hope for the journey ahead. Again in the words of today’s psalm, ‘Hope in him, hold firm and take heart. Hope in the Lord!’.

And/Or

(ii) Second Sunday of Lent

I watched an interesting programme on Michelangelo on the T.V. last Sunday night. It showed how he worked to transfigure a huge block of marble into a beautiful work of art. It is easy to forget that his wonderful David in Florence and his powerful Pieta in Rome were once rough blocks of marble cut out of the mountainside. In a similar way, an artist with the brush, a painter, takes a blank canvass and transfigures it into an image that people delight in looking at. Or an artist with the pen, a writer, takes blank pages and transfigures them into something engaging and absorbing to read.

It is not only marble, canvass and paper that can be transfigured. People can be transfigured. You may have noticed people at airports waiting to greet a loved one. They search each face as the passengers come through the arrival doors. The longer it goes without seeing the person they have come to greet, the more concerned they become. When they suddenly recognize their loved one, their faces light up. In a sense, they become transfigured.

We have all had our transfiguration moments, when, not only our faces light up, but our hearts light up as well. Such moments will often be times when we hear our name spoken in love, when we have a deep sense that we are accepted and welcomed and valued by someone. We find it easy to remember those moments. In more difficult times we can find ourselves going back to such moments in memory and continuing to draw life from them. Such experiences live on in our memories, and can sustain us long after they have happened.

The gospel reading describes a moment in the life of Jesus when he was transfigured. We are told that, while he was at prayer, ‘the aspect of his face was changed’. Not only his face but his whole being lit up; he was glorified. Jesus was transfigured because, in prayer, he heard God his Father call his name in love. ‘This is my Son, the Chosen One’. This, for Jesus, was a moment of deep communion with God, with the one who loved him with a perfect love, a love that would prove stronger than death. The gospel reading says that Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus about his passing, his death. Jesus knew that his leaving this world in death would also be his entry into the hands of his loving Father beyond death. ‘Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit’. On the mountain, Jesus experienced a love that was faithful enough to carry him through death, and the experience of such a love was transfiguring.

Jesus has called us into the same relationship with God that he has. He has sent his Spirit into our hearts, and that Spirit prompts us to cry out ‘Abba, Father’ to God as Jesus did. If we share the same relationship with God that Jesus has, hopefully their will be moments in our own lives when we experience God as Jesus did on that mountain, in a way that leaves us transfigured in the very depths of our being. Such an experience of God speaking our name in love may not be a regular occurrence, but it is surely a gift that God gives to us from time to time. Different people can hear God call their name in love in different ways. For some, it might happen in and through some experience of nature. In the first reading, the Lord prompts Abraham to look up to heaven and to count the stars. The sight of the stars deepened Abraham’s faith in God’s loving purpose for himself and his descendants. The sky at night, the setting sun, the wonder and beauty of nature in all its forms, can speak to us of God’s abiding love for us. The sense of God saying to us, ‘You are my chosen one’, can also come through the celebration of the Sacraments. God’s love can touch us at a very deep level in and through the Sacrament of Reconciliation or the Sacrament of the Eucharist. We can come away from those sacramental moments transfigured in some way. For many of us, God’s transforming love is experienced in and through the relationships that matter to us. The experience of a human love that is faithful without being possessive can be transforming of us, transfiguring, and can give us a foretaste of that moment in eternity when we will experience God’s love to the full.

St. Paul in the second reading encourages us to look forward to that future moment, when the Lord will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body. We live in hope of that final transfiguration, when we will be conformed to the image of the risen Christ. On the mountain, Jesus gave his disciples a glimpse of their own future destiny. This glimpse was so appealing that Peter wanted to prolong the moment for as long as possible. ‘It is wonderful for us to be here’, Peter said, ‘Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah’. Yet, this was only a glimpse of what would come at the end of life’s journey. It was not yet the end. They all had to come down the mountain and face into a difficult journey to Jerusalem. We are familiar with that same journey. We all have to face down the road to our own Jerusalems. We know the way of the cross. Yet, we also know that at the end of our journey there will be a wonderful moment when we will hear God calling our name in love, and we are transfigured. We also believe that along the way we will hear echoes of that loving call of God, if we are attentive.

And/Or

(iii) Second Sunday of Lent

We all have our good and bad days. There are times in our lives when we feel very content and at peace, and there are other times when a kind of darkness can descend on us. Very often the light and shade of life has to do in one way or another with other people. When we are with those we love and who love us we are at peace. When we are without them, we can find life empty. Whether we experience life as a joy or a burden can also have to do with our state of health. When we feel physically well, we have a spring in our step. When we are battling with serious illness, life can be a depressing struggle. Our contentedness or otherwise can also have to do with how we are spending our time. Certain activities can give us momentary pleasure but do not leave us very content in the long term. Other activities, which can take a lot out of us at the time, can leave us with a sense of having done something worthwhile, and confirm for us our own sense of worth. Putting ourselves out for others, sharing our gifts with them, enriches us, even though it can cost us something.

If we have people in our lives that we love and who love us, if our health is good, if we are engaged in activities that are deeply satisfying, then we are indeed fortunate. Yet, invariably there will come a time when we will be without some or even all of these realities. There is a certain letting go which we all have to face into. What then? What are we left with? The readings today suggest that the supreme and ultimate reality that brings us deep and lasting joy is our relationship with the Lord. When that relationship is significant for us, our lives can be full and rich, even when we find ourselves separated from those we love, even when our health is not good, even when we are not engaged in satisfying activity.

Today’s second reading is from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. At the time he wrote that letter Paul was confined in prison. The future did not look good. Yet, he writes as someone who is full of joy. The human support he experienced from others at that vulnerable time was one reason for his joy. A more fundamental reason was his relationship with the Lord. In the course of that letter he says, ‘I can do all things in him who strengthens me’. In a time of great human weakness, he knew the Lord’s strength. As he faced into the prospect of his own death, he looked forward in hope to that moment when the Lord would transfigure his broken body into a copy of his own glorious body.

Paul’s faith, and the faith of others, kept him joyful, when there seemed to be little to rejoice about. I am sure that all of us who are here this morning value our faith, our relationship with the Lord. His involvement with us and ours with him sustains us, keeps us hopeful and joyful, even when much that we have come to value has been taken from us, whether that be loved ones, or health or various activities that were important to us. In the words of today’s responsorial psalm, ‘The Lord is my light and my help; whom shall I fear? Before whom shall I shrink?’ Lent is a good time to acknowledge to ourselves that our relationship with the Lord is the most important value in our lives. Lent is a good moment to consider how we might deepen that relationship, how we might grow in our response to the Lord’s call and presence in our lives. Today’s responsorial psalm invites us to ‘seek his face’. If we are to grow in our relationship with the Lord, we need to seek him, to reach out towards him, as so many people are portrayed as doing in the gospels. One of the ways we seek the Lord’s face is in prayer. To pray is to open ourselves to the Lord’s presence. Lent is a good moment to create more space for prayer in our lives.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus takes Peter and John and James up a mountain to pray. He went up the mountain to seek God in prayer, and in prayer he was transfigured. Jesus was very aware that he was facing down a long road to Jerusalem where rejection and death awaited him, where everything would be taken away from him. He had just told his disciples as much in Caesarea Philippi. Now he goes up the mountain to seek the face of the Lord to be strengthened for the road ahead. His relationship with his Father was one thing that could not be taken from him. Here was the greatest value of his life that would endure when all else failed. In prayerful communion with God, he was transfigured; he experienced himself as he would be, beyond the rejection, suffering, and death that awaited him in Jerusalem.

This was a wonderful moment not only for Jesus himself but for those who went up the mountain with him. ‘Master, it is wonderful for us to be here’, said Peter. Some of us may be fortunate enough in the course of our lives to have known such moments when God seemed very near to us, when we felt fully alive in God’s presence, fully loved with a love greater than any human love. Such moments are little glimpses of that final transfiguration that awaits us all; they assure us that when we have to let go of everything, God remains, and in God we will find all again, transformed and renewed.

And/Or

(iv) Second Sunday of Lent

There are times in all of our lives when we feel deeply happy and at peace, and there are other times when life seems an endless struggle. If we were to look at why we can be deeply happy at some times and struggling greatly at other times, we might find that both have a lot to do with other people in our lives. When we are with people whom we love and who love us, we find ourselves at peace and content, even when other things are going against us. When we are with people who do not have our good at heart, then we struggle, even if other things in our life are going well. Who we are with, the ways that people relate to us, can be very influential in determining whether we find ourselves in a place of light or a place of darkness. Our response to the psalm this morning was, ‘The Lord is my light and my help’. Like the person who composed that psalm, we believe that our relationship with God brings light into our lives. If people who love us can bring light into our lives, the Lord who loves us with an eternal love can do so even more.

Jesus also knew times in his life when he felt deeply happy and at peace and other times when life was a real struggle. In last Sunday’s gospel reading Jesus struggled with Satan in the wilderness. Today’s gospel reading puts before us a very different moment in Jesus’ life. In the wilderness Jesus was alone with only Satan for company. Here on the mount of transfiguration, he is with his three closest disciples, Peter, James and John. Not only has he his three closest disciples for company, two of the great Jewish prophets appear to him and speak to him, Moses and Elijah. Even more significantly, Jesus heard his heavenly Father address him as ‘my Son, the Chosen One’. If in the wilderness, Jesus was being put to a great test, here on the mountain he is being given great consolation. Jesus needed this moment of assurance, because he was about to set out on the most difficult journey of his life, the journey to Jerusalem. A few verses after this scene, Luke the evangelist says, ‘When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem’. According to our gospel reading, Moses and Elijah were speaking to Jesus about his departure which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem, his death. Jesus had gone up the mountain to pray, and it was while he was at prayer that Moses and Elijah appeared to him, and the voice of the Father was heard to speak. This time of prayer on the mountain was for Jesus a time of great consolation, of great reassurance. It was an experience which strengthened him for the journey that he was about to face into.

Lent is a time when, in a sense, the whole church is called to go up the mountain to pray, as Jesus did. It is a season when we are called to nurture, through prayer, the most important relationship in our lives, our relationship with the Lord who is our light and our help. Our prayer can take many different forms; none of us prays in the same way all of the time. Today’s gospel reading of the transfiguration, however, draws attention to one particular form of prayer, the prayer of listening. When Peter, James and John were on the mountain with Jesus, the voice of God spoke to him and said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him’. The three disciples were being called to the prayer of listening. Jesus was just about to head for Jerusalem with his disciples. In the course of that journey, Luke presents Jesus as having a great deal to say to his disciples. Along the way he gave them a lot of teaching and instruction. Before they headed out on this journey, the disciples were being called to listen to Jesus.

As we begin our Lenten journey, we too hear the voice from the cloud say to us, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him’. Lent is a journey of listening to the word of the Lord. Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, people in the church were invited to come forward to receive a copy of the gospel of Luke on behalf of their family or on their own behalf. This Lent the church in Dublin is being called to listen to the word of Jesus as it comes to us through the gospel of Luke. The prayerful reading of that gospel would be a worthwhile Lenten exercise, one in keeping with the call of today’s gospel reading. As Jesus was praying on the mountain, he was transfigured. As we prayerfully listen to the Lord’s word, we too will be transfigured; we will be transformed more fully into the image and likeness of God’s Son. Paul reminds us in today’s second reading our ultimate destiny is that our earthly bodies will be transfigured into copies of the Lord’s glorious body. In giving ourselves over to the prayerful listening of the Lord’s word, that process of transfiguration can begin here and now.

And/Or

(v) Second Sunday of Lent

We live by the sea here in Clontarf and we are very fortunate to do so. We have wonderful opportunities for walking along the promenade, down the Bull Wall, in Saint Anne’s Park. There are some people who might find the terrain around Clontarf a little bit flat. They like a bit of height when they are walking; they like to climb. Our nearest high ground here is the Hill of Howth and there are some lovely walks around the Hill of Howth. Those looking for higher ground might be more inclined to head towards the Dublin hills or the Wicklow Mountains. Mountains do have an appeal of their own. When you are on a mountain, you have a sense of being away from it all, above it all. There can be a great sense of peace on the mountain.

Galilee, where Jesus spent most of his public ministry, was very flat in places but it also has hills, some of them quite high. This morning’s gospel reading is set on such a hill or mountain. In the gospel reading, this mountain is a place of worship. Luke tells us that Jesus took Peter and John and James up the mountain to pray. That intense moment of communion with God on the mountain had a profound effect on Jesus. We are told that the aspect of his face was changed and his clothes became brilliant as lightning. He was transfigured. He heard God call his name in love, ‘this is my beloved Son’, and that had a transforming effect on him. Whenever we hear our name called in love, we are, in some sense, transfigured. Our faces light up; our hearts burn within us. The disciples were caught up into Jesus’ experience of transforming communion with God. Their hearts too began to burn within them; they wanted to preserve this wonderful moment. Peter cried out, ‘Master, it is wonderful for us to be here. Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah’. He was saying, ‘let us preserve this moment’.

Yet, this was a moment that could not last indefinitely. Jesus knew that he would have to come down the mountain. Luke tells us that Jesus was speaking to Moses and Elijah about ‘his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem’. He was talking to them about his coming suffering and death. He knew that he would soon have to set his face to go to Jerusalem where he would be put to death. He would have to face into the valley of work and suffering. He was being strengthened on the mountain for the journey ahead, for the valley that had to be entered. This was something the disciples were slow to appreciate. When the voice from heaven said to the disciples ‘This is my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him!’ they were being called upon to listen to Jesus when he spoke to them about the inevitability of his suffering and death. They would show themselves to be very slow to listen to these painful words of Jesus, just as they were slow to come down the mountain.

As followers of Jesus we live our lives between the mountain of prayer and the valley where we live and work and navigate our various struggles. Like Jesus we spend far more time in the valley than on the mountain. Yet, we need the mountain of prayer as Jesus did. We need to step back and simply be before the Lord. It is on the mountain of worship and prayer that we inhale the power, grace and truth of Jesus. The place of prayer is where we listen to the Lord and allow ourselves to hear the Lord call our name in love. It is the place where our spiritual resources can be renewed and our moral vision clarified. The mountain of prayer can take many forms. It can be a building like this, a church, a space which we enter alone or gather with others as we are doing this morning. It can be any place where we step back from our daily routine and prayerfully open up ourselves to God present to us in his love.

We need these places when we become conscious of a source of life and goodness beyond ourselves and others, so that when we enter the valley of life, of work, of struggle, we can exhale what we have inhaled on the mountain of prayer. Jesus went to the mountain so as to bring its grace and peace to the valley. Raphael’s famous painting of the Transfiguration in the Vatican Art Gallery shows Jesus virtually floating in mid-air, glorious and splendid on the mountain. The bottom half of the painting depicts the valley where a father is pleading to the his disciples to do something for his possessed son. That was the situation Jesus would immediately face into when he came down the mountain. Lent is a time to journey afresh to the mountain of prayer so as to recommit ourselves to the work of the valley, a sharing in Jesus’ life-giving work. We need to inhale and exhale. This is the dynamic of our lives as followers of Jesus.

And/Or

(vi) Second Sunday of Lent

Coming towards the end of my time in secondary school I noticed I could not see the writing on the blackboard very well. I went to an optician and discovered that I needed glasses. As I got older the prescription for the glasses have got gradually stronger. Some years ago I ended up with bifocals. Needing ever stronger glasses is part of the aging process for some of us.

There are different forms of seeing. There is physical sight, for which some of us need help in the form of glasses as we get older. Then there is a deeper kind of seeing, where we see below the surface of things. Some kind of light comes on in us and we see in a way that we have never seen before. We often refer to these experiences not so much as moments of sight as moments of insight. Perhaps this is the kind of seeing that the disciples were gifted with in this morning’s gospel reading. They had been with Jesus for some time now. They had seen him heal the sick, share table with all sorts of people, feed a multitude in the wilderness. However, now, on the mountain, they saw Jesus in a way they had never seen him before. The gospel reading says that they saw Jesus’ glory. They saw beneath the surface of his life to the person he truly was. He saw him in all his full reality. He was more than a wonderful human being; he was the Son of God. The disciples on the mountain were graced with an ability to see the personal reality of Jesus unveiled. It was a momentary experience. Peter wanted to prolong it, ‘let us make three tents...’ However, this was an experience that could not be bottled. It could not be frozen, so as to avail of it as Peter chose. It was a momentary gift; it could be savoured for the moment. The memory of this experience could sustain the disciples for the difficult road ahead as they walked behind Jesus who was soon to set his face to go to Jerusalem.

There are times in our own lives when we can be graced in a way that is similar to how Peter, James and John were graced on the mountain. We may think we know someone well. Then we get a sudden and momentary insight into some dimension of their being. It is as if we see them more deeply than we have ever seen them. We sense that these moments of insight come to us as a gift. We are not aware of having done anything to make them happen. They are given to us and, yet, every gift has to be received and, so, in some sense, we have been receptive to this gift. The gift of seeing Jesus in a way the disciples had never seen him before came to them in the context of prayer. Jesus had taken Peter, James and John had up the mountain to join him in prayer. In our own lives, a prayerful spirit can dispose us to receive this momentary grace of seeing people in all their full reality, indeed, in their glorious reality, as people made in the image and likeness of God. Having seen someone in this deeper way once, this experience can live on in our memory, to be called upon when we might be tempted to see them in a much more surface way.

This deeper seeing can impact not only on how we see other people but on how we see all of reality. When we look at a certain situation in life in a purely surface way, we might see it as a problem and no more than that. However, when we open ourselves to that grace of seeing the situation more deeply, we can come to discover that the problem is not only a problem but it is also an opportunity that calls out to us. There is a sacramental quality to all of life. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The flesh of life, all of it, reveals something of the Word who is God. God is revealed in all of our experience. The Word of God speaks to us through all of our human experience, even those dark experiences that seem devoid of God’s light. There is a spiritual quality to all of life and the Lord will give us eyes to see this deeper dimension to all things if we are open to this gift.

The gospel reading invites us to reflect not only on how we see others, how we see life, but how we see ourselves. In that second reading, Paul tells us that our ultimate destiny in eternity is to be transfigured, so that we finally become copies of Christ’s own glorious body. There is a sense in which this transfiguration is already underway through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Paul says in one of his other letters, ‘we are being transformed into the same image (the image of the Lord) from one degree of glory to another’. Something of the same depth that the disciples saw in Jesus on the mountain is to be found in each one of us if we have eyes to see.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

15th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Saturday, First Week of Lent (Inc. Matthew 5:43-48): ‘Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect’.

Saturday, First Week of Lent

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 5:43-48 Pray for those who persecute you.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike. For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not? You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

Gospel (GB) Matthew 5:43-48 ‘You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is.’

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 5:43-48 Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Reflections (9)

(i) Saturday, First Week of Lent

When we say of someone that they are a perfectionist, we probably mean that they like everything to be just right. It is a complement, but it can also imply a slight criticism. We sometimes think of perfectionists as people who can be intolerant of those who don’t measure up to their high standards. We can be slightly anxious around them. However, when Jesus says in the gospel reading that ‘your heavenly Father is perfect’, it is not with a view to making us anxious. On the contrary, to say God is perfect is to say that God is perfect in love. God loves us with a complete love, regardless of what we have done or failed to do. As Jesus says in the gospel reading, ‘he causes his sun to rise on bad people as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest people alike’. When the sun shines here in our parish, it shines on everyone, and when the rain falls it falls on everyone. The sun and the rain do not discriminate. Likewise, God’s love does not discriminate; it embraces all humanity. There is no more or less in God’s love, because as Saint John says in one of his letters, ‘God is love’. God loved us into life at our birth; God’s love sustains us during our earthly lives; God will love us into eternal life at the end of our earthly lives. God’s gracious love is pure gift; it does not have to be earned or deserved. It is not a reward for a good life. Rather, a good life flows from knowing in our hearts that we are loved unconditionally by God. If we open our hearts to God’s love, if we allow God to love us unconditionally, then we will begin to reflect something of God’s love to others. We will begin to love others in the same indiscriminate way that God loves us. We might even find ourselves loving those who have persecuted or harmed us in some way. At the very least, we might find ourselves praying for the grace to love them. When Jesus calls on us to be perfect as God is perfect, he is calling on us to be loving as God is loving. Before we can love others as God loves them, we must first allow ourselves to be embraced by God’s perfect love. That is a grace worth praying for.

And/Or

(ii) Saturday, First Week of Lent

This morning’s extract from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is very challenging and very stark. We never become completely comfortable with Jesus’ command to love your enemies. It seems to go against every human instinct. We can be tempted to dismiss it as unreasonable and impractical. Jesus was envisaging a situation where his own followers would be persecuted and would have many enemies. He was teaching them in advance how they are to relate to their enemies, those who would inflict suffering on them because of who they were. Saint Paul echoes this teaching of Jesus in his letter to the Romans, when he calls on the members of the church in the capital of the Empire, ‘Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought of what is noble in the sight of all... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’. That last exhortation of Paul captures the essence of Jesus’ teaching in our gospel reading. If your enemy does evil to you, do not add to the store of evil in the world by responding in kind. Rather, love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you. Overcome evil with good. Jesus wants this to be the way of his followers, because it is his way and it is God’s way. ‘Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect’. God is constantly at work to overcome evil with good. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection were God’s supreme effort to overcome evil with good. In calling on us to be God-like, some might say that Jesus is asking too much of us. Yet, it could also be said that Jesus is taking us seriously as people made in the image of God. He knows the good of which we are capable with God’s help, even against all the odds and in the face of great provocation.

And/Or

(iii) Saturday, First week of Lent

The call of the gospel can be very challenging. This morning’s gospel reading is probably one of the most challenging passages in all of the gospels. Jesus calls on his disciples not only to love our neighbour, which is a call or command to be found in the Old Testament. He also calls on them, on us, to love our enemy, which goes beyond anything to be found in the Old Testament. Many of us might be hard pushed to think of someone who could be described as our enemy. We might struggle to identify an enemy. Yet, we may be able to think of people who have hurt us or who damaged us in some way. We are not likely to have warm feelings towards such people. When Jesus calls on his disciples to love their enemy, he is not talking about warm feelings or feelings of any kind. Jesus is talking about the will rather than feelings. At the very least, Jesus is calling on his disciples to wish their enemies well, all that is good. In the gospel reading, Jesus identifies one expression of such love as prayer, praying for our enemy, praying for those who have hurt us and who have given us good reason to dislike them. ‘Love your enemy and pray...’ Jesus suggests that to pray for those who persecute us is to do something that has a divine quality to it. It is to give expression to the love of God which goes out to all, even to those who least deserve it.

And/Or

(iv) Saturday, First Week of Lent

If we hear that such and such a person is a perfectionist, it can conjure up in our minds someone who is very demanding and rather fussy about getting everything right down to the last detail. When Jesus says at the end of today’s gospel reading, ‘Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect’, that is not what he means. The corresponding passage in Luke’s gospel is almost word for word the same as the passage from Matthew, which we have just heard. Yet, it is striking that in Luke the gospel passage ends with Jesus saying, ‘Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate’. Luke has captured there what Jesus meant by ‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect’. In this morning’s gospel reading, being perfect is identified with being loving to an extraordinary degree, loving our enemy, praying for those who persecute us, who make life difficult for us. Being perfect consists in loving in the way that God loves, which is with a love that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of how people relate to us. This is the pinnacle of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. The fact that Jesus calls on us to love as God loves shows that he does not consider this call unrealistic. We may not be able to love in this divine way on our own, but we can do so with God’s help. As Jesus will say to his disciples later on in Matthew’s gospel, ‘for God, all things are possible’.

