August 8 2021.  Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   John 6:41-51

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

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

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GOSPEL John 6:41-51

The Jews were complaining to each other about Jesus, because he had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ ‘Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph’ they said. ‘We know his father and mother. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven” ?’

Jesus said in reply, ‘Stop complaining to each other. No  one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God, and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me. Not that anybody has seen the Father, except the one who comes from God: he has seen the Father. I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead, but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give
is my flesh, for the life of the world.’

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

SHORTER HOMILY . . . On this nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary time, we find that the people are still fixated by the satisfaction of their bodily appetites, not realising that God wanted to give them something greater and more profound. In the first reading, Elijah is being persecuted by the wife of the king and he has become desperate, calling in a somewhat infantile way on the Lord to take his life. The Lord, however, gives him a food that enables him to go beyond his situation. At Mass, we often have great problems on our minds and hearts, but the Lord is saying to us, “Eat and walk onwards”. We are called to undertake a long journey in life, to go beyond where we are now. In the Gospel, the Jews are complaining because they do not understand what Jesus means when he describes himself as their bread. This will finally become clearer at the Last Supper when Jesus becomes our food, but for the moment the people do not understand. There is always something puzzling and incomprehensible in our lives. Jesus asks us explicitly in today’s Gospel not to grumble at what we find difficult. We often have a tendency to grumble, to distrust the Lord, to be attached to negative thoughts. In Eastern Orthodox spirituality, the sin of sadness is added to our seven capital sins. Sadness is an infantile and immature tendency to cultivate an attitude of grumbling and dissatisfaction. The Jews prefer not to trust in the gift the Lord is giving them because they do not understand it. Jesus, in fact, mentions the fact that the people of the Exodus ate the bread in the desert and died. The old man, the one who is too attached to grumbling and distrust, does not enter into the Promised Land. This man must be left behind if we are to enter into the life of freedom. The Jews in the desert ate the bread but didn’t enter into life. We are called to eat the bread and ENTER into life! This is a question of quality not quantity. We accept the gift the Lord is giving us, even if we do not understand it, and then we go beyond where we are now. The power of the Eucharist in our lives will be impeded if we do not enter into it with openness to go beyond our current situation. We do not eat the Eucharist just for the sake of eating but for the sake of journeying with the Lord, going beyond our mentality of sadness, to enter into freedom, joy and praise, with gratitude for all the Lord has done for us.

SUMMARY OF LONGER HOMILY . . . In the first reading Elijah is despondent because he cannot see beyond his own pessimistic perspective. In the Gospel, the Jews grumble because they cannot see beyond what they think they know of Jesus: “This is the son of Joseph. We know everything about him! How dare he claim to be bread that has come down from heaven!” In reply, Jesus asks us to look beyond what we think we know or understand. The Father is drawing us to himself. He is speaking to us in the depths of our hearts, in our everyday experiences, in our intuitions, through our consciences. By means of this internal compass, the Lord attracts us towards the divine, towards authentic life. Let us turn to him in silence. Let us open ourselves to the voice of the Holy Spirit who is moving within us, but we fail to hear him because of the distractions we pursue constantly, because of our preoccupation with satisfying our appetites. The Lord is closer to us than we realise! The Holy Spirit illuminates us, caresses us, invites us to love, opens us to the risen Christ, speaks to us of the Father and of eternity.

Elijah gives in to despair because he cannot move beyond his own perspective on things. He does not allow that God might be acting in this dire situation

On this nineteenth Sunday of the year, we continue reading the discourse of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum, as recounted in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St John. The first reading introduces our theme with the story of Elijah, who is fleeing from the death threat issued by Jezebel. Elijah had just defeated 400 idolatrous priests of Canaan and was forced to escape for his life. But now he can take the persecution no more and wishes he were dead. He sits under a furze bush and says, ‘Lord, I have had enough. Take my life; 1 am no better than my ancestors.’ Even though Elijah is a powerful prophet he too goes through this moment of discouragement – moments of despair which happen to us all. There are times when we all say, “Enough, I can’t go on. I wish everything were finished”. When these things happen, we are making an absolute out of a particular perspective on a situation. Elijah sees only that he is tired and that he is being pursued. He does not see the future nor the powerful action of God. All he sees are his own tired muscles and the enemy gaining ground behind. Elijah’s only method of measuring is whether or not he is better than his ancestors. Then the angel gives him food and encourages him to go on his way. He tells the prophet that he still has a journey to undertake and that there is a road he must follow. All too often we feel anguish because we think we are at a dead end. Elijah is not at a dead end, and, in fact, he will make it all the way to the mountain of the Lord.

