August 30^th 2015. Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary time.

Gospel:   Mark 7:1-8;14-15; 21-23

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

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Gospel:   Mark 7:1-8;14-15; 21-23

The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus, and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. For the Pharisees, and the Jews in general, follow the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow; and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes. So these Pharisees and scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?’ He answered, ‘It was of you hypocrites that Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture:

This people honours me only with lip-service,
while their hearts are far from me.
The worship they offer me is worthless,
the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.

You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.

He called the people to him again and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.”

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

Kieran’s summary  . . . . The first reading praises the Law and states that the people of Israel are blessed because they possess this wonderful system of regulations. The Gospel, by contrast, criticizes the way that the Jews focus on observance of the Law. What is going on here? The issue is this: the goal of the Law was to foster a deep relationship of filial obedience to the Lord, but it became an end in itself. When laws are kept for the sake of the laws themselves then they become empty and meaningless. This message warning of the danger of scruples is not simply for the Jews, but for all peoples at all times, and particularly for you and me. Do I follow prescriptions just to ease my conscience or to satisfy my personal scruples? Do I follow observances in order to feel a sense of individual righteousness? If so, then this Sunday’s Gospel calls me to enter into a deeper filial relationship with the Lord, doing things that have meaning in the context of that relationship, not doing actions just for the sake of the actions themselves.

The goal of the Law was to foster a relationship of filial obedience to the Lord, but it became an end in itself

It might seem that the first reading is in contradiction to the Gospel. The first reading states that nothing is to be added or taken away from the Law. The people are asked to be attentive to all the prescriptions in order to demonstrate to everyone how good this Law is. In the Gospel, the Pharisees complain that the disciples of Jesus do not keep all the required observances. The first four books of the Torah contain many prescriptions to which the Jewish tradition had added many secondary norms. For example, if a norm said “Don’t touch anything on the table”, the secondary norm would forbid you to even enter the room so that you wouldn’t risk touching anything on the table. To these observances Jesus says, “This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.” The problem that Jesus is identifying here is that the goal of the Torah was to foster a relationship of filial obedience in people; the relationship was to be developed by this attitude of obedience, of opening one’s heart to the Lord and his wisdom. It was not law for law’s sake, but a relationship of being the people of God. In fact, the first reading speaks of a people who are praiseworthy because of their closeness to God. The law in itself counted for nothing; its value centred on its role in fostering the relationship with God.

The lesson of this Gospel is not simply for the Jews but for each one of us personally

The law for law’s sake is a trap in which have fallen – not only the Jews – but also the individualist, legalist attitudes of today, attitudes that all of us are guilty of. The value of this Gospel text is not its role in pointing out the historic faults of the Jewish people: there is nothing in the Jewish people that is not also in us and in every people. The problems and issues underlined in the Gospel texts are paradigmatic of issues that are relevant for all peoples at all times. The problem is when norms are no longer an instrument of a relationship but become utterly directed to my own individual righteousness. When norms are utilized for my own satisfaction then this constitutes a perversion of the faith. The priority is to make me feel at ease with my conscience. This type of monotonous pedantry can become ensconced in our Christian communities, leading to the neglect of the personal relationship that was the original motivation behind all such laws.

It is our relationship with the Lord that counts, so let us leave all scruples behind and start getting to the real heart of things

The law becomes more important that the person. The scrupulous examination of procedure takes precedence and leads to emptiness and meaningless. We can follow all the norms to the letter and still fail to touch the Lord, fail to abandon one’s heart in filial submission and trust to the Father. It is the heart that counts. Jesus says in this Gospel, “Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean.” It is not the way we clean a thing that counts, or the day on which we eat a particular food, or the manner in which we give something. What counts is where my heart is, what my heart produces. Do I have a relationship with the Lord, or not? Do I have a life visited by grace? Or am I simply following a code without possessing a sense of the truth? This Sunday it is very important that we exit from this mountain of scruples directed towards the care of our individualistic righteousness. When we are in a relationship and insist on certain prescriptions, then often we are trying to hurt those around us. But when we love those around us, we tend to forget the little rules. Instead we focus on the person and get right to the heart of things, thinking only of their real needs.

