November 15^th 2015.  Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mark 13:24-32

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

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

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL: Mark 13:24-32

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In those days, after the time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too he will send the angels to gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven.

‘Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. So with you, when you see these things happening: know that he is near, at the very gates. I tell you solemnly, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

‘But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . . The Gospel contains a prophecy from Jesus about the end times when the celestial objects will be covered and the earth will be thrown into desolation. This prophecy is also referring to the concrete situation of you and me in our daily lives. The Christian life involves continually experiencing the “end of the world” in that we are called on a daily basis to renounce our worldliness, the earthly possessions and the sinful situations that we cling to. Such renunciation involves personal suffering and tribulation, but it is a positive thing because it involves journeying towards the beautiful life that Jesus is calling us to. Sometimes there is pain and tragedy in our lives. This too is a call to leave behind old things and old attitudes and follow Jesus. In fact, the Christian life is the art of moving away from the old earthly things and embracing the heavenly kingdom. There is pain involved, sure, but it is also a beautiful and uplifting journey! Baptism is the beginning of the journey of moving from the earthly and the heavenly. This simply must continue all through life – otherwise we are not growing towards God! So these signs, these tribulations and sufferings, are signs that we are being called to God, to communion with the Son of Man who comes on a cloud in glory. If there are no tribulations in our lives, maybe that is a sign that we are not journeying towards this great encounter with the Son of Man.

  

Jesus’ prophecy speaks of an end, but he is not only referring to the end of the world: he is speaking about the tribulation and suffering that comes whenever we are confronted with a situation in which we are challenged to let go of the worldly things that we cling to

The first reading is from the book of Daniel. The passage recounts a prophecy delivered at a time of immense suffering. In this moment of extreme anguish and oppression, Daniel sees something of great grandeur approaching. This assists us in understanding the core message of this Sunday’s Gospel. Jesus speaks of a time of extreme desolation when the sun and moon will both be obscured and the stars will fall from the sky. Whatever can he mean? In the creation account, God places the sun, moon and stars in the heavens in order to regulate the seasons and the passage of time. The celestial objects functioned as a great timepiece in the ancient world. When these celestial objects are no more, it signifies that time itself is coming to an end. Jesus, thus, is speaking of a situation when the fundamental points of reference have lost their bearings. At the moment of his crucifixion, the sky is obscured by an eclipse of the sun. Jesus’ crucifixion represents the end of a particular epoch of time. His cross represents the end of something, and this is reproduced continually throughout history in the lives of Christians around the world. Rather than referring to the end of the world, this passage is referring more concretely to something that is a feature of the life of the spirit in general. Before a person can enter into the new life of Christ, he must first pass through a stage where his points of reference fall apart. This is what conversion is: a turning upside down of one’s points of reference. What once seemed valid and important comes to feel secondary and of little importance. What once seemed essential is now seen as trivial; all things come to be re-evaluated in a radical sense.

There are many things in our lives that we need to abandon and renounce. The tribulation that this brings is the sign of a new beginning. The Christian life is the art of abandonment of the old and continually embracing the new

Jesus speaks of the fig tree which announces the coming summer when its shoots become tender. What are the signs that we must be able to read in order to recognize the onset of a new beginning in our lives? Daniel prophesies a new beginning in the midst of tribulation and chaos. Jesus is also telling us that when our lives seem to be falling apart, we shouldn’t think that this is the end; rather it is the beginning. We must cultivate the habit of considering everything as a point of departure. This is the art of living in an Easter frame of mind. We move towards fulfilment through liberation, abandonment, and renouncement. We might appear to be losing things, but we are not losing at all. The word “departure” also conveys the sense of detachment or a parting of the ways from certain things. The Christian way of life is the art of beginning anew when everything appears to be at an end. The things of life become re-evaluated in this fresh moment of beginning anew. It is abundantly clear that there are things in our lives that we need to renounce! If we remain attached to things, then how can God manage to introduce real change in our lives? How can we enter into a new world of novelty and surprise if we are busy defending the possessions that we already have? Loss can be simply loss, or it can also be liberation, depending on our frame of mind. We have the capacity to transform all of these situations in life into new beginnings. In a sense, all new departures involve grief and destruction regarding the previous state of things. The Holy Spirit, in his wisdom, makes all things new and is capable of creating life where there seemed to be only death. Remember, salvation is found along the way of the cross. Very often, God operates by changing everything, by taking away, by terminating that which needed to be replaced.

