Giving 100%

Wee nearing the end of Lent and this is the final straight. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, and on that day Jesus gave himself to the fickle crowd, knowing that it would probably end in his death.

How has your Lent been? What have you discovered so far? If you have been praying, fasting and giving to others, you will have discovered again the message of today’s gospel. Unless a grain of wheat falls upon the ground and dies it remains a single grain.  But what does that mean to you and me who are living out our ordinary lives in Broome in 2012?

Over the past few weeks I have been fascinated by the politics in America. The passion that the two main rivals for the republican candidacy are displaying is amazing. To add to this, the amount of money that are spending is dizzying.  All of this is to secure the right to be the republican contender. Their commitment is extraordinary because they obviously see the prize as extraordinary. These men think that they change the world, and that is probably the case. They certainly realise that anything less than 100% effort is not worthy of them. Both Mit Romney and Rick Santorum remind me of some of the ideals of the Gospel: giving our all.

The history of the church is full of examples of people who have given their lives for others in the service of God. Our world abounds with similar examples of selflessness, of people dying to self so that others could live. To grow we must leave some things behind, just as Jesus did.

God offers us a new covenant through Jesus; he offers us an example to follow. If we give of ourselves for the sake of others, we will fulfil the purpose of God for us. This story is not about me, it is about us, and that is why we strive to die to self so that we can live with Christ. He came to the stage of realising that unless he opened himself up to whatever was to be, including the malevolence of others, his mission would not be authentic. The same applied to us

It has taken us over half of Lent to be reintroduced to this idea because we have to travel the same road again and see the rationale behind this movement.

Unless the grain of wheat die it remains a single grain.

Homily Fifth Sunday of Lent year B 25th March 2012 OLQP 

Raised Up From The Earth

In the Book of Numbers we hear that the people of Israel, grumbling about God while walking around the wilderness, started to be bitten by fiery serpents.[i] Moses was told by God to erect a statue, a bronze pole with a snake wound around it so that the people would look at it and live.  Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Maybe, but if we are able to get inside the head of Moses, it may not be so silly.

When we are unhappy and grumbling we become listless and careless, and sometimes we just don’t look what we are doing or where we step. In Australia, where 20 of the 25 most deadly species of snake reside[ii], we know the consequences. God, speaking through Moses, called the people to awareness. 

Further, I read that the only way to remove a fiery serpent, drawing its head and poison away from the body, is to gently wind the snake around a stick. Thus the bronze fiery serpent signified the danger and the cure.

The relevance of this image to Jesus is immediate. Jesus comes to make us aware and offer us a cure, to open our eyes and offer us his redemption. “The Son of Man,” we are told, “must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes might have eternal life in him.” He continued in the most translated verse ever: God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son that everyone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life.[iii] Jesus is the gift of God to us, to show us the way. As the serpent was lifted up, so was Jesus on the Cross. Both were an invitation, not a demand. Both demanded a free acceptance of reality, and the acknowledgement of God’s power. We are not told that Jesus might be crucified, but that he must be raised up from the earth, which is saying that we ‘needed something as shocking as a crucifixion to shake us out of our lethargy and save us from the futility of being caught up in aUmeaningless way of life of reacting top sin with more sin.’[iv]

The history of the encounters of Nicodemus with Jesus takes us one step further. The acknowledgement of the person of Jesus and his meaning for us brings us out into the light. For Nicodemus, it was a process, firstly the man who came to Jesus by night, then the one who spoke against his condemnation in the Sanhedrin, and after his death, the one who fearlessly went to Pilate to ask for his body. His was a slow conversion, like ours, one that needed renewing and deepening. We are a work in progress, God’s work of art[v], as St Paul eloquently puts it to the Ephesians. Nicodemus came out into the light and was able to proclaim Jesus as Saviour and Lord. His was done through challenges and crises, possibly like our own journey.

Like Nicodemus, we have the opportunity to make sense of our lives, to practise and deepen our own faith and that of our parish. We do this through specific acts of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. These are the three keys of our spiritual growth during Lent.