And/Or

(v) Saturday, First Week of Lent

We tend to use the terms ‘perfect’, ‘perfection’ and ‘perfectionist’ in a very particular way. When we say of someone that he or she is a ‘perfectionist’ we mean that they want everything to be right in every respect. There must be no room for mistake or error of any kind. We tend to think that perfectionists can be difficult to live with or work with because they are so demanding of themselves and of others. When Jesus uses the term ‘perfect’ in today’s gospel reading, he uses it in a rather different sense. When Jesus says to his disciples ‘be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect’ he is using the term ‘perfect’ in a different way to how we tend to use it. Sometimes there is more than one version of a saying of Jesus in the gospels. Today’s gospel reading is from Matthew, but Luke’s version of that saying of Jesus goes as follows, ‘be merciful, just as your Father is merciful’. God’s perfection consists in his merciful love. To be perfect as God is perfect is to be merciful in the way that God is merciful. A merciful person has a different connotation for us to a perfectionist. The merciful love that Jesus calls for is a love without limits. It is an inclusive love to the point of including those who are our enemies, those who wish us ill, who seek to damage us. Jesus declares that this is nothing less than a divine love. We might ask, ‘How could Jesus ask humans to love in a divine way?’ We need a divine resource to love in a divine way and that divine resource is the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God’s love. It is only the Spirit who can empower us to love as God loves, to be merciful as God is merciful.

And/Or

(vi) Saturday, First Week of Lent

Occasionally we come across people who have taken Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel reading to heart and have lived it out. They have suffered at the hands of their enemies, those who hate them and reject all they stand for. Yet, they appear to hold no bitterness towards those who have persecuted them. They have no desire to inflict on their enemy what their enemy has inflicted on them. They wish their enemy well and pray to God for their enemy’s present and ultimate well-being. Whenever we come across such people, we feel a profound respect and admiration for them. We know that there is something remarkable about their attitude. We sense that it demonstrates what is best in human nature. We feel ennobled and empowered by such people. The teaching of Jesus in the gospel reading to love our enemy and pray for them can seem very unrealistic, but, when we see the Lord’s teaching take flesh in a human life, we recognize its value, we sense its attractiveness. It has been said that if we can learn to love our enemy, then no one is beyond our love. Jesus identifies the love that he calls for as a divine love. If you love like this, Jesus says, you will be like your Father in heaven. Saint Paul says that God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The cross reveals God’s love even for his enemies. If something of this divine love can be in our lives, through the power of the Spirit, then we will indeed show ourselves to be sons and daughters of God.

And/Or

(vii) Saturday, First Week of Lent

The call of Jesus at the end of today’s gospel reading sounds very daunting, ‘You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect’. We are all very much aware that we are a long way from being perfect. Even the word ‘perfect’ can be off-putting for us. When we speak of someone as a perfectionist we are not always paying them a compliment. We think of perfectionists as overly demanding and somewhat intolerant of human weakness. However, when we read back over the whole of today’s gospel reading, we can see that when Jesus calls us to be as perfect as God, he is calling on us to be as loving as God is loving. He is talking about the perfection of love. Jesus declares that God loves the good and the not so good equally, just as the sun shines and the rain falls on both alike. God’s love does not discriminate. There is no less or more when it comes to God’s love. As Saint John says in his first letter, God is Love. To say God’s love is perfect is to say that what we do or fail to do has no impact on the quality of God’s love for us. God loved the people who crucified Jesus as much as the martyrs who were killed for bearing witness to Jesus. God’s love does not change, cannot change. What changes is our capacity to receive God’s love and to allow ourselves to be transformed by it, so that something of God’s perfect love takes flesh in our own lives. We will never be as loving as God is loving in this life, loving others without any regard to how they relate to us. Some few people come very close to loving in such a divine way. When such people come to our attention, we stand amazed by them. Yet, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can all, at least, keep growing towards that quality of love which is of God. That is the goal of our lives as followers of Jesus. That goal is very beautifully expressed in the prayer which the priest prays quietly to himself when washing his hands at the Offertory of the Mass; it is a prayer we could all pray, ‘May we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity’.

And/Or

(viii) Saturday, First Week of Lent

We have all been noticing a stretch in the evenings in recent weeks. The days are noticeably getting longer. The sun is rising earlier and setting later. As we move into March, we will get still more sunshine. The sun does not discriminate between people. In whatever part of the world it shines, it shines on all. Jesus was very observant of nature and nature often spoke to him of God and of God’s relationship to us. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks of God our Father in heaven causing his sun to shine on bad people as well as good. The sun shining on all spoke to Jesus of the indiscriminate nature of God’s love. Just as the sun cannot but shine, even when there are clouds in the sky, so God cannot but love and that is because, as the first letter of Saint John says, ‘God is love’. There is no more or less in God’s love. God does not love us more at some time in our lives than in others and God does not love some people more than others. God’s love is constant, unconditional and makes no distinctions between people. According to Jesus, this is what God’s perfection consists in. When he says in today’s gospel reading, ‘your heavenly Father is perfect’, he is really saying, ‘God is perfect Love’. We don’t have to make God love us. God’s love is always shinning upon us, even in the dark times of our lives, when the storm gathers. What today’s gospel reading calls upon us to do is to receive this unconditional, indiscriminate, love of God and then to reflect it to others.  We are to be perfect in the way God is perfect, to love in the way God loves, and this means loving the bad as well as the good, our enemies with as much love as our friends. Jesus calls on us to be nothing less that God-like in our love of others. It is an extra-ordinary calling and we can only answer it with the help that only God can give, with the help of God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit. We need to keep on receiving the Spirit of God’s love, the Holy Spirit, if we are to love others with the love of God, in the way God loves them.

And/Or

(ix) Saturday, First Week of Lent

Today’s gospel reading is one of the most challenging parts of Jesus’ teaching. From a merely human perspective, it makes little or no sense to love our enemies. It goes against all our natural instincts. Those who make themselves our enemy by how they treat us will give rise to strong feelings of anger and hatred in us. It is understandable if people act out of those emotions, as many in Ukraine are doing at the moment. Jesus’ own disciples wanted him to rain fire down from heaven on Samaritan villages that refused Jesus hospitality. The modern version of fire raining down from heaven is evident in some Ukrainian cities at present. On that occasion Jesus rebuked his disciples and walked on. When Jesus was arrested, one of his disciples took out his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Jesus said in response, ‘Put your sword back in its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword’. It seems that Jesus’ own disciples struggled with his teaching in today’s gospel reading. Jesus based his teaching on who God is and on his conviction that the human calling, and, certainly the calling for his disciples, is to image in some way the God who causes his sun to rise on bad people as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest people alike. God’s love does not discriminate, because God’s love is perfect; there is no less or more about it. The less or more relates to our capacity to receive God’s perfect love and live lives shaped by it. There is no easy way to apply the teaching of Jesus in today’s gospel reading to the war in Ukraine. An example of love for the enemy that Jesus gives in today’s gospel reading is praying for them, just as Jesus prayed for his enemies from the cross, asking God to forgive them because they didn’t fully grasp the enormity of the wrong they were doing. Many, not just Ukrainians, experience Putin as an enemy at present. Perhaps, in the light of today’s gospel reading, the Lord is asking us to pray earnestly for him and those around him who are pursuing this cruel and heartless war.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

14th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Friday, First Week of Lent (Matthew 5:20-26): ‘Go, and be reconciled with your brother first’.

Friday, First Week of Lent

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 5:20-26 Anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. ‘You have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not kill; and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you: anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court; if a man calls his brother “Fool” he will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and if a man calls him “Renegade” he will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. I tell you solemnly, you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.’

Gospel (GB) Matthew 5:20-26 ‘Go first, be reconciled to your brother.’

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgement.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 5:20-26 Go first and be reconciled with your brother.

Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

Reflections (11)

(i) Friday, First Week of Lent

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks about virtue. He calls for a virtue that goes deeper than the virtue of the scribes and the Pharisees. The Jewish Law spelt out how people were to live and relate to each other. However, Jesus came to form in people a virtue that is more radical than the virtue that the Jewish Law tried to promote. The adjective ‘radical’ is from the Latin word for ‘root’. Jesus seeks a virtue that is more deeply rooted in the human heart. He gives an example of this more radical or more deeply rooted virtue in today’s gospel reading. Whereas the Jewish Law prohibits someone from taking the life of another person, Jesus prohibits the deeply rooted anger that finds its most deadly expression in the killing of someone. The first act of killing mentioned in the Bible, Cain’s killing of Abel, sprung from anger. Cain was angry with his brother. Jesus was very concerned about human behaviour. He often speaks about the need to do the will of his heavenly Father. However, he is even more concerned about the deep seated emotions and the underlying attitudes that give rise to behaviour. Jesus wants to renew the human heart, knowing that it is only such deep seated renewal that can give rise to a new way of living, one that conforms to God’s will for our lives. Jesus came to pour the very Spirit of God into our lives, into our hearts, so that we can live as God desires us to live. The ultimate source of the deeper virtue that Jesus calls for is the Holy Spirit because it is only the Spirit who can truly change our hearts. Each day we need to keep praying, ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart’, renew my heart’. Then, the face of the earth will begin to be renewed.

And/Or

(ii) Friday, First Week of Lent

This morning’s gospel reading is taken from the Sermon on the Mount. There Jesus affirms the value of the Jewish Law but goes beyond it in various ways. At the beginning of the gospel reading Jesus quotes from one of the Ten Commandments ‘You shall not kill’. However, he goes beyond that commandment by prohibiting attitudes and behaviours that could eventually lead to killing. He prohibits anger, not the anger that is part and parcel of every person’s emotional life, but the nurturing of anger that can lead to destructive action. This was the kind of anger that Cain had towards Abel and that led him eventually to kill Abel. Jesus also warns against insulting language, such as calling someone ‘Fool’ or ‘Renegade’. You may be familiar with the saying, ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’. Jesus would beg to differ. He is very aware of the potentially destructive and indeed deadly power of language. How we speak to and about people will shape how we relate to them. Jesus goes on to speak about the need to be reconciled with someone who has something against us. We might have expected him to speak about the need to be reconciled with someone we have something against. No, he calls on us to go out to the person who has something against us. He suggests that this work of reconciliation takes priority over the act of worship. ‘Leave your offering there before the altar...’. In various ways in this gospel reading Jesus speaks about the importance of doing all we can to build right relationships with others.

And/Or

(iii) Friday, First Week of Lent

In the gospel reading Jesus calls for a virtue that goes deeper than the virtue of the scribes and Pharisees. In a sense, he is calling for a virtue that is more radical, that is more deeply rooted in God’s word. As an example of this deeper virtue, the command not to kill becomes in Jesus’ teaching the call not to be angry and not to engage in name calling; it also becomes the call to work for reconciliation with those who are estranged from us. Jesus looks for more than the Jewish law looks for. He is always calling us to a deeper virtue than the virtue we presently possess. There is a radical quality to the call of Jesus and to his teaching. He never allows us to settle and to become comfortable with where we are. He disturbs us in the good sense, because he is always calling us beyond where we are. In Lent we try to listen to what that call might mean for each of us here and now, trusting that the Lord will give us the grace to respond to his call to a deeper virtue.

And/Or

(iv) Friday, First Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus calls his disciples to a virtue that goes deeper than the virtue of the scribes and Pharisees. One of the ten commandments of the Jewish Law was ‘You shall not kill’. However, the call of Jesus goes deeper than that; it looks beyond the action of killing to the underlying attitudes and emotions which lead people to kill or injure each other. Jesus invites us to look below the surface of what people do to why they do it. He calls for a renewal of the heart and mind; that is what we mean by ‘repentance’ or ‘conversion’. That deep-seated renewal that Jesus calls for is not something we can bring about on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to work that kind of deep transformation within ourselves. A prayer that has been traditional within the church acknowledges that very clearly: ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart, and kindle in me the fire of your love’. It is a prayer I have always found myself drawn to. It calls on the Holy Spirit to recreate deep within us the love which shaped the person of Jesus; it calls on the Spirit to form in us the roots of that deeper virtue which Jesus speaks about in today’s gospel reading.

And/Or

(v) Friday, First Week of Lent

Jesus can sometimes be portrayed as angry by the evangelists. He can angry with his opponents but also with his own disciples. Yet in today’s gospel reading Jesus seems to prohibit anger towards others. If the Jewish law forbade murder, Jesus forbids anger. He shows an awareness of how anger can lead someone to gravely insult another; he also suggests, by implication, that at its worst anger can lead someone to take the life of another. In the gospel reading Jesus is shown as having a healthy respect for anger. Yes, it can be channelled in a life-giving way, just as Jesus used his anger in the service of the coming of God’s kingdom. Yet, anger also has the potential to be very destructive of others. We don’t all have the capacity of Jesus to direct our angry energies in a direction that serves the well-being of others, because, unlike him, we are not without sin. What we can do is to bring our anger to the Lord in prayer, asking him to be with us in our struggle to express our anger in ways that are in keeping with his life and message.

And/Or

(vi) Friday, First Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus calls his disciples to a virtue that goes deeper than the virtue of the scribes and Pharisees. One of the ten commandments of the Jewish Law was ‘You shall not kill’. However, the call of Jesus goes deeper than that; it looks beyond the action of killing to the underlying attitudes and emotions which lead people to kill or injure each other. Jesus invites us to look below the surface of what we do to why we do it. He calls for a renewal of the heart and mind; that is what we mean by ‘repentance’ or ‘conversion’. That deep-seated renewal that Jesus calls for is not something we can bring about on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to work that kind of deep transformation within ourselves. A prayer that has been traditional within the church acknowledges that very clearly: ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart, and kindle in me the fire of your love’. It is a prayer I have always found myself drawn to. It calls on the Holy Spirit to recreate deep within us the love which shaped the person of Jesus; it calls on the Spirit to form in us the roots of that deeper virtue which Jesus speaks about in today’s gospel reading.

And/Or

(vii) Friday, First Week of Lent

Action, behaviour, was very important to Jesus. Yet, in his teaching, he often focused on what resides in the human heart, the wellspring of our action. In today’s gospel reading, he goes beyond the action of murder to the anger that so often lies behind that action. The Jewish Law declares, ‘You must not kill’. Jesus goes further and declares that whoever is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court. A relatively small proportion of the human race commits murder. However, we are all familiar with the emotion of anger. All kinds of things can make us angry. Sometimes our anger is a sign that some injustice is being done to ourselves or to others. Our anger can be a signal that all is not well with our world, and, to that extent, it can serve a good purpose. At other times, our anger can be saying more about us. Because of the particular space in which we find ourselves, we get angry at what would pass most people by. Whatever the cause of our anger, Jesus in the gospel reading is alerting us to the damaging potential of our anger. It can negatively impact of how we speak to others. Jesus makes reference to those who call others names in anger. It can impact on how we behave towards others. Jesus suggests that it is an emotion that is worth attending to, because it can lead us to become estranged from others. In the second part of the gospel reading, Jesus encourages us to do all we can to heal such estrangement when it does happen. He even goes so far as to say that prayer and worship may have to take second place to whatever initiative we can take to bring about reconciliation with those who are estranged from us.

And/Or

(viii) Friday, First Week of Lent

Today’s gospel reading is taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Throughout this Sermon, Jesus is presenting us with what he calls a virtue that goes deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees. In other words, the kind of virtue or virtuous life that Jesus is presenting in the Sermon, while based on the Jewish Law, goes further than the Jewish Law calls for. We are all familiar with the fifth of the Ten Commandments in the Jewish Law, ‘You must not kill’. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus takes that commandment and goes beyond it. He recognizes that prior to the action of taking someone’s life, there is a set of attitudes and emotions that underlie this action. The underlying emotion is often anger. The underlying attitude is often one of disrespect for the person, expressed, for example, in labelling someone a ‘fool’ or worse. It is this kind of attitude and emotion that concerns Jesus in today’s gospel reading. Anger is a normal human emotion. We cannot avoid it. Sometimes our anger is very justified. Jesus himself was angry at how the Temple in Jerusalem was being run. Yet, he was very aware of how destructive anger can be. It can often find expression in speaking disrespectfully to others or about others, or in acting disrespectfully towards them. The ultimate disrespectful action towards another person is to take their life away. Today’s gospel reading encourages us to become more aware of the emotion of anger in our lives and of its potential to be destructive of others. It is an emotion we can bring to prayer, asking the Lord to help us to express it in ways that serve God’s purposes for our world.

And/Or

(ix) Friday, First Week of Lent

In his teaching, Jesus often shows a concern about human behaviour, what we do and what we fail to do. However, he is equally concerned about the wellspring of human behaviour, the inner emotions, attitudes, values that shape our behaviour. We find this concern in today’s gospel reading. Jesus cites the Jewish Law in relation to the most destructive form of human behaviour, ‘you shall not kill’. He then goes beneath such destructive behaviour to the emotion that often underlies it, ‘anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it’. The first murder in the Bible is the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. According to the book of Genesis, Abel’s murder was motivated by anger. ‘Cain was very angry… and rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him’. Jesus was aware of the destructive power of anger from the story of his own people. The gospels suggest that Jesus himself was angry at times, so anger in itself is not morally wrong. On one occasion, Jesus was angry with his disciples, because they tried to prevent parents from bringing their children to Jesus for him to bless them, ‘when Jesus say this, he was indignant and said to his disciples’. Jesus went on to give an important teaching about children’s right to the riches of God’s kingdom. Here is an example of anger being channelled in a way that is beneficial for others. Many people’s commitment to working for justice is motivated by an anger at the injustices being done to others. Anger can be a force for good, but Jesus was well aware that it can be, and more often than not is, a force for harm. We all need to be reflective about our anger. We acknowledge it and we ask the Lord to help us to use its energy in a way that is life-giving for others.

And/Or

(x) Friday, First Week of Lent

Jesus was very aware that actions have their roots in something deeper. The awful action of killing someone often has its roots in anger residing deep within the person. That is why Jesus goes beyond the commandment ‘Do not kill’ and prohibits the kind of anger that leads to killing, an anger that often finds expression initially in speaking disrespectfully of others, such as calling them ‘fool’. Behind a certain way of acting is often to be found a certain way of speaking and behind both can be found dark emotions in the human heart. Jesus wanted to get to the root of actions that inflict harm, sometimes deadly harm, on others. That is what Jesus means in today’s gospel reading by a ‘virtue that goes deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees’. Such a deeper virtue is not something we can create from our own efforts or will power alone. It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the risen Lord, who can transform the deepest roots of our lives.  The Jewish Scriptures speak about the Spirit creating a new heart within us, the heart understood as the inner core of the person from which so much else flows. Within our own Christian tradition, there is a prayer that reflects this understand of the role of the Spirit of God, ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart, and kindle in me the fire of your love’. In one of his letters, Paul says, ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ can live deep within us, and that is the source of the deeper virtue that Jesus speaks about in today’s gospel reading.

And/Or

(xi) Friday, First Week of Lent

In the gospel reading, Jesus calls on us not to be angry with others. How many of the children here have ever been angry? We all get angry from time to time, don’t we? Even Jesus was angry sometimes. Once when parents were bringing their children to Jesus for him to bless them, Jesus’ friends tried to stop the parents from doing this. Why do you think they were trying to stop parents bringing their children to Jesus? Jesus got really angry with his friends and said to them, ‘Let the children come to me, do not stop them’. When did your parents first bring you to Jesus? Where were you baptized? Do you think Jesus was pleased when your parents brought you for baptism? Jesus wants children, all of you, to come to him, because he wants to bless you; he wants to show his love for you. Who brought you to Mass this morning? In bringing you to Mass, your teachers were bringing you to Jesus because Jesus is present at Mass in a very special way. He is present as the bread of life. Would Jesus be pleased that your teachers brought you to Mass this morning? If somebody tried to stop your parents or your teachers from bringing you to Jesus, would Jesus be angry with them? Jesus’ anger with his friends was a sign that something was not right and needed to be put right. He had to show his friends how wrong they were. When Jesus calls on us not to be angry with others in today’s gospel reading, he knows that sometimes it is good to be angry, but he is calling on us not to use our anger to do hurtful things to others or to say hurtful words to them, like calling them a fool. We have to be careful with our anger that it doesn’t make us treat others badly. When we feel angry about something, it can be good to pray to Jesus and to ask him to help us to use our anger in a way that does good to others rather than harm them.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

13th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Thursday, First Week of Lent (Inc. Matthew 7:7-12): ‘Ask and it will be given to you’.

Thursday, First Week of Lent

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 7:7-12 Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find.

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. Is there a man among you who would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or would hand him a snake when he asked for a fish? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! ‘So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.’

Gospel (GB) Matthew 7:7-12 ‘Everyone who asks receives.’

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 7:7-12 Everyone who asks, receives.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”

Reflections (13)

(i) Thursday, First Week of Lent

In today’s gospel reading Jesus encourages us to pray the prayer of petition, ‘Ask and it will be given to you’. Sometimes the gospels lift the veil on Jesus’ own prayer, and when it does we often find him praying the prayer of petition. At the last supper, he tells Peter, ‘I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail’. This is the prayer of intercession, which is a prayer of petition. Jesus was asking God to strengthen Peter’s faith. In the garden of Gethsemane, we hear Jesus pray the prayer of petition for himself, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me’. Jesus wanted to be spared the cup of suffering he was about to drink. He recoiled before his coming passion and death. Yet, on that occasion, Jesus’ prayer of petition for himself, gave way to a prayer of surrender to God, ‘Yet, not my will but yours be done’. On the cross Jesus prays a prayer of petition, a prayer of intercession for his enemies, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’. According to Luke’s gospel, he went on to die with a prayer of surrender on his lips, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’. Jesus often prayed the prayer of petition and he encourages us to do the same. We may not always know what to pray for. As Paul says in one of his letters, ‘We do not know how to pray as we ought’. Yet, our prayer of petition, whatever form it takes, will always open us up more fully to the good things that God wants to give us. As Jesus says in the gospel reading, ‘How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?’ Also Jesus’ own way of praying reminds us that our prayer of petition needs to be contained within the prayer of surrender to what God wants for us. In that sense, the most fundamental prayer of petition is the one we find in the Lord ’s Prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’.

And/Or

(ii) Thursday, First Week of Lent

When Jesus calls on his disciples in this morning’s gospel reading to keep on asking from God, to keep on searching for God and to keep on knocking on God’s door, he was speaking from his own experience. The gospels portray Jesus as doing what he encourages his disciples to do. He petitions God for himself and for others. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he petitioned God to take this cup of suffering from him. At the last supper he told Peter that he has been praying for him, petitioning God that Peter’s faith may not fail. On the cross he prayed for those who were crucifying them, petitioning God to forgive them. Very often, as in the case of Jesus, our own prayer of petition, our own asking, knocking and seeking of God, comes out of some experience of great distress. In the Book of Psalms, the most authoritative Jewish prayer book, the prayer of petition out of the depths of distress is the most frequent form of prayer to be found there. Maybe it is true, as is often said, that we pray best when we are in need. Yet, Jesus in the gospel reading does not disparage this form of prayer, ‘Ask... search... knock’. When we pray in this way, like Jesus in the garden, we are opening ourselves to God’s purpose for our lives. Even if our prayer of petition is not answered in the way we had hoped at the time, nonetheless, like Jesus in the Garden, our lives will be touched by God’s presence and we will be the stronger for our prayer.

