October 26^th 2014.  Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and,
to disconcert him, one of them put a question,
‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’
Jesus said,
‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second resembles it:
You must love your neighbour as yourself.
On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading language is very threatening. We are to help the widow and orphan, but if we don’t help them then our wives will become widows and our children orphans! This menacing language of the Old Testament Law was a way of expressing the conviction that a life lived contrary to the law led to death. It is helpful to read Jesus’ words in the Gospel in the same way. Jesus tells us to love God totally and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Do we think that these words of Jesus are an optional extra for living a meaningful life? Are we inclined to think that religion or altruism are things that enhance life, but that we can still live a worthwhile existence without them? No! Jesus’ exhortation to love God and neighbour must be understood as activities that are absolutely necessary if we are to have any kind of authentic existence at all. A life that is not built on love of God and neighbour is still biological life, but it is not life in the fullest sense of the word. And love must be total if it is to be authentic. Jesus does not say, “Love God with your heart, mind and soul”; he says “Love God with all your heart, mind and soul”. If my love holds something back for myself, then it is not real love but something conditional, instrumental, ultimately directed towards self. Our love must be something that prevails in all circumstances. It must continue right to the end. Only Jesus can teach us to love in this way and only he can give us the grace to learn to love in this way. Once we have learned this kind of love for God and neighbour, then we have learned to live authentically.

The first reading language seems harsh, but the language is a way of expressing the conviction that there was no life beyond the Law

The first reading from the book of Exodus gives regulations for the welcome and care to be given to the stranger, the poor, the widow and the orphan. This serves as a prelude for the introduction of the greatest commandment in the Gospel. Jesus says. “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself”. The first reading and the Gospel have much in common, but there are also differences that are unsettling. The first reading warns that if we are harsh with the widow or the orphan, then the Lord will hear their cry and our wives will become widows and our children orphans! This vengeful language of the Old Testament Law makes us feel uncomfortable, but there is a certain rationale behind it. The laws and regulations enunciated in the Old Testament books were laws that facilitated life. Beyond these laws there was no life. The threatening language was a way of expressing the deeply held conviction of the people that an existence lived contrary to the Law was an existence that was directed towards death.

When Jesus exhorts us to love God and neighbour, we should interpret this “law” in the light of the Old Testament way of looking at law: loving God and neighbour is absolutely essential for life; anything less will lead to death

With this appreciation of the meaning of the language of the Old Testament, let us re-evaluate Sunday’s Gospel. The Pharisees ask Jesus to state the greatest commandment of the Law. In response, Jesus states the principal commandment and adds to it another commandment that was already considered highly significant in rabbinical thought. What Jesus is doing seems not that novel really, but he makes clear that loving God and loving neighbour is one unified activity. Any approach that focusses exclusively on either one or the other is mistaken. All of this might sound very reasonable and not very original. But once we read the Gospel in the light of the first reading, then Jesus’ message becomes much more radical. In the Old Testament approach, any failure to live up to the demands of the Law led to death. Living the Law led to life. It would be a mistake, therefore, to think that Jesus’ exhortation to love God with all of our heart is a call to something that is not strictly obligatory or necessary, a call to something that we can survive without. The Old Testament language reminds us that we cannot live authentically if we do not love God and neighbour truly. We can live in a biological sense, but the fullness of life is impossible outside of this act of loving God and neighbour. Loving God and neighbour is not a noble option that we may or may not select. It is an absolute necessity.

Love is not authentic if it is not total. Jesus gives us a “law” that leads to life, but it only leads to life if it is total

Jesus does not say, “Love God with your heart, mind and soul”. He says, “Love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul”. “All” is a small word, but if love is to be authentic then it must be complete. If I love another only to the extent that it suits me, then that love is only in service of my self. Even if my love seems “almost” complete, the fact that I reserve something for myself indicates that it is an act that is ultimately conditional. If my love is something that I will abandon in certain circumstances, then it is not love at all in the real sense of the word. Loving God is something that is necessary for our happiness and completion. It is not an optional extra that I can do more or less well without. Woe to us if we present love of God as something that simply enhances life! Love of neighbour is the same act as loving God and it is something that we cannot survive without. Our life is not authentic if it is not saturated with love for God and neighbour. We have desperate need to love truly, to love right to the end. This activity constitutes our very being. That is why we must cling to the Lord who teaches us how to love. That is why we need the grace that flows from God’s love of us. We need to enter into relationship with others and ourselves, calling on the help of the Lord. He is the origin of our need to love.

