Tag Archives: Old Testament

May 6 2012

Getting in touch with our only true Vine…

Easter V B 2012 Readings

There are several passages in the Old Testament where Israel is presented as the vineyard of the Lord. In Isaiah XXVII, for instance, we read: Sing of the delightful vineyard! I the Lord am its keeper; every moment I water it for fear its leaves should fall; night and day I watch over it. It is another way of saying how dear his Chosen People are to the Lord. And none can be dearer to the Lord than his only begotten Son who became a Jewish man known as Jesus the Christ.

In today’s gospel Jesus takes up the same viticultural imagery to describe the relationship between himself and his followers. If they are truly to be his followers, they must remain closely united to him. His Father continues to watch over and take care of the true vine. He declares that: Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. He adds: As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

What are we to understand by remaining in Jesus? First of all, let me remind you that we all have free will. We are not automata. Look at the heavenly bodies, the millions of stars and planets and comets: they are wonderful to behold. All obey the astrophysical laws. At any moment God knows exactly where they are and precisely when they will disappear. By contrast, we are capable of doing the unexpected; we are much more entertaining. Not all our choices are between good and evil; many of them are morally neutral – what breakfast cereal to eat, whether to take tea or coffee. But we can make morally wrong choices, which amount to turning away from God. If we persist in that behaviour, we are indeed severing our links to God.

So the question becomes: by what exercise of free will can we remain united to Jesus? During my years in Rome I found that Australians and New Zealanders got together regularly; the Congolese got together regularly; the Zambians, the Ghanaians and the Tanzanians got together. Similarly, in practically every city of the world you will find Filipinos meeting regularly. This suggests that if we are to remain united to Jesus, we should get in touch with him regularly … through prayer for instance! That commandment which orders us to “keep holy the Sabbath day” has never been revoked. One of the best ways of sanctifying the Sabbath is to join the community in worship – not, you notice, in shopping. Even if that were not possible, we can raise our hearts and minds to God any time, anywhere. Given that God is looking after us 24/7 it is not unreasonable for us to take time to talk to God at least once a day.

Now while it is good to say some prayers, like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory be, God is going to find us rather boring conversationalists if that is all we ever say. Just as parents like their children to tell them about their day, so God welcomes us to talk to him about all the things that concern us. After all, God is our loving Father. Let our prayer be more than a series of petitions. God knows what we want even before we ask for it. But God might be interested in our opinion about certain matters, and will surely appreciate gratitude for favours received.

You know, there is both an individual and a collective dimension to the divine plan. God thinks big. He made an alliance with the whole Jewish people, not just with Moses and his family. The Christian Church has developed a theology of the Mystical Body of Christ – that is to say that all believers are united by the presence in each one of them of a spark of the divine life. Jesus died for all of us, not just some of us, but we can – by committing grave sin – separate ourselves from the community of believers.

Jesus told his disciples that his Father prunes those branches which bear fruit – i.e. ourselves – so that they will bear still more. At a certain point in our lives we come to realise that our powers are diminishing. We can’t play sport the way we used to, we can’t walk or run or swim as far or as fast as we used to. What’s more, everybody seems to speak more softly these days. These reductions in our physical powers are signs of our being pruned. Little by little we will experience other losses – through the death of a wife or a husband, or even of a child; we may have to give up driving; we grow more forgetful. In our second childhood, gradually we become almost as dependent as we were in our first, but with the painful memory that there was a time when we were autonomous and free.

I guess we all saw pictures of Pope John Paul II in his last years when he was stooped and sick. His was a very public decline towards death. It is said that he did consider resigning the papacy. Presumably he prayed for guidance. It is hard to see how it could be best for an organization as vast and complex as the Church to be led by a man in his dotage. Those of us who have views on this matter should make arrangements now for the time when we are old and frail. Ideally, I think, our last years should be a time of preparation for our meeting with God when we move on to the next stage of our existence. That means accepting the diminution of our own powers, willingly letting go of the attachments which mattered so much to us earlier in our lives, in all simplicity allowing God’s will to be done.

Perhaps you know Judith Wright’s poem “Bullocky” which is a meditation on the grave of a pioneer. It concludes with these lines:

“Grass is across the wagon-tracks,

And plough strikes bone beneath the grass,

And vineyards cover all the slopes

Where the dead teams were used to pass.

 

O vine, grow close upon that bone

And hold it with your rooted hand.

The prophet Moses feeds the grape,

And fruitful is the Promised Land.”

 

That’s not Scripture, but it’s a reminder that each of us has a place in the order of things so that even after our death we contribute something to the community. While we live, however, we have many opportunities to contribute in positive ways to the life of the community, the other members of the Mystical Body, other branches of the Vine. Let us not waste them. (Quentin Howard)

05-05-2012

 

Apr 14 2012

Easter II B 2012 Homily

Doubting Thomas

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. These men had run away when Jesus was arrested and they were still frightened, even if no one was looking for them. It looks as if Thomas was not so scared as the others, because he had gone out – we know not where. Perhaps he wanted to hear what people were saying, to find out what was going on.

