July 19^th 2015.  Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL Mark 6:30-34

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 6:30-34

The apostles re-joined 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

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio focusses on the compassion shown by Jesus in this passage from the Gospel. Sometimes we think we have power or influence in the world, but the only worthwhile power we have is the power to serve and to give our lives for others. It is acts of compassion for others that make the world a beautiful place. If we only did what we were obliged to do towards others, or if others only respected our rights and nothing more, then the world would become a very banal and unbearable place. The pastors that are condemned by Jeremiah in the first reading probably did exactly what they were obliged to do. Yet their failure to go beyond the rules destroyed and scattered the people. If the members of a family all acted only out of obligation, then the family would be a miserable place. Compassion takes us beyond mere adherence to rights and expectations. It is love, mercy and patience that holds relationships and society together. None of us could stand before God if it were not for his mercy!

Salvation is not just between God and me, it is something we participate in as a community. We mediate salvation to each other and we do so by service and self-sacrifice. If we obstruct the transmission of the love of God to others then the world can become a terrible place.

The first reading from Jeremiah consists in a prophecy against the pastors of the people. Not only have they failed to shepherd their flock: they have allowed the people to be destroyed and scattered. The issue at stake here is the manner in which God saves us. We are not redeemed in an individual or vertical way directly by the Lord. God saves us through the mediation of others. The world is a wonderful place, made so that we might love each other and go to God together. But when we obstruct the love of God and fail to mediate that love amongst each other, we make the world into a terrible place, a veritable torture chamber. The Church is a place where people minister the salvation of God; they do not have ownership over redemption. None of us has even a crumb of true authority if it is not given to us by the Lord and is not administered in his name. We tend to think we have power, but the only thing we are truly able to do is to be of service and to give our lives for others. If our work in the Church becomes something else then it does not come from God. In fact, often what we do becomes reduced to something extremely repugnant.

It is acting from compassion that is the mark of a true follower of Jesus. As long as we limit ourselves to fulfilling our obligations, then we exclude and drive away others.

The disciples come back from their mission and tell Jesus what they have done. Jesus wants them to rest and takes them away in the boat. Rest is necessary for all of us. We have an obligation to get away every now and then in order to rest and be recharged. The disciples and Jesus head for a lonely place but when they disembark they discover that the crowd has followed them there. Here we discover what was lacking in the shepherds described in the first reading from Jeremiah, and it is often missing in our choices and actions too - Jesus has compassion on them. Here we are not merely talking about human compassion. What is referred to here is something that comes from the very interior of God, and is reflected in an inadequate way in our acts of compassion. The compassion of Jesus is something that prompts him to live and move for others. It is something that goes beyond rights and obligations. As long as we are fixated with rights and obligations we exist on a level of banality that is incompatible with love. If we only do that which is expected of us, we become exactly like those pastors spoken of by Jeremiah. This is true of priests, but also of the baptized, and also of men and women in general. For as long as we limit ourselves to doing only that which we are obliged to do, we exclude and drive away others. In a diocesan meeting in Rome, Pope Francis warned about the parochial house becoming a sort of parish customs house in which rules are used to exclude people who are looking for a simple word of salvation. If we cannot get beyond regulations and bureaucracy, then everything becomes ugly and devoid of love.

It is compassion and mercy that keeps families and societies together, not regulations and protocol

If the family became a place in which we merely counted expectations, obligations and rights then it would lose its humanity. It is compassion and mercy that drives the healthy family. Let us prepare ourselves for the Year of Mercy by focusing on the one thing that resolves all problems! It is not precision, regulations or perfect proportionality that keeps things moving along in life. What makes situations productive is patience and compassion. In the Western world there is the myth of the ideal world in which the person does everything according to protocol, respecting all his obligations and having all of his rights respected. But no human being has ever been capable of being obedient to all laws to the very letter. Laws are cold, it is only the heart that truly motivates.

All of us are utterly dependent on the mercy of Christ. Without it, who among us could stand before the Lord? We too must become mediators of that compassion.

Jesus goes beyond rights and obligations. He and his disciples had the right to rest themselves. For the salvation of the family, for the salvation of the parish, for the salvation of the Christian community, for the salvation of ordinary friendships, we must all go beyond rights, and it is only compassion that enables us to do it. If any of us were to place ourselves before God according to our own merit, then who among us would not be shamed? All of us live by the mercy and compassion of Christ.

