SEPTEMBER 1st 2013. TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: LUKE 14:1,7-14

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

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GOSPEL: LUKE 14:1,7-14

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor. 
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
‘Give your place to this man,’
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place. 
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. 
For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” 
Then he said to the host who invited him,
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the parable, a guest takes a prestigious position at the table but is asked to move to the lowest place when a more important guest arrives. Jesus encourages us to take the lowest place in life. What is the lowest place? It is the position we occupy when we are in correct relationship with God. Adam was not in a correct relationship with God because he placed himself before God. We are in correct relationship with God when we choose the lowest place, putting God’s will before our own. The parable then moves on to talk about recompense. What kind of recompense are we looking for in life? Do we serve others only in the hope of being rewarded for our efforts? Jesus tells us to invite people to our party who cannot repay us for our kindness to them. This is the mark of true service, efforts expended that cannot be rewarded! How miserable our life is if it is lived in the hope of earthly recognition or reward! The recognition that the Lord will give us is so much more wonderful than the esteem of human society! In summary, the Lord is holding up two ways of life before us: We can seek our own position in life in which we receive human recognition for our impoverished works. Or we can take the “lowest” position in life, the position of one who is obedient to the will of the Lord. This position is the most wonderful of all and leads to a recompense that is beyond our dreams.

The parable teaches us about our rightful position in life and about the right kind of rewards we should aspire to,

Jesus tells a parable about a dinner party and the problem of knowing where we should sit. This parable teaches that we need to be much less concerned regarding the position we occupy in life. As well as that, we need to think hard about the kind of rewards we are aspiring to receive. In the parable, the guest sits in an important position. But when a more important guest arrives, he is forced to give up his place and move to the most humble position. In other words, we should leave it to the master to decide our place in the pecking order. Let God decide where we are in life! Let God decide how important we are! Let us stop being preoccupied about whether other people consider us important or not! Let us stop being offended when other people overlook us or appear to forget that we are there! All that matters is that we witness to our faith in Christ. The Lord will one day give us a wonderful place that will exceed all of our expectations.

Jesus tells us to take last place. What is last place? It is the place one occupies when one orients oneself correctly to God

The parable encourages us to take “last place”. What is “last place”? It is the position one assumes when one is in correct relationship with God. Adam put himself in first place, assuming the place of God himself. When Peter tries to impose his own will on affairs, Jesus says “Get behind me Satan!”  To go behind Jesus means to follow him. This is “last place”, the place one occupies when one is in correct relationship with God, the position of following the Lord. We are all called to be disciples, called to follow Jesus. When Jesus is leading, then he will take us to our proper place. When we refuse to be led by Jesus, then we assume positions ourselves, positions that are not ours to take. It is not so much that we need to take the last place with respect to the others around us. Rather we must take last place with respect to the Lord. It is not a question of being in competition with the others around us for the more prestigious place in life. It is a question of being in correct relationship with the Lord.

A life that is lived in the hope of the esteem of others is empty and vain

If one of my preoccupations in life is the respect that is given to me by others, then I am living an existence that is fixated on things that have no value whatsoever. The respect that I gain as a result of my impoverished works is something vain and hollow. The respect that the Lord gives me is something of a different sort altogether. The relationship that the Lord wishes to forge with me is something of a more profound sort altogether. What a different thing it is to have friendship with the Lord!

Do I act in the hope of being rewarded by others? Or do I act with the intention of serving others?

What sort of compensation are we looking for in life? Jesus talks about organizing a party and not inviting friends, family or wealthy neighbours. In last Sunday’s Gospel he spoke about the necessity of bringing the sword of division into families for the sake of the Gospel. In other words, there is a kind of earthly “family” that we must separate ourselves from. And to enter into relationship with God we must forge relationships with the poor, the crippled and the blind, persons with whom we can be instruments of love. The real distinction is this: I can concern myself with the people that the Lord has entrusted to me; the people that are part of the mission that the Lord has given to me. Or I can concern myself with people who can reward me for my works. Am I seeking to serve others? Or am I seeking to be served? If a wife finds herself with a husband who is looking for whatever he can get from her, then that is something dramatically different from a husband who is willing to serve. Is your husband willing to care for you when you are blind, lame, tired, feeling weak, feeling misunderstood? Or is he always seeking what is beneficial for him? What a wound in the heart this is! It is the same in the case of friendship and parenthood. People do a certain amount for the other, but then comes the day of reckoning when they exclaim, “Look at all the sacrifices that I have made for you!” It is as if the efforts they expended for the sake of the other were only done in the hope of some reward, and when that reward is not forthcoming they wish to have all of their sacrifice returned to them. A deed done in the hope of reward is not love, but an investment.