Things have a reality that goes beyond their exterior appearance. We ought not to judge things from their superficial characteristics but seek to discover the significance they have in God’s plan

This text is a splendid introduction to the Gospel. Jesus has just announced that he is the bread come down from heaven. The people begin to grumble: “What is he saying! This man is the son of Joseph! We know everything about him! Come down from heaven indeed!” Jesus asks them not to murmur, for the things of God do not fit in with human schemes. Divine things are not limited to the things that we already know. Jesus has a reality that is hidden from the men and women who stand before him. And this is true not only for the humanity and divinity of Jesus, but for all of reality and life. All things have a reality that goes beyond what we know of it and which takes its significance from what God has given it, according to the plan that God has ordained for it. In the Gospel, the people think they know everything and this leads them to grumble. This presumption blocks them from placing themselves in harmony with the action of God.

The Father is drawing him to himself through his action in the depths of our Spirit. This action permits us to glimpse the authentic life of God in our everyday experiences. We feel a natural attraction to the divine. God is drawing us to himself if we would only open ourselves to his action within us

The solution to this is another kind of attitude altogether. Jesus says, “No-one can come to me unless the Father draws him”. We can choose to remain entrapped inside the prisons of our own making, or we can allow ourselves to be drawn outwards by the Father. The Father is working in the depths of our heart and is drawing us to himself. In a marvellous text which reflects on this passage, St Augustine tells us that God places a desire deep in our hearts and sets us on the journey to salvation. Augustine says that if you show a sheep a handful of grass, he will follow you. If you show a child a tasty treat, he will become curious and draw closer. God does the same with us. He wishes to liberate us from the absolutism of our own mentality and our own reason, in order to begin to listen much more profoundly to the way he is moving our spirit. God is drawing us! It might seem curious to say that in this world which is so agnostic regarding profound things, a world that is fixated with practical things, with the satisfaction of our appetites, with the pursuit of entertainment. But artists in general demonstrate the attraction they feel for Jesus Christ. Soon or later they paint or sculpt a crucifix or the blessed Virgin. There is something attractive about Jesus if we would only say yes to this attraction. There is something that the Father places inside each of us which draws us to the truth and authenticity of Christ. It cannot be erased from our hearts. The nostalgia we feel for God remains in the depth of our beings. And St Augustine is not the only one of the fathers that makes this assertion. This profound knowledge of God is not simply intellectual but is an experience of a life that is hidden in everyday reality, an authentic life, a life that we glimpse through our search for what is beautiful.

The Lord is drawing us and speaking to us in our hearts. Let us turn to him in silence so that we can perceive his call, so that we can tune in to the internal compass that is leading us to God.

In this passage, Jesus says: “No-one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father, and I will raise him up on the last day”. Later he says that all will be taught by God. We must allow ourselves to receive instruction from him, allow the good to speak in the depths of our hearts. This voice points out Christ to us. This good that speaks within us is the Holy Spirit who visits us and works through our intuitions. He illuminates us, caresses us, invites us to love, opens us to the risen Christ, speaks to us of the Father and of eternity. We are now in summertime (those of us who live in the northern hemisphere!). There is more time for prayer in the summer, generally speaking. Let us listen to God’s call in moments we give to silence. Let us tune in to the call of acts that are good because they are simple and clear, gestures of reconciliation, gestures of reciprocal care, There is something that draws us in the depths of our souls and leads us to the Father, that internal compass that every human being (thanks to the grace of God) possesses inside 

July 25th 2021. Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   John 6:1-15

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

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

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GOSPEL John 6:1-15

Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee or of Tiberias and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.

Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the hills by himself.

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

SHORTER HOMILY . . . In the first reading, the servant of Elijah asks how they can expect to feed such a large group of people with just twenty loaves. Something similar happens in the Gospel. It is interesting that the multiplication happens at the time of Passover, the very time when God brings wondrous goods from a desperate situation. The people are satisfied by the food Jesus provides, but it is the disciples alone who are in a position to appreciate the significance of what has happened. Firstly, Jesus presents them with the challenge of how to find food for such a crowd.  When the Lord puts us to the test, it is always for the reason of prompting us to grow. Andrew replies that a boy has five loaves and two fish, but how can that suffice? Now Jesus begins to operate, asking the disciples to get the crowd to sit down. This sitting down on the grass recalls the psalm which describes the Lord as a providential shepherd who makes us lie down to rest in green pastures. The miracle that follows shows us that there are two ways we can live life: according to our own capacities and our own calculations (“What is such little food among so many?”); or according to the providence of God. Another essential point is that the Lord feeds thousands of people, but only does so using the little that the disciples offered him. The act of placing our meagre offering in the hands of God is something that occurs in every celebration of the Eucharist. The Lord operates upon the bread and wine that we offer him. This is the secret of a fundamental synergy where the power comes from God but he still requires that we provide something that is ours. The works of God usually involve our contribution, even if what we provide is relatively miniscule. This is our great dignity. Christ fed this multitude, but it is also true that the disciples fed them. Let us open ourselves to the works of God which pass by way of our things. The will of God is not extraneous to our lives and our impoverished things. To experience Easter is not to search for something that is alien to us. It is our bread that the Lord multiplies! Our choice is either to give these loves to the Lord or to hold them back. For so long as we continue to live lives calculating on our own capacities, we will live a mediocre existence, but if we entrust our little offering to God, then we will experience the extraordinary.

LONGER HOMILY . . . The multiplication of the loaves and fishes occurs at the time of Passover and just after Jesus crosses the sea. These references to the great events in Jewish history are no coincidence. The multiplication of the loaves is an event of similar significance. Jesus enters into a dialogue with the disciples regarding what they should do about feeding such a large crowd. He knows what he intends to do, but he wants the disciples to come to the realisation that they are up against the wall of human limitations. Too often, when we find ourselves in difficult situations, we throw up our hands and say “There is nothing that I can do here”. This is a mediocre response. The Church is not the place of mediocre responses because we do not merely talk about what is possible. Instead we speak about what is impossible, what is extraordinary. Our sacramental life involves the eruption of God into our existence. If the church confined itself solely to what is possible, then it would not speak of the resurrection. It would confine itself (as unfortunately sometimes it does) to speak of a set of ethical principles. Instead, in the context of the Eucharistic celebration where the bread becomes Christ, we point to a reality that goes beyond what we can accomplish with our good intentions. If our marriages, our priestly vocations, our ecclesial lives are measured solely in terms of our own capacities, then these efforts are sure to fail because they do not leave space for the power of God. The Gospel recounts how a boy gives the little he has, an amount that is clearly insufficient, but he places it into the hands of Christ. When we try to keep things in our own hands they remain mediocre! We need someone who will offer to the Father the five loaves and two fishes. We need to cease being the manager of things and instead become the deliverer of things into the hands of the Lord. If we let go of the steering wheel and hand over to God all that we are, then we will see the meaning of true abundance! If things are as small as we are, then they will indeed be disappointing, but if we consign them into the hands of God, then the sea opens before us, and we experience Easter.

The multiplication of loaves occurs at the time of Passover and just after Jesus crosses the se. This evokes the most important event in Jewish history, the exodus from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.

