Tag Archives: Jerusalem

Sep 16 2012

Personal Encounter with Jesus: ground for discipleship

Homily for 24th Sunday 2012

  1. Today’s gospel gives us the ground of our Christian faith- the profession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the messiah, the anointed one of God,  that Peter has confessed in Jesus. Peter has come to believe in Jesus as the Christ, not just one of the prophets, or  Elijah, or John the Baptist, as the others would say of him. Peter has come to recognize Jesus as the one sent by God to be saviour of all. But this realization didn’t come to Peter out of the blue. Peter and the other disciples of Jesus came to see and believe in him because of something more fundamental that had happened in them. They not only met Jesus, but they have encountered him. This encounter happened not because they were driven to Jesus but because they were drawn by him individually and personally.

  2. This is the beauty of our God when he calls us to follow him. He addresses us personally: ‘And You! Who do you say I am?’ And he also freely calls us, thus we are also to respond in freedom. When Jesus calls and we respond in freedom, this is encounter, and this encounter calls for a personal relationship. Because it is only in and through personal relationship with the Lord Jesus that we can profess freely, confidently and even proudly that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour.

  3. This encounter therefore calls us for two things as we can deduce from our gospel today. First to celebrate this encounter by committing ourselves to follow Jesus everyday. Following him means ‘to renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.’ Following him means devotion to the truth- that is to stand up for the truth that there is God, and that he is sending us the Messiah, and that we who are here today are witnesses to this wonderful truth of our faith. Following him means to be single-minded as Jesus was, towards the fulfilment of his mission from the Father- that is to go to Jerusalem, to be captured by the authorities and even to die on the cross. This single-mindedness towards our mission in life as Christians is always a challenging one, because this can mean we can disappoint others, even our own friends. Jesus himself was a victim of this. When he said to his closest friends what is going to happen to him, Peter was disappointed and thus he was trying to block his way to Jerusalem. Peter’s reaction however is typical of any human relationship. We don’t want something bad happens to our friends, we don’t want to lose our friends. But we have to know and understand God calls each one of us personally and in a more unique way. This then leads us to the second way to celebrate this personal encounter with Jesus and that is to be Christlike in the world today.

  4. To be Christlike in the world today means to be reflection of Christ to others, to be bearers of the light that Christ has shared with us in our baptism, to  be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. To be Christlike today is to harmonise our faith with good works as St James urges us in our Second Reading today. To be Christlike is to be humble and meek as the suffering servant that the Prophet Isaiah tells us today in our Second Reading. St Teresa of Avila captured it quite well how to be Christlike in her poem that she wrote: Christ Has No Body. This mystic said: Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

  5. It is a big call. But we are drawn to follow Jesus not driven. So we are free. He may not make the mountains in our path smaller but he can always make the climb easier. He may not take our load away, but he can always make our burden light. He may be showing us the ultimate way of discipleship which is to embrace the cross and even die, but he also shows us that there is glory, resurrection, and eternal happiness behind it all.

  6. So as we continue our Eucharistic celebration today, let thank Jesus for this wonderful encounter with him. Let us also pray that we may be strengthened, encouraged and be braved enough to be his living witnesses in the world today through our faith in him and our actions that are motivated by the values of the gospel that he taught us. Amen.

Jun 30 2012

Sunday XIII B 2012

Death was not God’s doing, he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living. To be – for this he created all! Those words from the book of Wisdom sum up the principal message of today’s readings, but the word ‘death’ is used ambiguously here. The more important meaning is ‘spiritual death’, serious sin, the kind which severs our relationship with God. I think it probable that physical death was always part of God’s plan. Once our period of testing, our earthly life, is ended, we pass through physical death to eternal life.

The passage from St Mark’s gospel which we’ve just heard interweaves two stories about life and death. It begins with the synagogue official coming to ask Jesus to do something for his 12-year-old daughter who is desperately sick. Jairus falls on his knees at Jesus’ feet to ask for his help. That gesture shows that he was one Jewish leader who was not hostile to Jesus. In telling us that the daughter was 12 years old, St Mark is pointing out that she is almost a woman, old enough in those days to be betrothed and to transmit life. Jesus sets out to accompany him to his house and a whole crowd of bystanders follows them.

Among them was the woman who had been suffering from a haemorrhage … for 12 years – as long as Jairus’ daughter had been alive. Now that condition, apart from weakening her body, made her ritually impure. She wasn’t supposed to join the community in worship or to touch another person. Furthermore, she had originally been quite well off, but after 12 years of doctors’ bills she had spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus; she believed what she heard and so thought: If I can touch even his clothes I shall be well again. Well, you know the story: Jesus was aware that power had gone out from him. When he asked who had touched him, the frightened woman fell at his feet and told the whole truth. Far from being angry he simply told her: My daughter, your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint. In so doing, he restored her to the fullness of life. Death was not God’s doing.