July 12^th 2015. Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mark 6:7-13

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 6:7-13

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Just as the prophet Amos called for conversion of hearts, so too the disciples of Jesus are sent to preach a pure Gospel that will transform people’s hearts. Jesus gives the disciples a very well-defined power: the authority over impure spirits. What does this refer to? Something that is impure is something that contains within it a mixture of good and bad elements. The most powerful forms of deception often contains elements of truth or goodness in them. How often we try to sweeten the Gospel, compromising it so that it fits in with our self-interested plans! Woe to the Church if it does not preach true conversion to the pure message of the Gospel! Jesus tells the disciples that if people reject the Gospel, then they are to shake the clay of that town from their feet. Is this a condemnation of those people? No, it is a statement of the purity of the Gospel and a way of testifying to that town that they are being called to embrace the pure ground of the Gospel. It is a way of saying: “The ground of our faith cannot be mixed or compromised with the ground of the way of life that you lead, so I shake that ground from my feet as a message to you that the Gospel must be accepted in its purity”. This Gospel also calls each one of us to conversion. We are called to allow ourselves to be cultivated and pruned by the Lord so that we too are converted to a pure observance of the Gospel.

The Gospel purifies in the sense that it is not compatible with a mixture of good and evil

The theme of Sunday’s Gospel is the acceptance and the rejection of the evangelizing mission of the disciples. The first reading contains the celebrated passage in which the prophet Amos is banished by the king for preaching conversion. But first let us consider the Gospel. Jesus calls the twelve to himself and sends them out two by two. This is a sign of communion; no one goes out by himself; the disciples must know how to cooperate with another and not insist on working in a purely individualistic way. It is communion, after all, that brings salvation to the world. Jesus gives the disciples a very precise power: the authority over unclean spirits.  The heart of the human being is very prone to allowing itself to be confused. An impure spirit is one that lacks discernment and confounds good with evil, mixing them in an illegitimate and deceptive way.

The Gospel must be delivered in a simple and pure way, not for profit or with a concern for material gain. We must not “wear other hats” when we preach the Gospel.

The disciples are to carry only a walking stick, no bread, no haversack and no money. The Church, thus, is expected to carry out its mission without foraging for profit, without being weighed down with material baggage, money or structures. Evangelizing is a business that requires constant journeying from the Father towards humanity. We must engage in this movement from within, not in a self-referential way. The order to bring only one change of clothes refers to the point that we must only seek to be that which the Father sends us to be; we must not try to take on or usurp other roles.

What does it mean “to shake the dust of that town from one’s sandals”?

The evangelizer must go into people’s homes, to the places where people eke out their existence. And the preacher will discover that people know how to welcome God. Humanity knows how to open its heart wide to salvation. The Gospel passage, in fact, recounts the success of the mission of the disciples. They receive a great welcome and manage to heal people’s infirmities. The word of God is something that can be well received. It can also be refused, and in this case Jesus instructs the disciples to shake the dust of that town from their feet as a testimony to them. Shaking the dust off of the feet is a sign that there is no relationship between the disciples and the people of that town. There is no happy interchange between us; you and I are not of the same ground; I come from one land and you from another. There is a temptation when we preach the Gospel to seek a compromise with those to whom we preach. Common ground is all too often not the ground of conversion but the ground of banality. It is important to state clearly that I come from a different sort of land. If you do not welcome me, then your ground remains yours; it does not become mine. This shaking off of the dust is not a condemnation onto death; it is a genuine witness to those townspeople that is directed towards illuminating them of the pure nature of the Gospel.

The true prophet teaches a hard message of conversion but leads the people to life and joy

It is in this vein that the prophet Amos speaks. He does not react with condemnation to the order of banishment from the prophet Amaziah. Instead he says, “I was not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I was a shepherd and a cultivator of sycamores”. This work of tending sycamores consisted in piercing the fruit of the tree and allowing some of their juice to escape so that they would develop correctly and become edible.  In other words, Amos did not come from a school of prophets; he had no great theological formation; his only talents consisted in tending sheep and piercing sycamores. He knew how to improve the fruit of the tree and how to lead the flock to water and grass. Instead of condemning Amaziah, Amos is saying that his skills are these and he has come to apply them here in this other context.