Sometimes we are “at the ends of the earth”; in other words we are extremely worldly and sinful. Often, this is when God calls us to renounce what is earthly, and go through the tribulation, embracing the new – the Son of Man who comes in glory

In baptism, we are asked to take on this mentality by which we pass from an earthly existence to the things of heaven, the things of the Father. When things appear to be at an end, we should realize that they are only beginning. The more distressing and turbulent the events, then the more we see, as it were, the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven. It is in this situation that the elect are gathered from the ends of the heaven to the ends of the earth. The “ends of the earth” refers to someone who has arrived at the extreme, as far as earthly things are concerned. It is often as a result of serious sin that we are brought back to the Lord. But it is also true that those who have seemed to arrive at the extremity of heavenly things (in other words, those who have had the most beautiful spiritual experiences) still need to be led by God to something newer and even better. The Lord always has something more to give us and we should never become attached even to wonderful spiritual things. What is important is not the fact that things are finishing; what is important is that we are journeying onward to the place that God is leading us. This Sunday we are almost at the end of the Church’s liturgical year. It is an appropriate time to prepare for new beginnings, to prepare ourselves for Advent, for novelty, for beauty. When everything seems to be ending - above all in death - this is when things are truly beginning.

November 8^th 2015.  Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mark 12:38-44

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

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

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL: Mark 12:38-44

In his teaching Jesus said, ‘Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets; these are the men who swallow the property of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.’

Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury, and many of the rich put in a great deal. A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . . The Gospel presents us with two very different kinds of character. The Scribe uses religion to promote his own public image. He loves to be admired in the streets and to have the best places in the Synagogue and at banquets. The widow, by contrast, has no public image to protect. She gives what little she has to the Lord. What is Christianity for me? What is the meaning of life for me? Am I a puppet who is pulled this way and that by the fear of not looking good in the eyes of others? Often, the more self-dependent we are, the more our lives are dominated by superfluous things. But when we have almost nothing left, when we are at our wit’s end, then we are challenged to place those meagre resources into the hands of the Lord. Desperate situations are an opportunity to entrust ourselves to God’s providence and to enter into a real relationship with him. Let us look at all those areas of our lives where we feel a sense of desperation and let us abandon ourselves into his hands! When we live in this way then we will show society what real Christianity is like. Often society is critical of Christianity because it sees only the Scribe, the religious character who is preoccupied by the outward show, the hypocrite who not abandoned his existence into the hands of God.

Do you want a real relationship with God? Then do not relate to him only on the level of superfluous things. Place your very existence concretely into his hands.

The first reading recounts the story of the poor widow with the child who is left with almost nothing. She takes the last bit of bread and oil and utters the terrible phrase, “Let us eat and then die”. She is at the end of her resources, a fistful of flour, a few drops of oil. How often we are in the same situation! We find ourselves in circumstances where we do not know what to do. At this point, Elijah erupts into the scene and asks the widow to share her food with him. How can he make such a request! Through the person of Elijah, God himself becomes present in the life of this family. It seems utterly absurd that the messenger of the Lord should take what little is left to this woman! But it is precisely in these extreme situations that the most significant events take place, at moments when we make our final resources available to God. The theme of the Gospel is the uselessness of only giving to God what is superfluous. When our connection with God is by means of things that are superfluous, then we fail to enter into a real relationship with him. But when it is life itself that is at stake in our relationship with God, then we really begin to witness his power.

The more desperate our situation, the less we have to give, then the more critical it is to give that little to God.

When we find ourselves in extreme situations, we often say, “If God were really good, he would not put me in such a situation”. But the opposite is the real truth. It is these extreme situations that teach me the goodness of God. When the widow gives what she has to the prophet, the bread and the oil are never exhausted. Through the word of the Lord, personified in Elijah, the woman receives in abundance. What is little become plenty because she has left a space for God to operate in her life. Many people nowadays are in difficult economic and personal situations. Desperation become damaging when people fail to remember the Providence of God. We are led to crazy “solutions” for our situations and begin to think of things that really lead to death, not life. The widow herself was taking this route when she declared that they would eat whatever they had and then die. Our problems are often grave, but sometimes our solutions are even worse. It is in these desperate moments that we must really learn to entrust ourselves to God, to abandon ourselves completely to his Providence.

Where do our hearts lie? In the way we are esteemed by others? Or in our abandonment to God’s Providence?

In the Gospel we are confronted with various characters. The Scribes are experts on Scripture, but they love to parade themselves in the squares and take the best places in the synagogues and banquets. They are slaves to their own public image and their position in the pecking order of society. The Gospel then presents us with a very different kind of character. A widow, despite being in an extreme state of economic need, places what she has at the disposal of the Lord. How many of us live in this world like puppets whose strings are pulled this way and that by the fear of not being esteemed by others! The Gospel tells us that the Scribes “loved” to engage in their ostentatious behaviour. What a strong word! Their hearts were completely taken by this superficial mode of life. The widow, by contrast, is someone whose very existence is put at stake by her generous behaviour towards the Lord.

Do we use the external acts of religion as a way to promote our image in the eyes of others?

These Scribes were experts in religion and their errant form of behaviour was a sin of a religious sort. There is a strong temptation to use the things of God in this way. Sacred Scripture and theology, as it were, become the ostentatious garment and the privileged place in society. Other things of God are also used for motives of a purely egotistical kind. If someone comes along who has a more ostentatious garment, or who is more eloquent than we are, then our privileged position evaporates. What a futile, empty preoccupation! In the end, what matters more? To create a positive public image of ourselves, without regard for the question of whether that image is false or true? Or to encounter God? To take our impoverished existence and to use it as a place of meeting with God? To place what little we have, like Abraham and his sack on Mount Tabor, into the hands of God? It is in God alone and in his Providence that we must place our trust. He is the only one that we can count on.