And/Or

(iii) Thursday, First Week of Lent

The prayer of petition has always been a significant form of prayer for Christians. In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus encourages us to petition God. ‘Ask… search… knock’, and he assures us that our petitioning will meet with a response, ‘it will be given to you… you will find… the door will be opened to you’. Yet, many of us will have had the experience of our prayers of petition not being answered. Saint Paul had that experience too. He suffered from what the called a ‘thorn in the flesh’ and three times, he said, he appealed to the Lord to be rid of it, but his prayer was not heard. He was left with his thorn in the flesh. Yet, the Lord did respond to his prayer, even though not in the way Paul was looking for. The Lord said to Paul in response to his prayer, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’. Paul’s experience teaches us to trust that our prayer of petition is never wasted; the Lord will respond to us, even if not in the way we wanted or hoped for. We have to keep on asking, searching, knocking, trusting that in doing so we are giving the Lord space to work in our lives.

And/Or

(iv) Thursday, First Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading, which is taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus encourages us to ask, to search, to knock on the door. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had indicated what we are to ask for, what we are to search for. He does that above all in the prayer which he gave to his disciples, the Lord’s Prayer. We are to seek for the coming of God’s kingdom, the doing of God’s will. We are to ask for our daily bread, for forgiveness for our sins, for the strength to remain faithful when temptation comes, when we are faced with evil. Elsewhere in the Sermon Jesus says, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness’. God’s righteousness is that way of life which corresponds to his will for us. As well as calling on us to keep on searching, to keep on asking, Jesus also tells us what we are to search for, what we are to ask for. More than anything else, we are to search for, to hunger and thirst for, what God wants, for a way of life that is in keeping with what God wants. If we keep searching for that, if we keep asking for it, today’s gospel reading assures us that our search will not be in vain.

And/Or

(v) Thursday, First Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading, which is taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus encourages us to ask, to search, to knock on the door. He also assures us that God will give good things to those who ask him. We have all had the experience of our prayers of petition not being answered. Someone we love is ill and we pray for them to get better and nothing happens. We might be tempted to give up on the prayer of petition when we have had several experiences of unanswered prayer. Yet, we have to take Jesus at his word when he calls on us to keep asking, to keep searching, to keep knocking on the door, and when he promises us that God will give good things to those who ask him. It is as if Jesus is saying that all prayers are answered in some way or another. Our prayer of petition opens us up to God’s generous presence, even in those times when our prayers do not seem to be answered. Good things from God will always come to us when we pray, because in prayer we allow ourselves to be touched by God’s grace.

And/Or

(vi) Thursday, First Week of Lent

When we look at our own prayer, we might discover that a great deal of our prayer consists of the prayer of petition. We come before God asking for help in some form or other. We have a very good example of such a prayer of petition in this morning’s first reading, the prayer of Esther before she approached the King of Persia on behalf of the Jewish people, ‘come to help, for I am alone and have no one but you, Lord’. Esther prays a heartfelt prayer out of the depths of distress to the One who alone can really help her. There is a great deal of that kind of prayer in the Jewish Scriptures. In the Book of Psalms, there are many different kinds of prayer, but the most common form of prayer is the psalm of lament, the prayer of petition out of the depths of distress. Jesus endorses the prayer of petition in today’s gospel reading. He encourages his disciples, and all of us, to keep on asking, to keep on seeking and to keep on knocking. He encourages there to ask for ‘good things’. We are to ask for what is good, or, in other terms, we are to ask for what is of God, what God desires for us and our world. That is why the purest form of the prayer of petition is the prayer, ‘Your will be done’. This was the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. His prayer of petition began, ‘let this cup pass from me’, but it concluded, ‘your will be done’. At that point, the prayer of petition becomes the prayer of surrender, and this is surely the deepest form of prayer.

And/Or

(vii) Thursday, First Week of Lent

The opening words of Jesus in this morning’s gospel reading encourage us to be seekers, ‘ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you’. If we ask, ‘What are we to seek?’ ‘What are we to ask for?’ the answer to that question is that we are to seek the Lord, and to ask for what the Lord wants for us. In giving us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus was teaching us what to seek and what to ask for. We always remain seekers of the Lord in this life. We never fully possess the Lord or fully find the Lord this side of eternity. We will always be in the role of seekers after the Lord. We are always on a journey towards the Lord; we never arrive at our destination this side of eternity. We have to keep seeking, keep asking, keep knocking. In the words of Saint Paul in his letter to the Philippians, we strain ‘forward to what lies ahead’; ‘we press on towards the goal’, or in the words of the letter to the Hebrews, ‘we run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus’. Jesus assures us in the gospel reading that if we remain faithful to the journey, to the search, we will be given good things by God. In our seeking the Lord, we will discover that the Lord is seeking us with even greater energy and passion.

And/Or

(viii) Thursday, First Week of Lent

The teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is very demanding. We might be tempted to get discouraged by its challenging call. It is in that context, towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, that we find today’s gospel reading. Jesus encourages us to seek God’s help, without which we will not be able to live out Jesus’ teaching. We are to come before God in prayer, asking, seeking and knocking. We are to do this not just occasionally but repeatedly. The sense of what Jesus says is, ‘keep on asking’, ‘keep on seeking’, ‘keep on knocking’. We are to keep looking for the help that only God can give. It is God who enables us to live as Jesus calls us to live, as God desires us to live. At the end of his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul prays ‘May the God of peace sanctify you entirely’, and then immediately declares, ‘The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this’. God who calls us through Jesus will make it possible for us to answer the call. Our response to the Lord’s call is always a graced response. We need to acknowledge our dependence on God for all we need to live according to God’s will for our lives as revealed by Jesus. That is why we need to keep on asking God, to keep on seeking God and to keep on knocking on God’s door.

And/Or

(ix) Thursday, First Week of Lent

Saint Augustine wrote in his Confessions, ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you’. Augustine had come to realize that the inner restlessness that drove him down all sorts of avenues in his younger years could only be calmed by God. All our seeking and searching is ultimately a search for God who alone can satisfy our deepest yearnings. One of the ways we give expression to those deep yearnings for God is in prayer. Prayer is an outlet for our restless hearts, our searching spirits. At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks of prayer in the language of searching, asking and knocking. He acknowledges that our longing for God, our desire for God’s attention, God’s love, finds privileged expression in prayer. He also assures us that if we give expression to our searching spirits in prayer, we will not ultimately be disappointed, ‘it will be given to you… you will find… the door will be opened to you’. Jesus is not saying that whatever we ask for in prayer we will get. He is saying that God the Father will give, what the gospel reading calls, ‘good things’ to those who seek God in prayer. Our prayer will serve us well at the deepest level of our being. When we focus our restless spirit on God, as we do in prayer, we open ourselves up to the good that God wants to give us. In prayer we always discover that we are graced by God, in a way that anticipates that full and final grace or good that awaits us in eternity.

And/Or

(x) Thursday, First Week of Lent

The prayer of Queen Esther in today’s first reading is a very powerful prayer of someone in mortal peril, especially the final petition of her prayer, ‘come to my help, for I am alone and have no one but you, Lord’. She is a powerful woman, a queen, but at this desperate moment in her life she recognizes that she is completely powerless and totally dependent on the Lord alone for help. There can come a time in all of our lives when we recognize that if the Lord does not help me no one will. These are moments when our total dependence on the Lord for our personal survival is crystal clear to us. We come before the Lord in our poverty, our vulnerability, and in desperation we cry for his help. This is the kind of prayer out the depths of mortal peril that the Lord never fails to answer. This is the backdrop against which we can hear the exhortation of Jesus in today’s gospel reading, ‘ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you’. He is not saying ‘God will give you anything you want’, but rather, ‘God will never abandon you when you feel completely isolated and truly desperate. It is then that, in the words of Jesus in the gospel reading, ‘your Father in heaven will give good things to those who ask him’. Sometimes we have to be in dire straits, like Queen Esther, to realize how much we need the Lord. It is often moments of greatest weakness that open us up most fully to the Lord’s ‘faithfulness and love’, in the language of today’s responsorial psalm.

And/Or

(xi) Thursday, First Week of Lent

The first reading is one of the great prayers of petition in the Jewish Scriptures. Esther prays to God out of a sense of deep distress and isolation, ‘Reveal yourself in the time of our distress… for I am alone and have none but you, Lord’. It is often when our need is greatest that we petition God with the greatest urgency. The really difficult moments in live reveal to us our vulnerability, our need for help beyond ourselves. In the gospel reading, Jesus encourages us to petition God, not just when our need is desperate but at all times. He literally says, ‘Keep on asking… keep on searching… keep on knocking’. Our prayer of petition will not always be responded to by God in the way that we hoped. Saint Paul pleaded with the Lord repeatedly to take from him what he calls a ‘thorn in the flesh’. His prayer was not answered as he had hoped; he was left with his ‘thorn’. Yet, his prayer was not in vain either. Through petitioning the Lord Paul came to realize that God was working powerfully through this thorn in his flesh. God’s power was being made perfect in weakness, as Paul said. Even when our prayer of petition is not answered in the way we want, it is never in vain. Our prayer of petition will always open us up to the Lord’s working in our lives. In that sense, when we ask, we will always receive and when we knock the door will always be opened. God gives what the gospel reading calls ‘good things’ to those who petition him in prayer. In today’s responsorial psalm, the psalmist prays, ‘On the day I called, you answered; you increased the strength of my soul’. When we petition God out of our need, God will always strengthen our soul. In the words of Saint Paul, we will be strengthened in our ‘inner being with power through his Spirit’.

And/Or

(xii) Thursday, First Week of Lent

I have often heard people say to me who have been through a difficult time, ‘I don’t know where I would be if it weren’t for my faith’. It is clear that their faith in the Lord was their primary support during a very difficult time. We find the same sentiment in the prayer of Queen Esther in today’s first reading, ‘Come to my help, for I am alone and have no one but you, Lord’. It is a very striking prayer and statement. Esther feels alone before a very threatening situation, and, yet, she knows that she is not really alone because the Lord is standing by her. In his second letter to Timothy, Saint Paul expresses a similar sentiment at a time of great vulnerability in his life, ‘At my first defence no one came to my support, but all deserted me… But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength’. There are times in all of our lives when we too became very aware that the Lord alone can be relied on to bring us through some crisis or other. It is to such a setting that the invitation of Jesus at the beginning of today’s gospel reading belongs, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you’. Jesus is assuring us that when all else fails. God will not fail us. When we turn to God in our hour of desperate need, as Esther did, the Lord will always respond to our prayer, in some way. Our urgent prayer out of the depths will never go unanswered. Such prayer will always open us up to the Lord’s sustaining and strengthening presence, and we will come to say in the words of today’s responsorial psalm, ‘On the day I called, your answered; you increased the strength of my soul’.

And/Or

(xiii) Thursday, First Week of Lent

We pray in different ways at different times of our lives. Yet, it is likely that a great deal of our prayer is the prayer of petition. We ask God for something. The Book of Psalms is a collection of Jewish prayers. The type of prayer most frequently found in that Book is the prayer of petition. The people of Israel were not slow to petition God. We have a wonderful prayer of petition in today’s first reading. Queen Esther’s prayer begins, ‘My Lord, our King, come to my help, for I am alone and have no helper but you’. Jesus was a Jew and would have petitioned God. In the garden of Gethsemane he prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me’. In today’s gospel reading, he encourages us to petition God, ‘Ask… search… knock’. He also assures us that our prayer of petition will not go answered, ‘…it will be given to you… you will find… the door will be opened to you’. We know from our experience that our prayers are not always answered in the time or in the way we had hoped. Saint Paul had this experience. In one of his letters, he speaks of a thorn in his flesh, whatever that might be. He says that three times he appealed to the Lord to be rid of it, but he was left with his thorn in the flesh. Yet, he came to recognize that although his prayer hadn’t been answered in the way he had hoped, the Lord did respond to his prayer. He heard the Lord say to him, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’. Paul came to see that the Lord was working powerfully through this thorn in the flesh. Our prayer of petition never goes unanswered. The Lord answers it in some way. As Jesus says in the gospel reading, God gives good things to those who ask him. Whenever we pray the prayer of petition, we open ourselves up to whatever good thing God wants to give us. Very often, what the Lord gives us is what he gave to Paul, strength in our weakness. When we pray the prayer of petition, we can discover that with the Lord all things are possible.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

12th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Wednesday, First Week of Lent (Inc. Luke 11:29-32): ‘There is something greater than Jonah here’.

Wednesday, First Week of Lent

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Luke 11:29-32 As Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be a sign.

The crowds got even bigger, and Jesus addressed them: ‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here. On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.’

Gospel (GB) Luke 11:29-32 ‘No sign will be given to this generation except the sign of the Prophet Jonah.’

At that time: When the crowds were increasing, Jesus began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgement with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.’

Gospel (USA) Luke 11:29-32 No sign will be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah.

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

Reflections (9)

(i) Wednesday, First Week of Lent

It seems that during his public ministry Jesus was asked more than once by people for a sign to show he was the person he claimed to be. Today’s gospel reading suggests that Jesus was very exasperated by this demand for a sign. He had already given them many signs. The words he spoke, the healings he performed, the actions he carried out, were all signs that God was present in Jesus in a way that was unique. Jesus reminds his contemporaries that people responded generously to the preaching of the prophet Jonah, and a queen from a distant land came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Yet, as Jesus says he himself is a greater prophet than Jonah, and he embodies God’s wisdom more fully than Solomon. Jesus was God’s greatest gift to humanity, and yet his contemporaries failed to see this. They were blind to all that God was offering them through Jesus. We can all fail to appreciate at times God’s gift of his Son to us. We fail to recognize him as our greatest treasure, our pearl of great price. We can take his presence in our lives a little for granted. We spend our lives growing in our appreciation of the value of Jesus to us. Saint Paul was once a persecutor of the followers of Jesus. Yet, in his letter to the Philippians he could say, ‘I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’. Lent is a time when we are called to grow in our appreciation of the surpassing value of Jesus in our lives. He is the treasure hidden in the field that we are invited to keep joyfully rediscovering.

And/Or

(ii) Wednesday, First Week of Lent

In the gospel reading Jesus addresses his contemporaries as people who fail to appreciate him; they do not recognize the significance of his person, his presence, someone greater than Jonah, greater even than Solomon. If the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah and if the Queen of the South responded to Solomon, how much more should Jesus’ contemporaries respond to him. The same Jesus who was present to his contemporaries is present to us as risen Lord. We too can fail to appreciate the Lord who stands among us. Like Jesus’ contemporaries, we can look for signs without recognizing the powerful signs of his presence that are all around us. The greatest sign of the Lord’s presence, a sacred sign or sacrament, is the Eucharist. In the Eucharist the Lord is present to us under the form of bread and wine, saying to us, ‘This is my body… This is my blood’. In coming to the Lord in the Eucharist we are coming to someone greater than Jonah or Solomon. The Lord is present to us in other ways also. We take his presence seriously by responding to his call and following in his way, as the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah’s call,. Having been graced by the Lord’s presence, we are to respond to his presence by living in a graced way.

And/Or

(iii) Wednesday, First Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus declares of himself that he is greater than Solomon and greater than Jonah. We could add to that list – greater than Abraham, greater than Moses, greater than Isaiah or Jeremiah. Jesus is greater than all the leading figures of the Jewish Scriptures because he has a closer relationship with God than all who went before him. We express this close relationship Jesus has with God by saying that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus’ relationship with God is unique to himself. Yet, he came into the world to draw us all into his own very close relationship with God. He pours his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, into our hearts, so that we, like him, can call God ‘Abba, Father’. Through the Holy Spirit, we become brothers and sisters of Jesus; we come to share in his own intimate relationship with God. Our calling is to live out of that relationship, to live as brothers and sisters of Jesus, as sons and daughters of God. We pray that this season of Lent would help us to live that calling more fully.

And/Or

(iv) Wednesday, First Week of Lent

People are often drawn to what Jesus in today’s gospel refers to as ‘signs’, unusual manifestations of a religious nature. We have had our own examples of that in recent times. Yet, the very people who were asking Jesus for signs were failing to recognize the great sign that was there before them, Jesus himself. He speaks of himself as greater than Solomon, greater than Jonah, and, yet, some of his contemporaries were taking him less seriously than the contemporaries of Solomon and Jonah had taken them. Sometimes in our search for the unusual and the extraordinary we can miss the wonder of what is there before us. The Lord is present to us as fully as he was present to the people of Galilee and Judea; he is present to us as someone greater than Solomon, Jonah and all the other great characters of the Jewish Scriptures. He is present to us in his Word, in the Eucharist, in each other, deep within ourselves. The Lord dwells among us full of grace and truth and we are invited to receive from his fullness. We don’t need signs and wonders. Lent is a good time to become more aware of the many ways the Lord is present to us in all his greatness and wonder.

And/Or

(v) Wednesday, first week of Lent

When it comes to the religious dimension of life, the hankering after the spectacular and unusual will always be there. Jesus had to deal with that in his own day. People wanted some spectacular sign from him to establish beyond doubt that he was who he said he was. In today’s gospel reading Jesus addresses the crowds who gather around him as a wicked generation because they are asking for a sign. Today people can be very impressed by visionaries who claim to have visions that are denied to the rest of believers. The church has traditionally been very wary of all such claims. In the gospel reading Jesus accuses his contemporaries of failing to see what is there before them. They want signs and yet all they need already stands in front of them in the person of Jesus, someone greater than Solomon, greater than Jonah, greater than all the prophets and kings of Israel. The Lord has already given us all we need in and through the church, the community of believers. There we will find the living word of God; we will find the Eucharist and the other sacraments; we will find Jesus present among and within his followers. We need nothing more. What Jesus looks for from us is a generous response to all that we have been given.

And/Or

(vi) Wednesday, First Week of Lent

I have often been struck by those sayings of Jesus in today’s gospel reading, ‘There is something greater than Solomon here… There is something greater than Jonah here’. It was as if Jesus was trying to get his contemporaries to appreciate the full reality of his identity and ministry. They were looking but not really seeing and listening but not really hearing. They were looking for a sign, when Jesus was already giving them more signs than they needed, if only they were attentive. The Lord remains present to us in all his ‘fullness’, in the language of the fourth gospel. We can easily fail to appreciate the full reality of his presence and ministry among us. We too can look but fail to see, listen but fail to hear. It can happen that people only discover the richness of their faith after many years, often quite late in life. Their relationship with the Lord has been there but somewhat dormant. Then something comes along that makes them value that relationship more fully. They begin to appreciate in a new way the ‘something greater’ that Jesus talks about in the gospel reading. There is always a ‘something greater’ to be discovered in our relationship with the Lord. There is always more to our faith than we appreciate at any one time in our lives. We are on a journey of endless discovery when it comes to our relationship with the Lord and all it implies for ourselves and our world. It is an adventure that it always before us to be explored. Every day we can discover ‘something greater’.

And/Or

(vii) Wednesday, First Week of Lent

In the gospel reading Jesus remarks on the fact that even though he is greater than Solomon and Jonah, Solomon and Jonah drew a greater response than he was drawing. They both received a more impressive hearing than Jesus did. The first reading is from the prophet Jonah. Rather than a series of messages, as are most of the prophetic books, this prophetic book is a very engaging story. God sent Jonah to preach God’s word to the people of the city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire Israel’s traditional enemies. Jonah refused to go, but God kept pursuing him and, eventually, Jonah had no choice but to preach the God’s word to the people of this city. Today’s first reading shows that the response of the people of Nineveh to Jonah’s preaching was extraordinary. Everyone from the king down – including the animals! – put on sackcloth and ashes and renounced their sinful behaviour. The author of this book was reminding the people of Israel that the Spirit of God can move in the hearts of people beyond the boundaries of Israel. This was at a time when the people of Israel were tending to turn in on themselves as a way of protecting their identity from the sinful nations around them. The author was saying that God was not the God of Israel in any narrow sense but that God’s loving reach extended to all of humanity, including Israel’s enemies. Just as the pagan people of Nineveh responded to a Jewish prophet, so the pagan Queen of Sheba responded to the Jewish king, Solomon. Jesus too revealed a God who wanted to draw together all the nations. Like Jonah, he came not just for Israel but for all humanity. He is greater than Jonah in that through his life, death and resurrection he drew people to himself from north, south, east and west, and he became the cornerstone of a new spiritual temple, the church, in which the distinction between Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female was no longer significant. We are all part of that spiritual temple, and we are called to keep responding to Jesus who stands among us today as someone who is greater than all the wise people and prophets that came before him or have come after him.

And/Or

(viii) Wednesday, First Week of Lent

The city of Nineveh mentioned in today’s first reading from the Book of Jonah was the capital of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and deported its population, scattering them across their empire. The Assyrians were the quintessential enemies of Israel. The Book of Jonah is story rather than history. It is the story of a Jewish prophet, Jonah, who very reluctantly went to preach the gospel of God’s forgiveness to the people of Nineveh, in response to God’s insistent call. The response of the people of Nineveh to Jonah’s preaching was wholeheartedly positive. All the people, from the king down, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth; they called on the God of Israel and renounced their evil behaviour. The Book of Jonah was written at a time when the people of Israel had a very negative view of foreigners, those beyond the boundaries of Israel. The author of this story was saying that God was just as concerned for the enemies of Israel as for Israel itself, and that God can be powerfully at work among those whom we are tempted to regard as beyond the reach of God. In the gospel reading, Jesus, with reference to himself, says, ‘there is something greater than Jonah here’. To an even greater extent than Jonah, Jesus recognized the working of God’s Spirit beyond the boundaries of Israel. He once said of a Roman centurion, a symbol of the occupying power in Israel, ‘not even in Israel have I found such faith’. He also declared, ‘People will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God’. Both Jonah and Jesus call on us to be open to and attentive to the workings of God’s Spirit in the lives of those whom we might be tempted to dismiss as evil or beyond redemption. This call is especially timely in a period of war and conflict.

And/Or

(ix) Wednesday, First Week of Lent

Today’s responsorial psalm is one of the great penitential psalms in the Book of Psalms. It is a Jewish prayer but it has spoken to Christians from the earliest days of the church. It is a prayer anyone of us could pray when we feel the need for God’s forgiveness. The psalm acknowledges that what pleases God more than the sacrifices that were carried out in the Temple in Jerusalem is what the psalm calls a ‘humble, contrite heart’. What speaks most powerfully to God is what is in our heart. That is why in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, it was the prayer of the tax collector that was pleasing to God. His simple prayer, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner’ revealed a humble and contrite heart. In today’s first reading, the preaching of Jonah touched the hearts of the people of Nineveh. Their humble and contrite heart expressed itself in a period of fasting and in putting on sackcloth and ashes. In the gospel reading, Jesus laments the failure of his own contemporaries to allow their hearts to be touched by his preaching, even though he is greater than Jonah, and greater than Solomon. ‘There is something greater than Solomon… than Jonah here’. We continue to live in the presence of this greater one, now risen Lord. He continues to proclaim his gospel to us, the gospel of God’s unconditional and faithful love for us all. When we open ourselves to this wonderful gift of the Lord’s love, we cannot but realize that we haven’t always loved him in return. We haven’t made a return for all he has given us. That is why today’s responsorial psalm is a prayer that we can always pray. Such a prayer, prayed with a humble and contrite heart, a prayer that will always be heard by God and will leave us at peace with God.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

11th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Tuesday, First Week of Lent (Matthew 6:7-15): ‘So you should pray like this’.

Tuesday, First Week of Lent

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 6:7-15 How to pray.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So you should pray like this:

‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. And do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one.

‘Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.’

Gospel (GB) Matthew 6:7-15 ‘Pray then like this.’

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then, like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. ‘For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 6:7-15 This is how you are to pray.

Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This is how you are to pray:

‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’

“If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

Reflections (14)

(i) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says, ‘Your Father knows what you need before you ask him’. Whereas Jesus encourages us to petition God for our needs, he is saying that our prayers of petition are not about making God aware of something God is ignorant of. In that sense, our prayer of petition does not change God, giving him information God doesn’t have, prompting God to do something God was not intending to do. Our prayer of petition changes us. It makes us more receptive to what God wants to give us. By naming what we need to God, we become more aware of what we need from God and become more open to what God wants to give us. In the prayer that has become known as the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus names for us what it is we really need. We often pray for what we want, but what we want does not always correspond to what we need. According to Jesus, in the prayer he has given us, we need to acknowledge in our thoughts, words and deeds, the priority of God’s kingdom over all earthly kingdoms. We are to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, which Jesus identifies with the doing of God’s will, as Jesus reveals it to us in his teaching and by his life. According to Jesus’ prayer, we need ‘daily bread’. We need sustenance for body and soul, and when others are deprived of such sustenance, we need to provide for them out of our resources. According to Jesus’ prayer, we need to pray for forgiveness for our sins against God and God’s people, while being ready to forgive the sins of others against us. Finally, we need to pray for the grace to remain faithful to the Lord’s way, especially when we are tempted to take a path that is not God’s will for us. We pray this prayer so often that we can fly through it. It is worth praying it slowly and meditatively, because it is the word of the Lord.

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(ii) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel Jesus says that prayer is not about informing God about something God is not aware of. There is no need for many words, he says, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Our prayer does not inform God. Rather, our prayer forms us. In praying we acknowledge who God is and who we are before God. In doing so we grow in our relationship with God and we become more fully the person God is calling us to be. The prayer that Jesus gives us, the Lord’s Prayer, has two parts to it. In the first part, we acknowledge who God is and in the second part who we are before God. In those opening petitions we acknowledge the priority of God’s name, God’s kingdom and God’s will. In a sense, we invite God to be God. In the following petitions we acknowledge who we are before God, dependent on God for our fundamental needs, our physical needs symbolized by bread and our spiritual needs, our need for forgiveness for our sins and for strength in time of temptation by evil. This very short prayer is both a prayer in itself and a teaching on prayer. It is a prayer that shows us what is at the heart of all prayer.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

If yesterday’s gospel reading highlighted one of the great Lenten practices, that of almsgiving, or service of the needy, this morning’s gospel reading highlights another of the three great Lenten practices, that of prayer. In the gospel reading, Jesus declares that, when it comes to prayer, many words are not needed. The pagans use many words in prayer hoping in doing so that they will force the god to act. Jesus insists that his followers concentrate on quality rather than quantity in prayer. The chief quality for the Christian is trust in God the Father’s loving providence. It is that quality above all that is expressed in the short prayer that Jesus gives his followers, the Lord ’s Prayer, as we call it. The Lord’s Prayer is not only a prayer but also a lesson on how to pray. The first part of this prayer teaches us to focus on the triumph of God the Father’s purpose for our world rather than on our petty concerns – ‘your name, your kingdom, your will’. God’s name will be honoured when God’s kingdom comes and God’s kingdom will come when God’s will is done. In praying that God’s will be done we are committing to doing God’s will ourselves. It is only after the focus on God’s purposes that we are encouraged to focus on ourselves, our daily bread, our sins, our deliverance from evil. We are encouraged to focus on ourselves not as individuals but as members of a community; that is why the language of the second part of the prayer is ‘our’ rather than ‘my’. We petition God not just for ourselves as individuals but for each other. Jesus teaches us that prayer is always a going out of ourselves towards God and towards our neighbours.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

The gospels portray Jesus at prayer many times, and sometimes they give us the content of his prayer. However, only once is Jesus presented as teaching his disciples a prayer for them to pray, and that prayer has become known to us as the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer that has had a privileged place within the Christian tradition because it is the only prayer that Jesus explicitly taught us to pray. For all the differences across the various Christian denominations, this prayer is one that we all have in common. It is a prayer we can all pray together. It is more than a prayer; it is also a lesson on how to pray. The first part of the prayer is focuses on God rather than our own needs – God’s name, kingdom, will. Prayer is essentially the service of God rather than the service of ourselves. Only after those petitions that focus on God does Jesus teach us to focus on ourselves, our need for sustenance, both material and spiritual, our need for forgiveness, our need for deliverance when the struggle with evil, with what is opposed to God, comes our way. All of our prayers of petition for ourselves and for each other are to conform in some way to those fundamental petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

Many of us will have been introduced to various prayers in the course of our lives. We may have learned some prayers in school or at home, or we may have come across other prayers in books. Among all those prayers, the prayer we know as the ‘Our Father’ or ‘the Lord’s prayer’ has a privileged place. That is because it is a prayer that has come to us directly from Jesus. It is taken straight out of the gospels. It is a very special prayer, which is why at Mass we stand up to pray the Our Father, just as we stand up to listen to the gospel reading. Because it has come to us directly from Jesus, it is worth paying attention to the individual petitions which make up the prayer. Indeed, every one of the petitions is a little prayer in itself which we could pray quietly and repeatedly to ourselves. For example, the petition, ‘your will be done’ is a prayer that Jesus himself prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. One little prayer exercise for Lent might be to take one petition of the Our Father each day and to spend a few moments praying that petition, repeating it quietly in our hearts.

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(iv) Tuesday, First week of Lent

In the gospel reading this morning Jesus draws a contrast between the prayers of the pagans which consists of many words and the simplicity of the prayer that he gives to his disciples. The pagans’ use of many words is an attempt to manipulate God, according to Jesus. Disciples, however, are to entrust themselves to God when they pray. In the prayer that Jesus gives, the initial focus is on God. We are to pray that God’s kingdom would come, or, in other words, that God’s will be done. This was the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Only then are we encouraged to pray for our own needs; the prayer shifts from ‘your’ to ‘us’. The following four petitions express our basic human needs as disciples: they declare that we need bread to keep us alive bodily and forgiveness to keep us alive spiritually. The final two petitions are really one petition in two forms, ‘lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’. We ask God to prevent us from falling when temptation comes, to keep us faithful to him when we are assaulted by evil. These last petitions express Jesus’ conviction that God’s power is stronger than the power of evil, or, as Paul put it, ‘where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more’. This was Jesus’ own experience in the wilderness when he was tempted.

And/Or

(vii) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

The gospel reading this morning gives us what has become known as ‘the Lord’s prayer’. It is the Lord’s prayer because it is the only prayer in the gospels that Jesus teaches his disciples, and all of us, to pray. It has had a privileged place among Christian prayers because it has been given to us by the Lord himself. It has been said that this prayer is not only a prayer but a teaching on prayer, a teaching on how to pray and what to pray for. The focus of the initial petitions is on God, God’s name, God’s kingdom, God’s will. Initially, the prayer invites us to surrender to God and to what God wants. The remaining petitions focus on ourselves and on our basic material and spiritual needs, our daily bread, forgiveness for our sins, strength when temptation comes, protection from evil. The last two petitions there, ‘lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’, are two different ways of making the same prayer, which is essentially the prayer, ‘keep us faithful when we are put to the test’. We learn a lot about what to pray for when we reflect on the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. It is a lesson in the prayer of petition. In that prayer Jesus is really teaching us where our priorities are to lie as his followers.

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(viii) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

The gospels portray Jesus at prayer many times, and sometimes they give us the content of his prayer. However, only once is Jesus presented as teaching his disciples a prayer for them to pray, and that prayer has become known to us as the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer that has had a privileged place within the Christian tradition because it is the only prayer that Jesus explicitly taught us to pray. For all the differences across the various Christian denominations, this prayer is one that we all have in common. It is a prayer we can all pray together. In giving us this prayer, Jesus was also giving us a lesson on how to pray. The first part of the prayer is focused on God rather than on ourselves, God’s name, God’s kingdom, God’s will. Jesus is teaching us that prayer is a letting go to God, a yielding to what God wants for his world and for ourselves. Only after those petitions that focus on God does Jesus teach us to focus on our own needs. The Lord’s Prayer encourages us to pray out of our fundamental needs, our need for sustenance, both material and spiritual, our need for forgiveness, our need for God’s deliverance when evil in whatever form puts our faithfulness to the Lord to the test. It is significant that in those second set of petitions, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to focus on ourselves not as individuals but as members of a community; that is why the language of the second part of the prayer is ‘our’ rather than ‘my’. In praying those petitions, I am praying not just for myself but for others. We pray this prayer as members of a community of faith. Through the two sets of petitions that make up this prayer, Jesus is teaching us that prayer is always a going out of ourselves towards God and towards others.

And/Or

(ix) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus gives his disciples the prayer that has come to be known as the Lord’s prayer. He contrasts it with the prayer of the pagans which he identifies with babble, an abundance of words. In contrast, the prayer that Jesus gives us has few words. It is a prayer that is paired down to its essentials. It is the essence of prayer to God. It is short but deep. Every line of the Lord’s prayer could be the basis for a time of quiet prayer. A good Lenten exercise might be to take each of the nine lines of the prayer and spend ten minutes praying each line for each of nine days. It would be a kind of novena of prayer based on the Lord’s prayer. We could repeat each line to ourselves quietly, allowing it to enter into our hearts and souls. The prayer has a focus on God in the first four lines – Our Father who art in heaven; hallowed be name; your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as in heaven. The focus of the remaining five lines is on ourselves and our needs: Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our trespasses; as we forgive those who trespass against us; lead us not into temptation; deliver us from evil. We sit quietly with each petition for a short while in silence and we allow the Lord to speak to us through those words of the Lord.

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(x) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

The prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples to pray is the one prayer that Christians of all denominations are comfortable praying. Perhaps that is because this prayer is really about the basics. It focuses on what really matters. Jesus had a way of zooming in on the essentials and that is evident in this prayer, the only prayer he is recorded as asking us to pray. For Jesus the primary essential was, of course, God his Father, which is why the first three petitions all relate to God. They are really variations of one petition, ‘your kingdom come’. When God’s kingdom comes to earth, God’s name will be held holy and God’s will finally come to pass. At the beginning of this prayer, Jesus is teaching us to look beyond ourselves to God’s programme, God’s agenda. Within that setting, Jesus focuses in the remaining petitions on the essentials for human living and human relationships. We are to prayer for our daily bread, all that we need each day for our journey through the present world. It is an imperfect world, we ourselves are imperfect and we have to deal with imperfect people and, so, we will always stand in need of God’s forgiveness and we will always need the freedom to allow the forgiveness we receive from God to flow through us and embrace those who offend and hurt us. In this world, we will be assailed by evil in various forms, which will often put us to the test, as disciples, as human beings. Jesus teaches us to ask God to keep us faithful when the test, the temptation, comes, so that we don’t succumb to evil but, rather, as Paul says, overcome evil with good. In many ways, this prayer, the Lord’s prayer, displays the fundamental shape of our lives as followers of Jesus.

And/Or

(xi) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

Some people have difficulty with that petition in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Lead us not into temptation’. It seems to imply that God would deliberately lead us into temptation. The translation of that phrase in today’s gospel reading is, ‘do not put us to the test’. Perhaps that sounds like a more acceptable petition. We are asking God not to let us be tested beyond our limits, not to allow our faith in him to be tested beyond what we can endure. Whichever way this petition is translated, there is a second part to that petition which explains the first part, ‘deliver us from evil’ or in the translation of this morning’s gospel reading, ‘save us from the evil one’. No one could have a difficult with that prayer. We are asking God to keep us faithful when evil or the evil one puts us to the test or tempts us. This is the true meaning of the petition, ‘Lead us not into temptation’. We are asking God to strengthen us for that time when our faith in him will be severely put to the test, when we will be tempted to turn away from God’s will for our lives. Simon Peter was tempted in this sense, and he failed the test when it came, denying Jesus and his own discipleship publicly. That petition in the Lord’s Prayer is very realistic. It acknowledges that it isn’t always easy to be true to our baptismal calling, to our relationship with the Lord. In making that petition, we can be confident that the Lord will hear our prayer and will keep us strong when such testing moments come. As Paul declares in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength’.

And/Or

(xii) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

We are very familiar with today’s gospel reading, because we pray most of it every time we come to Mass and, probably, at other times to. It is clear from the gospels that Jesus was a man of prayer, who often went off to some lonely place to pray. He was a prayerful person. It is not surprising then that some of his teaching, as we find it in the gospels, relates to prayer, how to pray. It is only in today’s gospel reading from Matthew, and its corresponding passage in Luke, that Jesus’ teaching on prayer consists in an actual prayer. Jesus was teaching us a prayer, and, also, a way to pray. ‘Pray like this’ – here is a prayer and an approach to prayer. What does this prayer teach us about how to approach prayer, how to pray. It begins, as all prayer needs to, with a focus on God. The first three petitions are focused on God, ‘your name… your kingdom… your will’. We recognize that what God wants takes priority over what we want. The second part of the prayer teaches us to bring our needs rather than our wants to God. It is not just my needs that are to feature in our prayer but the needs of all God’s people, all humanity, ‘us… we… our’. Every day we need food to nourish our bodies, but also our souls. Each day we stand in need of God’s forgiveness, just as we need to pass on that forgiveness to others. Every day we need the Lord’s help to prevent us from giving in to the temptation of evil or the evil one. The prayer Jesus gives us invites us to come before God in prayer out of a strong awareness of these basic needs.

And/Or

(xiii) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

There is a lovely image in today’s first reading of the life-giving power of the Lord’s word. Isaiah says that it is like the rain and snow that water the earth and make it yield seed for the sower and bread for eating. Just as the rain from the sky provides the bread that people eat, so the word from the Lord satisfies an even deeper and more fundamental hunger in the human person, the spiritual hunger for intimacy with God. When we listen to today’s gospel reading, we can appreciate the power of the Lord’s word. The Lord’s teaching on prayer there has been a powerful inspiration to believers down the centuries. Jesus teaches us how to pray by giving us a prayer to say. The Lord’s Prayer, as it has become known, is not just one prayer among many but a school of prayer, a teaching on how to pray. The first words, ‘Our Father’, teaches us that we are not praying to a distant God but to a God who wants us to address him in the way Jesus did, as ‘Abba, Father’. We are being drawn into a sharing in Jesus’ own relationship with God. The initial focus of our prayer is what God wants, the coming of God’s kingdom, the doing of God’s will. Only then do we focus on our own needs, bread for the day, forgiveness for our sins and protection from the evil one who puts our faith to the test. Jesus implies that all of our prayer should have something of these elements. The petition ‘give us today our daily bread’ links into the first reading. We are praying both for the satisfaction of our physical hunger and our spiritual hunger. As the Jewish Scriptures remind us elsewhere, we do not live on bread alone, physical bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

And/Or

(xiv) Tuesday, First Week of Lent

In the gospel reading Jesus contrasts the prayer he gives to his disciples with the babbling of pagans. The reference is to pagans who seek to manipulate the gods by an abundance of words and sounds. Jesus reveals a God who cannot be manipulated or controlled in that way. On the contrary, in coming before God we open ourselves to God, we surrender before God. That attitude towards God is at the core of the prayer that Jesus gives us in today’s gospel reading, which is in many ways a prayer of surrender. In that prayer Jesus teaches us to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, not ours, the doing of God’s will on earth, not ours. He teaches us to recognize our dependence on God for what is most important, forgiveness for our sins, sustenance for body and soul, strength when evil puts us to the test or tempts us. It is a prayer which acknowledges who we are in relation to God, sons and daughters of a loving Father who desires all that is best for us. In some ways, it is a prayer of trust. It is only to someone we fully trust that we could say, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done’. As well as being a prayer of surrender and trust, it is also a prayer of petition. Jesus is showing us what to ask for when we come before God in our need. All our prayers of petition are to be shaped in some way by this primordial prayer of petition. It is also a prayer of intercession. It is a prayer that is prayed in the plural, not the singular. We address God as our Father. We ask our Father to forgive all of us our sins, to give all of us our daily bread and to stand by all of us when evil lurks at the door and tests us. It is a communal prayer; we are praying for one another. The language of the prayer is ‘our’, ‘us’ and ‘we’. Here is a prayer which is at the same time a lesson on how to pray, coming from the one Teacher.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

10th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Monday, First Week of Lent (Inc. Matthew 25:31-46): ‘I was a stranger and you made me welcome’.

Monday, First Week of Lent

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 25:31-46 I was naked and you clothed me; sick, and you visited me.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. ‘Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” Then the virtuous will say to him in reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome; naked and clothe you; sick or in prison and go to see you?” And the King will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.” ‘Next he will say to those on his left hand, “Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food; I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink; I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, naked and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me.” Then it will be their turn to ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?” Then he will answer, “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me.” ‘And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the virtuous to eternal life.’

Gospel (GB) Matthew 25:31-46 ‘He will sit on his glorious throne and he will separate people one from another.’

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples, ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” ‘Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?” Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 25:31-46 Whatever you have done to the very least of my brothers, you have done to me.

Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Reflections (13)

(i) Monday, First Week of Lent

In one sense, this gospel reading is about the judgement that is to happen at the end of time, ‘when the Son of Man comes in all his glory, escorted by all the angels’. However, the real focus of the gospel reading is on what we do or fail to do in the present, in the here and now. The glorious Son of Man, the King of the universe, declares himself present in the most vulnerable of our society. Just as God was powerfully and lovingly present to all when Jesus, the suffering Son of Man, was at his most vulnerable, as he hung from a Roman cross, so now the glorious Son of Man is powerfully present in those who are in greatest need. In serving the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned, we are serving the one to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given, and in failing to serve them we are failing to serve him. In that sense, judgement is happening now. How we relate to one another in the here and now, especially when we are frail and vulnerable, has the greatest significance in the Lord’s eyes. When Jesus was travelling the way of the cross, when he was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick and imprisoned, he had very little support. His closest associates had all abandoned him. Yes, Simon helped him carry his cross, the woman of Jerusalem wept for him, his mother and some women were close to the cross, but he mostly experienced rejection, mockery, cruelty and hatred. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus declares that he continues to travel the way of the cross through the broken and frail of our world. We have an opportunity to do what many failed to do in the hour of Jesus’ passion and death. Whenever we treat our fellow human beings with decency and compassion, it is the Lord himself who is being served, and at the end of our lives we will hear his words, ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed’. The gospel reminds us that the Lord is present, waiting to be served, in those most likely to be passed over.

And/Or

(ii) Monday, First Week of Lent

There is one place in the gospels where Jesus could have said of himself without hesitation, ‘I was hungry... I was thirsty... I was a stranger... I was naked... I was sick... I was in prison’. That place was Golgotha or Calvary, as Jesus hung upon the cross. On that occasion, the only human support he experienced was from the women who stood by the cross and, according to the fourth gospel, the beloved disciple. This was the hour of his passion and death. In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus suggests that he continues to live out his passion in the lives of all those who are hungry, thirsty, who are strangers, who are naked, sick and imprisoned. Jesus is saying that when we are in the presence of a broken, vulnerable human being we are at the foot of the cross. There is a song that is often sung in Holy Week, ‘Where you there when they crucified my Lord?’ In the light of this morning’s gospel reading we would have to answer ‘yes’ to that question. We were there and we are there, whenever someone comes before us in their brokenness, weakness and frailty. It is there we encounter the Lord in a very special way; it is there we serve him or fail to serve him. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. ‘Flesh’ suggests the human condition in all its vulnerability and proneness to brokenness. It is there above all that the Lord comes to us and calls out to us.

And/Or

(iii) Monday, First Week of Lent

When God visited his people in the person of Jesus many people did not recognize God present in Jesus. In many ways Jesus seemed too ordinary to be someone through whom God was visiting us. The people of Nazareth said, ‘Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ Then when Jesus was executed by the Romans by crucifixion this confirmed for many people that God could not be visiting us through Jesus. How could God be present in the crucified body of a convicted criminal? Yet, we believe that God was present in Jesus throughout his life, and especially in his death, even though very few recognized it. In the gospel reading Jesus declares that very few will recognize his presence as risen Lord either, especially his presence in the crucified, in those who are in greatest need, whether it is the need for food, drink, clothing, hospitality, health or freedom. At the end of time, people will ask, ‘when did we see you…’. God’s presence in Jesus was not always obvious to Jesus’ contemporaries, and the presence of the risen Lord will not always be obvious to us either. However, in today’s gospel reading Jesus declares that the privileged place of his presence is to be found among the most vulnerable and most dependent, and in serving them we are serving him, whether we realize that or not. This means that many people are serving the Lord in a very personal way, without knowing it, because they are befriending those who rely on others to live a fuller life.

And/Or

(iv) Monday, First Week of Lent

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus identifies himself with those considered least in the human family, those who are in greatest need. Nothing more is said of those who are in greatest need; nothing is said about whether they believe in Jesus or not or whether they are morally good or not. All that is said of them is that they are very needy; they need food, drink, clothing; they lack a home, health and freedom. How people relate to these groups becomes the criterion of how they relate to Jesus. The surprise expressed by both groups, those who cared for the people in greatest need and those who did not, shows that they had no awareness of who they were really dealing with in responding or failing to respond to those in need. The gospel reading states very strongly that our response or lack of response to basic human needs in others is of ultimate significance. On the cross Jesus himself was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick and imprisoned. As risen Lord he now identifies with all those who are in a similar situation, regardless of who they are, how they have lived or what their background might be.

And/Or

(v) Monday, First Week of Lent

Both groups in this morning’s gospel reading are surprised when they are told that they were actually encountering the Son of Man, the King of kings, in their ordinary daily encounters with the people who crossed their path in life, in particular, the broken, the vulnerable and those in greatest need. Although both groups dealt very differently with those they encountered in life, both asked the same question, ‘When did we see you...?’ The gospel reading suggests that there is always more to our various meetings with people in life than we realize. There is a sacred dimension to all our encounters; in dealing with each other, we are dealing with the Lord. In serving each other, we are serving the Lord. In neglecting to serve each other, we are neglecting to serve the Lord. There is a sacramental quality to all of life, and to all our human encounters. The Lord is really and truly present to us in others, especially in those who are experiencing the cross that Jesus himself experienced. On the cross he was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, imprisoned. He identifies himself fully with those who share his cross. The gospel reading suggests that we can find ourselves before the Lord on the cross more often than we might think.

And/Or

(vi) Monday, First Week of Lent

The gospel reading this morning reminds us of how closely Jesus identifies himself with the suffering, those in greatest need. The Lord comes to us in and through the suffering, the weakness, the vulnerability and the frailty of our fellow human beings, regardless of their race, creed or colour. Jesus assures us that when we are dealing with people in their brokenness we are dealing directly with him. Jesus is really and truly present to us in and through each other, especially each other’s suffering and pain. The people in the story Jesus told were surprised to discover that it was the risen Lord they had been serving or neglecting in serving and neglecting the needy who crossed their path. We sometimes make a distinction between the sacred and the secular, but the gospel reading suggests that the secular is the sacred. The ground, on which we stand, day in and day out, is often holy ground, without our realizing it. When we help to carry the burden of another, we are touching and being touched by the Lord. In the brokenness of life, heaven breaks through to earth.