During his absence, Jesus appeared to the other disciples. He greeted them in the oriental manner: Shalom / peace be with you! – and they were filled with joy. Now this wasn’t a simple courtesy call, nor a desire to see and reassure his friends. He had come to give them a mission. From this time onwards, Jesus was going to behave differently from the way he had done previously. Time was short; soon he would ascend to the Father; he needed to get everyone and everything ready for his departure. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.

In the course of the three years he’d spent with these men, he had taught them many things, but now he was about to give them a very special gift. He breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained’.

Maybe we should pause for a moment to consider the breath of God. You will recall that the opening words of the Book of Genesis are: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God’s spirit hovered over the water. God’s spirit, or breath, is going to bring about the creation. A little further on, in the second chapter of Genesis, we read: God fashioned man of dust, from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being. Just one last example from the Old Testament, which we find in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of bones: The Lord God says this to these bones: ‘I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live’ – which is exactly what happened. So you see that in each of these cases, God’s breath is life-giving. And that is the effect of Jesus’ gift to the disciples on Easter evening: henceforth they will be able to give new life to those bound by sin; the disciples will be able to pardon sins as only Jesus had done until that time.

Despite having received this precious gift, the disciples stayed where they were. When Thomas returned, they naturally told him what had happened, but he couldn’t believe them, thought they were hallucinating. Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe. We all know about the doubts of Thomas and maybe we share them at times. The gospels don’t tell us a lot about Thomas, but it’s interesting to recall two incidents mentioned in St John’s gospel. The first was when they learned of the death of Lazarus. Jesus wanted to go to Bethany but the disciples tried to talk him out of it because they knew that the Jewish authorities were scheming to kill him. Nevertheless, Jesus insisted, so Thomas said to the others: Well let’s all go, and die with him. You can see he was courageous, and devoted to his Master. Later, at the Last Supper, when Jesus started speaking of his ‘departure’ in terms which are clear to us but not to the disciples, it was Thomas who expressed the incomprehension of the others when he said: Lord we don’t even know where you are going, so how can we possibly know the way? That gives Jesus the opportunity to announce: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one can go to the Father except through me. They probably found the answer enigmatic; let’s just keep in mind that it was Thomas who asked the question; he wanted to understand.

Anyway, today’s gospel tells us that Jesus made another apparition a week later, and this time Thomas was present, so Jesus spoke directly to him: Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe. You can imagine his emotion! Now that he can see Jesus with his own eyes he thinks no more about hallucinations or illusions; the man in front of him is most definitely a man of flesh. And he knows what Thomas had said the other day. Thomas doesn’t want to touch his Master’s wounds. They’re still swollen, tender; he doesn’t want to revive the pain. There’s a pause; Jesus keeps looking at him; very slowly Thomas puts out his hand; he touches the wounds – and exclaims: My Lord and my God.

Remember that Jesus had only ever spoken of himself as the Son of Man. He never introduced himself as Son of God, or Messiah. He wanted people to listen to his teaching, to observe his behaviour and to draw their own conclusions. We do know that quite a few people thought of him as a prophet, but none had any idea of his divine sonship. True, there were a couple of occasions where he used the words I AM in a way that evoked God’s self-manifestation on Sinai – and that didn’t win him any friends. So it was Thomas, ‘doubting’ Thomas, who was the first of those who were destined to be called ‘Christians’ to greet him as God.

Jesus had a word of encouragement for the rest of us when he said to Thomas: You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe. Yes, you and I accept the witness of the Apostles and their witness is the kernel of our faith: Jesus Christ is the Son of God; he was put to death – and now he lives!

Today’s passage concludes with these words: There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life through his name. That sounds like a conclusion – which it is – but there is in fact one more chapter to St John’s gospel, and another conclusion which does not in any way invalidate what I have said about this one.

Let me make just one observation about this morning’s first reading. It presents a beautiful picture: The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul … everything they owned was held in common. The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power … None of their members was ever in want … I think it’s an idealized picture. But I will add that we should never lose sight of our ideals. So the primitive Christian community is presented as a place of sharing. It is healthy to think of all that we have as a gift from God; it is something to share with others for the building up of community. I would stress that sharing is not concerned only with material possessions. We can and should share our faith, the breath of God which brings life into the world! (Quentin Howard)

15-04-2012 

Apr 6 2012

Reflection on Good Friday 2012

 Triduum 2012 Good Friday

On Palm Sunday we read St Mark’s account of Our Lord’s passion. St John’s version which we have just heard contains many interesting details which deserve our attention. Nevertheless, this year I want to concentrate on that first reading from Isaiah, which is the fourth of what we call the Songs of the Suffering Servant.