October 19^th 2014.  Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 Matthew 22:15-21

The Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap Jesus in what he said. And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, to say,
‘Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way,
and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you.
Tell us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied,
‘You hypocrites! Why do you set this trap for me? Let me see the money you pay the tax with.’
They handed him a denarius and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ ‘Caesar’s’ they replied.
He then said to them,
‘Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Sometimes we read this Gospel and we think that Jesus intends us to split life into the religious sphere and the worldly sphere. We are to keep God and civil matters firmly separate. But this schizophrenic division does not fit in with the Gospel at all! The early Christians were persecuted by the Romans because they would not sacrifice to the Emperors; they would not render onto Caesar that which belonged to God. The ironic thing is that these Christians were not subversive at all - they simply refused to deny the priority of God in their lives. Jesus is not asking us to separate our faith from our dealings with the world. His entire message reveals that our faith is something that lifts up the world. It does not subvert it. Our first priority in life must be to render onto God what is God’s. This entails giving the Lord our hearts, living for him, seeing everything with the eyes of faith and acting accordingly. Once we do that, then our dealings with material things are transformed. To live for the Lord does not require withdrawing from the world. Indeed, withdrawing from the world does not guarantee that we live for the Lord at all. Even when we enter a monastery, our material attitudes enter with us. Our primary focus must be to give to God that which belongs to God. My heart belongs to God. My sole concern must be to give that to him.

A clever attempt to trap Jesus. Does Jesus’ response create a schizophrenic split between religion and the material world?

In Sunday’s Gospel, the Pharisees set a trap for Jesus, asking him if they ought to pay taxes or not. There seems to be no good answer to this question. If Jesus tells them not to pay, then he sets himself against the civil authorities and places himself in danger of legal sanction. Equally, if he tells them that they must pay the tax, then he appears as a mouthpiece of the Romans and risks rejection by the people. There seems to be no escape for Jesus, but he responds with a third way that is usually translated as rendering onto Caesar what is Caesar’s and onto God what is God’s.

But in the first reading God’s work is done by Caesar!

The first reading, however, gives a completely different perspective on this issue. Isaiah tells us of the liberation by Cyrus of the people of Israel from slavery and exile. Cyrus is not a believer, but he is the chosen instrument of God who issues the edict that sets the Israelites free. There may be no direct personal relationship between Cyrus and God, but, according to the faith interpretation of the Israelites of their own story, this foreign ruler is given a place in history by the Lord. Curiously, Cyrus combines the work of Caesar and the work of God!

Christians are not against Caesar but they will not give to Caesar the fundamental thing that belongs to God – their hearts

The early emperors persecuted Christianity extensively, even though they could not sustain the charge that the Christians were a subversive element of the population. What was objectionable about Christians was the fact that they would not make Caesar their priority. They would not sacrifice to the emperor. They would not give to Caesar that which rightfully belonged to God. The message of this Gospel reading is not simply about the need to separate the religious and the civil spheres. The first reading demonstrates how a pagan political entity can be used as an instrument of the providence of the Lord. The challenge is not simply that of withdrawing from the world and giving ourselves over to God, leaving Caesar to his own devices. No, what we must do is that which Christians have always done – be in the world but not be of the world. The Gospel is not challenging us to be in a particular place; it is challenging us to be for someone in particular – the Lord rather than Caesar.

The Gospel challenges us to turn away from worldliness by making God our priority in all of our dealings with Caesar

The questions we should continue to ask ourselves are: “Who do I belong to? To what is my heart attached?” In all our dealings with the world, even our dealings with Caesar, what matters is that we belong to the Lord. The relationship with him must not be compromised for any reason. A mistaken interpretation of the Gospel can lead to a schizophrenic attitude towards reality in which we place God against Caesar. Instead, what we must focus on is belonging to the Lord whilst living in the midst of things. We might think that the monastic life enables us to subtract ourselves from life and live totally for the Lord. But when we enter the monastic life, material things enter with us and affect all of our relationships. Even if we think we are out of the context of Caesar, it is still a challenge to belong to God. The Gospel is exhorting us to evaluate things in the light of the Holy Spirit. We don’t need to reject the world, but welcome it with the love of God. As St Paul says, the man of spirit and the man of flesh are not two separate people. Either we obey our passions or we obey the Spirit, but when we obey the Spirit we must do so with all of our flesh. We must remain the property of the Lord, prioritizing him, invoking him, seeking him in everything we do, behaving as one who loves the Lord and is loved by him.