We must live our lives against the backdrop of the generosity of God, not in the hope of earthly rewards. How often we seek to have other people recognize our merits! This happens also in ecclesiastical circles. What a bore! How much more beautiful it is to contemplate our Lord Jesus who makes himself our servant and asks for nothing in return except love! The Gospel tells us that we will be repaid for our efforts towards others at the resurrection for the righteous. If we fail to be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous then that would be a serious thing, for it would signify damnation.

Two ways of life are presented to us: We can forge our own position in life and earn our impoverished rewards. Or we can let God assign a place to us and bestow us with our eternal reward.

The Gospel holds up two very different ways in which we can live. We can seek to occupy our own place in life and gain our own recompense. Or we can let God assign our place to us and wait for our reward from God. God repays immensely more than people! God gives us a much more wonderful position than human society can! The place that God assigns to me is close to his heart. His reward is eternal life.

AUGUST 25^th 2013. TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: LUKE 13:22-30

From a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio.

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

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GOSPEL:                                     Luke 13:22-30

Through towns and villages he went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, 'Sir, will there be only a few saved?' He said to them, 'Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.

'Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself knocking on the door, saying, "Lord, open to us" but he will answer, "I do not know where you come from". Then you will find yourself saying, "We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets" but he will reply, "I do not know where you come from. Away from me, all you wicked men !"

'Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves turned outside. And men from east and west, from north and south, will come to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 'Yes, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.'

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD:   Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Kieran’s summary  . . . A man asks Jesus if only a few people will eventually be saved. Jesus does not reply that only a few will be saved, but that the door to salvation is narrow and many will not succeed in entering. But if God is really good, then why is this door to salvation so narrow? Don Fabio points out that the narrowness of the door is not spatial but temporal. We are presented with opportunities every day to follow the Lord and these same opportunities will not present themselves tommorrow. These opportunities are doors that are open for a narrow window of time and then they are closed forever. This Gospel should rouse us to the seriousness of life. Life is not a video game where you can be killed and then start again. The business of living is not like being a trapeze artist who has a safety net to catch him whenever he falls. I can’t afford to wait another day before becoming a good parent, a good spouse, a good worker. The Gospel condemns those who eat and drink with the Lord, listen to his word, but who are not with him in the sense of making his word the fulcrum of their daily life. Every day we must ask ourselves a simple question: What opportunity does Christ give me today to be with him? What is the narrow door that Jesus presents me with today so that I can enter to be with him? Maybe that door is a situation in my life that I need to entrust to the Lord!

A man asks Jesus an apparently academic question. But it is not an academic matter for Jesus!

A man asks Jesus if only a few people will end up being saved. Curiousity of this sort hardly seems inspired by the Holy Spirit! I would never ask the Lord, “Will my brother live or will he die?” as if it were an academic question. Indeed, Jesus is described in this passage as being on his way to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem he will suffer greviously and give his life so that all might be saved. The question of how many will be saved is not a question that Jesus could respond to with cold attachment. And in fact he does not reply that only a few will be saved. Instead he says, “Try to enter by the narrow door, for many will try to enter and will not succeed”. This “tough” answer is an effort to try to rouse his listeners. The man had posed his question in the third person plural, but Jesus replies in the second person plural (“you try your best to enter”). The Lord wants us to focus on our own salvation rather than abstract questions about the future of humanity. The Greek text says, “Fight to enter by the narrow door.” The process of entering the door involves a battle.