Homily 18th March 2012, the Fifth Sunday of Lent  Year B 

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[i] Num 21.4-9

[ii] http://www.avru.org/general/general_mostvenom.html

[iii] John 3.16

[iv] Michael Fallon, The Gospel According to St John: An Introductory Commentary, Chevalier Press, 1998, 103.

[v] Eph 2.10

Semper Reformanda

In the fourth century St Augustine wrote: In essentials unity, in doubt liberty, and in all things charity. It may well have been similar to the thoughts that Jesus had whilst entering the Temple. He had some problem with those who controlled the Temple, and when he entered, a righteous indignation overtook him: he became angry! The rest we know, that he pushed over the tables of the sellers and demanded that they stop making his Father’s house a market.  He teaches us a wonderful lesson, one that is very relevant in Lent.

In essentials Jesus agreed with those who conducted the Temple. He had no argument with the essentials of the Mosaic Law. He allowed them benefit of the doubt in other practices, although he spoke publicly against those who followed the letter of the Law but not the spirit. Temple worship at that time was corrupt, and many Jews boycotted the Temple. However, he had limits, and when the limit was reached he took a stand, and the result is what we hear in today’s Gospel.

The challenge for us is firstly to notice. The righteous indignation caused a stir and also marked out Jesus. Many people walked in and out of the temple, disagreed with what was happening but did nothing about it, whereas Jesus did something. If we do not see we will not be able to act. This calls for openness and awareness. We need to see where the grace of god is active and where it is being thwarted.

Secondly, we need to know our boundaries, what we believe and where our limits are set. If we don’t do that, we will never know when the line is crossed. That is why the Ten Commandments are presented to us the first reading. These are the boundaries for a Christian, the basics of a Christian culture, but they are just the starting point, as they need to be interpreted in the light of contemporary conditions.  I the desert we used to at the Ten Commandments into  contemporary language: put God number one, don’t speak about God badly, keep Sunday holy, respect your parents or kids, do to kill, stay with one man or woman, don’t steal, don’t lie, do not be envious of another’s relationships or possessions. No matter how secular our society becomes or how atheistic our PM is, our society will still fall apart if not lived on these principles.

Thirdly, we need to challenge and be open to being challenged. Totalitarianism thrives on coercion, Christianity on freedom. The times in the history of the Church that she has coerced others or been impervious to criticism or challenge have been our lowest time.  The reformation of the 16^th century was caused in part by the deafness of Church authorities to challenge: as church we must always be open to challenge and reform. The catchcry then, as it was at the second Vatican council and still is today, is Ecclesia semper reformanda, the church is always in need of reform,  always called to be true to the tenets of our faith.

We come back to Augustine, and remember that love and respect is the basis of Christianity and must underpin all we do and say. In essentials unity, in doubt liberty, and in all things love. 

Homily Third Sunday of Lent1 Year B 11th March 2012 

To and From the Mountain Top

Some years ago I went through a time of great questioning and for a while could not clearly see the way forward. One of my brothers said to me: “Come to Africa and climb Mt Kilimanjaro.” I think my reply was sarcastic and cutting. Climbing a mountain in Africa was the last thing I needed. As things turned out, I went. My luggage got lost and I turned up to climb this 20 000 feet high mountain with a shirt and pants, boots and a jumper.  The first thing was that others in the group started to share with me, a shirt here, a thermal there, socks from somewhere else, the mere act of sharing with me seemed to bring our group together. Then we walked, and walked, for three days, interminably up. As the atmosphere thinned, we had to walk more slowly, the country opened up and we could experience the grandeur of the roof of Africa. Reaching the summit was one of the hardest things I have done. I got to the top, looked over Africa, and realised that without the others in the group I would not have made it. I also realised that all that all the problem that I had left 5893m below were not the insurmountable. The clear air of Africa cleared my head. God spoke to me through that experience and I sailed down the mountain. It was my experience of Transfiguration.