At this point some people arrived from Jairus’ house to tell him that his daughter had died and that there was no need to trouble the Master further. Hearing that, Jesus told him: Do not be afraid; only have faith. Arrived at Jairus’ house they found people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. They had seen death before and they knew that the girl was dead. That is why they ridiculed Jesus when he said: Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep. Five people accompanied Jesus into the house: the grieving parents and the disciples Peter, James and John. Once again Jesus risked ritual impurity: he took the girl’s hand and ordered her to get up. Talitha koum, he said – and she obeyed him. Jesus’ word is more powerful than touch. Time and again in healing miracles Jesus forbids people to talk about it, and so it is in this case. One wonders why he bothered! Given the crowds who had come to mourn with the parents, there was no chance at all that they would remain silent when they saw the daughter walk out of her bedroom.

Today’s second reading, from St Paul’s second letter to the Christians of Corinth, is not concerned with imminent death, but with the kind of extreme poverty which can lead to it. Paul is going to take up a collection for the relief of the poor Christians in Jerusalem. Remember that at Pentecost there had been pilgrims in Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean world. Many of them, as well as many locals, were impressed by the preaching of the Apostles and embraced Christianity. Not all persevered in the faith. What’s more there came a time when the leaders of Temple Judaism decided that Christianity was a heresy and launched a persecution. Their leader, James, was put to death. This was the time when the zealot Saul (later Paul) was hunting down followers of Jesus. Many believers fled while many of those who remained were too poor to go anywhere else.

Years had passed and the poor were still poor with little hope of improving their situation through their own efforts. So Paul decided to collect money for them in Greece and take the proceeds back to Jerusalem. Writing ahead to Corinth from Macedonia he begins by stirring up a bit of rivalry. The Macedonians have been very generous, he says – and then goes on to remind the Corinthians how well off they are: You always have the most of everything – of faith, of eloquence, of understanding, of keenness for any cause, and the biggest share of our affection – so we expect you to put the most into this work of mercy too. He reminds them of the sacrifices Jesus had made for them – and for us – and goes on to explain that he’s not asking them to give away all they possess. This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need.

Perhaps you are expecting me now to urge you to contribute generously to some worthy cause – but that is not part of today’s programme! Instead I must turn once more to the refugees and asylum seekers who put their lives at risk trying to reach Australia. We have all been horrified by the loss of life from an overturned boat last week, and relieved that so few drowned when a second boat capsized this week. If I asked you to name Australia’s two most prominent Catholic priests, I expect most of you would mention Cardinal Pell, and a good number would also name the Jesuit Fr Frank Brennan. The son of a former justice of the High Court, Frank Brennan is himself a professor of law at the A.N.U. and at the A.C.U. He gave a talk in Canberra on Wednesday night which you can find on the internet with the title “Australia’s 20-year search for the right asylum policy”. In it he makes some interesting points.

For instance, in 2010-2011, 5175 people arrived in Australia by boat and applied for temporary protection visas. In the same year 6316 arrived by aircraft and made the same application. This is a regular pattern: more refugees fly in than sail in. There is much talk of a ‘Malaysian solution’. Apart from the fact that Malaysia is not a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the queue of people now in Malaysia waiting for a refugee visa already numbers more than 90,000. The UNHCR publishes an annual list of ‘persons of concern’. I take this to mean people whose status has not yet been determined and whose request for asylum could still be refused. In Australia there are more than 28,000 such people. Compare that with two European countries much smaller than Australia: Belgium 42,000 and the Netherlands 87,000. In Malaysia there are over 208,000 such people. The former Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry described our immigration detention centres as “factories for producing mental illness”. Mental illness – not physical illness. The centres are clean and healthy, adequate meals are provided. The psychological stress comes from the very long periods of uncertainty as the prisoners (for that is what they are, without having committed any crime) wait and wait for a decision.

You and I cannot solve this problem but we can make our views known to government. We can call upon our leaders to hire and train the staff to process the applications rapidly and humanely. This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves. Just remember: Death was not God’s doing, he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living. [Q.Howard]

30-06 and 01-07-2012

 

 

May 28 2012

Pentecost: Empowering the Church

 Pentecost B 2012

We might say that the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples liberated them from their fear and transformed them into apostles, men with a mission. Not for nothing do we say that this feast marks the birthday of the Church. Let’s look more closely at what today’s readings tell us.