The door is not narrow in a spatial sense. It is narrow in a TEMPORAL sense: the opportunities that are presented to me today will never be presented again.

Why is the door described as being narrow? Will overweight people have a problem getting through? The rest of the passage, however, indicates that the door is not narrow in a spatial sense, but in a temporal sense. It remains open for a certain interval of time, then it closes. We have occasions and opportune moments for receiving salvation. But if God is really good, why would he close the door after a certain time? Because life is not a video game. Life is not a western from the fifties where the posse arrives in the end when all appears lost. Life is a serious matter. It is high time I stopped thinking that life is like being a trapeze artist, and if I fall it doesn’t really matter because there is a safety net below to catch me. This is not to say that salvation comes from me or depends completely on my acts. But it is true to say that it is up to me to go through that door that has been presented to me. We must stop thinking that it doesn’t really matter whether I sin or not; that it doesn’t really matter whether I am obedient to the Lord or not. God places a way before me and it really does matter whether I take that path or not. It isn’t true that I can afford to live one more day without showing true love to the spouse that the Lord has given me. It isn’t true that I can afford to be negligent towards my children for one more day. It isn’t true that I can afford to do another mediocre day’s work. My work is an open door towards greatness, towards the joy of sharing in the banquet with my master. And that door will eventually become a closed door. Every door of this sort does have an end in the temporal sense. To give a banal example: if there were no final exams, few students would bother studying. Activities need to have end moments that give sense to the activity that preceded this moment. Otherwise we would have difficulty motivating ourselves to undertake the activity in the first place.

Jesus does not deny that we have listened to his word and shared in his banquet. However he denies that the WORKS that we do are rooted in listening to his word or partaking of his banquet.

Jesus goes on, “Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself knocking on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us’ but he will answer, ‘I do not know where you come from’. Then you will find yourself saying, ‘We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets’ but he will reply, ‘I do not know where you come from. Away from me, all you wicked men !’” What a terrible thing for us Christians! All of us have eaten in the company of the Lord in the Eucharist and all of us have received his teaching. Jesus does not deny that we have eaten in his company. He does not deny that we have heard many splendid homilies. But he questions the origins of our actions saying, “I do not know where you come from”. Our point of departure in daily life, in other words, is not his word. We are doers of unjust works in the sense that we fail to do his works. Our deeds do not stem from our relationship with God. Injustice, in the Hebrew sense, is not a legal term. It indicates, rather, the failure to act out of one’s relationship with God. We eats the Lord’s wine and bread, we listen to this words, but our actions are not rooted in the Lord. In the parable, the master of the house says, “I do not know you”. We have no intimacy with God if we do not act in accordance with his word.

If we fail to be intimate with Christ, if we fail to make his word the origin of our actions, then the condemnation that awaits us is simply distance from Christ

The real condemnation that awaits those who who fail to enter by the narrow door is expressed in the words, “Away from me!” The gravity of the issue, in the end, boils down to the fact that our failure to act in accordance with God’s word means that we have no intimacy with him and find ourselves distant from him. It is interesting that the condemnation is expressed in these words! Jesus does not formulate his parable to say that those who fail to enter by the narrow door end up being hungry, or suffering some sort of physical discomfort. The condemnation, rather, is purely in terms of distance from Christ. And the words of comfort addressed to the good thief on the cross is that he would be with Christ that day in paradise. When one is with Christ one is in paradise. When one is distant from Christ then there is “weeping and grinding of teeth”.

We must ask ourselves continually: What opportunity is Christ placing before me today so that I can be with him? Where is the narrow door?

We must ask ourselves a simple question: What opportunity does Christ give me today to be with him? What is the narrow door that Jesus presents me with today so that I can enter to be with him? Maybe that door is a situation in my life that I need to entrust to the Lord!

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Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2013

AUGUST 18^th 2013. TWENTIETH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: LUKE 12:49-53

From a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio.