August 23rd 2015. TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: John 6:60-9

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    John 6:60-9

After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

‘It is the spirit that gives life,
the flesh has nothing to offer.
The words I have spoken to you are spirit
and they are life.

‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘this is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’

After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him. Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’

Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the message of eternal life, and we believe;
we know that you are the Holy One of God.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . In this Sunday’s Gospel, many of the disciples find Jesus’ teaching too hard to accept and they turn away. Don Fabio concentrates on two questions that arise from the passage: Firstly, why is Jesus teaching so hard to accept? And secondly, is assent to Jesus’ teaching something that can be given once and for all? In response to the first question, Don Fabio says that Jesus’ Eucharistic teaching does not fit in with our self-referential logic. We live lives that are directed towards ourselves. We find it hard to believe in a God that gives himself to us so completely that he becomes our food and drink. And we don’t really want to enter into an uncontrollable relationship of that sort where God gives himself to us regardless of whether we deserve it or not. But if we do assent to Jesus teaching, that doesn’t signify that we are going to follow him for once and for all. In the first reading the people of Israel declare their loyalty to God in beautiful words. In the Gospel, Peter declares that Jesus has the words of eternal life. But both the people of God and St Peter will deny the Lord many times before they arrive at a more complete state of assent. My “yes” to God is fragile. I can never be sure that it is definitive or that I will not fail in the future. My entire life is a tapestry woven of the mercy of God who forgives my denials and calls me to an ever deeper assent to him.

Why is the Eucharistic teaching of Jesus so hard to accept? Because God’s giving of himself to us so radically as food and drink does not fit in with our self-referential logic. If we accept this teaching then we will have to change our whole narrow way of looking at the meaning of life and action

This Sunday’s Gospel contains the final part of Jesus’ discourse at Capernaum and records the negative reaction of his disciples to his teaching. They say, “This teaching is difficult. Who can accept it?” What exactly has Jesus said to provoke such a reaction? The words of Jesus have been quite radical. He has offered himself completely to them, as bread and drink to be consumed as a pure gift. Why is this teaching so hard to receive? Because this radical attitude associated with the love of God does not sit well with the mentality of humanity. Such a teaching requires each one of us to change the central point of reference in our lives. It is simply not true that we find it harder to accept ugly things than beautiful things. On the contrary, we have little trouble believing in the malice or ulterior motives of others, whilst we can have difficulty seeing the good in things. To accept the wonderful good contained in Jesus’ words, we must listen with the spirit, not with the flesh. The flesh interprets everything from the self-referential viewpoint of the individual who is utterly focused on his own interests. The spirit of the human being, by contrast, is that part that is closest to God. The Holy Spirit is God himself and operates according to another kind of logic altogether, the logic of God which revolves around self-giving and mutual love. In fact Jesus says, “No one comes to me unless the Father draws him.” If we follow the flesh then we cannot be drawn to God. In this sense the flesh “counts for nothing”. The activity within the Trinitarian relationship is thus implied by Jesus’ words in this discourse. The human being is called to make a leap beyond his normal way of looking at things, to leave behind his fearful, suspicious mentality and cast himself upon the love of God. Jesus is offering himself completely, but he does not impose himself on us.

God gives us the freedom to assent to him or deny him. But assent is not something that we give definitively for once and for all. It is something that must be renewed constantly.