Society is often angry at the Church because they think that that the outward trapping of Christianity is Christianity itself. When society experiences radical Christianity, people who have utterly placed themselves in the hands of the Lord, then it cannot fail to be impressed.

In the culture in which we live, we can say without any doubt that there is often a negative attitude towards Christianity, if not downright antagonism. Maybe that is because the Christianity that people have experienced is that of the “Scribe”, the superficial attitudes, the characters who are preoccupied by the outer garments of Christianity and positions of privilege. Maybe our society has principally experienced these roles and outwards manifestations, and nothing else. They have not come face to face with the new life that Christianity promises. I am utterly convinced that people are not angry with us because we are Christians; they are angry because we are not real Christians. People have negative attitudes towards the Church because, often, we do not manifest an authentic face. When the Church really is as it ought to be; when Christians really place their complete resources into the hands of the Lord, then we tend to be appreciated for what we are. When the world witnesses radical Christianity, then they cannot but esteem it.

November 1^st 2015.  Feast of All Saints

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

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

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

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL Matthew 5:1-12

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:

‘How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . In the Gospel of the Beatitudes, Jesus lists eight absurdities that go against conventional wisdom. No one really wants to be poor, sorrowful, meek, or hungry! No one wants to have their public image destroyed. But Jesus is telling us that if we wish to be holy, if we wish to love like him, then we must learn to be poor and meek. We must not be full of ourselves and fixated with our own prosperity, satisfaction and reputation. We can only love and be merciful towards others if we are willing to suffer, be corrected and are unconcerned about our image in the eyes of others. The Beatitudes tells us how to order our hearts correctly. Conventional wisdom is self-directed, and this can lead to chaos in the heart if my own desires become absolutes. The goal of the Beatitudes is to step away from a self-absorbed life; to acknowledge my poverty, smallness, sinfulness and need of mercy. This leads to the principal point: when I live the Beatitudes I move away from a self-referential existence and give God the space to operate in me. My works then become His works. This is the foundation of sanctity.

The reason Jesus became man was so that we might become divinised; that we might receive the Spirit and begin living the life of God. This is what it means to be a “saint”

On Sunday we celebrate sanctity itself, the gift by which a human being can be inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The theme of the divinisation of the person is very dear to the eastern Church. It is, in fact, the reason that Jesus became incarnate. As the Creed tells us, Jesus became a human being for our salvation, to bestow on us the gift of the Holy Spirit and to introduce us into the very life of the Trinity. The first reading from the Apocalypse tells of an innumerable group of people who have the characteristics of sanctity. They stand before the throne of the Lamb, not humiliated in any sense, but partaking of the honour associated with the Lamb. Their clothes are brilliant white and they hold in their hands the palm, which is the symbol of victory. They cry aloud in joy and happiness. Why so? This cry is an expression of the fact that they have allowed themselves to be saved by the Lamb. How many “salvations” surround us, none of which lead to heaven or true glory! The reading tells us that the multitude that has been saved are the ones that have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. What a strange washing detergent! We would not normally consider blood to have cleansing properties but from the Christian point of view there is certainly a blood that washes whiter than snow. We must immerse ourselves in the blood of the Lamb, in the love which he has brought to us through his sacrifice. In the Eucharist he immerses himself in us, and we are called to immerse ourselves in him and become new people. When our poverty comes in contact with the blood of Christ, everything becomes light and salvation.

The Beatitudes are a list of absurd statements that go against conventional wisdom. But if we look at the matter carefully, we will see that the self-referential nature of conventional wisdom creates insurmountable barriers to true love

The Gospel contains the Beatitudes. This paradoxical passage lists eight absurdities, eight statements that go against conventional wisdom. Most of us are inclined to think that economic prosperity is important, that laughter and entertainment are pleasant, that the respect of others is valuable, that one’s personal rights must be defended, that our appetites must be satisfied, that no one should be allowed to harm us, that we should be allowed to express our grievances freely. In other words, conventional wisdom is the exact opposite of the Beatitudes! But if we look at it closely, we will see that a person who lives by these “counter-Beatitudes” is someone who doesn’t know how to love. People who are fixated by their own prosperity, contentment, reputation, are people who will not dirty their hands with the sufferings of others. They will not be aware of how much we have received and how much we ought to give in return. Want and insufficiency are necessary for us in order to correct us and help us attain a perspective on what really matters in life. It is hard to live with those who always want to win, who always want to feel that they are right, who refuse to acknowledge their own errors, who cannot control their own desires, who fail to show mercy towards others, who think only of their own affairs, who refuse to see the problems of those around them. In order to be able to love others, we must not be preoccupied with our own image in the eyes of others. We must be ready to allow our image to be destroyed for the love of others.