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

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GOSPEL:                                     Luke 12:49-53

Jesus said to his disciples: 'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over! '

Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD:   Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Kieran’s summary  . . . Sometimes people think that a state of peace is a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, a sign that they are following the will of God. But this is not always the case! If I am living in error then I have a tendecy to try to tranquilize my conscience and tell myself that everything is all right. A state of restlessness of heart is not necessarily a negative state. Often it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and impels us to sort out the errors of our ways. In this Gospel, Jesus tells us that he wants to bring a purifying fire to our lives! The fire is lit when he immerses himself in the darkness of the Cross and becomes the light of the world. In the light of this cataclysmic event, we are asked to wield Christ’s sword of division within our own lives. Christ is the parameter by which everything in our lives must be put to the test. His sword cuts away the ambiguities and errors in which we love to wallow. Once the sword of division is wielded in our lives, then we cease to be armchair Christians who are pleasant and inoffensive to everyone. Any radical choice we make will be met by a chorus of criticism from people who demand that we become more mediocre. The peace that Christ brings is not the comfortable peace that the world wishes to have. The Christian must constantly place herself in a state of confrontation with sin and darkness. Our daily lives must be a continual business of making small divisions between us and the ambiguities that dog our lives.

Jesus wants to bring fire to our lives! A fire that will purify us from the ambiguities that fill our existence.

What a courageous Gospel! What a disconcerting passage of Scripure! How important it is to welcome the radical sentiments expressed by Jesus and stand firmly beside him! The words expressed in this passage might seem paradoxical at first sight, but it is absolutely necessary that they be applied to our lives. Our lives are chaotic, full of lukewarmness, ambiguity and confusion. Often we don’t know what is right or wrong, what is good for us and what is damaging. Often we entrust ourselves to things that should never be allowed to touch our lives. At other times we let go of things that are right and good. We are desperately in need of a parameter by which things can be measured. And here comes the parameter! Jesus comes to bring fire on the earth. Fire transforms things. Often it is destructive. The Greek work for “purify” has the same root as “fire.”  Jesus wants this fire to be kindled within us and is in distress until it starts to blaze. He has an ardent desire to undergo a baptism of a certan sort (“baptize” means “to fully immerse” in Greek) and he is in a state of anguish until the process is completed. We know exactly what he is talking about. The fire that will be lit is the Cross that will become the light of the world. Jesus will be immersed in the darkness of the non-love and violence of this world. He will feel all the anguish of Gethsemene and will nevertheless shine. And all of this to release us from the ambiguity that we tend to wallow in.

Jesus brings a sword of division that will strike at the errors and ambiguities in our hearts

There is a terrible phrase in this Gospel, “I have not come to bring peace but division”. “Division” in the Greek is expressed by the word “sword”. Why does Our Lord want to bring division instead of peace? In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “My peace I leave you, a peace that the world doesn’t give.” The peace that Christ brings is totally unlike the peace of the world. When we enter into a new way of life, this implies being separated from what went before. To begin truly living as children of God brings with it a certain tension and restlessness. Sometimes people are over-apt to generalise, stating that if one is in a state of peace then they are doing God’s will. But this doesn’t follow at all! The spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola emphasize that we have a tendency to try to tranquilize ourselves whenever we are in error. Restlessness and inquietude are precisely the works of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a person who is on the wrong path. Very often it is a feeling of dissatisfaction with oneself that leads people to Christ. How often we meet people who returned to the Church and the sacraments because of an unease they had with the way of life they were leading. Restlessness should not be automatically dismissed as being not of God. It is true that there are states of inner tension that are negative, unhappy and infertile. But there are also states of restlessness that are extremely beneficial, leading to transformations that are good and necessary. And Jesus tells us that he has come to bring us to just such a state of restlessness.

The sword that Jesus brings to our lives will cause us to take a path that is not followed by the multitude

Jesus says that the division that he brings will lead to divisions within our families. What is he referring to here? Historically, during the early centuries of persecution and martyrdom, it often happened that a person has to place himself in opposition to his family in order to accept Christianity. In our day we have returned to a situation where being a disciple of Jesus involves a break with society and the world. Abraham had to leave his father’s house and his homeland in order to follow the path that the Lord had planned for him. Many saints have also had to go against the wishes of their families. This is not to say that we inevitably have to get into conflict with our families in order to serve Christ. Very often what we do have to oppose is a carnality, a way of being human, that does not lead anywhere good. The division which Jesus brings into our lives is the refusal to follow in the way of the multitude. As the Lord says, the way of salvation is narrow, and the way that leads to perdition is wide and taken by many.