In the first reading we hear how the people of Israel decide to choose God as the Lord of their existence, renouncing the gods of the Canaanites that their fathers had followed on the other side of the river. It is a curious thing, of we think about it. God is God in the sense that he is all powerful and has dominion over all things. But he still leaves space so that the human being is completely free to choose him or to go with other gods. One of the themes of the Gospel reading is our freedom to say “No”. Jesus makes a scandalously beautiful offering of love. This is nothing less than an invitation to enter into the life of God which the Father is offering to each one of us through the gift of the Son. But this is a gift that can be refused. In the first reading the people of Israel express their loyalty to God in beautiful terms. In reality, the history of the people of Israel is the history of humanity itself; it is the story of a thousand betrayals. In the Gospel we find a continuation of this story. Many of the disciples turn back in response to Jesus’ hard teaching. The fact is that we can say yes or no to God. We are dizzyingly free before God and a permanent faithful response can never be guaranteed from any one of us. Even Peter, who confesses Jesus as having the words of eternal life and being the holy one of God, will nevertheless one day betray his master. We have the rather mediocre opinion that the choice between good and evil is made once and for all. If God shows himself to be God then we follow him for once and for all. If I discover that a certain course of action is just, then I follow it, full stop. The truth is completely different. I am weak and fragile and my entire life is a tapestry woven of the mercy of God. The Lord cannot work with me unless I give my assent, but my assent is something that vacillates constantly. It is never given once and for all but must be renewed constantly. The assent of the people of God in the first reading did not last long in reality. The confession of St Peter in the Gospel did not entail that he had given his assent to Jesus permanently. We must assent to God over and over again.

Everything does not depend on us, but God cannot achieve anything without our cooperation. Our assents to God have immense value, but they cannot be taken for granted. We must remain aware that we need to renew them on a daily basis and that we always incur the risk of denial.

God, thankfully, does not operate according to our logic but according to his own, which is rooted in generosity. St Peter will eventually give his assent to God in a more complete way, and the Father and the Holy Spirit will work marvels within him, but Peter will arrive at this assent only along the path of multiple denials of Jesus. The people of Israel see many marvels wrought by God, but sometimes they will say no and will see absolutely nothing at all. This is how we are made. Everything does not depend on us, but without our cooperation nothing can be achieved – this is a more balanced way of looking at things. Our actions have genuine value. The faith is not a mechanism that automatically brings about a good result. It requires constant growth and correction. It requires awareness that our adhesion to God is a matter of freewill and is never definitive – it is always in need of further strengthening. This is a good thing! No one among us can ever place himself in the presence of God and pretend that he has understood everything or achieved everything. We are all magnificently in the state of requiring further development. None of us can ever assert that we are immune to the risk of doing a particular bad action. The fact is that we do not know if we are or not. We might well be drawn into such a course of action in a minute, if the circumstances change. None of us can even look disparagingly on others and claim that we could never do the evil things that they do. In a flash we could deny Jesus in exactly the same way. But the wonderful thing is that - if we do fall - we can immediately renew our bond with the Lord. Our denials of God are dramatic, but our assents to him are marvellous indeed.

August 15^th 2015. TWENTIETH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: John 6:51-58

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the crowd:

‘I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that 1 shall give
is my flesh, for the life of the world.’

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:

‘I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life,
and 1 shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me
and 1 live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . This Sunday’s Gospel continues the dialogue between Jesus and the people after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. The people are following Jesus because they want him to provide more food, but Jesus is now proposing a new kind of food altogether. This new food does not perish and brings eternal life. Jesus is proposing a food that requires a deep personal relationship with him. In this sense his body is real food and his blood is real drink. But the people are not interested in this new and challenging type of food; they want Jesus to satisfy their immediate desires; they are not looking for the adult food that brings true growth and authentic life. Do we feed our children only with that which they want? Or do we try to feed them with food that truly nourishes? Jesus wants to give us the bread of life, but we are not interested and expect him to provide us with a very earthly type of bread instead. Jesus offers himself to us in a radical way that is expressed by the gift of his body and blood. But we are scandalised! We don’t want to be loved, pardoned, and served totally! Such love does not fit in with our see-saw way of measuring things. We prefer to be given that which we deserve, and to give to others (including God) only that which they deserve, and no more. If God gives himself to me totally, then I risk losing my autonomy and the self-referential focus of my life. The sweet suffering of the saints is to be aware that God has given himself to them totally and they can do little in return.