The Beatitudes are bridges to God and others

At first sight, the Beatitudes may seem absurd, but they are the only bridge between us and God, and between us and others. They involve journeys of a Paschal sort. It is no fun to be poor, but it prompts us to open up a space for God in our lives. Weeping is not enjoyable, but we must know how to weep if we are to learn to love. To be meek offers us no worldly advantage, but it makes space for others in my life. It is the antidote to always wanting to be in first place, always wanting to have one over others. Meekness permits us to have a victory of a very different kind, to conquer a different sort of country. To not feel righteous, but to have a hunger and thirst for righteousness, indicates humility, smallness, openness to correction. It is not nice to be exposed to the correction of others, but it leads to great peace. We discover the same peace when we show mercy and pardon towards others.

The Beatitudes show the correct way to order our hearts. Without them, our hearts become disordered, chaotic places in which our own desires become absolutes. But the goal of the Beatitudes is to step away from a self-referential life; to acknowledge my poverty, smallness, sinfulness and need of mercy; to allow God to operate in me. This is the foundation of sanctity.

To leave our hearts open in this way is wearisome, but it leads to great personal growth. If we behave like babies and make every desire of ours an absolute, then our hearts become a disordered place headed towards disaster. Many people live horrible lives because their hearts cannot distinguish a legitimate, edifying desire from a destructive one. They do not know how to purify, limit, control their interior impulses. To live a life free from being concerned about the opinions of others is difficult, but beautiful. Sanctity, however, at the end of the day involves exploiting all of these situations to allow God the space to carry out his surprising work within us. In poverty, let us be surprised by God; in sadness, meekness, in our need for mercy, in our interior appetite to be made clean: let us place ourselves in the presence of God and allow him to work. If our image in the eyes of others is destroyed, let us be aware that there is only one person anyhow who knows us truly. In summary, a saint is one who allows God to operate in their lives, who allows God to be God. Consequently God is able to perform his work in them.

October 25^th 2015.  Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Mark 10:46-52­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

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

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

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL: Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus left Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, ‘Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me.’ And many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me.’ Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him here.’ So they called the blind man. ‘Courage,’ they said ‘get up; he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus. Then Jesus spoke, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Rabbuni,’ the blind man said to him ‘Master, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has saved you.’ And immediately his sight returned and he followed him along the road.
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the Gospel a blind man calls out to Jesus insistently. Why does he do so? Because he could once see and he wants his sight to be restored. Each one of us, like the blind man, has a deep memory of the light, the light that is the goodness and beauty of God. We all have a desire to follow that light, but the desire is stifled by the inner voices and the voices from our culture that say, “Hope is futile! Life is futile and transitory!” The cry of the blind man is a true model for prayer. We must delve deep within us for the kernel of goodness and beauty that the Lord has sown in us and yearn for the full realisation of that light. This kernel can become the true source and energy for our prayer. The blind man throws away his cloak and rushes to Jesus. In Jewish culture, the cloak was a symbol of a person’s identity. We too must shed our old self-referential identities and follow Jesus. In profound prayer we can cast off the old cloak and discover our authentic, beautiful selves. Jesus is our saviour, the light of the world. We all have a deep-seated desire to be fully illuminated by this light. With the blind man, let each of us cry out to the Lord, “Jesus, son of David, let me see again!”

A journey must be made from perdition to salvation, and this is represented by Jesus’ journey from notorious Jericho to the holy city of Jerusalem.

The first reading from  Jeremiah speaks of the joyous return of the Jews from exile. The seventy years in exile represent the most tragic period in the history of Israel, the complete loss of their inheritance as a result of their infidelity to the Lord. “I will bring them back from the land of the North and gather them from the far ends of earth; all of them: the blind and the lame, women with child, women in labour.” Why are these four categories of people mentioned? Because all of them have difficulty in walking for one reason or another. It is an act of the Lord that enables them to return to the Promised Land. He is the one who can enable these people to accomplish the journey. In the Gospel, Jesus is on his journey from Jericho to Jerusalem. Jericho was the notorious city, the first place conquered by Joshua when the Jews entered the Promised Land. It represented the first obstacle to the Jewish people entering their inheritance, and when it was destroyed it was never to have been rebuilt. But Jesus begins his journey to Jerusalem from here, and it becomes a marvellous journey from perdition to salvation, from darkness to light.

Why does Bartimaeus cry out so insistently? Because he knows that the light exists. This is a model for prayer. We have a deep memory that light exists and this must become the source and energy for our prayer.

But there is a man who cannot follow Jesus on the journey. Bartimaeus is blind and dependent on others, unable to move. However he does manage to do something. He hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. The hearing of a blind man is not ordinary, but hearing of an amplified kind. He can analyse and do much more than people with vision with the things that he hears. He makes a connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the promised one of Israel, the Saviour.  As we shall see at the end of the story, he has the desire to see again. This implies that he once had sight and longs for its restoration. It is the memory of light that gives this man his drive. He begins to shout and call out. The onlookers try to silence him, but he only cries the louder. Why does this man insist so much? Why is he such a model for prayer? The Eastern Church makes the supplication of Bartimaeus a paradigm of prayer. “Jesus son of David, have pity on me!” The title “son of David” is equivalent to the title “Messiah” because this son was to be the anointed one who would take up the kingship of Israel. Bartimaeus cries out continually from the heart and with insistence because he has an inner conviction that the light exists, the light of the Christ that will come to save the world.

