OCTOBER 27^th 2013. THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 18:9-14

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL                   Luke 18:9-14

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else.

'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get."

The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner".
This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.'

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the parable we are confronted with two contrasting approaches to prayer. One man focuses on his own actions (his fasting and almsgiving). The other man focuses on the redeeming action of God. This is the fundamental distinction between sterile and genuine prayer. Prayer is self-referential and narcissistic whenever the focus is on my action. Prayer is genuine and life-giving whenever it is focused on God’s action. Sterile, self-referential prayer can be self-deprecating or it can be self-commending. Either way it is equally narcissistic! A focus on my own problems is narcissistic. A focus on my own virtues is narcissistic. A focus on counting my virtues, of counting the number of prayers, of measuring the time I spend, of listing my faults, is the wrong focus. Any preoccupation with my action is a damaging preoccupation. Genuine prayer is totally oriented to the saving action of God. We must learn the art of allowing God to take the initiative in prayer.

Each of us has both the Pharisee and the tax-collector inside

Last week’s Gospel was on the theme of prayer – the widow who pleaded for justice day and night. This week the same theme is maintained in Chapter 18 of Luke’s Gospel, as Jesus continues to set down the characteristics of genuine prayer. Two contrasting approaches are described. One man uses many words and engages in a detailed description of himself; another man seems to be in an unfit condition for prayer and he utters just a simple phrase. The first man lives a life that is full of admirable deeds: he fasts twice a week and pays tithes on all that he earns. The second man is a publican, a profession that was notorious for its corruption and dishonesty. In each one of us there exists both of these people. When we pray, we tend towards one or other of these poles. It may be true that when we hear the parable, all of us have a revulsion towards the boastful and arrogant attitude of the Pharisee; each one of us feels an empathy towards the attitude of the tax collector. But despite this natural reaction on our part, we still replicate the prayer of the Pharisee in our own lives.

The Pharisee’s prayer is focussed on his own actions. The tax-collector’s prayer is focussed on the action of God.

The problem with the Pharisee’s prayer is not just its arrogance and self-righteousness; the problem is that it is a prayer that is self-referential. It is a prayer that begins with himself and ends with himself. The publican, by contrast, does not dare to raise his eyes towards heaven. This signifies that heaven, for him, is a presence, another being that transcends him and his narrow interests. He beats his breast and asks for pardon. In the original Greek of this text, he does not ask for mercy but for expiation. This recalls the Hebrew notion that sin had to be somehow removed before one could return to live the original covenant. The tax collector wished to be saved from that which he was living. The central feature of his prayer is that he is asking God to intervene. “Have mercy on me Lord. You, Lord, take action in my life!”

Prayer is narcissistic when it is focussed on ourselves. This is true whether the prayer is self-commending or self-deprecating. Genuine prayer places the focus on God

Prayer is a relationship with God and it ought to be totally focussed on God’s action. It is not a means of contemplating oneself, and neither should it be primarily caught up with the issues facing an individual. Sometimes we meet people who talk only about themselves. Whether they speak in a self-commending way or a self-deprecating way makes no difference. In either case their attitude is narcissistic. They fail to confront themselves with the only being that matters. In the parable the Pharisee says to himself, “I am not like the rest. In particular I am not like this tax-collector here.” The Pharisee bases his prayer on comparison with others. In a beautiful passage, the ancient Christian writer Evagrio Pontico (d. 399 A.D.), says that the root of all anger is the belief that one is in the right. And how does one maintain the belief that one is in the right? By measuring oneself against others. And how can one escape from this tendency to believe that one is in the right? By measuring oneself against God. This is the very point of Jesus’ parable: the tax collector measures himself against God; the Pharisee measures himself against those that suit him. If one does not live in a genuine relationship with God, then our prayer is a sterile joke, an exercise in narcissism. Very often we persist in empty, fruitless, joyless prayer because we have not managed to rise above our act of prayer. We need to learn the art of allowing ourselves to be found by God when we pray; of permitting ourselves to give the initiative to him; of standing in his presence and allowing all of our infinite poverty to come to the surface. In the presence of God we have the right to be poor and fragile. In the presence of God, we finally escape the need to be competitive; the need to count our virtues publicly. The interminable search for our own righteousness is of no use to anyone and of no interest to anyone. It only serves to make us cold and judgemental towards others.