The first reading presents the account of the multiplication of barley loaves by the prophet Elisha. The prophet’s servant has only twenty loaves to be distributed among one hundred men, but the Lord is able to produce great abundance from this small offering. The reading is a perfect key for approaching this Sunday’s Gospel – the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in Chapter 6 of St John’s account. This description of events has much in common with the accounts presented by the other Gospels, but there are two peculiarities of St John’s version. Firstly, John tells us that it is around the time of the Passover and that they go to the other side of the sea. Passover and the crossing of the sea are highly significant references that should not be ignored. The event of the multiplication of the loaves is placed in this very special context. The Passover (with the memory of the subsequent of the Red Sea) is the feast of feasts for the Jews.

Jesus wants to disciples to see that they are confronted by a problem that cannot be solved by human means

Secondly, John’s description of the multiplication of the loaves has a different approach to that of the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptics, the disciples are the ones who present the problematic situation to Jesus. “Let’s disperse this crowd. They are hungry. We have nothing to give them.” In John’s version, however, it is Jesus who takes the initiative. Before anything happens, he himself knows exactly what he is going to do. He enters into a dialogue with the disciples with the intention of teaching them. Firstly, he asks Philip where they are going to find bread for all of these people. Philip is a Greek name, and, as such, represents the world of human intellect and the capacity of reason to resolve problematic situations. Philip, true to his name, measures the situation rationally and declares that two hundred denarii would not be sufficient to buy bread for everyone. Andrew points out that a boy in the crowd had five barley loaves and two fishes, but then - with a collapse of enthusiasm – remarks that this is of no use for such a great crowd of people. This is exactly the same phrased used by the servant of Elisha in the first reading and it is exactly hear that Jesus wants to bring the disciples: to measure themselves against that which is greater than them, that wall which marks our limits, that point which sometimes we even seek to arrive at.

When we are in a difficult situation, we can throw up our hands and say that there is nothing to be done, or we can believe in the power of God to work marvels in our lives

Often, when we arrive at this limit, we feel that our problems are no longer our responsibility. When things get to this stage, we say, “In any case I am unable to solve this problem. There is nothing I can do here”. Phrases like these are the mark of a mediocre response, the mark of one who wishes to abdicate responsibility for the situation confronting him. Sure, such responses are natural given the situation, but when we are talking about the Lord Jesus, are we talking merely about what is possible or are we talking about what is extraordinary? Is our attitude as Christians content to limit itself to what is possible? Do we not celebrate in the sacraments the eruption of God among us? Our departure point is our identity as children of God and our call to enter into a life that has been transformed by the incarnation of God made man. We are the people of the extraordinary, the people of the impossible, the people of the glory of God that erupts into human life! The events of this Gospel occur at Passover time, the time when God manifests himself. If the church confined itself solely to what is possible, then it would not speak of the resurrection. It could confine itself (as unfortunately sometimes it does) to speak of a set of ethical principles. Instead, in the context of the Eucharistic celebration where the bread becomes Christ, we point to a reality that goes beyond what we can accomplish with our good intentions. We point to those things which, by the grace of God, manifest the divine to the world. If our marriages, our priestly vocations, our ecclesial lives are measured solely in terms of our own capacities, then these efforts are sure to fail because they do not leave space for the power of God.

If we hand what little we have and are over to the Lord, then we will see how he can bring about abundance

The Gospel recounts how a boy gives the little he has, an amount that is clearly insufficient, but he places it into the hands of Christ. Often we are in the community of the Church, in marriages, in the religious life, in pastoral work with the youth, and we find that things fail or come up short because we are trying to control things with our own hands. It is for that very reason that things are mediocre! We need someone who will offer to the Father the five loaves and two fishes. We need to empty our pockets into the hands of Christ. We need to cease being the manager of things and instead become the deliverer of things into the hands of the Lord. We must entrust, abandon things into the hands of the Father so that Christ will become the director of how things proceed. If we let go of the steering wheel and hand over to God all that we are, then we will see the meaning of true abundance! If things are as small as we are, then they will indeed be disappointing, but if we consign them into the hands of God, then surprises and solutions appear. The sea opens before us, we experience Easter, we see life being snatched out of the hands of death, we see what is little become great, sparsity becoming abundance.