Following Jesus implies being in conflict with the world

If I am called to follow Christ, then this sets me against the tide, how can it be otherwise? If someone else has made something else the centre of their lives, something that is radically different to the way of Jesus, then it follows that I am not going to be in agreement with everything that this person says or does. A Christian will never be applauded by the whole world! We ought to be suspicious of any Christian who is praised by everyone. We can rightfully ask, “Is the division spoken of by Christ really present in the apostolate of that person?” It is not a question of wanting to be against other people. It is a question of identity! For example, we cannot be in agreement with people who are in favour of the devaluation of human life from the time it is in the womb of the mother. Very often, when we make a choice that is radical, even in a minimal way, then we are surrounded by people who criticize us and demand that we become more mediocre.

We need to intruduce a sword of division into our lives on a daily basis, a sword that cuts away the ambiguiites and errors, a sword that may not appeal to others around us, but that helps us to be faithful to our Christian identity.

We are asked to experience a division that has already been pre-announced in Luke’s Gospel. During the Presentation in the Temple, Jesus is described as a “sign of contradiction,” a sign that will lead to the fall and rise of many, and a sword will pierce even the soul of Mary. The original Greek for Sunday’s Gospel also speaks of division in terms of a sword. A sword that pierces the soul (as in the case of Mary) is the condition of someone who seeks the truth in their hearts. All of us need this restless sword because all of us have the tendency to muddle and confuse the truth within us. We pursue “nice” things that have nothing to do with the truth. We follow trends and currents that appeal to the senses but completely lack substance. We are more content to live with a bad conscience than with a bad social reputation. Jesus calls us to enter into the contradictions that are within ourselves, to confront those contradictions and not always be tolerant of them. Labour is required in order to give birth. The human being is a creature that is continuously reborn and who is constantly being liberated from his own carnality, from the agreements that he has made with this world. We should never feel a sense of loyalty to any commitment we have made to sin! If we have embarked on a sinful course of action, we should never feel that we have to continue until the act is done. The sooner we introduce the sword of division and refrain from sinning, the better. In the same way we are called to live an existence in which we are constantly making small divisions between us and evil, between us and the kingdom of darkness. We are asked not to be armchair Christians, who are pleasant and inoffensive to everyone, but unfaithful to their own identity.

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NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME 2013

AUGUST 11^th 2013. NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: LUKE 12:32-48

From a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio.

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

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GOSPEL:                                     Luke 12:32-48

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock,
for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. 
Sell your belongings and give alms. 
Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out,
an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. 
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

“Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. 
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. 
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table,

and proceed to wait on them. 
And should he come in the second or third watch

and find them prepared in this way,blessed are those servants. 
Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 
You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,
the Son of Man will come.”

Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” 
And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward
whom the master will put in charge of his servants
to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? 
Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. 
Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant in charge of all his property. 
But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’
and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk,
then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour
and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. 
That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will
but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. 
Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,
and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD:   Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Kieran’s summary  . . . Jesus asks us to be constantly ready to encounter him in the most startling ways and at the most unexpected times. How do we behave when life springs its surprises on us? Are we thrown into confusion? Or do we accept the tribulations of life with serenity? What is the secret of being ready for what life throws at us? Jesus gives us the answer at the very beginning of the reading! He says, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” Once we have founded our existence on the fact of being children of God, then we are placed in an ordered relationship with everything else in creation. Jesus speaks of the faithful and prudent servant who knows how to administer the goods that have been entrusted to him by the master. These two virtues have a definite order of priority. We must first of all be faithful to the Lord. We must found our existence on a relationship of intimacy with him. It is only then, once this relationship is in place, that we can have the prudence to administer the goods that the Lord entrusts to us. If we abandon ourselves to the Lord, then he abandons his goods into our hands to be distributed to others. Too often we take the opposite approach to the problems of life! We are confronted by a crisis and we try to do everything rational and prudent to resolve the problem. Later, when all else has failed, we beg the Lord for help! The correct approach is to live a life of daily attachment to the Lord, a life of complete abandonment to the will of God. When problems arise, entrust them to the Lord, and then tackle them with prudence, never losing trust in the providential care of God.