Within each of us there is a seed sown by the Lord, a memory and a conviction that light and goodness exist. We must fan this memory into a flame that impels us to call out to the Lord and throw ourselves before him as Bartimaeus did

We too gain the capacity and energy to pray from a memory that has been sown in us by Providence, a memory of happiness and love, peace and reconciliation. In our hearts there is an inheritance, a capital of good written within us. We could not implore the Lord for Salvation if we did not already have some notion of what it consists in. In order to pray we must delve within us to discover this light. Our capacity to pray does not come from pain and suffering but from the memory of joy, from the luminous reality that exists at the essence of our being. From the fact of this deep knowledge that joy and happiness exist, that a beautiful relationship can prevail between God and us, we attain the capacity to pray. Bartimaeus insists because he knows that what he is searching for exists. Pope Francis continually exhorts us not to lose our hope. At the heart of every human being there is a kernel of hope. If we do not listen to that hope, then we cannot find have authentic meaning or purpose. The third lamentation of the prophet Jeremiah states that we cannot manage without the hope that comes from the Lord, if we do not bring to mind his light.

The blind man throws away his cloak and goes to Jesus. Jesus then fulfils his desire to see again. We too must throw away the cloak of our former self-referential identity. By calling out to Jesus and immersing ourselves in profound prayer, we can shed our old identities and discover our true and authentic selves.

Bartimaeus cries out insistently until Jesus stops and calls to him. The blind man throws away his cloak and springs to his feet. He is blind but already he begins to move! He has heard the Lord and his hearing has been confirmed by Jesus’ response to him. Throwing away his cloak is a sign that he has renounced his former identity to some extent. The cloak was an inalienable possession in the Jewish Law. No one had the right to take it from another. Bartimaeus leaves his cloak, leaves his former existence. We too, when we pray, are battling against forces within and without that resist change, voices that say “Hope does not exist, light does not exist, prayer is futile!” Prayer liberates us from these entrenchments and leads us into freedom. Jesus says to the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” There can be no doubt that Jesus is attentive to our desires. He himself has sown these deep desires within us and wishes us to give them voice, as Bartimaeus did when he asked for his vision to be restored. This Sunday the Gospel makes a bountiful promise to the blind, the lame, the woman in labour, whoever is in difficulty of any kind. Each of us is invited to combat against the resistance to walk with Jesus, resistance that springs from within us or from outside in the culture. We are invited to throw away the cloak of our former identity. Whenever prayer becomes profound, it has the capacity to change our identity and to bring us to our true and authentic selves. Our old cloak is the cloak of the blind man; the new cloak is that of the disciple. In the Gospel Bartimaeus uses his new-found vision to no longer lose sight of Jesus. He has found his Lord and begins to follow him along the road.

October 18^th 2015. 29^th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 10:35-45

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

 ____________________________________________________________________________________

Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    Mark 10:35-45

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached Jesus. ‘Master,’ they said to him ‘we want you to do us a favour.’ He said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ They said to him, ‘Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.’ You do not know what you are asking” .Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I must be baptised’ They replied, ‘We can.’ Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I must drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I must be baptised you shall be baptised, but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted.’ When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John, so Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . James and John ask Jesus if they can have a special share in his glory. Jesus could have criticized them for the fact that they wish him to do their will instead of the contrary, but instead he tries to find the good intention hidden at the core of their request. Good, he replies, so you want to be with me in a special way? That’s fine, but if so then you must associate with me in the fullest sense. This fullest sense entails “drinking the chalice that I must drink”. What is the chalice that Jesus must drink? Jesus accepts the will of the Father and gives his life in the service of others. If we wish to share in Jesus’ glory then we must identify with him at the deepest level. We cannot just select to identify with him for the glory part if we have not already identified with him on the level of our entire being. This requires entering into the service of others. God is love and love entails being servants to each other. Elderly people and the unemployed sometimes feel down because they feel that they cannot be of service to others, that they do not have a sufficient useful role in society. We have a deep need to be of service to others. Let us ask the Lord to give us the grace to enter into the service of others.

We ought to follow the Lord’s will, yet we pray constantly that he will do our will. Nevertheless there is often something good at the heart of even our selfish desires

The Gospel passage this Sunday follows directly after Jesus’ third announcement of his Passion. The response of the sons of Zebedee (James and John) is to make an inappropriate proposal to Jesus: they want to invert the relationship between themselves and the Lord; in other words they want him to do their will. This is a common occurrence. We ought to be following Jesus - in the Our Father we pray that his will be done - but in everyday life we want him to follow our whims. Jesus’ response is interesting. In every desire there is something good, and Jesus tries to focus on what is at the heart of the request made by James and John. It is simply not true that the human being is a complete failure whose desires must be rejected out of hand. Even in the severe Gospel text where Jesus says that we must be willing to cut off an organ rather than enter into sin, it is still only a piece  of the body that is rejected, not the whole thing. The human being is a beautiful creation. Even the absurd situation of these two guys asking for the plum jobs of Prime Minister and Minster for Foreign Affairs, so to speak, has something good at its core. To search for this hidden goodness is a constructive way of relating with others. Whenever we value the good in others we discover a ground upon which we can construct a positive relationship.