We must allow ourselves to be pruned by God so that we develop an authentic relationship with him. Then we are in a position to call others to conversion. And we must call them to conversion instead of compromising what we believe or “sweetening” the Gospel to make it more palatable to others

What must the person who wishes to receive the Gospel be prepared to accept? He must be prepared to be pierced, to be made to bleed a little, but also to be led to life. We must be willing to allow God to cultivate us, to plant us, to prune us (as John 15 tells us); we must be ready to accept the challenge so that the ground of God becomes our ground. These two grounds must become one. In the Incarnation, the man made of clay becomes a divine being. This involves welcoming the prophetic spirit, allowing ourselves to be corrected and to be led into true pastures. How many people look to pasture only themselves, becoming the focus and centre of their own lives. We must recognize that we need to be led by God. The twelve disciples who are sent out are characterized by their relationship with God, calling others to obedience and conversion. Woe to us if we are a Church that does not call to conversion but instead agrees and compromises with everything. How blessed we are if we become signs of this relationship, not having other roles or outfits that we wear, focusing instead on calling people to the ground of God, calling them to be transformed and transfigured by the good news of Jesus.

July 5^th 2015. 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

Kieran’s summary . . . This Gospel reveals the shocking power of human incredulity to bring the work of God to a standstill. Don Fabio challenges us to be shaken by this text, and to take seriously the way in which our prejudices towards matters of faith can impede the work of God in our lives. The human being must never be reduced to his family background, occupation or social status. Our unbelief is one of the most fearful powers of the human being. It can completely frustrate the power of God. St Augustine said: "God who created you without your cooperation cannot save you without your cooperation" People who are poor and desperate are less likely to have a lack of faith. When we are weak or sick and aware of our misery, then we are more open to being touched by the healing hands of Christ. But when we consider ourselves to be autonomous and self-determining, the hardness of our hearts can be stupefying! We look around us at the state of the world and think that we have comprehended God and his nature 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 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 active in our lives, and this defies all of our categories.

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 laborer in his particular workshop. He is the Son of God, and this defies all of our categories.

JUNE 28^th 2015.  THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 5:21-43

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.

Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?” But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’

While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl I tell you to get up.’  The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel relates the stories of two female characters. The twelve-year old daughter of Jairus is dying, whilst the woman with the twelve year haemorrhage is seeking a cure. These two characters represents two ways in which we seek to resolve problems on the basis of purely human capacities. Jairus is the head of the Jewish assembly. The Jewish Law represents an attempt to achieve righteousness and salvation by gritting our teeth and coercing ourselves to follow precepts faithfully. The woman with the haemorrhage has spent all her money on medical experts who would have used the best of human wisdom to treat her problem. But neither human volition nor human wisdom can bring salvation in these cases. Jesus enters the scene and immediately brings life and healing, granting these two women the capacity to realise their true potentials and achieve their true identities. How do I approach life? Do I grit my teeth and try to be morally coherent on the basis of my own efforts? Do I seek to organise my life purely around my own capacities, talents, intelligence or qualifications? Do I base my identity on my physical wellbeing, on the judgements of purely human “experts” in the areas of health or beauty? Neither my own willpower nor human attempts at wellbeing can bring me life and healing! We must call on Lord and seek to touch him, as Jairus and the woman with the haemorrhage did! We need Jesus to enter our lives and order us to arise, so that we learn to ground our existence wholly on him.

Jairus is the head of the Jewish assembly. The fact that he cannot help his daughter is symbolic of the fact that the old Law could not bring life. It could only diagnose the world’s problems. Jesus represents the inbreaking of life and grace into the world.

The first reading asserts that death does not come from God. Everything God does is directed towards life. Death is the offspring of evil, the product of the envy of the devil. God created humanity for incorruptibility. The Gospel reading presents two female characters to us: one is a girl of twelve years old on the point of death; the other is a woman who has been in a physical state of corruption for twelve years - the occurrence of the number twelve is very significant here. Evidently God’s life-giving plan (as expressed in the first reading) is not coming to fruition in the world. The father of the girl is Jairus, the head of the synagogue. He asks Jesus to perform a very definite act on his daughter – the laying on of hands. This is a symbolic gesture that is very typical of fatherhood and represents the act of the father passing on his goods to his sons. In this case, Jairus is unable to pass on life to his daughter because she is dying. So we have a situation where the head of the synagogue asks Jesus to take his place and perform the life-giving act of laying on of hands on one of his children. This is highly significant. The leader of the Jewish assembly has no solution for the situation confronting his daughter. The ancient religion, based on the Law, has no capacity to save life. It is only the eruption of Jesus into the world that can effect the transition from law to grace. The Jewish Law only had the capacity to diagnose the world’s problems; it could say whether a person was acting righteously or not, but it could not change anyone’s situation.