12^th October 2014. Twenty-Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time  

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

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

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GOSPEL:                                    Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited”, he said, “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding”.

So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth”. For many are called, but few are chosen.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . A king invites people to a wedding feast but the people are too busy to attend. Invitations are then sent out to people on the periphery of life, people who are in cul-de-sacs with nowhere else to go. Often it is only when we find ourselves in a cul-de-sac that we accept the invitation of Christ. Often it is only when we have exhausted all other possibilities that we finally become open to the invitation of God. The Eucharistic gathering is a wedding feast to which God invites us. Do we realize what joyful occasions they are? Do we go through Mass with a “Sunday frown”? At the end of the Gospel we find a parable within a parable. A man is expelled from the feast because he is not wearing the correct garment. What is this correct garment? God offers us a garment but we often reject it. This is the garment of forgiveness, reconciliation, conversion to a new way of life. This Gospel challenges us to be aware that we have been invited to a joyful feast; and that it is well worth our while attending. In order to attend, however, we are invited to allow ourselves to be changed, to put on the new garment so that we may celebrate the feast appropriately. The will of God for us is a joyous banquet. It is not a weight upon our shoulders, but an offer of a gift be embraced. The Eucharistic feast is not a sacrifice on our part, but a sacrifice on the part of God. It is something that makes our lives beautiful, a unique moment of union with Him.

An invitation that is offered to those who have nowhere else to go

This story of a wedding feast tells of invitations being sent by a king to people who decline to attend. Some are too busy looking after their own affairs; others become annoyed and angry at the request, and go so far as to kill the servants who bore the invitation. The king reacts violently, killing those who had mistreated his servants and burning their city. He then says, "'The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, to the crossroads and invite whoever you find".

            This expression, "crossroads", makes one think immediately of street junctions, but the original Greek word refers to the place where the street finishes. In ancient writings, certain of the Church fathers placed great emphasis on the significance of this expression. The king's invitation is being issued to those who are at the end of the road; those who are stuck in a cul-de-sac; those who are in a situation that offers no hope of escape. The invitation is thus being offered to the very ones who appear to be unworthy to be in the exalted presence of the bridegroom.

            Often, in order to be willing to accept the invitation of Christ, it is necessary to be at the end of one's wits; to have exhausted all of one's own efforts. Often, it is only when we have tried everything else without success that, finally, we become open to considering the alternative offered by God.

How willingly do WE  accept the invitation to the wedding feast of the Eucharist?

These considerations are interesting in themselves, but then we are confronted with a second "parable within a parable" - the story of the man who enters the feast without the proper attire. In both cases, we must try to understand what the wedding feast is symbolic of. Who are those who consider their own affairs to be more important than a wedding feast? A wedding is something joyful, something wonderful that anyone would love to attend. It is not by accident that the Gospel of John begins with the story of a wedding feast. Much of the folklore in various cultures is centred on things that happen at wedding feasts. Weddings - celebrations of married love - are at the centre of life. They are joyous events, and this is especially true of the feast to which God invites us. God wishes us to leave aside our own plans, our own affairs, and to attend his wedding feast. Our own affairs are stressful, full of mediocrity, and of temporary value only. The feast of the Son of God, which is celebrated especially in the Eucharist - the feast of the Lamb referred to in the Book of Revelation - is the feast of paradise, the greatest and most beautiful feast of all.

Do we wear the "Sunday frown" at our Eucharistic gatherings?

But sometimes in our Eucharistic assemblies, we are there with long faces and bored expressions, glancing at our watches every five minutes! This shows that we have not entered into the mystery of union with God; that we simply do not appreciate what we are celebrating. We are inclined to think that the quicker that Mass finishes the better, because our own affairs and projects are much more important, and we must return to them as soon as possible. This attitude is mistaken. To be invited to the Sunday Eucharist is an invitation to rejoice. It is a wedding feast, not a waste of time! God, in his wonderful plan, invites us to this feast as friends of the bridegroom, that we may rejoice with him. We have reason to grieve only if we fail to turn up. Why then do we so often wear the "Sunday frown" in our Eucharistic gatherings?