Like the Israelites on the night of the Passover, we must be ever ready to encounter the saving action of the Lord!

It is always better to read the longer version of the Gospel reading each Sunday. The more of God’s word we hear the better! The Gospel begins with Jesus’ exhortation to seek the purses that do not wear out, the treasure that is inexhaustible. We are asked to have the wisdom of the servant who knows how to wait for his master, who knows how to be ready for the moment of reckoning. When the master returns from the wedding, we are asked to be diligent servants who are ready to open the door for him. We are to have our loins girded and lamps lit. What do these peculiar instructions mean? They are the preparations one makes when one is ready to depart at any time of the day or night. This was exactly how the Israelites were asked to wait on the night of the Passover. Applied to our situation in the twenty-first century, it means that we must be ever-vigilant, with our eyes and ears open, hearts ready to meet the Lord! We must wait for him, ready to serve him, but when we get to know him we will discover that it is he who serves us!

One of the illusions of life is the tendency to think that there is some point of arrival in life, such as a particular position, a particular state of financial security, a particular social status. In reality, life has no point of arrival. We must be ever ready for the surprises of the Lord; ever ready for transformation and growth.

Sometimes we have the tendency to think that it is possible to reach a state of existence where everything is stable and secure. We look forward to the day of our marriage, not realizing the challenging journey that only begins on that day. We think that when we find that perfect job, or when the mortgage is finally paid, then everything will be relatively easy. One of the great illusions of our existence is the conviction that there is a point of arrival in life. Instead, life involves constant change and vigilance. But this should not be a motive for tension or disappointment. Rather, the very vitality of life consists in this fact. We must be ever-ready to change, grow and be transformed. Life is full of wonderful surprises, but we retain a nostalgia for stability, for maintaining the status quo. Life without variation resembles death. Death is the one place where there are no taxes to be paid, no noisy neighbours to disturb us, no bothersome phone calls to respond to. Our ideals in life are static and motionless, but the Lord calls us to constant evolution, to the continual discovery of what is real, to be ever ready to encounter the Lord. Jesus goes on, “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” How do we react when we are surprised by something unexpected? Sometimes, when life springs its surprises on us, we are thrown into utter confusion. If we were truly prepared for our encounter with the master, then we would not be so badly thrown by the events of life.

We are all asked to be faithful and prudent. First of all we must be faithful to the Lord, then we must be prudent with the goods that the Lord entrusts to us. Because I have abandoned myself into his hands, then he abandons his riches into my hands to be administered to others.

Peter then asks, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” This question prompts Jesus to focus on the servant who is entrusted with particular authority in the household. Priests and bishops certainly have positions of authority in the church, but all of us have authority over others to some degree. All of us are asked to to minister to others. Jesus speaks of the faithful and prudent servant who is placed in charge of the property. “Fidelity” applies to the relationship of the servant with his master, whilst “prudence” applies to the relationship of the servant with the other servants to whom he has the task of distributing the food. Prudence is a virtue that must be possessed by every father of a family, and by anyone who has the task of administering the goods of this world. It is vital to note that prudence is a virtue exercised by someone who has something already entrusted to him. The relationship of fidelity must come first; then comes the requirement to be prudent. When I have a relationship of fidelity with the Lord, then I abandon myself to him, and he entrusts his goods to me to be distributed among others. Because I have abandoned myself into his hands, then he abandons his riches into my hands. Often, when we are presented with a problem, we struggle to understand and solve the problem on our own initiative, and it is only later, when we have worked out a solution, that we entrust the full resolution of the problem to the Lord. Instead we should first have a relationship with God, first have intimacy with God, and then seek to discern a solution to the problem. The other approach to the problem is the “accident and emergency” approach. But if we put attachment to God before prudence, then how differently would the resolution unfold!