If we wish to share in Jesus’ glory then we must associate with him in the fullest sense, not just the glory part!

Jesus replies by saying, “You do not know what you are asking”. In other words, there is something good there, but you have not yet learned to focus upon it. Jesus tries to bring this good element to the surface by asking them if they are prepared to drink the chalice that he must drink and accept the baptism that he must undergo. Thus he is acknowledging their praiseworthy wish to be with him in glory but he wants them to know that this involves associating with him in the fullest sense. The brothers reply “Yes”. The fact is that each one of us wishes to be with God and we are given the possibility of being with him in glory. Even when we are trapped within ,a lifestyle of vice we nevertheless have the possibility of drinking the chalice of Jesus; in other words, acquiring the capacity to follow him. We can immerse ourselves in his life and be baptised in him. No matter what condition we happen to be in, we will never lose the potential to receive his grace. This is our greatness and our dignity.

In what does drinking the chalice of Jesus consist?

But drinking the chalice is not simply sitting at the left or right of Jesus in glory. It is the participation in the life and reality of Jesus. And what is this reality? The first reading from Isaiah 53 speaks of the suffering Servant who will justify many. There is no doubt that the prophet Isaiah is speaking here of Jesus. The canticle of the Suffering Servant may not appear on the face of it to speak of a beautiful reality, but - as Jesus demonstrates to us - service is the fulfilment of our life. Many elderly people feel depressed and defeated for the simple reason that they seem no longer to be of use to anyone. Children have a natural desire to be of service to others. The frustration of unemployment, apart from the economic difficulties that accompany this state, is the profound sense of lack of utility. Is it possible that no one needs me? Can I not give joy or satisfaction to anyone? Service gives true meaning to our lives because love is the true meaning of our lives. A live without love is a life without service. Thus a life without love can seem to be a failed life.

If we wish to enter into the Lord’s glory then we must enter into his existence in every sense, and this entails being servants to others

Our Lord Jesus is a servant above all because he is love itself. And we can drink his chalice; we can be immersed in him. We do not do this by egoistically assigning ourselves positions or places in the pecking order of things. Rather we drink his chalice by accepting the plan of the Father and entering into the service of others. Then we will discover that there are people who are grateful and edified because of the gift of service that they have received from us. If, at the end of our lives, there is no one who is grateful on account of the service we have given them, then our lives have certainly been misdirected. May the Lord grant us a high esteem for service and a great thirst to enter into the service of others.

October 11^th 2015. 28^th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 10:17-30

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

 _________________________________________________________________________________________

Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    Mark 10:17-30

Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, ‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You must not kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’ And he said to him, ‘Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days.’ Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, ‘There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, ‘My children,’ he said to them, ‘how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were more astonished than ever. ‘In that case’ they said to one another ‘who can be saved?’ Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he said ‘it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus tells the rich young man that he can have life in the fullest sense if he keeps the commandments. The young man replies that he already keeps the commandments, thus implying that simple observance of rules does not give him life. This brings us to the crux of this Gospel: what kind of relationship must we have with God if that relationship is to bestow life in the fullest sense? Clearly, keeping commandments (as the young man has done) is not enough. The answer is provided by Jesus. Jesus looks at the young man with love and tells him to renounce his possessions and follow him. This is what Jesus wants from us: a relationship of love. If we love someone, then we do not say to them, “I love you to this extent only. There are certain things that I have that you cannot share. There are certain things to which I am attached, and I am not willing to give up these attachments for you”. The relationship with Jesus must be total if it is to be authentic. This is what Jesus is saying to the young man. The young man simply keeps the rules but is not attached to God. He is too attached to his possessions. If we do not serve God then we will serve something else. If we do not draw life from God then we will try to draw it from somewhere else. We are all attached to our physical wellbeing, our physical possessions, our esteem in the eyes of others. We try to draw life from these things and they are obstacles to our drawing life from God. Jesus looks at us with love and asks us to renounce all these lesser things, entering instead into a radical relationship of attachment to him.

“Inheritance” for the people of Israel referred to a positive condition of life here and now

This Sunday’s Gospel recounts the important story of the rich young man who is invited to follow the Lord in a radical way. The first reading is from the Book of Wisdom where we are told that riches are nothing compared to the gift of wisdom. The life of God cannot be compared to any of the goods of this world. The young man in the Gospel asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. In the Old Testament, the word “inheritance” referred to the possession of the land that was distributed among the twelve tribes of Israel by Joshua. To have an inheritance in this sense referred to participation in the possession of a gift that had been bestowed upon the people of Israel. The term “inheritance” thus always referred to a state of life that someone enjoyed here and now and not simply in the next life, a state that was not threatened by trivial things in this life.