July 18 2021. Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL Mark 6:30-34

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GOSPEL Mark 6:30-34

The apostles rejoined Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. Then he said to them, ‘You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’; for there were so many coming and going that the apostles had no time even to eat. So they went off in a boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But people saw them going, and many could guess where; and from every town they all hurried to the place on foot and reached it before them. So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.

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

SUMMARY. . . The delusion of our century is the belief that we can be completely free and autonomous. The truth, however, is that we are creatures who need to be guided by the Lord into life. Without the Lord, our supposed freedom is really a slavery to our own egos. All of us need the Lord to shepherd us into the paths of life. By ourselves. we follow disorder paths that lead nowhere. Each of us needs to be shepherded by the Lord, but each of us is also called to be shepherds for others. There is no-one, not even a person who is sick in bed, that is not called to live for others. By uniting our sufferings or illness with the Lord, who is the source of life and mercy, we can bring life to others. How mediocre and ugly life is when it is lived for myself, following my own disordered impulses, but how beautiful it is when it is lived in obedience to the promptings of the Good Shepherd, who calls us to live lives of reciprocal mercy.

God, in the person of Jesus, comes among us to be our shepherd

On this sixteenth Sunday of ordinary time, we are presented with the very important scriptural image of the relationship between the flock and the shepherd. In the first reading we hear the condemnation of the Lord towards those so-called “shepherds” who disperse their flocks. The Lord condemns these shepherds and proclaims that he himself will one day gather his people to himself. The Lord himself, concretely in the person of Jesus, will take direct care of his flock. In the Gospel we see how Christ, when he comes, looks with compassion on these crowds who have no other point of reference.

We delude ourselves into thinking that we can set the direction of our lives, but we do not have life within us. We need the Lord to lead us to authentic life

It is a curious and interesting fact that sheep need a shepherd to take care of them. They require someone to take them out to pasture and to lead them to water. They are meek animals and the shepherd has to use a series of sounds and whistles to guide them to where they need to go. We too are sheep who are in need of a shepherd. It is not true that we are totally autonomous. Autonomy is a good and beautiful thing, but only when it is in the context of a proper relationship of communion with the Lord. We are called to allow ourselves to be guided by him. The anthropological delusion of the past century has been the self-referential notion of the autonomous self. Freedom is understood in an absolutist and indefinable way. It is simply not true that we can live without limits. We have a fundamental need to be guided by a shepherd. We sometimes think that we are exercising complete liberty, but in reality we are always under the guidance of someone or something. The liberty we imagine ourselves to have is really a slavery to our own egos, to an emptiness that becomes a disordered impulse to do things that have no direction.

We are creatures and do not have life within ourselves. We need the Lord to shepherd us into life

I do not have an in-built sense of direction for my life. I cannot deduce or invent of my own initiative the path I should take in life. My task, instead is to receive the indications for the direction of my existence. I must allow myself to be shepherded; I must learn how to obey the Lord and obey reality. If I allow myself to be led by the Lord, then how beautiful life becomes! Consider the contrast between this attitude and the approach of someone who tries to impose his own ideological expectations on life; who seeks to coerce life along the path that he considers desirable. Life for this person becomes a torture because it never obeys his expectations. All of us are creatures. We do not have life in and of ourselves. And for this reason all of us need to be shepherded by the Lord. He must show us the paths that lead to life.

The Lord is the source of mercy and he calls us to be shepherds of this mercy for others

This leads to another discourse. All of us are called, according to the graces that the Lord gives us, to be shepherds in our turn. The first murderer of history, Cain, when he was asked where Abel was, responds, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” This is how those who neglect the lives of others always speak. The word “keeper” in Hebrew also means “shepherd”. Am I the shepherd of my brother? Yes, I certainly am! All of us have a responsibility for each other’s lives. If a friend is behaving in a way that damages him, and I do not speak to him, then what kind of friend am I? There is always someone whose life I must help to take care of. Even a person who is himself ill in his sickbed is nevertheless a shepherd because he can offer his suffering for another person. By living his sickness in communion with the Lord he can become a fount of life for others. So each one of us is a shepherd, and, at the same time, each one of us has need to be led by others. How can we live if we do not take care of each other? The fount of this attitude can be found in Sunday’s Gospel. “So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd

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 July 11^th 2021. Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL Mark 6:7-13

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

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

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GOSPEL Mark 6:7-13
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.’ So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.