We must change if we are to celebrate the wedding feast appropriately

Let us consider now the man who is not dressed in the correct wedding attire. If the guests have really been gathered from the backstreets; if they are all desperate down-and-outs with nowhere else to go; if they are, as the text says, "the good and bad alike", then in what way is this man dressed inappropriately? In order to understand what this passage is referring to, we must understand the nuptial traditions of Hebrew culture. In the Jewish wedding feasts, it was the custom for the bridegroom to provide a garment for the guests as they entered the wedding feast. This guest, then, must be understood to be a man who has refused to change attire. The word "abitus" – habit – refers to one's clothing, but also to one's pattern of behaviour. To wear different clothing, or to have changed one's garment, often involves washing a garment. It is God who, above all, cleanses our garment and dresses us in new attire.

            The guest in the parable is someone who wishes to enter into the feast of God without abandoning his attachment to what he wore before. Wearing his old garment represents the retention of his old attitudes and patterns of behaviour. If someone comes to a wedding celebration wearing a tracksuit, then we tend to feel indignant that they have shown up in such inappropriate dress. When someone comes to a feast, we expect them to dress suitably. And to be at the feast of Christ similarly requires the wearing of a proper garment. It is impossible to be truly with Christ and not to have changed one's old attire completely.

The "Sunday frown" on our faces is a sign that we have not changed garment

We must remember that the gift of God is not something that is imposed upon us. It is something, rather, that can only be accepted freely. Why do we treat the Eucharistic gathering like a funeral rather than a feast? Because we have not changed and taken on the new garment that is appropriate for participating in this celebration. This is something that should be done before we enter the banquet. It is the just practice of the Church to request that one be in the grace of God before approaching the holy Eucharist. The forgiveness of sins, the new garment that is offered to us, is a gift that we receive from God. Without any shadow of doubt, it is necessary to go through the stage of changing the garment before we are ready to enter into the fullness of the wedding feast. In the process of adult baptism, the adult is required to change their name at the moment of baptism. They are challenged to change their very person, and they are asked to undress and put on a white garment. It is only while wearing this white garment that they are admitted to the sacrament of the Eucharist.

A parable that challenges us to view the Eucharist as a joyous feast that is wonderful to attend, and that requires a change of habit on our part.

In the same way, this parable challenges us to be aware that we have been invited to a sumptuous feast; that there is great joy to be experienced; and that it is well worth our while attending. In order to attend, however, we are invited to allow ourselves to be changed, to put on the new garment so that we may celebrate the feast appropriately. The will of God for us, the Christian adventure to which we are called, the sacramental life in which we are invited to participate, is a joyous banquet. It is not a weight upon our shoulders, but an offer of a gift be embraced. The Eucharistic feast is not a sacrifice on our part, but a sacrifice on the part of God. It is something that makes our lives beautiful. It is a time of festival, full of nuptial joy, a unique moment of union with Him.

October 5^th 2014. TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43

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

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GOSPEL:                             Matthew 21:33-43

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people :
‘Listen to another parable. There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third. Next he sent some more servants, this time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them. “They will respect my son” he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance.” So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They answered, ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him when the season arrives’.
Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:

It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone.
This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see?

I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you
and given to a people who will produce its fruit.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus tells the parable of the tenants who refuse to give the due fruits of their labour to the vineyard owner. They even kill the owner’s son in order to gain permanent possession of the vineyard. At the end of the parable, Jesus asks his listeners what will happen to those tenants. The listeners reply, “They will be killed violently and the vineyard will be given to other tenants who will produce the right fruits in due season”. This Gospel might sound harsh to our ears. Where is God’s mercy? Will we have a miserable end if we do not produce the goods that God expects from us? Shouldn’t God tolerate our waywardness and still bestow salvation and happiness upon us? Don Fabio responds by saying that the Gospel is not harsh but honest. Real love involves an aspect of purification and pruning. We have attitudes and habits that are incompatible with the Gospel. God wishes us to be rid of these habits, and this requires a painful process of cauterization. God’s love is not some sort of warm, fuzzy feeling that says “Yes” to everything. God wishes to bestow on us a wonderful vineyard in which we can bear fruit that will last. If we persist in pursuing our self-centered interests, then we simply cannot produce the fruits that God wishes us to produce. This is not harshness but truth. The fruits that we could have produced will be produced by other “tenants” who are not bogged down in the self-centered mire in which we are wallowing. The problem is that we think we can live the “faith” whilst still remaining masters of our own destiny. We think that the vineyard is ours, something that exists to produce fruit for ourselves. But the vineyard is not ours! It belongs to the Lord! Our lives are not our own. We must be pruned and cut by the Lord until we learn the inestimable joy of being able to produce fruit for the Lord.