The crux of the Gospel is this: How do we go beyond mere obedience to the commandments towards living a true state of authentic relationship with God?

The young man addresses Jesus as “good”. Jesus replies that no one is good except God alone. Then he tells the young man that he must keep the commandments and he lists them explicitly. In other words, Jesus is saying that the relationship that is due to God is one of obedience, trust and abandonment of oneself to God through participation in this covenant with Moses in which the commandments were given. This is life, Jesus is saying, and life involves a relationship of love with God and neighbour. The young man replies that he is already doing these things, but it is clear that they are not giving him life! They are simply things that he does and they do not take him beyond the mere actions themselves. Here we are at the crux of the issue of what it is that transports us from our own life here below to the life of God. Jesus looks at him, loves him and says “Give everything you have to the poor and come follow me”. The fact that Jesus looks at him indicates that here Jesus is calling the young man to a direct personal relationship with him. In the psalms we implore the Lord to show us his face. A look can be more or less personal but the Gospel tells us that Jesus looks on the young man with love. Love is the key which explains the meaning of what Jesus says.

If we truly love God then we will not hold part of ourselves back. If we are truly attached to God then we will not be attached to possessions. If we truly serve God then we will not serve another.

The young man is to sell what he owns, give the money to the poor and follow him. Then he will have treasure in heaven. If a person truly loves another then the relationship has a global dimension. If a young man said to his girlfriend, “I love you, but you can’t have access to any of the things that I possess”, then the girl would hardly be too impressed. When we love another, then we place our entire lives at the other’s disposal. A father cannot be a true father if he does not place his entire being at the disposal of his children. Brothers and sisters cannot have a true fraternal relationship if they do not do likewise. Jesus asks that I place myself entirely at his disposal because he knows that if I do not give my life to him then I will give it to something else. Nowadays our workplaces often ask for this kind of total dedication to our careers. Other things in life – physical wellbeing, the esteem of others – also demand this kind of total involvement. If we do not give ourselves totally to Jesus then we will give ourselves to something else. If we do not serve him, then we will serve something else. This Gospel is calling for an extraordinary leap of a Paschal kind. The leap might seem difficult, but it is difficult only from a human perspective. It is indeed impossible for humans to give themselves in a total sense, but nothing is impossible for God. God can transform nothingness into being. He can teach us to love and to transform this nothingness into life.

We are asked to choose between life and death, between total attachment to God, or attachment to ourselves. It is the fear of losing what we possess that prompts us not to opt for God. Thus the possessions of the  rich young man are an obstacle to his relationship with Jesus. Similarly, our possessions, our attachment to our wellbeing, our public image, our possession, are obstacles to our entering into a relationship of life with Jesus

The story of the rich young man is not only for saintly individuals nor for people living the consecrated life. It is relevant for anyone who wants to have an authentic relationship with God and an authentic relationship with other people. Only the Holy Spirit can free us from our terror of losing ourselves. The rich young man finds himself in this dizzyingly splendid situation of being able to choose the path of authentic life. We too have this scandalously sublime freedom of being able to say no to God, but he gives us the grace to say yes. We can accept or decline. Often it is fear that causes us to decline. We have a fear of losing something, and we are only afraid of losing it because we are convinced that we possess it. Thus, our possessions become our tyrant. To become radically attached to Christ we need to attain the liberty to give up these possessions.

OCTOBER 4th 2015. TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Gospel: Mark 10:2-16

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

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

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL                            Mark 10:2-16
Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, ‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?’ They were testing him. He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ ‘Moses allowed us’ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’ Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them, ‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.’

People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples turned them away, but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ Then he put his arms round them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessings.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Sunday's Gospel speaks of the indissolubility of married love. Is this an impossible demand in our modern world? Nowadays people are reluctant to love if the personal cost is too great. Instead of watering down this statement of Jesus, Don Fabio asks us to reflect on the indissoluble nature of all human relationships. Jesus, by loving us to the end and dying on the Cross, shows how enduring love is possible despite personal cost. Marital breakdown can give rise to an enormous inner barrier to faith in the eternal love of God. For if Mum and Dad are not capable of loving each other, if they are not capable of dying for the other, if they are not capable of loving to the end, then it is difficult for their children to believe in the existence of eternal love. All relationships (paternal, fraternal, etc.,) are called to be permeated by the fidelity, indissolubility, and eternity that derives from the event of the resurrection. In all of our relationships we are called to lose ourselves, and give ourselves to the other even when the other is not easy to love. If I love the other only to the extent that it is convenient or pleasant for me, then I do nothing more than use the other person for my own ends. Our greatness begins once we start to lose ourselves; when, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - and it is him who started us on this road - and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we begin to love in an enduring way even when it is no longer convenient for me to do so. Thus the indissolubility and self-renunciation that is part and parcel of the marital bond is a model for the indissolubility and self-renunciation that should be the mark of all relationships.