The woman with the haemorrhage has spent all her money on doctors but she has only become more ill. The wisdom of this world does not bring life either. Only the touch of Jesus can heal us interiorly, helping us to realize our true identity and full potential

At the same time, we have a story within a story. The woman with the haemorrhage is trying to resolve her problem. She has spent all of her money on doctors, but her situation has only worsened. She has discovered that the wisdom and medicine of this world do not save but lead to ruin. Jesus supersedes the old religion, represented by the head of the synagogue, and also supersedes human wisdom, represented by the doctors. Neither religiosity nor worldly wisdom can bring healing; what is needed is to touch the Lord Jesus. He brings life to the house of Jairus, even when the girl is already dead. For as long as we are focussed on structures and solutions that remain at the horizontal level of this world, we are at nothing. Our religious efforts, arising from our own acts of volition and attempts at following Jesus on the basis of our own capacities, take us nowhere. We need the Lord Jesus to come into our lives and say, “Arise!” He is the one who can do what we are unable to do. When the woman touches the hem of Jesus’ garment, she comes in contact with a wholly other source of life, an entirely new mode of existence, enabling her to return to a new and more fecund way of life. Only Jesus can bestow upon us our true identities and the fullness of life. All of us have experienced doctors who have aided us little. All of us have engaged in religious efforts that originated solely in ourselves; they did not originate in the grace of God. Jesus is the one who can touch us on the profoundest level of our identity. If we call upon him he will bestow new life upon us. The Lord Jesus has come so that we might make the transition from the doctors of this world to a relationship with him, from a life based on our own puny efforts at being coherent to an existence centred on his love for us. Jesus comes, takes us by the hand and says, “I say to you, arise! Live by my word! Be raised up on the basis of my power alone!”

JUNE 21^ST 2015.  TWELFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 4:35-41

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 4:35-41

With the coming of evening, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us cross over to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, ‘Master, do you not care? We are going down!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Quiet now! Be calm!’ And the wind dropped, and all was calm again. Then he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’ They were filled with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel tells of the calming of the storm. The disciples are crossing the water. This evokes the Passover, when the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea with God’s help. But in the Gospel, the disciples are seeking to do it by themselves whilst Jesus is sleeping. This is the typical condition of humanity! We seek to do everything by ourselves, in our own way, relying on ourselves and utterly directed to ourselves. We exclude God because we are focussed only on ourselves. This is the condition that leads us surely to shipwreck. Why does Jesus wait until the ship is almost sinking before he wakes up? It is the disciples who wait until the ship is about to capsize before they call on Jesus! It is only when the situation is desperate that we realize that we need God. This Sunday we are invited to call on the Lord. Let us ask him to calm the disorder and chaos in our lives. If we seek to do everything ourselves then things will end in disaster. Let us focus on who he is, instead of being always focussed on who we ourselves are.

Job is in the midst of a terrible crisis, but the Lord reveals himself as the one who has power over the chaotic and uncontrollable

God speaks to Job in the middle of the hurricane. Job has been going through a terrible period of trial and tribulation, an enormous test of his faith that brings him to a direct experience of God. And he experiences God in the midst of the storm, the suffering, the absurd. God proclaims himself in a strange way, in a way that Job did not expect. The Lord announces that he has power over the sea when it “leapt tumultuous out of the womb, when I wrapped it in a robe of mist and made black clouds its swaddling bands.” This poetic language evokes the account of how the Lord created the universe from chaos, darkness and non-governability. Yet these seas are easy for the Lord to control; the passage in Job tells us: “Come thus far, I said, and no farther: here your proud waves shall break”.

The disciples are crossing the water – an image of the Passover. But they seek to do it all by themselves, relying only on their own capacities.