Jesus is proposing an ultimate kind of nourishment, but we would prefer if he would give us the kind of nourishment that fits in with our interests and expectations

The first reading on Sunday from the Book of Proverbs makes a contrast between the food that comes from wisdom and the sort of food that results from foolishness. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us that he is the living bread come down from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever, the bread that Jesus gives is his flesh for the life of the world. The people begin to protest: how can he give them his flesh to eat? We all have our own fixed ideas regarding what we should eat, how we should dress, what we should expect in any given situation. The Gospel reading comes after the account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. The people are following Jesus because they are hoping that he will continue to feed them in this earthly way. But Jesus proposes a very different type of food, something wonderful and unexpected: whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life. Bread and wine nourish us in a temporary way, but now the providence of God is proposing nourishment of an ultimate kind. Jesus is inviting the people to to a relationship with him on a deeper level, but they are only concerned with their own interests. “Don’t tell us about a different kind of bread to the one that we are interested in. Give us the bread that we want!” Jesus’ response is to implore the people to consider him as nourishment in a much deeper sense. “My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink”. Jesus implores to be understood but he has difficulty in overcoming the “customs house” of the expectations of people. “I expect this from you, Jesus. Don’t try giving me anything else!” Jesus desires to give us more that we want or expect from him. But we are in love with our own solutions and our own projects. Jesus is telling us, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you will not have life in you”. We search for this authentic and complete life in everything that we do, but we never find it fully. This eternal life not follow the logic of human affairs; it cannot be obtained by our own wily strategies. It derives from the strategies and nourishment associated with the diet that God prepares for us.

Real nourishment does not involving eating only that which we feel like eating: it requires eating that which we do not like. God prepares an adult and challenging nourishment for us that goes beyond our desires and expectations.

The question of the diet that leads to eternal life is present from the first pages of the Bible. In Genesis, Adam and Eve are warned not to eat a certain food or they will die; now we hear the admonition in reverse: “Eat this food and you will live forever!” But what is our response? “No, sorry, I don’t feel like eating that”. The fundamental issue is that we like to decide for ourselves what we need. God, instead, presents us with a food that is adult, substantial and challenging. The food that God gives us that brings authentic life often involves things that we do not want to have anything to do with. If we only gave our children that which they wanted to eat, then we would destroy their health. We should nourish a child with food that is good for them, not with things that they hanker after. In the same way the spiritual human being is nourished by that which the wisdom of God sends our way.

Jesus offers himself to us in a radical way that is expressed by the gift of his body and blood. But we are scandalised! We don’t want to be loved, pardoned, and served totally! Such love does not fit in with our see-saw way of measuring things. We prefer to be given that which we deserve, and to give to others (including God) only that which they deserve, and no more. If God gives himself to me totally, then I risk losing my autonomy and self-righteous pride!

The Jews refuse to believe in the words of Jesus because they cannot accept this God who gifts himself totally to them. We have difficulty believing in love, believing in the gift of God. What we are inclined to believe in are the things that are compatible with our way of measuring things, our inner weighing scales in which everything is accounted for in perfectly just terms. But God is not simply just, he is a father to us who gives us more than we deserve. This includes the gift of his own Son who sacrifices himself for us: “My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink”. This is what we celebrate in the central sacrament of our Christian lives: that God is for us; that he is our food and we are nourished by him, that he is our servant in an utterly total way. But we cannot accept this; we are scandalised by it. We find it difficult to allow ourselves to be served in a radical way by God. We feel that the acceptance of such a relationship will compromise our autonomy. We feel that we will lose ourselves if we allow ourselves to be loved in such a total way; if we allow ourselves to be pardoned and to be the recipient of such wonderful gifts. The sweet suffering of the saints is to accept this gift and to be aware that they can give nothing in return; to be aware that their love is little compared to the way in which they have been loved. This sweet suffering of the true disciple is something that is worth bearing.