I think I told you some weeks ago that many passages of Scripture have more than one level of meaning. The first will have been relevant to people at the time it was written. But Scripture is the inspired word of God, and if something has been written down and preserved in the Bible, it may well be that it also contains a message for later generations. So far as Jewish scholars are concerned, these Servant Songs, composed during the captivity of their people in Babylon, a very low point in the nation’s history, refer to Israel itself. Israel is the Suffering Servant, being punished for her sins but not rejected. The people in exile are to take comfort from the promise that God will restore the nation.

By contrast, for us Christians, there is no doubt that the Suffering Servant is Jesus. Mark you, these two interpretations are not mutually exclusive. Both can be part of the divine plan. So what exactly does this song say? In the first verse it is actually God who speaks: See, my servant will prosper, he shall be lifted up, exalted, rise to great heights. You can see at once how easily those words can be applied to Jesus, and we remember his own prediction: When I am lifted up from the earth I shall draw all men to myself. Most of the rest of this song describes the Servant, and God will speak again at the end.

The crowds were appalled at seeing him – so disfigured did he look that he seemed no longer human. After Jesus had been scourged and mocked and spat upon, Pilate showed him to the crowd who were baying for his blood. Knowing that Jesus was guilty of no crime, Pilate would have liked to acquit him and was hoping that the crowd would be moved to pity for him. Perhaps a few were, but Jesus’ enemies kept inciting them to demand his crucifixion. On the journey to Calvary there were at least some women who pitied Jesus. So these words too can be applied to him. The poem continues: Kings shall stand speechless before him; for they shall see something never told and witness something never heard before. I don’t think there were any kings lining the path to Calvary, but over the centuries persons of every rank have been moved by looking at representations of the crucifixion and recalling that Our Lord accepted all that suffering for our sake.

Without beauty, without majesty we saw him, no looks to attract our eyes; a thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, a man to make people screen their faces. As recently as the 19th century in Europe, public executions were spectacles, and I’ve no doubt that if they were reintroduced there would be plenty of ghoulish people wanting to watch them. But even the ghouls might be horrified at some of the things people do to each other. The poem continues: Yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God and brought low. Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds, we are healed. There could hardly be a clearer statement of the redemptive power of Christ’s sufferings for us.

We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and the Lord burdened him with the sins of all of us. The Old Testament provided for the High Priest to put the blame for all the sins of the people on an animal, just once a year, and that animal was then driven into the wilderness. The poem makes the blameless servant a scapegoat. It recognizes that the traditional rites of the Day of Atonement have not brought about any lasting change in the behaviour of the community. In the prophet’s understanding, God has taken an innocent human being and allowed the punishment deserved by the many to fall on him. That is pretty close to our understanding of the significance of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, he never opened his mouth. In St John’s gospel, Jesus answers the questions which Pilate puts to him, but in the synoptics he hardly says a word – he is truly like the lamb led to the slaughter.

The poem continues: The Lord has been pleased to crush him with suffering. If he offers his life in atonement, he shall see his heirs, he shall have a long life and through him what the Lord wishes will be done. We must be very careful here: we are not in the presence of a perverse, cruel or vindictive God. Rabbi Rashi of Troyes put these thoughts into the mind of God: “I am going to see if his soul is completely dedicated to my holiness to atone for the infidelity of the people. If it is, I shall compensate him and he will see his descendants”. An American scholar, Paul Hanson, has this to say: “The Servant did not submit to affliction through pathetic resignation but as a bold choice to participate with God in an act aimed at breaking the stranglehold that sin had maintained for countless ages over the human family”. That is to say that the Servant – whom we identify with Jesus – chose to make his life an instrument of God’s healing of flawed humanity. The Servant, Jesus, conformed his will perfectly with his Father’s.

There are many injustices in the story of Jesus’ passion. The Jewish leaders who schemed to get rid of him were unjust. The members of the Sanhedrin who judged him in a rigged trial were unjust. Pontius Pilate who knowingly sent an innocent man to be crucified was unjust. The crowd who allowed themselves to be manipulated and screamed Crucify him! were unjust  - like listeners to some radio shock-jock who think and say whatever they’re told. In the midst of all this injustice, the Son of Man who was at the same time Son of God did not raise his voice or his fist, did not summon legions of angels to fight for him. He identified with the most down-trodden of human beings and never lost his faith or trust in God. There are no objective measurements of pain or suffering. What we can say is that Jesus was subjected to the worst that the men of his time could devise. Consequently no other human being can say: “You wouldn’t understand” – because God does know and understand. God has been there.

At the end of the poem God speaks again: I will grant whole hordes for his tribute, he shall divide the spoil with the mighty, for surrendering himself to death and letting himself be taken for a sinner, while he was bearing the faults of many and praying all the time for sinners. On this most solemn day of the liturgical year we can only marvel at the extent of God’s love for us, his sinful creatures. (Quentin Howard)

06-04-2012