If we root our existence on the fact of being children of God, then we can never be confounded by the surprises of life. But if we have not made space for God in our lives, then that space will be filled by other things that seek to compensate for the absence of the Lord

This entire text begins with the words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” If we truly were in possession of the Kingdom, then all of these other problems raised by the text would not emerge. Why are we such terrible parents, such terrible priests, such terrible friends and such terrible workers? Because we do not possess the Kingdom of Christ and this leads us to be overly attached to material things, causing us to become anxious and disordered. When we found our existence primarily on the fact of being children of God, primarily on the fact of being the little flock that is tenderly cared for by him, then we have the serenity of someone who has already passed the most fundamental examination of his life! My identity has come from God and I know exactly what I must do in any given situation, no matter how unexpected or terrible it might be. Prudence becomes a natural process. Very often the disorder in our lives derives from the fact that the truth of our identity has been obscured. We then become overly attached to material things, our profession in life, our social status. We begin to think that prayer is something that can be put off to another time. In the parable, the servant who loses sight of his relationship with his master begins to eat and get drunk. In the same way, if we do not found our existence and our very being on God, then we seek meaning and compensation elsewhere. A vaccuum cannot exist in the spiritual life. If I have not made a place for God in my life, then I will seek an alternative elsewhere to fill that void within me.

All of us are called to great responsibility, to administer to others in the name of the Lord. This responsibility must spring from my relationship with God. If the relationship with God is missing then my administraton of the goods of the Lord will be reduced to bureaucracy, deception and bad government.

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AUGUST 4^th 2013. EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF TIME

GOSPEL: LUKE 12:13-21

From a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio.

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

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GOSPEL:                                     Luke 12:13-21

A man in the crowd said to him, 'Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance'. 'My friend,' he replied, 'who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?' Then he said to them, 'Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man's life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs'.

Then he told them a parable: 'There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, "What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops." Then he said, "This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time". But God said to him, "Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?". So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.'

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD:   Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Kieran’s summary  . . . In the Gospel, Jesus refuses to arbitrate in a dispute between two brothers over an inheritance. Why is he so unwilling to resolve this case of family discord? Because this is not the kind of wealth that Jesus is interested in! He goes on to tell us a parable in which a rich man rejoices over his abundant harvest, but then dies that very night. The rich man based the meaning of his life on the worldly things that he possessed.  His plans for the future revolved entirely around his material wealth. Is that how it is for you and me? Is the course of my life determined by my salary, my expenses, my possessions? Jesus’ parable challenges us to ground our lives on things that cannot be seen or possessed. And we can do this better when we learn to realize that every day is our last. This day can never be lived again. The relationships, situations and events that confront me in this moment will never present themselves to me again. I must learn to ask myself continually, “Where does my true life reside? What are the foundations of my life? What am I looking for in life? Am I searching for that which brings me profit? Or am I living for the things that remain when all material profit fades away?” The good news is that each one of us can extract ourselves right now from the cycle of basing our lives on worthless, material goods. We can simply change our perspective and learn to evaluate the worth of our lives from the point of view of Jesus, the judge and arbitrator of the only wealth of an authentic kind.

The man who asks Jesus to admonish his brother is overly fixated with the goods of this world

A man says to Jesus, “Tell my brother to give me a share of the inheritance.” We don’t know if the brother has stolen an inheritance that did not properly belong to him, or if he has simply refused to share the legacy that he has received. Jesus replies, “Who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?” By responding in this fashion, Jesus appears to be disinterested in issues of this kind, but then he goes on to say something of the greatest relevance. The fact remains that God very much is the one that judges the affairs of human beings and distributes goods among people, but the justice that God is interested in is not of the sort that this brother is fixated with. Any situation can be interpreted from various perspectives. We can consider the case from the point of view of the generosity that should prevail between brothers. This seems a legitimate point of view and a reasonable request to make of Jesus. But the problem with this request is that it absolutizes the goods of this world. According to this worldly perspective, the goods of this world are all that we possess and have an overriding value in themselves. And that is why Jesus’ reply is not diffident but highly pertinent. Jesus is not arbitrator and judge of matters such as these, but of matters that are much deeper and have a far greater import. This Gospel, in fact, speaks of riches that completely transcend the kind of wealth that the man is preoccupied with.