August 9^th 2015. NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: John 6:41-51

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

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GOSPEL                                  John 6:41-51

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

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

Kieran’s summary . . .  It is hard for our minds to grasp how Jesus becomes bread from heaven for us in the Eucharist. One of the great obstacles to faith, according to Don Fabio, is over-attachment to my own presuppositions about things. But God's saving action cannot be limited to what we can understand on the basis of our own presuppositions! That would be like confining a doctor to treatments that his patient could understand. In order to come to a deeper understanding of how Jesus is bread from heaven, we must be willing to accept new teaching from the Lord, opening ourselves to things that go beyond our normal categories of understanding. Eventually a deeper understanding of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist will come, but only if we take the leap of faith first, opening ourselves to where Jesus wishes to lead us.

Attachment to my own narrow convictions is an obstacle to growth in the faith

Jesus offers himself as a life-giving bread from heaven. The Jews begin to murmur among themselves. "Murmur" is a word that comes from the Greek and refers to the sound that pigeons make. It came to signify also the grumbling sounds made by people who do not want their complaints to be directly heard. Their main bone of contention is that Jesus has said "I am the bread that has come down from heaven". They react to this claim, stating that they know Jesus' family circumstances, and therefore they know exactly where he has come from.

 Here we are presented with one of the major stumbling-blocks to growth in the faith: the obstinate attachment to what I "know". Sometimes the things we are convinced about are obstacles to belief in certain truths of the faith. Maturity in the faith requires the acceptance that our most deeply-held convictions cannot be the ultimate criterion for what is the truth.

God's saving plan for us involves things that we will not be able to understand immediately. 

In the text the Jews attach too much significance to what they know. "We know everything about you," they say. "We know that you are the son of Joseph and Mary. Don't start telling us that you are something different" This is the narrow-minded insistence that Jesus is exactly as they understand him to be. But if God is restricted to doing only that which we can understand, then how can he possible hope to save us? That would be like limiting a medical practitioner to treating his patients only on the basis of that which his patients could understand. Just as a doctor must use his superior level of understanding when curing his patients, so too God's saving action towards us must involve steps that we will not be able to understand immediately.

I must broaden my conceptual categories and allow myself to be taught by God. A student does not understand everything before he enters the classroom, so why should we think that God should conform to our presuppositions about him before we discover who he truly is?

Jesus does not condemn the hard-heartedness of his listeners in this passage. He tries to explain himself as clearly as possible. "Don't murmur among yourselves," he says. "You grumble because you cannot understand. But what is at stake here is the resurrection, and that is something that you cannot understand, nor is it something that you can make present in your lives by your own efforts. Only the Father can achieve this in you."

 Grumbling is an illness that is very prevalent among us. There is a widespread tendency to continually interpret things in a negative way, based on a narrow perspective on life. Jesus wishes to counteract this tendency towards grumbling, this habit of understanding things on the basis of a narrow set of criteria. The set of criteria can be broadened, he says, by allowing ourselves to be taught by God. It is essential that we allow ourselves to be taught by him. It is vital that we rediscover the type of learning attitude that was typical of our childhood when we naturally allowed ourselves to learn new things.

 Jesus is not part of the conceptual categories with which I normally interpret life. We must throw open the doors of our minds in order to be able to come to an intuition of Christ, and such an intuition will only come if we allow God to instruct us. A student does not enter a lecture believing that he knows everything already. We must cultivate the capacity to be able to continually learn and be continually surprised. We cannot understand the mysterious and holy Eucharist, the wonderful presence of Christ among us in the Mass, the celebration of the events of Easter, without stripping away our natural presuppositions, abandoning our original intuitions, and accepting a new way of looking at things from God.

Understanding of the Eucharist will come, but first we must take the leap of faith and believe that Jesus is the bread from heaven that gives life to the world

"I am the bread of life," says Jesus. "Your fathers ate the bread in desert and they are dead." In order to eat bread and not die, we must emerge from the narrow confines of our own intellects and be open to something that God wishes to bestow on us - understanding of a more profound sort. That understanding will eventually come, but only if we make the leap of faith first.