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

SHORTER HOMILY . . . In the first reading, the prophet Amos describes himself as a cultivator of sycamores. This task involved piercing and cutting the trees. It is a good metaphor for prophecy because when the prophet speaks, his listener must be pierced and wounded momentarily if he really takes the message to heart. In the Gospel, Jesus sends his apostles out in pairs, with no sack, money, or spare clothes. They are to bring simply the word they have received from Christ. Like Amos, the disciples could well be rejected. Sometimes we forget that the Good News is something that we can only offer to others, not force on them. Evangelisation is not about conquests or victories. Just as God offers us his grace, so too we can only offer to others what we have received. The reason Jesus instructs the disciples to carry nothing is so that they are placed in a completely vulnerable state. They do not threaten nor exert force. Love is like this. If love is not given freely then it is not love. Every mission that the Lord gives us, every good work that he prompts us to do, must be carried out by us with the attitude of being willing to accept the rejection of others. We must not be fixated by success but be always willing to leave things in the hands of God. Our work becomes defensive and destructive if we do not maintain this attitude. Christ came among us with nothing. All he bore was his staff – the cross – by which he healed and saved us. On the cross, naked and despoiled of everything, he achieves our redemption. Often we have the mentality of power and success which we tend to project onto the Gospel. We look for results and affirmation for our work. We forget that Christ failed as far as earthly success is concerned. And that is how it is. The victory of Christ is not a mundane, worldly victory. It is the victory of love, which can be refused. But when one welcome it, one experiences the power of God.

LONGER HOMILY . . . In the Gospel Jesus sends out the apostles in pairs, asking them to bring only a staff, no haversack, money, spare sandals or second tunic. Maybe we think that this passage is an exhortation for us to go out and preach the word of God, but it is primarily an exhortation on how to receive the word of God. We must first listen before we can speak. We need to be spoken to by an apostle before we can go out and become apostles. Reading the Gospel in this light, this passage is a splendid opportunity to reorder our way of listening to God’s word. The bearer of the word of God carries a staff, the symbol of the pilgrim and the shepherd. The word of the Lord comes to shepherd me, to guide me to rich pastures. It does not come to bring me satisfactions because, in fact, it comes to liberate me from my slavery to satisfaction. It does not bring me material things (haversack, money, etc.,) because it aims to liberate me from dependency on material things. It liberates me from a fixation with money and helps me to use money for love. It invites me to put on my sandals and get moving with my life. It does not wear two tunics in the sense that it does not bring ambiguity to my life. It is not duplicitous. It does not come to me saying a little bit of “yes” and a little bit of “no”. It wishes to be welcomed by me completely and to remain with me. If I welcome it, then I become a single thing with that word, but if I do not welcome it, then I cannot hold onto it in a partial sense and manipulate it for my ends. In this sense, the word of God kicks the dust of my duplicitous “welcome” off its feet. I must accept the word of the Lord sincerely or it cannot become one with me. Let us become those people who receive the word of God wholeheartedly and allow themselves to be transformed by it!

Amos’ prophesy is rejected because it seems harsh. Would it not have been better if it had been accepted as a word from the Lord intended to shepherd and guide the people?

The first reading is from the prophet Amos. Amos is a man from the southern kingdom of Judah, but he has been sent to Bethel in the north where the priest Amaziah is in command. The Lord reproves the northern kingdom through the words of the prophet Amos and Amaziah will have none of it. He tells Amos to get out of there and return to the land of Judah. Amos replies, “I was not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I was a shepherd and looked after sycamores, but the Lord took me from my flock and sent me to prophesy to Israel.” We can look at this text from two points of view: that of Amaziah and that of Amos. From the perspective of Amaziah, the words of Amos are bitter and unwelcome. But from the perspective of Amos they are very different. He replies to Amaziah that he is not a prophet by trade but a shepherd and cultivator of the land. So, Amos is saying, why not accept me as a shepherd? Why think of me as an aggressor rather than someone who comes here to nurture and shepherd you?