Jesus’ parable warns against basing our lives on the worldly goods that we possess

Jesus recounts the parable of the rich man who has a very successful harvest. On the basis of this rich harvest, the wealthy man goes on to plan the rest of his life. The riches he has accumulated will allow him to take it easy and enjoy life. Is it rare that people plan their lives on the basis of the riches that they have accumulated? No! Very often our lives revolve around the worldly goods that we possess. And Jesus’ parable is designed to show that this is completely mistaken. Worldly goods have their place. It is possible to show great love by means of the way that we distribute the worldly goods that we possess. But if we locate the meaning of our lives in the goods that we possess then we are in trouble, because all of these goods will one day be lost. The rich man who has an abundance of wealth has no response when he is asked to give an account of his life. He has nothing to offer because the “life” that he has is based on something that is transitory and false. It is a life that lacks greatness; a life that is unable to probe the wall of death; a life that has nothing to say when the final moment of its material existence arrives.

We must become rich in the eyes of God, basing our lives on things that cannot be seen or possessed

This text challenges us to become rich in the eyes of God; to accumulate treasures that are rich in themselves. We are called to be much more than what we can see and much more than what we possess. In every relationship, in every event, in every moment of our lives, there is something invisible that transcends what can be seen. Our lives are very empty if we live them only from the perspective of what we can perceive and possess. This parable asks us to reflect radically on our existence, asking ourselves, “Where does my life reside? What are the foundations that my life is supported on? What do I seek from life?” We cannot demand life from things that are more insignificant than we are! We cannot obtain life from things that are possessed temporarily! This is not to say that the management of our earthly goods has no importance. Love for the poor and the needy must be an essential part of our lives. But the people that have a genuine love for the poor are the very ones who are not obsessed with the accumulation of personal wealth!

Instead of grounding our lives on economic issues, we must ground our lives on that which remains when economic things fade away

At this point of human history, excessive emphasis is being placed on economic issues. And a disproportionate focus on economic issues leads to the poor and needy being forgotten. This fixation with the health of the economy leads us to become more and more anguished with regard to a “lifestyle” and a “standard of living” that we will nevertheless lose one day. We can be sure of one thing: the financial investments we make will all fail to make a profit; the worldy enterprises that we devote our lives to are guaranteed to fail. This Gospel challenges us to focus on that alone which remains. And what a wonderful opportunity to ask ourselves: “If today the Lord asks me for my life, what do I have to offer him? What would remain of my existence if my physical life were to come to an end at this moment?” The good news is that it is possible to extract oneself from this way of life, right now, without dying, by radically changing our perspective, just as Jesus fields the question asked from a worldly perspective and gives a reply that is from a higher perspective altogether. We simply need to begin living our lives from the point of view of their ultimate finality, from the point of view of the things that remain when these worldly goods have disappeared. For example, if today is to be the last day that I will meet my friends and acquaintances, then will I be as cantankerous with them as I usually am? How would I treat my family members if I knew that this was to be the last day of my earthly life?

Today is my last day. This is my last moment. Am I living this moment from the point of view of its eternal relevance? Or am I living this moment from the point of view of the way that it profits me now?

We need to discover the truth that every day is actually my last. It is my last day of this sort and that is a fact that we should reflect on. Each day is unique and irrepeatable. We must learn to live every moment with the lightness of heart of the one who realizes that he is not judged by this world, but that he has a single judge, a single arbitrator who alone will evaluate the worth of our lives, and the rightness of our relationship with our brothers and sisters. From this point of view, our lives become much more profound and significant. And the worthless things that preoccupy us so much are exposed as being silly and irrelevant. Where does the meaning of my life reside? How much life is there in me? Every situation that confronts us is an opportunity for us to make the distinction between that which has authentic life and that which does not. I must ask myself a thousand times if I am living this day as if it were my last.

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