The only way to conversion and transformation is the way of the tax-collector

The beginning of the passage to be read on Sunday states that “Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else.” In other words, this Gospel is directed at each one of us. In order to escape from the disconnectedness of our lives, we tend to focus on people who are “worse” than we are, people who are to be despised, people who help to make us look righteous. The parable teaches us that this way of consoling ourselves is a waste of time that leads nowhere. Do we wish to be led to a day of pardon, to a new life, to a day of conversion and transformation? The only way is the way of the tax-collector: the abandonment of ourselves into the hands of God, poor as we are.

OCTOBER 20^th 2013. TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL                   Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. 'There was a judge in a certain town' he said 'who had neither fear of God nor respect for man. In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, "I want justice from you against my enemy!" For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, "Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for man, but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death".'

And the Lord said 'You notice what the unjust judge has to say? Now will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them? I promise you, he will see justice done to them, and done speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?'

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Does Jesus seem a little extreme when he asks us to pray unceasingly? Are we expected to grit our teeth and force ourselves to pray every moment of the day? The point that Jesus wishes to make is completely different. In the parable, a widow pleads for justice night and day. She does so because she knows that if she does not defeat her enemy, then he will defeat her. Our problem is that we are not aware that we are being pursued by an enemy who is devouring us on a daily basis! If we knew how necessary prayer was to maintain our relationship with God and protect us from the snares of Satan, then we would pray unceasingly just like the widow! Jesus’ exhortation to pray is not an exhortation to do an optional extra that might lead to sainthood. It is an exhortation to do what is basically necessary to maintain a meaningful relationship with him. We have been made in the image and likeness of God. We are asked to bear that image in the world. We must pray continually if we are to have any hope of realizing the wonderful dignity to which we are called.

Why does Jesus ask us to pray continually?

The parable in this week’s Gospel exhorts us to pray without ever losing heart. How can we be expected to pray continually without becoming weary or bored? But Jesus is not asking us to have the moral strength to pray unceasingly! He is not asking us to grit our teeth and force ourselves to pray against our will. What he is saying is something much more basic and fundamental, as we shall see when we begin to reflect on the parable of the widow.

Why does the widow ask persistently? Because she has no other choice!

In Israel at the time of Jesus, the widow was someone who existed at the very margins of society. Only men had the right to inherit property. Widows regularly found themselves with no means of income and often ended up as beggars. In Hebrew the same word is used for “husband” and for “support”. The widow was someone who had no support whatsoever. In the parable, a widow goes to an unjust judge, a judge who has no regard for whether things are done justly or unjustly. This lazy, dishonest judge represents the chaotic and uncaring reality that surrounds all of us as we go through life. Despite the callousness of the judge, the widow refuses to give up. Why does she never give up? Because she acts out of necessity. This is the simple and stark point that is contained in the parable! Unless the widow obtains what she is looking for from the judge she is finished. She must pester him until he gives her what is absolutely necessary for her to survive. Who is it that manages to unceasingly “cry day and night to the Lord”? He who realizes that it is absolutely necessary to have a relationship with God. He who appreciates that without that relationship we are finished.

The widow prays continually because she sees her enemy and knows that he will crush her if she does not defeat him first. Our problem is that we have lost sight of our enemy. We forget that he is near and that prayer is absolutely essential if we are to avoid destruction.

Many of the readers of this reflection probably do not feel all of this urgent necessity to pray unceasingly. Even people who live lives consecrated to God do not always appreciate the vital necessity of constant prayer. Is it really true that prayer is a basic, fundamental, need? Is it true that we need to be in constant relationship with God? Things become clearer if we consider another aspect of the readings for Sunday. In the first reading, Moses stands on the mountain and keeps his hands raised towards God whilst the people of Israel are in battle. If he allows his arms to fall, then the people begin to lose the battle. As long as he keeps his arms raised, the people of Israel are successful. Why does Moses keep his arms raised? Because he sees defeat as soon as he lets them drop! What is it that makes the widow in the parable persevere? Like Moses, she sees her enemy in front of her and knows that she will be crushed if she does not persevere in the battle. If someone is being chased by a tiger but then forgets that there is a tiger behind them, then it is only a matter of time before they are eaten up. Sometimes we forget that we are being chased by a tiger. We think the tiger is merely a cat and we end up living with things that are unhealthy and dangerous for us.