The word of the Lord comes to me to shepherd me, not to make me richer or to aid my economic success or material well-being.

Let us consider the Gospel reading from this point of view. The twelve are sent out in pairs and given power over impure spirits. We might think that this text is exhorting us to go out and preach the Gospel, but this is true only in a secondary sense. I must first receive the Gospel before I can go out and preach it. Instead of seeing myself in the glorious role of apostle, perhaps I am someone that needs first to be spoken to by an apostle? Let us then, consider this passage as someone who needs to listen to the word. How does the word of the Lord come to me? What form does it have when it arrives to me? The Gospel speaks of being sent out in pairs. The word of the Lord always has this aspect of communion. It never comes to me in an individual form. It is not focussed on individuals or on the self but on something that goes beyond the self. It is always focussed on communion. But this is only a prelude. Jesus tells the twelve to bring nothing with them except a staff, no haversack, money, or spare sandals. The staff is the symbol of the pilgrim and the shepherd. When the word comes to me, it is brought by a pilgrim, by someone in movement. It comes as a shepherd, as something which must shepherd and guide me to rich pastures. It does not bring bread or money to me. It does not bring reward, satisfaction or comfort. It does not come with a “haversack”; in other words, it does not bring resources or material success. It does not make me richer or help my business projects to be more successful. In fact, it might have the contrary effect. It might prompt me to renounce some of these material things. It will invite me to be moved, to be stirred up, and will not permit me to remain in my comfort zone.

The word of the Lord does not have “two tunics”, it is not ambiguous or duplicitous.

Jesus also says not to bring a second tunic. The tunic is the garment that others see on me. It represents my role, my place in society. Jesus invites me not to have two tunics, not to live an ambiguous or duplicitous life, where I wear a different coat for every changing situation, put on a different face for every conversation. The word of God when it comes to me should be clear and unambiguous. It will say to me what needs to be said. And when the word of God enters a house, it will remain there. It comes for me and wishes to remain with me. If I do not accept it, then it will leave me and kick the dust off its feet. The reason for this is that I must either accept it or reject it. The word of God is not something that can be half accepted. If I reject it, then I put myself out of relationship with the word and it is as if it has kicked the dust of my compromising heart off its feet.

July 4th 2021. Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mark 6:1-6

Translated 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                                  Mark 6:1-6

Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised- in his own country among his own relations and in his own house'; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

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

SHORTER HOMILY . . . Jesus teaches in the synagogue of his home town and is rejected. This happens at Nazareth, the place of faith, the place where Mary gave the most perfect response to the word of the Lord – “I am the servant of the Lord. Be it done onto me according to your word”. Jesus cannot perform great works here because the people do not believe and consequently do not open the door of their hearts to allow Jesus to work. Jesus is manifesting his identity, his greatness and his mission, but he is confronted with a petty attitude that only considers him in terms of mundane, horizontal things. He is placed in a box: he is a carpenter, a relative of such and such, the man whose mother became pregnant before she ought to. They are saying, in other words, that they know everything there is to know about this man. The truth is that Jesus is much more than they know. He is the son of Mary, yes, but also the Son of God. A man cannot be reduced to his homeland. The first person called by God, Abraham, was called to leave his own land. We are all called to be much more than our homeland, our job, our talents, our family connections. These connections are there, but they are not everything. If we wish to have a prophetic vision of who we are, then we need to confront these connections and not be bound by them. If we wish to be men or women of God, then we need to be more than our banal biology. This is exactly the definition of faith, to believe beyond biology, to see beyond the material composition of things. We are more than our appearance, more than what we have done. As our marvelous Pope of the youth, John Paul II, said, we are the work of God. Man is not the sum total of his sins and weaknesses, but the immense love that God expresses toward him and man’s response of “Yes” to that love. We can say yes or no to God. To say yes, we must go beyond biology and homeland, infancy and family. We must go beyond those things that make us banal and mediocre. We are all called to greatness for we are all called to paradise and to live our lives right now in the light of Paradise.