In the Gospel the disciples comes to know the Lord in the interior of a storm. They ask themselves: “Who is this that even the seas and storms obey?” Of course there is only one person that the seas and elements obey – God himself. The disciples are crossing the lake. This is a classical Passover image – the crossing of water. But the disciples are undertaking this challenge all by themselves. This is the typical attitude of the human being: to rely on oneself. But he who seeks to depend only on himself will never get beyond himself, whilst he who puts his trust in God will arrive at a more profound knowledge of God.

It is only when the situation is desperate that we start to realize what really matters and begin to call on the Lord’s name

The image of God sleeping is curious and evokes the moment when Jesus will be sleeping in death after his crucifixion. On Holy Saturday, Jesus is shrouded in silence and impotence, and humanity is conscious of the evil that it has perpetrated in killing the Just One. The centurion, who presided over his killing, looks on Jesus and says, “Truly this is God”. Holy Saturday is the moment when we are stopped in our tracks and all we can do is seek the resist that which is greater than us: when we rage against the wind and the sea, against that which cannot be brought under control. How many marriages refuse to seek help, striving instead to do everything with their own miserable capacities, arriving ultimately at shipwreck! How many people refuse to renounce their absorption in themselves and their reliance on their own way of thinking! They need to awaken God! The Lord cannot enter our lives until we call out, “Enter! Wake up!” In the Gospel, Jesus waits until the boat is filled with water and ready to capsize. It is only then that the disciples realize that they cannot depend on their own talents to continue. It is only when the storm is at its height that we begin to ask ourselves, “What really counts in my life?” It is only then that the eternity of God begins to come into relief and that we start to call on his name. It is only when the situation is out of control that we begin to realize what really matters.

This Sunday let us call on the Lord’s name, asking him to control the chaos, disorder and storms in my life.

Jesus reveals that he is not merely their Master, but something much more. He tells the storm to abate and it does so immediately. This is the same dominion that Jesus reveals in his exorcisms. In the midst of all the storms of life, God has the power to manifest himself. He can block that which is disordered and chaotic within all of us. This Sunday we are all invited to say, “Lord there are many things that are greater than me. It is foolish of me to try to confront these things by myself. Wake up Lord and do that which you know to be right! Bring things to the conclusion that you and you alone wish. I know that you are my Lord. Help me to prostrate myself before you and be aware of who you are, instead of being constantly preoccupied by who I am”.

June 14th 2015. 11^th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 4:26-34

(Translation of a homily by Don Fabio  Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio)

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    Mark 4:26-34

Jesus said to the crowds: ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’

He also said, ‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for it? It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’

Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone.

Kieran’s summary . . . This Sunday’s readings present us with various parables. The things of God often have a humble nature but they spontaneously bear great fruit. It is not the significance of the origins of a thing that count: what counts is what the power of God will achieve in that thing. We have the task of seeking to discern if the seed of God is within our actions and our projects. Sometimes we are so in love with our own ideas, or so preoccupied with the external glory of the things that we are doing, that we do not bother to ask if the seed of eternity is contained within that which we are doing. We ruin families, parishes and workplaces by pursuing goals that are not the goals of the Lord. But how can we tell is some project or activity contains the seed of God within it or not? The things of God proceed gradually and give rise to fruit in the end, just as the seed produces the shoot, then the ear and then the grain. The things of God may have humble and insignificant beginnings, but they have a nobility in them right from the beginning. They are not filled with ambiguities and contradictions. They are noble and good and proceed gradually. The highest trees have the deepest roots. The things of God develop peacefully and steadily. Do my projects have the seeds of God within them, or purely human seeds? Are they directed towards external glory, or towards genuine fruit that need not be noticed by anybody? Do they have an ostentatious aspect, or are they of a noble and humble character?

It is not the quality of the plant that matters. What counts is what the Lord will do with it.

The first reading from Ezekiel tells how God will take a cutting from the top of a cedar tree and sow it on a mountain in Israel. The cutting comes from the highest and most unlikely part of the tree and is then sown in an unlikely place. It all seems absurd. Such a cutting from the cedar tree in particular should never become a fully-grown tree. But the reading goes on to tell us that this cedar will become a great tree in which the birds will find shelter. The Lord is the one who humbles the great trees of this world and raises the lowly ones. The power of God operates according to a logic that is completely different to ours. It is not important that this cutting has such an impotent nature in itself. What is important is what the Lord will do with that cutting: “I the Lord have spoken and I will do it.”