Sometimes people turn to prayer only in moments of grave necessity. We fail to realize that every moment is a moment of grave necessity!

The exhortation to pray continually has nothing to do with an act of the will in which we cajole ourselves to engage in every prayer and act of devotion possible. The central point is that we have an enemy – Satan – and this enemy must be combated on a continual basis. If a couple fails, on a daily basis, to base their relationship on that which is the foundation of their marriage, then their bond is in serious danger. If we continually eat junk food, then we begin to lose the awareness of the value and nature of healthy nourishment; we fail to realize the damage we are doing to ourselves. But if we can manage to recall the flavour and scent of good food, then, perhaps, we might begin to realize that we are living in an unhealthy state; we might start to become aware of the fact that we have given ourselves over to a way of life that ought to be abandoned. It is a fact of life that we tend to lose sight of the things that are truly necessary. When we are in a desperate situation, we have no problem praying. Sometimes we hear the complaint that people only pray in situations of grave necessity. But this is not the problem. The problem is that we do not realize that every moment is a moment of grave necessity! The problem is that we often think that we are not in need and that we can stand on our own two feet. This is one of the most insidious deceptions of our culture. For centuries humanity has been deceiving itself that it is autonomous and self-sufficient. For centuries we have deluded ourselves into thinking that our enemy is weak and that our own capacities are more than enough to overcome him.

If we are to live up to the dignity to which we are called, then continuous prayer is an absolute necessity

I am called to bear the image and likeness of God in the world. I am called to bear witness to the beauty of love. I am asked to bring to fruition in everyday things the novelty, truth and profundity of the Christian vision of life. I am called to go beyond administering mere justice to people and venture instead into the territory of love. When I consider the dignity to which I am called, then I cannot but be aware of the enormous necessity to pray. In order to resemble Jesus, prayer is not an optional extra for any of us. If we are to become as beautiful as he is, then we need to pray. We need to pray earnestly every morning when we wake up. We need to place ourselves before God, acknowledging that we cannot respond to his great call by depending on our own resources. Every evening when the day is over we need to offer our lives to God anew. In every instant we need to dialogue with him untiringly because that which we ask from him is so beautiful.

OCTOBER 13th 2013. TWENTY-EIGHT SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
GOSPEL: Lk: 17:11-19
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio.
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Gospel LK 17:11-19
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he travelled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying,
"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"
And when he saw them, he said,
"Go show yourselves to the priests."
As they were going they were cleansed. 
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. 
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
"Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine? 
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" 
Then he said to him, "Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you."
THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran's summary  . . . .  We are all lepers in the sense that we are distorted and incomplete. There is no such thing as a human being who feels completely whole or "normal". There are issues that eat away at each of us from within and cry out for resolution. There is a tendency for human beings to become preoccupied with their own particular problems. We tend to think that if this or that particular issue was resolved then we would be whole and complete. This is the trap that nine out of ten lepers fall into! Nine of the lepers are healed of their illness and then go on their way, thinking that all is hunky-dory. Only one of the lepers realizes that health is not everything. He wishes to praise his God and maintain a relationship with the Lord who saves him. Our lives instead are filled with the idolatrous tendency to believe that physical wellbeing is everything. We seek this wellbeing incessantly and end up developing a superficial attitude towards the things that really count in life. But health is not everything! It is better to be physically infirm with a heart that praises God than to be physically sound with a heart that has gone astray. 

Just like the leper, each one of us has something that distorts us and excludes us from society. All of us are imperfect, in need of healing, with a leprosy that eats away at us from within.

This passage gives us an insight into what true salvation consists in. The leper in the Old Testament was a solitary figure who was systematically excluded from the community. He had to remain outside of human society. In all of our lives there are things that make us different from others; there are things that cause us to be excluded; there are things that cause us to suffer and feel like outsiders. None of us feels one hundred percent "normal". Indeed the notion of a normal human being is an idol that doesn't exist in reality! No-one encounters "normal" men and women in everyday life. All of us are a little bit distorted and we come to God to ask for healing for this imperfection in our nature. How true this is of the leper in the physical sense! The leper is someone who sees his own flesh being consumed by decay. In all of us there is something that is eating away at us from within. There is something that limits us and pains us. We all have need of healing from God.