We are inclined to think that lifelong marriages are an impossibility, but all genuine relationships are by their very nature indissoluble

In the Gospel passage this Sunday, the Lord Jesus presents us with the notion of indissolubility, the principle that man cannot divide what God has united. This principle has become more and more unacceptable to the contemporary way of thinking. There is a feeling abroad that the principle is impractical and is only directed at a select few Christians of the heroic variety. But the sayings of Jesus are never absurd in any age, and Jesus' statement in this passage touches on the very heart of love itself. The bond between a man and a woman is often treated as if it were something transitory, something that has validity only for as long as it suits the persons involved. But any genuine relationship - and we are not only talking about that between a man and a woman - is indissoluble by its very nature. True friendship is indissoluble by its nature. Fatherhood is indissoluble by its nature. Parents who refuses to recognize their children are going against a fundamental statute written in the depths of their hearts. As Jesus says, one would have to have a heart of stone, a heart that is hardened against the true reality of love. To conceive of relationships as something that can be dissolved is to have a very superficial and poorly developed conception of the human being.

The nature of human relationships cannot be understood by looking at their failures. Human beings can only be understood in the light of their divine origin.

All around us we see failures in human relationships, and we conclude that indissoluble relationships are impossible. The human being, however, is not to be understood simply in terms of his failures but in the light of his divine origins. The true nature of man, his eternity and dignity, are not unveiled and understood except in that light. Human relationships, therefore, should not be defined in terms of human desires that are transitory and can be "dissolved" at a moment's notice, nor in terms of humanity's fickle search for material wellbeing. 

Moses had to bow before the hardness of the human heart and permit marriages to be dissolved. Jesus, by loving us to the end on the Cross, showed the true and eternal potential of human relationships.

To understand human relationships we must view them in the light of the deepest and most intimate truths of human nature. In the end, it is only God who brings us face to face with ourselves. It is only God who brings us to fruition. Jesus shatters the veil of deceit that obscures the reality of human nature and achieves something that Moses couldn't accomplish. Moses had to kneel before the hardness of the human heart and accept that human beings were not capable of relationships that endure. Moses brought external adherence to the law, but only Jesus is capable of bringing us the Holy Spirit. Jesus brings us the divine life which allows us to be fully ourselves, capable of an indissoluble love that conquers all. It is Christianity that brings us the indissolubility of marriage. This did not exist in Roman or Jewish culture, nor in the Hellenistic world. Jesus, crucified on the cross, inaugurated the practice of loving right to the end, accepting the limitations of the one who is loved. Jesus made possible the establishment of indissoluble fraternal relations, and of binding oneself to another forever in marriage. 

The failure of parents to love each other to the end creates a barrier in the hearts of children to faith in the eternal love of God

Life springs from the encounter between man and woman, and it springs from no other form of relationship. He who denies the nature of this form of encounter denies life itself. But life in its sacredness and its beauty requires contact with God. God is eternal and gives a transcendental form to the nature of our relationships. What a paradox we are! We live in constant fear for our self-preservation, but we are still called to love eternally. The denial of this call is a cause of great sadness in the world. Today an incredible sadness is being sown in the hearts of many children and young people - the sadness of never having seen at first hand the practice of indissoluble love. This can give rise to an enormous inner barrier to faith in the eternal love of God. For if Mum and Dad are not capable of loving each other, if they are not capable of dying for the other, if they are not capable of loving to the end, then it is difficult for their children to believe in the existence of eternal love.

If I love the other only for as long as it is pleasant, then I am simply using the other for my own ends. True human greatness begins when we love in an enduring way and forget ourselves

Sunday's Gospel is not just directed at married relationships but at all relationships. There is no relationship that is not called to be permeated by the event of the resurrection. In all of our relationships we are called to lose ourselves, and give ourselves to the other even when the other is not easy to love. If I love the other only to the extent that it is convenient or pleasant for me, then I do nothing more than use the other person for my own ends. Our greatness begins once we start to lose ourselves. Our greatness begins when, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - and it is him who started us on this road - and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we begin to love in an enduring way even when it is no longer convenient for me to do so. 

Adultery is not only a betrayal of our spouse, but a betrayal of the divine loving nature of our own hearts

"He who divorces his spouse and marries another commits adultery". Who is the adultery committed against? Against the spouse, of course, but also against the eternal plan of God for each of us. True adultery and true betrayal involves the betrayal within ourselves of our choice to love. Friendships and marriages often die because the moment arrives in which one imperceptibly begins to kill the love they have in their hearts, begins to kill the choice to love, and to choose death instead. The decision to stop loving the other might appear to be a choice for a peaceful existence because it also brings to an end the conflict with the other.  But being with others necessarily involve discomfort! Life itself involves discomfort! Life is a chaos out of which God brings forth a wonderful creation. To enter into a relationship is to enter into something that cannot be controlled or governed. When we withdraw ourselves from this situation, things become much more orderly and comfortable. There is much more silence when others are not around, but there is also isolation and solitude.