We know who Jesus is. We don’t need God on the mountain and in the cloud to tell us that. We know that the apostles came down from the mountain with a new awareness of who Jesus was and what their role was in relation to him. They emerged with new direction.  This is the part of their experience that we need to discover.  We have all had our moments of transfiguration, those times when God has become blindingly obvious to us and the way ahead is very clear. These are wonderful moments, just like mine on Kilimanjaro. They are to be savoured form what they are, moments of grace, gifts from God which reassure us of our faith and give us enthusiasm for the road ahead.  Abraham was given a moment of grace as he ascended Mount Horeb, the mountain of the Lord. He was able to see that the Lord did not want him to offer his only son as a sacrifice, but wanted his obedience.

We all have to come down from the mountaintop and face life after the high. We must move on, and even Peter knew that when he timidly asked that he pitch three tents for Jesus Moses and Elijah: he knew it was a long-shot. Moments like these give us strength and guidance.

Let us ask God to give us direction and strength in our Lenten journey.

Homily for Second Sunday of Lent Year B, 4th March 2012, OLQP. 

Cry Leper

When I was a child I had severe eczema which, mixed with the dry rough skin inherited from my father, was quite a sight to behold.  When the eczema broke out, normal schoolyard antics added to the fun: my nickname was ‘scaly’, and sometimes ‘leper’.  Some kids would not want to touch or stand close to me refusing to hold hands with me when we lined up to walk, and the more inquisitive asking (at a distance) how contagious I was! Mob mentality, even for pre-teens, was alive and well. Since some decided that I was not perfect, and that I did not deserve to be in a group with them: I was not wanted. They mostly did not have it in the power to eject me (I came from a tight family), so they shunned me instead.

My school mates (if I can called them that) who chose to call me ‘leper’, did not think for a minute that I had leprosy. They wanted to convey to me that I did not fit in. In Jesus time this been honed down to a fine art over centuries: leper was the cry towards the hated and despised. We all know that keeping a group together is always better when there is a common enemy. The purity laws proscribed against Samaritans and other non-Semites as well as against the sick, giving divine reasons for illnesses and separation.

It was part of Jesus’ mission to challenge and question the law, to get to the bottom of what it was protecting or attacking. The original purity laws developed for the protection of the Jewish people, but by Jesus’ time they were being used to control people: much of the spirit of the law had disappeared. Jesus reached out to the despised of society and drew them into his life: there were none that were excluded. However, Jesus did not declare a free for all: he thoughtfully submitted himself to the law, as in the gospel he asked the leper to go to the Jewish Priest and offer the sacrifice proscribed for healing. The freedom Jesus offers is supported by an identifiable ethical system.

Jesus calls us to question, to reach out and the transform within this system, which is the moral and social justice teaching of the church, given to us in the apostolic teaching and then honed in response to human situations over the last two thousand years. Backed by this, Jesus challenges us not to go along with the mob, but to think, to make decisions and know why they had been made.

Last night I flicked don the ABC to catch a snippet of "Tonight in Gordon Street" in which the presenter was lauding Gay Marriage: he even had a couple in the audience who, in his words” can’t get legally married yet, but we can TV marry them.”  He did this to great applause. It was classic set up of mob mentality, and I think if I had been there I probably would have kept my opposition quiet for fear of being attacked. Like so many other issues, that of marriage is about protection of rights: last night no one was shouting about the right of a child to have a mother and father.  Yet those there last night seemed full of opinion and short on theory.

Soon you and I will be called to comment on this and other issues. Are we ready with fact and ethics?

Homily, Our Lady Queen of Peace Cathedral, 12th February 2012 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year b

The Mystery of Demons and Evil

I grew up in a world that needed to know and understand everything. When I was at University, mysteries were something awaiting the discovery of science. There was nothing that would not be explained in the very near future by the systematic scientific action of humans.

I smile when I think of how naïve I was; how conceited and proud and proud I could be that a human could understand the universe and all that of creation. As I matured I realised the extent of the unknown and humankind had been on a quest to increase understanding of creation. I started to realise that many things in life would remain mysteries; no matter how much I would like it to be otherwise.

Evil is one of those mysteries. Why is there evil in the world when God created us out of love? On the surface we can say that it is about free will. If we were buffeted against natural and human evil, we would not be free, and therefore never able to choose for or against God. Only in a world where we have the freedom to affect destiny can we be said to be free.