First of all, Pentecost was an established Jewish feast, one of the most important in their liturgical calendar. It was sometimes called the Feast of Weeks, because according to the instructions in the Torah, it took place seven weeks after they had gathered the first sheaf of new corn. So initially it was a kind of harvest festival. Torah stressed that the entry of the tribes of Israel into the Promised Land marked the fulfilment of God’s promises to his Chosen People. It was right and fitting that they should offer the first fruits of the harvest as an act of thanksgiving. The Jewish people came to think of the festival as a celebration of the renewal of the covenant. A key aspect of the covenant was God’s gift of Torah, the laws for righteous living and it just so happens that in rabbinical teaching, fire was often used as a symbol of Torah.

The passage from Acts that we heard just now stresses the crowds present in Jerusalem on the day that the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, looking like tongues of fire. There were pilgrims from every part of the world into which Jews had gone. These pilgrims from the diaspora then can be said to symbolize the known world. As the apostles began to preach, each of the visitors heard them in his or her own language. And we may be sure that when they returned to their own countries they talked about what they had seen and heard in Jerusalem. Later, when the apostles began to move out from Jerusalem carrying the good news towards the ends of the earth, no doubt some of these people came forward to support what the apostles said, and to welcome the gospel.

Today’s gospel is another extract from Our Lord’s final instructions to his disciples during the Last Supper. He promises to send them an Advocate whom he describes as the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father; he [or she] will be my witness. Scholars argue about the best translation of the word rendered here as ‘advocate’. To us ‘advocate’ suggests a court of law which is not the normal setting for the apostles. Still, there is a touch of the courts in Jesus’ instruction that you too will be witnesses because you have been with me from the outset. Because they have been with Jesus throughout the years of his public life, they will be able to testify – to bear witness – to all that he has said and done. Since the Spirit is the Spirit of truth they can count on her to help them recall accurately the details of Jesus’ life and teachings: the Spirit of truth will lead you to the complete truth [and] will tell you of the things to come.

We sometimes speak of the ‘indwelling’ of the Holy Spirit. By that we mean that the Spirit once received remains with us, unless we drive her out by committing grave sin. The Spirit dwelling in us represents Jesus’ ongoing presence in the world. This makes us vulnerable, for Jesus does have enemies in the world. Think of the often renewed attacks on Church schools and the teaching of religion generally. Think of the plague of abortion. Think of the indifference to and the demonization of refugees and asylum seekers. Insofar as we draw attention to these evils, we shall receive the abuse that Jesus’ enemies can no longer give to him directly.

Writing to the Galatians, St Paul was concerned not so much with the Spirit’s influence on the mission of the whole Church as with her effect on the life of the believer, that is to say every single one of us. After all, we all received the gifts of the Holy Spirit when we were confirmed. God does not force his gifts on us. We can put them to good use, or we can ignore them. We can follow the promptings of the Spirit, or we can pay no attention. Paul writes: If you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence. He lists the fruits of self-indulgence. They include sins of the flesh, works of idolatry, activities that harm the community, like jealousy, anger, factions; and drunkenness and carousing. By contrast, the fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.

As you know, this year’s feast of Pentecost has been chosen by the Australian bishops to launch the Year of Grace. It is not so much a time for doing something new as a time for pausing to take stock and for being more deeply what we are already: people of God, recipients of many gifts. Just as the Jewish people regularly recall God’s liberating gifts to them, so also we are being invited this year to review all that God has done for us. It will then be natural for us to draw closer to God with prayers of thanksgiving. Please note that I am not saying we should say more prayers. What I am saying is that we should pray better, i.e. we should spend more time quietly in the presence of God offering prayers of praise and thanksgiving.

During this week the Church reminds us of another matter, namely the need for reconciliation between indigenous Australians and the later arrivals and their descendants. When the first European settlers invited themselves into Australia at the end of the 18th century they were immediately struck by the differences between themselves and the native inhabitants. ‘Different from’ quickly came to mean ‘inferior to’. The 18th century is sometimes called the Age of Reason. It was a time of research, enquiry, exploration; it was a time of notable achievements in literature, art and music – a high point in European civilisation. Regrettably it was not the most civilised Europeans who arrived at Botany Bay. From the point of view of the Aborigines, what they call ‘the invasion’ has been a disaster. Yet we now know that those peoples had developed a very intelligent way of managing and using the resources of this continent. They had an elaborate set of beliefs about the origin and purpose of creation. They had laws and a moral code and ways of dealing with transgressors. Certainly their culture was very different from that of the Europeans, but it was not inferior to it as a way of ordering society.

You may remember that it was not until 1967 that Aborigines were granted full citizenship rights. I can tell you that to an Australian who has lived abroad for more than 30 years, that is an embarrassing fact. So progress has been made, but it is far from complete. The purpose of this reconciliation week is to make us all aware of the problem, and at least open to attempts to solve it.

Early navigators called our country the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. Let us not stifle the Spirit within us, but rather be open to her promptings to draw closer to God and to each other. (Quentin Howard)

26-05-2012