There is an idolatrous human tendency to think that salvation is equivalent to the resolution of the particular problem that consumes all of my attention

We often encounter people in desperate situations. It might be a state of economic hardship or it might be an existential issue. But whatever it is, the person often becomes consumed with that issue and is unable to think of anything else. That pain that they are experiencing becomes the fulcrum of their being. There is often a tendency to think that if that particular problem were to be resolved, then everything else would be ok. There is a tendency to believe that all of life depends on the resolution of that issue. This is the trap that nine lepers out of ten fall into. In the parable, nine of the lepers think that they have arrived at "salvation" once they obtain the healing of their illness. Jesus gave them an order and they followed his instructions admirably. Jesus tells them to go and present themselves to the priest even before they are healed. They do as they are told, following the instructions of their doctor, taking the medicine prescribed, and they find that they are made whole again. For nine out of ten of the lepers, this is sufficient for them. The story is over as far as they are concerned. But the story is not over at all in reality! It is not enough that I obtain healing for my bodily infirmities. There is an idolatrous tendency of the human heart to base his existence on things like human health. This parable challenges the axiomatic human principle that claims that "health is everything." Health is possessed by many people who do terrible things! If some of the dictators of history enjoyed less good health then maybe they would have done less harm to other people. Bad health places limits on people and maybe if some of these tyrants had grave health problems they might have shown greater respect and tolerance for others. Health is a state that we idolize, but it is nothing more than the state of potentially doing good.

Health is not equivalent to salvation. It is better to be physically infirm with a heart that praises God than be physically sound but have lost our way in life

The leper who returns to thank Jesus realizes that health is not everything. It is not sufficient for him that he has been healed. He wishes to maintain a relationship with the Lord. He returns to praise his God, sensing the invisible in that which has happened to him. Jesus says to him, "Go, your faith has saved you". Salvation is the one thing that counts. We encounter many people who are healthy in body but who have completely lost their way in life. All of us, to some extent, are healthy in body but lacking in more important ways, with a body that is relatively sound but a heart that is dead. On the other hand, we often meet people with severe physical limitations but whose hearts are full of love for God. 

A focus on wellbeing gives us a superficial perspective on salvation. Do we wish to be healthy or to be saved? Are we looking for the physical health that lasts only temporarily or real life that endures eternally?

What is it that we are really looking for in life? When we celebrate the Eucharist this Sunday, do we wish for our lives to be truly sorted out on the deepest level? When we raise our children, are we concerned primarily with their physical health? Do we work for their eternal salvation? In many cases they have already grown up before we start to become concerned about their relationship with God. Our preoccupation with the "wellbeing" of ourselves and our children makes us incapable of developing profound relationships with God and others. A focus on wellbeing can make us superficial in a devastating way. That is why it is often periods of illness that prompt us to finally open our hearts and discover the deeper meaning of salvation. What is it that really counts? To be healed or to be saved? To be physically healthy or to have praise in our hearts for everything in life, even periods of sickness? What is it that really matters? To live for God in every moment of or lives, or to try to resolve our problems ourselves? Sometimes we are so focussed on life's problems that we do not learn what it means to truly possess real life.

OCTOBER 6^th 2013. TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL                   Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith'. The Lord replied, 'Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea", and it would obey you. Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, "Come and have your meal immediately"?  Would he not be more likely to say, "Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards"? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, "We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty".'

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. Jesus responds with the stark and simple parable of the slave who is never allowed to rest and who must never expect gratitude for his service. Why does Jesus respond in this way? The apostles feel that walking in the faith is a difficult chore. They want Jesus to make the task easier for them, so they ask him to increase their faith. Jesus wants to make clear that faith is not something that is possessed statically once and forever. It is not something that is obtained once and kept for always. Like the servant who is never allowed to rest, the business of walking in the faith is a business from which we can never rest. If I entrust my life to the Lord today, then I will need to do so again tomorrow. Having faith is a continual way of life. It is not something that is confined to one day of the week or to certain moments of our existence. It cannot be laid aside when I am watching television or when I am filling up my tax form. This does not mean, however, that faith is a chore. It does not mean that faith is something that involves gritting my teeth and exerting acts of the will that go against what I really want to do. If I have to struggle to entrust myself to the Lord, then this signifies that I wish to hold something back for myself. It means that there is an area of my life from which I wish to exclude the Lord. When we entrust ourselves to the Lord in faith then we experience the extraordinary beauty of God. When we go from one act of service to the Lord to another, then we go from joy to joy, from consolation to consolation.