And/Or

(vii) Monday, First Week of Lent

It is striking how many times in the gospels Jesus identifies himself with others, especially with those who would have been considered without status or honour in his culture, such as children. On one occasion he said, ‘whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me’. On another occasion he said to his own disciples, ‘whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me’. His disciples, for the most part, would not have been among the powerful and honourable of the time. In this morning’s gospel, Jesus identifies himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. Jesus seems to be saying to us that he comes to us in a special way through the brokenness, vulnerability and lowliness of others. He is also saying that he comes to others through our own brokenness and vulnerability. The two groups in this morning’s gospel reading were assessed very differently but each group asked the same question, ‘When did we see you hungry...’. One group was serving the Lord without realizing it and the other group was neglecting the Lord without realizing it. We often don’t recognize the Lord in the brokenness and suffering of life, whether it is the brokenness and suffering of others or our own. Today’s gospel reading invites us to become more aware of the Lord’s presence in weakness, vulnerability, failure and distress.

And/Or

(viii) Monday, First Week of Lent

During the year of mercy, Pope Francis stressed the importance of the seven corporal works of mercy. Most of those works are mentioned in today’s gospel reading, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless (welcoming the stranger), visiting the sick and imprisoned. All that is missing from the gospel reading is ransoming the captive and burying the dead. The gospel reading shows us faith in action or in the words of Paul, ‘faith working through love’. The real distinctive feature of the gospel reading is Jesus declaring that in serving those who are needy in any of these ways, people are serving him. In some mysterious way, it is the Lord who is needy, it is the Lord who is broken and suffering, in all of these groups. This gives a dimension to the service of others which is not immediately apparent. In serving others in these practical, down to earth ways, we are serving the Lord, whether we are aware of it or not. Because of that, our works of service are of eternal significance. Our failure to take the opportunities to serve the needy also has eternal significance of a different kind, because it is the Lord we are failing. The Jesus whom we meet in the disadvantaged is Emmanuel, God with us. In serving others, it is God we serve. In this way, Jesus brings together the two great commandments of love. In loving the neighbour, especially the broken and needy neighbour, it is God we are loving.

And/Or

(ix) Monday, First Week of Lent

The last line of today’s first reading from the Book of Leviticus is well-known to us from the gospels, ‘You must love your neighbour as yourself’. Jesus quotes this verse in response to a question he is asked as to what is the first commandment in the Jewish Law. Having given the first commandment, to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength, he then quotes this verse from Leviticus, ‘you shall love your neighbour as yourself’, and identifies it as the second commandment, thereby giving it a really important standing. We are to show our love of God by loving our neighbour as if they were an extension of ourselves. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus goes further than this second commandment. Jesus declares that not only are we to see our neighbour as an extension of ourselves but we are to see our neighbour as an extension of himself. It is almost as if the first commandment and the second commandment have become one. In loving our neighbour, Jesus declares that we are loving him, and we know from elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel that in loving Jesus we are loving God, because Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Whenever we render loving service to our fellow human beings, especially those in greatest need, we are rendering loving service to Jesus and to God. The opposite is also true. Whenever we neglect to love our neighbour in need, we are neglecting to love the Lord. This is the case whether or not we are aware of it. It is striking that, in the gospel reading, both groups were unaware that they were serving the Lord in love or neglecting to do so. Jesus suggests that there is a great deal more going on in our dealings with each other than we often realize, especially in our dealings with the most vulnerable.

And/Or

(x) Monday, First Week of Lent

It was Saint John of the Cross who said, ‘in the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone’. This is a very succinct commentary on today’s gospel reading. The setting is the coming of the Son of Man at the end of time, and what really matters to this kingly figure is how well we have loved or failed to love, understanding love as practical action on behalf of those in greatest need. Yet, the really striking thing about this gospel reading is that that this kingly figure who has the power to assemble all the nations before him identifies completely with the least powerful in society, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. In serving those in greatest need, people were serving him without realizing it; in failing to serve them, they were failing to serve him without realizing it. We are being reminded that every act of love for another human being brings us directly in touch with the Lord of heaven and earth. When we get into the nitty-gritty of journeying with others in their need, we are really walking on holy ground. In the weakest and most vulnerable we are coming face to face with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Today’s gospel reading almost combines in one the two great commandments, love of God and love of neighbour. In loving our broken and suffering neighbour, we are loving the Lord, and, as Saint John of the Cross says, it is such love that will matter most in the Lord’s eyes at the end of time, and at the end of our own earthly lives.

And/Or

(xi) Monday, First Week of Lent

We have all been very saddened and distressed by the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. The targeting of civilian areas is especially deplorable. We all feel a sense of helplessness. Yet, there is always something we can do. In centres in various parts of the city, including St Gabriel’s parish centre, people have been leaving supplies that are to be taken to the besieged citizens in Ukraine by lorry. Tremendous solidarity has been shown to the Ukraine people fleeing their homes by those living in countries bordering Ukraine, such as Poland, but also by people of other countries who don’t have a border with Ukraine, such as Germany. The lengths people in these countries are prepared to go to in order to support Ukrainians fleeing their homes is truly amazing. It is today’s gospel reading being put into action. The hungry are being fed, the thirsty are being given drinks, strangers are being welcomed, the sick are being cared for, those without sufficient clothing are being provided for. Jesus declares in that gospel reading that it is he himself who comes to us in the most vulnerable and that whatever we do for them we are doing for him. He identifies himself fully with the suffering and the broken, and we have seen so many suffering and broken people on our television screens in recent days. These are dark days in Europe and for Ukraine, but there is light in the darkness in the form of the generosity of spirit shown to those who have been deprived of so much. The Lord who comes to us in the breaking of bread in the Eucharist comes to us in the brokenness of others. Having received the Lord in the Eucharist, we are sent out from the Eucharist to receive him in those who stand in need of our help and support. In these dark days of war, when we can so easily be tempted to despondency, we can at least celebrate the many ways that the Lord is being received and served in those who are the innocent victims of this war. This generosity of spirit is an inspiration to us all to do what we can to serve the Lord in the vulnerable and broken of our world.

And/Or

(xii) Monday, First Week of Lent

In one of the beatitudes Jesus declares, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy’. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus outlines what being merciful entails. It means standing with the most vulnerable and responding to their need for the basic necessities of life such as food, water, welcome, clothing, healing and companionship. We have here what has often been termed the six corporal works of mercy. A seventh has been added in the tradition of the church, burying the dead. These are the works of mercy that open us up to receive God’s mercy. Jesus makes the striking statement that whenever we perform such works of mercy for someone, we are performing them for him, and whenever we fail to perform them for someone we fail to perform them for him. He identifies himself completely with those in greatest need. Jesus has both a special relationship with God, he is Emmanuel, God-with-us, and a special relationship with the most vulnerable. It is God, God-with-us, we meet in those whose great need calls out to us. Even the smallest act of service done for someone in need has enormous significance, because it is God we are engaging with. The here and the now is what matters, because so often the here is holy ground and the now is holy time, the place and the time where God meets us and calls out to us. We don’t have to search for ‘Sacred Space’; it is all around us.

And/Or

(xiii) Monday, First Week of Lent

In today’s gospel reading, both groups ask the same question of the Lord, ‘When did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison?’ Both groups receive the same answer from the Lord, ‘In so far as we did this or neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you did it or neglected to do it to me’. Jesus identifies himself very fully with those in greatest need who cross our path in life. When we serve others in their need, we are serving the Lord. When we fail to serve others in their need, we are failing to serve him. Jesus’ coming to his own people over two thousand years ago was so ordinary that many of his contemporaries failed to recognize him for who he was. The people of Nazareth asked, ‘Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?’ The risen Lord’s coming to us today is so ordinary that again we can fail to recognize him, ‘When did we see you?’ We don’t have to go too far t find the Lord. He comes to us in the neighbour, the family member, the friend, the stranger, who needs our help and support. People who give generously of themselves to those whose need is greater than theirs often say that they are not very religious. Yet, they are serving the Lord all the time without realizing it. At Christmas we celebrated the good news that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word, now risen Lord, continues to take flesh and to dwell among us today in those who cross our path every day. A listening ear, a kind word, a prayerful presence, a simple act of kindness, are all ways of serving the Lord, the one before whom all the nations will one day be assembled. The ground of everyday life is holy ground, because it is the place where the Lord comes to us and cries out to us.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

9th March >> Fr. Martin's Homilies/Reflections on Today's Mass Readings for First Sunday of Lent (C) (Luke 4:1-13): ‘The devil left him to return at the appointed time’.

First Sunday of Lent (C)

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Luke 4:1-13 The temptation in the wilderness.

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days. During that time he ate nothing and at the end he was hungry. Then the devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Scripture says: Man does not live on bread alone.’ Then leading him to a height, the devil showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and said to him, ‘I will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms, for it has been committed to me and I give it to anyone I choose. Worship me, then, and it shall all be yours.’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Scripture says:

You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.’

Then he led him to Jerusalem and made him stand on the parapet of the Temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said to him ‘throw yourself down from here, for scripture says:

He will put his angels in charge of you to guard you,

and again:

They will hold you up on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone.’

But Jesus answered him, ‘It has been said:

You must not put the Lord your God to the test.’

Having exhausted all these ways of tempting him, the devil left him, to return at the appointed time.

Gospel (GB) Luke 4:1-13 ‘Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness and tempted by the devil’.

At that time: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were over, he was hungry. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” ’ And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” ’ And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” ’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Gospel (USA) Luke 4:1–13 Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert and was tempted.

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written:

You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.”

Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written:

He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,

and:

With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says,

You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”

When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

Homilies (5)

(i) First Sunday of Lent

There are moments in all of our lives when we sense that something very deep with us is being put to the test. We are being tempted in some fundamental way. The struggles of life can put our faith in the Lord to the test. Our desire to serve others can be put to the test when we feel an absence of appreciation. Our hope for the future, for ourselves and others, can be put to the test when we find ourselves continually let down and disappointed. Our enthusiasm for life can be put to the test when some great loss comes our way. To be tested in some significant way is part of most people’s experience.

This was certainly part of the experience of Jesus. According to today’s gospel reading, just after his baptism he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. There in the wilderness, after forty days, when his physical resources were at their lowest, what was deepest in him was put to the test by Satan. He was tempted in the most fundamental way. His identity as the beloved Son of God, his mission to bring God’s love to the world, was put to the test. He was tempted initially to use his power in a self-serving way, by turning stones into bread to feed himself. However, Jesus knew that his calling from God was not to serve himself but to serve others. He would use his power to feed people’s physical hunger, and, more fundamentally, their spiritual hunger. He was then tempted to give his allegiance to Satan in exchange for an earthly kingdom that would dominate the kingdoms of the world. However, Jesus knew that God was calling him to make present the kingdom of God, which was not a kingdom of this world. His mission was to proclaim the rule of God’s unconditional love for all. This would put him in conflict with the most powerful kingdom of the world at the time, the Roman Empire. As a result, he would die a painful death on a Roman cross. He was finally tempted to use his power to force God to protect him from harm, by throwing himself down from the Temple in Jerusalem in the expectation that God would send his angels to catch him. However, Jesus refused to put God to the test in this way. He knew that if he was to be faithful to his mission, he could not force God to protect him. He would have to travel the way of the cross, entering into the pain and suffering of the world. Yet, he also knew that he could trust God to ultimately protect him by bringing him through suffering and death into a new and glorious life.

These particular temptations or tests were unique to Jesus. Yet, Jesus knew that we, his followers, would also be tempted and put to the test. That is why in the prayer he taught us, the Lord’s Prayer, the final petition is ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’. Jesus was teaching us there to ask God to keep us faithful when our relationship with him was put to the test, when we are tempted by evil in some way, tempted to turn from the path of goodness that God calls us to take. Jesus placed that petition at the conclusion of this prayer because he understood that we would all have our own version of the testing experience that he had in the wilderness of Judea. We should not be surprised when our relationship with God and his Son is put to the test, when we are tempted to compromise our values that flow from that relationship, when we sense that what is good and loving in us is being undermined. The experience of temptation, of being tested, need not disturb us. Even the greatest saints were tempted and put to the test. Even Jesus himself was tempted. A verse in the letter to the Hebrews says of Jesus that he was someone ‘who in every way has been tested as we are, yet without sin’.

Whenever we have the kind of testing experience that Jesus had in the wilderness, God does not leave us to our own resources. There is another verses that I often fall back on, from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, ‘God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it’. God is with us in those moments when our relationship with him, our baptismal calling, is put to the test. God was with Jesus in the wilderness. According to the gospel reading, Jesus went into the wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, fills us at those time when we are tempted by evil in some way. Jesus also had another resource in the wilderness, the word of God. He quoted from the Scriptures in response to each temptation. We have that same resource. The word of God can feed our spirits and strengthen us for those testing moments that inevitably come our way. The season of Lent is a good time to open ourselves up to all the resources God gives us to remain faithful in testing times.

And/Or

(ii) First Sunday of Lent

We have all experienced testing times in the course of our lives. School and college examinations test our knowledge. Our patience can be tested by someone whom we experience as annoying or troublesome. Our courage can be put to the test by the onset of serious illness. Our integrity can be tested when an opportunity comes along to make easy money at other people’s expense. Our fidelity to someone can be tested, when that relationship proves more demanding that we had anticipated. Our faith in God can be put to the test when, finding ourselves in a dark valley, our prayers seem to go unanswered.

Jesus knew what it was to be tested. The gospels tell us that, from time to time, individuals or groups deliberately set out to test him. Today’s gospel reading describes how Jesus endured a very difficult test immediately after his baptism. He left the river Jordan where he had been baptized and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he was tested or tempted for forty days. The gospel reading suggests that during these forty days Jesus was tested in a very fundamental way. His very baptismal identity was put to the test. Who he was and what his life was about was at issue. Will he use his power to satisfy his own physical appetites or will he use it to serve others? Will he compromise on his worship of God so as to gain worldly power and honours for himself? Will he take the short cut to gaining followers by relying on spectacular stunts, thereby putting God to the test? Jesus came through that testing time because he did not face it alone. God was with him in the test. He was supported by the word of God, and he was strengthened by the Spirit of God, whom he had received at his baptism. In the wilderness of temptation, he remained true to his baptismal identity.

Like Jesus, we have all been baptized. We have each received the Holy Spirit at our baptism, as he did. Our own baptismal identity will certainly be put to the test from time to time, as his was. Our baptism has made us sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit, members of Christ’s body the church. Because of our baptism, we have a certain set of beliefs. In the words of today’s second reading, we believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord. Who we are as baptized Christians and what we believe will often be put to the test. We may not be led into the physical wilderness as Jesus was after his baptism, but the world in which we live can be experienced as something of a wilderness when it comes to living out our baptism and being true to our baptismal identity. We often experience pressure from our culture to be someone other than what our baptism calls us to be; our peers can tempt us to live in a way that is at odds with our baptismal calling. As he was tempted to take various paths that were contrary to what God wanted for him, we will be tempted in a similar way. As his faithfulness to God’s call was severely tested, so also will our faithfulness be tested.

We are at the beginning of the seven week season of Lent. Lent is a season when we face the reality that our baptismal identity is always being put to the test, when we remind ourselves of the struggle we are always engaged in to be faithful to the call of our baptism. If remaining faithful to his baptism was a struggle for Jesus, it will certainly be a struggle for us. You could say that Lent is a season when we look temptation in the eye as it were, when we try to identity the particular ways in which we are being pulled away from the path the Lord is asking us to take. It is a season when we try to grow in our freedom to say ‘no’ to the subtle, and not-so-subtle, seductions of every day living. It is a time when we take an honest look at ourselves, and at the direction our lives are taking. This is not something we can do overnight. The season of Lent is nearly seven weeks long. We are given time, because when it comes to getting the basics right, like who we want to be and how we want to live, we need time.

The same resources that were available to Jesus in the wilderness are available to us as we enter this Lenten time. When Jesus was tempted, he fell back on the word of God to help him through. That same word of God has been given to us as a resource in coping with the various assaults on our baptismal identity. Lent is a good time to make greater use of that resource. Perhaps one Lenten exercise we might consider is to take away the Sunday Mass leaflet, and each day of the week to read the readings of the previous Sunday in a prayerful way for a few minutes, inviting the Lord to speak to us through them. We might begin our daily reading of those readings with the prayer, ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening’. The Holy Spirit also helped Jesus to be faithful to his baptismal call. We might conclude our prayerful reading of the Sunday readings with the prayer, ‘Come Holy Spirit; keep me faithful to my baptismal calling’. As we begin our Lenten journey together, we ask the Lord to help us to travel it well, so that when Easter comes we can wholeheartedly renew our baptismal promises together.

And/Or

(iii) First Sunday of Lent

We all get a certain satisfaction out of discovering shortcuts. If we have a journey to make on foot or by car and one day we discover a shortcut we are delighted. In the fast moving world in which we live, the question that often arises is: ‘What is the quickest way from A to B? What is the fastest way to get this done?’ Instant this, that or the other has become commonplace. We have got used to doing some things much more quickly than we would ever have done them in the past. In no area of life is this truer than in that of communications. Communications that once took days or even weeks now take seconds. We have come to benefit greatly from the fact that some things happen much quickly than they used to in the past. We are also very aware that more speed in one area of life has been counterbalanced by less speed in other areas. It takes much longer to drive across the city than it used to, which is why the discovery of the shortcut has become so important. However, we also know that when it comes to the more important things in life there are no shortcuts. Time and patience, faithfulness and application, are required and cannot be substituted for.

In today’s gospel reading Jesus is tempted to take a variety of shortcuts or easy options. His mission was to reveal God to people and to lead people to God. This was the mission Jesus publicly undertook at the moment of his baptism. In the gospel reading, Satan suggests a number of shortcuts Jesus could take to ensure that his mission gets quick results. He could use his power to turn stones into bread and thereby become a kind of one man bread basket for the people of Palestine. He would have people eating out of his hand, literally, and he could then lead them anywhere he wanted. Alternatively, if Jesus were to worship Satan, he would be given authority and power over all the kingdoms of the world. From such a position of power, he could influence and control people in any way he wished. Or else he could perform a whole series of heroic feats without getting hurt, knowing that God would protect him, like throwing himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple. Such circus-like acts would be great entertainment and would have people flocking to him in large numbers.

Jesus resisted those temptations because he knew that there was no shortcut for what God had sent him to do. There was no easy way of doing God’s work. Indeed, Jesus was well aware that his mission of revealing God’s love and justice to Jews and pagans, of gathering people together into a new family under God, would involve the long haul, necessitating the way of the cross, the way of suffering, rejection, humiliation and death. There was no other way, if he was to be faithful to the mission that God had given him.

The temptations that we find in today’s gospel reading were somewhat unique to Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. Yet, they are not without relevance to all of us. Like Jesus we too have been baptized, and like him we too received a calling and a mission on the day of our baptism. We are called to follow Jesus, to take the path that he took, to set out on a journey that does not lend itself to shortcuts or to easy options. Following Jesus today will often mean taking the road less travelled, saying ‘no’ to what a lot of our contemporaries are saying ‘yes’ to. When Jesus was saying ‘no’ to the shortcuts that Satan was suggesting to him, he was really saying ‘no’ to putting himself first. Rather than putting himself first, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. That is our calling too. As we begin Lent we are asked to look at ways we might become less self-serving and more the servant of others. In today’s second reading Paul reminds us that our baptismal faith finds expression in confessing Jesus as Lord, not just with our lips but with our lives. To confess Jesus as Lord is to acknowledge ourselves as his servants, called to serve as he did, to empty ourselves for others as he did. This is our baptismal calling that we try to say ‘yes’ to everyday of our lives. It will often mean going the long way round for the sake of the other rather than taking the shortcut, going the extra mile with someone who needs our companionship and support.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus was saying ‘no’ to the temptation to compromise himself for the sake of getting quick results. He would, instead, set out on a path that would not bring quick results. On the contrary, as he hung dying from the cross, it appeared that his mission would have very little, if any, results. Yet, he had sown a mustard seed that would become a large shrub. His life would ultimately bear rich fruit. Jesus, thereby, teaches us that faithfulness to God’s calling is a more important value than success, as this world measures success. If we are rooted in the gospel, if we allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives, to shape how we live, then our lives too will bear rich fruit, both for ourselves and for others, even if they do not appear to be successful in the way that success is often measured today. In our struggle with the temptation to sell ourselves short as the Lord’s followers, we have the same resource to help us as Jesus had in the wilderness, the Holy Spirit who came down upon us at our baptism, as he came down upon him as his baptism.

And/Or

(iv) First Sunday of Lent

We all get a certain satisfaction out of discovering shortcuts. In the fast moving world in which we live, the question that often arises is: ‘What is the quickest way from A to B? What is the fastest way to get this done?’ We have got used to doing some things much more quickly than we would ever have done them in the past. In no area of life is this truer than in that of communications. Communications that once took days or even weeks now take seconds. We have come to benefit greatly from the fact that some things happen much more quickly than they used to in the past. However, we also know that when it comes to the more important things in life there are no shortcuts. Time and patience, faithfulness and application, are required and cannot be substituted for.

In today’s gospel reading Jesus is tempted to take a variety of shortcuts. His mission was to lead people to God. In the gospel reading, Satan suggests a number of shortcuts Jesus could take to ensure that his mission gets quick results. He could use his power to turn stones into bread and thereby become a kind of one man bread basket for the people of Palestine. He would have people eating out of his hand, literally, and he could then lead them anywhere he wanted. Alternatively, if Jesus were to worship Satan, he would be given authority and power over all the kingdoms of the world. From such a position of power, he could influence and control people in any way he wished. Or else, knowing that God would protect him, he could perform a series of heroic feats without getting hurt, like throwing himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple. Such circus-like acts would be great entertainment and would have people flocking to him in large numbers.

Jesus resisted those temptations because he knew that there was no shortcut for what God had sent him to do. There was no easy way of doing God’s work. Indeed, Jesus was well aware that his mission of revealing God’s love and justice to Jews and pagans, of gathering people together into a new family under God, would involve the long haul, and would involve the way of the cross, the way of suffering, rejection, humiliation, death. There was no other way, if he was to be faithful to the mission that God had given him.

The temptations that we find in today’s gospel reading were somewhat unique to Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. Yet, they are not without relevance to all of us. Like Jesus we too have been baptized, and like him we too received a calling and a mission on the day of our baptism. We are called to follow Jesus and to reveal him to others. That involves setting out on a journey that does not lend itself to shortcuts or to easy options. Following Jesus today will often mean taking the road less travelled, saying ‘no’ to what seems very attractive and beguiling. When Jesus was saying ‘no’ to the shortcuts that Satan was suggesting to him, he was really saying ‘no’ to putting himself first. Rather than putting himself first, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. That is our calling too. As we begin Lent we are asked to look at ways we might become less self-serving and more the servant of others. In today’s second reading Paul reminds us that our baptismal calling is to confess Jesus as Lord, not just on our lips but in our hearts, with our lives. To confess Jesus as Lord is to live as his servants, to empty ourselves for others as he did. This will often mean going the long way round for the sake of others rather than taking the shortcut, going the extra mile with someone who needs our companionship and support.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus was saying ‘no’ to the temptation to compromise himself for the sake of getting quick results. He would, instead, set out on a path that would not bring quick results. On the contrary, as he hung dying from the cross, it appeared that his mission would have very little, if any, results. Yet, he had sown a small seed and it would go on to become a large shrub. His life would ultimately bear rich fruit. Jesus, thereby, teaches us that faithfulness to God’s calling is a more important value than instant success, as this world measures success. If we allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives, then our lives too will bear rich fruit, both for ourselves and for others, even if they don’t appear to be successful in the way that success is often measured today. In our struggle with temptation, we have the same resource to help us that Jesus had. In the wilderness, Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit has been poured into our hearts at our baptism. In the wilderness, Jesus quoted from the word of God every time he was put to the test by Satan. That same word of God has been given to us, and this Lent we are being invited to prayerfully reflect on the gospel of Luke. A representative of each household present in the church at this Mass is now invited to come forward and to receive a special copy of Luke’s gospel that has been prepared by the office of evangelization.