The New Testament parable seems even harsher than the Old Testament one! But is “harsh” the correct word?

This Sunday the first reading and the Gospel fit together perfectly. The same story is told in the New Testament as in the Old. We might expect that Jesus would soften the tone of his parable with respect to the Old Testament version. Isaiah tells the story of the love of the Lord for his vineyard. The land is given every sort of care and attention in order to produce the most wonderful fruit, but the harvest turns out to be a disaster. The Lord then speaks to the keepers of the vineyard. “I have given you everything, and what do I receive in return? I expected justice but receive the spilling of blood. I looked for righteousness but hear the cries of the oppressed”. In the Gospel, Jesus addresses a similar parable to the Pharisees and chief priests, to the elite of the people who have been cultivated in the ways of God. They have been blessed with the gifts of heaven, in the same way that the vineyard keepers were given a vineyard complete with a fence, a winepress and a tower. When the master asks for the fruit of the vineyard, the response is violence and bloodshed. This is the story of Israel who rejected the prophets and messengers of God. In the parable, Jesus recounts how the tenants also reject the son of the landowner. The son is put to death so that the tenants might take possession of the vineyard. Sometimes people think that the Old Testament presents the harsher face of God, whilst the New Testament focuses more on his mercy. But this is not a complete picture. The development from the Old Testament to the New cannot be summed up in such simplistic terms.

Love involves pruning, cauterizing, and purifying that which is incompatible with true love

God reveals himself to us in a gradual way, and we come to know him gradually as he progressively reveals his face. But God does not change character as we progressively come to know him! We speak to children in one way, to adolescents in another way, and to adults in a still different way. God has revealed himself to humanity from the beginning as a merciful God. In the fullness of time, his Son is born of a woman and achieves our redemption. But the apparent harshness at the end of Jesus’ parable leaves us shocked. Jesus asks his listeners what the owner will do with those tenants who have behaved so badly. The listeners reply, “He will bring them to a miserable end and give the vineyard over to others who will produce real fruit”. And Jesus agrees. Those tenants will lose their vineyard and the stone that had been rejected will become the corner-stone. This is not a comfortable parable for any of us! It is a tough lesson that we must take on board seriously because there is an aspect of love that prunes, cauterizes, purifies. Love is incompatible with certain things. Love sometimes involves saying “No!” in a determined fashion. The capacity for true love requires the ability to distance oneself from certain things. Love is not some kind of warm, fuzzy feeling that assents to everything. Real love involves passion and single-mindedness. Helping other people to grow necessitates being able to say “No” to them in certain situations.

The apparent harshness of the Gospel is the simple “No!” of love

This Gospel contains within it the “No!” of love. There is a particular self-centered attitude that God wishes to counter in us. Our refusal to bear fruit is not something that God can sit easy with. There is a very common trend even among those who consider themselves to be “religious”, and this is the tendency to believe that we can have the faith and still remain the masters of our own destiny. We are inclined to think that the vineyard is ours and we can use it for the kind of self-centered fruits that suit us. But the vineyard is not ours! The vineyard belongs to the Lord and our lives are not our own! We are called to bear fruit and to do so we must be pruned and cut, as the parable of the vine in the Gospel of John tells us. There are certain attitudes and habits engrained within us that must be rooted out and rejected. Quite often we are reluctant to allow God to be placed at the centre of our lives, and this reluctance can lead to the loss of the vineyard that the Lord wishes to bestow on us. We must not be ambivalent towards such incompatible attitudes. This Gospel calls on us to bear fruit. That which impedes us from bearing fruit cannot be given a place in our lives. If we continue to harbour such incompatible habits and attitudes, then we must resign ourselves to losing all that the Lord wishes to bestow upon us. This is not harshness. It is simply the truth.