The things of God spontaneously bear fruit. We must ask ourselves continually if what we are doing contains the seed of God

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks in parables. John Paul II, during a beautiful homily, stated that God always speaks to us in parables. The entire world is filled with parables through which God reveals himself to us. The parables from Sunday’s Gospel tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Seed is sown in the land and grows by itself even while the sower is sleeping. First it produces the shoot, then the ear, then the grain. Things of nature produce their fruit spontaneously. In a similar way, the things of God have a spontaneous way of bearing fruit. They develop gradually and give rise to a harvest at the proper time, just like the extraordinary way that a child develops in the womb from the most insignificant beginnings. The things of God have within themselves the power of life. When we evaluate things, we must not look on their exterior aspect or glorious character. We must ask: “Did the Lord plant this seed?” If he did then it will spontaneously arrive at maturity. When young couples are preparing for matrimony, they must seek to discern if there is this seed of eternity between them. Sometimes we embark on ambitious and risky projects without ever asking if they have their origins in God. Couples must ask themselves if there is a seed of God between them; if there is something between them that is fundamentally directed towards good. Do we produce life? Is our union life-giving? The same question must be asked for all ventures and projects that we embark on, in the church and elsewhere. First the shoot appears, then the ear, then the grain. But we are so in love with our ideas that we do not bother to discern if our projects are developing in this natural way! We ruin families, workplaces, associations because we did not bother to ask if our agenda had the eternity of God within it.

How can we tell is something has the seed of God in it? Do not be deceived by its humble nature! The great and glorious things are not necessarily from God. The things of God may appear humble but they have a nobility, serenity and clarity right from the beginning.

How can we know if something has its origin in God? The second parable tells us not to be preoccupied with the humble beginnings of that which we sow. What matters is the final product. The things of God have the capacity to be transfigured, the capacity to make the journey from earth to heaven. God has sown many seeds of goodness and beauty. We must be attentive to these seeds, not in the sense of trying to exploit these things for all they are worth, but in the sense of being in tune with the nobility and beauty of the inner nature of things. It is not important if our projects have rapid and enormous success. The things of God often proceed in a slow and gradual fashion. The highest trees have the deepest roots. It is the one who begins steadily who arrives at the peak, not the one who departs in a hurry. The things of God may appear humble and insignificant, but they are noble right from the start. Things that have a turbulent origin, that are shrouded in ambiguity, do not arrive at a mature harvest. We must always be attentive and ask ourselves: “Did God plant this seed or not? Is God the origin of this thing or not?” It is important to be in a constant state of discernment with regard to our behaviour and thoughts. The things of God are directed towards arriving at their destination; they are not directed at shipwreck. The things that are merely human begin in a human manner and remain purely human.

The Body and Blood of Christ

June 7^th 2015. CORPUS CHRISTI: THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

Gospel: Mark 14: 12-16; 22-26

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 14: 12-16; 22-26

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him, and say to the owner of the house which he enters, “The Master says: Where is my dining room in which I can eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there,’ The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.

And as they were eating he took some bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. ‘Take it,’ he said ‘this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had returned thanks he gave it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them, ‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many. I tell you solemnly, I shall not drink any more wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.’
After psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . In the Old Testament Covenant, the people were asked to observe what the Lord decreed and then to listen to it. Sometimes we need to try to obey the Lord before we understand what he is asking of us. But the Old Testament Covenant failed because humanity could not keep its side of the agreement. Only Jesus is capable of following the Father’s will, even if he doesn’t fully understand what he is being asked to do. He establishes the New Covenant in which both sides perfectly fulfil their commitment to each other. In his person he unites humanity and God. The Feast of Corpus Christi is an occasion to reflect on this communion between God and man that was so imperfect in the Old Testament. Communion with God is a lifelong process of transformation. We are called to prepare ourselves for this communion by ascending to the upper room of true intimacy with the Lord. Every Mass involves participation in this journey. We consign our sins to the God who loves us, listen to the word of God, then participate in the Eucharist, receiving the sustenance we need to live our lives as children of God.