And/Or

(v) First Sunday of Lent

Even though most of us live in the city, we can all find ourselves in a a wilderness, a place where we feel vulnerable or under threat in some way. This is certainly true of the people of Ukraine who have suddenly found themselves in the most unimaginable wilderness. To a much lesser extent, we can all be driven into something of a wilderness by many factors. It might be the sudden onset of ill health, in ourselves or in someone dear to us, some experience of loss, such as the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, some loss of freedom, or simply the realization that something we wanted with all our heart will never materialize. There may also be times when we find ourselves in a spiritual wilderness. At the material level, everything may be going well for us, but spiritually we feel impoverished.

According to today’s gospel reading, it was immediately after his baptism that Jesus was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil. It was Jesus’ baptism that was being put to the test, his relationship with God as beloved Son, his faithfulness to God’s call and mission. He was tempted to take a path other than the one God had put before him on the day of his baptism. He was tempted initially to serve his own needs, turning stones into bread for himself, whereas God had sent him not to serve himself but others. Jesus would go on to multiply bread to feed the hunger of the crowd. He was tempted to seek after power and glory, as understood and exercised by the rulers of the world at the time, whereas the power of the kingdom he came to proclaim was the power of self-giving love. He was tempted to gain followers by engaging in the spectacular stunt, the extra-ordinary feat, whereas he came to enter fully into the ordinariness of our human condition, including its brokenness and vulnerability. This testing experience came at the very beginning of his public ministry. He would face a similar testing experience at the end of his public ministry, In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus would struggle to drink the cup he was being asked to drink. In both the physical wilderness and the garden, Jesus’ relationship with God, his faithfulness to God’s call, was put to the test. In both places he came through the struggle and remained true to his deepest self.

We always begin Lent with the story of the spiritual struggle of Jesus to be true to his baptismal identity and calling. Why is the story of Jesus’ temptations always the gospel of the first Sunday of Lent? We are being reminded that Lent is a time when we are all asked to engage in the same struggle that Jesus engaged in at the beginning of his ministry. Lent is the time when we acknowledge the ways our own baptismal identity and calling is always being put to the test, a time when we seek to renew our faithfulness to our baptismal calling. The word ‘Lent’ comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘springtime’ and the season of Lent is associated with the springtime of our souls. The season of spring is when growth abounds, and nature is renewed. In harmony with nature, Lent is that season in the church when we are called to a spiritual renewal, to grow in our relationship with the Lord, with each other and with the earth. It is a time for us to take a moment to decide who we are before the Lord, and what it is the Lord is calling us to do in the world. In that sense, Lent is a kind of retreat. It is a time when together, as church, we step back and invite the Lord to help us refocus our lives so that at the end of Lent, on Easter Sunday, we can renew our baptismal promises, our baptismal identity, with conviction and recommit ourselves to the way of life the Lord, through our baptism, calls us to embrace.

In the wilderness Jesus faced an assault on what was deepest and best within him, but he did not face that assault alone. He had resources to combat the spiritual assault. According to the gospel reading, he entered the wilderness ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’. When he was at his most vulnerable, the Spirit was at work in his life. He also had the resource of the Scriptures, the word of God. He lived off every word that came from the mouth of God, and that word helped to keep him faithful when he was put to the test. We have the same resources at our disposal in our own testing times. The word of God is given to us to keep us spiritually alive, and the Holy Spirit is always at work deep within us, directing us towards what the Lord wants for us. We also have the resource of the community of believers. We are hearing a lot about armaments at the moment, but all these resources are our spiritual armoury. In one of his letters Saint Paul exhorts us, ‘Be strong in the Lord… put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against… the spiritual forces of evil’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

8th March - Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Saturday after Ash Wednesday (Inc. Matthew 5:27-32): ‘I have not come to call the virtuous but sinners to repentance’.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Luke 5:27-32 Jesus comes not to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.

Jesus noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting by the customs house, and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything he got up and followed him. In his honour Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large gathering of tax collectors and others. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples and said, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus said to them in reply, ‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’

Gospel (GB) Luke 5:27-32 ‘I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’

At that time: Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’

Gospel (USA) Luke 5:27-32 I have not come to call righteous to repentance but sinners.

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Reflections (8)

(i) Saturday after Ash Wednesday

The opening words of today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah suggests that if the people of Israel behave in certain ways – doing away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word, feeding the hungry… - then the Lord will be their guide and will give them relief in desert places. Jesus’ ministry seems to have taken a different shape. He revealed God’s unconditional love to people before they changed for the better, thereby empowering them to become the person God was calling them to be. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus called Levi, a tax collector, before he gave up his tax collecting. Such people were very unpopular because the payments they exacted from others often included large contributions for themselves. Certainly, the religious leaders of the time regarded people like Levi as ‘sinners’. Yet, the Lord called Levi to become one of his intimate disciples, thereby empowering him to leave his lucrative trade and become a follower of the one who had nowhere to lay his head. In gratitude, Levi invited Jesus to be his guest at a meal at which other tax collectors were present. This was the kind of company Jesus loved to keep because he knew such people, who were marginalized because of their profession, needed to know that God was calling out to them in his love, inviting them and empowering them to live in ways that were in keeping with his desire for them and that would be truly life-giving for them. Like a doctor, Jesus knew his place was among the broken in body, mind and spirit. The risen Lord continues to relate to us all in the same way. He continues to pour his love, God’s unconditional love, into our often broken hearts so that we are empowered to become the new creation God needs us to be, if God’s kingdom is to make a breakthrough into our world.

And/Or

(ii) Saturday after Ash Wednesday

The gospels suggest that Jesus engaged with the kind of people that many at the time, especially the religious leaders, would have written off. In this morning’s gospel reading we hear that Jesus called a tax collector, Levi, to be his follower and to share in his work of calling people into the kingdom of God. He would have been regarded as a most unlikely candidate for such a calling. Tax collectors were considered sinners, people who had alienated themselves from their fellow countrymen because they collected taxes from the Romans, and who had separated themselves from God, because it was presumed they were corrupt. Nothing good was expected of them. Yet, Jesus called one of them to be a member of the group of twelve that he gathered around himself to have a special share in his work. Jesus, it seems, did not look upon people the way that society in general looked upon them. He saw people in a much more generous way than they were viewed by others, or even by themselves. The Lord continues to relate to each of us in the generous same way; he doesn’t sell us short but gives us a calling that is in keeping with our gifts and our dignity as members of his body and temples of his Spirit. This Lent we pray for the grace to be as generous in our response to the Lord’s call as Levi was.

And/Or

(iii) Saturday after Ash Wednesday

The first people Jesus called to follow him were fishermen. He went on to call people from other walks of life to follow him. In this morning’s gospel reading he calls a tax collector, Levi, someone in the pay of the Romans, to follow him. On another occasion he called a rich man to follow him. The gospels also inform us that he had many women followers. Jesus looked on all people as his potential followers. His call to ‘follow me’ was addressed to all who would respond to it. It was addressed to people who were considered sinners by those who did their utmost to live by God’s law. Jesus got close to those he was calling to follow him, sharing table with them, regardless of how they were regarded by others. The gospel reading reminds us that the Lord is always drawing close to us, to all of us, even when we think of ourselves as sinners. He never ceases to draw near to us and to call on us to follow him. We may think that we have to put a distance between ourselves and the Lord, but the Lord never puts a distance between himself and us. He is always standing at the door of our lives and knocking, calling out to us to follow him, to walk in his way so as to share in his mission in the world.

And/Or

(iv) Saturday after Ash Wednesday  

When I read the gospels, I am often struck by the questions that people ask. Jesus himself asks many questions in the gospel, as do many of the other characters who appear in the gospel story. In today’s gospel reading, the scribes and the Pharisees ask a question of Jesus’ disciples, ‘Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ As far as they were concerned, to eat with tax collectors and sinners was to risk being contaminated by them. They would have argued that it was better for people to keep themselves separate from such people in order to preserve their moral health. Indeed, the term ‘Pharisees’ means ‘separated ones’. However, Jesus did not share this concern of the Pharisees. He knew that rather than the sin of others infecting him, his goodness, God’s goodness in him, would transform others. That remains true of Jesus’ relationship with us all. The Lord is never diminished by our failings; rather, we are always ennobled and enriched by his holiness. That is why the Lord does not separate himself from us, even when we might be tempted to separate ourselves from him, because of what we have done or failed to do, just as Peter, on one occasion in the gospels, said to Jesus, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man’. The Lord always desires to sit with us, to share table with us, to enter into communion with us, in order that in our weakness we might draw from his strength, and in our many failings we might draw from his goodness and love. As today’s gospel reading reminds us, he has not come to call the virtuous but sinners to repentance, and we are all sinners in need of his merciful love. If we acknowledge that reality, then the Lord can pour his healing love into our lives.

And/Or

(v) Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Tax collectors were unpopular in the time of Jesus. They were collecting taxes on behalf of Rome, the occupying power, and they had a reputation for enriching themselves at other people’s expense. Even though they were reasonably wealthy, they were marginalized among the people, and this made them a special object of Jesus’ attention. He shared table with them, entered into communion with them. Jesus’ call of a tax collector to be among his followers shows the inclusive nature of the community that he was gathering around himself. There was a home here for those who had been made to feel that they did not belong to the community of believers. Jesus’ call empowered Levi to leave his financially rewarding profession. Levi sensed that in following Jesus he would find a different kind of wealth. He used some of his remaining resources to put on a meal for Jesus and other tax collectors like himself to celebrate this new beginning in his life. His response to the Lord’s call had immediate benefits for others. The Lord continues to call each one of us, regardless of where we are on our life’s journey. We don’t have to get ourselves to a better place for the Lord to call us. He calls us as he finds us. He doesn’t wait for us to be ‘well’, in the language of today’s gospel reading, before calling us. In that sense, when it comes to the Lord, we are always ‘on call’. While calling us as we are, the Lord will always call us beyond where we are. In calling us, the Lord also empowers us to go where he is calling us. He enters into communion with us so that we can draw strength from him. If we keep responding to the Lord’s loving call, our response, like that of Levi, will have great benefits for others. Our saying ‘yes’ to the Lord’s call will always make it easier for others to do the same.

And/Or

(vi) Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Jesus clearly saw something in Levi the tax collector that many others didn’t. The Pharisees and the scribes categorized him as a ‘sinner’, asking Jesus, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Yet, Jesus was not only prepared to eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners but called one tax collector, Levi, to become part of that small group of twelve he gathered around himself to share in his work in a more focused way. The gospel reading raises the question, ‘How do we look on people?’ Jesus looked on people with a generous and hopeful spirit. Levi may have left a lot to be desired in terms of his compliance with God’s Law, as it was understood by the experts in the Law at the time. When Jesus looked on Levi, he didn’t simply see what was lacking in him, but, also and more importantly, the person he could become. Yes, he was ‘sick’ but so too were all men and women in different ways, including those who thought of themselves as virtuous. Jesus, as the divine physician, could heal what needed healing in others and empower them to become all that God was calling them to be. The Lord looks upon each one of us with the same generous and hopeful spirit. He is more attuned to the person we can become than to the ways we have failed. The Lord also calls on us to look on each other in the same generous, hopeful way that he looks upon us.

And/Or

(vii) Saturday after Ash Wednesday

The question of the Pharisees and their scribes to Jesus reveals what they thought of tax collectors, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ ‘Sinners’ were those who were perceived to regularly break God’s Law, and tax collectors were presumed to be among this group. From the perspective of those who were considered religious at the time, Jesus was keeping strange company. Jesus was living on the religious margins, and he was calling people from these margins, such as Levi, to belong to the group he was gathering around him, a new family under God our heavenly Father. Jesus responded to his critics by declaring that his primary concern was to heal the sick, the spiritually as well as the physically sick, and to draw them into this new family. A few chapters later in Luke’s gospel, the same criticism would be raised against Jesus by the Pharisees and the scribes, this time in the form of a statement rather than a question, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them’. On that occasion, Jesus responded to the criticism by telling the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost sons. The younger son had spectacularly sinned against heaven and before his father and, yet, the father never lost hope that he would come back home to his family and scanned the horizon for his return, seeing him ‘while he was still far off’. Jesus was very aware of those who were ‘far off’, on the spiritual edge. He had a special desire to seek them out and assure them that God continued to love them and wanted them to belong. We can all find ourselves far off from God from time to time, having gone our own way. Today’s gospel reading assures us that, even when we are far off, we are never far from the Lord’s heart. He is always calling us home. Indeed, he does more; he invites himself to our table in the hope that we will accept his self-invitation. He seeks us out to gather us into the one spiritual family he is seeking to form. Jesus was a unifier. It must break his heart to see those who seem intent on dividing whole peoples from one another. The divisive consequences of the war that has been launched against Ukraine is completely at odds with Jesus’ desire to draw all people to himself in one great family of faith. In the face of such divisive conflict, we need to make ourselves ever more available for the Lord’s unifying work.

And/Or

(viii) Saturday after Ash Wednesday

In the first reading, the Lord speaking through the prophet Isaiah, says, ‘if you give your bread to the hungry, and relief to the oppressed, your light will rise in the darkness’. It is evident from the gospels that Jesus gave bread to the hungry and relief to the oppressed and, as a result, his light, the light of God’s love, rose in the darkness. Jesus gave both physical bread to the physically hungry and spiritual bread to the spiritually hungry. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is a guest at the table of Levi, the tax collector, whom Jesus had just called to follow him. At table, Jesus is receiving physical bread from his host, but he is also giving spiritual bread to his host and fellow guests. He is making present to them the God who seeks out the lost and who brings healing to the broken. Like a doctor whose primary concern is the physically broken, Jesus’ primary concern is for the physically broken but also the spiritually broken. As he says, he has come ‘not to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance’. Levi and his fellow tax collectors were physically well, and probably materially comfortable, but they were spiritually ill or, at least, made to feel so by others who looked down on them as ‘sinners’. Jesus recognized that they were no greater sinners than those who looked down on them, and he was assuring them that they were loved sinners, that God wanted to embrace them in his love and, in doing so, to transform their lives for the better. The risen Lord is present to us in our spiritual brokenness, reassuring us that if we are sinners we are loved sinners. As we come to appreciate ourselves as loved sinners, we will be empowered, as Levi was, to take a direction in life that is in keeping with all that is best and deepest in us.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

7th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Friday after Ash Wednesday (Inc. Matthew 9:14-15): ‘The time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away’.

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 9:14-15 When the bridegroom is taken from them, then they will fast.

John’s disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast.’

Gospel (GB) Matthew 9:14-15 ‘When the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast.’

At that time: The disciples of John came to Jesus, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 9:14-15 When the bridegroom is taken from them, then they will fast.

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Reflections (10)

(i) Friday after Ash Wednesday

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus suggests that there is a time to fast and a time to refrain from fasting. He declares that the time of his public ministry was not a time for his disciples to fast. This was a moment when the good news of the presence of God’s kingdom was being proclaimed, when Jesus was revealing something of God’s abundance, God’s abundant love. His public ministry had something of the celebratory feel of a wedding feast, with Jesus as the bridegroom. Fasting was not appropriate for such a moment. Yet, Jesus goes on to say that ‘the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast’. Jesus looks ahead there to his passion and death, and, by implication, his resurrection. Beyond that time, which is the time of the church, fasting will be appropriate. In the tradition of the church, fasting is especially appropriate for the time of Lent. In the past, people thought about what they might give up for Lent. Perhaps that is less the case now. Yet, Lent remains a time when we voluntarily deny ourselves some pleasure so that we can give ourselves more generously in love to the Lord and to each other. In the first reading, Isaiah speaks of the kind of fast that pleases the Lord, a fast that finds expression in supporting the most vulnerable, such as the oppressed, the hungry, the homeless and those denied justice. Our saying ‘no’ to something, our fasting, is always in the service of a greater ‘yes’ to the Lord and to all whom the Lord calls on us to support.

And/Or

(ii) Friday after Ash Wednesday

Both readings this morning speak of fasting, one of the traditional Lenten practices. We tend to think of fasting in relation to food. To fast is to deprive ourselves of certain foods for a period of time. In the first reading, however, Isaiah defines fasting much more broadly than that. He understands it as fasting from all those ways of relating to people that damage and oppress them and replacing such ways of relating with working for justice on behalf of those in greatest need. Isaiah seems to be saying that fasting can never be separated from that other Jewish practice that we associate with Lent, almsgiving, the sharing of our resources with others. On Ash Wednesday the gospel reading put before us the three great Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Isaiah reminds us this morning that all three stand or fall together. They are three expressions of one way of life. We cannot focus on any one to the detriment of the other two. Fasting is saying ‘no’ to something. Isaiah reminds us that such saying ‘no’ is always with a view to saying ‘yes’, a ‘yes’ that finds expression in greater service of our neighbour. Such service of others makes our prayer more acceptable to God. In the words of our first reading, ‘Cry, and the Lord will answer; call and he will say, “I am here”’.

And/Or

(iii) Friday after Ash Wednesday

In the first reading Isaiah makes a strong connection between fasting, on the one hand, and almsgiving and working for justice, on the other. The kind of fasting that pleases God, according to Isaiah, is one finds expression in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, letting the oppressed go free. We fast so as to be freer to give ourselves in the service of others. In the gospel reading Jesus affirms the value of fasting for the period after his death and resurrection. He too linked fasting and almsgiving closely together and he linked both with prayer, as was clear from the gospel reading that we read for Ash Wednesday. Within the Christian vision, fasting or abstaining is not about losing weight. Rather it is about become free of what is not essential so as to be able to give ourselves more fully in love to God in prayer and to our neighbour in loving service. We all have something to fast from; it may not necessarily be food or drink. We all have something to let go off so that we can be more available to the Lord for his work in the world. There may be something that absorbs us too much and that blocks our relationship with God and with others, especially those who need us most. Lent is a time when we ask for the grace to fast and step away from whatever that is holding us back, and hindering us from being all that God is calling us to be.

And/Or

(iv) Friday after Ash Wednesday

Jesus’ words in the gospel reading suggest that there is a time to fast and a time not to fast. He speaks of himself as the bridegroom, suggesting that his ministry is like a joyful wedding feast, when the divine bridegroom reaches out in love through Jesus to his bride, God’s people. There is no place for fasting at a wedding feast. There is no need for the bridegroom’s attendants, his disciples, to fast. However, alluding to his forthcoming death, he declares that the bridegroom will be taken away from his attendants and that will be an appropriate time to fast. In the words of Qoheleth in the Jewish Scriptures, ‘there is a time for every matter under heaven’, and we could add to his list, ‘a time to fast and a time not to fast’. Lent has traditionally been understood as a time to fast. It is a time when we identify with Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, the city of his passion and death, the city where he was taken away from his disciples. The first reading from Isaiah reminds us that our fasting is always to be linked to one of the other traditional Lenten practices, almsgiving or service of the needy. According to that reading, our fasting is in the service of letting the oppressed go free, feeding the hungry, sheltering the hungry and clothing the naked. We die to ourselves so as to give to others. We deprive ourselves so as to become more sensitive to those who are deprived and to serve them from our resources.

And/Or

(v) Friday after Ash Wednesday

The gospels suggest that people often asked Jesus the question, ‘Why?’ In particular, the religious leaders asked him why he was doing this or that or not doing this or that. There was clearly something new and different about the ministry of Jesus which gave rise to this repeated question, ‘Why?’ In this morning’s gospel reading, it is the disciples of John the Baptist who ask the question ‘Why?’ They wonder why Jesus and his disciples do not follow the fasting practices of the disciples of John the Baptist and of the Pharisees. In the gospel reading for Ash Wednesday, Jesus affirmed the value of the key Jewish practices of fasting, prayer and almsgiving, provided they are not done to attract attention. In this morning’s gospel reading, he indicates that the celebratory aspect of his ministry means that fasting cannot have the same significance as it does for the disciples of the Pharisees and John the Baptist. Jesus’ ministry is more like a wedding feast than a funeral, with himself as the bridegroom and his disciples as the bride. Jesus goes on to say that this celebratory element of his ministry does not exclude fasting. However, it does give it a different tone and focus. That celebratory element of the Lord’s ministry continues today in the church. The risen Lord wants his joy to be in our lives, a joy the world cannot give. Our fasting is with a view to entering more fully into the Lord’s joy; it is in the service of deepening our loving relationship with the Lord so that the joy of his Spirit may be in our lives. As Isaiah in the first reading reminds us, and as Jesus would confirm, our fasting is also in the service of a more loving relationship with others, especially those in greatest need.

And/Or

(vi) Friday after Ash Wednesday

There are only two days of fast and abstinence in Lent, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Yet, many people chose to fast from some form of food or drink for the season of Lent. According to the gospel reading, Jesus’ disciples were criticized by the disciples of John the Baptist for not fasting in the way they did. John the Baptist was a more austere man than Jesus. Jesus once referred to John the Baptist as one who had come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and to himself as the Son of Man who came eating and drinking. It seems that neither Jesus or his disciples were as much into fasting as John the Baptist and his disciples. There was something more celebratory about Jesus’ ministry in comparison to the ministry of John the Baptist. In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks of himself as the bridegroom and his disciples as the bridegroom’s attendants. Jesus’ life and ministry had something of the celebratory quality of a wedding, and who fasts at a wedding? Yet, Jesus also acknowledges that a time will come when fasting will be appropriate, ‘the time will come…’ Jesus is looking ahead there to the time of the church. When we fast from some food or drink, we are showing that it is not vitally important to us, that we are not dependent upon it. What really matters to us is our relationship with the Lord. We fast so as to as to grow in our relationship with the Lord. In the first reading, Isaiah links fasting to our relationship with those in greatest need. We fast so as to be freer to respond to the call of those who most need our help. Fasting is always in the service of our love of the Lord and our love of others. If fasting is a saying ‘no’ to something, it is always with a view to our making a more generous ‘yes’ to the Lord and his people.

And/Or

(vii) Friday after Ash Wednesday

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus affirms the value of the Jewish practice of fasting for his followers. ‘The time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast’, he says. Jesus is looking ahead to the time after his death and resurrection. He declares that beyond that time fasting will be appropriate for his disciples, but not during his public ministry which is equivalent to the joy of a wedding feast. In today’s first reading, Isaiah declares that fasting must be in the service of just relationships with others. He speaks of a fast that breaks unjust fetters, that leads to sharing our bread with the hungry and sheltering the homeless poor. Fasting can seem like something negative, a saying ‘no’ to something that can be good in itself, but, the prophet reminds us that this ‘no’ is always in the service of a more generous ‘yes’ to the Lord and his people, especially his most vulnerable people. We deny ourselves so that others can live more fully. We have become more aware in recent times that we need to say ‘no’ to others, to fast, so that our natural environment can also live more fully. Pope Francis reminds us of our responsibility to our environment in his wonderful encyclical ‘Laudato Sii’. We deny ourselves not only for the sake of others but for the sake of our natural environment. The Pope expresses this bond we have with all of creation very beautifully in that encyclical, ‘Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures, and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth’.