Faith is not something that we possess in quantities. Faith is relationship

This brief passage is best understood in the context of the previous verses of Chapter 17 of Luke’s Gospel. In those verses Jesus had told the disciples that they must be ready always to forgive. Confronted with this difficult task, the disciples ask for help: “Increase our faith” they implore Jesus. Jesus responds by saying that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed then they would be able to uproot a tree and plant it in the sea. This is an impossible task! What can Jesus mean by such a statement? What Jesus is really saying to them is that faith is not something that is measured in quantities. It is not something that you possess in the way that you possess other things, things that you can have less or more of. Faith is a relationship! It is time that we rid ourselves of some mistaken and poorly conceived notions regarding the faith. Faith is a theological virtue. Faith bestows new life – the life of Christ. It makes our existence throb with the vitality of the children of God. It is not measured in kilogrammes, and it is certainly not something that I possess in some sort of existential pocket inside of me. No. I walk in the faith. I act in the faith. Fundamentally, it is a personal relationship with God. Faith is not a list of beliefs that I adhere to in my mind. The Church clarifies for us the things that must be believed when one enters into relationship with the Lord.

Faith is not confined to church. If it is real then it must govern every moment of my life

The parable identifies the believer with a servant who does not simply rest once he has finished a particular task. That is part and parcel of being a slave; when you finish one job you are expected to start another! This simple and stark parable throws light on the nature of faith, but to understand the point of the parable we must be conscious of the relational character of faith. If faith is a true relationship then it is not something that is confined to certain types of acts or particular days of the week. Faith is not something that becomes irrelevant when I am queuing up in the post office or filling up my tax form. The slave cannot say to his master, “I’m finished work for today.” And neither can we say with regard to faith “I don’t need the faith for this area of my life.” What kind of life am I leading if every moment of it is not rooted in Christ? When I get home from work, I begin another type of activity that must remain an expression of the fundamental relationship with Christ.

Faith is not possessed once for always. If I manage to entrust myself to the Lord today, then that does not mean that I will not need to do so again tomorrow

The apostles ask, “Increase our faith.” They wish to be handed a certain quota of faith that will suffice for always. But faith is not something that can be obtained and possessed statically forever! We must always grow in the faith! When an athlete breaks a record, he doesn’t cease training. Just because he has achieved that measure of excellence once doesn’t mean that it will always be within his reach without further exertion on his part. Life is continuous growth, constant evolution, perennial discovery. If I manage to entrust myself to the Lord today, does that mean that I will not need to entrust myself to him tomorrow? Will I ever achieve a state in life where I can lay the Lord aside and survive on my own resources? Any area of life that can be lived without walking with the Lord would be unattractive and boring! Anything that does not have the life of Christ in it is of questionable value. If, like the slave, we go from one act of service to another, then we are really going from one joy to another, because serving Christ is the greatest joy imaginable! We go from discovery to discovery, from consolation to consolation.

If my faith is based purely on acts of the will then there is something lacking in my relationship with the Lord. I am clinging on to something that I wish to retain for myself. I am not entrusting myself utterly to the Lord

If my service to the Lord is something that ends at a particular moment and I head off for a period of rest from the Lord, then that means that my relationship with the Lord is something that involves compulsion and coercion on my part. But anything that is based purely on my efforts will not endure into eternal life. The only thing that takes us beyond death is the grace of God. If someone needs to take regular breaks from their acts of service to the Lord, then that indicates that there is something not healthy in those acts of service. There is something lacking in the relationship that grounds those acts of service. There is a failure to entrust oneself completely to the Lord. We entrust ourselves completely to a relationship of faith with the Lord when we no longer seek to retain something for ourselves. If we have truly entrusted ourselves to the Lord, then we experienced the extraordinary beauty of God. Who wants to take a break from the beautiful and the extraordinary? The people of Israel celebrated the Passover with their “loins girded”; it was a celebration that incorporated a state of readiness for the journey. Serving the Lord is not just about gritting our teeth and exercising a huge effort of the will. That to which the Lord calls us is always beautiful, always joyful, always novelty, always resurrection.