And this evil, where does it come from? Well most of it comes from you and me, and it is given life and power the more we make bad or selfish decisions. Each time we choose badly, we restrict our freedom. We make the world a worse place instead of making it the perfect society God infused it to become. Conversely, each time we make a good decision our freedom is increased and the world made a better place.

In the Gospel, the demons, the personification of evil, ask Jesus: have you come to destroy us? You bet he has! His ministry is to destroy all that leads to death, and the demons in the Gospel know that, and speak up out of desperation. It is funny, but some treat this as a fairy story, but for those who know themselves and what humans are capable of, this is no light matter. As Catholics we don't talk about the devil or demons much. We prefer to talk about the power of God's love, which is greater than anything. However, the devil does exist and possession, if rare, is real, just as the Gospel teaches. 

The great saints of the church, when they became very holy, often lamented their sinfulness. I used to think this was a false piety, but now I understand that as they became more spiritually attuned, they could see clearly and could see the ramifications of their actions. They could see the hurt that actions we often regard as innocuous can sustain. The saints, like the demons in the Gospel, have a spiritual insight that they can share. Obviously the difference is that the saints bear witness to the truth, and the demons to falsehood.

This is not meant to confuse us, but to call us to a deeper appreciation of the spiritual in our lives.  We do not have to grope in the darkness for answers, for there is a well-trodden path that guides us through the great mysteries of life.

Firstly, we look, we discern and we evaluate.

Secondly we trust, not in our own fallible judgement, but in the collective wisdom God has given to the Church by which she has been sustained and guided.

Thirdly, we embrace the freedom that belongs to the children of God, by daily rejecting evil so that we can, live in the freedom of God’s children,  for that is our baptism calling.

By being open, humble, and living out our baptismal calling, we will become comfortable with the mysteries that surround us, but we will increasingly become aware of the  presence of God which sustains us and draws us upward and onward.

Homily OLQP 29th Jnaury 2012, 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Avoiding a Life of Quiet Desperation

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. 

So wrote the American author Henry David Thoreau right at the beginning of his work ‘Walden’ in 1850. He wrote in the quiet of a forest, next to water. He sought to understand the whys of life, and not just live the drudgery of existence. Later on in the work he wrote: 

This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. The Book of Job calls us to look at our existence and see if it is life giving. Is a man’s life on earth nothing but pressed service, his time? He asks.

Thoreau and Job ask the same question: What are we doing with our life? For we who are at Mass tonight, these are reasonable questions. Socrates, the Greek philosopher has acknowledged centuries before Christ that: An unexamined life is not worth living. No surprise there either, since at the beginning of Mass we examined our conscience, declared a need for God’s mercy and guidance, and then prayed the Confiteor.  

We gather to celebrate our faith, to pray, to challenge ourselves and be challenged, inspired and raised up by the word of God and the sacrament of the Eucharist. Everything about our celebration calls us to live the life that we have been called to live. St Paul says that he must live it, as it is his duty to share the gospel. We may not phrase the imperative in the same way as Paul, but we would all agree with his passion and thrust. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well and one hundred per cent of our effort. Living our lives at home, at work, at school, in the community are worth doing with purpose, direction and faith, never letting a chance go by!  None of us are called to drift along, to be carried by the tide or to bump along at the bottom.  However, we all know people who do, and sometimes we are those people. When we do that we are not being authentic to our calling or life and we are leading lives ‘of quiet desperation’. This is not the vocation of a Christian.

In the gospel, Jesus was confronted by crowds who were leading lives of quiet desperation. They were drifting, looking for a wonder worker to save them. After they had heard of his cure of Simon’s mother in law they pursued him, looking for a quick fix. This was the original something for nothing deal, or so they thought. Jesus escaped with his disciples, and in doing so taught them a salient lesson: no amount of miracles will cure and heal a person if there is not a change of heart. Changes of heart take place in silence and openness. These conditions were plainly missing from the group pursuing him.

The prayer after communion often sums up the liturgy. Listen to it carefully today when it asks God that: we who are made one in Christ may joyfully bear fruit for the salvation of the world. If that prayer is granted, we will never be found to be leading an unfulfilled life of quiet desperation.

Homily OLQP Broome Sunday 5th Feb 2012, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B