And/Or

(viii) Friday after Ash Wednesday

In the gospel reading, Jesus says to those who criticize his disciples for not fasting that his ministry is not the time for fasting. Why is it not the time for fasting? It is because Jesus’ short public ministry was too joyful a moment in God’s dealings with humanity. It had something of the quality of a wedding celebration. Jesus, the bridegroom, expects those who attend on him to be joyful rather than mournful. He asks, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them?’ There would come a time when the bridegroom would be taken away, when Jesus would be put to death. That would be a time of mourning, and fasting would be appropriate. However, that time of mourning would be short lived. On the third day after his crucifixion Jesus would be raised from the dead and the celebratory mood of Jesus’ public ministry would be restored. Indeed, it would be greatly enhanced, because form now on death would have no power over Jesus. It is worth reminding ourselves that even in this season of Lent we are living in the light of that first Easter. There is a place for fasting in the Christian life but it shouldn’t be of such a nature that it leaves us and others miserable. The bridegroom is very much still with us and he is constantly inviting us to the wedding feast of the Lamb. In the first reading, Isaiah reinterprets the Jewish practice of fasting as fasting from all forms of behaviour that are detrimental to others and, more positively, being proactive in regard to the full human flourishing of others. It means ‘to break unjust fetters… to let the oppressed go free… to share your bread with the hungry and shelter the homeless poor’. The practice of fasting has morphed into the Jewish practice of almsgiving, acts of justice and loving kindness that serves the wellbeing of others. Jesus would agree with Isaiah that this is the kind of fasting that is always in season and that we are all called to practice every day.

And/Or

(ix) Friday after Ash Wednesday

In the gospel reading, Jesus affirms the value of fasting for the time after his death and resurrection, the time of the church, ‘The time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast’. Only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday remain as days of fast and abstinence, but the whole season of Lent has been traditionally understood as such a time. We deny ourselves something so that we can give ourselves more fully to the way of the Lord. The saying ‘no’ that fasting involves is always in the service of a greater ‘yes’ to the Lord and his people. This is what the prophet Isaiah stresses in today’s first reading. He makes a firm connection between fasting and the service of the Lord through the care of the most vulnerable, breaking unjust fetters, letting the oppressed go free, sharing our bread with the hungry, sheltering the homeless poor, clothing the naked. Jesus declares in the gospel that whatever we do for those in greatest need we do for him, and whatever we do for him we do for God, because he, Jesus, is God-with-us. Within the Christian tradition, Lent, the season of fasting, is also the season when we give ourselves in a special way to those in greatest need. The Trocaire Lenten campaign is one expression of that dimension of Lent. Showing hospitality to the refugees of the war in Ukraine, is another expression of the care of the needy that both Isaiah and Jesus stress so strongly. Isaiah declares to the people in that first reading that if they care for the vulnerable, those wounded in some way, their own wound will be healed over. We ourselves are healed when we work for the healing of others. As Jesus declares in the gospels, when we give to others, it will be given to us in abundance.

And/Or

(x) Friday after Ash Wednesday

Fasting doesn’t seem to be as prominent in our Catholic tradition as it used to be. The only days we are required to fast are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting seems to have a higher profile in the Moslem tradition. Yet, fasting remains a value in the Christian tradition generally. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum to overindulgence. When we fast we are proclaiming that we do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. In the gospel reading Jesus affirms the value of fasting for the period after his death (and resurrection), the time of the church, ‘The time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast’. We fast in order to be freer to serve the Lord and his people. In that sense, fasting is inseparable from pray and almsgiving, from the service of the Lord in prayer and the service of his people, especially those in greatest need. In the first reading, Isaiah stresses the connection between fasting and the service of the Lord’s most vulnerable people. There is no point in fasting while at the same time striking the poor person with the fist, he says. The fasting that is acceptable in the Lord’s eyes is the fasting that makes us more aware of the hungry, the homeless, the oppressed, the naked, the enslaved. Our voluntary denial of something we like is to make us more responsive to those who have little or no access to what we are denying ourselves. Our fasting is to flow over into what the Catholic tradition has called the corporal works of mercy. Then, in the words of the first reading, ‘your light will shine like the dawn’. Or as Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel, ‘Let you light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

6th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Inc. Luke 9:22-25): ‘Anyone who loses his life for my sake will save it’.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Luke 9:22-25 Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’ Then to all he said: ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it. What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?’

Gospel (GB) Luke 9:22-25 ‘Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’ And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?’

Gospel (USA) Luke 9:22-25 Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

Reflections (11)

(i) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

In the opening words of today’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks of his coming rejection, suffering and death in Jerusalem. At the very beginning of Lent, we are being directed towards Jesus’ final journey, his passion, death and resurrection, which is the focus of Holy Week, the conclusion of Lent. Jesus was put to death on a cross because he remained faithful to the mission God had given him, to reveal God’s boundless love for all humanity. In revealing God’s love for all, Jesus was showing that when it came to God there were no insiders and outsiders. Jesus revealed a God whose love embraced those who thought of themselves as good and upright and those who were labelled ‘sinners’ by others, a God whose love embraced Jews, Samaritans and pagans. By his life and his teaching, Jesus showed that those the world considered least were honoured in God’s eyes, whereas those the world considered honourable and renowned were in need of conversion in God’s eyes. This was a message which many, especially the influential and powerful, found disturbing, and, so Jesus was put to death by the religious and political elite. In that gospel reading, Jesus goes on to say that those who follow in his way, those who reveal by their lives the boundless love of God for all, will often be treated as badly as he was. Just as Jesus’ faithfulness to who God was lead him to the cross, so our faithfulness to the values and vision of Jesus will often mean for us taking the more difficult path, renouncing ourselves in some way. However, Jesus goes on to declare that in taking this path we will find life, we will become fully alive as human beings and we will inherit eternal life. Lent is a season when we renew our fidelity to the way of Jesus, who is our way, our truth and our life.

And/Or

(ii) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

In the gospel reading this morning Jesus says that if we want to be his followers we have to be ready to renounce ourselves. Lent is traditionally a time when we renounce ourselves. We ask ourselves what it is we need to let go of, to give up to follow the Lord more closely. We all have something we need to let go of; it might be some excessive attachment that is holding us back, or some habit that is not serving us well. Self-renunciation is more difficult today than in the past because we live in a culture which encourages us to indulge ourselves. We can easily think of self-renunciation as something negative. Yet, the giving up, the letting go, is always with a view to choosing more fully the life that the Lord is always holding out to us. The first reading puts it very positively, ‘Choose life’. Jesus says in the gospel reading that those who renounce themselves for his sake will not be at a loss but will gain their lives. Each day of Lent we can ask ourselves, ‘What does it mean for me to choose life today?’ ‘What do I need to renounce to follow the Lord more closely along the path to true life?’

And/Or

(iii) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus speaks about the need for us to renounce ourselves. The language of self-renunciation is not really in vogue in the times in which we live. We are more likely to hear about the need to fulfil ourselves and to realize ourselves. Self-renunciation is often seen as something negative and contrary to the value of self-realization. Yet, Jesus does not advocate self-renunciation as an end in itself. In the gospel reading, Jesus’ primary call is to follow him, which is something completely positive. He goes on to declare that following him will often require a willingness to renounce ourselves. ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day’. In other words, if we are to say a wholehearted ‘yes’ to the way of Jesus, to his values and attitudes, this will often entail saying ‘no’ to other options that are not compatible with his way. Jesus himself had to do this. In the Garden of Gethsemane, his saying ‘yes’ to the mission that God had given him required his saying ‘no’ to the very strong temptation to preserve his own life at that moment. Jesus was a realist. He recognized that following in his way, saying ‘yes’ to all that he said ‘yes’ to, would sometimes require us to renounce our own convenience and comfort, and, maybe, even our own personal well-being. He also assures us in that gospel reading that this saying ‘no’ in the service of following him faithfully is the way to life and the way of life for both ourselves and others.

And/Or

(iv) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Jesus asks many thought provoking questions across the four gospels. One of them is to be found at the end of today’s gospel reading, ‘What gain is it for a person to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?’ Jesus seems to be saying that it is possible to gain a great deal of what the world often considers important but in the process to lose something that is even more important, namely our true selves, our deepest selves, the self that is made in the image and likeness of God. Jesus also implies in that gospel reading that the way to preserve our true selves is by following him, by walking in his way. Jesus acknowledges that following in his way will often entail travelling the way of the cross. As we try to be faithful to the Lord’s mindset, we will often have to die to what the world considers important. In that sense, walking in the Lord’s way will often entail a loss. Yet, Jesus assures us that what we may lose at a more superficial level is more than compensated for by what is gained at a deeper level. As Jesus says, if we lose our life for his sake, we will gain our life. There is a dying to be undergone which is in the service of life. Every day we are to die to the superficial desires of the self so as to gain the life that fulfils our deepest longings.

And/Or

(v) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

There are two little words in today’s gospel reading that often strike me ‘every day’. Jesus says, ‘if anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me’. Jesus is saying that following him is something we need to do ‘every day’, and, ‘every day’, this will involve some form of renunciation and taking up the cross, some saying ‘no’ to what may often seem an easier path, all in the service of saying ‘yes’ to Jesus’ call to follow him. It is as if Jesus is saying that we never take a holiday from trying to follow him more closely. There are no days off. It is something we need to do every day. Every day, the Lord calls us to follow him, to take the path he has shown us by his life and his teaching, and, indeed, by his death, and every day we try to respond to that call. It is because the following of the Lord is daily that Jesus teaches us to ask the Father, ‘give us this day our daily bread’. We daily need the resources only God can provide if we are to be faithful to the Lord every day. Of course, we all have our off days. We recognize at the end of some days that we were not at our best. Yet, we just begin again the next day. Each day the Lord says to us what Moses says to the people in the gospel reading, ‘choose life’. Jesus assures us in the gospel reading that in seeking to follow him every day we are choosing life, we are saving our lives.

And/Or

(vi) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

The call of Moses in today’s first reading is ‘Choose life’. Earlier in that reading, Moses called on people to ‘love the Lord your God and follow his ways’. To choose life is to choose love, the love of the Lord, and the love of all whom the Lord loves. One way of checking whether or not we are choosing life is by asking, ‘What is the most loving thing I can do here?’ ‘How do I choose love in this situation?’ ‘What does it mean to give expression to my love of the Lord at this moment?’ In the gospel reading, Jesus declares that ‘anyone who loses his life form my sake, that person will save it’. Jesus implies that choosing life, for ourselves and for others, often means losing our lives for his sake. It is in dying to ourselves, out of love for the Lord and others, that we find life. This is what it means to choose life. Choosing love, and the life which flows from love, will often mean losing our lives in the sense of dying to ourselves, denying ourselves. Jesus himself lost his life because he chose love, but in choosing love he found life. God raised him to new life. Jesus’ teaching and his whole existence shows us that when we chose love, the kind of self-emptying love that Jesus embodied, we will be choosing life. Our choice to love will always be life-giving for ourselves and for others. Choice is not a value in itself. It’s value, or disvalue, is determined by what is chosen, the object of our choice. Jesus wants us to keep choosing love and in so doing to keep choosing life. We are all pro-choice, whether we like it or not, because not to choose is to choose. The important question is ‘What do we chose?’

And/Or

(vii) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

There wasn’t a strong belief in the afterlife during most of the period when the Jewish Scriptures were written. As a result, it was very important to live in a way that enhanced one’s earthly life. The question was, ‘how do we live in such a way that we become fully alive as human beings here and now?’ That is the thrust of today’s first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy. The author puts before the people two ways, the way that leads to death and the way that leads to fullness of life in the present. The call of the reading, as of much of the Jewish Scriptures, is ‘Choose life’. In the mind-set of those Scriptures, and of the first reading, choosing life amounts to choosing God, loving the Lord your God and following God’s ways, God’s commandments and laws. Because we are made in the image of God and belong to God, the path of life is the path that God sets before us in his commandments. Jesus understood himself to be the path that God sets before us. If God’s path was to be found in the laws and commandments of the Jewish Scriptures, it is to be found more fully in his life and teaching. Choosing life now means following Jesus, taking him as our way and our truth, and, thereby, finding life, both in the here and now and beyond this earthly life. That is the message of today’s gospel reading. Jesus declares that those who follow him will gain life; they will preserve their very self. If the first reading calls on us to love God by keeping his commandments, the gospel reading calls on us to love Jesus by following him. In that gospel reading, Jesus recognizes that following him, loving him faithfully, will often mean renouncing ourselves, which to some can look like renouncing life. However, he assures us that those who renounce themselves out of love for him, will find life in the here and now and, more completely, in eternity.

And/Or

(viii) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

When we hear the language of self-renunciation in today’s gospel reading, we can think of it as something negative, a saying ‘no’ to things. Perhaps that is some people’s perception of Christianity. They see it as something negative. Yet, the call of Jesus is fundamentally positive. He calls us to follow him and in following him to find life. Jesus’ call to renounce ourselves is in the service of that positive call to follow him as the source of life. The call to follow Jesus is a call to life. In saying ‘choose me’, Jesus is saying to us in the words of today’s first reading, ‘choose life’. Jesus calls us into a personal relationship with himself and he promises us that if we respond to his call we will become fully alive as human beings; we will save our life, in the words of the gospel reading. In the gospel of John, Peter shows an appreciation of this positive understanding of Jesus’ call when he puts this question to Jesus, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life?’ It was as if Peter was saying, ‘What direction would we take other than following you who came that we may have life and have it to the full?’ That question of Peter, ‘To whom shall we go?’ is one worth sitting with as we begin our Lenten journey. What is to be the basic direction of our lives? Lent is a season when we turn afresh towards the Lord and go in his direction more fully, a time when we renew our response to his call to follow him and, in so doing, to experience the life-giving power of his presence and his message.

And/Or

(ix) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Sometimes the shortest phrases or sentences can be the most powerful and thought provoking. There is a powerful short phrase in today’s first reading, ‘Choose life’. In recent times we have tended to set pro-choice and pro-life over against each other. However, this phrase brings them together, ‘choose life’. To be human is to choose; in that sense there is no alternative to being pro-choice. The only real question is, ‘What am I to choose?’ Today’s first reading calls on us to choose the supreme value in God’s eyes, which is ‘life’. It goes on to identify choosing life with living in the love of the Lord, obeying his voice, clinging to him. To choose life is to choose God. In the words of the reading, ‘in this your life consists’. In choosing God we choose life, because God is the God of life, the giver of life, the source of all life. For us Christians, choosing God means choosing God’s Son, Jesus. In the gospel reading, Jesus says that those who follow him, who choose him, will save their life. If we love the Lord, cling to him, follow him, we will find life. Jesus acknowledges that following him will often require us to renounce ourselves, to lose our life, to take up our cross. Following the Lord will often mean dying to our tendency to put ourselves and our own well-being first, so as to be freer to give ourselves in love to others, putting their well-being before our own. This was the way of the Lord and it is the way that his Spirit within us inspires us to take. The dying involved in taking this way will always bring life to ourselves and to others. In taking this way, we will be choosing life.

And/Or

(x) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

In Luke’s account of the temptations of Jesus, Satan offers to give Jesus the glory of all the kingdoms of the world, if Jesus were to worship him. I was reminded of that temptation by the saying of Jesus in today’s gospel reading, ‘What gain then is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?’ If Jesus had surrendered to Satan’s temptation, he would have lost his very self. He would have ruined his deepest and best self for short term gain. We are called to keep acting out of what is best and deepest within us, where the Spirit of God resides. For us who have been baptized, this means following in the way of Jesus, allowing his Spirit and values to shape our lives. That will sometimes mean what the gospel refers to as renouncing ourselves, going against our tendency to promote ourselves without sufficient regard for others. The language of self-renunciations is not popular today. It is heard primarily as something negative. Yet, the call of the Lord is essentially positive; it is well expressed in today’s first reading, ‘Choose life’. The Lord calls us to be faithful to what is best and deepest in us, our true self, the self that is made in the image and likeness of God. It is a call to be as loving as God is loving and if we answer it we will be fully alive. This very positive, life-affirming call will sometimes mean having to say ‘no’ to paths that are not worthy of that deepest self, created in the image of the God of love. Yet, such self-renunciation is in the service of becoming alive with the very life of God.

And/Or

(xi) Thursday after Ash Wednesday

On this second day of Lent, the gospel reading points us ahead to the story of Holy Week. Jesus declares to his disciples that he is ‘destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death’, and then ‘to be raised on the third day’. In this gospel of Luke, Jesus speaks these words just before he sets out on his final journey to Jerusalem. This will be a journey to suffering and death on a Roman cross, but, ultimately, it will be a journey to glory, as Jesus passes through death in the hands of his loving Father. In the following scene in Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain, Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah who appeared alongside him were speaking with him about his ‘departure’ or ‘exodus’, his leaving this world and going to his heavenly Father. Because this exodus entails his passion and death, Jesus will soon have to ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem’ (9:51). He will have to steel himself for this journey. In the gospel reading, Jesus suggests that his disciples will also need a certain steeliness if they are to be faithful to him. As Jesus had to renounce himself, empty himself, to remain faithful to God’s call, so his disciples will often have to renounce themselves to be faithful to his call.  Giving ourselves in faithful love to the Lord means giving ourselves in loving service to those whom the Lord loves, which is all humanity. Such self-giving service of others will often mean renouncing our own selves in some way. We die to ourselves so as to live to others, to the Lord present in others. In the gospel reading, Jesus assures us that in taking this path we will save our lives, we will become more alive, more fully the person God created us to be.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

5th March >> Fr. Martin's Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Ash Wednesday (Inc. Matthew 6:1-6, 16-28): ‘Your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you’.

Ash Wednesday

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Matthew 6:1-6,16-18 Your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice; by doing this you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win men’s admiration. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. ‘And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them; I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. ‘When you fast do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they pull long faces to let men know they are fasting. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.’

Gospel (GB) Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 ‘Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. ‘Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ‘And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ‘And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 Your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

Reflections (13)

(i) Ash Wednesday

Ashes have traditionally been a symbol of our bodily mortality but also, and perhaps more importantly, of our recognition of ourselves as sinners and our need of God’s forgiveness. Taking up the language of the Jewish Scriptures, Jesus in the gospels speaks of whole towns repenting in sackcloth and ashes. Lent is a season when we try to journey more towards the Lord and away from what keeps us from the Lord. This is the call of the Lord in today’s first reading, ‘Come back to me with all your heart… turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion’. The ashes on our forehead are a sign of our desire to make that journey. It is a journey to enter more fully into the call of our baptism to allow the Lord to live in us, so that by the time Easter Sunday arrives we are ready to renew our baptismal promises in earnest. In the words of Saint Paul in the second reading, Lent ‘is the favourable time’. It is the time when the Lord listens to those desires of our heart to grow in our relationship with him. The journey of Lent is a journey towards becoming what Paul calls in that reading ‘the goodness of God’, creating more space in our lives for God’s goodness to dwell in us. The gospel reading puts before us three paths we can take to bring us to this destination of our journey, almsgiving, prayer and fasting. They are really different dimensions of the one path, because they are very closely connected. Lent is a season of prayer because one of the ways we turn towards the Lord is by our communion with him in prayer. Our prayerful communion with the Lord will move us to turn away from whatever may be undermining our relationship with him, which is fasting, and it will move us to turn towards our neighbour in loving service, which is almsgiving. As we begin our Lenten journey, we ask the Holy Spirit to keep us faithful to the journey we have begun. In the words of today’s responsorial psalm, ‘put a steadfast spirit within me’.

And/Or

(ii) Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday could hardly make more visible and tangible the transience of things and our mortality. We start Lent in humility, close to the ground, close to our earthiness: remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. However, we do not gather on Ash Wednesday just to commemorate the transience of creation. The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are the residue of the celebration of Passion Sunday. Jesus died and was buried in a tomb, the place of decay and the place of dust. Yet he rose from the dead to new life. Our ultimate destiny is not dust and ashes but a sharing in the Lord’s risen life, becoming conformed to the image of God’s Son. As we journey towards that destiny we hear the call to grow more fully into the image of God’s Son, which is a call to turn away from sin, to repent. The ashes are a sign of our desire to do just that. The traditional practices of Lent put before us the essentials for growth into the image of God’s Son. There are all in the service of love, a greater love of God (prayer), a more generous love of neighbour (alms giving), and a truer love of ourselves (fasting). We recommit ourselves on Ash Wednesday to build our lives on those three loves, so that we may more fully become all that God is calling us to be.

And/Or

(iii) Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday could hardly make more visible and tangible the transience of things and our own mortality. We start Lent with ashes on our forehead, in humility, close to the ground, close to our earthiness, acknowledging that our ultimate destiny is beyond this earthly life, and thereby recognizing, by means of these ashes, that we are not yet all that the Lord wants us to be. The opening call of the first reading this evening, the first reading of Lent, expresses the call of Lent, ‘Come back to me with all your heart’. It is a call to keep returning to the Lord, to keep journeying towards the Lord. We can come back to the Lord with great confidence because again in the words of that first reading, the Lord ‘is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness’. As we return towards the Lord, he comes more than half-way to meet us. Indeed, his grace draws us to himself, if we are open to it. In this evening’s second reading Saint Paul calls upon us not to ‘neglect the grace of God that you have received’. The Lord is already at work in our lives through the Holy Spirit. Our calling is to yield to that work of the Lord deep within us and in so doing to draw closer to the Lord. The ashes that we receive on our forehead today are a sign of our desire to grow in our relationship with the Lord who so loved us that he laid down his life for us.

And/Or

(iv) Ash Wednesday

The traditional practices of Lent that we heard about in the gospel reading, prayer, fasting and almsgiving put before us three traditional ways of growing in our relationship with the Lord. They are three pathways that help us to turn more fully towards him. They are really one pathway with three layers, because prayer, fasting and almsgiving are so interconnected. We often think of fasting as giving up certain foods and drink. More broadly, however, fasting is a saying ‘no’ to whatever may be an obstacle to our growing in our relationship with the Lord; it is a saying ‘no’ to any form of self-centredness. That ‘no’ is always in the service of a greater ‘yes’, a ‘yes’ to the Lord, which then finds expression in prayer, and a ‘yes’ to others, to the Lord present in others, which finds expression in ‘almsgiving’, a giving of ourselves in service to others. In and through these three practices that Jesus puts before us in the gospel reading we respond to the opening call of the first reading, ‘Come back to me with all your heart’. The church gives us the forty days of Lent to respond to that call of the Lord; we are setting out on this forty day journey not as isolated individuals but together, as a church. This journey of Lent will bring us to the wonderful feast of Easter. Hopefully, we will have lived Lent in such a way that when Easter Sunday comes, we will be ready to renew our Baptismal promises from our heart. Just as for our catechumens Lent is an intense period of preparation for their baptism at Easter, so for all of us, the baptized, it is a period when we prepare ourselves to recommit to our baptism at Easter.

And/Or

(v) Ash Wednesday

The first line of the first reading for the season of Lent is in the form of an invitation from God. There it is at the beginning of today’s first reading, ‘Come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning... turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion’. We are hearing there the fundamental call of Lent. The call involves firstly a recognition that we are sinners, that in various ways we have turned away from God. It also involves a recognition that the God we have turned away from is a God of tenderness and compassion who longs for our return. Saint Paul in today’s second reading goes further and reminds us that the God from whom we have turned away has sought us out and continues to seek us out in the person of his Son Jesus. ‘For our sake, God make the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God’. What a powerful statement that is! God sent his Son to become like us so that we might become like him. God in his Son journeyed towards our sinful condition so that we might journey towards God’s goodness. The ashes that we wear on this day tell the world that we are sinners. Yet, those ashes we received are in the shape of a cross, which proclaims that we believe in a God whose love is stronger than our sin. As Paul declares in his letter to the Romans, ‘God demonstrates his love for us, in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us’. The three practices of almsgiving, prayer and fasting that Jesus speaks about in the gospel reading are three traditional ways of responding to God’s love for us in Christ, three ways of journeying towards God who has journeyed towards us. They are three ways of responding to that call of God at the beginning of the first reading, ‘Come back to me with all your heart’. These three Lenten practices are closely interlinked. Fasting is in the service of prayer and almsgiving. We die to ourselves so as to live more fully towards God and our fellow human being.