LONGER HOMILY FOLLOWS

The human being must never be reduced to his family background, occupation or social status

The Gospel recounts the visit of Jesus to his hometown of Nazareth, where, on the Sabbath, he teaches in the Synagogue. At the beginning of the passage we discover that his listeners are astounded at the fact that he stands up to teach them. At the end of the passage it is Jesus who is astounded at them because of their incredulity. We tend to find it hard to believe in the work of God, to accept that a person might be something more than a child of his parents, to imagine that a man could be something other than his occupation. The human being naturally sees everything in very predictable and boring terms. "You are what you are. Don't come here putting on a big show. We know who you are and where you've come from, and that's all there is to you". Many people turn away from the faith because it doesn't fit in with their way of looking at things, but faith should never be limited to our way of looking at things! And through the eyes of faith a person should never be limited to his work, his occupation, or his family connections. The human being is something more than all of these things. Jesus is dumbfounded when he is confronted by this attempt to limit him and categorize him. He knew of the greatness, power and love of God. He knew the Father and was stunned by the hardness of his listeners' hearts.

Unbelief is one of the most fearful powers of the human being. It can completely frustrate the power of God

This situation means that Jesus is unable to exercise his power in the usual way and is only able to heal a few of the sick. It is interesting to note that in these conditions one can only accept the grace of Christ if one is in a desperate condition. When one is rich in spirit one cannot receive the Kingdom of God. How blessed are the poor in Spirit! One has to be sick and aware of one's sickness before one can be touched by the healing hands of Christ. The incredulity of the human being is one of the most terrible powers that he possesses. God is omnipotent, but he must stop in front of the closed door of human unbelief. St Augustine said, "God who created you without your cooperation cannot save you without your cooperation". Human assent is absolutely fundamental for the work of God to be successful. Human openness towards God is the essential condition for the work of God to be efficient in us. Part of our greatness and nobility resides in the fact that we can genuinely say no to God. We have the capacity to frustrate and sadden the Holy Spirit.

Sin is rooted in a lack of openness to the work of God in us

This extraordinary mystery is the mystery of sin, for sin is always an act of rejection of God. All sin is the refusal of the work of God in us, a refusal of his law, a refusal of his word. It involves a rejection of the truth that is apparent to us in the workings of our conscience. We reject that truth and say "This is what I believe, and this is how things are, full stop". We have a liberty that God cannot force. Even if we say yes to God once, God continues to respect that liberty. On the next occasion, we will have to exercise our liberty all over again in order to say yes to God once again. But once we say yes to evil, the next yes to evil can become automatic. As the Gospel of John tells us, he who commits sin becomes a slave of sin.

We must retain a complete openness to Jesus, never thinking that we know him fully, refraining from labelling him, or labelling any aspect of the life of the church, or our own past. Jesus gives new sense and meaning to everything.

Jesus is unable to work miracles in Nazareth because of the hardness of people's hearts. Why was there such hardness of heart? Because the people there thought they already knew Jesus through and through. Jesus was put in a box and labelled, and this prejudice impeded the power of God. This text thus reveals something to us that ought to shake us to the core! God can be frustrated by our attitudes! We can be in the presence of that which leads into paradise and yet never enjoy it! And why not? Because we are locked in prejudiced ways of looking at things that prompt us to say, "I know you already. You have nothing of interest to say to me".

The hardness of the human heart is stupefying. We cast a cold eye on the work of God and think that we have comprehended it totally! But who can comprehend the action of God! Even the greatest of the saints continued to be surprised by God right up to the last moment of their lives. We do not know the Lord Jesus completely and we must wait for him to reveal himself to us. Let us not put labels on the work of God, on the life of the church, on the sacraments, nor even on the events of our own past. Jesus will give new meaning and sense to everything. Let us never think that we know the Lord Jesus! He is always something other. He is not simply the son of his mother, the cousin of his cousins, the labourer in his particular workshop. He is the Son of God, and this defies all of our categories.