The Old Testament involved trying to observe what the Lord decreed under pain of punishment. The people were asked to obey first and understand later.
This Sunday we celebrate Corpus Christi and reflect on the gift of the body and blood of Our Lord. In the liturgy we speak of the “new and everlasting Covenant”. In reality there were various covenants in the Old Testament, but the clearest text describing a covenant in which God and his people make commitments to each other is described in chapter 24 of Exodus. Sacred sacrifices are made and the blood is sprinkled on the people and on the altar. In reality this is a threatening ritual. It specifies what will happen if one of the parties breaks the agreement. The sprinkling of blood foreshadows the shedding of blood that will result from the transgression of the covenant. During the ritual the people say: “We will observe all that the Lord has decreed. We will listen.” The rabbinic commentary on this text observed that the observation of the decrees preceded listening to the decrees. This might seem strange. Usually we listen to what is asked of us before doing it. But it is also true that often we learn to truly listen and understand something once we have made the effort to put that thing into practice. Sometimes we have to try to be obedient first. Then we begin to enter into, understand, appreciate, that which we are being asked to do.

Jesus is the only one capable of obeying without understanding, of saying fully: “Not my will but yours be done”.
In practise, as the Old Testament abundantly shows, the people do not observe or listen to what the Lord has decreed. That is the very reason that we have need of a New Covenant in which someone radically obeys what is being asked of him, who submits to the will of the Father even if he doesn’t fully understand, someone who says, “Not my will but yours be done”. Someone who does and then understands. This is something that we are not capable of doing by ourselves. The Old Testament shows that we are not able to achieve anything of the sort. We need God to take our flesh and enter into the true Covenant with God. The new and eternal Covenant is faithfully kept on both sides because both sides are inhabited by God himself. When Jesus took on our flesh he introduced the element of eternity into the human component of the alliance. We are rendered capable of entering into the eternity of God with our flesh. The blood of the alliance is not that of goats but that of God himself. The blood of animals has no true purifying capacity for the refined inner state of the human heart. Something much greater is needed. The Lord Jesus in his body lives this communion between God and humanity. This is what makes possible the authentic fulfilment of true communion with God, and this is the meaning of the feast we celebrate on Sunday. We are called, not only to understand what God requires of us, nor simply to observe what he wants, but to be part of him and to have him as part of us.

The Eucharist is part of a lifelong process of entering into full communion with God. We must participate in the process.
God wants to make his home in us. When people go looking for a house, they look for one that is beautiful and spacious, that is well-illuminated and that has great potential. God loves to have our hearts as his home. The Gospel highlights the importance of preparing ourselves for this indwelling of God. The disciples ask where they should prepare the Passover for Jesus. The Easter event is something that we need to get ready for. Receiving Our Lord is not some sort of magic event. Indeed, we must lament the casual attitude that is very prevalent in approaching the Eucharist. There is a tendency to think that our interior state is irrelevant. Of course the Eucharist is efficacious and valid irrespective of how well we are prepared, but this doesn’t mean that our interior state should be neglected. Our welcome and our participation is of the utmost importance. We are in a never ending process of transformation and of passage towards God. We must enter into the process with our minds and our hearts.

The Eucharist is a call to enter into the upper room of encounter and communion with God. It requires us to ascend towards God, consigning our sins to him and listening to his word

The disciples head towards the city to prepare the Passover and meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. The Fathers of the Church see in this encounter a symbol of Baptism. We must pass through the waters of Baptism, through the call to divine son-ship, to the nutritional sustenance that we need to live as children of God. Then the disciples go to the upper room for the Passover. We too have need of this house which is not a simple one-storey house but has something more. We must climb to the higher level, conscious of our baptismal status as children of God, and be open to the riches that God sends our way. We are called to the upper room, to the room that in the Old Testament was prepared for the prophet Elisha, signifying the dignity that God wishes to bestow on us. We are indeed noble, beautiful and important, endowed with wonderful gifts. But we must enter into these things and climb to the upper room for the full encounter with God that is the Eucharist. Let us prepare ourselves for Easter, grounded in our identity as children of God in Baptism, ascending to the upper room to participate in the Eucharist. This is the path we must undertake in every celebration of Mass. The word of God is the point of departure for our journey, after we consign our sins to the God who loves us and wishes for our good. God wishes to dwell in our house and for us to dwell in him. We are called to this marvellous experience of intimacy at a superior level, at the highest level of our being.