And/Or

(vi) Ash Wednesday

In a few moments, we will all come forward to receive some ashes on our foreheads and, as we do so, we will hear the words, ‘Repent and believe in the gospel’. It is the beginning of Lent. It is a seven-week period which ends with the Easter Triduum, Holy Thursday evening to Easter Sunday. It is a sombre season within the church’s year. The celebrant at Mass wears purple vestments instead of green or white. No flowers will appear to beautify our altar. At Mass on Sunday there will be no ‘Glory to God in the highest’ after the penitential rite. There is a general toning down. In musical terms, we are in a minor key. Lent is a season when the whole community of believers, the church, is invited to go on a kind of retreat. It is not a retreat in the normal sense of going off to a retreat house for a period of time. Very few are in a position to do that. It is more of a retreat in the midst of life. It is a time to come back to the Lord with all our heart, in the opening words of today’s first reading from the prophet Joel. As Joel reminds us in that reading, the Lord to whom we are invited to come back is one who is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness. It is a time to be reconciled to God in the words of Paul in the second reading, so that we can become what Paul calls in that reading ‘the goodness of God’. This coming back to the Lord with all our heart will involve in some shape or form the three traditional Jewish practises which Jesus endorses in the gospel reading, almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Our coming back to the Lord will mean a deepening of our prayer life. It will entail a form of fasting, of abstaining, from whatever it is that is pulling us away from the Lord. Our turning towards the Lord will show itself in some form of almsgiving, a more generous way of life towards others, a readiness to give out of what has been given to us. This is the journey on which we are being invited to set out together as we begin Lent. Our receiving of ashes proclaims our desire to enter into this journey with a willingness of heart and spirit.

And/Or

(vii) Ash Wednesday

We often think of Lent as a time when we do something worthwhile to grow in our relationship with the Lord. It is often thought of as a time when we make more of an effort in the area of living our faith. We might think in terms of the three practices that Jesus mentions in the gospel reading, prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We decide to pray a little more or we decide to fast from something that we like or that we are too attached to, or we resolve to give more generously to others out of our resources and gifts. This is a very valid way of looking at Lent. As well as thinking of Lent as a time when we do something worthwhile for the Lord, we could also think of Lent as a time when we allow the Lord to do something worthwhile for us. Lent is as much about God’s work for us as about our work for God. I am struck by that word of Saint Paul in today’s second reading, ‘we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received’. Paul is reminding us that God has already graced us. He has already been at work in our lives, and he continues to do his work in our lives. Lent could be understood as a time when we give God more space to do God’s good work in our lives. The goal of our lives as Christians is, in the words of Saint Paul in that reading, to become the goodness of God. This is predominantly God’s work in our lives. It is God’s work in our lives through his Son and the Holy Spirit that enables us to become the goodness of God. Writing to the church in Philippi, Paul says to them, ‘I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ’. God has begun a good work in our lives. That good work of God is always ongoing. It will be brought to completion when we become the goodness of God. Lent is a time when we allow God to do his good work in our lives more easily, more freely. During these weeks we try to co-operate more fully with the good work that God is always doing within us and among us.

And/Or

(viii) Ash Wednesday

Almsgiving, prayer and fasting, which Jesus comments on in today’s gospel reading, have been described as the three pillars of Lent. They are practices that are deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition. Jesus affirms their value in today’s gospel reading, but he warns against engaging in these practices in a way that draws attention to ourselves. What seems like something virtuous can be very self-serving in reality. The gospels show that Jesus himself fasted, prayed and engaged in various forms of almsgiving or self-giving service of others. Of the three practices, fasting can seem the most negative. Fasting is a saying ‘no’ to something. Prayer is a saying ‘yes’ to God, to the Lord. Almsgiving is a saying ‘yes’ to others and, for us believers, a saying ‘yes’ to the Lord present in others. Yet, there is nothing essentially negative about fasting or self-denial. If it is a saying ‘no’ to something, that ‘no’ is always in the service of our saying a more generous ‘yes’, to the Lord in prayer and to others in almsgiving. Pope Francis has said the following about fasting or self-denial, ‘Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts; no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance’. Pope Francis sees self-denial or fasting as in the service of our helping and enriching others, or what we might call almsgiving. Fasting also serves our prayer, as Jesus showed by his forty days in the wilderness. There is always that other-centred dimension to our fasting and self-denial, whether the other is God directly as in prayer or God present in others as in almsgiving. Lent is a time to reflect on how we might take up these three practices of almsgiving, prayer and fasting, so as to grow more fully into our baptismal calling. We take ashes on this Ash Wednesday as a sign of our desire, our commitment, to grow in our response to the Lord’s calling by means of these three great Lenten pillars.

And/Or

(ix) Ash Wednesday

The opening words of the first reading of Lent, from the prophet Joel, captures the primary message of Lent, ‘Come back to me with all your heart… turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness’. The call to come back, to turn, to the Lord is at the heart of Lent. It is a call to turn towards the one who is always turned towards us in tenderness and compassion. Coming back or turning suggests a change of direction. The word that is translated ‘repent’ in English means to have a change of mind or heart. We often think of repentance as a feeling of sorrow for any wrong we have done or good we have failed to do. However, repentance is a more positive movement that that. It is a turning towards the Lord, which will often mean a turning away from other directions we could take. That turning, that change of direction, that change of mind or heart, is supremely life affirming because the one who is turned towards us and who calls out to us to turn towards him more fully is the one who is the source of our joy. In the words of this evening’s responsorial psalm, ‘Give me again the joy of your help, with a spirit of fervour sustain me’. The traditional Jewish practices of almsgiving, prayer and fasting that Jesus talks about in the gospel reading are all in the service of that turning towards the Lord as the source of our life and joy. Lent is not intended to be a gloomy season. It is what Paul calls in today’s second reading, a ‘favourable time’. It is a time when we are invited to taste afresh the favour of God, to draw life from his sustaining presence, so that we can more fully become what Paul calls in that reading, ‘the goodness of God’. It is a wonderful way of thinking about the journey of faith, becoming the goodness of God. We can only become the goodness of God if we keep on turning towards the God of all goodness.

And/Or

(x) Ash Wednesday

Lent is traditionally a time of penance, when we try to die to ourselves in some way so as to live more fully to the Lord and to others. Many people feel that the past eleven months or so have been a kind of never-ending Lent. We have had to die to so much that we took for granted. Even the closest family ties have been impacted, as people have been unable to visit family members in hospital or even to be with them as they were dying. Children and young people have had to die to their normal educational experience. Those with jobs have had to work from home and die to, let go of, the normal human interaction that can enhance the work experience. Parents have had to juggle working at home with helping with their children’s home schooling. Those living alone with limited mobility have experienced even greater isolation. A lot of people have had to give up a great deal of what is precious in life. This Lent is probably not the time to be talking about giving up more; too many people have already given up too much. However, the giving up, the fasting, in the language of the gospel reading, has always been in the service of the other two practices that the gospel reading refers to, prayer and almsgiving, or in other words, growing in our love of God and in our love of others. Perhaps that is where our focus is to be this Lent, prayer and almsgiving. The Lord is always calling us to prayer. In the words of today’s first reading, he says to us, ‘Come back to me with all your heart… turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness’. We need the Lord’s tenderness, compassion and graciousness in these Covid days more than ever. Prayer is a moment when we open our hearts to receive from these life-giving qualities of the Lord. We may be substantially in level 5 until Easter. The letting go, the loss, involved in such a time can be an opportunity to open ourselves more fully to this kind of receptive prayer. As we open ourselves more fully to the Lord’s compassionate and tender love, we are empowered to relate to others with the Lord’s own compassionate and tender love. In the words of the gospel reading, prayer flows over into almsgiving, which can take a multitude of forms, such as supporting the Lenten Trócaure campaign. As we allow the way that the Lord relates to us to shape how we relate to one another, we can build one another up in these days, give one another new courage and hope. We can make Lent a graced time for ourselves and others, so that when Easter comes in seven weeks’ time, we can celebrate it with renewed joy and hope.

And/Or

(xi) Ash Wednesday

Today we begin a seven week journey towards Easter. Lent is not just a journey in time, it is also a personal and a communal journey. It is a journey we travel together as people of faith, and it is a journey that is very personal to each one of us. This personal and communal journey is in response to the invitation of the Lord in today’s first reading, ‘Come back to me with all your heart… Let you hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and ready to relent’. We have a very striking portrayal of God there in that reading. If we met someone who was all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and ready to relent, we would find ourselves very drawn to them. God is such a person but in an infinitely more complete way. If we really experienced God in this way, in our heart of hearts, we would be drawn to God, we would find ourselves instinctively journeying towards God. The God who is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and ready to relent has been revealed fully in the person of Jesus, who is God-with-us. If we experienced Jesus in this way, we would be greatly drawn to him. Our journey towards him would come easy to us. Indeed, Jesus himself is actively drawing us towards himself. He once declared, ‘when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. Lent is a time when we journey towards the Lord, in response to his drawing us towards himself. The Ashes we will soon receive are as sign of our desire to begin this journey in a spirit of joyful hope. The closer we come to the Lord on this journey, the more we will find ourselves drawn to the three practices Jesus mentions in the gospel reading of almsgiving, prayer and fasting. We will experience within ourselves a desire to give to others as the Lord is giving to us, a desire to be present to the Lord who draws us to himself in love and a desire to let go of those attachments that are obstacles on our journey towards the Lord. Lent invites us to journey in such a way that when Easter Sunday comes we can renew our baptismal promises with renewed enthusiasm.

And/Or

(xii) Ash Wednesday

The word ‘Lent’ comes from an old English word meaning ‘Season of Spring’. Lent always coincides with the season of Spring. Spring is a season of renewal, when nature is renewed. The trees, shrubs, plants that look rather dead during winter start coming to life again in a wonderful way. Lent is a season of spiritual renewal in our own lives. It is a time when we try to renew our friendship, our relationship, with Jesus. Jesus’ friendship with us never dies; it never withers. His love for us never changes, regardless of what we do or fail to do. He is completely faithful to us. However, our friendship with him, our response to his friendship, can die back; it can wither. Lent in our lives can be like Spring in nature. It is a time when our friendship with the Lord can come more fully to life. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus puts before us three ways of renewing our friendship with him, prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In prayer we become aware that the Lord is present to us and we become present to him. We need to be present to our friends if our friendship is to grow, and the same is true of our friendship with the Lord. Lent is a season when we give a little more time to prayer. When we hear the word ‘fasting’ we think mostly of giving up some food or drink. However, it could be understood as giving up and letting go of whatever is holding back our friendship with Jesus. What is it that is causing us to turn away from the Lord, to take a different path to the one he shows us in the gospels? In Lent we look at what may be damaging our spirit, weakening our faith, and we try to fast and step back from it. Almsgiving can be understood as any form of loving service of others. During Lent we look at ways we can give ourselves more generously to those in need, after the example and in the Spirit of Jesus. These are three paths we can take that will help to renew our friendship with Jesus. Lent is seven weeks long, so we are given plenty of time to take these paths. If we turn aside from any one of them during that time, we needn’t get discouraged. We just start again. Lent finishes with Easter and on Easter Sunday we are invited to renew our baptismal promises. As we work to renew our friendship with Jesus during the seven weeks of Lent, we are preparing ourselves to say a renewed ‘yes’ to our baptism and its calling.

And/Or

(xiii) Ash Wednesday

There is a line from the play, Murder in the Cathedral, by T.S. Eliot, ‘the last act is the greatest treason, to do the right deed for the wrong reason’. That is what Jesus seems to be talking about in today’s gospel reading, doing the right deed – prayer, fasting, almsgiving – for the wrong reason – to attract people’s notice, to win people’s admiration. Jesus is suggesting that why we do what we do is as important as what we do. It is always tempting to do something worthwhile for self-serving reasons. One of the beatitudes declares, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’. The pure in heart are those whose intention is pure. They do what they do as a way of serving the Lord rather than serving themselves. The verse before today’s gospel reading, quoting today’s psalm, is, ‘A pure heart create for me, O God, and give me again the joy of your help’. Lent is a time when we look both at what we do and why we do it. It is a time when we try to seek the Lord in all things. Saint Paul says in one of his letters, ‘Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God’. Lent is an opportunity to refocus our hearts, our minds, our whole lives, on the Lord. In the words of the first reading, it is a time to come back to the Lord with all our heart, to keep our heart focused on the Lord in all we say and do. We don’t try to draw attention to ourselves when we pray or when we do some service for others or when we make some sacrifice that will serve our relationship with the Lord. Jesus suggests in the gospel reading that what God sees is more important than what others see, and what God sees is the heart rather than just appearances. We all need to pray, ‘A pure heart create for me, O Lord’. We all have a journey to travel if we are to come back to the Lord with all our heart, the Lord who is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and rich in graciousness, in the words of the first reading. The wearing of ashes this day is a sign of our desire to keep setting out on this journey.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

4th March >> Fr. Martin’s Reflections/Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Mark 10:28-31): ‘We have left everything and followed you’.

Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except GB & USA) Mark 10:28-31 Whoever has left everything for the sake of the gospel will be repaid.

At that time Peter began to tell Jesus, ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecutions – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life. ‘Many who are first will be last, and the last first.’

Gospel (GB) Mark 10:28-31 ‘You will receive a hundredfold now in this time with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.’

At that time: Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children, or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’

Gospel (USA) Mark 10:28-31 You will receive a hundred times as much persecution in this present age, and eternal life in the age to come.

Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Reflections (10)

(i) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

There are some people who have the ability to ask the question that others want to ask but cannot bring themselves to ask. These people can articulate the questions that others carry around within them but never verbalize. Peter comes across as that kind of person in today’s gospel reading. Jesus had just been speaking about how attachment to the riches of this world can prevent people from answering God’s call in their lives. In contrast, Jesus’ disciples had left everything to follow him. Peter, Andrew, James and John had left a lucrative fishing business. Matthew had left a financially rewarding tax collecting business. Peter asked the question that was probably on the lips of the other disciples even though they would never have asked it, ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you’. Peter was saying, ‘We are not like the rich man who has just walked away after you called him to follow you. What will we gain from the sacrifices we have made?’ It is a very human question, even if we might think there is an element of self-interest in it. Jesus assures Peter, and all of us, that those who give generously to him will experience his generosity in ways they would never have expected. Jesus speaks to Peter of being repaid a ‘hundred times over… now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life’. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus says very succinctly, ‘give and it will be given to you’. Our giving to the Lord, in whatever form, always creates a space in our lives for the Lord to be much more generous with us than we have been with him.

And/Or

(ii) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading, Peter speaks up on behalf of all the disciples who have given up a lot to follow Jesus. Unlike the rich man in yesterday’s gospel reading, they have left everything to follow Jesus. Jesus assures Peter and the others that, having left everything, they will receive far more than they have left behind, both in this life and in the next life. Following Jesus, living the gospel, regardless of our particular state in life, will always be demanding. The gospel will always call us beyond the world we have created for ourselves and where we are most comfortable. In that sense, responding to the Lord’s call will always involved a dying to ourselves in some sense so as to live for others, some form of self-giving. The assurance Jesus gives us in this morning’s gospel reading is that in giving in this way, we will receive far more than we give. Our giving to the Lord creates a space for the Lord to give to us to a much greater degree than we could ever give to him.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

The question that Peter puts to Jesus in today’s gospel reading shows a certain amount of self-interest, ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you’. Peter seems to want some reassurance that the sacrifices he has made to follow Jesus will be worth it. It is a very understandable question. There is an honesty about it. We often find it easy to identify with Peter because of his honesty, his humanity. In answering his question Jesus assures him that whatever he has given up to become a disciple is small compared to what he will receive. He will be repaid a ‘hundred times over’. Jesus is reminding us all that if we are generous with him, his generosity towards us will far exceed our generosity towards him. Following the Lord will often mean what the gospel reading calls ‘persecutions’, taking the more difficult path, the less travelled way. However, in taking that path Jesus assures us that we will receive far more than we will give, both in this life and in the life to come. Saint Paul expresses the same conviction when writing to the church in Corinth, ‘you will be enriched in every way for your great generosity’.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading, Peter seems to ask a slightly self-serving question, ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you’. It is as if Peter is saying ‘What are we gaining from all that we are giving up in the struggle to follow you?’ Sometimes we can find ourselves in that same frame of mind as Peter. We can ask ourselves ‘Is it worth the effort to keep doing what needs doing?’ We can be tempted to walk away from what is clearly something worthwhile because we find ourselves losing the energy for it or we are tempted by paths that seem easier and less demanding. In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus seems to have recognized that Peter needed a bit of reassurance, as we all sometimes do. Jesus makes Peter the promise that he would receive more than he has given up. If he has given up a family, he will find a new family, a family of faith. Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus says, ‘give and it will be given to you... for the measure you give will be the measure you get back’. Jesus reassures us that it is in giving that we receive, it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus promises Peter that, having left his family to follow him, he will experience a new family. This new family was the community of Jesus’ followers. Earlier in Mark’s gospel, Jesus had looked at those who sat around him, listening to him, and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother’. For Jesus, the community of his disciples, the church, is, in a very real sense, a family. God sent his Son to become our brother. Through baptism we are brothers and sisters of Jesus, and sons and daughters of God, crying out ‘Abba, Father’ to God in the power of the Spirit, as Jesus did. To understand the church as family is to suggest that it is to be a home for people, a spiritual home. The church is a place where people should feel at home. This is to be true of the local church, as well as the church as a whole. The physical building where the local church gathers is to be a place where people feel at home. Its doors should be open for as long as possible so that people can come in here and feel at home in the presence of the Lord. We all have a part to play as members of the Lord’s family to make our local church, our parish, a place where people feel at home, wherever their life journey has taken them.

And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Peter is often presented in the gospels as speaking very directly and honestly. He seems to articulate what the other disciples are thinking but refuse to express. We find an example of that in this morning’s gospel reading. Jesus just had an encounter with a rich man who said ‘no’ to Jesus’ call to leave everything and follow him. Peter is prompted to ask, on behalf of all the disciples, ‘What about us? We have left everything to follow you’. It is almost as if Peter is saying, ‘What will we get back for all we have given up?’ ‘What is the value or benefit in our following you?’ It is a very understandable question. It is one we might all be tempted to ask. Saying ‘yes’ to Jesus involves saying ‘no’ to other ways which, on the surface, can seem more attractive. Why take what often seems the more difficult path? Jesus’ answer to Peter is addressed to us all. He assures us that in following his way we will become part of a new family gathered around him; we will gain brothers and sisters, the community we call the church. Jesus implies that this is a real blessing because we will be greatly graced in and through this spiritual family. Jesus goes on to state that not only will we receive a new family but, in choosing his way, we will gain eternal life, a sharing in his own risen life, where that family of the church will be purified and glorified.

And/Or

(vii) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s gospel reading begins with a question from Peter, ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you’. Peter and the other members of the twelve had given up a great deal to become followers of Jesus. They may have been wondering if it was really worth it all. We too have responded to the Lord’s call, although not in the same very radical way that those intimate associates of Jesus had answered the call, leaving livelihood and family for a very uncertain future. Perhaps on our off days we might be tempted to ask a similar question to that of Peter; ‘Is it worth the effort, this following of Jesus, this struggle to live by the values of the gospel day in and day out’. The answer of Jesus to Peter and to us all is that, ‘yes, it is worth the effort’. Jesus promises us in that gospel reading that when we respond to his call, when we give of ourselves for his sake, we will receive far more than we will give. In particular, he says that we will gain a new experience of family, far beyond the confines of our blood family, the family of believers. We will find ourselves co-travellers with others who are trying to take the same path as ourselves; we will experience the richness of the church, the community of the Lord’s followers. That community embraces not only those of us still on our pilgrim way, but all who have passed beyond this life, including the saints, that ‘great cloud of witnesses’.

And/Or

(viii) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, Peter declares to Jesus, ‘We have left everything and followed you’. He spoke the truth. He and his companions had left their family and their fishing business to follow Jesus. Jesus goes on to acknowledge that Peter and the others did indeed leave their household, family and possessions for his sake. He assures them that their leaving family will open them up to an experience of a new kind of family, brothers, sisters, mothers, children in the here and now. Jesus is talking here of the family of disciples, what we have come to call the church. Most of us have not been asked by the Lord to leave our families and livelihood in order to follow him. Yet, our following the Lord will often require some form of letting go on our part. By the standards of this age, there may appear to be a loss involved in our remaining faithful to the way of the Lord. Yet, Jesus assures us in the gospel reading that in losing our lives for his sake we will gain something new. Our faithful follower of the Lord, even at a cost to ourselves, will open us up to an experience of a new spiritual family, the family of the church. In giving our lives to the Lord we will receive abundantly from him in and through the community of his followers, the church. This is a community that extends beyond this life into eternal life.

And/Or

(ix) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel reading follows immediately after the scene where the rich man walked away sad from Jesus because he was unable to respond to Jesus’ call to leave everything and follow him. Seeing this, Peter at the beginning of today’s gospel reading asks Jesus, ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you?’ Peter and the other disciples did not have as much to leave as that man who had initially run up to Jesus and who is described as a man of great wealth. Peter, Andrew, James, John, and even Matthew the tax collector were not men of great wealth. Yet, they did leave everything to follow Jesus. Peter, Andrew, James and John left their fishing business and Matthew his tax collecting business. They left their livelihood to follow Jesus. Jesus did not ask everyone he met to leave everything to follow him. Mary and Martha were followers of Jesus and they had their own home where they offered Jesus hospitality. Yet everyone who wants to follow Jesus has something to leave. We all have something in our lives that can and does hinder us from living as the Lord’s followers. It might be some excessive attachment, or some habit that draws us away from the path the Lord wants us to take, the path of life. Leaving and following go together. However, the more important movement is following, following the one who has come that we may have life and have it to the full. If we follow him joyfully and rely on his daily presence to us, then we will find the freedom to leave whatever we need to leave so as to keep following him more closely.

And/Or

(x) Tuesday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

There is a lot of wisdom in the Jewish Scriptures. We are reading these days from the Book of Ecclesiasticus, which is one of the Wisdom books of the Bible. In today’s first reading, the author calls on people to honour God not just by offering sacrifices in the Temple but by the way that they live, ‘a virtuous person’s offering graces the altar’. The author goes on to say that serving the Lord by both our worship and our way of life is to be done cheerfully, ‘add a smiling face to all your gifts, and be cheerful as you dedicate your tithes’. I am reminded of a verse from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, ‘Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver’. Sometimes our giving to the Lord and to others can be reluctant and a little begrudging, as if we were putting everyone under a complement to us. To give joyfully is a sign, a fruit, of the Spirit in our lives. Peter’s question to Jesus in today’s gospel reading, reveals something of that attitude of reluctant giving, ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you’. It is as if he was saying, ‘We have given a lot. Now what’s in it for us?’ Jesus takes his question seriously, however, and promises Peter that having given up everything to become a disciple, he will experience a rich reward in the form of a new family, a family of faith, brothers and sisters in the Lord, and Jesus adds, ‘not without persecutions’. For all its blessings, the path of discipleship won’t always be easy. Even when it is not easy, our following of the Lord is to be cheerful. It is always a joyful response to God’s prior goodness to us.

Fr. Martin Hogan.